Alan Sherman, 87, a pioneer in strengthening connections between U.S. and Israeli sports for five decades, died July 29th at his Potomac, MD. home of complications from cancer. He was instrumental in creating the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, a world resource for the contributions of Jews in sports. A longtime Washingtonian, Sherman was skilled in several professions, as a pharmacist, running his family's downtown jewelry store, as a realtor and an international ambassador for Jewish athletes and sports.

His involvement in international sports had a local origin. In Rockville, he played on the Jewish Community Center's adult volleyball team and helped organize a national volleyball tournament there in 1973. This sparked his involvement in the United States Committee Sports for Israel, as he raised funds for the group and served on its board of directors. This led to the invitation for him to be All Sports Chairman for the 10th Maccabiah Games in 1977, a connection that shaped his philanthropic work for the next five decades.

The long-time vice-president of the Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, he was given a lifetime achievement award by the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. He helped lead U.S. athletic participation in the World Maccabiah Games, which are held every four years. From 1973 to 1989, he served on the International Maccabiah Committee, which is equivalent to the International Olympic Committee.

He introduced the lauded Maccabiah "pre-camp program" for athletes in 1985, held at Rutgers University. Four years later, he expanded the program to include a comprehensive Jewish-Israel orientation for all American athletes participating in the games.

Sherman also created the North American Maccabi Youth Games, now known as the JCC Maccabi Youth Games, for athletes 16 years and under. Its first event was in Memphis, in 1982, with 300 athletes. Currently, the Games have more than 6,000 participants in three cities each summer, now under the auspices of the Jewish Community Centers Association of America. In addition, Sherman supported the Israel Tennis Centers in its early days, which has grown from its 1976 founding into one of Israel's largest social service entities for children, with 16 centers providing sports and education.

A longtime basketball fan, he organized an exhibition tour of Israel by the NBA World Champion Washington Bullets in 1978. The Washington team played the Maccabi Tel Aviv team and lost by one point to a sold-out 10,000-seat stadium. A year earlier, he arranged for the Israeli National Basketball Team to play exhibition games in the U.S., including playing against the Bullets in Washington and the Navy in the Naval Academy Stadium.

Athletes with disabilities were of particular interest to him and he and his family have long supported the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled. He organized two tours of the United States by the amputee volleyball team of Beit Halochem, which is Israel's rehabilitation center for soldiers. This involved Sherman and his friend Norman Goldbloom, the U.S. swim chairman of the Maccabi Games, renting two vans and picking up the team at JFK airport. They drove to Sherman's home in Maryland, where his wife, Claire, fed them. He involved his sister, Ruth Kroskin, in Norfolk, to arrange housing in homes for their game there.

He was instrumental in winning support for the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled from USA/Sports for Israel. In 1980, he organized a tour by Israel's world champion wheelchair basketball team throughout the East Coast. Two years later, he organized another tour, with the Israeli team playing in eight U.S. cities.

For many years, he served as the United States' liaison to the Israel Olympic Committee and the Israel Sports Federation. Since 1989, he has chaired the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Its website, www.jewishsports.net, is a repository of the contributions Jews have made to Israel and society through sports.

He also served as president of the American Friends of Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports and as president of the International Jewish Sports Foundation. He was an executive committee member of Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel and of the United States' organizing committee for the Maccabiah Games.

Sherman was born on November 15, 1935 in Atlantic City to Ernest and Marion (nee Engel) Sherman. He grew up to be exceedingly organized, even keeping the hospital bill for his birth: $35. At age 5, his family moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Brightwood Elementary and Paul Junior High, where he ran track. He walked to Calvin Coolidge High School, on occasion stopping at Louie's pool hall on Georgia Avenue on the way home to shoot pool. His first job was driving a truck for a chicken and egg vendor. They would arrive at customers' homes where his boss would cut up the chickens and deliver the order. Later, he worked for the U.S. Post Office, delivering holiday packages in a large truck he had to double-clutch to drive.  His early jobs as a driver gave him a life-long admiration for well-built cars.

He graduated from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland, joining Peoples Drug Stores (now CVS) as a pharmacist at its Georgia Avenue store, next to the popular Hofberg's Deli. In 1961, he volunteered to work in the pharmacy at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. While there, he saw a Jerusalem Post ad asking for English-speaking volunteers to assist at the 6th Maccabiah Games. Since Sherman had a car—a Fiat 500 he had shipped from Italy to Haifa-- he spent his volunteer weeks driving the direct of the Games' organizing committee to events and ceremonies.

In 1962, he married Claire Feldstein, a Baltimore sorority sister of one of Sherman's close friends.

As a beginning pharmacist, he worked the night shift at Peoples Drug Store at Dupont Circle and worked at Rodman's Pharmacy on Sundays. He also worked at the Retired Persons Pharmacy, which was affiliated with the American Association of Retired Persons in the years before AARP grew to its current millions of members. When Giant Foods opened its first food and pharmacy store in 1963, Sherman opened the pharmacy at the Super Giant on Rockville Pike.

He remained at Giant, supervising several pharmacies, until 1967, when his father asked him to join his Charles Ernest jewelry business when it expanded from its 14th Street location to a second store on Connecticut Avenue and K Street. He made yearly trips to Italy to buy jewelry. The shop, which was patronized by several U.S. presidents, was closed by the family in 1994.

Sherman, an inveterate organizer and joiner, headed the Bannockburn Estates Home Owners Association and later was vice-president of the Potomac Crest Homeowners Association. He chaired the physical education committee at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington and also served on the boards of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, the JCC board, and several Jewish physical education boards and committees. In October, 1973, when the world Jewish community was asked to raise money for Israel during the Yom Kippur war, Sherman created the idea of "swim a lap for Israel," which raised thousands of dollars at the Rockville JCC and other pools.

He acquired his real estate license and was affiliated with Long & Foster for a decade, before moving to Berkshire Hathaway. In August, 2022, he semi-retired by associating with a referral broker.

He enjoyed skiing, volleyball, boating, golf, tennis, and camping. He attributed his interest in physical education to his years as a camper and counselor at Pine Forest Camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania.

His wife survives him, along with their children Gail Sherman Silverman, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Gary Sherman, of Hagerstown, MD, and five grandchildren: Brandon Silverman (Peri Chajet), Carly Silverman (fiancé Jason Fiderer); Jenna Silverman; Allie Sherman; Nicole Sherman and a great-grandson, Chase Steven Silverman. He was pre-deceased by his parents and his sisters Deborah ("Debbie") Grant, of Chevy Chase, MD., and Ruth Kroskin, of Norfolk, VA.

Funeral Service will be held on Sunday, July 30, 2023, 1 pm at Congregation B'nai Tzedek, presided by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, senior rabbi of Congregation B'nai Tzedek in Potomac, MD with interment to follow at Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park. Shiva will be held following burial at the late residence. Memorial contributions in Alan Sherman's name are suggested for disabled Israeli athletes through the Israel ParaSport Center, 1 Northfield Plaza, Suite 300, Northfield, IL 60093.