Customer Reviews

The Judo Twins

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If you're a fan of judo or a practioner of the sport you might want to purchase this biography written by Stan Friedland.This is a great human interest story about Robert and Bernard Lepkofer,twin brothers who grew up in New York orphanages from the ages of 3 to 18.Living a life of abandoment and deprivation,they still grew up to be champion athletes.The brothers became high school basketball stars,but discovered judo after graduating and enlisting in the USAF.They quickly earned the black belt rank while stationed in Japan,and upon discharge returned to the USA where they became pioneers in the American judo movement.They gave exhibitions and appeared on television shows like the Joe Franklin Show and the Tonight Show promoting the martial arts.Because of the rules that governed amateur athletics at that time,Robert was forced to give up competition and so he became his brother's coach/sparring partner.Bernard would become a world class judoka who would win four successive gold medals at the Macabiah Games.This is a good book and I especially recommend it to all of you who think that all judo books are just how-to manuals.It's part of judo's history in America.

This is a fascinating human interest story of how these twin brothers, placed in an orphanage at the age of three and not emerging from another orphanage until age 18, climbed to the very top of the Judo world! What an uphill climb they had to endure and the reader, whether you be a Judo fan or just an interested reader, will be most impressed by their perseverance and their talents in this unique sport.

I was a social worker and I worked in their 2nd orphanage and I knew the twins when they were there. However, I knew nothing about their adult lives and was astonished by their later impressive achievements as world class Judo champions. One of the twins, Bernard, went on to win four successive Gold Medals in four successive Macabiah Games in Israel, a feat no-one has ever duplicated, before or since.

As stated above, this book has something for everyone and I recommend it to all readers with great enthusiasm.

Sam George Arcus