Late in the 1934 season, Detroit was in a pennant race with the New York Yankees, and the issue arose whether Greenberg would play on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. After consultation with his rabbi, he agreed to play on Rosh Hashanah, but on Yom Kippur he spent the day at his synagogue. The poet and newspaper columnist Edgar A. Guest published a poem about the controversy in the Detroit Free Press, titled "Speaking of Greenberg". The text of the poem is on Greenberg's web page at the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame website (see Miscellaneous Links).
