Gunner Montgomery “Moe” Hart Herscovitch an incredible athlete. Herscovitch joined the Montréal Amateur Athletic Association in 1913 and played football with the Montréal Football Club until 1915. He served as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery during the Great War, taking up boxing while abroad.
Montréal
Born on 27 October 1897, in Montreal, the son of Jewish parents William and Anna Herscovitch, 1906A, St. Urbain, Montréal, Quebec. Moe a contractor by trade.
Enlistment
Gunner Montgomery Herscovitch 336948 enlisted 8 May 1916 with 66th Battery, CEF. Previous service with the Grenadier Guards. He was 19 years, 7 months of age, standing 5′ 6″ tall, 155 pounds, with medium complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair. His commanding officer, Major R.A. Brock.
Injured
Admitted Montreal General Hospital, traumatic synovitis right knee, 20 May 1916. Later, discharged to duty on 31 May 1916.
66th Overseas Field Battery
66th Overseas Field Battery organized as a depot battery in March 1916 under the command of Major R. A. Brock. Then, mobilized at Montreal and recruited in Montreal. Moe left Halifax on 13 September 1916 aboard SS METAGAMA. Finally, arrived in England 22 September 1916 with the 14th Brigade, 5th Canadian Divisional Artillery.
France
Entered the Western Front on 21 August 1917 with the 52nd Battery, 13th Brigade, CFA.
Wounded
Admitted to No. 42 Casualty Clearing Station, GSW Head, 5 June 1918. Then, transferred to No.4 General Hospital, Camiers, 16 June 1918. Later, to No.18 General Hospital, Camiers, 28 June 1918. Then, to No.6 Convalescent Hospital, Etaples, 7 July 1918. Finally, Moe discharged on 6 October 1918.
Gunner Montgomery Herscovitch rejoined his unit from C.C.R.C. on 19 October 1918.
Armistice
Moe granted 14 days leave to Paris (from Cologne, Germany), 26 December 1918.
Gunner Montgomery Herscovitch proceeded to England, 18 April 1919. Then, granted a Commission to Canadian Army Gym Staff, and posted to C.A.R.D., South Ripon.
Herscovitch proceeded to Canada 7 August 1919, as per HMT CARONIA.
Post Great War
Upon returning in 1919, Moe played with a rugby team which won the division championships that year. Then, named to the 1920 Olympic team. Herscovitch boxed for Canada in the middleweight division at Antwerp. Then, Herscovitch knocked out Norwegian Hjalmar Stromme to win the bronze medal. But, losing to the eventual champion Briton Harry Mallin in the semi-final.
Finally, post Antwerp 1920, Herscovitch had 24 fights from 1921-24 with nine wins (six knock outs), 14 losses (four knockouts) and one draw.
Retirement from Boxing
When Herscovitch retired in 1924, he began volunteering as a boxing coach at the Montréal YMHA. Then, he continued to be actively involved in sports and his community serving as president of the Quebec Rugby Union. He married Celia Goldblatt in Montréal in 1921 becoming a father, grandfather and great grandfather, and worked as an insurance broker until his death 22 July 1969.
Anti-semitism
In July 1943, the former Montreal Jewish Olympic boxing star, Moe Herscovitch, lost an eye after being beaten up by local French Canadian youths at Plage Laval. The ringleaders, including the son of the local police chief, were not punished.
On that Saturday Moe Herscovitch, long known as a celebrity athlete to local Jews, sitting in the Kosy Korner Restaurant with about 200 other customers. Enjoying a soft drink with his wife and Dr. and Mrs. Harry Sinclair when punched and kicked for no reason. But on this day he was just a 46-year-old man kicking back beach-style at the spot where a similar melee had taken place one week earlier between Jews and French Canadians.
Between 50 to 75 people got caught up in the brawl but Hescovitch the only one seriously injured. Laval police attempted to investigate but not too intensely, as it turned out that the person who organized the racist attack was 23-year-old Rene Bolduc, whose father L. Bolduc happened to be police chief for Laval. Another attacker named Andre Bigras, 18, eventually arrested and charged but Bolduc nowhere to be found for some time after. The incident sparked probes and editorials and letters to the editor. Jewish homeowners in the area reported that they feared for their lives.
Police presence raised but usual weekend beach crowds of about 5,000 dwindled to around 1,000 following the incident. The attacker Bolduc later rounded up and revealed to have dodged the WWII draft and given a pair of days in jail. Herscovitch, in an unrelated but thoroughly weird story, had a brother-in-law whose beat amnesia after he had a vague memory of being related to a boxer named Zarconovitch.
Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame
Moe Herscovitch inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1956. Moe died in Montreal on 22 July 1969, 71 years of age. Buried at Baron de Hirsch – De la Savane Cemetery, Montreal.
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