On March 22, 1925, Kansas City AZA #2 won the first ever National AZA Basketball Tournament, in  Omaha, Neb. Two’ defeated Gary, Ind., Chapter #9 in the finals by the score of 31-24. Phil Copland led Two’s with 14 points in the championship game. Sidney Magazine scored 11 points. Lewis Sutin added 6 points. Magazine and Copland were chosen as forwards on the All-Star Team picked by The Omaha Bee. Julius Peltzman was selected honorable mention. Magazine, Copland, Sutin, Peltzman, Harry Kaufman, and Isadore Pesmen constituted the championship basketball team. “We are glad that we won the first honors,” said Morris Sogolow, coach of AZA #2. “The boys of the other teams have proven themselves as real sports. This tournament should be encouraged.”

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In 1928, AZA #2 won the AZA Basketball District 7 Championship. The team consisted of: Yudell Luke. Two’s had several standout athletes in the 1920s. Carl Hipsch, a member of Two’s in the 1920s, signed a minor league baseball contact and played semi-professional baseball as infielder with a team in Beatrice, Neb. Jake (Babe) Lapin, a member of Two’s in the mid-1920s, was a graduate from the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he was a letterman and member of the baseball team. He was a member of the Northeast High School basketball team in 1927-1928.

2Two’s would dominate the hardwood again in the mid 1930s. On Feb. 1-2, 1935, Two’s won the 1935 District Championship in St. Joseph. The team consisted of Harold Braude, Is Braude, Robert Chickinsky, David Minkin, Leonard Belove, Les Peltzman, Sherman Schwartz and Norman Bassin. Harold Braude and Is Braude were named to the All-Star Team. This team was to win contests on all levels for the next three years. Two’s won the District Championship on Dec. 27, 1935 in Kansas City, Mo., by defeating Nordaunain AZA No. 22 in the finals by the score of 27-18. Members of the team were: Robert Chickinsky, Yudell Luke, Isadore Brande, Herman Clurman, Carl Tovsky, Is Danosky and Lester Peltzman. Harold Braude and Is Braude were named to the 1935 AZA All-star basketball team. At the 1938 Regional Convention, the basketball team – consisting of Sam Kelne, Yudell Luke, Herman Clurman, Robert Chickinsky, Jay Franklin, Bernard Shanzer and Abe Bettinger – won again.

2Two’s also left its mark on the softball diamond. In June 1948,  Alvin Zeff made the Jewish Community Center’s Hall of Fame by pitching a perfect no-hit, no-run game against the PALS. In accomplishing this feat, Zeff struck out 10 batters and no batter got to first. Two’s would go to win the Southern Division Softball Championship. In the early 1940s, Joe Maslan swam for the Kansas City Athletic Club and came in 4th at the Nationals in the freestyle event. Larry Jaben (center) was named Second Team Center Basketball League All-Star Team in 1945. Leonard Koenigsdorf was among the top scorers in intramural basketball at MU in the late 1940s. At the 1949 Mo-Kan Regional Convention, held Dec. 25-28, 1949, Two’s won the 1949 Regional Basketball Champions. In football, AZA #2 were JCAC Football Season Champions in 1955, 1956 and 1958. Two’s also won the 1956 Volleyball Championship. In basketball, AZA #2 won the 1958 League Championship and defeated Jonas Salk of St. Louis to win the 1958 Mo-Kan Regional Basketball Championship.

2In 1960, the AZA #2 bowling team, consisting of Neal Martasin, Larry Rittmaster, Mike Lerner, Don Hurst and Mike Spector, won the Kansas City AZA bowling tournament with a total score of 2311 pins. The team went on to complete for the International AZA Bowling Tournament. Two’s basketball dominance returned in the late 1970s. In 1979, the chapter won the regular season title, led by Dave DeWitt. Other team members were: Brad Levy, Mike Capito, Gary Silberg, Ben Clayman and Gary Grinberg.

2Brett Kaplan, a 1995 graduate of Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, and member of “The Pretty Good 12,” played college basketball for the Edgewood College, a NCAA Division III school of 1,900 students located in Madison, Wisc. Kaplan, 6-feet, played varsity ball, mostly as a guard, from 10th through 12th grade. During his senior season at HBHA, he averaged 20 points a game. He also sank 44 three-pointers during the season. Kaplan also once scored a school-high 34 points in a game. Jake Schlozman, a member of Two’s in the late 1990s, played college basketball at Lake Forest College, an NCAA Division III school outside Chicago. The 6-9 center averaged 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 blocks during high school career. He spent his senior year at high school at Blue Valley West High School after three years as a starter for the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy Rams. The July/August 1999 issue of the Jewish Sports Review newsletter listed Schlozman as a high school basketball All-American. In high school, Schlozman received honorable mention honors at the Red Sasachek tournament and was Eastern Kansas league scholar athlete.

2Joel Worthington, Two’s Class of 2000, is a former Kansas state racquetball champion. In December 1995, Worthington, with partner Kristen Walsh, won the 12-and-under mixed doubles Junior World Championship. He was named the Kansas Junior Racquetball Player of the Year as a sophomore in high school. As a freshman, he ranked third nationally in his age division. At the Junior National and Junior World Championships, Worthington won red division gold and silver medals, two bronze medals in blue divisions and finished in the top four three times in boys’ doubles. Worthington graduated from Olathe East High School. After a career as a scoring force at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Two’s member Ari Horing accepted an athletic scholarship to play NCAA Division I soccer for Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill., becoming the first Hyman Brand Academy student in 39 years to go on to play Division I soccer. He scored 81 goals during his four years on the varsity team for the Rams. He led all Johnson County high school scorers in the fall of 2004 with 29 goals. Horing’s top highlight “was being selected to play for the National Maccabiah Youth soccer team and scoring the game-winning goal against the Brazilian team in Israel with his Israeli relatives watching.”

2Kansas City AZA #2 defeated Nordaunian AZA #22 by the score of 32-28 on April 6, 2025 in a game that commemorated the 100th anniversary of Two’s winning the first AZA national championship. Two’s was led by Thomas and Andrew Burns, who were named co-MVPs. Two’s starting lineup was: Thomas Burns, Andrew Burns, Eli Nathan, Will Widman and Judah Bassin — with Sam Hochler, Gus Zitron, Beckett Tyler and Jason Persky coming off the bench. At FRC 2025 in St. Louis, Two’s won their first round game against Ochocs by the score of 17-13. Two’s freshman Gus Zitron was the leading scorer. Other team members were: Jake Sosland, Widman, Bassin, Nathan, Danny Hertzfield and Elliot Spizman. In bowling, Two’s senior Eli Nathan won six medals in bowling at the 2024 JCC Maccabi Games in Houston, including first place, and had recorded over three perfect games in his career. Nathan, who attends Blue Valley North High School, is among the best high school bowlers in the state.