Leah Neuberger - Biography

Leah Thall-Neuberger (December 17, 1915 in Columbus, Ohio – January 25, 1993), nicknamed Miss Ping, was an American table tennis player.

Leah Thall-Neuberger was ranked the # 3 table tennis player in the world in 1951.

Table tennis career

The United States’ greatest women’s table tennis player, of whom the New York Times once wrote: “Her paddle is her passport,” Thall-Neuberger won the World Mixed Doubles Championship in 1956 with teenager Erwin Klein.

Leah captured 29 National titles between 1949 and 1974 — 9 Singles, 12 Doubles, and 8 Mixed Doubles.

She also won 41 Canadian championships, including 11 Singles titles.

In 1971, she accompanied the Canadian table tennis team on its historic Ping-Pong Diplomacy Tour to the People’s Republic of China. The only American in the Canadian entourage, and the first U.S. citizen in decades to visit China and speak face to face with Chinese premier Chou En-lai, her chat sparked a series of events that helped thaw the relationship between the United States and China.

Halls of Fame

In 1980, she was elected a charter member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame.

Neuberger, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

See also

• List of select Jewish table tennis players

External links

• Jewish Sports bio