Toby Axelrod

Soccer fever

Walther Bensemann, above, is considered the founding father of German soccer. This 1887 photo will be in an exhibit to be shown in Berlin at the Centrum Judaicum. CENTRUM JUDAICUM

BERLIN – Jewish museums have caught the soccer fever sweeping through Germany, which is hosting this year's World Cup. Two exhibits have opened on the theme of Jews in German soccer history and will be open throughout the World Cup, which runs through early July, and a third is planned for the fall.

"Kick it Like Kissinger" — yes, former German schoolboy Henry Kissinger — is an exhibit with two venues: the Frankfurt Jewish Museum and the Jewish Museum of Franken, in Furth — the city where President Nixon's Jewish secretary of state grew up. It will run in both places through September.