Max Denberg Auto Parts

Max Denberg (1917-2007) was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Brooklyn, New York by Russian immigrants, Joseph (1884-1922) and Sarah Kaplin Denberg (1887-1939). He married Pauline “Pepi” Yablonsky (1918-1986) in 1936 and fought in the US Army from 1941 to 1944. After World War II, he worked for Grumman Aircraft on Long Island before moving to Columbia with his wife and growing family in 1949. After serving as a salesman, Max opened an auto parts store in his name around 1961 and spent approximately 30 years in the auto parts industry. However, one of his greatest achievements was embodied by the Columbia Inter-Faith Basketball League which he founded in 1959. Known by many locals as the “father of Jewish basketball,” Max Denberg was quoted in 1995 saying that “if a kid is in a gym bouncing a basketball, he cannot get into trouble.”¹ After Pauline’s death in 1986, he married Rhena G. Dumas.

¹ Jennifer Graham, “Community to Recognize ‘Father of Jewish Basketball,’” State, March 9, 1995, 66.