A punch line might be expected when a boxer and a rabbi walk into a cultural center on the Upper East Side. But in this case, the boxer and the rabbi are the same person, and his influence at the 92nd Street Y is no laughing matter, unless you want a right cross to the chin.

Yuri Foreman, born an Orthodox Jew in the former Soviet republic Belarus, is a world champion super welterweight who, as a teenager, trained in an Arabic boxing gym in Haifa, Israel. He immigrated to America at the age of 18, and trained in Brooklyn. After a Golden Gloves championship as an amateur and a North American title as a pro, he achieved his ultimate goal when he defeated Daniel Santos in 2009 to become the World Boxing Association’s super welterweight champion, and the first Israeli to do so in any class. Mr. Foreman relinquished the crown a year later, but he continues to fight and practice a unique spiritual approach to the sport.

In his early years in New York, Mr. Foreman worked long hours in the garment district and did little else in his spare time but train and sleep. A fatigue set in that led to a serendipitous visit to a Brooklyn Heights synagogue in search of enlightenment.