Reuven "Ruby" Goldstein (October 7, 1907 – April 23, 1984), the "Jewel of the Ghetto", was an American boxer and prize fight referee.

[1][2] Ruby Goldstein was born on Cherry Street, in a small three room apartment on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

His widowed mother, whose husband had died a few months before Goldstein was born, took in sewing and washing in an effort to raise her four children.

Nicknamed the "Jewel of the Ghetto," Goldstein was a smooth boxing, hard punching lightweight and later welterweight with a large following in his hometown of New York City.

[2] On May 17, 1926, Goldstein, fighting at 136 1/2 pounds, won a sixth-round technical knockout against Tony Vacarelli in Madison Square Garden.

The Scranton Republican wrote that "Goldstein...scored a technical knockout over a rugged veteran, Tony Vacarelli in the middle of the final round.

Goldstein, hailed as a lightweight championship prospect, gave a dazzling exhibition of footwork, boxing skill and hitting, battering Vacarelli into such helplessness that the referee stopped the fight.

], Goldstein could not take a hard punch to the chin as well as some top contenders, and was stopped in the three major fights he fought against Jimmy McLarnin, Ace Hudkins, and fellow New Yorker Terris as a result.

He met Hudkins as a lightweight on June 25, 1926, at Coney Island Stadium in Brooklyn, before 18,000 fans, losing in a fourth-round knockout.

On September 24, 1926, Goldstein lost a sixth-round technical knockout to Billy Alger at Dreamland Rink in San Francisco, California.

Goldstein refused to come out for the sixth because of a badly sprained ankle, but some believe he had risen too soon from a knockdown or been unwisely influenced to face a boxer at only eighteen with whom he was overmatched, particularly after a previous loss in June.

[2][8] On May 13, 1927, Goldstein won an important six round points decision at the large venue of New York's Madison Square Garden against the former July 1925 NYSAC World Lightweight Champion Jimmy Goodrich.

[9] The Sid Terris fight was a much-hyped battle between the two rival Jewish New Yorkers on June 15, 1927, at New York's Polo Grounds.

[1] Goldstein seized the advantage when he floored Terris for a count of nine with a right to the jaw, around 1:25 into the first round, and confidently seemed on his way to an easy victory.

Terris suffered from the same suceptability to knockouts as Goldstein, and was himself KOed by Irish great Jimmy McLarnin who possessed extraordinary speed and punching power.

[10] Coming back from his loss to Terris, after a three-month lay-off on December 19, 1927, he knocked out Ray Mitchell in the third round of six at the St. Nicholas Arena in New York.

Goldstein lost to Jimmy McLarnin in a second-round knockout at New York's Madison Square Garden before 19,000 fans on December 13, 1929.

On September 10, 1930, he scored a third-round technical knockout against Jack Zivic at the Henderson Bowl in Brooklyn, New York, fighting well into the welterweight range at 145 pounds.

[2] A preview of the fight's ending occurred when Goldstein collapsed from the heat after the 10th round, and could not finish refereeing the remainder of the match.

Goldstein also refereed the first Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson world heavyweight championship fight in Yankee Stadium on June 26, 1959.

[1][16] Goldstein enlisted in the army in 1942, rising to the rank of sergeant, and working as a physical trainer and boxing coach at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn.