In less than one week, the planet will be looking to Rio de Janeiro as athletes struggle at the-the 31st Olympic Games.
Even a cursory review of the Jewish Olympic greats is moving.
“The persistence and indomitable spirit displayed by Jews in the history of the Olympics is inspirational,” said Arkady Bukh, a noted NYC attorney and Jewish community activist.
Mark Mietkiewicz, writing for the Canadian Jewish News lists several Jews who had parts to play in the Olympic story.
Germany — 1896
And early standout of the inaugural contemporary games was Alfred Flatow. Flatow, of German, took home three gold medals and silver for gymnastics in 1896. He won two of those medals with his relative, Gustav Flatow. Notwithstanding their faith, the cousins were honored 40 years later at the Berlin Olympic Games.
Olympic glory was not enough to save them. In 1933, as Nazi influence developed, Alfred was shut out of his sports training club — where he had been active for 46 years. Eventually banished to Theresienstadt, where he died in 1942, his cousin, Gustav died there in 1945.
Both were honored byGerman sporting in 1996 when the German Gymnastics Association established the “Flatow Medal” in memory of the massacre of Jews in the German Federation of Gymnasts between the years 1933 and 1945.
Amsterdam — 1928
The initial Olympics to admit female contestants, Dutch gymnasts won gold in team exercises. Sadly all but one of the Dutch Jewish athletes died in the Holocaust.
Lake Placid — 1932
The third Winter Olympics saw the first Jewish competitor to win a gold medal. Irving Jaffee, a speed skater from the Bronx, won two Gold medals — one in the 5000-meter race and another in the 10,000 meter.
Munich — 1972
Mark Spitz, from America, was the first competitor to win seven golds in a single Olympic Games. Spitz’s wins occurred after the melodrama when Palestinian terrorists butchered 11 Israeli Olympic teammates.
This, clearly, is just a partial listing. The medal won by each Jewish Olympian from Athens to 1896 to London in 2012 is listed here.
