Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 9, 1984 Page: 13 of 20
twenty pages : ill. ; page 16 x 12 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Many Jewish Athletes Participate In Olympics
LOS ANGELES [JTAJ
— The following Jewish
athletes are on the
United States Olympic
teams:
JUDO: Bob Berland,
Wilmette, HI.
PISTOL: Ronald Krel-
stein, Memphis, Herb
Rosenbaum, Birming-
ham, Ala.
FENCING: Jeffrey Bu-
kantz, foil. Russ Wilson,
sabre, Edgar House, sab-
re. Joel Glucksman, sab-
CYCLIST: Doug Sha-
piro, University of Flori-
da.
COACHES: Duglas
Beal, Cleveland, men’s
volleyball. Arie Selinger,
Israel, women’s volley-
ball. Abie Grossfeld, Uni-
versity of Connecticut,
men’s gymnastics. Mel
Rosen, Auburn, assistant
track and field. Alla
Svirsky, rhythmic gym-
nastics. Paul Katsen,
wrestling.
GYMNASTICS: Mitch
Gaylor, UCLA.
TRACK AND FIELD:
Gary WDliky, Arizona
State University, Shot-
put and Discus. Boris
Djerass, Northeastern
University, Hammer
Throw, Brian Mond-
schien, Decathlon.
WOMEN’S MARA-
THON: Irene Car-
michael.
Also freestyle swim-
mer Tiffany Cohen, gold
medal winner; and Johan
Harmenberg of Sweden,
top fencer at the 1980
Olympics in Moscow.
Another fencer, Paul
Klenerman and fencing
coach Allan Jay are the
only Jews on the British
team.
Backgrounds of many
of the athletes were
unknown.
Since its first Olympics in
1952, Israel’s athletes have
yet to stand on the winner’s
platform and hear the
“Hatikva” played by the
Olympic orchestra. In fact,
the closest Israel has come
to winning a medal was
when weightlifter Edward
Weitz placed fifth in the
1976 Olympics in Montreal.
But this year, Israel’s best
chance ever to win its first
Olympic medal rests not
with its sprinters, swimmers
or sharpshooters, but with
two sailors, Shimshon Brok-
man, 27, and Eitan Fried-
lander, 26. Brokman and
Friedlander were highly
favored for a medal in the
1980 Olympic sailing compe-
tition. But the duo’s road to
gold was temporarily de-
ISRAELI OLYMPIC hopeful Shimshon Brokman preparing for the
sailing competition in Los Angeles.
toured when Israel joined
the United States in boycot-
ting the Moscow Olympics
that year.
The two have spent the
subsequent four years win-
ning trophies in internation-
al competitions in France,
Hungary and, most recently,
the 470 World Champion-
ships in England.
This year’s Olympics, as in
years past, have evoked
memories of past Olympic
tragedies — most notably
the 1972 Olympic massacre
in Munich.
More than 500 community
leaders and former Olym-
pians gathered in the Simon
Wiesenthal Center here on
the eve of the Olympic
Games to participate in a
memorial service for the 11
Israeli athletes slain at the
1972 Olympic Games in
Munich, sponsored by the
Wiesenthal Center, the In-
ternational Jewish Students
Network and the Ad Hoc
Committee for Remember-
ing the Eleven.
Among the participants at
the emotion-laden services
were Mimi and Gur Wein-
berg, the wife and son of the
late Moshe Weinberg, Isra-
el’s wrestling coach, who
was the first victim of the
Arab terrorist attack on
Sept. 5, 1972.
Other participants includ-
ed Shlomit Nir-Toor, a
member of the 1968 and 1972
Israeli Olympic swim teams
and a national record holder
in various events; Israel’s
Consul General for the
southwest United States,
Jacob Even; and California
Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy.
A California state resolu-
tion proclaiming July 26 as
“Remembering the 11 Day”
was presented to Mimi
Weinberg by Joseph Sieg-
man, vice president of the
U.S. Committee Sports for
Israel and head of the
Jewish Hall of Fame.
The sole representative at
the service from the 1972
Israeli Olympic team was
Nir-Toor, a mother of two
who now serves as a
therapist for disabled Israeli
soldiers. Representing the
International Jewish Stu-
dents Network, she told the
crowd: “Not only did 11
Israeli citizens die at those
1972 Games, but the Olym-
pic ideal may have also been
killed.”
Also remembered on the
occasion of the Olympic
Games were the 1936 Olym-
pic Games at Berlin. In 1936,
the influence of Hitler
crossed the borders of
Germany and influenced
negatively Jewish participa-
tion on many teams. The
story of how Jewish athletes
were given perfunctory op-
portunities to qualify for the
German national team, and
somehow were not chosen, is
well known. It is common
knowledge that other na-
tional teams in the German
orbit also made it difficult
for athletes of Jewish
descent to participate.
According to a report in
Heritage, The Southwest
Jewish Press the Israeli and
Turkish teams were given
the highest security priori-
ties by federal and local law
enforcement agencies. At
the arrival of the 52 Israeli
athletes, coaches and offic-
ials at Los Angeles Inter-
national Airport, heavily
armed men blanketed the
arrival area, sharpshooters
patrolled the roofs of adja-
cent buildings, and police
helicopters circled overhead.
Once inside the Olympic
Village at UCLA, the Israeli
delegation was officially wel-
comed by Village Mayor Jim
Easton and L.A. Olympic
Committee envoy Stephen
Wise in a brief but moving
ceremony.
Responding for the team
was mission chief Shmuel
Lalkin, who has headed his
country’s squads during the
last six Olympics and who
delivered the eulogy for the
11 Israelis slain by PLO
terrorists at the 1972 Olym-
piad in Munich.
Israel Consul General
Yaacov Evan paid tribute to
the 11 victims and told the
athletes that “your presence
here symbolizes Israel’s
dedication to freedom and
the struggle against terror-
ism.”
Fencer Nili Drori raised
Israel’s colors on the flag-
staff to the recorded strains
of the “Hatikvah.” The final
order of business at the
ceremony, the taking of the
official team photo, became a
somewhat complex under-
taking as the athletes kept
breaking ranks to snap
pictures of each other.
Besides yachting and
gymnastics, the Israelis will
also compete in track and
field, boxing, canoeing, fenc-
ing, judo, shooting, swim-
ming, demonstration tennis
and weightlifting.
Seventeen-year old Nancy
Goldschmidt, an American
high school girl who won a
gold medal for the U.S. team
at the last Maccabiah Games
and then stayed in Israel,
will be among three women
gymnasts representing Is-
rael.
Another English-speaking
competitor on the team is
Mark Handelsman, who was
the South African cham-
pion in the 800 meters until
making aliyah.
One of the major problems
facing the Israeli and other
Jewish athletes is the
overwhelming hospitality
proffered by the local
Jewish community. Olympic
attache Gilbert Gersten, Jr.
has counted some 430 invi-
tations to receptions, tours,
exhibitions and religious ser-
vices, but the team has had
to decline most of them.
“Our team is on a 7 a.m. to
7 p.m. training schedule,
although much of the time is
eaten up by the long
distances and travel time
between the various train-
ing venues,” mission chief
Lalkin said.
However, groups of ath-
letes and officials have been
attending Shabbat services
at different synagogues, two
memorial services for the 11
victims of Munich and a
banquet benefitting the He-
brew University and Jewish
Sports Hall of Fame.
Prayers for the slain ath-
letes was recited at many
California synagogues (July
27), but petitions to mark
the Games’ opening cere-
mony with a short memorial
prayer were turned down by
both the local and Inter-
national Olympic commit-
tees.
One of the more inter-
esting sidelights of the
Games is an exhibition on
“Jews in Olympics,” on
which the Southern Calif-
ornia Jewish Historical So-
ciety worked for two years.
During that time, the
Society’s researchers iden-
tified, obtained photos and
collected information on 130
Jews from 18 nations, who
have won a total of 210
medals since the first mo-
dern Olympiad in 18%.
Thirty-nine of the medal-
ists represented the United
States, followed by Hungary
with 28. Among individuals,
American swimmer Mark
Spitz tops the list with 11
medals (1968 and 1972
Games), closely trailed by
Hungarian gymnast Agnes
Keleti with 10 medals (1952
and 1956).
The very first American
Jewish gold medal winner
was Myer Prinstein, who
won the triple jump at the
1900 Games in Paris, taking
a silver in the running broad
jump for good measure.
In the British section of
the exhibit, a dramatic photo
blowup shows 100 meter
champ Harold Abrahams —
the hero of the film Chariots
of Fire — breasting the tape
at the 1924 Games in Paris.
By sheer percentages,
probably the best Jewish
showing was at the very
first Games in Athens in
1896. Among the 300 ath-
letes from 13 countries who
participated (compared to
9000 from 142 countries in
Los Angeles), five Jews won
a total of 11 medals,
including nine gold. Most of
the Jewish honors were
garnered by gymnasts from
Germany and swimmers
from Hungary and Austria.
Jews continued to do well
until World War II but since
then, despite brilliant indi-
vidual exceptions like Mark
Spitz and Polish sprinter
Irene Kirszenstein, the Jew-
ish role has gradually de-
clined.
One of the reasons, of
course, is the Holocaust,
which wiped out an entire
generation of sportsmen and
their future successors.
However, the drop among
American Jewish athletes is
attributed by sports histor-
ian Dr. George Eisen to
what he calls the rule of
“ethnic succession.”
See Olympics Page 16
Israelis
Sleepless
Nights Due
To TV Watch
LOS ANGELES [JTA] —
Many Israelis are spending
sleepless nights since the
Olympic Games began in Los
Angeles.
Because of the time dif-
ference, Israelis are staying
up until the early hours of
the morning to watch the
live coverage of the Games,
prompting a professor at
Bar Ilan University to warn
that prolonged and contin-
uous lack of sleep may have
a detrimental effect and may
even cause a disaster on the
job 05. at home.
Prof. Yitzhak Levin, head
of Bar Ban’s sleep research
laboratory, suggested fore-
going watching the live
coverage of the Games and
getting a good night’s sleep
instead. He suggested that
those who cannot do without
watching the TV coverage
should use a video cassette
recorder.
i
PAGE 13 DALLAS THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1984 TEXAS JEWISH POST
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 9, 1984, newspaper, August 9, 1984; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth834808/m1/13/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .