The Olympic Spirit

One of the highlights of Jewish summer camp for many kids is the Maccabiah – color war games. Each team dresses in the same color and competes in fun, friendly and high energy challenges. Maccabiah encourages creativity, working together in teams, and building ruach – team spirit, as the groups create their own cheers, dance performances, and banners. Challenges include art, sports, performance, sing downs, spirit games, trivia, and relay to bring together a color war of fun competitions, spirit, and leadership. This summer, as kids enjoy camp Maccabiah games, many adults and kids are enjoying watching the televised competitions of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Jews have competed in every Olympic Games since the revival of the Games in Athens in 1896 and have medaled in every summer Olympics. The history of Jewish Olympians hailing from from many countries, and especially Israeli Olympians has been characterized by triumph, as well as antisemitism and tragedy. We cannot forget the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, nor the Munich Olympics of 1972. This year’s Olympic Games has been a mixture of both. The Israeli delegation this year has faced antisemitic chants of “Heil Hitler” and Nazi salutes at the soccer match against Paraguay, death threats, and doxxing of athletes on social media. Prior to the games, 15 Israeli Olympians received threatening phone calls and emails that warned “we intend to repeat the events of Munich 1972.” On the upside, despite the tense atmosphere, Israel has brought 90 athletes, one of its biggest delegations ever. And, as of this writing, Jewish athletes have won 10 medals – 3 golds, 3 silvers, and 4 bronzes: Israel has won three medals in judo, Australian Jewish athletes have won medals in race-walking, and in kayak and canoe competitions, and five American Jewish athletes have won medals in fencing, rugby, and swimming.

The Jewish Olympic athletes who have won the most medals of all time are Dara Torres, who has won 12 medals in swimming for the US, Mark Spitz, who has won 11 medals in swimming for the US, and Agnes Keleti, who has won 11 medals in gymnastics for Hungary. Keleti won her first four medals in her first Olympic competition in 1952. She now lives in Israel, and at the age of 103, she currently holds the title of the oldest Olympic champion of all-time. Interestingly, while Jewish athletes have had the most success in swimming, prior to 2016, their greatest success was in fencing.

The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE, 2,000 years ago in Ancient Greece. At that time, Greece was made up of individual city-states. Those city-states operated under a variety of governmental entities – democracy, oligarchy, autocracy. So, each of the city-states differed in their political ideas, and values. The sports competitions allowed the communities to show their political power and dominance in the region, while avoiding combat and war. The variety of competitions at that time primarily highlighted the type of athletic prowess that participants trained in for combat.

If a Time Machine brought those athletes to this summer’s competitions in Paris, they would not know what to make of many of the games – beach volleyball, skateboarding, or breakdancing, among others. While the games have evolved, the original spirit of the early Olympics continue to cast a vision of peaceful competition that builds connection among people of diverse cultures and countries. In the tumultuous and polarizing world that we live in today, we are in desperate need of a similar vision to work towards building connectivity among divided and combative peoples and countries. The power of witnessing athletes from countries all over the globe gathered peacefully in one place is a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and is an inspiration to elevate what unites us.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Audrey Pollack

Filed under: Rabbi's Message

« Read more articles

---