Originally published July 25, 2024
I am not a huge sports fan, but I LOVE the Olympics. The pageantry, the drama, the personal stories – I eat it all up. This week, as the 2024 Summer Olympics open in Paris, my attention is especially drawn to Israel’s Olympic Team, made up of 88 athletes across 15 sports, many of them עולים, olim – immigrants to Israel from across the Jewish world. All Olympic athletes face incredible odds and challenges – physically, mentally, emotionally – to reach the opportunity to compete for a medal in their chosen sport, but this year, the 88 Israeli athletes face even more hurdles, as representatives of their country, a country that is increasingly the recipient of hate and hostility on the world stage. The Times of Israel reported that the security budget for the Israeli team in this year’s Olympics is double that of the Tokyo Olympics, and with good reason: the athletes have received threats referencing the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and at least one French lawmaker has already declared publicly that the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris, although this was promptly refuted by France’s foreign minister.
The threats are not only physical. Many of the Israeli athletes have set their social media profiles to “private,” to ward off antisemitic, anti-Israel hate in the forms of comments and direct messages. They’re anticipating hostile reactions at the Games themselves – protests outside venues, booing from spectators, opponents who refuse to adhere to the basic foundations of sportsmanship.
El Al offered a beautiful response to this anticipated wave of hate: the formation of the Spirit Team, flying Israeli spectators to Paris to ensure no Israeli athlete competes alone. (Watch here – https://youtu.be/
The Paris Olympics website declares, “There is more that unites us than divides us.” Even if the rest of the world has forgotten this basic tenet of sportsmanship, we can live up to it as we cheer on not only the Red and White, but also the כחול ולבן (kachol v’lavan) Blue and White.
Rabbi Miriam Farber Wajnberg
