Judaism and the Olympics

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
September 22, 2000

For the past week a great deal of attention has been paid to the Olympics being held in Sydney, Australia. You can watch it for hours every night and multiple pages in the sports section are dedicated to it. Many of the sports competitions are far removed from our usual coverage, yet obviously, many athletes worldwide spend an enormous amount of time in training and preparing for these games. The Olympics have become an arena for national politics, those Berlin in 1936 and particularly Jesse Owen, the U.S. hockey team in Lake Placid, New York, and thus denotes a sense of national pride. There are special moments, like when Muhammad Ali lit the flame in the games in Atlanta, Georgia four years ago. While my attention to baseball is known and the subject of sermons, and I do follow some football – still the Jets and Giants, and did watch the Islanders and Rangers from hockey and Knicks from basketball, I never became a devotee of most of the sports contested at the Olympics. Except for these aforementioned highlights and one other particular Olympics, the Games have been somewhat removed from my personal radar screen.

There was, however, one Olympic Games that I will never forget. In 1972 Ruby and I were just married and I had my first adult High Holiday pulpit, after having conducted teenage services for several years. The games that year were being played in Munich, Germany, a name that immediately has a negative associate ring to my ears. In that year, on September 26 th, eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were tragically murdered by Palestinian terrorists, a crime for which there is still no memorial and no tribute paid to them beyond the minute of silence at the conclusion of the Atlanta games for them and those who died in the bombing that marred those games. I had to preach Yizkor for the first time on the Yom Kippur following the catastrophe. I was fortunate to have a senior cantor who helped me through that difficult time. He chanted a most moving Ayl Maleh Rachamim. The Sydney community has erected a memorial to them in their Olympic Plaza made of stainless steel and blue glass, bearing the inscription from the Book of Samuel, wherein David bewails the deaths of Saul and Jonathan: "They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions." They will hold a remembrance ceremony at that memorial on September 26 th, organized by the Australian Jewish community. I wish to pause for a moment of silence here and now in their memory.

In reflection upon the deaths of the Israeli athletes I found it deeply ironic that they were there in the first place: not because it was Munich. That was difficult enough, though some say we need to place things in their perspective and move on. I found it ironic because the Olympic Games were founded upon and intended to perpetuate ideals that were distinctly contrary to Judaism and Jewish ideals. They were there because many sports are played in Israel and there are excellent Jewish athletes. They were there because it is important to raise the banner of Israel, the banner of the Jewish people in every corner of the globe. There is no place in which we should be ashamed, embarrassed or reticent to fly our true colors, with pride, honor and distinction. In every language and in any place we must be clear to say: "I am a Jew."

Yet the history of the Olympics, since first held in 776 B.C.E. in Olympia, Greece, beginning with only a footrace, glorifies the accomplishment of the body, is rooted in the adoration of the physical, and comes from a culture, which in its time intended to obliterate all other cultures and religions under the name of Hellenism. When Hellenism came to Eretz Yisrael it built gymnasiums where not only did they play the games, but worshipped the gods of the Greek pantheon. Greek Hellenism was based upon concepts of a very stratified society supported by a slave population. There were very stringent rules concerning who could or could not be a citizen of Greece. Contrary to advertisements, which once aired on TV, Democracy did not begin in Greece. It really began in Israel. Yet to be a "citizen of the world" was very attractive and there were people in every country and culture ready to shirk their own, abdicate their heritage and organs in order to participate in the Greek games, the Olympics. In the literature of the time we learn of those Jews who tried, somehow to surgically undo brit milah, circumcision. The Judaism of Judea, and the faithful Jews, saw the stark contrast between the value system that under girded the Olympics and the Greek Hellenism sweeping the ancient world and stood up against it. While Greek glorified the body, Judaism elevated kedushah – holiness, as the supreme value. Against slavery they portrayed a society based on the holiness of each individual, regardless of gender, age, or even nationality. All people were children of God, not just the elite. Instead of the adoration of rivalry, they raised the value of friendship and cooperation. Instead of conquest and defeat, they taught the values of concord and peace. For the Greek Hellenistic world, the world of the Olympics, the ideal person was he and not she who perfected their body. The hero was the warrior who became the athlete. In the Jewish world, the embodiment of Jewish values, the hero was the student of Torah who perfected the world for the benefit of all, by perfecting their mind, elevating their kedusha and nearness to God.

The Jews of Eretz Yisrael saw Hellenism and the Olympic Games and all they represented as a direct threat to Judaism. Hellenism demanded the unconditional surrender of Judaism by the Jews of Judea. They refused. I cannot say if they had the vision to see clearly that what was at stake was the survival of the religion, Judaism that would ultimately give birth to another, Christianity, which together would ultimately conquer Roman and Greek ideals and ideas. Because the Hasidim of the 200's B.C.E. arose to defend their faith, leading ultimately to the Maccabees, with Hanukkah as only a sidelight, Jews and Judaism fought Hellenism and preserved the faith. Greece was conquered by Rome. In turn, Rome was also destroyed. Yet Judaism and Jews, even a reborn Medinat Yisrael have outlived the Greeks, Hellenists and Romansbecause of the power of the ideas held dear, because of belief in Torah, because of our belief in God. The only thing left from Hellenistic Greece are the Games, stripped of their ancient roots and played by girls and boys, women and men, from cultures and faiths that are totally alien to their origin. We, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and King David, are here. The ideals of our faith changed the world.

I am sure that the athletes of the Olympics don't think about the value system of Greece that created the Olympics. I am equally sure that their spirit of comradeship, dedication to immense hours of practice and preparation, the spirit of meeting other athletes from all over the world is most admirable. In the changed world of the modern Olympics, perhaps the Games break down more barriers that making new ones. Perhaps these Games contribute to international understanding and cooperation. This is most praiseworthy, warrants our support, and in particular praise of the athletes who play under the banner of Israel. May these values and ideals inspire the athletes to return home dedicating themselves to make a better world, even as they worked so hard to better their bodies. May we remember that our ideals and values have never been vanquished. May we always remember our fallen heroes.

Amen.