By Michael Regenstreif
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) proved itself less than Olympian in the lead-up to the opening ceremonies of 2012 Olympic Games in London by refusing to hold a moment of silence in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Black September – a Palestinian terrorist faction linked to the PLO – at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
But Jews around the world positively kvelled with pride on August 7 watching Jewish American gymnast Aly Raisman win a gold medal performing her floor routine to the joyous sounds of “Hava Nagila.”
From Facebook and Twitter, to the hallways and locker rooms here at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, we were talking about Raisman, her gold medal and “Hava Nagila.”
Gymnastics, and the women’s floor exercise in particular, are perhaps the most artistic events of the summer Olympics, and Raisman performed her routine almost flawlessly, from the seemingly impossible and lightning-fast leaps, bounds and flips, to slower movements that seemed to be inspired by both ballet and Israeli folk dancing.
That individual gold medal was just part of the Raisman and “Hava Nagila” story at the London Olympics.
Earlier in the Games, Raisman, who was captain of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, performed her “Hava Nagila” routine as she led the Americans to the gold medal in women’s team gymnastics. And just 90 minutes before winning the gold medal, she also won the bronze in the balance beam competition.
The choices gymnasts make, from their costumes, to the choreography and the music are quite deliberate. Could the 18-year-old have been making a statement by performing her floor exercise to that most famous of all Hebrew folk songs?
Her rabbi, who has known Raisman since she was three years old, thought so.
In an interview with the Boston Globe, Rabbi Keith Stern of Temple Beth Avodah, the Reform synagogue in suburban Boston attended by the Raisman family – and where she graduated from Hebrew school – speculated she may well have been paying tribute to the Israeli Olympians murdered at the Munich Games 40 years ago.
However, Raisman told reporters that, while she supported the campaign to hold a moment of silence at the opening ceremonies for the murdered Israeli athletes, her choice of “Hava Nagila” was not made with the intent of marking the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre. But, she said, performing to “Hava Nagila” 40 years later was “special” for her.
It takes many, many months, if not years, of training and practice to perfect an Olympian gymnastics floor exercise, so Raisman probably chose “Hava Nagila” as the music for her routine long before the campaign to honour the murdered Israelis at the London opening ceremonies came to the fore.
But, coming from a Jewishly-involved family, having attended her synagogue’s Hebrew school, being just a few years past her bat mitzvah, and having three younger siblings who have celebrated more recently, or will celebrate soon, their own bar and bat mitzvahs, how could her choice of “Hava Nagila,” perhaps the most celebratory of Jewish celebration songs, be anything but a statement of how thoroughly Raisman’s Jewish identity is interwoven with her identities as an American and as a world-class athlete? There’s just too much other music she could have chosen.
So, at an Olympics where the IOC refused to devote just one minute of silence at the opening ceremonies to remember and honour the 11 Jewish Olympians murdered at the 1972 Games, young Aly Raisman stood much taller than her five feet, two inches and was someone Jews around the world could kvell about at the 2012 Olympic Games.
