Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah
July 25, 2024
19 Tamuz 5784
Parashat Pinchas
As the Olympics begin in Paris, the Israeli delegation is being treated a little differently from the athletes from any other country. The French government is providing round-the-clock security for the Israelis. In addition, members of the Shin-Bet—Israel’s security agency—have accompanied the athletes to France.
It would be reasonable to assume that this is a direct response to the current war between Israel and Hamas. However, the truth is that Israeli athletes have always been treated differently at the Olympics.
Of course, it all started with the kidnappings and murders of eleven athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. It took nearly 50 years for the International Olympic Committee to allow a moment of silence commemorating that horrible event during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 2021. Just that would be enough, but the “othering” of Israelis at the Olympics has been a problem for many years.
At the 2004 Olympics, an Irani judo competitor over-ate during the competition so that he would be disqualified for being overweight rather than have to face an Israeli opponent.
In 2016 Islam El Shehaby of Egypt wouldn’t shake the hand of Or Sasson of Israel after Sasson won their judo match in Rio. At those same games, the Lebanese Olympic delegation blocked Israeli athletes from entering a bus that the teams were supposed to share to reach the opening ceremony.
At the 2021 Tokyo games, Algerian judo athlete Fethi Nourine withdrew from a match rather than face an Israeli competitor.
But, the most horrible examples are from the 2003 SPECIAL Olympics, during which the Saudi team refused to play Israel in soccer, and the Algerian team did the same thing in table tennis.
And even though the Opening Ceremony has not yet taken place, Israel’s soccer team has already been booed throughout their opening match, and “Hatikvah” was mocked before the game even started.
Perhaps the war in Gaza has made things a little worse, but antisemitism has been a part of the Olympics ever since the Nazis were given a platform to spread their propaganda during the 1936 Berlin Games.
In this week’s Torah portion the five daughters of a man named Tzelophechad approached Moses. Tzelophechad died without any male heirs and his daughters wanted to be able to inherit their father’s property. The rules at that point were clear that women could not inherit, and Moses could have simply said no. Instead, he chose to confer with God and the rules were changed so that the daughters could claim their father’s property. Moses did not simply do things the way that they had always been done. He found a just solution for the people in front of him.
For nearly 100 years, Jews—and eventually Israelis—have been treated differently at the Olympics. It’s just the way it’s always been done. It’s time for the IOC to look carefully at the way that they’ve run their games. They must decide if they’re going to keep on doing things the way they’ve always done them or if they’re going to find a just solution to the problem of antisemitism at the Olympics.
Shalom,
RAF.
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