Rabbi Schwartz's Sermon for Kol Nidre 5776

LEGACIES

EREV YOM KIPPUR 5776

RABBI BARRY L. SCHWARTZ

Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s iconic career records for home runs on August 7th, 2007. Do you know what happened to the ball? It was put up for sale on an on-line auction. On Sept. 15th of that year the fashion designer and billion dollar lifestyle company head Marc Ecko payed $752,467 for it.

Then Ecko, who, by the way, is Jewish and was born, raised, and lives here in New Jersey, did something quite interesting. He created a website to let fans decide what to do with the ball. He gave them three options to vote for: donating it to the Baseball Hall of Fame untouched, donating it to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk branded on its surface, or launching it into space forever.

Well, 19% favored chucking it into space, 34% preferred to see it donated to the Hall as is, and 47% voted to brand it before donating.

So, majority wins, that’s exactly what Ecko did. Home run ball #756 sits in Cooperstown with a permanent asterisk.

Some applauded the stunt; others decried it. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins said, “Why brand it? It’s an accomplishment of 21, 22 years. It hasn’t been proven that Bonds used steroids. It’s a cruel world we live in.”

But fellow Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said, “I think time will sort out how you want to view it. The fans have a pretty good sense of what has gone on.”

Ecko himself said, in a bit of an understatement, that the poll results prove that fans believe Bond’s feat was “shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn’t necessarily the clearest it could be.”

When I do a unit on integrity and cheating with my confirmation class, I have my students debate what should have been done with the ball. It makes for an interesting exercise. What intrigues me most is the issue of legacy. How should Bonds be remembered?

As a sports fan I find myself thinking about this question a lot, maybe more than I should, but there are so many provocative cases.

But before I share several of them, I must note that today marks the 50th anniversary of perhaps the greatest Jewish legacy sports event of all-time. Yes, it was on this Yom Kippur in 1965 that Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in the World Series.

As Koufax wrote in his autobiography: “There was never any decision to make, because there was never any possibility that I would pitch. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish religion. The club knows that I don’t work that day.”

The writer Zev Chafets reported twenty years later, while doing research for a book: “I was told by hundreds of Jewish men across the United States that their most important Jewish memory was of Sandy sitting out the Series.”

Rabbi Daniel Pernick wrote recently: “Two specific events produced more Jewish pride than anything else in the turbulent decade of the 1960s—Sandy Koufax’s refusal to pitch on Yom Kippur in 1965, and not quite two years later, the Six Day War in June 1967. To this day, the name Sandy Koufax is uttered with awe-both because of his athletic prowess and his courage to stand true to his values.”

Now to the flip side:

Lance Armstrong was once a hero of mine. I read his book and actually gave a sermon about why he was a genuine hero. All the good work he did in the fight against cancer—how does that measure up against the lying and deception we now know went on for years?

What will be the ultimate legacy of all those players who confessed to using performance enhancing drugs or did not confess but are strongly suspected of doing so?

What will be the ultimate legacy of athletes who came to great achievement legitimately, but then broke other rules, like Pete Rose?

What will be the ultimate legacy of athletes who came to great achievement legitimately, but then broke social mores, like Tiger Woods?

Or consider the cautionary tale of Joe Paterno. In the course of three months, three years ago, the legendary coach lost his job, his reputation and his life. The NCAA initially punished both him and his team not because they did anything wrong, but evidently because they did not do enough right—in taking stronger steps to stop Jerry Sandusky’s abusive behavior. They stripped Penn State of 111 victories. This past January they reversed themselves and restored the wins. Sports Illustrated wrote a piece about it entitles, “It’s Complicated” with the tag line, “Joe Pa got his wins back, and his statue may follow. But legacies aren’t so easily restored—or defined.”

Paterno himself said in 2011: “This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight I wish I had done more.“

Respected sportswriter Tim Layden concluded his piece, “Stripping the victories was a punitive act with no connection to the crime. But the wins don’t exonerate Paterno. They add a thin layer atop an already complex legacy, comprised of the very good and the very bad.”

There’s that word again—legacy. And today, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is really about this—what do I want my legacy to be?

How can I make amends for the bad, and elevate the good?

How can I tip the scales of justice and compassion in my favor?

How I can I add a fresh chapter to the Book of Life that will be to my merit?

The most perplexing and problematic portion of our prayers… is also the most powerful and provocative. Why? Because it deals with our legacies.

It came earlier in our service and its worth delving a little deeper. When we started the U’netaneh Tokef section we said, “On Rosh Hashanah we reflect, and on Yom Kippur we consider: Who shall live for the sake of others; who, dying, shall leave a heritage of life.”

The traditional “Who Shall Live, Who Shall Die” prayers mince no words. “You write and You seal, You record and recount. You open the book of our days.” But then later, “and what is written there proclaims itself, for it bears the signature of every human being.” God may inscribe the Book of Life, but we generate the content. We sign off, as it were, on what is written. Our tradition argues that there is a Judge and there is judgement. But it also makes clear that we supply the facts—the evidence.

And there is more: the liturgy continues, “On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed: who shall live and who shall die… who shall be secure and who shall be driven… who shall be tranquil and who shall be troubled… who shall be humbled and who shall be exalted,” and then the punchline, maybe the most important line of the entire High Holidays: “But repentance, prayer, and charity temper judgment’s sever decree.”

There are acts that we can do to actually reverse, or at least mitigate, our misdeeds. There are steps we can take to address a tarnished legacy. They are three in number and endless in potential: teshuva—repentance; tefilah—prayer; tzedakah—charity.

I could, and should, give a separate sermon on each of the three. Maybe next year. For now, I emphasize one basic point: Legacies are earned, not given. Legacies are an open book, not closed. Legacies are a life-long endeavor, not instant.

It’s not too late to temper the decree. It’s not too late to make repairs by making amends. It’s not too late to add a new chapter.

Besides Yom Kippur, when is another time that we speak about legacies? At funerals, during eulogies. Many, many times I have officiated at the funeral of an ordinary person, who achieved neither fame nor fortune. After all, how many will do that? And some times there is not a great deal for me to say, though I try very hard to listen to the family, and encourage them to speak as well. But other times, I do have a great deal that I can say. And I may need to limit myself because there a line of others who want to talk as well. Again, the person led an ordinary life, career-wise, wealth-wise, accomplishment wise. But the eulogies come pouring forth. You say to yourself: there is something extraordinary happening here. What is it that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary in these modest lives?

Our tradition has a word for it, or rather a phrase: keter shem tov—the crown of a good name.

The one who gave and asked nothing in return. The one who would give the shirt off their back. The one who loved freely and unconditionally.

The one who offered before being asked. The one who stood loyal and tall. The one we called a true mensch.

The one who made mistakes but admitted them. The one whose scowl ended in a smile. The one who laughed not at you but with you.

The full Talmudic teaching says, “There is the crown of royalty; there is the crown of the priesthood; there is the crown of scholarship… but the crown of a good name exceeds them all.”

It’s an extraordinary statement about legacy. Judaism has deep respect for royalty, for clergy, and certainly for scholars. We applaud those who devote themselves to leadership and to learning. The just ruler, the gifted healer, the inspired teacher… these are legacy makers.

But the accumulation of power, prestige, and even scholarship for its own sake—divorced from their ethical moorings—that’s a blot on one’s legacy, whatever the achievement.

Some will merit many crowns, but the one within reach of all exceeds them all. The greatest crown can be worn by the common man. The crown that will make all the difference in how we are remembered. The crown of a good name.

On this Yom Kippur we pause and reflect on the legacy we are already creating and will one day leave behind.

Few of us will be elected to any Hall of Fame save one, the circle of our family and friends.

Swing for the fences; hit a home run. Just make sure there is no asterisk on it.

A Knockout Event!

As we mentioned in our previous post last month, on the morning of Sunday, February 10th, we hosting a special adult education Bagels and Boxing event, featuring a screening of the documentary Impact: Jewish Boxers in America, followed by a Q&A session and discussion with the filmmaker, James Ford Nussbaum. Here are some photos from the event:

 Rabbi Schwartz brought his Confirmation class to the screening, and brought them into the discussion in an engaging and thought-provoking way.











 Filmmaker James Ford Nussbaum explains how the documentary was made, as well as his motivation for making it, and fields questions form the audience.










Congregant Linda Kowalski shared the fact that her uncle was a winner of the Golden Gloves amateur boxing competition, and brought in a photograph and the actual Golden Gloves Award he was presented with:

And here we see Linda (in green) speaking with James Ford Nussbaum after the presentation, while lovely discussion continues all around:

It was truly a knockout of an event, a conclusion that no one would dare fight about!

Bagels and Boxing

This Sunday morning, February 10th, at 9:30 AM, Congregation Adas Emuno will feature a special adult education (and confirmation class) event in our social hall:  Bagels and Boxing. The breakfast nosh will not be accompanied by actual bouts of pugilism, we hasten to reassure you, but rather will feature the screening of a documentary entitled Impact: Jewish Boxers in America.





You can read about it on the film's official website, http://www.impactthefilm.com.  




And we are pleased to add that the filmmaker, James Ford Nussbaum, shown below left with boxer Dmitriy Salita, and below right with Rabbi Bekhor, will be present to answer questions and join in the discussion that will follow the screening of his half-hour documentary.

The story of Jewish boxers in America begins early in the 20th century, and includes boxing champions such as Benny Leonard,  Barney Ross, and Maxie Rosenbloom, as well as Ed Gersh, shown on the left, the oldest living Jewish Golden Gloves champion, who is interviewed in the film.



And the story continues to this day. with contemporary Jewish boxers such as Cletis Seldin, shown on the right. 

An article about the film by Matt Robinson can be found on the JNS.org news service website, entitled Film Tries to Make Jewish Boxing a Hit Again.  You can click on the title to read the article in its entirety, which includes an interview with the filmmaker. Here's an excerpt:

“The amazing thing about doing this film was that many people, when told about this project, would react in awe asking, ‘There were Jews who boxed?’” the director tells JNS.org. “It’s a part of our Jewish history that not many people recognize and accept.” 

In fact, Nussbaum suggests, in some circles Jews boxing  is considered to be “almost a taboo topic.” He says that, despite their good upbringings, many Jewish boxers historically fell in with organized crime and other less-kosher activities, as many of their gentile fellow sportsmen did.

“Most Jews got involved with this sport to make a name for themselves,” Nussbaum points out, “and the thing that they all share in common with Irish, black, and Italian boxers and other ethnicities is poverty. They all came up from nothing and used the sport to promote themselves in a way that would excel them to a new socioeconomic level.”

As such, the director/producer poses his piece not as a film about the dark side of a dimming sport, but rather as “an incredible American Dream story of being able to come up from nothing in this country and be able to become a success.”

So join us as we explore this often overlooked aspect of Jewish history in America, and learn how the "people of the book" participated in the sport known as the "sweet science" in the past, and how Jewish fighters are still fighting in the ring to this day!

Remembering Meir Ribalow

I wanted to include a post here on the congregational blog of Adas Emuno about my friend and colleague, Meir Ribalow, who recently passed away.  Although he was not a member of our congregation, he did make the trip out to Leonia once, back on April 14, 2007, as our first ever Havadallah Talk speaker. This was long before I set up our congregational blog, in fact, I was only in the second month of my own blog, and I included a post about the event entitled  Sports Spiel. And if you want to read it in its entirety, just click on the title and head on over, but I'll provide some relevant protions here.

The following is an excerpt from my 2007 post:


So, this past Saturday we held our first Havdallah-Talk. It featured my colleague at Fordham University (where he's an Artist-in-Residence), Meir Ribalow. And the topic of his talk was "Jews in Sports." Here's the write-up as it appeared in our temple newsletter: 

Renowned Author to Speak on “Jews in Sports”

Author and scholar Meir Z. Ribalow will give a talk on “Jews in Sports” at Adas Emuno on Saturday, April 14 at 7 PM., in the first “Havdallah-Talk”, presented by the Adult Education Committee. 

Mr. Ribalow is co-author (with the late Harold U. Ribalow) of The Jew in American Sports, Jewish Baseball Stars, and The Great Jewish Chess Champions. He is Director of Jewsinsports.org, a prize-winning web site, and has written about Jewish athletes in the book Take Me Out to the Ballgame, as well as for various periodicals, including Princeton Alumni Weekly. The award-winning author also has extensive writing credits in fiction, poetry, musical lyrics, children’s literature, film and travel. Perhaps best known as a playwright, Mr. Ribalow has had 22 plays receive some 160 productions worldwide, and has extensive directing credits to his name.  

Currently, Mr. Ribalow is Artistic Director of New River Dramatists in North Carolina and full-time Artist-in-Residence at Fordham University, where he has taught screenwriting, film and writing courses for the last decade.  

“Havdallah-Talk”, a new program for adult members of the Congregation, will be held at Adas Emuno on selected Saturday evenings at 7 PM. (Mr. Ribalow’s talk on April 14 is also appropriate and open to pre-teens and teens interested in sports). A short Havdallah service will be followed by guest speakers on a variety of topics. 

The program is open to non-members as well. Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. 

Virginia Gitter, a past president of the congregation and all around dynamo, not to mention the person who puts out the newsletter, wrote this up based on information I provided, and helped to publicize the event, for which I am very grateful. And as the first event of its kind, being a complete unknown, and ours being a small congregation, I had figured that it would be a success if a dozen people showed up. We had twenty in attendance, so it exceeded expectations. Meir normally gets paid a great deal to do these kinds of gigs elsewhere, so I am very grateful to him for donating his time and energy. I should add that he could have spoken on a number of different topics, including film, and literature, but we chose to start things off with sports because of the broad appeal of the topic. 

As mentioned in the newsletter article, Meir has a chapter in the anthology Take Me Out to the Ballgame (edited by Gary Gumpert and Susan Drucker), and so do I. His was on Jewish baseball stars in relation to the Jewish experience in America...  

Anyway, much of Meir's talk and the ensuing Q&A revolved around specific sports stars, one of the most interesting being Mo Berg, who played Major League Baseball for 16 years, but also was an undeniable genius, speaking something on the order of 16 languages, and serving as a spy for the US during WWII, even in Japan. One story has it that he spoke German so well he was sent into Germany to check on how Heisenberg was making out with the Nazi effort to develop the A-bomb. While there were regular spies who could pass as German just as well as Berg, none of them were smart enough to make a good assessment of the state of Nazi nuclear physics. Meir says that a documentary about Mo Berg is due out soon, in which he is one of the scholars interviewed. 

But I digress. What I find blogworthy in all this is the point Meir made at the beginning of his talk, that sports served to counter prejudice and antisemitism, especially among those people who were unimpressed with intellectual achievement. Simply put, there is no way to argue with Benny Leonard's boxing championships, with Hank Greenberg's home runs, Sandy Koufax's strikeouts, etc. Sports provide an objective standard of excellence that is unavailable even to an Einstein.


Some of the books mentioned above are out of print, but can be purchased through independent booksellers:

Meir also published a baseball novel last year:

And another novel just a few months ago:

And in the past two years, he also published two books of poetry:

The second one is a collection of sonnets.  And in conjunction with his work with the New River Dramatists, he edited two collections of plays, each one containing one of his own along with two by other authors:

It's not possible to list all of his publications here, but here are a few more items available via Amazon (and just a reminder that when you order through our links, a portion of the profits goes to our congregation):

Meir's father, Harold Ribalow, was an editor who dealt with just about every major Jewish-American fiction writer of the mid-20th century, and every year, Hadassah Magazine gives out a prize in his name, as they explain:

Hadassah Magazine's annual literary award for outstanding Jewish fiction was established in 1983 by the friends and family of the late Harold U. Ribalow, an editor and writer known for his passion for Jewish literature and his interest in promoting the work of many now-famous writers. Ribalow was inducted posthumously into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 for his contributions to society through Jewish sports writing.

Meir was very much his father's son, very much dedicated to helping others, in addition to being very talented in his own right.  His enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge of movies, sports, and literature made him a delightful conversationalist, and his good humor and generosity of spirit was a blessing and an inspiration.  I think his New York Times obituary is worth sharing here as well:

RIBALOW--Meir Zvi, Internationally renowned playwright, poet, novelist, critic, and activist, died on August 23rd after battling prostate cancer. He was 63. Mr. Ribalow had 24 of his plays receive some 180 productions worldwide, winning awards in London, New York, and regionally. He won national awards for fiction, his widely published poetry, and musical lyrics; co-wrote ten children's books; and published articles on sports, music, theatre, literature, film, travel and chess. 

He was co-author, with his father, Harold Ribalow, of three books on sports, and was Director of an award-winning sports website. Mr. Ribalow's poems have recently been collected in two volumes, "Chasing Ghosts" and "The Time We Have Misspent" and two novels, "Peanuts and Crackerjacks" and "Redheaded Blues" -- along with a new play, "Masterpiece" -- have all been published in the past eighteen months during a typically furious burst of creativity that his illness did little to slow. 

He wrote articles for publications as diverse as The New York Times, The Sciences, Hadassah, and the program for the 1990 Kasparov-Karpov World Chess Championship, commented on films for the Discovery Channel, and hosted the online radio program "New River Radio" on ARTonAIR.org. His scholarly film commentary appears on a number of special edition classic DVD's, including High Noon and Sergeant York. A popular and widely respected educator, he served for almost three decades as Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. 

Mr. Ribalow was born into a family of writers and scholars -- his grandfather, Menachem Ribalow, edited the only weekly newspaper published in Hebrew in the United States, and his father, Harold, was an internationally renowned author and anthologist of Anglo-American Jewish literature--and was supported and encouraged by his passionately engaged music educator mother, Shoshana, and sister, Reena Ribalow Ben Ephraim (also an award-winning poet and fiction writer). 

Mr. Ribalow graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1966 and was a University Scholar and Class Poet at Princeton, class of 1970. He was a co-founder and Vice President of the Creative Coalition, a group of entertainment professionals devoted to social and environmental advocacy, working alongside fellow board-members Alec Baldwin, Christopher Reeve, Ron Silver, and Stephen Collins. He was also International Arts Coordinator of The Global Forum, where he worked with the Dalai Lama, Robert Redford and Mikhail Gorbachev. 

Mr. Ribalow was the Founding Artistic Director of New River Dramatists, the dream child of indefatigable producer Mark Woods, which offers playwrights week-long residencies in the mountains of North Carolina and has developed some 400 new plays and screenplays, almost half of which have already been produced or optioned worldwide. Mr. Ribalow attracted and mixed established, high profile playwrights such as the late James McLure, Wendy Hammond, Richard Dresser and Lee Blessing, with lesser-known, often young, but always deserving writing talents such as inaugural McLure Fellowship and 2012 O'Neill Residency winner Hilary Bettis. 

Mr. Ribalow directed numerous plays in London and New York, was Joseph Papp's Production Associate at the New York Shakespeare Festival for several years, and founded the American Repertory Company of London. A Broadway Gala Theater Benefit reading of his play Nature of the Universe with Blythe Danner and Brian Dennehy raised funds for The ALS Association of New York. 

Mr. Ribalow is survived by his mother, sister, nephew Shaiel Ben Ephraim and niece Riora Kerr, and by a grateful and still-expanding community of artists, writers, actors, performers, and philanthropists who learned much of craft and even more of care through his vision and by his example.

Meir never bragged about all of his connections, he was a modest and down-to-earth individual who always had a twinkle in his eye, a smile on his face, a good word for everyone he came into contact with, and a helping hand for those who needed one. It was a privilege to know him, and a pleasure to be able to share him with Congregation Adas Emuno.

Reform Judaism's Gold Medal Gymnast Aly Raisman

Olympian Aly Raisman's Rabbi Says Her Gold Medals Inspire Jewish Community reads the headline of an article written by Jaclyn Reiss for the Boston Globe on August 8, the day after Aly won two Olympic Medals, one Gold and one Bronze, for her spectacular showing in women's gymnastics.

The article begins with the Raisman's Rabbi, Keith Stern:

The rabbi of the Newton synagogue where Aly Raisman attends said he and the Jewish community have been proudly looking on over the last few weeks as she has made her way to Olympic glory. 

The Raismans joined Temple Beth Avodah, a reform synagogue, in Newton about 15 years ago, and put Aly through Hebrew school starting when she was in pre-school all the way up until her Bat Mitzvah at age 13, said Rabbi Keith Stern, who has been at the temple for 16 years.

 "I would say her family is a very proud Jewishly-connected family, in terms of their sense of who and what they are," Stern said in an interview Wednesday. "It reflects on what they do in the world and on their basic values."

Stern said that he has known Raisman since she was a little girl, and praised her caring personality. 

"Truly, from pre-school on, she has always been a sweet, confident, very focused person, who always comes through and who cared about other people," Stern said. "She has a natural inclination to make sure people are okay and to make sure they're happy." 

He also said that Raisman's personality traits shone as she served as captain and led the American gymnastics team to gold.

Before continuing on with the article, the exceptional personality traits that Rabbi Stern refers to can be seen quite well in the following short video on Aly Raisman's Olympic Workout produced by Yahoo Sports posted last month:

And now, to return to the article, Reiss continues with another quote from Raisman's Rabbi:

"Watching her during Olympics, she is the perfect captain because she has this ability to look at the group and make sure everybody is okay, and does it in a way that’s so natural for her," Stern said. "I think it significantly reflects the idea that being a Jew is worrying not just about your own immediate family, but also the people you’re with - their welfare, their needs. That’s a significant reflection of a Jewish upbringing." 

Stern said he liked Raisman's choice of "Hava Nagila," a popular Hebrew folk song associated with celebrations, as the background music of her floor routine.

And here is some amateur footage of her doing her individual all-around routine to Hava Nagila on July 29th:





She tied for 3rd place, but lost the Bronze Medal on the tie-breaker, coming in fourth on that event, although she did receive a Gold Medal as part of the USA's fab five winning the Women's Gymnastics Team event (where she also did a floor routine to Hava Nagila).  But on August 7th, she won the Bronze Medal in the balance beam final, and then went on to win a Gold Medal in the floor final, once again to the tune of Hava Nagila! NBC isn't allowing us to embed the video, but you can watch her amazing performance on their Olympic coverage site.

Back at the article, Reiss returns once again to Rabbi Stern:

He said the version Raisman used "rocked the way she needed it to rock," and speculated that Raisman might have used it to pay tribute to the 40th anniversary of the 1972 terrorist attack on 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. 

"In a way, it indicates Aly’s Jewish life is so integrated into her entire soul, that I don’t think she was looking to make a statement as a Jew," he said. "I think it was so natural to her that it's more like, why wouldn’t she use the Hora? It shows again her confidence and tradition in a really fundamental way." 

Stern said he thinks Jewish Americans feel connected to Raisman, and have been cheering her on at the Olympics. Rabbi Jay Perlman of the Temple Beth Shalom in Needham hit a similar theme in a recent blog post, mentioning the song she chose and her connection to the community. 

"Aly, not surprisingly, was exceptionally gracious following (as she was graceful during) yesterday’s individuals competition. She celebrated her teammates. And she expressed appreciation for all that she had accomplished and for those who have supported her,'' Perlman wrote. "We are so happy to see Aly shine as a role model of dedication, hard work, and team work. And I know that we all look forward to – soon – welcoming her and her family home to Needham.''

In his blog post, Rabbi Needham also said that "a number of people have commented that they found it refreshing that Aly chose 'Hava Nagila' for her floor routine….. that Aly so proudly shared her Jewish identity with the world."

 Aly's choice of Hava Nagila was was especially poignant in light of the International Olympic Committee's refusal to observe a minute of silence in memory of the Munich 11, the eleven Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists, with the aid of German neo-Nazis, forty years ago at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany (see our previous post, One Minute of Silence for the Munich 11).  In a New York Post article by Leonard Greene dated August 8 and entitled Jewish Gal Shows Up IOC with a Gold Salute to Munich 11, he opens with a quote and a reference to IOC President Jacques Roggue:

“I can only imagine how painful it must be for the families and close personal friends of the victims.”

But by refusing to hit the pause button for a measly 60 seconds, Roggue and other organizers have committed a sin nearly as grave as denying there was ever a Holocaust.

Were it not for young Aly and her wedding dance/bat mitzvah accompaniment, the Munich dead may have never gotten their due.

“I am Jewish, that’s why I wanted that floor music,’’ Raisman said.

“I wanted something the crowd could clap to, especially being here in London.

“It makes it even much more if the audience is going through everything with you. That was really cool and fun to hear the audience clapping.’’

The significance of Raisman's musical statement was driven home by Meredith Bennett-Smith in a piece written for the Huffington Post, also date August 8th, under the title of Aly Raisman, Olympic Gymnast, Honors 'Munich 11' And Her Jewish Heritage After Winning Gold:

Aly Raisman was not alive when the Black September Palestinian militant group infiltrated the Olympic Village at the 1972 Munich Games, but on Tuesday, the 18-year-old gymnast said she would have supported a moment of silence in their honor.

 In light of the 40th anniversary of the tragedy -- which resulted in the death of 11 athletes and coaches -- relatives and supporters of the Munich victims had redoubled their efforts to have a moment of silence observed during the opening ceremonies in London. 

But in a decision that drew widespread criticism, International Olympic Committee President Jaques Roggue refused to allow any such remembrance, announcing in May that the "IOC has officially paid tribute to the memory of the athletes on several occasions," and would not be doing so in London, according to USA Today.

However, after Raisman mounted the podium to accept her individual gold medal in the women's floor exercises Tuesday, she showed maturity and poise as she addressed the Munich controversy head on.

Bennett-Smith goes on to reference Green's New York Post article:

“If there had been a moment’s silence,” Raisman said, “I would have supported it and respected it," the New York Post notes.

For many, the gymnast's routine, which was performed to the traditional Hebrew folk tune, “Hava Nagila,” added an extra layer of poignancy.

“Having that floor music wasn’t intentional,” Raisman told reporters. “But the fact it was on the 40th anniversary is special, and winning the gold today means a lot to me.”

The Jewish community has rallied around the young star, much as it has other athletes who have found their own ways to honor their fallen peers.

The next paragraph makes reference to a survivor of Auschwitz, Max Goldschmidt, who moved to France after the war, and married Fabien Gilot's grandmother:

Fabien Gilot, a French swimmer, made headlines with his own moving tattoo tribute. The Hebrew lettering on his arm: אני כלום בלעדיהם, meaning, "I am nothing without them," was a tribute to a Jewish grandfather figure, Gilot said.

The article continues, citing the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

The Italian delegation also made its own moving gesture of solidarity earlier in the games, holding a minute of silence with a number of Israeli representatives inside the Olympic Village, Haaretz reports.

The Haaretz article, filed July 30th with the title, In Solidarity with Israel, Italy Holds Munich Olympics Memorial, relates the following:

The Italian delegation to the 2012 London Olympiad made an emotional gesture at the Olympic village on Sunday by holding a minute of silence together with a number of Israeli representatives for the 11 victims of the 1972 Munich massacre. 

Over 30 members of the Italian delegation - headed by Sports Minister Piero Gnudi, Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Petrucci and International Olympic Committee member Franco Carraro - held the ceremony near the Israelis' quarters. 

Israel was represented by Zvi Varshaviak, chairman of the Olympic Committee of Israel; Efraim Zinger, head of the Olympic delegation; shooter Sergey Richter on behalf of the athletes; and Guy Strik on behalf of the coaches. 

Varshaviak said the gesture was beautiful and moving. "It's a brave sign of solidarity and friendship between the Olympic family of Italy and that of Israel, which has continued for many years," he said. 

Zinger thanked the Italians and explained to them that his committee is doing everything to memorialize the 11 Munich victims as Israelis. However, he said, it is important to remember that they were also Olympic athletes, coaches and judges who were murdered during athe Olympics. 

"Therefore they are children of the Olympic movement and in our opinion it is the moral obligation of the International Olympic Committee to find a suitable way to perpetuate their memory," Zinger added.

To Italy, we send our most heartfelt grazie tanto, grazie mille!

And back at the Huffington Post, Bennett-Smith ends her article by noting

Before the start of the games, a petition with more than 107,00 signatures, including that of Barack Obama, was presented to Roggue in London, asking that he reverse his decision and allow the moment of silence to be observed. 

Roggue, however was unmoved.

Now, returning to Raisman, did you happen to see the front page of Wednesday's New York Post? If not, have a look:

And let's return to Leonard Greene's New York Post report:

Raisman’s eyes opened as wide as the gold medal she would win when the judges announced her score of 15.600 points after her mistake-free routine.

Her top finish was the first by an American woman in the Olympic floor exercise, and the win gave Raisman her second gold medal. Raisman admitted the 40th anniversary of the Munich Games made her “hora” gold even more special.

“That was the best floor performance I’ve ever done, and to do it for the Olympics is like a dream,’’ Raisman said. 

Raisman did not go to the Games with the star power of her teammate Gabrielle Douglas or the résumé of world champion Jordyn Wieber.

But those who know her best said she works as hard as anyone, and, more importantly, her heart is in the right place.

‘’I’m so happy for Aly,” Douglas, the first African-American to win the all-around title, said after the floor competition. “She deserves to be up on that podium.’’

Greene went on to quote Rabbi Stern as well:

She is a focused person,” said Rabbi Keith Stern, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., where the Raisman family are members.

“She’s very proud and upfront about being Jewish. Neither she nor her family explicitly sought to send a message. But it shows how very integrated her Jewish heritage is in everything that she does.”

Stern said he remembers picking up young Aly from preschool, and never imagined she’d be some sort of megastar.

He described the US team captain as a big sister-type who is a mother hen to all her younger siblings.

“I can’t wait to have her at the temple to talk about her experience,” he said.

“I know her sister’s bat mitzvah is coming up, so maybe I’ll catch up with her then.”

Stern said that he, too, was stunned by the IOC’s refusal to hold a moment of silence.

“I’m happy to hear any other explanation,” Stern said. “But short of some racist grudge somebody is holding, I can’t figure out why it would be a terrible thing to do.”

Stern said he watched the routine and was blown away. Even so, he said he is more proud of Raisman’s gold mettle than he is of the new jewelry around her neck.

“I have to say, the statement just warmed me to the very depths of my being,” Stern said.

He compared it to the iconic black-power, raised-fist protest made by track stars John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the 1968 Mexico City Games.

“They’re not going to forget that,” the rabbi said. “I certainly won’t.”

Finally, getting back to the Boston Globe, let's hear from Rabbi Stern one more time:

Stern, in an interview Wednesday, added: "I think we’re all puffing out our chests as far as we can go - we’re all so proud of her," he said. "Jewish people often do this - if something happens to another Jewish person, it becomes personal, and now every Jewish family feels related to Aly in some sort of unique way, and feels pride in her success."

"The idea of a highly-trained, highly-successful athlete really reflects a kind of pride of who and what we are as Jews living in the world today, particularly as American citizens," Stern said.

And when Raisman finally steps off the plane from London next week?

"I’ll be in line to greet her with Wheaties and Sports Illustrated," Stern laughed. "We’ll be waiting at the temple whenever the Raismans are ready to join us."

And there she is, showing us her Gold Medal, Alexandra Rose Raisman, one of America's, and Reform Judaism's, finest atheletes!  Mazel tov, Aly, mazel tov!