Remembering the Munich Olympics

Now is the time to take a moment to remember the horrific story of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and the terrrorist attack on the Israeli team, Hy"d. Like everyone else, I recall clearly going to bed at night having heard the announcement that all the hostages had been saved, and waking the following morning to hear exactly the opposite. (At the time I was a Hillel Director in London.) The German authoroities bungled the entire incident from beginning to end; the actions of the Olympic Committee were, and are, worse -- fitting well into the local Munich tradition; and the entire international sports community did its best to look the other way. The "Games" (it is even a disgrace to dignify the modern Olympics with the title) were interrupted for one day. At the 'mourning ceremony' (or whatever), not a single word of Hebrew was uttered - not a prayer, not a speech. The late Rav Jakobovits z'tzl (link goes to an interesting biographical article on his contribution to medical ethics) maintained strongly that Israel should never have participated in any Olympics. Hope and pray that the coming weeks pass without incident.

See this article in Haaretz today about the team going to Athens -- the article manages not to mention Munich .........

AND EVEN MORE INCREDIBLY ... neither does this one! Any Jewish / Israeli souls awake at Haaretz????