Rabbi Buchwald shares his pride in the United States Women's Gymnastics team for taking home the Gold Medal in London. This was partly due to the contributions of Aly Raisman*, a Jewish team member from Newton, Massachusetts. Not only did she score high in multiple events, but her floor routine was performed to Hava Nagila, the long beloved Jewish tune.
Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald explains how his pride in Aly's performance connects to the Chanukah holiday. During Chanukah we celebrate the victory of the Maccabees over the Hellenists whose goal was to make the Jewish people more Greek. A good part of their culture involved physical activities, like gymnastics, wrestling and building one's body. We fought them off back then to maintain our Jewish identity. Yet today we take pride in our Israeli team and all the Jewish Olympians. Rabbi Buchwald shares his hope that the Olympic spirit pervades the world and brings a fellowship where the competition will be in brotherhood and good taste. May this Olympic spirit bring an end to enmity among the nations and hopefully we will have peace.
*Aly Raisman also competed in the gymnastics all-around event on Thursday, August 2nd and place 4th behind her US teammate Gabrielle Douglas (Gold) and two Russian gymnasts.
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