A version of this piece originally appeared in Plus61J. Jews can’t fight, fence, ride, run or swim. That was the conventional wisdom of earlier centuries. By contrast, some time in the 1930s, the Russian–Jewish writer Isaac Emannuilovich Babel, a one-time Cossack (in an administrative capacity) alerted his readers: ‘beware a Jew on horseback’. So which…
It’s hard to believe that anybody could ever critique gymnast superstar Aly Raisman’s physique. But according to USA Today, the gold medal Olympics winner and her teammate Simone Biles were once made to feel self-conscious about their appearances. “Gymnasts are supposed to look like this,” the Massachusetts native told the publication, stretching out her fingers,…
At age 17, Pascale Bercovitch was running for a train to school in Angers, France when she slipped onto the tracks and was run over, eventually losing both of her legs. But she refused to wallow in depression — and 32 years later the Israeli woman is competing for the third time at the Paralympics,…
— Olympic medalist Aly Raisman said she is planning to compete in the Summer Games in Tokyo in four years. Raisman told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday that she plans to take a break before going back into training for the 2020 Summer Olympics. “That’s the goal,” Raisman said. “I’m going to take…
— Shlomo Rechnitz, a Los Angeles businessman, has been identified as the person who bought the Olympic name patch of Israeli bronze medalist judoka Yarden Gerbi. Rechnitz paid $52,100 for the autographed patch on eBay, pledging the proceeds to charity. He donated the money from his winning bid to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center; it…
— A Jerusalem rabbi said he would seek royalties from Japan’s delegation to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for its allegedly unauthorized use of a melody he composed. Rabbi Baruch Hayat, according to the Shirunt website of Israeli songs, composed the melody to the popular song “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo Gesher Tzar Me’od” to…
— An Egyptian Olympian who appears in a viral photo featuring an Israeli flag said on Facebook that she was photobombed by “dirty” people and there will “never be peace between me and these people in my life.” Doaa Elghobashy, 19, a volleyball player, has been harshly criticized on Arab social media since the Israeli…
Within less than six months, Lonah Chemtai Korlima has gone from being embraced by the public as she fought the bureaucracy to obtain Israeli citizenship to facing a storm of criticism over her performance at the Olympics. Chemtai arrived in Israel as an employee of the Kenyan consulate and later married track coach Dan Salpeter….
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