I
often have been mystified by people's reaction,
a mixture of amazement and pride, upon learn-
ing I was a boxer in my youth. Jewish tradition,
at least what we are taught to believe, has al-
ways viewed the body and athleticism with a de-
gree of discomfort or ambivalence. It has never
been easy to reconcile the image of the "people
of the book" with the image of the athlete.
The emphasis on spirituality that, according to Jew-
ish belief, sets us apart from the outside world, and the
warning that emulating the behavior of our gentile
neighbors leads to assimilation, has been a defense
mechanism that serves as a safeguard of Jewish iden-
tity.
In the Eastern European shtetl at the
turn of the century, the emphasis on the
body was looked upon with disdain, ac-
cording to some Jewish historians. This
portrayal of the Jew is still far from ac-
curate or fully justified because, in these
same shtetls, there were many Jewish
shtarkes, or strongmen, such as porters,
blacksmiths and farmers, who protect-
ed the community during anti-Semitic
disturbances.
I still remember from my childhood in
Central Europe the stories about the
feats of the Jewish strongman Zisha Bre-
itbart, who could tear chains with his
bare hands, break coins between his fin-
gers and lift huge weights with his teeth.
Even after 75 years, people rec a lled the
strength of the giant with awe, admon-
ishing showoffs with the phrase: "Do not
play Breitbart."
Another noted strongman, Eugene
Sandow, gained his fame at the Chica-
go World's Fair in 1893. A precursor of
the prototypical modern fitness guru, he
opened a health institute in London.
Sandow figured in James Joyce's Ulysses
and was chief sponsor of the 1908
Olympics in London.
On a personal note, I cannot easily for-
get the severe beating I received from
my father when he learned I was going
to boxing workouts. Sports historians
discovered much later that Jewish box-
ers were not so rare. The first heavy-
weight Olympic boxing champion was
Sam Berger, who won the title in 1904.
And between 1900 and 1910, more than
20 Olympic and world champions were Jewish.
In the buff
That Jews have been prominent in the history of
ancient and modern sport, and specifically the Olympic
Games, should not come as a surprise. We tend to for-
get that one of the sparks that ignited the Maccabi re-
volt was — as the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius
Dr. George Eisen is director of the Institute for Regional
and International Studies at California State
Polytechnic University. He is the author of "Ethnicity
and Sport in North American History and Culture."
recorded some 2,000 years ago — that some high
priests in Jerusalem's Holy Temple neglected their
duties to exercise in the nude, Greek style. Josephus
also recorded that Herod the Great (Herod the Wicked,
to some), King of Judea, saved the ancient Olympic
Games from bankruptcy by endowing them with gifts
and revenues upon which "he was generally declared
in their inscriptions to be one of the perpetual man-
agers of those games."
If we lift the veil of misconception about the role of
Jews in modern sports, we find many astonishing facts,
touching personal accounts, and sometimes, tragedies.
The involvement of Jews in athletics during the late
Coubertin, the romantic French aristocrat credited
with the establishment of the modern Olympic move-
ment. Not that his Jewishness was pertinent at the
time, but it became so when he and his wife commit-
ted suicide rather than be forced to wear the yellow
star that identified Jews during the Holocaust.
Similar tragic fates awaited the first two German
Olympic champions, Alfred Flatow and Felix Flatow
(not related). After winning several gold medals in
gymnastics during the 1896 Games in Athens, Alfred
Flatow died in Auschwitz and Felix Flatow in There-
sienstadt. As a former Olympic medalist, Felix Fla-
tow received a special invitation from the Sportfuhrer,
Hans von Tschammer and Osten, to the
opening of the Nazi Olympic Games in 1936.
He courageously declined. His rationale:
Since he was excluded from his sports club
by the Nuremberg Laws, he should not par-
ticipate in the Olympic celebrations either.
Among the modern Games, the Berlin
Olympics of 1936 generated perhaps the
most pre-game controversy. To placate
American and world opinion, the Nazi
sports authorities felt pressured to organize
training camps for Jews. Among those in-
vited to train there was half-Jewish fencer
The involvement
°flews in athletics
coincided with
their rise in the ranks
of the middle class.
Token player: Helene Mayer,
the half-Jewish German
fencer, won gold medals in
1928 and 1932. Adolf Hitler
invited her to train with Jews
for the 1936 Olympics, where
she won the silver.
19th century coincided with
their rise in the ranks of the
middle class in Europe and
America. Participating in
sports was just another way
by which the Jewish middle
class pursued its social and psychological integration
and assimilation.
Who would suspect that in 1896 one of the men who
helped usher in the modern Olympic Games was Dr.
Ferenc Kemeny, a Hungarian Jew? Dr. Kemeny be-
came one of the most ardent supporters of Pierre de
Helene Mayer, living comfortably in Cali-
fornia at the time. Eventually all Jews, even
European record-holding high jumper Gre-
tel Bergman, were excluded from partici-
pation. Ms. Mayer and another half-Jew,
ice hockey player Rudi Ball, were included
on the German team as tokens, averting an
American boycott. Ms. Mayer, who ironi-
cally exemplified a statuesque Aryan
blonde, raised a few eyebrows with her Nazi
salute on the victory stand while receiv-
ing a silver medal. She shared the stand
with two other half-Jewish fencers: Ilona Elek of Hun-
gary won the gold and Ellen Preis of Austria, the
bronze. There also were several other Jewish fencers
in Berlin who won medals. Among them, Endre Ka-
bos, winning two gold medals for Hungary. He later
died in the Holocaust.
The most heated debates about the Berlin Games
raged in America, where a boycott was supported even
by the U.S. ambassador to Germany, William E. Dodd,
and Consul General George Messersmith. But the
American team decided to stick it out. The only two
Jews on the American track team, Sam Stoller and