Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Munich Widow Praises Obama for Support

Image by getty images

The widow of an Israeli athlete slain in the 1972 Munich massacre praised President Obama’s decision to join her campaign for a moment of silence at the London Olympic Games.

Ankie Spitzer, widow of Andrei Spitzer, said she was “overwhelmed and thrilled” that Obama joined the growing campaign to honor the 11 victims of the terror attack.

“On behalf of the Munich 11 families, we are amazed and humbled by the magnitude of global and governmental support,” she said. “We know that together, we are going make this happen.”

The announcement follows a 100,000-strong petition started on Change.org by Ankie Spitzer.

Obama announced on Thursday that he was joining the campaign for a moment of silence.

Barack Obama Image by getty images

“We absolutely support the campaign for a minute of silence at the Olympics to honor the Israeli athletes killed in Munich,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee has rejected the proposal for a tribute, which would mark the 40th anniversary of the horrifying attack. It said that the victims, who were killed by Palestinian extremists, would be honored at a separate ceremony.

But relatives of the victims and activists are still pushing. Sportscaster Bob Costas says he will mention the controversy during Olympics telecast.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.