RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The Jewish president of the Rio 2016 Olympic Committee was arrested amid an investigation into a vote-buying scheme to bring the Olympic Games to South America for the first time. Carlos Arthur Nuzman, who also is the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and an honorary International Olympic Committee member, would…
The Israeli national team at the Rio Olympics made headlines twice for reasons related not to their athletic accomplishments, but rather to politics. The first incident occurred when the Lebanese team prevented the Israeli athletes from boarding the same bus as them for transportation to the opening ceremonies. The second occurred when Egypt’s Islam El…
Over the past few decades, international organizations have done their utmost to exclude Israel from the family of nations. One such worldwide association, the Olympics, ostensibly dedicated to fair play, comradeship and the promotion of world peace, has an even longer anti-Semitic pedigree. Back in 1936, it awarded prime time exposure to the Nazi regime…
— Hundreds of fans showed up at the airport to welcome Israel’s Olympic medal-winning judokas home. Entering the arrivals hall at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv Monday night, Yarden Gerbi and Or Sasson were showered with flowers. Supporters waved flags, sang patriotic songs and held up pictures and posters of the athletes. “I didn’t expect so…
— Jewish swimmer Anthony Ervin became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in an individual swimming event, at 35 capping a comeback from burnout and drug use in the aftermath of his gold medal at 19. Ervin edged France’s Florent Manaudou by one one-hundredth of a second in the men’s 50-meter freestyle race Friday night in Rio….
American Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas aren’t the only ones in Rio with a Jewish connection. On Tuesday, 16-year-old Sae Miyakawa of Japan performed her floor routine to a klezmer arrangement of the song “Kol HaOlam Kulo,” which was written by founder of the Hasidic Breslov movement Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Though the…
As American Jews (and their media) are fawning over Olympian gymnast Aly Raisman, fewer know about her teammate Gabrielle Douglas’ complex religious background — a mixture of Christianity and Judaism. “I used to be Jewish,” she wrote in her 2012 memoir. “Well not exactly Jewish — but my family practiced some of the Jewish traditions.”…
Olympic athlete Katie Ledecky’s heritage has always been important to her — her faith and her family push her to succeed both in swimming and in life. Ledecky, who on Sunday broke her own world record — becoming the first woman in history to swim below 3.58 for the 400-meter freestyle — won her second medal…
100% of profits support our journalism
