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JEWISH SPORTS STARS
YAEL ARAD (ISRAEL)
When Yael Arad won the silver medal in Judo at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, she became famous overnight. Her country, Israel, was changed as well.
Before this, Israel had gone to the Olympics for 40 years without once coming home with a medal.
Says Arad with a shrug in her voice, “Every Jewish mother wants her son or daughter to be a lawyer or a doctor, not an athlete.”
She was only 5 years old when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 members of the Israeli team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich Germany. Before the 1992 Olympic Games, Arad visited with families of two of the athletes slain in Munich and received their blessing. In Barcelona, she dedicated her win to them.
Arad says there’s nothing remarkable about her strength, speed or technique. Rather, she attributes her success to her superior “fighting” spirit. “I have more of this”, she says.
Yael took part in the Atlanta Olympics, but lost the fight for the bronze medal.
MARK SPITZ (USA)
Mark Spitz was born in 1950. He learned to swim at six and swam in competitions at ten. At 15 he went to Israel for the Maccabi Games with the United States team. There, in his first international competition, he won four gold medals.
Next, he set his sights on the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, where much was expected of him. He ended up with two gold medals, a silver and a bronze. He was shocked and upset by the anti-Semitism of some of his own team members, and this affected his performance. He was determined to do even better.
Mark practiced between 7 and 10 hours a day. He told a reporter, “The one who wins is the one who’s tough up here,” and he pointed to his head.
Between the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games Spitz won many championships and set many world records.
The highlight of his career was when he won seven gold medals in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. His victories, all world records, were in the 100 and 200 metre free style, the 100 and 200 metre butterfly events and all the relays. No one else has ever achieved this!
Spitz is a member of the Swimming Hall of Fame and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
AN AUSTRALIAN HERO
“A gentleman, a sportsman, and a scholar: Myer Rosenblum, Rugby Union player, lawyer, 1907-2002.” This is what the Sydney Morning Herald wrote when Myer Rosenblum passed away in 2002.
Towards the end of his life Myer Rosenblum came to be revered as the grand old man of Australian rugby. (He was, after all, the oldest surviving Wallaby.)
But there was so much more to Rosenblum than rugby. He represented Australia at hammer-throwing, played the bassoon in the Sydney Conservatorium orchestra, founded and ran a well-known Sydney legal practice and gave the Prime Minister, John Howard, his first job.
Rosenblum was the son of a Jewish couple who bribed their way out of what is now Belarus (there were restrictions then on Jewish emigration from Russia) and went to South Africa, where he was born. The family moved to Sydney in about 1914, and a few years after that Rosenblum enrolled at Fort Street High, a rugby school.
He was one of those gifted types who excel at nearly everything they try, but rugby was where he shone first. A tallish (185cm), speedy and crafty breakaway, he was chosen at 21 years of age to play in the Waratah team which toured New Zealand in 1928. Four of their matches are now recognized as Tests.
He also represented his country in the hammer-throw at the 1938 Empire Games and was a champion hurdler and tennis player. Mr Rosenblum’s involvement with Sydney University, St. George, the NSW Rugby Union and ARU will never be forgotten by Rugby people.
Mr Rosenblum helped found and was an honorary adviser to the Jewish Building Society, Moriah College, Australian Jewish Welfare Society, Hakoah Tennis Club and Royal Arts Society.
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