Making A Whole Bunch Of Grown Soldiers Emotional
I’m sure you’ll remember Aly Raisman: the young American gymnast who performed to Hava Nagila in the London 2012 Olympics and won the gold medal. She promptly dedicated her win to the murdered 11 Israelis from Munich ’72. An IDF soldier left this letter on her Facebook page:
A Letter to Aly Raisman From an IDF Soldier | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com.
Dear Aly,
I want to tell you about how you became the hero of a gym full of Israeli soldiers.
The same Israeli soldiers who have to deal with Iran’s nuclear threat to the Jewish state. The same ones who serve two-to-three years of their lives, because we have to; because there’s no one else that would do it besides us, because our neighborhood sucks, and when the leadership next door in Syria massacres their own people, there’s no way we would let them lay hands on our kids, as foreign dictators have done for thousands of years.
You picked a song for your floor routine in the Olympics that every Jewish kid knows, whether their families came from the shtetls of Eastern Europe, the Asian steppes of Azerbaijan, the mountains of Morocco or the Kibbutzim of northern Israel. It’s that song that drew almost everyone at the Israeli army base gym to the TV as soon as the report about you came on the news this morning. After showing your floor exercise to Hava Nagila, the announcer told about your gold medal with unmasked pride, and of your decision to dedicate it to the Israeli athletes who were killed in the Munich Olympics in 1972.
There were some tough people at that gym, Aly. Men and Women, Battalion Commanders from Intelligence, Captains from the navy, Lieutenants from the Armored Corps and more. You probably understand that words like ‘bravery’ and ‘heroism’ carry a lot of weight coming from them, as does a standing ovation (even from the people doing ab exercises.) There was nothing apologetic about what you did. For so long we’ve had to apologize for who we are: for how we dress, for our beliefs, for the way we look. It seems like the International Olympic Committee wanted to keep that tradition. Quiet, Jews. Keep your tragedy on the sidelines. Don’t disturb our party.
They didn’t count on an 18 year-old girl in a leotard.
There wasn’t one person at the gym who didn’t know what it was like to give back to our people, not one who didn’t know what happened to the good people who died in 1972, not one who didn’t feel personally insulted by their complete neglect in the London Olympics, the 40 year anniversary of their deaths, and not one who didn’t connect with your graceful tribute in their honor.
Thank you for standing up against an injustice that was done to our people. As I was walking back to my machine at the gym, I caught one of the officers give a long salute to your image on television. I think that says it all.
Sincerely,
Dan Yagudin
Officer, Israeli Defense Force
About the Author
Brian of London is not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy. Since making aliyah in 2009, Brian has blogged at Israellycool. Brian's interests include world peace and an end to world hunger. Besides blogging here, Brian of London now writes for PJ Media. Brian of London also hosted Shire Network NewsFiled Under: Brian of London
I’m tearing up just reading that letter!
Yet the venomous, sociopath Debbie Schlussel felt it was alright to rip this 18 year old girl “for not dong more”.
Yep, and I ripped her on Twitter for that. She will find fault with everyone but one person: Debbie Schlussel.
She is so full of hatred that she is scary to be around, even on cyberspace. I am surprised she did not refer to the IDF soldiers who wrote to Miss Raisman as “kapos”. I absolutely loath her.
There’s the added benefit that since Hava Nagila is in the public domain, no one from the London Olympic Committee had to paid royalties when the song was played. Unfortunately, Vangelis probably got paid a boat-load of money for the frequent playing of “Chariots of Fire” during the summer games.
nice letter,
but aly never dedicated the gold to the 72 athletes
hava nagilla was used in the 08 olympics by a non jewish russian gymnast
aly has used it for the entire year of competition
please stop trying to turn this little girl into something she is not
she is. and will be.it is just the beginning. and she still has a way to go. God bless her.
Aly is a true ayshet chayil.