Message from Ron Carner, Maccabi USA President
Let the Games begin. And
they did even before the Opening Ceremony, in order to gain time for the
competition schedule.
On Tuesday, Maccabi USA supporters
started the evening at a biergarten, where we were joined by USA Ambassador
to Germany, John Emerson, and his
lovely family. He spoke
about the German government’s efforts to combat the growing anti-Semitism as it
also acknowledges the horrors of the Holocaust. On his end, he has been
involved in facilitating Jewish claims to art works.
The opening ceremony that
followed was another milestone in Jewish history, especially the Jewish history
in Germany. It took place in an
outdoor arena adjacent to the stadium where Hitler had once banned Jews from
participating. Against the backdrop of a stage dominated by a lighted
Star-of-David, close to thirty teams of Europeans and supporting nations
marched in. The entertainment, technical, and fireworks were beautifully
displayed.
That is when the president
of President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, welcomed the participants. “Maccabi is coming
home,” he said, and spoke of the symbolic significance of Jewish athletes from
all over the world choosing this country and this city, where Maccabi had
originally started, to stage the 2015 European Maccabi Games. “There is a piece
of Jewish history in every corner of Berlin.
Every corner reminds Germans of their shame,” he added as he reminded the
audience that the first Maccabi club had been established in Germany and then spread to other places.
Today, he said, Germany’s
neighbors are watching the Maccabi Games and are taking interest in this show
of courage.
The significance of the
event was underlined by the presence of the descendants of Marty Glickman and
Sam Stoller, Jewish American athletes who arrived in 1936 as part of the USA
Olympic team. They were denied the right to compete by the well known
anti-Semetic President of the U.S. Olympic Team, Avery Brundage, in order to
not offend Hitler. At the suggestion of Maccabi USA, Ann Stoller delivered the
torch to Nancy Glickman, who proudly lit the torch to begin the Games while
wearing her father’s 1936 Olympic track shirt. It was a fitting and moving
moment.
The only negative about the
evening was that the speeches were too long, mostly in German, with limited
translation. However, the remarks by Moti Tischauer, President of the
Maccabi European Confederation were poignant. He declared "Zero
tolerance for anti-Semitism in Germany, in Europe,
and everywhere".
I want to thank Tonja Magerman,
General Chairperson of Team USA, for her hard work and devotion to this
project.
Ron Carner, President, Maccabi USA
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Missing Credentials Update
We realize that a number of you attending the Games in
Berlin have not received a Games Credential, and we apologize for any
inconvenience that this has caused you.
Although we are not clear as to what the delay is in producing these, we
do know that we will not have them tomorrow, Wednesday, July 29. Please bring
identification with you when you visit a sporting venue and you will be able to
attend your sporting event(s) of choice.
If we are able to get the missing credentials from the Games Organizers,
we will communicate that with you via these daily email updates
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