Tragedy & Triumph: The Olympics: A Jewish Perspective

The claim that Jews are no good at sport is rebutted in this book which describes the achievements of hundreds of Jewish Olympians from 1896 to the present day. Intriguing personal stories, snippets of history and the intertwining of bigotry and irony will engage the reader. Who would think it possible that five Jewish athletes could survive incarceration by the Nazis to subsequently compete at the Olympics with one of them winning a gold medal while three of them would also set world records? Or that the most successful Olympians in countries who have treated their Jewish citizens most harshly are two Jewish women-Irena Kirszenstein-Szewinska in Poland and Agnes Keleti in Hungary? Is there a more fitting irony than the 1938 Nazi propaganda movie, Olympia, inadvertently showcasing a Jewish Olympian as its hero? Perhaps truth really is stranger than fiction. It’s certainly more interesting.