2 min read
Picture the scene: a young man stands in the middle of the running track of Berlin's Olympic Stadium. The imposing structure stretches up into the sky, adorned by banners, the crowd roars in unison. The young man's heartbeat quickens.
He is on a sporting stage upon which, once, he would have been thought of as a member of a despised minority. He looks down at his team uniform. On it, he sees the Magen David. He glances at his teammates standing alongside him and sees the same, iconic symbol of their faith blazoned on their chests.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the beginning of this story was a flashback to the 1936 Olympic Games. However, this will be the actual scene next week as thousands of athletes (2,500 to be exact) from 36 nations around the world unite as one collective to parade around the Olympiastadion for the 14th European Maccabi Games (EMG).
A venue which once housed the ''Nazi Games'' and was intended to be the greatest demonstration of Hitler's Aryan domination will see the largest international Jewish European sports tournament in over 70 years. Where once were swastikas there will now be Stars of David and the multi-coloured logo of the EMG.
Where once the vitriolic sound of Hitler's voice was heard throughout the arena, the Hatikvah will now ring out, sung by Jewish competitors whose ancestors were once not even allowed to set foot in the Olympic Park. These games could hardly be more significant.
These games can be seen as the catalyst for a new era
The link between Jewish sport and Germany is shaped, rather aptly, shaped like a running track. The decision to create Jewish sports clubs was taken in 1892 by Jews of German and Austrian extraction who had been rejected from participating in other social sport clubs (the first club was the Israelite Gymnastic Association Constantinople founded in Turkey in 1985).
Fast forward past the first European Maccabi Games (Prague) in 1929 and Maccabiah Games (Jewish Olympics) in 1932 and you arrive in 1936 and the banishment of Jewish athletes from competing in the Olympic Games.
Continue and you reach the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. This summer, Jewish competitors will return to Germany to complete the circle.
The EMG, like the Maccabiah Games, occur every four years and stages around 20 sports competitions, compared to the Maccabiah's 40. Male and female athletes aged over 16 compete (there is no maximum age limit) and, as well as the Maccabi Territorial Organisations (TOs), the games will also see guest delegations invited.
Do not be surprised to witness competitors from Maccabi groups in South Africa, Argentina or USA line-up opposite European delegations. What may surprise you is the community's reach to nations such as Armenia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan and Estonia. Even Israel - always a presence at these tournaments and acting as a constant reminder of the diaspora's unbreakable links to the Holy Land -will have to take a back seat, as the focus for once will be on the host nation.
Britain will be competing, of course, under the collective delegation name of Team Maccabi GB. The 250-strong squad is run and overseen by Maccabi GB, which many will know as the key provider of Jewish sport, health and wellbeing programmes in the UK.
For the first few days of their stay in Germany, and before all the action of the sports competition begins, the squad will visit many of Berlin's historically, religiously and culturally significant sights.
Where the European Maccabi Games in Rome (2009) and Vienna (2011) made strides in healing wounds in cities where antisemitism had thrived, it will be in Berlin - the epicentre of the most catastrophic event to happen to our people - where we may witness a genuine act of reparation.
This is not a case of ''forgive and forget'' but these historic European Maccabi Games may just be the catalyst for a new Jewish generation to proudly wear the Magen David in Germany. On and off the track.