City names field in honor of David Berger
Talk about a long time in coming. Nearly 41 years ago David Berger, a competitive student weightlifter athlete who had graduated from Tulane University, was one of 12 Israeli athletes tragically killed as a member of the Israel Olympics team at the Munich Olympic Games.
Holding one of David Berger's trophies for weightlifting, Fred Berger, his surviving brother, recalls his brother's athletic achievements at the formal dedication of David Berger-Avenger Field. (Photo by Alan Smason)
In recognition of the years he spent living in New Orleans, the New Orleans City Council selected the former Cleveland, OH native’s name to adorn the very New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) playground, Avenger Field, on which he trained as a Tulane student.
That was in 2002, approximately three decades after Berger had died. The measure had been pushed initially by two Jewish City Councilmen, first by Eddie Sapir and, later, Arnie Fielkow, both of whom have since left the council. Finally, with the push of City Councilperson Susan Guidry and the blessing of City Council vice-president Jacqueline Clarkson, Berger achieved his lasting moment of New Orleans celebrity.
The NORD sign that adorns the playground at 6300 Tchoupitoulas Street displays its name as “David Berger-Avenger Field.” Following extensive repairs to the field, the sign was erected last month and was formally dedicated Monday by several members of the council in front of representatives of the Jewish community, friends of Berger and his younger brother Fred.
Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn of Temple Sinai reminded the crowd gathered in adjacent Audubon Park facing the field that Jews are commanded many times to remember. “We do remember,” he said in invoking Berger’s name “and so do all people of all races and creeds – good people – all over the world.”
Clarkson spoke to the crowd, acknowledging that Guidry was unable to attend, but noted the length of time it took for the honor to achieve fruition. “How hard can one sign be?” she questioned. “It took a village.”
Attorney Mitchell Herzog, a close friend of David Berger spoke at the dedication of David Berger-Avenger Field. (Photo by Alan Smason)
One of Berger’s close friends, Mitchell Herzog, who spoke at Berger’s funeral 41 years ago, was also on hand to speak about the Tulane graduate to the small crowd gathered there.
He recalled Berger having lived in the French Quarter because he was enraptured with the city. Herzog noted Berger was a 4.0 student, who, after graduation, attended Columbia University in New York as part of a combined academic program for law and business. And throughout his career he was a superb athlete.
Fred Berger, now a resident of Florida, was three years younger than his brother David and recalled watching him train as a high school student. “He learned about (weight)lifting from a magazine called ‘Strength and Health’,” Berger reminisced. He said his brother attended Tulane after hearing from his mother about the school she attended as a student at Newcomb College.
Berger’s goal was to make the United States Olympic team as a weightlifter, but because he was of small stature, he did not make the 1968 team. He married his wife, Paula King, after he moved to New York and still intent on making the Olympics for 1972, learned that he might be able to join the Israel team were he to make aliyah there. He moved to Israel in 1970.
Fred Berger and his sister attended the Munich Olympic Games and saw him lift on the Friday before he was slain. “It was the first time either of us had seen him lift,” he recalled. The next morning Fred Berger and his sister traveled to Austria to go camping. They never knew what had happened to their brother for several days.
NORD sign noting David Berger-Avenger Field. (Photo by Alan Smason)
On their way home for the funeral the next day, both siblings were stuck in New York because no other flights were due to arrive in Cleveland. Berger’s father, Dr. Bernard Berger, who is still alive at 96, called upon President Richard Nixon to arrange for a private flight back for his surviving children to attend David’s funeral.
“David died at 28, but he really accomplished a lot,” Fred Berger recalled. He noted that in the 41 years since his brother had perished at the hands of the Black September Palestinian terrorists, this was the first occasion he felt comfortable enough to memorialize his brother in public and credited his partner for “helping me get through it.”
In speaking about his brother’s name atop the sign, Berger had one wish for the athletes who will use the field in the coming years. “I hope that rather than they remember the horrible way he died that they remember the way he lived,” he concluded.
Rabbi Yonah Schiller of Tulane Hillel added his insights into the dedication, suggesting that Berger had maximized his capacities at an early age. Schiller mused that Berger’s dedication and commitment were major factors in his deciding to live in Israel in order to be a part of its Olympic team.
“It took a significant amount of compromise to be involved with Israel,” Schiller stated. “It took a lot of commitment!”
Also speaking at the event was Brenda Brasher, representing the Jewish Relations Council of Greater New Orleans who gave historical background on what occurred in New Orleans and what figures were saying at the time of the slayings at the Munich Olympics.
