Aly Raisman testifies IN 2021 during a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar investigation. (Graeme Jennings-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Boston-area native had also advocated for the Olympics to hold a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Munich Games. That ultimately happened \u2014 nearly a decade later, in 2021.<\/p>\n
Raisman\u2019s advocacy didn\u2019t stop there. As details emerged about the years-long pattern of sexual abuse by U.S. Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, Raisman became one of the most vocal athletes in the groundswell of accusations and personal testimonies, as a harsh critic of both U.S. Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee. She emerged from the trauma and the court case as a national hero for girls and women, and has remained an advocate for systemic changes in the Olympics and sports overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that the culture of the sport needs to change,\u201d Raisman said in an interview with the New Yorker last year. \u201cIt\u2019s been normalized for this long. That\u2019s why a lot of athletes don\u2019t recognize when something bad is happening, because when it\u2019s happening to your teammates or your friends it\u2019s hard to recognize that it isn\u2019t normal. Sometimes athletes don\u2019t know how bad it is until they start going into normal life and they see how they can be treated so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sue Bird fights for equal pay<\/strong><\/p>\nJewish basketball icon Sue Bird is one of the most decorated players in the history of women\u2019s basketball. The five-time Olympic gold medalist (that\u2019s a record) and four-time WNBA champion is a leader on and off the court.<\/p>\n
Bird, like her fiance, the U.S. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe, has been on the frontlines of the movement for equal pay in women\u2019s sports.
\u201cThis was a living example of literally knowing your value and not budging,\u201d Bird told MSNBC in 2020. \u201cWe knew what we were bringing to the table, and we didn\u2019t back down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around the same time, WNBA players negotiated a new contract that allowed stars like Bird to more than triple their salaries.
Calls for a Beijing Olympics boycott<\/strong><\/p>\nA full 86 years after the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the 2022 Beijing Olympics raised similar concerns for activists around the world, who called for boycotts in response to human rights concerns in China.<\/p>\n
In particular, China\u2019s persecution of its Uyghur Muslim minority \u2014 who have reportedly been placed in \u201creeducation\u201d camps \u2014 was at the center of the anger. Jewish activists helped lead the effort to call for an Olympic boycott.<\/p>\n
Serena Oberstein, executive director of Jewish World Watch, a California-based genocide awareness organization, helped form an interfaith \u201cBerlin-Beijing Coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Nazi party used the Berlin games to strengthen its reputation in the world. Two years later came Kristallnacht,\u201d she told JTA in February. Now, she added, \u201cWe know what authoritarian regimes that systemically persecute people do, when they build concentration camps and ghettos and forced labor camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The activism was not without consequence: the U.S. announced a diplomatic boycott of the games, as did Britain, Canada and Australia.<\/p>\n
Jewish athletes call out antisemitism<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman saw pictures on social media of people wearing swastikas and waving Nazi flags in Ottawa, Canada, earlier this year, he knew he had to say something.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disturbing and disheartening to see that antisemitism is on the rise, unfortunately, which is crazy nowadays,\u201d Hyman told The Athletic. \u201cSeeing that and being Jewish and being proud of my heritage \u2014 and it was just Holocaust Memorial Day a couple days ago \u2014 and it was right around the time the swastikas were up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julian Edelman celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after his New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 win in Super Bowl LIII in 2019. Edelman was the game\u2019s MVP. (Al Bello\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Hyman is not alone. Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman has responded to many of the recent antisemitic attacks across the country in recent years.<\/p>\n
Following the mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, Edelman tweeted: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to even imagine such senselessness. As a Jew, an American and a human, I\u2019m devastated. We are with you, Pittsburgh.\u201d He wore custom cleats honoring the victims, and later donated them to raise money.<\/p>\n
After the Poway synagogue shooting in 2019, Edelman wrote, \u201cI\u2019m sad and angry, but also proud of the strength of our community.\u201d <\/p>\n
And in 2020, when NFL player DeSean Jackson stirred controversy with comments about Hitler, Edelman invited Jackson to have \u201cuncomfortable conversations\u201d about antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he said some ugly things, but I do see an opportunity to have a conversation,\u201d Edelman said. \u201cI am proud of my Jewish heritage. But for me it\u2019s not just about religion. It\u2019s about community and culture as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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