’If you win tomorrow, we’ll forgive you; if not, we’ll oust you. So, I made sure to win…’. Jewish athletes during the "black years" of Soviet Jewry
E. Ostrovsky, U. Carmi
This article discusses elite Jewish athletes who participated in sport during the "black years" of Soviet Jewry, a period in which Jews were persecuted and many were arrested and deported. Even more Jews were fired from their jobs, and many fields of work were closed off to them. Sport was one of the only channels that provided Jews an opportunity to improve their status and economic condition. When the USSR decided to adopt sport as a means of enhancing its international status, many Jews turned to sport and began achieving remarkable success. Indeed, the extent of their achievements surpassed their proportion in the population. Yet these Jewish athletes also paid a price for the benefits accruing from their international achievements: a career under the shadow of the regime, constant surveillance, and the obscuring of their Jewish identity. They coped by creating a form of ‘thin culture’ that found expression in a shared fate and sense of solidarity with other Jewish athletes.