Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for silence and a time to speak.” Agreed. There is a time for silence. Silence allows reflection; silence can speak louder than words. And while the boundaries of silence can be infinite, a moment of silence is finite, defined, focused… and has a different power.

It took 49 years to break the silence in order to have a moment of silence.

49 years ago in Munich, the Israeli Olympic team was attacked by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, killing 6 coaches, 5 athletes and a West German police officer who tried to rescue them.

For decades, widows of two of the murdered athletes have advocated for the International Olympic Committee to acknowledge this during the opening or closing ceremony. The answer: no. Per the Forward (July 23, 2021), here is one reason why:

We must consider what this could do to other members of the delegations that are hostile to Israel,” an Israeli committee member told the BBC in 2004, when a small memorial was held at the Israeli ambassador’s house in Athens before the Olympics there.

In other words, there would be silence – not a moment of silence – so that terrorist actions are not remembered and so that delegations hostile to Israel won’t feel badly – and this from an Israeli. Oy Vey.

Elie Wiesel wrote: “I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lies are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men and women are prosecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must–at that moment–become the center of the universe.”

The spectators could not come to the Olympics. Yet for all that the bleachers are empty, the Olympics are still the center of the universe. And only a few days ago, there was not silence but a moment of silence during the opening ceremonies in Tokyo, which mourned the Israeli team and its rescuer and also included others who were killed during varying Olympics. The Olympic torch has become a Yizkor Candle, a candle of remembrance of how our world is interconnected.