Gymnast carries Jewish torch on RNC final night

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Republican Jewish Coalition chairman David Flaum was originally scheduled to speak on the final night of the Republican National Convention, but apparently the loss of Monday’s program and the subsequent rescheduling of much of the convention meant Flaum was bumped from the schedule Thursday evening. Or maybe it was because Flaum wasn’t strong enough on the parallel bars, because there was a Jew on Thursday night’s program.

Mitch Gaylord, a 2005 inductee in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, was one of eight Olympic athletes tapped to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the night. Gaylord was a member of the 1984 gold medal winning U.S. gymnastics team, and won three other medals during those Olympics.

And then there’s Joe Gibbs, who was a late addition to the Thursday night schedule. He sort of qualifies. While the retired Washington Redskins coach is an evangelical Christian, Jewish Redskins fans (as well as Redskins fans of every other faith) treat him like a god.

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