Eighteen hundred Jewish athletes from all over the world paraded before 50,000 spectators in Ramat Gan stadium last night as President Ephraim Katzir officially opened the 9th Maccabiah–the world Jewish Olympic games. Premier Golda Meir was in the stands with her grandchildren. So were thousands of recent immigrants from the Soviet Union, many of them moved to tears, as they witnessed for the first time In their lives the spectacle of Jewish athletes assembled from all over the globe.
The official Maccabiah torch was kindled in the stadium from a torch that runners brought from Modin, east of Tel Aviv, the gravesite of the ancient Maccabeans. But the festivities were halted for a solemn memorial service for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Arab terrorists at the Olympic games in Munich last Sept. 5.
Eleven torches were kindled as the name of each of the victims was recited A cantor chanted El Moleh Rahamim, the prayer for the dead. A special memorial prayer for the Munich victims, written by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, was also recited.
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