This former Olympian survived a terror attack. The new Mideast war is bringing back that memory.
Avraham Melamed doesn’t know where he was when he heard about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel, but he remembers how he felt.
“The calamity itself was the main thing. It was so surprising to me, just a huge shock," said the 79-year-old former Israeli world-class swimmer.
Melamed survived his own brush with death during a Palestinian group's terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
He said he felt unsettled upon learning of the new war in the Mideast and it reminded him of 51 years ago, when gunmen stormed the Olympic Village in Munich on Sept. 5, 1972.
Eight armed terrorists from the group Black September took hostages from the Israeli Olympic compound, killing 11 athletes and coaches. Melamed was able to escape.
Today, he sees the current war and can't help but reflect on all the suffering.
“There is loss on both sides,” he said.
On Monday, the Peekskill resident, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Israel, will visit Temple Beth-El in Great Neck to take part in a conversation with the community that also will include an Israeli diplomat and a film producer as guests.
“The Jewish people have faced threats of exile, desolation and extermination many times in our history,” said Michael S. Glickman, chair of the Gold Coast Arts board, which organized the event.
Glickman added that the program "comes at a time of mourning for our community," but that "even as we mourn, we continue to honor the Jewish insistence on the sanctity of human life."
More than 7,000 people in Israel and Gaza, including many civilians, have died in the current war, which also has left more than 1 million people displaced in the Middle East, according to the United Nations.
Back in 1972, Melamed, who represented Israel as an Olympic swimmer in the 1964 Tokyo Games and the 1968 Mexico City Games, was in Munich to coach another swimmer and to report on swimming events for an Israeli newspaper.
Then in his late 20s, Melamed remembers waking up on the day of the attack to popping sounds and trying to go back to sleep. About half an hour later, the sounds started again, but louder and accompanied by yelling, he said.
Then another member of the Israeli contingent told him they were under attack.
Melamed said he looked outside and saw one of his friends lying bloodied in the street before he climbed out a window and eventually found safety with the help of a German police officer.
The Olympian said the image of terrorists leading a group of Israeli hostages from the building that day remains imprinted in his memory.
Then when the new conflict began earlier this month, Melamed's memories of that day came rushing back. Melamed said as a survivor of terror, he has a hard time comprehending the new war.
The number of lives lost and the boldness of Hamas' hostage abductions keep running through his mind, he said.
"I'm trying to look at this issue from the grand perspective of human life … and I'm asking myself, 'If it was up to you, how would you want things to evolve from this point?' "
Temple Beth-El executive director Stuart Botwinick said in a statement that Melamed's story "has a renewed relevance to this very moment in history."
He added: "Coming from the event on Monday, attendees will learn more about the difficult history of our world, see how people and individuals like Avraham find strength, courage and hope to move forward into a better future."
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