The Sabbath revolution shakes Israeli sports
New regulations that condition government funding for sports associations on not holding competitions on the Sabbath threaten to financially destroy entire organizations.
The award-winning "Chariots of Fire" depicts Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian runner, who refuses to compete in the hundred-meter preliminaries in the 1924 Paris Olympics because the race takes place on a Sunday, the day of rest and worship in Christianity. The story of Eitan Zeliger, an Israeli religious Jew, resembles that of Liddell.
Zeliger's daughter, an excellent synchronized swimmer, refrained from participating in the Israeli championship finals three years ago, because they took place on the Sabbath. Eitan Zeliger's every attempt to change the date of the competition was in vain, so he promised his teenage daughter that that would be the last competition she would have to miss for honoring her faith.
In 2016, Zeliger, along with other parents and religious athletes, established the Sabbath Team, an organization that seeks to enable all Sabbath-observant athletes to compete in the official competitions of the State of Israel. The organization has fought the swimming association, most of whose competitions take place on Saturdays.
Following a report of a record number of participants in the December 2016 swimming championship, held on a Saturday, the Sabbath Team wrote on its Facebook page, "At the Israel swimming championship, which will take place this coming weekend, entrance is forbidden for the religious [Jews] and for dogs,” a reference to anti-Semitic signs in Europe during the World War II era.
