Competing for artistic and athletic mastery on ice has been part of the fun of winter long before the Winter Olympics, and Jews have often taken part in the joy of ice skating. In fact, Louis Rubenstein, called “The Father of Canadian Figure Skating,” was one of the first to incorporate dance-like movements to the act of making figures on ice. In honor of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games currently taking place in Beijing, China, today’s Jewish Treat presents a brief glimpse at some early Jewish figure skating champions.

According to many commentaries, the winner of the 1908 Olympic gold might have been Lily Kronberger (1890-1974), had there been a winter Olympic event in which to compete. Although she never competed in the Olympics, the Budapest born skater had an incredible career. She won bronze in 1906, at the first World Championship to include women, and again in 1907. In 1908, she not only became the official Hungarian champion, but claimed the first of four successive Gold Medals at the World Championship. Kronberger is also noted for being the first competitive skater in figure skating history to express emotion and to choreograph her routine to music (she brought her own brass band).

Other great Jewish skaters were Laszlo Szollas (1907-1980) and Emilia Rotter (1906-2003) who, at both the 1932 and 1936 Winter Olympics, were awarded the Bronze Medal for pairs skating. The Hungarian skaters were also World Champions in 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1935 (with silver in 1932).

Little is known about the fate of Lily Kronberger and Emilia Rotter during World War II other than that they survived. Szollas entered the military and fought against the Soviet Union. He was captured and spent four years in Siberia as a Prisoner of War. Szollas went on to attend medical school and became a Sports Medicine Doctor.

Lily Kronberger was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, as was Emilia Rotter in 1995.

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