Gold-winning gymnast Aly Raisman heading to Israel

Gold-winning American Jewish gymnast Aly Raisman has accepted an invitation from Israel Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein for her and her family to make their first visit to Israel.

Raisman, who performs floor routines to the melody of “Hava Nagilah,” won an individual gold medal in her floor exercise last week and a bronze on the balance beam after helping the U.S. women’s team take the gold.

No dates for her visit were immediately announced.

Raisman honored the memory of slain Israeli athletes after she took gold in the women’s floor exercise last Tuesday. Raisman said she would have supported a decision to observe a moment of silence in honor of the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich games.

“If there had been a moment’s silence, I would have supported it and respected it,” she said.

Though she made clear her support for remembering the Israelis, she did not choose her routine’s music for political reasons, she said. “Having that floor music wasn’t intentional,” Raisman said. “But the fact it was on the 40th anniversary is special, and winning the gold today means a lot to me.”

On Wednesday the widows of two Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Olympics bitterly attacked the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, at a memorial service for the Munich 11 in London over his refusal to allow a minute of silence at the opening ceremony.

“Shame on you, IOC,” said Ankie Spitzer, who was married to fencing coach Andre Spitzer. Spitzer was speaking to an audience that included Rogge. “You have forsaken the 11 members of your Olympic family. You are against them only because they are Israelis and Jews.”

Miriam Shaviv contributed to this article