Henry Herscovici ( he, הנרי הרשקוביץ, also spelled Hershkovitz; 12 February 1927 – 12 March 2022) was an Israeli

sports shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

. He competed at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

and the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

. He also competed at the 1966,

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, and 1974 Asian Games and the 1965 and

1969 Maccabiah Games At the 8th Maccabiah Games from July 29 to August 7, 1969, 1,450 athletes from 27 countries competed in 22 sports in Israel. The final gold medal count was the United States in first place (64), Israel second (48; though it won the greatest numbe ...

Biography

Herscovici was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, on 12 March 1927, into a family of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

s who counted the royal family of Romania among their customers. He served as an officer in the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

, where he developed his passion for shooting sports. However, antisemitism in Romania limited his opportunities to compete internationally and in 1965, he emigrated to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and began competing for the Israel national shooting sports team. In 1971, he opened a watch shop in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

, where he continued to work into his 90s. His wife, Sadi Hershkovitz, was an international gymnastics referee who was a judge at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and the

Seoul Olympic Games The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in 1988. Herscovici died in Petah Tikva, Israel on 12 March 2022, at the age of 95. He was survived by two daughters and four grandchildren.

Career

Maccabiah Games

Herscovici's first international appearance for the Israel national team was at the

1965 Maccabiah Games The 7th Maccabiah Games in 1965 saw 1,500 athletes from 29 different countries compete in 21 sports. It was the first Maccabiah Games for Iran, Jamaica, Peru, and Venezuela. The United States delegation won the most gold medals, followed by Israel, ...

, where he won the bronze medals in the rifle three positions and

prone Prone position () is a body position in which the person lies flat with the chest down and the back up. In anatomical terms of location, the dorsal side is up, and the ventral side is down. The supine position is the 180° contrast. Etymolog ...

events. He also participated in the

, where he won the gold in the three positions event.

Asian competitions

At the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok he achieved fourth place in both the

50 meter rifle three positions 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

and

10 meter air rifle 10 metre air rifle (N.B. For "Meter" in this article – read "Metre") is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of using a calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of . It ...

events. At the Asian Shooting Championships in Tokyo in 1967, he won the gold in the 50 meter rifle three positions event, and silver in the 50 meter standard rifle 3x20 shots, while also finishing fifth in the 50 meter prone event. At the

1970 Asian Games The 6th Asian Games () were held from 9 to 20 December 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand.- - Seoul, South Korea, had been selected to host the 6th Games but it declined due to both financial reasons and security threats from neighboring North Korea. (T ...

, he won the silver medal in the 10 meter air rifle and reached fourth place in the 50 meter three positions competition. His final major international appearance was at the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran, where he achieved fifth place in the prone 50 meter competition.

Olympic Games

He represented

Israel at the 1968 Summer Olympics Israel competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. 29 competitors, 26 men and 3 women, took part in 20 events in 4 sports. Results by event Athletics Football Preliminary round - Group C During the Group C competition, ...

in Mexico City in the 50 meter rifle shooting events, where he placed 41st and 45th in the three positions and prone 50 meter events, respectively. At the

in Munich, he placed 46th and 23rd in the three positions and prone 50 meter events, respectively. Herscovici was also Israel's flag bearer in the opening ceremony at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He survived the

Munich massacre The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two member ...

by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, having been warned that the attack was taking place in the Olympic village and hiding, eventually managing to jump from a balcony with other teammates and flee.

References

External links

*
Henry Herscovici
at the

International Shooting Sport Federation The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of the Olympic shooting events in rifle, pistol and shotgun ( clay target) disciplines, and of several non-Olympic shooting sport events. ISSF's activities include regulati ...

(ISSF)
Henry Herscovici
at Sports Reference {{DEFAULTSORT:Herscovici, Henry 1927 births 2022 deaths Romanian emigrants to Israel Israeli male sport shooters Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Olympic shooters for Israel Shooters at the 1968 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1972 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Bucharest Asian Games medalists in shooting Shooters at the 1966 Asian Games Shooters at the 1970 Asian Games Shooters at the 1974 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Israel Asian Games silver medalists for Israel Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games