David Berger

David Berger was a weightlifter who was born in Cleveland, Ohio but took Israeli citizenship to compete in the 1972 München Olympics after he had failed to make the 1968 US Olympic team. Berger studied at Tulane University and then earned an MBA degree from Columbia University in 1969. That same year he won gold at the Maccabiah Games and then emigrated to Israel. He won a light-heavyweight silver medal at the 1971 Asian Championships. At the München Olympics Berger competed as a light-heavyweight but failed to record a lift in the clean & jerk.

On 5 September 1972 Berger was among the Israeli athletes and coaches who were assaulted by Black September terrorists in their apartment at 33 Connollystraße in the Olympic Village. Berger was killed by the terrorists early the next morning at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, along with 10 other Israelis. His body was returned to the United States on a US Air Force jet ordered by President Richard Nixon, and he is buried in the Mayfield Cemetery in Cleveland.