At the end of the hallway, next to Room 235, stands a mural. You’ve probably walked past it dozens of times, just like every other mural in the school. The man pictured on the wall perpetually raises hundreds of pounds of weight above his head, with scenes of Israel in the background. This man is David Berger. Just 53 years before the mural was painted, he was one of the victims of a terrorist attack that claimed 11 lives.
Berger attended the high school from 1958 to 1962 and was both an academically gifted student and a talented athlete. After graduating from SHHS, he attended Tulane University in Louisiana. As he pursued his academic career, which included a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a Master of Business Administration degree and a Doctor of Laws degree, he dedicated significant time to weightlifting. He won the NCAA weightlifting title in the 148-pound class in his junior year at Tulane and finished fourth in the U.S. Olympic trials in 1968.
Berger emigrated to Israel in the early 1970s to open a law office in Tel Aviv, but he never stopped his weightlifting journey. After winning a silver medal in the 1971 Asian Weightlifting Championships, he was selected to represent Israel in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Berger competed, but he was eliminated in an early round.
On the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September entered the Munich Olympic Village. They killed two Israeli Olympians and took nine others, including Berger, hostage. After hours of failed negotiations, Berger and the other hostages were transferred to an airbase via helicopter, where German border guards and police planned to ambush the terrorists and liberate the captives. Berger died following a two-hour gunfight between the police and the terrorists, when a terrorist detonated a grenade in the helicopter Berger was held in. The other hostages were also killed over the course of the fighting. While the other Israeli athletes were eventually flown to Israel to be buried, President Richard Nixon sent a private jet to bring David Berger’s body back to the U.S., where he currently rests in Mayfield Cemetery.
For their senior project, Michah Sattin and Rebecca Natowicz (’14) chose to memorialize David Berger in the form of this mural. “I would be surprised if the majority of students knew who he was. I would be surprised if even 10 percent of students knew,” Sattin said.
Senior project is offered to Shaker students as a way to learn something outside of the classroom they didn’t know before, whether a skill or exposure to a career. Seniors begin the process in November with a declaration of interest, followed by contacting potential sponsors, typically a professional in the intended explored area. After being signed out from their classes by teachers, seniors spend May learning, often outside of the high school. At the end of the month, students come together and present documentation of their work for others to see. Painting a mural on one of the high school’s walls is a common project.
“I don’t know if I ever really noticed it,” sophomore Reggeon Delk said. “But if you know the story of the mural, it’s pretty interesting.”
