David Mark Berger was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, on May 24, 1944. His mother was Dorothy Berger, (née Davidson), and his father was Benjamin Berger, who was a well known physician. A high school honors student as well as an athlete, Berger graduated from
Shaker Heights High School in 1962. He attended
Tulane University in New Orleans from 1962 to 1966 where he was an honors student. While studying at Tulane, he continued weightlifting training at the
New Orleans Athletic Club. As a junior at Tulane, he won the
NCAA weightlifting title in the 148-pound class. Berger earned a
bachelor's degree in psychology from Tulane in 1966. He went on to enroll in a combined MBA-JD program at
Columbia University in New York, from which he graduated in 1969. While working toward his degrees, Berger continued to devote time to weightlifting, training at the McBurney
YMCA in
Midtown Manhattan. During his time in New York, Berger competed in the middleweight division. In 1968, competing as a middleweight, he finished fourth in the U.S. Olympic trials. His father, Benjamin, was once quoted as saying, "I used to tell him ‘You may not be the best weightlifter in the world, but you’re certainly the smartest!’" After winning a gold medal in the middleweight weight-lifting contest in the
1969 Maccabiah Games, Berger
emigrated to Israel, intending to open a law office in
Tel Aviv after completing his
compulsory military service. Berger continued competing in weightlifting, but moved up in body weight to the lightheavy class. He won a
silver medal at the
1971 Asian Weightlifting Championships, and achieved a long time dream when he was chosen to represent Israel as a member of the
1972 Israeli Olympic team. In late August of that year, Berger flew to
Munich with his teammates. On September 2, 1972, Berger competed, but couldn't record a valid jerk which omitted him from the final ranking. ==Death ==