Truth be told, Aly Raisman wasn’t making a political statement when she selected the Jewish wedding staple “Hava Nagila” for her floor routine at last summer’s Olympics in London.

She just wanted something fun to clap to.

But when the 18-year-old performed that routine in London and dedicated it to the memory of Israeli athletes slain decades before at another Olympics, she was simply trying to do the right thing.

When she learned that the Olympic committee would not dedicate a moment of silence in commemoration of the athletes killed in Munich in 1972, “I was asked if I would dedicate my gold medal performance to them. I said ‘Yes,’” explains Raisman. “Because I am Jewish, and obviously what happened was a terrible thing. It should never have happened.”

Whether or not she meant to make a ripple, the act of a young Jewish athlete honoring victims of a tragedy with a Jewish music staple, and standing up where the Olympics wouldn’t, spoke volumes and moved many.

Now Raisman has become an icon in the community, and has begun filling her already busy schedule with speeches about her routine, that dedication, and why she felt she had to do it. On Thursday, she will introduce Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain’s documentary “Hava Nagila,” about the song’s long and sometimes campy history, at the opening night of the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival.

Raisman, who is featured in the film, says she never imagined the impact of her dedication.

“It’s really amazing and exciting for me and my whole family,” she says. “I worked so hard and so long on that routine, so to come back home and have so many people say so many kind things meant the world to me. The Jewish community has been so supportive, and everywhere I go people are so nice.”

Festival director Larry Ferber says the film’s selection was an “unanimous” decision by the festival’s screening committee. “I personally screen about 125 films every year, and when I saw this one, I was like ‘Oh, my God.’ If you look across the country, I can tell you (that the festivals) in San Francisco, Atlanta and even cities as small as Norfolk, Va. are using it as their opening film. It’s struck a chord everywhere.”

The film follows the song’s history, including its recording by stars such as Connie Francis and Harry Belafonte, and how it’s become a cheesy embarrassment to some but a point of pride to others. To Raisman, “it was something I liked and I thought that people could clap to it,” Raisman says. “I didn’t think about anything but that it went well with the personality of the story I was telling. I was a girl trying to win a gold medal at the Olympics.”

Born in 1994, Raisman “wasn’t aware so much” of what happened in Munich in 1972, when 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were kidnapped and eventually murdered by members of the Palestinian group Black September.

“I was trying to go to the Olympics, and no one wanted me to be worried about terrorist attacks. But as I’ve grown from the experience, I’ve learned a lot about it,” she says. “I’ve talked about the whole experience, and people are always really respectful when I’m speaking about my experiences in London. Sometimes I’ll look out and my dad will be crying, and other people will be crying, because it means so much to them. I didn’t realize the importance, to even the non-Jewish community.”

Raisman, who just started the Teen Choice Live The Tour with fellow gold medalists Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber, says she now understands.

“I was representing our country when the whole world was watching. And it was more special to represent the Jewish community.”