Maccabi Games
Detroit 1990
Now That Games Are Over
The Evaluation Process Begins
Over the next 90 days,
Games sponsors will conduct
an informal review of the
Detroit Games. Few future
changes are expected.
Jay Robinson (left), general chairman of the Games, confers with JCC executive director Dr. Morton
Plotnick.
Overseas Games On 1991 Horizon?
The Detroit Maccabi
Club will not have long to
rest following the
conclusion of the JCC-
Maccabi Youth Games.
The Detroit Club has been
tentatively invited to
competitions in Israel and
Europe next summer and
some of the 15 Detroit
teams may participate in
Australia Maccabi's
annual sports carnival
this January.
"We have a lot of balls
in the air," said Jay
Robinson, chairman of
last week's Detroit Games
and secretary of the
22
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1990
Detroit Maccabi Club.
Plans for an Australian
trip would have to be
confirmed soon, Mr.
Robinson said. The
Australian sports carnival
includes both adult and
junior competitions.
Which sports, if any,
Detroit would enter
remains to be seen.
"We don't advocate kids
missing school," Mr.
Robinson said, "but this
could be a broadening
travel experience."
Plans for regional
Maccabi Games in the
United States during the
summer of 1991 must also
be finalized. Wayne, N.J.,
has committed to being a
host city next summer but
Cleveland, Ohio, is also
considering hosting a
regional games.
If both Wayne and
Cleveland host, Detroit
could split its delegation
"depending on what sports
are being offered at each
city," Mr. Robinson said.
Mr. Robinson expects
decisions to be made on
the overseas trips and the
1991 regional games in
the next 90 days.
— A.H.
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
T
he misty weather
finally cleared Aug.
23, but teardrops fell
Aug. 26 as Detroiters bid
goodbye to the 2,200 athletes
who attended the Jewish
Community Centers North
American Maccabi Youth
Games.
There were many emo-
tional goodbyes as host
families helped load the
athletes' luggage. The
Games' organizing corn-
mittee went out of existence
at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 26 when
the last bus pulled away
from the Jewish Community
Center.
The Games office at the
JCC will remain open until
mid-September, printing the
athletic results, codifying
procedures to help future
Games, processing bills for
officials' fees, and taking
orders for videotapes of the
Games' opening ceremonies
and athletic events. "We did
what we planned to do," said
Games chairman Jay Robin-
son. "Some things went
better than others but not
one kid missed an event be-
cause he couldn't get there.
We had all the events and
played every game we
planned."
Over the next 90 days the
Games' sponsors will con-
duct an informal review of
the Detroit Games. But Mr.
Robinson expects few
changes for the future.
"The basic format has
been the same since the 1984
Games (in Detroit)," Mr.
Robinson said. Ten core
sports are featured at every
_Games, and the host city can
add more. Detroit featured
15 sports, including golf and
chess for the first time.
No games were cancelled
by the wet weather, and Mr.
Robinson credits the West
Bloomfield Parks & Recrea-
tion staff for keeping the
softball games going at
Keith Field. "In fact," said
Mr. Robinson, "a week of 90-
degree weather would have
destroyed the kids. In some
ways the rain was a bless-
ing."
Dr. Mort Plotnick, exec-
utive vice president of the
JCC, said it would be 2-3
weeks before the organizers
know how the $1 million
Detroit Games did finan-
cially. "But I don't think
we'll have any problems
covering expenses," he said.
"This was a tremendous
community experience," Dr.
Plotnick said. "Both the kids
and the adults walked away
feeling good about feeling
Jewish."
Mr. Robinson added that
"this was the community's
party. The athletes came
here and were welcomed,
and were treated like family,
and they left as family.
Unlike other sports ac-
tivities, this was
intergenerational. For one
week, these kids and our
community were immersed
in a Jewish society. On Fri-
day night, there were people
who lit Sabbath candles who
hadn't lit them in 10 years.
And the synagogues were
crowded.
"The hospitality was the
whole thing. I knew we were
going to do this, but I never
cease to be amazed by it.
Everybody, from the corn-
mittees to the hosts, had to
do twice as much work as
they thought they would
when they volunteered, and
everybody did it gracious-
ly." E
Robinson To Coordinate
1992 Baltimore Games?
PHIL JACOBS
Assistant Editor
M
accabi Games coor-
dinator Beth Robin-
son will be visiting
Baltimore next week as a
possible candidate to run the
1992 games there.
Ms. Robinson, who for the
past 18 months helped put
together the Games that
ended last Sunday, called it
a "possibility" that she
would take the position if
offered.
"I don't know," she said in
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