W
•
along with
bound for the
1998 Maccabi
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
.
F
or some delegations Partici
pating in this summer's
J CC Maccabi Games, the
trip to Detroit is as short
a bus ride from Flint. For others, as
a continent o ad
it's
e and
xier...o, Israel
t
GreatBrrle.tarin7°Maewa
Ve ntrip
ezuela 0 j esentatives will n -ma ake
the
to Detroit for thi
m tm
tge . r's
t ee n Games, scheduled fro s m
su A
16-23.
Sadly, the four overseas teams
won't have the opportunity to meet
the man who made the Games what
they are today- Jay Robinson, general
chairman of the Detroit Maccabi
-
dozen coaches, a manager
and chaperones.
The British delegation
includes athletes from
Glasgow, Scotland;
Dublin, Ireland; Belfast,
Northern Ireland; and the
English cities of Leeds, Liverpool,
Manchester and London,
'Because of the Maccabiah (in
Israel), we didn't come to the
Maccabi Games last year," said dele-
ption head Sandy Katt,an. Two
years ago in New jersey, we had the
strongest track teak"
Track is one of six sports in which
letes will participate, along
: table tennis, golf and
44s,
WO e
.KW
60 Israelis will compete
here: 20 in their own
delegation, 20 from
Detroit's Partnership 2000
region of the Central
Galilee who will partici-
pate on the Detroit team, and 20
who will participate with other
Partnership 2000 sister cities.
"Sixty is a good-sized team," Haral
said. "Last year there may have been
more total (at six regional sites), but
this is the most ever in one plae."
Haral will be in Israel during the
summer to provide the Israeli athletes
with an orientation.
Mexico will be sending more than
50 athletes to Detroit, with the
largest number playing on the boys
15- to 16-year-old sob
cer team. Mexico will
also have a 15-16 base-,
g ball team and a 13-14
7 basketball ream.
Venezuela has been
8
given an allotment of
40 athletes, but what
sports
they will be par-
:
ticipatm.g in has not
been determined.
According to liaral,
the attendance of four
foreign delegations was
less than organizers had
expected.
"We were hoping to
have 10 to 12, but we
didn't pay attention
that last year was
lvlaccabiah, and delega-
tions spent a lot of
rnoney to go to Israel,"
she said. "We were
hoping that they'd
come anyway, but the
four that are coming
will bring some inter
The Israeli team marches into the Palace o Auburn Hills fbr the 1990 Games.
Club, passed away Friday night, Ap
10. Robinson was responsible for
bringing the Games to Detroit in
1984, 1990 and this year.
The Britons are bringing their
largest delegation of 13- to 16-year-
old athletes ever to the Maccabi
Games — 54 in all — with over a
The Brits will also send a nine-
member boys basketball team to the
Maccabi Games in Charlotte, which
happens a week before Detroit's
event.
According to the Jewish
Community Center Association
Maccabi. Games shalicha Anat Haral,
Maccabi Games organizers
need 628 more homes to house s‘s ,
teen athletes during the Aug.
16-23 event. For information,
call the Games office at (248)
661-7722.
•
4/17
1998