11111MIMIr
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Dry Bones
Hidden Agenda
accabi in August has become an annual
tradition for Jewish teen-agers in the
Detroit area.
The five-day, Olympic-style athletic
and social event has evolved tremendously in the 20
years since the first games were. conceived and held
by the Memphis, Tenn., Jewish Community Center.
From a few hundred Jewish teens at those inaugu-
ral games, a total of 5,000 are expected at six sites
this month in the United States and Canada. The
team from the Washtenaw Jewish Community
Center in Ann Arbor has just returned from the
JCC Maccabi Games in Omaha. Eight Detroit
teams are leaving Aug. 11 for the JCC Maccabi
Games in Baltimore.
Eight more Detroit teams and the
WindSor delegation will participate in the
JCC Maccabi Games Aug. 18-23 in
Montreal. That same week, a Detroit volleyball
team will head to Springfield, Mass.
The appeal for the teens: five days of sports com-
petitions and socializing with like-minded Jewish
teens. from around the country and around the
world. From the opening ceremonies to the closing,
from the competitions to the evening parties, from
trading Maccabi pins, hats, and warm-ups to living
with Jewish host families, the kids have a ball.
-
The appeal for the Jewish community is much
more subtle. Maccabi links Jewish teens of all persua-
sions to the world Jewish community. It is tangible
evidence that the community exists outside the teens'
small world. It's an eye-opening revelation, something
not understood from Hebrew school texts.
Thrown into the Maccabi mix is a small amount
of Jewish programming, memorials to the Israeli
athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympic Games in
Munich, the Day of Caring/Day of Sharing com-
munity service projects at each site and at home.
The message is irresistible: Jews are a world-wide
family, and the warmth and camaraderie is real.
It's a lesson driven home by volunteers of all ages.
Some — like the Detroit Maccabi Club — work
tirelessly all year long to make this one week possi-
id
ble, while others use five days of vaca-
tion time to give back to the communi-
ty and its teens.
Detroit has played a vital role in the
JCC Maccabi Games movement. Jay
Robinson was instrumental in bringing
the second games to Detroit, in 1984,
and worked hard to expand the event to
1,000 athletes. Two years later, in 1986,
Robinson took over the Toronto games
when organizers proved woefully under-
staffed. He brought the games and
2,200 Jewish teen athletes from 12
countries back to Detroit in 1990, and
was heading up the Detroit
planners for the gigantic 1998
games here when he died after
a long illness just months
before the opening ceremonies.
Long-time Maccabi associate Dr. Alan
Horowitz took over Robinson's role for
the largest games ever held at one site.
Some 3,200 Jewish teens participated in
Detroit in 1998. The sheer size of the
event scared away other potential host
cities and the Maccabi movement
changed directions. Regional games had
been held since 1985 in the odd-num-
bered years, with the large, one-site
"North American" games being held in
the even-numbered years. But after the
mammoth games in Detroit in 1998,
regional games became the yearly direction and
Maccabi participation continues to grow.
Detroit's Maccabi athletes, swollen to more than
400 for the 1998 games here, have settled into the
170-200 range annually. Other Jewish communities
have joined in the fun to make the JCC Maccabi
Games an annual end-of-summer happening.
Behind it all, off-stage and quietly in the wings,
are a group of dedicated adults who unselfishly give
of their time and talents to provide a Jewish experi-
ence for Jewish teens. For example, Dr. Alan
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Horowitz was not listed in our story last week with
the Maccabi delegation going to Baltimore. But he's
on the Detroit roster, without a job title. The presi-
dent of the Detroit Maccabi Club, he'll stay behind
the scenes, attending early-morning meetings of del-
egation heads, working out logistical problems, visit-
ing events and making sure things are running
smoothly, attending the kids' evening events, and
then meetings and socializing with Detroit's coaches.
It's a 7 a.m.-to-midnight volunteer job, and it's
been a labor of love for two decades. ❑
■•■
Attacking The Future
•
he Palestinian murderers who struck
Hebrew University in Jerusalem last week
and then again Sunday and Monday else-
where in Israel are not interested in any
future, not even their own.
With each attack, they show only that
they want blood and death, not life.
Without a scruple, they would kill even
their own children and, if not that, they
would prevent any good thing that could happen to
their children in the year's to come.
For them, enough will never be enough. Not enough
death, not enough maiming, not enough horror.
They — Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Bridgade — say they want to protest an
T
"occupying force" and to drive the Jewish state into
the sea. They say it is immaterial to them that the
last half-century has proven that the Jews are in
Israel to stay and that the terrorists' effort is, and
will be, futile.
Of course, what they really want is
political power now, the right to continue
to impose their twisted, vile version of
society on ordinary Palestinians so that
they can spill more blood. They want more excuses
to dance in the streets about the indiscriminate
murders of students.
They say the murders of the last week are morally
justified as revenge for Israel's killing of Hamas
leader Salah Shehadeh - and 14 other Palestinians in
EDIT ORIAL
Gaza, but that cannot be true. Shehadeh was a cold-
blooded murderer who sent his killers to attack
unarmed civilians while Israel repeatedly tried to
capture or kill him without collateral civilian
injuries or deaths.
Since it is clear that Yasser Arafat and the
Palestinian Authority will not act, Israel should
move aggressively to arrest not just the "military"
leaders, but also the "clerical" figures like Sheik
Ahmed Yassin. It is right to exile terrorist families
and to destroy their homes, as the Israel Defense
Forces has started doing.
Until these monsters of hate are stopped, there
will be no "safe and secure" future for the Israelis,
the Palestinians and the Mideast.
❑
8/ 9
2002
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