EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

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jaw

The Meaning Of Maccabi

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t was early summer 1994 and we were cycling along a
scenic Oakland County route. Suddenly, my cycling
companion, Jay Robinson, said it was time to turn back:
He had Maccabi business to tend to.
The JCC Maccabi Youth Games for Jewish teens would be
held in Cleveland that summer. Jay's love for sports and faith
in kids won him a national following on the Maccabi circuit.
He was the guiding force and organizational genius behind
the games visiting Detroit in 1984 and 1990. By 1994, Jay
had many others to rely on as Detroit cheerleaders, but he
remained pivotal in assembling and inspiring our kids, wher-
ever the games were played.
A doer to the core, Jay helped elevate the
games, which go back to 1982, to the lofty
stature they enjoy today. He died in 1998,
four months shy of metro Detroit's Maccabi
Club and JCC hosting 3,200 athletes from
America, Great Britain, Mexico and Israel.
What made those games so special is that
Jay played a mind game that could have cost
ROBERT A. Detroit the prestige of being the 1998 host
SKLAR
city. He held tough in talks with the Jewish
Editor
Community Centers Association, insisting
that the games again have a Shabbat compo-
nent, something dropped in 1994. Jewish values, if not
Shabbat, remain central to the games today.
"He was truly a guiding light," Alan Horowitz, Jay's succes-
sor as president of the Maccabi Club of Detroit, told me after
Jay died of cancer at age 61.
The light of Jay Robinson still shines.
Fast forward 10 years. Detroit's contingent of
140 13- to 16-year-old competitors — along
with 20 coaches, delegation heads and chaper-
ones led by master organizer Karen Gordon —
return from three regions around the country.
They return with medals and memories as -well
as new friendships with Jews from around the
world. The Ann Arbor and Windsor JCCs also
fielded 2004 delegations.
Jay would have kvelled that the games still
enrich.
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More Than Winning

The Olympics, where winning is the only true measure, have
presented a confusing and inaccurate comparison with the
JCC Maccabi Youth Games, dubbed by some the Olympics
for Jewish teens.
Don't get me wrong: Winning matters when kids compete.
The pursuit of winning hones a competitive spirit and a com-
petitive edge, both valued attributes. But winning is not all
that matters — or, after the closing ceremonies at Maccabi,
even what matters most.
Detroit coach Lois Langberg expressed pride in how her
dance team did in Boston, but she clearly
understood the Maccabi mission when she
left it at that, forcing you to look at actual
results to find out the team won four golds
and a silver medal.
This week, I received a letter via e-mail
from Harriet Ruza of Farmington Hills, who
wrote about 14-year-old grandson Matt,
who played baseball for Coach Harry Glantz
in Columbus. I like the spin she put on win-
ning.
She told of coaches who created "an
Jewish Experience
atmosphere that fostered camaraderie and
Now in their 22nd year, the international games
not competition."
are hosted in different U.S. cities to spur friend-
"It was not about winning or losing," she
ships and sportsmanship. More importantly,
wrote. "It was about working together and
they bring Jewish kids together from different
having a good time."
Detroit's Sarah Elkus
backgrounds to strengthen their Jewish identity.
There was something special in Detroit's
Fittingly, the opening ceremonies included a
silver medal-winning girls softball team buy-
memorial to 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Arab terrorists at
ing in to the directive of coaches Ron Silberstein and Rob
the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Brandon Pomish, who
Kaplan to only bunt after building a 20-1 lead in a game in
coached Detroit's gold medal-winning inline hockey team in
Washington until the mercy rule kicked in. The team didn't
Washington, said the taped memorial, featuring Jim McKay,
want to humiliate its opponent.
the ABC-TV sportscaster who first reported the slaughter,
In a conversation on Monday, Detroit catcher Sarah Elkus,
"brought tears to our eyes."
15, caught the essence of that class act. A varsity softball player
The games are notable for how they impart to the kids that
at West Bloomfield High and active in the youth group at
they're all Jews, notwithstanding how religiously observant
Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, she described
they are.
why the coaches made the right call.
It's the friendships made — not the results, weather or sna-
Maccabi employs the rachmanus rule of fair play to control
fus — that count. Whether the friendships endure doesn't
blowouts, mockery or trash talk. It's a good rule, but Sarah
matter. What matters is that our kids get to know Jewish kids
gave it life, in turn revealing her character and that of her
with converging life experiences and that the fragile bonds
teammates.
have the potential to become lasting.
As Sarah put it: "No one wants to play in a game where the
The sporting aspect of the games is valuable. It teaches kids
score is just so off. That's not fun for either team. It is wrong
to develop their mind and body through the rigors of friendly
to keep beating down a team that is not very strong." ❑

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OVER 30 •

a group of parents took

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a bold step to open

the first JARC home.

This thoroughly

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modern notion has

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grown to 20 group

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homes and a wide

range of independent

living programs.

Today, JARC folks are

everywhere — at

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restaurants, ball games,
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and shul. Full inclusion
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— being a true part of
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• our community — is the

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YEARS AGO,

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competition in various disciplines. The games also help dispel
the myth that Jewish kids don't have an athletic inclination.
But the games are merely the texture used to get kids
together. It's up to the kids, with help from the adult volun-
teers and the host families, to give meaning to the interaction
that bubbles up.
Ask the kids what struck them most about the games.
They're apt to talk about how cool it was to be with so many
Jewish kids before telling you about their competitions. They
delight in what they have in common and don't dwell on their
differences.
My daughter, Elyse, now 20, competed in the 1998 games
with Joel Kashdan's track team. She's now on the board of the
Northeastern University Hillel in Boston. When I asked her
what still resonates from her Maccabi experience, she said
unequivocally: "I learned that Jews compete as individuals
with the goal to excel but inherently have the will to come
together to celebrate and reinforce their Judaism."

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most modern thinking

in promoting rich lives

for people with

disabilities.

BE MODERN.
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JARC's 24th Annual
Fall Fundraiser

fISIER TII[AIRE
OCTOBER 11 ET B

9/ 3

248.538.6611 • www.jarc.org

799140

2004

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