Editor's Letter
Marc
:
Maccabi Moments
S
halom, chaverim! Welcome to Detroit!
We're a great Jewish community. And we, as a
community, plan to do a great job during your stay
at this year's JCC Maccabi Games, Aug. 17-22. Maccabi is an
international event, and you can bet that Jewish Detroit will
shine as your host community for these 2008 Games — two
years in the making and a $2 million
undertaking supported by cash and
in-kind contributions.
You can expect 59 delegations, 2,700
athletes and more than 600 coaches
to take part in 14 sports at 20 venues.
Imagine all the managers, assistant
managers, scorekeepers, linesmen,
data processors, registrars, supervi-
sors, physicians, nurses, emergency
medical technicians and other volun-
teers who are needed.
The logistics to house, feed, trans-
port, stage competitions, hold other events and provide secu-
rity for all the athletes, coaches and visiting family members
also is daunting. Planning, however, has been top notch.
Patience and confidence will assure a smooth week.
It's no surprise that Detroit mustered the necessary host
families for the visiting athletes. That's the kind of community
we are: big-hearted and responsive. In fact, many of the local
volunteers and host families are repeats, underscoring the
contagious dynamic of the Games. This year marks the fourth
time Detroit has hosted the Games. They previously were here
in 1984, 1990 and 1998.
So Detroit knows Maccabi!
Now in their 26th year, the Games are hosted in differ-
ent locales around the U.S. each year to foster camaraderie,
sportsmanship and respect as well as Jewish continuity and
values. They bring Jewish kids together from different back-
grounds to bolster their Jewish identity so they know they are
part of a very special people. International guests this year are
from Canada, Mexico, Israel and Great Britain as usual, but
also Venezuela and Hungary.
Detroit is the largest of three Maccabi sites this year. The
Maccabi Club of Detroit also is sending six teens to the JCC
Maccabi ArtsFest in Minneapolis next week.
We
take
Tributes
'personally'.
Personal Greetings
Every Card Uniquely
Yours
Personal Service
One Day Processing
Games chairman Harold Friedman and Games director
Personal Attention
Customized Special
Occasion Tributes
Karen Gordon
lies in their ability to speak to these boys and girls on their
terms about being Jewish. For visiting teens, enjoying their
host families helps. But it's the mingling at the Games that
really gives meaning to making new Jewish friends and real-
izing new Jewish opportunities.
The Games secondarily foster friendly competition. Their
central intent is to help highly impressionable teenagers learn
more about who they are as Jews through the power of peer
interaction and influence. The Games are merely the vehicle
for the kids coming together.
And that augers well for our challenging times.
Maccabi's Sweep
What A Difference
As your hosts, the Maccabi Club of Detroit and the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit have taken pre-
cious pains to assure an upbeat, engaging, memorable week,
offering a Jewish experience for teens through the magnetism
of the Games.
The good times will begin Sunday with opening ceremonies
and the parade of athletes at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Let there be no doubt: The JCC Maccabi Games are some-
thing special.
Typically, Maccabi kids have never seen so many Jewish
kids in one place. They learn that the Jewish world is world-
wide. They discover what they have in common regardless
of where they come from. They're eager to share e-mail
addresses and otherwise keep connections with their new-
found friends.
Sure, there's athletic and artistic competition, but more
significantly, teens ages 13-16 explore their Jewish heritage
through cultural and social activities. The lure of the Games
It's no surprise that the Jewish Community Center movement
has embraced Maccabi. It, as much as any Jewish institution,
has a vested interest in keeping kids involved and affiliated
with the organized Jewish community following bar or bat
mitzvah.
The Games do matter, though. Teens like to run, jump,
shoot, hit, skate, bowl, swing, swim, kick and dance. It's not
so much about winning and losing as it is about displaying
competitive prowess and learning to be a team player. Even
though a competition might have a lopsided result, kids on
the winning side strive to be courteous toward the other team,
reinforcing the spirit of Maccabi. Few kids tolerate ridicule.
Make no mistake — Maccabi reinforces the great divide.
In the civilized world, we cherish our kids and seek to
give them every chance to relish life. In the uncivilized world
of radical Islam, kids are taught to hate Jews as disciples of
Editor Letter on page A6
,
Helping People with
Disabilities Be Included
in The Community —
All Through Their Lives
11
1
1
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jaw
248.538.6611
FAX 248.538.6615
ONLINE:
www.jarc.org
30301 Northwestern • Suite 100
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
1355650
August 14 • 2008
A5