Opinion

A MIX OF IDEAS

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Editorial

Yes, Maccabi!

ewish teens in America find
their Jewish identity tested more
and more by the spreading and
intimidating forces of hatred toward Israel.
These forces take the imposing form of
campus anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial
and Islamist terror. Our teens may not be
touched directly by these chilling effects,
but thanks to today's instant communica-
tions network, they certainly are aware of
them.
The JCC Maccabi Games for 13- to 16-
year-olds provide a great way to counter
the impact of Jew-haters and instill pride
in being a Jew.
Now in their 28th year, the Games are
hosted in different places around the U.S.
each year to foster camaraderie, sports-
manship and respect as well as Jewish
continuity and values. They bring Jewish
kids together from different backgrounds
to bolster their Jewish soul so they know
they are part of a very special people.
International delegations of Jewish teens
often participate to enrich the experience.
We can't say enough about the volun-
teers who keep things humming and safe
at the Games.
And the logistics to house, feed, trans-
port, stage competitions, hold other events
and provide security for all the competi-
tors, coaches and visiting family members

j

is daunting.
From Aug. 1-13, the Maccabi Club of
Detroit will have sent 90 teen participants
to three sites of the 2010 Games: Denver
(delegation heads Nicole Wagner and
Harold Friedman), Richmond (delegation
head Stuart Bass) and Baltimore (delega-
tion head Karen Gordon). The club also
will have sent two teens to the Maccabi
ArtsFest in San Rafael, Calif.
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 follow-
ing bar or bat mitzvah.
Typically, Maccabi kids have never
seen so many Jewish kids in one spot.
They learn that the Jewish community
is worldwide. 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 newfound friends.
The Games secondarily foster friendly
competition. Their central intent is to help
highly impressionable teenagers mingle
and, as a byproduct, 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. For
teens traveling
to a Maccabi
site, enjoying
the hospitality
of host families
is another plus.
The athlet-
ics 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 display-
ing competi-
tive prowess
and becoming a team player. Even when
a competition ends in a rout, kids on the
winning side strive to be courteous toward
the other team, reinforcing the spirit of
Maccabi. Few kids tolerate ridicule.
In the civilized world, we cherish our
kids and seek to give them every chance to
relish life. In the uncivilized world of radi-
cal Islam, kids are taught to hate Jews as
disciples of Satan. Maccabi helps give our

DryBonesBlog.com

teens the self-worth to stand up for Israel
as our ancestral homeland and Judaism as
our abiding faith.
The JCC Maccabi Games enable all
of us — teens, parents and supporters
alike — to affirm the familial ties of klal
Yisrael, the Jewish people, and to project
an ever-widening circle that ripples across
world Jewry, given the tens of thousands
of Maccabi alumni.

❑

A Broader Relationship

Jerusalem/JTA

E

very Jew, no matter hoW insignifi-
cant, is engaged in some decisive
and immediate pursuit of a goal;'
the German writer Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe wrote nearly 200 years ago.
Throughout history, Jews have num-
bered disproportionately among Nobel
Prize laureates, acclaimed scientists, phi-
losophers, economists and in many other
important fields. These achievements are
made all the more remarkable consider-
ing the persecution endured by the Jewish
people during their 2,000 years of exile.
When the State of Israel was proclaimed
in 1948, broken souls arrived from the
four corners of the world to re-create
what was lost and re-establish a state that
would become a "light unto the nations."
Since the re-establishment and liberation
of our nation in its homeland, Israelis have
strived to maintain these exceptionally
high standards.
Even while our neighbors rejected us,
the Jewish people still sought repair of the
world through tikkun olam.

The early pioneers stretched
out their hand to their Arab
neighbors, and the first Israeli
leaders sought to use their
knowledge of draining the
swamps and water irrigation for
the betterment of the develop-
ing world, even while Israel was
struggling merely to survive.
Today, Israel stands uniquely
placed to act as a bridge
between the developed and
developing world, a nation at
the forefront of the technolo-
gies desperately needed to dissipate the
growing desertification of our region and
beyond. Israelis are at the cutting edge of
clean technology, energy efficiency and
finding replacements for fossil fuels.
As recently witnessed in Haiti, Israelis
are prepared to travel halfway around
the world to offer a helping hand to
those in distress. We continue to assist
the developing world in medicine and
public health, education, gender issues
and humanitarian aid through Mashav
— Israel's Agency for International

Development Cooperation.
In the turbulent Middle East,
Israel remains the only full-
fledged democracy, the first
nation to pass gay-rights leg-
islation and the only nation to
have a female leader. A member
of Israel's Arab minority ran for
prime minister; Arab Israelis
have become ministers, ambas-
sadors and Supreme Court
justices.
Much of this is unknown,
even to Jewish supporters
of Israel in the diaspora. Unfortunately,
many in the diaspora only relate to Israel
through the Internet or their television
screens. The Israel they encounter is one
of conflict and violence. The framing of
Israel solely through the lens of the con-
flict allows the remarkable Israeli history
of feats and achievements against the odds
to become distorted.
We need to reverse this trend by allow-
ing Israeli progressive society, innovation
and humanitarianism to become the lens
by which our brothers and sisters in the

diaspora see Israel and its developments,
including the conflict.
Those in the diaspora who are uncom-
fortable identifying with Israel do so
largely because the Israel they assume
they know appears to conflict with their
other ideologies or sensitivities.
The most worrying trend in the dias-
pora is the increasingly partisan nature of
support for Israel. It has become almost
reflexive to assume that support for Israel
is only to be found on one side of the ideo-
logical and political spectrum. This cre-
ates a great danger and pigeonholes Israel
in a certain manner. Israel always was a
bipartisan issue that crossed the aisle, and
those that seek to claim exclusive support
for Israel through their narrative renders
Israel a disservice.
While our responsibilities may differ, all
Jews have a shared destiny. Our goals are
largely the same even if our means widely
differ. We must concentrate on what binds
us rather than that which divides us. ❑

Danny Ayalon is Israel's deputy minister of

foreign affairs.

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August 12 •2010

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