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Andrew Jacob}_
winner of eight
medals, poses
poolside at
Kiryat Shmona.
West Bloomfield swimmer makes
a huge splash at Maccabi in Israel.
Steve Stein
Contributing Writer
West Bloomfield
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38
August 25 2011
ndrew Jacob returned home
from the first JCC Maccabi
Games held in Israel with
more than wonderful memories.
The 16-year-old West Bloomfield
High School junior brought a few
medals with him. Well, more than a
few. He swam in 12 events and won
medals in eight. The count was two
gold, four silver and two bronze.
"I thought I'd do well, but I was
shocked I won eight medals:' he said.
"The competition was really good."
Maccabi swimming events were
held over a three-day period in a
picturesque outdoor pool in Kiryat
Shmona, Israel's northernmost city.
Jacob won gold medals in the boys
100-meter freestyle and 200 freestyle
relay. He won silver medals in the 50
freestyle, 50 breaststroke, 100 breast-
stroke and 200 medley relay, and
bronze medals in the 50 butterfly and
400 freestyle relay.
Relay teams were put together at
random from among all the competi-
tors. Jacob said he had relay team-
mates from places like Boca Raton,
Fla., New York City and Israel.
This was the fourth time Jacob com-
peted in the Maccabi Games. He had
never won a medal before this year. He
played basketball in Detroit in 2008
and swam in Westchester, N.Y., in 2009
and Richmond, Va., in 2010.
Jacob's successful sophomore season
last winter with the West Bloomfield
boys swimming team carried right
over into the Maccabi Games.
He finished fourth in the 50-yard
freestyle and fourth in the 100 freestyle
in the Oakland Activities Association
White Division meet. In addition, he
qualified for the Michigan High School
Athletic Association Division I state
meet in the 200 freestyle relay.
It was his fourth trip to Israel. He's
gone twice with his family and on
an eighth-grade graduation field trip
with Farmington Hills-based Hillel
Day School, but he said this visit was
different.
"I met so many other Jewish ath-
letes and I got to compete in the sport
I love he said.
Jacob and his friend Albert Yerman,
a Maccabi soccer player, spent Shabbat
weekend with a family in Migdal
HaEmek in the Central Galilee,
the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's sister city for
the Games.
Yerman, 16, also at junior at West
Bloomfield, won a silver medal in the
16-team U17 boys soccer competition
with a team that had players from
Detroit, Denver and Houston.
One of the off-the-field highlights of
the trip for Yerman was conversing in
Hebrew with Israelis.
"I studied Hebrew for nine years at
Hillel. It was cool to be able to use the
language in Israel:' he said.
It was Yerman's second trip to Israel.
He went with Jacob on the eighth-
grade trip.
Jacob and Yerman will both com-
pete this fall with the boys cross-coun-
try team at West Bloomfield.
An estimated 900 teens ages 14-17
from the U.S. and Canada along with
delegations from Israel and South
Africa participated in the Maccabi
Games and Maccabi ArtsFest July
24-Aug. 5 in Israel.
Several hundred coaches and fam-
ily members came with the kids from
North America.
Organizers held the event in north-
ern Israel, an area that was under
attack during the 2006 war with
Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of
Israel's efforts to rebuild the region.
Besides competing in sports and
arts, participants went on sightseeing
trips to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other
places of interest. I
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