16 June 6 • 2019
jn
Be A Host with the Most
Families needed to house visiting athletes.
T
his summer, Detroit will host an
Olympic-style sporting compe-
tition for Jewish athletes from
all over the country. That’
s right; the
Maccabi Games are coming to Detroit
this August — for the sixth time, the
most of any host city.
Some 1,360 athletes will participate
in the Detroit games, Aug. 4-9. About
1,160 are not local and will need to stay
with host families. Of a total 428 host
families required for the out-of-town
athletes, 120 families, including 279
beds, are still needed.
In August 2018, Abby Chayet of
West Bloomfield traveled to Orange
County, Calif., to participate in her first
Maccabi Games. Abby is a competitive
dancer and had a great experience
at her first games, due in part to her
hosts, the Herson family, including
their two young daughters, Brooklyn
and Becca.
Abby and her family still keep in
touch with the Hersons and are plan-
ning a trip to California to visit them.
Her mother, Fawn Chayet, could not
say enough about how great Abby’
s
host family was. “I call Alison, the
mom, my ‘
California sister’
,
” she said.
A self-proclaimed Maccabi veteran,
Brett Rubenfire of West Bloomfield
currently works as a Maccabi associate,
but has had his share of experiences
both as an athlete and a host family for
the games.
His favorite Maccabi experience as
an athlete was when he was 15 years
old and stayed with a widowed grand-
mother in Denver, Colo. “She was the
best grandma I could ask for, other
than my real grandma,
” Rubenfire said.
“I like telling this story because a lot
of older people think they don’
t have
what it takes to host an athlete, but
they can. It was the most fun a 70-year-
old woman and three 15-year-old boys
ever had together.
”
In 2014, Rubenfire and his family
hosted three girls from the 92nd Street
Y in New York. “They were so much
fun,
” Rubenfire said. “We stayed up
all night watching Disney movies, and
my family took them to Buddy’
s Pizza
and made them try Sander’
s hot fudge.
I was a Maccabi veteran at that point
and could tell them what to expect,
which was really cool.
”
Shari Ferber Kaufman of Orchard
Lake has been hosting Maccabi athletes
for as long as she can remember. “It has
to have been at least 20 years,
” she said.
“
As soon as I had a house to host in, I
did. I love children and being able to
host a Jewish athlete in a Jewish home
is a way to give them a sort of home
away from home.
”
Although Ferber Kaufman didn’
t
know any of the athletes prior to hosting
them, she keeps in contact with many
of them. “These boys from Venezula we
hosted a number of years ago contacted
us on Facebook saying what a great
experience they had with Maccabi and
thanking us for being so open and car-
ing for them,
” she said. “They said they
were one of many athletes for us, but
we were their only host family and we
made their experience special, and that
was really heartwarming.
”
The Ferber Kaufman family has
been asked to host the entire Israeli
delegation of about 20 athletes this
summer and are strongly considering
it. They have five children of their own
who also participated in the games. ■
To find out more, visit maccabidetroit2019.com.
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JESSIE COHEN JN INTERN
COURTESY OF THE JCC