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. 

jews d
in 
the

JESSIE COHEN JN INTERN

COURTESY OF THE JCC

