JULY 1 • 2021 | 33

Maccabi Games experience 
than sports competitions 
because of the limited num-
ber of sports, but that’s fine 
because the experience is a 
very important part of the 
Maccabi Games,
” Gordon said.
Out-of-town athletes must 
pay for their transportation to 
San Antonio and hotel stay, 
which is about $150 per room 
per night. Each room can have 
up to three people.
The JCC Association of 
North America will cover uni-
forms and other ground costs.
Neither Gordon nor Silver 
can attend the Texas Maccabi 
Games because of family com-
mitments, but Gordon said 
arrangements are being made 
for Detroit to have a delegation 
head.
“Franci and I will take care 
of all the logistics on our local 
end,
” Gordon said.
This is not the first time San 
Antonio has hosted a Maccabi 
Games. It also was a host in 

2005 and 2009.
Having a regional Maccabi 
Games is a throwback to 
the early days of the annual 
Olympic-style competition for 
Jewish teens ages 13-16 that 
has grown to feature large sites 
and athletes from across the 
world.
The Texas Maccabi Games 
also may be a harbinger of 
things to come against the 
backdrop of a worldwide pan-
demic. And perhaps a positive 
development, Gordon said.
“If we go back to having 
regional events, maybe more 
JCC’s can get hosting experi-
ence,
” Gordon said. “Toledo 
or Akron could host a couple 

hundred kids, or Columbus 
can host 500 or 600.
“Not everyone can commit 
to hosting 2,500 kids.
”
The Maccabi Games began 
in 1982 when Memphis, Tenn., 
was the lone site. There were 
multiple sites annually starting 
in 1989.
Last year’s cancellation 
was the first ever. San Diego, 
Calif., and Pace University in 
Westchester, N.Y., were sup-
posed to be the hosts in August 
2020. About 70-75 Detroit ath-
letes and artists were expected 
to participate last year in the 
Maccabi Games and ArtsFest.
The cancellation was disap-
pointing, but not unexpected.
“
Am I surprised? Not at all,
” 
Gordon told the Jewish News 
after the JCC Association of 
North America announced the 
cancellation March 25, 2020, 
in an email to delegation heads 
and asked the delegation heads 
to relay the word to their com-
munities.

“There’s so much uncer-
tainty in the world right now, 
and many JCC’s are closed,
” 
Gordon said after the cancel-
lation announcement. “It takes 
a lot of work to put on the 
Maccabi Games, and this is an 
important time of the year for 
planning and preparation.
”
Detroit has hosted the 
Maccabi Games six times since 
1984 — when it was the only 
site — and most recently in 
2019, when Atlanta also hosted.
No community has hosted 
the Maccabi Games more often 
than Detroit. 

Please send sports news to 
stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

“AT LEAST SOMETHING IS 

HAPPENING THIS SUMMER.”

— MACCABI GAMES SUPPORTER KAREN GORDON

House Dems Seek
Shift in Israel Policy

RON KAMPEAS JTA
A 

letter from 73 Democrats 
in the U.S. House, includ-
ing several leaders, urged 
President Joe Biden to reverse what 
they call the Trump administration’s 
“abandonment of longstanding, 
bipartisan United States policy” on 
Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The June 23 letter calls for Biden 
to firmly consider Israeli settlements 
illegal and the West Bank occupied, 
two things the Trump administra-
tion stated that it would no longer do.
“Make clear that the United States 
considers settlements to be incon-
sistent with international law by 
reissuing relevant State Department 
and U.S. customs guidance to that 
effect,
” the letter states.
It also pushes for all “relevant offi-
cial U.S. documents and communi-
cations” to “once again consistently 
refer to the status of the West Bank 
and Gaza Strip as occupied.
”
The letter’s signatories include 
seven committee chairs, among 
them Reps. Rosa DeLauro, 
D-Conn., who leads the powerful 
Appropriations Committee, and 
John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who heads the 
Budget Committee, as well as the 
assistant Speaker of the House, Rep. 
Katherine Clarke of Massachusetts.
Seven Jewish Democrats signed 
the letter, including Rep. Jan 
Schakowsky, D-Ill., who initiat-
ed it. Amon the others are Reps. 
Andy Levin of Michigan, Alan 
Lowenthal of California, Sara Jacobs 
of California and Steve Cohen, of 
Tennessee.
Donald Trump changed decades 
of U.S. policy in the region by rec-
ognizing the right of Israel to annex 
parts of the West Bank, in addition 
to agreeing to Israel’s claim to the 
Golan Heights and moving the U.S. 
embassy to Jerusalem.
Biden officials have been reluctant 

to openly criticize Israel, preferring 
to keep differences behind closed 
doors. During last month’s conflict, 
he rejected calls from the party’s left 
to leverage assistance to Israel to 
pressure it to end the conflict.
In a vague but significant line, the 
letter calls for Biden to “consistent-
ly” condemn in public statements 
any “specific actions that violate the 
rights of either party or undermine 
the prospects for peace.
” Open air-
ing of differences is a practice Israeli 
leaders and the mainstream pro-Is-
rael community adamantly rejects.
But Biden favors some of the 
eight specific recommendations in 
the letter, including a resumption of 
sending aid to the Palestinians and 
reopening a separate consulate in 
Jerusalem for Palestinian relations.
The letter also calls on Biden to 
abandon Trump’s peace plan, which 
envisioned Israeli annexation of 
portions of the West Bank. It also 
urges him to pressure Israel to stop 
the planned eviction of Palestinian 
families from eastern Jerusalem.
The document reflects growing 
calls among Democrats to take a 
tougher stance with Israel, mount-
ing against Biden’s continued close-
ness to the state. 
The letter also comes as Israel’s 
new government, led by Prime 
Minister Naftali Bennett and 
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, seeks 
to repair relations with Democrats 
eroded under former Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Notably, three progressive 
“Squad” members did not sign: 
Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New 
York and Cori Bush of Missouri. 
The letter emphasizes support for 
the two-state outcome, something 
that Tlaib rejects, favoring a bina-
tional state. 

NATION

