30 | DECEMBER 22 • 2022
A
fter a two-year hiatus,
normalcy is slowing
returning to the JCC
Maccabi Games.
The world’s largest Jewish
youth sports event resumed this
past summer in its 40th year
on a smaller scale in San Diego,
California, following back-to-
back COVID-19 pandemic can-
cellations.
There will be two Maccabi
Games sites in the summer of
2023: Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
and Israel. The last time there
were two Maccabi Games sites
was 2019, when Detroit hosted
along with Atlanta.
Detroit teens will be among
the expected 1,800 athletes in
Fort Lauderdale and more than
1,000 athletes in Israel. There
were 1,600 athletes from 57 del-
egations from the U.S., Canada,
Mexico, Bulgaria and Israel in
San Diego.
Teens ages 13-17 are eligible
to participate in the Maccabi
Games, an Olympic-style Jewish
experience that is organized
and conducted by the JCC
Association of North America.
In addition to sports compe-
titions, there are opening and
closing ceremonies, community
service opportunities, and social
and cultural events.
Karen Gordon, who is head-
ing into her 37th year of involve-
ment with the Maccabi Games,
including being a Detroit del-
egation head since 1999, said
next summer’s Maccabi Games
will have a similar look to this
past summer’s Maccabi Games.
“But it appears the COVID
rules will be a lot less restrictive,
”
she said.
For example, she said, instead
of COVID-19 vaccinations
being required for participants
and host families, vaccinations
will be strongly recommend-
ed. And those traveling to the
Maccabi Games will not need
to have two negative COVID-
19 tests. Of course, that could
change.
The all-important annual
meeting for prospective Detroit
Maccabi athletes and their fam-
ilies will be at 4 p.m. Jan. 22 at
the Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit in West
Bloomfield.
While attendance at the
meeting isn’t mandatory, “all the
information everyone will need
will be presented there,
” Gordon
said.
Detroit had a small delegation
in San Diego — 18 athletes,
chaperones Sloan Lemberg and
Donna Sklar and Gordon —
most likely because of COVID
concerns and the Maccabi
Games being off the radar in
2020 and 2021.
There weren’t enough Detroit
athletes to form a team in any
sport, so Detroit athletes in team
sports were part of multi-delega-
tion teams.
For example, Aiden Ben-
Ezra, Brennan Gesund, Braylon
Juszak and Lucas Hutten repre-
sented Detroit on a hockey team
that also included players from
St. Louis, Palisades, New Jersey,
and Westchester, New York.
The team played a squad
made up of players from
Chicago, Houston, Montreal and
Springfield, Massachusetts, in
the bronze medal game and lost
in a wild 14-round shootout in
which only one goal was scored.
The 18 Detroit Maccabi ath-
On the Road Again
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SPORTS
JCC Maccabi Games revival picks up steam with
Fort Lauderdale and Israel hosting in summer 2023.
RUTHI WARBURG
The Detroit delegation gets ready
to enter the opening ceremonies for
the JCC Maccabi Games this past
summer in San Diego, California.