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.

