34 | AUGUST 31 • 2023

Like many of the players on
the Detroit/Grand Rapids/NYC
team, Marcus and Werner, who
live in Birmingham, play high
school hockey.
Marcus, 16, is a junior at
Detroit Country Day. A forward
on the Country Day hockey
team, he was a defenseman
on the Maccabi Games team
because that’s where he was
needed.
Werner, 16, also was a
defenseman for the Maccabi
Games team. That’s where the
Birmingham Seaholm junior
plays on the Birmingham
Unified hockey team, a co-op
of Birmingham Groves and
Seaholm.
It was the first trip to Israel
for Werner, and he said he
enjoyed every stop on the
post-hockey tour. A party
attended by the athletes in
Tel Aviv was fun, he said, and
seeing the Western Wall in
Jerusalem was meaningful.
This was the second time in
Israel for Marcus. He went with
his family a few years ago on
a trip put together by Temple
Israel.
Weiss, a West Bloomfield
resident, worked with the Red
Wings to organize a fundraiser
at a Red Wings game at Little
Caesars Arena that paid for
his team’s Maccabi Games uni-
forms.
Aiden Ben-Ezra, Isaac
Hosfield, Preston Lumberg,

Jordan Newman, Elias
Schwarzer, Asher Zacks and
Micah Zacks were the other
Detroit players on the Detroit/
Grand Rapids/NYC roster.
The two players from Grand
Rapids were Aaron Goldman
and Sully Popour. Joining the
Michigan contingent from NYC
were Ellis Bornstein, Louis
Hizme, Liam Karty and Leo
Velkin.
Nine other Detroit athletes
competed in the Maccabi
Games in Israel, and Jacob
Miller and Natalie Rothenberg
were there from Detroit as Star
Reporters.
The athletes and the sport
they played in Israel were
Henry Petts, Ethan Rosenberg
and Jordan White (basketball),

Maelani Ben-Ezra, Sydney
Goldman, Serena Hosfield and
Austin White (soccer) and Levi
Citron (swimming).
This was the first time since
2011 and the second time in
history that the Maccabi Games
were held in Israel.
The JCC Association of
North America and Maccabi
World Union combined forces
to bring more than a thousand
Jewish teens from 10 countries
to Israel during the ongoing
celebration of the country’s 75th
anniversary year.
The Maccabi Games portion
of the Israel experience for the
teens included opening and
closing ceremonies, community
service and social and cultural
events.
A loud and lengthy standing
ovation and a sea of Ukrainian
flags greeted the 10-member
Ukrainian delegation during the
opening ceremonies.
This is the 41st year for the
Maccabi Games, the world’s
largest Jewish youth sports
event, which has been revived
after a two-year layoff in
2020 and 2021 caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic.

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stevestein502004@yahoo.com.

Coach Mark Weiss
encourages his team.

MARK WEISS

Spencer Werner and his teammates brought a Red Wings flavor to
OneIce Arena in Israel.

SENYA ALMAN

$7.5 Million in
Security Grants
to Michigan
Faith-Based
Institutions

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (MI),
chairman of the Homeland
Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee,
announced that $7.5 mil-
lion in grant funding will
be awarded to nonprofits
and faith-based organiza-
tions across Michigan to
help them protect their
facilities against potential
attacks.
The funding is from the
Department of Homeland
Security’s Nonprofit
Security Grant Program
(NSGP), which Peters has
championed, to help reli-
gious institutions, includ-
ing synagogues, churches,
mosques, gurdwaras and
other nonprofits, strength-
en their security in the
face of rising threats and
attacks.
Peters helped lead the
reauthorization of this
essential program last
Congress and has helped
secure substantial funding
increases in recent years,
including $305 million in a
funding bill that was signed
into law last year.
“Houses of worship in
Michigan and across the
country continue to face
threats and attacks that are
inspired by hate based on
religion, like antisemitism
and Islamophobia,” Peters
said. “While this funding
will be critical to helping
communities feel safer, I
will continue pushing the
federal government to do
more to combat the con-
tinued threat of domestic
terrorism, including white
supremacist violence.”

SPORTS

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