34 | SEPTEMBER 7 • 2023 

B

radley Anstandig 
played baseball for 
Detroit at the 2019 
JCC Maccabi Games hosted 
by the Motor City a couple 
weeks before his bar mitzvah.
He had a great time at 
the Maccabi Games and 
looked forward to perhaps 
participating again.
Then the COVID-19 
pandemic struck, forcing 
the cancellation of the 2020 

and 2021 Maccabi Games. 
The Maccabi Games were 
revived in 2022 in San Diego, 
but with restrictions and 
mitigations in place to keep 
everyone safe from COVID.
The first “normal” Maccabi 
Games in four years were 
held this summer in Israel 
and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. 
Anstandig didn’t want to 
miss his final opportunity to 
participate in the Maccabi 

Games before he aged out. 
He played baseball on a 
multi-delegation team last 
month in Ft. Lauderdale. 
His family went with him to 
Florida.
“Bradley was serious 
about playing in the Maccabi 
Games again,” said Alissa 
Anstandig, his mother. “The 
decision to go was all his. 
He didn’t know any kids in 
the Detroit delegation or on 
the baseball team, although 
he became friends in Ft. 
Lauderdale with some of the 
kids from the delegation.”
Bradley played on a 
U16 baseball team in 
Florida with players from 
the Detroit, Central New 
Jersey, Memphis, Carolina, 
Colorado and Ohio 
delegations.
His mother jokingly 
called him the “grandpa” of 
the team and perhaps the 
entire Maccabi Games in Ft. 
Lauderdale because he barely 
made the age cutoff. 
In order to participate 
in Ft. Lauderdale Maccabi 
Games, athletes had to be no 
older than 16 as of July 29. 
Bradley, a senior at Walled 
Lake Central High School, 
turned 17 on Aug. 3.
Bradley stayed with a host 
family in Florida while his 
own family — his father 
Bryan, sister Emily, 12, a 
seventh-grader at Walnut 
Lake Middle School, and his 
mother — resided at a hotel. 
Emily loved the Maccabi 
Games’ opening ceremonies, 
especially seeing all the 
delegations from around the 
world.
The Anstandig family and 
the family of Alex Scheinfeld, 
a Detroit athlete who played 
on the same baseball team 
as Bradley and had the 

same host family, got some 
gifts for the host family: an 
all-things Michigan mug, a 
mitten-shaped wood cutting 
board and a restaurant gift 
card.
About 2,000 Jewish 
teens from 64 delegations 
participated in the Maccabi 
Games and Access events in 
Ft. Lauderdale, helping mark 
the Maccabi Games’ 41st 
year.
Twenty-one Jewish 
athletes with intellectual 
and development disabilities 
participated in the Access 
events.
The delegations came from 
the U.S, Canada and six 
other countries, including 
first-time Maccabi Games 
participants Argentina, South 
Africa and Ukraine and 
regular participants Israel, 
Great Britain and Mexico.
Detroit delegation 
head Karen Gordon had 
a three-word description 
for the week-long event 
in Ft. Lauderdale, which 
was hosted by the David 
Posnack JCC and included 
community service 
experiences through JCC 
Cares.
“Hot, hot, hot,” Gordon 
said. “Many afternoon 
outdoor sports events were 
canceled, postponed or 
rescheduled. Torrential rains 
didn’t help.”
Alissa Anstandig agreed 
with the schedule changes, 
which impacted her son’s 
baseball team. The team 
played just five games, 
winning one.
“The weather was 
oppressive. It wasn’t safe to 
play some days,” she said.
Fifteen Detroit athletes 
participated in the Maccabi 
Games in Ft. Lauderdale. 

SPORTS

‘Oppressive’ weather can’t put a 
damper on West Bloomfield teen’s 
last-chance JCC Maccabi Games 
experience in Ft. Lauderdale.

He Made the 
Cut ... Barely

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bradley 
Anstandig gets 
ready to swing at 
a pitch under the 
hot Florida sun.

ALISSA ANSTANDIG

