18 | MARCH 21 • 2024 

At Bloomfield Hills High School, 
Narens was on the Varsity team and, 
in 2019, her senior year, she won the 
State Finals in the singles division. 
Narens appreciated meeting people 
from other states. “For a lot of the kids 
I met, this was their first chance to 
be around a lot of Jewish people,” she 
said. “I think the Games really allow 
you to feel closer to Judaism.” 
Narens achieved gold medals in 
all three JCC Maccabi Games. “I still 
have all my gold medals next to my 
bedside!” she says.

A PASSION FOR DANCE
Sloan Lemberg’s passion is dance, 
and she has made a career out of 
performing, choreography and 
teaching dance. Now 23, the Groves 
High School and Michigan State 
University marketing and dance 
graduate, has the fondest memories of 
dancing at the Games. 
“To be honest, I’d never even heard 
of Maccabi, but some of the girls on 
my dance team were talking about 
it and it sounded cool,” she says. “I 
begged my parents to let me go — I’d 
never been to camp, and they were 
nervous about me staying with a host 
family — but I convinced them, and 

each of the times attending I had the 
kindest, most incredible families.” 
Lemberg danced in Games in 
Milwaukee, St. Louis and in Miami 
as well as Detroit. “I was used to 
competing in a dance studio, but 
this was more about being with and 
making new friends,” she says. “All my 
favorite experiences at Maccabi were 
in the dressing rooms, off stage and in 
the evening activities.” 
When Lemberg, from West 
Bloomfield, aged out of Maccabi she 
started coaching the Detroit team, 
becoming the assistant coach at the 
2019 Detroit Games and head coach in 
San Diego. 
“Performing and then coaching 
really cemented my love for Maccabi, 
and also had a major influence in my 
career,” she says. “It helped me build 
my confidence and taught me to be 
independent.” 

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 17

ABOVE: At the 2015 opening ceremony 
in Milwaukee are Mark Livshin (Israel bas-
ketball coach), Karen Gordon and Eli Tagar 
(Israel delegation head). RIGHT: Co-chairs of 
the 2024 JCC Maccabi Games in Detroit are 
Franci Silver and Karen Gordon.

