Largest Maccabiah to open July 11
6,000 athletes from 55 countries expected for quadrennial 'Jewish Olympics.' Ynetnews to provide extensive coverage
RAMAT GAN - The 17th Maccabiah Games, set to be held July 11-21, will be the largest Maccabiah since the event began in 1932, with 6,000 athletes from 55 countries.
The overall number of participants - including professionals and escorts - will reach 20,000.
The Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics," are traditionally held in Israel every four years and attract thousands of the best Jewish athletes from around the world.
The event is named for Jewish warrior Judah Maccabi, who fought against the ancient Greeks.
The games are Maccabi World Union’s largest and most famous enterprise, and have a Zionist history, stretching back to the vivid imagination of a Jewish youngster named Yosef Yekutieli.
In 1928, Yekutieli presented his proposal to Menachem Ussishkin, Jewish National Fund chairman at the time. Maccabi World Union was trying at the time to set up an umbrella body to represent all sports in Eretz Israel that would also act as a form of international recognition of Palestine as the Jewish National Home.
In 1931, Sir Arthur Wauchope, the British High Commissioner in Palestine, extended his patronage to the Maccabiah, paving the way to the first games, which were symbolically held on the 1,800th anniversary of the Bar Kochba revolt.
Most of the 390 Jewish athletes from 18 countries (including 60 from Arab countries) who participated in the First Maccabiah stayed in Palestine afterward, flouting the British Mandate's immigration laws. As a result, the 1938 games were canceled due to fears this could happen again. The next time the games were held was in 1950, two years after the state of Israel was created.
Past participants have included swimmers U.S. Mark Spitz and Lenny Krayzelburg, who is set to be the captain of the U.S. team this year, U.S. gymnast Mitch Gaylord, golfer Corey Pavin, basketball players Ernie Grunfeld and Danny Shayes and tennis player Dick Savitt.
The most recent Maccabiah was held in 2001. Although the event was nearly canceled that year due to continuing violence during the intifada, more than 3,000 athletes from 41 countries participated.
Ynetnews will provide extensive coverage of the athletes, events and celebrations surrounding the Maccabiah next month.
