Didžiausias sporto renginys pasaulyje vyksta Izraelyje

Gissin: Certainly. In every Maccabiah, at any time, you have a significant group of athletes, from many countries, that following the Maccabiah make the choice of remaining in Israel and making aliyah. I think the most famous one is Tal Brody, one of the basketball legends of the State of Israel, a name everybody in Israel, and probably in the United States, knows. A person who came to play with the American team in the Maccabiah, and after this experience chose to give up a promising career in the NBA and come to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. He was the captain of Maccabi Tel Aviv [in 1977] when for the first time in history they won the championship of European basketball.

TML: There are great challenges around creating, and putting together an event of this enormity. It’s huge. Tell me a little about the logistics of how long it takes to put this together? It only happens every four years.

Gissin: The truth of the matter is that the work of the next Maccabiah starts one day after the current Maccabiah is over. To operate a sporting event with 10,000 athletes is a huge logistical challenge. We’re talking about, just as an example, two million water bottles. It means we have 400 workers to get to their places every day during the Maccabiah, from referees in sporting events to security, health, transportation, and logistics in general. A great challenge, but the beauty of it is that we have a very dedicated team that runs it together. This is the third Maccabiah that they’re working together. The top echelon of the Maccabiah is a team that knows each other very well, and they don’t look at doing the Maccabiah as a job. It’s not a job for them. It’s their family, it’s their home, it’s something they feel very strongly ideologically about, and they’re all graduates of the Maccabi movement.

TML: How many people work full-time after the events are over?

Gissin: The core team of the Maccabiah between the Games is between 10 and 20 people, the leaders of the operation. As we come closer to the event, we bring in more and more people until we get to the number of 400 people that operate the Maccabiah. Some of them are here in Kfar Maccabiah at headquarters; some of them are in the different hotels and sporting events. This is a huge operation, not something that you see in Israel every day.

Swimming venue | eTurboNews | eTN
A swimming venue at Kfar Maccabiah. – image courtesy of Felice Friedson, The Media Line

TML: Are there any new sports events that are starting this year?

Gissin: Well, we have paddle ball, a new sport that is like a very hectic combination of tennis and squash. We have several swimming events which are exhibition events. Swimming is certainly not a new sport, but we will see many Olympic medalists, Olympic gold medalists, participating from the US together with Israeli leading swimmers. I think all in all it will be very interesting. One thing worth mentioning: The one sport where I believe the level of the teams is highest compared to the world is ice hockey. That’s going to be one of the most popular events that we’re going to run in the Maccabiah. It’s going to happen at the Teddy Arena in Jerusalem, and we expect a full house of over 10,000 spectators.

TML: Just the opening and closing is a full-time operation. Can you share a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes?

Gissin: Well, the truth of the matter is that we have been engaged for quite a while now with the message that we got from the White House that during the upcoming visit of President Biden to Israel, which happens to be at the same time, they are considering different alternatives for connecting with the Maccabiah that obviously create on the one hand quite a good logistical challenge for us. On the other hand, we see that as a great vote of confidence and we really look forward to hearing and seeing whether it will happen and what will be the connection.

We’re hopeful that it will be significant involvement of the White House and the president in the Maccabiah.

And I will just say that this is the ultimate vote of respect and recognition of the importance of the Maccabi movement and the Maccabiah in the life of the Jewish people.

TML: How does it change the operations if President Biden says today he’s coming?

Gissin: Well, I will not go into details, I’ll just say that anything which is connected to security and transportation will have to be totally revised. For instance, just to bring the athletes to Jerusalem from the many hotels there in around Israel – we’re talking about over 200 buses – we need to make sure that those buses will not be late for the opening ceremony because the athletes need to participate in the inaugural parade. So, they will obviously need to come earlier because Jerusalem is not going to be an easy place to navigate that day.

TML: The Games go far beyond the idea of just coming to Israel. There are educational components. Can you take me through a day in the life of an athlete coming, whether from the United States, Canada, or around the world?

Gissin: Maccabi is not an organization of professional athletes. Most Maccabi members just enjoy the fact that they can do sports in a Jewish environment. Many of them are unaffiliated; they’re not part of the organized Jewish community. This is their way to remain Jewish and be active in a Jewish environment. They are important to us.

We do our utmost to develop their relationship with Israel through the Maccabi movement. We encourage them to be a part of the activities of the Jewish communities all around the world, and we try very hard to make sure that it will not be just the Maccabiah for two weeks and then four years of anticipation until the next event. We try to bring youngsters through our Israel Programs Department to Israel in youth groups. We’re developing relationships through our sister movement, the JCC Association, to connect and bring educational Israel activities and sporting activities into the JCCs all over North America and JCC Global in other places. I think the bottom line is that our huge membership is for us just a springboard to reach out to many Jewish communities in cities around the world and to make sure that they are aware of the ability to do sports in a Jewish environment and to be exposed to educational programs in the systems and the different clubs and organizations of Maccabi all over.

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