The Maccabi Experience

On Sunday, May 6th, the Siegel JCC of Delaware was proud to bring a 23-person delegation to the Mid-Atlantic Mini & Junior Maccabi Games in Baltimore, the first since COVID. This one-day, Olympic-style event for Jewish youth ages 9-12 rotates between host sites in the region. For our 12-year-olds, this was their first and last year of eligibility; they were only eight the last time the games were held. Despite getting the short end of the stick, these athletes paraded onto the field with their heads held high in solidarity with the other 500+ participants, fully embracing their common interest in sport and common heritage as Jewish kids.

Unlike our 12-year-olds, I’ve had the pleasure of “participating” in the games five other times: four times as Swimming Commissioner and once as a Swim Coach. In my relatively new role as Sports & Wellness Director, I oversee not only Aquatics, but all of our Youth Sports programming. When the opportunity came to take on a new Junior Maccabi role as “Delegation Head,” I jumped at the chance to get as many athletes as possible together to represent Delaware. After many emails, phone calls, and in-person conversations, we assembled Team Delaware, which included a boys’ basketball team, girls’ soccer team, swimmers, and tennis players. In the years I’ve been involved in the games, we’ve regularly sent a handful of swimmers and a tennis player here and there, but it’s rare that we’re able to field teams. I was very excited that we were able to field two!

We have a difficult time recruiting athletes for Maccabi, both conceptually and in actuality. This is the only exclusively Jewish program that our J participates in, and we pride ourselves on inclusivity. People constantly ask if they have to be Jewish to be a member, be on our Swim Team, come to Camp, or take a Yoga class. The answer is always an emphatic, NO!

Jewish at our core, embodying the Jewish values of Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World), Kavod (Respect), Rina (Joy), and Ga’ava (Pride), central to Maccabi and part of all that we do, our programs can and do benefit everyone regardless of religion. Since our Jewish members celebrate their heritage with so many of their non-Jewish friends on our campus, we struggle with exclusive messaging. But as someone who isn’t Jewish and helped to market Junior Maccabi, I thought it was important to call it out. This is the one thing we do where you have to be Jewish to participate. We sent our initial communications to everyone, and no one batted an eye. Truthfully (and embarrassingly), the first Jewish person I knew was my college roommate. She, like so many others, got used to being the only kid in her class who didn’t celebrate Christmas or who knew what a Sukkah was. I empathized and wanted to help give kids with these feelings the chance to celebrate their common identity: feeling less like a water drop and more like part of an ocean. And that’s exactly what we saw at Opening Ceremony, a colorful ocean of 9 to 12-year-old Jewish athletes.

This all being said, we scrambled to pull our team together. We had 9 and 10-year-olds playing up with 11/12s so we could fill rosters. Our soccer and basketball teams played a combined nine games and lost eight. Philadelphia and Baltimore, on the other hand, each entered over 100 athletes! They made cuts! We didn’t stand a chance. But our 23 showed so much heart. They played hard, got back up when they got pushed down by bigger kids, kept a positive attitude, and supported each other all day. Their parents and coaches lost their voices screaming for them on the sidelines. They walked onto the field at Opening Ceremony (a little tired because it was 7:30am), but beaming with Ga’ava, and walked off at the end of the games stronger, more resilient, and more connected than when they arrived. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.

At Opening Ceremony, Katie Glazier and I accepted a (literal) torch from our colleagues in Baltimore, signifying that the Siegel JCC of Delaware will be hosting the 2024 Mini & Junior Maccabi Games! Our goal is to create a space for kids of all ability levels to engage in friendly and healthy competition and to feel good about it. We want to give every Jewish kid in our area the opportunity to look around and realize that there are so many other kids out there like them, that they are connected, and that they should be celebrated.