The 11th
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...
brought 3,450 athletes to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
from 35 nations.
The Opening Ceremony was held on July 7, 1981, before a crowd of 53,000 and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. B ...
in
Ramat Gan Stadium
Ramat Gan Stadium ( he, אצטדיון רמת גן, ''Itztadion Ramat Gan'') is a football stadium in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. It served as the national stadium of Israel until 2014.
Overview
Completed in 1951 and serving ...
, with 3,500 Jewish athletes parading past him.
Representative
Jack Kemp
Jack French Kemp (July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009) was an American politician and a professional football player. A member of the Republican Party from New York, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bu ...
(R; New York) and a supporter of Israel, marched with the United States team.
Israel won the most medals (199), with 65 gold. The United States won 188 medals, 85 gold. South Africa, Britain, and Canada had the next-most number of total medals.
The 31-sports menu included
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
,
[Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ), p.68] sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
and
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
for the first time. New facilities for squash, wrestling, karate, and judo were introduced.
History
The Maccabiah Games were first held in
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
. In 1961, they were declared a "Regional Sports Event" by, and under the auspices and supervision of, the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
.
[Mitchell G. Bard and Moshe Schwartz (2005)]
''1001 Facts Everyone Should Know about Israel''
p. 84. Among other Olympic and world champions, swimmer
Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record ti ...
won 10 Maccabiah gold medals before earning his first of nine Olympic gold medals.
Notable competitors
In gymnastics, American
Mitch Gaylord
Mitchell Jay Gaylord (born March 10, 1961) is an American gymnast, actor, and Olympic gold medalist.
Early life
Gaylord was born in Van Nuys, California, the son of Fred and Linda Gaylord, and is Jewish. Gaylord graduated from Grant High Schoo ...
won 6
gold medals
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...
; he later went on to win
Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
gold. American Olympian
Abie Grossfeld
Abie Grossfeld (born March 1, 1934) is an American gymnastics coach and former gymnast. Grossfeld has represented the United States as a gymnastics competitor or coach in seven Olympic Games, seven World Championships, six Maccabiah Games, and f ...
was Team USA's coach.
American tennis players
Brad Gilbert
Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961) is a former professional tennis player and an American tennis coach. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1990, and a career-high doubles rank ...
(in doubles, with
Jon Levine
The Philosopher Kings are a Canadian band. The band was most commercially successful in the late 1990s and have been nominated for five Juno Awards, winning one in 1996 for "Best New Group". Most of the band members, current and former, have also ...
, over fellow Americans
Rick Meyer and Paul Bernstein),
Andrea Leand
Andrea Leand (born January 18, 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the U.S. Leand was the No. 1 ranked junior in the United States and the No. 2 ranked junior in the World in 1981. She won a gold medal in singles at the 1981 Maccab ...
, and
Jeff Klaparda
Jeff Klaparda (born November 7, 1963) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Biography
Klaparda, who is Jewish, won a gold medal at the 1981 Maccabiah Games in Israel, in the mixed doubles with Andrea Leand.
He went to U ...
earned gold medals.
Justin Gimelstob
Justin Jeremy Gimelstob (born January 26, 1977) is a retired American tennis player. Gimelstob has been a resident of Morristown, New Jersey, and as of 2009 lived in Santa Monica, California.
He was the top-ranked boy in his age group at the a ...
was an assistant coach of Team USA's tennis squad. Israeli
Shlomo Glickstein
Shlomo Glickstein ( he, שלמה גליקשטיין; born 6 January 1958) is an Israeli former professional tennis player.
He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 22 in November 1982, and his career-high doubles ranking of World ...
, who carried the Maccabiah torch into the stadium for the opening ceremony, won the men's singles in tennis (defeating Brad Gilbert), the first Israeli to win a Maccabiah tennis championship.
Americans
Dana Gilbert
Dana Gilbert (born November 26, 1959) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Biography
Gilbert grew up in California, one of three siblings. Her youngest brother is Brad Gilbert, who also played tennis professionally, and ...
and
Donna Rubin
Donna Rubin (born October 5, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. She represented the U.S. at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning a silver medal in doubles with Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer, and at the 1981 Maccabiah Gam ...
won the women's doubles.
In basketball,
David Blatt
David Michael Blatt ( he, דוד מיכאל בלאט; born May 22, 1959), is an Israeli-American professional basketball executive. He is also a former coach and player.
Blatt played point guard at Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 and p ...
,
Danny Schayes
Daniel Leslie Schayes (born May 10, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player who played for Syracuse University and played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), from 1981 until 1999. At 6' 11" and 235 pounds, h ...
(the first round draft pick of the NBA's
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...
; carried the US flag in the opening ceremony),
Al Walker
Al Walker (born March 19, 1959) is an American former basketball coach. He currently is a pro personnel scout for the Detroit Pistons of the NBA, a position he'd held since 2015. He played college basketball for the Brockport Golden Eagles, won ...
, and
Willie Sims won a gold medal with Team USA.
American fencers
Paul Friedberg won a gold medal for the US in saber,
Peter Schifrin won a silver medal in epee, and
Elaine Cheris won an individual silver medal and a team gold medal in foil. British sabre fencer
Paul Klenerman, who three years later fenced in the Olympics, also medaled. Canadian future Olympian
Shelley Steiner
Shelley Steiner, also known as Shelley Steiner-Wetterberg (born 23 October 1961) is a Canadian fencing, fencer, who fenced in three Olympic Games and won a gold medal in the 1981 Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Biography
Steiner was born in Toronto, ...
won a gold medal.
In track and field,
James Espir
James Espir (born 17 October 1958), is an English middle-distance runner, whose career spanned the late 1970s and early 1980s. Espir competed for Shaftesbury Harriers Athletics Club and for Great Britain.
Biography
Son of neurologist Michael Luc ...
of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, who earlier that year had run a mile in 3 minutes 56.7 seconds, thereby becoming the fastest
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish miler ever, won the 1500 metres and 5000 metres gold medals on successive days.
Maya Kalle-Bentzur
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popula ...
of Israel won the gold medal in the women's
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
, and Israeli future Olympian
Yehuda Zadok won the gold medal in the 10,000 m race.
Boris Djerassi
Boris (Dov) Djerassi (born February 3, 1952) is a former athlete and strongman, based in the United States but originally from Haifa, Israel. Between 1973-81 Djerassi was ranked in the United States' top-ten hammer throwers, being number one in ...
of the United States won a gold medal in the hammer throw.
Dave Edge
David Edge (born November 12, 1954 in Blackpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom) is a former long-distance runner, who represented Canada at two consecutive Summer Olympics in the men's marathon.
Biography
In Blackpool, he had been a policeman. He m ...
of Canada, a long distance runner who later competed in two Olympics, won a silver medal in the 10,000 m and a bronze medal in the mini-marathon.
Canadian
Gordon Orlikow
Gordon Orlikow (born May 5, 1960) is a Canadian former decathlon, heptathlon, and hurdles competitor who won medals in the 73rd Drake Relays, the 1981 Maccabiah Games and 1985 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and the Athletics at the 1987 Pan American ...
, who later was a bronze medalist in the decathlon at the Pan American Games, won a bronze medal in the
decathlon
The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...
and a silver medal in the
110 m hurdles.
Swimming for Israel at the age of 14, Israeli future Olympian
Hadar Rubinstein
Hadar Rubinstein (הדר רובינשטיין; born April 11, 1967) is an Israeli former Olympic swimmer. She was born in Israel, and is Jewish.
Swimming career
Swimming for Israel at the age of 14 at the 1981 Maccabiah Games, she won gold meda ...
won gold medals in the women's 100 m butterfly, and in the women's 200 m butterfly. In swimming Lior Birkan won 3 gold and 2 silver medals. Mexican
Helen Plaschinski
Helen Plaschinski Farca (born April 8, 1963) is a former female freestyle swimmer from Mexico, who participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics for her native country. Her best result in Moscow, Soviet Union was a sixth place in the Women's 4 × 10 ...
won gold medals in swimming in the 100 and 200 m freestyle.
Mike Jeffries and
Seth Roland
Seth Roland (born 1957) is the head coach of the Fairleigh Dickinson men's soccer team, a position he has held since 1997. As a player, he won a silver medal with Team USA at the 1981 Maccabiah Games in Israel. As a coach of Team USA, he won a ...
represented the United States in soccer, winning a silver medal.
Eli Ohana
Eliyahu "Eli" Ohana ( he, אלי אוחנה; born ) is an Israeli former football player and the former chairman of Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem. He played as forward or midfielder for Beitar Jerusalem, KV Mechelen, S.C. Braga, and the Is ...
and
Rafi Cohen represented Israel, winning a bronze medal.
In golf, American
Corey Pavin
Corey Allen Pavin (born November 16, 1959) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and currently on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 150 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 1986 and 1997 ...
won two gold medals.
Mark Berger, who three years later was to go on to win a silver medal in the Olympics, won a gold medal in wrestling, and a silver medal in judo.
Canadian future Olympian
Garry Kallos
Garry Kallos (born 5 March 1956) is a Canadians, Canadian former Amateur wrestling, wrestler who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics and won five gold medals at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, and Sambo (martial art), sambo competitor who won a g ...
won two gold medals in wrestling, as did Canadian Olympian
Howard Stupp
Howard Michael Stupp (born 3 May 1955) is a Canadian former wrestler. An Olympian, he won five Canadian championships (1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981), two Pan Am Games titles (1975, 1979), two Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union championship ...
.
In cricket,
Alan Ezekowitz competed for England.
Participating communities
A total of 35 nations participated, in 31 sports, at 58 locations throughout Israel.
Israel won the most medals (199), with 65 gold.
The United States won 188 medals, 85 gold.
South Africa, Britain, and Canada had the next-most number of total medals.
The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that community contributed.
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (110)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (largest delegation)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (372; 2nd-largest delegation)
*
*
*
References
External links
Summaries of each of the Games
{{Maccabiah Games
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...
Maccabiah Games
1980s in Tel Aviv