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Aug. 25, 2006
The Maccabi legacy grows
Participants and parents applaud "brilliant" JCC games.
PAT JOHNSON
Eighteen months ago, when plans for last week's JCC Maccabi Games
in Vancouver were beginning, local organizers decided to emphasize
connections with Israel by teaming up with Vancouver's sister cities
in the northern Israeli region of Galil. They could not have anticipated
that, when the games began Aug. 13, those very towns would be under
fire from Hezbollah rockets. So when the joint host team "Vancouver-Galil"
entered the Pacific Coliseum during the opening ceremonies' parade
of teams, the emotional impact was enormous.
"Early on in the process, we had a vision to make our sister
region a partner in our local team," said Brenda Karp, games
director. "The kids marched into opening ceremonies not as
Team Vancouver but as Team Vancouver-Galil."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver funded 45 Israeli athletes
to make the trip. In addition to Team Israel and a number of Israeli
kids playing under different banners, Karp estimates that there
were about 100 Israelis in the games – an all-time record.
"It was a vision to have as many Israeli kids as we could participate
with our local kids so we could build living bridges – living
bridges of relationships," she said.
About 300 Vancouver-area young people participated. Another 1,350
athletes converged from all over the world, joined by about an estimated
1,600 Maccabi-related visitors to the region.
According to participants, parents and organizers, the Vancouver
JCC Maccabi Games was a model of success.
"It was exceptionally brilliant," said Karp said. "We
all knew in advance – the ones who were involved in Maccabi
before – that it would have a tremendous impact on the community
in total, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect the kind
of community coming together and galvanizing at the level that it
did. From every sector, from every corner of the community, on the
field, at the opening ceremonies, in the hub here at the JCC, people
[were] shoulder to shoulder who had never met each other before,
coming together to celebrate for all the right reasons."
Among the most heartening aspects of the games was the massive volunteer
mobilization. About 1,200 volunteers formed the backbone of the
event, with about 600 households billeting participants.
"It was a lot of fun. I really liked it," said Sarah Jampole,
12, whose team won silver in basketball. "I met so many new
people. I hardly knew anybody before I went in and I met so many
people from Vancouver and I met people from other countries too."
Her sister, Rachel, 15, who won two bronze medals with her swimming
relay team, made new friends from around the world.
"I met another girl from Australia, a couple of people from
Great Britain and from Metro West [suburban New York-New Jersey],"
she said. "I also met a lot of Vancouver kids who I didn't
know were Jewish."
Their mom, Kim Jampole, said the Maccabi Games were an excellent
chance for her kids to meet with other Jewish young people.
"It was a very positive experience," she said. "From
a Jewish perspective, it was an excellent opportunity for them to
meet other Jewish kids, [to whom] our children haven't been so much
exposed. They have been going to Hebrew school, which is only once
a week, so that is the only time that they are directly involved
with Jewish children. And meeting kids from other places was an
extremely positive experience for them as well."
Robyn Segal, whose 13-year-old son Shay played soccer in the games,
was effusive.
"It was a magical experience for everybody involved,"
said Segal. "It began to grow far before the kids even participated
in the sporting events. It was an experience of anticipation and
excitement and a real building and bringing together of a community
of people to bring about the end results: the games."
The Segals had four billets staying with them, all from Orange County,
Calif. Among the billets was another soccer player who would go
up against Shay for the medals.
"It was fabulous seeing how they were able to be under one
roof knowing that they're competing against one another, but forge
friendships and support one another even though they're supporting
their own teams," Segal said. "It's just lovely seeing
kids from different communities coming together under one roof and
their common denominator is that they're Jewish and they have the
spirit of what the games are really all about. It was just incredible,
for us, for the kids and I think for the community."
Sherry Levinson was enthusiastic about the games from the time Vancouver
was announced as a host city. The Levinsons billeted two participants
from San Diego. Having been at previous Maccabi games, Levinson
said, she looked forward to hosting.
"That's why I was so excited to bring it to Vancouver, so we
could return the hospitality," she said. "It's just such
a wonderful community feeling."
Her husband, Phil, has coached Maccabi teams for years and was the
assistant delegation head in charge of soccer this time. Taken as
a whole, he said, the event was a major achievement for a small
Jewish community like Vancouver's.
"It was clearly, in my view, probably the biggest challenge
and the biggest event that the community here has ever undertaken,"
Levinson said. "Its reach was really wide. We had kids from
mainstream community life – West Side kids, North Shore kids,
Richmond kids – then we had kids who were really unaffiliated
from the community who participated and I think had a wonderful
time.
"I've attended a lot of games in various cities over the last
few years and in terms of the logistics, the smoothness of everything
and the quality of the events, we did well," he continued.
"The opening ceremony was extremely moving."
Karp said the event has left a rich legacy for Vancouver.
"Now that the games are over, it is very important for the
community to carry forward the legacy these games leave for us,"
she said. "What was, by many, deemed a fractured community
has now galvanized and moved forward into a community that has an
opportunity to continue to work together in a way that hasn't historically
happened here in the Lower Mainland."
For JCC executive director Gerry Zipursky, whose two decades of
service end in December, the games were the icing on a long career.
"So many people kept saying to me it's a great swan song for
me," Zipursky said. "I didn't really think of it that
way when I was busy working on the games, but I admit it's a great
way to think of coming close to the end of a career at the centre."
The feedback he has been receiving from the community has been "so
rewarding and so encouraging," he said.
There is a feeling of a job well done among JCC staff, Zipursky
said, but that's not all.
"There's definitely an abundance of enthusiasm. There's also
an abundance of exhaustion among JCC staff."
Pat Johnson is editor of MVOX Multicultural Digest, www.mvox.ca.
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