Game plan: sport, community, informal education
AS WE near the completion of the first month of 2021, I also complete my first month as the new CEO of Maccabi GB. The organisation has started a new chapter in its long and successful history and I have the privilege of leading it forward.
Not having attended a Jewish school, my Jewish identity and connection with the community were built through extra-curricular activities. Leadership, informal education and volunteering were part of my development as a keen member of FZY.
My passion for informal education began at an early age and this encouraged me to apply to Maccabi GB in 2007 to become part of its then relatively new Streetwise project. Whether teaching about anti-bullying, how to keep safe on the street or combating antisemitism, these values and skills are fundamental to the personal development of young people today. I know how much I could have benefited from these sessions when I was at school.
My progression at Maccabi GB has been achieved thanks to the opportunities and support I have received from its leadership. Pathways and development are central to the organisation’s ethos, and something I have championed for others throughout my 13 years.
The success that my mentor and predecessor, Martin Berliner achieved in his 20-year career is incredible and our chairman, David Pinnick, continues to be a strongly supportive anchor for the organisation.
I have been privileged to work with some excellent team members, current and past. I am proud that events such as the Maccabi GB Community Fun Run, which has 8,000 people attending (pre Covid!), is organised by just 20 members of staff, who all pull together to make a difference to our communal lives. There are many examples of this, from delivering the Yellow Candle project to the Maccabiah Games — our staff and volunteers care deeply about supporting the health, wellbeing and connectivity of the Jewish community.
As for the future of Maccabi GB, my mantra is “evolution and not revolution”. My first task will be to ensure Maccabi GB gets through the pandemic and I look forward to taking off the handbrake again on the other side. The safety of our participants, volunteers and staff will always be at the centre of any decision-making while returning to “normality”. I am proud of our ability to have seamlessly moved our education and events online and I am equally impressed with the versatility of our staff and schoolchildren.
The restrictions we have been living under have promoted increased collaboration and communication across
The event will be a true festival of fun, positivity and togetherness’
the Maccabi movement worldwide. We have just completed an online chess tournament which, thanks to a more connected Maccabi world, had 150 participants from 35 Maccabi countries. These are some of the recent positive developments I am keen to maintain.
Last year’s Yellow Candle was our first project within lockdown restrictions; its overwhelming success was due to the simplicity of the project, which brings Holocaust remembrance within the safe space of the home.
This year Maccabi GB is again grappling with Covid restrictions and we are continually adapting. We are hopeful that after Pesach, with the vaccinations rolling out and infections reducing, we will be able to welcome the community back for the Maccabi GB Community Fun Run. While the event may look different from that of 2019, if we are able to bring people back together in a safe way, the event will be a true festival of fun, positivity and togetherness, something we have been so desperate for over the past ten months.
I plan to focus on the organisation’s key areas of sport, community activity and informal education.
My evolution will include increasing our use of volunteers. Together with JVN we have built a great model of volunteering for the Fun Run; volunteers will allow us to build capacity across the organisation as a whole and enable passionate people to feel empowered and supported in making their mark on the health and wellbeing of the community while giving back to others. I want to enable grassroots initiatives and for us to help incubate, develop and sustain the best ones, just as we have done with Yellow Candle.
Partnerships and collaboration are in the DNA of Maccabi GB and they are also my personal priority, whether it is CST with our joint projects of Streetwise and Stand Up! or working with Jewish Care with its care home residents (prior to and post Covid), or with Jami, highlighting the importance of sport to assist positive mental health, or UJIA, building our incredible Jewish identity programmes for the Maccabiah Games. The community is too small and there is too much talent out there for us to just work in silos.
I am proud of our Stand Up! project and its success was rightly rewarded at the Faith & Belief Forum Awards in December. For me it is as important to be inclusive across all faiths in Britain as it is across all denominations within the Jewish community.
My upbringing wasn’t in the Jewish school system and I see now through the perspective of my own children who are within the Jewish schools network, the importance of learning about and celebrating the multicultural society in which we live. I am
Together with JVN, we have built a great model of volunteering’
looking forward to delivering the first ever Faith Run at the end of the summer this year. The event, under the auspices of the Lord Lieutenant for London, will bring together many faith-based communities, celebrating diversity and faith through the prism of sport.
The world is in a completely different place from where it was 12 months ago, but while there are still many challenges ahead, I am excited to meet these challenges head-on.
I am leading an organisation which has transformed itself over the past two decades and I know that with the continued support of our leadership and stakeholders, I will be able to drive the organisation further forward in the years to come.