Maccabiah Games

The motto of the Olympic Games is Citius, altius, fortius – Faster, higher, stronger. For this Maccabiah Games I could suggest Tarditas, inferius, fragilitas – Slower, lower, weaker, as for the past 40 years, the regression in athletic terms has been quite remarkable.

The Maccabiah Games used to attract the best athletes from around the world – even according full international status in some countries – but most high caliber athletes don’t bother to come because the cachet of “Maccabiah champion” is not what it used to be. Furthermore, they are expected to self-fund their trip to Israel at an inflated cost, especially in the case of UK athletes.

Clearly, the funding of the Maccabiah Games is not working for the benefit of the sport, but for other goals.

The Maccabiah ideals of encouraging aliya through sport are commendable, but true international sportsmen and women realize they are not the focus and thus it’s not “the winning,” but “the taking part” attitude that precludes their participation.

The quality of the track and field is now so poor that the results of most of the events wouldn’t even feature in the top 1,000 in world terms. I write as a former triple Maccabiah champion from both 1981 and 1985. Both my records, at 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters, still stand. At this rate, they might never be broken. JAMES ESPIR Herzliya Pituah The writer, originally from the UK, was a middle-distance runner.

Glancing through the team lists of many of the participating countries, and listening to the spectators at the various sporting events, one fact became obvious: Many nonJews participated in the 2017 Maccabiah Games.

While watching the rugby game between the South African and Israeli open men’s teams, I made two extremely disturbing discoveries. The first was that the vast majority of the members of the South African team were not even nominally Jewish, but were apparently selected because they were good rugby players fortunate enough to have a Jewish parent, grandparent or, in one case, great-grandparent. I was informed that the US team was selected using the same criteria, although I was unable to confirm this.

This phenomenon was not restricted to rugby, but was evident in other sporting disciplines as well.

The other astounding fact emanating from the games is that Israel did not field its best rugby team, instead resting these players for the coming European International Competition.

All of this draws one to make the following conclusions: From the Diaspora perspective, winning a medal is more important than the Maccabiah ideal of fostering Jewish fellowship through sport, while from the Israeli perspective, success at the Maccabiah Games is not of sufficient importance. This raises the question as to whether the games, in their present format, have become irrelevant.

The Maccabiah Games should once again be a global sporting event for the Jewish people, with an emphasis on Jewish fellowship and learning about and experiencing life in Israel, the only Jewish country in the world. My view, and that of many of the Jewish spectators I discussed this with, is that it is far more important to field a Jewish team even though it might be a weaker team, with an emphasis on pride in competing in what is called the “Jewish Olympics.” PETER BAILEY Hod Hasharon

It amazed me to see the lack of media coverage of the 20th Maccabiah Games.

Thousands of Jewish athletes from all over the world invested time, effort and a huge amount of motivation to be able to come and participate in this biggest Jewish sporting event: our own Jewish Olympics! The communities worked hard in the planning and execution to provide the financial backing that would bring these athletes to compete. Hundreds more came to provide technical support or cheer for their loved ones.

This represents visitors to our country who use hotels, transportation, food facilities and more, thereby boosting our economy. Some might even come back, stay and make aliya. It has happened in the past.

Isn’t all this important enough to deserve more coverage in the media than just a small mention in the sport pages? Had it been a Christian delegation from anywhere, it would certainly have appeared in all the media. NINA DIESENDRUCK

Netanya