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The Maccabiah Games building Jewish pride through sports |
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The Third delegation from Hong Kong-China will be participating at the upcoming Maccabiah in Israel this year. From 18-30 July, approximately 9000 athletes, delegations from more than sixty countries, will partake in the 19th Maccabiah Games. The opening ceremony will take place in Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. The closing ceremony will be held on 31 July, in a brand new stadium in Haifa.   The Games are now the third largest sporting event in the world, after the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. The Games takes place every four years in Israel. It also ranks among the five largest sports gatherings in the world (in number of participants), and are considered Regional Games by the International Olympic Committee.
History of the Maccabiah The original Maccabiah was first held from 28 March to 6 April, 1932. Its overwhelming success guaranteed its permanent future. Originally conceived as an event to take place every four years. Maccabiah II was moved down a year to 1935 because of the rising threat of Nazism in Europe. WWII forced the postponement of Maccabiah III, and it was 15 years later that the next Games were held, reborn in 1950 in the new State of Israel. Maccabiah IV was held in 1953, thereafter, the Maccabiah established its current quadrennial formula, held the year following the Summer Olympic Games. This unique and spectacular sport and cultural extravaganza unites Jewish athletes from all over the world in Israel every four years symbolically recognising Zionist history. There are many Olympic gold medalists, world champions, and world record holders who have competed in the Maccabiah. Most notably, Mark Spitz and Marilyn Ramenofsky (swimming); Debbie Lipman (diving); Mitch Gaylord, Abie Grossfeld, and Agnes Keleti (gymnastics); Larry Brown, Ernie Grunfeld, Danny Schayes, (coaches) Nat Holman and Dolph Schayes (basketball); Carina Benninga (field hockey); Lillian Copeland, Gerald Ashworth, and Gary Gubner (track and field); Angela Buxton, Julie Heldman, Allen Fox, and Dick Savitt (tennis); Angelica Rosenau (table tennis); Isaac Berger and Frank Spellman (weightlifting); and Fred Oberlander and Henry Wittenberg (wrestling). Please login or register to see the full article |
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UN: Palestine is now a Non-Member State ; Reality: Palestine will continue to be a Non-Existent State |
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Twenty-four years ago, almost to the day, in 1988, I stood in a large hall in Algeria and saw Yasser Arafat declare the independence of a Palestinian state. And that was forty-one years, almost to the day, after the UN offered a Palestinian state in 1947. Twelve years ago Israel and the US officially offered a Palestinian state as part of a compromise at deal in the Camp David summit of 2000.  Arguably, despite all their errors, the Palestinian movement has made progress since those events, though it is not very impressive progress. Yet in real terms there is no real Palestinian state; the movement is more deeply divided than at any time in its history; and the people aren’t doing very well.
Now the UN has voted to give Palestine the status of a non-member state. The only thing that will change is to convince people even more that they are following a clever and successful strategy. They aren’t. Perhaps in 24 or 41 years there will actually be a Palestinian state. There are two ways to respond to the General Assembly’s vote to designate a state of Palestine. One of them is outrage at the absurdity of how the international system behaves. The other would be to dismiss the gesture as meaningless, even more than that, as something that will even further delay the day that a real, functioning state comes into existence. Certainly, there are threats and dangers, for example the use by Palestine of the International Court. Or one could look at this as another step on the road to a final, I mean comprehensive, solution to the issue. Yet overall, I’ll go for disgusted and cynical as the most accurate responses. Please login or register to see the full article |
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Hadassah Medical Center celebrates its centeniary |
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Members from around the world converged i n October to pay tribute to the global medical organisation to celebrate 100 years and dedicate its new hospital tower.  Convention chairwoman Miki Schulman worked for the past three years to plan a week where the delegates could explore projects at the two worldrenowned Hadassah hospitals and affiliated research labs and schools, which are open to employees, patients and students of every ethnic and religious background.
In fact, the global donorsupported organisation earned a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for its ongoing initiatives to use medicine as a bridge to peace. The visitors had a day of sessions on Hadassah’s role in education and immigration absorption, held at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village run in partnership with the Jewish National Fund. Hadassah has two additional youth villages, Meir Shfeya and Ramat Hadassah Szold for youth at risk. “This is a celebration of Hadassah’s first 100 years and the launch of its next 100 years,” said Schulman. “So it was important to the leadership to make sure that our members and delegates all had at least a taste of each of the areas in which we are involved in Israel, because this is really who we are and what we have been doing for the past 100 years,” she added. Please login or register to see the full article |
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