News & Events

Glen Ella has enjoyed involvement in the highest level of Australian rugby, but his involvement at our Maccabi Rugby Club in suburban rugby has reminded him how much he loves coaching the sport.

Those of us at the Moriah Drama Theatre on Tuesday night were privileged to listen to Ella, our guest of honour at the NSW Jewish Sports Awards.

Glen had the audience glued as he talked to MC Anthony Goodridge about his upbringing as one of 12 Ella kids, growing up playing sport at Matraville High School, touring with the Australian Schoolboys and his decision to choose rugby union over rugby league.

But when asked about the pinnacle in his rugby life, Ella couldn’t help but digress to reflect on the enjoyable time he is now having at our own rugby club.

"I get asked a lot about my highlight, but the thing about sport, regardless of the sport and the level, there’s so many instances where you enjoy a pinnacle – whether it’s on tour, for Australia, for NSW, for Randwick," Ella explained.

"For example, last week we were playing Redfield, the undefeated champions from the last two years and we were leading with three minutes to go.

"They then scored a length of the field try and won, but I felt so proud of the Maccabi boys.

"It’s funny, but you get different things that you’re proud of. The effort the boys put in, they busted their backsides, running into a very stiff second-half breeze.

"The effort they put it in, while it’s not right up there with my career highlights, it’s (it ranks somewhere below).

"You can see the guys are putting in and that’s going to come to fruition at the end of the season."
Glen, who paid respect to the effort and commitment of our rugby players, says his time at Maccabi has revitalised his passion for coaching.

"People have asked me why I’ve decided to coach Maccabi. I’ve been involved in the highest level of coaching for many, many years. With elite players, they think they know everything! Not across the board, but a lot don’t think they need coaching. I was at the stage down at Eastern Suburbs, I was getting peeved; you try to coach the young ones and they come out of school and think they know everything.

"But – from the first training at Maccabi, everything I’ve said, they lapped up.

"I’ve started coaching again.

"I’ve told the boys this – I’m coaching again, not just managing a system. We do lots of contact; there are different levels. We have guys that should be playing first grade or second grade at any club in Sydney. Then we have guys that 16, 17 years of age, playing for the first time, so there’s a vast different in ability. But everyone pays attention.

"When we played a trial against Randwick earlier in the year, my wife and my daughter were there and they said after the game: ‘We couldn’t believe it. At half-time, when you spoke, everyone listened. When you finished the game, everyone shook your hand and said thank you’.

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MICHEL GRUN

Inducted: 2013
Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Michel Grun, chairman of the European Maccabi Confederation 1984–1999, and co-chair of the 1987 (Copenhagen), 1991 (Marseilles) and 1995 (Amsterdam) European Maccabi Games, has been named recipient of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame's 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award.

When the Belgium-born executive board member of Antwerp's Diamant Kring ('Circle') and Diamond High Council accepted the leadership role in EMC, the Confederation had 17 territorial organizations. When he retired from the top position 15 years later, EMC membership stood at 32, including the reappearance of Maccabiah delegations from Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Spain and Russia (CIS).

Grun joined the Maccabi World Union Executive and International Maccabiah Committee in 1977, serving as MWU's vice-president 1998–2006.

In 2002, at the age of 54, Grun was named Honorary President of the European Maccabi Confederation. As of 2012, no one currently serving the EMC or MWU has been a top leadership member as long as Grun.

The son of Holocaust survivors, Grun chaired the first Maccabiah International Safety, Security & Medical Services Committee in 2001, and again in 2005 and 2009. SSMS is an extension of Grun's professional life: security of Antwerp's diamond district. In 2004, "for exceptional services to his trade", King Albert of Belgium honored him as an Officer in the Civil Order of Leopold II, one rank above those entitled to Ridder ("Knight" or "Sir").

(Formal presentation of Lifetime Achievement honors will take place July 2013, at the IJSHOF museum at Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel.)

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually, honoring those individuals who have made significant contributions to the State of Israel and society through sports.

Tell the International Olympic Committee: 40 Years is Enough!

At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, eleven members of the Israeli team were murdered. For forty years their families have asked the International Olympic Committee to observe a minute of silence, in their memory. Please help us by signing our petition.

The JCC of Rockland County, NY, as part of its organizing of the JCC Maccabi Games in August, has taken on an effort to gather enough signatures on the attached petition to convince the International Olympic Committee to hold a minute of silence at its Opening Ceremony in London this summer.

It will be the 40th anniversary of the massacre of the 11 Israeli Olympians that took place in Munich and their murder has yet to be recognized.

We hope you will join us in signing this petition. It is an easy process and an important statement.

Your support is greatly appreciated.

The 2012 international Plenum meetings to plan the 19th Maccabiah Games in July 2013 will be held at the Kfar Maccabiah in Ramat-Gan from May 17-22, 2012.

Canada is very well represented internationally as part of the Maccabi World Union, the international body responsible for organizing the Games and hosting over 40 countries at the Plenum meetings. Roy Salomon, former President of Maccabi Canada is the honorary co-President of the upcoming 19th Maccabiah and Allen Gerskup, former President of Maccabi Canada is a Maccabi World Union international Vice-President. Serving on international committees for the upcoming Games are two members of Maccabi Canada's national executive committee, Alex Brainis who sits on the International Sports Committee (ISC), and Bill Izso who sits on the International IT Committee.

Led by Tommy Bacher, President of Maccabi Canada, the Canadian delegation to the international Plenum will be out in force helping to ensure the best Games ever. At the top of the agenda, the overall theme of the Plenum is THE MACCABIAH, 1932-2012. In Israel's first stadium, built especially for the first Maccabiah in 1932, the Maccabiah Games opened in the 'First Hebrew City', Tel Aviv, in 1932. The Plenum`s festive opening evening will be under the theme of "80th Anniversary of the 1st Maccabiah". Plenum attendees will draw inspiration from the proud Maccabi tradition; all delegates will wear clothing representing their countries and will parade into the original Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv!

At the 2011 Maccabi World Union Plenum meeting, it wasn’t difficult spotting a Maccabi Canada delegate. In fact, Maccabi Canada had the largest delegation among 32 countries as representatives gathered at the Kfar Maccabiah complex for sessions, workshops and meetings associated with planning for the 2013 Maccabiah Games. Former Maccabi World Union president Jean Futeran from South Africa says of Canada, “It’s marvellous to see such an enthusiastic group. You can always count on Maccabi Canada to be here in support – and always with new faces, a mixture of people who have been here before and younger ones with creative ideas and the eagerness to make the organization strong for the future.” The 2012 Plenum will see Canada out in full force representing Canada's interests on the international stage.

Meetings of the Board of Trustees and International Sports will start their meeting on Thursday, May 17. A Maccabi global public relations seminar will be held May 17-18. Participants will have the unique opportunity in meeting top Israeli media and PR professionals. The International Accommodations committee will tour accommodation centers across the country. Following shabbat, on Sunday May 20th, international committee meetings will be held covering all facets of organizing, accommodating and ensuring a successful international-level sporting competition. The countdown to the 19th Maccabiah has begun and the upcoming Plenum is the final forum for shaping the Games, proposing new ideas, designing innovative outreach, setting standards, and working together in the global search for elite athletes to come and participate in the Maccabi movement.

After the Plenum meetings, each country returns home with excitement, inspiration, and a renewed sense of purpose to organize the very best delegation possible to participate in the Games. The honorary co-Presidents of the 19th Games are Bob Spivak of Philadelphia and Roy Salomon of Montreal. Both served together as co-Chairs of the North American Confederation of Maccabi World Union. Together, they officially announced the competition dates of the Games at the last Plenum meetings in May 2011. The dates for the upcoming Games are Tuesday, July 16, 2013 and ending Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Roy said, "To be named with Bob as Honorary Co-Presidents of the 19th World Maccabiah Games is a very special privilege. I am really looking forward to working with him again in our new role with Maccabi World Union". Roy served as President of Maccabi Canada and has continued to take on various national and international leadership positions within Maccabi World Union because of his passion for Jewish Continuity, the State of Israel and athletic competition. The World Maccabiah Games, a quadrennial competition ranked among the world's top international sporting events, has a magical quality about it which awakens feelings that touch the hearts and reach the souls of the Maccabiah participants. The athletes readily explain that these feelings remain long past the conclusion of the competition - they last a lifetime.

The appointment capped more than 40 years of involvement by Salomon in the Maccabi movement, beginning in 1969 when he was a member of the Canadian men’s basketball team. When it was time to hang up his competitive shoes on the hardwood, Roy found other ways to get involved. His mission: to promote Canadian Jewish athletes. His positions with Maccabi Canada have included chair of the national athletic committee (NAC) from 1981 to 1985, Team Canada chef de mission for the 1997 and 2001 Games, and Maccabi Canada president from 1993 to 2001. He is currently honorary president. In 1995, Roy was inducted into the Montreal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2001, he was recognized with the Maccabi movement’s prestigious Yakir Award, the Movement’s highest honor recognizing exceptional effort by Maccabi members in international service within the World Union framework. “You know, it’s very, very important for me to stay active,” Salomon said. “It has to do with what it always had to do with: athletes and Judaism. “The bottom line is that [in the Maccabiah context], sports has always been a means to an end, to give kids a sense of pride in who they are in terms of Judaism, Israel and as future leaders.”

Working to ensure that the 19th Maccabiah is the best ever is Canada's own Allen Gerskup, international Vice-President of the Maccabi World Union, the governing body for the international Maccabi movement. Allen might be an accountant by profession - but he's also a jock. As Commissioner of the B'Nai Brith Baseball league from 1980 to 1985, he took a league from 36 teams to 106 - making it the largest organized baseball league in the world. His affiliation and love for Maccabi started in 1985 when he travelled with the Canadian Maccabi softball team to Israel as team manager and won a silver medal at the 12th Maccabiah Games. That same year, Allen was appointed to the Maccabi Canada Board of Directors. In 1993, he became a member of the Organizing Committee for Canada's delegation to the Maccabiah Games, then spent eight years as Chairman of the National Athletic Committee and continues to be an integral member of the National Executive - something that started in 1997. Allen also took on major responsibilities for Maccabi Canada at the Pan-American Games in Argentina (1995), Mexico (1999) and Chile (2003). In the summer of 2005, for the 17th Games, he was Maccabi Canada's Head of Delegation, and in 2009 he was President / Chef de Mission for the 18th Maccabiah Games where Canada won 12 gold, 14 silver and 37 bronze medals, finishing behind only Israel and the United States.

“Needless to say, I was quite honoured to be asked to run for vice-president of MWU,” he said in an interview in his Toronto office. “I felt very flattered.” Over the years, Gerskup has made many friends in the Maccabi world. He’s attended pretty much every international congress and plenary since the early 1990s, and “I know 90 per cent of the people personally,” he said. Very few Canadians have served on the MWU executive committee, but Gerskup said “I’ve been pushing for four years that Canada needs more recognition, and they agreed that Canada needs a place at the table.” Maccabi Canada has a reputation as “good team players,” as reflected in the hard work of former president Roy Salomon, who also co-chaired Maccabi North America, in trying to resolve differences between MWU and Maccabi Australia after the tragic bridge collapse at the 1997 Maccabiah Games that killed four Australians. In his new position, Gerskup expects “to be in charge of international sports, to be the president’s eyes and ears at all the regional games, to promote bilateral games between members and to encourage more Maccabi activities between Maccabiahs.”

Article by:

Bill Izso

Some of Canada’s best-known sportscasters, radio and television personalities gathered on behalf of Maccabi Canada last week in a Sports Unplugged fundraising event.

Hosted by Dan Shulman, ESPN’s play-by-play commentator for Major League Baseball and the NBA, Sports Unplugged included Michael Landsberg (TSN), Elliotte Friedman (CBC), Steve Simmons (Toronto Sun), Mike Wilner (Blue Jays radio broadcaster), Shi Davidi (Rogers Sportsnet), Gord Kirke (sports lawyer) and Nelson Millman (executive producer for radio at the 2012 Olympics).

The commentators were divided into groups of four and faced off against each other in debates on sports issues – a format similar to TSN’s Off the Record, which Landsberg hosts. They discussed the New Orleans Saints’ bounty-hunting scandal, the Blue Jays’ chances in 2012 and the role of the media in the firing of Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson.

The highly opinionated personalities presented their views on the issues, but the central message conveyed to the 350 onlookers was that Maccabi Canada is an organization worthy of their support.

Maccabi Canada president Tom Bacher, himself a former softball player at the Maccabiah Games, said that “events like this get our name out there in the community and create the reputation [of Maccabi] as an organization that does things first class.”

Spectators paid $200 each for the privilege of attending the event, held at Le Parc in Markham. Altogether, as much as $80,000 was raised, with funds earmarked for Maccabi Canada’s “adopt an athlete” program. The money will go to help underwrite the cost of bringing athletes to the 2013 Maccabiah Games in Israel. Funds will help at least 50 athletes attend the competition, Bacher said.

Sports Unplugged is one of several programs on the Maccabi calendar and is slated to become an annual event, Bacher said.

In June, Maccabi Canada will host a picnic and sports challenge at Camp Robin Hood. Other events include a bridge tournament and participation in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Oct. 14.

In introducing his fellow panelists, Shulman described his participation in the Pan American Maccabi Games, held over the winter holidays in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Pan Am Maccabi attracted athletes from Canada, Brazil, the United States, Australia, Israel, South Africa, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Panama and other countries.

Shulman was part of the masters basketball team that won a bronze medal while upsetting the highly favoured Brazilian team on their home court. He raved about his experience at the Games, and in particular, the game versus Brazil, when other Canadian athletes and delegation members crowded into a Brazilian gym to cheer on the Canadians.

“It’s a moment that will stay with us for the rest of our lives,” he said. 

Some of Canada’s best known sports personalities headlined Maccabi Canada’s “Sports Unplugged” event last week. Seen here, from left, Gord Kirke, Nelson Millman, Elliotte Friedman, Mike Wilner, Steve Simmonds, Maccabi Canada President Tom Bacher, Dan Shulman, Shi Davidi and Michael Landsberg. [Ben Katan photograph]

Article by:
Paul Lungen, Staff Reporter
Canadian Jewish News
Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Congratulations to György Szepesi on behalf of all the Maccabi TO's and the leadership and all the members of Maccabi VAC Hungary, on his 90th birthday.
György Szepesi, was born in Budapest as György Friedlander on February 5, 1922 and started to play football on the grounds of the city. As a child he wanted to be a football player but he wasn’t good enough. He had some very talented coevals, who became very famous sportsmen. He also played basketball in the Maccabi VAC.
Szepesi made forced - labour service in 1944 in Ukraine and Eastern Hungary; his father died in the concentration camp of Buchenwald.

Szepesi always loved sports and decided that he was going to support the Hungarian sport from behind the microphone. In 1945, he started working at the sports department of the Hungarian Radio and became one of the best known sport reporters and reported on every important sporting event. He had legendary broadcasts, which were listened to by millions. Szepesi had a special, individual style; he was always enthusiastic and soulful.

In 1963, he was the broadcaster of the legendary football match between England and Hungary, where the Hungarian team won to 6:3. They used to say in Hungary, that György Szepesi was the 12th player of the Golden team. He was a pioneer in his job and he made it perfect.
He was the chairman of the MLSZ (Hungarian Football Association) between 1978 and 1986 and from 1982 to 1994 a member of the executive committee of FIFA. He has received many prizes and recognitions and we wish him all the best of health and happiness.
.

Submitted by Adam Jusztin, Maccabi VAC
 

A Message from Yair Hamburger

As chairman of the Maccabi World Union, an international movement of more than 500,000 people in more than 50 countries around the world, I'd like to first and foremost express my gratitude and best wishes to the Maccabi Business Forum (MBF) members everywhere, particularly to the volunteer leadership that is at the heart of its efforts.

The MBF is based on the goal of attracting to our movement young professionals and business leaders who until now have not been exposed to the activities and values of the Maccabi movement, neither in Israel nor in the countries around the world where Maccabi is active.

The importance of the Maccabi World Union is expressed not only in its activities--- like the Maccabiah and the sports programming that we sponsor throughout the world. The importance of the Maccabi movement is in its vision, which is to bring Jews of the Diaspora closer to the State of Israel by emphasizing the centrality of Israel to world Jewry. This coming together is based on the values of Judaism and Zionism, with an accent on sports activities, in each and every one of the countries where the movement operates.

The outstanding benefit of the MBF once it will be fully integrated into the world Maccabi movement, will be to bring together a large, international group of quality young men and women with a strong business background who will become part of all the movement's institutions in the present, and who will be prepared to serve in the movement's future leadership in each and every place on the globe that Maccabi is represented.

There is no doubt that in the world where we now live, in the world of social networks, the establishment of a kind of social network of Jewish business people from all over the world who will establish personal and business relationships, and maintain contact with their peers in Israel, is an essential and outstanding idea.

But in addition to their mutual business interests, they will also have another ongoing and common interest-to support and promote the values and activities of the Maccabi Movement. Members of this network will be able to assist each other in business, in opening channels and in making deals among these young people, but most importantly, they will accomplish this with a common identity that comes from affiliating with and promoting the core values of the Maccabi movement.

Through the wise leadership of the MBF, whether in Israel or in MBF chapters in the various countries where nucleus groups of MBF will be formed; and through the good will and genuine willingness of the current Maccabi movement leadership to take in these young people and integrate them in the movement's institutions, I have no doubt whatsoever that we will manage to build in this way an important part of the future leadership of the movement.

And so I urge more and more young business leaders in Israel and around the world to join in the activities of the MBF. Joining does not just mean signing up, but it means real doing. The mission of every MBF member should be to create widespread business, cultural and sports contacts between their peers in the MBF worldwide, connections that will strengthen the members and bring them closer to each other on the one hand, and integrate them with veteran members and founders of the organization on the other hand.

I myself have been serving in the movement's leadership the past two years, and even though I am still a very active businessman, I find time for the movement and enjoy every minute of it. As a son of parents who arrived in Israel in 1935, and whose father was an athlete in the German delegation to the first Maccabiah in 1932, I see in this mission the closing of a circle, and a mission of top priority. It is an important mission, to bring the Jews of the Diaspora together with the people residing in Israel through programming that emphasizes the highest values.

The work of World Maccabi Union is authentic: You truly feel it, feel the love and camaraderie among members of the movement. In this complex era in which we live, being a part of the Maccabi World Union and the MBF can give anyone a sense of deep satisfaction.

--Yair Hambuger is Chairman of the Maccabi World Union

and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.

"I Don't Have a Job, I have a Mission."

Ardent Zionist and grandson of a found of Tel Aviv, Eyal Tiberger is a global activist for what he calls "The Jewish Future". As Director-General of Maccabi World Union (MWU), he speaks with tangible passion about the tasks at hand. Even more impressive than is signature chein is his absolute humility and relentless dedication to the Jewish people and Israel.

In a world plagued by a rise in anti-Semitism, amid a growing apathy among young Jews towards their Judaism and Jewish identity, Tiberger's mission is to kindle the flame of Jewish 'peoplehood', a buzzword he uses interchangeably with 'nationhood'. He is a formidable Sabra force at the heart of the world’s only international Jewish sports organization, operating in more than 400 cities in the 60 countries on six continents "to secure the future of our people.

Maccabi World Union uses organized sports, Israel-oriented cultural activity and informal educational to promote a very necessary 'national' agenda: uniting Jews and the land of Israel in a partnership that has kept the Jewish people alive through the generations of its tumultuous history. Organized sport under the Maccabi banner has "proven to be a highly effective means to create, maintain and strengthen global Jewish unity and solidarity". Tiberger believes spending "quality time in Israel" is a primary building-block of "personal Jewish identity, whether you are eight or 80, observant or secular, even totally assimilated. It is of great concern to me that only 15% of Diaspora Jews have visited Israel." Through MWU, he offers programs that give Diaspora Jews opportunities to experience the dynamic pulse of modern Israeli society.

A fitness fanatic with a degree from Israel’s Wingate Institute for Sports, his face lights up when he talks about the power of Maccabi to attract Jews of all ages into involvement with their communities, and he glows when he reminisces about thousands of Maccabiah athletes singing the moving melodies of Kabbalat Shabbat together. “For most, the first Maccabiah Friday night is their first-ever experience of a Jewish Sabbath, not only for teenagers from places like Lithuania and other ex-Communist countries, but also from the West. At our 18th Games in 2009, nearly half the adult Great Britain rugby team – all Jewish according to Israel’s Law of Return, many of them already fathers of Jewish families – had their bar mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem.

“Maccabi is not just about the exciting world of Sports,” Tiberger continues, “but about a holistic experience of being Jewish, of belonging to the Jewish world.” OF the 7500 athletes and officials at Maccabiah 2009, 68% had never been to Israel. While MWU’s flagship 14-day Maccabiah Games, held in Israel every four years, is the world’s largest sports event, it is also the planet’s biggest international Jewish event. Besides the 5250 athletes from Diaspora countries in 2009, they attracted 10,000 international visitors. About 350,000 spectators attended sports tournaments and millions more saw Maccabiah cultural events and opening and closing ceremonies broadcast live to TV and Webcast audiences in Israel and Diaspora countries.

“It’s a highly significant personal Jewish experience for each athlete and a shared experience of ‘national’ pride and unity for the whole Jewish world. On July 16, 2013, we are going to open the 19th Maccabiah at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Mark the date; believe me, you want to be there!”

He is full of praise for the social enterprise of the South African Jewish Community. “In good times and bad, the South African Jewish community has never failed to share its blessings with the less fortunate I the wider community.” He lauds the commitment of Maccabi South Africa leaders like Cliff Garrun, and swells with pride recounting his visit to Cape Town, where former MWU president Jeanne Futeran took him to a Maccabi Junior Boys Soccer Tournament, which was re-instituted after 20 years. “At Maccabi SA’s annual dinner at Sandton Shul, there were 350 guests, who were so warm and supportive, such a reflection of your vibrant community!”

Maccabi is in full swing, with summer 2011 as its next goal in sight, and Eyal Tiberger is making waves worldwide, endeavoring to secure the future of the Jewish people!

Article by Shira Druion, Jewish Life, Our Community, Our World, ISSUE 39