This summer Israel will host the 20th Maccabiah with an expected 10,000 athletes from 80 countries competing in the “Jewish Olympics”.
Occurring every four years, this year’s ‘Jewish Olympics’ is set to be the largest in history with over 32,000 people expected to attend. The Maccabiah is the world’s greatest Jewish athletic competition facilitating in bringing young Jewish athletes together and strengthening their connection to Israel. This year there are four separate competitions taking place; Open, Junior, Masters, and Paralympics.
The opening ceremony will take place on July 6th in Jerusalem in Teddy Stadium, celebrating 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem, with the athletes' march, the famous lighting of the Maccabiah torch and live performances by top Israeli talent and appearances from notable Israeli dignitaries, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Rivlin.
In the past the Maccabiah has hosted the best athletes in Jewish history, including Mark Spitz, Dolph Schayes, Aly Raisman and Tal Brody. This summer we are expecting new MVP’s and record breaking talent, the top of whom will be Rio gold medalist Anthony Ervin. The Games will be broadcast live on Reshet and streamed lived on their website so that people from every corner of the world have the opportunity to catch live updates.