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Eyal Tiberger: 18th Israel Maccabiah Most Successful Jewish Event
By Darryl
Egnal Ramat Gan, Israel ---- July 24, 2009 ..... The 18th Jewish Maccabiah Sports Games have drawn to a close. The basketball courts, soccer fields and swimming lanes have gone quiet. Thousands of Jewish athletes, dozens of foreign delegations from the US, Canada, Russia and Mexico to UK, France, Brazil and India have packed their bags and are finding their way back to their respective countries. The once buzzing media centre, volunteers’ room and other temporary offices have been disassembled and the cream of the Jewish sports world is slowly dispersing. A let down? Far from it. The 18th Maccabiah or Chai (Life / 18) was exactly that – filled with life, with soul, with excitement and happiness – and the person who can feel the most excited and proud is Eyal Tiberger, Director General of the Maccabi World Union. Relaxed and happy at the closing ceremony of the 18th Maccabiah, Tiberger was emotional and completely satisfied. “The closing ceremony and this Maccabiah went beyond any of my expectations,” says Tiberger. “The closing ceremony was so moving and exciting; it was the best ceremony we’ve ever had. Now that everything is over, I’m so pleased to see all the athletes with a smile on their faces, with a real sense of Zionism and Judaism that they will take back with them all over the world.” The Maccabiah Chai (18) (Jewish Olympics) closing ceremony was an emotional, exhilarating and enjoyable event. The Latrun (Israel tank war memorial) amphitheatre was packed with athletes, other delegates and many visitors, all of whom were thoroughly entertained. Guest speakers at the 18th Maccabiah Chai included Israel President Shimon Peres; Yuli Edelstein, Israel Minister of Information and Diaspora Affairs; Igal Carmi, Chairman of the Maccabi World Union, and Itamar Herman, Chairman of the Maccabiah Organizing Committee. It was a fitting end to an eventful, memorable and rewarding Maccabiah 2009, a journey that started in 2005 soon after the last Maccabiah ended. Four years of dedication, preparation and hard work by an enthusiastic and committed Maccabi World Union team resulted in the success of the 18th Maccabiah, an event that brought 20 percent more Jewish athletes and delegates to Israel than the 2005 Maccabiah despite worldwide economic turmoil. Tiberger is pleased with the outcome of the 18th Maccabiah Games, which took place in venues throughout Israel over the past two weeks, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Haifa and Herzliya. There have been tears of joy, tears of sadness, proud winners and uncomplaining losers, not to mention a few budding romances and new friendships that have been cemented. Tiberger believes that Maccabiah has the potential to have the biggest impact on Israel, the Jewish world and Aliyah of any single Jewish event internationally. “The Maccabiah is one of the most important enterprises in the Jewish world,” says Tiberger. "And it is important to have the support of all Jewish communities, all institutions and all organisations involved in this very unique event. “As we see, around 60 percent of the athletes have never been to Israel before. Maccabiah is a vehicle to bring Jewish athletes to the country, and I believe the communities should support more of the Maccabiah in order to expand the potential to bring more and more Jewish athletes to the games,” he says. “My dream is that the next Maccabiah will have 10,000 athletes – instead of the 8,000 we had this year. By increasing the number, we will show that the Maccabiah is very special and very attractive to many Jewish youngsters and athletes.”
According to Tiberger, this Maccabiah was very unique in various aspects especially in terms of size and the organisation of the games. “It was much bigger than the 17th Maccabiah,” he says. "In terms of organisational aspects, I would say that the 18th Maccabiah was well organised – from the accommodation and transportation to the various ceremonies, which were amazing.” In the past, it hasn’t been easy to involve the majority of Israelis in the Maccabiah, but this year has been very different. Tiberger believes it was an adventure getting non-participating Israelis involved in the Maccabiah. “We wanted to make them aware of what the Maccabiah is and the way they could get integrated and be part of the Maccabiah. I was very happy with the viewers; there were many more spectators in the stadiums for the sports, which was a great surprise and I was very pleased to see this - in judo, karate, basketball, swimming, volleyball, track and field, rugby, lawn bowls… all the tournaments were filled with spectators which really helped the athletes, the players to be more motivated.” Another successful aspect of Maccabiah Chai was government’s co-operation. Tiberger says that the Israel government was very supportive of this Maccabiah, much more so than previous Maccabiot, which is very encouraging to those involved in the Maccabi World Union. However, one thing Tiberger wasn’t happy with was the Maccabiah corporate sponsorship for this event. “We had great sponsors, but with less money than in previous Maccabiot, mostly because of the financial crisis,” he says. There have been many lessons learned from the 18th Maccabiah, but the final reckoning will only come out next year. “As the results of each Maccabiah delegation come in, they go to a ‘conclusion’ committee, which sits for about eight months. They review the reports of the various delegations and executive members, they listen, and they invite the heads of the departments to come up with their conclusions and recommendations. “Once the results are out, we’ll be able to see what was good about this Maccabiah and what we can learn from it; what we can take to the next Maccabiah and on what weaknesses we have to improve,” says Tiberger. “We did hear from many of the heads of delegations they were very happy with the various departments of the Maccabiah in dealing with problems and matters right away; they didn’t have to wait long because things were resolved on the spot. They were very pleased with the quick response of the departments when it came to logistics – accommodation, transportation, sports and security and safety.” But, without waiting for the reports, Tiberger knows of one area in which they weren’t as proactive and well-organised as they would’ve liked to be – public relations, Web 2.0 and marketing before the event. “We need to start well in advance of the Maccabiah to get the word out, but with the limited budget we have had, we could only start two weeks before, and then not on the scale we would’ve liked. I feel that the PR should be improved in many ways and hopefully, we’ll be able to do more before the next Maccabiah,” he says. Tiberger realizes that the Maccabiah doesn’t just happen from the Maccabi World Union head office. The Maccabi branches throughout the Jewish world are equally responsible for its success. “I would like to thank the heads of delegations, all of whom did a tireless job over the last four years in order to come to Israel with thousands of athletes,” he says. “They are really the hosts of the Maccabiah, bringing so many athletes here. We actually served them and we tried to do it in the best way we could.
“So I’d like to thank them all personally for the great job that they did. And I’d also like to thank the athletes who invested – not spent – invested a lot of money in order to fulfill this dream and come to compete in Israel,” says Tiberger. “In addition, I would love to see all these athletes become ambassadors of the State of Israel and especially the Maccabi movement around the world and to spread the word about the Jewish Olympic Games and the Maccabi movement, about the involvement in Jewish life and strengthening the link to Israel.” The World Maccabiah Games are a quadrennial sports, cultural and educational event that takes place in Israel. The 18th World Maccabiah Games, which took place July 12 – 23, 2009 are the world’s third largest international athletic competition. As the world’s
third largest sports event after the Olympics, the 18th Maccabiah
Games in Israel plays host to 3,000 junior Maccabiah athletes,
aged 15 -18; 5,000 open athletes, 2,000 masters and Paralympics. Sports for which competitors went for Gold include: artistic gymnastics, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, bridge, cricket, chess, fencing, golf, gymnastics, handball, half-marathon, field hockey, judo, karate, netball, lawn bowls, rowing, rugby, squash, soccer, softball, swimming, table-tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, track and field, ten-pin bowling, volleyball, water polo, wrestling and windsurfing. The 18th Maccabiah Games utilized powerful Web 2.0 new media social networking to connect in real time with millions in Israel and worldwide. There are Twitter news channels: israelmaccabiah and maccabiah and two official Facebook groups. In addition to Maccabiah.com, a new state of the art Web 2.0 Maccabiah Web site has been launched. With very little money, limited resources and a highly dedicated staff, Maccabiah World Union organizers Eyal Tiberger, Amir Peled, Jeanne Futeran, Igal Carmi, Itamar Herman, Rabbi Carlos Tapiero, Avinoam Caspi-Greenfield, Nirit Harel French and Tmira Shafran have provided Israel and the world's Jewish community with an 18th Maccabiah that shall be remembered and cherished for many years to come. Maccabi is
active in Jewish communities throughout the world.
Tiberger says most of the delegates experienced Israel in a very positive way. The Maccabi World Union team got compliments from the heads of delegations and others saying that they were warmly welcomed by the Israelis, and Tiberger would like this to continue into the future. He would also like to see more and more Israelis getting involved in the Maccabi movement and the Maccabiah games, joining the games as spectators, participating in any way, and generally becoming more involved in the cultural and educational aspects for the next event. “But
the most important people to thank would be my team,” he
says.
Joel Leyden contributed to the above news story.
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