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Jewish Continuity Paramount For UK Team At 18th Israel Maccabiah
By Darryl
Egnal Kfar Maccabiah, Ramat Gan, Israel ---- July 21, 2009 ..... Being a part of Maccabiah Chai (Life / 18) for Martin Berliner, Maccabi UK GB CEO, and David Pinnick, head of the British 18th Maccabiah delegation, is the culmination of two years of hard work, preparation, organisation and implementation. Berliner,
who has been involved in Maccabi
Great Britain (GB) and the Maccabiah Games for nine years,
heads up a multi-million pound organisation. Maccabi GB's main sponsor this year is the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), an organisation that invests in education and the youth in both the UK and Israel. "The Maccabiah is not about the money," says Berliner. "Nor is it about medals and winning. It's about the continuity of the Jewish people." Maccabi GB's mission is to support the long-term future of British Jewry by engaging and developing the entire community and especially young people, in a broad range of Jewish sporting, educational and social activities, while actively promoting the centrality of Israel. "Yes, every individual loves to win and pocket that gold, silver or bronze medal, but the focus is on bringing together like-minded Jewish individuals from all over the UK, enabling them to meet and make friends that last a lifetime," says Berliner. "It's about bringing them to Israel to explore their Jewish roots and meet other Jews from the rest of the world. It's about connecting to the homeland." Team Great Britain comprises of 513 members - 100 shy of the number of Mitzvot in Judaism. There are 24 sports being represented, with about 40 percent of the UK delegation involved in 11 soccer squads, both male and female. "Before we arrived in Israel, people kept saying to us they hoped we'd win many medals and that we'd do really well in all our games," says delegation head, David Pinnick. "The first time I even thought of medals was when we started winning them. It's not about the medals; medals get put into a drawer and forgotten about, but the memories live on forever. We believe it's about being at a Maccabiah and being in Israel, and the camaraderie and feelings that go with the events." According to Berliner, the first time he felt what Maccabiah was really about was when they had their first gathering. "When the UK team was assembled, we had 513 Jewish people from Great Britain in one room all meeting and getting to know each other. That is what it's all about," he says. "What we do is incredibly hard to put together - it's all about Jewish continuity; we use sports to engage people, enable them to meet other Jews and have lasting experiences. "If we won all the medals and people went home and never spoke to each other again, we would have failed. It really is about the relationships and friendships that develop. We've even had a few marriages that resulted from meeting at previous Maccabiah events."
Pinnick dwells on the fact that the continuity of the Jewish people is a key motivation behind Maccabi GB. "Israel is part of our mission statement and Maccabi is a huge part of Jewish identity," he says. "In fact, many of our players become managers and community leaders because they've been inspired by this event. Maccabi is a vehicle to bring people to Israel; it is not an elite sports event focusing only on the sports. People are enthusiastic and passionate about the fact that it is in Israel, and watching the team develop outside of sports, making contacts, networking, making friends, is extremely rewarding." Both Berliner and Pinnick have added reasons to be proud. Berliner's 22-year-old son is competing in football (soccer), while Pinnick's two daughters age 25 and 15, are participating in the netball. In fact, Pinnick had to rush off after the Israel News Agency interview to watch his girls play or he knew he'd be in serious trouble. "That's where the continuation of the Maccabiah comes in," says Berliner. "We have been involved and now our children are participating - as competitors and as leaders (madrichim). There is a woman whose husband and sons are competing, and in some families, there are three generations who are part of the British team." Maccabi GB has spent an enormous amount of time getting its management orientated and prepared for Maccabiah Chai. "We had to work hard to manage expectations in the nine months before we arrived for the 18th Maccabiah," says Pinnick. "Our managers were all required to attend Israel UK cultural and organizational workshops designed to enable them to understand what Maccabiah is all about, how to cope and what to expect." One of the key issues on which Maccabi GB is focused is security, within the UK and in Israel. According to Berliner, the Intifada placed much focus onto Jews in the UK and it has manifested itself in anti-Semitism. "Many make the mistake of equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, but people don't understand that being anti-Jewish and anti-Israel are two completely different things," he says. "During Operation Cast Lead, many in the Jewish community were sent death threats, including me. I got calls on my cellphone which were very threatening. This was the first time as a British citizen and a Jew that I wondered where I belonged. I had never come across anti-Semitism before. "On the other hand, after 7/7 (2005 Islamic terror bus and train bombings in London), there was a lot of demonization of Muslims," says Berliner. "Many peace-loving Muslims were tarred with the terrorists brush. If a Muslim sat down on a bus, people close to him would get up and move. It wasn't good." During this time, the tables were turned on Britain. These bombings happened when the British team was in Israel for the 2005 Maccabiah. "There was a ring of steel around the Maccabiah games," says Berliner. "As usual, security was very tight in Israel. We were in Jerusalem when we heard about what happened in London and we ended up phoning England to make sure that our families were safe. We had to take the entire UK team back to the hotel so they could call home." Asked where he felt safer, the UK or Israel, Pinnick said there are parts of Israel and London in which he feels totally safe, going out, taking transport, letting the children walk around, just as there are parts in which he doesn't. "If I was wearing a Kippah, I'd feel far safer here in Israel than I would in the UK," he says. There was a time when some Jews would take off their yarmulkes in certain areas, and when I was at school, I couldn't wear a Kippah outside the school grounds." "Despite this, we can't be insular any longer," says Berliner. "We have to be open to the interfaith aspects of British culture. There are after-school programmes we run in non-Jewish schools for the Jewish kids and others. We have to be seen to be working inside and outside the Jewish community in today's politically correct society. "We visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as a group soon after we arrived," he says, "The entire UK squad. One of the big questions we had, after looking at a photo with hundreds of Jews and only two German guards, was why the Jews did not attack them. We were told that we had to understand the mental attitude of the Jews at that time. No-one could quite comprehend what was happening; it was impossible to imagine. But we've come a long way, seeing the Yellow Star turned Blue in the Israel flag is an amazing feeling. The transition of the Star of David from a yellow 'death star' to a blue star of strength is remarkable. Israel is a country that has such incredible physical strength, it can stand up to anyone." Power can come in very different forms though, according to Pinnick. "In the UK, we do our fighting with our tongues," he says. "In Israel they reach for guns, in the UK we call advocates. We have a strong power base. Our strength and influence is in the intelligencia, academia, in business and politics; we don't need physical strength." Moving back to the discussion on the 18th Maccabiah Games, Pinnick is quick to add that Team Great Britain is well on track with its winnings, even though this is not the focus. Medals keep the motivation strong and the team - in the Junior, Masters and Open groups - has wracked up at least four 18th Maccabiah gold medals, a couple of silvers and more than half a dozen bronze medals, despite their not being used to the weather. "Our players struggled with the heat during the first week, getting tired very quickly," he says, "but they have improved dramatically this week. We were fortunate, we could afford to bring our strongest players and they have all made us really proud." The World Maccabiah Games are a quadrennial sports, cultural and educational event that takes place in Israel. The 18th World Maccabiah Games, taking 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 will be going 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 is utilizing 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. Berliner feels there have been many highlights at these Maccabiah Games, but two really stand out. "Personally,
having my son with me in Israel is wonderful. Seeing photos of
him visiting the Western Wall - Kotel, for example, really moves
me. Professionally,
watching the team enter the stadium during the Opening Ceremony
- after two years of hard work - and seeing them make their way
around the field was a very special feeling of pride and satisfaction." Joel Leyden contributed to the above news story.
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