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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/37572/full/37572/finish-line-ahead-but-s.f.-maccabi-games-still-in-prep-mode/ <br /><br /> <b>Finish line ahead, but S.F. Maccabi Games still in prep mode</b> <br /> Thursday, March 19, 2009 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>With 43 subcommittees to oversee, Jackie Lewis is the mother of all mother hens.</p> <p>That’s what it takes to be director of the upcoming JCC Maccabi Games in San Francisco. With the August start date looming, it’s game on for Lewis. “We’re starting to get excited,” she says. “We can see the games from here.”</p> <p>More than 1,200 Jewish teen athletes from across North America, Australia, the U.K. and Israel will descend on the Bay Area for the annual games, which take place Aug. 2 to 7 in San Francisco for the first time, with the JCCSF playing host. It will take 1,000 volunteers and hundreds of host families to pull it off.</p> <p>Lewis says she still needs many more host families, and hopes to lure them in part by clearing up a few misconceptions.</p> <p>“Some people feel you can host only if you have a child who’s an athlete,” Lewis says. “But we need Jewish households: empty nesters, people with preschoolers and babies. They can have an incredible time hosting.”</p> <p>She also reports about 50 slots out of 300 remain open for Bay Area teen athletes who want to participate. The games offer 14 different sports to chose from.</p> <p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="BAmaccabi" class="left" height="294" src="http://dev.jweekly.com/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/zm_03_20_09/BAmaccabi.jpg" title="Athletes from the 2008 San Francisco delegation participate in opening ceremonies in San Diego. photo/beau blackburn/jccsf" width="360" /> <div class="caption">Athletes from the 2008 San Francisco delegation participate in opening ceremonies in San Diego. photo/beau blackburn/jccsf</div> </div> This being a Jewish event, the Maccabi Games are about more than just sports. Organizers also hope to instill and deepen Jewish values.</p> <p>“This is an opportunity to have a very positive Jewish experience,” says Toby Rubin, “and the only way to do that is if the experience is infused with a Jewish flavor that resonates for them, whether they know it or not.”</p> <p>Rubin heads the games’ Jewish content committee, which came up with three Jewish values to highlight: guarding the body, the soul and the Earth.</p> <p>As for guarding the body, all food will be strictly kosher, prepared under rabbinical supervision. Healthy food facts will be posted at every table at the University of San Francisco dining room where the kids will eat.</p> <p>Not only will these be the greenest games in Maccabi Games history –– no bottled water, and ample recycling and composting bins at every event site –– but athletes will also have a chance to flex their tzedakah muscles.</p> <p>In the middle of the games, the teens will participate in the Day of Caring and Sharing, during which they prepare school backpacks for needy children.</p> <p>They will also be guided by a few dozen quotations from the Torah, the Talmud and Jewish sages. “We’re using quotes that express [Jewish] values,” Rubin says. “We’ll put them in game schedules, on various signs. They provoke thinking around these values.”</p> <p>Moreover, teens will create their own values hamsa (a Middle Eastern symbol of a hand denoting divine protection), which will include the core values of the games.</p> <p>Teens can expect to have plenty of fun during their visit to San Francisco. Lewis says a hangout room, located at USF (the games’ home base) will feature a Wii, free food, couches and the famous Maccabi Games pins (not unlike those ubiquitous Olympic pins) that athletes can collect and trade.</p> <p>Though Lewis and Rubin say arrangements for the games are running smoothly, neither will relax until they see the athletes on the fields, in the pools and on the courts having the time of their lives.</p> <p>“We are very aware these athletes are coming for many reasons,” Tobin says, “and at the top of the list is not to get a Jewish education, but … [to build] Jewish memories. We are hoping they will be inspired by the experience.”</p> <p><br />For more information about volunteering or hosting a <strong>Maccabi Games</strong> athlete, contact Katie Wallenberg at (415) 292-1270, or go to <a href="http://www.jccmaccabisf.org">http://www.jccmaccabisf.org</a>.</p>

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