Amid terror fears, Maccabiah Games may be canceled
Friday, June 15, 2001 | byGIL SEDAN
JERUSALEM—The Maccabiah Games, the quadrennial tournament of Jewish athletes from around the world, is poised to become the latest casualty of the 8-month-old Palestinian uprising.
Barring any last-minute change, organizers of the 16th Maccabiah were expected to announce today that the Games—slated for July—will be postponed until next summer. If so, it would mark the first time the Maccabiah Games have been canceled since World War II.
It also would follow the recent announcement by the U.S. Reform movement that it is canceling its summer youth camps this year in Israel.
Both developments have drawn the ire of Israeli officials, who feel that especially now—when Israelis feel they are under siege from Palestinian terror attacks and international criticism—world Jewry should make good on its frequent protestations of unity.
Yet by canceling trips, diaspora Jews are refusing to show solidarity with Israel at this difficult time, Israeli officials charge.
Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh spoke Sunday of the "disgraceful" behavior of those "who for all these years have talked to us about the unity of the Jewish people over mounds of bagels and lox."
In recent days, increasing numbers of athletes said they do not want to participate in the upcoming Maccabiah, nicknamed the "Jewish Olympics."
Some 2,500 are still registered to participate, but cancellations are continuing. Last week, the U.S. delegation—the second largest, after the Israeli hosts—suggested postponing the games for a year because of the threat of Palestinian terrorism.
On Sunday, an Israeli deputy minister sympathized with the calls to postpone the Games.
Rabbi Michael Melchior, Israel's deputy foreign minister for diaspora affairs, said he had just returned from a tour of Jewish communities in Europe and found that most delegations there would not attend the July 16-26 event.
That same day, Maccabiah leaders from around the world met to decide whether to hold the games as scheduled, but agreed to an Israeli request to postpone the decision until today.
With a postponement increasingly likely, many Israeli politicians say it would represent a slap in Israel's face from world Jewry.
"Canceling the Maccabiah or postponing it is like granting Yasser Arafat the gold medal," Knesset member Eliezer Sandberg said.
Former basketball superstar Tal Brody, who first came to Israel from the United States as a Maccabiah athlete, said, "It is a choice between two evils"—postponing the Games altogether or holding them with very few participants.
As cancellations mounted, Maccabi World Union President Jeanne Futeran announced at a new conference this week that there seemed to be no choice but to postpone. "If we hold the Maccabiah under the present conditions, we could only have a couple of hundred of athletes," she said, which would be "an embarrassment. We need thousands."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Reform movement's decision to cancel youth trips to Israel has come under fire. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform movement's synagogue organization, announced the decision earlier this month.
Speaking to his board of trustees, Yoffie said he personally believed in making solidarity trips to Israel during difficult times. "But what I do as an individual or what we do as adult leaders of this movement needs to be separated out from what we do with children who travel under our auspices."
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert announced this week that he was suspending ties with the movement to protest the decision.
The outspoken leader of Israel's secularist Shinui Party, Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, dashed off an angry letter to Yoffie.
"This is a painful surrender to terror and the enemies of Israel," Lapid wrote. "We cannot expect more from American Jewry than a solidarity demonstration at Madison Square Garden, and I am sure beautiful summer camps will take place at the Catskill Mountains."
The Reform movement in Israel also criticized the move, saying parents should have been given a choice whether to send their children.
Melchior was one of the few Israeli leaders to adopt a moderate tone. "You have to know that condemnations won't bring a single young person to Israel," he said. "It will only distance them. "Relations with the diaspora must be based on a constructive dialogue."
Since the outbreak of violence last September, tourism to Israel has fallen to new lows, with hotels throughout the country reporting marginal occupancy.
Jewish youth groups, which in the past showed solidarity with Israel at difficult times, are now preferring to stay home:
*About half the scheduled participants—about 350 kids—withdrew from an Israel-based summer camp affiliated with the Conservative youth movement.
*Locally, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay and the Koret Foundation canceled summer trips for teens, which had dwindling enrollments.
*The Orthodox movement, Young Judaea and several North American Jewish community centers—along with Jewish organizations in Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and the United Kingdom—also reported cancellations.
*Young Judaea announced this week that no Israel trips would be called off. In addition, the Lubavitch-affiliated Ma'ayanot movement announced that most of its scheduled 1,100 youths would go to Israel this summer. And Birthright Israel, which postponed trips scheduled for early June, announced this week that some 5,000 students would go to Israel this summer.