The 22nd Maccabiah will open next Wednesday with a ceremony at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, launching competitions across many sports. Organizers hope the Jewish Olympics will produce new historic moments, and ahead of the torch-lighting, the article revisits some of the event’s most memorable appearances by global stars.
Among the most celebrated was Olympic champion Aly Raisman, who came to the 2013 Maccabiah at age 19 after winning gold in floor exercise at London 2012, plus a bronze medal and a team gold. She dedicated her routine to the 11 victims of the Munich massacre, was honored as torchbearer and flame-lighter, and performed a festive "Hava Nagila" exhibition during the games. At the opening ceremony, then President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded her, and her visit drew international coverage.
Another key figure was Agnes Keleti, one of gymnastics’ all-time greats and a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, who arrived for the fifth Maccabiah after winning five Olympic gold medals in Melbourne and Helsinki. Her exhibition performances thrilled Israeli crowds and eventually changed her life: she chose to make aliyah after the Maccabiah, settled in Israel, and helped build the country’s artistic gymnastics infrastructure. Keleti, who died last year at 103, later received the Israel Prize for sports, became Israel’s most decorated individual Olympic athlete, and has the Wingate Institute gymnastics hall named for her.
Jason Lezak came to Israel a year after his famous Beijing 2008 finish, when his last-100-meter surge helped the United States beat France and win Michael Phelps his eighth gold. At the Maccabiah, he won gold in the 50 and 100 freestyle, lit the Maccabiah flame, and returned again in 2013 and 2017, at times as a coach and later in the masters category. The article also recalls Tal Brody, the American-born basketball standout drafted 12th by Baltimore, who impressed in the games, later made aliyah in 1966, and became a national symbol after his 1977 EuroLeague triumph with the famous line, "We are on the map!" Brody still serves as a Maccabiah ambassador and says Jewish Americans should visit Israel beyond sports, including Jerusalem, Masada, the Galilee and the Dead Sea.
The Maccabiah 2026 will run from July 1 to July 13 under the slogan "More Than Ever." More than 8,000 athletes from about 45 countries are expected to compete in roughly 45 sports. The games were originally scheduled for last summer but were postponed because of Operation "With the Lion."
