The JCC Maccabi Games® wrapped up last week and the athletes on our Jacksonville JCA Maccabi Games Team had a blast in Houston, Texas at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. Led by CEO Adam Chaskin, the 30 young athletes on our JCA team won 67 medals at the games – 33 gold, 17 silver, and 17 bronze. Mazel Tov to all our Maccabi athletes!
Romy Akilov, Judah Algee, Talia Algee, Chloe Anders, Indira Bagaria, Nadav Bagaria, DJ Becker, Micah Bozoff, Cort Csar, Ronan Curley, Baylee Finklehoffe, Taylor Finklehoffe, Micah Jafffa, DJ Kempner, Rayna Kempner, Riley Kropp, Eli Kuvin, Jonathan Landmann, Juliet Leonard, Sean Leonard, Ben Levinson, Lucas Lieberman, Joey Morgenthal, Noah Neihaus, Andan Ordile, Landon Schlossman, Zachary Setzer, Benjamin Smolensky, Shajar Stein and Avner Tzabari
Twelve of our athletes played basketball at the games. Cort, Sean, Noah, Zachary, Andan, Landon, Shajar, and DJ B, played on the 14U 5v5 basketball team. Joey, DJ K, Micah B, and Benjamin won the bronze Maccabi medal on the 16U 3v3 basketball team. Coach Brian Sherman led the 14U basketball team, while Coach Benjay Kempner led the 16U basketball team.
Nadav, Micah J, Ronan and Ben played flag football with Coach Andrew Jaffa at the helm and earned the silver medal.
Juliet, Baylee, Taylor, Talia, Rayna, Eli, Lucas, Avner, and Chloe earned dozens of medals in the pool, led by our JCA’s Assistant Aquatics Director Coach Lydia Samples. Our swimmers took home 32 gold medals, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals. That’s not all, Coach Lydia competed in the coaches’ relay at the games and her team won gold!
Riley represented Jacksonville on the Maccabi baseball team. Judah took to the tennis courts in the recreational division and Jonathan played tennis in the 14U boys competitive division, winning a gold medal. Finally, our volleyball players, Romy and Indira, served up the competition on the mixed Maccabi teams.
Coach Andrew Jaffa also received special recognition at the games and was presented with the JCC Maccabi Yellow Ribbon medal. Presented to participants throughout the games, the JCC Maccabi yellow ribbon medal was awarded in honor of the 115 hostages in Gaza who are not currently free. In addition, everyone at this year’s JCC Maccabi Games in Houston joined the global call to #BringThemHomeNow.
We are so proud of our athletes and coaches who represented the JCA and all of Jacksonville at the Maccabi Games! Thank you for contributing to the maintenance and enrichment of Jewish identity through the healthy competition and sportsmanship offered by the JCC Maccabi Games®!
To see more photos from Houston, click here to access the Maccabi Games album on our JCA Facebook page.