The Maccabiah Games, often referred to as the “Jewish Olympics,” kicked off on Wednesday evening with around 5,000 athletes from roughly 35 countries participating in the opening ceremony at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium.
The Maccabiah is one of the largest sporting events in the world and the largest Jewish athletic competition.
The games that opened on Wednesday were the 22nd of their kind. They were postponed last year due to the conflict between Israel and Iran and its regional proxy groups. They are also the first such games to be held since the Hamas-led massacres on October 7, 2023.
The previous Maccabiah was held in 2022 after being postponed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2026 Maccabiah Games are being held under the slogan “More Than Ever,” a tagline Maccabiah says it chose to promote the bond between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora at a time when the “connection is more significant than ever.”
Thousands of people showed up to witness the opening ceremony, with high-profile Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion also in attendance.
The Maccabiah Games’ opening event was introduced by television host and screenwriter Assi Azar and dancer Anna Aronov, and featured a performance by Eurovision Song Contest 2025 second-place winner Yuval Raphael.
Anna Zak, Netta Barzilai perform
Other musical performances included a duet sung by Anna Zak and Netta Barzilai, winner of 2018’s Eurovision Song Contest. Israeli musical icon Idan Raichel also performed a set of songs alongside former Hamas hostage Daniella Gilboa.
American-Israeli IDF soldier and former Hamas hostage Edan Alexander also made an appearance at the ceremony.
Additionally, social media influencer, dancer, and singer Montana Tucker, who hosted the opening ceremony’s Delegations Parade along with singer Michael HarPaz, debuted her new song, “We’re Not Strangers,” while Itay Levy performed with a choir and hundreds of dancers.
Tucker and HarPaz also delivered the opening remarks at the ceremony ahead of the Delegations Parade.
“We in the Diaspora stand in support of our brothers and sisters here in Israel because we truly are one family in the deepest sense of the word,” Tucker said. “A family that knows how to grieve together and a family that knows how to celebrate together. And that is exactly what we will be doing here this evening.”
The parade saw thousands of athletes who will participate in the events over the coming days march through the stadium, brandishing their nations’ flags.
Some also carried Israeli and Maccabiah flags.
A number of the countries, such as the United States, Argentina, France, Israel, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Germany, sent large delegations. The US, with the second-largest delegation after Israel, had some 900 athletes present, who came out to uproarious applause from the audience.
Other countries, including Armenia, Gibraltar, Taiwan, and South Africa, had delegations that mustered only a few, or even just one, athlete.
International delegations march through stadium
After all the nations, except Israel, marched through the stadium, Harlan welcomed the Israeli leaders to the event. When Netanyahu was introduced, some boos were audible.
The Israeli delegation followed.
Next was the entrance of the Maccabiah banner, carried by family members of the 12 Druze children killed in a 2024 Hezbollah rocket attack on the northern town of Majdal Shams.
Both President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu also addressed the crowd during the ceremony, bidding the Jews who had come from around the world a warm “welcome home.”
When Netanyahu began speaking, again some boos were audible from the crowd.
In his remarks, the prime minister asserted that Israel was the homeland of all Jews and encouraged them to stand firm in their identities as Jews amid “the rising tide of antisemitism” and as Israel battled the forces of “barbarism.”
One of the highlights of the event was the Maccabiah torch-lighting ceremony, in which Evyatar Zeituni, a disabled IDF veteran and former Paratroopers Brigade officer, was among those bearing the traditional flame.
Zeituni was one of those wounded during the October 7, 2023, attacks as he and others fought to defend Kibbutz Kissufim.
The torchbearers then passed the flame to Israeli Paralympic taekwondo champion Asaf Yasur and Israeli Olympic judo athlete Inbar Lanir, who lit the Maccabiah torch together.
Both athletes competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, with Yasur winning a gold medal and Lanir a silver. Lanir is set to compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Source:
www.jpost.com
