The festive opening ceremony for the first Maccabiah took place on March 28, 1932 at Beit Ha’am in Tel Aviv. Many public figures attended, including Tel Aviv’s Mayor Meir Dizengoff.
The next day, Dizengoff led 390 athletes from 18 countries in the Parade of Athletes on horseback. The parade route was from the Gymnasia high school in Herzliya, Tel Aviv’s cultural center at the time, to the Maccabiah Stadium, a distance of approximately 5 kilometers.
Yosef Yekutieli founded the Maccabiah. After seeing a brochure from the 1912 Stockholm Olympics in his youth, Yekutieli realized that many Jewish athletes won medals representing their various countries and had an idea: to promote the participation of athletes from Eretz Israel in the Olympics.
In the meantime, WWI broke out and Yekutieli was drafted into the Turkish army. After the war, he returned to his activities with Maccabi and revisited his idea. He approached the International Olympic Committee but they denied his request, claiming that athletes without a country could not participate in the Olympics. Therefore, he decided to create a Jewish Olympics.
Since then, there has been a Maccabiah every four years, except during WWII.
The number of participating athletes and countries has increased steadily over the years - the 21st Maccabiah in 2022 will host some 10,000 athletes from 80 countries, making it the second largest sporting event in the world.
However, the Maccabiah has always been more than just a sporting event; it is also a celebration of the perpetual connection of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel and to the State of Israel. Thus, the Maccabiah is the only international sporting event that always takes place in the same location - Israel.
The theme of the 21st Maccabiah is “Israel Celebrates Sport”. This year, the Maccabiah will also organize a wide range of sports and cultural activities for the public in order to strengthen the bond between the Jewish People in the Diaspora not only to the Land of Israel but also to its residents.
The Maccabiah continues to grow and innovate by including representatives from each new country that signs bilateral agreements with Israel, creating a safe space for everyone who wants to participate in the sporting events, reinforcing disadvantaged communities, and emphasizing the environment, sustainability and green energy. All in addition to the various different sports that the Maccabiah works to enhance or bring to Israel.
The new stamp features the realm of beach and water sports that the current Maccabiah is highlighting: beach football, open water swimming, surfing and more.
The 21st Maccabiah will also include the fields of rock climbing, ninja, 3x3 basketball, baseball, ice hockey, netball and even e-sports.
The 21st Maccabiah
