PITTSBURGH (RNS) — Danielle Rose Nurko might be a 2024 JCC Maccabi Games medalist, but for the 16-year-old tennis player, the annual Olympic-style competition for Jewish teens isn’t about winning.
“It makes me feel more attached to my religion,” she told Religion News Service. “It’s not only competing and meeting new people; I know that all these people are like me, and that they have similar experiences as me.”
Attending the games is especially rewarding, she said, as one of only three Jewish students at her high school in Houston.
At the JCC Maccabi Games, taking place in Pittsburgh from Aug. 3-8 this year, Nurko is among nearly 2,000 Jewish teens from around the world competing in events such as ice hockey, swimming, basketball, soccer and dance. According to the event’s organizers, the games are intended as a welcome reprieve from rising antisemitism.
Danielle Rose Nurko, left, serves in a tennis match during the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games, Aug. 5, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
“It has become increasingly important for our community to have the opportunity to come together in a safe, fun, warm, joyful environment to celebrate Jewish life,” said Samantha Cohen, senior vice president and director of JCC Maccabi.
Twenty-five years ago, Cohen was herself a tennis player competing in the JCC Maccabi Games. “I got on the plane as a British tennis player and I flew home as a proud Jewish athlete,” she recalled, noting that the games have impacted teens for decades.
Founded in 1982 through the JCC Association of North America, the JCC Maccabi Games have become the largest Jewish youth sporting event in the world. Each year, the organization hosts two weeklong summer competitions for thousands of Jewish teens across the spectrum of religious observance. Last week, a different group of delegations competed in Tucson, Arizona. But across locations, athletics aren’t the main event, Cohen said; rather, sports are a vehicle for fostering Jewish unity and pride.
Groups are introduced during the opening ceremony of the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games at University of Pittsburgh, Aug. 4, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
That focus was on full display at the opening ceremony at a University of Pittsburgh arena Monday night (Aug. 4). Featuring pyrotechnics and a live DJ, the highlight of the ceremony was the hourlong parade of athletes from 51 delegations, including a group from New Orleans hurling Mardi Gras beads and a team from New Jersey sporting black jackets and sunglasses. Spectators were gifted small American flags, Israeli flags and Pittsburgh Steelers-themed “Terrible Towels” they waved with enthusiasm, especially when the Ukraine and Israel delegations entered the arena. In one of the ceremony’s few religious moments, thousands of participants recited the Shehecheyanu blessing in Hebrew, thanking God for giving and sustaining life.
Affiliated with local Jewish community centers, delegations are led by a head organizer and coaches, who are largely volunteers, said Joey Finkelstein, coach of the 15-and-under boys’ basketball team from Austin, Texas. A onetime Maccabi Games athlete now in his seventh year of coaching, Finkelstein said he took off work to spend this week at the event.
“I’d say three to four hours of sleep a night is, like, solid for Maccabee coaches,” Finkelstein said. “It’s a blast, but it’s a lot of hours and dedication.”
Swimmers compete in the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games at University of Pittsburgh, Aug. 5, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
The schedule is nonstop for athletes, too. In addition to the competitions, the games feature evening events — in this case, a Pittsburgh Pirates game and an event with Israeli DJ Artifex — as well as volunteer opportunities, access to yoga and therapy dogs, and lessons on Israeli dancing and cooking.
While students historically have stayed with host families, for the first time in JCC Maccabi’s history, most Pittsburgh events are taking place on a college campus, where the athletes are also sleeping in dorms. To increase the scale of this year’s games, the University of Pittsburgh agreed to be the main campus host, a feat that requires over 10,000 meals a day, coordination with seven other venues in the city, nearly 800 volunteers and about 25 buses to shuttle athletes to and from events.
Over the last 18 months, the university has collaborated with partners such as the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, which has been a leader in planning and fundraising efforts.
Soccer players compete in the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games at the University of Pittsburgh, Aug. 5, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
“For nearly 70% of the Maccabi athletes, the Maccabi Games are their only form of Jewish engagement throughout the course of the year,” said Jason Kunzman, president and CEO of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, adding that if student athletes are turned away from competing because there aren’t enough local families to host them, they lose that reliable annual Jewish connection.
According to Kunzman, about a quarter of the budget for the Pittsburgh games comes from participant and spectator fees, with the rest raised via donations.
The university model is also intended to expose Jewish high school students to college life at a time when many Jewish families have concerns about antisemitism on campuses.
“The Jewish community has always been an important part of the fabric of this university,” said Kevin Washo, senior vice chancellor for external relations at the University of Pittsburgh. “If it was going to happen, it should happen in Pittsburgh. It should happen at Pitt.”
Across the university on Tuesday, enthusiasm for the games was palpable. Parents from Montreal stood in the stands waving homemade signs and pompoms during a boys’ basketball game; near a softball dugout, a group of players from San Diego and Houston laughed and traded custom pins from the different delegations; at the indoor pool, a swim coach from Chicago proudly awarded medals to winners from Ukraine and Israel. On his way to lunch with his teammates, Charlie Cohn, a 17-year-old basketball player from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, told RNS he valued the community atmosphere and “respectful sportsmanship” of the other players.
“I feel so welcome here,” said Ofir Zavdazky, a 17-year-old volleyball player from the Springfield, Massachusetts, delegation. “Everybody feels like a big family to me.”
But while the mood was largely celebratory, the events were also punctured by grief. At Monday’s opening ceremony, Alan and Amy Mallinger, the son and granddaughter Tree of Life synagogue shooting victim Rose Mallinger, reminded athletes of the importance of resilience. The ceremony also included a video about the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas in southern Israel, and yellow ribbons symbolizing hope for the return of the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza were visible throughout the week.
Basketball players compete in the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games at the University of Pittsburgh, Aug. 5, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
Ido Shay, a basketball coach from the Israel delegation, said it was meaningful to “experience that other people care” about the hostages and events of Oct. 7. Part of JCC Maccabi’s mission is to “strengthen connections amongst a diverse, global representation of Jewish teens to one another and to Israel,” and the games emphasize Jewish ties to Israel through programming and speakers, which this year included viral pro-Israel content creator Montana Tucker. On Monday, a band of protesters including members of the Pittsburgh chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace stood on street corners in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, waving Palestinian flags and opposing the University of Pittsburgh’s decision to host the games.
“The dynamics out there, just from a geopolitical standpoint, are not lost on us,” Washo, of the University of Pittsburgh, told RNS ahead of the games. “But our No. 1 priority is, we’re going to be the best host we can be.”
Still, for most participants RNS spoke with, the games aren’t about global politics or even religion, but a celebration of Jewish life and solidarity. One New Jersey parent watching her daughter’s swim competition said her family wasn’t sure they’d be comfortable attending the games last year because of the “state of events.”
“We decided that it was important now more than ever to come, and being prideful instead of sometimes feeling afraid,” she said. “We’re not always proud of what’s happening, but we’re proud of our kids and our identity.”
Attendees cheer during the opening ceremony of the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games at the University of Pittsburgh, Aug. 4, 2025, in Pittsburgh. (RNS photo/Kathryn Post)
