November, 2010

Shalom to our Maccabi USA Friends,

In a few weeks we will be celebrating Thanksgiving.  As a result of the hard work and efforts of our great volunteers and staff we have lots to be thankful for.

Shortly thereafter we celebrate Chanukah which commemorates our namesake, Judah Maccabee.  We carry on his tradition as we Build Jewish Pride Through Sports.

There is much going on with Maccabi USA and I wanted to keep you current with our many happenings. 

On October 12^th we had a great evening at the home of Leslie and David Kantor with over 100 people in attendance.  Coach Bruce Pearl and Tal Brody were the featured speakers and both spoke about the impact the Maccabiah had upon them.  Tal traced his Maccabi story for us from being a young American Jew on our Basketball team in 1965, to making Aliyah, to presently serving as Israel's Ambassador of Goodwill.  They were very inspiring.

The following weekend we held our annual conference in Boston.  It was great to see about 50 Rugby alumni and friends from around the world at the tribute dinner for Jordan Weinstein.  During the weekend we received reports from Ricky and Jodi Reff about the upcoming Games in Australia next month and Jeff Bukantz regarding the Vienna program in July, 2011.  In addition, please place on your calendar the Pan Am Games in São Paulo, Brazil, December, 2011.  Fred Cohen is chairing that project.  I also want to take this opportunity to thank Harold Friedman and Ami Monson for their incredible dedication and assistance in putting these programs together - Ami as part of our staff as Program Director and Harold as a volunteer serving as Sports Chairman.  We expect to bring a Team of about 100 people plus about 30 supporters.

Kudos to Ben Fox who is organizing a Maccabi Gymnastics meet in Norman, Oklahoma the first week of December.  Ben has 22 people from Mexico, 25-30 from Dallas, delegations from Houston, New York, and has interest from kids in Colorado and Illinois.  They will be celebrating Chanukah at the same time at Hillel of the University of Oklahoma prior to the meet.  Ben is already working on having future Gymnastics Trials there for our upcoming events.

Next week four of us are going to Austria, (Jeff Bukantz, The European Maccabi Games Chairman for the USA; Jed Margolis, our Executive Director; and Iris Hami, our Travel Consultant and me) to meet with the organizers of the European Maccabi Games which will be held next July in Vienna.  At this time we anticipate a U.S. Team of over 200, plus many parents and supporters.  This set of Games is particularly significant as they will be held, for the first time, in Austria, a country where the Jews suffered terribly during WWII.  This wonderful, vibrant Jewish community has rebuilt itself and the Hakoah Club, which was destroyed during the war, and will be a central location for this exciting event.  You should think about attending.  Great way to show our respect.

We have had a terrific response to our Living Legacy campaign, with many positive responses from Maccabi USA friends who intend to remember us in their wills.  By doing so they are acknowledging the wonderful work we all do.  Our leadership seems to be leading the way in this area and we are hopeful more will consider helping us.  We intend to be around for a long, long time.

Previously I had indicated that I wanted Maccabi USA to be further involved with other major Jewish organizations.  The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, which we have been part of for many years, has established an Inter-Agency Task Force to Secure the Legitimacy and Rights of Israel.  They met on September 13, 2010 (more than 40 Jewish organizations were represented at this meeting, including Maccabi USA).  Combating the campaign to delegitimize Israel is a top priority for the Jewish community in the United States and internationally, for the Government of Israel.  The Conference asked member organizations to designate representatives to participate in an initial planning meeting of the inter-agency task force and to complete a questionnaire to help prepare for the meeting.  Highlights of this meeting are summarized below if you wish to learn more.**

It is also important that we continue to be involved with these other Jewish organizations in order that they learn more about what we do.  Often they are aware of our existence but know little about us.  We are much more than just sports; we are working diligently to accomplish our Mission which is to preserve and perpetuate our culture and religion, building Jewish Pride through Sports.  I hope you will join me in that effort.

I wish you the very best and hope you enjoy the upcoming holiday season.

Sincerely,

Ron Carner, President

Maccabi USA

** Mortimer B. Zuckerman, a past-chairman of the Conference was asked to chair the task force and Rabbi Joel Meyers to coordinate its activities.  I attended the initial planning meeting held on September 13^th.

Acting Consul General in New York, Ido Aharoni, applauded the gathering and the many efforts being undertaken to combat delegitimization.  He noted that current studies indicate that it is important to be active on internet sites because people listen more to friends than to anyone else, that it is vital to counter boycotters with massive counter-boycott responses, to bring missions of influential leaders and individuals to Israel and to develop "third parties" to speak on behalf of Israel. 

Malcolm Hoenlein added to these comments by noting that everyone had to consider how we can better reach top leadership - business leaders, academics, church leaders, and others - and engage them.  He noted several major developments underway: the Strategic Communications Center, an independently functioning entity which will activate and coordinate responses to delegitimization efforts, a Rapid Response group, and the Brand Israel Group which is developing an understanding of how each of our organizations can promote Israel to the various segments of the public.

During discussion several ideas and suggestions were presented such as the need to develop personal relationships with those we seek to influence, the desire to "capture" and share our best practices and develop a "how to" guide for use by our grassroots, the need to reach high school students, a needed focus on branding or rebranding Israel, development of a website so the involved organizations and projects can stay in contact.

Alan Solow concluded the meeting by noting how inspiring it was to learn of all that is currently being done.  As a follow up, the Conference of Presidents would now help develop a plan to organize working groups around specific areas and have these begin to meet, work out methods for further collaboration, create an on-line vehicle for communication and sharing of ideas, and establish a follow up meeting in four to six months to assess progress.  Alan urged everyone to keep talking with one another, to be in touch with the Conference staff, and thanked all for their participation.