Dear Heads of delegations, Dear Friends,
Maccabiah just was over and most of you are back home.
Here in Israel we are still very excited and happy from what we have achieved with you all.
Some of you took part in the Heads of delegation reception in Latrun just before the amazing closing ceremony.
For those who weren’t there – we would like to say Toda, thank you, for all your time and effort, for not sleeping, for dreaming big, for sharing with us your thoughts and concerns. We were all got higher, better, together.
We, the maccabiah staff in Israel would also like to share again what we said to Amir Peled, Maccabiah Chairman, on the roof of Latrun:
Erev tov everyone,
I’m standing here by myself on the stage but I can assure you Amir, that I’m speaking on behalf of many others that followed you to the great mission called MACCABIAH.
3 years ago, you were the first to dream and to see the 20th maccabiah, the first to lay all foundations, to set out the big goals that we followed.
Your belief and spirit got into each and every one of us and you managed to carry us all into the biggest maccabiah ever!
To the maccabiah which put the athletes at the top priority, maccabiah that works hard to create the highest level of hosting, transport, media, control, security and safety and still managed to emphasize education, culture, Jewish identity, Zionism and the love to Israel.
To a Maccabiah that wants to embrace the Israeli audience and bring them closer to her heart.
And all of this wasn’t easy…
We saw you many times making difficult decisions, trying to navigate between tradition to modern, between Israel and the spreads, between the big dreams to small numbers (and the dollar rate 😉
Amir, we can all see your love to the maccabiah, and the spark in your eyes, even when they are so tired…. We know that you are not sleeping well in months now…. We saw you using all the time that you have for thinking “how can we make things better? Which area we didn’t cover yet?” Those “thoughts” were emailed usually at 9am then it became 8am and lately it is waiting for us by 6am already….
Today, standing here at the finish line, we all want to say thank you. TODA.
TODA for letting us dream big, TODA for pushing us forward, TODA for not be afraid of changes & technology, TODA for taking a chance on us and with us.
You made it! You created a big strong meaningful maccabiah, a maccabiah who broke the sports areas and went straight into the Israeli mainstream (and prime-time).
I’ll finish by reminding you that Amir has such a good memory for numbers…. So please remember this:
Maccabiah 2017, 10,000 athletes, more than 500 people working in the maccabiah and 80 countries that for them you are the one beating HEART.
Keep dreaming!!! Toda!!!
Maccabi & maccabiah family
Thanks again – lets all dream big, and see you in the 21st Maccabiah in 2021!