GERMANY-JEWS/MACCABI European Maccabi Games draw to a close in Berlin

Record ID: 144926

  • Title: GERMANY-JEWS/MACCABI European Maccabi Games draw to a close in Berlin
  • Date: 4th August 2015
  • Summary: SIGN READING "EUROPEAN MACCABI GAMES" PRESIDENT OF MACCABI GERMANY ALON MEYER SPEAKING LANYARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF MACCABI GERMANY, ALON MEYER, SAYING WHEN ASKED WHAT HIS OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE GAMES WAS: "(It was) phenomenal. At moments I get goosebumps if I just think about it, then I just see the days - I haven't slept (for a) really long time, but eve
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAJN3RXZD21JZY2PKUJYYBO558
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The 14th Maccabi Games came to an end in Berlin on Tuesday (August 4), ending 10 days of sports in what organisers have named as a symbolic move against anti-Semitism and racism.
    More than 2,000 athletes from 36 countries took part in Europe's biggest Jewish sporting event, established in 1929 in Prague as Jews wanted an alternative competition free of discrimination and anti-Jewish sentiment.
    Participants in this year's Games competed in 19 disciplines ranging from badminton to water polo and even chess.
    The European Maccabi Games are held every four years in different cities, two years after the quadrennial Maccabiah Games in Israel.
    Participants need at least one Jewish parent or grandparent.
    Following the 2011 Games in Vienna, this year's event was held at the stadium and surrounding sports complex used for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where Adolf Hitler sought to stop Jews from competing.
    After the Nazis took power in 1933, most of Germany's Jews fled or were killed in death camps and the number in Germany was just 30,000 by the end of the war.
    For Alon Meyer, president of Maccabi Germany, the games symbolised a perfect message for tolerance.
    "(It was) phenomenal. At moments I get goosebumps if I just think about it, then I just see the days - I haven't slept (for a) really long time, but every time this inspiration, this feeling, this good atmosphere here just hypes me and brings me to another level," he told Reuters.
    "I am completely satisfied and really proud of all the people, the volunteers we had here who helped us to make such a good time for everybody, for two and a half thousand sport activities. I think we did a phenomenal job and really a big ad for Germany, for the normal Jewish life here in Germany," he added.
    Germany's Jewish population has revived since the end of the Cold War and there are now about 250,000 -- which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "miracle".
    After dropping to 7,000 in 1945, there are 45,000 Jews in Berlin today - many arriving from Eastern Europe, Israel, Australia, France and the United States - attracted by the capital's tolerance, low cost of living and creative arts scene.
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