Huge cost excludes some SA athletes from Maccabi Games

Despite Israel being in the middle of a war, the biggest barrier to South Africans competing in the Maccabi Games this July is the massive cost to participate.

For South Africans, it costs at least R107 000, including flights, to be a part of the quadrennial Maccabi Games, which for most is prohibitive. Unfortunately, this means that this year, Team SA will be smaller than it has been in the past.

This year, the South African team consists of 132 athletes and officials, aged 12 to 78, who participate in 12 sports, according to Ros Goldin, the chief executive director of Maccabi South Africa.

“We took 250 people last time,” said Goldin, “It’s smaller across the board across all countries. [The war] has had an impact on all countries, but interestingly, specific to South Africa, a far bigger impact is the cost. It’s expensive, and with our weak currency, it has made it that much more expensive.”

South Africa has participated in every Maccabi Games tournament since it started in the 1930s. Now, nearly 100 years later, the South African delegation of athletes is preparing to go to the 22nd iteration of the games despite Israel being at war.

“In normal circumstances, the organisation of the games is a massive undertaking,” said Goldin. “But given the situation in Israel, it has made things a lot harder because understandably, people have had a lot of concerns about security and about attending. But against all odds, we’ve got there, we have a team, and everything is on track,” Goldin said.

She said that the bulk of the fee that people must pay to compete in the Maccabi Games is computed in United States dollars, which makes it more costly for those countries with a weaker currency like South Africa. It covers accommodation, food, transport, sport, security, medical insurance, tours, and opening and closing ceremonies. Furthermore, athletes must pay for their delegation kit, as well as the administration and management fee, medical fee, and flights to and from Israel.

“The rand has weakened again, making it very expensive for South Africans,” said Goldin. “We operate strictly on the principle that people must be selected on talent not on their financial means. So, we run a bursary programme where we offer funds to assist people who can’t afford the cost, but fundraising this time around has been so difficult, possibly because a lot of our regular donors are now understandably supporting important Israeli causes. Our bursary fund has been impacted as a result, so we haven’t been able to help as many people as we would have liked.”

Goldin also said that since Bnei Akiva’s Israel programme for Grade 10s and 11s, Hadracha, is happening at the same time as the Maccabi Games, many teenagers and parents alike have opted to go on Hadracha, as it’s half the price, since it’s not an Olympic-sized sporting event. As a result, seven teams were cancelled from the sporting event, which made the cost for the remaining athletes higher as the costs are shared among the whole delegation.

Goldin said that though the barrier for South Africans has been the cost, in the case of many other countries, the main barrier is safety concerns due to Israel being at war. “There were people that said to us, ‘Look, I’m not comfortable with the situation there. I don’t want to go, or in the case of the juniors, I’m not comfortable sending my child there’,” she said. “But that was a very small percentage of people. We should have had a huge padel team, we should have had a bowls team, and we should have had a bigger tennis team. But cost impacted all those sports. Not because they were nervous to go, but because they couldn’t spend that amount of money. In the past, we have tried to subsidise the cost, but unfortunately, this time around, donors haven’t been there in the same way.”

Goldin said that she, as well as the Maccabi World Union, had done everything they could to make sure that the sporting event went off without a hitch. “There’s a comprehensive security plan in place,” she said, “which includes armed security at every hotel, venue, and a central command centre.”

There are several youth programmes going to Israel this July, which further proves the fact that for South Africans, the main concern is cost, Goldin said. “It illustrates that the concerns coming out of South Africa aren’t about security. The fact that so many groups are going shows that there’s confidence in the safety situation in Israel.”

Goldin said that by going to the Maccabi Games this year, the South African delegation was upholding the slogan of this year’s games: “More than Ever”.

“More than ever, we need to celebrate, we need to stand together, we need to be proud of who we are,” she said. “As Maccabi South Africa, it has been incumbent on us to send a team to Israel. Because we’re fulfilling our purpose of bolstering Jewish pride. This is our whole vision – bolstering Jewish pride and preserving Jewish identity through sport. More than ever, we’re fulfilling our purpose.”