By Dan Aronovic, The Israel Bridge 

On Thursday, July 18th, I had the honor of participating in the Opening Ceremony of the 19th Maccabiah Games. This is my 7th Maccabiah Games in a row representing Israel. Athletes from over 70 countries are here in Israel for basketball, baseball, tennis, soccer, swimming, squash, shooting, track and field, volleyball and many other sports. The games run from July 18 - 31.

The Israeli athletes (more than 2,000 of the total of 9,000 participants) took a train from Tel Aviv to Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem for the Opening Ceremonies last Thursday night.  I naturally was able to find a number of athletes interested in college scholarships, speaking to athletes in the swimming and women's soccer delegations.  I met Tamir Hershko, who will start school at NCAA Men's Volleyball Champion University of California-Irvine this September.  He is one of the top volleyball players to come out of Israel in the last few years.

Another athlete I met was from the Israeli shooting team, and he had a sad story to tell.  He one of Israel's top shooters and in training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.  Thinking that he could find a scholarship at a US college as one of the top  shooters in Europe, he talked to the coaches at two of the top-ranked NCAA schools, West Virginia and Alaska-Fairbanks. Realizing his talent, both schools offered this young man full scholarships after he successfully scored high on his SAT test and sent in his high school transcripts. But as many people know, the road to college athletics goes through the NCAA Eligibility Center and you must know how to answer the questions that they give you at the end of the process. Without our guidance, this young man was declared ineligible by the NCAA and lost his chance for a degree at a US university.

My favorite part of the evening was meeting with athletes from the US, excited about being in Israel and participating in the games.  The sport with the largest amount of participants is the master's tennis, and as I will compete in the 55 and over doubles, I searched around for the older athletes.  The age groups go up to 80 and over.  I met a few men from the US team in the 70 and 75 and over age groups from Florida, very excited to be a part of the festivities.   When you see older Jewish men getting excited about being a part of such an event, you know that it is something special. Marching into a stadium with 35,000 screaming fans is an experience that overwhelms the senses.  We were welcomed by the President of Israel and Prime Minister, and even had video welcomes from the US President and England's Prime Minister.  After a fantastic display of singing, dancing and fireworks, we took the train back to Tel Aviv. On the way to the train, a nice guy from the US Masters Ice Hockey team offered me his USA team shirt in exchange for my Israeli team shirt.  How could I refuse?  I took the shirt off my back, and so did he in order to exchange. The end of of a successful evening!

ABOUT THE ISRAEL BRIDGE

Who We Are: 

Ross Greenstein, Scholarship for Athletes President and Founder of The Israel Bridge

Dan Aronovic, Head of Operations, The Israel Bridge

Our Vision:
The Israel Bridge will work to be the largest resource for connecting and developing relationships between Israelis and Americans.

Current activities:
Finding athletic scholarships for deserving Israeli athletes in the US and assisting them while they live in the US. We have placed over 80 athletes in the US attending schools like Ohio State, UCLA, Northwestern, UNLV, Arizona, Duke, Tulane, Temple, the University of San Francisco and many others.

Visit our website for more info:
www.theisraelbridge.org

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