Playing for the team

Jeffrey Sudikoff is working to bring representatives of more than 20 countries to the Maccabiah that have never participated before.

By ALLON SINAI
Austrailian Delegation521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Austrailian Delegation521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Hundreds of Jews from across the world may not know it just yet, but it was the brainstorm of Jeffrey Sudikoff that will bring them to Israel this summer to participate in the Maccabiah.
Almost 9,000 athletes from over 70 countries are expected to take part in the games to be held throughout Israel from July 18 to 30, making the 19th Maccabiah the largest ever in the history of the event.
More than 20 countries that have never previously participated in the Maccabiah will be represented this summer, thanks in large part to Sudikoff’s inspiration and generous contribution.
Sudikoff, who made his fortune as founder and former CEO of IDB Communications, the predecessor of WorldCom, wanted to do more than just financially support the Maccabiah and together with wife Joyce decided to initiate the “lost communities” project.
“Watching all the delegations marching with their flags in the opening ceremony you think, ‘Wow, I didn’t think there was a Jewish community under that flag,’ and then you begin to think, ‘I wonder where the rest of them are,’ or at least that’s how Joyce and I thought about it,” Sudikoff told The Jerusalem Post earlier this month.
“From my perspective, it was: ‘Don’t talk to me about giving more money.’ I’m going to go home to think about what I and my money can do to provide the Maccabiah with growth capital.”
Sudikoff, a former co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, believes that the small Jewish communities didn’t come to previous Maccabiah Games because they either didn’t have the means or nobody ever made them feel welcome, with politics posing a barrier in certain cases – as was the case with Cuba.
The Caribbean island will be sending a delegation to the Maccabiah for the first time this summer, a particular source of pride for Sudikoff.
“We knew there was a rich Jewish community in Cuba with very competitive athletes, so they would contribute not only coming for the first time and coming from a place which has the image of being embargoed from the world, but they can also compete and potentially win,” he explained. “The list got way more exotic than Cuba and it will be fun for Joyce and me to see the flags come in.”
Sudikoff was also involved in the previous Maccabiah, but wanted to make a real difference this time around. “Sudikoff told me that he wanted to do something that you dream about, that Maccabi is dreaming about, something that you have never done before for whatever reason,” said Eyal Tiberger, the executive director of Maccabi World Union. “When I asked him about his dreams, he came up with something that I thought is a great opportunity, but I don’t know how to implement it. After six weeks my assistant came back with the research about the countries that [had] never participated and with the profiles of all the Jewish communities.”
The small aforementioned communities range in size from 30 to 5,000 Jews, with around 300 from more than 20 countries set to compete in Israel this summer.
While the Sudikoffs provided the inspiration and funding, it was Maccabi Carasso who made the long and often arduous journeys across the world to places like Cuba, Albania and Paraguay, to try and convince the local communities to participate in the Maccabiah.
Carasso, who has been on the executive committee of Maccabi World Union for the past 15 years, embraced the task.
“There was no resistance. Nobody told us ‘please go away,’ besides one woman in Kosovo,” said Carasso, who was named after his uncle, who was shot dead on the road to besieged Jerusalem in 1948. “The main issue about the small communities is that there are those that are very well-organized, and they could do anything. Like Macedonia for instance, which is a small community of 200- 300 people in Skopje. On the other hand, in other Jewish communities they are not well-organized, so I go and see them, we have a nice dinner and we talk, and I write them emails and I get promises and excuses or nothing. It’s a process.”
Sudikoff sees a special significance to the Maccabiah in a time when the connection between Israel and the Jews of the Diaspora is continually waning.
“Sports are a reason to come that’s not just about a religious connection to Israel, and that is more and more important as you get further and further away from the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel,” he noted. “Some 85 percent of American Jews have never been to Israel. People nowadays are not motivated by the synagogue tour. They don’t want to be on the bus with 40 people. They need another reason.”
The Sudikoffs are keen to make an impact on the international level, and also fund an 11-year-old project that every summer sends a team to restore Jewish monuments and cemeteries in places where a Jewish community no longer exists.
“We are really satisfied and proud to have initiated and enabled the lost communities project, so we are at the point now where we want to have leverage as a result of having done it for the cause,” said Sudikoff. “Hopefully we will be involved for many years to come, but ultimately you’ve got to get other people involved because you can’t do it all yourself.”
The Sudikoffs are considering marching in Teddy Stadium with one of the many first-time delegations at the opening ceremony in Jerusalem on July 18, a fitting celebration to their groundbreaking brainchild.
“The experience exceeded my expectations, which is always good and is usually not the case,” said Sudikoff, before attempting to put into words how he might feel during the opening ceremony.
“I imagine it will be emotional and have some element of overwhelming sense of accomplishment.”


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