This summer, I was selected as 1 of 15 Jewish girls in The United States to compete on the U18 girls soccer team representing team USA in the European Maccabi Youth Games in London. The Maccabi Games, often described as the Jewish Olympics, bring together Jewish athletes from all over the world to compete in different sports. Only 0.2% of the global population is Jewish, so it was incredible to be surrounded by so many other Jewish teens. Though it’s a competitive sporting event, the atmosphere is of Jewish pride, unity and community.
On the first morning in London, my team sat down for breakfast in the crowded dining hall. We could barely hear over the music the teams from the Netherlands, Argentina and the UK were blasting. Although all of the sounds should have clashed, it was an energizing and unique way to start our first day of games.
Fifteen girls from across the United States who had never played together united for this week of games. We practiced only once for an hour and a half working on how each individual player played before our first game against Great Britain, and won with a shutout, 12-0. We meshed on and off the field but wondered if the first game was a fluke — could we do it again? Our team went on to win every game, shutting out all the other teams. We faced our toughest competition, Israel, in the gold medal match and won! After the game, we shared a meaningful moment with the Israeli players, talking to them and exchanging jerseys. Although there was a bit of a language barrier since we all came from different countries, everyone knew some English so we could all communicate. We ended the tournament by the USA winning the gold medal!
While everyone was a competitor at heart, there was also compassion on the pitch across countries with players helping each other up and hugging after games.
Competing against other countries was fun and aggressive, but I was more excited to meet other Jewish teenagers from places like the UK, Netherlands, Argentina, Israel and Germany. While we talked about typical teenage things, we also shared our experiences of antisemitism. My own experiences were modest in comparison to others on the team. – While Fieldston wanted to slowly reintroduce civility into daily life, it did not want anyone– students or teachers– to talk about topics in an unstructured way when it came to the Middle East, I was shocked to hear that players from the Netherlands had faced hate from teachers and classmates alike following the October 7th attack. I had never been around so many Jewish people before, and it was an incredible unifying and uplifting experience particularly in the world today.
This experience allowed me to reflect on diversity within the global Jewish community. I learned the importance of coming together with solidarity and unity, and having a community of people with similar cultural beliefs to connect with and learn from, especially in a post-October 7th. The experience brought me closer to my Jewish identity. I have never been prouder to have USA on my chest and represent my religion.
