Andi Murez, who immigrated to Israel after first taking part in the 2009 Maccabiah Games, can hardly believe 17 years have passed since her first visit to the country, a trip that changed her life.
Since then, she has represented Israel in three Olympic Games, including the peak moment of carrying the Israeli flag at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“My older brother and I came to Israel to compete in swimming at the Maccabiah, just before I went on to college,” she says. “I had so much fun. It was my first time in Israel, and I especially remember the tour of Masada, the sunrise there. I came back to compete in the Maccabiah again in 2013, and that’s when I started thinking about making aliyah. During the competitions, I met and spoke with the Israeli swimmers, and they were warm to me, they accepted me.”
Murez then made the move to Israel. “By the 2017 Maccabiah, I was already representing Israel. I had two Games where I represented the U.S. and two where I represented Israel. Coming to a new country with a new language and a different culture was very difficult,” she says of her beginnings in Israel.
“The first competition in the new pool at the Wingate Institute was at the 2013 Maccabiah. It was really cool. That pool was fast, and I remember those competitions fondly,” she recalls. “The best part was meeting Jews from around the world, making connections.”
Murez lived in Israel for nearly a decade, studied medicine here and is now doing her residency in the United States. She received recognition from the Olympic Committee for that decade when she was asked to serve as flag-bearer.
“It was amazing, that moment. I remember looking back at the beginning. It was special, a kind of closure to the period in which I represented Israel since 2017. It still feels that way to me, that Israeli swimming supported me like that. Maybe I’ll come to the Maccabiah this time as a guest. I’m trying to see if I can manage a short visit from the clinic in Minnesota during that period.”
Murez is one of a long list of athletes who came here through the Maccabiah Games and settled in Israel. Other familiar names include basketball players Willie Sims, David Blatt, Barry Leibowitz and, of course, Tal Brody, who continues to meet the young athletes who come here through the Games and is moved by it, as though he were still on the court in those days when he first arrived in Israel.
'You are part of history'
“I came to the seventh Maccabiah, and there were a total of 1,200 athletes from 25 countries,” Brody recalls. “At the last Maccabiah there were more than 80 countries. I assume that because of the security situation fewer athletes will come, but it will be a quality event and everyone will enjoy it. My memories of the Maccabiah are very beautiful, and they contributed to my decision to change the dream and come live in Israel.”
Brody arrived in Israel shortly before the Six-Day War, but was not deterred by the security situation.
“That was one of the best periods in basketball. We, Maccabi Tel Aviv, went from being a team that had never made it past the first round in Europe to reaching the European Cup Winners’ Cup final. We won by one point at home and lost by 10 in Italy. It was an amazing season, and no one believed what we did that year,” Brody recalls.
“Because I came to the Maccabiah and toured the whole country, I felt part of what was happening here. It was the first time I connected what I had learned in Hebrew school in the U.S. to life, to the fact that you are part of history," he explains. "The trips to Jerusalem, going up to the Galilee, the Dead Sea. I remember the celebrations at Kfar Maccabiah. It was the first time I met Jews from other countries, like Italy or Spain. I had never met Jews who spoke languages other than English. It spoke to me. When Maccabi offered me to come for one year, I never thought I would live here for close to 60 years.”
The 2026 Maccabiah will take place from July 1 to July 13, in an event that will bring together thousands of athletes, families and sports fans from around the world. The events will be held under the slogan “More Than Ever,” with more than 8,000 athletes from about 45 countries competing in some 45 sports. The Games were originally scheduled to take place last summer but were postponed because of Operation Rising Lion.