The Maccabiah 2026 torch relay will travel for three days through more than 30 local authorities across Israel ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony on July 1 at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem.
The torch will be carried in a continuous motorcycle convoy, in a historical tribute to the early days of the Maccabiah. At the time, delegations of motorcyclists set out from Tel Aviv to cities across Europe to spread word of the Maccabiah, which was to be held in the spring of 1932 in the Land of Israel.
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The first Maccabiah in 1932, the motorcycle delegation
(Photo: Courtesy of the Maccabi World Union Archive)
The first delegation left in 1930 for Antwerp, Belgium. A second set out a year later for London, led by Yosef Yekutieli, the founder and driving force behind the Maccabiah.
“For the first time in Maccabiah history, local authorities are standing at the heart of the initiative as an inseparable part of the shared Israeli story, joining one team that connects communities, towns and residents,” said Roy Hessing, CEO of the Maccabiah. “This year, more than ever, we all meet at the Maccabiah.”
The motorcycle convoy will enter each local authority, where the mayor or council head will receive an honorary medal and an invitation to take part in the Maccabiah opening ceremony at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem on July 1.
The Maccabiah torch will be raised together with local representatives as a symbol of resilience and renewal. From there, it will continue to its next destination among communities across Israel, beginning in the center of the country and reaching the south on Tuesday.
Participating local authorities include Ra’anana, Kfar Saba, Petah Tikva, Givatayim, Or Yehuda, Shoham, Sderot, Merhavim, Haifa, Tiberias and others.
Among those who will carry the torch are Liat Friedman, mother of the late Staff Sgt. Amit Friedman, who fell during the Iron Swords war and was an outstanding basketball player; Ohad Munder, who was abducted on Oct. 7 and released after 49 days in Hamas captivity; Shmulik Daniel, a former fighter and elite Paralympic rower who competes in single sculls; and Edya and Itamar Pariente, the children of the late Kobi, or Yaakov, Pariente, a Sderot resident, running enthusiast and founder of a local running group, who was murdered on the morning of Oct. 7.
His widow, Sivan, said sports were an important part of Kobi’s life and of the lives of many others who were murdered that morning. “When we remember Kobi and the other athletes, we keep them alive,” she said. “Saturday was a day when everyone trained, sometimes for competitions and sometimes just for a run or a bike ride. Some of these people, had they not been murdered, could have taken part in the Maccabiah.”
Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said, “The Maccabiah event takes on a much greater and more extraordinary significance this year, as an event in which thousands of Jews from around the world come here, to the State of Israel, for sports competitions and mass events.”
Davidi said the city would receive the riders at the Memorial and Heroes park, a memorial built on the ruins of Sderot's old police station in memory of those killed and murdered in the Oct. 7 disaster.
“We will receive them together with two children of the late Kobi Pariente, whose life revolved around sports and running, and who, on the morning of the disastrous Hamas attack, was on a morning run outside the city, where he was murdered by the despicable terrorists,” Davidi said. “Standing with his children, the next generation, at that site sends a message of revival and hope for a better future.”