Maccabiah: The Long Ride to the International Sports Games

by Kerry Olitzky and Deborah Bodin Cohen

Andre Ceolin (Illustrator)

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Book cover for Maccabiah

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In time for the 2025 Maccabiah Games, this picture book biography tells the origin story of the third-largest international sporting event and the unique problem-solving creator Yosef Yekutieli employed to make his dream possible.

In 1912, 15-year-old Yosef Yekutieli listened to radio broadcasts from the Stockholm Olympics and hatched an idea: an Olympic-style competition for Jewish athletes from around the globe in the brand-new city of Tel Aviv.

People initially didn't take him seriously, but that wouldn't stop Yosef. For the next two decades, he worked to make this idea a reality. There was no stadium, pool, or running track anywhere in British Mandate Palestine. But Yosef wasn’t deterred.

There was one big problem left: there was no easy way to tell athletes about the games!

The solution: Motorcycles. Riding thousands of miles, over mountains and through deserts, motorcycle brigades announced the games to the world Jewish community. In 1932, the Maccabiah Games were born.

  • ISBN10 1681156954
  • ISBN13 9781681156958
  • Publish Date 1 July 2025
  • Publish Status Forthcoming
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Behrman House Inc.,U.S.
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 32
  • Language English