CHATSWORTH : Jewish Youth Games Mix Culture, Sports

For Stephanie Shapiro, a 14-year-old swimmer from Chatsworth, an upcoming swim meet promises to be not only an athletic experience, but a religious one.

Stephanie is one of 129 young athletes from Los Angeles, and 2,500 from the United States and five other countries, who will meet in Cleveland on Sunday for the Jewish Community Center North American Maccabi Youth Games.

One of the unique features of the competition, an Olympic-style amateur event held every two years, is that athletes are housed in the homes of Jewish host families living in the Cleveland area.

Stephanie said she is looking forward to learning more about traditional Jewish customs from her host family.

“The family that I’m staying with keeps kosher, so I’ll learn what that’s like,” said Stephanie.

Established in 1982, the four-day competition will feature 14 sports, including gymnastics, running, wrestling and basketball.

Just as important as the athleticism of the event, said games co-chairman Richard Landis, is the opportunity for Jewish youths, age 13 to 16, to meet other young Jews, learn about culture and build self-esteem.

“They get the opportunity to learn a lot about each other and I think they learn that they have a lot in common, whether they’re from California or Pennsylvania or Ohio or Mexico,” Landis said.

Valley athletes said the process of making friends began even before their plane left Los Angeles.

Members of the boys soccer team participated in a training camp in Agoura this month to get used to playing with each other. Soccer players doubled and tripled up at the Agoura players’ homes for the workouts.

“We had practice a couple times a day and went out at night,” said team captain Brian Landun, 16, of Agoura, “so we bonded both socially and athletically. These guys have become like my best friends.”

On Friday evening, just 13 hours before their flight to Cleveland, the boys and girls softball teams squared off for a practice game in West Hills.

Both teams brought home gold medals last year. In fact, according to Jerry Bobrow, head of the Los Angeles delegation, the Los Angeles team won more than 100 medals at the last games--more than the second- and third-place finishers combined.

The games trace their roots to 1895, when German and Austrian Jews living in Constantinople started the first all-Jewish gymnastics club after being excluded by the Aryan-only policies of the German gymnastics societies there.

The first World Maccabiah Games, for mainly adult athletes, were held in Palestine in 1932, and have been held in Israel since 1950. Since the youth games were established in Memphis in 1982, they have been held in Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and Baltimore.

“I’m very excited,” said Rachel Mullin, 15, the catcher for the girls softball team, on the eve of her departure. “I hope it’s as good as it was two years ago.”