Maccabiah Games

Tel Aviv, Palestine. The Jewish world games, first staged under the British Mandate

Overview

First held in 1932 with about 400 athletes from more than 20 countries, the Games were the vision of Yosef Yekutieli, inspired by the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. The festival continued through wars and statehood, and recent editions have drawn about 10,000 athletes, making it one of the largest sporting events in the world. A teenage Mark Spitz swam at the 1965 edition before his Olympic fame.