This past Sunday, 19 teams of athletes, junior athletes, sponsors, coaches, and VIPs representing the JCC Maccabi Games in Rockland, carried the torch from the JCC in West Nyack to Rockland Community College (RCC) in Suffern, the site of their opening ceremonies and the hub for the JCC Maccabi Games.
The Torch run was the last event leading up to the JCC Maccabi Games’ Opening Ceremony to be held on Sunday, August 12.
While the runners lined Route 59, the community was invited to RCC’s Eugene Levy Fieldhouse for a continental breakfast.
The Torch Run started around 9:20 a.m. and the last team, consisting of Jr. Maccabi runners, reached the finish line around 10:30 a.m. and passed the torch onto Cliff Wood, President of Rockland Community College.
During the program, two athletes were awarded Israel Bonds for writing exceptional essays answering specific topics. Lily Caplan of New City read her essay about what Israel means to her, and Russ Brown of New City wrote about how to convince the International Olympic Committee to recognize the 1972 Munich massacre with a minute of silence.
JCC Rockland also raised money to help feed the hungry in Rockland and in Israel, and presented People to People with a donation from its Change4Change program, sponsored by Active International and Good Samaritan Hospital.
