Counting down the days
WITH less than a week to go until the 31st Maccabi Australia Junior Carnival hits the shores of Sydney, hundreds of Jewish participants around Australia and New Zealand are in final preparation for the grand event.
WITH less than a week to go until the 31st Maccabi Australia Junior Carnival hits the shores of Sydney, hundreds of Jewish participants around Australia and New Zealand are in final preparation for the grand event.
Carnival manager Danny Hochberg told The AJN everything is going to plan and preparations are almost complete.
Around 550 participants from NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand will hit the Harbour City next week, and the local Jewish community is abuzz in the lead-up to the invasion.
“The excitement has started within the community,” Hochberg said.
“The carnival that we’re putting together is different to previous ones. It is offering a lot of new events and a lot of exciting activities, which I think has created a lot of the buzz around the carnival.”
With less people than usual turning out for last year’s carnival in Brisbane, Hochberg said the Sydney event will reinvigorate the interest of the Jewish community and set the trend for Perth 2014.
“From a Maccabi perspective, it’s wonderful to tour the carnival around to all states, including those which have smaller communities,” Hochberg said.
“Having said that, the carnivals tend to be smaller and the opportu- nity to show it off in all its glory is probably maximised in Melbourne and Sydney.
“I expect that the participants will have the time of their lives, and I hope that will have momentum as we go into Perth in 2014.”
With the Maccabiah Games also taking place this year in Israel in July, the Junior Carnival plays a vital role in giving the Jewish youth a taste of representative sport, providing a platform for them to take the next step and possibly represent Australia in 2017.
“The experience they get from Maccabi [Carnival] will be a spring- board to Maccabiah,” Hochberg said.
“If we can show them the value of sport in their lives and give them an inkling of what it’s like to compete, then hopefully they are excited by the prospect of going to a Maccabiah,” Hochberg said.
The 31st Maccabi Australia Junior Carnival will run from Tuesday, January 15 to Tuesday, January 22. For more information visit www.maccabi.com.au/NSW/carnival2013.
Ashley Shenker
Photo: Peter Haskin
comments