Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Inductions Slated Oct. 25

On Sunday, Oct. 25, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame will induct its latest class of honorees, including household sports names such as Al Michaels, Julian Edelman, and Nancy Lieberman. Not to be overlooked, however, is the accompanying quintet of award winners who have made decadeslong profound contributions to Jewish sports culture and history: Geoff Levy; Michael Siegal; Karen James; Stephen Berliner; and Miguel Litchi.

A lifelong Canadian who swam for the Great White North during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, James had a front-row seat to one of the darkest chapters in Jewish history when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were gunned down by terrorists. James, who serves on the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors and is a past chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, is being recognized for her recent efforts chronicling the massacre in the “Witness to Munich” documentary (presented by the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame) and lecturing to Jewish communities across North America, including at the JCC Maccabi Games. Her life was never the same after September ’72 and while the nightmare still haunts her, she remains dedicated to preserving history for posterity.

“I didn’t even consciously acknowledge what had happened. When I put it all together, I just pushed it all deep, deep inside me. It was 20 years or more before I ever could say anything about it,” James shared when speaking to the AJT last week. “It scares me and profoundly affects me, always. It scares me, because it has never stopped. Every time I tell this story, publicly and even in the video, I get emotional. It’s not easy for me.”

“This is really important. This is really important that people remember what happened there and keeping the memory alive of those 11 Israelis who were killed.”

While she continues to enlighten audiences about the horrors that occurred over a half-century ago, on a personal level, being an eyewitness to tragic Judaic history forever changed her relationship with Judaism.

“Acknowledging it and knowing what happened and how I was involved with that and truly understanding the horrific [nature] of the event, brought me back closer and closer to my Jewish faith,” added James.

Receiving the Walter and Lillian Berliner Memorial Award in commemoration of his parents, both of whom were Holocaust survivors, is longtime Maccabi USA member and commercial real estate executive Stephen Berliner. A two-sport athlete at the University of Pennsylvania (tennis, squash), Berliner first became invested in Maccabi USA when he participated in the 1991 Pan American Maccabi Games in Uruguay before competing in his first of four Maccabiah Games in Israel two years later. Berliner returned to Israel for the Maccabiah Games in 1997, 2005, and 2017, during which he took home gold medals in both tennis and squash. The 2017 Games gifted him one of his finest moments as he medaled alongside his son, David, in representing America on the squash courts, while passing down his passion for Israel to the next generation.

“I thought of myself as an athlete, not much more, not much less than that. When I went to Israel for the first time in 1993, when you march in the Opening Ceremony with 50,000 people in the audience and there are 10,000 Jewish athletes from around the world competing, it completely changed my view of the world,” reflected Berliner in his comments to the AJT.

In addition to competing in Israel’s Maccabiah Games multiple times, Berliner was formerly a Maccabi USA board member and currently serves on its Endowment Committee. A widely respected figure in New York commercial real estate, Berliner is currently the vice chairman at the global real estate firm Savills.

“I think being an athlete teaches you certain life skills — how to win, how to lose, how to compete, how to prepare,” he further noted. “I think the ability to deal with and handle stress as a manager, I have a very strong sense of right and wrong. I think sports is always a great parallel for the business world — how to prepare for a pitch, how to prepare for a meeting, how to prepare for an interview.”

Levy is being anointed with the Presidential Global Leadership Award for serving as the founder and chief benefactor of the Munich Olympic Memorial at Sydney Olympic Park, the first permanent Olympic site memorial to the aforementioned slain Israeli athletes that was unveiled prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Levy also excelled on the playing fields, competing for the Australian Maccabi rugby team that captured a silver medal at the 1985 Maccabi Games, the first time that rugby was a Maccabi sport. The erstwhile CEO and executive chairman of Investec Bank Australia, Levy was named Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2005 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his magnificent contributions to athletics, the arts, and philanthropy.

As president of Maccabi World Union, Siegal presides over Jewish athletic competition spanning approximately 70 nations. A one-time chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Jewish Federation of North America among other prestigious organizations, Siegal continues to parlay his professional accomplishments — he’s now chairman of Ryerson, Inc., an $8 billion metal service center — towards decrying antisemitism in college lecture halls around the globe.

Rounding out this year’s group of award honorees is Litchi, a lifelong sportsman, successful entrepreneur, and Jewish community leader who dedicated himself to empowering Maccabi institutions in Mexico as well as across Latin America. After representing Mexico in the Maccabi Games in swimming, water polo, bowling, basketball, and Scuba diving, Litchi was instrumental in organizing the 1999 Maccabi Games in Mexico City while later serving as a consultant for Pan American Maccabi events in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.