This summer, JCC Association will launch the inaugural JCC Maccabi Campus Games in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The games are a new continental pilot to enhance the JCC Maccabi Games’ capacity to accommodate an over demand of participants.
Also in 2025, Tucson, Arizona, will host the JCC Maccabi Games and Access, providing an inclusive platform for participants with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Kansas City and Toronto have been selected as the host cities for 2026, exemplifying the program’s significant and ongoing growth.
Samantha Cohen, the senior vice president and continental director of JCC Maccabi, said the games have been oversubscribed for several years. Now, there are more young athletes who’d like to participate than the organization has space for.
“Our traditional model requires home hospitality and host families, which means there’s always a cap on which a community is able to house the athletes,” said Cohen. “The idea of piloting an additional complimentary model that would utilize dorms or hotels or other opportunities for housing potentially opens more capacity overall for the program.”
Thanks to partnering with the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh, the inaugural JCC Maccabi Campus Games will be held from August 3 to 8, 2025. Cohen said this will mark a significant step forward in JCC Maccabi’s mission to foster Jewish pride, strengthen Jewish identity and provide new opportunities for teens to connect.
Campus Games Details
Cohen said the organization was looking for a community that had a strong JCC and Jewish community and able to create and leverage partnerships with the broader community in it. This is why Pittsburgh was an ideal choice the first campus games.
“Between the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, the Jewish community, and the ethos and strong culture in Pittsburgh around sport, this became a perfect place to pilot this inaugural campus games,” said Cohen. “The alternative model of housing in partnership with a university opens a gateway for other communities to consider being a host. That’s one of the beauties of the program that we have.”
Athletes will compete in an Olympic village-style atmosphere that will include athletic competition, dormitory housing, social and educational programming, and dining.
This innovative model will bring over 2,000 Jewish teens and thousands of family members and community volunteers onto a university campus to celebrate Jewish life in a display of Jewish pride and unity.
Inclusivity and Allyship
In response to the rise of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses, Cohen said the JCC Maccabi Campus Games provide a unique opportunity to bring together Jewish teens and communities in a university environment. This offers colleges a meaningful platform to demonstrate their commitment to combat antisemitism. Also, schools can showcase inclusivity and allyship with the Jewish community.
“We don’t really talk about the JCC Maccabi games as a sports event,” said Cohen It’s an Olympic-style program that uses Jewish values and gives Jewish teens an experience to connect to their identity, heritage, to their community, and obviously to the values that drive the game. This new campus model opens the door to many other communities that might be able to experience the magic of hosting the games.”
This summer’s annual events in Tucson from July 27 to August 1, will celebrate 25 years since the Tucson JCC first hosted the games and mark the JCC’s 70th anniversary.
Cohen said the games kick off with a large Olympic-style opening ceremony featuring a parade of athletes in an arena. Afterwards, they compete for medals and for the pride of their communities.
It’s Cohen’s hope that the games are poised for unparalleled growth and impact to achieve even greater reach and influence than ever before.
“We talk about JCC Maccabi as a transformative Jewish identity and community building experience,” said Cohen. “I hope all our athletes come away from the experience having had just that — a transformative, safe experience where they’ve had a powerful opportunity to connect to JCC Maccabi and to make lifelong friends and connections to each other.”
