The 19th Maccabiah Games, the world's biggest Jewish sporting event, will kick off in Jerusalem Thursday evening. Some 9,000 Jewish athletes representing 80 countries worldwide will participate in the quadrennial games' 42 sporting events, which will be held in 20 locations across Israel, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Ramat Hasharon, Kibbutz Yagur, Netanya, Rishon Lezion, Lod and Modiin.
The opening ceremony will be held in Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium, where 30,000 people will gather to celebrate the games. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, several ministers and dozens of prominent public figures will attend the opening ceremony.
An early opening ceremony was held on Thursday Morning at the Maccabiah Sports Club in central Israel. The ceremony culminated in a group of 100 bikers on Harley-Davidsons, who set on their way to Jerusalem in a symbolic re-creation of the road traveled by dozens of bikers some 80 years ago, across different Jewish communities in Europe, to spread the word of the first Maccabiah Games.
The peloton will carry with it the official Maccabiah Torch. Once in Jerusalem, the torch will be handed over to three Israeli athletes -- paralympics tennis gold medalist Noam Gershony, four-time windsurfing world championship winner Lee Korzits and former Israel national soccer team goalkeeper Nir Davidovich -- who will carry it from the city gates to Teddy Stadium.
American-Jewish gymnast Aly Raisman, a two-time London Olympics gold medalist, will light the torch at the stadium.
Israeli track and field athlete Esther Roth-Shachamorov will recite the Yizkor ("remembrance") prayer at the ceremony, in honor of the victims of the 1997 Maccabiah bridge disaster, in which four athletes were killed and 60 others injured, and the 11 Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
Israel has the biggest delegation in the games, numbering 2,943 athletes. The United States' delegation to the 19th Maccabiah comprises 1,121 athletes, Canada sent a 606-person team, Britain's team includes 444 athletes, Brazil's delegation comprises 435 athletes, Australia sent 418 athletes, the Argentine delegation numbers 403, South Africa's team includes 359 athletes, Russia's delegation is composed of 198 and Germany sent a team of 195 sportsmen and women to the games.
For the first time, the 19th Maccabiah will also host teams from Cuba, Mongolia, Armenia, Bosnia, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Several world-class athletes will grace the games as well, including NBA star and New York Knicks forward-center Amar'e Stoudemire, Beijing Olympics swimming gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale, Australian two-time sprinting champion Steven Solomon and NHL star and Nashville Predators left-winger Eric Nystrom.
Some 3,000 volunteers are expected to help the games run smoothly. The Maccabiah's budget is estimated at 200 million shekels ($55.6 million), which the state expects to recoup via tourism revenues.