The U.S. Masters 35+ basketball team on which local Marc Jacobs played, took gold at the recent Pan Am Games for Jewish athletes.

Local wins big at Pan Am Games

After New City resident Marc Jacobs' college basketball days at New York University didn't materialize into a professional career, he thought he was done with the sport.
But then he discovered the world of Jewish competitive athletics.

Jacobs, 45, most recently competed in the Pan American Maccabi Games in Caracas, Venezuela, as a member of the gold medal-winning Masters' 35+ men's basketball team.

"It's an amazing experience to win a gold medal and be champions and to share it with such a great group of guys and such a great coach and represent the United States," said Jacobs, a commodities trader. "As a Jewish athlete, I can't even describe it — it just means so much to me."

Jacobs has participated in three Maccabi games — in the Pan Am Games in Caracas in 1987; in the global Maccabiah Games in Israel in 2009, where his team placed silver in front of about 50,000 spectators; and in the most recent Venezuela contest just last month, held from Dec. 25, 2011 to Jan. 2, 2012.

The games are an amazing opportunity to meet Jews from all over the world, Jacobs said, adding that the competing athletes subvert the traditional stereotype of Jews as bookish and uncoordinated.

"You play against the best Jewish athletes from all over the world. You speak different languages but yet we're all Jewish," he said. "Some speak English, but some speak Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew. It's just amazing to realize … this is just a great way to reach the Jewish community around the world and make it feel a lot smaller than it really is."

Jacobs said he was especially intrigued by meeting South American Jews from countries like Brazil and Argentina.

"You have so much in common with these guys. A lot of us come from these Eastern European backgrounds," he said. "These guys in South America, they just turned left when they were on the boat and the Americans, we stayed straight."

Rockland County has an incredible chance this summer as the host of the 2012 JCC Maccabi Games, Jacobs said. In fact, he'll be coaching the 14-and-under basketball team, on which his son will play.

For Jacobs, involving himself in the Rockland games is a way of contributing something to the organization that's given him so much.

"It's also a chance for the Jewish community in Rockland to come together and support these kids and families in such a great event," he said. "And for me it's a chance to give back and coach Jewish kids in this country and share the vast experiences I had all over the world."

Rockland will host the games from Aug. 12-17. The event will include about 1,800 participants from around the world and according to its website, is expected to generate about $5 million for the local economy. More information is available at jccrockland.org/maccabi.

Jacobs said making the choice to get involved with basketball again through the Maccabi Games has given him a new lease on life.

"It's amazing, the type of conviction and the type of athletes in their late 30s, their 40s," he said. "It's given me the incentive to stay in shape through my 40s. I didn't realize that I would still have a passion to do this, let alone be able to play in these type of games."
And he's not planning on stopping quite yet.

"I think I might give it one more shot," he said, laughing. "I want to win the gold medal in Israel. It's a lot of training and dedication to be at the kind of shape you need to be in to compete at this level."