Tens of thousands of athletes, coaches, chaperones and spectators filled Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium on Wednesday night, celebrating the opening of the 22nd Maccabiah Games, which will be held across Israel over the next week and a half.

The event, full of song and cheer, marked a rare moment of open, raucous Jewish joy after nearly three years of war in Israel and rising antisemitism around the world. 

Yet the ceremony also captured the complicated moment facing Israel and the Jewish People. The parents of a Capt. Eden Nimri, who was killed by terrorists while defending her fellow soldiers during the Oct. 7 terror attacks, recited a Yizkor (memorial) prayer for the fallen; two freed hostages, Edan Alexander and Daniella Gilboa, also took the stage; and members of the Golan Druze community marched across the stage, bearing a flag featuring all 22 symbols that have been used for the Games since the first in 1932, in memory of the 12 children killed in a July 27, 2024, attack by Hezbollah on the town of Majdal Shams. 

Throughout the evening, some 3,000 visiting athletes paraded through the stadium — holding flags and sometimes joined by costumed mascots — from 40 countries across five continents, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. The youngest of these were in their teens, joined by older “masters,” some in their 80s, who will compete in their own division. Some delegations consisted of a lone representative, while others had dozens, and a few had hundreds. The largest foreign delegation — as it is almost every year — came from the United States, with some 900 competitors in tow. These Diaspora athletes will square off against each other and the more than 2,000 Israeli participants, who were greeted with thunderous applause as they entered.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both addressed the crowd, which included local Israeli fans, families of visiting athletes and representatives of various organizations and nonprofits involved in the Games. Each of the Israeli leaders offered a message to the athletes and attendees.

Herzog, who has long warned of growing divisions within the Jewish People, hailed the display of unity at the event. 

“Your gathering together in Jerusalem, in this beautiful event, fills us with pride and charges this stadium with magnificent energy,” Herzog said. “The celebration of sport beginning here today, the 22nd Maccabiah Games, is a display of Jewish strength that sends a clear message to the entire Jewish people, and to the whole world. A message of partnership. A message of determination. In the face of rising antisemitism, we light the torch of the Maccabiah.”

Netanyahu, who was met with cheers and boos from the crowd, stressed the need for Jewish pride in the face of what he described as “barbarism.” 

“I have one message for you. Only one message. And that message is: People respect only those who respect themselves. And what I ask you in the face of antisemitism, stand strong, stand proud. Do not bend, do not bow. Stand strong, stand together, and together we shall win,” he said.

The more than 5,000 competing athletes will compete in dozens of sports across the country through July 13.