On Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Kibbutz Kissufim on the Gaza border, Maj. Evyatar Zytuni rushed into battle along with his unit. During the battle, a bullet sliced through the main artery of his right leg. Fourteen days later, he awoke from a coma and learned that terrorists had murdered six of his soldiers.

It’s been a long road since, including multiple surgeries, but last December in the central Israeli city of Modi’in, Zytuni, aided by a cane, lit the torch for this summer’s Maccabiah Games, dedicating the moment to his fallen peers. 

“It was such an emotional experience for me,” he told eJewishPhilanthropy recently, “especially the connection with all the brothers and sisters from around the world.”

The torch is currently blazing across the globe, making its way back to Israel for the opening ceremony of Maccabiah Games in July, the first since the Oct. 7 attacks. The lighting was part of a collaboration between the IDF Disabled Veterans Organization and the Maccabi World Union, and is one of the many ways this year’s games will differ from years prior.

“This week, Israel marks the national Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, so it’s an emotional week,” Zytuni said, but just like Yom HaZikaron is followed by Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, he too is looking to the positive in life, such as this year’s games. Maccabiah “reminds us how important it is for us to stand together, united in the face of everything happening around us,” he said. “Sports have the power to connect us.”

Maccabiah 2025 is the 22nd installment and will include over 10,000 athletes from more than 80 countries competing in 45 sports in 15 Israeli cities. Although there is uncertainty about many things in Israel come July — the state of the hostages, the war, air travel and protests — “the Maccabiah will happen,” Amir Gissin, CEO of Maccabi World Union, told eJP.

First held in pre-state Tel Aviv in 1932, the Maccabiah Games are the second largest sporting event in the world, second only to the Olympics. This year’s games is the biggest event worldwide held in 2025, and the Maccabi World Union is prepared for anything because the quadrennial games have occurred during tumultuous times in the past (though the previous Maccabiah Games were postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.) “Nothing will stop us, unless the government of Israel will tell us the security situation is too dangerous,” Gissin said.

While the 21st Maccabiah Games’ slogan was “Israel Celebrates Sports,” this year’s event is marketed as getting back to basics — building bonds between Israelis and Diaspora Jewry. “The excuse is the sports,” Gissin said, “but the real reason is that Israel needs to come together with the Jewish world.”

This year’s catch phrase is “More Than Ever,” and commercials for the event are filled with uplifting clips from past competitions of participants high-fiving and hugging. “Our support of Israel, our pride in being Jewish, feels more important than ever,” Marshall Einhorn, CEO of Maccabi USA, the American arm of the movement, told eJP.

The opening ceremony will be held on July 10 or 7/10, an intentional reversal of 10/7, when the 2023 massacres occurred. Everything at the games will be grounded in Oct. 7, Einhorn said. Competitors will tour Israel and visit massacre sites, volunteering along the way. A race will cycle through the hard-hit Gaza border area, and competitions and arts programs will be held in the name of 15 members of Maccabi HaTzair — the organization’s youth movement — who were murdered during the assault.

Others changes to this year’s games are not directly connected to the attacks, however. Water polo will be held in the Tel Aviv Port, and surfing will take place in Ariel Sharon Park in Tel Aviv, allowing more observers, and the popular sport pickleball will make its Maccabiah debut. Throughout the weeklong games, the Maccabi World Union will transform the Tel Aviv Expo into “Maccabiah City,” an all-ages festival featuring parties, conferences, seminars and sports, which is expected to draw some 250,000 attendees in total.

When planning for this year’s games began — before the Oct. 7 attacks — the goal was to have a larger attendance than the Olympics, but this year’s event is expected to have a smaller turnout due to increased cost of travel, security concerns and drops in fundraising.

“At this time, the philanthropy and the Jewish world is aimed at what’s urgent and what’s pressing,” Gissin said. “The Maccabiah offers something else, it offers the hope and the beginning for all of us in Israel and the Jewish world to start climbing out of the black hole we were in and despair. We see the Maccabiah as part of the recovery.”

Even though fundraising for Maccabi World Union, headquartered in Israel, is down, Maccabi USA donations have surged. Gissin isn’t surprised that both individual donors and foundations are stepping up. Maccabi USA has a “strong tradition and the strength of the organization,” he said. “In some countries, you will find a similar situation [but] somebody needs to pay for the Venezuela delegation, for the Cuban delegation, from the Indian delegation, from the Azerbaijani delegation,” which Maccabi World Union subsidizes.

The U.S. is planning to bring 1,220 people, including athletes, coaches, a medical committee and volunteers — a larger delegation than that of the U.S. Olympic team. This year, Maccabi World Union is subsidizing countries to bring an extra junior team, made up of competitors aged 15 to 18, which is an essential age to build their resilience, Gissin said. “They’re not necessarily equipped to deal with this reality, which is difficult and threatening, and it’s very important to build their confidence.”

U.S. junior hockey coach Jonathan Sandos traditionally brings 22 teens to the games, but this year he’s traveling with 40. “It’s so powerful to be able to combine these major passions that I grew up with, and that are my life,” he said. “Israel and Judaism on one hand, and athletics and sport on the other… I can’t wait for the first time in Teddy Stadium [in Jerusalem] during the opening ceremony, where 40,000 people are singing Hatikvah together. I’m getting chills just talking about it.”

President Joe Biden attended the 2022 Maccabiah Games opening ceremony, and Maccabi World Union would love for President Donald Trump to attend this coming one. “We will be very happy to see the American president coming to the opening ceremony,” Gissin said. “We proved that we can host an American president in an organized fashion, and in a significant fashion. Whether the president will come or not, that’s certainly not in my hands.”

This year’s torch, less than three months away from returning home, was created by Knafit, a factory in Nof HaGalil that specializes in creating prosthetics. Though Zytuni will not compete in this year’s games, he has recently taken up hand-cycling, often playing with other injured soldiers.

“The sports help me to understand that anything is possible and that giving up is not an option,” he said.

Zytuni now has a new goal: participating in a future Maccabiah. Then the Olympics.