Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County • Samueli Jewish Campus • OC 2013 JCC Maccabi Games®

OC Wave Length Staff

Abby SteinmetzDeana BermanLee-El YehezkelJeremy FrankAaron RatnerHenry PassoAnne Berg

Channa Schachet-Briskin

Deborah FrankMichael KaplanSydney PomishJustin Kalvari

Michael SandorBlaze BernsteinDaniel Gillman

Joe KleidGabi PermbaLila Harris

Matana Zwiren

Coaches:Linda Cooper

Kathy B ShapiroAbby Cutler

FOlLOW Us!

@ArtsFest on Twitter

@JCCMaccabi-Artsfest

on Instagram

by Joseph Kleid and Deb Frank

Photo by Matan Zwiren

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How the Exes Feel

Artist Inspired!

by Matana Zwiren and Jeremy Frank The Maccabi Arts rock band in room 107 has written a very funny, strange, clever and rare song. This took a lot of creativity and hard work. It is a song to show the pain Taylor Swift’s ex-boy-friend’s feel. They have decided to name the song “My Turn” considering those are the signature lyrics after almost every stan-za. The ex-boyfriend’s express their pain in the lyrics by saying, “You’ve written pitiful songs about what we’ve done wrong.” Now it’s the ex-boyfriend’s turn to say how they feel. When they band plays their song we hear the emotion. They put a lot of effort into this song and it shows. Mitchell Traub, the band drum-mer stated jokingly, “It was a spiritual enlightenment. We got a message from the

heavens saying to write this song.” This song is a great song you can rock out to and maybe even have a good laugh with(we know we did). Get ready to hear it for yourself at the showcase Thurs-day afternoon.

continue to create, amaze and inspire with his craft. Robbie’s story can inspire others to be open minded and try new things.

New to the Maccabi games, Robbie Gonik unleashes his creative talents through visual arts. In the begin-ning Robbie had no interest in art but his mother convinced him to enroll in an art school near his home. Robbie was hesitant about taking this class but he began to feel as if it was meant to be. Sketching has not only become one of his greatest talents, but also his favorite pastime. Out of all of his draw-ings, Robbie’s portraits stand apart due to his passion, dedication and skill. Robbie’s artistic talent has undeniably changed his perspective on life and his surroundings because he now bases his artwork on his observations. Artwork has become a very relev-ent aspect of his life and he plans to

Photo by Joseph Kleid

The meaning of the Maccabi Games is not winning. We don’t come to-gether to beat the competition or create the best piece of art. We come to find a sense of community in a crowd of young Jewish teens from all over the world. Many leave with rich memories of new friends and great times. This is the true essence of the games. However, for one Israeli singer, the Maccabi Games represented an opportuni-ty of a lifetime. Years earlier in Kfar-Yona, Isra-el four-year-old Topaz Bar-On sang her first note. As a toddler she had found her first love, singing. Twelve years later she dreamed of performing in front of large audiences and gaining recognition as a world-class vocalist. Despite real raw tal-ent Bar-On still hadn’t gotten her break. That’s when she learned about the Maccabi Games in Orange County. Kfar-Yona, the

Below: Topaz Bar-On gazes at the stage(Picture by Michael Sandor)

A Moment of a Lifetime

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by Michael Sandor

sister delegation to Orange County, would be performing at the 2013 Maccabi Games opening ceremonies. The crowd roars. Cameras flash. The MC exits. Topaz Bar-On slowly walks on stage with her fellow Kfar-Yona vocal-ists. “Exhilarating, emotional,” says Bar-On as she recalls the huge moment, “It meant so much to sing of front of that many Jew-ish people at the opening ceremonies”. Someday Topaz Bar-On hopes to sing for a profession. She wishes to sing in Israel, but if the opportunity presented it-self elsewhere she would take it. The most important thing however is doing what she loves. In ten years when Topaz Bar-On is singing for sold-out audiences she will re-call the Maccabi Games as her first big op-portunity, her first big moment, the launch-pad for her career.

Competing Monday at track and field, were Shelby Reamer (Miami), Keren Lee (San Diego), and Sharon Burke (Chicago). They all medaled in the 100m. 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Way to go ladies! Sharon takes on challenges! She’s usually a soccer player but she wanted to mix it up a bit, and went to track! As we were interviewing them they were getting ready for the hurdles. They all love the California weather and are psyched to be here!

(The two runners are pictured above and to the right)

Track and Field

This is Maria Reyes, who is one of the bus drivers for Maccabi. She’s been a bus driver for eight years. She is a single mom with four children who likes to take them to the zoo. An average work day for her here at Maccabi is about 13-16 hours long. She goes back and forth on her route about 20 times a day. Driving a bus doesn’t seem like a very stressful job, but for Maria at times it can be stressful. It can be stressful when

people decide to cut her off and be rude drivers, especially when she is caring chil-dren. To be a good bus driver Maria always has to concentrate and keep her eyes on the road. Maria was born in Mexico and came to California when she was only two years old. She’s been here for 34 years. What Maria likes about the Maccabi games is meeting new people. But something she doesn’t like is when kids are disrespectful to her or use inappropriate language. If you would like to meet or talk to Maria you can find her on the bus to Willow and Cypress Park.

Maria, one of our unknown heroes, is pictured above.

The Unknown Heroes of Maccabiby Justin Kalvari, Aaron Ratner and Deana Berman

As you know, one of the main parts of Maccabi is the competition. Ev-eryone playing a sport would love to win a medal and accomplish success. To some teams, that is not the case. The Houston and Atlanta softball teams aren’t worried about winning a medal, they just want to have fun. Orly Golub, pitcher for the Houston softball team said, “We didn’t come here to win, we came to have fun.” The Houston softball team has joked that their new name is Rauchma-nus. Orly said that her team “Has a lot of fun playing and making friends.” For the team, a medal would be nice, but they just want to have the Maccabi experience and play the sport they love.

The same goes for the Atlanta softball team. Atlanta and Houston has had a friendly rivalry for the past few years and they always look forward to playing each other every year. Laura Shel-ton of the Atlanta Softball team said, “She does Maccabi to get another chance to play softball and make friends.” Atlanta is a good team with a good chance to win a medal, but the experience is satisfying enough. What you should take away from these teams, is that winning isn’t ev-erything, it’s just a little part of Maccabi. What these girls want to do is enjoy the Maccabi experience and play without a goal.

Lessons Taught on the Fieldby Michael Kaplan

Photos directly above and below by Sydney Pomish

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Orange County local, and Olympic gold medalist, Jason Lezak dropped by the JCC pool today. He had the honor in giving out medals to some of the swimmers. A lot of the athletes were really excited to see him. Jason, a former Maccabi competitor was ecstatic to reconnect with his past experience. Ja-son stated, “The Maccabi games was the first real traveling compition that I went to before the Olympics. It was good for me to get a feel of competing with other countries.” By coming to Maccabi, Jason had the opportunity to inspire others and give them advise for their future in swimming. For example, “So, listen to

your coaches because if you do, you’ll have an earlier success. You’re not always going to be at your best, but you have to learn from your mistakes, and come back with a better attitude.” The adrenalin from the race and the sense of compition motivated him to keep going. Don’t be upset if you don’t get gold because not even Jason Lezak got gold all the time when he was younger. He experienced several injuries such as tendonitis, and several knee, shoulder and elbow injuries. In fact Jason broke his foot right before championships but pushed through it and got gold. Re-minders don’t let anything stop you from dreaming big.

Interview with Jason Lezakby Matana Zwiren

Left: The Acting and Improv team with Zachery Ty Bryan Upper right and 2nd down: Girls playing softballMiddle Right: Visual Artists working on a projectBottom Right: Jason Lezak with a few mem-bers of the Star Report-er team

Meet the Athletes

My twin Saul Kalvari is one out of two soccer players from Vancouver on the To-ronto team. Saul has wanted to join the Maccabi games ever since his older brother Marc joined in New York. When Marc came back from New York and shared his experience with Saul he decided that when he is old enough he would join the Maccabi games. Saul thinks that Wrestling should be one of the Maccabi sports in the future because It has been taken out of the Olympics. He also thinks Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (which he would participate in) should be a sport in Maccabi as well. Sauls favorite athlete is Chael P. Sonnen. He is a UFC fighter. The Journey Saul made to be here was a long road trip. He took a drive from Vancouver to Ashland Oregon and then another drive from Ashland to a total of 24 hours of driving. Saul would really like the Maccabi games to happen in Vancouver again. This is because it’s a beautiful city and it is his hometown. Not only did Saul take a long drive to get here, he also had to sell greetings in the local Jewish newspaper. Together with his twin, they sold half of all the greetings. He also had to babysit to make some money to get here and he also refereed soccer games every weekend. Saul is happy to participate.

Bottom 3 Photos by Blaze Bernstein

Saul Kavari

Above: Saul Kalvari with his twin Justin Kalvari after a soccer gameBelow: Talia Raikin ready for her softball game to begin

Talia Raikin

by Justin Kalvari

Photo by Lila Harris

Talia Raikin, from Team Philidelphia, has been playing softball for one year. Un-fortunately this year, she suffered a quad injury while playing her first game. That has not stopped her from supporting the rest of her team. Talia has decided to stay with her team to give them moral support. This showed us her outstanding demonstration of Jewish value. Talia expressed that the key characteristics of playing softball are teamwork, com-mitment and being enthusiastic. “I think it’s important to stay active by playing sports, because it keeps you fit and healthy,” said Talia. Although Talia’s first year at Maccabi did not start off great, we hope she will return it to the games next year. We wish Talia the best of luck in her recovery, and to her team well in the rest of Maccabi.

by Lila Harris and Gabi Poremba

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