Moorestown Friends School siblings journeyed to Israel to compete in the world’s third largest sporting event.
Charlotte and Jack Stern are used to competing. Both are starting players on their respective varsity basketball teams at Moorestown Friends School, but the pair of siblings from Voorhees faced a new level of competition when they journeyed to Israel for 25 days this summer to compete in the 20th Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish sporting event featuring athletes from 80 countries.
The siblings were just two of more than 7,000 athletes who arrived to the world’s third-largest sporting event. The two trained, competed and toured Jerusalem for 25 days in July.
Charlotte, 17, and Jack, 16, have played basketball since they were kids. Jack said he and his sister were encouraged to get involved in their sport by their father around the age of 6.
Charlotte said the pair played in the driveway and on school teams, and at the age of 13, she tried out to compete in the domestic Maccabi Games through the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, with her brother following suit when he turned 13. The domestic games move from city to city in the United States, and athletes ages 13 to 16 participate in an Olympic-style sports competition with around 5,000 Jewish teenagers joining in.
In September 2016, the siblings tried out for the United States Maccabiah team at the tryouts in Philadelphia, with Jack making the USA Junior Boys’ Basketball team and Charlotte making the Junior Girls’ team.
Charlotte said she was excited when she got the news because within the Jewish community, there is a lot of talk about Israel, but now she was going to experience it for herself. For both siblings, the experience was invaluable both on and off the court.
“What makes it important to me specifically is there’s not many opportunities where you can go out and connect with [Jewish people] in 80 different countries,”Jack said. “It’s an experience you’re never going to have again.”
The siblings had trained individually at home, but when they arrived, they each began an intensive practice schedule with their teammates from around the country, doing up to two practices a day for more than a week prior to the two-week competition.
Both siblings said the 25-day experience opened them up to a new realm of play. Jack said he learned the United States is the only country that doesn’t use a shot clock when playing basketball at the high school level, and the timer made the international rate of play much faster than the one the siblings were accustomed to at home.
“These are top players from their respective countries,” Jack said. “It really showed how quick the game is and how you need to be able to adapt to the way other people play.”
Charlotte said learning the international rules made her grow and made her both quicker and more decisive with her play. Jack led his team in rebounds and blocked shots throughout the competition, while Charlotte led her team in scoring and rebounding. Ultimately, Jack’s team won gold, and Charlotte’s team won the silver medal.
While the competition was fierce on the court, off the court there was real sense of camaraderie, Charlotte said. She said her team grew especially close with the Australian team, with both groups eager to hear what life was like in each other’s countries.
“My biggest takeaway was probably just embracing all the different cultures,” Charlotte said. “While we’re all Jewish, we all come from different cultures with different experiences.”
Jack echoed his sister’s sentiment. He said at the competition, players exchange shirts after games as a display of friendship, and he returned home with a small collection of shirts from other countries. He said the experience was “once in a lifetime.”
“I’m always going to remember that one experience of being at Maccabiah,” Jack said. “Whether you win or not it’s kind of irrelevant. I know kids that didn’t even medal and still would tell you it’s the great experience you’ve ever had.”
