The Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood is set to host the 2027 JCC Maccabi Games, bringing an Olympic-style competition for Jewish teen athletes ages 13 to 17 to Montgomery County from Aug. 1 through Aug. 6. The event pairs athletic competition with community service and cultural programming, and organizers are now asking the community to step up with roughly 450 host families and 1,000 volunteers to pull it off.
According to PHILADELPHIA.Today, the Philadelphia region is one of two announced hosts for the 2027 games, alongside Shalom Austin in Texas, which will hold its session in July. The opening ceremony for Philadelphia's games will be held at Xfinity Mobile Arena, according to JCC Maccabi Philadelphia, and the 2027 Philadelphia slate is expected to draw roughly 3,000 Jewish teen athletes from around the globe, per JCC Maccabi. Howie Roseman will serve as honorary chair of the event, and Comcast Spectacor — which owns the Flyers and Xfinity Mobile Arena — is among the sponsors, according to the Jewish Exponent.
A Return Engagement for Kaiserman
This isn't Kaiserman's first time running the show. The Wynnewood facility previously hosted the competition in 2001 and 2011, the Jewish Exponent's report notes, and had to raise more than $1 million to bring the games back for 2027. Team Philadelphia, which competes under the Kaiserman banner, draws athletes from Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia counties.
Daniel Weiss, a Wynnewood resident, Kaiserman board member, and longtime coach for JCC Maccabi Philadelphia's boys soccer program, is among those involved in the hosting effort, per the Jewish Exponent. Kaiserman is encouraging residents across the region to sign up as host families, volunteers, or sponsors, with host families asked to live within a 40-minute drive of the JCC. Organizers previously sought host families for roughly 1,000 visiting teens during earlier regional hosting duties, and Kaiserman's volunteer calls have historically welcomed people of all faiths.
Sports Lineup and On-the-Ground Programming
The Philadelphia program's listed sports include baseball, basketball, 3v3 basketball, ice hockey, soccer, softball, volleyball, dance, golf, swimming, tennis, track and field, and star reporter, according to JCC Maccabi, though organizers note the lineup is subject to change. The 2027 event will also include HangTime programming featuring Israeli shlichim, per the same source. Every summer, as JCC Maccabi Philadelphia puts it, teen athletes come together to compete, to serve the host community, and to build friendships that outlast the week.
Kaiserman already got a preview run this year, hosting the Mid-Atlantic Mini & Junior Maccabi Games in May for athletes ages 9 to 12 from across the East Coast. Organizers had planned for more than 900 participants at that regional event, a scale that hints at the logistical lift ahead for the full 2027 games.
Philadelphia's Teens Already Have Hardware to Defend
Local Kaiserman-based players have recent momentum heading into the host year. Philadelphia-area players on the Coast to Coast 17U girls basketball team, which also included teammates from Alberta and Detroit, won basketball gold at the 2026 JCC Maccabi Games in Toronto, according to 6abc. The team started the Toronto tournament 0-2 before rallying to beat the JCC of Los Angeles in the final. Kaiserman players described to the station the friendships formed during the tournament, including bonds with Jewish athletes on opposing teams.
That 2026 competition, held across Kansas City and Toronto, drew nearly 3,000 teen athletes from 85 Jewish communities in 12 countries, according to the JCC Association of North America. A post-Games survey found 91% of participants reported a stronger sense of Jewish pride afterward, and 75% said the experience inspired them to seek out Jewish life on campus. More than a quarter of the 600 coaches at the 2026 games were themselves JCC Maccabi alumni, underscoring how the program tends to pull people back year after year.
Part of a Bigger Growth Push
Philadelphia's hosting year comes as the JCC Association of North America pursues a four-year, $19.5 million effort to expand the games from around 2,600 athletes to 4,000, per the Jewish Exponent's reporting. Austin's companion 2027 session, run by Shalom Austin, is scheduled for July 25 through July 30 and is expected to bring more than 1,000 visiting teens from around the world who will stay with local Jewish host families. Austin's Dell JCC will also host JCC Maccabi Access, a version of the games for Jewish athletes ages 12 to 22 with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
For now, the Kaiserman JCC's focus is closer to home: filling out its roster of host families and volunteers before next August's opening ceremony at Xfinity Mobile Arena. With roughly ten months to go, organizers are counting on the same community spirit that powered the Mid-Atlantic Mini & Junior Games in May to scale up for a crowd many times larger.
