As part of the their mission to bridge the gap between the secular and religious, approximately 50 rabbis from the Rabbanei Tzohar organization and their families will be joining the young athletes in Israel for the Maccabiah games “aimed at reinforcing Jewish identity and reaffirming their link to Israel,” said Rabbi Ronen Neuwirth, Tzohar’s overseas department director.

According to Maccabiah organizers, many of the 2000 participants under the age of 18 have “no real link to Judaism besides this event,” said Neuwirth, the Israeli-born rabbi of Ra’anana’s Ohel Ari shul.

Tzohar rabbis plan on bringing the athletes closer to their faith by holding festive Shabbat dinners in the participants’ hotels, prayer services on Shabbat and activities to help show the important role that Israel plays in their lives. Besides English speakers, there will be rabbis fluent in Russian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Tzohar, founded in 1996, is a group of over 600 volunteer Religious Zionist rabbis who are actively working to address many of the tensions between the religious and secular communities in Israel while offering an ethical and sensitive religious approach to issues of Jewish identity and practice.