The Maccabiah Games are quadrennial Jewish Olympics, held in Israel the year following the Olympic Games. Every four years, the best Jewish athletes from throughout the world compete in Open, Masters, juniors, and Disabled competitions. Maccabiah Games is an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics. The Maccabiah Games started off by being held in Palestine but were later shifted to Israel under the auspices of the Maccabi Federation, a part of the Maccabi World Union. The Maccabiah Games,is considered the third largest sporting event in the world, after the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, it are considered Regional Games by the International Olympic Committee.The Maccabiah Games are being held since 1932 after every four years, although the sporting event for 1938 was delayed to 1950 due to the Second World War.
The participating countries in the Maccabiah Games are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Congo-Kinshasa, Denmark, Finland, France, Guatemala, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rhodesia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Some of the featured sports included during the 2005 Maccabiah Games are Athletics (track and field), Badminton, Basketball, Cricket, Fencing, Football, Gold ad Gymnastics.
Ironically, Judas Maccabeus, the man for whom the game is named after was strictly against athletic games and competitions. These games are modeled on the modern Olympics - in turn modeled on the Classical Greek ones, of which Maccabeus also evidently disapproved as part of an alien and hostile culture. The last Maccabiah Games were held in 2005 that attracted the largest attendance of any Maccabiah Games to date. This included more than 900 representatives from the United States, almost 500 from Australia, and more than 2,000 from Israel, bringing the total participants to more than 7,700. Israel finished at the top of the medal count with 227 gold medals. The United States was a distant second with 71 gold medals, while Russia came in third with 15.

The medal count for 2005 Maccabiah Games are as follows:
RankCountry GoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Israel 226192171589
2United States 718167219
3Russia 15181851
4South Africa 128828
5Canada 11152147
6Ukraine 52310
7Venezuela 4329
8Brazil 41510
9Australia 372535
10Argentina 34613

The Jews make sure that the Maccabiah Games are the most exciting, thrilling and largest sporting event in the world. The competitors come from all over the world uniting under this multi-sport event. Everyone is looking forward to the 19th Maccabiah Games which would be held in Ramat-Gan, Israel, Jul 12, 2009. Good luck to all the teams and athletes for the third largest sporting event in the world.