{"id":508959,"date":"2026-06-24T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/508959\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:41:09","slug":"social-media-star-montana-tucker-to-host-maccabiah-games-delegation-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/508959\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media star Montana Tucker to host Maccabiah Games delegation parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the 2026 Maccabiah Games<\/a>, an event often called the \u201cJewish Olympics” and the largest Jewish sporting competition in the world, which are set to begin next week, social media influencer, dancer, and singer, Montana Tucker<\/a> expressed her excitement to be hosting the delegation parade at the event and said that the games were taking place at a critical point for the global Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has gone through a lot, Israelis have gone through a lot, Jews have gone through a lot around the world,\u201d Tucker told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. \u201cWhat’s going on is not just happening in Israel; it’s really happening all around the world with our Jewish community. So, an event like the Maccabiah Games is showing the world that we are strong, we are united, and we don’t give up, and we keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Maccabiah, the games bring together more than 10,000 athletes from at least 80 countries in Israel every four years to compete in over 45 sports. The Maccabi World Union says the games are the second-largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Maccabiah Games, the 22nd of their kind, were initially scheduled for last year but were postponed<\/a> due to the security situation involving Iran and its regional proxies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was supposed to happen last year, and about a month away, we had to cancel it due to the war,\u201d Tucker recalled. \u201cAnd so I am so grateful that it is happening this year, because we truly do need this now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RenderingRendering of the stage at the Maccabiah Games. (credit: MACCABIAH)<\/p>\n

She also said she was excited to debut her new song \u201cWe’re Not Strangers\u201d at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about unity and building bridges and bringing people together. And some of the lyrics say \u2018we may pray to different saviors, but we’re not strangers,\u2019\u201d she told the Post. \u201cOur world is so divided right now. I think that we really just need to come together and have more unity and compassion and understanding of one another. And if we really talk to people who look differently than us, act differently than us, have a different religion than us, we’ll realize we’re actually more similar than we think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montana Tucker: Sport ‘truly unites the world’<\/p>\n

Sports, she said, was an ideal method to build these bridges, adding she viewed it as something that \u201ctruly unites the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maccabiah Games this year, though, will be the first since the Hamas-led massacres in southern Israel on October 7, 2023<\/a>. The attacks sparked a regional eruption with Israel fighting wars against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Islamic regime in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always have to talk about what happened on October 7,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cWe should never stop talking about it. And I think it is so important that Maccabiah is utilizing this platform to talk about it. I know they actually have a former hostage, Daniella Gilboa, who’s going to be performing, which is so powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucker also highlighted the value of the games, saying they were a powerful tool to dispel disinformation about the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat’s shown on the news nowadays is just all the negativity. Most of it is just propaganda and lies about what Israel is, and I think the Maccabiah just debunks every possible propaganda and lie about Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen people say the word \u2018Israel,\u2019 it comes with so many different connotations, and I think we can show them this. This is Israel. This is what being Jewish means.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key element in showing the world what Israel and being Jewish mean, she reiterated, meant showcasing Jewish unity at a time when, in the wake of the October 7, the global Jewish community has faced a worldwide rise in antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The games themselves are being held under the slogan, “More Than Ever,” according to Maccabiah, to emphasize “the importance of strengthening the bond between [Jewish] communities worldwide and the State of Israel.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the 2026 Maccabiah Games, an event often called the \u201cJewish Olympics” and the largest Jewish sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1503,85,46,61833,149601,86717,43,2460,105,58],"class_list":["post-508959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-culture","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-maccabiah","tag-montana-tucker","tag-news","tag-social-media","tag-sports","tag-the-october-7-massacre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}