Honored: 1997
Location: Potomac, Maryland, United States
Alan Sherman has been one of the most significant
Americans engaged in Israel-United States sports
relations. A
long-time vice-president of Maccabi USA/Sports For
Israel since 1973, the Potomac, Maryland realtor
is primarily recognized for his leadership of U.S.
participation in the quadrennial World Maccabiah
Games.
Serving from 1973 to 1989 on the International
Maccabiah Committee (Maccabiah equivalent of
the International
Olympic Committee), Sherman was all-sports chairman
of U.S. teams organized for the 1977 and 1985 Maccabiah Games, and was the
U.S.
team's general chairman from 1977 to 1979. He introduced the heralded
Maccabiah "Pre
Camp Program" in 1985 at Rutgers University; where four years later, initiated an expanded version of Jewish-Israel orientation
for all American athletes that has become a staple of the Maccabiah "experience".
Alan Sherman conceived and founded the North American
(now JCC) Maccabi
Youth Games (for athletes 16-and-under) that
made its debut in 1982 in Memphis with 300
athletes. The event currently registers
more than 6,000
participants annually. He was also instrumental in the early development
of the Israel Tennis
Centers.
In 1978,Alan Sherman organized a basketball exhibition
tour of Israel by the NBA World Champion Washington
Bullets. He later organized two U.S. tours
by the
amputee volleyball team of Israel’s Beit Halochem, and initiated USA/Sports For
Israel's support for the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled. In 1980 he organized a successful tour of Israel's World Champion wheelchair basketball team on the east coast to be followed by another tour in 1982 playing in eight cities.
For many years Alan Sherman was United States liaison to the Israel Olympic Committee and Israel Sports Federation. Since 1989, he has been Chairman of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and since the early 1990s serves as president of American Friends of Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sports and President of the International Jewish Sports Foundation. He is a member of the executive committee of Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel as well as an executive committee member of the United States organizing committee for the Maccabiah Games.
The Lifetime Achievement
Award is presented annually, honoring those individuals
who have made significant contributions to the State of Israel and society
through sports.
