Inductee Profile

Bob Spivak

shof-2000-Bob_SpivakBob Spivak is President of Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel. Since assuming his post in 1981. Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, located in Philadelphia, has exhibited tremendous growth in American athletes competing in the World Maccabiah Games.

He served as General Chairman of the USA Maccabiah Team that represented America at the Maccabiah Games in 1985, 1989 and 1993. He also co-chaired the Organizing Committee of the 1979 Pan American Maccabi Games, and is on the Board of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Israel.

Spivak initiated an athlete endowment and sponsorship program to ensure that Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel’s mission will be perpetuated. Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel started a pre-camp before the Games to help educate American athletes about Israel and Judaism. The Maccabi movement, named for Judah (The Hammer) Maccabee, was initiated in 1895-96 when the first all-Jewish Maccabi gymnastics club was formed in Constantinople.

By the end of World War I, more than 100 Maccabi-style clubs existed in Europe. The Maccabiah Games were held for the first time in 1932. World events forced the delay of the third Maccabiah Games, scheduled for 1938, until 1950. The Maccabiah Games have been a. quadrennial event since 1953. A partner in CMS Companies of Philadelphia, a financial consulting firm specializing in business insurance and estate planning, Spivak devotes innumerable hours of volunteer work to the causes of sports, youth and Israel.

He has been a delegate on the U.S. Olympic Committee and a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. His Board affiliations have included the Jewish National Fund, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Centers of Philadelphia and Boy’s Town Jerusalem. In addition, he has been listed in “Who’s Who in World Jewry” “Who’s Who in America – Eastern Edition” and “Who’s Who in Society.”