The Road to Berlin

Student-athletes participate in historic global event

by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Two student-athletes competed in an international athletics competition that marked a significant moment in global history. Seventy years after the end of World War II, field-hockey players Catherine Perlmutter ’17 (Spanish, neuroscience) and Freddie Bancroft ’18 (undeclared) represented the U.S. during the 2015 European Maccabi Games, the first ever to be held in Germany.

Staged every four years, the European Maccabi Games bring together 2,000-plus athletes from more than 30 nations. As they compete in 19 sports, they draw on decades of tradition that unite young Jewish people from around the world through athletics and sports.

According to the Maccabi website, the games trace their roots back to 1929, when the first international Jewish athletics competition was held in Prague. A second event was staged in Antwerp the following year, but after the Nazi Party grew in power, the games weren't held in Europe until more than a decade after World War II. Much of the weeklong 2015 event, which kicked off July 27, took place in a Berlin auditorium originally constructed for the 1936 Olympics. 

Bancroft and Perlmutter were selected to compete in the European Games by Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, an organization founded in 1948—in the wake of Israel’s founding as a nation—to help unite Jewish people worldwide while promoting fitness and athletics among Jewish youth.

After only two years at Dickinson, Perlmutter, a forward, is already ranked 10th in career points. She also earned All-Region and All-Centennial Conference honors in 2013 and 2014. During her first season at Dickinson last year, Bancroft played four games as goalkeeper, making 11 stops and posting a .786 save percentage. She also tallied a solo shutout against Swarthmore College and shared another at Frostburg State University.

Look for more about these two student-athletes in the fall issue of Dickinson Magazine.

Learn more

• “Bancroft, Perlmutter to Play in Maccabi Games”
• Dickinson Athletics
• “Davis, Perlmutter Earn All-Region Honors”
• Latest News

Published August 11, 2015