Over the summer, wrestler Michael Goldfeder took home gold at the 21st annual Maccabiah Games in Israel. Goldfeder, 23, beat Raul Zarbaliev, the Israeli National Champion, at 74 kilos (164 pounds). Cheered on by more than 20 family members who travelled to Israel to watch him compete, Goldfeder won by a pin.
He said the experience was an honor and something he will never forget.
“Everything’s just like as if you’re competing at the Olympics.”
– Michael Goldfeder
“Everything’s just like as if you’re competing at the Olympics,” Goldfeder told the Journal. “It was good competition, like super primed, and everybody was talented.”
The Maccabiah Games, which are held every four years, gives young Jewish athletes the opportunity to compete in an international environment. They experience an opening and closing ceremony, as well as other events, like touring Israel, where they make new friends from around the world. More than 10,000 athletes from 60 counties came together to compete. The mission behind the games is to foster a pride and love of being Jewish in the Jewish homeland.
“[It was great to] be surrounded by a Jewish presence, and have a strong sense of nationality,” Goldfeder said.
He also earned a silver medal in the Greco-Roman tournament the day before. While this was not his first time in Israel – Goldfeder was bar mitzvahed at the Wall – these were his first international tournaments.
“It was cool to wrestle with guys from Israel and all over the world,” he said. “Wrestling was an open tournament, so it wasn’t necessarily just Jewish athletes.”
Goldfeder, who grew up in Beverly Hills and went to Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, is currently a Red Shirt Senior at the Division 1 wrestling program at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where he is on the honor roll.
After graduation, Goldfeder will take a gap year to represent Israel in the World Games and European championships.
“It’s very exciting,” he said.
Then, Goldfeder plans to go to law school. Both his parents, Laura Stein and Sam Goldfeder (a sports agent), are lawyers, so he said it’s preordained. Plus, there are parallels between wrestling and the law.
“I’m biased, but I think [wrestling is] the hardest sport by far,” Goldfeder said. “You have to stay focused at all times and you have to be precise in your intent and how you approach competition.”
Goldfeder thinks this works in tandem practicing law one day.
“You never know when you will be backed into a legal corner and need focus and precision to help win the case,” he said.
Goldfeder began wrestling at age 14, though he wasn’t initially keen on the sport.
“I was always a very aggressive kid, and I was too small to play football, so [my dad] steered me towards wrestling,” Goldfeder said.
When you get started, the only attribute you need for wrestling is to be open-minded. Having a good work ethic and a love of combat sports also helps.
Being one of few Jews in a non-Jewish dominated sport has also inspired him to stick with it. Goldfeder said he has met so many people from different backgrounds through wrestling who he never would have met.
“If somebody tells me that they wrestled in college, there’s just a deeper respect I have for them, because I know what they’ve done,” he said.
While not many people stick with wrestling, those who do develop positive attributes and life-skills. “There’s no other sport that teaches you more,” Goldfeder said.
“You start to gain a better sense of what you’re capable of doing, of how hard you can push yourself, of how hard you can work, and that translates to school and life,” he said. “[When you know] what you’re capable of, there’s no better feeling.”
