The Mini and Junior JCC Maccabi Games took place at Saint Joseph’s University and across the Philadelphia Main Line on May 3. The Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood served as host.
Squash was a new addition to the games this year, according to Barrie Mittica, the senior director of engagement at the JCC. That was the result of a sustained effort on the part of an influential Merion Station resident and Adath Israel on the Main Line member.
She’s also 9 years old.
Tess Davidson, quite simply, is an avid squash player. In the years leading up to the games, she enlisted the support of her father, Lev Davidson, a Kaiserman JCC board member, in pitching the sport to Kaiserman brass. CEO Alan Scher agreed to include it. Mittica said it was a good addition due to Philadelphia’s status as the home of US Squash, as the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in University City serves as the program’s official headquarters.
“Squash is tied deeply to the greater Philadelphia community,” Mittica said.
Lev Davidson said his daughter’s advocacy began two years ago, at the father’s induction into the JCC Maccabi Hall of Fame at Kaiserman. (Lev had been a Team Philadelphia swimmer in the JCC Maccabi Games in his youth.) At the ceremony, his daughter asked if squash was part of the games. Lev said no.
“She was bummed and angered about that,” the father recalled.
But she didn’t sulk. She acted.
“She was like, ‘How can we get it in?’” Lev recalled.
Tess wanted to get squash in because it’s her sport. Lev was never a squash player, and neither was his wife, Tess’ mom. But the parents sent Tess to The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, where Madeline Perry — the legendary Irish squash player who was once ranked No. 3 in the world — served as director of squash and varsity coach.
Students start playing at Baldwin after school when they are in kindergarten. Tess was hooked right away, according to her father.
“And it’s been squash ever since for her,” he said.
At a squash camp at the Germantown Cricket Club two summers ago, Tess started playing under Lauren West, the squash director and varsity coach at the Germantown Friends School. She enjoyed the experience so much that she enrolled at the school in 2025.
There, she trained with the married coaching duo of Chris Longman and West. Lev credited the pair with fostering his daughter’s “deep love of the game.”
“These coaches are amazing, and that’s where she’s really progressed,” he said.
Tess and Lev initially tried to get squash included in last year’s Mini and Junior JCC Maccabi Games at the Katz JCC in Cherry Hill, but they started their pitch too close to the competition. For the 2026 games, they started their campaign early.
The father and daughter planned out what the competition would look like, and then they had calls with Scher and Mittica. Lev subsequently joined the Kaiserman board, which helped, but it was Tess who was integral to the calls, the father said.
“We pitched it hard,” he added.
They explained that “a lot of Jewish kids are involved in it,” Mittica said. They also connected the sport to its Philadelphia home.
“If any town is going to host squash for the first time in the Junior Maccabi Games, it should be Philly,” Lev said.
Tess and Lev also drafted emails to coaches, clubs and other JCCs to send out to their members to recruit players. Nine participated in the games on May 3, including Tess, who won gold in her mixed mini division. Six of those athletes were on Team Philadelphia. The other three came from Princeton, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore, respectively.
The father-daughter duo now wants to work toward getting the sport included in next year’s JCC Maccabi Games for 13- to 17-year-olds, also likely to be hosted by Kaiserman.
They have already talked to the Specter Center about hosting the squash competition. In 2028, squash will be a sport in the Summer Olympics for the first time.
“The goal has always been, let’s pilot it in these Mini and Junior Maccabi Games,” Lev said. “It’s only the start. Next year we’re going to make it even bigger.”