Daniella Ironi is Tucson’s newest shlicha, or Israeli emissary, here to support this summer’s JCC Maccabi Games & Access® at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.
Ironi is helping design fun yet educational programs for the “Hang Time” space, where athletes will spend time socializing when they are not competing.
The idea, she says, is to impart Jewish and Israeli culture without making it feel like school.
“For many of the teens that are playing, [the JCC Maccabi] is their only Jewish activity for the year,” she emphasizes.
She will work with the teens alongside Tucson’s senior shlicha, Yuval Malka, and two additional Israeli shlichim who will come to Tucson for the JCC Maccabi. She is collaborating with Jennifer Selco, the J’s senior director of Jewish living and engagement, on Jewish cultural activities throughout the year.
Malka and Selco “are amazing,” says Ironi, who loves being part of a team.
She also loves sports, which will make it easy for her to connect with JCC Maccabi athletes.
“My family is very into sport, anything that has to do with running, swimming, riding bikes, skiing,” says Ironi, who grew up in Rosh HaAyin, about 20 minutes from Tel Aviv. She participated in ski races as a child and later ran 5K and 10K races.
“For me, doing that with my family and playing sports with friends, I realized there is strength in teams. Nothing was really hard in the army, because you had a team,” she says.
Ironi completed her Israeli Defense Forces service in 2022. As a machine gun specialist in the Israeli Navy, similar to the U.S. Coast Guard, she helped protect the Lebanon border. She was on her post-army gap year, traveling in Nepal, when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since her unit does not use reservists, she went home to volunteer with farmers In Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar Aza, two of the hardest hit communities.
When the farmers’ situation was more stable, she volunteered with the Home Front Project, a nonprofit that helps people redecorate homes damaged in the attacks. Residents who had been displaced or wounded, physically or mentally, could meet with therapists as well as interior designers, she says.
“They are really surrounded [with support]. And giving them the option to redecorate their home, giving them that control, is really amazing,” she says. “We had a lot of hostages who were released from Gaza come into Home Front and redecorate their homes. I think it is beautiful to watch, and it’s heartbreaking.”
She explains that the teams included “fairies,” who created interior designs, and “rhinos,” who carried the couches and tables. Ironi was a rhino.
After that, she volunteered at a summer camp in Brooklyn, New York, where she heard about the JCC Maccabi Games and applied to work in Tucson. She arrived in January.
“We are thrilled to have Daniella on the JCC Maccabi Team. Daniella has jumped right in,” says Todd Rockoff, president and CEO of the J. “Daniella has been a wonderful resource to our team and provided meaningful content and context as we participated in a Zoom about the series ‘Fighters’ in honor of Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month.”
Malka also hails Ironi’s contributions.
“Welcoming wonderful Daniella has been an incredible opportunity to bring the live energy and spirit of Israel into our community. Strengthening the bond between our community — especially our teens — and Israel through sports, culture, and meaningful programming is truly unique and impactful, helping to foster pride, unity, and a shared Jewish identity,” she says, adding that Ironi’s influence “goes far beyond the Maccabi Games, inspiring young leaders and building lasting connections.”
For Ironi, who used to spend days trekking with her family in the hills near her hometown, Tucson is idyllic.
“It’s so beautiful here,” she says. “It’s a perfect place to live.”
