Around 2,300 Jewish athletes are preparing to take part in the Maccabi Games which opened in Berlin Tuesday and run until August 5.
Basketball, hockey, football and tennis were among the sports to see action on the opening day of the amateur tournament which has attendees from 38 countries.
Germany is hosting the event for the first time some 70 years after the end of the Holocaust. The main venue is the Olympic Park, a site built by Nazis for the 1936 Olympics, where Jewish athletes were forbidden from competing in the Games that year.
Eberhard Gienger, sports spokesman for the governing CDU/CSU parliamentary group, described hosting the Games as a "historic sign." They "show that Jewish life in Germany is pulsating again," and, like with the 2006 World Cup in the country, offer "a time to make friends."
It is the 14th edition of the Maccabi Games which were first held in 1932 and currently includes 19 disciplines offering 166 medal events.
In addition to several sports found at the Olympics, the Maccabi Games also includes games like bridge and chess.
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas will later attend a memorial ceremony at the Olympic Park ahead of the event's official opening, which will include remarks from German President Joachim Gauck and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauderat.
Police security measures will centre on the Olympic park and the hotel in the Neukoelln district where most of the athletes are staying.
