Written by Nathan Shriberg
Todd Schwartz, 53, has played tennis all his life. As a child in South Florida, he and his younger brother Jason learned the game from their father Joseph. Jason and Todd would watch their father play every weekend at a country club before eventually joining in and falling in love with the sport. The trio would eventually go on to compete together at the 21st Maccabiah in 2022, with Joseph competing in the 80+ Grand Masters division.
Meanwhile, Andrés Felder Rozenblum, 37, was working at a resort in Cancún, Mexico. After growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay, Andrés moved to Mexico in 2016, and he started working as the tennis director at Nizuc Resort and Spa in Cancún in 2021. Like Schwartz, Felder Rozenblum is a lifelong tennis player. He’s also a two-time Maccabi veteran, having represented both Uruguay and Mexico in prior editions of the Games.
“All my life, I’ve played tennis,” Felder Rozenblum said. “I decided to work with tennis because tennis is my passion. I think I am in the one percent of the world that can choose what to do with my life, so I choose to work with tennis and to be happy every day.”
In an act of “divine intervention,” Todd and his wife Donna celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in February 2023 with a vacation to Cancún, where they ended up staying at Andrés’ resort.
“Being a diehard tennis person, wherever I am in the world I go and bring my tennis racket, and I take a tennis lesson,” Schwartz said.
As fate would have it, Todd showed up to his tennis lesson with Andrés wearing a Maccabi USA t-shirt from the 2022 Games. Much to Todd’s surprise, Andrés immediately knew what it was, and they quickly struck up a conversation before the lesson even began.
“It just so happened that the year before [at the 2022 Maccabiah], my father and his grandfather happened to play in the 80s [division] together,” Todd said. “While there onthe court I called my father, and my dad sends a picture.”
After some digging, Schwartz found out that an article was published about generational families in the 2022 Games that featured his father Joseph, and Andrés’ grandfather Leonardo Rozenblum.
Todd currently owns multiple businesses in the elevator industry, but he’s also a Co-Chair for Maccabi USA’s Masters Tennis and was looking for coaches to join the delegation at the 2025 Maccabiah. Andrés was the first person that came to mind. He says that “a higher authority brought us together.”
Andrés expressed how much it means to him to be able to participate in such a special competition that bridges his Jewish and tennis lives. The United States will be the third country he’s represented at the Maccabiah.
“I can’t explain with words, but I’ve been waiting for this Maccabi Games for a long time,” Andrés explained.
The combination of being a proud Jew and loving tennis is also particularly meaningful to Todd in 2025.
“These particular games after what happened October 7, this is more the time than ever to rally amongst fellow Jews to proudly support both the United States and proudly support Israel and Jewish people everywhere and be together in unity for these very important games both in honor and memory,” Todd added.
This summer, Todd will compete for Maccabi USA in the Masters division at the Maccabiah with Andrés as his coach, and the duo looks forward to the 2027 Pan American Maccabi Games in Andrés’ native Uruguay.
Nathan Shriberg is from Grayslake, Illinois and is a freshman at Indiana University studying Sports Media. You can follow him @NShriberg on X.