Eight hundred ninety athletes representing 23 countries competed in the 1953 4th Maccabiah Games, held September 20 to 29, in 18 branches of sports.

[1][4][2] Israeli President Itzhak Ben-Zvi opened the Games at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv District, in front of a crowd of 50,000.

[5] At the closing ceremony Prime Minister David Ben Gurion addressed the collected athletes, saying: "Come back to us for the next Maccabiah, and bring along representatives of Romania, Hungary, and Russia," as a crowd of 50,000 cheered.

[6] Ben Helfgott, a concentration camp survivor and later an Olympian, won the weightlifting gold medal in the lightweight class for Great Britain for the second Games in a row.

Angela Buxton of Great Britain, who three years later was to win the doubles title at Wimbledon, won the gold medal in women's singles, defeating Kanter in the final.

[24] World record holder Henry Laskau of the United States won a gold medal in race walking.

[32] The US basketball team won a gold medal, with future NBA player Boris Nachamkin and Ed Weiner playing, and coached by Tubby Raskin of Brooklyn College.