Greater Washington
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

Richard B. Reff, MD

Richard B. Reff, MD

Sport: Various
Category: Bender JCC Maccabi Legacy Award
Primary Team: USA Maccabiah
Award: Maccabi Legacy
Year Inducted: 2014

Dr. Richard Reff is recognized as a leader in advancing the worldwide Maccabiah movement, playing a major role in furthering youth sports. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Dr. Reff received his undergraduate and medical degrees from The George Washington University. He is in private practice in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine. Dr. Reff joined the JCC of Greater Washington Board of Directors in the mid-1980s, serving as president from 1991-1993. He founded the JCCGW Sports Hall of Fame in 1991, chairing the selection committee for several years. At the request of one of the founders of the JCC Maccabi Games, Dr.Reff organized a delegation from the Washington area to attend the third of those games in 1986. Thereafter,he took the lead in making the JCCGW the “flagship” for the Greater Washington delegation to JCC Maccabi Games, heading the delegation seven times. Dr. Reff is a member of the board of directors of Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel, and has served as that organization’s national vice president, member of the executive committee, and delegate to the International Maccabiah Committee and to the Maccabi World Union. Having served multiple times as team physician at the Maccabiah Games and the Pan American Maccabi Games, Dr. Reff has been named All-Sports Chairman for all non basketball and soccer teams to the 2015 Pan American Maccabi Games in Santiago, Chile. In 2007, Dr. Reff was honored by Maccabi USA with a tribute award. Along with his wife, Jodi Salinsky Reff, he received Maccabi USA’s 2013 Legends of the Maccabiah award.