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The History of the Maccabiah , a quadrennial International Jewish multi-sport event, dates back to 1912 and the Games of the V Olympiad.
| Maccabiah Games |
|---|
| |
| Main topics |
| Most recent games |
| Stadiums |
| Category |
The History of the Maccabiah , a quadrennial International Jewish multi-sport event, dates back to 1912 and the Games of the V Olympiad.
At the end of the 19th century, Jews in Europe weren't allowed to take part in official athletic competitions and were forbidden membership in sports associations. [1] The vision for the Maccabiah started with Yosef Yekutieli, a Russian Jew who immigrated to Palestine in 1909 with his family. In 1912 Yekutieli obtained a booklet about the Stockholm Olympics which listed many Jewish athletes who participated in the name of their country and the medals they won. This booklet was the origin of Yekutieli's idea: To help Jewish athletes participate in the Olympics. [2]
With the start of World War I, Yekutieli was drafted into the Turkish army. Upon his return to Mandatory Palestine in 1918, Yekutieli returned to his job at the Eretz Yisrael Office. For almost a decade Yekutieli thought of ways to make his idea a reality, however, it wasn't until 1928 when Yekutieli presented his Jewish Olympics proposal to Menachem Ussishkin, the chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish National Fund. [3] [2] [4] As a way to promote interest, Yekutieli proposed that the First Maccabiah should take place in time for the 1800th anniversary of the Bar Kochba Rebellion. [3] [5] [4]
Coincidentally, at about the same time, the Maccabi World Union was trying to come up with a way to allow athletes living in the Mandatory Palestine to participate in important international sporting events, a way that would also act as a form of international recognition of Palestine as the Jewish National Home. [2] [4] In 1929 Yekutieli went to Czechoslovakia to present his proposal in front of the Maccabi World Congress where his proposal was met with great enthusiasm by the Jewish community both in the diaspora and among the Jewish population in Israel. [6] A committee was formed for the Maccabiah. The first Maccabiah, called the Maccabiada (Hebrew : המכביאדה), was organized with the help of many different sports organizations, including the recently created Israeli Football Association, and devoted volunteers. Many of the tasks such as improvising sports sites and mobilize financial resources were driven by volunteers. Local communities took it upon themselves to raise the money to build a stadium in Tel Aviv, the Maccabiah Stadium. The last obstacle the committee had to overcome was the High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir John Chancellor. While Chancellor admired some Zionist leaders, his general attitude towards Jews was negative. [2] [7] [4] [8] Chancellor refused to approve the Maccabiah. [8]
The Maccabiah, could not take place without the approval of the British Palestine High Commissioner. [2] In the fall of 1931, the United Kingdom appointed Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope as the new High Commissioner of Palestine. [9] Wauchope, who showed great admiration to Zionist Palestine as well as the Jewish sports movement in general, [3] approved the Maccabiah on the condition that it also host Arab and official British Mandate athletes in addition to Jewish sportsmen. [9] The conditions were agreed on and the Maccabiada was scheduled for March 1932. [2] [9]
With the news of Wauchope's approval of the games, two separate delegations of Jewish motor-bikers set off from Tel Aviv on a promotional tour to the Jewish communities across Europe, where the vast number of Jews were living at the time. In 1930, one delegation left Tel Aviv to Antwerp, Belgium. [5] [2] A year later a second delegation left Tel Aviv for London. Yekutieli also toured with that delegation. On a second tour, May 10 through July 16, 1931, the intrepid band of Maccabiah bikers covered roughly 5,825 miles (9,375 kilometers) from Tel Aviv to Egypt and via ship to many of the big cities in Europe including Nuremberg, Paris, and London. At the end of the tour, the group returned to Israel via Beirut. [2] [5]
The 1st Maccabiah opened on March 28, 1932. [10] [9] [3] The Games were nicknamed "White Horse Olympics" because Tel Aviv's Mayor Meir Dizengoff led a parade honoring the Games through the city streets while riding a white horse. [11] [12] During these first games 390 sportsmen took part from 18 countries. [10] [9] The games included everything from swimming, football, and handball, to various athletics. The games were regarded as a great success and planning for its successor were already on their way by the end of that year. [12]
With the success of the first games, in 1933, with the help of Maccabi, Yekutieli founded the Palestine Olympic Committee which later became the Israel Olympic Committee. Israel was formally invited to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin - an invitation that was refused due to the growing fear of Nazi Germany. Instead, Yekutieli decided to proceed with a second Maccabiah.
The second Maccabiah were held on from April 2 to 10, 1935 despite official opposition by the British Mandatory government. [9] The games were held after only three years instead of four as was customary in the Olympics. They decided on three years in order to not make it look like they were imitating the Olympics. Additionally, the Maccabiah served a more important goal - during the first Maccabiah a large portion of the athletes stayed in Israel, effectively bypassing the British White Paper. The organizers were hoping the second Maccabiah would function as a way to allow more athletes to make Aliyah. During the second games over 1,300 athletes from 28 nations participated. [9]
Following the success of the 2nd Maccabiah, the 3rd Maccabiah was originally scheduled to be held in sprint of 1938. [13] However, due to British concerns that the games would once again create large-scale illegal immigration, especially in light of the spread of Nazism in Germany and Europe the games were cancelled indefinitely. Following the outbreak of World War II and later during the War of Independence, the games were postponed even further.
It was not until 1950 that the games were renewed. The 3rd Maccabah took place during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot from September 27 to October 8, 1950. The games were the first international sporting event to take place in The State of Israel. The games served as a confluence of all outstanding Jewish athletes from around the world, after a 15-year break. The games also served a significant milestone in the life of the Jewish people, after The Holocaust and the 1947–1949 Palestine war. During those games, many prominent Jewish athletes from Eastern Europe were conspicuously absent. Some were killed in the Holocaust and the remaining were banned from participating by the communist regimes of their countries. The Maccabiah opening ceremony took place in a new 50,000-seat stadium in Ramat Gan that was especially built for the games. [13] [10]
The fourth Maccabiah took place during Sukkot of 1953. The games grew to almost 2,000 athletes from over 20 countries. Following the 4th Maccabiah, it was decided that the Maccabiah be held every four years like the Olympics to gain Olympic recognition. The games were then changed to take place quadrennially on the year following the Olympics - a change that's been in effect ever since.
The most recent games, the 21st Maccabiah took place between July 12 to 26, 2022.
The early Maccabiah games that took place in 1932 and 1935 served as a way to illegally bring Jews to Israel and to effectively bypass the limited Jewish immigration permitted by British authorities in the same period. It was for that reason, the 2nd Maccabiah was nicknamed "Aliyah Olympics". [14] [15] Some notable delegations to the 2nd Maccabiah completely stayed in the land of Israel after the games. Most notable, the Bulgarian delegation that brought 350 Jews, athletes, their family members, and an orchestra, which arrived in Jaffa Port, returned to Sofia, Bulgaria empty, [14] [15] sending only their equipment back. [9] It is one of the reasons the British authority at the time refused to allow the 3rd Maccabiah to take place in the spring of 1938. The tradition of making an Aliyah continued onward during the 1950s with the 3rd and 4th Maccabiah games. Today, Jews who want to make Aliyah to Israel often do so during the Maccabiah. [16] [17]
The Maccabiah Games is an international multi-sport event with summer and winter sports competitions featuring Jews and Israeli regardless of religion. Held every four years in Israel, the Maccabiah Games is considered the foremost sports competition for global Jewry.
Sport in Israel plays an important role in Israeli culture and is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The most popular sports in Israel have traditionally been Association football (mainly) and basketball (secondly) – with the first being considered the national sport – in both of which Israeli professional teams have been competitive internationally. Israel is an international center for Jewish sport around the world and since 1932 the Maccabiah Games, an Olympic-style event for Jewish athletes, is held in the country. Despite Israel's location in the Asian continent, the Israeli sports associations in various sports belong to the European associations due to the refusal of many Arab Asian countries to compete with Israeli athletes.
Elias Katz was a Finnish track and field athlete, who competed mainly in the 3000 metres steeplechase.
The 6th Maccabiah Games were held in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1961, with 1,100 athletes from 27 countries competing in 18 sports. The Games were officially opened in an Opening Ceremony on August 29, 1961, in Ramat Gan Stadium by Israeli president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi before a crowd of 30,000. The closing ceremony took place on September 5, 1961, at the stadium before a crowd of 40,000, with Israeli prime minister David Ben Gurion telling the crowd that he hoped that in the future athletes from North Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union would also compete. The United States won 58 gold medals, Israel won 28 gold medals, and South Africa was third with 11 gold medals. American sportscaster Mel Allen narrated a film about the 1961 Games.
At the 10th Maccabiah Games in Israel, more than 2,800 athletes from 34 countries participated in 26 different sports, including chess and bridge and for the first time badminton.
The 3rd Maccabiah took place during Sukkot from September 27 to October 8, 1950, with 17 countries competing. It was the third edition of the Maccabiah Games and the first held since the independence of the State of Israel; 15 years after the previous Maccabiah. Israel won the 1950 Maccabiah Games, Great Britain was second, South Africa third, the United States fourth, Canada fifth, and Austria sixth.
Eight hundred ninety athletes representing 23 countries competed in the 1953 4th Maccabiah Games, held September 20 to 29, in 18 branches of sports.
The 11th Maccabiah Games brought 3,450 athletes to Israel from 35 nations. The Opening Ceremony was held on July 7, 1981, before a crowd of 53,000 and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Ramat Gan Stadium, with 3,500 Jewish athletes parading past him. Representative Jack Kemp and a supporter of Israel, marched with the United States team. Israel won the most medals (199), with 65 gold. The United States won 188 medals, 85 gold. South Africa, Britain, and Canada had the next-most total medals.
At the 8th Maccabiah Games from July 29 to August 7, 1969, 1,450 athletes from 27 countries competed in 22 sports in Israel. The final gold medal count was the United States in first place (64), Israel second, and Great Britain third (11).
The 15th Maccabiah Games are remembered for being marred by a bridge collapse that killed several participants.
The 2nd Maccabiah, aka the Aliyah Olympics, which was held in April 1935, was the second edition of the Maccabiah Games. The Games were held despite official opposition by the British Mandatory government. A total of 28 countries were represented by 1,350 athletes. Austria placed first, followed by Germany in second, with Eretz Israel placing third.
The 1st Maccabiah was the first edition of the Maccabiah, which was held in Mandatory Palestine from March 28 to April 2, 1932. The games were in commemoration of the 1800th anniversary of the Bar Kokhba revolt, a major rebellion by the Jews of Judaea Province against the Roman Empire. Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the first Maccabiah was regarded as a great success. Poland led the scoreboard, the United States was second, and Austria was third.
The 9th Maccabiah Games, which were held from July 9 to 19, 1973, were opened in Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel. Spain and Costa Rica made their debuts in the Games. A total of 1,800 athletes competed on behalf of 27 countries in 20 branches of sport, in 30 venues across Israel. The Games took place ten months after the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, where 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were slain during the Munich Massacre. The United States won 76 gold medals, and Israel was next with 60 gold medals.
Events in the year 1932 in the British Mandate of Palestine.
The 19th Maccabiah were held during July 18 to 30, 2013.
The Mandatory Palestine national football team, also known as the Eretz Israel national football team, represented the British Mandate of Palestine in international football competitions, and was managed by the Palestine Football Association.
Yosef Yekutieli was a prominent member of the international Jewish sports organisation Maccabi. He was the founder of the Maccabiah, Israel Football Association, and the Israel Olympic Committee. Yekutieli was the 1979 Israel Prize recipient for his special contribution to society and the state in sports.
The 1938–39 season was the 12th season of competitive football in the British Mandate of Palestine.
The 2017 Maccabiah Games, also referred to as the 20th Maccabiah Games, were the 20th edition of the Maccabiah Games. They took place from 4 to 17 July 2017, in Israel. The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion. A total of 10,000 athletes competed, a Maccabiah Games record, making the 2017 Maccabiah Games the third-largest sporting competition in the world. The athletes were from 85 countries, also a record. Countries represented for the first time included the Bahamas, Barbados, Cambodia, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, Malta, Morocco, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Trinidad. The athletes competed in 45 sports.
The “2023” Maccabiah Games took place in Israel from July 14–25, 2022, and are also referred to as the 22nd Maccabiah Games. The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion. Israeli former Olympic judo medalist Arik Zeevi served as Maccabiah Chairman. Approximately 10,000 athletes from 80 countries competed in 42 sports categories.
