Makabi in Czechoslovakia

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The beginnings of the Jewish gymnastics and sports club Makabi in Czechoslovakia (Czech spelling with a "k") date back to the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish gymnastics movement in Czechoslovakia experienced a lively expansion and celebrated numerous successes as part of the worldwide Jewish gymnastics and sports movement, the Maccabi World Union (MWU), which was founded in Karlovy Vary in 1921 .

After the break-up of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939, Makabi was banned; the attempt to revive popular Jewish sport after 1945 failed due to a renewed ban by the communist regime in 1950. In 1990 another attempt was made to revive this gymnastics movement - with success. The Czech and Slovak clubs (separated after 1993) are also integrated into the worldwide Jewish Makkabi sports movement.

history

Already after the 6th Zionist Congress in Basel in 1903 , the first Jewish gymnastics and sports clubs emerged on the territory of Czechoslovakia, which was later founded (state foundation: 1918), which soon founded an umbrella organization, the Západorakouský svaz (Western Austrian Association), which as one Predecessor organization of the Czechoslovak Makkabi movement is called. In 1913 this association already combined 23 individual associations with around 2500 members. At its 2nd congress it was decided to name the Jewish sports clubs Makabi.

After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the Prague Makabi Association, which published the magazine Listy Makabi (Makabi Leaves), suggested that the entire Jewish sports movement should be united. After some restructuring and provisional solutions, this happened on October 30, 1924, when the Svaz Makabi v Československé republice (Makabi Association in the Czechoslovak Republic) adopted its statutes and was also provisionally founded. The official establishment took place on March 13, 1931.

In Makabi, Czechoslovakia, athletics, handball, ice hockey, many winter sports, football and physical education were first represented as sports, and later tennis, table tennis, horse riding and other sports such as chess. The internationally active and successful disciplines included football (see, for example, Makkabi Brno ) and swimming (such as Bar Kochba , also in Brno).

While there were only 2,000 members in the Czechoslovak Makkabi movement in 1920, there were already 10,300 members in 1936. The Czechoslovak Association took part in the first Maccabiade in Tel Aviv in 1932 and took fifth place there; there was also a successful participation at the Maccabiade in 1935, also in Tel Aviv.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , the Makabi organizations were banned on August 31, 1939, and finally in May 1940 in the Slovak state .

Fate after the war

After the end of the war, Jewish athletes who had survived the Shoah tried to renew the movement: on December 15, 1945, the activity of the Makabi was resumed. However, five years later, around two years after the communist upheaval in 1948 , the Makabi associations were again banned on September 27, 1950. (This coincides with the turnaround in relations between Czechoslovakia and Israel, after the Israeli army was initially heavily supported by arms deliveries and trainers between 1947 and 1949, which changed after 1949.)

After the so-called velvet revolution at the end of 1989, the new successor organization was established on October 31, 1990, this time in the Maccabi spelling ; the official registration took place on November 19, 1990. The seat was in Brno, sporting facilities and clubs first in Prague and Bratislava and Kosice (both now in Slovakia). The local clubs that were integrated into the Maccabi umbrella organization used or sometimes use other names such as Hakoach (in Prague), Bar Kochba (a very successful swimming club in Brno) etc.

After the breakup of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993, the Jewish gymnastics and sports movement developed relatively independently in the Czech Republic and Slovakia . In the Czech Republic, the Hakoach club gradually became the country's largest Jewish sports club; in Slovakia this role was taken over by the Maccabi Slovakia association , which was not officially registered until 2011, but was active many years earlier. Both participate intensively in international competitions around the world. Both are members of the European Maccabi Confederation and Maccabi World Union .

Sporting successes

Jewish sport celebrated its greatest successes in Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The most popular sports included in particular various swimming disciplines (swimming, water polo, diving). In these fields, Jewish athletes won 52 championship titles in individual competitions, 17 championships in group sports (relay swimming, etc.), and they were six times winners in the club competition. Some Jewish athletes such as Arnošt Wilheim , Július Balász , František Landau , Rudolf Piowaty or Irena Karpelesová were among the top athletes in Czechoslovakia at that time. Swimming clubs such as Bar Kochba Brno and Bar Kochba Bratislava were the most successful sports clubs in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 1930s, after having won numerous championship titles in swimming and water polo.

Jewish athletes were also successful in other sports. In tennis it was Ernst-Arnošt Gottlieb (who was not directly involved in the Makabi sports clubs) or Gertrude Kleinová , who was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 ; both had several titles as Czechoslovakian champions and achieved excellent success in international tournaments (such as Wimbledon) or at the Olympic Games. There were Jewish football clubs even before Czechoslovakia was founded, for example Hagibor in Prague (founded in 1912), Makkabi Prostějov (1903) or Makkabea Bratislava (1912) in Slovakia; Makkabi Brno was very successful . On November 21, 1920, the Jewish football association Kewucas Mesehakej Kadur Regel Jehudith šel was established , which at that time united 21 football clubs and in 1923 already 44 organizations.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Jiří Špunar: Sportovní židovské kluby v novodobých dějinách , Masarykova Universita, Brno 2007, online at: is.muni.cz/
  2. ↑ a b c Peter Bučka: Židovští sportovci v předválečném Československu , publication of the Židovská obec Brno ( Brno Jewish Community), online at: www.zob.cz/vzdelavani / ...
  3. ↑ a b Jindřich Bauer: Sport a židé , publication by Židovská obec Brno ( Brno Jewish Community), online at: www.zob.cz/obec / ...
  4. ↑ a b History of sportovních klubů. Kde se vůbec vzaly židovské sportovní kluby? Association website of Hakoach Prague, online at: hakoach.cz / ...
  5. ↑ a b Petr Bučka: Z historie modro-bílého fotbalu v Československu , in: Židovské listy (Jewish papers) from May 15, 2013, online at: zidovskelisty.blog.cz / ...
  6. ↑ Z peněz od Izraele platilo Československo evropské komunisty , report in iDNES.cz / Zprávy of April 18, 2011, online at: zpravy.idnes.cz / ...
  7. ↑ Maccabi Slovakia , portal of the Central Association of Jewish Religious Communities in the Slovak Republic (ÚZ ŽNO), online at: uzzno.sk / ...
  8. ↑ Section O nás , portal of the Slovak Maccabi Organization, online at: slovakmaccabi.wixsite.com / ...
  9. ↑ O nás. Hakoach aneb sportem k židovské komunitě , portal of Hakoach (Maccabi in the Czech Republic), online at: hakoach.cz/o-nas / ...
  10. ↑ TRAUTE KLEINOVA , brief information from the portal International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ("Elected members"), online at: jewishsports.net/

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