Maccabiade

Insignia of the Maccabiade

Logo of the World Maccabi Association

The Maccabiah Games , also Maccabiah called in the plural Makkabiot , is the largest international Jewish sports event and is similar to the Olympic Games designed. It emerged from the Jewish Makkabi sports movement during the Zionism movement of the 1930s. The organization lies with the Makkabi World Association (MWV). It was first held in Tel Aviv in 1932 . It has been held in Israel every four years since 1953 .

The European Maccabiade also takes place every four years, two years after the Maccabiade in Israel. In 2011, Vienna hosted the 13th European Maccabiade, and in 2015 it took place in Berlin . Most recently, the 15th European Maccabiade took place in Budapest in 2019 .

etymology

The name Maccabiade is derived from Judas Maccabeus , who lived in the 2nd century BC. Was leader of a Jewish uprising against the rule of the Seleucids under Antiochus IV (" Maccabees uprising"). Maccabeus is the form derived from the Greek Maccabeus , which in turn is derived from the Aramaic Makkaba and translated means "the hammer ".

history

prehistory

Pool of the Maccabiade 1950

The Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv where the opening ceremonies will be held (but the picture shows a soccer game)

The training of Jewish gymnastics and sports clubs (including the Maccabi movement) is on the way to the Maccabiade .

In the 19th century Jews were represented in large numbers in European gymnastics clubs . The establishment of Jewish clubs is justified by two effects: on the one hand, Jews were forced out of national gymnastics clubs due to growing anti-Semitism ; a drastic example of this is Austria-Hungary , where in 1901 Jews were excluded from the gymnastics clubs. On the other hand, emerging nationalism motivated some Jews to join Jewish associations.

The first Jewish gymnastics club was founded in Constantinople in 1895 , but this club did not send any signal. It was only after Max Nordau's speech at the second Zionist Congress on “Muscle Judaism”, in which he called for the physical training of Jews, that the Bar Kochba gymnastics club was founded in Berlin in 1898 . The national Jewish association Attila Groningen ( Netherlands ), the oldest Jewish gymnastics and sports association in Europe , is still six months older, but it strictly rejected cooperation with the Zionist Maccabi associations and, like the HaPoel associations, was not prepared to participate in the Maccabiade to participate until after 1945. Germany and especially Berlin played the central role in the formation of the Zionist gymnastics clubs and for the formation of the Maccabiah, from here the Zionist is sports magazine Jewish Turn newspaper (JTZ) routed been and senior members had such an important influence on the formation of other clubs (. B. The first gymnastics clubs in Palestine were established with the active help of Elias Auerbach and Ernst Hermann , two former Berlin Bar Kochba members), the Makkabi World Association (MWV) and finally the Makkabia itself. In the course of this club, all Other associations founded in Germany and abroad.

For the Zionist movement, gymnastics was important, which can be seen in the speeches and events at the congresses. At the 6th Zionist Congress in 1903, Mandelstamm gave a speech in which, like Nordau before, he called for the physical "lifting" of the Jews. In addition, gymnastics demonstrations were held and at this 6th congress the "Jewish Turnerschaft", the association of Zionist gymnastics clubs, was founded, which later became the World Makkabi Association. In 1921 the World Makkabi Association was founded at the 21st Zionist Congress in Karlsbad. In the associations, the Jewish youth should be brought closer to Zionism, because physical training was not viewed as an end in itself, but propagated in order to heal the “people's body” and to get the youth used to physical work in Palestine. The Makkabi movement therefore worked closely with the Zionist youth organization Hapoel Hazair and the Hachshara centers (training centers for emigration to Palestine). Individual Jewish gymnastics days are held in Europe, such as the 1930 gymnastics day in Antwerp . The history of the Makkabi sports clubs listed here is only part of the entire Jewish gymnastics movement. For example, the workers' sports clubs “ HaPoel ” (founded in 1924), the “Reichsbund Deutscher Jüdischer Frontsoldaten” (RDjF), the revisionist sports clubs “ Betar ” (founded in 1924) and the religious sports club “Elitzur” (founded in 1939). The RDjF and the Betar did not attend the first two Maccabiads, but sent representatives to the opening ceremonies. The Jewish sports world was as fragmented as the political life of the Jews. This fragmentation shows that cultural areas such as sport have also been politicized. This fragmentation would only dissolve long after the state was founded.

Beginnings

The country's first sports stadium was built near Tel Aviv on the occasion of the first Maccabiade; From March 28th to March 31st, 1932, this first Maccabiade took place in Palestine with 20,000 visitors , a symbolic year, namely exactly 1800 years after the beginning of the Bar Kochba uprising against the Romans . Three years later, from April 2 to 7, 1935, the second Maccabiade took place with 40,000 to 50,000 visitors and 1,350 athletes from 28 countries. The third Maccabiade planned for 1938 was not held because of the Arab uprising . After that, there was no further Maccabiade due to the National Socialist horrors , the Second World War and independence . Then it was not until 1950 that a Maccabiade was held again. After the following in 1953, a rhythm of four years was set analogous to the Olympic Games .

Events

Opening ceremony of the 1st Maccabiad

Opening ceremony of the 17th Maccabiad

Previous events

No.	year	Period	venue	Attendees	Nations
1.	1932	March 28th to April 2nd	Maccabia Stadium , Tel Aviv	390	18th
2.	1935	2nd-7th April	Maccabia Stadium, Tel Aviv	1350	28
3.	1950	September 27th to October 8th	Ramat Gan	800	20th
4th	1953		Ramat Gan Stadium	890	22nd
5.	1957		Ramat Gan Stadium	980	20th
6th	1961		Ramat Gan Stadium	1000	27
7th	1965		Ramat Gan Stadium	1200	27
8th.	1969		Ramat Gan Stadium	1450	27
9.	1973	July 9 to?	Ramat Gan Stadium	1500	26th
10.	1977		Ramat Gan Stadium	2700	34
11.	1981		Ramat Gan Stadium	3450	33
12.	1985		Ramat Gan Stadium	3700	37
13.	1989		Ramat Gan Stadium	4400	45
14th	1993		Ramat Gan Stadium	5100	48
15th	1997		Ramat Gan Stadium	5100	33
16.	2001	16.-23. July	Teddy Stadium , Jerusalem	3300	49
17th	2005	11-21 July	Ramat Gan Stadium	7700	55
18th	2009	12.-24. July	Ramat Gan Stadium	9000	55
19th	2013	18.-30. July.	Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem	9000	76
20th	2017	4th-18th July	Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem	10,000	85

Logos

XVIII. Maccabiade, 2009

Winter Maccabiot

The only two winter Maccabiotics so far took place in Europe:

No.	year	venue	Attendees	Nations
1.	1933	Zakopane , Poland	250	8th
2.	1936	Banska Bystrica , Czechoslovakia	2,000	12

European Maccabiot

The venues of the European Maccabiot are:

No.	year	Period	venue	Attendees
1.	1929		Prague , Czechoslovakia
2.	1930		Antwerp , Belgium
3.	1959		Copenhagen , Denmark
4th	1963		Lyon , France
5.	1979		Leicester , UK
6th	1983		Antwerp, Belgium
7th	1987		Copenhagen, Denmark
8th.	1991		Marseille , France
9.	1995		Amsterdam , Netherlands
10.	1999		Stirling , UK
11.	2003		Antwerp, Belgium
12.	2007		Rome , Italy	1800
13.	2011		Vienna , Austria	2000
14th	2015	July 27th – 5th August	Berlin , Germany	approx. 2050
15th	2019	July 29th - 7th August	Budapest , Hungary	over 3000

Pan-American Maccabiot

The Confederation of Latin American Maccabi's (CLAM) has been organizing Pan American Maccabi's since 1966:

No.	year	venue
1.	1966	São Paulo , Brazil
2.
3.
4th	1979	Mexico City , Mexico
5.	1983	Brazil
6th	1987	Caracas , Venezuela
7th	1991	Uruguay
8th.	1995	Buenos Aires , Argentina
9.	1999
10.	2003	Santiago de Chile , Chile
11.	2007	Buenos Aires, Argentina
12.	2011	São Paulo, Brazil
13.	2015	Chile

Junior Carnival

The Maccabi Junior Carnival is a sporting event held for the Jewish youth of Australia or New Zealand . It has taken place annually since 1982, usually in January.

The venues were:

36th Melbourne 2018,
35th Sydney 2017, 34th Sydney 2016, 33rd Melbourne 2015, 32nd Perth 2014, 31st Sydney 2013,
30th Brisbane 2012, 29th Melbourne 2011, 28th Perth 2010, 27th Sydney 2009, 26th Auckland 2008,
25th Melbourne 2007, 24th Perth 2006, 23rd Sydney 2005, 22nd Auckland 2004, 21st Perth 2003,
20th Melbourne 2002, 19th Sydney 2001, 18th Perth 2000, 17th Melbourne 1999, 16. Sydney 1998,
15. Perth 1997, 14. Melbourne 1996, 13. Sydney 1995, 12. Melbourne 1994, 11. Perth 1993,
10. Sydney 1992, 9. Melbourne 1991, 8. Perth 1990, 7. Sydney 1989, 6. Adelaide 1988,
5. Brisbane 1987, 4. Sydney 1986, 3. Melbourne 1984, 2. Perth 1983, 1. Sydney 1982

literature

Felix Simmenauer: The gold medal. Memories of the Bar Kochba-Makkabi gymnastics and sports movement 1898–1938 (= German past. Volume 36). Hentrich, Berlin 1989 & 1991, ISBN 3-926175-65-6 (With a contribution by Kurt Schilde : Spurensicherung. Jewish sport from 1933–1938. With illustration; Si. Was a pioneer of the movement).