Maccabi Games

www.lettertothestars.at

www.emg2011.eu

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

www.maccabiusa.com

www.maccabiworld.org

The Maccabi World Union is an international Jewish sports organisation spanning 5 continents and more than 50 countries, and boasting some 400,000 members. Maccabi World Union organises the Maccabiah Games, a prominent international Jewish athletics event. The organisation comprises six confederations: Maccabi Israel, European Maccabi confederation, confederation Maccabi North America, confederation Maccabi Latin America, Maccabi South Africa and Maccabi Australia.

The origin of the word is not clear but the common opinion is that the word „Maccabi“ (מכבי) is an acronym of the biblical sentence: „Who is like unto Thee, O LORD, among the mighty?“ (Exodus 15:11), in Hebrew: „‚מי כמוך באלים י“, „Mi kamocha ba’elim YHWH“. Read More: > HERE <

YHWH – Yahweh is the personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible. This form is a modern scholarly convention: Hebrew scripts write it as four consonants, rendered in Roman letters as YHWH, due to the fact that most alphabets, prior the Greek alphabet, did not display vowels, and required that vowels be mentally pronounced in the proper places. The most likely meaning of the name may be “He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists,“ but there are many theories and none is regarded as conclusive by scholars. Read more: > HERE <

Mission statement – European Maccabi Games – Vienna 2011 – The Maccabi Games are the biggest Jewish sports events and are organized in a similar way to the Olympic Games. The Games are one of the five biggest international sporting events worldwide.

The Israel Maccabiah is organized by the Maccabi World Union (MWU), which is the umbrella organization overseeing all regional Maccabi unions. Although the history of the Maccabi Games is not as old as the Olympic Games the first Maccabiah did take place in Tel Aviv as far back as 1932. Meanwhile the Maccabiah has become a sporting anchor event which takes place regularly every four years in Israel.

The European Maccabi Games – Exciting and in our case very interesting are the European Maccabi Games. They also take place every four years, however always two years after the Maccabiah in Israel.

The participating European Delegations send their best Jewish athletes to this event. The organization of the Games is carried out in very close cooperation with the European Maccabi Confederation (which currently has 36 member nations) and the national Maccabi Confederation (in Austria the Jewish Sport Union, to which the Unions of the Hakoah Vienna and Maccabi Vienna belong).


17th Maccabiah Games To Love To Live To Win – — Go to www.maccabiusa.com to learn how you can compete in the 18th Maccabiah Games in July 2009.

The “White Horse Olympics” – It was in 1932 that the first Maccabiah was held in Mandate-era Palestine. Meir Dizengoff, the first mayor of Tel Aviv, decided to lead a parade in honour of the Games riding his notorious white horse, and that is why the event is remembered as the ”White Horse Olympics”. In order to spread the news of the first Maccabiah to the world, 120 pigeons, ten for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, were released.

Maccabi and Politics – Due to the rise of Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust, the Maccabi movement suffered a setback. A large group of Young Maccabi members decided to join the British Army during the Second World War. Many served in the Underground Movement and subsequently were active in the establishment of the new State of Israel.

In the early nineties, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Maccabi has played an important role in ending the isolation of Jews in Eastern Europe and given fresh impetus in the former Soviet republics.

The Jewish Museum Vienna www.jmw.at will organize an exhibition dedicated to the subject of sport from July to September 2011 on the occasion of the 13th European Maccabi Games that will take place in Vienna from 5th to 13th July 2011.

 

A short glance into the past – History shows the significance of these Games being held in Austria. Already in the mid-20s, the Jewish people felt the increasing influence of National Socialism. As the Nazis used the cliché that Jewish people were not athletic, sport clubs started to refuse memberships to Jews. It was then that the idea of creating their own Jewish sport union came up in order to give Jewish people the opportunity to train. Already before 1917 Maccabi Clubs existed all over Europe (including the tsarist Russia). In the following years, Maccabi Clubs started to be established all over the world wherever the Jewish communities were relatively free from oppression.

During World War II a large number of Maccabi Clubs in Germany and Austria were closed and their ownership seized. Clubs in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia suffered the same fate.

Vienna as Venue for the 2011 Games – The fact that Vienna was chosen by the European Maccabi Federation (EMC) as the scene for the 13th European Maccabi Games gives the Games a very special cultural significance. It is the first time since 1945 that Jewish athletes from dozens of nations will come together as participants of the tournament on a territory of former Nazi Germany.

In July 2011 not only about 2.000 athletes will compete in over 15 disciplines, it will also be a big, colourful event where old contacts can be renewed and new ones created, where friends are made and common interests are discovered. These games will then be a festival of harmony as well. Vienna is the capital and at the same time one of the nine Provinces in the Republic of Austria. Originally Vienna lay on the River Wien but it now also stretches over both sides of the River Danube; it is 40 km away from the borders of Slovakia with its capital Bratislava.

Jewish life in Vienna – The history of the Viennese Jews is inseparable from the history of the City of Vienna. Although the Nazis nearly succeeded in destroying the once blossoming Jewish community, these days there is still a rather small but confident and proud Jewish Community. From its tiny remnants, the Jewish Community of Vienna has made a remarkable recovery over the past decades, both on the inside as well as on the outside. Today it presents itself as a confident Jewish community with a very active Jewish life. Different schools, a network of social facilities as well as diverse cultural and athletic events make it very clear how vibrant the Community is. One of the core parts of the Jewish athletic life here in Vienna is the newly constructed Hakoah Sport Centre, where a large part of the sport disciplines of these Games will take place.

According to a well-known slogan: Vienna is different. Some say that Vienna, although inhabited by 2 million people, is a metropolis with village atmosphere. This is exactly what creates the unique charm of this neatly arranged city, where some things take place which would be impossible in other parts of the country.

The Maccabi Movement – a Great Success Story – The Maccabi idea today is well and thriving: the Maccabi World Union (MWU) counts around 400,000 members in about 400 Maccabi and Maccabi-affiliated institutions.

There are the Israel Games, the Maccabiah: the 18th Maccabiah took place in July 2009 and attracted more than 7,000 athletes from around 50 countries. And then there are the European Games. Under the auspices of the MWU, the European Maccabi Federation (EMC) grew to 36 affiliated countries. Following the Games in Israel, the European version takes place every four years, however, not in the same year but with a two-year time-lag. Vienna 2011 will be the site of the 13th European Games.

A Symbol of Jewish Strength – The Maccabi movement goes back to 1895 when the first Gymnastics Club in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was established. As expatriate Jews from Europe were excluded from local clubs, they decided to found their own. The idea spread fast and clubs flourished throughout Europe. It was very common to name the clubs after biblical models of Jewish strength and bravery. For instance, there was the Shimshon Gymnastics Society in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and the Berlin Bar Kochba Society. In 1906, we note the first Gymnastic Association in Jaffa.

Three years after the end of the First World War, in 1921, the 12th Zionist Congress took place in Carlsbad/Karlovy Vary (then Czechoslovakia). Jewish sports society leaders met there to discuss post-war perspectives which eventually led to the formal establishment of the World Maccabi Federation. Judah Maccabee, the eponym of the new federation, is best known as the hero of the Hanukkah story: The brave warrior led the revolt against the Greek-Syrians so that the Jews regained control of their Temple in Jerusalem.

@MoveOverAIPAC Washington DC

From May 21-24, 2011, come to DC and protest the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at the event Move Over AIPAC: Time for a New Middle East Policy!

http://www.moveoveraipac.org http://ifamericansknew.org

Transparency International (TI) is proud to present ‘On the Front Line’, a new film documenting the work of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre run by Transparency Palestine in the West Bank. The film looks at the people behind the centre and follows the stories of three of its clients.

http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2011/on_the_front_line_palestine


http://www.palestineremembered.com

UN human rights expert on the 63th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba

The Nakba and Palestinian refugees today:

FAQ on the Nakba http://imeu.net/news/article001237.shtml#2

http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/israel-and-occupied-territories