This photograph depicts a running race between five men as they approach the finishing line. There are spectators sitting on the left-hand side of the track. The track is surrounded by trees, and there are goalposts located in the middle of the field. The photograph is part of an album that belonged to a sports teacher named Amira Hadara. According to the information provided with the photograph, it was taken at a Maccabi sporting event that took place in Berlin in 1937. It should be noted that this Jewish activity took place in a Germany that was already under Nazi rule and at the time that the Nuremberg Race Laws were already being implemented.
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Maccabi - Maccabi was founded by Max Nordau, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement, who called for the reformation of the Jewish physique and character:
The history of our people relates to the fact that we were once strong physically…but today that is not the case. Others have succeeded in degenerating us physically. They made the ghetto Jews of the Middle Ages into sorrow weaklings, haggard and unable to defend ourselves in the narrow alleyways of the Ghetto…Nobody can deny us the necessary physical activity needed to make our bodies healthy again. We will renew our youth in our aging years. We will develop wide chests, strong arms and legs, a brave look. We will be warriors. What is lacking physically will be developed through exercise. But our recovery to health is not only through the body, but also in the spirit, for as Hebrews will attain more achievements in sport, so will our self-confidence improve. Long live Sport! Hebrew Sports clubs go forward and bloom.
Jewish Sports Clubs - Jewish sports clubs were founded in Europe in the end of the nineteenth century, including the Bar Kochba, Hagibor (the hero), and the Hakoach (the power) clubs. The first Jewish sports club was founded in Constantinople in 1895 by a group of sportsmen who were barred from competing in the national sports clubs because they were Jewish. At the 12th World Jewish Congress that took place in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia in 1921 a decision was made to unite all Jewish sport associations and form one organisation named the Maccabi World Union. By the end of the decade, Maccabi had clubs all over Europe, in the Balkans, and in Israel with over 100,000 members. Maccabi Berlin was founded in 1898, originally under the name of Bar Kochba Berlin. The club included athletics teams and a football team that played in the local league between 1911 and 1929. In the 1930s, when the Nazi party rose to power, the Maccabi football team was no longer allowed to participate in local and national games, and in 1938 all of Maccabi’s activities in Germany were terminated. After World War II, Maccabi slowly began to operate again, and today Maccabi Berlin is a large sports association with more than 500 members.
