​This is a photograph of the opening ceremonies of the Third Maccabiah which took place in the Ramat Gan stadium on September 27, 1950. The photograph shows the stadium filled with spectators and the athletes assembled according to country on the field in their team uniforms. Each team is lined up behind a person holding their country’s flag. The photograph was taken by Rudi Weissenstein and bears the name of his studio, Tzalmania (PhotoHouse) in the bottom-right corner.

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Third Maccabiah –The Third Maccabiah was held in the autumn of 1950 in the newly established State of Israel. This was the first Maccabiah to be held after the State of Israel was established in 1948. The Second Maccabiah was nicknamed the “Aliyah Olympics” because athletes and their families, who were desperately trying to leave Europe in advance of the Nazis, used the Maccabiah as a way to enter British- controlled Israel at a time when the British were severely limiting immigration. The athletes and their families were allowed to enter for the Maccabiah and never left when it was over. The British did not want this to happen again, so they cancelled the 1938 Maccabiah.

Maccabiah Games – The Maccabiah is an international sports competition that is held every four years in Israel. It is attended by Jewish athletes from around the world and is sometimes dubbed “the Jewish Olympics.” The Maccabiah was conceived by Yosef Yekutieli in 1912, and after much planning the first competition was held in 1919 during Succot with more than 500 athletes and thousands of spectators from around the world.