Accepted As Jews Who Play Sports

"We wanted to show that we're still here -- that we're accepted, that we weren't ended in 1933."

"I've been there from the first day. I never imagined that we -- as a Jewish team -- would ever be playing a Cup game against a Bundesliga team. So for us, and for me personally, it's a huge joy."

"I have many German friends, Christian friends. I never speak about it. Perhaps his father or grandfather was in the SS, for me everything is open."

"It was 80 years ago. It's past. Now, we try to be accepted as Jews."

Marian Wajselfisz, co-founder, Makkabi Berlin 

"This is something we're extremely proud of. We're here and whoever is ready to play for us, and is also open to playing for a club with Jewish origins and some sort of Jewish culture, we're absolutely happy to integrate people into our teams."

Makkabi Berlin Board Member Michael Koblenz

"Sometimes I feel tired, but when I see the kids, I forget about the tiredness, I'm happy."

"It doesn't matter about religion, or what you are. It's not important."

"The only important thing is that you like to come and play football."

Senegalese defender Papa Alpha Diop, 36-year-old Muslim

The Makkabi Berlin team pose for a photo before a practice match, in Berlin, July 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Ciaran Fahey)

 

In 1898 the Bar Kochba Berlin sports team was founded for the specific purpose of promoting participation in sports for Jews living in Germany. At its peak there were over 40,000 club members. Jewish athletes were forced to play in separate competitions when National Socialist Party (NAZIs) came to power. By 1938 they were banned outright from playing as a Jewish team. And needless to say before long, Jewish players of any sport were banned from playing altogether.

Makkabi Berlin, founded in 1970 as a successor to Bar Kochba Berlin by Holocaust survivors who wanted to revive the tradition of Jewish team sports, lost its 1971 match played in Berlin in a score of 15-1. That was then. Today, Makkabi represents the first Jewish club to play in the season-long tournament for 64 of Germany's best professional and amateur football clubs in the German Cup.

Back in 1935 when the annual competition was initiated under fascist Germany, Jews were forbidden from being involved. Now, fifth-tier Makkabi will be playing against top-tier Wolfsburg. Marian Wajsefisz, one of Makkabi Berlin's co-founders, survived the Holocaust along with his immediate family members, thanks to a Polish couple who gave them haven, hiding them for close to two years in the cellar of their home.

 

Makkabi Berlin co-founder Marian Wajselfisz points to the date below an old photo of the team during an interview with The Associated Press, in Berlin, July 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Ciaran Fahey)

 

Other Makkabi clubs exist in Germany -- Munich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf -- as well as other Jewish sports and social clubs worldwide. With its 550 members teams are fielded in a number of sports by the Berlin club, that includes basketball and volleyball. There is no mistaking the identity of the Makkabi Berlin club; its mission as a Jewish club remains central to its identity, featuring the Star of David on its crest. Membership, however, is open.

The soccer team has welcomed players with a number of religious faiths, from fifteen countries. Membership includes Jews, Muslims and Christians. Papa Alpha Diop joined the Makkabi Berlin 2017, a Muslim from Senegal. He has taken on duties above his team activities, overseeing the club's youth wing, coaching its under-ten team where children as young as five are able to join its activities.

The Wolfsburg team Makkabi is competing against on Sunday won the German Cup in 2015. It competes in the Bundesliga against teams such as Bayern Munich. Makkabi qualified for this year's German Cup through its win of the Berlin Cup in June for the first time, earning promotion to the fifth tier through winning the Berlin league last season. 

The normal sports ground for Makkabi is named after former national team player Julius Hirsch, whose grandson was invited to the match. His grandfather fought for Germany in the First World War. Julius Hirsch won club championships with Karlsruher FV and Furth, playing for Germany at the 1912 Olympics. The final chapter of his life excised his loyalty to Germany and his war heroism. His reward was delivered at Auschwitz, where he was murdered because he was Jewish.

"The popularity, visibility and success of Jewish sports clubs symbolizes the growth of established Jewish life in Germany and the world", was a statement issued by the World Jewish Congress, "delighted and proud" to acknowledge Makkabi's sporting achievements.

Volkswagen owns the Wolfsburg team, the very auto manufacturer that Hitler was so proud of, 'the people's auto', and which used forced labour in its manufacturing during World War II; Jewish slave labour. German antisemitism went underground for quite a while, following the war's end and the full revelations of Nazi Germany's annihilation of Europe's Jewish population. But it has seen a resurgence.

 

Makkabi Berlin coach Wolfgang Sandhowe instructs his players before a practice match, in Berlin, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. When Makkabi Berlin takes the field on Sunday Aug. 13, 2023, the soccer club founded by Holocaust survivors will become the first Jewish team to play in the German Cup. (AP Photo/Ciaran Fahey)

"If anyone has any problem with us or has any antisemitic background, we're open to discuss, we're open to inform."

"But we don't want to hide and just be in the victim's role. We want to be active."

"And I  think that's also a huge part of the success."

Makkabi captain Doron Bruck