The German Soccer Team That Owes Its Existence to Turn-of-the-20th-Century Zionist Thought

Feb. 20 2020

In addition to the dozens of athletic teams in Israel bear the name “Makkabi,” there is also a semi-professional soccer team with that name whose members play wearing Star-of-David jerseys. Amit Naor tells their story:

In late August of 1898, Max Nordau stood at the podium of the Zionist Congress and called for the promotion of “muscular Judaism” (Muskeljudentum), an idea that envisioned the creation of a “new Jew,” typified by physical strength, which was, in his opinion, necessary in order to achieve the national revival of the Jewish people. [A]t the end of October of that year, 48 young Zionists gathered in Berlin and founded an athletics club in the city, a true realization of Nordau’s ideas. They named the club “Bar Kokhba,” after the legendary Jewish hero who led a revolt against Roman rule.

During those years, Jewish clubs of the sort began to spring up like mushrooms after the rain. Most of them chose powerful Hebrew names like ha-Koaḥ (“The Force” or “The Strength”) and ha-Gibor (“The Hero”), or names of heroic figures from scripture such as Gideon and, of course, Makkabi.

Most of the Bar Kokhba Association’s successes were in gymnastics, while the soccer team generally took a backseat to the various other departments. The impressive achievements in gymnastics and boxing reinforced a Jewish sense of pride by showing that Jews were not inferior to their German neighbors. Jewish sports fans especially enjoyed watching the athletes proudly wear the light-blue Star of David on their uniforms. . . . Young members of the association [later] formed the core of a Jewish defense force that helped protect the Jewish quarter in Berlin where Jews were harassed during and after World War I.

These clubs were eventually shut down by the Nazis, but after World War II they were reconstituted by former members in Berlin, and later joined together to form Makkabi, a sports club with 500 members, including the soccer team.

Read more at The Librarians

More about: German Jewry, Max Nordau, Sports, World War I, Zionism

American Middle East Policy Should Focus Less on Stability and More on Weakening Enemies

Feb. 10 2025

To Elliott Abrams, Donald Trump’s plan to remove the entire population of Gaza while the Strip is rebuilt is “unworkable,” at least “as a concrete proposal.” But it is welcome insofar as “its sheer iconoclasm might lead to a healthy rethinking of U.S. strategy and perhaps of Arab and Israeli policies as well.” The U.S., writes Abrams, must not only move beyond the failed approach to Gaza, but also must reject other assumptions that have failed time and again. One is the commitment to an illusory stability:

For two decades, what American policymakers have called “stability” has meant the preservation of the situation in which Gaza was entirely under Hamas control, Hizballah dominated Lebanon, and Iran’s nuclear program advanced. A better term for that situation would have been “erosion,” as U.S. influence steadily slipped away and Washington’s allies became less secure. Now, the United States has a chance to stop that process and aim instead for “reinforcement”: bolstering its interests and allies and actively weakening its adversaries. The result would be a region where threats diminish and U.S. alliances grow stronger.

Such an approach must be applied above all to the greatest threat in today’s Middle East, that of a nuclear Iran:

Trump clearly remains open to the possibility (however small) that an aging [Iranian supreme leader Ali] Khamenei, after witnessing the collapse of [his regional proxies], mulling the possibility of brutal economic sanctions, and being fully aware of the restiveness of his own population, would accept an agreement that stops the nuclear-weapons program and halts payments and arms shipments to Iran’s proxies. But Trump should be equally aware of the trap Khamenei might be setting for him: a phony new negotiation meant to ensnare Washington in talks for years, with Tehran’s negotiators leading Trump on with the mirage of a successful deal and a Nobel Peace Prize at the end of the road while the Iranian nuclear-weapons program grows in the shadows.

Read more at Foreign Affairs

More about: Iran, Middle East, U.S. Foreign policy