The Story of the Jewish Community in Bratislava

Bratislava Before the Holocaust

Culture and Politics

Sport

Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement on a parade through the streets of Bratislava, 27-29 June 1925 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement on a parade through the streets of Bratislava, 27-29 June 1925 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement on a parade through the streets of Bratislava, 28-29 June 1925 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, Bratislava, prewar Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement on a parade through the streets of Bratislava, 28-29 June 1925 Bratislava, female athletes from the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 9 May 1926 Bratislava, female athletes from the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 9 May 1926 Bratislava, athletes from the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 22 May 1926 Bratislava, athletes from the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 22 May 1926 Bratislava, athletes from the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 5 July 1926 Female members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 8 July 1928 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 16 July 1928 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair youth movement, 16 July 1928 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair soccer team (MSK - Makkabea Sportuvy Klub), 6 April 1929 Members of the Maccabi Hatzair soccer team (MSK - Makkabea Sportuvy Klub), 15 June 1930. Members of the Maccabi Hatzair soccer team (MSK - Makkabea Sportuvy Klub), September 1930. <br />On this date Maccabi Bratislava won against the D.L.A. team, 4:1. <br />In the front wearing a sport’s cap Maccabi Bratislava’s goalkeeper, Abraham Moshe Ernest Gelley. <br />Courtesy of the photo archive of the Ghetto Fighters' House Spectators and fans filling a soccer stadium, most likely the Maccabi stadium belonging to the MSK - Makkabea Sportuvy Klub (Sports Club Maccabi).

Bratislava was home to a number of different Jewish athletic clubs. In 1912 Samuel Bettelheim founded Maccabi; the group’s soccer club, Maccabia, competed successfully in the national games and also against non-Jewish groups. Maccabi purchased land on the other side of the Danube, where it erected a sports club, playing fields and facilities for the nine different categories of sport practiced. The association had several hundred members from all the levels of Jewish society. Several of the members excelled in their fields and won a place on the Slovakian national team.

For several years in a row, the Bar Kochba swimming team won the national competition in water polo. Members of the team held a number of Czechoslovakian swimming records, and some of them represented the state in international competitions and competed in the Maccabiah games held in Eretz Israel.

Members of Maccabi Bratislava took part in a variety of social and cultural activities which included both Jewish and non-Jewish residents of the city.