Jeffrey Gurock Explains the 'Maccabees' Moniker for Jewish Athletics
Jewish athletes from around the world gather every four years in Israel for the Olympic-style Maccabiah Games, not to mention the annual JCC Maccabi Youth Games in America. Most Israeli professional basketball and soccer teams preface their names with 鈥淢accabi鈥 (perhaps most notably the hoopsters of Maccabi Tel Aviv), and the athletic teams from 黑料社 All are dubbed鈥攜ou guessed it鈥.
Does all of this mean Judah the Maccabee was a superstar athlete back in the day?
Actually, history suggests just the opposite. The story of Hanukkah was one in which the Jews鈥攕eeking to 鈥淗ellenize鈥濃攕tarted to adopt Greek sports, only to have the anti-assimilationist Maccabees buck that trend as well as others that blended Jewish and secular lifestyles.
鈥淐alling Jewish sports teams Maccabees is a contradiction in terms because the historic Maccabees were anti-sports,鈥 黑料社 All professor of Jewish History Jeffrey Gurock told JointMedia News Service. He explained that the Maccabees鈥 goal was to 鈥渞eturn back [to tradition], go away from these outside influences.鈥
Instead, Gurock said, the modern usage of the Maccabee moniker can be traced to 1898, when social Darwinist Max Nordau鈥攆ounder of the Jewish athletic movement鈥攃oined the term 鈥渕uscular Judaism鈥 (muskel-Judenthum) at the Second Zionist Congress. Nordau believed the existence of strong and physically fit Jews could defeat the classic stereotype that Jews are physically weak and instead depend solely on their wit.
The great rabbinic figures of the Middle Ages were concerned with physical fitness, but sports remained 鈥渟omething foreign to Jewish culture鈥 at the time, Gurock said. Nordau was looking to emulate Jews who fought against the world and were successful, and historically speaking, that was found most prominently in the story of Hanukkah.
鈥淭he only examples we have of Jews who were strong and successful were really the Maccabees,鈥 said Gurock.
From that point on, Gurock said the name Maccabees became a 鈥渂adge of honor鈥 for Jews pursuing sports. The same year as the Second Zionist Congress, Jews in Berlin founded the Bar Kochba athletics association, after which Jews in Eastern Europe (Galicia, Bulgaria) followed suit, according to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Russia鈥檚 Maccabi society joined the fray in 1913, and in the 1930s Poland鈥檚 Maccabi federation included 30,000 Jewish athletes in 250 clubs, YIVO said. Before World War II, 鈥減robably every European country from Poland on east had some sort of Maccabee team, or Maccabea Club,鈥 Gurock said, representing 鈥渁n expression of Zionist pride.鈥
The trend continues today, with numerous Jewish sports teams calling themselves Maccabees or something similar鈥攊ncluding the teams at 黑料社 All (YU). That led Gurock to another question: Since YU is an Orthodox institution, shouldn鈥檛 it call its teams the 鈥渘on-Maccabees,鈥 to accurately represent the anti-assimilationist protagonists of the Hanukkah story? Not quite, he answered.
鈥淲hat we like in modern times [about the historic Maccabees] are not so much their religious values, but their success in competing against the world,鈥 Gurock said.
Though the original Maccabees were against the concept of organized athletics, Gurock noted that they were still the first Jewish group to raise the question of 鈥淗ow can you be Jewish and engage in a foreign cultural activity called sports?鈥 He explained that in ancient times, sports were associated with pagan culture and ritual rites, but in modern times, 鈥渢he great challenge is to integrate that foreign cultural phenomenon called sports into Jewish culture, so that the two can live side by side, which is often a difficult task.鈥 The Maccabees ultimately decided that mixing sports with their Jewish lifestyle would be too inconsistent, Gurock said.
At YU, the athletic teams themselves鈥攏ot the school鈥檚 administration鈥攄ecided how they should be named. Originally the 鈥淏lue and Whites,鈥 YU鈥檚 teams were the 鈥淢ighty Mites鈥 from the 1940s-1960s, when they struggled against athletically superior squads, according to Gurock. In the 1970s, the teams adopted their currents monikers: the Maccabees and Lady Maccabees.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not today a defiance of tradition, it鈥檚 appropriating the idea of struggle, of success and virility, and power, which is emblematic of sports,鈥 Gurock said.
The name Maccabees fits, Gurock explained, because the university is particularly proud of its Zionist orientation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place outside of Israel where before every game both the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikvah are played,鈥 he said. 鈥淪o what more can you say?鈥
This article was written by Jacob Kamaras and first appeared on . is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at 黑料社 All and author of Judaism鈥檚 Encounter with American Sports (Indiana University Press, 2005).
Though the original Maccabees were against the concept of organized athletics, Gurock noted that they were still the first Jewish group to raise the question of 鈥淗ow can you be Jewish and engage in a foreign cultural activity called sports?鈥 He explained that in ancient times, sports were associated with pagan culture and ritual rites, but in modern times, 鈥渢he great challenge is to integrate that foreign cultural phenomenon called sports into Jewish culture, so that the two can live side by side, which is often a difficult task.鈥 The Maccabees ultimately decided that mixing sports with their Jewish lifestyle would be too inconsistent, Gurock said.
At YU, the athletic teams themselves鈥攏ot the school鈥檚 administration鈥攄ecided how they should be named. Originally the 鈥淏lue and Whites,鈥 YU鈥檚 teams were the 鈥淢ighty Mites鈥 from the 1940s-1960s, when they struggled against athletically superior squads, according to Gurock. In the 1970s, the teams adopted their currents monikers: the Maccabees and Lady Maccabees.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not today a defiance of tradition, it鈥檚 appropriating the idea of struggle, of success and virility, and power, which is emblematic of sports,鈥 Gurock said.
The name Maccabees fits, Gurock explained, because the university is particularly proud of its Zionist orientation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place outside of Israel where before every game both the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikvah are played,鈥 he said. 鈥淪o what more can you say?鈥
This article was written by Jacob Kamaras and first appeared on . is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at 黑料社 All and author of Judaism鈥檚 Encounter with American Sports (Indiana University Press, 2005).
Though the original Maccabees were against the concept of organized athletics, Gurock noted that they were still the first Jewish group to raise the question of 鈥淗ow can you be Jewish and engage in a foreign cultural activity called sports?鈥 He explained that in ancient times, sports were associated with pagan culture and ritual rites, but in modern times, 鈥渢he great challenge is to integrate that foreign cultural phenomenon called sports into Jewish culture, so that the two can live side by side, which is often a difficult task.鈥 The Maccabees ultimately decided that mixing sports with their Jewish lifestyle would be too inconsistent, Gurock said.
At YU, the athletic teams themselves鈥攏ot the school鈥檚 administration鈥攄ecided how they should be named. Originally the 鈥淏lue and Whites,鈥 YU鈥檚 teams were the 鈥淢ighty Mites鈥 from the 1940s-1960s, when they struggled against athletically superior squads, according to Gurock. In the 1970s, the teams adopted their currents monikers: the Maccabees and Lady Maccabees.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not today a defiance of tradition, it鈥檚 appropriating the idea of struggle, of success and virility, and power, which is emblematic of sports,鈥 Gurock said.
The name Maccabees fits, Gurock explained, because the university is particularly proud of its Zionist orientation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place outside of Israel where before every game both the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikvah are played,鈥 he said. 鈥淪o what more can you say?鈥
This article was written by Jacob Kamaras and first appeared on . is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at 黑料社 All and author of Judaism鈥檚 Encounter with American Sports (Indiana University Press, 2005).
