The AJAX (acronym for the "Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs".
[) Football Club is an Australian rules football club sited in the inner suburb of St Kilda, ]Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. The squad competes in the Victorian Amateur Football Association
The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division ...
(VAFA).[''For the Love of the Game: The Centenary History of the Victorian Amateur Football Association, 1892-1992'' by Joseph Johnson – Hyland House Publishing: South Yarra, 1992]
Having been established by the Melbourne Jewish community in 1957,[Anthony Hughes, ''The Jewish Community'', in Richard Cashman, Philip Mosely, John O’Hara and Hilary Weatherburn (eds), Sporting Immigrants, Walla Walla Press, Crows Nest, 1997] Ajax is notable as Australia's first and only fully Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
club in the sport[''People of the Boot: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Australian Jews in Sport'' by Dashiel Lawrence, Ashley Browne – Hybrid Publishers, 2018] The club has also a junior section, founded in 1974. Their junior teams compete in the South Metro Junior Football League (SMJFL).
Club Presidents
Maurice Ashkenazy (1980-1985)
History
Jewish presence in Australia dates back to 1788, with the arrival of Jewish convicts during the penal era. Melbourne's Jewish community embraced Australian Rules football as a way to be integrated into Australian society and share a common activity.[Bob Stewart, Rob Hess and Chris Dixon, ''Australian Rules Football'', in Richard Cashman, Philip Mosely, John O’Hara and Hilary Weatherburn (eds), Sporting Immigrants, Walla Walla Press:
Crows Nest, 1997]
Most of Melbourne's Jewish community initially lived in the inner suburbs of Carlton and Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
, although the Jewish community then spread to St Kilda and Caulfield.
In 1955, Daryl Cohen, a football enthusiast playing for Old Collegians, proposed a new team formed by Jewish members to compete in the VAFA. The club was named Associated Judaean Athletic Clubs (acronym "AJAX") and was admitted into the association in 1957. The club adopted the St Kilda FC's red, white and black colors. St Kilda president donated a set of guernseys for the club.[Barry Markoff, ''The Road to A Grade: A History of the Ajax Football Club'', Brownhall Printing: Clayton South, 1980] The Christian cross of the St Kilda badge would be replaced by a star of David.[
AJAX would be embrace by the Jewish community as their own team, establishing as a strong team in the region.][
]
References
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
Jews and Judaism in Melbourne
Victorian Amateur Football Association clubs
1957 establishments in Australia
Australian rules football clubs established in 1957
Diaspora sports clubs
Australian rules football clubs in Melbourne
Sport in the City of Port Phillip
St Kilda, Victoria