Hasmonea Lwów was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

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 ...

sports club based in the city of Lwów (now

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). Created in 1908 in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, it was the first sports club exclusively for Jewish members. It was named after the Hasmonean royal dynasty. The full Polish name was Żydowski Klub Sportowy Hasmonea Lwów (''Jewish Sports Club Hasmonea Club''). In the interbellum the Hasmonea was one of four Lwów-based clubs playing in the

Polish First League I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga vi ...

and arguably the most popular Jewish football club in Poland. In 1928 it was ranked 13th in the league and relegated. There was a conflict between the club and PZPN officially due to failing to pay its dues. In 1929 the club paid its owed dues and next year revived its football team which competed in regional competition of Lwow Voivodeship. In 1932 the original stadium of the club was deliberately burnt down. The most popular football player primarily associated with the club was

Zygmunt Steuermann Zygmunt Steuermann (5 February 1899 – December 1941) was a Polish footballer who played as a forward and is one of the most renowned members of the Hasmonea Lwów Football Club. Life Born in Sambor, then in Austro-Hungarian Galicia, Steuerm ...

. Hasmonea was also famous for its excellent

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

players. In 1933 they were team champions of Poland, and its top player,

Alojzy Ehrlich Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich (1914 – 7 December 1992), also called "King of the Chiselers," was a Polish table tennis player, widely regarded as one of the best players in Polish history of this sport, who three times won silver in the World Tabl ...

, was three times winner of silver medals in the World Championships (1936, 1937, 1939). Another of the championship players during those years was Leopold Weiss, one of the few members of the club who like Ehrlich also survived the Nazi occupation of Lwów.Jakob Weiss, ''The Lemberg Mosaic'' (New York: Alderbrook Press, 2011) pp.72–76. File:Wejście do stadionu Hasmonei (dziś "Torpedo").jpg, Torpedo Stadium (former Hasmonea) near Jewish Cemetery File:Hasmonea Lwow.jpg, Hasmonea Lwów football team, circa 1915 File:Hasmonea Lwów.jpg, Hasmonea Lwow, 1935

References

Association football clubs established in 1908 Jewish football clubs Lwów District Football League Polish football clubs in Lviv 1908 establishments in Poland 1908 establishments in Austria-Hungary Defunct football clubs in former Polish territories Diaspora sports clubs {{Ukraine-footyclub-stub

See also

References