The Lithuanian Sports Club Makabi is a sports club of the

Jewish minority in Lithuania Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki Region, Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as ...

. It is one of the many Maccabi sports clubs worldwide. It was originally established on September 19, 1920 in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

. It ceased to exist during

the Holocaust in Lithuania The Holocaust in Lithuania resulted in the near total destruction of Lithuanian (Litvaks) and Polish Jews, living in '' Generalbezirk Litauen'' of ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' within the Nazi-controlled Lithuanian SSR. Out of approximately 20 ...

and was reestablished only in 1989 during the ''

perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

'' in the

Lithuanian SSR The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...

. The club participates in the

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...

. It had about 500 members in 1990 and 200 in 2000. As of 2014, the club supported nine sports (football, chess, basketball, table tennis, tennis, swimming, badminton, wrestling, shooting, and rhythmic gymnastics).

Interwar period

In 1926, the club had 83 sections that united some 4,000 members. The best results were achieved by the footballers ( Kaunas Makabi played 12 seasons in the

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Aukš� ...

and won 3rd place in 1926), bicyclists ( Isakas Anolikas represented Lithuania in the

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

and

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

, was Lithuanian champion), boxers (several members became Lithuanian champions), chess players ( Aleksandras Machtas and

Isakas Vistaneckis Isakas Vistaneckis (Isaak, Itzhak Vistinietzki) (29 September 1910 in Marijampolė – 30 December 2000 in Tel Aviv) was a Lithuanian Jewish chess player who held the chess title of Correspondence Chess International Master (IM). Biography In 1930 ...

represented Lithuania at

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

s), and table tennis players (brought the sport to Lithuania; Olga Gurvičaitė became champion at the 1933 World Maccabiah Championship in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

). In total, the club supported 21 different teams. It participated in the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and 1935 Maccabiah Games

Post-Soviet period

Less than a month after reestablishment of the

National Olympic Committee of Lithuania The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee ( lt, Lietuvos tautinis olimpinis komitetas, ''LTOK'') is the National Olympic Committee representing Lithuania. History Lithuania's national Olympic committee was established and recognized in 1924. ...

, Makabi club was reestablished on January 8, 1989 (chairman Semionas Finkelšteinas) with sections in

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different l ...

, and

Klaipėda Klaipėda (; ; german: Memel; pl, Kłajpeda; russian: Клайпеда; sgs, Klaipieda) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. The capital of the eponymous county, it is the third largest city and the only major seaport in Lithuan ...

. It retained its historical spelling Makabi as a sign of respect to the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 millio ...

. It sent a 25-member delegation to the

1989 Maccabiah Games The 13th Maccabiah Games brought 4,500 athletes to Israel from 45 nations. Jewish athletes from Hungary participated for the first time since World War II, Jewish athletes from Russia had been permitted, by their country, to play for the first ti ...

where they competed not under the

Soviet flag The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (), commonly known as the Soviet flag (), was the official state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 to 1991. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from ...

, but under the Lithuanian flag. At the games, wrestler Grigorijus Chažineris won silver, chess-master

Eduardas Rozentalis Eduardas Rozentalis (born 27 May 1963 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian chess grandmaster. He played for the Lithuanian team in every Chess Olympiad since 1992, except in 2000 and 2012. Rozentalis won the Lithuanian Chess Championship in 1981, 1983 ...

won bronze, and the

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

team took the 5th place. The club established its own football team, Makabi Vilnius, which won in its zone of 2 Lyga in 1991 and placed 6th in the A Lyga 1991–92 season. It also won the

Lithuanian Football Cup The Lithuanian Football Federation Cup ( lt, Lietuvos futbolo federacijos taurė), also known as Hegelmann LFF Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a Lithuanian football cup competition contested in a knockout tournament format. The winner of the cu ...

in 1992 upsetting champions

FK Žalgiris Vilnius FK or fk may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise. * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block. * Funky Kong, a video game character. Place ...

. The next season it became known as FK Neris Vilnius. As of 2014, the club participated in 7

and 5 European Maccabi Games and won 11 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze medals. This includes 2 golds and 3 silvers by the futsal team; 2 golds, 7 silvers, 3 bronzes by swimmer Ela Pavinskienė; and 4 golds, 1 silver, and 2 bronzes by swimmer Andrej Fadejev at the 2011 European Maccabi Games in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.delfi.lt/sportas/kitos-sporto-sakos/nepriklausomos-lietuvos-makabi-klubui-25-eri.d?id=65888124 , title=Nepriklausomos Lietuvos "Makabi" klubui - 25-eri , date=2014-09-17 , language=lt , accessdate=2015-02-13 , publisher= Delfi.lt {{cite encyclopedia, first=Semionas , last=Finkelšteinas , title=Makabi , encyclopedia=Lietuvos sporto enciklopedija , editor-first=Povilas, editor-last=Karoblis , year=2013 , publisher=Lietuvos sporto informacijos centras , volume=II , pages=130–131 , isbn=978-609-413-003-8 , language=lt, display-editors=etal {{cite web, url=http://www.holocaustnames.lt/EN/duomenu-baze/organizacija/35 , title=Lietuvos žydų sporto ir gimnastikos sąjunga "Makabi" , accessdate=2015-02-13 , work=The Lithuanian Jewish Communities in the Face of the Holocaust: (Un)Forgotten Names and Fates , publisher=Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum , language=lt {{cite web, title=Lietuvos žydų sporto klubas "Makabi" , url=http://www.sportasvisiems.lt/lt/asociacija/nariai/lietuvos_zydu_sporto_klubas_makabi , accessdate=2015-02-13 , publisher=Lietuvos asociacija „Sportas visiems“ , language=lt {{cite journal , first=Gintaras , last=Nenartavičius , title=Lietuvos sporto klubas "Makabi" prisimins istorines akimirkas , url=http://www.lrytas.lt/sportas/startai/lietuvos-sporto-klubas-makabi-prisimins-istorines-akimirkas.htm , journal=Lietuvos rytas , date=2014-09-17 , language=lt , accessdate=2015-02-13 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214072931/http://www.lrytas.lt/sportas/startai/lietuvos-sporto-klubas-makabi-prisimins-istorines-akimirkas.htm , archive-date=2015-02-14 , url-status=dead Makabi Maccabi World Union Jewish organizations based in Lithuania 1920 establishments in Lithuania Sports clubs established in 1920 Sports clubs disestablished in 1940 1989 establishments in Lithuania Sports clubs established in 1989