Maccabi Australia is a Jewish Australian sporting organisation. It is part of

Maccabi World Union Maccabi World Union is an international Jewish sports organisation spanning five continents (Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Europe) and more than 50 countries, with some 400,000 members. The Maccabi World Union organises the Mac ...

. Maccabi teams compete in many sports such as

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, Australian rules football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

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 ...

and more. Maccabi Australia is an affiliate of the Zionist Federation of Australia.

History

An Australia-wide Jewish sporting organisation had formed by 1935 under the name the Australian Judean Sports Council. It was affiliated with the Maccabi World Union, and organised Australian Jewish Interstate Sports Carnivals. The council changed its name in 1960 to Australian Maccabi CouncilHughes, Anthony. "Sport in the Australian Jewish Community." ''Journal of Sport History'' 26, no. 2 (1999): 376–91. and became Maccabi Australia in 1991. Australian teams have attended the World Maccabiah Games since 1933. Four Australian athletes attending the 1997 Maccabiah Games died as a result of a

bridge collapse This is a list of bridge failures. Before 1800 1800–1899 1900–1949 1950–1999 2000–present Bridge disasters in fiction *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005 novel): the fictional Brockdale Bridge, by the Death Eaters ( ...

during the opening ceremony. In 2014, Maccabi Australia committed to implementing member protection policies and procedures, particularly for children, as a result of the conviction for child sex offences of a coach employed by Maccabi Australia in the late 1990s.

Junior Carnival

The Maccabi Junior Carnival is an annual

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 ...

sporting event in which Jewish youth from different Australian states and New Zealand compete against each other. In 2007 it was held in Melbourne, Victoria, and more than 1000 people participated. Teams from

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 ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

and New Zealand competed. The 2008 carnival was held in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand. It was in January and was the second carnival to be held in New Zealand. The 2009 carnival was held in Sydney, Australia, in January of that year.

Maccabi Australia International Games

Maccabi Australia International Games were held in Sydney, with the inaugural games held in July 2006, and the second games held in December 2010 – January 2011.

Executive

The current president of Maccabi Australia is Jeff Sher.

References

External links