Reaching the DFB Cup should only be a stage for TuS Makkabi Berlin and more than a sporting success. The hope: make Jewish life in Germany more visible through cup wins and promotions – and reduce hatred of Jews.
Anyone approaching Berlin’s Mommsen Stadium on foot is confronted with the past everywhere. 27 stumbling blocks have been laid here in the Eichkamp settlement, just a few meters away – to commemorate Jewish citizens who were persecuted by the Nazis. In the arena in the Charlottenburg district, the captain of TuS Makkabi Berlin, Doron Bruck, recalled this dark past on Saturday: “With this story, that our club was banned 75 years ago, that means a lot to us today.”
Makkabi had won the Berlin State Cup – and qualified for the first round of the DFB Cup, as the first Jewish sports club. Alon Meyer also cheered on the grandstand. He is the chairman of Makkabi Germany, with 37 local chapters and over 5,000 members: “This is a very important step to create visibility for Jewish life in a sporty way“, he says, “and now that’s positive“.
On this day, exceptionally, there was little talk of anti-Semitism – a topic that Alon Meyer always deals with very aggressively. Recently there had been serious anti-Semitic incidents surrounding a youth game between Makkabi Berlin and CFC Hertha 06. The fact that the sports court of the Berlin Football Association issued a clear verdict against the club boss of Hertha 06 a few days before the cup final (two years ban from office) was very important, said Berlin association president Bernd Schulz: “That was a signal. And the verdict certainly helped that everyone from Maccabi can enjoy the game. It’s nice to see that joy.”
A contrast to everyday life. Makkabi’s youth players had reported to Sportschau and Sport inside that they would no longer dare to ride the subway in training clothes with the Maccabi coat of arms, a stylized Star of David, for fear of being attacked. The team manager of the A youth even plans to emigrate.
Makkabi Berlin is Europe’s figurehead in football
Then on Saturday, a completely different picture: 4,700 spectators, three times as many as at the last Berlin Cup final a year ago – half of the fans with Maccabi scarves and shirts. The flags and fan articles sold like hot cakes in the stadium – the result was a blue and white picture, as otherwise only at the Maccabiah, the big international Jewish sports festival.
“This team is our figurehead in football across Europe“, so Meyer. Fifth league, no Maccabi team otherwise plays higher. He wanted to exclude the European Cup participants from Israel. “We don’t play in the European Cup voluntarily‘ said Meyer, ‘they don’t want us in Asian football.”
Please to the fans: no Israel flags
The separation between Israel as a state and Judaism is difficult – at Makkabi Berlin they still try again and again to depoliticize football. The conflict in the Middle East often spills over onto German amateur grounds. You yourself ask the fans again and again not to bring Israeli flags to games, says Ilja Gop. The spokesman for the board looked over at the bulging fan block, where actually only one Israel flag was hanging, right next to a black, red and gold one: “Our Maccabi Star is Jewish enough.”
But in such a historic hour, politics is not entirely without it: In the finale, sitting next to the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner was the Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor. The array of security forces near him was reminiscent of a state reception – a good 30 men in black suits and with buttons in their ears, conspicuously in a football stadium. In front of them were many police cars and armored limousines.
Sponsors want to finance promotion to the regional league
This Saturday in Berlin, when Makkabi’s Oberliga team defeated the lower-class SV Sparta Lichtenberg 3-1, a special spirit of optimism was noticeable. Reaching the main round of the DFB Cup, a possibly attractive draw against a Bundesliga club, national TV presence – all of this should only be the beginning, says real estate economist Ilja Gop, who is also one of the biggest club sponsors: “Next season we will continue to write the story. We want to go to the regional league.”
A budget of half a million euros will be needed for this. The 210,000 euros from the DFB marketing pot for reaching the first main round are already a basis. “The funding is in place.” The association has over twenty sponsors. Above all, but not only from the Jewish community. And more and more people are asking: “What can we do to become even more successful in football?” Dream goal third division? “Why not? But everything step by step“, according to Gop.
Success in football increases social recognition and importance in Germany – they recognized that with Makkabi. Football is a door opener. With their Maccabi football project “Together1” they are trying to curb hatred of Jews. Maccabi social workers and trainers go to the grassroots, to the amateur clubs. “Success and thus visibility in football can help that more people are willing to stand up for democratic values on our side“Meyer believes.
Everything that is currently happening in football seems like a new strategy. Clearly recognizable by the Berlin local club TuS Makkabi, whose board initially did not want to comment on the attacks on their A youth players in November 2022. For fear that it could cost the association members if it was once again associated with anti-Semitism. Now they want to get out of the victim role. The higher the league, the more visible they will be.
Makkabi Germany warns: grow organically
Maccabi President Alon Meyer, who counts on 25 youth football teams in his Frankfurt local club, warned, however, that the Berlin project must “grow healthily – not only advance, but also improve structures“. In the Berlin soccer scene Makkabi has long been considered a financially attractive address, but: in youth soccer they are a side note with only four teams at the moment.”We will also invest here” said Gop, “In ten years we want to have one of the ten best youth departments in Berlin“. It is said that there are already initial, tender cooperation talks with Hertha BSC.
With Maccabi they recognized one thing: “Messages can be sent about success in football. Football manages to become more visible within the German community“, says Ilja Gop. Of the approximately 20,000 people of Jewish faith in Berlin, about one in ten came to the regional cup final. Among them many who have never been interested in football. Otherwise, the home games take place in front of 200 spectators.
You could feel the anticipation and pride for weeks, “to the Maccabi movement, to this team that makes us all happy“. A team with players from 16 nations. Living integration. Ilja Gop said: “What will happen in the Jewish community when we play Bayern Munich or another big club in the DFB Cup?He gave the answer himself: They will then come from all over Germany to see their Maccabians.