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Dr. Jacov Sobovitz Carmel College
2
During the period between the emancipation of
Eretz Israel from Turkish rule in September 1918
and the year 1923, the idea of Aliyah (a large
wave of Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel)
evolved, despite the political limitations and
difficulties along the way an unconditional
aliyah not dependent on political conditions or
on the economic situation in the
country. Political, economic, national and social
conditions were favorable for the Third Aliyah
the reasons and origins behind it differed.
3
The end of World War I had the young Jewish
generation wondering about its future, the
future of the Jewish nation, and the future of
humankind. The Jewish population living in the
Soviet Union, feeling insecure about their lives
and their possessions, wanted to leave the
country the Balfour Declaration made Eretz
Israel an attractive place in which to live
hopes were vanishing, and the magic of the Soviet
revolution was starting to wear off in every
aspect regarding the question of the Jews these
hopes proved to be false and the Soviet regime
became narrow-minded and even hostile to the
national-social perception of the Jewish nation
and the Zionist movement.
4
The common denominator of the factors of change
first and foremost among the young Jewish
generation was the background of the period in
which national and social ideals had merged and
become inseparable. The pioneering aliyah came
immediately after WORLD WAR I, and already by the
end of October 1918, young immigrants were making
their way to Eretz Israel via Odessa, Kushta,
Trieste and Egypt. The expectations and the
desire to immigrate to Eretz Israel on the one
hand, and the materialistic conditions in the
land on the other, did not overlap.
5
The Jewish economy, as meager as it was, declined
even further during the war the lands economy
weakened and it lacked an infrastructure for
industrial development and for public services.
But the objective difficulties were not
discouraging. On July 1, 1920, military rule in
Eretz Israel ended and civilian rule took over,
opening up the countrys gates to the flood of
immigrants. The human material flowing into the
land from Jewish communities throughout Europe,
at least at the beginning of the Third Aliyah,
followed in the spirit of the period. Pioneers in
the countrys north in general and Haifa in
particular proved to be the proper response to
the desires of the veteran Yishuv (the Jewish
population of Eretz Israel prior to establishment
of the State).
6
In the early 1920s, Haifa was also the center
where declarations were made during different
periods of workers lives in Eretz Israel. The
first three councils of road and construction
workers were held in Haifa. Haifa was the
birthplace of the Histadrut General Federation
of Hebrew Laborers in Eretz Israel. In the
background of the slow growth of the working
public, accompanied by laying the foundations of
organizational, economic, financial and cultural
projects, the Hapoel Sports Association was
founded in Haifa in April 1924 as part of the
Histadrut.
7
The process by which Hapoel was established in
the 1920s exemplified a trend typical of workers
movements throughout Europe of creating workers
sports organizations based on the assumption that
workers have special needs and interests.
Hapoel was established as a result of these
interests that were prevailing in Europe,
combined with the local data of Eretz Israel. In
a general assembly of Hapoel members held in
Haifa in January 1933, Abba Khoushy (then
Secretary of the Haifa Workers Council), one of
the heads of Hapoel, said the following
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There is a big difference between Hapoel and
other sports organizations Sports for us are a
means of liberating the classes and the Jewish
nation. We want to educate an organized and
unified force that will fight to realize
national and class-related ideologies Hapoel
must be the fire lighting the way leading to
social fulfillment Hapoel members must be
active in the Histradrut and be the first among
working class fighters. Body culture was the
means for imparting healthy habits and physical
immunity and sports the means to make body
culture popular among the masses.
9
These values were initially introduced by
Yehoshua Sharpstein, and later on (in the 1930s)
by Gershon Koppler, both members of the
Schutzbund (Austrian Republican Defense Union),
which was affiliated with the Austrian ASKO
Laborers Sports Union1. Sharpstein and his
friends established the first Workers Sports
Association in Eretz Israel in Haifa (Maccabi was
founded in the country in 1912) based on the
Austrian ASKO model.
10
One of the founders of Hapoel Haifa was
Yehoshua Sharpstein, who was born in 1901 and
came from the Austrian workers movement. In 1924,
he laid the foundation had been a member of the
workers sports movement in Eretz Israel, giving
it its name and determining its type of
activity. Gershon Koppler was born in 1906 and
educated in Vienna. He was an active member of
the Schutzbund. After immigrating to Eretz
Israel, he became one of the first swimming and
practical sports coaches in Hapoel Haifa. He
was also one of 33 instructors on the Lavie
Hayam Ship he never returned after sailing on
this ship on a military defense mission to
Lebanon.
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Workers sports aspired to impart a basic
physical education to the masses, recognizing
that health and fitness at work are the workers
sole possession and on which his
existencedepends.In parallel to the political,
economic and education unions of the
international working class, the workers sports
movement was paving a way to the future victory
of socialism. WORLD WAR I put an end to the
Federations activities, which were only renewed
after the war. In 1920 in Lucerne, Switzerland,
representatives from England, Belgium, Finland,
Germany, Switzerland, France and Czechoslovakia
gathered together and declared the establishment
of the Socialist Workers Sports International
(Sport Internationale Sozialistischen Arbeiter),
SASI for short. Workers sports started to
develop quickly and boasted hundreds of thousands
of members.
12
The first Workers Olympics took place in 1925 in
the German city of Frankfurt on the Maine River.
At that time, SASI had approximately 1,300,000
members. This gathering served as a large
demonstration of the idea of workers sports,
even if workers sports achievements were
inferior to general sports achievements. The
period from 1925 up until the first Olympics in
Vienna in 1931 was a period of ups and downs as
well as growth. Workers sports were organized in
18 countries and had a total of two million
members, including Hapoel Eretz Israel, which
joined SASI in 1927. About 80,000 individuals
participated in the Vienna Olympics, an
unprecedented number among any other sports
organization in the world.
13
The Olympics program was diverse and included
competitions, demonstrations, parades, torches,
etc. A special day was devoted to children and
practical sports of the Austrian Schutzbund
(self-defense) and other similar organizations. A
large delegation of Hapoel members participated
in this event, which also included a soccer team,
bicycle-riders, etc. The Third Workers Olympics
was held in 1937 in Antwerp, Belgium. Several
countries (Germany, Austria and Latvia) did not
attend, yet the Soviet Union and 14 other
countries did (including Hapoel Eretz Israel).
The athletic achievements were excellent. Despite
the prevailing good spirits, this was the last
Workers Olympics due to the outbreak of World
War II in 1939.
14
In May 1946, after World War II, a congress was
held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, to
found the Federation of Workers Sports
Organizations. Eleven countries took part in this
congress, which decided on the creation of an
International Labor Sports Confederation
(C.S.I.T. the French abbreviation). Belgian
businessman Jul Deholigar was elected Secretary
of this Confederation. However, at the request of
the International Olympic Committee, it was
decided that no congress could bear the word
Olympics in its name.
15
Already in the first years since its
establishment, Hapoel saw what European
workers did not see in their sports
organizations. The aspiration towards sports for
the masses never conflicted with sports for
victory at Hapoel. The workers movement in
Eretz Israel never developed a passive
expectation for a better world it aspired to
improve the lives of the worker through
constructive planning. Instead of having the
salaried workers remain on the farm, the movement
formed an independent working settlement
comprised of a band of workers and created a
stream of workers in education. The Histradrut
was a remarkable amalgamation of workers that
served to answer all their wishes and needs.
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Hapoel was not managed arbitrarily but rather
according to a plan, and the plan quickly
started to bear fruit. Hapoel decided to
establish ties with SASI, and required all of its
members to belong to the Histradrut and Kupat
Holim. In the Third Congress of Workers Union
that was held on July 5, 1927 in Lucerne,
Switzerland, Hapoel was accepted into
SASI. After joining SASI, the following was said
in a report by the Hapoel Center After years
of activity, SASI has appointed Jacov Horni to
represent it in Europe and Dov Hoz in America,
and develop ties with the workers sports
movement in other countries. The SASI secretary
wrote the following
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Florin, Belgium September 23, 1927 To
members of the Hapoel Center in Eretz
Israel Dear Members, It is with great pleasure
that I heard the news that you are planning to
create a workers sports movement in your
country. I am hereby sending you an exemplar of
our international German regulations in the hope
that this will serve as an example, and that the
Histadrut will soon be a national branch of our
international movement. In your reply to us,
please attach a brief report of your status and
plans of action for the future. In the
expectation to hear news from you, I am sending
you greetings of comradeship.
Jul Deholigar
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The founding of Hapoel in Eretz Israel was
actually part of the process of establishing
these sports clubs. Nonetheless, a short time
after it was founded, Hapoel joined SASI. This
was made possible by sending a large delegation
of "Hapoel members to the Second Workers
Olympics in Vienna (1931). The appearance of the
Hapoel delegation in the Vienna Olympics (81
members, 38 of them female, in addition to
bicyclists and motorcyclists), headed by Israel
Shochat, Yaacov Flanner, Arieh Pearlstein and
Haim Globinski, proudly bearing the national
flag, drew the attention of many, who saw in the
Hapoel members brave representatives of the
state of Jews on its way to being established.
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Hapoel athletes participated for the second
time in a workers sports demonstration in
Prague in June 1934. The gathering in Prague took
place in a gloomy atmosphere the Nazis had taken
power in Germany and all of Europe was
apprehensive and anxious. The Hapoel delegation
was greeted by the head of the International
Workers Sports Organization and the SASI
Chairman. Hapoel, as a member of SASI, saw as
its objective to organize sports activities that
would safeguard the workers health while
advancing working class interests. The goal from
the outset was to create sports for the masses
(not for the best but for the most), with
athletic branches designed for workers rather
than for skilled athletes.
20
Sports organizations affiliated with SASI also
assumed military tasks through paramilitary
organizations such as the Schutzbund in Austria
and Plugot Hapoelin Eretz Israel within the
framework of workers parties in their
countries. The establishment of the State of
Israel did not essentially change its sectoral
nature. International workers sports had
suffered a severe blow in WORLD WAR II and ceased
to be detached from general sports federations.
Even the Soviet Union realized the political and
propaganda value of world sports and in 1952
started to participate in the Olympic
Games. Today Israeli sports are part of a global
sports village. Its management is dictated by
economic, professional, media- and
achievement-oriented considerations.
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Dr. Jacov Sobovitz Carmel College