Curated by Jesse Aaron Cohen

This exhibition features images of Jewish Soccer Clubs in Poland in the 1920's and 30's. These soccer teams were associated with Jewish sports clubs that operated in towns and cities throughout Poland prior to World War II, offering young people activities such as soccer, cycling, gymnastics, and hiking. Though some were unaffiliated, these clubs were usually organized by and actively affiliated with one of the several Jewish political parties that vied for the support of the Jewish masses. Many cities had several sports clubs, each one affiliated with a rival political ideology (Zionism, Socialism, etc).

These sports clubs were successful both in the wide popularity they enjoyed by their participants, and in their ability to recruit young people who were still more interested in playing games and socializing than they were in the loftier ambitions of an ideological-political movement. Those loftier ambitions often followed.
These images can be found in Record Group 120 - Poland and Record Group 1400 - Bund Archives at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York.

Bialystok, October 2, 1923. Members of the Bialystok Jewish Sports Club soccer team

Lunna, year unknown. Members of the Morgnshtern soccer team. Morgnshtern was the sports organization associated with the Bund, the Jewish Socialist Workers Party in Russia, Poland, and Lithuania

Vilna, 1936. The Maccabi soccer team. Maccabi was the a Zionist-affiliated sports organization

Warsaw, 1924. "Morgnshtern First Workers Soccer team"

Sokulki, August 1931. The Maccabi soccer team posing with representatives of the Polish Army soccer club

Unknown Morgnshtern soccer team

Brzeziny, 1932. The soccer team of the Jewish Association of Sports Lovers ("T.M.S")

If you are unable to view the images, they can also be found at: Old World Cup

Supplementary Material:
- FIFA WORLD CUP 2006
- Who Should I Cheer For?
- Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club
- Arab-Israeli Soccer

About this series:
This is installation eighteen of a monthly series of Email Exhibitions. A new exhibition opens on the last Friday of every month. Each exhibition contains low-resolution images with a text and some supplementary readings. Please feel free to forward these exhibitions to whomever you want, but please don't reproduce the images in print or on your website without asking me first. Thanks.

If you were forwarded one of these exhibitions and would like to subscribe yourself, please email me so I can add you to my list and also tell you about when my band is playing and stuff if you want.

okay,
Jesse