Jewish Roots of the ‘Beautiful Game’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Dan Friedman June 19, 2014
British Jews have never accounted for more than 1% of the population. And their contribution to soccer has always been obscured. But, in his well-researched and compellingly-written history, “Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here?: The History of Football’s Forgotten Tribe,” Anthony Clavane explains the outsize contribution of British Jews to British soccer and their pivotal role in the creation of the English Premier League.
For America this is the first World Cup. In 1994 the USA (under the guidance of Alan Rothenberg) hosted the games but, beyond the Hispanic community, the nation’s interest was really only piqued by the world’s interest and in a proprietary concern of providing hospitality — it might just as well have been the cricket World Cup for all that mainstream America cared.
John Oliver’s primer about the evils of FIFA is one of the proofs of the current interest. The printed guides to the games in local papers across the country, The New Republic’s dedicated World Cup blog and The New York Times’s three front page stories over the past month are further proof.
NBC making a multibillion dollar deal for blanket coverage of the EPL was a significant statement of intent too, as to which league lights up America’s households.
Americans and Brits think Jews aren’t sporty — which would come as a surprise to the founding New York Knicks, the Jewish American boxers of the early 20th century and Hakoach Vienna, the Jewish soccer team (and Austrian national soccer champions, 1924-25) whose predominance in Austrian sport was only interrupted by racist politics.
Noting, but not fully elucidating, the obstacles that have faced Jewish sportsmen in modern Britain, Anthony Clavane tells the story of the myriad contributions of Jews to the world’s favorite sport, and the world’s favorite league.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
