The Maccabi Israel Movement serves as an organizational, sporting, social, and educational framework that unites clubs from all over the country. It functions as a headquarters whose main role is to provide various central services to all Maccabi clubs that are members of the movement across Israel. Today, Maccabi Israel includes over 450 sports clubs in 45 different and varied sports disciplines.
The Maccabi Israel Movement is responsible for the development and nurturing of clubs nationwide, assisting them organizationally, professionally, and financially.
The ongoing activities of Maccabi Israel are coordinated and executed through professional bodies: soccer, basketball, sports, grassroots sports, women's sports, finance and accounting, and the administrative and secretariat headquarters.
The sports activities mainly focus on Olympic sports, but the Maccabi Israel Movement places great importance on the development of grassroots sports and leisure culture.
The movement includes active volunteers and athletes.
Maccabi Israel provides central services and represents member clubs before various authorities in matters of taxation, social security, general insurance, and legal issues.
Maccabi Tzair is the educational branch of the Maccabi movement, serving as an educational arm as well as a reserve for the next generation of leadership in Maccabi Israel.
The Maccabi Israel Movement financially supports the youth movement "Maccabi Tzair" as well as the Maccabean Order. Among the members of the Maccabean Order are veteran Maccabees who were active in their youth on sports fields and in the public and educational activities of the Maccabi Movement.
The Maccabi Israel Movement serves as an organizational, sports, social, and educational framework that unites clubs from all over the country. It functions as a headquarters, with its main role being to provide various central services to all Maccabi clubs that are members of the Maccabi Movement throughout Israel. Today, Maccabi Israel includes over 450 sports clubs in 45 different and varied sports disciplines.
The Maccabi Israel Center is the oldest sports organization in Israel, established in late 1912 in Tel Aviv. Since then, it has led initiatives to develop sports in Israel, including the establishment of the Olympic Committee of Israel, and has been a major force in sports development since the founding of the State of Israel. Before the center's establishment, sports clubs operated in Israel, and after a few years of activity, they formed an umbrella organization that led sports in Israel at the national level.
The first sports club in Israel, "Rishon LeZion" Jaffa, which later became Maccabi Tel Aviv, was founded in 1906 by Dr. Leo Cohen, a doctor at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jaffa (later Herzliya Gymnasium), who had previously led the defense of Kishinev, and Yehezkel Hankin. The club had 25 gymnasts and was equipped with horizontal bars, parallel bars, and weights. The activities of this sports club were based on the activities of the Zionist sports clubs in Europe, which were built according to the German tradition of gymnastics and muscle stretching as non-competitive-exercise activities.
The club underwent a change a year after its establishment when Zvi Orloff (Nishri), an immigrant from Russia, was appointed a special teacher of gymnastics and physical education at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jaffa. Under his supervision, a beam was installed in the schoolyard on two high poles, from which ladders, ropes, and swings were hung. The first organized sports competitions in the history of the old settlement were held in Rehovot between 1908 and 1914, with the first event taking place during Passover in 1908 in coordination with "Rishon LeZion" Jaffa and lasted one day. Nishri, representing "Rishon LeZion" Jaffa, won the running competition (the other participants were independent and did not represent organized clubs). In 1908, the club had 45 men, 22 women, and 25 youths as members. On Saturdays, club members would go for walks or sail in the sea.
In addition to activities in Tel Aviv, other Maccabi sports clubs began to form in Israel. On December 29, 1912, the Maccabi Federation in Israel was established at Herzliya Gymnasium with the participation of 33 delegates from 10 different clubs from various places in Israel: Petah Tikva, Rehovot, Jerusalem, Nes Ziona, Rishon LeZion, Kiryat Ekron, Gedera, Be'er Tuvia, Zichron Ya'akov, and Tel Aviv. Maccabi set the following goals: Hebrew language, Hebrew labor, and Hebrew defense, with the motto: "A healthy mind in a healthy body."
In addition to the growing sports activities, its members were part of the Hebrew forces that ensured the security of the residents, as described by Dr. Moshe Rigai (Rieger), (a graduate of the fourth class of Herzliya Gymnasium and an active member of Maccabi): "We were then engaged in sports activities, but mainly in weapon training. We bought the rifles from Turkish soldiers who had fled the battle." Over time, movement representatives participated in the Jewish Legion during World War I, formed the Maccabi troop in the Jewish Brigade during World War II, took part in training sessions in the Palmach, and participated in the battles for the establishment of the State of Israel.
Over the years, activities have ranged from sports excellence, education and instilling values, training leadership in various national institutions, including the security forces, and organizing the Maccabiah Games (mainly before the establishment of the state in 1932 and 1935). Throughout these years, millions of people have belonged to the large and important community called "Maccabi," contributing to its long-standing prosperity.