Due to the rain expected in Thursday’s weather forecast, the Hanukkah Happening has been moved to Monday December 10th. We hope that you haven’t made plans, because the Hanukkah Tradition continues this year at Kiryat Shalom where parents and children can visit the training facility and play on the activities set up on the synthetic pitch. You’ll also be able to meet the Maccabi stars face to face, get autographs and take pictures with all of your heroes.

The event will begin at 15:00 and fans must be at the facility by 14:30. Registration opens today, Wednesday and is limited to 600 people. Please note, you will not be able to attend if you do not register in advance.

How does it work?
Registration is open today Thursday November 29th to all Maccabi FIRST members for the Community Day on Monday December 10th at 15:00 at the Kiryat Shalom Training Facility, 106 Derech Ben Tzvi and is limited to 600 participants ONLY.
Each person may register up to 3 participants which includes the person submitting the registration. Just like when you make a reservation at a restaurant, you request a table for yourself plus 2 friends for a total of 3 ONLY.
IMPORTANT:
• Following the registration, you’ll receive an email requesting information about the participants.
• If weather conditions don’t permit the Community Day to take place, you will be notified a few hours prior to the event and you’ll be able to participate in the Community Day the following month.
• All participants must arrive at the Kiryat Shalom Training Facility by 14:30. Should you be delayed, you may not be able to participate in the event.
• In order to ensure that all fans meet all of the players, special greeting videos may not be recorded at the Training Facility.
• Following your registration, a Maccabi representative will be in touch with you to get all of the participants necessary details.
Entrance to the Training Facility will be granted only after a full security check. Each participant will need to present their Teudat Tzehut ID Card, License or Passport in order to take part in the event. Entrance will not be granted to those whose names do not appear on the official registration list!
Participants are not allowed to bring with professional photographers or videographers.
For the rules and regulations, please click on the following link.

Just ahead of the Chanukah Holiday and right before the club gets back to league action, six Maccabi Tel Aviv players made sure to find time to do some good deeds. Avi Rikan, Eliran Atar, Eyal Golasa, Dor Micha, Yonatan Cohen and Omer Atzily arrived at the “Dana” Children’s Hospital and met with the children and their families before the Holiday.

Yonatan Cohen spoke about visiting the hospital:
“It’s great that we have the opportunity to bring joy and put a smile on the children’s faces. That’s the most important thing as it puts a lot of things into proportion. Any time that there’s an opportunity to do this, I’m happy to be involved.”

About this Saturday’s match against Maccabi Petah Tikva:
“Every match that we play isn’t easy and we always prepare properly as the staff makes sure that we are ready to go.”

The players met with many children throughout the corridors of the hospital and handed out Maccabi shirts, driedels and chocolate money. They also took pictures and spoke to the families giving them strength during their difficult times.

Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO Ben Mansford along with Yellow & Blue players Yuval Shpungin and Daniel Lifshitz took part in the annual Peres Center for Peace Mini Mondial as over 800 children, Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians from various parts of the country descended on the Municipal Stadium in Herzliya for a day of fun filled football action. The tournament is meant to be sign of peace, tolerance and the acceptance of the other and included appearances by Israel Premier League players, ambassadors and mayors from across the country.

This is the 15th year that the event is taking place and also included an exhibition game between the Premier League players, ambassadors and mayors who were part of the “Peace Team” against the Israeli and Palestinian children. The “Peach Team” included Yuval Shpungin, Daniel Lifshitz, Dia Saba, Maor Bozaglo, Yossi Benayoun, Omri Glazer, Raz Meir and Lee Falcon Israel National Team Women’s star.

Others who took part in the program included Peres Center for Peace Chairman Chemi Peres, Member of the Board of Directors Yoni Peres, Herzliya Mayor Moshe Fadlon, Master Chef star and Peres Center committee member Nof Ethamna Ismail as well as children’s star Tal Museri.

Yom HaShoa – Holocaust Remembrance Day will be marked this evening across the country and around the world. There are many heartbreaking, moving and inspiring stories that capture one of the horrific events that mankind has ever experienced in order to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust so that we will “Never Forget”. One of those stories belongs to “Saba” Dov Landau who survived the horrors of the Holocaust before arriving in Israel after World War II. In the new State of Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv created a feeling of hope, belonging and happiness as “Saba” Dov embarked on his new life.

“Saba” Dov was born in 1928 in the town of Brzesko, Poland just 50 kilometers east of Kraków and 25 km west of Tarnów. In September of 1939, the Nazis entered the town and burned down the synagogue which was opposite to his home in the middle of the town square. The whole village cried in horror and disbelief.

Living in the Ghetto of Brzesko up until the age of 13, “Saba” Dov was sent to the Bochnia Ghetto which was also a labor camp where he pressed straw for the German’s horses to eat. When the Ghetto was liquidated he moved with his father to another camp called Szebnie where he lived for another 3 months until the 4,000 people in the camp were taken to Aushwitz-Birkenau. Once in Aushwitz, the Nazis made a selection of who would be able to work and who would go to the crematorium.

After a month and a half, Dov together with his father went to work in the Jaslo-Rzeszow coal mines. However, after six months of hard labor his father fell ill, went to the hospital and was then sent to his death at the crematoriums in Aushwitz, never to return. On January 17, 1945 “Saba” Dov began the “Death March” as the allied troops approached the concentration camp.

After making it through the March, the Nazis moved the survivors to move to the Buchenwald camp where he took part in his second “Death March” on April 7, 1945. Just a few days later after surviving the “Death March” yet again, the American troops liberated Buchenwald where he remained for a number of months until moving to the land of Israel.

Once in Israel, “Saba” Dov was able to finish high school, attend Yeshiva and also was part of Hagana where he fought in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem. On May 15, 1948 when the State of Israel was declared, he was captured and sent to a Jordanian prison where he remained for 11 months until he was freed.

“Saba” Dov moved to Tel Aviv where he was married and began rebuilding his family, a family in which he lost his parents, grandparents, brothers and over 50 other family members. Today his flourishing family numbers over 80 people.

Maccabi Tel Aviv was an integral part of how “Saba” Dov integrated into Israeli society after the War of Independence. Through the club, he was able bond with many looking for a sense of belonging that was so important in those days, helping him become a part of the new Israeli society. The love for sport and football made life a bit better and a little more joyful after the Holocaust and the many horrors he had gone through. In fact, to this day, even at the age of 90, “Saba” Dov is an ardent supporter and fan of the Yellow & Blue as his love for Maccabi is unequivocal.

Last year, “Saba” Dov came full circle as he helped guide the Israeli youth of today when he returned to Poland and visited some of the sites of his childhood, along with the concentration camps and other locations across the country as he gave over stories from the life that he had experienced.