Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club continue their partnership with the association "Educating for Excellence", established for the purpose of promoting equal opportunity in education with a view to narrowing the enormous social and economic gaps that exist within Israeli society.The latest expression of this ongoing partnership took place today when the club's Under-11 Team South, under stewardship of coaches Idan Kazinic and Kfir Alfonte, hosted children from the association's Kiryat Shalom branch. The children held a joint practice that included physical exercises and a practise game with children from both groups mixed in the opposing teams.

"Educating for Excellence" have set their sights on providing all of the participating children with tools for academic success while imparting to them knowledge about the world in various fields and contributing to their social integration. These objectives are pursued with the children by transforming education into a value and knowledge into an endeavour.

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-13 "Bar Mitzvah" team, under the stewardship of coaches Ory David and Kobi Ozer, invited their Under-13 counterparts from Hapoel Youth Taibe, an Israeli Arab town near Kfar Saba, to play a friendly match at the Kiryat Shalom training ground. Apart from its athletic dimension, the purpose of the game was to send a clear message of mutual understanding and tolerance between the two diverse Israeli communities in which the youngsters and their trainers live. The match, which Maccabi won 4-1, was preceded by a small ceremony at which the Director of Football at the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division, Nir Levin, spoke a few short words about the importance of bringing the two communities together in an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual understanding, with a view to ongoing co-operation between them in the areas of education and community relations. 

In a show of solidarity, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa and team captain Sheran Yeini visited residents of the hostel of AKIM, the Israeli Association for the Habilitation of Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities, who were the target of a shooting attack this week. Sousa: "Discrimination is absolutely unacceptable"

Even with such a momentous European match looming just over the horizon, Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club continue to take their local community commitments with the utmost seriousness. In addition to ongoing partnerships with a number of community orientated organisations and regular visits to hospitals and other community welfare centres, the club took the initiative to demonstrate their solidarity with AKIM, the Israeli Association for the Habilitation of Children and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities, whose Tel Aviv hostel was the target of a shooting attack this week and whose residents have been subjected to harassment since the hostel was opened several days ago. Head coach Paulo Sousa and team captain Sheran Yeini paid a call on the hostel today and offered their support and encouragement to the residents, who clearly indicated that the visit was very much appreciated.

Sousa and Yeini spoke at length with the residents of the AKIM hostel, handed out Maccabi articles as gifts of the club and succeeded in bringing the smiles back to the residents' faces. After the visit, Paulo Sousa had this to say to the official club website: "Discrimination is one of the world's great afflictions today. When I heard about the shooting incident from people at the club this morning I was shocked. We came here today to show our support for these people and to spread the message that discrimination is an absolutely unacceptable phenomenon that must be eradicated at the root. I met here wonderful people full of joie de vivre, love and respect for their fellows. If you expect to receive respect you must also respect others. I'm happy we had the opportunity to brighten up their lives a bit after what they've been through in the past few days".

Team skipper Sheran Yeini invited the residents to attend Maccabi's Sunday evening match against Hapoel Haifa at Netanya Stadium and summed up the visit: "There must be no place for discrimination in our society. We felt a need to give these remarkable people an encouraging hug and bring them a bit of joy. We're very happy we succeeded in doing at least that".

AKIM is a national organisation founded by the parents of intellectually disabled children who decided to take control of their children’s lives and promote their quality of life. AKIM believe that every individual, including those with an intellectual disability, deserves to have a rich, fulfilling life, and access to education, housing, employment and leisure activities. AKIM work toward the empowerment and self-advocacy of intellectually disabled children and adults and their integration as equals into broader community life. 

The Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club yesterday marked International Holocaust Rememberance Day with a visit to Holocaust survivor Avraham Avraham

Today the entire world will mark International Holocaust Rememberance Day, and Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club too will participate in this annual event by paying their traditional visit to Holocaust survivor Avraham Avraham. The club have maintained ties with Avraham, who captured the hearts of the entire Maccabi family after team members helped him with renovations in his flat two years ago. Since then those ties have gone from strength to strength. For this year's visit, the club decided upon an unusual representation – goalkeepers only. They included Juan Pablo and Under-21 international Barak Levi from the senior squad, Maccabi and international Under-19 Matan Amber and Maccabi and international Under-17 Haviv Ohayon. Also joining in were Chen Abdo, educational advisor at the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division, as well as representatives of Maccabi Tel Aviv's community orientated fan organisation "Achim Lesemel", who are always on hand to assist needy members of the club's wider community.

"No story could possibly recreate what actually happened at the time", Avraham tells us of his youth in Romania under Nazi rule. Avraham played football as left winger for Maccabi Bucharest, came to Palestine before the end of the Second World War and fought in the ranks of the Jewish resistance movements Beitar and Etzel in what was then a British mandate. After the establishment of the State of Israel Avraham was awarded a medal of heroism for his efforts and returned to play football for Maccabi Holon and even had a spell there as coach. The Maccabi players were visibly moved by the entire visit and even Juan Pablo, who cuts such an impregnable figure on the pitch, was clearly touched by Avraham's story: "This is like re-living a piece of history".

Now in his nineties, Avraham remains a positive, jovial fellow and an avid Maccabi Tel Aviv fan from the time he arrived in the country. He never misses a Maccabi match on the television and now will be able to do so while wearing the official matchday jersey he received from Juan Pablo. In return, Avraham was prepared to share with the Spaniard his first impressions of the club's new number 1 keeper: "So far I like what I see, when I see you on the telly I look into your eyes and I can see how focused you are". When the visit was over Avraham thanked the players for their presence, and for their support throughout the year. And in closing he made this pledge: "When I go to the pensioners' club tomorrow, I'll be sure to wear my new Maccabi shirt".  

This afternoon 180 children from "The Equaliser" project were the guests of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club to participate in a special tournament at the Kiryat Shalom training ground

This afternoon a very special tournament was held at Maccabi Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shalom training ground as part of "The Equaliser", a project of the Israeli Sports Education Initiative. The main goal of the project is to provide children from the country's social periphery with a social, educational and athletic framework that combines football training and educational studies throughout the school year. The project is geared to children aged 10 to 12, who get together in groups of 15 for four meetings a week, two of which are dedicated to educational matters and two to football practices. The project run 72 such groups throughout the country.

The special tournament was held at Kiryat Shalom's new East pitch and was attending by all 180 children who participate in the project in the country's central region. The tournament offered the children the opportunity to spend some three hours playing football and testing their skills on Maccabi's Kiryat Shalom training pitch. In addition to the activity on the pitch, there was plenty for the children to do off the pitch as well, with Maccabi mascot Maccabino receiving considerable attention and playing his role in enlivening the entire tournament atmosphere. Representatives of Maccabi Tel Aviv's community orientated fan organisation "Achim Lesemel" were also in attendance, donating as always their time and efforts to the club's community endeavours. Their contribution this afternoon was taking charge of booths where the children could get their faces painted, either with make-up or with the delicious candy floss that the volunteers were handing out to all takers.   

In the first visit of its kind, the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad paid a special visit today to the Israeli Air Force base at Hatzor. Defender Carlos Garcia: "An absolutely amazing experience"

As part of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club's ongoing and wide-ranging involvement in community activity, the entire squad and playing staff today paid a visit to a rather unconventional venue: Squadron 101, Israel's leading fighter jet group, at their home near the "Hatzor" Air Force base. For the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad, who left for the "Hatzor" base directly after their morning practice, this was the first visit of its kind to the Israeli Air Force, and both players and staff were clearly keen to take advantage of this unique opportunity to get a closer look at the activity at an Israeli air force base. The team were accompanied and guided by squadron 101's lieutenant commander, a dyed-in-the-wool fan who has been the proud owner of a Maccabi Tel Aviv season ticket for the past fifteen years.

The first stop on the team's tour was a close look (and listen) at the fighter planes themselves. Afterwards they attended a lecture about the squadron and its history given by the squadron's lieutenant commander, who drew parallels between the physical preparedness of football players and fighter jet pilots. But for the players, the highlight of the visit was entering the flight simulator, which gave them a feel for what the pilots themselves experience when they're up in the air. Most of the players also had the opportunity to actually get into the cockpit of one of the planes but finished their tour as observers, of a fighter jet on the tarmac preparing for take-off.

At the end of the tour, members of the squadron presented Maccabi Tel Aviv owner representative Jack Angelides and sports director Jordi Cruyff with a shield of appreciation and in return, the two presented the squadron members with a framed team jersey signed by all the players. Mr Cruyff also spoke after the visit about the team's reaction to their tour: "This was a very nice experience for everyone, the staff and the Israeli and foreign players alike. We would like to express our heart-felt appreciation to the 'Hatzor' Air Force base for the warm reception and the fascinating tour of the base". Team defender Carlos Garcia added his own reactions to the visit: "This tour at the air force base was absolutely amazing for all the players, especially for the foreign players, to see and hear about what is done here for the country's security in defending the skies above it. In the name of all the players I would like to thank the Air Force for their gracious hospitality and from me personally for the opportunity to experience the flight simulator up close. But truthfully, I prefer to make my contribution to defence on the pitch in front of goal. The flying I'll leave to the real professionals". 

Today children from the "Educating for Excellence" programme joined children of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division at a joint practice at the Kiryat Shalom training ground

As part of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club's ongoing involvement in community affairs, children from the "Educating for Excellence" programme were today invited to join children of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division at a joint practice at the Kiryat Shalom training ground. "Educating for Excellence" is an organisation established for the purpose of promoting equal opportunity in education, with a view to narrowing the enormous social and economic gaps that exist within Israeli society. The project was initiated in the realisation that gifted children living in Israel’s disadvantaged neighbourhoods, who achieve so well in their first years at primary school, must at the same time cope with considerable economic, social and family-related difficulties. As a result they often do not have access to the kind of support and enrichment that would enable them to realise their potential.

Participating in today's joint practice with children of the "Educating for Excellence" programme were the children of the Youth Division's Under-10 Team South. The participating children of the "Educating for Excellence" programme are all residents of Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shalom neighbourhood, located directly across from Maccabi Tel Aviv's Kiryat Shalom training ground to which it lent its name. The children began with a joint warm-up, after which they broke up into mixed groups to play practice games at the training ground's synthetic pitch. For the children of "Educating for Excellence", this was their first opportunity to attend a football practice of this kind, led by the head coach of Maccabi's Under-10 Team South, Asaf Profeta.

In the course of this season, the "Educating for Excellence" children will be participating in a further five practice sessions together with the children of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Youth Division. In March and April fellow participants will also be the club's Under-10 Team South but in March they'll train with the Under-11 Team South as well. In May there will be two joint practices with the club's Under-12 Team South.

In addition to practices, children of the "Educating for Excellence" programme are participating in a variety of special events held at the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Division, such as the candle-lighting ceremony that was held during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah last December and in various lectures that are held at the Youth Division centre. They will also participate in the special Bar Mitzvah ceremony and trip held for the Division's children reaching their thirteenth birthday, the traditional age for Jewish children to celebrate this festive event.   

As part of a great club tradition, Maccabi Tel Aviv players paid a visit this afternoon to the Beit Levinstein Rehabilitation Centre in Ra'anana. Dan Einbinder: "This is a great privilege for us"

Maccabi Tel Aviv have made it an annual club tradition to visit the Beit Levinstein Rehabilitation Centre in Ra'anana, and today four of Maccabi Tel Aviv's leading stars – Eytan Tibi, Reef Peretz, Carlos Garcia and Dan Einbinder – spent time with the centre's patients and handed out club gifts to each and every one of them. Beit Levinstein is Israel's largest rehabilitation centre, where sufferers from a wide variety of injuries undergo a comprehensive recovery procedure. The four Maccabi players visited a number of wards, among others the children's ward, devoting their full attention to all the patients they met and acceding to all requests to have their photographs taken with them. One of those young patients was Asraf Ben Haim, a passionate Maccabi Tel Aviv fan, who proudly awaited his visitors dressed in his Maccabi matchday jersey.

Team defender Eytan Tibi, participating in his second consecutive visit to the centre for the club, described his feelings about meeting with the patients: "Every time I visit an institution like this I find it a very moving experience, even though it's sometimes difficult to see people in this kind of situation. I can only hope that we succeeded in bringing them a bit of cheer and joy to their hearts and that it will help them get better that much faster". Dan Einbinder was also keen to express his feelings at the end of the visit: "My feelings are a bit mixed because on the one hand it's hard sometimes to see people who are in real pain and suffering. On the other hand you feel satisfaction at having helped to give them a bit of strength and endurance. And in every respect this was a great privilege for all of us".

Listen to the players' full reactions in this short video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTu6yotTndY&feature=c4-overview&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg

Maccabi Tel Aviv players yesterday visited the Beit Levinstein Rehabilitation Centre in Ra'anana

As part of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club's ongoing involvement with the wider community, two of the club's star defenders, Yoav Ziv and Reef Peretz, today paid a visit to the children on ward "gimmel" at the Schneider Children's Medical Centre in Petah Tikva, a hospital dedicated exclusively to the well-being of children and adolescents. Among the children was Shalev Dabbush, who has undergone the transplant of a kidney donated by his father, a devoted fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

At the "gimmel" ward at the Schneider Children's Medical Centre are, among others, children who are waiting for organ transplants or who have already undergone an organ transplant. And it is those children in particular who frequently face long hospital stays in the months following the operation. The staff at ward "gimmel" bear full responsibility for the care of these children, not only where it concerns medical and hospital care issues but also where the emotional needs of the young patients are involved.