Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day is when the Jewish People around the world bow their heads to remember those who perished throughout Europe during the early 1940’s. The relationship between the Maccabi Association and Maccabi Tel Aviv is one that will be forever intertwined due to the colors of the club’s jersey.

Yossef Merimovitch Z”TL of Blessed Memory, is personally responsible for the deep ties Maccabi has with the Holocaust. In 1943, Merimovitch, who at the time was one of the stars in Israel, heard about the atrocities that were going on and could not remain indifferent. The striker, who had been scoring goals at a tremendous clip for the side that played in Blue-and-White understood that the Jews of Europe were forced to wear a Yellow Star in order to differentiate them from the others. He asked that the club add yellow to their uniform in order to stand in unity with their brothers and sisters who were being persecuted.

The request didn’t fall on deaf ears and from that day on, yellow has been part of Maccabi and the connection between the club and the Holocaust will always remain as one and the same. This year, Yom HaShoah falls on the exact date that Merimovitch passed away, just five years ago.

Merimovitch began his career as a footballer with Maccabi “Michael”, and immediately impressed the coaches giving him his first start in a Maccabi Tel Aviv kit.

Football was always an important part of the Merimovitch household as his older bother Menachem (Mendele) starred for Maccabi Tel Aviv as well. Menachem represented Israel many times across the ocean and eventually settled in Australia with two other National Team players. Mendele passed away while fighting in the Australian Army at the beginning of World War II.

While his brother was in Australia, Yossele became one of the stars of Israeli football. As a player, Merimovitch won six Championships and six State Cups, a record that still stands. Following his playing career, Merimovitch had plenty of success as a coach winning a title and a State Cup over three different terms with the club. He also led the Israel National Team on two occasions while taking home the Asian Cup once.

Omri Ben Harush, the Yellow-and-Blue left back is preparing for the upcoming Israel State Cup quarter final first leg match against Hapoel Kfar Saba that will take place tomorrow, Wednesday night away at Levita Stadium, 21:00. Ben Harush discussed the club’s defense, the team’s objectives, his own game and Sunday night’s Derby:

“What you see on the pitch is different than what we see. We know that sometimes players waste time and it’s part of the game. But the time is valuable. There was an issue with one of their players that had gone down on the pitch and we didn’t want to give them back the ball. We want to score and win.”

On his own style of play:

“When I have a chance to attack I can, especially when there is a player like winger Tal Ben Chaim who can help out on one on ones. He’s one of the best in the league.”

Talk that the defense is slow:

“We have one of the fastest defense’s in the league. Between me, Tibi and Eli, I don’t believe that we are slow. I’ll play as long as the coach let’s me.”

The league schedule:

“I don’t think that it bothers us. Sometimes we play before Beer Sheva and sometimes afterwards. We are concentrating on ourselves. Maybe this year we may have had less chances but as the coach said we have been facing teams that are trying to really defend against us and it makes it more difficult for us to get chances. We have been a dominant team and we have to take advantage of our opportunities.”

About  the Hapoel Kfar Saba match:

“We come into every game wanting to control the ball for large portions of the match. We move it from side to side with the objective of going forward towards the opposition’s goal.”

The Yellow-and-Blue winger has had many memorable matches while playing with Maccabi Tel Aviv and this past Saturday is just another one that will go down in his colorful career when he put on the ‘keeper’s shirt in the 82nd minute as Daniel Lifshitz was shown a red card and was sent off.

Ben Chaim’s name will be added to the record books as a player who replaced an ejected ‘keeper with the last one being Maccabi’s former captain Sheran Yeini.

And it happened twice for  him with the first time being during the 2010/11 season on Matchday 30 against Hapoel Beer Sheva at Bloomfield Stadium. With the visitors leading 1:0, the then Maccabi ‘keeper Liran Strauber committed a foul on Ibrahim Basit in the box, and was shown a red card by referee Eitan Tabrizi. Yeini was chosen to play ‘keeper and came close to saving David Revivo’s free kick. Yeini dove to the correct corner, got his fingers on the ball, but was unable to make the save.

Four years later, Yeini was thrust into the same situation when the Yellow-and-Blue hosted Maccabi Netanya last season and had to pull on the ‘keeper’s jersey once again. With Netanya leading 1-0 on a goal by Larry Kayode, Maccabi stormed back to score three unanswered goals and take a 3-1 lead.

In the 79th minute, Juan Pablo received a red card after touching the ball with his hand outside the box and again it was the captain who took matters into his own hands. Yeini donned the ‘keeper’s gloves and stood in goal for the final 11 minutes of the match. Netanya tried to pressure Yeini and his 88th minute save on Omer Tzalicher preserved the score.

“The truth is that Sheran Yeini actually plays pretty well in goal. Maybe we should think about him starting against Kiryat Shemona next week,” said coach Pako Ayestaran following the game. The captain added, “I’m already a veteran ‘keeper and this was my second game in goal for a league match. I’m a little disappointed with my work in goal so I’ll have to work in it during practice.”