-The Messengers of the Maccabiah in Wheels
Jacob Shmuel
132-136 AD, the three years in which Bar-Cochva ruled Yehuda country, were the last independence period of the people of Israel it its country until the founding of the state of Israel.
In a Friday evening, during dinner, my cell phone is ringing with its bells sound. On the other side of the line, patiently waits my partner for world traveling, Doron, to the sound of the song “Sea of the Sheaves”. “Doron, what brought you to me in a Friday evening…” he answers my question in an authoritative voice: “skilled motorbike drivers are required to cross the Balkan for a documentary film on the Maccabiah. Come to Kfar Hamaccabiah tomorrow morning. Details, when? How? Nothing… come!”
Sounds of bikes engines and riders are mixed with their stories on the horizon. Motorbikes stand in the Maccabiah yard, photographers, and personal interviews. After collecting some information from the production crew, I begin to build a puzzle about the goal, and the answers start coming, though partially. But the project’s purpose, administration, exit dates, are far from being formed into one coherent idea. After exploring, I had some general lines, but the more I dug deeper into the production and the riders, some of fog cleared out, and here I present the project, several weeks prior to its execution:
Introduction:
In 1911, the idea to have Jewish Olympic Games was voiced by Fritz Abraham in the journal “The Association of Jewish Athletes”. The main promoter of the idea was Yosef Yakutieli, one of the prominent leaders of “Maccabi Israel”. His proposal was to have the first Maccabiah in 1932, to mark 1800 years to the Bar-Cochva uprising.
The main idea of Yosef Yakutiel was to send a group of bikers, members of Maccabi Israel in European countries, to recruit Jewish athletes from all sport fields. The journey was named “Tel-Aviv – Antwerp”. The group included eight bikers; the exit date was June 5th, 1930 in 16:00. The bikers group passed through Turley (Kushta), Romania, Poland, Germany and Belgium. According to all the documents and my preparation research on the subject, I concluded that it was a successful journey, in the cities and countries the bikers passed through, mayors welcomed them with warn words and wishes for the idea of the Maccabiah. There aren’t many materials on the first journey (indeed, there was a second journey in which I will discuss later). This journey was a development of an idea that gave birth both to the first and second journey, as well as to the opening of the Olympic Games of the First Jewish Maccabiah in 28.03.32.
While Yakutiel organized the bikers’ journey to Antwerp, he already thought about the second journey: “Tel-Aviv – London”, and in light of the group’s success, he started working on his second plan and on its execution. The group included 7 bikers: Zulu and Matityahu Bromberg, Shalom Bredeshski, Efriem Tenenbaum, Yosef Hacohen, Yoel Simkin, Mordechai Shapira and Ezra Ichilov who joined the journey as a companion to one of the bikers. The car riders were Eliyahu soislotzki, Avshalom Carmeli, Zeev Markus, Mendi Segel and Yosef Yakutieli.
On 23.05.1931 the group left Tel Aviv and rode towards Jerusalem, they crossed the dessert to Cairo in Egypt, crossed the sea to Piraeus, Athens, Salonika, Bulgari, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Paris and London. Nine countries – 9375 kilometers – 10 Jewish communities, and I’m left with the thought that merely few years later, the genocide of the Jewish people with change the core of our being and create a new ground that carries the pain and suffering for many generations, with a scar that will never heal in the history of the Jewish people.
The Idea:
A private London-based production company recreated the bikers’ journeys through one journey that will pass through Balkan countries, Europe countries with the finishing point being in Berlin, Germany, for the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah in the stadium that was provided by propaganda minister Josef Gables, during the Olympic Games of 1936. The chosen bikers will pass through the birth countries of their family and important mark points in the Jewish history, and so we could complete a circle in a journey that was as a magnet for the new Jew from the land of Yehuda.
Point of View:
During the preparation work I conducted on the bikers’ journeys in the Balkan countries and Europe, I came across few photos and several notebooks telling about the birth of the Maccabiah idea. In one of the notebooks I discovered a hidden treasure, a detailed diary about the journey from Tel Aviv to Berlin in 1931. I consumed every word, letter and paragraph. The diary describes the hardships of the road, the experiences they went through, the difficulty of riding, the love of the Jewish communities they encountered when they arrived, and the spirit of faith and love for the country. During the journey and after it, I will publish section from the diary and try to recreate the journey from the perspective of our time, as much as I can.
This journey is an inseparable continuation of a journey I conducted to Greek communities in 2011. For two months, I passed through most of the Jewish communities in Greece, documented synagogues, some of them are not active anymore, cemeteries and the Jewish spirit that is still existed in the few Jews still living in Greece. I photographed and even wrote in my journey diary the flurry of emotions among the communities before the war; what’s left is a pale shadow of strong communities that kept their faith and religions for hundreds of years. And what we are left with? Only memories and stories, voices of the Ladino language we heard at home, tasty Balkan dishes, lovely tunes and melodies, books of sages and Rabbis who brought down their books to the level of the simple people so every man will be whole. They gave simple wisdom of humility, love of human beings and dignity. Therefore, we are committed to keep remembering and knowing the way of life of each community in exile for the next generations, our children and grandchildren, and this way we will keep the memory candle burning forever.
I see this movie as a brave and right effort to present another perspective of people throughout Jewish history, who had great ideas during years which lacked comfort and abundance. By raising awareness to pieces of history though this impressive creation, the film project, I believe it will make path for new projects and ways to connects all Jewish history parts to a sequence of fascinating events that will be exposed to a wide audiences in Israel and around the world, and will provide some points to think about and cherish, and will lead to an admiration of a Zionist project that followed a history filled with pain and suffering of the Jewish people.
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Administrative information and full discloser
- My grandmother and grandfather are from Salonika, Greece. In March 15th, 1943, the first shipment with 2,800 Jews exited the city. The 19th and last shipment exited Salonika in August 10th, 1943 and arrived to Auschwitz in August 18th, 1943. A total of 46,061 Jews were exiled from Salonika. About 2,500 Jews survived, among them were grandmother and grandfather, during the release of the extermination camp Auschwitz
- I will try as much as I can to communicate in real time parts from the diary journey and photos, feelings and emotions emerging during the journey, videos from various countries along the way and important landmarks
- Publishing the original journey diary of “Tel-Aviv – London” from 1931, and the from journey diary in Greece, while meeting Jewish communities there
- The “Back to Berlin” group includes the following bikers: Gal Marom, Doron Kadmiel,Dani Maron, Gili Shem-Tov, Yaron Munch, Eilan Katz, Kobi Shmuel. Hila Fenlon. The car riders: Doron Golan and Yuri Retomski
Jacob Shmuel
![unnamed (15)](https://artkobi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/unnamed-15.jpg?w=300)
![מסע האופנועים תל-אביב לונדון במדבר סיני בדרך במסע לקידום רעיון המכביה הראשונה ארכיון מכבי ע](https://artkobi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/unnamed-7.jpg?w=300)
מסע האופנועים תל-אביב לונדון במדבר סיני בדרך
במסע לקידום רעיון המכביה הראשונה
ארכיון מכבי ע”ש יוסף יקותיאלי
![רוכבי האופנועים בקהיר במסע לקידום רעיון המכביה הראשונה ארכיון מכבי ע](https://artkobi.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/unnamed-8.jpg?w=300)
רוכבי האופנועים בקהיר במסע לקידום רעיון המכביה הראשונה
ארכיון מכבי ע”ש יוסף יקותיאלי
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