Voice of Jewish Sport
THE LAST thing Yossi Benayoun thought he was signing up for was a relegation battle, but that’s what he’s found himself engulfed in during his latest spell at Maccabi Haifa. Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Maccabi Petah Tikva was their 11th of the season and leaves them five points outside of the relegation zone. Taking the blame for their predicament, though sharing it with his teammates, the former Israeli captain said: “We are mixed up in the battle against relegation and the sooner we understand that the better. We’re not good enough, you can’t blame the coaches for the way we are playing. The players are the ones to blame.” Owner Jacob Shachar was fuming after the match, and revealed how he had let his players know in no uncertain terms exactly how he felt. He told them: “This is disgusting, I’m ashamed. I haven’t seen anything like this in my 23 years at the club. We have 18,000 season-ticket holders, a new stadium, and only the team is weak.”
THEY SAY sport and politics shouldn’t mix, but there will be one exception to the rule when a team from the Israeli Knesset and German Bundestag play a friendly footbal match in April. The Israeli Parliament team do in fact have a team, albeit one which only plays once a year, that sole game against the Israeli media team always ending in defeat. Yitzhak Hanegbi has kept goal for the team for the past 27 years, though isn’t exactly full of confidence, saying: “The problem with the Knesset team is that the members collapse during the warm-up, I’ll settle for a 1-0 score in favour of the Germans.”
VETERAN SWIMMER Susan Halter continues to make a splash in the pool, her latest two wins coming at the South East Masters and Senior Age Group Long Course competition at K2 Crawley. However, time waits for no one and at the grand old age of 87, she says: “Perhaps I should give up galas and just have a swim for pleasure in the local pool.” A winner of hundreds of medals, the day she makes her last competitive jump into the pool will be a sad one.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
