November 8, 1936
Playing the final match of an 11-game American tour, Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club loses 4-1 to an American all-star team at Yankee Stadium in front of 20,000 spectators.
The team arrived in the United States on September 14 for a tour arranged by the Federation of Polish Jews in America as a fundraiser for the relief of Polish Jewry. Maccabi Tel Aviv shared in the proceeds to promote sports in the Yishuv. New York’s Fiorello LaGuardia was the honorary chairman of the tour.
Beginning in the fall of 1935, a series of anti-Jewish riots broke out in Poland. As they continued into the spring of 1936, their intensity increased. The Federation of Polish Jews in America organized a relief committee In January 1936 and announced a fundraising goal of $1 million. According to the American Jewish Year Book, the committee announces in March 1937 that it has sent $60,000 to Poland.
In addition to Yankee Stadium, Maccabi Tel Aviv played in front of large crowds at Braves Field in Boston, Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and Wrigley Field in Chicago. The tour also included St. Louis.
One observer impressed by the crowds was legendary reporter Damon Runyon. Writing for the Universal News Service in October 1936, Runyon said: “The attendance figures on the tour of the Maccabees, celebrated Palestine soccer champions, are enlightening us.
“Furthermore, they disclose to us our amazing lack of knowledge of sport in other lands, and of sporting interest in our own land. Soccer, we discover, is a mighty big game in this country; the Maccabees expect to wind up their tour at Yankee Stadium … with a record of at least 300,000 in attendance at the big games they have played.”
Runyon’s attendance figure is probably exaggerated, but the team did play in front of 30,000 people in its first Yankee Stadium game and 25,000 at Ebbets Field. Runyon also probably was misguided in regard to the interest of these American crowds. He did not understand that most who attended the games were American Jews interested in Polish Jewish relief and the Jewish national home in Palestine rather more than soccer.
