[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval.–Editor.]
The victory of the Hakoah, Vienm Jewish soccer team, over New York’s all-star eleven, is greeted by the Jewish press as a gain in prestige for the Jewish people.
The "Forward," Jewish Socialist daily of New York, takes occasion to stress that the feeling of joy manifested by the Jews, even by the non-Zionist Jews, is not to be attributed to a spirit of chauvinism. "There is an impression extant," the paper says "that the Jews are weaklings and cowards, especially in the physical sense. Of recent years there have been numerous proofs to the contrary. But we are a minority everywhere, nevertheless, and are regarded as stepchildren. These Hakoah players have shown that they are splendid athletes, strong and fleet and brave. And they have demonstrated their prowess in a field where the English-speaking race has from time immemorial distinguished itself."
The organization of a vigorous American Hakoah club is urged by Jacob Fishman in the "Jewish Morning Journal." This, the writer explains, would be in line with the present tendency in American Jewry which has led to the creation of a Jewish Actors Guild, a separate organization of Jewish policemen, Hashomer, and Jewish students organizations in the colleges.
Mr. Fishman finds special satisfaction in the demonstration of the Hakoah players because, he declares, their splendid team work has proven that the Jews are not incapable, as has been charged, of harmonious co-work and united effort. The method of the Hakoah, it is advocated, can and should be applied to all other phases of Jewish activity.
In a feuilleton in the "Day" Z. H. Rubinstein remarks facetiously that the Jews in the diaspora have hitherto been known for good "foot-work" in escaping from persecution but they have now demonstrated their skill at another kind of "foot-work." Our national honor, he says, will now be defended "not by feet that escape, but by the feet that kick."
The New York "World" makes the following comment on the Hakoah:
"The spectacular soccer victory of a Jewish-Austrian team over New York’s all-star eleven on Sunday is greeted as an augury of the day when international matches of association football may draw crowds here as huge as at Wembley, Buenos Ayres or Berlin. That day may never come; America seems firmly attached to its own development of the Rugby game. But the match is at least a reminder that in sport it is not the crack of the baseball bat that is heard round the world but the ####ud of the soccer-player’s boot."
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
