Hakoah Players Criticized in Vienna for Abandoning Famous All-jewish Team

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The announcement that a few of the Hakoah soccer players have joined American teams has called forth dissatisfaction in Viennese Jewish circles which took great pride in the successful tour of the Hakoah in the United States.

It now appears that on the day before the departure of the team from the United States a number of the Hakoah players entered into an engagement with the Brooklyn Wanderers and the New York Giants. These engagements were concluded without the knowledge or consent of the Club and its president, Dr. I. H. Koerner and when the first news reached Vienna, Dr. Koerner categorically denied its truth as he could not believe that any of the Hakoah players would join another team without informing his own club, an act contrary to all rules of sportsmanship.

Doubt is expressed here that, under these circumstances, the Hakoah will be in a position to return to the United States as was originally planned. Regret was expressed here that the all-Jewish team should have been weakened by the action of some of the players and that the prestige built up by years of arduous work on the part of the Club and Dr. Koerner who founded and directed the Club should have been jeapardized. It was stated that Dr. Koerner, whose devoted work was responsible for the success of the club, is greatly affected by this action.

The belief was expressed here that the American Jewish public will hardly display the same enthusiasm for the individual Hakoah players on the American teams that it did in the success of an all-Jewish team, demonstrating the Jew’s ability for team work and his achievements in the field of sport. American and British teams have always had Jewish individual members who excelled in the sport.

The late Sir Stuart Montagu Samuel, Bart., who died recently in London, left unsettled property of the gross value of £98,582, with net personality £76,009. He stated that as he had contributed liberally to charities in his life-time he made no bequests for charitable purposes, except for £1,000. which he left on the death of his wife to the Home and Hospital for Jewish Incurables for the completion of the synagogue of the Home.

Independent shops signed an agreement with the striking capmakers yesterday, it was announced by the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers’ International Union, whose 3,000 members went on strike on Tuesday.

The new agreement between the union and the Wholesale Hat and Cap Manufacturers is valid for three years. Six hundred workers will return to work as a result of the agreement.