The High Commissioner, General Sir Arthur Wauchope, many Government officials, and the Foreign Consuls in Palestine attended this afternoon the closing ceremony of the Jewish World Olympiad, the Maccabiade, held in the Tel Aviv Stadium, with over 25,000 people present.
Tremendous enthusiasm was evoked by a display given by the Maccabee teams from the various countries, including exhibitions of scoutcraft, gymnastics, cycling and motorcycling, and concluding with a procession of riders on horseback led by Mr. Abraham Shapiro, the “father” of Petach Tikvah, who has lived in Palestine for over fifty years and who concluded the peace pact between the colonists of Petach Tikvah and the Arab tribe of Abu Kishk after the 1921 raid on Petach Tikvah, which was not broken in the 1929 disturbances. (Mr. Shapiro was one of the witnesses heard by the Shaw Enquiry Commission after the 1929 disturbances).
At 5 o’clock a procession of 5,000 Maccabeans marched out from the stadium into the town, the teams from each country headed by their national flags, and wreaths were laid on the graves of Max Nordau, Achad Ha’am, and the Jews who fell victims in the 1929 massacres.
Then with Band playing and the processionists singing, the Maccabeans passed through the main streets of Tel Aviv, cheered by the entire population, which had turned out en masse centring around the Herzlia High School, from which the procession had marched out on its way to the Stadium for the opening of the Maccabiade, and where it now dispersed.
This ended the main events of the Maccabiade, but several contests in connection with the Maccabiade, but several contests in connection with the Maccabiade are still to be held in various places. The distribution of prizes, for instance, will take place in Haifa on April 5th.
The American team made a remarkable showing in to-day’s finals. Miss Koff won the women’s 100 metres race, the women’s triathalon, and both the long and high jumps. Pyman won the men’s 100 metres race; Flaxman won the 1,500 metres race, and Schneider won in the javelin-throwing, the shooting and the discus-throwing contests and in the men’s triathalon, all four being Americans.
The Austrian team won the 400 metres race, and the Polish team defeated England in the second round of the tennis tournament.
The cup presented by the High Commissioner for the relay race was won by the team of the Middlesex Regiment.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
