Glasgow Maccabi

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Glasgow Maccabi is a Scottish charity based in Glasgow (SC019965). Registered charity from 13 June 1967. (Also called Maccabi GB Scotland)[1] It is the contemporary iteration of a much longer existing grouping previously known as the Glasgow Maccabi Association (in 1951) and Glasgow Bar Kochba.[2] Maccabi is an avowedly Zionist organisation. The Maccabi World Union is affiliated with the World Zionist Organisation.[3] The Glasgow branch sent members to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians in 1948 via membership in the Haganah Zionist terror gang.

Participation in the Nakba

In 1949 the Glasgow branch stated: “it was a source of great jubilation amongst the ranks of Maccabi at the establishment of the State of Israel. Maccabi throughout the world had played its part in reinforcing the ranks of the Haganah during its time of need and Glasgow Maccabi feel proud that out of their ranks, eight men and two women are now proudly bearing the insignia of the Haganah. It was essential that Jewish youth who are contemplating emigrating to Israel should go out there no only equipped spiritually, but physically also. That is why it is so essential to have a strong and virile Maccabi branch in Glasgow.”[4]

Glasgow Maccabi is based at the Maccabi Centre, May Terrace, Giffnock, Glasgow G46 6LD.

History

THE Roman poet Juvenal's assertion "mens sana in corpore sano", the phrase "a healthy mind in a healthy body" would not have been far from the thoughts of the founders of Maccabi, the worldwide Jewish organisation which endeavours to improve the health and wellbeing of the community's youth through sport and social activities. Its beginnings in Glasgow were modest. There were sports organisations in the Glasgow Jewish community from the beginning of the 20th century, such as the Glasgow Zionist Cycling and Athletic Club, Oxford Star football team, the Jewish Athletic Club, and the Jewish Tennis Club. In the 1920s keep-fit enthusiasts in the Jewish community set up a very basic gymnasium in an empty tailoring factory, originally as the Bar Kochba club, before moving to the basement of the Talmud Torah religious school in Turriff Street on the outskirts of Gorbals, and eventually becoming part of the Maccabi movement.
Looking back to those early days, the project Gathering the Voices, which interviewed refugees from the Holocaust in Scotland, spoke to George Taylor, formerly Georg Naratzki, who arrived in Glasgow via the Kindertransport, who recalled: "I joined the Maccabi. I was in the Maccabi in Germany in Konigsberg because I enjoyed my sports in the schools, so I went to Turriff Street. I've still got the original badge and photographs. It was just a wooden hut. But I had a great time. I used to go there about two or three times a week and we had a gym team and we used to give displays.
"Ellis was the instructor. He had been an instructor in the army and when he came out he took the class. He was a very fit powerful guy, but he went to the dancing in the Plaza and just died. Unbelievable, he was so fit." But with the building deteriorating, and the community moving southwards, Maccabi needed new premises, and the Community Trust, now with the empty Tudor Cinema on its hands, offered it to Maccabi as a temporary home.
But the Trust went further than that. As mentioned earlier, with the Giffnock shul seeking new premises away from the now cramped May Terrace, the Trust's elegant plan was to buy the May Terrace synagogue for £30,000 - its value as an empty building in need of repair was less than half that - to give the synagogue's funds a significant start for the money required to build elsewhere. It no doubt gave the Trust members quite a start when the community's newspaper, the Jewish Echo, reacted badly to the suggestion, putting the ominous heading "Takeover bid for synagogue" on its story, and using journalistic licence to claim that there were "gasps of surprise" when the suggestion was put to synagogue members. It was the first of a small number of antagonistic stories in the Echo about the Trust's motives over the years. What was not widely known was the Trust rose above such petty hostilities and quietly helped fund the Echo when its finances were in dire straits.
Gasps of surprise or not, the shul members thought it was an excellent offer, and quickly accepted it. The Trust's suggestion was the catalyst that helped the shul move to new premises. There was no suggestion that the shul had to vacate its building before a new synagogue was built, so Maccabi was told it could use the now vacant Tudor in the meantime. There were soon mutterings though that the raucous behaviour of Maccabi youngsters was already leading to a deterioration of the Tudor building. One Trustee blamed it on a "lack of adult supervision". Those complaining never saw it as their role to provide such supervision. The bills for maintaining the building were beginning to mount. The Trust prudently spent £135 to paint the outside of the eyecatching edifice so that passers-by would no longer be commenting unfavourably on its appearance.
Although Britain was now in what the media colloquially called "The Swinging Sixties" some parents wished it would swing far less in Giffnock. One mother wrote to the Jewish Echo expressing her I "surprise and disappointment" that Maccabi was running afternoon ⁠dances at The Tudor to which 13-year-old girls were invited. As she testily wrote: "In an age where we are surrounded by the vulgarities of sex on television and in the cinema, it surely behoves a youth organisation like Maccabi to lead boys and girls into more wholesome recreation."
The Community Trust then provided temporary accommodation, costing £3500, beside May Terrace for Maccabi which allowed it to sell the burdensome Tudor while taking over the former synagogue's site. The Trust would own the building but give it to Maccabi rent free provided they kept it "clean and tidy" as the Trust's minutes put it. Ambitious plans were produced for the redevelopment of the now empty shul at May Terrace for youth activities, estimated at £150,000, which would include a gymnasium, meeting rooms, cafeteria, football pitches, tennis courts, a running track, and even a cricket square. The Community Trust generously offered £50,000 towards the cost.
The original scheme was in fact scaled back as Maccabi leaders agreed they had been over ambitious, but nevertheless the move to May Terrace was a success with Maccabi membership increasing from 220 to 350. The premises were in use every night, including by the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade, Girl Guides and Brownies. Trust members were also satisfied that Friends of Maccabi, which had also been set up, was successfully fundraising and the Trust was not the only source of financial support.
Little stands still, and Maccabi returned with a five-year plan to further develop May Terrace with a new building, better car parking, a new gymnasium and a house, costing in total §360,000, and seeking major backing from the Trust. By 1990 the Trust had given £140,000 to Maccabi but there was general satisfaction that it was money well spent, although debates continued on the cost of redeveloping the site, as well as managing the complexities of other organisations moving there. Since then, of course there has been the arrival of Jewish Care and other welfare organisations as well as new sports halls for Maccabi which has benefitted from the rental income from the clubs and organisations using its premises. There is no doubt that the success of Maccabi in Giffnock helped persuade the organisers of the European Maccabi Games that Scotland would be a suitable location for the event held every four years, and in 1999 the games were successfully held in Stirling.
Meanwhile in Giffnock, Maccabi continues to help not just the Jewish community but Giffnock as a whole, with the function suite available for hire for dances and parties, as well as classes in ballroom dancing, judo, krav maga, zumba, yoga and table tennis taking place - all possible with the continued help of the Community Trust.[5]

Connections to the Cousinhood of Scottish Zionism

The Sellyn family and Maccabi

Several family members were active in Glasgow Maccabi, the Zionist sporting body. Jonathan Sellyn won “Man of the Match” in the British victory at the 1976 European Maccabi Nations Cup, while a young Georgina Sellyn won both silver and gold medals in tennis at the 2007 Maccabiah Games in Rome. Lawrence and Felicia Sellyn officiated at Glasgow Maccabi’s 2015 prizegiving ceremony.[6]

The Sragowitz/Sragow/Strang family connections

People

Timeline

Finances

Finances of Glasgow Maccabi from the OSCR website.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/charity-details?number=SC019965
  2. ↑ https://theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSE00623&t=2
  3. ↑ https://www.maccabi.org/
  4. ↑ Jewish Echo 25 February 1949.
  5. ↑ Ken Smith, More then a helping hand: The history of the Glasgow Jewish Community Trust, Glasgow: Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. 2024. 68-72
  6. ↑ https://www.mintpressnews.com/cousinhood-zionism-scotland/290025/
  7. ↑ https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/07/19/751459/neighors-inside-tight-knit-caledonian-cousinhood-scottish-zionism
  8. ↑ Jewish Year Book, 1989, p. 137.
  9. ↑ Jewish Year Book, 1983, p. 125.
  10. ↑ Zionist Year book, 1952-1953, p. 95.
  11. ↑ Zionist Year book, 1951-1952, p. 95.
  12. ↑ Jewish Chronicle 10 March 1950, p. 17.
  13. ↑ Jewish Echo 25 February 1949.
  14. ↑ The Jewish Year book, 1947, p.95.
  15. ↑ JE, 10 February 1939.
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