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Hakoah: The Team that Defied the Nazis

July 18 at 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Excluded from other clubs for being Jewish, a sports-obsessed dentist from Vienna founds a soccer team in 1909. He calls it Hakoah, after the Hebrew word for strength. In the face of rising anti-Semitism and hostility from the Jewish establishment of Vienna, the dentist forges a team out of disparate parts: an observant Jew who refuses to play on the sabbath; a sculptor turned keeper who considers goaltending another form of art; an idealist who wants to defy stereotypes of Jewish weakness; and a winger who fancies himself a star of the musical theater. Forced to play in flood zones and next to dung heaps, Hakoah contends with baying crowds, crooked referees, and outright violence on and off the pitch to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

In 1923, Hakoah defeats West Ham United in London. It is the first time an English team has ever lost a match to a foreign opponent on home soil. Hakoah goes on to win the Austrian league, tour the world, and play before 46,000 fans at the Polo Grounds in New York. But when the Nazis descend on Vienna in 1938, the team has to confront the Holocaust. What follows is a remarkable, and largely untold, story of survival.

Join scholar Dr. Michael Lower for an in-person presentation on the legendary team that defied hate to dominate the game. Dr. Lower is an award-winning Morse Alumni Distinguished University Teaching Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. Michael is currently completing a history of Hakoah Vienna.

Refreshments will be served. Thank you to our Community Partner: JCC Maccabi.

$10.00, or free with Membership

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