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Makkabi Berlin, soccer club founded by Holocaust survivors, is about to make Jewish history in Germany
(JTA) — When Makkabi Berlin takes the field on Sunday, the German soccer club founded by Holocaust survivors will make history.
Makkabi will be the first Jewish club to compete in the German Cup, an annual season-long tournament featuring 64 of the country’s best teams — from the amateur level to the Bundesliga, Germany’s top league which features some of the world’s best players.
When the competition was created in 1935, Jews were prohibited from participating.
“I’ve been there from the first day. I never imagined that we — as a Jewish team — would ever be playing a cup game against a Bundesliga team,” club co-founder Marian Wajselfisz told the Associated Press. “So for us, and for me personally, it’s a huge joy.”
Makkabi Berlin was founded in 1970 as the successor to Bar Kochba Berlin, Germany’s first Jewish sports club, which was created in 1898 and named for the famous Jewish military leader. At its peak, it had more than 40,000 members who played in a variety of sports, before the Nazis rose to power.
Today, Makkabi Berlin has 550 members who hail from a variety of backgrounds. The soccer club features players from 15 different countries and includes Jews, Christians and Muslims. But the team’s crest is still a Star of David.
“This is something we’re extremely proud of,” Makkabi board member Michael Koblenz told the AP. “We’re here, and whoever is ready to play for us, and is also open to playing for a club with Jewish origins and some sort of Jewish culture, we’re absolutely happy to integrate people into our teams.”
The club was recently promoted to the fifth tier of German soccer, NOFV-Oberliga Nord, after winning the Berlin league last summer. Makkabi qualified for the German Cup by winning the Berlin Cup in June, a first for the team.
Their opponent on Sunday, Wolfsburg, plays in the Bundesliga and is owned by Volkswagen. Makkabi’s high-profile matchup means the game will played in a bigger stadium and will be televised — a rarity for the club’s games.
“The popularity, visibility and success of Jewish sports clubs symbolizes the growth of established Jewish life in Germany and the world,” said the World Jewish Congress.
The WJC hosted a panel discussion on Friday with representatives of Makkabi and Wolfsburg, “to honor and discuss the critical role of Jewish sporting clubs in Europe before the Holocaust and the impact of their resurgence in the modern-era,” according to a press release. The warmup shirts the two clubs will wear on Sunday will also feature the WJC’s logo.
The World Jewish Congress held a panel to discuss the legacy of Jewish sports clubs in Europe, Aug. 11, 2023. From left to right: Israel Hayom reporter and historian Adi Rubenstein, VfL Wolfsburg head of club media Thorsten Grunow, Makkabi Berlin manager Roy Frydling, Makkabi Berlin board member Michael Koblenz and WJC senior advisor on sporting issues Daniel Loercher. (Shahar Azran/WJC)
“This week’s match shows us Jewish clubs around the world will always tell a story that is bigger than sport,” Israel Hayom reporter and historian Adi Rubenstein said at the event.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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