The 1st Maccabiah was a dream come true. The 2nd one had to deliver on the promise of that dream and prove there is substance to the claim that Jews can be great athletes and can stand on their own merit. 1350 athletes came to the 2nd Maccabiah, more than 3 fold increase from the 1st one in 1932. Many of them actually stayed on in Israel, bypassing the British immigration limits and saving themselves from the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust. This is the cover of the 2nd Maccabiah handbook – which included a speech by Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv Mayor as well as summary diaries of the 1st Maccabiah events. The handbook includes an article about the Haavara company that was dedicated to saving Jewish fortune from Nazi Germany – this is a great example of how much the fate of Germany’s Jews was at the center of the 2nd Maccabiah event.
