Between philanthropy and politics: the United States Committee Sports for Israel

ABSTRACT The United States Committee Sports for Israel (hereinafter: USCSFI) was one of the organisations that helped launch Israeli sport through donations recruited from American Jews. The USCSFI sought to instil American sports culture in Israel as part of its desire to take part in shaping Israeli culture. Israeli sports organisations fought among themselves regarding ties with the USCSFI and access to its resources. The USCSFI attempted to manoeuvre between the warring organisations but failed. The assistance the USCSFI offered entailed political involvement due to the political structure of sport in Israel. The USCSFI’s relations with Israeli sport were not the one-sided relations of donor to recipient. Indeed, the USCSFI benefitted from its ties with Israeli sports organisation: In its struggle against competing Jewish organisations, these ties helped the USCSFI strengthen its position as the representative of Zionist sport in the US. In the 1980s, the depoliticisation of Israeli sport harmed the status of the sports organisations and hence the USCSFI’s status as well. During Israel’s fourth decade, the USCSFI joined and became part of the Maccabi World Union.