Founded by survivors

Israeli immigrants and Jewish survivors of the Nazi camps started Maccabee in the 1960s as a Sunday team, training at Jackie Robinson Stadium in West Los Angeles.^3,4 It began playing seriously in the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League in 1971, when former Israeli national team players who had moved to the area joined.¹

“Half the team wasn't Jewish.”Benny Binshtock²

The players came from Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Trinidad and Germany, among other places, and opponents still shouted antisemitic slurs at them.^2,3,4 The club also helped players off the field. Fullback Eli Marmur arranged for the club to cover the college tuition of Moshe Hoftman, an Israeli international studying engineering.^2,4

The actor at fullback

One of the defenders was Hans-Jörg Gudegast, a German-born actor better known as Eric Braeden. On weekdays he played a Nazi officer on the television series The Rat Patrol, and his father had been a Nazi party member, though Braeden says he took no part in the regime's atrocities. On weekends he played for a Jewish team, for $20 a game.^2,3,4

“I began to realize that I was the token German on a Jewish team.”Eric Braeden⁴

In 1973 Braeden scored the winner in the semifinal against San Jose Portuguese, then converted a penalty for the first goal of the final, a 5–3 win over Cleveland's Inter-Italian.^1,2 He later won a Daytime Emmy for The Young and the Restless.²

Thirty-five wins, no losses

Benny Binshtock, the team's best player, left Israel in 1968 and worked at his uncle's toy company, Mattel. He missed Israel's 1970 World Cup squad because his employer wouldn't give him the time off, and he later turned down the New York Cosmos.^2,4

In 1976–77 Maccabee won 35 games without a loss and took the city, state and national titles.⁴ It won the same three in 1978. That final, against Bridgeport's Vasco da Gama at Giants Stadium, was the opening game before a Cosmos match, in front of about 30,000. Binshtock came off the bench to set up Avram Cohen, and Maccabee won 2–0 in extra time.^1,2

The cup wins earned places in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1974 and 1978. Both times the club withdrew, and Binshtock said there wasn't the money to go.^1,4

Five, like Bethlehem

The 5–1 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1981 was Maccabee's fifth Open Cup, equal to Bethlehem Steel. Some historians also count five for the Fall River Marksmen.^1,4 The next year Maccabee lost the final to the Pancyprian-Freedoms in extra time.

The core players were getting older, and the club couldn't raise enough money to recruit new ones. It stopped fielding the team after 1982 and turned to youth soccer, which the Maccabee Athletic Club still runs.^1,4 Former players still meet for dinner on Tuesday nights in Santa Monica, and in 2022 they were honored at the Open Cup game between the LA Galaxy and LAFC.^2,3 The city's first national champions were the Los Angeles Kickers in 1958.