Members of Maccabi Tel Aviv's Under-19 squad came to the Tel Aviv community complex Beit Dani to participate in a special festive candle-lighting ceremony for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah
As part of Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club's ongoing commitment to the community, the Youth Division jumped at the opportunity to help one of Tel Aviv's more underprivileged communities to celebrate the festive Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Under-19 squad members Daniel Gretz and Maxim Gretchkin arrived at Beit Dani, a large community service complex in Tel Aviv's "Tikva" neighbourhood, and celebrated the lighting of the holiday's seventh night candles with the centre's neediest visitors: the elderly, the poor and those neighbourhood residents unfortunate enough to have no family to celebrate the festival with. Together with the Youth Divison's educational advisor Chen Abdu, the young players handed out gifts of sweets that all the children of the Youth Division had collected in honour of the holiday.
In addition the youthful footballers visited Avraham Avraham, holocaust survivor and Maccabi Tel Aviv fan with whom the club have maintained close relations over the past two years. He served in the Jewish Brigade during the Second World War and also helped illegal immigrants to reach Israel during the period of the British Mandate. Avraham also served in Israel's post-independence army and received no less than six medals for his bravery. Every since hearing of Avraham's personal history and his difficult economic circumstances, the club have been sending him each month a parcel containing basic daily needs.
