Even though their team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, lost the Euroleague basketball final last night, the 15,000 or so fans in yellow impressed locals and rival fans alike with their good manners, sobriety and general cheerfulness.
This is not what we are used to in sports fans, observed Martina Kucerova, a Prague sportswriter who worked during the Final Four at Sazka Arena, the venue for the tournament. They dont get drunk, they dont get aggressive, they are just happy and fun. Its so refreshing.
The rest of Dinah Spritzer’s JTA story paints such an adorable picture of hundreds showing up to the Chabad Shabbat that usually hosts 20 and hordes of dancing goofballs in yellow infusing depressed travellers recently arrived from the March of Living concentration camp tour with their enthusiasm.
Even Maccabi’s losing score of 69-73 against Russia’s CSKA team couldn’t break the spirit of these mensches. Perhaps they might teach the plotting hooligans among Polish soccer fans a thing or two …