Treasure Trove: About Maccabi Tel Aviv’s 1956 Soccer Match in Toronto

This June and July, Toronto will host six games in the FIFA World Cup. These are important, but Toronto is no stranger to important soccer matches. Seventy years ago, Maccabi Tel Aviv played the Ontario All Stars at Maple Leaf Stadium. The stadium was located at the foot of Bathurst Street and was the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team of the International League from 1926 to 1967. It was demolished in 1968.

Maccabi Tel Aviv toured North America in the fall of 1956 and played a Quebec all-star team at the Montreal Baseball Stadium on October 5. Maccabi won 2-1 before 6,300 spectators. According to the Montreal Gazette, the purpose of the tour “was to pay tribute to the youth of Israel and to help them build a stadium wherein to play their games.” 

On Sunday October 21, the game in Toronto took place (thank you to Avi Hyman for background on the game-Hyman’s Book Store sold tickets to it).  It was sponsored by the Zionist Revisionist Organization of Canada and billed as “the most Exciting Soccer Event of the Year” featuring “Israel’s Heroic Sons-The Maccabi Champion Team of Tel Aviv.”  Maccabi won the game 6-3 before 11,000 fans. The Globe and Mail reported that “Maccabi’s devastating attack in the opening stages completely mystified the All-Stars.”

The profits from the seven game tour were earmarked to build what became Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa which opened in 1962 and was named after Montreal brothers Bernard and Louis Bloomfield. Maccabi Tel Aviv continues to play at Bloomfield Stadium which has been renovated and expanded to 29,000 seats.

Maccabi Tel Aviv turns 120 this year. It was founded in 1906 in Jaffa as the HaRishon Le Zion–Yafo Association (First to Zion Jaffa Association). When Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 it changed its name to Maccabi Tel Aviv. The team has won 26 league championships, won its 25th Israel State Cup last week and is owned by Toronto business person Mitchell Goldhar.

Birmingham city officials banned Israeli fans from attending Maccabi Tel Aviv’s November 6, 2025 match against Aston Villa due to “security concerns.” Even without Israeli fans, 700 police officers were deployed to secure the game and six arrests were made.  

Israel is not one of the 48 countries that qualified to play in this World Cup. Iran is, but it is not scheduled to play any of its games in Toronto. Toronto Police are presumably relieved on both counts.

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For more treasures from the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, which has appeared weekly in the Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) since February 2021, see https://herzlcollection.com/treasure-trove

Treasure Trove is a program of The Herzl Project.