Hapoel Jerusalem is the first club in Israel that was founded and owned by its fans. The club has a professional men and women's team, a professional youth department for boys and girls (ages 9 to 19) and nationally known social projects.
Hapoel Jerusalem is a unique Israeli soccer club. It is the first club in Israel that was founded and is owned by its fans. The club’s activities are also based on the values laid out by the fans: equality, tolerance, and complete opposition to any kind of violence, discrimination, or racism. The working assumption of the club is that through a safe, open, tolerant, pluralist and communal environment, one can create new norms of behavior in Israeli sport and become an exemplary model of communal responsibility. This approach is supported by academic literature, which sees soccer clubs as key agents in creating and strengthening communal collective identities (Holt, 1989). With the goal of leading and promoting social and humanist values, community involvement, and an aspiration towards excellence in sporting values, members of the club initiate and run a variety of different social projects for more than 1000 people of all ages and both genders from childhood to adulthood, from across the mosaic of Jerusalem’s population, in 47 soccer teams, as part of unique, groundbreaking projects. Hapoel Jerusalem professional soccer team is one of the oldest clubs in Israel. Its senior team currently plays in the Israeli Premier League. The club is owned by the non-profit organization, which is managed by fans’ representatives on a board of directors (which also includes representatives of major donors). The non-profit organization CEO (the founder) and the management team manage around 100 staff and 100 volunteers who run all of the activities of the non-profit and the professional club.
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