Israel Handball Association

The Israel Handball Association is a nonprofit corporation recognized under Israeli sports law and is listed among Israel's associations and unions of Olympic sports.[2][5] Its executive committee serves as the association's managing and executing body; powers not expressly assigned to another association body belong to the committee, whose chair and members are elected by the general assembly, while officeholders are selected by the committee itself.[10] The committee may establish subcommittees for defined subjects or special functions, and the association publishes regulations, competition rules, and forms governing its activities.[10][11]

Handball has been described as a popular team sport in Israel, with its own professional league.[12] Approximately 70,000 Israeli pupils were reported to participate in annual school sports competitions that included handball alongside track and field, basketball, volleyball, swimming, and soccer.[13] Israel's broader sports administration traces its institutional roots to a Department of Physical Education established by the Va'ad Le'ummi in 1939, which became the government body responsible for sports after the establishment of Israel and was known as the Sports Authority from 1961.[13] A 2020 Ministry of Culture and Sport document treated the association as the exclusive institutional channel for elite handball development and Olympic preparations supported by the ministry.[2]

The first National League men's handball games in Israel were played in 1955.[6] For the first six years of organized competition, handball in Israel was played on football fields with eleven players on each side. The State Cup also began operating in the early 1960s.[6] In 1961, the men's National League transitioned to seven-a-side handball, establishing the format used today.[6]

The religious sports organization Elitzur, established in the late 1930s at the initiative of Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan as a framework for encouraging sport among religious youth on weekdays, fielded teams in national handball leagues alongside basketball, volleyball, table tennis, tennis, judo, swimming, chess, athletics, badminton, and squash; it excluded soccer because matches were played on Saturdays.[14] By the 1990s, Elitzur had grown to 25,000 members across 130 branches throughout Israel.[14] Beginning in 1983, the organization's Elitzuria Games were held every four to five years, attracting as many as 2,000 religious Jewish athletes from Israel and the Diaspora, including participants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.[14]

A statistical snapshot from 1970 shows that more than 40,000 athletes participated in organized competitive athletics in Israel. Of these, 15,000 came under the Israel Sports Federation, which controlled 14 sports; 13,000 belonged to the Israel Football Association; and 9,000 belonged to the Israel Basketball Association, with the remainder belonging to smaller associations controlling tennis, judo, and other disciplines.[13] The source does not specify whether handball was included among the 14 sports under the Israel Sports Federation at that time, reflecting the sport's position within a developing national sporting culture.

The association's general assembly elects the executive committee, while the committee acts as the association's managing and executing body and selects its officeholders.[10] The executive committee is organized into three factional groupings: the Maccabi faction, the New Era faction, and the Hapoel faction.[10] Listed association officials include a CEO, legal adviser, spokesperson, national-teams and youth-infrastructure coordinator, women's and Athena coordinator, coaching and continuing-education coordinator, accountant, bookkeeper, secretary, and sports-safeguarding officer.[10]

As of November 2025, the CEO is Adli Marcus, a lawyer who previously served as CEO of Israel's Basketball Premier League administration and, most recently, as CEO of Maccabi Tel Aviv's basketball club.[15] The association described his experience as encompassing sports management, fundraising, and leading complex organizational processes.[15] The chair is Idan Mizrahi, elected in May 2025 after a competitive process in which the Maccabi list led by Yuval Zellner won seven seats on the governing board while the Mizrahi and Hapoel lists each won five; following a post-election alliance between the Hapoel and Mizrahi lists, Mizrahi was elected chair by 618 votes to Zellner's 531, with the elected board consisting of 17 members.[16]

Mizrahi, a former handball player, deputy mayor of Rishon LeZion, and holder of a master's degree in business administration and organizational consulting, pledged to build a professional, transparent association free from outside influence and political pressure, expand the sport's base, improve infrastructure and facilities, develop women's and youth leagues, and position the association as a genuine partner to clubs rather than an institution focused on internal power struggles.[16]

In February 2021, the general assembly had elected a board that appointed Doron Galfand as chair, replacing Tal Lavi; Miko Tzarfati had served as chair for one year during the preceding term.[17] Galfand, a 68-year-old accountant who had played, captained, and coached for Arazim Ramat Gan and Hapoel Gadrot between 1968 and 1985, also represented Israel's national team in international assignments including World Championships and the qualifying tournament for the 1976 Montreal Olympics.[17] His stated priorities were to increase participation, expand handball to more cities and localities among younger and adult players and among women and men, increase funding from the Sports Ministry and local councils, and expand television coverage.[17]

The association's competitions page for 2026–27 lists men's Winner League and National League competitions, a men's League Cup, women's top and National League competitions, and Winner Referees Cup groups, with season records available from 2019–20 through 2026–27.[3] In terms of all-time championship titles, Hapoel Rishon LeZion leads the men's competition with 19 titles, followed by Maccabi Rishon LeZion with 17 and Hapoel Rehovot with 13.[6] In men's cup competitions, Hapoel Rishon LeZion leads with 16, followed by Maccabi Rishon LeZion with 12 and Hapoel Ramat Gan with 8.[6]

In the women's game, Maccabi Arazim Ramat Gan leads the all-time championship table with 16 titles, followed by Bnei Herzliya with 11 and Hapoel Petah Tikva with 10. In women's cup competitions, Bnei Herzliya and Maccabi Arazim Ramat Gan hold 11 and 10 titles respectively.[6]

For the 2025–26 season, the association approved a revised men's Premier League structure: 11 league teams plus the under-21 national team, 22 regular-season rounds, and a division into upper and lower groups, with places 1–6 forming the upper group and places 7–11 the lower. One team was to be relegated and two promoted from the National League. The association also introduced budget controls, a minimum target budget of NIS 1 million per Premier League club, a Super Cup between the league champion and State Cup holder, and a requirement that clubs register two youth teams, with a one-point deduction for noncompliance.[18]

The 2025–26 playoff format included a play-in between places 5–8, quarterfinal series played over two home-and-away matches, best-of-three semifinal series, and a best-of-five playoff final. The bottom three teams entered a three-round survival group to determine final standings and relegation. The association was also reviewing the number of permitted foreign players, which stood at four at the time of publication, and restored a dual-registration mechanism allowing Premier League clubs to loan up to two eligible young players to National League clubs.[18]

The 2026–27 men's Winner League expanded to 13 teams after Hapoel Arad and Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin were promoted, with relegation frozen in light of the ongoing 'Roaring Lion' war.[19] A.S. Ramat Hasharon entered the season as the defending double-title holder, while Hapoel Arad's scheduled opening match against Hapoel Rishon LeZion was billed as the club's historic debut in the top flight.[19] The scheduled opening round also included Hapoel Ashdod against Maccabi Tel Aviv, A.S. Ramat Hasharon against Hapoel Kiryat Ono, Ironi Rehovot against Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin, and M.C. Be'er Sheva against M.C. Holon.[19]

The association's official club directory includes HaKiryatim, A.S. Ramat Hasharon, Hapoel Ashdod, Hapoel Jerusalem, Hapoel Netanya, Hapoel Arad, Hapoel Kiryat Ono, Hapoel Rishon LeZion, Hapoel Ramat Gan, M.C. Be'er Ya'akov, M.C. Holon, M.C. Be'er Sheva, and Maccabi Dimona.[7]

The women's senior national team is led by head coach Reuven Yuspolsky, with Yevgeny Oleinik as assistant coach, Misha Levin as goalkeeping coach, Tami Sandik as team manager, and Hagar Ben Yosef as physiotherapist.[20] The squad draws players from M.C. Holon, Maccabi Arazim Ramat Gan, Maccabi Rishon LeZion, Bnei Herzliya, Hapoel Rishon LeZion, Hapoel Ashdod, and clubs abroad.[20]

In late September 2026, the association announced a women's Athena Cup Final Four at Beit Maccabi in Rishon LeZion, featuring Bnot Eiko Herzliya, Maccabi Arazim Ramat Gan, Hapoel Ashdod, and M.C. Yovelim Holon. The planned three-day event comprised two semifinals and a final and was described by the association as unprecedented in Israeli handball. The winner was scheduled to receive prize money of 10,000 shekels and a place in a European competition the following season.[21]

At the association's September 2026 season-opening event, chair Mizrahi announced that the women's and men's preseason cup matches would use a Final Four format during the same holiday weekend, signaling an intention to elevate the profile of both programs simultaneously.[22]

The men's national team's qualification for the 2002 European Championship finals in Sweden was described at the time as a historic achievement.[9] In a 2001 account of that qualification, association chair Ami Feinstein noted that government funding was insufficient to operate the national teams at a professional level: players held additional jobs, coach Shlomo Hoffman also coached another team, and most people assisting the association worked voluntarily. Feinstein reported that other teams that qualified for the finals had budgets of roughly $1 million, while Israel received at best $100,000.[9] After qualifying, the association's next stated objective was participation in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and it planned a preparation tournament in Australia involving Sweden, Japan, and Australia, though financing for training matches and camps was not assured.[9]

The national team did not reach another major tournament in the two decades that followed. In a 2026 report, it was noted that Israel had missed qualification for the previous campaign by just two goals in matches against Serbia and Poland.[8] David Pisonero, a coach who signed a contract with the association in September 2024, was preparing the men's team in March 2026 for a two-leg World Cup qualifying tie against Georgia in Tbilisi; the ongoing war prevented Israel from hosting either fixture, meaning both the nominal home and away matches were played abroad.[8] Chen Pomeranz serves as Pisonero's assistant coach.[8]

Pisonero identified the domestic league's wartime hiatus as a significant obstacle, since locally based players were deprived of regular high-intensity competition. He relied on Israeli players competing in European leagues — including goalkeeper Yahav Shamir of Hüttenberg in Germany, Daniel Mosindi of Tatabánya in Hungary, and Yoav Lumbroso of Dinamo Bucharest — to provide leadership and match rhythm for the squad.[8] His strategic vision, which he described as an "Iceland Model," called for consistent coaching combined with sending young Israeli players, including under-21 prospects, to leading European leagues in Germany, France, and Spain as a route toward making Israel a consistent presence at European Championships and World Cups.[8]

The 2020 Ministry of Culture and Sport document recognized the association as Israel's sole body for purposes of elite handball development, with a requested budget of 2,000,000 shekels for Olympic preparations, including a proposed 25% expansion of the operating framework to accommodate changing professional needs and additional athletes.[2] A separate government procurement notice from 2017 had contracted with the association as a sole provider for Olympic preparations across a one-year period beginning February 2017.[1]

Youth development is a formal priority of the association. The youth-team professional staff conducts physical-performance testing and creates age-based benchmarks across six performance measures, with different minimum requirements for under-20, under-18, cadet, and 14–15-year-old players.[4] A youth player who misses a testing day or fails to meet minimum benchmarks may receive an individualized physical-training plan and be invited back to national-team training after satisfying the requirements.[4]

Israel's youth program has produced notable results. The under-18 national team won the European Championship Division B in August 2016, defeating Italy 26–25 in the final held in Lithuania; the result promoted Israel to the top division and enabled participation in European championships for both youth and under-20 national teams.[23] The association reported that eight players from that 2016 squad went on to become professionals abroad, with Yahav Shamir and Adir Cohen identified as tournament standouts.[23] At the September 2026 season-opening event, the association recognized the youth and reserve national teams that had qualified for World Championships, with chair Mizrahi affirming that the senior men's team's objective was qualification for the next European Championship after a lengthy absence.[22]

Israeli handball's international participation has at times been shaped by the political environment surrounding Israel's inclusion in sporting events. Qatar welcomed the Israeli handball team to a World Youth Handball Competition; a member of Qatar's royal family was quoted as stating, "The Israeli team is no different than any other team. Sports and politics should be differentiated."[24] Saudi Arabia and Bahrain boycotted the games under diplomatic pressure, while Qatari newspapers published editorials criticizing Israel's participation.[24]

In 2018, Israeli teams' presence at a youth handball tournament in Doha reportedly prompted calls for Qataris to withdraw their children from the competition, and large sections of the Qatari population used social media to distance themselves from Israeli participation in Qatar's international sporting events.[25]

An Israeli government risk-assessment report listed a two-leg World Championship handball playoff between Israel and Spain for May 14 and May 16, 2026, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with both scheduled matches classified as low risk. The report said the fixtures were relocated from Spain to Buenos Aires because of security concerns, with both federations and the governing body agreeing on a neutral, lower-risk venue.[26]

The association has faced a range of institutional and legal challenges over the years. In 2017, a criminal indictment described Moshe Kaliski as a senior member of the association; prosecutors alleged that he used connections with a political official to secure 500,000 shekels for the association even though it was not eligible for that funding, and that he personally received 180,000 shekels. These were allegations in an ongoing criminal case, not findings established as fact.[27]

In 2018, the association issued a statement concerning former coach Beno Reinhorn, who had coached the Israeli women's junior national handball team and a Herzliya women's team. The association stated that the coach had worked with its youth team and that, to its knowledge, it had never received a complaint about his conduct. The report concerned police allegations; the accused and his lawyers maintained his innocence.[28]

The May 2025 chair election followed a prolonged legal dispute before the election itself was held, and the outcome involved a post-election alliance between two competing lists.[16] In September 2026, reporting described a dispute after a management meeting ended before a vote on the association's 2025 financial statements and the general assembly subsequently declined to approve them. The report raised the possibility that the association could lose its proper-management certificate from the Registrar of Associations. The Registrar also questioned whether the management board's membership had been expanded through a board decision rather than by the general assembly, as required.[29]

Responding to these criticisms, chair Mizrahi stated that the association had inherited an approximately NIS 2.2 million deficit and had subsequently raised approximately NIS 4 million through sponsors, government ministries, the Toto sports organization, and other sources; he also claimed the association had obtained more than NIS 500,000 in reimbursements for matches hosted outside Israel and expected to reach financial balance by the end of the coming season.[30] These figures were presented as the chair's account in response to the dispute and have not been independently verified in the cited material.