This original and thought-provoking study offers a fresh perspective on Zionism by exploring Hebrew culture’s ambivalent attitude toward modern sports. Drawing on extensive archival sources and contemporary literary theories, it focuses on Zionism’s surprising anxiety toward sports during the interwar heyday of “muscular Judaism,” revealing an unusual society in which athletes failed to attain national pride and distinction. Addressing themes such as the body, language, space, immigration, internationalism, amateurism, gender, and militarization, Embodying the Revolution presents an innovative reading of Jewish life in Mandate Palestine, linking the marginalization of sports to the meaning and experience of the Zionist Revolution. Idels' compelling interpretation of the appeal of sports, selfhood, and the compromises inherent in radical aspirations—narrated from the periphery of the interwar global rise of sports—challenges contemporary assumptions that dismiss ideology as an elitist myth.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1 Teaching Nordau to Play Soccer: Gymnastics and Sports Before and After World War
2 Competing in Hebrew: Revolutionary Language and the Sporting Presence
3 “Keep Away from the Prima Donnas”: Hebrew Purpose and the Athletic Body
4 “The Whole World Will Know Our Answer”: Sports, Internationalism, and the Jewish Return to History
5 “We Have to Learn to Sacrifice Everything”: Militarism and the Zionist Desire for a Useful Experience
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
