Why did a culture devoted to “a healthy mind in a healthy body” struggle to embrace modern sports? And why did this struggle play out so differently in the Yishuv than in Jewish communities abroad? This lecture with Dr. Ofer Idels explores the overlooked, emotionally charged relationship between Hebrew culture and sports in interwar Palestine. Challenging conventional narratives, it reveals how Zionism’s engagement with athletics was complex, conflicted, and distinct from Jewish experiences in Europe and America. Moving beyond simplistic notions of masculinity, we’ll uncover how sports shaped self-perception, the body, and Israeli identity in unexpected ways.

Dr. Ofer Idels is the Jenny Belzberg Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary, Canada. A Humboldt Foundation Alumnus, he is the author of Zionism: Emotions, Language and Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2024), and Embodying the Revolution The Hebrew Experience and the Globalization of Modern Sports in Interwar Palestine (Rutgers University Press, 2025).

Register to attend: https://yorku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rn58fobySgyQykx7WD0Gjw#/registration