A01=Ofer Idels
amateurism
anti-semite
anti-semitic
anti-semitism
Author_Ofer Idels
Category=JBSR
Category=JHBS
Category=JPFN
Category=NHG
Category=QRAX
Category=QRJ
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gaza
gaza strip
gender
gender studies
globalization
hebrew
Hebrew culture
ideologies
immigration
internationalism
interwar palestine
israel
israel and palestine
jewish
jewish history
jewish studies
judaism
literary theory
mandate palestine
middle east
middle east studies
middle eastern history
military
military history
modern sport
modern sports
muscular Judaism
nationalism
Ofer Idels
orthodox
palestine
patriotism
political ideologies
political science
politics
recreation
recreational sports
religion
religious history
revolution
rutgers
rutgers university
rutgers university press
selfhood
social science
sociology of sports
sports
sports and recreation
sports history
world history
Zionism
Product details
- ISBN 9781978844452
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 14 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
OFER IDELS is the Jenny Belzberg Postdoctoral Fellow at Calgary University, Canada. He is the author of Zionism: Emotions, Language and Experience.
