Embodying the Revolution

This original and thought-provoking study offers a fresh perspective on Zionism by exploring Hebrew cultures ambivalent attitude toward modern sports. Drawing on extensive archival sources and contemporary literary theories, it focuses on Zionisms 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 aspirationsnarrated from the periphery of the interwar global rise of sportschallenges contemporary assumptions that dismiss ideology as an elitist myth.