Volume XXIII of the distinguished annual Studies in Contemporary Jewry explores the role of sports in modern Jewish history. The centrality of sports in modern life--in popular and even in high culture, in economic life, in the media, in international and national politics, and in forging ethnic identities--can hardly be exaggerated, but in the field of Jewish studies this subject has been somewhat neglected, at least until recently. Students of American Jewish history, for example, often emphasize the role of sports in the Americanization of the immigrants, while students of Jewish nationalism pay closer attention to its appeal for the regeneration of the Jewish nation, as well as the creation of a new, healthy, Jewish body. The essays brought together in Jews and the Sporting Life expand the body of knowledge about the place sports occupied, and continue to occupy, in Jewish life. They examine the connection between sports and Jewish nationalism, particularly Zionism, and how organized Jewish sports have been an agent of nation-building. They consider the role of Jews as owners of sports teams, as amateur and professional athletes, and as fans and bettors. Other themes include sports and Jewish literature, and boxing as a sport that enabled Jewish men to prove their masculinity in a world that often stereotyped them as weak and "feminine." This volume concentrates on twentieth century developments in Israel, Europe, and the United States.
Author(s): Ezra Mendelsohn
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 304
Contents......Page 12
Symposium: Jews and the Sporting Life......Page 18
Thoughts on the Jewish Body, Baseball, and the Problem of Integration......Page 20
Jews and Sports in Poland before the Second World War......Page 32
“Boxing for Everyone”: Jewish DPs, Sports, and Boxing......Page 51
The Jewish Bookmaker: Gambling, Legitimacy, and the American Political Economy......Page 69
Pride and Priorities: American Jewry's Response to Hakoah Vienna's U.S. Tour of 1926......Page 85
From Participant to Owner: The Role of Jews in Contemporary American Sports......Page 102
Sports in the Young State of Israel......Page 118
Why Did Beit Shean Let Betar Win? Latent Ethnic Solidarity and the Sports Ethic in Israel......Page 143
Dream and Disenchantment: Massimo Della Pergola and the Invention of the Italian Totocalcio......Page 156
Essays......Page 174
Reflections from "Hutz La'aretz": Responses of Reform Rabbis to Israeli Statehood......Page 176
1953/1954: A Year in Yiddish Literature......Page 200
A History of the Jews in the Modern World......Page 217
U genezy Jedwabnego: Żydzi na kresach północno-wschodnich II Rzeczpospolitej, wrzesień 1939–lipiec 1941 (The genesis of Jedwabne: Jews and the southeastern borderlands of the second Polish republic, September 1939–July 1941)......Page 228
Book Reviews......Page 242
The Jews Are Coming Back: The Return of the Jews to Their Countries of Origin after WWII......Page 244
My z Jedwabnego (We from Jedwabne)......Page 246
Collected Memories: Holocaust History and Postwar Testimony......Page 250
Obliged by Memory: Literature, Religion, Ethics......Page 252
The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day......Page 254
Poland’s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present......Page 256
Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands......Page 258
Fantasies of Witnessing: Postwar Efforts to Experience the Holocaust......Page 260
Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists......Page 264
My Yeshiva College: 75 Years of Memories......Page 266
Portraying ‘the Jew’ in First World War Britain......Page 267
Two Models of Jewish Philosophy: Justifying One’s Practices......Page 269
Commentary Magazine, 1949–59: ‘A Journal of Significant Thought and Opinion'......Page 271
Jews and Gender in Liberation France......Page 273
Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis......Page 277
Building a Diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany and the USA......Page 281
Emancipation through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe......Page 285
American Judaism: A History......Page 287
Jewish Daily Life in Germany, 1618–1945......Page 289
The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics: Israel Versus the American Jewish Establishment......Page 291
Molitva (Prayer)......Page 294
James Joseph Sylvester: Jewish Mathematician in a Victorian World......Page 298
Hevrah vekhalkalah beyisrael: mabat histori ve’akhshavi (Society and economy in Israel: historical and contemporary perspectives)......Page 300
Zehuyot bemadim: gavriyut venashiyut bazava hayisreelit (Identities in uniform: masculinity and femininity in the Israeli army)......Page 302
Contents for Volume XXIV......Page 305
Note on Editorial Policy......Page 306
