Emancipation Through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe

Although the study of Jewish identity has generated a growing body of work, the topic of sport has received scant attention in Jewish historiography. Emancipation through Muscles redresses this balance by analyzing the pertinence of sports to such issues as race, ethnicity, and gender in Jewish history and by examining the role of modern sport within European Jewry. The accomplishments of Jews in the intellectual arena and their notable presence among Nobel Prize recipients have often overshadowed their achievements in sports. The pursuit of sports among Jews in Europe was never a marginal phenomenon, however. In the first third of the twentieth century numerous Jewish sport organizations were founded throughout Europe, and prowess in the realm called "muscle Jewry" by the Zionists was a symbol of widespread pride among European Jews. Some Jewish teams were remarkably successful: the legendary Austrian soccer champion Hakoah Vienna was arguably the most visible Jewish presence in interwar Vienna, and many readers will be surprised to learn that outstanding soccer teams such as Ajax Amsterdam and Tottenham Hotspur are still considered "Jewish teams." The contributors to this volume, an international group of scholars from a variety of fields, explore the diverse relationships between Jews and modern sports in Europe.

Table of Contents:
Part I: From "Talmud Jews" to "Muscle Jews" 1. Moshe Zimmermann (Hebrew University, Jerusalem): Muscle Jews versus Nervous Jews; 2. Daniel Wildmann (Technical University, Berlin): Jewish Bodies on Display: Jewish Gymnasts and their Corporeal Utopias in Imperial Germany; 3. Gideon Reuveni (University of Munich): Sports and the Militarization of Jewish Society; 4. Sharon Gillerman (Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles): A Strongman for All Seasons: Siegmund Breitbart and Interpretations of the Jewish Body Part II: The Making of Jewish Sports in Interwar Europe 5. Jacob Borut (Yad Vashem): Jews in German Sports during the Weimar Republic; 6. Jack Jacobs (City University, New York): The Politics of Jewish Sports Movements in Interwar Poland; 7. John Bunzl (Austrian Institute for International Affairs): Hakoah Vienna: Reflections on a Legend Part III Antisemitism and Sports 8. Michael John (University of Linz): A "Cultural Code"? Antisemitism in Austrian Sports between the Wars; 9. Tony Collins (De Montfort University Leicester): Jews, Antisemitism, and Sports in Britain, 1900-1939; 10. Rudolf Oswald (University of Munich): The "Anschluss" of Soccer: Nazi Ideology and the End of Central European Soccer-Professionalism, 1938-1941 Part IV Exiles, Survivors, and the Transformation of Jewish Identity 12. Albert Lichtblau (University of Salzberg): Soccer and Survival in Exile: Jewish Refugees in Shanghai; 13. Phillip Grammes (Journalist for Bayerischer Rundfunk and Judische Allgemeine Zeitung): Sports in the DP Camps 1945-1948: Development, Structures and Function; 14. Victor Karady (Central European University) and Miklos Hadas (Corvinus University): Soccer and Antisemitism in Hungary; 15. John Efron (University of California, Berkeley): When is a Yid Not a Jew? The Strange Case of Supporter Identity at Tottenham Hotspur Part I: From "Talmud Jews" to "Muscle Jews" 1. Moshe Zimmermann (Hebrew University, Jerusalem): Muscle Jews versus Nervous Jews; 2. Daniel Wildmann (Technical University, Berlin): Jewish Bodies on Display: Jewish Gymnasts and their Corporeal Utopias in Imperial Germany; 3. Gideon Reuveni (University of Munich): Sports and the Militarization of Jewish Society; 4. Sharon Gillerman (Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles): A Strongman for All Seasons: Siegmund Breitbart and Interpretations of the Jewish Body Part II: The Making of Jewish Sports in Interwar Europe 5. Jacob Borut (Yad Vashem): Jews in German Sports during the Weimar Republic; 6. Jack Jacobs (City University, New York): The Politics of Jewish Sports Movements in Interwar Poland; 7. John Bunzl (Austrian Institute for International Affairs): Hakoah Vienna: Reflections on a Legend Part III Antisemitism and Sports 8. Michael John (University of Linz): A "Cultural Code"? Antisemitism in Austrian Sports between the Wars; 9. Tony Collins (De Montfort University Leicester): Jews, Antisemitism, and Sports in Britain, 1900-1939; 10. Rudolf Oswald (University of Munich): The "Anschluss" of Soccer: Nazi Ideology and the End of Central European Soccer-Professionalism, 1938-1941 Part IV Exiles, Survivors, and the Transformation of Jewish Identity 12. Albert Lichtblau (University of Salzberg): Soccer and Survival in Exile: Jewish Refugees in Shanghai; 13. Phillip Grammes (Journalist for Bayerischer Rundfunk and Judische Allgemeine Zeitung): Sports in the DP Camps 1945-1948: Development, Structures and Function; 14. Victor Karady (Central European University) and Miklos Hadas (Corvinus University): Soccer and Antisemitism in Hungary; 15. John Efron (University of California, Berkeley): When is a Yid Not a Jew? The Strange Case of Supporter Identity at Tottenham Hotspur

About the Author :
Michael Brenner is a professor in the Institute of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich. He is the author of Zionism: A Brief History and The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. Gideon Reuveni is a research fellow at the Institute of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich. He is the author of Reading Germany: Literature and Consumer Culture in Germany before 1933.

Review :
“An engaging and deeply informative volume.”—Jewish Book World|"Emancipation through Muscles is a significant contribution to the literature on the modern Jewish experience. Without exaggerating the import of sports for Jewish life in the 20th century, this volume goes a long way toward contributing to a much-needed corrective in the synthetic narrative of modern Jewish history."—Mitchell B. Hart, Jews & the Sporting Life