The Integration of Physical Education into the Curriculum of Israel's Pre-State Education System

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. See Nimrod Aloni, ‘Humanistic Education’, in Yitzhak Kashti, Mordechai Arieli and Simcha Shlaski (eds.), Lexicon of Education and Teaching, Tel Aviv, 1997, pp. 183–184. 2. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the ‘father of German gymnastics’, who wrote the book Das Deutsche Volkstum (The German Nation), 1810. 3. Ya'akov Shavit in his book Judaism versus Hellenism, Tel Aviv, 1992, pp. 23–26, presents the doctrine of Heinrich Heine (1839) who coined the phrase ‘Hellenism versus Judaism’ as two universal metaphors battling one another: the spiritual world of the Jew versus the practical world of the Greek. Ibid., p. 17. 4. According to Shavit, ibid., pp. 208–252, the Jews have to improve their culture in the areas of science, good citizenship, art, creative imagination, approach to nature, beauty and aesthetics. The lack of physical culture is among Jewish shortcomings cited by anti-Semites. 5. See Max Nordau, ‘Judaism of Muscles’, in El Amo (Political Writings), National Publication, 1937, pp. 174–175. 6. See David Rimon, Maccabi in Russia, Tel Aviv, 1950, p. 22; Yitzhak Rabinowitz, From Moscow to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 1963. 7. See Yosef Shalmon, ‘The Urban Ashkenazi Settlement in the Land of Israel, 1880–1903’, in Kulat (ed.), History of the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel from the First Aliya, Vol. 1, Jerusalem, 1990, pp. 539–620. 8. Abraham Zvi Goldschmidt, born in Jerusalem and educated in Holland, taught gymnastics in the Ezra School in Jerusalem and in the Gymnastics Association according to the German method. Uriel Simri, A.Z. Goldschmidt—Physical Education Pioneer in the Land of Israel, Netanya, 1969; Yeshayahu Peres, The History of the Lemel School in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 1932. 9. David Yellin, ‘Report about the Teachers Seminary and the School of Commerce, Summer 1912’, File A 153/112/1, pp. 10–11, The Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem; ibid.: File A 153/112/1, p. 3. 10. See Yosef Shalmon, Religion and Zionism, Jerusalem, 1990, p. 185. 11. Heinrich Loewe was one of the founders of the Jewish Bar-Kochba Berlin sport association. After his visit to Israel he returned to engage in Zionist activity in Germany. Emanuel and Zruia Simon, Memoirs, Haifa, 1971, p. 17. 12. See Zvi Nishri, A Short History of Physical Education, Tel Aviv, 1953, pp. 38–39. 13. Ora Achimair and Haim Behr (eds.), ‘Simcha Wilkomitz’, Jubilee Book of the Teachers Union, Vol. 3, Tel Aviv, 1994, pp. 44–45. Wilkomitz applied German pedagogical theories on the basis of the Romantic approach. 14. ‘Founding session in Zichron Yaacov in 1903’, David Kimchi (ed.), Jubilee Book of the Teachers' Union, Vol 1, Jerusalem, 1929, p. 381. 15. Mark Rosenstein, ‘The New Jew—The Ideal of the Zionist Educational Project in the Land of Israel before Statehood’, in Aviad (ed.), Studies in Jewish Education, Vol. 3 (1988), pp. 76–101; Anita Shapira, ‘The Myth of the New Jew’, New Jews Old Jews, Tel Aviv, 1977, pp. 159–169. 16. Samuel Almog, ‘From Judaism of Muscles to the Religion of Labor’, in David Karpi (ed.), Zionism—An Anthology, Vol. 1, Hakibuz Hmeohad Publication 1970, pp. 142–143. 17. Yitzhak Tabenkin, ‘Guard Duty and the Guards in the Second Aliya’, in Shlomo Derech (ed.), Shorashim, Tel Aviv, 1979, pp. 13, 16, indicates the close connection between the self-defence organizations in the Land of Israel and in Russia, and contends that revolutionary Russian education played a role in the opinions that the Jews had to defend themselves as a way of life. 18. See Mordechai Naor, ‘Hashomer—The Myth that was Born in the Second Aliya’, The Second Aliya, Jerusalem, 1988, pp. 101-104. 19. The image of the Sabra was written about in Ya'akov Shavit, ‘The Status of Culture in the Process of Creating a National Society in the Land of Israel’, in Moshe Lisk (ed.), History of the Jewish Settlement in the Land of Israel from the First Aliya, Vol 1, Jerusalem, 1999, pp. 24-25; Oz Almog, The Sabra—A Portrait, Tel Aviv, 1997. 20. See Ithamar Even-Zohar, The Growth and Shaping of the Local and Native Hebrew Culture in the Land of Israel, 1882–1948, 1980, http://www.tau.ac.il/ ∼ itamarz/papers/tarb-ibr.htm. 21. Oded Shermer, ‘The Implicit Curriculum in Jewish Education’, Studies in Jewish Education, Vol. 1 (1983), pp. 52–54, describes how the implicit message affects the internalization of values and habits that become a way of identifying with the values of a culture. School uses this means to transmit symbols, utilizing hikes, celebrations and ceremonies or teaching a subject in a specific manner. 22. For details about the process of the national secularization of the holidays see Nili Aryeh-Sapir, The Formation of Urban Culture and Education: Stories of and about Ceremonies and Celebrations in Tel Aviv in its First Years, Tel Aviv, 2006; Talia Ben-Israel, Integrating Physical Culture in the New Land of Israel Culture, A Study, Beer Sheba, 2004, pp. 91–92. 23. ‘The programme from all the years of study at the Hebrew Gymnasia of Jaffa’, File 8.105/1/1, The Jewish Archives of Education, Tel Aviv, 1911. 24. Zvi Nishri tells about his work in his book A Short History of Physical Education, Tel Aviv, 1953, pp. 17–50. 25. ‘The Gymnasia Curriculum’, File 103/10, p. 32, The Jewish Archives of Education, Tel Aviv, 1937. 26. See Zvi Nishri, ‘Living Chanuka Menorah’, in Haim Harari (ed.), Holidays—The Chanukah Book, Tel Aviv, 1951, p. 367; Nili Aryeh-Sapir, Stories of Texts and Celebrations in Tel Aviv from 1909–1936, Ph.D. dissertation, Jerusalem, 1997. 27. See Mordechai Brchiyahu, ‘Hygiene Work in School’, Jubilee Book of the Teachers Union, Vol. 1, pp. 279–281. The ‘Department of Hygiene in Land of Israel schools’ was established in 1919 by Henrietta Szold, under the auspices of Hadassah, USA, which provided hygiene education, and allotted a nurse and doctor to examine children and monitor their growth. 28. See Yitzhak Ben Zvi, ‘The Maccabi’, in Yehiham Shorek (ed.), Readings in the History of Physical Education, Vol. 2, Netanya, 1986, p. 113. A definition of the association's aims appears in the Zvi Nishri Archives, File 1.10/15, 158, Wingate Institute. 29. See Uriel Simri, ‘The Rechovot Celebrations’, in Uriel Simri and Meir Benayahu (eds.), Physical Education and Sport in the Land of Israel up to World War One, Netanya, 1969, pp. 51–70. 30. See Emanuel Gill, The Story of the ‘Hapoel’, Tel Aviv, 1986, pp. 118–120. 31. See Haim Wein, The Maccabiahs in Israel, Netanya, 1980. 32. Hadassah, Wizo, Women's Mizrahi, and at the end of the 1930s the Guggenheim Fund opened instructors' courses and model summer camps. See Zipora Shchori-Rubin and Sifra Schwartz, ‘The Playgrounds of Guggenheimer-Hadassah: The Community Centers of the Twenties’, Cathedra, Vol. 86 (January 1998), pp. 75–98. 33. See Yehosha Aluf, ‘50 Years of Physical Education in Israel’, in David Kimchi and Y.L. Riklin (eds.), Jubilee Book of the Teachers' Union, Tel Aviv, 1956, p. 312. 34. See Arik Carmon, ‘Education in Israel— Issues and Problems’, Education in a Society in the Making, Tel Aviv, 1985, pp. 125–126. 35. See Shimon Reshef and Yuval Dror, Hebrew Education in the days of the National Home, 1919–1948, Jerusalem, 1999, pp. 57–58. 36. Eliezer Domka, Kadouri on the Hill, Tel Aviv, 1983, p. 62, presents recreational activity in the Kadouri School: competitions, horseback riding, swimming and ball games. 37. The booklet Kavim 3, Tel Aviv, 1951, p. 102, presents the curriculum that includes hygiene, posture and maintaining good health. 38. Zelinger's plan, which includes ‘games’ and ‘loosening the body’ as elective subjects, appears in the file 8.105/4, Jewish Education Archive, Tel Aviv. 39. Abraham Shafir, ‘Rabbi Kook and his Attitude towards Physical Activity and Sport’, Hagigei Hagiv'ah Givat, Washington, 1996, p. 147. 40. The Hapoel association issued the booklet Applied Sport in 1940 by Emanuel Glickman (Gill) and Rephael Panon, in which they detail the activities: marches and field races, hand-to-hand combat, topography, camping and first aid, games of defence and offence, applied sports apparatus, etc. 41. Israel Galili, ‘Guardians when the State was Established’, in Rivlin (ed.), The Fire and the Shield –The History of the Hebrew Notrim [Guards], Tel Aviv, 1962, pp. 442–477. 42. Rachel Elboim Dror, Hebrew Education in the Land of Israel, Vol 2, Jerusalem, 1990, pp. 256, 348; guarding those who were left on the road from Petach Tikva to Jaffa. 43. Anat Becker, ‘Enhanced Physical Education in Israel’, in Uriel Simri (ed.), The Golden Road, an Anthology, Netanya, 1979, pp. 13–44. 44. Shimon Reshef and Yuval Dror, Hebrew Education in the Days of the National Home, Jerusalem, 1999, pp. 87–88. The Gadna—Youth Divisions of the Hagana. 45. Yehosha Aluf, ‘School Youth and their Training for the Land of Israel Experience’ (6 November 1938), File 23/61, IDF Archives. 46. Yehosha Aluf, ‘Memorandum to the Jewish Agency Directorate about the Need for a Department of Physical Culture and the Condition in Schools’, file S25 6699, p. 19, Central Zionist Archive, Jerusalem. 47. Meir Benayahu, Zvi Nishri—His Life, Tel Aviv, 1954, p. 50; ‘Memo to the Convention for Physical Education for the Youth’, Tel Aviv (May 1939), from the estate of Dr. Ellie Friedman, Beer Sheba. 48. Baruch Bagg, ‘In Those Days’, in Uriel Simri (ed.), Memories from the Early Period of Physical Education Teacher Training in Israel, Netanya, 1979, p. 26; Emanuel Simon, ‘The Development of Physical Education in the Land of Israel’, Physical Education, Vol. 4 (1987), pp. 8–9. 49. Haim Wein, ‘The Beginnings of the Physical Education Teachers’ College', in Simri (ed.), Memories, pp. 11–13. Additional informationNotes on contributorsTALIA BEN ISRAELTalia Ben Israel is Head of Physical Education department, Kaye Academic College, Beer Sheba, Israel.