ABOUT THIS BOOK

To many, an association between Jews and sports seems almost oxymoronic--yet Jews have been prominent in boxing, basketball, and fencing, and some would argue that hurler Sandy Koufax is America's greatest athlete ever. In Jews, Sports, and the Rites of Citizenship, Jack Kugelmass shows that sports--significant in constructing nations and in determining their degree of exclusivity--also figures prominently in the Jewish imaginary. This interdisciplinary collection brings together the perspectives of anthropologists and historians to provide both methodological and regional comparative frameworks for exploring the meaning of sports for a minority population.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jack Kugelmass is a professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is the author of The Miracle of Intervale Avenue.

REVIEWS

"These essays are based on history and anthropology but they also offer a compelling analysis of modernity. . . . Citizenship and nationhood cannot be divorced from both the physical and the intellectual attributes of a group, which these authors clearly convey."--Contemporary Jewish Life

"The eleven essays present some interesting topics and research."--Choice

"What makes this collection significant is that it resists simply crowing about Jewish athletes . . . rather this collection brings together not sportswriters but rather historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and cultural theoreticians to give athletics a gravitas it seldom obtains. . . . The writing is at turns vivid, provocative, persuasive, speculative - never dry, never dull. Its essential theory - how athletics shapes cultural identity - is a rewarding and important premise for serious students of contemporary athletics."--Aethlon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
 Preface
 Acknowledgments
 Part I. Entering the Arena
 1. Why Sports?
 Jack Kugelmass
 2. "How Fiercely That Gentile Rides!": Jews, Horses
 and
 Equestrian Style
 John Hoberman
 3. Unathletic Department
 Stephen J. Whitfield
 Part II. Sound Bodies, Healthy Nations
 4. National Regeneration in the Ghetto: The Jewish
 Turnbewegung
 in Galicia
 Joshua Shanes
 5. Zionism, Politics, Hedonism: Sports in 1920s and
 1930s Tel-
 Aviv
 Anat Helman
 6. Jewish Workers' Sports Movements in Inter-War
 Poland--Shtern
 and Morgnshtern in Comparative Perspective
 Jack Jacobs
 III. Odd Contestants
 7. Sabbath Sport on the Shores of Tripoli: Muscles and
 Memory
 among the Jews of Libya
 Harvey E. Goldberg
 8. On Matching Unmatchables: Football Games between
 Jews and
 Muslims in Casablanca
 Andr¿ Levy
 9. Arab Soccer in a Jewish State
 Tamir Sorek
 IV. Civilizing the Body
 10. The Shame of the City: CCNY Basketball, 1950-51
 Edward Shapiro
 11. The American Orthodox Athlete: From Contradiction
 in Terms to
 Institutional Standard Bearer
 Jeffrey S. Gurock
 Contributors
 Index