…
30 pages
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Jewish refugees arriving in Great Britain were exposed to an ‘Anglicisation’ campaign designed to aid their integration into British society and their assimilation of British character traits and cultural values. Within this campaign, especially the element focusing on the children of the migrants, interest and participation in sport was consciously ‘transferred’ through the medium of youth and sporting organisations in order to help in their ‘Anglicisation’. This article will show how physical recreation was promoted by the English Jewish establishment and how participation in sport amongst young Jews grew.
AI
AJS Review, 2009
The article revisits how Zionist sport activists and leaders in the Palestine of the 1920s and 1930s portrayed the desired transformation of their bodies and identities. It focuses, in particular, on the role that images of the “orient’’ played in that wishful transformation. For this purpose, the paper juxtaposes two different sport experiences that were carried out by members of the Maccabi Sport Organization: hiking expeditions within Palestine of the 1920s and 1930s and two motorcycle tours from Palestine to Europe, held in 1930 and 1931. In focusing on these two divergent examples, the article shows how the wishful transformation that Zionist sport activists and leaders expressed was informed by what could be termed re-orient-ation. By using such a term, the article points to an unresolved desire to actively re-build a local Palestinian Jewish identity while simultaneously preserving an obdurate self-image of a European settler in a degenerate East.
The role of sport within the British Empire was to be one of the great mechanisms for exerting soft power. Its proliferation, although for the most part not a deliberate governmental policy, helped spread British culture wider and more effectively than almost any other medium. 'Sport became a channel for the imposition of British values on colonial society,' whether helping 'educate' natives in perceived British values of 'fair play' or allowing émigrés to maintain a sense of Britishness. 2 Richard Holt covers this comprehensively in Sport and the British, displaying the use of sport as a conduit of Britain's unique cultural sensibilities. 3 Rather than challenge his conclusions on the initial spread of sport and its impact, to advance the debate it is important to look at the reaction to this spread of British sporting culture by those affected by it. Some sportsmen sought to assimilate and gain acceptance through their sporting prowess, whilst others saw British sport as a challenge to their own nation's sense of ethnic identity. Whilst it did indeed serve as 'cultural cement' in cases such as Prince Ranjitsinhji, for organisations such as the Gaelic Athletic Association sport acted as the most effective remedy for removal of unwanted British influence. By focusing primarily on the years 1880-1914, it is possible to study the most effective examples of both this wish for assimilation, and the development of ethnic identities by those countries within the Empire.
Journal of Sport in History, 2018
The Brit Maccabim Atid sport club was founded by immigrants from Germany who came to Palestine during the 1930s. The circumstances surrounding this organisation’s establishment differed from those of the sports organisations operating in Palestine until then. We consider sports culture as a tool for analysing immigrant absorption processes. Our discussion is based on the claim that sports served as a means of social integration for German Jews. In Palestine, sports served as an arena of conflict between the political camps in the Jewish settlement. In response to this political reality, immigrants from Central Europe began organising to establish separate sports clubs along political and ethnic lines, thus responding to the needs of immigrants identifying with German cultural circles. Brit Maccabim Atid constitutes a test case for the social and cultural changes in the meaning of sports in the move from one country to another. The paper describes two sociological models, each of which examines the impact of involvement in sports on the extent to which immigrants become integrated into society. Our findings indicate that sports participation in an immigrant society can be a unifying and assimilative factor and at the same time a segregating factor. full paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/qfBkFRMjzuC7BdVhgfJy/full
Continuity and Change, 1992
Israel Studies, 2005
Sport und Gesellschaft, 2018
Between the late 1890s and early 1950s, British boxing was dominated by Jews of Russian and Eastern European migrant origin. In a wider sense, an analysis of boxing can add to our understanding of broader social changes occurring within British Jewry during this roughly sixty year period. However, involvement in boxing during these years (whether as amateurs or professionals, as boxers, managers, promoters, coaches or spectators) also had a noticeable direct impact on the identity of scores of young Jews. This article will show that social change occurring within British Jewry between 1890 and 1960 did not occur separate from the world of British boxing. Although this sport can act as a lens through which to view transformations in terms of Jewish identity, class, religious outlook and culture, it is also the case that boxing clearly influenced changes in these spheres for a significant section of the community.
Sport and Society, 2016
This article focuses on three aspects of the historical relationship between sport and industry. First, it will assess the view that modern sport was a lagged by-product of the Industrial Revolution which then was exported round the world from the first modernized economy. Second, it will consider sport as an industry in its own right examining the early commercialization associated with sport, the nature of the sports product and the often neglected issue of entrepreneurship. Finally, it will turn to workplace sport which demands attention not only due to the sheer scale of its extent but also for the apparent approach to some form of gender equality in the provision of sports facilities.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
AI
The campaign aimed to integrate Jewish refugees into British society by promoting language, culture, and physical recreation, particularly through organized sports. Between 1895 and 1914, efforts were made to attract young Jewish immigrants to adopt British sporting practices as part of this cultural assimilation.
Participation in sports was viewed as essential for instilling British values and overcoming perceived differences, aiding in the psychological transformation of young Jewish refugees into 'Englishmen'. By 1914, thousands of Jewish youths were engaging in sports, with evidence showing improved integration through clubs like the Jewish Athletic Association.
Initially, many young Jewish refugees exhibited aversion to physical activities, reflecting reluctance towards established sporting practices. Reports indicated this lack of enthusiasm was often compounded by behavioral issues during sports, viewed as evidence of their 'alien' background.
Boxing and gymnastics became notably popular, with first-generation refugees achieving success in competitions. The establishment of youth clubs led to increased participation, resulting in Jewish boxing champions emerging at the professional level by the early 20th century.
Public-school ideology heavily influenced Jewish youth clubs, promoting sports as a means to cultivate character and integration. Many managers of these clubs had alumni backgrounds from public schools, embedding competitive sports and values central to British identity into their programs.
Between 1880 and 1914, London became the permanent home for thousands of Jewish immigrants hailing from Eastern Europe. This paper explores the significant role played by sport and physical recreation in the so-called ‘Anglicisation’ of the Jewish immigrant children within a newly created network of youth clubs and social and sporting organisations. While many established English Jews believed that introducing and promoting British sport among the ‘alien’ children was an effective means of ‘Anglicisation’, sections within the Jewish community soon began to fear that the focus on physical recreation was undermining traditional Jewish culture and contributing to a ‘drift’ towards religious indifference and apostasy.
Between the 1890s and the 1960s, sport had a distinctive and varied impact on the social, cultural, political and economic life of the British Jewish community. During this period, Anglo-Jewry developed a clear sporting tradition, in both a direct and indirect sense, and their participation in the world of British sport had a significant impact on processes and discourses surrounding integration, ethnicity and anti-Semitism. Through a broad analysis of archival materials, newspaper sources and oral history, this thesis seeks to examine the influence that sport exerted on the Jewish community – paying particular attention to the ways in which physical recreation affected the internal dynamics of the community and influenced Jewish relations and interactions with the wider non-Jewish population. As will be shown, whilst sport is a useful lens through which to view socio-cultural development within Anglo-Jewish history, evidence suggests that physical recreation also had a notable and noticeable direct impact on Jewish life within Britain. Although Jewish sport history is an expanding field in an international context, it has been largely ignored within British academic research. Within the historiography of Anglo-Jewry, little attention has been paid to the socio-cultural impact of sporting participation. Similarly, within research concerning British sport history, race and immigration are themes that have been generally overlooked. As well as redressing important historiographical gaps, this thesis will also help expand our knowledge of the process behind minority integration and will further demonstrate the wider social importance, and the extensive and varied applications, of the historical study of sport. This thesis demonstrates that sport has been a key area for the creation, maintenance and erosion of Anglo-Jewish identity and has been an arena for the development, reinforcement and undermining of Jewish stereotypes. Sport, effectively, assumed a central role in Jewish life throughout this time period and was a pivotal factor in many social, cultural and political changes affecting the Jewish community of Britain.
Labour History Review, 2015
Between 1920 and 1950, a large number of British Jews took up sports and recreation within the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). As members of the Young Communist League (YCL) and the British Workers’ Sports Federation (BWSF), Jews engaged in sporting and recreational activities designed to promote communist policy, fraternity and act as a contrast to the commercialism of ‘bourgeois’ sports. Drawing on a broad array of archival and oral history materials, this article documents the growth and nature of Jewish participation in British ‘communist’ sport and leisure. It focuses on two aspects of this involvement. Firstly, it illustrates that sports and socialising often proved to be a key factor in drawing Jews to communism and became a central aspect of a large number of young Jews’ ‘communist’ lifestyles. Many young Jews participated in the movement mainly because it offered the chance to ramble, camp, cycle, dance or play table tennis. Secondly, the articles demonstrates that involvement in communist sport and recreation exerted an important impact on Jewish ethnicity. Communist sport catalysed many young Jews' estrangement from their elders by giving them an 'escape' route (Williams) from their immigrant identities and helping them form new lifestyles, relationships and characters.
Aschkenas
Dieser Beitrag diskutiert jüdische Sportkulturen in den Niederlanden vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Dabei soll das bisherige Konzept einer vorwiegend segregierten und zionistisch geprägten jüdischen Sportkultur als Ergebnis einer aus der Nachkriegszeit stammenden Sichtweise revidiert werden. Anhand des Beispiels von drei jüdischen Gemeinden, Amsterdam, Groningen und Den Haag, zwischen dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts und 1940 wird aufgezeigt, dass die jüdische Sportszene zugleich »assimiliert« und heterogen war, und dass sie Vereine verschiedener sozialer, politischer und religiöser Orientierung umfasste. Wegen des hohen Grads an Integration in die niederländische Gesellschaft, spielte die Frage der niederländischen Identität keine Rolle. Vielmehr beeinflusste die soziale Klasse Fragen von Inklusion und Exklusion. In den 1920er und 1930er Jahren stieg die Anzahl separater jüdischer Vereine ebenso wie die Verbreitung des Zionismus, wenngleich letzterer im Sport ebenso wie das Ideal des Musk...
UMANESIMO DELLO SPORT VITTORIA E SCONFITTA. TRADIZIONE E INNOVAZIO, 2018
The present text aims to analyse the sports activity of war prisoners in concentration camps. The primary objective will be the sports activity of the Spanish refugees in the camps located in France after the exodus of the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939). We intend to discover the importance, motivation, objectives and types of sport that were developed; aspects which, to date, have not been analysed. This approach has been possible thanks to the publication of the camp newspapers by the prisoners. These documents, that were typed or hand written, in extremely precarious situations, directly transmit the role that sport played in the prisoners’ lives. They were not the only ones to create this type of documents, they had already appeared during the First World War, but there are some differences, especially their expectations for the future, as the prisoners of war intended to return to their country, while the refugees had to prepare themselves for a new life abroad. Palabras clave: Sport, physical education, concentration camps, Spanish refugees, Spanish republicans.
Labor History, 2014
During the early twentieth century, scores of second and third generation migrant Jews became deeply involved and interested in outdoor recreation (cycling, camping and rambling) associated with the political far-left in Britain. Amongst politically inspired organisations such as the Clarion Cycling Club, the British Workers’ Sports Federation and the Young Communist League, Jews were keen consumers of opportunities for recreation in the British outdoors. This was a growing leisure habit which was zealously protected when threatened and had a significant impact on many Jews’ lifestyles and ethnicities. This article will demonstrate that many Jews ‘wandering’ on organised rambles in the Peaks or Chilterns were also ‘wandering’ away from their Jewishness by moving closer, in terms of social, cultural and political lifestyles and identity, to their non-Jewish working-class peers.
The Local Historian 43,2, pp.96-106, 2012
Good-quality local histories of British sporting life are still relatively few in number. This is the more surprising, given sport can and should be the stuff of serious history, and there are powerful rationales to encourage more work. Modern sport is a global phenomenon, a multi-billion pound industry, and most historians accept that for a number of modern competitive sports and games Britain played 'an undoubted role as an originator, leader and teacher' in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It took an initial lead in introducing new models of sport, and organising, regulating and standardizing them. 1 Most emphatically, it has majorly shaped the modern sporting world. Sport has long been a mainstream British cultural interest, probably the single most significant leisure activity outside those connected with basic drives if playing, watching events live or on TV and betting are all taken into account, and has been and increasingly is a major source of employment. The enjoyment, excitement, adrenaline rush and community involvement it can at times offer are all appealing. And its history has ensured that its social and cultural forms and impacts vary from place to place and from sport to sport.
David Dee