Muscular Judaism
{{Short description|Philosophy of developing mental and physical strength among Jews}}
File:Max Nordau.jpg, who coined the term "Muscular Judaism"]]
Muscular Judaism ({{langx|de|Muskeljudentum}}) is a term coined by Max Nordau in his speech at the Second Zionist Congress held in Basel on August 28, 1898. In his speech, he spoke about the need to design the "new Jew" and reject the "old Jew", with the mental and physical strength to achieve the goals of Zionism. Nordau saw Muscular Judaism as an answer to Judennot (the "Jewish distress" about facing rampant antisemitism).{{cite book |last=Foer |first=Franklin |authorlink=Franklin Foer |title=How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization |year=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=0066212340 |oclc=55756745 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howsoccerexplain0000foer/page/68 68] }}
History
File:Damenriege des JTV Basel.jpg Jewish Sports Association. Photo from the Jewish Museum of Switzerland's collection.]]
File:Jewish settlers near Beit HaKerem c. 1925.jpg, 1925]]
The term refers to the cultivation of mental and physical properties, such as mental and physical strengths, agility and discipline, which all will be necessary for the national revival of the Jewish people. The characteristics of the muscular Jews are the exact opposite, an antithesis of the Diaspora Jew, especially in Eastern Europe, as shown in antisemitic literature and in the literature of the Haskalah. Nordau saw the promotion of muscular, athletic Jews as a counterpoint to such depictions of Jews as a weak people.{{cite book |last=Zimmermann |first=Moshe |authorlink=Moshe Zimmermann |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Brenner |editor2-first=Gideon |editor2-last=Reuveni |title=Emancipation through Muscles: Jews and sports in Europe |year=2006 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=0803213557 |oclc=0803213557 |page=13 |chapter=Muscle Jews versus Nervous Jews}}
In addition, the "muscular" Jew is the opposite of the Halakhic and the Haskalah Jew—the man of letters, the intellectual—who was said to be busy all his life engaging with esoteric subjects. His body, and his will, grew weak.
Though Muscular Judaism was an idea practiced mostly by male Jews, Jewish women participated as well, especially in activities such as gymnastics.{{cite book |last=Wildmann |first=Daniel |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Brenner |editor2-first=Gideon |editor2-last=Reuveni |title=Emancipation through muscules: Jews and sports in Europe |year=2006 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=0803213557 |oclc=0803213557 |page=35 |chapter=Jewish Gymnasts in Imperial Germany}}
At the time of Nordau's speech, the idea of Muscular Christianity was already widespread in various Christian countries.
Jewish athletes in Europe
European Jewish leaders heeded Nordau's philosophy. Between 1896 and 1936, Jewish athletes won a disproportionate number of medals for Austria at the Olympics than their proportion of the total Austrian population.{{cite book |last=Foer |first=Franklin |authorlink=Franklin Foer |title=How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization |year=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=0066212340 |oclc=55756745 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howsoccerexplain0000foer/page/70 70] }}{{dubious|date=February 2022}}
Nordau's idea of Muscular Judaism also inspired the founders of Hakoah Vienna, a Viennese sports club especially well known for its football team. American journalist Franklin Foer has written that Hakoah (Hebrew for "the strength") was "one of the best teams on the planet" at its height in the mid-1920s.{{cite book |last=Foer |first=Franklin |authorlink=Franklin Foer |title=How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization |year=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=0066212340 |oclc=55756745 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howsoccerexplain0000foer/page/66 66] }} Hakoah players decorated their uniforms with Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David, and adopted nicknames of historical Jewish military leaders, such as Bar Kochba.