קולטור

Sports

Mendl, Nomi and Nomi’s friends love playing sports--however the participation of Jewish youth in athletic activities is a relatively recent phenomenon. Interest in sports only began to rise among Jews in Eastern Europe in the early part of the twentieth century, influenced by surrounding non-Jewish cultures. Various Jewish sports clubs and even sports federations were created throughout Eastern Europe, and among the most popular sports of that era were gymnastics, soccer, and boxing.

The sports organizations were often associated with specific political movements, which had begun to play an important role in Jewish society. The sports federations also often held to a specific linguistic policy in accordance with their political affiliations. So, for instance, in Poland between the world wars, there were Jewish sports clubs in Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

While playing sports attracted the “modern” city youth, the older generation and more traditional sectors of the Jewish population remained uninterested in this new branch of activity. This is reflected, for example, in the Jewish press of the time, which only slowly began to include sports news and notices about local sporting events in its pages.