(Ernst) Emanuel Simon (1898–1988): Zionist Athlete, Pioneer of Israeli Sport, and the Transmission of German Sports Knowledge to Jewish Palestine

The German Zionist and sports physician Emanuel Simon was one of the central figures for sport in British Mandate Palestine and Israel from the 1920s to the 1950s. In this article, we provide a sketch of his biography and discuss his significance in the diffusion, organisation and administration of sports to Jewish Palestine. We pay particular attention to the role Simon played in the transnational transmission of German sports-medical knowledge and other features of the German sports model. By focusing on this one individual, we show that through Jewish sports, German, Zionist, and Israeli identities could coexist harmoniously. In the process, we confirm the broad gist of previous historiography that has stressed the special relevance of German influences on Jewish sports in Eretz Israel. The article traces Simon’s youth in Berlin, his military service during World War I, his conversion to Zionism, his training as a physician, and his immigration to Palestine. It discusses the crucial roles in physical education he played there from the 1930s until his retirement in 1959: from his work at the Reali School in Haifa and at the Nathan and Lina Strauss Health Center in Jerusalem; to his directorships of the National Committee’s Physical Training Department and the Physical Culture Department in the Ministry of Education and Culture; to his commitment to the 1957 establishment of the Israeli National Institute for Physical Education and Sports, the Wingate Institute which opened in 1957. The article also sheds light on Simon’s relationship to Carl Diem, the doyen of German sports and a preeminent figure in twentieth-century international sports.