Israel, one story goes, emerged through the darkness of the Nazi Holocaust; its people promised they would never again be perceived as weak. The nation of soldiers believed that there was blame to be placed on European Jewry themselves, for their failure to resist the Nazi death camps. Weaknessâin mind or bodyâwas not simply a physiological state; it would become a moral failing. Israel would be different, through its exercise of something called âmuscular Judaism.â
Current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently argued, in a televised speech, that âJesus had no advantage over Genghis Khan.â Heâs been going at this for a while; in 2018 he tweeted, âthe weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong.â
Strength starts with the body. Today, Israel is known for its wellness culture. Enjoy its âMediterraneanâ cuisine, among the healthiest in the world. Float in the Dead Sea or exfoliate and detoxify your skin with one of the many lines of scrubs made from the stolen minerals. Yoga, hike, spa, sun. Thereâs something here for everyone. For some, yoga is too flimsy. For the already-mentally strong, the fintechs and Netanyahus, Israel has something adjacent to yoga called the Feldenkrais Method, developed by an Israeli physicist and judo expert, that addresses not the mind but the nervous system. Between 1951 and 1953, Moshe Feldenkrais led the Israeli Army Department of Electronics. He played sports and suffered chronic knee pain; he found, one story goes, a way to avoid surgeryâby controlling his brain. After his military service, he committed himself to developing his Method, to help others heal as he did. In 1957, he started giving lessons to Israelâs first prime and defense minister, David Ben Gurion, eventually teaching the founder of the Zionist state to, at age seventy, stand on his head.
According to the Feldenkrais website, the practice is âbased on principles of physics, biomechanics, and an empirical understanding of learning and human development.â Less east, more facts. All vibes. Someone on the website calls it âmovement medicineââa borrowing of medical language, for legitimacy and originality. The Method is like if âexercise and meditation had a love child.â What could be more Israeli?