Of Sports, Identity, and the Cultural Context: The Failed Attempts to Create a Baseball Culture in Pre-State and Early Israel, 1927–1960.

This paper aims to offer the first account of the initial, hesitant (yet persistent) efforts to import baseball and its culture into Eretz Israel, from 1927 until the first decade of statehood; the (implicit or explicit) cultural and ideological background behind these efforts; and the various practical, cultural, political, and ideological reasons why the entire endeavor ultimately remained a marginal episode that failed to leave a significant mark on the local cultural landscape. The paper is based on close reading of the memoirs of some of the figures involved in these events, as well as on contemporary press reports and several archival and scholarly sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]