Dr. MoshE Feldenkrais

 

 

Moshé Feldenkrais was born in 1904. At the age of 13 he left his home in Russia, travelled alone for a year until he reached Palestine where he worked as a laborer, cartographer, and tutor in mathematics. He also became active in sports (gymnastics, soccer) and the martial arts (jiu-jitsu). In his mid twenties he left for France and eventually became a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnic in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. Later he earned his Doctor of Science in physics from the Sorbonne in Paris, where he assisted the Nobel Prize winner Joliot-Curie in early nuclear research.

In Paris he also met Jigaro Kano the creator of modern Judo and became one of the first Europeans to earn a Black Belt in Judo (1936) and to introduce Judo in the West through his teaching and books on the subject. In the early 1940's while working in anti-submarine warfare for the British Admiralty he patented a number of sonar devices, and continued his studies in psychology and the burgeoning field of neurophysiology. In 1949 he returned to Israel where he continued to explore in greater depth these different disciplines, and eventually integrated and refined them into the system known as the Feldenkrais Method®.

Before he died in Tel-Aviv in 1984 Moshé Feldenkrais trained some groups of practitioners in Israel and in the USA to carry on his work. Among his writings are:

• Judo
• Higher Judo
• Body and Mature Behavior
• Awareness Through Movement
• The Elusive Obvious
• The Master Moves
• Adventures in the Jungle of the Brain (The Case of Nora)
• The Potent Self