Moshé Feldenkrais facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Moshé Feldenkrais
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| Born |
Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais
May 6, 1904 Slavuta, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine)
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| Died | July 1, 1984 (aged 80) |
| Citizenship | Israeli |
| Known for | Founding the Feldenkrais Method |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering, Alternative Medicine |
Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais (Hebrew: משה פנחס פלדנקרייז, May 6, 1904 – July 1, 1984) was a smart engineer and physicist. He was born in Ukraine and later became an Israeli citizen. He is famous for creating the Feldenkrais Method. This method is a special way of moving that helps people understand their bodies better. It aims to improve how you move and feel by making you more aware of yourself.
Feldenkrais believed that how we think, feel, see, and move are all connected. He thought they all affect each other.
Contents
Life
Early Life and Education
Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais was born in 1904. His family was Jewish, and they lived in Slavuta, a city in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine). He grew up in Baranovichi, which is now in Belarus.
In 1918, Moshé moved to The British Mandate of Palestine. He worked hard and finished high school in 1925. After school, he became a mapmaker for the British government. Around this time, he also started learning self-defense, including Ju-Jitsu.
Developing His Ideas
In 1929, Feldenkrais hurt his knee playing soccer. This injury got worse during World War II. Because of this, he started looking for his own ways to heal. This led him to develop his unique method.
In the 1930s, Moshé lived in France. He earned an engineering degree there. Later, he got his Doctor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Paris. A famous scientist, Marie Curie, was one of his teachers.
He worked with Frédéric Joliot-Curie, a Nobel Prize winner, at the Radium Institute. In 1933, he met Jigoro Kano, who created judo. Kano encouraged Moshé to study judo. Moshé became good friends with Kano and wrote to him often. He earned a black belt in judo in 1936. He even helped start one of Europe's oldest judo clubs.
When the Nazis were about to invade France in 1940, Feldenkrais escaped to Britain. He carried important research materials with him. From 1940 to 1946, he worked for the British Navy. He helped develop anti-submarine weaponry and improved sonar technology. He also taught self-defense to other service members.
His old knee injury got worse again on the slippery submarine decks. He didn't want surgery. Instead, he focused on healing himself by carefully watching his own movements. This deep study led to his new method. He started sharing his discoveries through talks and classes.
Teaching the Method
After leaving the Navy, Feldenkrais lived in London. His self-healing allowed him to keep practicing judo. He began to study judo scientifically. He used the knowledge he gained from healing his own body. In 1949, he published his first book about his method.
In 1951, he moved back to Israel. For several years, he led the electronics department for the Israel Defense Forces. In 1954, he settled in Tel Aviv and began teaching his method full-time. In 1957, Mia Segal became his assistant. She worked with him for 30 years. He even became the personal trainer for David Ben-Gurion, who was the Prime Minister of Israel.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Moshé taught his method in Europe and North America. He trained the first group of 13 teachers in Tel Aviv from 1969 to 1971. From 1975 to 1978, he trained 65 more teachers in San Francisco. In 1980, 235 students started his teacher-training course in Massachusetts. He stopped teaching publicly in 1981 due to illness.
The Feldenkrais Method
The Feldenkrais Method aims to help people move better and improve their lives. It does this through gentle movements and special instructions. The goal is to help you learn better posture and become more aware of your body.
In 2015, the Australian government looked at many alternative therapies. They wanted to see if these therapies should be covered by health insurance. The Feldenkrais Method was one of the therapies they reviewed. The report noted that there wasn't much clear scientific proof of its effectiveness for health problems. This means more research is needed to fully understand its benefits.
See also
In Spanish: Moshé Feldenkrais para niños
