It was not only in the schools, however, that physical education was developing. In 1906, a couple of sports clubs started up: the Rishon LeTzion society in Jaffa and the Bar Giora society in Jerusalem. Initially, they did not have an easy time. The Turks constantly suspected the whole subject of Jewish nationalism and took whatever steps they felt were necessary in order to quash potentially threatening expressions of Jewish independence. From time to time, this included physical training. Fear of the Turks in these years was both very real and justified.

The Jaffa group thus met in the premises of the Ezra school, but the school authorities suspected them of some kind of subversive activities. In addition, they believed that physical training could be interpreted as semi-military training by the Turks, and that that would bring the wrath of the authorities down on the school. The unfortunate athletes were therefore unceremoniously turned out of the school, their equipment was impounded and they had to look for another place to train.

It is clear that physical training was gaining in popularity. The major expression of this in the pre W.W. I years was the Rehovot Games. These games were initiated in 1908, when the young people of Rehovot invited the Jaffa club plus other interested parties to take part in a series of sporting competitions on the intermediate days (Hol HaMoed) of Pesach.

It is not clear what exactly led to this initiative. Seemingly the young athletes of Rehovot – the same people who had impressed Herzl so much ten years earlier – were eager to show off their sporting prowess and to measure their abilities against some (relatively) serious competition. In addition, there might well have been some shrewd commercial tourist considerations at work. If that was the case, they were proven justified. Around a thousand people showed up for the attraction, which included athletics, shooting, wrestling and horse riding competitions, in addition to fun games (climbing a well greased pole etc). The games were a great success and they took place six times altogether up to their swansong in 1914 (the games of 1911 were washed out and cancelled).

The competitions gained in popularity and, from 1912 especially, several thousand people converged on Rehovot each year with great enthusiasm. One reason for the especially great interest in the 1912 games was the presence of the HaShomer organization – the legendary self-defence force, which at the time had a contract to guard Rehovot. One interesting vignette was the participation of a woman, Tzipporah Becker, a member of the Shomer organization, in the main horse race. Her opponent, representing another group of Shomrim, refused to compete against her, so the race was delayed until she agreed to withdraw in favour of another rider. When the race was finally held, the second rider won the race only to astonish the crowd at the end by undoing his clothes and revealing “himself” as Tzipporah Becker!

By the last games, however, the atmosphere was changing. The farmers of Rehovot, who had insisted during the years on doing their own manual labour, resisting the temptation to use cheap Arab labour as many other settlements were doing, had recently succumbed, and this caused enormous resentment among the Jewish workers who were ideologically committed to the idea of Jewish labour. In addition, the Shomrim had left Rehovot when their final contract had not been renewed, and all this cast a cloud over the general proceeding with political and class tension shadowing the sporting events.

The First World War would intervene but after the war, when initiatives were taken to reopen the games, there was little enthusiasm for the idea. The time of these games had passed. The politicization and ideological tension that had coloured the last games in 1914, would however persist and develop in the post-war period, providing a theme that would wind in and out of the sporting scene for many years, and in certain ways, still continues today.