Making Connections

This article is part of the Legacy Feldenkrais Books Archive.

Intro

Making Connections: Roots and Resonance in the Life and Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais by David Kaetz explores the cultural, intellectual, and spiritual background that shaped the founder of the Feldenkrais Method®. While much attention has been given to Feldenkrais’s achievements in physics, engineering, martial arts, and somatic learning, the deeper roots of his worldview are less widely understood.

In this thoughtful and well-researched work, Kaetz examines the historical and cultural environment from which Moshe Feldenkrais emerged, particularly the rich spiritual traditions of Eastern European Jewish life. By exploring Feldenkrais’s Hasidic heritage, Kaetz reveals how themes of inquiry, paradox, storytelling, and self-development echo throughout Feldenkrais’s teaching.

The book invites readers to look beyond the techniques of the Feldenkrais Method and consider the broader cultural influences that helped shape Feldenkrais’s distinctive way of thinking about learning, awareness, and human development.

About the Book

In Making Connections, David Kaetz explores an often-overlooked dimension of Moshe Feldenkrais’s life: the cultural and spiritual world into which he was born.

Feldenkrais grew up within the rich and complex traditions of Eastern European Jewish life—particularly the mystical and intellectual environment of Hasidic culture. This background emphasized scholarship, questioning, storytelling, and the pursuit of personal transformation.

Kaetz suggests that many elements of Feldenkrais’s teaching—his paradoxical style, his emphasis on awareness and learning, and his deep curiosity about human potential—may reflect influences from this earlier cultural heritage.

The book traces these roots through history, exploring the intellectual traditions of Ashkenazic Judaism and the development of Hasidism. Kaetz also examines how these influences resonate with Feldenkrais’s later work in science, martial arts, and somatic education.

Through historical insight and careful reflection, Making Connections reveals a richer portrait of Moshe Feldenkrais and the cultural forces that helped shape his life and work.

Key Ideas in the Book

• Moshe Feldenkrais’s intellectual roots extend deeply into Eastern European Jewish culture.
• Hasidic traditions emphasized learning, questioning, storytelling, and personal transformation.
• Feldenkrais’s teaching style reflects a culture that valued paradox, inquiry, and lived wisdom.
• Historical and cultural influences can illuminate aspects of the Feldenkrais Method®.
• Understanding Feldenkrais’s background enriches appreciation of his work and ideas.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Second Edition
Preface
Prologue

Section One: Roots

1. The Lost World of Ashkenaz
2. Spiritual and Intellectual Foundations I
3. Spiritual and Intellectual Foundations II
4. 1648
5. The Advent of Hasidism
6. Pinchas of Koretz
7. Healing and Teaching of Pinchas of Koretz
8. Slavuta
9. Family of Origin
10. Geopolitics

Section Two: Resonance

1. Listening for Connections
2. Learning
3. Organization, Awareness, and the Work of Unification
4. Further Resonances
5. Language
6. Moshe Speaks
7. A Tale of Two Engineers
8. Where Worlds Meet: The Shoulder and the Brain
9. Embracing Paradox

Appendix I: Storytelling as Teaching
Appendix II: A Hasidic Story from Moshe Feldenkrais
Appendix III: Moshe’s Ten Commandments
Appendix IV: A Note on the Spelling and Punctuation of Hebrew and Yiddish Terms

Bibliography

Excerpt

From the Prologue to Making Connections

“The world into which Moshe Feldenkrais was born is quickly passing from living memory, though it has left an indelible imprint on the modern world. I speak here of the lost world of Eastern European Jewry.

When Moshe was teaching in Tel Aviv, there were many people around who remembered it, and much of what is written here would have been taken for granted. Now, however, when Moshe’s teachings have gone out all around the world, there are fewer and fewer who remember where Moshe came from, and what that might tell us about the man and his teachings.”

Closing Reflection

Making Connections offers a fascinating exploration of the cultural and intellectual landscape that helped shape Moshe Feldenkrais. By examining the traditions of Eastern European Jewish life and Hasidic spirituality, David Kaetz sheds new light on the deeper influences behind Feldenkrais’s thinking.

For students and practitioners of the Feldenkrais Method®, the book provides a broader context for understanding the originality of Feldenkrais’s work and the traditions of inquiry, learning, and transformation from which it emerged.

Related Reading

About Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
What is the Feldenkrais Method®
Research on the Feldenkrais Method®
Other books by Moshe Feldenkrais