In 1957, photographs of the Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, doing a headstand aged 71 went viral around the world. How did this happen and who was responsible?

In May 1948, David Ben-Gurion (born 16 October 1886) proclaimed the establishment of Israel. In 1949 he became prime minister and would become known as the ‚father of the nation‘.

He was an intellectual man and did not have a good sense of his physical self. In 1956, whilst the Israeli army was engaged in conflict, he was in bed with debilitating back pain. During foreign trips, he was kept on his feet with pain killers and a corset.

In 1956 his friend Professor Aharon Katzir proposed that he see Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. As Christian Buckard writes in his biography of Moshe Feldenkrais,

„A few days later, Katzir returned to Ben-Gurion’s Tel Aviv home.  With him was a man of medium build, wide shoulders, a broad, friendly face, and the large, powerful hands of a manual worker.  It was clear that this was not just a man of intellect, but also of action.  The man spoke perfect Hebrew but Ben-Gurion instantly recognised from his accent that, like himself, he was a Jew with east European roots.“

Although the key request was to help Ben-Gurion overcome his back pain, Moshe Feldenkrais believed that „one could only be healthy if one managed to realise one’s unavowed dreams.” For Ben-Gurion, this came to be associated with a physical renewal, and ultimately with the ability to do a headstand. “Ben-Gurion might be more brilliant than anyone else, Feldenkrais conceded, but this was his chance to become an even bigger, even more brilliant version of himself.“

There was considerable consternation from the prime minister’s entourage, who thought that, with his high blood pressure, it could be the death of him. Nevertheless on 4th July 1957 they started to work together on doing a headstand, and on 15th September, two months and some days later, Ben-Gurion wrote to his daughter that he had, in the privacy of his own apartment, achieved it.

The famous photo was shot on the beach in front of the hotel where he was taking a health-based break. „As Ben-Gurion and his wife Pola walked with the bodyguards back up to the hotel, someone said that the ‚Old Man‘ was looking great.  Pola turned around and said: „‚Old Man‘?  Who here is old?”

I should imagine that Ben-Gurion did his headstand in public view in full knowledge that it would bolster his political image.

That was the photo that made Moshe Feldenkrais famous.