Ema Geron

Ema Geron was born in 1920 in Sliven

Ema Geron was born Amada Geron in Sliven, Bulgaria, in 1920. Her parents were Yomtov and Rivka, née Asher. One of her mother's sisters was the grandmother of Moni Moshonov.

She finished the National Sports Academy of Bulgaria in 1948 and began teaching there. In 1954 she earned a doctorate in psychology at Sofia University. She became a full professor in 1967.

She headed the psychology department at the sports academy and founded Bulgaria's first laboratory for the psychological study of sport. Between 1957 and 1965 she published 3 books on sport psychology. In 1968 she organized an international conference on athletes' mental preparation, and the European Federation of Sport Psychology was founded on her initiative.

In 1973 she and her husband, historian Petar Samardzhiev, left a conference in Spain and moved to Israel through Italy. She taught at the Wingate Institute, helped found its sport psychology unit and led it. In 1974 she founded the Israeli society for the psychology and sociology of sport.

Bulgaria removed her from its academic bodies after she left, and restored her standing in 1990. She died in 2011 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot. The European federation has given the Ema Geron Award since 2011.