Zvi Nishri

Zvi Nishri was born in 1878 in Kamianka

Zvi Orloff, later Nishri, was born in 1878 to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire. His sister was the sculptor Chana Orloff, and Raful Eitan was his nephew. As a youth he trained as a wagon builder and began teaching at 18, while joining the Zionist group The Young Worker.

He served in the Russian army and was released in 1903. In 1904 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and worked as a laborer in Petah Tikva and as a wagon builder in Rishon LeZion.

In 1906 he was invited to teach gymnastics at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, and he qualified as a physical education teacher at the University of Bern. He favored the Swedish method of gymnastics and trained teachers, starting with a seminar in Zikhron Ya'akov in 1912. He taught at the school until his retirement.

In 1913 he published the first Hebrew work on physical education. He created Hebrew sports terms and translated the rules of football into Hebrew. He helped found the Maccabi movement and the Hebrew Scout Movement in the country, and in 1933 he was among the founders of the Olympic committee of the Land of Israel.

He died in 1973. In 1981 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the Wingate Institute holds his archives and gives a prize in his name.