Israeli Athletes Pose in Birthday Suits

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Delila Hatuel is an Olympic foil fencer.
(JTA)- Since 2009, ESPN The Magazine has released an annual issue that features photos of renowned athletes posing nude. The Body Issue has become a fixture of popular sports culture that celebrates the immaculate bodies that top athletes can achieve.
Now, Israel’s popular Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper has given the idea a try, photographing 14 of Israel’s best athletes nude in “a first” for the country. According to Israel21C, fashion photographer Gabriel Baharlia spent two and a half weeks with the athletes to produce the images. The results, published last weekend, are as startling as ESPN’s.
Ariel Harush is a soccer goalkeeper for the Israeli national team and Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Israeli Premier League.

Image by Gabriel Baharlia/Facebook
Amit Ivry is an Olympic swimmer who holds several national records in Israel.

Meirav Dori is a basketball guard who plays for the Israeli national team.


Image by Gabriel Baharlia/Facebook
Ma’ayan Shahaf is a seven-time national champion high-jumper.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
