David Shahar (; 1926-1997) was an Israeli fiction writer, translator, and editor best known for his depiction of old

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in the multi-volume historical saga ''The Palace of Shattered Vessels'' (1968–94).

Life and work

He was born in

in June 1926, to a pious ultra-orthodox Jewish family that had lived in the city for several generations. His ancestors arrived in Jerusalem in the 19th century, from Hungary on his father's side and the Russian Empire on his mother's side. According to family stories, his father's side was descended from Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Shahar studied at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

in Jerusalem. He was involved with the Irgun Tzvai Leumi and the Canaanite movement, and identified as an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

ultranationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...

, right-wing writer. Shahar's series of novels ''The Palace of Shattered Vessels'' is recognized by many as his masterpiece, considered a realist depiction of life in pre-State Jerusalem. Regarded as an Israeli version of

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

by French and some Israeli critics, he won the

Prix Medicis Etranger Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who a ...

and the title of Commander in the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

. He also won Israeli literary awards such as the

Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel, for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate p ...

, the

Agnon Prize People with the name of Hagnon or Agnon (in Greek: Ἅγνων) include: *Hagnon of Peparethus (6th century BC), ancient Greek athlete, victor in the stadion race of the 53rd Olympiad (568 BC) *Hagnon, son of Nikias (5th century BC), Athenian gener ...

and the

Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

. He had two children with the medieval historian

Shulamith Shahar Shulamith Shahar (; 2 November 1928 – 9 January 2025) was an Israeli historian. Shahar's 1981 study ''Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages'' was the first to specifically examine the role of women in the medieval period. The bo ...

, one of them was the Israelian sinologist,

Meir Shahar Meir Shahar (; born in 1959 in Jerusalem) is the Shaul Eisenberg Chair for East Asian Affairs at Tel Aviv University. Academic career Meir Shahar attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then studied Chinese in Taipei. He obtained a PhD i ...

. He died in Paris in 1997. Poet and chemist Avner Treinin spoke at his funeral when Shahar was buried on the Mount of Olives.

Works

Short story collections

*''Concerning Dreams'' (1955) l Ha-Chalomot*''Caesar'' (1960) eisar*''The Fortune Teller'' (1966) agid Ha-Atidot*''The Death of the Little God'' (1970) oto Shel Ha-Elohim Ha-Katan*''The Popeʹs Moustache'' (1971) famo Shel Ha-Apifyor

Novels

Translations into Hebrew

*''Selected Scandinavian Stories'' (1953) ivḥar Ha-Sipur ha-Skandinavi*''Selected Japanese Stories'' edited by Donald Keene (1957) ivḥar Ha-Sipur Ha-Yapani*''Napoleon's Letters'' edited by J. M. Thompson (196-?) ikhteve Napoleon*''Zen Wisdom'' (1971) okhmat Zen*''The Power and the Glory'' by Graham Greene (1991) a-Oz Veha-Tiferet

Books in English translation

*''News from Jerusalem: Stories'', trans. Dalya Bilu, et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973) *''The Palace of Shattered Vessels'', trans. Dalya Bilu (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975) ol. 1, ''Summer in the Street of the Prophets''*''His Majesty's Agent'', trans. Dalya Bilu (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980) *''The Palace of Shattered Vessels: Summer in the Street of the Prophets; and, A Voyage to Ur of the Chaldees'', trans. Dalya Bilu (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988) ols. 1 and 2