Israeli Poetry
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Israeli literature is
literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
written by
Israelis Israelis (; ) are the Israeli citizenship law, citizens and nationals of the Israel, State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Israeli Jews, Jews and Arab citizens of Israel, Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percen ...
. Most works classed as Israeli literature are written in the
Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...
, although some Israeli authors write in
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
,
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
.


History


Hebrew writers

The foundations of modern Israel writing were laid by a group of literary pioneers from the
Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah () was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia, with some from Yemen, immigrated into Ottoman Palestine. The Sec ...
including
Shmuel Yosef Agnon Shmuel Yosef Agnon (; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the pseudonym Shai A ...
, the only Nobel Prize winner for literature in Hebrew and the only one for Israeli literature,
Moshe Smilansky Moshe Smilansky MBE (; February 24, 1874 – October 6, 1953) was a pioneer of the First Aliyah, a Zionist leader who advocated peaceful coexistence with the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine, a farmer, and a prolific author of fiction and non-fict ...
,
Yosef Haim Brenner Joseph Chaim Brenner (; 11 September 1881 – 2 May 1921) was a Hebrew-language author from the Russian Empire, and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature, a thinker, publicist, and public leader. In addition to his literary innovations ...
,
David Shimoni David Shimoni (; 25 August 1891 – 10 December 1956) was an Israeli poet, writer and translator. Shimonovitch (later David Shimoni) was born in Babruysk in Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire) to Nissim Shimonovitch and Malka Fridland A ...
, and
Jacob Fichman Jacob Fichman (; 25November 188118May 1958), also transliterated as Yakov Fichman, was an acclaimed Hebrew language, Hebrew poet, essayist and literary critic. Biography Fichman was born in Bălți, Bessarabia, Moldova in 1881. He initially ...
. Until World War I, Hebrew literature was centered in Eastern Europe. After the war and the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
many Hebrew writers found their way to Palestine, so that at the time Palestinian writing was essentially a continuation of the European tradition. In 1921, 70 writers met in Tel Aviv and founded the Hebrew Writers' Association. About this time the first literary periodicals made their appearance—''Ha-Adamah'', edited by Brenner, and ''Ma'abarot'', edited by Fichman. The 1920's and 1930's witnessed the emergence of Palestine as the dominant center of Hebrew literary activity. Majority of the pioneers of Hebrew literature were Zionists, and eventually made their way to Palestine. The great figures of the early part of the century— Bialik,
Ahad Ha-Am Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (18 August 1856 – 2 January 1927), primarily known by his Hebrew name and pen name Ahad Ha'am (, lit. 'one of the people', ), was a Hebrew journalist and essayist, and one of the foremost pre-state Zionist thinkers. ...
, Tchernichovsky—all spent their last years in Tel Aviv, and although this was not the period of their greatest creativity, they exerted a great influence on younger Hebrew writers. Among the earliest modern Hebrew writers was a small minority of writers who were born in Palestine. This cadre includes Yitzhaq Shami and
Yehuda Burla Yehuda Burla (; 18 September 1886 – 7 November 1969) was an Israeli author. Biography Burla was born in 1886 in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to a Sephardi Jewish family with rabbinical roots, originating from İzmir. As a chil ...
, Sepharadi Jews whose families migrated to Palestine in the 19th and 18th centuries, respectively. The writing of this group stands out for its authentic depiction of the Arab and Jewish population of Palestine, told from the vantage point of those who grew up in its midst. The most important writers of the first generation, S.Y. Agnon and
Haim Hazaz Haim Hazaz (; 16 September 1898 – 24 March 1973) was an Israeli novelist. Biography Haim Hazaz was born in the village of Sidorovichi, Kiev Governorate in the Russian Empire, the same village of future prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's fami ...
, were deeply rooted in their European background, and served as links between the classical writers of the early decades of the Hebrew revival and the Hebrew writers in Palestine during the following generations. For the next generation of writers, the center of focus was Palestine, even when they were writing about other parts of the world. Their framework was the period of
aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...
and, very often, life in the
kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
. Among the outstanding names are
Uri Zvi Greenberg Uri Zvi Greenberg (; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelled Uri Zvi Grinberg) was an Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew. Widely regarded among the greatest poets in the country's history, he was a ...
and
Avraham Shlonsky Avraham Shlonsky (; ; March 6, 1900 – May 18, 1973) was a Russian-born Israeli poet and editor. He was influential in the development of modern Hebrew and its literature in Israel through his many acclaimed translations of literary classics, ...
, who found in Palestine the antidote to the rootlessness of the Diaspora. The third generation of writers emerged around the time of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...
. Its key figures ( S. Yizhar,
Moshe Shamir Moshe Shamir (; 15 September 1921 – 20 August 2004) was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure. He was the author of a play upon which Israeli film '' He Walked Through the Fields'' was based. Biography Shamir was bor ...
, Hanoch Bartov,
Haim Gouri Haim Gouri (; Gurfinkel; 9 October 1923 – 31 January 2018) was an Israeli poet, novelist, journalist, and documentary film, documentary director (film), filmmaker. He was awarded the Israel Prize for poetry in 1988 and was the #Awards and rec ...
,
Benjamin Tammuz Benjamin Tammuz (; 11 July 1919 – 19 July 1989) was an Israeli writer and artist who contributed to Israeli culture in many disciplines, as a novelist, journalist, critic, painter, and sculptor. Benjamin Tammuz was born in Russian SFSR, Soviet R ...
,
Aharon Megged Aharon Megged (; 10 August 1920 – 23 March 2016) (Hebrew calendar, Hebrew year 5680) was an Israeli author and playwright, a winner of multiple literary awards. Biography Aharon Greenberg (later Megged) was born in Włocławek, Poland. In 1 ...
) were all sabras or had been brought to the country at an early age. Strong influences now came in from other countries, especially Western. A group called the "
Canaanites {{Cat main, Canaan See also: * :Ancient Israel and Judah Ancient Levant Hebrew Bible nations Ancient Lebanon 0050 Ancient Syria Wikipedia categories named after regions 0050 0050 Phoenicia Amarna Age civilizations ...
" even sought to deny the connection between Israelis and Jews elsewhere. But after 1948, a feeling of emptiness and of searching for new values was leading to experiments in exploring the Jewish past. The subsequent generation of the 1960s ( A. B. Yehoshua,
Amos Oz Amos Oz (; born Amos Klausner (); 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onwards, Oz was a pro ...
,
Natan Yonatan Nathan Yonathan (; 20 September 1923 – 12 March 2004) was an Israeli poet. His poems have been translated from Hebrew and published in more than a dozen languages, among them: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Port ...
,
Yoram Kaniuk Yoram Kaniuk (; May 2, 1930 – June 8, 2013) was an Israeli writer, painter, journalist, and theatre critic. Biography Yoram Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv. His father, , was the first curator of Tel Aviv Museum of Art and was born in Ternopi ...
,
Yaakov Shabtai Yaakov Shabtai (; March 8, 1934 – August 4, 1981) was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator. Biography Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia ...
) has endeavoured to place
Israeli culture The culture of Israel is closely associated with Jewish culture and rooted in the Jewish history of the Jewish diaspora, diaspora and Zionism, Zionist movement. It has also been influenced by Arab culture and the history and traditions of the Ara ...
within a world context and stresses not so much the unique aspects of Jewish life and Israel as the universal. This school of writers often identifies itself with the protest literature of other countries. The following generation, writers who were born in the 1960s and 1970s and made their debut in the 1980s and 1990s, examined the basic questions of Jewish-Israeli existence by exposing the collective tensions in individual characters and fates. Notable writers from this era include
Etgar Keret Etgar Keret (; born August 20, 1967) is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television. Early life Keret was born in Ramat Gan, Israel in 1967. He is a third child to parents who survive ...
and
Sayed Kashua Sayed Kashua (, ; born 1975) is an author and journalist. He is a Palestinian people, Palestinian citizen of Israel, born in Tira, Israel. He is known for his books and humorous columns in Hebrew and English. Early life Kashua was born in Tira, ...
.


Yiddish writers

Apart from Hebrew writers, there is considerable creative productivity in Israel in other languages, notably in Yiddish. Before World War II, Warsaw, Moscow, and New York were the main centers of Yiddish activity. In Palestine there was still a certain hostility to the Yiddish language, which was felt as a challenge to the Hebrew revival. However, with World War II the whole picture changed. The European centers were liquidated by Hitler and Stalin, and the New York center declined. Immigration brought many of the leading Yiddish writers to Israel. Here the internal attitude relaxed and became friendly, in view of the Holocaust in Europe, on the one hand, and the secure position attained by Hebrew, on the other. Yiddish writing in Israel can be marked by generations, similar to those in Hebrew literature. The first consisted of writers such as
David Pinski David Pinski (Yiddish: דוד פּינסקי; April 5, 1872 – August 11, 1959) was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the Industrial Revolution, Pinsk ...
and
Sholem Asch Sholem Asch (, ; 1 November 1880 – 10 July 1957), also written Shalom Ash, was a Polish Jews, Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language who settled in the United States. Life and work Asch was born Szalom Asz in ...
, who passed their last years in Israel. The second generation, led by Abraham Sutzkever, started its career in Eastern Europe but continued in Israel. The third generation was centered on "Young Israel", a
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
group of poets and prose writers, most of whom are kibbutz members, whose work has been influenced by the avant-garde schools of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
and French writing. Yiddish writing in Israel is concentrated on the European Holocaust (the leading writer on this is
Ka-Tzetnik Yehiel De-Nur (; ''De-Nur'' means 'of the fire' in Aramaic; also Romanized ''Dinoor, Di-Nur''), also known by his pen name Ka-Tsetnik 135633 (), born Yehiel Feiner (16 May 1909 – 17 July 2001), was a Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, whos ...
), and life among new immigrants. Yiddish authors in Israel are organized in a Yiddish authors' association.


Arabic writers

The presence of Arabic-language literature in Israeli society can be initially attributed to
Emile Habibi Emile Shukri Habibi (, ; 28 January 1922 – 2 May 1996) was a Palestinian-Israeli writer of Arabic literature and a politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the communist parties Maki and Rakah. Biography Habibi was born in Haif ...
, an Israeli-Palestinian writer and a communist politician. In 1992, he was awarded the
Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...
for Arabic literature. A fervent communist, Habibi helped created the Israeli Communist Party and established ''Al-Ittihad'', a communist daily
Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
newspaper published in
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
. Habibi's works, while often a critique of Israeli society, are nevertheless part of
Israeli culture The culture of Israel is closely associated with Jewish culture and rooted in the Jewish history of the Jewish diaspora, diaspora and Zionism, Zionist movement. It has also been influenced by Arab culture and the history and traditions of the Ara ...
.


Publication of books in Israel

By law, the
Jewish National and University Library The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Jewish heritage. The library holds more than 5 million books, and i ...
of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, 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. ...
receives two copies of each book published in Israel. In 2004 it reported that it received 6,436 new books. Most of them were published in Hebrew, and 89% those books published in Hebrew were original to the Hebrew language. Almost 8% of the 2004 crop were children's books and another 4% were textbooks. According to the type of publisher, the books were 55% commercial, 14% self-published, 10% governmental, 7% educational, and 14% published by other types of organizations. The orthodox and ultra-orthodox sector was responsible for 21% of the total titles. 2017 figures show that 17% of books were Torah-related, 16% were literature and 14% children's books.Tal Polon
Israeli books: More Torah-related books than any other type
Arutz 7, 05/06/18.


See also

*
Hebrew Book Week Hebrew Book Week () is an annual week-long event in Israel celebrating Hebrew literature. History Hebrew Book Week evolved from a one-day event on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv organized by Bracha Peli, founder of Masada Press, to promote ...
* List of Hebrew-language authors *
List of Hebrew-language poets A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* List of Hebrew-language playwrights *
Jewish American literature Jewish American literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States. It encompasses traditions of writing in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish. While cri ...


References


External links


Overview of Hebrew literature

The State of the Arts: Israeli Literature

CULTURE- Literature", 2003

Weill, Asher. Culture in Israel- On the Cusp of the Millennium, 2000
{{Authority control Hebrew language Hebrew-language literature