Nisim Aloni
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Nissim Aloni (;) Nissim Aloni (Levy) was born on the 14th of Elul, 5686 (August 24, 1926), in the Wolfson neighborhood of Tel Aviv, to a family of Bulgarian descent. He studied at the "Ahad Ha’am" and "Geula" schools. After the War of Independence, he began writing stories for the weekly magazine ''BaMachaneh''. In 1950, he was appointed literary editor of the journal ''Ashmoret'', and was one of the editors of the literary and social journal ''Ayin''. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, he wrote stories that were published in various newspapers and journals, including ''Al HaMishmar'', ''Haaretz'', and ''LaMerhav'' (''Masa'' supplement). Some of his best stories were published in ''Keshet''.


Biography

Aloni was born by the Nissim Levi to poor Bulgarian Jewish immigrant parents in
Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...
. His family lived in Florentin, a low-income neighborhood in south
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, which later became a source of inspiration for his work. After graduating from high school, Aloni enlisted in the '' Notrut'', a Jewish militia operating as an auxiliary police force alongside the British. He wrote for the weekly '' BaMahane'', and fought in the
1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
. Following his military service, he was appointed to the editorial board of the periodical ''B'Ayin'' and served as literary editor of ''Ashmoret''. He studied history and French at
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 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 1957, he traveled to Paris and stayed there a year and a half. In Paris, he became familair with contemporary French theater and was particularly influenced by the theater of Bertolt Brecht, who was visiting Paris at the time. During that period, he was also introduced to the existentialist worldview and was especially impressed by the philosophy of
Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...
. In his later years, a stroke left him severely handicapped. He died on 13 June, 1998 at a hospital in Tel Aviv.


Literary career

In 1953, his first play, ''Most Cruel the King'', was produced at the national Habima Theater, creating a stir amongst theatre goers. The play focuses on the figure of
Jeroboam Jeroboam I (; Hebrew language, Hebrew: ''Yārŏḇʿām''; ), frequently cited Jeroboam son of Nebat, was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel following a Jeroboam's Revol ...
. In 1961, Habima produced his play "The King's Clothes", which established him as one of the country's leading playwrights. In 1963, Aloni teamed up with Yossi Banai and Avner Hezkyahu to create the "Seasons Theater", for which Aloni wrote and produced the play ''The American Princess''. From that point onward, Aloni produced all his plays. He also began writing skits for the comedy troupe Hagashash Hachiver, and produced some of their programs, such as ''Cinema Gashash'' and ''Cantata for Shawarma''. Aloni’s plays are characterized by abundance, which often turns into an overload of materials and artistic devices. In his plays, Aloni brings together various materials and techniques that are frequently foreign or even contradictory to one another. Nevertheless, in each play, there is a gravitational force that binds together the different components of the play—or at least some of them. The strength of this force is not consistent and varies from play to play. When the gravitational force is strong, as in ''The King’s Clothes and The Butterfly Hunter'' and ''Aunt Lisa'', it is possible—though not always easy—to connect a significant portion of the play’s elements. When this force is weak, as in ''A Scapegoat'', it is difficult to link the various elements and derive clear meaning from them. Thematically, Aloni’s plays can be divided into two groups: plays centered on a social or ideological theme, and plays centered on a metaphysical theme. The first group includes ''Eddie King'', ''The American Princess'', ''Aunt Lisa'', and ''One of Napoleon’s Adventures – Alive or Dead!''. In these plays, two motifs emerge and merge. The first is the struggle and rebellion of a young man against the circumstances of his life. This is joined by a motif centered on an Oedipal struggle between a son and his father. In all of Aloni’s plays, his virtuoso use of language stands out in its uniqueness. One of the hallmarks of Aloni’s style is his use of language that is unbound by norms, registers, levels, or linguistic standards. Aloni blends different idioms and linguistic layers, combining high and low language, standard with non-standard speech, and interweaving a rich variety of foreign languages into Hebrew. He orchestrates the elements of language and turns them into a kind of concert, one that invites the listener to attune to its rhythms, its musical progression, its flexibility, diversity, and the abundance of rhetorical, rhythmic, and metaphorical devices it contains. Aloni shatters all conventional dramatic unities—including the unity of genre—and in their place he establishes the unity of language and style. Many of his plays involve royalty, such as ''The King's Clothes'', ''The American Princess'', ''The Bride and the Hunter of Butterflies'' (adapted for television by
Ram Loevy Ram Loevy (; born August 1, 1940) is an Israeli television director and screenwriter. He has written and directed and documentary films that challenge the status quo on such issues as class conflict, torture, the prison system, and the Israeli– ...
), ''Edi King''. His other plays include ''The Gypsies of Jaffa'', ''The Revolution and the Chicken'', ''Lukas the Coward'', ''The Raucous Dying'', ''Napoleon Dead or Alive''. Another theatrical field in which Aloni was active was writing and directing for light entertainment. Notably, he wrote and directed two shows for the comedy trio ''HaGashash HaHiver'': ''Cinema Gashash'' (1967) and ''Cantata for Shawarma'' (1969). These shows were enormously successful, and several of the sketches and expressions he wrote for them became cult classics and cultural touchstones in Israeli societ

Aloni held actress Hanna Rovina in high esteem, and wrote a play, ''Aunt Liza'', specifically for her to act the lead part. He has also published a collection of prose, ''Notes of a Stray Cat''.


Awards and critical acclaim

* In 1983, Aloni was a co-recipient (jointly with Ozer Rabin) of 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 ...
for
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 ...
. * In 1992, he became honorary fellow of The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem. * In 1996, 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 stage arts – dramatics.


Works outside of Israel

"The American Princess" was translated from Hebrew to Swedish by Viveka Heiman and then from Swedish to Norwegian by Jens Bjorneboe. It was produced by Oslo city theater Den Nye Theater, directed by Izzy Abrahami. Abrahami convinced the Israeli consul in Oslo to invite Aloni to the premier. Aloni, who reportedly sat next to the Norwegian king, brought Abrahami an original painting by Yosl Bergner as thanks.


Commemoration

In November 2009, a street was named for him in Tel Aviv.Tel Aviv to name street after playwright Aloni
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Published works


Plays

*' (Tel Aviv, 1963) translated as "The American princess" by Richard Flantz () *' (Cruel from all King) (Tel Aviv, 1968) *', a play in two acts (Tel Aviv, 1975) *' (The Bride and the Butterfly Hunter) (Tel Aviv, 1980) *' (Napoleon Alive or Dead) (Tel Aviv, 1993) *' (Aunt Liza) (Tel Aviv, 2000) *' (The Gypsies of Jaffa) (Tel Aviv, 2000) *' (The Emperor's Clothes) (Tel Aviv, 2004)


Literature

*' (Lists of Feral Cat) (Tel Aviv, 1996)


See also

*
List of Israel Prize recipients This is an incomplete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 - 2025. List For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize website ...
* List of Bialik Prize recipients


References


Further reading

*' edited by Nurit Yaʻari.


External links


Nissim Aloni
at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature {{DEFAULTSORT:Aloni, Nisim Israeli male dramatists and playwrights Israeli novelists Modern Hebrew writers Israel Prize in theatre recipients Jewish dramatists and playwrights 1926 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Israeli novelists 20th-century Israeli dramatists and playwrights Writers from Tel Aviv Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni