Ruth Bondy (19 June 1923 – 14 November 2017) was a Czech-Israeli journalist and translator. Bondy was a Holocaust survivor who wrote for the Israeli newspaper

Davar ''Davar'' ( he, דבר, lit. ''Word'') was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the British Mandate of Palestine and Israel between 1925 and May 1996. It was relaunched in 2016, under the name ''Davar Rishon'' as an online outlet by ...

and translated books written in Czech to Hebrew. She was awarded the

Sokolov Award The Sokolov Award, also known as Sokolov Prize, is an Israeli journalism award, awarded by the Tel Aviv municipality, in memory of Nahum Sokolow. The award has been granted since 1956, initially to outstanding print journalists and since 1981 to ...

in 1987 and the Tchernichovsky Prize in 2014.

Early life and education

Bondy was born on 19 June 1923 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. She studied literature and journalism in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and was a member of a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in J ...

group as a teenager.

Career

Bondy began her career as a translator for the UP News Agency in the 1940s. During the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, Bondy was sent to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination camp ...

in 1942 and

Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. ...

in 1943. After the end of World War II, Bondy trained in the military as a volunteer and moved to

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropoli ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948. After arriving in Israel, Bondy was a journalist for the Israeli newspaper ''

'' before working for the news magazine '' Devar ha-Shavua'' and the newspaper ''Omer'' in 1953. She remained in journalism for over thirty years and taught at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. Outside of journalism, Bondy translated Czech books into Hebrew and wrote multiple biographies including ones about

Jakob Edelstein Jakob Edelstein (AKA Yacov, Yaakov, Jakub Edelstein or Edlstein; 25 July 1903 – 20 June 1944) was a Czechoslovak Zionist, social democrat and the first Jewish Elder in the Theresienstadt ghetto. He was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Life and ...

and

Pinchas Rosen Pinchas Rosen ( he, פנחס רוזן, born Felix Rosenblüth, 1 May 1887 – 3 May 1978) was an Israeli statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948–51, 1952–56, and 1956–61. He was also leader o ...

. Her 1976 book ''The Emissary: The Life of Enzo Sereni'' won the

Yitzhak Sadeh Prize The Yitzhak Sadeh Prize for Military Literature is an annual award literary award given in Israel for the finest book on a military topic. It is named in honor of Yitzhak Sadeh. Winners * 1976, ''The Emissary: The Life of Enzo Seren'' by Ruth B ...

Awards and honours

In 1967, Bondy was the first woman to be awarded the

. In 2014, she was honoured with the Tchernichovsky Prize. Other awards Bondy was given include the

Jiri Theiner Jiri ( ne, जिरी) is a municipality in Dolakha District in the Bagmati Province of central Nepal. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. ...

and Gratias Agit awards.

Death

On 14 November 2017 Bondy died in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and man ...

, Israel.

Personal life

Bondy had one daughter with her husband and remained married until their divorce in 1981.

Works

* ''The Emissary: The Life and Death of Enzo Sereni'' (1973) * ''Small Comforts'' (1975) * ''Felix: Pinhas Rosen and his Time'' (1980) * ''Chaim Sheba: Physician for All People'' (1981) * ''Signed and Sealed: A Guide to Journalistic Writing'' (1982) * ''Elder of the Jews: Jacob Edelstein of Theresienstadt'' (1989) * ''Whole Fragments'' (1997) * ''Uprooted Roots'' (2002) * ''Trapped: Essays on the History of the Czech Jews, 1939–1945'' (2008) * ''Not just Kafka and the Golem : In Names, Food and Language: The History of Czech Jews with a Personal Perspective'' (2014, in Hebrew)

Translations

* '' The Good Soldier Schweik'', by

Jaroslav Hašek Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical in ...

(1980) * ''

Immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immort ...

'', by

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himsel ...

(1991) * '' Life with a Star'' by

Jiří Weil Jiří Weil (; 6 August 1900, Praskolesy – 13 December 1959, Prague) was a Czech writer of Jewish origin and Holocaust survivor. His noted works include the two novels '' Life with a Star'' (''Život s hvězdou''), and ''Mendelssohn Is on the R ...

(1991) * ''Call Me Friend: The Children's Newspaper "Kamarad" from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1943–1944'' (1998)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bondy, Ruth 1923 births 2017 deaths Czechoslovak emigrants to Israel Czech women journalists Czech translators Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Czech Jews Czech Zionists Israeli translators Writers from Prague Czech women writers Auschwitz concentration camp survivors 20th-century translators