Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
War I, Hebrew took on symbolic value for those who wanted to break with the poverty and
oppressed state of existing Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. It was also important as
a bridge among all Jews, including non-Yiddish speakers whose fi rst language was German,
English, or French but who also knew Hebrew.
For the Israeli writer, the Hebrew language is both confi ning and a source of richness. He-
brew does not have a large vocabulary, but precisely for this reason, a single word can contain
diverse meanings, which the poet can use to add connotations and allusions.
Founders of Israeli Literature
During the fi rst decades of the twentieth century, many prominent Hebrew-language authors
and poets from Russia and Poland immigrated to the Land of Israel. These included Yosef
Haim Brenner (1881-1921), Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888 -1970), and Haim Hazaz (1898 -1973).
As a result, the center of activities of the big Hebrew publishing houses located in Odessa and
Warsaw soon moved too. This also led to the creation of new local literary magazines. The
Land of Israel became the main Hebrew literary center. During this period, Hebrew consoli-
dated its role as the language of the new nation, despite the sentimental attachment of many —
including the celebrated poet Hayim Nahman Bialik— to Yiddish.
Agnon, the most renowned fi gure in modern Hebrew literature, is the only Hebrew writer
to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he did in 1966. His writing career spanned
six decades. While most Israeli Hebrew writing focused on the new secular society develop-
ing in the Land of Israel— deliberately breaking with the exiled past —Agnon, who was also
Dati, remained loyal to classical Jewish culture and traditional Jewish life. His rich depictions
of small-town Jewish life in Europe often focused on the clashes and transitions between tra-
ditional and modern Jewish life. Agnon developed his own Hebrew style, which often played
on and extended the Biblical and religious Hebrew meanings of words into modern situations.
Yet Agnon also set works in the Land of Israel. In
Only Yesterday
(1945), he follows an ear-
nest but naive young Zionist who immigrates before World War I and experiences both the
good and bad sides of the Yishuv, in the countryside and in Tel Aviv.
Shira
(1971) does the same
thing for Jerusalem during World War II, but here Agnon views the clash between the highest
level of rationalism and the wildest shores of romanticism in the experiences of a dry, scholarly
German immigrant professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Not just authors of novels and short stories but poets were at the forefront of the renewal
of Hebrew as a spoken, modern language, and until the middle of the twentieth century, their
poetry was considered a national achievement of the greatest importance. Hayim Nahman
Bialik (1873 -1934) and Saul Tchernichovsky (1875 -1943) were two major poets who became
national heroes. Their poetry echoed themes of Israeli pioneering and national self-assertion.
Like Agnon, they felt comfortable in referring to both Jewish traditional and Jewish modern
life. Bialik became such a national institution and was so showered with praise that he found
his celebrity status burdensome.
Bialik and Agnon are considered the founders of modern Hebrew literature: Bialik for po-
etry and Agnon for prose. Their main contribution was the way they used words or concepts
