Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef
Agnon at home in Jerusalem
after the announcement that
he had won the Nobel Prize
in Literature, October 1966.
(Getty Images / Image Bank.)
from religious imagery and practice in creating a new literary language. Their generation of
readers, having been schooled in religious yeshivas before breaking with tradition, understood
their multilayered references.
The Palmach Literary Group
During the 1930s, a second generation — born in the Land of Israel or at least locally raised —
that had neither come from Europe nor been raised religiously developed a literature more in
tune with its experiences and needs. These authors, with their emphasis on the Zionist-national
idea and labor movement values, were called the Palmach generation, named for the Haga-
nah's elite military arm that fought in the War of Independence. Their work was published by
publishing houses founded by Labor Party institutions, including Am Oved (Working People),
HaKibbutz HaMeuhad (United Kibbutz), and Sifriyat HaPoalim (Workers' Library).
This second generation's most prominent prose writers included Moshe Shamir, Aharon
Meged, Hanoch Bartov, Yigal Mosinzon, Nathan Shaham, Benjamin Tamuz, Amalia Kahana-
Carmon, and Yoram Kanyuk. They wrote about settling the land, serving in the army, and
engaging in the other activities involved in creating a new country. Their writings developed
