Haim Hazaz

Haim Hazaz חיים הזז
Born	16 September 1898 Ukraine, Russian Empire
Died	24 March 1973 (74 years) Israel
Occupation	writer
Language	Hebrew
Ethnicity	Jewish
Citizenship	Israeli
Notable awards	Bialik Prize (1942) Israel Prize (1953)

Haim Hazaz (Hebrew: חיים הזז)‎ (16 September 1898 – 24 March 1973) was an Israeli novelist.

Life

Hazaz was born in a small village of Sidorovichi, Kiev Governorate in the Russian Empire in 1898. Like many Jewish writers from his generation in the Russian Empire, witnessing pogroms played a formative role on his work. He lived in a number of major European cities, including Kiev, Kharkiv, Moscow, Constantinople, Paris and Berlin before emigrating to the then British Mandate of Palestine in 1931. settling in Jerusalem. He was married to the poet Yocheved Bat-Miriam, they lost their only son, Nahum, in the Israeli war of independence in 1948. From 1961 until his death in 1973, Hazaz lived in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Talbiya.

Early work

Hazaz was first published in 1918 under a pseudonym. He then published a number of short stories in Journals. Halfway through the 1920s, his stories where gaining recognition. Many of his works at that time have the Russian Revolution as a background. In 1930, he released his first novel (בישוב של יער), which focuses on a Jewish family in Ukraine around the Russo-Japanese War.

Awards

• In 1942 (jointly with Shaul Tchernichovsky) and again in 1970, Hazaz was awarded the Bialik Prize for Literature.
• In 1953, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature., the inaugural year of the prize.

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients
• List of Bialik Prize recipients