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David Shahar

David Shahar (1926-1997) was an Israeli fiction writer, translator, and editor best known for his depiction of old Jerusalem in the multi-volume historical saga The Palace of Shattered Vessels (1968–94).

David Shahar
BornDavid Shahar
(1926-06-17)17 June 1926
Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
(now Jerusalem, Israel)
Died2 April 1997(1997-04-02) (aged 70)
Paris
Resting placeMount of Olives Jewish Cemetery
Occupationwriter
LanguageHebrew
NationalityIsraeli
GenreNovels, Short stories
Notable worksHeichal HaKelim HaShevurim (The Palace of Shattered Vessels)
Notable awardsAgnon Prize (1973), Prix Médicis Etranger
(1981)
SpouseShulamith Weinstock

Life and work

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He was born in Jerusalem in June 1926, to a pious ultra-orthodox Jewish family that had lived in the city for several generations. His ancestors arrived in Jerusalem in the 19th century, from Hungary on his father's side and the Russian Empire on his mother's side. According to family stories, his father's side was descended from Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

Shahar studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was involved with the Irgun Tzvai Leumi and the Canaanite movement, and identified as an Orthodox Jewish, ultranationalist, right-wing writer.

"[Shahar's] depiction of Jerusalem during the British Mandate period . . . projects a sociocultural world that does not embody any historically defined ideological position in the context of the debate around and within Zionism. . . . His mimetic enterprise may be characterized as the personal recreation of an alternative sociocultural world whose demise he elegizes."

—Michal Peled Ginsburg and Moshe Ron, Shattered vessels: memory, identity, and creation in the work of David Shahar, x

Shahar's series of novels The Palace of Shattered Vessels is recognized by many as his masterpiece, considered a realist depiction of life in pre-State Jerusalem. Regarded as an Israeli version of Proust by French and some Israeli critics, he won the Prix Medicis Etranger and the title of Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He also won Israeli literary awards such as the Bialik Prize, the Agnon Prize and the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works.

He had two children with the medieval historian Shulamith Shahar, one of them was the Israelian sinologist, Meir Shahar. He died in Paris in 1997.[1] Poet and chemist Avner Treinin spoke at his funeral when Shahar was buried on the Mount of Olives.

Works

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References

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  1. ^ "Obituary: David Shahar". The Independent. April 15, 1997.

Further reading

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  • Baziz, Orna (2003). The Vessels Will Never Be Able to Contain the Abundance: The Life and Work of David Shahar (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Carmel.
  • Feldman, Yael S. (1983). "In Pursuit of Things Past: David Shahar and the Autobiography in Current Israeli Fiction". Hebrew Studies. 24 (24): 99–105.
  • Ginsburg, Michal Peled; Ron, Moshe (2004). Shattered Vessels: Memory, Identity, and Creation in the Work of David Shahar. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  • Morahg, Gilead (1985). "Piercing the Shimmering Bubble: David Shahar's "The Palace of Shattered Vessels"". AJS Review. 10 (2): 211–34. doi:10.1017/S0364009400001355.
  • Yaron-Leconte, Iris (2017). ""Ekphrasis" dans "Les nuits de Lutèce" de David Shahar". Revue européenne des études hébraïques (19): 57–74.


    

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