Today in 1887, Shai Agnon was born, the greatest writer of Israel.
Shmuel Yosef Chachex was born in Galicia to a religious family, and soon discovered a talent for writing. Even before the age of 20, he published some of his works and was editor of an Yiddish weekly, and at the age of 21 he immigrated to Israel and settled in Neve Tzedek in his renewed Jaffa. He published many stories, made connections with senior Jewish community figures (Bialik, Brenner, and Rav Kook) – and in 1912 he moved to Germany. In Germany, he married and made a family, and met Shlomo Zalman Schocken, who became his financial patron (and later his publisher as part of the Shaken Publishing and Haaretz newspaper). In 1924, Agnon’s library burned down – a traumatic event for him; Agnon (a new name) returned to Israel and also returned to the Jewish religion, and established a home for him in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. In the following years, Schocken published many of his works and novels, and Agnon was recognized as one of the greatest Hebrew writers. Agnon was one of the founders of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, and in 1966 he gained international recognition with his Nobel Prize in Literature, together with Nellie Zaksh (he was the first Israeli to win the prize). Agnon died in 1970, and his many books, filled with references, criticism and descriptions of Jewish existence, using Hebrew languages from all generations, are still considered to be great assets.
Photo Source: Wikipedia
