Ephraim Kishon
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Ephraim Kishon | |
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Born | Ferenc Hoffmann August 23, 1924 Budapest, Hungary |
Died | January 29, 2005 Appenzell, Switzerland | (aged 80)
Nationality | Israeli |
Spouse(s) | Eva Klamer (1946–58) (divorced) Sara Kishon (1959–2002) Lisa Witasek (2003–05) |
Children | Rafael Kishon (born 1957) Amir Kishon (born 1964) Renana Kishon (born 1968) |
Ephraim Kishon (
Biography
Ephraim Kishon was born on August 23, 1924, by the name of Ferenc Hoffmann into a middle-class Jewish family in
His writing talent became evident in his youth. In 1940 he won his first prize for writing a novel for high school students. Due to the racial laws applied in Hungary during World War II, he was not allowed to continue his studies at the university and therefore he began to study
During World War II the Nazis imprisoned him in several concentration camps. At one camp his chess talent helped him survive, as he played chess with the guards.[4] In another camp, the Germans lined up the inmates and shot every tenth person, but passed him by. He later wrote in his book The Scapegoat, "They made a mistake—they left one satirist alive". He eventually managed to escape the concentration camps while being transported to the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi German Occupied Poland, and hid the remainder of the war disguised as "Stanko Andras", a Slovak laborer.
After the war when he returned to Budapest he discovered that his parents and sister had survived, but many other family members had been murdered in the
In 1949 he immigrated to the newly founded state of Israel, together with his first wife Eva (Chawa) Klamer, to escape the Communist regime. When arriving in Israel an immigration officer officially Hebraicized his name to "Ephraim Kishon". According to Kishon, the Jewish Agency clerk asked him for his name and when he answered "Ferenc" the clerk said: There is no such thing, and wrote "Ephraim", and afterwards he went ahead and Hebraicized his family name as well, Kishon being a river near Haifa, the Israeli city on Mount Carmel.
His first marriage to Eva (Chawa) Klamer in 1946 ended in divorce. In 1959, he married Sara (née Lipovitz), who died in 2002. In 2003, he married the Austrian writer Lisa Witasek. Kishon had three children: Raphael (b. 1957), Amir (b. 1963), and Renana (b. 1968).
In 1981, Kishon established a second home in the rural Swiss canton of
Kishon died on January 29, 2005, at his home in Switzerland at the age of 80 following a cardiac arrest. His body was flown to Israel and he was buried at the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Being a popular Israeli writer, he still felt he was getting negative treatment from the Israeli media due to the fact he was rather
Literary career
Kishon initially lived in the "Sha'ar Ha'Aliyah" transit camp near Haifa, and soon afterwards moved to Kibbutz
Mastering the Hebrew language with remarkable speed, in 1951 Kishon began writing a satirical column in the easy-Hebrew daily, Omer, after only two years in the country. Later on Kishon began writing for the newspaper "Davar" (which was very influential at the time) in which he published a satire called "The Blaumilch Canal". That same year he published his first book in Israel "Ha-ole Ha-Yored le-Chayenu"- "The Pestering Immigrant", (a pun on the Hebrew word for "Immigrant") which was written in Hungarian and translated into Hebrew by Avigdor Hameiri. The book was mostly about the life experiences of new immigrants in Israel during the 1950s.
In 1952 Kishon began writing a regular satirical column called "Had Gadya" ("One Young Goat" in Aramaic, taken from the
Kishon's extraordinary linguistic inventiveness and flair for creating characters was carried over into his work for the theater. Collections of his humorous writings have appeared in Hebrew and in translation. Among the English translations are Look Back Mrs. Lot (1960), Noah's Ark, Tourist Class (1962), The Seasick Whale (1965), and two books on the Six-Day War and its aftermath, So Sorry We Won (1967), and Woe to the Victors (1969). Two collections of his plays have also appeared in Hebrew: Shemo Holekh Lefanav (1953) and Ma´arkhonim (1959).
Kishon's books have been translated into 37 languages and sold particularly well in Germany. Kishon rejected the idea of universal guilt for the
Chess
Kishon was a lifelong chess enthusiast, and took an early interest in chess-playing computers. In 1990, German chess computer manufacturer Hegener & Glaser together with Fidelity produced the Kishon Chesster,[7] a chess computer distinguished by the spoken comments it would make during a game. Kishon wrote the comments to be humorous, but were also carefully chosen to be relevant to chess and the position in the game.[8]
Books, plays, and films
Books
- Ha-ole Ha-Yored le-Chayenu (1951)
- Thousand of Gadia and Gadia (1954)
- Ein Kamonim (1955)
- Do Not Worry (1957)
- Sketches (1959)
- It All Depends (1958)
- Be-Echad Ha-Emeshim (1961)
- He and She (1963)
- Somersaults (1964)
- Bone in the Throat (1966)
- So Sorry We Won! (1967), with illustrations by Dosh
- Gomzim Gomzim (1969)
- For[dubious ] (1970)
- Oh, Winners (1970)
- Department of Ephraim Kishon (1972)
- Wole[dubious ] in the Screen (1973)
- Partachia my Love (1974)
- My Family Right or Wrong (1977)
- Smile drought (1978)
- Family Book (1980–current)
- Jonathan Voyage (1981), children book
- The Cup is Ours (1981), children book
- Uncles on the Wires (1981), children book
- Unfinished Adventure (1981), children book
- Gum with Stripes (1981), children book
- Seven Comedies (1981)
- Satire Book I (1981)
- Arbinkea (1991)
- Satire Book II (1991)
- Satire Book III (1992)
- 58 Sketches (1995)
- Ants War (1995) children books
- Hercules and the Seven Midgets (1995) children books
- The Taming of the Shrew Dog (1995) children books
- Hairy, Hell (1998)
- State Protocol (1999)
- The Redhead with the Key (2002) children books
- Book of Travels (2003)
- Partachia (2004)
- Picasso's Sweet Revenge (2004)
Plays
- His Reputation Precedes Him (1953)
- Black on White (1957)
- Ha-Ketubbah (1959)
- No Word to Morgenstein (1960)
- Take the Plug Out (1968)
- Oh, oh, Juliet (1972)
- Salah Shabati the musical (1988)
- Open for Renovation (2004) not yet seen
- The Policeman (2009)
Kishon's sketches and plays have been translated and performed on stages and television networks worldwide.
Films
Kishon expanded into cinema in the early 1960s. He wrote, directed and produced five feature films, all of them comedic /satirical movies. Three movies were nominated for major international awards including the Golden Globe award (two wins) and the Oscar (two nominations):
- nominated for Oscar for best foreign language film),[9] Israeli comedy film about the chaos of Israeli immigration and resettlement. This social satire placed the director Ephraim Kishon among the first Israeli filmmakers to achieve international success. It also introduced actor Chaim Topol (Fiddler on the Roof) to audiences worldwide.
- Ervinka (1967), written and directed by Kishon. The film, starring Topol, is a comical tale of a con man who falls in love with a police officer.
- Blaumilch Canal, also known as The Big Dig (1969, nominated for Golden Globe 1971), an Israeli comedy which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality's reaction to the actions of a lunatic.
- nominated for Oscar for best foreign language film,[11] awarded 1972 Golden Globe for best foreign language film). It won several other awards, such as best foreign film in the Barcelona film festival and best director in the Monte Carlo festival. In Israel it is considered a cinematic classic.
- Seffy Rivlin. The film takes a satirical, comic look at the old generation of Israeli politicians.
Awards
- 1953, Nordau Prize for Literature
- 1958, Sokolov Prize for Journalism
- 1964, Kinor David (David's Harp) Prize
- 1970, Herzl Award for Hungarian Jewry: for literature
- 1998, co-recipient (jointly with Nurit Guvrin and Aryeh Sivan) of the Bialik Prize for Hebrew literature[12]
- 2002, the settlers."
Kishon was nominated twice for an
See also
- List of Bialik Prize recipients
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film#1960s.
References
- ^ Ephraim Kishon, 80, Holocaust Survivor Who Became Satirist Archived 2019-08-06 at the Wayback Machine *The New York Times*, 30 January 2005
- ^ Obituaries: Ephraim Kishon Archived 2020-09-03 at the Wayback Machine *The Guardian*, 1 February 2005
- ^ The life of Ephraim Kishon (1924-2005) Archived 2020-11-06 at the Wayback Machine, ephraimkishon.de
- ^ "Remembering the Greatest Jewish Writer You May Not Have Even Heard Of". Tablet Magazine. 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
- ^ "חלון כתבה". Jpress.org.il. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
- ^ "Ephraim Kishon 1924 - 2005". Ephraim Kishon: Official website. 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
- ^ "Kishon Chesster". Xs4all.nl. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
- ^ Ephraim Kishon (Chessbase.com news) Archived 2005-09-10 at the Wayback Machine— biography and involvement with chess computers
- ^ "The 37th Academy Awards (1965) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-05.
- ^ "The Policeman". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
- ^ "The 44th Academy Awards (1972) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
- ^ "List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-17.
- ^ "Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) – Recipient's C.V." Archived from the original on 2009-10-19.
- ^ "Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) – Judges' Rationale for Grant to Recipient". Archived from the original on 2009-10-19.
External links
- Ephraim Kishon: Official website
- Ephraim Kishon at Israeli Dramatists Website
- Ephraim Kishon – Biography, Satires, Obituaries, Photos, Prizes
- Ephraim Kishon Obituary, [London], The Times, February 2, 2005
- Lives Remembered Comments by Irene Lancaster and Victor Ross on the Times obituary. [London], The Times, [February 8, 2005]
- The funniest man in the world: the wild and crazy humor of Ephraim Kishon at Internet Archive. 1989 New York, Shapolsky Publishers; London, Prion
- More of the Funniest Man in the World: the wild and crazy humor of Ephraim Kishon, p. 0, at Google Books
- Ephraim Kishon at IMDb