Yitzhak Lamdan
Yitzhak Lamdan | |
|---|---|
יצחק למדן | |
 Lamdan in 1934 | |
| Born | 7 November 1899 |
| Died | 17 November 1954 (aged 55) |
| Occupations |
|
| Awards | Israel Prize (1955) (posthumous) |
Yitzhak Lamdan (Hebrew: יצחק למדן; 7 November 1899 – 17 November 1954) was a Russian-born Israeli Hebrew-language poet, translator, editor and columnist.
Biography
Itzi-Yehuda Lubes or Lobes (later Yitzhak Lamdan) was born in 1899 in Mlynov, Russia (now Mlyniv, Ukraine).
Born into an affluent family, Lamdan lived in Mlynov until the outbreak of WWI in 1917 and the civil wars that followed. During this period, he was uprooted and wandered through Southern Russia with his brother before joining the Red Army. In 1920, after his parents’ home was destroyed and his brother was killed, Lamdan immigrated to Mandatory Palestine as part of a socialist youth group in what has come to be known in Zionist history as the Third Aliyah.
In 1927, he published a Hebrew epic poem called "Masada: A Historical Epic"[1] about the Jewish struggle for survival in a world full of enemies, in which Masada, as a symbol for the Land of Israel and the Zionist enterprise, was seen as a refuge, but also as a potential ultimate trap. The poem was hugely influential, creating the seed for what became the Masada myth, but the latter aspect was left out in its mainstream Zionist reception and interpretation.[2] According to literary scholar and cultural historian David G. Roskies, Lamdan's poem even inspired the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.[3]
Awards and recognition
- In 1955, after his death, Lamdan was awarded the Israel Prize, for literature.[4]
- Brenner Prize
From 1954 until 1983, the Ramat Gan Municipality, in conjunction with the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel, awarded the annual Lamdan Prize in his memory, for literary works for children and youth.
See also
References
- ^ "Masada", partial English translation
- ^ Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (1995). Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel. Madison, WI, USA: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 220–223 [222–223]. ISBN 978-0-299-14834-8. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
... the manner in which secular Zionists utilized the poem, that is, as a major element for experiencing the Masada mythical narrative, deviated―very clearly―from Lamdan's original intent. Lamdan's ambivalence simply disappears. His genuine concern that Eretz Israel may become a trap (and not a refuge) for Jews (that is, a second Masada) was almost completely eliminated in favor of what was presented as a proud, heroic national interpretation.
- ^ Jewish Virtual Library: Masada
- ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1955 (in Hebrew)". cms.education.gov.il (Israel Prize official website). Archived from the original on June 12, 2012.
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