Amos Oz

Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, intellectual May 4, 1939— December 28, 2018

10 things to know about this prolific author

1. Half a century wri�ng career, he published over 35 books –many of

them translated into 45 languages– including 13 novels, 2 children’s

books and collec�ons of short stories, and hundreds of ar�cles on lit-

erary and poli�cal topics.

2. Won dozens of awards, including the Israel Prize and Germany’s Goe-

the Award. Repeatedly men�oned as a leading candidate for the No-

bel Prize for Literature.

3. At age 14, a3er his mother commi4ed suicide, he le3 Jerusalem, be-

came a Labor Zionist, joined Kibbutz Hulda and changed his last name

to "Oz", Hebrew for "courage”. He lived a kibbutz life for 25 years,

then moved to Tel Aviv. Oz is buried back in the kibbutz.

4. Oz on living in a kibbutz: "I became a branch of the farm, yet they

s�ll said I could have just three days a week to write. It was only in the

‘80s when I got four days for my wri�ng, two days for teaching, and

Saturday turns as a waiter in the dining hall".

5. Served as an army reservist in a tank unit which fought in the Sinai

Peninsula during the Six-Day War and in the Golan Heights during

the Yom Kippur War.

6. Leading voice in Israel’s peace movement; one of the founders of

Peace Now, a le3ist organiza�on that opposes Israeli se4lements in the

West Bank .

7. Prominent advocate of a two-state solu�on to the Israeli–Pales�nian

conflict.

8. “I’m a peacenik, not a pacifist. The pacifists believe that the ul�mate

evil in the world is war. I believe that the ul�mate evil is not war but ag-

gression”.

9. A Tale of Love and Darkness, his memoir, is considered his best book

and the biography of Israel itself. A young Amos witnesses the

destruc�on of European Jewry, the height of the Bri�sh mandate, a

Hebrew renaissance in Jerusalem, the great Zionist debates of the day,

the rise of the kibbutz movement and the birth of the state.

10. His most recent book, Dear Zealots: Le-ers from a Divided Land is

dedicated to his four grandchildren, all 20-somethings living in Israel.

Oz called the book — a trio of essays on fana�cism, Judaism and Israel

— “ammuni�on” for the younger genera�on to address what he iden�-

fies as the biggest debates of our �me.

Sources: Times of Israel, Haaretz, The Forward, Wikipedia