May 4, 1939
Israeli author, journalist and intellectual Amos Oz is born as Amos Klausner in Jerusalem during the British Mandate. His mother kills herself when he is 12, and he runs away from home at age 14 and moves to Kibbutz Ḥulda in the center of the country to become one of the “new race of rugged pioneers” building the foundation of the Zionist state. He then changes his last name from the Yiddish Klausner to the Hebrew Oz, meaning “strength” or “courage.” As an adult, he moves to Arad in the Israeli south in 1986.
His more than 30 works include “The Hill of Evil Counsel,” “Panther in the Basement,” “In the Land of Israel,” “My Michael,” the autobiographical “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” short story collections, nonfiction, and three children’s books. His writing examines the “suffering, searching, conflicted Israeli soul.” It is translated into 41 languages, including Arabic. He holds various academic positions, including the S.Y. Agnon chair in Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He earns both the Israel Prize and the Goethe Prize.
Serving in the Israeli army and fighting as a reservist in two wars, Oz becomes an outspoken advocate for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after the Six-Day War in 1967. He frequently criticizes the Israeli government’s political and military policies. In 1978, Oz becomes a founding member of the Peace Now movement. Discussing his political involvement in a 2012 interview with Hadassah Magazine, he says, “In the English and American traditions writers are regarded as fine and subtle entertainers. In the Jewish-Slavic tradition they are often expected to show the way.”
The complete profile of Oz in Hadassah Magazine is here.
His final speech before his death in 2018 is a moving explanation and defense of Zionism.
