First Kisufim Conference of Jewish Writers Is Held in Israel
Aharon Appelfeld, shown in the 1980s, was one of the organizers of the first international Jewish writers conference in Jerusalem. (credit: Bernard Gotfryd, U.S. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

April 16, 2007

Organized by Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld and politician Natan Sharansky, the Kisufim Conference opens in Jerusalem. The name of the conference comes from the Hebrew acronym for Jerusalem Conference of Jewish Writers and Poets. Created in part as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of S.Y. Agnon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature (Israel’s first Nobel Prize), the conference is the largest-ever gathering of Jewish writers.

Participants at the inaugural conference represent Jewish writers from around the world. Panels and sessions are held in 10 languages, including Hebrew, English, Russian, Serbian and German. Among the authors who present at the conference are A.B. Yehoshua, Aharon Megged and Elaine Feinstein. The four-day event is held again in 2009 and 2013.

Kisufim’s artistic director, Hava Pinchas Cohen, says: “Jewish literature written after World War II is the treasury of memory of the Jewish cultural world. We have a major interest to touch upon and engage ourselves in this subject and to add a layer of knowledge for the benefit of future generations.”