Writer Yosef Haim Brenner Is Murdered
Yosef Haim Brenner, a pioneer of Modern Hebrew Literature, is murdered by an Arab gang during the 1921 Jaffa Riots.
Yishuv Publishes Its First Medical Journal: Harefuah
The first Hebrew language medical journal in Palestine, “HaRufuah,” is published quarterly by the Jewish Medical Association of Palestine. The journal is still published monthly by the Israel Medical Association and distributed to all its members free of charge.
Amir Gilboa Is Born
Amir Gilboa, born Berl Feldmann in the Ukraine, is one of Israel’s leading poets. He is known for drawing upon his military experiences and biblical issues of morality to write contemplative poems.
Poet Zelda Is Born
Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky (known simply as “Zelda”), one of the most widely acclaimed and beloved Israeli poets, is born in Russia.
Technion University Selects Hebrew as Language of Instruction
An important moment in Israel’s nation-building comes when the Kuratorium (board of trustees) of the Technion University, then under construction in Haifa, reverses its decision of October 1913 and decides that Hebrew, not German, will be the language of instruction at the new school.
Poet Leah Goldberg Is Born
May 29, 1911 Poet Leah Goldberg is born in Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia. Raised mostly in Kovno, Lithuania, Goldberg begins writing poetry in Hebrew and Russian around age 12. She studies at the Universities…
Writer Natan Alterman Is Born
August 14, 1910 Natan Alterman, a poet, journalist, translator, author and playwright, is born in Warsaw. He moves to Tel Aviv with his family in 1925. He studies agriculture in France and briefly works at…
Children’s Author Miriam Roth Born
February 16, 1910 Miriam Roth, whose Hebrew writing elevates children’s literature in Israel, is born in the Slovakian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She attends various Jewish schools, including one run by her father, and…
Linguist Ze’ev Ben-Chaim Is Born
December 28, 1907 Linguistic scholar Ze’ev Ben-Chaim is born in Mosciska, Galicia, in present-day Ukraine. Ben-Chaim is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of Hebrew and Aramaic. His research revolves around the Samaritans’ language,…
Scholar Nechama Leibowitz Is Born
September 3, 1905 Scholar, teacher and biblical commentator Nechama Leibowitz is born in Riga, Latvia, where she grows up competing with her brother, future Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, in their father’s Bible quizzes. The family…
Painter Nachum Gutman Born
Painter Nachum Gutman is born in a part of Russia that is now Moldova.
Zola Writes ‘J’Accuse’ Letter
January 13, 1898 Influential French writer Emile Zola publishes an open letter to French President Felix Faure under the headline “J’Accuse” (“I Accuse”), charging Faure and the French government with antisemitism in the Dreyfus Affair….
Nobel Prize-Winning Author Shmuel Yosef Agnon Is Born
Born in 1888 in Buczacz, Galicia (later part of Ukraine), Shmuel Agnon is the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize and remains the only Hebrew writer to receive this award in literature.
Writer Ben-Gavriel Is Born
September 15, 1891 Austrian-Israeli writer Moshe Yaacov Ben-Gavriel is born Eugen Hoeflich in Vienna, Austria. He begins writing at a young age in German, particularly in the expressionist style. He serves as an officer in…
Rachel Bluwstein Is Born
Rachel Bluwstein, born in Russia, makes Aliyah in 1909. Bluwstein is considered the “founding mother” of modern Hebrew poetry and is one of the first modern Hebrew poets to write in a conversational style.
Writer Yitzhaq Shami Is Born
August 4, 1888 Yitzhaq Shami, one of the earliest writers of modern Hebrew literature, is born as Yitzhaq Sarwi to an Arabic-speaking father and a Ladino-speaking mother in Hebron. He takes the name Shami, first…
Peretz Smolenskin Dies
February 1, 1885 Russian Jewish novelist, editor and early Zionist Peretz Smolenskin dies of tuberculosis at age 43 in Italy. Smolenskin was born in the Mogilev province of White Russia in 1842 and had a…
Literary Pioneer Yosef Haim Brenner Is Born
September 11, 1881 Yosef Haim Brenner, the leading Israeli literary figure of the early 20th century, is born in Novi Mlini, Ukraine. He grows up receiving a Jewish education and joins the Bund, a Jewish…
Martin Buber is Born
Renowned philosopher Martin Buber is born in Vienna. Following his parents’ divorce when he was three years old, Buber spends much of his childhood in Lemberg, Ukraine, raised by his grandparents in their religious home. Buber emigrates to Jerusalem in 1933.
Moshe Smilansky Born
February 24, 1874 Early Zionist leader Moshe Smilansky, whose influence ranges from the military to agriculture and literature, is born near Kyiv, Ukraine. Smilansky first visits Palestine in 1890 and settles in Rehovot in 1893…
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda Is Born
January 7, 1858 Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, considered the father of the modern Hebrew language, is born Eliezer Yitzchak Perelman in the Lithuanian village of Luzhky. Expected to become a rabbi, Ben-Yehuda becomes interested in the secular…
Michah Joseph Berdichevski Is Born in Ukraine
Scholar and writer Michah Joseph Berdichevski is best known for his Hebrew writings, which included his lengthy debate with Ahad Ha’am about the nature of Hebrew literature, as well as his extensive recording of Jewish folklore.
Chaim Nahman Bialik Is Born in Ukraine
Chaim Nahman Bialik, famed Zionist poet, is born in the village of Radi, near Zhitomir in Volhynia (Northwest Ukraine).
