On Literature and the State

Chaim Hazaz

1962

Our state is young, with a girl’s years, just fourteen. Still without her shoes, as the poet says. But she seems old, many generations old. In these few years, old age has pounced on her. No one is proud of her, no one is happy for her. On the contrary, each additional day makes our heart coarser against her. Our spirit is flaccid, and our will has…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Creator Bio

Chaim Hazaz

1898–1973

The Hebrew novelist and short-story writer Chaim Hazaz was born in a village in the province of Kiev and received a traditional Jewish education. He left home at age sixteen and lived a peripatetic life until 1921 in Russian cities. During these years of turbulence and upheaval, he witnessed events that became the foundation of his works. From 1921 to 1931, he lived in Istanbul, Paris, and Berlin. He settled in Jerusalem in 1931 and remained there the rest of his life. Central to most of his work is the tension between the old Jewish world and the wish for redemption through political movements such as Zionism. He was one of the most popular Hebrew writers of his time.

You may also like

Revolutionary Chapters

The war went on and would not be stopped. On the contrary. It proved futile to hold it to any schedule or limit. At no prearranged time would the land be quiet, not at harvest time, not near winter…
View Source

The Sermon

For a while there was quiet—a total, final quiet in the room. Then the chairman stirred, beetling his heavy eyebrows, and spoke with gruff, ironical severity: “Comrade Yudka, I call you to order! If…
View Source

The Helsingfors Program

Recognizing that the organization of the Jewish people for the purpose of independent national action constitutes, in accordance with the second clause of the Basel Program, one of the most important…
View Source