Yoram Kaniuk


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Yoram Kaniuk (Hebrew: יורם קניוק; May 2, 1930 – June 8, 2013) was an Israeli writer, painter, journalist, and theatre critic.[1]

Yoram Kaniuk

BornMay 2, 1930
DiedJune 8, 2013 (aged 83)

Tel Aviv, Israel

Occupation(s)Writer, painter, journalist, theatre critic
Years active1963-2013
Spouse

Miranda Baker

​

(m. 1958)​

Children2

Yoram Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv. His father, Moshe Kaniuk [he], was the first curator of Tel Aviv Museum of Art and was born in Ternopil, Galicia, which is now in Ukraine but was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His grandfather was a Hebrew teacher who wrote his own textbooks. Kaniuk's mother, born in Odessa, was also a teacher. Her family immigrated to Palestine in 1909, the year Tel Aviv was founded, and settled in Neve Tzedek,[2] which has become part of the established Tel Aviv. Later they moved to Kiryat Meir [he], and later to Ben Yehuda Street.[3]

In 1947, at the age of 17, Kaniuk joined the Palmach. In 1948, during the War of Independence, he took part in several battles and was shot in the legs by an Englishman in a keffiyeh, but then the Englishman rescued him and he was treated at the British Mount Sinai Hospital.[2]

In 1958 while living in the USA, Kaniuk married Miranda Baker, a Christian woman, and returned to Israel with her. They had two daughters, Aya and Naomi.[4]

Kaniuk was an anti-war activist who advocated for a peaceful solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[5]

He befriended Charlie Parker in New York City in the fifties and made out with Billie Holiday, who wrote him a song. He brought Holocaust survivors to Israel on the SS Pan York, and fought his way into besieged Jerusalem. He was wounded in battle. He buried friends whose names he didn’t know. He had been spared death by the good graces of a British sniper, and stripped of his sabra arrogance by a story a young man told him about pulling diamonds from the rectums of his dead parents in order to stay alive in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Mitch Ginsburg[6]

Kaniuk died of cancer on June 8, 2013, at the age of 83. After his death, his body was donated to science.[7]

In May 2011, Kaniuk petitioned the Israeli Interior Ministry to change his religion status from "Jewish" to "no religion". The petition came after the birth of his grandson, Omri, who was registered as having "no religion" due to not being Jewish under the Halakhic definition used by Israeli civil law. He cited the fact that his child and infant grandson, because they are descended from a mixed Jewish/Christian marriage, are legally unclassified in terms of religion, and his desire not to belong to a "Jewish Iran" or "what is today called the religion of Israel."[8] On September 27, 2011, The Hon. Judge Gideon Ginat of the Tel Aviv District Court approved his petition and ordered the change of his record of religion to "no religion" in his record in the Population Administration Register.[9] The Rabbinate retained a veto over his status.[10]

Hundreds of other Israelis expressed an intention to do the same; a new Hebrew verb, lehitkaniuk ("to Kaniuk oneself", "to Kaniukize", Hebrew: להתקניוק, a pun with "lehitraot", Hebrew: לְהִתְרָאוֹת, a parting phrase) was coined to refer to this process.[11][8][12]

Kaniuk has published 17 novels, a memoir, seven collections of short stories, two books of essays and five books for children and youth. His books have been published in 25 languages and he has won numerous literary prizes.[13]

An international conference dedicated to the works of Kaniuk was held at Cambridge University in March 2006.[14]

Literary themes and style

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'Eagles' is a war story that attacks the subject of death in Israeli culture from a unique angle. His work has been described as "existential writing that deviates from the Israeli consensus" and difficult to categorize.[14]

He is known for the dark, somewhat bizarre humor in his writing. The late writers Anthony Burgess and Kurt Vonnegut have influenced his unsettling style of political satire. He was widely rejected by the Israeli mainstream until the 21st century, when many young readers found his unique take on the sensitive Israeli social climate refreshing.

Kaniuk has won numerous literary prizes, including the following:

  • The Acrophile (1960)
  • Himmo, King of Jerusalem (1968)
  • Adam Resurrected (he:אדם בן כלב, Adam, Son of a Dog) (novel, 1969, translated in 1971)
  • Rockinghorse (1977) ISBN 0-06-012245-5
  • The Story of Aunt Shlomzion the Great (1978) ISBN 0-06-012259-5
  • Confessions of a Good Arab: a Novel (1984) ISBN 0-8076-1210-3
  • His Daughter (1987) ISBN 0-8076-1215-4
  • Tigerhill (1995)
  • Commander of the Exodus (1999) ISBN 0-8021-1664-7, translated in English in 2000 by Seymour Simckes
    The book chronicles the life of the captain of SS Exodus Yossi Harel, who brouht four loads of Holocaust survivors to Palestine, based in the interviews with Harel
  • 1979: The House Where Cockroaches Live to a Ripe Old Age (English translation by Miranda Kaniuk: 2001) ISBN 81-7655-041-8
    The story is about a little girl Naomi who loves animals and her house has a cat, kittens dogs, horse, turtle, porcupine, pigeon, aquarium fish, and cockroaches. Naomi even forbids her mother to kill mosquitos with a spray.[18]
    A 60-minute documentary about Yoram Kaniuk was produced under this title by Maagalot Productions, Tel Aviv in 1996.[19]
  • Life on Sandpaper (2003) ISBN 9781564786135
  • The Last Jew (novel, 1982; eng tr 2006) ISBN 0-8021-1811-9
  • Eagles (novella)
  • Villany (novella)
  • 2007: Between Life and Death (novel); English translation by Barbara Harshav [he]: 2016[20]
  • 2010: 1948 (Hebrew: תש"ח, Tasha"h) (fictionallized autobiographic novel)[21]
  1. ^ Staff writer (June 8, 2013). "Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk dies of cancer aged 83". Haaretz. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Interview with Yoram Kaniuk Archived October 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Yoram Kaniuk, Tasha"h, pp. 21, 102
  4. ^ "Yoram Kaniuk obituary". TheGuardian.com. 10 June 2013.
  5. ^ "Israeli Writer Yoram Kaniuk, 83, On Pain And Peace". WWNO. 2013-06-13. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  6. ^ Ginsburg, Mitch. "Clinging to life, a master produces a wrenching memoir of the War of Independence". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  7. ^ The Washington Post
  8. ^ a b Gorenberg, Gershom (October 19, 2011). "A Jew of No Religion". The American Prospect.
  9. ^ Rahel Rimon, "The Right to Freedom from Religion. Kaniuk v. Minister of the Interior et al", Justice (The magazine of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists), no. 50, Spring 2012, pp.41-44.
  10. ^ Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, הכל נשאר ברבנות, Haaretz, 19 October 2011.
  11. ^ Mualem, Mazal (May 15, 2011). "Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk asks court to cancel his 'Jewish' status". Haaretz.
  12. ^ "לא בלי נכדי: סופר יורם קניוק רוצה גט מהיהדות". הארץ.
  13. ^ a b c d e f "Yoram Kaniuk". Archived from the original on May 26, 2006. Retrieved March 29, 2006.
  14. ^ a b Fathoming Yoram Kaniuk
  15. ^ The House Where the Cockroaches Live to a Ripe Old Age
  16. ^ "List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933-2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 17, 2007.
  17. ^ "יורם קניוק זכה בפרס ספיר (Yoram Kaniuk won the Sapir prize)". Archived from the original on 2015-06-14.
  18. ^ Saakshi Khanna "Born to Love Animals", House Where Cockroaches... book review
  19. ^ The House Where Cockroaches Live to a Ripe Old Age at IMDb
  20. ^ Ilana Masad, Yoram Kaniuk's final novel: a case of something being lost in translation?, The Guardian, December 6, 2016
  21. ^ Eshel, Amir (2012). ""I Said unto You When You Were in Your Blood, Live": Yoram Kaniuk's Tasha"h". Jewish Social Studies. 18 (3): 70–84. doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.18.3.70. ISSN 0021-6704. JSTOR 10.2979/jewisocistud.18.3.70.