Ben-Ezer, Ehud 1936-

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BEN-EZER, Ehud 1936-

PERSONAL: Born April 3, 1936, in Petah Tikva, Palestine; son of Binyamin (an agriculturist) and Devora (Lipsky) Ben-Ezer; married Anat Fienberg, August 31, 1969 (divorced, 1972); married Yehudit Tomer (a nurse), September 24, 1974; children: (second marriage) Binyamin. Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, B.A., 1963. Religion: "Jew, Secular."

ADDRESSES: Home—20 Hakalir, P.O. Box 22135, Tel Aviv, Israel.

CAREER: Freelance writer, lecturer, and editor. Member of Kibbutz Ein Gedi on shore of Dead Sea, Israel, 1956-58; teacher in night school for adults, near Jerusalem, Israel, 1959-66. Military service: Israeli Army, Nahal troops, 1955-56. Israeli Army Reserve, 1959-90; served in first-aid unit in Six Day War, 1967.

MEMBER: PEN, Hebrew Writers Association, Acum.

AWARDS, HONORS: Israeli Prime Minister Prize for creativity, 1975, 1990, and 1999; Hebrew Writer's Visiting Fellowship at Oxford University, 1998 and 2003.

WRITINGS:

books

Ha-Machtzeva (title means "The Quarry"), Am Oved, 1963.

Anshei Sedom (title means "The People of Sodom"), Am Oved, 1968.

Lo La-Giborim Ha-Milhamah (title means "Nor the Battle to the Strong"), Levin-Epstien, 1971.

Ha-Sheket Ha-Nafshi (title means "Peace of Mind"), Zmora, Bitan, Modan, 1979.

Bein Holot Ou-kehol Shamaim (title means "Sand Dunes and Blue Sky"), illustrated by Nachum Gutman, Yavneh, 1980.

Ha-Ne'ehavim Ve-Ha-Ne'imim (title means "Lovely and Pleasant"), Bitan, 1985.

Sheraga Netser: Sipur Ha'aim (title means "Shraga Netzer: A Life") Edanim Publishers (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1990.

Jedda, Sipuro Shel Avrahahavm Shapira, Shomer Ha-Moshava, (title means "Jedda: The Story of Abrahim Shapira, the Guard of the Village," Am Oved & Yad Yitzhak Ben Zevi (Jerusalem, Israel), 1993.

Ha-Laila She-Bo Talu Et Sargent Morton (title means "The Night They Hanged Sergeant Morton"), Yediot Aharonot, 1994.

Omets, Sipuro Shel Moshe Dayan (title means "Courage: The Story of Moshe Dayan"), Ministry of Defense Publishing House (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1997.

Yamin Shel La'anah Ve-Dvash, Sipur Hayeha Shel Ha-Meshoreret Esther Raab (title means "Days of Gall and Honey: The Biography of Ester Raab"), Am Oved (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1998.

Hamoshavah Sheli (title means "My Village"), Astrolog (Hod Ha-Sharon, Israel), 2000.

Shalosh Ahavot (novel; title means "Three Loves"), Astrolog (Hod ha-Sharon, Israel), 2000.

Hanut Ha'abasar Sheli (novel; title means "My Meat Shop"), Astrolog (Hod ha-Sharon, Israel), 2001.

short story collections

Ha-Pri Ha-Asur (title means "The Forbidden Fruit"), Achiasef, 1977.

Efrat, Tarmil, 1978.

Erga (title means "Yearning"), Zmora-Bitan, 1987.

juvenile

Laila Beginat Hayerakot Hanirdamim (title means "Night in the Sleeping Vegetable Garden"), Massada, 1971.

Oferit Blofferit (title means "Oferit the Bluffer"), Yavneh, 1977.

Mi Mesaper Et Ha-Saparim? (title means "Who Barbers the Barbers?"), Yavneh, 1982.

Otzar Ha-Be'er Ha-Rishona (title means "The Treasure of the First Well"), Schocken, 1982.

Be-Ikvot Yehudei Ha-Midbar (title means "Following the Desert Jews"), Schocken, 1983.

Lashut Be-Klipat Avatiach (title means "Sailing in a Watermelon Shell"), Rachgold-Sagiv, 1987.

Be-Tzet Israel Mi-Mitzrayim (title means "When Israel Went out of Egypt: The Story of Exodus"), illustrations by Nachum Gutman, Yavneh, 1987.

50 Shirei Mitbagrim (title means "50 Puberty Cracks"), illustrated by Dani Kerman, Rachgold-Sagiv, 1987.

Parashim Al Ha-Yarkon ("Riders on the Yakon River"), Sreberk (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1989.

Yetchupar Ha-Noa'r, 40 Supurei Hitbagrut Shel Banim Ou-Banot (title means "40 Israeli Teenagers' Stories"), R. Sirkis (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1991.

Ha-Yalda Min Ha-Yam (picture book; title means "The Girl from the Sea"), illustrated by Gil-ly Alon Curiel, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1996.

Dudu Fafel (picture book; title means "Davie Fafel"), illustrated by Avner Katz, Matar, 1996.

Hosni the Dreamer: An Arabian Tale, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 1997.

Contributor of weekly column to Ha'aretz (daily newspaper), 1970-78. Also contributor to periodicals. Ben-Ezer's works have been translated into numerous languages, including English, Russian, Arabic, and Polish.

editor

Unease in Zion (interviews), Quadrangle, 1974, Hebrew translation published as Ein Sha' ananim Betsion, Am Oved, 1986.

Ester Raab: Gan Sheharav (selected stories and poems of Ester Raab; title means "A Ruined Garden"), Tarmil, 1983.

Nachum Gutman (album), Massada, 1984.

Haggadah (juvenile; title means "Order of the Home-Service on Passover Night"), illustrated by N. Gutman, Yavneh, 1987.

Ester Raab, Kol Shirei Ester Raab (poems; title means "The Verse of Ester Raab"), Zmora-Bitan, 1987.

Yehuda Raab, Hatelem Harishon (title means "The First Furrow"; contains To the History of Eliezer Raab and His Son Yehuda Raab and To the History of the First Years of Petah Tikva), Hasifria Hatsionit, 1987.

Kol ha-shirim (collected poems of Ester Raab), Zemorah, Bitan (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1988.

Be-moledet ha-ga'hu'im ha-menugadim: ha-'Arvi basifrut ha-'Ivrit, Agudat ha-sofrim ho-Evrim (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1992, English translation published as Sleepwalkers and Other Stories: The Arab in Hebrew Fiction, Lynne Rienner (Boulder, CO), 1999.

Kol ha-prozah: ve-nosfu 'aleha tirgume meshoerim veshire yeladim (collected prose of Ester Raab), Astrolog (Hod ha-Sharon, Israel), 2001.

ADAPTATIONS: Ben-Ezer's novel Hamahtzeva was adapted into a two-act play, first produced in Tel Aviv at Zuta Theatre, April, 1964; broadcast on the Israel National Broadcasting Service, Kol Israel, in the same year, and again in six installments on the "Popular Hebrew" radio program in 1969; and filmed in 1990.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book of poems; a saga about the life of a family in Palestine since the 1830s; a lexicon of articles about more than two hundred Hebrew books; biography of Shraga Netser; second volume of Oferit Blofferit.

SIDELIGHTS: Ehud Ben-Ezer once told CA: "The Ben-Ezer (Raab) family has been living in Palestine since 1875. Yehuda Raab (Ben-Ezer), my grandfather, was one of the first settlers of Petah-Tikva in 1878, when that first Jewish colony in Palestine was founded."

Of the Ben-Ezer works that have seen English translation, one of the best known is his retelling of an old folktale, Hosni the Dreamer: An Arabian Tale. Main character Hosni—a boy who talks to sheep by day and dreams by night—is regarded as a fool by his fellow shepherds after he spends all his money buying a verse from an old man on market day. "But his purchase saves his life and secures his happiness and fortune," noted Cathryn Mercier in a Horn Book review. Mercier cited the illustrations by Uri Shulevitz as an attraction to Hosni the Dreamer, while Booklist's Karen Morgan praised Ben-Ezer for "[preserving] the story's original simplicity and wisdom." Other positive notices came from a Publishers Weekly contributor who deemed the Hosni the Dreamer "a literary magic-carpet ride," as well as from Robin Tzannes of the New York Times Book Review. In this work, Tzannes commented, pictures and text "work together to create a portrait of a humble and compassionate hero that young readers should love."

With an older audience in mind, Ben-Ezer edited the collection Sleepwalkers and Other Stories: The Arab in Hebrew Fiction. The thirteen stories and novel excerpts in this book are by Jewish on Jewish writers and focus on their perception of Arabs as "adversary, neighbor, uneasy friend and psychic screen on which Jews project their feelings and fears," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Various stories depict Arabs and Israelis living together in an atmosphere of wariness and hope. In "Nomad and Viper," a 1963 story by Amos Oz, the mutual attraction between a kibbutz woman and an Bedouin shepherd is threatened by their clashing cultures. The title story tells of a love triangle between Jewish and Arab coworkers. Published in 1998, prior to the escalation of Arab-Israeli hostility in the region, Sleepwalkers features an introduction by Ben-Ezer that "notes the pessimistic mood overall," as the reviewer continued, "but expresses the hope that the Israeli-PLO accord will lead to mutual understanding."