LOEB, Sara(h) 1928-

PERSONAL: Born October 30, 1928, in Sofia, Bulgaria; immigrated to Israel, 1948; naturalized Israeli citizen; daughter of Itzhak (a factory manager) and Bina (a homemaker; maiden name, Behar) Ben-Basat; married David Loeb (a factory executive), March 3, 1949; children: Shoshana Loeb Kornacki, Ariela Angel, Abraham. Ethnicity: "Jewish." Education: Attended National University, Sofia, Bulgaria; Bar-Ilan University, B.A., 1988, M.A., 1991, Ph.D. (cum laude), 1996. Politics: Liberal. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Home—Beit-Hanan 76868, Israel. Agent—c/o Author Mail, University Press of America, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: College for Interdisciplinary Studies, Rishon Lezion, Israel, lecturer, 1999—. Gan-Raveh District College, lecturer, 1999-2000. Chair of a regional education committee, 1968-78; mayor of her community, 1978-82.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grant from Amos Fund for Encouraging Scholars and Writers, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Frants Kafka: Shealah shel zehut yehudit, Kibbutz HaMeuchad (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1998, translation from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston and Chaya Naor published as Franz Kafka: A Question of Jewish Identity: Two Perspectives, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Jewish Mourning in Bulgaria; research on Western culture, European Judaism, and Holocaust literature.

SIDELIGHTS: Sara Loeb told CA: "I was sure I would have an academic career until I immigrated to Israel in 1948. Immigration meant adjusting to new conditions, to a different language and lifestyle. I abandoned my dream of an academic life, married David Loeb, a new immigrant from Germany who owned a farm near Tel Aviv, and devoted the following years to raising our three children and working on our farm. In my free time, I did public service work in our community, first as the chairperson of the local education committee, and later as the chairperson of the farm community's cooperative association. When my children left home to pursue their lives, I returned to the academic world and completed my doctorate in comparative literature.

"My late return to academic studies opened broad horizons for me in research and writing. My diversified life experiences as a Jew who received a French education in Bulgaria, my studies at the university in Sofia, my immigration to Israel and the fundamental changes in my lifestyle made me sensitive to subjects related to the life of the individual and the manner in which he/she grapples with complex situations. This is the source of my great interest in studying the life and work of Franz Kafka, the Jewish writer from Prague whose language was German.

"My meetings with many people of varied opinions influenced the direction of my work. I began studying social, historical, and cultural phenomena, using the literary tools at my disposal. Today I devote most of my time to research, teaching, and writing on topics related to Western culture, European Judaism, and Holocaust literature."