Hareven, Shulamith
HAREVEN, SHULAMITH
HAREVEN, SHULAMITH (1930–2003), Israel author. Hareven was born in Warsaw, Poland; she arrived in Ereẓ Israel in 1940 and lived in Jerusalem. She served in the Haganah underground and was a combat-medic during the War of Independence. Later she worked with refugees and immigrants from various Arab countries and was one of the initiators of the Army Broadcasting Station for which she worked as correspondent during the Yom Kippur War. She began her literary career with a poetry collection, Yerushalayim dorsanit ("Predatory Jerusalem") in 1962, and later published novels, stories, books for children, and essays. Among these are the impressionistic novel Ir Yamim Rabbim (1972; City of Many Days, 1977), depicting life in Jerusalem under British Mandate, with Jews, Christians and Muslims sharing experiences and pleading tolerance. The story Bedidut ("Loneliness," 1980) tells about the desolate life of Dolly Jacobus, a Holocaust survivor, who marries into a veteran Jerusalemite family, yet fails to integrate and remains frustrated as a woman. Other books by Hareven include the novella Sone ha-Nissim ("The Miracle Hater," 1983), a historic miniature about the Exodus in the Sinai desert and the emergence of monotheism; Navi (1989; Prophet, 1990), and a collection of essays on political and socio-cultural issues which was translated into English under The Vocabulary of Peace (1995). A lifelong member of the Israeli Peace Movement "Shalom Akhshav," Hareven reported from Arab villages during the Intifada. She was the first woman to be elected as a member of the Hebrew Language Academy and was known for her rich, idiomatic Hebrew. A year before she died, her autobiography was published under Yamim Rabbim ("Many Days," 2002). Other translations into English include Twilight and Other Stories (1991) and the story "My Straw Chairs" is included in The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories (1996). For translations into various languages see the ithl website, www.ithl.org.il.
Her daughter gail hareven (1959– ), is one of the original voices among the younger Israeli prose writers. Born in Jerusalem, she studied behavioral sciences at Ben-Gurion University as well as Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She teaches creative writing and feminist theory and has published collections of stories, children books as well as plays. Among these are Aruḥat Ẓohorayim im Ima ("Lunch with Mother," 1993) and Ha-Derekh le-Gan Eden ("The Way to Heaven," 1998). In 2002, she received the prestigious Sapir Prize for her novel My True Love (2000).
bibliography:
Y. Granach, "Gevulot ha-Muda'ut ha-Azmit," in: Biẓaron, 5, 19/20 (1983), 92–95; Y. Fischer-Nave, Motivim Mikra'iyyim ke-Bavuah la-Ani ha-Liri (1987); R. Feldhay Brenner, "Discourses on Mourning and Rebirth in Post-Holocaust Israeli Literature: Leah Goldberg's 'Lady of the Castle' and Shulamith Hareven's 'The Witness,'" in: Hebrew Studies, 31 (1990) 71–85; A. Holtzman, "Mekomot Nifradim: Bein Sippur le-Massah bi-Yeẓirat S. Hareven," in: Shenaton ha-Sefer ha-Yehudi, 49 (1992), 133–39; I. Scheinfeld, "Ketivahel he-Avar," in: Apiryon, 20/21 (1991), 27–30; Y. Nave, "In Those Days and this Time: Lyric and Ideology in S. Hareven's Short Stories," in: Hebrew Annual Review, 13 (1991), 77–87; Y. Feldman, No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women's Fiction (1999); idem, "Our Primary Myth of Violence: Hareven's Peace Politics," in: Midstream, 51:3 (2005), 26–30; E. Bar-Eshel, in: Alei Si'aḥ, 48 (2002), 64–76; Y. Berlovitz, "Likro et Yerushalayim ke-Tekst Nashi," in: T. Cohen and Y. Schwartz (eds.) Isha bi-Yerushalayim (2002), 158–91.
[Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]