Isaac Dov Berkowitz

Not to be confused with Yitzchak Berkovits.

Isaac Dov Berkowitz
Born	October 1885 Slutsk, Russian Empire
Died	29 March 1967
Occupation(s)	Author, translator

Isaac Dov Berkowitz (Hebrew: יצחק דב ברקוביץ; 16 October 1885 – 29 March 1967), was a Hebrew and Yiddish author and translator.

Biography

Isaac Dov Berkowitz was born in Slutsk in the Russian Empire. He immigrated to the United States in 1913 before moving permanently to Mandatory Palestine in 1928.

Berkowitz's first short story, "On the eve of Yom Kippur" (Hebrew: בערב יום הכיפורים, romanized: Be-Erev Yom haKipur), was published in the Warsaw newspaper HaTzofe in 1903. In 1905, Berkowitz moved to Vilna, where he worked as an editor for the Hebrew newspaper HaZman. He met and later married Sholem Aleichem's daughter in 1906.

In 1910, Berkowitz published his first Collected Stories, and soon after that, he began to translate Sholem Aleichem's writings from Yiddish into Modern Hebrew. Two years later, he translated Leo Tolstoy's Childhood from Russian into Hebrew. Berkowitz emigrated to the United States in 1913, on the eve of World War I.[1] From 1916 to 1919, he edited HaToren (The Mast), a Zionist-oriented periodical of high literary quality, and in 1919 he edited the short-lived journal Miklat (shelter, asylum, refuge or haven).[1]

After arriving in Palestine in 1928, he co-edited Moznayim, the weekly literary organ of the Hebrew Writers Association, with Yeruham Fishel Lachower. He also adapted several of Sholem Aleichem's plays for Habima Theatre.

Awards

Berkowitz with Scholem Aleichem

• In 1944, Berkowitz was awarded the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation, for his translations of Sholom Aleichem's Collected works.
• In 1952, he was awarded the Bialik Prize[2] (literary award named after the poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik) for his Stories and plays (סיפורים ומחזות).
• In 1958, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for literature.[3]
• In 1965, Berkowitz was awarded the Bialik Prize a second time,[2] for his Childhood chapters (פירקי ילדות).

See also

• Literature of Israel
• List of Israel Prize recipients
• List of Bialik Prize recipients

References

1. Marcus, Jacob Rader (1993). United States Jewry 1776–1985. Vol. 4: The East European Period: The Emergence of the American Jew; Epilogue. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814321898. p. 364.
2. "List of Bialik Prize recipients 1933–2004 (in Hebrew), Tel Aviv Municipality website" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-17.
3. "Israel Prize recipients in 1958 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.

External links

• The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ithl.org.il)
• Works by or about Isaac Dov Berkowitz at the Internet Archive
• Works by Isaac Dov Berkowitz at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)