Isaac Dov Berkowitz

Isaac Dov Berkowitz (Hebrew: יצחק דב ברקוביץ‎; born 16 October 1885, died 29 March 1967), was an Israeli author and Yiddish-Hebrew translator.

Biography

Isaac Dov Berkowitz was born in Slutsk, Russian Empire. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1928.

Berkowitz's first short story, On the eve of Yom Kippur (בערב יום הכיפורים), was published in the Warsaw Hebrew newspaper HaTzofe in 1903. In 1905, Berkowitz moved to Vilna, where he worked as an editor for HaZman. It was there that he met and later married Sholom Aleichem's daughter in 1906.

In 1910, Berkowitz published his first Collected stories and soon thereafter he began to translate Sholom Aleichem's writings from Yiddish into Hebrew. Two years later, he translated Leo Tolstoy's Childhood from Russian into Hebrew. Berkowitz emigrated to the United States on the eve of the First World War, and in 1916 he founded and became editor of HaToren. Four years later, he became the editor of Miklat.

After arriving in Palestinian Mandate in 1928, he co-edited the weekly newspaper Moznayim with Fishel Lachower, while also adapting to the stage several of Sholom Aleichem's plays for Habima Theater.

Awards

• 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 (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.
• In 1965, Berkowitz was awarded the Bialik Prize a second time for his Childhood chapters (פירקי ילדות).

See also

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

External links

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