February 23, 2006          Neveh Channah

Aharon Megged

Maayan Freedman & Ariella Singer

Picture courtesy of Google Web Search

           "When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing." This quote is from Enrique Jardiel Poncela, and so is true with regard to Aharon Megged’s Literature. Aharon Megged is an Israeli author, playwright and editor, and was born in the year 1920, in Wloclavek, Poland. He immigrated to Israel, then known as Palestine, with his parents in 1926, and grew up in Ra’annana.

            Megged attended Herzliya High School in Tel-Aviv, where he lives today. After finishing high school he joined the “Pioneer Youth Movement”, which trained in Kibbutz Giv’at Brenner. Aharon was a kibbutz member for twelve years; he worked in agriculture, fishing, and at the docks at Haifa Port. After leaving the kibbutz he started working as a literary editor and journalist.

            Megged and a group of writer friends founded the bi-weekly literary magazine “Masa“, and Aharon himself was the editor for fifteen years.  He also edited the newspapers “Lemerchav” and “Davar“.  He served as a cultural attachי in London for the Israeli embassy from 1968-1971.  In 1977, he was an author-in-residence near Oxford University, at the “Center for Hebrew Studies”.  He was also an author-in-residence at Haifa University, and in the University of Iowa. He made a few lecture tours in the United States, and was a member of the Academy of Hebrew Language since 1980. Between the years 1980-1987 he was president of the Israeli center of PEN, an association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression and foster international library fellowship.

            Megged has published over 40 books till this day and has won many awards. Among them is the Bialik Prize for his books “Evyatar Notebooks” and “Of Trees and Stones“, in 1974. A few other prizes he has won in Israel consist of the Brenner Prize, the Agnon Prize, and the Prime Minister’s Prize. He was even awarded the Israel Prize for literature in 2003. Outside of Israel he has won the Wizo Prize, in France, for “Foiglman“, and in 2004 he won the Koret Jewish Book Award for Fiction.

           Megged is married to the author Ida Tsurit, and is the proud father of two sons. Eyal Megged followed his father’s footsteps and became an author. He married Tzruyah Slav, who is also an author. Dr. Amos Megged, Megged’s second son, is a history lecturer at Haifa University.  Matti Megged, Aaron’s brother, is also an author.

           Megged’s books “Fortunes Of a Fool” and “The Escape” are turning points in his writing, where he abandoned the realism and sailed towards the allegory and the symbolism. By that he tried to consolidate the motif of escaping, based on the book of Yona, and the distance and alienation of the young Israeli toward the Jewish faith and beliefs into a framework of ideas.  Later on he returned to writing in the realistic pattern.

           Megged’s main themes in his stories are the life in the kibbutz, the moral descent in Israel after the Independence War, and the attitude of his generation towards the pioneers of the previous one. Many of his stories are an allegory of the Israeli foreignness towards the Jewish faith. In addition he wrote about Israel, the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism.

           A few examples of books Megged wrote that portray his style of writing are “Hedva and I“, “The Living on the Dead“and “Sea Winds”.  “Hedvah and I”, was a novel which he wrote in the year 1964, in which one can see Megged’s typical Anti-Hero style of writing. “The Living on the Dead”, which was written in 1970, and describes the critical modern Israel society and makes the accusation that the modern day generation did not fulfill the great expectations of their ancestors. “Sea Winds”, was his first story collection, which he wrote in 1950, and was inspired by life in Sedot Yam. In this book Megged discusses the special experience of the time spent in the Palmach, military arm of the Hagana, and the kibbutz.

           Megged’s stories and novels were translated into many languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Russian and many more.  He has written many plays that have been performed in and out of Israel. A few examples of such plays are: “Chana Senesh”, “Foiglman”, “The First Sin”, “On the Road to Eilat” and many more. He even produced a TV show named “Hadva and Shlumik”, based on his book named “Hadva and I”.

         The Israeli pioneers had a great impact on Aharon Megged, which later appeared in his writing.  One of his stories “The Name” shows the tremendous gap between the generations of the Holocaust survivors and the “New Jew”. Megged looked up to the pioneers who put their heart and soul into building this country, and wanted to show the disappointment he feels in the disrespect the generations show each other.

             His stories have influenced many around the world, and his legacy will never be forgotten. His wise words and unique themes are what make him so extraordinary. His ideas and the principles have left a permanent imprint on the Israeli society and the world overall. He is amongst a few writers who stand out in his generation, and in the generations to come.

Bibliography

Aviv: Youth Encyclopedia. ©1977. Israel
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Biography- Aharon Megged. January.2006. <www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org>

E-mago. Ali Ashad. February 19. 2006. <www.e-mago.co.il>

Encyclopedia Hebraica. Encyclopedia Publishing Company. Israel.

Encyclopaedia Judaica Volume II.©1972. Keter Publishing House. Jerusalem.

The Institue for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. September 5. 2005. January 2006. <www.ithl.org.il>

Wikipedia. 3 June 2005 . Biography- Aharon Megged. January 2006. <http://en.Wikipedia.org>

Yebaneh Encyclopedia for the Youth. ©1992. Librairie Larousse. Paris, France.

http://images.google.co.il/images?svnum=10&hl=iw&lr=&q=aharon+megged

Reflection

We believe that we have put in our greatest effort in order to accomplish this task to its greatest extent. We have learnt about the amazing life of author Aharon Megged, and what he has achieved until now.  We don’t think we learnt any new skills while working on this project.

            Our teacher, Mrs. Addi, helped us a lot throughout this project. Although, we did not need much help since we worked very well together, as partners.

           Having communications with Canada, did not help us much with our report because our topic was not something they could help us with. Even though they could not help us, talking to the people in Canada gave us more insight on their way of life and culture.

          If we were to change something in this project we would want to make the topics more interesting, and make it so the topic is easier for us to relate to. We look forward to reading our fellow classmates’ and Canadian friends’ projects.