Dov Sadan

Dov Sadan was born in 1902 in Brody

Dov Sadan was born Dov Berl Stock in 1902 in Brody, in Galicia, then part of Austria-Hungary. His mother died when he was born. He received a traditional Jewish education and taught himself general subjects.

During World War I his family moved to Lviv, where he joined the HeHalutz movement and became one of its leaders. In 1925 he edited Atid, the movement's journal, and that year he moved to the Land of Israel.

He first worked in agriculture and then joined the newspaper Davar in 1927, where he mainly edited the literary supplement. He also worked as a teacher and served as an emissary of HeHalutz in Germany. He later taught Hebrew and Yiddish literature at the Hebrew University, where he held the Yiddish chair from 1952 to 1970 and became a professor in 1963.

In 1965 he was elected to the Knesset on the Alignment list and sat on the Education and Culture Committee. He resigned in 1968 in protest of a Knesset delegation's trip to Germany. From 1965 to 1970 he also taught Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University.

He was married to Gusta Frenkel and had 2 sons, Ezra and Yosef, both professors. He published hundreds of books and articles. He died in 1989, and his archive is kept at the National Library.