Haim Hazaz

Haim Hazaz was born in 1898 in Sydorovychi

Hazaz was born in 1898 in the village of Sidorovichi, near Kiev in the Russian Empire. His father worked in the timber trade, and the family lived for long periods in the forests. He studied with private tutors, learning traditional Hebrew texts and Russian.

In 1914 he left home to prepare for matriculation exams, and reading Bialik led him to write in Hebrew. His first poem appeared in 1918 in the journal HaShiloah. After the Russian Revolution he fled south, and in 1921 he reached Istanbul, where he taught Hebrew to young pioneers.

In 1923 he moved to Paris and published stories about the revolution in the journal Ha-Tekufah. His son Nahum was born there in 1928, and his first novel, In a Forest Settlement, came out in 1930.

In 1931 he immigrated to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, where he lived among Yemenite immigrants and wrote novels about their life. His son Nahum fell in 1948 in the battle for Mount Scopus. In 1962 a speech he gave on the state led to a public dialogue with David Ben-Gurion.

From 1970 he served as president of the Hebrew Writers Association. He died in 1973 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.