Literatureיוסף מונדי

Josef Mundy

Josef Mundy was an Israeli playwright and writer whose plays, with political and Absurdist elements, were staged in Israel and abroad.

1935 to 1994The play It TurnsThe Governor of Jericho controversyStruggles against theater censorship

Died: 5 May 1994, New York City
Occupation: writer, playwright

Josef Mundy was born in 1935 in Bucharest

Josef Mundy was born in 1935 in Bucharest, Romania, to a well-off family. He immigrated to Israel at 16.

His first play, HaZerem, was staged in 1960 while he studied theater at Tel Aviv University. In 1963 Habima staged 2 of his plays on its experimental stage. In 1964 he moved to Paris on a scholarship to study directing, and his plays were performed there.

He returned to Israel after the Six-Day War. His 1970 play It Turns, a political satire about 2 men who believe they are Herzl and Kafka, was performed over 3,000 times. His work shows the influence of Bertolt Brecht.

He clashed with censorship and theater managements. In 1975 the Cameri staged The Governor of Jericho, about the Israeli occupation, and some Knesset members demanded it be stopped. In 1987 his play The Merry Nights of Frankfurt at the Haifa Theater also drew dispute.

A collection of his plays was published by Schocken in 1988. He died on May 5, 1994, in New York, during a rehearsal of one of his plays.