Dahn Ben-Amotz
Dahn Ben-Amotz , actually Moshe Tehilimzeigger , (born April 13, 1924 in Rivne , Poland , today Ukraine , † October 20, 1989 in Jaffa ) was an Israeli author , journalist and radio host.
Life
Ben-Amotz was sent to Palestine by his parents in 1938, when he was fourteen ; his parents did not survive the Holocaust . Ben-Amotz came to the village of Ben Shemen Children's and Youth Village and found a responsible mentor in Shimon Peres . There Ben-Amotz changed his name to Moshe Shimony to give himself the appearance of a Sabra .
In the 1940s he joined the Palmach of the Hagana and finally changed his name to Dahn Ben-Amotz . He fought in the Palestine War in 1947/48 and was sent to Paris in 1948 as an emissary and journalist . From there he went to the USA and stayed in Hollywood for some time . There he made the acquaintance of Marlon Brando and Blackie Dammett and, with their support, received a small role in Elia Kazan's film Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar Named Desire) in 1951 .
In the mid-1950s, Ben-Amotz returned to Israel and worked there on the radio. He became known across national borders as the presenter of Three Men in One Boat , a satirical weekly review. He also wrote features and political essays for several newspapers.
In 1980 Ben-Amotz was diagnosed with liver cancer. During this time he traveled through Poland and visited the Auschwitz concentration camp . Through this trip it became public that he had Polish roots and was not, as rumored throughout his life, born in the promised land .
On April 8, 1989, Ben-Amotz gave a big farewell party in Jaffa, to which 150 guests were invited, including Jaakov Agmon, Gila Almagor , Shlomo Artzi, Nurit Galron, Amos Keinan, Josef Lapid , Amos Oz , Jehudit Ravitz and Meir Shalev .
Dahn Ben-Amotz died at the age of 65 on October 20, 1989 in Jaffa, where he found his final resting place two days later.
reception
In 1956, Ben-Amotz and Haim Hefer wrote A bag of fibers , an anthology of short stories from the days of the Hagana. This book soon achieved cult status. The short story Parents Meeting was published in 1962 and described the fate of the immigrants of Israel; this story has autobiographical traits. For a long time Ben-Amotz regretted the disappearance of many dialect expressions that became fewer as the Israeli people grew together. In 1972 he tried, together with Nwetiva Ben Yehuda, to fight against it with a small dictionary.
In January 1992, Amnon Dankner published a biography of Ben-Amotz. It is assumed that he had an incestuous relationship with his mother at the age of 13 . The book sparked a scandal. In 2005 the online newspaper Ynetnews (Ynet) started a survey of the 200 most famous / most popular / greatest Israelis of all time and Ben-Amotz came in 140th.
Works (selection)
- Scripts
- Gilberto Tofano (Director): Matzor . 1968.
- Uri Zohar (Director): Hole in the Moon . 1964.
- Otto Preminger (director): Exodus . 1960 (based on Leon Uri 's novel of the same name).
- Novels
- Masks in Frankfurt . Roman ("To rember, to forget"). Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen 1999, ISBN 3-88350-742-3 .
- Screwing isn't everything . Tel-Aviv 1979 (2 vol.).
- Plays
- Little old Tel-Aviv . Tel-Aviv 1980.
- a dramatization of John Steinbeck's novel Von Mäusen und Menschen (Of mice and men).
roll
- Extra - Elia Kazan (director): End of the line longing . 1951.
- Architect - Michal Bat-Adam (director): moments of tenderness . 1979.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ben-Amotz, Dahn |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tehilimzeigger, Moshe (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Israeli author, journalist and radio host |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 13, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rivne , Poland |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 20, 1989 |
| Place of death | Jaffa |