Karol Sidon
Karol Sidon (born August 9, 1942 in Prague ; also Ephraim ben Alexander ; literary pseudonym Chaim Cigan ) is a Czech rabbi and writer.
Life
Karol Sidon was born to non-religious parents in Prague during the Nazi occupation . According to the prevailing laws, he was considered a child of a so-called mixed marriage ; his Jewish father was deported in 1944 and murdered in the same year.
After graduating from high school in 1959, Karol Sidon studied at FAMU , wrote scripts and worked for a short time for the Czechoslovak Radio , among other things as a radio play writer. Until 1968 he headed the dramaturgy in Jiří Trnka's studio . From 1968 until its dissolution he worked as editor of the Literární listy . After signing Charter 77 , Sidon was fired and had to work as a stoker. He published his literary works in the Samizdat . Sidon began learning Hebrew in the 1970s . In 1978 he received the Jiří Kolář Exile Prize.
In 1978 Sidon converted to Judaism as a father Jew and took the middle name Efraim . In 1983 he left for West Germany , where he studied Jewish Studies at the University for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg . He returned to Prague in 1990. In 1992, after completing his studies and the rabbinical seminary , Sidon became chief rabbi of Prague and regional chief rabbi . He was re-elected on November 21, 2005. In September 2014 he resigned as Chief Rabbi of Prague, but remained Chief Rabbi of the Czech Republic. David Peter was elected as his successor as Chief Rabbi of Prague.
Sidon received the Czech State Prize for Literature in 2019 . In the same year his debut work Sen o mém otci appeared for the first time in a German version under the title Dream of my father by the Franconian ars vivendi publishing house . Maxim Biller describes it as "a piece of literature that is as melancholy as it is laconic, humorous and which looks for something comparable in its raw, sometimes wonderfully Bohemian way. A direct, unkitchy and quite ingenious book."
Karol Sidon is the father of actress Magdalena Sidonová .
Works
- Sen o mém otci, 1968
- Sen o mně, 1970
- Boží east, 1975
- Brány mrazu, 1977
- Dvě povídky o utopencích, 1988
- Evangelium podle Josefa Flavia, 1974
- in German
- Mummy sings the second voice in Jewish Tales from Prague. Edited by Christian Grüny. Vitalis, Prague 1997; first in the hour called hope. Almanac of Czech Literature 1968 - 1978. Fischer, Frankfurt 1982
- Dream of my father. Novel. ars vivendi, Cadolzburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7472-0010-0
drama
- Zákon, 1968, honored as the best radio play of 1968
- Labyrint (cirkus podle Komenského), 1972
- Latrína
- Shapira, 1972
- Zpívej mi na cestu
- Maringotka Zuzany Kočové
Children's books
- Pohádky ze čtyř šuplíčků, 1979 (published under the name of his wife Marcela Třebická ).
Filmography
- Bohemia Docta aneb Labyrint světa a lusthauz srdce (2000)
Web links
- Literature and other media by and about Karol Sidon in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
- Literature by and about Karol Sidon in the catalog of the German National Library
- Karol Sidon entry in Slovník české literatury po roce 1945
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dream about my father. In: ars vivendi Verlag. February 15, 2019, accessed May 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Dream about my father. In: ahoj2019.de. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sidon, Karol |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ephraim ben Alexander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czech rabbi and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 9, 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prague |