Sami Michael

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Sami Michael

Sami Michael (born August 15, 1926 in Baghdad ) is an Israeli author .

Life

Sami Michael (Hebrew סמי מיכאל) was born on August 15, 1926 as Salâh Menasche in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. He finished secondary school at the Shamash School, one of the schools of the Baghdad Jewish community, and graduated from Iraqi high school in 1945. Already in the middle of World War II, when he was still a high school student, Michael was one of the leaders of the communist underground in Iraq who fought against the regime and advocated democracy and human rights. He began studying at the American university there, an offshoot of the American University of Beirut , and began writing for the Iraqi press. In 1948 an arrest warrant was issued against him. Thanks to a smuggler organized by his father, he was able to flee to Iran . There he was forced to change his name. Michael also has Iraqi citizenship to this day because, unlike his parents who emigrated to Israel in 1951, he never had to give it up.

Michael stayed in Iran for a year and joined the Tudeh Party of Iran . In 1949 he emigrated to Israel, a. a. fearing that Iran might extradite him to Iraq. The plane's passengers were given Paris as their travel destination, but the plane actually landed in Haifa . Michael processed this in his story "Haifa - my first day in Israel", in which he describes how he fell in love with this fascinating city when he saw it from the air. Michael first settled in Jaffa , but then moved to Haifa when he was offered to work on the editing of the Arab, communist al-Ittihâd ('The Association' الاتحاد). The main person responsible for Michael's move to Haifa was the Arab writer Emil Habibi , who was enthusiastic about two articles that Michael had sent to the newspaper and which had received a great response. Michael lived in the Wâdi Nisnâs district and was the only Jewish employee to write articles and short stories for the daily newspaper al-Ittihâd and the monthly newspaper al-Jadîd ('The New' الجديد). He had his standing column under the name 'Samîr Mard'.

In 1955 Michael left the Communist Party as a result of the exposures of the 20th Congress of the CPSU , but also of the anti-Semitic policies of the USSR . The study of water management was followed - still in the civil service - by the study of psychology and Arabic literature at the University of Haifa.

In 1974 Michael published his first novel, Gleiche und Gleichere (Hebrew שווים ושווים יותר), which deals with the life of immigrants in the 1950s and the unbearable conditions in the reception camps. The title "Equals and Equals" became a household word among those who immigrated from Islamic countries and who fought for equality and social justice in Israel in the 1970s. Since such discrimination was discovered again and again, the expression he coined could gain a foothold in common parlance.

His novel "Schutz" (חסות), published in 1977, became a bestseller. Numerous experiences made in childhood and adolescence are reflected in his publications.

Michael rejected the Mapai's red party membership card and looked for a livelihood for which he did not need a party membership card. Thus began around a quarter of a century of activity for the hydrological service of the Ministry of Agriculture; at the same time he studied water management. He described the difficulties of finding a job in his autobiographical novel "Water kisses water" (מים נושקים למים, started in 1981, published in 2001 after seven discarded versions).

His 1987 novel "A Trumpet in the Wadi" (Hebrew חצוצרה בואדי) also had great success as a play. It is one of the author's three novels dealing with the Wâdi Nisnâs district in Haifa, which is mainly inhabited by Arabs. The "Trumpet in the Wadi" depicts the love story between a young Arab woman and a new immigrant from Russia.

In 1992 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Prize for books for young people for his book "Sandsturm unter Palmen" (Hebrew: סופה בין הדקלים) . In 2008 he received the Otto Brenner Prize .

Several of his novels have been turned into theater plays or made into films. Michael worked for a long time with the publisher Am Oved ("Arbeitendes Volk") until in 2007 he switched to the Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir consortium.

In 2009 Michael was awarded an honorary doctorate for his life's work by the University of Haifa , as this reflects the diversity of Israeli society with the inclusion of the individual and his freedom. The University of Haifa took a step that three other academic institutes in Israel had already taken, in some cases many years earlier. Haifa is one of the cities of Israel with a large Arab population, but it seems that he has not been forgotten about his work in the Arab newspapers, nor his support for an Arab-Palestinian state on the side of Israel.

Through his sister Nadia, Sami Michael is the brother-in-law of Eli Cohen, who was executed in Syria for espionage for the Israeli secret service Mossad . In his first marriage he was married for many years to Malka Michael, the founder and long-time director of the Romema high school in Haifa. The marriage has a daughter (Diqla) and a son (Amir), both also active as teachers. Michael confessed to his atheism in several interviews .

Working languages

Sami Michael first wrote in Arabic, which he still regards as his mother tongue. He was made an honorary member of the Arab Language Academy of Israel in 2008. It took him fifteen years before Ivrit became the language of his literary expression. He regards this transition as a miracle to this day. When the novel 'Victoria' was published in Cairo, it was said that it was an Arabic novel written in Hebrew - which Michael also booked as a compliment. The transition from Arabic to Hebrew took place with the completion of his studies at the University of Haifa.

Sami Michael translated the Egyptian Nobel Prize for Literature Nagib Mahfuz into Hebrew. Both authors had a friendly relationship.

Michael works on his novels every day at set times and writes by hand "from the gut" without planning the structure of his works. He doesn't use a computer.

Political and social engagement

Most of his topics deal with identities and social, ethnic and political relationships. In doing so, he tries to break down stereotypes and prejudices. Michael was the first Jewish-Israeli author to make Arabs the main characters in his novels. Michael never allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the establishment. His 1974 novel "Equals and Equals" broke a number of taboos in Israeli society and triggered a tangible scandal. The topic is the integration of Jews who immigrated from Iraq to Israel. Since the early 1950s Michael has been calling for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. To this day, Michael defines himself as a "one-man party". He rates communism today as a "beautiful illusion": "I joined communism as a Jew and left it as a Jew." A remarkable statement that reflects the fact that as a Jew in Iraq he saw communism as an opportunity to escape the status of the second class citizen, as the communist-oriented Arab citizens in Israel in the 50s and 60s hoped for, - just those years in which he himself no longer suffered from discrimination as a Jew.

In 2001 he was elected chairman of the Association for Civil Rights.

As part of his political activities, Michael was one of the first Israeli writers to be invited to give lectures in Cairo. During the first Intifada , i.e. the unrest in the Palestinian territories, he was involved in the Shalom Achshaw movement ('Peace Now') and took part in protests against roadblocks by the Israeli army in the Hebron area. He was one of the first Israelis to call for the establishment of an Arab-Palestinian state. At the end of the 1980s, the Israeli Supreme Court appointed him its expert on educational issues. Since 1998, Sami Michael and other Israelis of Iraqi origin have been involved in humanitarian aid for his native country. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he was invited to work on the new Iraqi constitution and tried to introduce a paragraph to protect minorities of all kinds. In March 2016, he met the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah .

Literary publications

  • 1974 The same and the same (שווים ושווים יותר) Roman, Bustan, German translation by Aron Schatten, Verlag auf dem Ruffel 2013, ISBN 978-3-933847-33-1 .
  • 1975 Baghdad - Storm over the city (סופה בין הדקלים) Am Oved, Tel Aviv, German translation by Mirjam Pressler, Gabriel-Verlag Vienna 1995, (1998 Belz Verlag, Gulliver TB 310) ISBN 3-407-78310-8 youth book
  • 1977 Schutz (חסות) Roman, Am Oved (Tel Aviv, 16th edition. 1993)
  • 1979 A handful of fog (חופן של ערפל) German translation Ali Baba Verlag 1993, Goldmann TB 1997, BTB (No. 72072)
  • 1979 Tin barracks full of dreams (פחונים וחלומות) Am Oved (Tel Aviv) youth book
  • 1987 A trumpet in the Wadi (חצוצרה בוואדי) Roman, German translation Inken Kraft, BTB 1998 (Berlin, No. 72212), ISBN 3-442-72212-8 . Filmed in 2001.
  • 1988 Twins (תאומים) play
  • 1990 Eine Liebe in Baghdad (אהבה בין הדקלים) youth book German translation by Mirjam Pressler, Berlin Verlag 1995, Goldmann TB 1997. ISBN 3-7072-6621-4 .
  • 1993 Viktoria (ויקטוריה) Roman, German translation by Inken Kraft, Berlin Verlag 1996, BTB (Berlin, No. 72187) 2007, ISBN 978-3-8333-0472-9 .
  • 1999 He (הוא) play
  • 2000 The third wing (הכנף השלישית) novella
  • 2001 Water kisses water (מים נושקים למים) Roman, Am Oved (Tel Aviv)
  • 2005 The Pigeons of Trafalgar (יונים בטרפלגר) Roman, Am Oved (Tel Aviv)
  • 2008 Aida (עאידה) novel, Kinneret
  • 2009 The letters go to the sea (אותיות הולכות לים) Children's book
  • 2011 The Flight of the Swans (מעוף הברבורים) Roman, Kinneret
  • 2012 A cricket chirps even in winter (צרצרון שר גם בחורף) Children's book

Works about Sami Michael

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gisela Dachs: Tired of the many wars (ZEIT online March 26, 2016) , accessed March 26, 2016, 1:12 pm
personal data
SURNAME Michael, Sami
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli author
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Baghdad