Hebrew Literature for Children
The revival of spoken Hebrew at the turn of the nineteenth century led to a tremendous flowering of Hebrew literature for children and attracted the creative powers of some of the most talented artists and writers of the day. Yitshak Katzenelson, the author of this and many other children’s books, was also a gifted poet and playwright in both Hebrew and Yiddish. The light, playful tone of much of his early writing may surprise those who best know him as the author of some of the most moving poetry to emerge from the Holocaust. Katzenelson was born in Belorussia in 1895 and took part in the first uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. He died with his son in Auschwitz in 1944. Today his name lives on not only through his books, but also through the center for Holocaust studies named after him in Kibbutz Lohamei ha-Geta’ot in Israel.
The revival of spoken Hebrew at the turn of the nineteenth century led to a tremendous flowering of Hebrew literature for children and attracted the creative powers of some of the most talented artists and writers of the day. Yitshak Katzenelson, the author of this and many other children’s books, was also a gifted poet and playwright in both Hebrew and Yiddish. The light, playful tone of much of his early writing may surprise those who best know him as the author of some of the most moving poetry to emerge from the Holocaust. Katzenelson was born in Belorussia in 1895 and took part in the first uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. He died with his son in Auschwitz in 1944. Today his name lives on not only through his books, but also through the center for Holocaust studies named after him in Kibbutz Lohamei ha-Geta’ot in Israel.