Ephraim Kishon - biography

Ephraim Kishon (help·info) (Hebrew: אפרים קישון‎, August 23, 1924 – January 29, 2005) was an Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and film director. He is one of the most widely-read contemporary satirists in the world. In 2001, Kishon was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Biography

Ferenc Hoffmann (later Ephraim Kishon) was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. After studying sculpture and painting, he began publishing humorous essays and plays. During World War II the Nazis imprisoned him in several concentration camps. At one camp his chess talent helped him survive, as the camp commandant was looking for an opponent. In another camp, the Germans lined up the inmates and shot every tenth person, but passed him by. He later wrote in his book The Scapegoat, "They made a mistake—they left one satirist alive." He managed to escape while being transported to the Sobibor death camp in Poland, and hid the remainder of the war disguised as "Stanko Andras", a Slovakian laborer.

In 1945, he changed his surname from Hoffmann to Kishont to disguise his Jewish origins, and returned to Hungary, where he continued to study art and write. He immigrated to Israel in 1949 to escape the Communist regime. An immigration officer gave him the name Ephraim Kishon.

His first marriage to Eva (Chawa) Klamer in 1946 ended in divorce. In 1959, he married Sara (née Lipovitz), who died in 2002. In 2003, he married the Austrian writer Lisa Witasek. Kishon had three children: Raphael (b. 1957), Amir (b. 1963), and Renana (b. 1968).

In 1981, Kishon established a second home in the rural Swiss canton of Appenzell after feeling unappreciated in Israel, but remained a staunch Zionist.

Literary career

Mastering Hebrew with remarkable speed, Kishon began writing a satirical column in the easy-Hebrew daily, Omer, after two years in the country. In 1952, he found a job with the Israeli newspaper Maariv. His column "Had Gadya" was largely political and social satire, but some pieces were pure humour. His extraordinary linguistic inventiveness and flair for creating characters was carried over into his work for the theater. Collections of his humorous writings have appeared in Hebrew and in translation. Among the English translations are Look Back Mrs. Lot (1960), Noah's Ark, Tourist Class (1962), The Seasick Whale (1965), and two books on the Six-Day War and its aftermath, So Sorry We Won (1967), and Woe to the Victors (1969). Two collections of his plays have also appeared in Hebrew: Shemo Holekh Lefanav (1953) and Ma´arkhonim (1959).

Kishon's books have been translated into 37 languages and sold particularly well in Germany. Kishon rejected the idea of universal guilt for the Holocaust. He said: “It gives me great satisfaction to see the grandchildren of my executioners queuing up to buy my books.” Until his death in 1979, Friedrich Torberg translated his work into German. Thereafter Kishon did the German translations himself.

Kishon died in Switzerland at the age 80 of an apparent heart attack. His body was flown to Israel and buried in the artists' cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Chess

Kishon was a life-long chess enthusiast, and took an early interest in chess-playing computers. In 1990, German chess computer manufacturer Hegener & Glaser together with Fidelity produced the Kishon Chesster, a chess computer distinguished by the spoken comments it would make during a game. Kishon wrote the comments to be humorous, but were also carefully chosen to be relevant to chess and the position in the game.

Awards

• In 1953, Kishon won the Nordau Prize for Literature;
• In 1958, he won the Sokolov Prize for Journalism;
• In 1964, he won the Kinor David Prize;
• In 1998, he was the co-recipient (jointly with Nurit Guvrin and Aryeh Sivan) of the *Bialik Prize for literature;
• In 2002, he was awarded the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement & special contribution to society and the State of Israel. Upon receiving the prize, he remarked: "I've won the Israel Prize, even though I'm pro-Israel. It's almost like a state pardon. They usually give it to one of those liberals who love the Palestinians and hate the settlers."
• Kishon was nominated twice for an Academy Award for best foreign language film and three times for a Golden Globe Award. He won two Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film Awards, for Blaumlich Canal (1969) and The Policeman (1971).

Books

• Ha-ole ve Ha-Yored le-Chayenu (1951)
• Thousand of Gadia and Gadia (1954)
• Ein Kamonim (1955)
• Do not worry (1957)
• Skeches (1957)
• It's all depends (1958)
• Be-Echad Ha-Emeshim (1961)
• He and She (1963)
• Somersaults (1964)
• Bone in the throat (1966)
• Sorry we won (1967)
• Gomzim Gomzim (1969)
• For (1970)
• Oh, winners (1970)
• Gomzim Gomzim (1969)
• Department of Ephraim Kishon (1972)
• Wole in the screen (1973)
• Partachia my love (1974)
• Smile drought (1978)
• Family Book (1980-current)
• Jonathan voyage (1981) children books
• The cup is ours (1981) children books
• Uncles on the wires (1981) children books
• Unfinished adventure (1981) children books
• Gum with stripes (1981) children books
• Seven Comedies (1981)
• Satire book I (1981)
• Arbinkea (1991)
• Satire book II (1991)
• Satire book III (1992)
• 58 Skeches (1995)
• Ants war (1995) children books
• Hercules and the seven midgets (1995) children books
• The Taming of the Shrew dog (1995) children books
• Hairy, hell (1998)
• state protocol (1999)
• The redhead with key (2002) children books
• Book of Travels (2003)
• Partachia (2004)
• Picasso's sweet revenge (2004)

Plays

• His reputation precedes him (1953)
• Black on White (1957)
• Ha-Ketubbah (1959)
• No word to Morgenstein (1960)
• Take the plug out (1968)
• Oh, oh, Juliet (1972)
• Salah Shabati the musical (1988)
• Open for renovation (2004) not yet seen
• The Policeman (2009)
• Kishon's sketches and plays have been performed, in translation, on stages and television networks worldwide.

Films

Kishon expanded into cinema in the early 1960s. He wrote, directed and produced five feature films (all of them comedic /satirical movies). Three movies were nominated for major international awards (The Golden Globe award), two were nominated for the Oscar:

• Sallah Shabati (1964), nominated for Oscar for best foreign language film). Israeli comedy film about the chaos of Israeli immigration and resettlement. This social satire placed the director Ephraim Kishon among the first Israeli filmmakers to achieve international success. It also introduced actor Chaim Topol (Fiddler on the Roof) to audiences worldwide.

• Ervinka (1967) is an Israeli film written and directed by Ephraim Kishon. The film, starring Chaim Topol (best known for his role from Fiddler on the Roof) is a comical tale of a con man who falls in love with a police officer.

Blaumilch Canal, also known as The Big Dig (1969, nominated for Golden Globe 1971). Israeli comedy which depicts the madness of bureaucracy through a municipality’s reaction to the actions of a lunatic.

• Ha-Shoter Azoulay (literally, Constable Azoulay), also known as The Policeman [9] (1971, nominated for Oscar for best foreign language film, awarded 1972 Golden Globe for best foreign language film) . It won several other awards, such as best foreign film in the Barcelona film festival and best director in the Monte Carlo festival. In Israel it is considered a cinematic classic.

• The Fox in the Chicken Coop (1978) Based on Ephraim Kishon’s satirical book by the same name, The Fox in the Chicken Coop (Hebrew: Ha Shu'al B'Lool Hatarnegolot). It features many prominent Israeli actors of the time, most notably Shaike Ophir and Seffy Rivlin. The film takes a satirical, comic look at the old generation of Israeli politicians.