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 Salah Menashe in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. He finished the secondary school of Shamash - school, one of the schools of the Jewish community of Baghdad, and made 1945 the Iraqi government high school. Already in the middle of World War II, so even as a schoolboy, 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 local American university to, a branch of the American University of Beirut, and started for the Iraqi press to write. 1948 was issued arrest warrant against him. Thanks to an excursion organized by Father smuggler he was able to flee to Iran. There he was forced to change the name. Michael has until now also Iraqi citizenship, since he had, in contrast to his 1951 emigrated to Israel parents never give up.
Michael held up to one year in Iran and joined the Tudeh ( Iranian Communist Party ). In 1949 he emigrated to Israel, inter alia, for fear that Iran could extradite him to Iraq. The passengers of the airplane Paris had been named as a tourist destination, but actually landed the aircraft in Haifa. Michael has this in his story " Haifa - my first day in Israel " processes, in which he describes how he already fell in love with this fascinating city, as he saw it from the air. Michael first settled in Jaffa, then moved on to Haifa but when he was offered the employees on the editorial board of the Arab communist al -Ittihad ( ' The Association ' الاتحاد ). Main responsibility of Michael moved to Haifa was the Arab writers Emil Habibi, who was impressed by two contributions that Michael had sent to a newspaper, and had triggered a big response. Michael lived in Wâdi Nisnas district and wrote the only Jewish employees articles and short stories for the daily newspaper al -Ittihad and the monthly magazine al - Jadid ( ' The New ' الجديد ). Under the name ' Samir Mard ' he had his permanent column.
1955 Michael left the communist party as a consequence of the revelations of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, but also the anti-Semitic policy of the USSR. The study of water followed - still in government services - the study of psychology and Arabic literature at the University of Haifa. Published in 1974 Michael his first novel, likes, and more equal (Hebrew שווים ושווים יותר ), which explores the lives of immigrants of the 50s and the unbearable conditions in the camps. The title "Equal and more equal " became a household word among those who had immigrated from the Islamic countries and fought Israel in the seventies for equality and social justice. As always such discrimination were revealed, the expression coined by him was able to gain a foothold in the current language.
His 1977 novel "A Protection" ( חסות ) became a bestseller.
In his numerous publications made in childhood and adolescence experiences beat down.
Michael refused the Red party, Mapai book and looked for a livelihood, to which he did not need a book party. Thus began a round quarter of a century working for the hydrological service of the Ministry of Agriculture; parallel, he studied water management. The difficulty in finding a job, he described in his autobiographical novel " Water water kisses " ( מים נושקים למים, started in 1981, after seven warped versions appeared in 2001 ).
His 1987 novel "A A Trumpet in the Wadi " (Heb. חצוצרה בואדי ) had great success as a theater piece. It is one of three novels by the author dealing with the inhabited mainly by Arabs Wâdi Nisnas - city neighborhood in Haifa. The " Trumpet in the Wadi " tells the love story between a young Arab woman and an immigrant from Russia.
In 1992 he was awarded for his youth book " Sandstorm under the palm trees " (Heb. סופה בין הדקלים ) the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Youth books. In 2008 he received the Otto Brenner price.
Several of his novels have been fashioned into a film or theater plays. Michael worked together a long time with the publisher on Oved ( " Working people " ) until he joined the consortium Kinneret Zmora - Bitan Dvir 2007.
2009 Michael was awarded by the University of Haifa honorary doctorate for his life's work, as this reflects the variegation of Israeli society with the involvement of the individual and his freedom. The University of Haifa took place so a step, the three other academic institutions of Israel had already done some many years ago. While Haifa is one of the cities of Israel with a strong Arab population, but seems to have not forgotten him his participation in the Arab newspapers, just as his support for an Arab- Palestinian state alongside Israel.
About his sister Nadia Sami Michael is the brother- in Syria for spying for the Israeli secret service Mossad executed Eli Cohen. In his first marriage he was married for many years with Michael Malka, founder and longtime director of the Romema High School in Haifa. The marriage produced a daughter ( Diqla ) and a son ( Amir ), both also worked as a teacher. In several interviews, Michael confessed to his atheism.
Working languages
Sami Michael initially wrote in Arabic, which he still regards as his mother tongue. He was appointed in 2008 as an honorary member of the Arab Language Academy in Israel. It took him fifteen years to the Hebrew language of his literary expression was. This transition he considered today as a miracle. When the novel ' Victoria ' in Cairo appeared, it was said that this was a written Hebrew Arabic novel - which Michael recorded incidentally as a compliment. The transition from Arabic to Hebrew was held at the University of Haifa with the completion of his studies.
Michael S. translated the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz Nobel literature into Hebrew. Both authors shared a friendly relationship.
Michael operates daily at set times on his novels and writes by hand " from the gut " without planning the structure of his works. A computer he does not use.
Political and social commitment
His themes deal mostly with identities and social, ethnic and political relations. He tries to break stereotypes and prejudices. Michael has made the first Jewish- Israeli author Arabs to the main characters of his novels. Michael can never collect from the establishment. His 1974 novel "A more equal and the same " broke several taboos of Israeli society and sparked a scandal out. Theme is the integration of immigrant from Iraq to Israel Jews. Since the early 50s, Michael called for a peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. To date, Michael defined as a " one-man party." Communism today he rated as a "beautiful illusion ": "I have communism connected me as a Jew and leave him as a Jew. " A remarkable statement, which reflects the fact that he saw as a Jew in Iraq in communism the opportunity to escape the status of second-class citizen, as the communism facing Arab citizens in Israel hoped the 50s and 60s - indicate the years in which he did not himself suffered as a Jew under the discrimination.
He was elected Chairman of the Association for Civil Rights in 2001.
In connection with his political activities, Michael was invited as one of the first Israeli writer talks to Cairo. During the first Intifâdha, so the unrest in the Palestinian territories, he became involved in the movement Shalom Achschaw ( ' Peace Now ') and took part in protests against the Israeli army roadblocks in the Hebron area. As one of the first Israelis, he called for the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state. End of the 80s the Israeli Supreme Court appointed him to his experts on education issues. Since 1998 Sami Michael committed along with other irakischstämmigen Israelis in humanitarian aid for his native country. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he was invited to participate in the new Iraqi constitution and tried to introduce a clause for the protection of minorities of any kind into this.