Erez Biton
{{Short description|Algerian-born Israeli poet}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Erez Biton
| native_name = ארז ביטון
| native_name_lang = he
| image = Erez Biton.jpg
| caption = Erez Biton
| birth_date = 1942
| nationality = Israeli
| occupation = Poet
| known_for = Founding father of Mizrahi poetry in Israel
| awards = {{Plainlist|
- Israel Prize (2015)
- Bialik Prize (2014)
- Yehuda Amichai Prize (2014)
- Prime Minister's Prize (1988)
}}
}}
Erez Biton ({{langx|he|ארז ביטון}}; born 1942 in Oran, Algeria) is an Algerian-born Israeli poet of Moroccan descent. He is the 2015 recipient of the Israel Prize for Hebrew Literature and Poetry, among other literary awards.
Biography
Erez Biton was born in Oran in a Moroccan Jewish family. His family fled Algeria in 1948, and made aliyah to Israel.{{cite news|last1=Benaim|first1=Rachel|title=The Mizrahim Are Finding Their Voice|url=http://www.thetower.org/article/the-mizrahim-are-finding-their-voice/|accessdate=17 December 2015|publisher=The Tower Magazine|date=December 2015}} He grew up in Lod. At the age of 10, he lost his vision and his left hand to a stray hand grenade that he had found. The following year he went to school at Jerusalem's Institute for the Blind. He earned a B.A. in social work from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an M.A. in psychology at Bar-Ilan University.{{Cite web| title = Erez Biton | work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature | accessdate = March 30, 2013 | url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13570}} Biton is married to Rachel Calahorra Biton and the couple have two children.
Career
Following his studies, Biton worked as a social worker in Ashkelon for seven years and as a psychologist in an outlying town. He worked as a journalist and published a weekly column in the Israeli mainstream daily Maariv. His first book, Mincha Marokait (Moroccan Gift), published in 1976, established him as the founding father of Mizrahi poetry in Israel.{{cite journal|last=Hever|first=Hannan|title="We are the Fragments of Rhymes": The Poetry of Erez Biton between East and West|journal=Journal of Levantine Studies|year=2012|volume=2|issue=2|url=http://www.levantine-journal.org/The+Poetry+of+Erez+Biton_h_hd_59_10.aspx|access-date=2014-01-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201205839/http://www.levantine-journal.org/The+Poetry+of+Erez+Biton_h_hd_59_10.aspx|archive-date=2014-02-01|url-status=dead}}
Published works
=Poetry=
- Mincha Maroka'it ({{langx|he|מנחה מרוקאית}}) "Moroccan Gift," Eked, 1976
- Sefer Hana'na ({{langx|he|ספר הנענע}}) "The Book of Mint," Eked, 1979
- Tsipor bein Yabashot ({{langx|he|ציפור בין יבשות}}) "Intercontinental Bird", 1990
- Timbisert, Tsipor Maroka'it ({{langx|he|תמביסרת, ציפור מרוקאית}}), "Timbisert, a Moroccan Bird", Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2009
- Nofim Khavushei Einayim ({{langx|he|נופים חבושי עיניים}}) "Blindfolded Landscapes", Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2013
- Bet Hapsanterim (Hebrew: בית הפסנתרים) "The House of Pianos", Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2015
=Drama=
- Sulika ({{langx|he|סוליקה}}) "Soulika", Snir, 2005
Awards and recognition
- (2015) Biton was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature, the first Mizrahi Jew to receive it.{{cite web |title=First Mizrachi Winner of Israel Prize in Literature |date=29 March 2015 |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/322048}} The prize committee described his poems as being "the epitome of courageous dealings, sensitive and deep with a wide range of personal and collective experiences centered around the pain of migration, planting roots in the country, and the reestablishment of the Mizrahi identity as an integral part of the overall Israeli portrait."
- (2014) Bialik Prize for Lifetime Achievement
- (2014) Yehuda Amichai Prize
- (1988) Prime Minister's Prize
- (1982) Miriam Talpir Prize
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13570 Biography and bibliography] at the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
- [https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/35120_EJIW_Preview.pdf Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World], by Stanley Nash, p 6 sq
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biton, Erez}}
Category:Israeli social workers
Category:Bar-Ilan University alumni
Category:Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare alumni
Category:Algerian people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
Category:Algerian emigrants to Israel
Category:Algerian people with disabilities