Uriel Ofek
Encyclopedia
Uriel Ofek was an Israel
i writer
for children and youth, Editor, Lyricist, poet, translator and children's literature
scholar.
Arie Popik, grew up in Giv'atayim
and studied in Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. He served as a medic in the Palmach
Brigades, 1944–1949, War of Independence and served in Gush Etzion
and was in Jordan
ian captivity, where he spent about nine months.
He edited the children's newspaper
'Davar L'iladim' (children's supplement
of Davar
) for many years and laid the foundation for the Bibliography of Jewish
children's literature, Hebrew and Yiddish, the global children's literature, both knees of children's literature.
He had a doctorate
degree in children's literature from the University of Toronto
.
Many of his books are based on experiences in childhood and youth in neighborhood Borochov in Giv'atayim, where he grew up. He describes landscapes, events and characters from the period preceding the establishment of Israel - the Slick of Aldema, Battles in Wadi Musrara, and the Seven Mills along the Yarkon
river.
His widow, Bina Ofek, and two daughters, Atara Ofek and Amira Hachamowitz, are writers and editors for children as well.
Ofek died from a disease in 1987 at the age of 61.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
for children and youth, Editor, Lyricist, poet, translator and children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
scholar.
Biography
Ofek was born in Tel Aviv to his Father, the Yiddish poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Arie Popik, grew up in Giv'atayim
Giv'atayim
Giv'atayim is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 53,000....
and studied in Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. He served as a medic in the Palmach
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
Brigades, 1944–1949, War of Independence and served in Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion
Gush Etzion is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestinian territories. The core group includes four agricultural villages that were founded in 1940-1947 on property purchased in the 1920s and 1930s, and ...
and was in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian captivity, where he spent about nine months.
He edited the children's newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
'Davar L'iladim' (children's supplement
Supplement (publishing)
A supplement is a publication that has a role secondary to that of another preceding or concurrent publication.A follow-on publication complements its predecessor, either by bringing it up-to-date , or by otherwise enhancing the predecessor's coverage of a particular topic or subject matter, as in...
of Davar
Davar
Davar was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the Mandate Palestine and Israel between 1925 and May 1996.-History:Davar was established by Moshe Beilinson and Berl Katznelson, with Katznelson as its first editor. The first edition was published on 1 June 1925 under the name Davar - Iton...
) for many years and laid the foundation for the Bibliography of Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
children's literature, Hebrew and Yiddish, the global children's literature, both knees of children's literature.
He had a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
degree in children's literature from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
Many of his books are based on experiences in childhood and youth in neighborhood Borochov in Giv'atayim, where he grew up. He describes landscapes, events and characters from the period preceding the establishment of Israel - the Slick of Aldema, Battles in Wadi Musrara, and the Seven Mills along the Yarkon
Yarkon
Yarkon may refer to:* Yarkon River, an Israeli river which originates at Tel Afek, north of Petah Tikva.* Yarkon Park, a large urban park in Tel Aviv, Israel.* Yarkon Sports Complex, a sports complex located in the Baptist Village in Petah Tikva....
river.
His widow, Bina Ofek, and two daughters, Atara Ofek and Amira Hachamowitz, are writers and editors for children as well.
Ofek died from a disease in 1987 at the age of 61.
Awards
- In 1965, Ofek was awarded the Lamdan PrizeLamdan PrizeThe Lamdan Prize was an Israeli prize awarded annually, from 1954 to 1983, for literary works for children and youth.The prize was presented by the Ramat Gan Municipality in conjunction with the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and was founded in the name of the Israeli poet and author Yitzhak...
for children's literature and youth for his book "Robinson to Lubengulu". - In 1976, he won the Zeev Prize for literature for children and youth for his book "No secrets in the neighborhood".
Books for children and youth
- "The Show Must Go On" (translated to EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, DanishDanish languageDanish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
and DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
) - "Smoke Over Golan" (translated to English, German, Danish, Dutch and AfrikaansAfrikaansAfrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
) - "Five minutes of fear"
- "Stars on the border"
- "Story Time"
- "No secrets in the neighborhood"
- "Seven mills and a station"
- "Steps in the sand"
- "Deer Hill"
- "My Great Raid"
Classic Jewish Legends
- "Chelm the City of Wise Men"
- "King Solomon's bee" (originally by Haim Nahman Bialik)
- "Emperor's New Clothes"
- "Fishing the Goldfish"
reference books
- "Lexicon Ofek to Children's Literature"
- "A hundred years of Zionism"
- "Robinson to Lubengulu"
- "Snow white to Emil"
- "Tarzan and Hasamba"
- "Give them books"
Translations
- "Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth GrahameKenneth GrahameKenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
(1984) - "Tom SawyerTom SawyerThomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...
" by Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
(1969) - "Huckleberry FinnHuckleberry FinnThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...
" by Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist... - "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
- "Tree stars" by Leib Morgntoi (1977)
- Translation of poems in"Lord of the Rings" by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1979)
- "Mister God, This Is AnnaMister God, This Is AnnaMister God, This Is Anna is a book by Sydney Hopkins under the pseudonym "Fynn" describing the adventures of Anna, a mischievous yet wise four-year-old who Fynn finds as a runaway. Nineteen-year-old Fynn takes Anna home to his mother who takes her in, though Fynn becomes Anna's main caretaker and...
" by Fynn (1979) - "Tales from MoominvalleyTales from MoominvalleyTales from Moominvalley is the sixth book in the Moomin series by Finnish author, Tove Jansson. Unlike all the other books, which were novels, it is a book of short stories, and is the longest book in the series...
" and "The Memoirs of Moominpappa", Tove JanssonTove JanssonTove Marika Jansson was a Swedish-Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. She is best known as the author of the Moomin books.- Biography :... - "Max and MoritzMax and MoritzMax and Moritz is a German language illustrated story in verse. This highly inventive, blackly humorous tale, told entirely in rhymed couplets, was written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch and published in 1865...
" Wilhelm BuschWilhelm BuschWilhelm Busch was an influential German caricaturist, painter, and poet who is famed for his satirical picture stories with rhymed texts....
(1983) - "Wild Shua", a third translation book "StruwwelpeterStruwwelpeterDer Struwwelpeter is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the...
" by Heinrich HoffmannHeinrich HoffmannHeinrich Hoffmann was a German photographer best known for his many published photographs of Adolf Hitler.-Early life and career:...
(1985) - "Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryCharlie and the Chocolate FactoryCharlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka....
" by Roald DahlRoald DahlRoald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
. - "James and the Giant PeachJames and the Giant PeachJames and the Giant Peach is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The original first edition published by Alfred Knopf featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. However, there have been various reillustrated versions of it over the years, done by Michael...
" by Roald DahlRoald DahlRoald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
. - "Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (adaptations)The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
" by Frank BaumFrank BaumFrank Baum may refer to:* L. Frank Baum , American author of children's books, notably The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* Frank Joslyn Baum , American lawyer, soldier, writer, and film producer; son of the author L. Frank Baum...
(published after his death in 1988).