Kishon, Ephraim

Born in Budapest , in an emancipated family, his native language is Hungarian . He studied sculpture and painting . With the arrival of the Germans in Hungary in 1944, he ended up in a concentration camp , from where he managed to escape by making false documents.

The first work he wrote was the novel "Scapegoats" (1945), which he wrote among the ruins of bombed Budapest. Since 1946 he became a “stockbroker” - he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Hungarian satirical magazine “ Ludas Matyi ”.

In 1949, illegally left Hungary in protest against the communist regime and settled in Israel.

He began to publish in the Hebrew newspaper Omer. From 1952 to 1981, he led the daily Had Gadia column in the Maariv newspaper. In 1953, his play “Glory Runs Ahead of Him” was staged at the State Theater of Habima .

Kishon’s books were published annually during his lifetime. These were both collections of new stories, and already published. The main genre of the writer is a short humorous story. He also wrote travel essays, articles, a book on modernism, “Sweet revenge of Picasso,” and the book “Food is My Favorite Dish.” The second channel of Israeli TV made the 4-episode film "The Suffering of Kishon" from the "Family Book."

In the German-speaking countries, Kishon is one of the most popular foreign writers. ^[2] . A friend of Kishon, an Austrian writer and journalist Friedrich Thorbberg , translated many of Kishon's stories into German. Thorberg did not know Hebrew and therefore translated from English ^[3] . Since 1981, Kishon lived in Appenzell ( Switzerland ).

In 2002, after decades of persistent disregard by the establishment, the famous Israeli satirist writer Efraim Kishon was awarded the Israel State Prize . In the same year, the heroine of numerous stories by Kishon, his “little wife” Sarah, died of cancer. Abroad, Sarah Kishon was greeted as a queen, but in Israel they did not recognize her, nor even Ephraim ^[4] .

Now they say about me that I made a comeback ... I do not agree with this wording. Kambek committed Israeli society. [...] One journalist asked me who I owe the most to receiving the Israel Prize. I replied: Arafat ...

- Efraim Kishon, 2002 ^[4]

He died in his home in Switzerland, buried in Tel Aviv.

Kishon's books in Hebrew are republished annually. The total circulation of his books in Hebrew exceeds the circulation of books of all other writers of Israel combined, and second only to the Bible (Tanakh). The most complete is considered the collected works of the publishing house " Maariv " - three books of stories, two novels, a collection of plays.

From his first marriage to a native of Hungary, Hava Klamer had a son, Rafael (Rafi) (b. 1957 ), who became a famous Israeli veterinarian . After a divorce from his first wife in 1959, he married Sarah Lipovich, a native of Palestine, with whom he had a son Amir (born 1964) and a daughter Renana (born 1968). Sarah Kishon was the owner of the famous Tel Aviv art gallery, acquired for her husband's fees. After the death of Sarah, Renana is engaged in the gallery. Rafi, Amir, Renana, Sarah (“my little wife”) are described under their own names in the “Family Book”. After the death of his second wife (in 2002 ) , he married a third time to the Austrian writer Lis.

Books

Books translated into Russian :

• “Family Book” (translation by Marian Belenky ) Publishing House Gesharim, 2002. - ISBN 5-93273-100-1
• “Scapegoats” (translation by Marian Belenky) Publishing house Gesharim, 2002. - ISBN 5-93273-113-3
• “The Fox in the Coop” (translation by Marian Belenky) Publishing House Gesharim, 2002. - ISBN 5932731122 (erroneous)
• “We are the Israelis” (translation by Alexander Kryukov). Gesharim Publishing House, 2004. - ISBN 5-93273-145-1
• “Is there Israeli humor?” (Translation by Gloria Raskina)
• In 2017, the Gesharim-Bridges of Culture publishing house reprinted the scapegoats, The Fox in the Coop, and the storybook That We Are Israelis in one book.

Kishon's books have been translated into all European languages, as well as into Chinese .

Reviews of Kishon's books in Russian translation

• Family book, stories. Efraim Kishon, 2002 [1] [2]
• Scapegoats. [3] [4]
• https://web.archive.org/web/20050416173856/http://www.jewish.ru/994166441.asp
• http://www.knigoboz.ru/news/news140.html
• "Fox in the chicken coop"

Pieces

• Ktuba (1953);
• “Take out the plug, the kettle has begun to boil” (1968);
• “Hey Juliet!” (1972);
• “Salah Shabati”, musical (1988);

Kishon’s play “Hey Juliet!” Was staged in 60 countries and is one of the most popular plays in the world repertoire:

• France : ^[5]
• Turkey : ^[6]
• Philippines : ^{[7] [8]}
• Norway : ^[9]
• Czech Republic : ^[10]
• Japan : ^[11]

The German name for the play is “Es war die Lerche” (“It was a Lark”). The play is in German at more than 100 theaters in Germany , Austria , Switzerland .

In Russian (translator Marian Belenky ) the play is staged

• at the Chernihiv Youth Theater in Ukraine ^[12]
• at the Aliyah and Comedy Theater in Israel ^[13] ,
• in the Northern Drama Theater of the city of Tara , Omsk Region ^[14]
• The play "Ktuba" ("Marriage contract") is staged:
• Youth Theater Volgograd
• Nikolaev Russian Theater
• Sarapul
• Novocherkassk, Gortey Theater
• Haverim Theater, New York
• Theater named after Gorky, Simferopol
• Theater "Actor", Kiev
• Kursk, Pushkin Theater
• Academic Drama Theater, Nizhny Novgorod

Movies

Efraim Kishon directed 5 films in his scripts:

• The Salah of Shabati (1964). The main role is Chaim Topol . The film was awarded a number of international prizes; a musical in the USA was put on it. The film tells about the fate of a repatriate from Morocco in Israel, reflecting the patronizing point of view of the Ashkenazi establishment on repatriates from the countries of the East, representing them as stupid nonsense, not adapted to modern life.
• The Blaumilkh Canal (1969). A madman who escaped from the hospital begins to dig a ditch in the middle of a noisy Tel Aviv highway. Everyone around us perceives this as a matter of course.
• " Police Azulay " (1971). Starring - Shaike Ophir . A melodrama about the fate of a policeman whose kindness and compassion prevent him from doing his job.
• "Arbinka". Starring: Chaim Poplar , Gila Almagor . The film is based on the stories of Kishon.
• "The Fox in the Coop" (based on the novel of the same name). Starring: Shaike Ophir , Safie Rivlin . The burnt political functionary of the socialist party, Maarah, comes to rest in a remote village and, from nothing to do, starts active political activity there, because he knows how to do nothing more. As a result of his activities, the whole village splits into two irreconcilable hostile camps. Intrigues begin. The peasants are so keen on politics that they forget about dam repair, and the village is demolished by mudflow.

The producer of the films is Menachem Golan . In 2008, Menachem Golan made the film “Marriage Contract” based on Kishon’s play “Qtuba” ^[15] .

• In 2006, a documentary-fiction film in Russian was shot in Jerusalem about the life and work of Kishon (directed by Gideon Dubinsky ).
• In 2007, he also shot the continuation of this film.

• Efraim Kishon: from washing toilets to world fame
• The plays of Efraim Kishon in the Russian translation
• Ephraim Kishon, 1924-2005