S. Yizhar

S.Yizhar (Yizhar Smilansky, 1916-2006) was born in Rehovot, pre-state Israel, to a family of Russian immigrants who were members of the Zionist pioneer intelligentsia. He fought in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, was a member of the political parties headed by David Ben Gurion and held a seat in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, for 17 years. Yizhar was a professor of education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a professor of Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University. He published novels and short stories, non-fiction books and books for children.
S.Yizhar is considered Israel's most illustrious writer. He was awarded the Israel Prize in 1959 for his masterpiece, Days of Ziklag. He also received the Ruppin Prize (1948), the Brenner Prize twice (1950; 1959), the Lamdan Prize (1960), the Ussishkin Prize (1963), the Bialik Prize (1991) the Ben Gurion Prize (2001), the Prime Minister's Prize (2001) and the EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture (2002). Days of Ziklag is included among "The 100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature" (2001). In 2007, it was named one of the ten most important books since the creation of the State of Israel. Yizhar's work has been published in 22 languages.