With new translation, Samir Naqqash’s place in Israeli literature should finally be celebrated

“The extensive work of Samir Naqqash who rises now in the skies of Hebrew culture, deserves to be part of the Israeli canon.” Mati Shemoelof writes to “Mondoweiss” about the publication of Samir Naqqash’s novel in Hebrew.

The recent Hebrew publication of Samir Naqqash’s novel “Shlomo the Kurd, Me and the Time,” which was originally written in Arabic, is an equally sad and happy moment.

Naqqash is perhaps the most prolific modern Iraqi-Jewish writer, yet his work was ignored for decades by the Israeli academy, as is the case with most esteemed Jewish-Arab writers. The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Maktoob project are reversing the neglect with the only initiative to translate Arabic classics into Hebrew.”

Read the whole article at “Mondoweiss” website, Here.

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