Amoz Oz will survive in my memory as a writer,who generously invited his readers to share his innermost feelings,personally and politically.This was my experience reading his autobiographical tale of love and darkness.
As a recipient of the peace prize of German Publishers,he gave a moving account of his commitment to peace.
He shared his convictions,based on his life experiences, and we can honor him best by making every effort to give peace a chance,wherever we live!
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Interestingly, all the articles and obituaries I've read today (including this one) omit "On the Hill of Evil Counsel" -- a collection of three inter-related stories. This is the book I remember most, even though I read it 45 years ago in Jerusalem. Why? In part because it painted intimate portraits of institutional and personal chaos in late-mandate Palestine, in part because it opened my eyes to the depth and breadth British anti-semitism in those days, and in part because it was magnificently written ... even in English translation. The mutual bad blood between Oz and the current, right-wing Israeli regime speaks volumes about the author's insight and moral integrity.
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I don't know much about this guy, but if he received condemnation from the extreme left and right, he must have been doing something right.
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Thank you, Amos Oz, for your compassion and empathy for others. Thank you for trying, and for caring, for your steadfast belief that all people of the region deserve respect.
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Condolences to the the family, the nation of Israel, and readers everywhere of Amos Oz. An uncompromisingly clear and honest voice such as his is one that deserves to translated into every language and treasured forever. As for his Mr Oz never winning the Nobel Prize, not only is he in very good company, those lately responsible for picking winners are not.
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As as ps to my earlier post:
This is a wonderfully written obituary on this great man, insightful and humane.
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A great loss, not least because of his work for peace.
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One of the great Israeli and Jewish writers. He should be more read by Americans for his artistry in evoking characters like ourselves in another time and place.
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A great loss. But he has left us "thoughts that lie too deep for tears", wise, knowing and caring. Whenever I heard his voice on radio, I was mesmerized - and enlightened. A Nobel prize would have been an uninspired as a show of appreciation for his gifts. Olav ha shalom.
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A loss for peace.
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The Guardian has thus far written the most thorough and in-depth obit:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/28/amos-oz-obituary
Amos is a symbol of the generations not raised on the internet (speed, superficiality), not motivated by gold bath tubs and baby carriages, and Park Ave. apt.'s. These generations of citizens will be missed, because they were not just educated but cultured.
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it was all a dream...
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Amos Oz and Philip Roth--two sides of a coin. Both possessed a vision far beyond the ordinary, a sweeping ability to describe and expand our wounded world. I will miss them, the planet has lost two great ones.
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Rest In Peace dear and righteous writer truly one in a hundred years
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Very sorry to learn that Amos Oz is dead - a writer whose words remain and recur in my mind. How to cure a fanatic is my most recent favorite - The Same Sea, even more amazing for its translation into a different language - Jews and Words, written with his daughter Fania - Panther in the Basement - and over and over, his steady mention of the obvious solution - two peoples, one land, two states, presented again and again as the country tilted in a disturbing direction - may his memory be for a blessing.
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Rest in peace, Mr. Oz. You did your best to promote it in life. Your books will live on.
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I read A Tale of Love and Darkness in 2002 with my jaw to the floor. The prose and pain and just great story telling was stunning. I was hooked. His last book Judas was great as well. We lost a a special talent.
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I'm so very, very sad.
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I hope some of this great writer's early novels get readers attention, too. A sweeping epic view onto the world of the kibbutz remains my favorite. Titled in the English translation ELSEWHERE, PERHAPS [Hebrew: מקום אחֵֵר ] it is as raw and penetrating a look at humans and their foibles.
Another great storyteller gone. We shall reconnect with Amos elsewhere, perhaps.
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His passing really saddens me, for his consciousness was so humane and inclusive. His memoir "A Tale of Love and Darkness" is unforgettable. May his way forward lead him into greater light and peace.
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The Jewish literary world suffered some truly horrific losses this year. 2018 witnessed the deaths of Philip Roth, Neil Simon and ends with the passing of Amos Oz.
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The passing of Amos Oz marks a sad milestone for Israel, for western culture and for those people in other countries, most of them not Jews, who for centuries have looked to Jewish writers and philosophers to be the conscience of civilized men and women.
Those of us gentiles in America and Europe, well aware of how terribly our ancestors treated Jews during the diaspora, found writers and activists like Amos Oz an inspiration. He understood that Israelis and Palestinians will never be fulfilled until there is true peace in the historic land. Oz also realized that the pursuit of endless rounds of violent revenge by both sides for past sins by the other cannot be a pathway to peace.
The contrast between Amos Oz and the self-promoting blowhard, Benjamin Netanyahu, was always striking. Netanyahu tirelessly dehumanized the Palestinians to make his cruel efforts to drive them out of their historic homes more palatable to some Israelis and to the outside world.
Amos Oz instinctively appreciated the precarious lives of ordinary Palestinians, the unfairness of men like Netanyahu and the threat those right-wing warmongers who follow Netanyahu pose to Israel.
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@sdwDear SDW. I don't know who you are, but you hit the nail on the head. As an Israeli who came here from the U.S. forty years ago, Netanyahu is a bastardization of the pioneering spirit so beautifully depicted and lived by Amos Oz. He will be deeply missed by those progressive voices like myself in Israel.
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The Moral Conscience is gone. Now we're only left with the bruts.
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I thought he badly underestimated the desire of Israelis to make a peace with the Palestinians and badly overestimated the desire of Palestinians to make a peace with Israel.
That said, he said many things worth saying and was a writer who displayed uncommon grace, sympathy for the underdog and power.
Odd it is that he was never awarded the Nobel Prize.
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@A. Stanton
I could name other Israeli writers who never stood a chance with the Nobel Committee; chief among them, the incomparable poet, Yehuda Amichai, and A. B. Yehoshua, the noted novelist, for starters. I would add David Grossman too. Need one say more?
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Yes, and though he wasn't an Israeli, we might just as well throw Philip Roth in there too.
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Α global loss, a giant of literature and prominent advocate of PEACE, he belongs to all of us. The world just became a much more scarier place. Farewell Amos.
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An incredible loss.
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The death of Amos Oz is a great loss not only to literature but also for the cause of peace. He will be sorely missed.
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Pride of Israeli literature, fair and good man, friend of human beings no matter their ethnicity, religion and gender. Rest In Peace. I will miss your wisdom and beautiful words.
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Too young! Sad loss. May his gentle soul remain among us.
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“Death is very strong and waits in every place... pain is a fact. But anyhow, we can do two or three things here and therefore, we need to do them.” This is a small passage of the book “menuhah nekhonah” (perfect peace?) I read this book again and again, and as I get older, I discover new wisdom over and over again. Amos Oz was a wonderful writer and a very good observer. His language and the way he put words into meaning is to me like magic! Thank you, Mr. Oz, may you rest in perfect peace.
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Where are the prophets? Rabbis, Generals, Kings- we have enough. We need prophets more than God. Amos Oz never, as far as I know from what he wrote, went beyond speaking truth to power. He spoke truth. Israel needs truth, which is why it needs prophets- and Israelis are literary, they read- they need to see what they look like to people who care. Zionism is a one time deal- if Israel fails or falls, that's it. Oz really made a difference, for me
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"How to cure a fanatic"
Amos Oz, thank you for having written this monument, ans so many more, in which you showed us some of your skilled and empathic literary wizardry.
Rest in Peace
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@Frank Rault - Thank you for mentioning that wonderful book, which means so much to me. Baruch dayan emet.
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What exactly is a "staunchly right wing Zionist family." Now, it seems, Zionism must be equated with the right wing. The first Zionists were socialists.
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@Alan J. Shaw Zionism is not equated with the right wing. If anything, the current incarceration of the right wing is anything but Zionism.
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Not all of them. Were not Jabotinsky has his followers, e.g. Menachim Begin, right wing Zionists?
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@Alan J. Shaw I was wondering that myself.
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I will need to go back and read this recent Granta interview
https://granta.com/a-room-of-ones-own/
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We discovered Amos Oz recently when Natasha picked up Judas at our local library. He wrote in a simple, moving style that communicates the depth of suffering experienced by both the Jewish and Palestinian people without offering up judgement. His work can act as a corrective to anyone believing there can be a simple morally clear solution to the problems plaguing the region.
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A giant has fallen. Thank you R.I.P
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Thank you - Amos Oz - for your books, your heart, your courage, your wisdom.
Pease for Israel. Peace for Palestine.
May the war mongering human hawks vanish from this world.
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Olav ha-shalom
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Thank-you Mr.Oz !
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I started reading Oz as a 16 year old newly arrived emigre, at first in English, and later, as my Hebrew improved, in the original. I learned, through his writings, to appreciate and understand this new place I had landed in. Over the decades, his writings gave me hope that the terrible changes the nation began to undergo after the Lebanon war might not be permanent.
Alas, his passing is emblematic of the end of a beautiful, but far too short, era of idealism in Jewish history.
---
https://www.rimaregas.com
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@Rima Regas Hopefully his voice will live on.
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@Rima Regas Thank you for this last sentence as well. I only add that the terrible changes I felt started with the 1967 War. Oz has been an inspiration.
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@Rima Regas
He was probably too young to know Moshe Sharett. Anyway, every generation has to learn life's lessons for itself, and evidently for Mr. Oz that was only rather late.
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