Shalom Kramer

Shalom Kramer

Shalom Kramer (Hebrew: שלום קרמר, May 31, 1912 – October 3, 1978), was an Israeli essayist, editor, and literary critic.

Biography

Shalom Kramer was born on May 31, 1912 in Sanok, in the Lwow district of Galicia, which was transferred from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Poland during his childhood after the first World War. His father, Shlomo (Solomon) Kramer, was a manufacturer of juices and vinegar, one of the largest employers of the city, and a leader of the Young Mizrachi Movement in Galicia. He grew up in Sanok and studied in a cheder (a traditional Jewish elementary school) and a Polish primary school until 1925. From 1925 to 1931 he studied in the Takhkemoni Rabbinical School in Warsaw, along with his good friend Abba Ben-David (who was to become the first language consultant for the Israel Broadcasting Authority). There, he acquired a Jewish and general education and was ordained as a rabbi. During 1931-32 he studied to obtain a Polish matriculation certificate in Vilna, and from 1932-33 he studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Lwow. In November 1934 he abandoned his studies and moved to the Land of Israel. Upon his immigration, he was accepted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he obtained a BA and MA in Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Language, and Philosophy, and he began studies toward his doctorate. His dissertation, which he did not complete, was on the life and work of David Frishman, and the fruit of his research was only published posthumously. He supported himself with work in construction and as a surveyor. In 1940-42 he was employed as a news editor for the daily newspaper Davar, and he was one of the first people in the Yishuv (the Jewish community of mandatory Palestine) to learn about the murder of the Jews of Europe. Opposing the line taken by the newspaper (which was later changed) to downplay this information, Kramer resigned and joined the British army in May 1942, serving for about two years. In 1944 he moved to Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa, where he taught Hebrew subjects in secondary schools. During the Holocaust, many members of his family perished, including his father Shlomo and his brother and sister. In 1953 he returned to Jerusalem and taught Hebrew literature in the Beit Hinukh high school. From 1955 until his death in 1978, he taught at the David Yellin College of Education and with Meshulam Tuchner was one of the two head teachers of literature. He wrote many essays and articles, which were published in literary journals, and some of these were collected in books. In 1970 he won the Wallenrod Prize, awarded for work published in Moznayim,^[1] the journal of the Hebrew Writers Association, of which he was an editor. He was well known as the editor of the radio program, “A Minute of Hebrew,” and for years he was active in the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel. He died in 1978, leaving his widow, three children, and ten grandchildren.

His writing

In 1984, the Bialik Institute published Frishman the Critic, an edition of Shalom Kramer's work prepared by Avinoam Barshai. In the introduction to that volume, Barshai wrote: "Shalom Kramer was one of the Hebrew essayists and critics who marked their writing with a powerful personal impression ... His essays are essentially profiles, in which the image of novelists, poets, critics, and publicists throbs ... In his comprehensive essays, his ability to convey the nature of the author and his writing to his readers stands out ... In many of the essays he examined the social background that served as the author's literary matrix, taking note of the relation between the writer and his social environment. For this reason he preferred realism in literary writing ... Though when he discussed any writer he was usually capable of directing himself to the essence of the subject of his criticism, seeking to understand him according to his own tendencies in his creation.

In the introduction to On Criticism and Critics: Chapters on the History of Hebrew Criticism, a posthumous edition of Kramer's writing (published by the Hebrew Writers' Association, in cooperation with Eked, 1980), the editor, Haim Toren, wrote: “These essays on eighteen critics and those on 'The Limits of Criticism' and 'Pathways in Hebrew Criticism,' are the product of the work and study of a critic and essayist, a man of culture and stature. They provide excellent material for scholars and students, who wish to expand and deepen their knowledge of the history and development of Hebrew criticism, both its struggles and its victories... This book, along with those that Kramer published during his lifetime, reveals a creative figure, who managed to illuminate, explain, and analyze literary works, and literary, social, and educational problems with the intuition of a fine pedagogue, a man of good taste, reason, good judgment, and high standards, who expressed himself in deep-rooted, clear, and polished Hebrew style.

In the introduction to A Minute of Hebrew by Shalom Kramer (published by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Department of Adult Education, 1980), Abba Bendavid wrote: “Shalom Kramer was an outstanding man of literature and an enthusiastic teacher. In every area of his activity – literary criticism, teaching, and education – he showed what was beautiful, important, and unique in literary works to his readers and listeners, making the works attractive to them... He did not write in the dry, professional style of experts in literature but rather with the colorful expressiveness of a true author.”

Publications

Below are English translations of the titles of his works, which are all in Hebrew.

• The Rejected Critic (1946), on the life of Abraham Uri Kovner.
• The Changing of the Guard in our Literature (1959).
• Realism and its Breakdown: on Hebrew Authors from Gnessin to Appelfeld (1968).
• Changes in the Language of David Frishman (1973).
• 'The Language of Authors: I. Yakov Klatzkin; II. Dov Sadan (1975).
• 'Faces and Manner: Essays on Poetry and Poets (1976), “From Bialik and Tchernichovsky to Dan Pagis.”

As an editor

Kramer edited volumes of Peretz Smolenskin, Moshe Leib Lilienblum, Sh. Shalom, Yehoshua Tan-Pai, Y. H. Ravnitzky, and Shlomo Shpan.

References

External links

• List of publications by Shalom Kramer, in the International Library of Israel