Jews from Ukraine: Haim Hazaz — from the Ukrainian village of Sidorovichi to the first ever Israel Prize for Literature
A boy from a Ukrainian Jewish village who survived pogroms and humiliation by Russian authorities in Kyiv became a symbol of Israeli literature. The biography of Haim Hazaz in our permanent section “Jews from Ukraine” is a bridge between Ukraine and Israel, past and future.
Roots in Ukraine: Childhood among forests and traditions
Today the name Haim Hazaz (חיים הזז) is known to everyone interested in the history of Israel and Jewish culture. But the beginning of his path is the Ukrainian village of Sydorovychi.
Haim Hazaz (real name – Haim Fishel Feldman) was born in 1898 in the village of Sydorovychi, Kyiv province (now – Vyshhorod district, Kyiv region of Ukraine). This small place was located in the wooded area of Polissya and was a typical Jewish settlement with the dominant role of the traditional community.
His father was a Breslov Hasid and managed a sawmill, so the future writer’s childhood was spent in a small house among dense forests.
In early childhood, Haim studied at a cheder – a Jewish religious school at the synagogue, where he learned Hebrew, Tanakh, the main laws and traditions. Later he received a secular education, possibly at a rural or city school, where…
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