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Nathan Alterman
Alterman in 1952
Native name	נתן אלתרמן
Born	(1910-08-14)August 14, 1910 Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	March 28, 1970(1970-03-28) (aged 59) Tel Aviv, Israel
Occupation	Poet, translator, playwright, journalist
Language	Russian, Hebrew, German, French, English, Polish
Nationality	Israeli (since 1948)
Literary movement	Yakhdav (led by Avraham Shlonsky)
Spouse	Rachel Marcus Tzila Binder
Children	Tirtza Atar

Nathan Alterman (Hebrew: נתן אלתרמן; August 14, 1910 – March 28, 1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. He was associated with Zionist political movements and played a significant role in shaping public discourse, although he never held elected office.

Biography

Nathan Alterman was born in Warsaw, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1925, at the age of 15, his family made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine. They settled in Tel Aviv, where Alterman attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium.

At 19, Alterman traveled to Paris to study at the University of Paris, and a year later moved to Nancy, France to study agronomy. During his three years in France, Alterman maintained close contact with his family and friends in Palestine and was influenced by interactions with French artists and writers.

Upon returning to Tel Aviv in 1932, Alterman worked at the Mikveh Yisrael agricultural school, but soon left it in favour of working as a journalist and poet. In 1933, he joined the literary circle Together (Hebrew: יחדיו), whose members published the magazine Columns (Hebrew: טורים) and positioned themselves in opposition to the prevailing literary establishment associated with the poet Hayim Nahman Bialik.

On August 22, 1934, Alterman married Rachel Marcus, an actress at the Cameri Theatre. They had one daughter, Tirtza Atar

Alterman is also credited with introducing the marmande tomato to Israel, which became a widely cultivated variety in the country until the 1960s.^[1]

Literary career

In 1933, at the age of 23, Alterman began writing songs for the vaudeville theatre The Broom (Hebrew: המטאטא).^[2] In 1934, he started publishing a rhymed column called Tel Aviv Sketches (Hebrew: סקיצות תל אביביות) in Davar, addressing contemporary issues; 26 of these columns appeared over a period of four months. In November 1934, he left Davar and began a similar column in Haaretz titled Moments (Hebrew: רגעים), which had a more satirical tone. He continued this column for eight years, producing a total of 297 installments.

Alterman’s first published book of poetry, Kokhavim Bakhuts ("Stars Outside"), appeared in 1938 and established him as a significant figure in modern Hebrew literature.^[3] His subsequent major work, The Joy of the Poor (Hebrew: שִׂמְחת עניים, Simḥat Aniyim, 1941), consists of 31 interconnected poems from the perspective of a deceased man preoccupied with a living woman he loves. The work has been described as a reversal of the Orpheus and Eurydice narrative, combining elements of supernatural storytelling with structured rhyme and meter.

In 1942, after initial reports of The Holocaust reached Palestine, Alterman wrote a poem responding to the genocide, employing a sarcastic reworking of the traditional Jewish prayer "Praised are You...who has chosen us out of all the nations". In 1943, Alterman wrote the maqama The Swedish Tongue, which praised Sweden’s acceptance of Jewish refugees from Denmark,^[4] and a poem critical of Pope Pius XII, now featured at Yad Vashem.^[5] Between 1945 and 1947, his weekly column in Davar criticized British policies in Palestine and supported the Aliyah Bet, including the 1945 piece In Praise of an Italian Captain (Hebrew: נאום תשובה לרב חובל איטלקי).^[6]

During the early stages of the 1948 Palestine War, Alterman wrote several Zionist poems, including The Silver Platter (Hebrew: מגש הכסף, Magash Ha-Kesef), composed in response to Chaim Weizmann’s statement after the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine that no state is delivered "on a silver platter". The poem depicts a symbolic scene likened to the Biblical Revelation on Mount Sinai, in which two young figures represent the sacrifices made to establish a Jewish state.

He also authored One from the GHL, a poem about Holocaust survivors and other Jewish setllers who were immediately drafted into the Israel Defense Forces upon arrival in Palestine, often without military training, during the 1948 war. The poem was originally published in Davar at the war’s conclusion. It was later set to music by Shem Tov Levy and performed by Arik Einstein in his 1985 album Land Product.

Several of Alterman’s poems have been adapted into popular songs, including A Meeting with No End (Hebrew: פגישה לאין קץ). One of his poems, First Smile, is referenced in the third season of the television series Shtisel, with an English translation by Robert Friend included in the episode.

Political activism

During the 1950s, Alterman opposed the martial law imposed on Palestinian citizens of Israel, which remained in effect until 1966. He was a Labor Zionist who supported the 1952 sailors’ strike, which was suppressed by the government of David Ben-Gurion.

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Alterman was a co-founder of the Jewish supremacist, anti-Arab Movement for Greater Israel, a predecessor to Likud. He publicly criticized Ben-Gurion, then serving as a member of the Knesset, for what he perceived as a willingness to relinquish territories captured by Israel during the war in exchange for a peace agreement.

Awards and recognition

Alterman has been featured on Israel's NIS 200 bill since 2016.^[7]

• In 1946, Alterman received the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation, for his translations of plays Phèdre by Jean Racine and Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare.
• In 1947, he received the Ruppin Prize for his book Joy of the Poor.
• In 1957, Alterman was awarded the Bialik Prize for literature.^[8]
• In 1967, he received a second Tchernichovsky Prize for translations of the plays of Moliere.
• In 1968, he was awarded an Israel Prize for literature.^[9]
• In 2011, his portrait was chosen to be on Israel's currency.^[10]

Books (Hebrew)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (November 2022)

See also

• List of Bialik Prize recipients
• List of Israel Prize recipients
• Arik Einstein performing Nathan Alterman's (and Naomi Shemer's) "Meeting without end" on YouTube

References

Further reading

• The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nathan Alterman.

• Nathan Alterman at Poetry International's website. Includes links to Moon, The Killers of the Fields and On the Highroad. Nathan Alterman, Poetry International's website, at the Wayback Machine
• Bottomless Deep: Moshe Dayan on Alterman at Poetry International's website
• Erlich, Tsur Nathan the Wise - Natan Alterman, poet of Zionism, offered a bold new vision of Jewish national identity. Azure no. 28, Spring 5767/2007 at AzureOnline
• Israel and Zionism - Alterman, Natan (1910-1970) Poet, Journalist, and Translator
• Neverending Meeting - Yossi Banai reads Nathan Alterman