Israeli author/filmmaker Etgar Keret wins Bronfman Prize

Etgar Keret
Etgar Keret

Internationally acclaimed Israeli author and filmmaker Etgar Keret is the recipient of the 2016 Charles Bronfman Prize in recognition of his work “conveying Jewish values across cultures and imparting a humanitarian vision throughout the world.”

The $100,000 (US) prize – the organization is based in New York – was established in 2004 by Charles’ children, Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and Stephen Bronfman, together with their spouses, Andrew Hauptman and Claudine Blondin Bronfman, to honour his values and commitment to young people and their potential to effect change.

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Keret, 48, best known for his short stories, graphic novels, film and television projects, has been one of Israel’s most popular writers since his first collection of stories was published in 1992.

Hailed as the voice of young Israel, Keret is one of the most successful Israeli writers worldwide. His work has been published in 46 countries and translated into 41 languages, including Farsi, and has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and the Paris Review, and other media.

“We recognize that humanitarian work is increasingly taking new forms, and this marks the first time the Charles Bronfman Prize has been awarded to an individual who uses storytelling as a medium through which he challenges and inspires the way people think about themselves and the world,” said Stephen Bronfman. “Etgar Keret is an important international voice who speaks of the Jewish condition in contemporary terms and demonstrates that writers can play an influential and critical role within society.”

“In a dangerous world,” Charles Bronfman said, “Etgar Keret portrays people who have the capacity to empathize with the other, to hear the other, and to find compassion for the other. He counters dehumanization and inspires his readers with warmth and humour and original thinking.

“He encourages others to make the world a better place and translates the lessons of the Holocaust to a new generation. Etgar’s ability to innovate and collaborate with others involved in creative endeavours fully embodies the values and spirit of the prize and I am delighted by his selection.”

In acknowledging receipt of the prize, Keret said, “It is a great honour for me to be the 2016 recipient… If I had the choice to either become a better writer or a better person, I would choose, with no hesitation, the latter option.

“I feel that the Charles Bronfman Prize sets the same priorities, being given not only for talent and excellence but, more than anything, for the genuine attempt to make a change and shape the world we live in…

“When I write, I try not to preach to my readers, but to put them in front of a text presenting an incomplete world, thus turning the reading process itself into a chevrutah [fellowship] study.”

Keret’s nominator, Nissim Calderon, professor emeritus of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), said Keret’s “literary creativity is paralleled by social involvement. His stories offer his readers – many of them young people – something in their multiple cultures, which responds to some need greater than the particular in their lives.”

Keret’s nominating team also included best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer, Polish journalist Pawel Smolenski and Palestinian-Israeli author and journalist Sayed Kashua, who said in support of Keret’s nomination: “Somehow, when I read Keret, I know deep inside that there is still room for understanding, for co-operation, that there is another way which refuses to accept the segregation between religions, people, nationalities and species.”

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Born in Ramat Gan in 1967 and raised by parents who survived the Holocaust, Keret is one of Israel’s most innovative writers. Rarely longer than three or four pages, his stories offer a window into a surreal world that is at once funny and sad.

He is a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s This American Life and a lecturer in the department of Hebrew literature at BGU. Keret resides in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and their son, Lev.