Yosef Haim Brenner

Yosef Haim Brenner (Hebrew: , also Yosef Chaim Brenner, 18811921) was a Russian-born Hebrewlanguage author and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature.
Contents
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1Biography

2Zionist views

3Writing style

4Commemoration

5Published works

6Bibliography

7References

8External links

Biography[edit]

Right to left; seated Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, David Ben-Gurion, Yosef Haim Brenner; standing A. Reuveni, Ya'akov Zerubavel (1912)

Brenner was born to a poor Jewish family in Novi Mlini, Russian Empire. He studied at a yeshiva in Pochep, and
published his first story, Pat Lechem("A Loaf of Bread") in HaMelitz, a Hebrew language newspaper, in 1900, followed
by a collection of short stories in 1901.[1]
In 1902, Brenner was drafted into the Russian army. Two years later, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, he
deserted. He was initially captured, but escaped to London with the help of the General Jewish Labor Bund, which he
had joined as a youth.
In 1905, he met the Yiddish writer Lamed Shapiro. Brenner lived in an apartment in Whitechapel, which doubled as an
office for HaMe'orer, a Hebrew periodical that he edited and published in 190607. In 1922, Asher Beilin
published Brenner in London about this period in Brenner's life.
Brenner married Chaya, with whom he had a son, Uri.[2]
Brenner immigrated to Palestine (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in 1909. He worked as a farmer, eager to put
his Zionist ideology into practice. Unlike A. D. Gordon, however, he could not take the strain of manual labor, and soon
left to devote himself to literature and teaching at the Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. According to biographer Anita

Shapira, he suffered from depression and problems of sexual identity.[2] He was murdered in Jaffaon May 1921 during
the Jaffa riots.

Zionist views[edit]
In his writing, Brenner praised the Zionist endeavor, but also contradicted himself, contending that the Land of Israel
was just another diaspora and no different from other diasporas.[2]

Writing style[edit]
Brenner was very much an "experimental" writer, both in his use of language and in literary form. With Modern Hebrew
still in its infancy, Brenner improvised with an intriguing mixture of Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, English and Arabic. In his
attempt to portray life realistically, his work is full of emotive punctuation and ellipses. Robert Alter, in the
collection Modern Hebrew Literature, writes that Brenner "had little patience for the aesthetic dimension of imaginative
fictions: 'A single particle of truth,' he once said, 'is more valuable to me than all possible poetry.'" Brenner "wants the
brutally depressing facts to speak for themselves, without any authorial intervention or literary heightening." [3] This was
Alter's preface to Brenner's story, "The Way Out", published in 1919, and set during Turkish and British struggles over
Palestine in WWI.

Commemoration[edit]
The site of his murder is now marked by Brenner House, a center for Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, the youth
organization of the Histadrut. Kibbutz Givat Brenner was also named for him, while kibbutz Revivim was named in
honour of his magazine. The Brenner Prize, one of Israel's top literary awards, is named for him. [4]

Published works[edit]

In Winter (novel), Hashiloah, 1904 [Ba-Horef]

Around the Point (novel), Hashiloah, 1904 [Misaviv La-Nekudah]

Min Hametzar (novel), 1908

Nerves (novella), Shalekhet, 1910 [Atzabim]

English: In Eight Great Hebrew Short Novels, New York, New American Library, 1983

Spanish: In Ocho Obras Maestras de la Narrativa Hebrea, Barcelona, Riopiedras, 1989

French: Paris, Intertextes, 1989; Paris, Noel Blandin, 1991

From Here and There (novel), Sifrut, 1911 [Mi-Kan U-Mi-Kan]

Breakdown and Bereavement (novel), Shtiebel, 1920 [Shchol Ve-Kishalon]

English: London, Cornell Univ. Press, 1971; Philadelphia, JPS, 1971; London, The Toby Press, [5] 2004

Chinese: Hefei, Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, 1998

Collected Works (four volumes), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 19781985 [Ketavim]

Out of the Depths or "Out Of A Gloomy Valley", Brenner's first book is a collection of 6 short stories about
Jewish life in the diaspora. It was published in Warsaw 1900.

English: Colorado, Westview Press, 1992

Around the Point

Yiddish: Berlin, Yiddisher Literarisher Ferlag, 1923

In the Winter

Yiddish: Warsaw, Literarisher Bleter, 1936