Moked - 5.30.26\

 

Yes terday Haim called me to tell me that Moked had died.  Born in 1933, he lived through the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto and then in hiding. In 1977, when the joural Achshav filled Tsavta with every new issue, and the word of Gabriel Moked could create or destroy a literary career, he came to me with the dream I was surprised to learn we shared – to make Hebrew literature available to the world of English speakers. He had been promised funding by the Municipality, he said, and so the journal would be called The Tel Aviv Review. Three annual issues of over 400 pages emerged before the journal was re-funded and became The Jerusalem Review. Wieseltier, Reich, Amichai, Bejerano, Avidan, Dor, Vollach, Araidi, Yonatan and many other worthy writers were introduced to readers who had never heard their names. Professor Haim Marantz joined the effort and made great efforts to connect Hebrew writers to scholars and writers abroad. After ten annual issues, when the funding from Jerusalem was discontinued, Moked continued valiant efforts to continue the journal. He influenced me to discover, translate, interview, and edit. For what he accomplished I remain eternally grateful. The need to continue his work remains.

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