Amos Oz

Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual (1939-2018) · Israel · Writers · Died at 79

Amos Oz is read about 480 times a day, in 53 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 83 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?

Compare

He translated Israel's contradictions into 40 books and 45 languages - more than any other Israeli writer - while spending five decades arguing publicly that the state he chronicled needed to split the land in two.

Writers Writer / Author Journalism Fiction Poetry Literature Israel Middle East

A life in dates

2018Died28 December 20182017Mount Zion AwardAward2014Siegfried Lenz PrizeAward2013Franz Kafka PrizeAward2010Siegfried Unseld PreisAward2008“The [political] left are people with an imagination and the right are those without an imagination.”In their words21 November 2008"Between Oz and Ayalon" (interview), the Supplement to Shabbat, 21 November 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth, p. 2.Read the whole statement

Grand Cross of the Order of Civil MeritAwardHonorary Doctor of the University of AntwerpAward2007Princess of Asturias Literary PrizeAward2006Honorary Doctorate of the Weizmann Institute of ScienceAward2005Goethe Prize of the City of FrankfurtAward1999“The kibbutz way of life is not for everyone.”In their words17 June 1999"The Great Disruption", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 (17 June 1999).Read the whole statement

1998Israel PrizeAward1992Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' AssociationAward1986“America is too large and too abstract to generalize about.”In their wordsFrom We Are All Close: Conversations with Israeli Writers by Haim Chertok (1989)Read the whole statement

“The Hebrew writers who I feel should be more widely appreciated my own mentors, I suppose-are Micha Berdyczewski, Yosef Haim Brenner, and, of course, Shmuel Yosef Agnon.”In their wordsFrom We Are All Close: Conversations with Israeli Writers by Haim Chertok (1989)Read the whole statement

Bialik PrizeAward1983Bernstein PrizeAward1976Brenner PrizeAward1939Born4 May 1939

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Amos oz675

Amos Oz memorial plaque in Tel Aviv

Amos Oz Shira Hadad

Amos Oz street, Herzliya

Amos Oz writer

Amos Oz, Israeli author (cropped)

Amos Oz, Israeli author

Leszek Kwiatkowski Amos Oz

In their own words 10

Amos Oz

10 statements, newest first

The [political] left are people with an imagination and the right are those without an imagination.
Nov 21, 2008, "Between Oz and Ayalon" (interview), the Supplement to Shabbat, 21 November 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth, p. 2., Own words
The kibbutz way of life is not for everyone.
Jun 17, 1999, "The Great Disruption", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 (17 June 1999)., Own words
America is too large and too abstract to generalize about.
1986, From We Are All Close: Conversations with Israeli Writers by Haim Chertok (1989), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Mount Zion Award2017

Abraham Geiger Prize2017

Siegfried Lenz Prize2014

Franz Kafka Prize2013

Newman Prize2013

Honorary Doctor of the University of Łódź2012

Siegfried Unseld Preis2010

Stefan Heym International Award2008

Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit2008

Dan David Prize2008

Heinrich Heine Prize2008

Honorary Doctor of the University of Antwerp2008

Princess of Asturias Literary Prize2007

Honorary Doctor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem2006

Honorary Doctorate of the Weizmann Institute of Science2006

Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt2005

Catalonia International Prize2004

Israel Prize1998

Knight of the Legion of Honour1997

Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association1992

Prix Femina étranger1988

Bialik Prize1986

Officer of Arts and Letters1984

Bernstein Prize1983

Ze'ev Prize1979

Brenner Prize1976

Prize of the International Book Fair in Torino

Honorary Doctor of Tel Aviv University

Family

Father Yehuda Arieh Klausner

Amos Oz

Children

Is this everyone?

Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong.

Correct this family

About this person

Born Amos Klausner in Jerusalem on 4 May 1939, he became a novelist, journalist, and professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 forward he used his platform to advocate a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a position that made him as much a political figure as a literary one. His output spanned novels, short stories, children's books, and essays, earning him the Israel Prize, the Goethe Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize, and France's Legion of Honour, among others. The New York Times, in its obituary after his death on 28 December 2018, called him one of Israel's most prolific writers and respected intellectuals.

Country

Israel

In common with Amos

Meir ShalevAlso in Histoires d'Israël (2018)

Shira HaasAlso in A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015)

Theodore BikelAlso in The Little Traitor (2009)

Oded KotlerAlso in My Michael (1974)

Tomer CaponeAlso in A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015)

David GrossmanAlso in Histoires d'Israël (2018)

Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.