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The latest in a long tradition of Israeli literati to visit Hebrew College—including, in recent years, Amos Oz, Haim Guri and Savyon Liebrecht—best-selling author Sami Michael drew enthusiastic crowds and many questions about the matzav during his two-lecture engagement on November 10 and 12. Addressing the audience in Hebrew one night and English the next, Michael (pronounced mee-kai-yel) discussed his recently translated A Trumpet in the Wadi: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, 2003), which explores the intricacies of Israeli Arab-Jewish relationships just before the outbreak of the Lebanon War. In his writing and political activism—he is president of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and cofounder of the Society for Solidarity with the Iraqi People—Michael draws on his own experience as a self-described "product of two cultures—Arab and Hebrew." Born an Iraqi Jew, he fled Baghdad in 1948 for Iran, then immigrated to Israel in 1949. Michael was a popular Arabic writer among Palestinian Israelis before he switched to Hebrew in 1955. Soon after, he took a hiatus from writing, reemerging 20 years later as a novelist. Michael is also the author of Victoria, a best-selling novel about Jewish life in Baghdad. His lectures were cosponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England. |
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