HAIFA (Press Release)–The prestigious Bahat Prize for original works of non-fiction was awarded Wednesday by the University of Haifa Press to
Prof. Eli Yassif, Dr. Dana Olmert and Dr. Yehuda Goodman.
The prize was awarded at a festive ceremony at the University of Haifa to Prof. Yassif for his manuscript Legends from Safed (“Agadot Tsfat”); to Dr. Olmert for her work entitled First Hebrew Poetesses (“Hameshorerot Haivriot Harishonot”); and to Dr. Goodman for his work Exile of Broken Vessels (“Galut Hakelim Hashevurim”). These manuscripts will be co-published by the University of Haifa Press and Yedioth Books following a partnership agreement signed earlier this year.
The Bahat Prize, named after the late Prof. Yaakov Bahat, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Comparative Hebrew Literature at the University of Haifa, has been awarded annually since 1998 for quality, original, non-fiction manuscripts in Hebrew that have not been published previously and which have a potentially large popular audience. This is the first year in which the prize for a senior academic faculty member is 100,000 NIS and 40,000 NIS for young scholars. The amounts were enlarged thanks to a grant from the Bahat and Yuval families and former students of Prof. Bahat who wished to honor his memory.
Prof. Eli Yassif of Tel Aviv University received this year’s Bahat prize as a senior academic, for his work examining the culture of Safed in the north of Israel, as expressed in legends of Safed from the sixteenth century. Legends from Safed (“Agadot Tsfat”) offers ethnographic analyses and a survey of folklore based on a rich line-up of texts: legends and fables, dreams and fantasies, hearsay and casual testimony, ethical instruction and mystic imagination – all of which were created some 400 years ago, and all of which reflect one of the richest and most dynamic phenomenon in the history of Jewish culture.
Dr. Dana Olmert of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yehuda Goodman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are this year’s joint winners of the young scholar/general public category, each receiving a prize of NIS 20,000. Dr. Olmert’s manuscript First Hebrew Poetesses (“Hameshorerot Haivriot Harishonot”) discusses the poetry of the first modernist Hebrew poetesses and brings a new focus on their psycho-poetic self-image as reflected in their works. Dr. Olmert pursues the cultural and psychological hurdles that faced these individuals upon entering the male realm of Hebrew poetry and reveals the unique solutions that each developed in order to cope with these difficulties.
Dr. Goodman received the Bahat Prize for Exile of Broken Vessels (“Galut Hakelim Hashevurim”), which is an ethnographic journey into the Haredi world in Israel. It specifically relates to locations where Haredim provide therapy for mentally disturbed Haredim. The book examines the issue of the “other” in Haredi society and brings up complex questions regarding social norms and abnormality, the significance of mental disturbance and ways of coping with these issues within the Haredi society.
*
Preceding provided by the University of Haifa