Hebrew Literature

Amir, Eli

Biography  |  Texts  |  Interviews

Eli Amir (b. 1937; Baghdad, Iraq) arrived in Israel with his family in 1950 and was sent to study at a kibbutz. Amir began his career as a messenger boy in the Prime Minister's Office and worked his way up to Arab Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister. Amir has concentrated on the social problems of new immigrants, and was appointed deputy director-general of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. Today he is the director-general of the youth immigration division of the Jewish Agency. He won the Yigal Alon prize for outstanding pioneering service to the Israeli society. Amir is well-known in Israel for his lectures, articles, radio and television programs and especially for his book, Scapegoat, a semi-autobiographical novel that depicts the integration of an Iraqi-Jewish youth in an Israeli transit camp soon after the establishment of the state. This and other novels by Amir are included in the secondary school sylabus.

Books Published in Hebrew

• Scapegoat (novel), Am Oved, 1984 [Tarnegol Kaparot]
• Farewell, Baghdad (novel), Am Oved, 1992 [Mafriah Ha-Yonim]
• Saul's Love (novel), Am Oved, 1998 [Ahavat Shaul]

Copyright © The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature.
Reprinted by kind permission of The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. First published on the website of The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature: www.ithl.org.il