Shraga Har-Gil

Shraga Har-Gil (Hebrew שרגא הר-גיל), was born Paul-Philipp Freudenberger (born 19 September 1926 in Würzburg; died 20 September 2009 in Würzburg) was a German-Israeli journalist, Middle East correspondent and a writer. He Hebraized his name to Har-Gil (Mount of Joy) in 1949.

Life

Har-Gil was the second son of a real estate agent whose family lived in Germany for centuries. His mother was an Orthodox Jew, his father a Social Democrat. In 1935 the whole family fled the Gestapo and escaped to Mandatory Palestine. During the Second World-War he fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army and at the end of the War he fought for the Independence of Israel. He was severely wounded and was permanently handicapped, however this did not hinder him in attaining prominence in his literary career both as a journalist and an author of short stories.

He was the chief correspondent in the then biggest Israeli newspaper Maariv for twenty years and subsequently became Middle East correspondent for German, Austrian and a Luxemburg newspapers. Time and again he focused upon the problem of the Middle East conflict and the difficult way towards peace. "There is no peace because there is no confidence". He never stopped advocating for dialogue even with the Hamas: "You have to negotiate with enemies not with friends."[1]

In his next career he set out to establish himself as a literary writer with an emphasis on Judaica and Israel. In this capacity he made many lecture tours throughout Germany. He was invited repeatedly to lecture in Germany at the Jewish Culture-Festival in the Rhineland.

In 2009 Har-Gil was nominated for the Würzburg Peace Prize. He should be honored, because he, whose whole life first in Germany, then in Mandatory Palestine and Israel, was imprinted with the effects of anti-Semitism, hatred and wars, in spite of all he said: "I don't hate!"[2] and he continued: "War is no solution, never!"[3]

From 1999 Har-Gil and his German life partner Ulla Gessner, who became his co-author, lived together in Tel Aviv.

Books (selection)

Movie

External links

References

  1. in: Mainpost (Würzburg), 14 July 2006
  2. Film Die Kunst des Überlebens by Amir Har-Gil, WDR Television
  3. Festvortrag auf der Akademie Frankenwarte anläßlich des Seminars am 24./25. Mai 2008 "Wenn ihr wollt ist es kein Märchen" - 60 Jahre Israel
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.