Harold Fisch

Harold Fisch (25 March 1923, Birmingham – 8 November 2001, Jerusalem), also known as Aharon Harel-Fisch (Hebrew: אַהֲרֹן הַרְאֵל-פִישׁ‎), was a British-Israeli author, literary critic, translator, and diplomat.[1] He was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Bar-Ilan University, of which he served as Rector from 1968 to 1971.[2] He was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature in 2000.[3]

Harold Fisch
Born(1923-03-25)25 March 1923
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Died8 November 2001(2001-11-08) (aged 78)
Jerusalem, Israel
Spouse(s)
Frances Joyce Roston
​
​
(m. 1947)​
ChildrenMenachem Fisch
David Harel
RelativesMurray Roston (brother-in-law)
AwardsIsrael Prize (2000)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Sheffield
University of Oxford
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Leeds (1947–1957)
Bar-Ilan University (1957–1989)

Biography

Early life and education

Harold Fisch was born in Birmingham to Rebecca (née Swift) and Rabbi Dr. Solomon Fisch. His mother was the sister of Rabbi Morris Swift, who would go on to sit as a dayan of the London Beth Din for nearly two decades.[4] Fisch's father, born in Wolbrom, Poland, studied at Rabbi Solomon Breuer's yeshiva in Frankfurt before emigrating to England in 1920, where he received a doctorate from the University of Manchester.[5][6] As a child, Fisch moved between Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds, where his father took up posts as a congregational rabbi.[7]

Fisch began his undergraduate degree in English literature at the University of Sheffield in 1940, at the age of 17. His studies were interrupted by his service in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve from 1942 to 1945, as an officer on the HMS Meynell and the HMS Kildary.[3] He completed his B.A. in 1946, and was appointed Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds the following year, meanwhile serving as chairman of the Inter-University Jewish Federation.[8] In 1948, he received his B.Litt. from the University of Oxford, with a thesis on Calvinist bishop Joseph Hall.[9]

Career

In 1957, Fisch immigrated to Israel with his wife and four children, and accepted an associate professorship in English Literature at the newly-founded Bar-Ilan University.[10] He was appointed full professor in 1964, and held the position of Rector from 1968 to 1971.[11] Fisch founded the Kotler Institute for Judaism and Contemporary Thought in 1971, and the Lechter Institute for Literary Research in 1981, of which he served as chairman until his retirement from Bar-Ilan in 1987.[12][13]

Fisch was responsible for the English translation of the Tanakh for the Koren Jerusalem Bible (1964), based on Michael Friedländer's Jewish Family Bible,[14][15] which is still in publication and on its third edition.[16]

Outside of his academic work, Fisch participated in the establishment of the Neo-Zionist Movement for Greater Israel after the Six-Day War.[17][18] His 1972 work A Zionist Revolution included a defense of Gush Emunim, based on the ideas of Menachem Kasher and Abraham Isaac Kook.[19][20] During the era of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Fisch was a member of the Israeli delegation to the 32nd General Assembly of the United Nations.[17] He declined an offer from the Prime Minister to occupy the position of Ambassador of Israel to the Netherlands.[3]

Fisch was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature in 2000. He died on 8 November 2001 of a tumor discovered two weeks earlier.[21]

Partial bibliography

References
  1. Davies, Lloyd (2016). ""Shadowy Presences": Harold Fisch's Criticism and a Jewish Reading of Romanticism". In Spector, Sheila A. (ed.). Romanticism/Judaica: A Convergence of Cultures. London: Routledge. pp. 169–182. ISBN 978-1-315-60701-6. OCLC 950005790.
  2. "Author Page: Harold Fisch". Bar-Ilan University Press. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  3. "Recipients of the Israel Prize: Prof. A. Harel Fisch". Israel Prize (in Hebrew). 15 August 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  4. "Morris Swift Dead at 76". Daily News Bulletin. 66 (179). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 21 September 1983.
  5. Efron, Noah J. (2016). "Menachem Fisch: An Intellectual Portrait". In Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava; Hughes, Aaron W. (eds.). Menachem Fisch: The Rationality of Religious Dispute. Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers. 18. Leiden: Brill. pp. 1–32. ISBN 978-90-04-32356-8.
  6. Fisch, Menachem (27 September 2017). "Ambivalence as a Jewish Value". Tablet. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  7. Rubinstein, William D.; Jolles, Michael A.; Rubinstein, Hillary L., eds. (2011). "Fisch, Solomon". The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 281–282. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6. OCLC 793104984.
  8. Fisch, Harold (2018). "Bar-Ilan University—A Question of Identity". In Abramson, Glendad; Parfitt, Tudor (eds.). Jewish Education and Learning: Published in Honour of Dr. David Patterson on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-429-64749-9.
  9. Gilboa, Shaked (2007). "Fish, Harel". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. 7 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 57–58.
  10. Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (2016). "Interview with Menachem Fisch (June 15, 2014)". In Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava; Hughes, Aaron W. (eds.). Menachem Fisch: The Rationality of Religious Dispute. Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers. 18. Leiden: Brill. pp. 155–224. ISBN 978-90-04-32356-8.
  11. Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred, eds. (2007). "Fisch, Harold". Encyclopaedia Judaica. 7 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. p. 51.
  12. Schwartz, Dov, ed. (2006). Universiṭat Bar-Ilan: Me-raʻyon le-maʻaś [Bar-Ilan University: From Concept to Enterprise]. 2. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-965-226-324-7. OCLC 71366810.
  13. "Lechter Institute for Literary Research". Bar-Ilan University. 27 March 2002. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  14. Sarna, Nahum M.; Snaith, Norman Henry; Greenspoon, Leonard J.; Harkins, Franklin T.; Harkins, Angela Kim; Grossfeld, Bernard (2007). "Bible". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. 3 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. pp. 572–679.
  15. Paul, William E. (2015). English Language Bible Translators. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1-4766-1023-8.
  16. Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim: The Koren Tanakh. Translated by Fisch, Harold. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers. 2015. ISBN 978-965-301-721-4. OCLC 910088717.
  17. Ram, Uri (2001). "Historiosophical foundations of the historical strife in Israel". Journal of Israeli History. 20 (2–3): 43–61. doi:10.1080/13531040108576158. ISSN 1353-1042. S2CID 159476037.
  18. Ram, Uri (2000). "National, Ethnic or Civic? Contesting Paradigms of Memory, Identity and Culture in Israel". In Gur-Ze'ev, Ilan (ed.). Conflicting Philosophies of Education in Israel/Palestine. Studies in Philosophy and Education. 19. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 414. ISBN 978-0-7923-6739-0.
  19. Lubling, Yoram (2007). Twice-dead: Moshe Y. Lubling, the Ethics of Memory, and the Treblinka Revolt. New York: Peter Lang. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8204-8815-8.
  20. Lustick, Ian S. (1988). "The Worldview of Jewish Fundamentalism: The Breadth of Consensus". For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press. pp. 72–90. ISBN 978-0-87609-036-7.
  21. Fisch, Menachem (2004). Introduction. Who Knows One?: An Essay in Autobiography. By Fisch, Harold. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press. ISBN 978-965-226-275-2. OCLC 57344461.
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