Amos Oz (1939-2018)

I have just learned that esteemed Israeli novelist Amos Oz has died at the age of 79 from cancer.

I first became aware of Oz around 1975, when I read the English translation of his (then) most famous book, 'My Michael'. This was a story set in Jerusalem just after the creation of the state of Israel. Probably most of the allusions passed me by, but I remember going past certain buildings and thinking to myself that these were mentioned in the book. I read another of his books in translation a year or two later ('Elsewhere perhaps') which was set in a fictional kibbutz, one which was quite unlike the kibbutzim which I had already begun to know and love.

I emigrated to Israel in 1978, to a kibbutz called Mishmar David, whose closest neighbour is kibbutz Hulda, where Amos Oz was living. I remember that during the first weekend after emigrating, a group of us went to Hulda in order to use their swimming pool (we didn't have one at the time in Mishmar David). If I remember the story correctly, after we had left the pool, Amos Oz arrived with Jane Fonda.

A few years later, in an attempt to improve relations between the two kibbutzim (there were no arguments between the two ...), probably at Sukkot (when it is traditional to entertain guests), we went to Hulda and were hosted by several families. My wife was talking to the family that entertained us about their house, and our hostess said something like "I'll show you something else". She went outside, knocked on the door of the next apartment and was bidden to enter with us. "Thank you, Amos", she said. Only afterwards did my wife realise that we had been in the house of Amos Oz.

An apocryphal story which was making the rounds at this time had the treasurer of Hulda calling upon Oz and telling him that he was the most successful branch of the kibbutz (in monetary terms); the treasurer wanted to improve the income of this branch by allowing a few pensioners to work with Oz and so increase the work force.... Maybe this story loses something in translation.

A few years later, Oz and his family moved to the desert town of Arad in order to ease his son's asthma, and so our paths ceased to cross.

The last book of his which I bought was a non-fiction book about the Israeli elections in 1982, when Oz visited several cities, towns and settlements.