Menahem Ben ( he, מנחם בן; October 31, 1948 – March 13, 2020) was an

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and an outspoken literary and culture

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

. He was a frequent

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

contributor and authored two weekly columns, on culture and literature, in the

Maariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or night. It consists primarily of the evening ''Shema'' and '' Amidah''. The service will often begin with two verses from Psalms, ...

daily newspaper, as well as a monthly book review page in that paper's literary supplement. He specialized in publishing provocative opinions, for instance that

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

theory of evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

is an "idiotic idea" (Haaretz, 30 November 2017).

Biography

Menahem Ben (originally Braun), was born in

Dzierżoniów Dzierżoniów (; szl, Rychbach; german: Reichenbach im Eulengebirge ) is a town located at the foot of the Owl Mountains in southwestern Poland, within the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (from 1975 to 1998 in the former Wałbrzych Voivodeship). It is ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in 1948. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949. He participated in reality show ''

HaAh HaGadol VIP ''HaAh HaGadol VIP'' ( he, האח הגדול VIP; lit. ''The Big Brother VIP'') started on March 1, 2009 and ended on March 31, 2009. The VIP season was the second season of the Israeli version of the ''Big Brother'' series and the first season ...

'' (2009), reaching 3rd place.

Books

In addition to his work of critical writing in the Israeli press, Menahem Ben published eighteen books, including poetry, children's literature, translations and essays. In 2006, he published a volume of criticism: ''From Shlomo the King (

King Solomon King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

) to

Shlomo Artzi Shlomo Artzi ( he, שלמה ארצי) is an Israeli folk rock musician, composer, music producer, radio broadcaster columnist and singer-songwriter. He was born on November 26, 1949, in Moshav Alonei Abba. In the course of his career, he has so ...

''.

Prizes

* In 1989, Ben was awarded the

Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works The Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works, also known as the Levi Eshkol Literary Award, named after Israel's third Prime Minister, is an annual award granted to writers in the Hebrew language. The prize was established in 1969. Abou ...

. * In 1998, he received the

Bernstein Prize The Bernstein Prize is an annual Israeli literary award for writers 50 years of age and younger. The prize is awarded by the Bernstein Foundation, named after Mordechai Bernstein, who left money in his estate to establish a foundation in order to ...

, in the Literary Criticism category.

External links

Entry on Menahem Ben in Ohio State's ''Bio-Bibliographical Lexicon''

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070930024119/http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=328 Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben, Menahem 1948 births 2020 deaths Bernstein Prize recipients Hebrew-language poets Israeli journalists Israeli literary critics Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Israeli male poets Israeli television critics Polish emigrants to Israel Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works Big Brother (franchise) contestants