Nissan Nativ (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: ניסן נתיב) (originally Notowicz; 5. November 1922 – 20 April 2008) was an influential Israeli
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
,
actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), l ...
and
acting
Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
Acting involves a bro ...
teacher.
Life
Nissan Nativ was born 1922 (as Nissan Notowicz) in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
. In many biographies he is listed as born in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. Possibly Nissan Nativ himself was the source of this ambiguity. Nissan had two older brothers, Benno Notowitz (1918-1962) and
Nathan Notowicz (1911–1968).
His family moved from Munich to Düsseldorf, then in the early 1930s to Amsterdam. Nissan emigrated without the family to the British Mandate in Palestine in 1937. In September 1943, his family was deported to the
Westerbork transit camp
Camp Westerbork ( nl, Kamp Westerbork, german: Durchgangslager Westerbork, Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk'' ), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, d ...
in the Netherlands and in February 1944, forth to
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentr ...
in Germany. The father and brothers survived the Nazi persecution.
Nativ joined the
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited among Yishuv Jews from Manda ...
during World War II and served in the Armor Corps. He was a commander during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War.
[ After the war, Nissan Nativ enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.][
Nissan Nativ moved from Israel to Paris where he studied ]mime
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Messa ...
. He worked as an Israeli theatre director and at Israel Radio when he returned from France.
He founded the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in 1963. The renowned acting school holds classes in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Many of Israel's best known actors, such as Keren Mor, Tiki Dayan and Moshe Ivgi are alumni
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
of Nativ's school. Despite its success the school suffered from financial difficulties during the 1990s and 2000s, which nearly forced it to close.
The Israel Prize committee decided to confer the Israel Prize, for theatre, on Nativ in 2008 citing his contributions to Israeli theatre and culture. The committee stated in its opinion that "You cannot imagine Israeli theater without Nissan Nativ". It also cited Nativ's training of generations of Israeli actors and directors through his Nissan Nativ School of Acting.
Nativ died before he could receive the Israel Prize in person. He was found dead of an apparent heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...
in his apartment in Tel Aviv at the age of 86 on 20 April 2008.[
]
Filmography
See also
*List of Israel Prize recipients
This is a complete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 through to 2022.
List
For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize ...
References
External links
*
*Nissan Nativ in the film The Acting Teacher
Studio Hanabi Production
(password TheActingTeacher)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nativ, Nissan
1922 births
2008 deaths
British Army personnel of World War II
Dutch emigrants to Israel
Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty
Israel Prize in theatre recipients
Israeli male stage actors
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine
Israeli theatre directors
People from Tel Aviv
Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II
Jewish Brigade personnel
Burials at Yarkon Cemetery