Oded Burla ( he, עודד בורלא; June 23, 1915 – July 26, 2009) was an Israeli

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

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

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

. He is considered one of the founders of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

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 ...

Biography

Oded Burla was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

to a

Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. His father

Yehuda Burla Yehuda Burla ( he, יהודה בורלא; born 18 September 1886, died 7 November 1969) was an Israeli author. Biography Burla was born in 1886 in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to a Sephardi Jewish family with rabbinical roots, or ...

, was a famous Hebrew novelist. Burla's young brother, Yair, was also a writer and translator. His early years were spent moving between Jerusalem,

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

and

Zikhron Ya'akov Zikhron Ya'akov ( he, זִכְרוֹן יַעֲקֹב, ''lit.'' "Jacob's Memorial"; often shortened to just ''Zikhron'') is a town in Israel, south of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Carmel mounta ...

. At 13, he transferred to the school at

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Beit Alfa Beit Alfa ( he, בֵּית אַלְפָא; also Beit Alpha, Bet Alpha and Bet Alfa) is a kibbutz in the Northern District of Israel, founded in 1922 by immigrants from Poland. Located at the base of the Gilboa ridge, it falls under the jurisdic ...

and then

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel ( he, מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, 'Hope of Israel') is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Isra ...

, an agricultural school near

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

. Burla died in 2009 at the age of 94, following a long battle with skin cancer.

Literary and art career

From 1949 to 1955 Burla lived in the USA where he taught in Hebrew schools, worked as an

announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...

and speechwriter for a radio station "Kol America". When he came back to Israel, he was admitted to

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest ...

where he majored in

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

. His first book, ''Letters to Liora'', was a collection of letters he wrote to his niece when he was in the USA. Shortly before his death, ''Letters to Liora'' was reissued, after remaining a collector's item for many years. Burla wrote and illustrated 70 books. His books combine children's naivety and their sharpness, humor and amusing expressions. Most of his characters are animals put into strange adventurous situations. In his writings, Burla paid great attention to even small details and expressed a love of nature. His last book was published in 1996. However his works continue to be popular today, his book ״המנגינה״, ''The Tune'', was recently published by the PJ Library in Israel, and translated into English (2021) for Kalaniot Books by

Ilana Kurshan Ilana Kurshan is an American-Israeli author who lives in Jerusalem. She is best known for her memoir of Talmud study amidst life as a single woman, a married woman, and a mother, ''If All the Seas Were Ink.'' Personal life Kurshan was raised ...

Awards and recognition

In 2008, Burla was awarded the

Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel, for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik ...

for

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, (jointly with Yeshayahu Koren and Israel Eliraz).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burla, Oded 1915 births 2009 deaths Israeli illustrators Sephardi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Israeli Sephardi Jews 20th-century Sephardi Jews Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design alumni Israeli children's writers Deaths from cancer in Israel Deaths from skin cancer Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery

Biography

Literary and art career

Awards and recognition

See also

References