Ithamar Handelman Smith
Itamar Handelman Smith (Hebrew: איתמר בן כנען; born May 30, 1976 in the city of Eilat, Israel) is the pen name of Ithamar Handelman Smith, a Jewish writer [1], columnist, filmmaker, playwright and sometimes DJ [2] based in Paris. He is renowned for several controversial works, both in fiction and non-fiction. His latest BBC documentary is titled Shalom Belfast [3].
He is named after Hebrew language reviver Itamar Ben-Avi.
Career
Ben Canaan began writing for the Herzliya supplement of Haaretz network at the age of 17. Between the years 1998 and 2003 he wrote a weekly culture critic column in Maariv weekend magazines. During those years he published two volumes of short fiction: Where Have You Gone, Arik Einstein? (1999), and Dreaming Of Junkfood (2001).
In 2004 Ben Canaan began writing a more personal weekly column in the Time Out magazine of Tel Aviv that earned cult status in Israeli culture, according to Nana 10 [4]. Other than those collections of short stories he produced two volumes of poetry and one erotic narrative novel including photos taken by his then partner, artist Olga Borozina. Canaan also translated the poetry of Charles Bukowski into Hebrew and edited translations of other American writings.
In 2005 he was a subject of a documentary film entitled The Ashkenazim.[5]
Canaan currently lives with his wife Julia Carolyn Ann Handelman Smith in Paris, France and is employed by Ha'ir, a Tel Aviv local newspaper associated with Haaretz. His column continues to provoke the Israeli mainstream and in the summer of 2011 his piece about the Sephardic Jewish Israeli singer Margalit Tzan'ani was the cause of great controversies and even allegations of racism. [6]
During 2009 and 2010, while living in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ben Canaan was commissioned by the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry and the Legacy Trust UK to write a musical called The Naked Tornado (2011) [7] [8] alongside young Northern Irish composer Neil Burns. A 30 minute long piece of the play was staged in Belfast. In early 2012 Ben Canaan's film Shalom Belfast (2012) is due to be released [9].
Bibliography
- 1999 - 'Where have you gone, Arik Einstein?'[10]
- 2001 - 'Dreaming of junk food' [11]
- 2002 - 'Like those dogs who die of sorrow when their owners take off for the weekend'
- 2004 - 'Open'[12]
See also
External links
- "Erotic Novel from Israel" on Itamar Ben Canaan from the Czech website *expats.cz.
- The Ashkenazim in the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival
- More info from Michal Govrin website
- an Essay in the jewish agency website
- Views on Berlin Haaretz, March 2012.
- [13]
- [14]
- [15]
- [16]
- http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/how-the-irish-view-the-israel-palestinian-conflict.premium-1.471003