The Itzik Manger Prize for outstanding contributions to Yiddish literature was established in 1968, shortly before Itzik Manger's death in 1969. Manger "was and remains one of the best-known twentieth-century Yiddish poets." [1] The Prize has been described as the "most prestigious in Yiddish letters". [2] [3] Apparently no Manger Prizes have been awarded after 1999.
The prize was initiated by Meyer Weisgal, who was frustrated when Manger—then very ill—was denied the Israel Prize. [4] [5] The inaugural prize was given to Manger himself at a banquet on October 31, 1968. The banquet was attended by Golda Meir, then the prime minister of Israel, and by Zalman Shazar, then president. Subsequently, the prize was awarded annually, sometimes to several writers. [6] [7]
Abraham Sutzkever was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. The New York Times wrote that Sutzkever was "the greatest poet of the Holocaust."
Chaim Grade was one of the leading Yiddish writers of the twentieth century.
Chava Alberstein is an Israeli musician, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger. She moved to Israel in 1950 and started her music career in 1964. Alberstein has released over sixty albums in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish. She is known for her liberal activism and advocacy for human rights and Arab-Israeli unity, which has sometimes stirred controversy, such as the ban of her song "Had Gadya" by Israel State Radio in 1989. Alberstein has received numerous accolades, including the Kinor David Prize, the Itzik Manger Prize, and honorary doctorates from several universities.
Chava Rosenfarb was a Holocaust survivor and Jewish-Canadian author of Yiddish poetry and novels, a major contributor to post-World War II Yiddish Literature.
Itzik Manger was a prominent Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, and 'master tailor' of the written word. A Jew from Bucovina, Manger lived in Romania, Poland, France, England, the US, Canada (Montreal) and finally Israel.
Itsye Mordkhe Schaechter was a leading Yiddish linguist, writer, and educator who spent a lifetime studying, standardizing and teaching the language.
Yankev-Meyer Zalkind was a British Orthodox rabbi, an anarcho-communist, a close friend of Rudolf Rocker, and an active anti-militarist.
Aaron Zeitlin was a Jewish American educator and writer. He authored several books on Yiddish literature, poetry and parapsychology.
Rajzel Żychlińsky was a Polish-born writer of poetry in Yiddish. She published seven collections over six decades. Her first two collections were published in Warsaw, Poland in 1936 and 1939, just prior to World War II. She survived the war by fleeing eastward to the Soviet Union, but many members of her immediate family were murdered in the Holocaust. Her postwar poetry, mostly written in the United States, was strongly influenced by these events.
Jonas Turkow was an actor, stage manager, director and writer. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for his contributions to Yiddish letters.
Joshua A. Fogel is an American-Canadian Sinologist, historian, and translator who specializes in the history of modern China, especially focusing on the cultural and political relations between China and Japan. Before retiring and becoming professor emeritus in 2024, he held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at York University in Toronto from 2005. Before that he taught at Harvard University (1981–1988) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (1989–2005). He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim was a Lithuanian-born Israeli Yiddish poet and educator. She was the recipient of the Itzik Manger Prize in 1984. Basman was also awarded the Chaim Zhitlowsky Prize in 1998.
Jacob Marinoff was an American Yiddish publisher and author from Odesa. He was one of the founders of New York satirical weekly Der Groyser Kundes. He published three volumes of verse, and co-edited a satire collection.
Abraham Shalom Friedberg, known also by the pen name Har Shalom and the acronym Hash, was a Russian Jewish Hebrew writer, editor, and translator.
Abraham Zinger was a Russian-Jewish author, feuilletonist, and translator.
Shifra Kholodenko (1909-1974) was a Russian- and Yiddish-language poet, writer and translator from the Soviet Union.
Jacob Fishman was a Polish-born Jewish American Yiddish newspaper editor and Zionist.
Jeremiah Hescheles was a Yiddish-language modernist poet, journalist, and Klezmer violinist. Because of his sharp memory and varied life experiences, he was an important resource for researchers of Yiddish culture and Klezmer music in the late twentieth century.
Rukhl Fishman, also spelled Rokhl Fishman was an Israeli poet who wrote in Yiddish. In 1978, she received the Itzik Manger Prize.
Many of my creative urges are generated by anger. This was one of them. I rushed to the President, Zalman Shazar and told him, in Yiddish, that this was indecent, an outrage, provincial, etc. Shazar, it must be remembered, is a scholar in Yiddish, in Hebrew, in Russian, in German, etc. He is one of the most charming writers on the Jewish scene and the burden of the presidency has not obstructed the flow of his pen. I told him that I was prepared, on my own, to establish a Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature if he would accept the honorary chairmanship of the Committee.
Among the most prestigious Israeli Prizes for Yiddish literary and other arts is that named after the great lyric poet Itsik Manger. Its recipients are among the finest Yiddish talents of the period: in 1976 poets Arye *Shamri and Leyzer Aykhenrand; in 1977 poets Hirsh Osherovitsh and Yankev-Tsvi Shargel and the Montreal novelist Yehude Elberg; in 1978 poets Uri Zevi *Greenberg (who wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish), Meyer Shtiker, U.S.-born Rokhl Fishman, novelist Eli *Shekhtman, essayist and editor Mortkhe Shtrigler ( Mordecai *Strigler ), and famed singer Nehamah *Lifshitz; in 1979 Shloyme Rotman, Shimshen Meltser, Shloyme Shenhod, Avrom Zak and novelist Khave Roznfarb [ *Rosenfarb ]. In 1980 Tsvi Ayznman, Yitskhok Yanasovitsh, Nakhmen Rap and Shimen-Yisroel Dunski won the prize.Online version of the Encyclopedia.