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Two men, one generation, modern Hebrew literature reborn. Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) became Israel's national poet before there was an Israel. Saul Tchernichovsky (1875-1943) was his counterweight, pagan where Bialik was prophetic, Greek where Bialik was Talmudic. They shared a language they helped resurrect, a country they helped imagine, and now a row of graves at Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv. Knowing both is knowing the spine of modern Hebrew culture.
Cultural note, Walk into any Israeli school on the last Wednesday of Tammuz and you will hear children reciting "El HaTzipor" and "Ani Ma'amin." Bialik Day (יוֹם בְּיָאלִיק) is a national literary holiday. The Tchernichovsky Prize, awarded by Tel Aviv municipality since 1942, is still the highest honor for Hebrew translators. The two men are buried side by side at Trumpeldor, the cemetery of the Yishuv founders. A pilgrimage worth making within your first year of alyah.
Bialik: Biography
Bialik: Major Poems
Tchernichovsky: Biography
Tchernichovsky: Themes & Translations
Legacy: Day, Prize, Cemetery
A Walk Through Trumpeldor Cemetery
A guide takes a new oleh through the founder's section of Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv. The conversation walks past the graves of Bialik, Tchernichovsky, Ahad Ha'am, Dizengoff, and Arlosoroff, the literary and political founders of the Yishuv buried within meters of each other.