SHAMI, YITZḤAK

SHAMI, YITZḤAK (1888–1949), Hebrew writer. Born in Hebron, he taught in Ekron, Damascus, and Philippopolis (Plovdiv), Bulgaria. In 1919, he returned to Hebron where he served as a teacher and was active in the Jewish community. He moved to Tiberias in 1926, and finally settled in Haifa in 1930.

His first short story, "Ha-Akarah," set in the Sephardi community, was published in Ha-Omer (1907). Subsequently his stories dealing with the Sephardi and Arabic milieu of Palestine appeared in various literary journals in Palestine and abroad (including Ha-Tekufah, Ha-Shilo'ah). His collected stories, with an introduction by Asher Barash, were published posthumously (Sippurei Yitzḥak Shami, 1951). A new edition of Nikmat ha-Avot with an introduction by G. Shaked appeared in 1975. Hebron Stories, a collection in English translation with an introduction by Arnold J. Band, appeared in 2000. For English translations of his works, see Goell, Bibliography, p. 75.

bibliography:

A.H. Elḥanani, Siḥat Soferim (1960), 195–202; B.I. Michali, Le-Yad ha-Ovnayim (1959), 133–45; I.R. Molho, Nekuddot Ḥen me-ha-Olam ha-Sephardi ba-Dorot ha-Aḥaronim (1958), 50–5 7. add. bibliography: Z. Ogen, Y. Shami, in: Bikkoret u-Farshanut, 21 (1986), 35–52; N.R. Bersohn, "Y. Shami's Stories: A Western Approach to a Near Eastern Milieu," in: Modern Hebrew Literature, 4:1 (1978), 3–9; G. Shaked, Ha-Sipporet ha-Ivrit, 2 (1983), 68–82; Y.H. Halevi, "Minhagim ve-Halikhot bi-Yẓirato shel Y. Shami," in: Mehkarei Yerushalayim be-Folklor Yehudi, 15 (2003), 97–116; H. Hever, in: Tarbiz, 71:1 (2003), 151–64.

[Getzel Kressel]