The Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik died on July 4, 1934—158 years after the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence. As the anniversary of his death approaches on this year’s U.S. Independence Day, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund released archival photos of the iconic writer.
“Marking 90 years since the death of the national poet, Hayim Nahman Bialik, is an event of value and significance for Hebrew history and culture,” stated Efrat Sinai, head of the KKL-JNF archives department.
“His poems became the soundtrack of our lives from childhood to adulthood, and his stories were the way we learned about history from a creative and educational perspective,” Sinai said. “We are unveiling archival photos that reveal aspects of the national poet’s private life and teach us more about the person he was.”
In one photo, Bialik, whom KKL-JNF calls “one of the greatest modern Hebrew poets and a reviver of the Hebrew language,” sits alongside three prominent Hebrew writers: Sholem Aleichem (who wrote Tevye the Dairyman), Mendele Mocher Sforim (who penned The Travels and Adventures of Benjamin the Third) and Mordechai Ben Ami (who wrote short stories and essays).
In another photo, Ze’ev Radovan captured the seated poet in 1920 “resting and sneaking a small smile towards the camera,” per KKL-JNF.
“A rare archival photo” documents “the final visit of Ahad Ha’am, the founder of spiritual Zionism, the poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and (Yehoshua) Ravnitzky, alongside residents of Kfar Hasidim, where their last visit took place,” per KKL-JNF.
Another photo shows mourners carrying Bialik’s coffin during his funeral in 1934 at Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv, named after Joseph Trumpeldor, an early Zionist who helped bring immigrants to what was then British Mandatory Palestine and died in 1920 defending the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the north.
