Israeli Newspaper Taken Over by Poets and Authors

Photo by Mike Goldberg, via Flickr

Israel daily newspaper Haaretz sent their staff writers home last Wednesday and invited 31 of the nation's most celebrated poets and authors to report the day's news. The special edition of the paper was a tribute to the annual Hebrew Book Week, a tradition whose roots go as far back as 1926.

These journalists-for-a-day dressed up the black and white pages, bringing colorful prose and poetry to each news story. The masthead included author David Grossman, poet Haim Be'er and writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret, best known internationally for the 2007 Cannes favorite, Jellyfish. Taking hints from the New Journalists, perhaps, authors offered first-hand accounts of a night in a children's drug rehabilitation center and a cancer ward, while poets delivered the weather forecast and the stock market reports with a hint of sweet optimism. Haaretz editor Dov Alfon called Wednesday's paper "a humility lesson for journalists," noting the liveliness that these writers brought to the news that day.

In an editorial on Thursday, the paper called Hebrew literature "our most beautiful export industry, and the only one that is constantly on the rise." It said that Hebrew Book Week "serves as a platform for lively debates on the place of literature in society - a vibrant, fascinating discussion that this newspaper is proud to have been part of from its inception." With a circulation of 50,000, Haaretz is smaller than some of the major Israeli dailies, and is known for its commitment to honoring the Arts.

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