Dor, Moshe
DOR, MOSHE
DOR, MOSHE (1932– ), Hebrew poet, essayist, and translator. Dor was born in Tel Aviv, served in the Haganah, and was a correspondent for the army weekly Bamaḥaneh. He later studied political science and history at Tel Aviv University and served many years as literary editor of Maariv. Dor was also cultural attaché at the Embassy of Israel in London and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the American University in Washington, d.c. A seminal figure in the "Likrat" literary circle in the 1950s, which strove to renew Hebrew poetry and free it from poetic verbosity and pathos, Dor published Bisheloshah in 1952 and the collection Beroshim Levanim ("White Cypresses") in 1954. This was followed by over a dozen other collections (including Zahav va-Efer ("Gold and Ashes," 1963), Mivḥar Shirim ("Selected Poems," 1970), Ovrim et ha-Nahar ("Crossing the River," 1989), and Shetikat ha-Banai ("Silence of the Builder," 1996)). In 2004 a volume of selected poems written over a period of 50 years appeared as Shetaḥ Hefker. Foregrounding the landscape, whether in Israel, London, or the United States, Dor coalesces feelings and sights, human experience and impressions. Dor has also published collections of essays and six books for children. Since the 1990s he has been living in Tel Aviv and in the U.S. Dor edited a number of collections in English, including: The Burning Bush: Poems from Modern Israel (with Nathan Zach; 1977), The Stones Remember: Native Israeli Poetry (with Barbara Goldberg and Giora Leshem; 1991), and After the First Rain: Israeli Poems on War and Peace (with Barbara Goldberg; 1998). A number of collections including Dor's own poetry have been published in English: Maps of Time (1978), Crossing the River (edited by Seymour Mayne; 1989), Khamsin: Memoirs and Poetry by a Native Israeli (1994).
bibliography:
A. Sillitoe, Introduction, in: Maps of Time, 1978; H. Nagid, in: Maariv (March 7, 1980); A. Feinberg, "Moshe Dor's Kites on Hampstead Heath," in: Modern Hebrew Literature, 6 (1980); Z. Samir, in: Yedioth Ahronoth (August 6, 1993); I. Scheinfeld, in: Haaretz, Sefarim (July 14, 1993). website: ithl at www.ithl.org.il.
[Anat Feinberg (2nd ed.)]