Notes to an Old–New Debate

Shimon Ballas—author, translator, and editor—was born in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1951 at the age of twenty-one, later earning a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. Ballas wrote articles and criticism in Arabic and taught Arabic literature at Haifa University. He published several works of prose and nonfiction and served as editor of the journal Al Karmel. His first Hebrew novel, Ha-Ma‘abarah (The Transit Camp, 1964), is one of the first accounts of the harsh realities and struggles faced by immigrants settling in Israel in the 1950s. Ballas was awarded the President’s Prize in 2006.