The old dispute about whether or not German should be spoken by Jews in Palestine has flared up anew with disclosure that the annual Tchernichovsky Prize of the Tel Aviv municipality will not be awarded this year because two of the judges balked at awarding it to a translation of Goethe.
The two argued that not a single German protested against the “book burnings” of Jewish literature. The controversy has been picked up by sections of the press, which denounced German refugees here who still “cherish” and use German both in public and privately.
The Bialik Prizes of the municipality were awarded today to Yehuda Karni for a volume of poems about Jerusalem, and to Fischel Lachower for an essay about Bialik, the late Hebrew poet. The awards were presented at ceremonies in Bialik’s home here.
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