The Itzik Manger Award for Yiddish creativity was presented to four recipients in ceremonies at the Habima Theater here last night attended by President Ephraim Katzir. This year’s winners were the Israeli poet Aryeh Shamri, the Swiss poet Leiser Eichenrand, writer Eliezer Rubinstein and the Yiddish stage actor Shimon Djigan.
Other notables present included Finance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz and Leon Dalzin, treasurer of the Jewish Agency. Mayor Shlomo Lehat of Tel Aviv surprised the audience by delivering his greetings in Yiddish. He said that the evening might mark the end of the 70 year-old “kulturkampf” between Yiddish and Hebrew Shalom Rosenfeld, editor of Maariv who headed the awards committee, officiated.
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