Авраам Мапу: Пионер еврейской литературы и предтеча сионизма

Lithuanian Hebrew novelist (1808–1867)

Abraham Mapu (1808 in Vilijampolė, Kaunas1867 in Königsberg, Prussia) was a Lithuanian novelist. He wrote in Hebrew as part of the Haskalah (enlightenment) movement. His novels, with their lively plots encompassing heroism, adventure and romantic love in Biblical settings, contributed to the rise of the Zionist movement.

Born into a Jewish family, as a child Mapu studied in a cheder where his father served as a teacher. He married in 1825. For many years he was an impoverished, itinerant schoolmaster. Mapu gained financial security when he was appointed teacher in a government school for Jewish children. He worked as a teacher in various towns and cities, joined the Haskalah movement, and studied German, French and Russian. He also studied Latin from a translation of the Bible to that language, given to him by his local rabbi. He returned in 1848 to Kaunas and self published his first historical novel, Ahavat Zion. This is considered one of the first Hebrew novels. He began work on it in 1830 but completed it only in 1853. Unable to fully subsist on his book sales, he relied on the support of his brother, Matisyahu. In 1867 he moved to Königsberg due to illness, published his last book, Amon Pedagogue (Amon means something like Mentor), and died there.

Mapu is considered to be the first Hebrew novelist. Influenced by French Romanticism, he wrote intricately plotted stories about life in ancient Israel, which he contrasted favourably with 19th century Jewish life. His style is fresh and poetic, almost Biblical in its simple grandeur.

The romantic nationalistic ideas in his novels later inspired David Ben Gurion and others active in the leadership of the modern Zionist movement that led to the establishment of the state of Israel. The American Hebrew poet, Gabriel Preil, references Mapu in one of his works and focuses on the two writers' native Lithuania.

Streets bearing his name are found in the Kaunas Old Town and in the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Kiriat Ata. A well known Israeli novel called "The Children from Mapu Street" ("הילדים מרחוב מאפו") also celebrates his name. In Kaunas A. Mapu Street a joyful statue of A. Mapu with a book in his hand was established by the sculptor Martynas Gaubas in 2019.