Eli Amir
Eli Amir (September 26, 1937) is an Iraqi-born Israeli writer and civil servant. He served as director general of the Youth Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency.
Eli Amir
Gilabrand · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Eli Amir
- Born
- 26 September 1937
- Birthplace
- Baghdad, Iraq
- Occupation
- Writer and civil servant
- Nationality
- Israel.
- Fields
- accounting, capital market, auditor and bond.
- Education
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
- Honours
- honorary doctor of Tel Aviv University, honorary doctor of the Bar-Ilan University, Brenner Prize, Yigal Allon Prize, Yakir Yerushalayim and honorary doctorate of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
- Languages
- Hebrew and English.
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Eli Amir (September 26, 1937) is an Iraqi-born Israeli writer and civil servant. He served as director general of the Youth Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency.
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wikidata · Q1328795 · wikipedia · Eli Amir
In this article
Biography
Biography
Eli Amir studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The recorded working language is Hebrew and English. The field of work recorded is accounting, capital market and auditor. Residence is recorded at Gilo. Employment is recorded with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Distinctions recorded are honorary doctor of Tel Aviv University, honorary doctor of the Bar-Ilan University, Brenner Prize and Yigal Allon Prize.

אהובה קרן עם הנשיא שמעון פרס בבכורה של הסרט "מפריח היונים" ב-2014.
אהובה קרן
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Eli Amir • Native Name — אלי עמיר • Born — 26 September 1937 • Birthplace — Baghdad, Iraq • Citizenship — Israeli • Occupation — Writer and civil servant • Employer — The Jewish Agency • Title — Director General of the Youth Aliyah Department
Biography
Biography
Amir was born Fuad Elias Nasah Halschi in Baghdad, Iraq. He immigrated to Israel at the age of 13 with his family in 1950, and went to school in Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek. He is now living in Gilo, Jerusalem. Amir studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He held several acclaimed positions in the Ministry of Absorption and later managed Youth Aliyah and worked at the Jewish Agency for about twenty years. From 1975 to 1978, he served as an emissary and director of the Sephardic Federation in the United States and worked to encourage Israelis to return to Israel. He began his literary career by publishing a story in Ma’ariv in 1975. From 1964 to 1968 he served as adviser on Arab affairs to the Prime Minister of Israel, and as envoy for the Minister of Immigration Absorption of Israel to the United States. In 1984, he was appointed Director General of the Youth Aliyah department of the Jewish Agency.
Political activism
Political activism
Amir has frequently called for social justice and denounced what he has described as the deterioration of the Israeli welfare state. In 2007, when his book Jasmine was published in Arabic in Egypt, he expressed hope that more Israeli books be spread in the Arab world, saying "How can there be peace without us knowing each other?". He repeated that statement in a literary soiree held by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. He also signed a petition calling for Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas. In 2006, his name came up as a successor to President of Israel Moshe Katsav and Amir said he would consider it.
In Hebrew
In Hebrew
• Tarnegol Kaparot ("Scapegoat"), Am Oved, 1984 • Mafriah Ha-Yonim ("The Dove Flyer") Am Oved, 1992 • Ahavat Shaul ("Saul's Love"), Am Oved, 1998 • Yasmin ("Jasmine"), Am Oved, 2005 • Na'ar Ha-Ofnayim ("The Bicycle Boy"), Am Oved (2019)
Translated into English
Translated into English
* * *
Identity
Identity
Eli Amir is recorded with the occupation university teacher. Recorded with the occupation bookkeeper. Recorded with the occupation economist. Recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded as writer, university teacher, economist and bookkeeper. Recognition and collections. Amir received honorary doctor of Tel Aviv University, honorary doctor of the Bar-Ilan University, Brenner Prize, Yakir Yerushalayim and honorary doctorate of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1937
Eli Amir was born on 26 September 1937.
2000
Shauls Liebe is dated 2000.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Gilo.
Residences
Baghdad.
Birth place
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1328795: Eli Amir
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Eli Amir”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards
Amir received Youth Aliyah's Jubilee Prize (1983), the Jewish Literature Prize (in Mexico, 1985), the Ahi Award (1994), Am Oved's Jubilee Prize (1994), the Yigal Allon Prize for Outstanding Service to Society (1997), the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Prize (1998), and the Prime Minister's Prize (2002). In 2017 Amir was honored as a torchbearer in the national Israeli Independence Day ceremony.
Literature
Eli Amir wrote several social novels, primarily focused on the tension between the 'other'—the Iraqi immigrant, the Palestinian, or the Sephardi—and the hegemonic Israeli society. Most of his books were successful and were translated into various languages. His first novel Scapegoat (1983) is a semi-autobiographical story of Nuri, a 13-year-old immigrant boy from Iraq who is sent to a kibbutz and his absorption into Israeli society. The novel depicts the hardships of absorption experienced by a group of immigrant teenagers, most of them from Iraq, in a kibbutz during the 1950s. It is based on the author's own experiences in his youth. The book powerfully portrays the shock of these young boys as they encounter the new Israeli society and kibbutz ideology. It raises questions concerning religion and secularism, exile versus nationalism and Israeli identity, tradition versus technological openness and intellectual innovation. The novel achieved great success. It is taught in the Israeli high school curriculum, was translated into English and German, and was awarded the Youth Aliyah 50th Anniversary Prize (1984) and the Jewish Literature Prize in Mexico (1985). The Dove Flyer (aka Farewell, Baghdad) (1992) is the story of 17-year-old Kabi Imari, an Iraqi Jewish boy growing up in a Zionist family. Saul's Love (1998) is a romance between Saul, born to a deeply rooted Sephardi family from Jerusalem, and Chaya, an Ashkenazi holocaust survivor. Jasmine (2005) is also largely autobiographical. The book's protagonist, Nuri Amari, who as a child had immigrated with his family from Iraq, is appointed to a government post in East Jerusalem in the wake of the Six-Day War. He meets Jasmine, a young Palestinian widow from a wealthy Christian refugee family. Scapegoat is included in the Israeli secondary school syllabus, and was adapted into a play and television series.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1328795: Eli AmirWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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