| Icchokas Meras was born in 1934 in Lithuania. In 1941 his parents were killed, and he was saved by a peasant family, hiding the boy till the end of the war. The Lithuanian language superseding Yiddish, became the mother tongue for Meras. Itshokas Meras graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnical institute, his works were published in Lithuanian periodicals. In 1972 he emigrated to Israel. In 1977-81 Meras was the chairman of the Union of Russian-speaking writers of Israel.
Meras’s works are in the first place devoted to the Holocaust. His autobiographical story “The Yellow Patch” tells us about the liquidation of the Lithuanian Jewry (1960), the collection “The Earth is always alive” (1963), novels “A stalemate lasts but a moment” (1963), “What the world rests on” (1965), "Full moon" (1966).
Meras’s books managed to overcome the resistance of the Soviet regime and its prejudice against the Jewish theme - many of his works were published in the USSR. From the middle of the 60-ies Meras became known in the West, his books were translated into18 languages and are still published in Europe and America.
Icchokas Meras is awarded Israeli and international literary awards, among which the award of the Lithuanian Writers Union in exile (1977, 1996). |
