Dan Almagor

Dan Almagor
Native name	דן אלמגור
Born	(1935-07-13)July 13, 1935
Language	Hebrew
Nationality	Israeli

Dan Almagor (Hebrew: דן אלמגור; born 13 July 1935) is an Israeli playwright who has adapted and translated over a hundred plays for the Hebrew stage, including Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors", "As You Like It", "Fiddler on the Roof," "The King and I," "My Fair Lady" and "Guys and Dolls".

Early life

Almagor was born in Ramat Gan in 1935 under the name Dan Elbelinger. His father, Ze'ev Elbelinger, a native of Warsaw, was a member of the Ariel group of Hashomer Hatzair, an agronomist, a graduate of the Institute of Agriculture in Algeria and a pioneer of the Third Aliyah, and his mother Zehava Katzenelenbogen was a native of Lublin. In 1940 his sister Bracha was born. He grew up in Rehovot. In his childhood and youth he wrote for several children's and youth newspapers such as "Davar L'Yeladim", "HaBoker L'Yeladim" and "Mishmar L'Yeladim", he was a representative of young listeners on Kol Yerushalayim, served as the youth columnist for Kol Yisrael and as a sports reporter in Rehovot for Kol Yisrael and periodicals of the time such as "HaOlam HaZeh". In 1951, when he was in 10th grade, he founded the "National Council of High School Students" together with his friend Shabtai Ziv, which became the National Student Council. During his military service in the IDF (1953–1955) he was an army correspondent and one of the editors of the newspaper "Bamahane Gadna".

His early songs, such as A Ballad for the Medic and Kol Ha’Kavod, celebrated Israeli macho culture and military heroism, but much of his later work is satiric and critical of Israeli society

Personal life

Dan Almagor was married to Dr. Ella Almagor (née Applerot), a researcher of Arabic literature and translator of books and plays, from 1960 until her death in January 2022. The couple had two daughters, Orna (born in 1961) and Elinor (born in 1964), and four grandchildren. He wrote his hit song "Venezuela" in Ella's honor.