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Amos Oz speaks to Israel Friends

Date: Sunday, September 27, 2015

Renowned Israeli author Amos Oz spoke at a gathering of the Israeli Association of Friends of the Weizmann Institute of Science at Cinema City in Ramat Hasharon on August 30 about his 2002 book, A Tale of Love and Darkness, which served as the basis for the newly released movie of the same title. The movie was screened for the more than 250 members of the Association.

 

In the movie, directed by and starring Natalie Portman, the Israeli-American actress plays Oz’s mother in a storyline that draws elements from his own childhood in Jerusalem. Oz’s mother committed suicide when he was twelve years old. He described a collective trauma of the Holocaust that existed throughout his upbringing and which affected the next generation. In order to survive, he said, he wanted to be a book—because the written word, unlike people, do not die.

 

According to Oz, Portman chose elements from his book “sensitively, with deep understanding and with a lot of talent”.

 

Oz said that he expressed a lot of anger after losing his mother but throughout the years he developed “curiosity, compassion and empathy for, and humor about” his parents and tried to explore how the lives of good people like his parents can have such tragic outcomes.

 

The author, who received an honorary PhD from the Weizmann Institute in 2006, said that since then, he has become “part of the family of the Weizmann Institute.”