Uri Zohar
| Uri Zohar | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | November 4, 1935 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Alma mater | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| Occupation | Rabbi, film director, comedian, writer |
| Years active | 1956–1988 |
| Notable work | Hole in the Moon Three Days and a Child The Hero |
Uri Zohar (Hebrew: אורי זוהר, b. November 4 1935) is a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who left the entertainment world to become a rabbi.[1]
Biography
Uri Zohar was born in Tel Aviv in November 4 1935. In 1952, he graduated high school and did his military service in an army entertainment troupe. His first marriage ended in divorce.
By 1956, he was a popular stand-up comedian. In 1960, he studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was sentenced to three months of community service on charges of marijuana possession.[2] In the 1960s, he directed and starred in Israeli films, among them Hole in the Moon, Three Days and a Child, Every Bastard a King, Big Eyes and Metzitzim. He was the first filmmaker to win the Israel Prize, which he declined.[citation needed]
In the late 1970s, Zohar turned to religion, becoming a Haredi Orthodox Jew and a rabbi. In 1977, he began wearing a kippa on the television game show he was hosting.[3] He is active in the movement to attract secular Jews to religious orthodoxy, and uses his entertainment skills to promote this objective.[4] In the 1992 Israeli elections, Zohar directed the television broadcasts for Shas.[5]
Awards and recognition
In 2012, Cinematheque Francaise in Paris held a retrospective of Zohar's work. The event included lectures and screenings of all his major films. Zohar was described as one of Israel's most interesting film directors due to his exploration of manhood and machismo, male-female relationships and the impact of the military.[6]
Books
- My Friends, We Were Robbed
- Waking Up Jewish
Films
- The True Story of Palestine (1962)
- Hole in the Moon (1964)
- Moishe Ventalator (1966)
- Three Days and a Child (1967)
- Every Bastard a King (1968)
- Hitromamut (1970)
- The Hero (1971)
- Metzitzim (1973)
- Ha-Tarnegol (1973)
- Big Eyes (1974)
- Hatzilu Et HaMatzil (1977)
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Despair and Deliverance
- ↑ Despair and Deliverance
- ↑ What I learned from a Jewish Movie Star
- ↑ Uri Zohar bio
- ↑ French Cinematheque to honor Uri Zohar with retrospective, Haaretz
External links
- Articles with hCards
- Articles containing Hebrew-language text
- Articles with unsourced statements from April 2012
- Pages with broken file links
- Israeli film directors
- Israeli comedians
- Baalei teshuva
- Israeli Orthodox Jews
- People from Tel Aviv
- 1935 births
- Living people
- Jews in Mandatory Palestine
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
