JERUSALEM (JTA)—Yoram Kaniuk, an acclaimed author and journalist who had the designation Jewish removed from his Israeli identification card, has died.
Kaniuk died Saturday, June 8 after fighting cancer for many years. He was 83.
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Kaniuk wrote 17 novels, including Himmo, King of Jerusalem (1965); Adam Resurrected (1968); Rockinghorse (1974); The Last Jew (1982); and his most recent, 1948, for which he was awarded the Sapir Prize for Literature in 2011.
He also won the Brenner Prize for literature, the Bialik Prize and the President’s Prize, as well as being named an officer in France’s Order of Arts and Letters.
Kaniuk was wounded while fighting in Israel’s War of Independence.
In 2011, Kaniuk successfully fought to have the designation Jewish removed from his Israeli identification card. He was permitted to identify himself as “without religion,” the same as his Christian-American wife and son.