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Entry updated 21 April 2025. Tagged: International.

Early Israeli Science Fiction

Israel's traditional orientation towards the West, the initially Utopian character of Zionism – partly inspired by founding Zionist ideologue Theodor Herzl's polemic Der Judenstaat (1896; trans as The Jewish State 1946), and his short novel Altneuland (1902; trans Lotte Levensohn as Old-New Land 1941) – and the country's adherence to its particular form of parliamentary democracy, all ought to have made it a promised land for speculative literature. But, despite the seminal influence of Jewish writers, editors and publishers within the Anglocentric genre, sf has not, until very recently, attained more than marginal stature and acceptance within The Jewish State.

Survival in a pressure-cooker region seems to have stunted the capacity or willingness of many Israelis to contemplate alternate realities and far-flung futures. Indeed, the political, military, and environmental stringencies of survival in the Middle East consumed, and continue to consume, the energies of Israelis as individuals and as a nation. The initial ideological expectation, in the pre-state and early post-independence periods, was that everyone should contribute to the national effort, writers and poets included. Hence, they were counted on to write realistically about national hopes or day-to-day life in pioneering settlements, glorify heroes, and convert the traditional image of the Jew as a passive, oppressed person into a self-assured, dedicated, and valiant individual.

This left little room for whimsy or flights of imagination. Those authors who did try their hand at speculative fiction were generally looked at askance, and usually relegated to the children's bookshelves, along with translated books by authors like Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs, or to the trashy newsstands that sold "shunt", cheap Hebrew Pulp publications, Westerns, porn, and sometimes, sf/fantasy. The earliest of these translated "children's" novels is probably The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth by H G Wells. It was translated by Avraham Aryeh Akavya as Mezon Haelim: Sipur Dimioni Simli ["The Food of the Gods: An Imaginary Symbolic Story"] (1912).

Interestingly, Herzl's Altneuland was preceded in 1892 by another fabulist foray, Masa' le-Erets Yisra'el bi-shenat tat ["A Voyage to the Land of Israel in the Year 800 to the Sixth Thousand"] (1892) by Elhanan Leib Levinsky (1857-1910), a Utopia set in a perfected future Jewish state, which some cite as the first novel written in modern Hebrew. Yerushalayim Habenuya: Chalom Behakitz ["Rebuilt Jerusalem: a Daydream"] (1918) by Boris Shatz (1866-1932), the founder of the Bezalel Academy of Arts, is another early example of a utopia, a novella which envisioned an internationally recognized Israel at peace with nature and the local Arab population; its cultural center was the Third Temple, an impressive art museum. Originally written in Yiddish, it was translated by Mordechai Ezrachi (Krishevski) into modern Hebrew in 1924. One of the earliest examples of an Alternate History novel is HaYehudi HaAchron: Sipur ["The Last Jew: A Story"] (1946) by Jacob Weinshall (1891-1980). The author's association with Zev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Movement put him at odds with the Yishuv's (pre-state Jewish community) Labor establishment, resulting in the book's publication by a little-read independent publisher.

These authors wrote in Hebrew, the language of Scripture that had just recently been revived for everyday and literary use. Consequently it initially lacked many words that have to do with the modern world, particularly those that are used to describe Technology – a significant handicap for those who wished to write sf. Indeed, merely agreeing on a Hebrew term for sf (initially "mada dimioni" ["imaginary science"] and ultimately, in the late 1970s, "mada bidioni" ["fictional science"]), severely challenged the semantic abilities of Israel's emergent sf community.

During Israel's 1948 War of Independence, Avram Davidson served as an IDF medic (after completing a wartime stint in the US Navy as a hospital corpsman attached to the First Marine Division), before returning to the United States in 1950. While his sojourn would have qualified him for immediate Israeli citizenship, there is no evidence that he ever availed himself of this opportunity. In their introduction to Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Literature (anth 2018), Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem contend that his service, and the length of his postwar stay in Israel, nevertheless earned him a place within the Israeli sf/f pantheon.

In the 1950s and 1960s, brief forays by publishers tantalized would-be fans with a few Hebrew translations of novels by such genre notables as Robert A Heinlein and Fredric Brown before their efforts ended in bankruptcy. So too ended three plunges into sf magazine publishing, with Mada Dimioni (1958, 13 issues), Cosmos: Sipurei Mada Dimioni ["Cosmos: Stories of Imaginary Science"] (1958, 4 issues), and Flash Gordon (1963, 7 issues); none published work by domestic authors. The only Israeli sf writer of note in this period, Mordecai Roshwald, published his acclaimed apocalyptic novel Level 7 (1959) and the Satirical A Small Armageddon (1962) abroad. Neither has been translated into Hebrew, and Roshwald, whose work remains lamentably unknown in Israel, eventually settled in the US. Also unremembered is celebrated poet, journalist and translator Nathan Alterman (1910-1970), whose play Pythagorean Theorem, about an intelligent Computer (see AI), was staged, unsuccessfully, in 1965. This period also introduced Amos Geffen (1937-1998) as an sf translator. Among other literary feats, he translated Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (1951) as "Pelisha LeKadur HaAretz" ["Invasion of Earth"] (1961) for the Matzpen ["Compass"] publishing company. The book was later republished in 1979 as Hashalitim ["The Masters"], part of the Masada series of translated sf works. Geffen would later mint new Hebrew words for his sf translations, such as the widely accepted "Chaizar" ["Alien"].

Science Fiction Is Briefly Popular

The election to power of the Likud bloc in 1977 unleashed a wave of consumerism in Israel that permitted a brief boom in sf. Encouraged by young Israelis' new spending power and the success of such films as Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), publishers embarked upon ambitious schedules of mostly translated sf. Despite the prolonged stagflation following the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, nearly 200 of the classic books of modern sf were translated, many by Amos Geffen and the éminence grise of Israeli sf/f, Emanuel Lottem.

Of several new sf magazines, few survived long, but Fantasia 2000 merits special notice. Launched in 1978 by Tel Aviv University students Aharon and Tzippi Hauptman, Dubi Lehrer and Eli Tene, it nurtured a group of local writers and a small, vigorous fan community during its 44-issue, six-year life as the second-most expensive Israeli periodical extant. Among its writers was Hillel F Damron, author of the critically well-received Milchemet haMinim ["The War of the Sexes"] (1982), set in a Post-Holocaust colony Underground where a society of sexual equals devolves into full-scale subjugation of males. The author of this entry, Sheldon Teitelbaum, served as a book and film reviewer, as well as a member of the magazine's editorial board. A special 45th anniversary issue of the magazine was published in 2008, thirty years after the first issue was originally released. In 2019, editor Aharon Hauptman together with Eli Tene revived Fantasia 2000 in a new website containing scanned copies of all original 45 issues. It featured new, original stories as well as a genre blog.

Sf/f magazine publishing skipped a generation, with another notable sf magazine emerging in 2002 as Halomot beAspamia ["Castles in Spain," literally Dreams in Aspamia.], which published 23 issues by 2016. It featured more original stories than had Fantasia, an indication of the growth of a corps of writers from within the Israeli genre.

This period also introduced the first fan clubs and the first attempts at organizing sf conventions. These fan clubs were small, short lived, and have mostly been forgotten except by those who attended them. Ra'anana genre book broker Eli Herstein (1965-    ) founded one such club in the city of Holon, and later became the editor of the first Israeli fanzine, Olamot. The first, unnamed convention took place in Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. The second was JeruCon, a failed attempt in 1982 by Hebrew University's now-emeritus sociologist Nachman Ben Yehuda (1948-    ) to organize an international conference. First Harry Harrison and then Harlan Ellison was supposed to attend, but the first Lebanon war put the final kibosh on bids for resuscitation. JeruCon was followed by two successful conferences in the mid-nineteen-eighties. These took place in Jerusalem's Cinematheque, and at the Cultural Affairs section of the United States Israeli embassy. Thomas M Disch attended the embassy conference.

Before the first Lebanon War, Israeli sf tended to be reticent on Politics, but the 1982 military watershed altered this. In 1980, Fantasia alumnus David Melamed published Tsavoa beCorundy ["A Hyena in Corundy"] containing a swath of sf stories, most, albeit, with little immediate relevance to Israel. However, his third novel, He'Halom haRevi'i ["The Fourth Dream"] (1986), recounted the travails of an Israeli refugee in Germany after a Near-Future fall of the Jewish state. Similarly, Zeev Ben-Yosef's Shalom al Israel ["Peace on Israel"] (1993) envisioned a Jewish State undone by a joint Palestinian and neo-Nazi military campaign. Boaz Izraeli (1960-    ) followed suit with Eyfoh Kulam ["Where Is Everyone?"] (1997). Hanan Steinhart's Kokash Kodash! [a Hungarian expression for a rooster's call to battle] (2001) attributed the country's demise to an uprising of Galilean Arabs. Other examples of political sf inspired by the Israeli-Arab conflict include: Ketz Hamilenium ["End of The Millenium"] (1998) by Dov Fuchs (1948-    ), which tells of an attempt by Israeli fanatics to destroy the Temple Mount, resulting in the entire Moslem world uniting against Israel; and Shlomo Erell (1920-2018), the seventh commander of the Israeli Navy, wrote Diplomatia BeMa'amakei Hayam ["Diplomacy under the Sea"] (2000), about the future struggles of the State of Israel against an emergent Palestine in 2004.

Nineteen eighty-three proved a watershed for Israeli sf due to the imminence of the calendar year of 1984. In 1983, prominent left-wing columnist, playwright and sculptor Amos Kenan (1927-2009) published HaDerech leEin Harod (trans from the Hebrew and then French as The Road to Ein Harod 1984), which postulated a Near-Future military takeover (and the judicious use of time-traveling nukes directed by an Ariel Sharon-style renegade general against various historical Jewish enemies and villains) of Israel. It was not his first speculative novel – that being the more surreal Shoah II ["Holocaust II"] (1975) – but it was the only Israeli sf novel ever awarded a peace prize by the pre-Oslo Palestine Liberation Organization. Although the book embraced well-known sf and Technothriller tropes, Kenan vehemently denied its genre roots, not least because of the Israeli literary establishment's pronounced disdain for genre literature. A second significant Dystopia was written by established novelist Binyamin Tammuz (1919-1989): Pundako Shel Yirmiyahu ["Jeremiah's Inn"] (1984), a broad satire about an Israel taken over by ultra-Orthodox zealots.

An even grimmer version of the future was presented in Mal'achim Ba'im ["The Angels are Coming"] (1987) by Yitzhak Ben Ner (1937-    ), in which a global atomic apocalypse (see World War Three) has somehow spared Israel. By the twenty-first century, alas, life within this rampaging theocracy is characterized by ubiquitous street violence, persecution of secular Jews, and widespread societal alienation. A similar scenario was more presciently intimated in Pargod HaBdolach ["The Crystal Screen"] (1969), by Yehoshua Granot (1934-2004), which imagines a 1989 openly nuclear Israel controlled by the three largest Jewish parties. Arabs, including those living across the green line, are minimum wage workers with no political rights. Various Jewish undergrounds with competing agendas attempt to set things right. These fever dreams spilled over in 1998 into Michal Peleg's Ha-Ir HaPnimit ["The Inner City"] and Hedy Ben-Amar's Beshem Shamayim ["In the Name of God"]. The former imagined an Orwellian Israel with language strongly reminiscent of newspeak; geographic locations are not mentioned, specific details are omitted, but the readers know exactly what is being described. The latter portrayed the events which led to the election of the first Jewish ultra-Orthodox prime minister and the establishment of a religious state. Hashlishi ["The Third"] (2015; trans Yarden Greenspan as The Third Temple 2024 ebook) by Yishai Sarid (1965-    ), set in a near-future Jerusalem that has rebuilt the Third Temple, inspired considerable public controversy. Moshe Dayan's son, the actor and writer Assi Dayan (1945-2014), published Tochen Ha'Inyanim ["Table of Contents"] (1989). Cosmotism (1987) by Mordechai Y Nessyahu (1929-1997), by the erstwhile Labor Party ideologue who influenced Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in forging the Oslo Accords, portrays a future Israel against the backdrop of a universe teeming with alien civilizations.

While some authors preferred to write Dystopias, others chose to try their hand at reimagining its antithesis. In the nineties, ultra-right wing firebrands Moshe Feiglin (1962-    ), Moti Karfel (1953-    ) and Shmuel Sacket (1961-    ) founded the Manhigut Yehudit ["Jewish Leadership"] faction in the Likud party as part of their opposition to the Oslo accords. To help spread their ideology, they published the Lekatchila ["In the First Place"] newsletter, which featured a utopian news section in which the faction would lay out its vision of what a proper right-wing religious future Israeli future could look like. This would envision Jewish dominance over the Palestinian population, freely expanding construction across the Green Line (the demarcation line separating Israel from its neighbors, and based upon the 1949 Armistice Agreements), and retaking the Temple Mount.

Zirmat Hachamim ["Semen of the Wise"] (1982) and Luna: Gan Eden Geneti ["Luna: A Genetic Paradise"] (1985) by geneticist Ram Moav (1930-1984), about the Genetic Engineering of humans, inspired accusations of fascism on the part of the author, who had written these two books while terminally ill. HaTzariach ["The Turret"] (1983) by Ruth Blumert (1943-2014) is a fantasy somewhat reminiscent of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

In Reuven Rupin's The Jewish War II (1994), the Jews of 70 AD defeat the Romans. Their newly founded Jewish state, however, does not survive the contradictions between state and religion. Tel Aviv (2012) by Yair Hasdiel (1971-    ), meanwhile, posited a world in which the Holocaust never happened, with Poland home to millions of Jews, and the Land of Israel bearing testament to a failed attempt to create a Jewish republic.

This new foray into speculative realms was not limited just to Israel's Jewish population. In 1977, a former Israeli-Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, Emile Habibi (1922-1996), wrote The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (1984; trans Trevor Le Gassick and Salma Khadra Jayyusi 1985) a dark, satirical work that incorporates many sf and fantasy elements as the eponymous protagonist recounts his travails to a friend from the safety of outer space in the company of benevolent aliens.

The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy

After a generation of stagnation, Israeli sf began to revive in 1996 with the establishment of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The society was founded by Aharon Hauptman, Amos Geffen, Emanuel Lottem, Orzion Bartana (1949-    ), Thomas Goodman (1954-    ), and a handful of other academics. The first official member of the new society was Brian Aldiss, who gave an inaugural lecture at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. The new society brought together nascent writers and avid readers and started a burgeoning wave of original genre writing, mainly short stories and novellas. Between 2000 and 2009, the ISSF&F published Ha-Meimad Ha'Asiri ["The Tenth Dimension"], a magazine which included new original Hebrew and translated short stories. Among the more noteworthy Israeli writers published in the magazine were Etgar Keret (1967-    ), Lavie Tidhar, Vered Tochterman, and Nir Yaniv. The magazine also occasionally published nonfiction work from other notable writers and editors, including Aharon Hauptman, Emanuel Lottem and Abigail Nussbaum. In 2009, the magazine was subsequently replaced by Hayo Yihye ["Once Upon a Future"], an annual volume, edited by Ehud Maimon (1971-    ), featuring some of the best sf/f short stories of the year.

The birth of the internet, followed by online forums in the late nineties, gave a huge boost to Israeli sf. The sf and fantasy forum in the Israel On Line (IOL) platform (nicknamed "Yoel" by its members) was a breeding ground for a new community of fans, many of whom later graduated to become the next generation of Israel's authors and editors, including Rotem Baruchin (1982-    ), Or Bialik, Yael Furman, Yuli Michaeli (1982-    ), Guy Hasson (1971-    ), Keren Landsman, Ehud Maimon, Noa Menhaim (1974-    ), Rami Shalheveth (1971-    ), Vered Tochterman (1970-    ) and Nir Yaniv. When the IOL platform proved unable to keep up with faster technology, the forum members slowly migrated to the more user-friendly system of the ORT science and technology vocational educational network. In addition to IOL and ORT, many community members divided their time between the Nana, Ynet, Walla and Tapuz web forums as well. Eventually, the Israeli sf/f community got completely fed up with having to go to the IOL forum to access the content they created, so they used the ORT system to establish the Bli Panika ["Don't Panic!"] "forum magazine" in 2000, edited by Rami Shalheveth (nicknamed Gromit on the IOL platforms). The ISSF&F website edited by Yaniv, another ORT forum member, was also established around the same time. Eventually the activity on these forums faded as members aged, and conventions and Facebook became more popular. The forum members went on to become the next generation of Israeli sf/fantasy authors and editors, including Rotem Baruchin (1982-    ), Or Bialik, Yael Furman, Yuli Michaeli (1982-    ), Guy Hasson (1971-    ), Keren Landsman, Ehud Maimon, Noa Menhaim (1974-    ), Rami Shalheveth (1971-    ), Vered Tochterman and Nir Yaniv. In 2006, Bli Panika moved to WordPress, a more modern platform. Since its establishment, the website has published hundreds of original genre short stories as well as essays, articles, and useful reference lists.

In 1999, ISSF&F created the Geffen award, named after Amos Geffen. It is Israel's only literary award for sf and fantasy, and it is given annually in five categories: best Hebrew book (from 2003); best Hebrew short story (from 2002); best translated sf book; best translated fantasy book; and best translated young adult book (from 2008, and then from 2013). The prize committee collects all the eligible works every year and sends the list to the members of ISSF&F who can then vote on which books should be nominated for the award: the five most popular entries in each category. The public then proceeds to vote in Israel's Icon festival, deciding which books and short story should receive the award. Icon is the largest Israeli sf and fantasy festival, traditionally held during the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday in October. The first genre Hebrew book to win the award was Liphamim Ze Acheret ["Sometimes It's Different"] (2002) by Vered Tochterman, a collection containing 26 of the author's best short stories at the time.

Since then, several other notable Hebrew sf books have won this award. These include: Hydromania by Assaf Gavron (2009), which posited a vastly truncated Jewish State that had lost much of its territory, including the Sea of Galilee, its primary source of freshwater; Mesopotamia Shetikat Hakochavim ["Mesopotamia the Silence of the Stars"] (2011) by Yehuda Israeli and Dor Rave, which described a far flung future in which the planet was destroyed by a religious war; and Herzel Amar ["Herzel Said", the Israeli "Simon Said!"], (2011) by Yoav Avni (1969-    ) which portrayed an alternative history in which Israel was established in Uganda.

This new period of flourishing sf in Israel also suffered its fair share of setbacks. Armageddon Con, the largest ever Israeli convention, was supposed to have taken place on December 28, 2000, and fans from around the world were expected to flock to Israel to explore apocalyptic fiction and celebrate the upcoming Armageddon, the third millennium it was supposed to introduce. Numerous authors had already confirmed their attendance. Larry Niven, Paul J McAuley, and Joan D Vinge were the nominal guests of honor, and the master of ceremonies was Ian Watson. The agenda included an archaeological tour of Tel Megiddo, the site from which the Greek word "Armageddon" is derived. However, advance registration was very poor; few visitors from abroad expressed an interest in traveling to Israel, and local Israelis balked at the steep prices the organizers needed to charge for the three-day conference. When the second Intifada broke out in September 2000, and the international guests of honor began withdrawing their attendance, the organizers officially cancelled the conference. Larry Niven subsequently visited Israel in 2008 as the guest of honor for the Icon Festival.

In 2000, Israeli sf artist Avi Katz designed a set of three Israeli postage stamps on "Science Fiction in Israel" for the occasion, honoring, respectively, Jules Verne, H G Wells and Isaac Asimov (who ironically, was not a Zionist and who pointedly declined to visit Israel during his lifetime.)

The ISSF&F organizes several conventions. Over time these conventions have grown, merged, split, and been renamed. The largest of these are the Icon festival and Olamot convention, which take place during the Sukkoth (Tabernacles) and Passover holiday weeks respectively. Icon was originally a two-day convention; "Sector 972" which took place in 1997, focused on Star Trek, Babylon 5 (series co-star Claudia Christian, who played a Russian-Jewish character in the series, attended), and comics. Following the convention's success, the organizers established Starbase 972, a separate, Star Trek-oriented fan organization that joined the ISSF&F in sponsoring Icon as an annual convention. In 2001 it was rebranded as part of the Icon festival, hopefully to appeal to a wider audience. In 2002, The Israel Roleplaying Society joined the other two organizations in managing the festival. Later, following a split, the ISSF&F became involved in the festival's management, and it currently manages the event jointly with the Israel Roleplaying Society.

Icon has been attended by a large number of international sf authors, including Orson Scott Card (2003), Neil Gaiman (2006), Ted Chiang (2015), and Ann Leckie (2018). In 2005, the Israeli FantasyCon and Stardust conventions were merged into the Olamot (Worlds) convention. Olamot is managed by ISSF&F and the Israeli Tolkien Society. Icon offers the Einat Award for best short story to commemorate Einat Peleg (1972-2005), an Israeli journalist and critic who was very active in the local community. These contests have separate tracks for young and adult authors. Notable Israeli speculative authors, including Yael Furman, Judith Jael Kagan, and Odeliya Goldman, won early recognition in the Einat Award for their work. The Meorot ["Lights"] convention is a science and sf convention that takes place annually during the Hanukkah holiday in Jerusalem. It was founded in 2009 by Keren Landsman and Ehud Maimon. In addition to lectures and panels, the convention also sponsors a short story project, the Meorot Project.

The Mainstreaming of Israeli Science Fiction

Quite a few authors have grown up within the genre since 2000. Those among them who had at least some of their work translated into English include Guy Hasson; Etgar Keret (1967-    ) with various volumes of quirky short stories and novellas; Keren Landsman (1977-    ) with The Heart of the Circle (2018; trans Daniella Zamir 2019); Nir Yaniv with The Love Machine & Other Contraptions (2012); Yoav Blum with The Coincidence Makers (2011; trans Ira Moskowitz 2018), translated into more than ten languages; and more.

The best-known among Israeli speculative fiction authors, who broke out internationally, is multi-award-winning Lavie Tidhar. He writes most of his work in English, his second language; nevertheless, his novels and stories bear an unmistakable Israeli atmosphere, as in his Central Station stories (assembled in his Central Station fix-up 2016) and Unholy Land (2018). Many of his other novels, novellas and short stories take up Jewish and Israeli themes, including The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) co-written with Nir Yaniv, A Man Lies Dreaming (2014), By Force Alone (2020), The Hood (2021) and an historical sequence set in Israel beginning with Maror (2022) . The editor of several major anthologies of World sf, Tidhar, whose ongoing dialogue with Golden Age sf is noteworthy, has become a major voice in international sf. Ironically, like Roshwald, he remains little known in his native country.

At the same time, several mainstream Israeli writers also started crafting their own speculative fiction. Perhaps the first breakthrough came with Haderech leGan Eden ["The Road to Paradise"] (1999) by Gail Hareven (1959-    ), a celebrated collection of short sf stories; it could also be argued that the nightmarish Dolly City (1992; trans Dalya Bilu 1997) by Orly Castel-Bloom (1960-    ) really came first. Castel Bloom also wrote Halakim Enoshiyim ["Human Parts"] (2002; trans Dalya Bilu 2003) a dystopian Israel plagued by suicide bombings, a deadly "Saudi flu", hailstones the size of baseballs, and economic collapse as the Israeli government proves itself incapable of containing the damage. These works were followed by Efrat Roman Asher's Iroshalem (2003) – a variant of the name Jerusalem – which reflects the author's pronounced Feminist outlook. The next mainstream author to try her hand at sf was Nava Semel (1954-2017) with And the Rat Laughed (2009), a time travel novel about the Holocaust, and Isra-Isle (2005; trans Jessica Cohen 2016), an alternate history novel placing a Jewish state in the US. Shimon Adaf, is an author noted for his lyrical prose, excursions into magic realism, and greater reliance on Jewish mysticism than most of Israel's speculative authors. His Delany-esque novel Kfor ["Nuntia"] (2010), about Yeshiva students in Tel Aviv some 500 years hence who begin to sprout wings, has been declared, by Tidhar, a masterpiece (Tidhar co-wrote with Adaf a non-fiction book, Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction (2013)). The few other authors who tried their hand in invoking ancient Middle Eastern mythologies include Hagai Dagan (1964-    ) with his Shedim biRhov Agrippas ["Demons in Agrippas Street"] (2012) and Asaf Asheri with the urban fantasy Simantov (2008; trans Marganit Weinberger-Rotman 2020). Ofir Touché Gafla's work, including Olam Hasof (2004; trans Mitch Ginsbur as The World of the End 2013), is remarkable for its smooth glissandi among genres and styles. Efrat Roman Asher's Iroshalem (2003) – a variant of the name Jerusalem – reflects the author's pronounced Feminist outlook. Yoav Avni, another popular author, is known for crafting stories out of "what if" questions that could only occur in Israel, and populating them with characters that have a distinctively Israeli sense of humour. His breakthrough novel, Shelosha Devarim le'i Boded ["Three Things to Take to a Deserted Island"] (2006) tells the story of an Israeli hi-tech worker who gets stranded on a deserted Island during what should have been a typical work trip. Yoav Katz (1965-    ), an Israeli author, playwright, script writer and translator, wrote the hilarious Natbag ["Ben Gurion International Airport"] (2011); in which the Deputy Superintendent of Israel's sole international airport applies for refugee status in Canada after failing to offset a sudden Zombie invasion on and alongside the tarmac.

Many of these authors were fostered by a new generation of editors who helped create inroads for speculative works into Israel's larger and more traditional publishing houses. Noa Menhaim, the head of Hebrew Department at Kinneret Zmora Dvir, one of Israel's largest publishing houses, is considered by many to be the true patron saint of contemporary Israeli sf/f. Menhaim's career at Kinneret has spanned almost two decades. During this period, Kinneret has published dozens of sf/f novels, many of which Menhaim edited herself, including the above-mentioned Herzel Amar, and Landsman's The Heart of The Circle. Groundbreaking author Shimon Adaf, who teaches sf at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheva, worked as an editor in Keter Books between 2000 and 2005. During this period, he encouraged new Israeli authors to write sf/f. Some of the more notable books he edited include the aforementioned Olam Hasof by Ofir Touché Gafla, Let It Be Morning (2006) by the Arab-Israeli journalist, and now Illinois resident, Sayed Kashua (1975-    ), and the Leviathan of Babylon by Hagar Yanai, an epic fantasy that draws from Jewish, Babylonian and Mesopotamian mythology. Adaf also edited the Postcap series, four linked novellas that imagine a post-capitalistic Middle East in 2066. Adaf authored one of the books in the series, Keshel Hazikaron ["The Failure of Memory"] (2023). Hagar Yanai (1972-    ), the author whom Adaf edited, has since become a freelance editor for independent Israeli authors, most notably Naama Bar Shira (1989-    ), the author of the Archangel Sisters trilogy (2022-24; trans Noelle Canin 2023, 1st volume).

Most original sf/f books in Israel are published by the large traditional publishing houses: Kinneret Zmora Dvir, Keter, Yediot Sepharim, Am Oved and Modan. These tend to release 8-9 new titles per year. However, since the mid-2010s, with the rise of crowdfunding platforms, there has also been a steady increase in self-publishing. The book that pioneered this new era is probably Agam Hazelalim ["Lake of Shadows"] (2015), a YA fantasy novel by Roni Gelbfish (1969-    ), which went on to win the Geffen Award, the first self-published novel to ever win the prize. Despite this increase, until 2020, the number of new self-published novels was not particularly high, averaging three-to-four new titles per year. However, since 2021, these numbers have dramatically increased: seven new titles in 2021, eight in 2022, and 37 in 2023. It now seems as if there are more self-published novels than those traditionally published. These novels tend towards fantasy, a subgenre some have argued is antithetical to the Israeli literary experience. But there are also some notable titles that can be considered straightforward sf, such as Zeeva ["She-Wolf"] (2020) by Mayan Rogel (1980-    ), a novella with dark overtones that takes place in an Israel recovering from a (non-Covid) pandemic, and Merlin Ha'Aduma ["Red Merlin"] (2023) by Daniella Giuia Traub (1989-    ), an alternative history which imagines an Israel conquered by Iran. The blossoming of self-published Israeli speculative fiction led to the establishment in 2024 of the Kipod ["Hedgehog"] contest for such works, based on the English SPFBO.

Opus is one of Israel's oldest publishing companies for translated sf/f, founded in 1987 by Gil and Batya Tegar. The company's original focus was new age books and computer guides, but in the early nineties, the owners decided to expand into fantasy, and then later, in 1994, into sf as well, beginning with Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card, translated by Boaz Weiss. Since then, roughly 200 titles have been translated by the company. The overwhelming majority belong to the fantasy genre, but there are also a sizable number of translated sf titles as well, such as: the entire Ender series by Card (1994-2023; Hebrew trans Rechavia Berman, Boaz Weiss, Zafrir Grosman); the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons (1999-2002; Hebrew trans Yael Sela-Shapiro, Vered Tochterman); The Player of Games by Iain Banks (2002; Hebrew trans Inbal Har-noi), who subsequently refused to allow his books to be available in Hebrew translation, in keeping with much Scottish antipathy toward the Jewish State; Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang (2003; Hebrew trans Rechavia Berman), and Red Shirts by John Scalzi (2015; Hebrew trans Zafrir Grosman). Opus has employed and continues to employ some of Israel's most popular sf/f translators and editors. These include (in addition to the names previously mentioned): Yael Achmon (translator), Yael Sela (translator), Maya Ankaoua (editor), Assaf Asherov (editor), Eyal Goren (editor), Zafrir Grosman (editor and senior translator), Didi Hanoch (1971-    ) (editor), Kineret Higgins Davidi (translator), and Batya Ziso (translator). Vered Tochterman and Assaf Asherov later graduated to write their own books, and Didi Hanoch moved on to create his own publishing company, Nova.

Publishing translated sf has always been a risky venture in Israel. Israel's larger publishing companies can afford to take the occasional hit, but for the smaller ones a handful of poorly selling titles may drive a company under. Amos Geffen's first publishing company, Matzpen, lasted barely five years before going bankrupt. This has not deterred Israelis from attempting to bring over their preferred sf to their native audience. Rani Graff and Didi Chanoch are two famous examples that best embody this drive. Graff, a long standing member of Israel's sf/f community, founded Graff Publishing in the early 2000s, the first book his company translated being The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (Hebrew trans Didi Chanoch, 2004,) followed by Spin (2006) and Julian Comstock (2011). Spin was the only volume translated in the series. Graff hit his stride upon acquiring the rights for the wildly popular (in any language) Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan (1964-    ). As a result, the company has grown and thrived, produced over 60 titles, many trending as mainstream, with the occasional title completely unrelated to sf/f. Didi Hanoch's Nova was not so lucky. Hanoch founded the company with the goal of introducing Israelis to diverse voices. Voices that had been dominating the Hugos for quite some time, but were largely unheard of in Israel. The first two books translated by the company were The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (2015) and Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (2015). But the company suffered a major setback with Uprooted (2016) by Naomi Novik (1973-    ), and poor sales forced Hanoch to shut down his operations.

Some of the authors mentioned above, both mainstream and genre, have written sf/f books for children and young adults. In fact, it appears that this section of the sf/f publishing industry, which mainly includes translated titles, is more ubiquitous than other, ostensibly more "serious" ones. Most Hebrew books for Young Adults and children belong to the fantasy genre. However, a handful of sf books have been written with the intention of familiarizing youngsters with scientific concepts and ideas. But YA sf books conforming to genre conventions are exceedingly rare. Yael Furman wrote two novels that combine both science fiction and fantastic elements. Yaldei Beit Hazechuchit ("The Glass House Children") (2011), set in a futuristic Israel with humans genetically engineered to live underwater, explores the relations between a human child and a "merchild" and the challenges they face overcoming societal prejudice. Kirei Olam ["World Fragments"] (2017) explores the adventures of two Israeli teenagers sucked into a Virtual Reality fantasy game. A handful of YA sf novels were published in 2022-2024, but it is too early to tell whether this heralds a new trend: K'sheHaOlam Hithapech ["When the World Turned Upside Down"] (2022) by Yoav Avni; Max veHaphantom HaKosmi ["Max and the Cosmic Phantom"] (2022) by Hanan Dror (1979-    ); the Olam Acher ["Other World"] (2022) series by Daniel Rimon (1990-    ), and HaEl HaMechani ["The Mechanical God"] (2024) by Ori Katz (1981-    ).

Due to the high proliferation of short stories written in 2003, Assaf Dekel (1976-2023), nicknamed Kipod (Porcupine), created a master list of all Israeli sf/f short stories ever published, "Reshimat Kipod" ["Kipod's List"]. This list is maintained by Rami Shalheveth on his Bli Panika website, and had been faithfully maintained until 2020. That task became increasingly difficult due to the increase in writing workshops, contests, anthologies, projects, and journals that collectively produce well over 100 new sf/f short stories every year. These include the Society's Hayo Yihye (Once Upon a Future) annual collection; the Bli Panika website; the Meorot project, the Sefarim? ["Books?"] Facebook group's summer writing project; the Nahon ["Correct"] journal for utopian and dystopian literature edited by Orzion Bartana; the Yekum Tarbut ["Cultural Universe"] website edited by academic Eli Eshed; and the Horror magazine Boo edited by Dana Schweppe and Amir Harash. Horror had long been neglected in Israel due to the abundance of trauma on a national scale; Boo emerged shortly after the October 7 invasion in 2023 as a therapeutic means of understanding and confronting horror with horror.

Israeli sf/f writers traditionally avoided trucking in Hard SF motifs, gravitating toward the softcore, sociological variant. There have been a few exceptions, though: Yosef Ofer's Zohar HaArgaman ["The Scarlet Glow"] (1970) envisioned an insidious Invasion by Aliens intent on sowing violent discord and warlike impulses in furtherance of an eons-long colonizing program that results in a Nazi-inspired World War Three in 1988, Yaakov Avisar (1921-2005) published Anashim MeKochav Acher ["People from a Different Planet"], wherein an Israeli spaceship crew encounters Hebrew-speaking aliens. The plot seems like a riff on Poul Anderson's comic novel, The High Crusade (1960). Haydak Katlani ["A Deadly Microbe"] (1997), by Bo'az Ginsburg (1956-    )  depicts a Mossad attempt to thwart a Hamas plan to wage biowarfare using deadly microbes of German design. Yosef Soyka's Sod HaOlam HaSheni ["Secret of the Second World"] (1998), posits hitherto unknown ancient texts chronicling an encounter between the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and aliens living underground. HaKafil HaVirtuali ["The Virtual Double"] (2009) by Moshe Menasheof (1958-    ) describes a physics experiment that goes awry, creating a doppelganger universe. Yehuda Israely and Dor Raveh published Mesopotamyah (2010 2 vols), the first volume being fantasy, the second Hard SF. Shemone Dakot ["Eight Minutes"] (2023) by Or Shoham (1992-    ) takes the idea of the sun suffering extinction and explores in short stories the reactions on Earth eight minutes after the event occurred (the amount of distance it takes for light from the sun to arrive to Earth). The story is reminiscent of Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon" (in All the Myriad Ways coll 1971).

Not all Israeli sf is written in Hebrew. The Russian wave of immigration that began at the start of the 1990s brought alongside a million newcomers several authors of note, Pesakh (Pavel/Paul) Amnuel (1944-    ), an astrophysicist and, despite his longtime residence in Israel, still nationally renowned as a scientist and Russian sf author. Elana Gomel (1961-    ) is a wildly talented and unusually prolific sf and horror writer of international repute, and associated with Tel Aviv University and Stanford University. Other noteworthy writers include Daniel Kluger (1951-2005) and Alexandr Rybalka (1984-    ). This Russian cohort is characterized by, among other things, a profound, unabashed love and respect for genre sf. Gomel's writes in English, while the other authors mentioned here write in Russian.

There are many other Israeli sf authors who have chosen to write in English, as the global market offers much greater reach than what can be found in the smaller local Israeli market. Also, sometimes the authors themselves, like Lavie Tidhar, choose to relocate to English-speaking countries. Gila Green wrote King of the Class (2013), a futuristic Satire set in a post-civil war Israel that examines the personal and national conflicts brought about by mixing Religion and Politics. Nir Yaniv wrote The Love Machine and Other Contraptions (2012), an anthology of short sf stories, and The Good Soldier (2024), heady sf that critiques the insanity of war. Hesh Kestin, an IDF veteran and international news correspondent now living in America, wrote The Siege of Tel Aviv (2019), an Alternate History in which Iran leads a coalition of Arab armies that successfully conquers Israel and rounds up all of Israel's Jews into a ghettoized Tel Aviv. The book was unceremoniously pulped by its publisher after being deemed, without reasonable substantiation, Islamophobic.

Debbie Iancu-Haddad (1974-    ) is a prolific author who has written two sf series for young adults: The Sands of Achten-Tan (2022-2024) and The Children of The Stars (2023). Uri Gatt-Gutman (1991-    ) chose to write Requiem for A Star (2024) as a means of commemorating Olga Romashkin and the October 7 (2024) massacre at a rave near Gaza, and translated the book into English so the message might reach a global audience.

In addition to authors, there is also no lack of fans who share their love of the genre with the English-speaking Israeli audience. CyberCozen is Israel's longest running Fanzine, and the only one written in English. It was founded in 1989 by Aharon Sheer (1936-2015) as the voice of the now defunct Rehovot sf club. It is currently managed by Leybl Botwinik (1959-    ), a Canadian immigrant and the son of late Yiddish music composer David Botwinik. Botwinik has written two novels: Di Geheime Shlihes ["The Secret Mission"] (1980) in Yiddish, and Tragedy of a Shapeshifter (2024) with his son Nathaniel Botwinik, based on a four-season sf Television script the two have been preparing. Under Leybl's management Cybercozen has become one of the few sf magazines to offer occasional Yiddish content.

The mainstreaming of Israeli sf has not skipped over Israel's political echelon. Amnon Rubinstein (1931-2024), a former Israeli communications, education. science & technology, and national energy, infrastructure minister, wrote Hayam SheMaeleinu ["The Sea Above Us"] (2007), a story that alternates between two different timelines. The first is historical and takes place after World War Two, and the second is of a futuristic Ecological Dystopia involving Climate Change, rising sea levels having caused Tel Aviv to sink beneath the waves. Yossi Sarid (1940-2015), another former minister of education and the environment, wrote Lefikach Nitcanasnu ["Therefore, We Have Gathered"] (2008), an anthology that relates true and alternate history tales of Israeli from a less-represented perspective, such as: David Ben Gurion's secretary, the doctor who took down Adolf Eichmann, and a soldier who participated in the Kfar Kassem massacre. Yuval Steinitz (1958-    ), another former minister, a member of the Likud party, wrote Lo Yihyeh Lanu Le'an Lachzor ["We Will Have Nowhere to Which to Return"] (2023) in which earth receives a message from an Alien civilization and needs to weigh whether the rewards of such First Contact are worth the risk of drawing the attention of a more technologically advanced species.

Poetry, Film, Television and Podcasts

Sf Poetry exists in Israel, although it is rare. The most notable sf poet in Israel was David Avidan (1934-1995), who garnered posthumous fame for fearless early forays into the then much-dismissed genre. In his poems he explored black holes, nuclear destruction, the individual vs the universe, and the extension of human life through genetic engineering. Avidan, who languished economically later life, held himself to be a man from the future, and he did not let the dearth of quasi-futuristic words in modern Hebrew hinder his writing. If a term was missing, he invented it. For example "Binanim" ["in betweeners"] for intelligent beings from other planets (see Aliens; Life on Other Worlds). These terms did not catch on among the wider public, and remain unique to his poetic works. A handful of his works were translated in Futureman (2017) by Tsippi Keller. Dan Pagis (1930-1986), an Israeli poet and Holocaust survivor, wrote a handful of poems that can be considered sf: "End of the questionnaire" (1970) lists questions sent by a potentially alien civilization, such as "Housing conditions: number of galaxy and star"; "Brain" (1976) conveys the perspective of a brain trapped inside a skull. These poems appear in Points of Departure (coll 1981 trans Stephen Mitchell). Maya Bejerano (1949-    ) wrote a handful of poems that can be classified as sf. They are collected in Ibud Netunim 52 ["Data Processing 52"] (coll 1983); the title refers to her experimental style of poetry. Finally, Asher Reich (1937-    ) wrote an entire volume of apocalyptic sf poetry collected in Atid Domem ["Silent Future"] (coll 2002).

Genre filmmaking in Israel began with Sheder Min He'Atid ["Message from the Future"] (1981) directed by the poet, and avant-garde filmmaker David Avidan (1934-1995) about future humans visiting present-day Israel. A low-budget, Post-Holocaust feature, America 3000 (1985) – video release only – was produced by Menachem Golan (1929-2014) and directed by David Engelbach (1946-   ), featuring a cast of comely Israeli and US amazons (see Women in SF). Poet and avant-garde film-maker Richi Shelach (1944-    ) directed the (possibly) James Blish-influenced short film Ishur Nehita ["Permission to Land"] (1978) which tells of a visiting alien Spaceship. Both films may have reflected that Sense of Wonder inspired among Israelis by the unexpected visit of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat. The 1989 adaptation, shot in English, of Kenan's 1984 novel as Freedom: The Voice from Ein Harod, failed to achieve Western distribution. Directed by prolific producer/director Doron Eran (1955-    ) and shot for a then otherworldly $2 million, Freedom was one of the most expensive films ever produced domestically, but suffered from the Israeli army's refusal to donate the use of military matériel to add verisimilitude to a film about an Israel Defense Forces military coup; the peculiar lead casting of American actor Anthony Peck (Gregory's son) and Italian model and far-right politician Allesandra Mussolini (granddaughter of Il Duce), also detracted from its plausibility. In 1990 the prolific and multi-talented Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher (1952-    ) wrote and directed a Los Angeles-shot $7 million Technothriller, «Nameless» (vt «Timebomb»), as yet unreleased. Israeli writer/director Ari Folman's Made in Israel (2001) takes place in the Golan Heights shortly after a peace treaty between Israel and Syria, and follows the adventures of two sets of assassins on a mission to bring the last Nazi to justice. Folman also directed The Congress (2013), a live-action/animated sf film based on Stanisław Lem's "Ze Wspomnień Ijona Tichego: Kongres Futurologiczn" (in Bezsenność, coll 1971; trans Michael Kandel as The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy 1974). In 2025, Charlie Kauffman bought the rights for Israeli Author, Iddo Geffen's (1992-   ) short story "Debby's Dream House" about a man who creates dreams for others, but then begins giving them nightmares. The projected film title is «Later the War».

World War Z (2013), directed by Marc Forster, based on Max Brooks's novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2006), posited a big-budget Zombie Apocalypse that transpired, among other settings, in Jerusalem. While a plague of "fast zombies" overcomes much of the world, Jerusalem (using Malta as a stand-in), fortified by its natural walls and a massive barrier erected alongside its protective security fence by Israel, withstands the onslaught, rescuing Jews and Palestinians alike. When residents begin dancing a celebratory hora, however, the sound of their heightened voices drives the zombies into a necrophiliac lather – they overcome the barrier with a self-made wall of frothing CGI-enhanced flesh. And as this latest Joshuite wall collapses, the Third Temple, as Israelis refer to their modern nation state, tumbles into the rubble yet again.

Israeli Television produced a noteworthy Alternate History miniseries in Autonomies (2018), which postulated a 1989 civil war between a secular Tel Aviv and an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem that produced the competing sovereign redoubts later existing in both. The aforementioned Let It Be Morning (2006) by Sayed Kashua (1975-    ) was adapted for film in 2020, winning accolades from Cannes, where the Palestinian-Israeli participants nonetheless protested the movie's presentation as an Israeli product. The film was shorn of the book's speculative ending.

Israel has a growing number of sf podcasts and radio shows. Keren Landsman and Ehud Maimon host Atid Mitmashech ["Future Progressive"] (2023), in which they interview various figures who played a key role in the history of Israels sf/f community; information from these interviews is included in this entry. HaAchayot Grimm ["The Grimm Sisters"] is a popular Radio show, with over 200 episodes, hosted by Noa Menhaim and Ayelet Triest, that explores various sf and fantasy literary works and characters that shaped modern western culture; the show occasionally deviates from speculative fiction to explore other genres, such as classic children's literature. The Sci Fi Eye by Naomi Karmi (2020) explores how current technological developments contribute towards a sf reality.

Academic and Other Research

A small body of sf criticism emerged in the 1980s, the first regular column outside the sf magazines being former Fantasia 2000 editorial board member and book and film reviewer Sheldon Teitelbaum's in the Jerusalem Post (1981-1985). The early vagaries of the sf scene are discussed in "Sociological Reflections on the History of Science Fiction in Israel" (Science Fiction Studies March 1986) by Nachman Ben Yehuda. Orzion Bartana (1949-    ), then a professor of literature at Tel Aviv University, published Israel's first critical book on sf: HaFantazia beSiporet Dor Hamdina ["Fantasy in Israeli Literature in the Last Thirty Years"] (1989). Inbal Saggiv-Nakdimon published an MA thesis on Israeli sf at Tel Aviv University in 1999. Danielle Gurevitch and Elana Gomel edited With Both Feet in the Clouds: Fantasy in Israeli Literature. In 2013. Keren Omry published a wide-ranging survey of Israeli sf in the SFRA Review in the Fall of 2013; her research is reflected in this entry. A comprehensive review of Israeli dystopias can be found in "Mada Bidyoni keBikoret Politit-Kalkalit: Distopiot Yisraeliyot" ["Science Fiction as Political-Economic Criticism: Israeli Dystopias"] by Hananel Livneh (2017). Vered Weiss uses the literary concept of "chronotopes" to catalog Israeli SF&F in "Israeli Fantasy and Science Fiction: Fantastical Chronotopes and the Modern Promised Land" (in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy, anth 2023, ed Elana Gomel and Danielle Gurevich). Raz Greenberg wrote a detailed review of Israeli sf in Sugot BeSafrut Popolarit ["Popular Literature Genres"] (2024). Zion's Fiction: A Treasury of Israeli Speculative Fiction (anth 2018), and More Zion's Fiction: Wondrous Tales of the Israeli ImagiNation (anth 2021), are a retrospective anthology sequence edited by Teitelbaum and Lottem, with a third volume, co-edited by Teitelbaum and Aharon Hauptman (1948-    ), projected.

Israeli authors and translators with entries in this encyclopedia (most already noted in the text above) include Shimon Adaf, Yoav Blum, Uri Dan, Yael Furman, Ofir Touché Gafla, Guy Hasson, Emanuel Lottem, Mordecai Roshwald, Eli Sagi, Lavie Tidhar, Vered Tochterman, and Nir Yaniv. [ST/EL/YP]

see also: American Cyborg: Steel Warrior; Menachem Talmi.

further reading

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