11 Facts About Sasson Somekh

Sasson Somekh was an Iraqi-Israeli academic, writer and translator.

Sasson Somekh was professor emeritus of Modern Arab Literature at Tel Aviv University.

Sasson Somekh was born in Baghdad to a secular Jewish family.

Sasson Somekh did not know Hebrew at the time, but started learning it in earnest in order to achieve his goal of becoming a translator of Arabic poetry into Hebrew.

Sasson Somekh's subject was the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, concentrating on the Cairo Trilogy.

Sasson Somekh was a visiting professor at Princeton University, St Antony's College, Oxford, Annenberg Research Institute, NYU and Uppsala University.

Sasson Somekh is among the founders of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel, established in December 2007 in collaboration with several former students.

Sasson Somekh wrote ten books, many translations from Arabic to Hebrew, among which are four anthologies of modern Arabic poetry, and about 90 articles in academic journals.

Sasson Somekh was a regular contributor to the newspaper Haaretz.

At the age of 70, Sasson Somekh wrote the first volume of his autobiography, Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew.

Sasson Somekh speaks of being a secular Jewish child from a secular Jewish home.