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Born 1944 Israel Residence Beverly Hills, California, U.S. Occupation Lawyer, academic, novelist, poet Books Modern Hebrew Literature Made Into Films Alma maters Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, University of California, Los Angeles | ||
Lev Hakak is an Israeli-born American lawyer, academic, novelist and poet. He is a Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the author of several books on Hebrew literature. He has written four poetry collections and two novels.
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Early life
Lev Hakak was born in 1944 in Israel. His parents were Iraqi Jews who experienced pro-Nazi antisemitic sentiments in Iraq in the 1940s and emigrated to Israel in 1951-1952.
Hakak graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in Hebrew Literature and Political Science in 1967. He attended graduate school at Tel Aviv University in 1968-1970, and he earned a PhD in Modern Hebrew Literature from UCLA in 1974. His thesis was entitled Modes of Organization in Modern Hebrew Free Verse.
Career
Hakak began his career as a poet in the early 1960s, when he published two poetry collections. In 1977, he published his first novel, The Ingathered. His work challenges the canon of Hebrew literature. He has published articles in The Huffington Post.
Hakak has been a Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at UCLA since 1974. He is the author of several scholarly books on Hebrew Literature. His first scholarly volume, published in 1977, focused on poets Avraham Ben-Yitzhak, Amir Gilboa, Natan Zakh and Shlomo Zamir. In 1981, he was one of the first scholars to analyze Mizrahi Jews in Hebrew Literature. His 2009 book, The Emergence of Modern Hebrew Literature in Babylon from 1735-1950, is about Jewish poetry in Iraq.
Hakak is also a member of the Israel Bar Association and the State Bar of California.
Personal life
Hakak resides in Beverly Hills, California. In May 2016, he submitted an application to run for the Beverly Hills City Council.