Category:Bar Kokhba--fiction (subject)

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Survey of fictional works on Bar Kokhba.

• This page is edited by Shayna Sheinfeld, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (USA)

Overview

Bar Kokhba has become the subject for numerous popular culture references.

Since the late 1800s, Bar Kokhba has been a popular subject for literature, operas, dramas, and in music. Below is a brief outline of some of the more well-known references.

Literature: In 1858 Kalman Schulman wrote the Hebrew novel Harisot Betar: sipur ‘al dever gevurat Bar Kokhva ve-hurban Betar bi-yad Adriyanus kesar Roma. 1888 saw The Son of a Star, an English novel by Benjamin Ward Richardson. In 1910 David Pinsky produced the Yiddish novel Rabbi Aqiva und Bar-Kokhba, while another Yiddish novel Bar Kokhba by Abraham Raphael Forsyth was written in 1941. Poul Borchsenius published the Danish novel Steiersønne in 1952. Prince of Israel is an English novel also from 1952 by Elias Gilner. 1953 saw the publication of the Hebrew Bar-Kokhba by Joseph Opatoshu. In 1983 the English novel If I forget thee by Brenda Lesley Segal was published. 1988 saw the publication of two novels: the first in Hebrew by S. J. Kreutner titled Kokav mi-mesilato. Haye Bar-Kokhba, and the second in English by Andrew Sanders titled My Husband, Bar Kokhba.

Opera: Bar Kokhba has been the subject of several opera projects. In 1882 Abraham Goldfaden created a Yiddish operetta titled Bar Kokhba. Le Fils de l’etoile is a French opera by Camille Erlanger and Catulle Mendes, written in 1903. Bar-Kochba is a German opera by Stanislav Suda and Karl Jonas in 1905. In the 1920s the Russian-Jewish composer Yaacov Bilansky Levanon who had emigrated to Palestine wrote an operetta on Bar Kokhba.

Theatre: Numerous dramas have also been written on the subject of Bar Kokhba. Yehudah Loeb Landau wrote the Hebrew drama Bar Kokhba in 1884. Saul Tchernichovski (1929) and Shmuel Halkin (1939) produced Hebrew dramas by the same name. In 1943 Lajos Szabolcsi wrote the Hungarian drama A csillag fia on the same subject.

Music: John Zorn is a Jewish American composer, arranger and saxophonist whose Masada Songbook includes the Bar Kokhba album. This eclectic album features a cast of musicians playing alongside Zorn performing ensembles from the Masada Songbook. Later, Zorn created the Bar Kokhba Sextet which features six musicians who regularly play with Zorn.