View source for Hayim Nahman Bialik

{{Short description|Hebrew poet, author, and editor (1873–1934)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}

{{More citations|date=June 2025}}{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Hayim Nahman Bialik
| image            = Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1923.jpg
| caption          = Bialik, 1923
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1873|1|9|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = Ivnytsia, [[Volhynian Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] <small>(present day [[Zhytomyr Oblast]], [[Ukraine]])</small>
| death_date       = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1934|7|4|1873|1|9}}
| death_place      = [[Vienna]], [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]]
| occupation       = Poet, journalist, children's writer, translator
| nationality      = 
| period           = 
| genre            = 
| subject          = 
| movement         = [[Hovevei Zion]]
| signature        = Hayyim Nahman Bialik signature.svg
| website          = 
| resting_place    = [[Trumpeldor Cemetery]], [[Israel]]
| native_name      = חיים נחמן ביאַליק
| native_name_lang = he
}}

'''Hayim Nahman Bialik''' ({{langx|he|חיים נחמן ביאַליק}}; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934){{efn|Also spelled '''Hayyim''', '''Chayyim''', '''Chaim''' or '''Haim'''}} was a Russian-Jewish poet who wrote primarily in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Yiddish]]. Bialik is considered a pioneer of [[modern Hebrew poetry]], part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to a new spirit of his time, and recognized today as Israel's [[national poet]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/bialik-haim-nachman|title=Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People|website=Beit Hatfutsot|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=November 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107110626/https://dbs.bh.org.il/luminary/bialik-haim-nachman|url-status=dead}}</ref> Being a noted essayist, poet and story-teller, Bialik also translated major works from European languages into Hebrew.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norwich|first=J.J.|title=Oxford illustrated encyclopedia|date=1985–1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Judge, Harry George., Toyne, Anthony.|isbn=0-19-869129-7|location=Oxford [England]|pages=47|oclc=11814265}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:אודסה - חיים נחמן ביאליק-JNF009340.jpeg|thumb|Hayim Nahman Bialik in 1905]]
Hayim Nahman Bialik was born in Radi, [[Volhynia Governorate]] in the [[Russian Empire]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hayyim-nahman-bialik |title=Hayyim Nahman Bialik |access-date=March 2, 2023 |archive-date=March 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302202623/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hayyim-nahman-bialik |url-status=live }}</ref> to Itzik Yosef Bialik, a wood merchant from [[Zhytomyr]], and his wife, Dinah Priveh.<ref>Birth records of both Hayim and Blyuma Byalik are available at JewishGen.org (genealogical database for Ukraine). Date of birth: January 6, 1873. Parents: Itsko-Yosef Byalik (son of Yankel-Moyshe Byalik), from Zhytomyr, and Dinah-Priva Byalik. His sister Blyuma was born on January 20, 1875,  in Ivnitsa.</ref> He had an older brother Sheftel (born in 1862) and two sisters Chenya-Ides (born in 1871) and  Blyuma (born in 1875).<ref>Revision list with all members of the Bialik family in Zhytomyr (including Hayim-Nakhman, aged 10) from 1884 is available at JewishGen.org. His father was still alive and 56 years old at the revision, his mother was 51.</ref> When Bialik  was 8 years old, his father died. His mother took him to [[Zhytomyr]] to live with his [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] grandfather, Yankl-Moishe Bialik. Bialik would not see his mother for over twenty years, when he brought her to Odessa to live with him.<ref name="forward">{{cite web |last1=Krutikov |first1=Mikhail |title=Insightful Biography of Hebrew Poet H. N. Bialik Misses Key Element |url=https://forward.com/culture/372334/insightful-biography-of-hebrew-poet-h-n-bialik-misses-key-element/ |work=The Forward |access-date=5 June 2022 |date=18 May 2017 |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605123919/https://forward.com/culture/372334/insightful-biography-of-hebrew-poet-h-n-bialik-misses-key-element/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Zhytomyr, Bialik explored European literature alongside the traditional Jewish religious education he received. At the age of 15, he convinced his grandfather to send him to the [[Volozhin Yeshiva]] in [[Vilna Governorate]] to study under [[Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin]], where he hoped he could continue his Jewish schooling while expanding his knowledge of European literature. There, Bialik encountered the [[Haskala]] or Jewish Enlightenment movement and, as a result, drifted away from [[yeshiva]] life (religious life). A story in the biography of [[Chaim Soloveitchik]] cites an anonymous student, presumably Bialik himself, being expelled from the Yeshiva for involvement in the Haskala movement. As Rabbi Chaim was escorting him out, Bialik asked, "Why?" In response, the rabbi said he had spent the time convincing Bialik not to use his writing talents against the yeshiva world. Poems such as ''HaMatmid'' ("The Talmud student"), written in 1898, reflect Bialik's great ambivalence toward that way of life: on the one hand, admiration for the dedication and devotion of the yeshiva students to their studies; on the other, a disdain for their narrow world.

At 18, Bialik left for [[Odessa]]. A center of modern Jewish culture in the southern Russian Empire, drawn by his admiration for authors such as [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]] and [[Ahad Ha'am]]. There, Bialik studied Russian and German language and literature while dreaming of enrolling in the [[Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary|Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin]]. Alone and penniless, Bialik made his living teaching [[Hebrew]].

The 1892 Bialik published his first poem, ''[https://www.nli.org.il/he/items/NNL_MUSIC_AL990040629450205171/NLI El Hatzipor]'' "To the Bird", which expresses a longing for [[Zion]], in a booklet edited by [[Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki]] (1859–1944), which opened the doors into the Jewish literary circles in Odessa. There, he joined the [[Hovevei Zion]] movement where he befriended the author [[Ahad Ha'am]], who had a significant influence on his [[Zionist]] outlook.

In 1892, Bialik heard news that the [[Volozhin Yeshiva]] had closed and returned home to Zhytomyr to prevent his grandfather from discovering that he had discontinued his religious education. He arrived to find both his grandfather and his older brother close to death. Following their deaths, Bialik married Manya Averbuch<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMoCDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT44|title=Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew|first=Avner|last=Holtzman|date=February 21, 2017|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300227741|via=Google Books|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-date=September 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920174554/https://books.google.com/books?id=dMoCDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT44|url-status=live}}</ref> in 1893.

For a time, he served as a bookkeeper in his father-in-law's lumber business in [[Korostyshiv]], near [[Kyiv]]. This proved unsuccessful so, in 1897, he moved to [[Sosnowiec]], a small town in the [[Dąbrowa Basin]] in [[Vistula Land]] in [[Congress Poland]], which was controlled by the Russian Empire. There, Bialik worked both as a Hebrew teacher and, to earn extra income, a [[coal merchant]]. In 1900, feeling depressed by the provincial life of Sosnowiec, Bialik secured a teaching job in Odessa.
[[File:Chaim Bialik by Manuel Rosenberg, 1926.jpg|thumb|Signed drawing of Chaim Bialik by [[Manuel Rosenberg]], 1926]]
Bialik visited the United States, where he stayed with his cousin Raymond Bialeck in [[Hartford, CT]]. He is the uncle of actress [[Mayim Bialik]]'s great-great-grandfather.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://jewcy.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/mayim_bialik_blossom_brachot|title=Mayim Bialik: From 'Blossom' to Brachot|date=May 6, 2009|work=Jewcy|access-date=2018-04-23|language=en-US|archive-date=December 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211133240/http://jewcy.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/mayim_bialik_blossom_brachot|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Literary career==
[[Image:Bialik young.jpg|thumb|A young Bialik]]
The year 1900 marked the beginning of Bialik's "golden period": he continued his activities in Zionist and literary circles, and his literary fame continued to rise. In 1901 his first collection of poetry was published in [[Warsaw]], where it was greeted with much critical acclaim, being hailed as "The Poet of National Renaissance". Bialik relocated to Warsaw briefly in 1904 to serve as literary editor of the weekly magazine ''[[Ha-Shiloaḥ|HaShiloah]]'' founded by [[Ahad Ha'am]], a position he served for six years.

In 1903, in the wake of the [[Kishinev pogrom]]s, the Jewish Historical Commission in Odessa asked Bialik to travel to Kishiniev (today [[Chișinău]]) to interview survivors and prepare a report. In response to his findings, Bialik wrote his epic poem "[[In the City of Slaughter]]" (originally published under the name "Massa Nemirov"), a powerful statement of anguish at the situation of the Jews. The poem's condemnation of passivity against anti-Semitic violence is said to have inspired thousands of Jewish youths to cast off their [[pacifism]] and join the Russian underground against the Czar,<ref>[[Max Dimont]], ''Jews, God, and History'', Simon and Schuster, 7th printing, 1962, p. 347</ref> the founding of Jewish self-defense groups in the Russian Empire, and, later on, the [[Haganah]] in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]].<ref name="mjl">{{cite web |title=Hayim Nahman Bialik |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hayim-nahman-bialik/ |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=5 June 2022 |archive-date=June 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628211940/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hayim-nahman-bialik/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=forward/>

{{quote box|<poem>
…Get up and walk through the city of the massacre,
And with your hand touch and lock your eyes
On the cooled brain and clots of blood
Dried on tree trunks, rocks, and fences; it is they.
Go to the ruins, to the gaping breaches,
To walls and hearths, shattered as though by thunder:
Concealing the blackness of a naked brick,
A crowbar has embedded itself deeply, like a crushing crowbar,
And those holes are like black wounds,
For which there is no healing or doctor.
Take a step, and your footstep will sink: you have placed your foot in fluff,
Into fragments of utensils, into rags, into shreds of books:
Bit by bit they were amassed through arduous labor—and in a flash,
Everything is destroyed…
And you will come out into the road—
Acacias are blooming and pouring their aroma,
And their blooms are like fluff, and they smell as though of blood.
And their sweet fumes will enter your breast, as though deliberately,
Beckoning you to springtime, and to life, and to health;
And the dear little sun warms and, teasing your grief,
Splinters of broken glass burn with a diamond fire—
God sent everything at once, everyone feasted together:
The sun, and the spring, and the red massacre!
</poem>
| source = Excerpt from the poem "[[In the City of Slaughter]]", translated by [[Vladimir Jabotinsky]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Hayim Nahman Bialik—the National Jewish poet who spent his childhood in Zhytomyr |url=https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/hayim-nahman-bialik-the-national-jewish-poet-who-spent-his-childhood-in-zhytomyr/ |website=UJE - Ukrainian Jewish Encounter |access-date=5 June 2022 |date=13 March 2018}}</ref>
| align = none
}}

It was during his visit to Odessa that Bialik first met the painter [[Ira Jan]],<ref name="jwa.org">{{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jan-ira|title=IRA JAN|last=Bachi Kolodny|first=Ruth|date=February 27, 2009|website=Jewish Women's Archive|access-date=October 18, 2019|archive-date=October 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019104347/https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jan-ira|url-status=live}}</ref> with whom he conducted a secret love affair for many years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/1.5309089|title=The Flower Is Forgot|last=Rotem|first=Tamar|date=July 17, 2001|website=Haaretz|access-date=October 19, 2019|archive-date=October 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019110623/https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/1.5309089|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the early 1900s, Bialik, together with [[Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki|Yehoshua Rawnitzki]], Simcha Ben Zion<!--Q2905102--> and [[Elhanan Leib Lewinsky]], founded ''[https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Moriah Moriah]'', a publishing house aimed at issuing Hebrew classics and school texts.  He translated into Hebrew various European works, such as [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'',  [[Friedrich Schiller]]'s ''[[William Tell (play)|William Tell]]'', [[Miguel de Cervantes]]' novel ''[[Don Quixote]]'', [[Heinrich Heine]]'s poems, and [[S. Ansky]]'s ''[[The Dybbuk]]''.

Throughout the years 1899–1915, Bialik published about 20 of his [[Yiddish]] poems in different periodicals throughout the Russian Empire. These poems are often considered to be among the best of modern Yiddish poetry. Starting in 1908, Bialik switched to writing in prose: In collaboration with Rawnitzki, Bialik published ''[[Sefer HaAggadah]]'' (''The Book of Legends,'' 1908–1911), a two-volume edition of the folk tales and proverbs scattered throughout the [[Talmud]]. The book comprises a selection of hundreds of texts arranged thematically. It was immediately recognized as a masterwork and has been reprinted numerous times. Bialik also edited the poems of the [[al-Andalus|Andalusi]] poet and philosopher [[Solomon ibn Gabirol]] and began a modern commentary on the [[Mishna]], but only completed [[Zeraim]], the first of the six [https://www.britannica.com/topic/seder-Mishna-division Sedarim] (Orders), of the Mishna.<ref>[https://www.hebrewbooks.org/33831 "HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: משנה ערוכה לתלמידים - כלאים -- ביאליק, חיים נחמן, 1873-1934"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326025705/https://www.hebrewbooks.org/33831|date=March 26, 2023}} </ref> For this, Bialik intentionally chose to use the traditional Vilna edition of the Mishnah instead of a more scientific text and created, arguably, the first modern commentary to a [https://www.britannica.com/topic/seder-Mishna-division Seder] of Mishnah that included, in its introduction, a summary of the content as well as all of the relevant biblical passages.<ref>Mordechai Meir, “Shisha Sidrei Ha-Mishna Menukadim U-mefurashim al Yedei Chaim Nachman Bialik: Kavim Le-mifalo Ha-nishkach shel Bialik,” Netuim 16 (5770), pp.191-208, available at: http://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/netuim16_meir.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627003600/http://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/netuim16_meir.pdf |date=June 27, 2022 }}</ref> In the 1950s, under the direction of [[Hanoch Albeck]], the [[Bialik Institute]] published a commentary on the entire Mishnah, an expansion of Bialik's project.

In 1919 in Odessa, Bialik founded the Dvir publishing house.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kinbooks.co.il/article_745?c0=18903&bsp=13032&bss3613=18903|title=English|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-date=May 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514002045/http://www.kinbooks.co.il/article_745?c0=18903&bsp=13032&bss3613=18903|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.natashafarrant.com/|title=Natasha Farrant : Writer & Literary Scout|website=natashafarrant.com|access-date=July 23, 2021|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726185610/https://www.natashafarrant.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> The institution, now based in Israel, is known today as [[Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir]] after it was purchased by the Zmora-Bitan publishing house in 1986, and subsequently merged with Kinneret Publishing. It was in Odessa, where BIalik befriended the [[soprano]] [[Isa Kremer]], and inspired her to become the first woman sing [[Yiddish music]] on the concert stage.

Bialik remained in [[Odessa]] until 1921, when the Moriah publishing house was closed by [[USSR|Soviet]] authorities as a result of mounting paranoia following the [[Bolshevik Revolution]]. Through the intervention of [[Maxim Gorky]], a group of Hebrew writers were given permission by the Soviet government to leave the country;

==Move to Germany==
[[File:Hayyim Nahman and his wife Manya (Auerbach) Bialik in 1925.jpg|thumb|Hayim Nahman and his wife Manya in 1925]]
Bialik moved, via the [[Second Polish Republic]] and [[Government of the Grand National Assembly|Revolutionary Ankara Turkey]], to [[Berlin]], where, together with his friends Yehoshua Rawnitzki and [[Shmaryahu Levin]], he re-established the Dvir publishing house. There, in collaboration with the rabbinical college [[Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums]], Bialik published the first Hebrew language scientific journal.

In Germany, Bialik joined a community of noted Jewish authors and publishers. Among them were [[Shmuel Yosef Agnon]],  [[Salman Schocken]] (owner of [[Schocken Department Stores]] and founder of [[Schocken Books]]), the historian [[Simon Dubnow]], [[Israel Isidor Elyashev]], [[Uri Zvi Greenberg]], [[Jakob Klatzkin]] (cofounder of the ''[https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Printing_and_Publishing/Printing_and_Publishing_after_1800 Eshkol]'' publishing house in Berlin), [[Moyshe Kulbak]], [[Zeev Latsky]] ("Bertoldi") (cofounder of [https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Printing_and_Publishing/Printing_and_Publishing_after_1800 ''Klal-farlag''] publishing house in Berlin in 1922), [[Simon Rawidowicz]] (co-founder of ''[https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Printing_and_Publishing/Printing_and_Publishing_after_1800 Klal-farlag]''), [[Zalman Shneour]], [[Nochum Shtif]], [[Shaul Tchernichovsky]], [[Shoshana Persitz]] (founder of [https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Printing_and_Publishing/Printing_and_Publishing_after_1800 Omanut publishing house]) and [[Martin Buber]]. They met routinely at the Hebrew Committee House {{langx|he| בת וועד העברי |Bet Havad haIvri}}) in Berlin's [[Scheunenviertel]], in Café Monopol, which had a Hebrew-speaking corner, or Café des Westens (both in Berlin's more elegant western boroughs).

Bialik succeeded Klal Publishing's Hebrew chief editor, Saul Israel Hurwitz, upon his death on August 8, 1922, during which time 80 titles were published.<ref>Maren Krüger, 'Buchproduktion im Exil. Der Klal-Verlag', In: ''Juden in Kreuzberg: Fundstücke, Fragmente, Erinnerungen …'', Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt e.V. (ed.), Berlin: Edition Hentrich, pp. 421–426, here p. 422. {{ISBN|3-89468-002-4}}</ref>

In January 1923, Bialik's 50th birthday was celebrated in the old concert hall of the [[Berlin Philharmonic]], bringing together everybody who was anybody.<ref>Michael Brenner, 'Blütezeit des Hebräischen: Eine vergessene Episode im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre', In: ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', September 23, 2000, supplement 'Ereignisse und Gestalten', p. III.</ref>

==Move to Tel Aviv==
[[File:Beit bialik mid 1920'.jpg|thumb|[[Bialik House]], mid-1920s]]
[[File:Bialik Bldg.jpg|thumb|[[Bialik House]], Tel Aviv, 2015]]
Bialik first visited Palestine in 1909.<ref name="mjl" /><ref name="forward" /> In 1924, he relocated with his publishing house Dvir to the township of [[Tel Aviv]], devoting himself to cultural activities and public affairs and becoming a celebrated literary figure in the [[Yishuv]]. In 1927, Bialik was elected as head of the [[Hebrew Writers Association in Israel|Hebrew Writers Association]], a position he retained for the rest of his life. That year, he founded the ''Oneg Shabbat'' society of [[Tel Aviv]], which sponsored communal gatherings on [[Shabbat]] afternoons to study Torah and sing. Even though he was not an observant Jew, Bialik believed that public observance of Shabbat was essential to preserving the Jewish people. In response to criticism regarding his community activism, Bialik responded: "Show me the judge who can say which is preferable: a good poem or a good deed."<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/2001-07-17/ty-article/spending-shabbat-with-bialik/0000017f-eade-d3be-ad7f-faff8f780000 Spending Shabbat with Bialik], [[Haaretz]]</ref>

==Works and influence==
Bialik wrote several different kinds of poetry: he is perhaps most famous for his long, nationalistic poems, which call for a reawakening of the Jewish people. Bialik had his own awakening even before writing those poems, arising out of the anger and shame he felt at the Jewish response to pogroms.  In his poem [[In the City of Slaughter]], Bialik excoriated the Jews of [[Kishinev]] who had allowed their persecutors to wreak their will without raising up to defend themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Katz |first=Shmuel |date=1996 |title=Lone Wolf: A Biography of Vladimir Jabotinsky | publisher=Barricade Books |pages=47–48 |isbn=1569800421}}</ref> No less admired are his passionate poems on love, nature, the yearning for Zion and children's poems.

Bialik wrote most of his poems using [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] pronunciation. Today, modern Israeli Hebrew uses the [[Sephardi]] pronunciation (what Miryam Segal called the "new accent"), i.e., an amalgam of vowels and consonantal sounds from variety of sources.<ref>Miryam Segal, A New Sound in Hebrew Poetry: Poetics, Politics, Accent (Indiana, 2010)</ref> Consequently, Bialik's poems are rarely recited in the meter in which they were written, although according to Segal, the Ashkenazi (penultimate) stress pattern is still preserved.<ref>Segal (2010), Preface,  and "The Conundrum of the National Poet: in Segal (2010), 139-150 Chapter</ref>

Bialik contributed significantly to the revival of the [[Hebrew language]], which, before his days was used almost exclusively for liturgy. The generation of Hebrew language poets who followed in Bialik's footsteps, including [[Jacob Steinberg]] and [[Jacob Fichman]], are known as "the Bialik generation".

Bialik is honored as Israel's national poet. [[Bialik House]], his former home at 22 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv, has been converted into a museum and a center for literary events. The [[Bialik Prize]] for literature was established by the municipality of [[Tel Aviv]]; [[Kiryat Bialik]], a suburb of Haifa, and [[Givat Hen]], a [[moshav]] bordering the city of [[Raanana]], are named after him. The research body and publishing house, the [[Bialik Institute]], is named after him. He is the only person to have two streets named after him in the same Israeli city – Bialik Street and Hen Boulevard in Tel Aviv. There is a [[Bialik Hebrew Day School]] in Toronto, ON, Canada;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bialik.ca/|title=Home – Bialik Hebrew Day School|website=Bialik Hebrew Day School|access-date=January 7, 2013|archive-date=December 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121225204731/http://bialik.ca/|url-status=live}}</ref>  a [[Jewish People's and Peretz Schools|Bialik High School]] in Montreal, QC, Canada, and a cross-communal Jewish Zionist school in Melbourne called [[Bialik College]]; in [[Caracas, Venezuela]], the Jewish community school is named Herzl-Bialik and the Jewish school in [[Rosario]], Argentina is named after him.

Bialik's poems have been translated into at least 30 languages, with some set to music as popular songs. These poems, and the songs based on them, have become an essential part of the education and culture of modern Israel and throughout the Jewish world.

==Death==
Bialik died in [[Vienna]], [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]], on July 4, 1934, from a sudden heart attack a week after undergoing a successful [[prostate]] operation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bialik dies suddenly|url=http://pdfs.jta.org/1934/1934-07-05_2889.pdf|access-date=November 18, 2014|work=Jewish Daily Bulleting|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|issue=2889|date=July 5, 1934|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305010650/http://pdfs.jta.org/1934/1934-07-05_2889.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> His burial in [[Tel Aviv]] had a large mourning procession followed from [[Bialik House|his home]] on the street named after him, to his final resting place.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

== Gallery ==

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Mendele Mos Sholem Aleichem Ben-Ami Bialik Odessa 1910.jpg|[[Mendele Mocher Sforim]], [[Sholem Aleichem]], {{ill|Mordechai Ben Ami|he|מרדכי בן-עמי}}, Hayim Bialik in Odessa, 1910
File:Hebrew Writers in Odessa before leaving the Soviet Russia.3.jpg|Hebrew writers in Odessa before leaving the Soviet Russia, 1921
File:Пашпарт грамадзяніна БНР, выдадзены Хаіму-Нахману Бяліку. 1921 (03).jpg|Passport of [[Belarusian People's Republic]], 1921
File:Israel 10 Lirot 1968 Obverse & Reverse.jpg|Israel 10 Lirot Obverse & Reverse, 1968
File:Stamp of Israel - Chaim Nachman Bialik.jpg|Israeli postal stamp, 1959
File:Bialik statue 007.jpg|Statue in [[Ramat Gan]], Israel
</gallery>

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Selected bibliography in English==
{{Portal|Children's literature|Poetry|Israel}}

*''Selected Writings (poetry and prose)'' Hasefer, 1924; New York, [[New Palestine (magazine)|New Palestine]], 1926; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1939; New York, [[Histadrut Ivrit of America]], 1948; New York, Bloch, 1965; New York, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1972; Tel Aviv, Dvir and the Jerusalem Post, 1981; Columbus, Alpha, 1987
*''The Short Friday'' Tel Aviv, Hashaot, 1944
*''Knight of Onions and Knight of Garlic'' New York, Jordan, 1939
*''Random Harvest – The Novellas of C. N. Bialik'', Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press (Perseus Books), 1999
*''[[The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself]]'' (2003), {{ISBN|0-8143-2485-1}}
*''Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nahman Bialik'', Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2000
*''Selected Poems: Bilingual Edition'', (translated by Ruth Nevo), Jerusalem: Dvir, 1981.

==Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last1=Holtzman |first1=Avner |title=Hayim Nahman Bialik : poet of Hebrew |date=2017 |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0300200669}}
* Tamar Rotem, [https://www.zivashamir.com/post/the-flower-is-forgot "''The Flower is Forgot'': the life and works of national poet ''Hayyim Nahman Bialik'' are not taught properly"], [[Haaretz]] Newspaper ,17/07/2001 
* [[:he:זיוה שמיר|Ziva Shamir]], [https://www.zivashamir.com/post/%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%97%D7%A8-%D7%95%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%93%D7%93-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%93%D7%93#viewer-d6ei2 "''Spiritual Merchant & Motionless Wanderer'': Dramatis Personae and Speaking Voice in Bialik's Works"],"Bikort & Parshanut" Magazin 2002 
* [[:he:זיוה שמיר|Ziva Shamir]], "''[https://www.zivashamir.com/post/a-thousand-mouths-anointed-with-poison-the-anatomy-of-modern-anti-semitism-in-bialik-s-oeuvre A Thousand Mouths Anointed With Poison: The Anatomy of Modern Anti-semitism in Bialik's Oeuvre"]'', "KESHER" Journal #33, Spring 2003.
* [[:he:זיוה שמיר|Ziva Shamir]], [https://www.zivashamir.com/post/no-story-no-history "No story, no history"], Bialik's Stories from Texture to Context (Lecture circa 1998), [https://www.zivashamir.com www.zivashamir.com]

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Hayim Nahman Bialik}}
* {{Librivox author |id=8204}}
* {{Books and Writers |id=bialik |name=Hayim Nahman Bialik}}
* [http://www.shapell.org/Collection/Jewish-Figures/Bialik-Nahum Hayim Nahman Bialik Personal Manuscripts and Letters]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bialik, Hayim Nahman}}
[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Zhytomyr Oblast]]
[[Category:People from Zhitomirsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian writers]]
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Modern Hebrew writers]]
[[Category:Hebrew-language poets]]
[[Category:Ukrainian folklorists]]
[[Category:Ukrainian Zionists]]
[[Category:Jewish folklorists]]
[[Category:German emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Jewish writers]]
[[Category:Kishinev pogrom]]
[[Category:Hovevei Zion]]
[[Category:Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery]]
[[Category:Yiddish-language poets]]
[[Category:Volozhin Yeshiva alumni]]
[[Category:Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah]]