| Hanna Zemer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hanna Haberfeld 1925 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia |
| Died | June 3, 2003 Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Other names | Hanna Zomer |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | Davar |
| Title | Editor-in-Chief |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Awards |
|
Hanna Zemer (née Haberfeld; also "Zomer"; Hebrew: חנה זמר, 1925 – March 6, 2003) was an Israeli journalist.[1][2][3]
Born in Bratislava, she was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and the Malchow concentration camp during the Holocaust, and emigrated to Israel in 1950. She was Editor-in-Chief of Davar from 1970 until 1990, the first female editor-in-chief of a major Israeli newspaper.[4]
Zemer, who was Jewish, was born in Bratislava in Czechoslovakia (today Slovakia).[1][5] Her family was ultra-Orthodox.[1] Her father was Rabbi Shlomo Haberfeld, and her grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Haberfeld, was the rabbi of Turá Lúka.[1]
During World War II, she was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück and Malchow concentration camps.[5] Most of her family was killed in the Holocaust.[5]
Years later, she wrote a book entitled God Doesn't Live Here Anymore, in which she reminisced about her return visit to the Ravensbrück concentration camp:
On my travels abroad, and especially my trips to Germany, I am very careful not to eat treif. It’s a sort of demonstration of solidarity. But here at the doorway, at Ravensbrück, I would have eaten pork if I could have eaten at all. I would have eaten steak with cheese to take revenge on God for the deaths of my aunts and cousins, who counted the days of their niddah time according to the law, separated hallah from the dough, ran to the dayyan with questions about a spot on a slaughtered goose, and read from the Ze’enah U-Re’enah every free moment—and their reward was to be humiliated to the dust and tortured until they perished. Five minutes from Ravensbrück, I would even have eaten a baby goat cooked in its mother’s milk. Instead, I took a Valium.[1]
In 1950 Zemer emigrated to Israel .[5] She was married briefly, and changed her married name from Zomer to Zemer.[1] She taught in the ultra-Orthodox Beth Jacob school system in Azor, in the south-east of Tel Aviv.[1]
Zemer became a major journalist, and radio and television personality.[5]
In addition to teaching, she concurrently worked as a night editor for a German-language Israeli newspaper, Yediot HaYom. In 1951 she was hired as a correspondent by the daily newspaper Omer, for new immigrants (with Hebrew vowels), which was a supplement of Davar. She then became a writer for Davar, and became its political affairs correspondent.[1]
In 1961, she became director of Davar’s editorial board. Over time, she became a radio and television host. She advanced to become Davar’s assistant editor, and in 1970 became its Editor-in-Chief, which at the time was the most senior position held by a woman in Israeli media. At the newspaper, she changed its design, advanced young reporters, and created a new spirit in its writing. She remained as Editor-in-Chief for 20 years—the first female to hold the editor-in-chief title at a Hebrew newspaper.[1] Zemer retired from Davar in 1990.[6][7][8][9]
Zemer also published books, wrote for the Encyclopaedia Judaica, and was elected to the board of the International Institute of Journalism.[1]
For her reporting, Zemer won the 1972 Sokolow Award (awarded by Tel Aviv University), the title of 1975 Israeli Woman of the Year, the Herzl Award, the Nordau Prize, the Ted Lurie Prize, B'nai B'rith's 1993 Wolf Matsdorf Award for journalism, the Hadassah Women's Organization's award for outstanding women.[1][5][10]
In 2005, Zemer was voted the 189th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.[11]