Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

July 9, 2026

Shakespeare in Hebrew

From “Ithiel the Cushite” to “Ram and Jael.”

In the 18th and 19th centuries, poets like Friedrich Schiller in Germany and Adam Mickiewicz in Poland began wondering why their own cultures had not produced a literary figure of the stature of William Shakespeare. It was no coincidence that around this time the poet-playwright’s works began appearing in numerous languages; both Schiller (with more success) and Mickiewicz (with less) attempted translations of their own. Hebrew was not far behind, as Ilana Kurshan writes:

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