Rabbi Akiva and Zev Bacher in the Trenches: Language, Identity, and War in Avigdor Hameiri's The Great Madness

Much of the prose literature of the Great War was written by men who took part in it; it often takes the form of docu-novels. Only one example of this genre exists in Hebrew—Avigdor Hameiri's war novels. His books are unique in offering the Hebrew-reading public in the 1930s an eyewitness report of life at the front. The author's biography and his decision to compose his war narrative in Hebrew highlight the predicament of the Jewish soldiers caught up in the events. Hameiri's novel The Great Madness was the first bestseller published in pre-state Israel and below I explore the reasons for this success.