ELON, AMOS

ELON, AMOS (1926– ), Israeli journalist and author. Born in Vienna, Elon came to Israel as a young child. He began his career as a journalist for Ba-Maḥaneh and in 1948 published his first book, Yerushalayim Lo Naflah ("Jerusalem Did Not Fall"). From 1954 he was associated with Ha'aretz and from 1961 was a member of the editorial board. He served as foreign correspondent in New York, Washington, Paris, Bonn, and Eastern Europe. His book A Journey through a Haunted Land (1967), a reportage on the new Germany, was highly praised. His bestselling The Israelis: Founders and Sons (1971) was heralded by Newsweek magazine as "the most illuminating, even-handed, candid appraisal of the Jewish condition yet to appear," and his biography Herzl (1975) was also widely acclaimed. Herzl was later made into a Broadway play by dore schary in collaboration with Elon. His other books include Between Enemies (1974), a dialogue with Egyptian Sana Hassan; the novel Timetable (1980); Flight into Egypt (1981); Founder: Meyer Amschel Rothschild and His Time (1996); and The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the   German-Jewish Epoch, 1743 – 1933 (2002). His works have appeared in English, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese.