FISCH, HAROLD

FISCH, HAROLD (Aharon Harel Fisch; 1923– ), author and critic. Fisch was born in Birmingham, England, where his father was rabbi. He studied at the University of Sheffield and at Oxford and in 1947 was appointed lecturer in English at Leeds University. In 1957, he immigrated to Israel, where he was appointed associate professor of English Literature and head of the English department at Bar-Ilan University. He became full professor in 1964 and served as rector of the university from 1968 to 1971. He served as the Encyclopaedia Judaica departmental editor for English literature. His publications include The Dual Image: The Figure of the Jew in English and American Literature (1959, 19712), Jerusalem and Albion: the Hebraic Factor in Seventeenth-Century Literature (1964), Hamlet and the Word: The Covenant Pattern in Shakespeare (1971), S.Y. Agnon (1975), and The Zionist Revolution (1978). He has also translated a number of works, including the Jerusalem Bible (1969). Fisch has been prominent in the Land of Israel Movement (Ha-Tenu'ah le-Ma'an Ereẓ Israel ha-Shelemah\>\> ). In 1971, he founded the Institute for Judaism and Contemporary Thought, of which he is chairman. This institute holds an international colloquium each year and conducts study groups on aspects of contemporary Jewish experience.