Avital Inbar


Avital Inbar is an Israeli author, translator, journalist, and restaurant critic.

Biography

Avital Inbar was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. His parents, Mordechai Burstein, a native of the Kiev region and Rachel Shilensky, born in Kaunas, Lithuania, were intellectuals and polyglots. They spent much of their lives in France and were imbued in its culture.
From the age of 13 to 26 he lived in France, including two years in Marseille, where he learned French, and two years in what was at the time French Algeria, which was in the midst of a war of independence. These intense, unmediated impressions still affect his perspective of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict and internal Israeli divisions.
In Paris, he graduated high school at the Alliance Gymnasium, where he studied philosophy from the famous Emmanuel Levinas. He then earned his degree at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences.
On his return to Israel in 1970, he served as a foreign correspondent for French media, among others, for the daily Combat, founded by Albert Camus.
Since 1976, Inbar has focused on literary translation and he translated into Hebrew several major works of French literature, as well as some English titles. He traveled frequently to Paris to meet with publishers and writers and to choose titles for translation for Israeli publishers. He became friends with leading French figures, such as Marguerite Duras and Yves Montand. Altogether, Inbar has translated some 120 titles.
In 1995, together with the French-Israeli businessman Jean Frydman, he founded the Yonatan Guides Ltd, which received a franchise from the French restaurant and hotel guide Gault Millau to produce a similar guide in Israel.
Since 1997, Inbar wrote nine experiential, hedonistic, travel books dedicated to France and its regions.
He also wrote Parisian Pictures, devoted mainly to his encounters with writers and artists in France and the complex relations between France, Israel and the Jews.
Since 2018 he has been focusing on Japanese Cuisine and in 2019 published Gourmand in Tokyo, dedicated to Japanese gastronomy.

Awards

For his literary work and the dissemination of French culture in Israel, he received two decorations from the French government ‒ officer in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and officer in the Ordre des Palmes académiques.
In July 2019, Inbar was conferred French citizenship, for his contribution to the influence of France and the prosperity of international economic relations.

Published work

Books published in Hebrew

Gault Millau Guide, Israel restaurant guides 1996–2003, Yonatan Guides Publisher, Tel AvivThe Pleasures of France, A. Nir & Modan Publishers, Tel Aviv, 1997, 410 pagesThe Pleasures of Provence, A. Nir & Avital Inbar, Tel Aviv, 2000, 448 pagesThe Pleasures of Paris, Babel, Tel Aviv, 2003, Keter, Jerusalem, 2005, 435 pagesThe Pleasures of South-Western France, Keter, Jerusalem, 2005, 316 pagesThe Pleasures of Bordeaux Wines, Keter, Jerusalem, 2005, 244 pagesGoose à la mode of Ashkenaze, recollections of Alsace, 2011, 192 pagesParisian Images, digital, Mendele electronic books ltd, 2015Alsace – Wine, Food, Culture and Jewish Heritage, Shteinhart-Sharav, 2015. 208 pages
  • , Shteinhart-Sharav, 2017, 256 pagesThe 50 Pleasures of Provence, digital, Mendele electronic books Ltd, 2017
  • ,, digital, Mendele electronic books Ltd, 2019.
Avital Inbar's work has been an inspiration to the book 50 Michelin Stars by Tzalak, published in Israel in 2017. The author interviewed Inbar and used insights and relative information given by him, based on his vast experience in the French culinary scene.

Translations

From English

Reviews

  • Benny Zipper, on "Les Croix de bois", Haaretz, September 6, 1985.
  • Yoram Bronowski, "The Wonder Child of the Enlightenment", Haaretz, November 23, 1980.
  • Kriel Gardosh, "The Gauls Are Coming", Maariv, March 7, 1980.
  • Hedda Bushes, "Pictures of Despair", "Reading Glasses", Haaretz, May 6, 1986.
  • Mordechai Avishai, "Women, Finance, Politics", Maariv, December 21, 1984
  • Shlomo Papirblatt, "The Lover, My Body, My Head", Yedioth Ahronoth, 1986.
  • Michael Handelszalz, "Under the French Flag", Haaretz, July 28, 1987.
  • Haim Pesach, "My Beloved Indo-China", at Camp, June 11, 1986.
  • Yaron London, "The Price of Sin", December 7, 1982.
  • Giselle Spiro, "A Village in Mid-Paris", Haaretz Books, 1987.
  • Tamar Golan, "The Pain of the Other - Tolerable", Haaretz Books, June 15, 2006.
  • Lena Shiloni, "How to Succeed in the Press", Haaretz, May 29, 2008.
  • Oded Sverdlik, "A Tragic Meeting of Two Worlds", 1986.
  • Boaz Applebaum, "a memory thing".
  • Meir Schnitzer, "Blooming with a Head".
  • Shlomo Papirblat, "Jewish Words in French", Yedioth Ahronoth.
  • Mordechai Avishai, "Jewish Heroes between Realia and Grotesque", Maariv, 1983.
  • Dina Pladot, "Everything is written in the dictionary", Maariv.
  • Amira Segev, "A translator with royalties", Hasashoth, June 8, 1988.
  • Hannah Kim, "The French Connection - Five Israeli Creators Received the Order of Arts and Literature This Week", Culture and Literature, Yedioth Ahronoth.
  • Dalia Karpel, "No to Marcel Proust", Hair, December 13, 1985.
  • Ehud Ben Ezer, "The translator is the t Sucker of the Hebrew Book Industry - Conversation with Avital Inbar", Globes, February 10, 1989.