Chaim Bermant Explained

Chaim Icyk Bermant
Birth Date:	26 February 1929
Birth Place:	Braslaw, then in Poland, now in Belarus
Death Place:	Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, England

Chaim Icyk Bermant (26 February 192920 January 1998) was a British-based journalist, and author. Born in Braslaw, Poland, he spent much of his childhood in Barovke, Latvia, and Scotland. He was educated at Queen's Park Secondary School in Glasgow, Glasgow University, where he graduated in economics, and the London School of Economics.

He contributed regularly to The Jewish Chronicle and occasionally to the national press, particularly The Observer. An Orthodox Jew and supporter of Israel, he was freely critical of both. He wrote several novels and non-fiction works, mostly on the quirks of British Jewish society.

Biography

Chaim Icyk Bermant was born on 26 February 1929 in Braslaw, then in Poland but now in Belarus.^[1] His father was a Rabbi.^[2]

Bermant studied at the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics.^[3]

Bermant married Judith Rose Weil on 16 December 1962 at Adath Israel Synagogue in Stoke Newington, London. Together they had four children: Aliza, Evie, Azriel and Daniel Bermant.

Bermant died on 20 January 1998 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London from a myocardial infarction.

Works

Fiction

• Jericho Sleep Alone (1964)
• Ben Preserve Us (1965)
• Berl Make Tea (1965)
• Diary Of An Old Man (1966)
• Swinging In The Rain (1967)
• Here Endeth The Lesson (1969)
• Now Dowager (1971)
• Roses are Blooming in Picardy (1972)
• The Last Supper (1973)
• The Walled Garden (1975)
• The Second Mrs Whitberg (1976)
• The Squire Of Bor Shachor (1977)
• Now Newman Was Old (1978)
• Belshazzar (1979)
• The Patriarch (1981)
• House Of Women (1983)
• Dancing Bear (1984)
• The Companion (1987)
• Titch (1987)

Non-fiction

• Israel (1967) "New Nations and Peoples Library" series
• Troubled Eden: An Anatomy of British Jewry (1969)
• The Cousinhood: The Anglo-Jewish Gentry (1971)
• Point of Arrival: A Study of London's East End (1975)
• The Jews (1977)
• Ebla: An Archaeological Enigma (1979) co-authored with Michael Weitzman
• On The Other Hand (1982)
• What's the Joke: A Study of Jewish Humour through the Ages (1986)
• Lord Jakobovits: An Authorized Biography of the Chief Rabbi (1990)
• Murmurings of A Licensed Heretic (1990)

Autobiography

• Coming Home (1976)
• Genesis: A Latvian Childhood (1998)

External links

• Bermant family web space
• Chaim Bermant at the Internet Archive.

Notes and References

1. 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.69301. Bermant, Chaim Icyk.
2. News: Teller. Neville. 23 April 2020. The wit and wisdom of Chaim Bermant, the Jewish Chronicle's crown jewel. The Jerusalem Post. 16 October 2021. 15 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201115053135/https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-chaim-bermant-the-jewish-chronicles-crown-jewel-625582. live.
3. News: Jacobs. Gerald. 22 October 2011. Obituary: Chaim Bermant. The Independent. 16 October 2021. 0951-9467. 8 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191208113110/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-chaim-bermant-1140582.html. live.