| Noam Dovev | |
| Native Name: | נעם דובב |
| Native Name Lang: | he |
| Birth Date: | 23 May 1974 |
| Birth Place: | Israel |
| Spouse: | Naama Shraiber |
Noam Dovev (; born May 23, 1974)[1] is an Israeli palindrome author, poet, short story writer, and former Wikipedian. He is the holder of several records in the field of creating palindromes in Hebrew:[2] the four longest palindromes, headed by "One? No one, no" ;[3] The only two books of palindromic poetry so far, Word Row and Not on ; and the biggest palindromic magic square.[4] He lectures on palindromes, writing under constraints and word games in jumbles.
Dovev served in the IDF as head of the information security team in a technology unit, and since 1999 has been involved in information security as a consultant and manager.
Dovev writes songs and stories based on tongue twisters.[5] He generally focuses on writing with constraints (such as anagrams) and in particular on palindromes which are sometimes combined with additional constraints. He also composed palindromes by words.[6]
In 2011 he created the biggest palindromic magic square in Hebrew of order 6, larger than the famous magic square of order 5 composed by Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra in the 12th century.
Dovev writes palindromic short stories.[7] He broke the record for the longest palindrome in Hebrew five times, and in all the records he set below are the numbers of palindromic words and letters:
The last four palindromes in the list above are the four longest palindromes in Hebrew.[12]
In early 2020 Dovev published his first book, Word row in Gnat Micropress, which is the first book of palindromic poetry in Hebrew. The names of the book in Hebrew, in English and in Arabic ("كلمة ملك") are also palindromic. On top of that, all the songs, titles, cover names and chapters in the book are palindromic, and even the numbers of the chapters, pages and songs are palindromic. The book was launched on the palindromic date 02.02.2020 (February 2, 2020), at 20:02. The book contains, among other things, a palindromic haiku poem and a 666-word rhyming poem, based on the longest palindrome in Hebrew (as of that time). Later in the year, he participated in the Jerusalem Poetry Festival on behalf of "A Place for Poetry", where he read a selection of the poems from the book.
In early 2022, his book of poems Not on was published by Gnat Micropress.[13] The book deals with the separation from his younger brother, Oz Keret-Dovev, who died of cancer. The book was launched on the palindrome date 22.02.2022 (February 22, 2022) at 20:02. Ido Nitzan from the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom wrote: "Noam Dovev's book of poems, which includes only palindromic poems, fails to rise above the linguistic gimmick... Sometimes the rigid framework of the book undercuts the emotion of grief, and makes the poetry artificial and the reading experience purely playful and technical... Also, in some of the poems in the book, the palindromic constraint creates a mixture of sloppy and partial syntax and of uneven language combinations, whose reward is their loss. For example, in the poem that closes the book, which looks more like an automatic message from a computer program than like a poem ... the creaking combination of the verb "feels" with the everyday slang "feels bad" creates a linguistic monster, which partially rhymes: "feels bad / without sweat", which cannot seriously convey a sense of loss... However, some of the poems in the book are beautiful and very moving."
Dovev composed palindromic sentences. He composed a bilingual palindrome, which has the same meaning in Hebrew and English: "Go, dog" . He also wrote palindromic sentences in English. Other examples of short palindromic sentences he composed: "If Av hadn't come, would Elul come?", "The inocence, is in my opinion, dead" ; "There is a queue, but is there a service?!" ; "Soon the science shone." .[14]
Dovev also published palindromic sentences, the two halves of each of which are a pangram.
Dovev is married to Naama Shraiber, a cook who is engaged in rehabilitative cooking instruction, and they live in Petah Tikva.