Hillel Halkin (Hebrew:הלל הלקין; born 1939) is anAmerican-bornIsraelitranslator, biographer,literary critic, andnovelist who has lived inIsrael since 1970.

Hillel Halkin was born inNew York City two months before the outbreak ofWorld War II. He was the son ofAbraham S. Halkin, then aprofessor ofJewish literature,history, andculture at theJewish Theological Seminary of America,^[1] and his wife Shulamit, a daughter ofRabbiMeir Bar-Ilan.^[2] In 1970, he madealiyah to Israel and settled inZikhron Ya'akov. He studiedEnglish literature atColumbia University.^[3]

Halkin is married to Marcia and is the father of two daughters.^[4]

Halkin translatesHebrew andYiddish literature intoEnglish. He has translatedSholem Aleichem'sTevye the Dairyman, and majorHebrew and Israeli novelists, among themYosef Haim Brenner,S. Y. Agnon,Shulamith Hareven,A. B. Yehoshua,Amos Oz, andMeir Shalev.

Halkin won aNational Jewish Book Award in 1978 for his first original bookLetters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist's Polemic (1977).^[5] He expressed whyAmerican Jews should immigrate to Israel.^[3]

Halkin's second book,Across the Sabbath River (2002), is a work oftravel literature in which he goes in search of the truth behind the mystery of theTen Lost Tribes. He became increasingly interested in theBnei Menashe—who began to immigrate to Israel fromIndia in the late 20th century—and helped to arrangeDNA testing for the group in 2003 inHaifa.^[6] Since then, he has writtenA Strange Death: a novel based on the local history ofZikhron Ya'akov, where he resides. His intellectual biography ofYehuda Halevi won a 2010 National Jewish Book Award.^[7][8]

In 2012, Halkin published his first novel,Melisande! What Are Dreams? The criticD. G. Myers described it as a "unique and moving study of marriage, a love letter to conjugal love."^[9]

In 2014, Halkin published a new biography ofVladimir Jabotinsky.

Halkin writes frequently on Israel andJewish culture andpolitics. His articles have been published inCommentary,The New Republic,The Jerusalem Post, and other publications. He is a member of theeditorial board of theJewish Review of Books.

Halkin is the author of thePhilologos column, originally inThe Forward, and later inMosaic. The American literary critic,Edward Alexander, identified him as the author of the column. Mira Sucharov ofCanadian Jewish News claimed that "Philologos" is Halkin'spseudonym.^[10][11] Halkin later admitted to being the author.^[12]

• Halkin, Hillel (1977).Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist's Polemic.Philadelphia:Jewish Publication Society.ISBN 978-0-8276-0207-6.
• Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel. New York:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2002.ISBN 978-0-618-02998-3.
• A Strange Death.New Milford, Connecticut:Toby Press. 2010.ISBN 978-1-59264-280-9.
• Yehuda Halevi. New York:Nextbook/Schocken Books. 2010.ISBN 978-0-8052-4206-5.
• Melisande! What Are Dreams?.London:Granta. 2012.ISBN 978-1-84708-499-6.
• Jabotinsky: a life. Jewish Lives.New Haven, Connecticut:Yale University Press. 2014.ISBN 978-0-30013-662-3.

• Geulah Cohen (1966).Woman of Violence: Memoirs of a Young Terrorist, 1943–1948. New York:Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Yosef Haim Brenner (1971).Breakdown and Bereavement.Ithaca, New York:Cornell University Press.
• Mordecai Ze'ev Feuerberg (1973).Whither? and Other Stories. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
• Leah Goldberg (1973).Russian Literature in the Nineteenth Century.Jerusalem: Magnes Press,Hebrew University.
• Shulamith Hareven (1977).City of Many Days.Garden City, New York:Doubleday.
• Hanokh Bartov (1978).Whose Little Boy Are You? Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
• Amos Oz (1985).A Perfect Peace.San Diego:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Sholem Aleichem (1987).Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories. New York: Schocken Books.
• Tamar Bergman (1988).The Boy from Over There.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Shulamith Hareven (1988).The Miracle Hater.San Francisco: North Point Press.
• Meir Shalev (1991).The Blue Mountain. New York:HarperCollins.
• A. B. Yehoshua (1992).Mr. Mani. New York: Doubleday.
• Uri Orlev (1993).Lydia, Queen of Palestine. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Uri Orlev (1995).The Lady with the Hat. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Uri Orlev (1995).The Man from the Other Side. New York:Puffin Books.
• Nava Semel (1995).Flying Lessons. New York:Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
• Shulamith Hareven (1996).Thirst: The Desert Trilogy. San Francisco:Mercury House.
• Roman Frister (1999).The Cap: The Price of a Life. New York:Grove Press.
• S. Y. Agnon (2000).A Simple Story.Syracuse, New York:Syracuse University Press.
• Samuel HaNagid (2000).Grand Things to Write a Poem On: A Verse Autobiography. Jerusalem:Gefen Publishing House.
• Haim Sabato (2003).Adjusting Sights. New Milford, Connecticut: Toby Press.
• Uri Orlev (2003).Run, Boy, Run. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• A. B. Yehoshua (2003).The Liberated Bride.Orlando, Florida:Harcourt.
• Haim Be'er (2004).Feathers.Waltham, Massachusetts:Brandeis University Press.
• A. B. Yehoshua (2004).Five Seasons. Orlando: Harcourt.
• A. B. Yehoshua (2006).A Woman in Jerusalem. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt.
• S. Y. Agnon (2009).To This Day. New Milford, Connecticut: Toby Press.
• Uri Orlev (2010).The Song of the Whales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.

• Halkin’s articles inThe New York Sun
• Halkin’s essays atJewish Ideas Daily
• Hillel Halkin, "Endless Devotion" (a review of theKoren Sacks Siddur, Hebrew/Englishprayer book),Jewish Review of Books 1 (Spring 2010).

• Living people
• 21st-century American novelists
• American columnists
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• American emigrants to Israel
• Israeli Ashkenazi Jews
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• 1939 births
• 21st-century American Jews

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