Israeli author David Grosman won the Erasmus Prize
The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world.[1] It is one of Europe's most distinguished recognitions.[2] The prize is named after Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch Renaissance humanist.
Revered Israeli author David Grossman was awarded the 2022 Erasmus Prize for his efforts to mend a torn world, the theme of this year’s prize. The 150,000 euro ($165,000) prize, created by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation of the Netherlands, is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the humanities or the arts.
The foundation said that Grossman seeks to understand people from within through his writings, and to regard the other with love, across borders of war and history.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/author-david-grossman-wins-erasmus-prize-from-the-netherlands
This is his acceptance speech
The Thinking Heart
Your majesties, your royal highness, your excellencies, my dear friends, my beloved family, ladies and gentleman:
Sixty-one years ago, when I was an eight-year-old boy, I had a small revelation. It happened on the number 18 bus, in Jerusalem, while I was on my way to school early one morning. The radio was on, and they were broadcasting an interview with the pianist Arthur Rubinstein. The interviewer asked: “Mr. Rubinstein, on the occasion of your 75th birthday, could you sum up your life in one sentence?” Without hesitation, Rubinstein replied, “Art has made me a happy man. Thanks to art, I have known happiness.”
I remember being amazed and even a little embarrassed: in the 1950s, with the heavy shadow of the past still hovering above us, the word ‘happy’ was not something you were supposed to say in public. I don’t think I knew a single person – among my parents’ circles of friends – who would have dared to claim, out loud, that he or she was happy. The passengers on the bus that day, weary people who lived in my working class neighborhood, certainly did not share the Americans’ right to “the pursuit of happiness,” which I would read about years later in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
That incredible word, happiness (in Hebrew: osher) rolled down the bus like a gold coin, and I – with a child’s eyes – looked at the imaginary coin and I knew: I want this thing Mr. Rubinstein speaks of. I want that special happiness. I want to be an artist.
(snip)
I am an absolutely secular man. I cannot believe in a God who would help me face the chaos of existence. And yet, writing has shown me the way – I’ll call it the secular way – to have a horrifying sense of nothingness, of diving into loss and the total negation of life, while simultaneously experiencing a keen sense of vitality, of the fullness and positivity of life. Even after the tragedy that struck my family when we lost our son, Uri, in the war, I learned that what allows me to withstand this duality of absence and presence – which to me is the essence of human existence – is to be immersed in the act of creation, of art.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends: the theme of the Erasmus Prize this year is “Mending a Torn World.” This term originates in an ancient Jewish notion conceived over 2,000 years ago. I do not know whether Erasmus of Rotterdam knew of it, but there is no doubt that the concept guided his way of life and mode of thinking.“Mending the World” (in Hebrew: tikkun olam) describes a fundamental component of Jewish identity: an aspiration and obligation to improve our world; a sense of moral responsibility toward all people, whether Jewish or not; and a concern for social justice and even the environment.
More.. worth every word
https://erasmusprijs.org/en/laureates/david-grossman/acceptance-speech/