Biography

Yehoshua Kenaz (Hebrew: יהושע קנז) (2 March 1937 – 12 October 2020) was an Israeli novelist who studied at the Hebrew University and at the Sorbonne. Kenaz is best known for his novel Infiltration, published in 1986. Yehoshua Glass (later Kenaz) was born in Petah Tikva, in the British Mandate of Palestine, in 1937. During the Second World War, his father worked for the British Army, and for a while the family moved to Haifa. He learned to play the violin. His brother Hilik was born when he was thirteen. He was drafted to the Israel Defense Forces and was sent to a basic training camp for physically unfit soldiers. He then served in the Israeli Intelligence Corps. He changed his last name to Kenaz, after Othniel Ben Kenaz, a Biblical name with a similar sound.He studied Philosophy and Romance languages at the Hebrew University, and French literature at the Sorbonne. He wrote his first story in Paris and sent it to Aharon Amir's Keshet journal under the name of Avi Otniel (literally "father of Othniel"). He became famous in Israel in 1986 when his novel Infiltration became a best seller.Kenaz died on 12 October 2020, in Petah Tikva, after a COVID-19 infection. He was 83.