Dear Mat: Was Mein Kampf ever translated to Hebrew? — Ron, the Net

Yes, in part. Adolf Hitler’s 1924 autobiography cum racial hatefest and world-domination plan was in about a dozen languages by 1937. After the founding of the state of Israel and the revival of the Hebrew language, there’s been no specific ban on the book there, but it’s been considered so distasteful that only brief passages in the context of other books had been published. In the late 1980s, a retired Israeli teacher who lost both his parents to the Holocaust began a Hebrew translation of selected chapters, believing it was necessary if students were to fully understand that part of history. He published a 120-page pamphlet in 1992.

After being rejected by a dozen publishers, he finally released 400 copies of his 650-page translation (about one-fifth of the original book) in 1995. An Israeli academic press printed it, and it’s sold only in the bookstore of Hebrew University. The finance minister of the German state of Bavaria holds the copyright to Mein Kampf (My Struggle), the book is banned in Germany, and any new editions are discouraged. He reluctantly agreed to the abridged, limited-copy Hebrew translation. The retired teacher is not the most popular man in Israel.