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ar-am, micha
the Center Party, Natan *Sharansky’s Yisrael be-Aliyah, and
the *National Religious Party.
Barak fulfilled his election promise to take the IDF out of
Southern Lebanon within a year of being elected prime minister.
However, his attempts to reach a permanent settlement
with Syria failed. Despite his willingness to make far-reaching
concessions to the Palestinians, talks held with Yasir *Arafat
under the auspices of President Bill Clinton in Camp David
in July 2000 failed, and the second intifada broke out in the
beginning of October. However, as a result of his willingness
to reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of
far-reaching territorial concessions, Shas, the NRP, and Yisrael
be-Aliyah left the government. Consequently Barak resigned
and new elections for the premiership were held in February
2001, with Barak suffering a crushing defeat by Ariel *Sharon.
After considering the possibility of joining Sharon’s new government,
Barak resigned from leadership of the Labor Party
and his Knesset seat, deciding to take time out from political
activity. In the beginning of 2004 he indicated that he was
planning to make a political comeback towards the elections
to the Seventeenth Knesset.
Bibliography: B. Kaspit, Barak: Ḥayal Mispar 1 (“Ehud
Barak: Soldier Number 1,” 1998); I. Kfir, Barak: Ha-Biyographiah
(“Barak: the Biography,” 1999); G. Sher, Be-Merḥak Negi’ah: Ha-Masa
u-Matan le-Shalom, 1999–2001, Edut (“Touching Distance: the Negotiations
for Peace, 1999–2001: Evidence,” 2001); R. Edelist, Ehud
Barak: Milḥamto be-Shedim: Ma Kara le-Barak? (“Ehud Barak: His
War Against Devils: What Happened to Barak?” 2003); R. Drucker,
Harakiri: Ehud Barak be-Mivḥan ha-Totza`ah (“Harakiri: Ehud Barak
in the Test of Time,” 2002).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
BAR-AM, MICHA (1930– ), Israeli photographer. Born
in Berlin, Bar-Am immigrated with his parents to Palestine
in 1936. He joined the Haganah and the Palmaḥ, and after
the War of Independence became a member of kibbutz Malkiyyah
and later of kibbutz Gesher ha-Ziv. Bar-Am began
his photographic work with the 1954 archeological expedition
to the Judean Desert led by Yigael *Yadin. His next large
photographic venture, during the Suez Campaign in 1956,
led to his first book of photographs, Across Sinai. This was followed
by a nine-year engagement as staff photographer with
the Israel army weekly Ba-Maḥaneh. In 1967 Bar-Am covered
the Six-Day War with Cornell *Capa, and later was associated
with the prestigious Magnum Agency. From 1968 he was a
regular contributor to the New York Times. In 1974 Bar-Am
embarked on a new phase of work in photography as curator
and photo-historian, first at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem,
and from 1977 until 1992 with the Tel Aviv Art Museum,
where he staunchly promoted Israeli photography. He also
established the first photography department at the Israeli
Museum. His works are exhibited in various museums, such
as the Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum, and Museum of
Modern Art in New York. In 2003 he was awarded the Israel
Prize.
Perhaps Israel’s most prominent contemporary photographer,
Bar-Am had his pictures praised for values that extended
beyond reportage and photojournalism into the world of esthetic
journalism. According to one critic, “Bar-Am’s bromides
transcend the realistic aspect of photography by wrapping the
event into a comprehensive esthetic package.” Another point
of synthesis in Bar-Am’s work was related to the particular
conditions of his work and existence. The New York Times
called him “a deeply committed Israeli and a fiercely independent
journalist.” Bar-Am expressed concern about being
pigeonholed as a “combat photographer,” being deeply interested
in human beings and their behavior. He sought to take
photographs that contain all the information related to a certain
event but that are also elevated above the event.
Bar-Am was a brilliant student of world photography
and succeeded in assimilating its achievements despite his
lack of formal photographic education. He created his own
unmistakably recognizable personal style. This transmits a
strong sense of directness, an intuition for immediacy as well
as for formal compositional qualities. His pictures prove that
in photography a work of art maintains it umbilical link to its
original context.
[Yeshayahu Nir]
BARAM, MOSHE (1911–1986), Israeli politician. Baram
was born in Zdolbunov in Russia. As a boy, he joined the
*He-Ḥalutz and the Freiheit Dror movement connected to
*Po’alei Zion, and immigrated to Palestine in 1931, settling
in Jerusalem. Baram was employed as a construction worker
and was active in the *Histadrut and the *Haganah. In 1934 he
started to work in the *Jewish Agency and in 1938 became a
member of the Secretariat of the *Mapai branch in Jerusalem,
becoming secretary in 1943. In 1944 he was a delegate to the
Fourth Elected Assembly of the Yishuv. During the War of Independence
he was a member of the Emergency Commission
and of Haganah Headquarters in Jerusalem. In 1948 he was
appointed secretary-general of the Jerusalem Labor Council
and in 1955 was elected to the Jerusalem Municipal Council,
serving as chairman of the coalition executive. Baram was
first elected to the Fourth Knesset in 1959 and was appointed
chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee. In
the Sixth Knesset he served as chairman of the Coalition Executive,
chairman of the Unemployment Insurance Commission,
and head of the Jerusalem branch of the Labor Party. In
1974 Baram was appointed minister of labor in Rabin’s first
government, holding this position until the elections in May
1977. In the government he chaired the Ministerial Committee
on Wages and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Employment.
In 1975, despite Histadrut opposition, he introduced
the Work Sanctions Bill.
Moshe Baram’s eldest son, Uzi *Baram, was a member of
the Ninth to Fifteenth Knessets for the Israel Labor Party.
Bibliography: O. Betzer (ed.), Moshe Baram: 1911–1986
(1987).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
132 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3