One of the central figures in modern Hebrew fiction, Shmuel Yosef Agnon was Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1966. In 1907 he left his childhood home in eastern Galicia, settling in Palestine where (except for a stay in Germany from 1913 to 1924) he remained until his death.

Using language and storytelling techniques drawn from Jewish religious texts and folk literature, Agnon's works deal with major contemporary spiritual concerns: the disintegration of traditional world of Galician Jewry at the turn of the 20th century, the loss of faith, and the subsequent loss of identity. In addition to his fictional work, Agnon published popular collections of rabbinic lore and hasidic tales, among them Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe).