Akiva Zimmerman was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv. He attended the Shalva Gymnasium, enlisted in the Intelligence Corps. He would also serve in the military rabbinate. Akiva Zimmerman worked as a bank employee, while devoting all his spare time to the study of chazanut.
Zimmerman grew up in Tel Aviv, a city where chazanut flourished at that time. From a young age, Zimmerman was interested in the world of chazanut but he was never a cantor himself. Over the years, he developed a close relationship with the great cantors in Tel Aviv and around the world. He is considered a world-leading expert in the field of chazanut. He published articles in this field on a variety of platforms, issues, and various collections, and even publishing his own books on the subject. He also wrote about the great figures in the world of chazanut in a dozen of his works. The variety of aspects in the world of chazanut presented in his research and essays are prayer melodies and piyyutim, cantors, history of chazanut, chazanut in halakhic literature, and more.
Zimmerman had an unconventional and multidisciplinary character who combined Torah and secular education. Most of his world was the world of chazanut, but he also immersed himself in the world of Hebrew books and Hebrew culture at its best. He was well versed in literature and the press and a great scholar of all Jewish and Israeli beings. He knew many of Israel's leaders personally, particularly regarding their relationship to Jewish tradition and beliefs. Zimmerman had an immense memory and distinct self-discipline. From a very young age, at the age of six, he gained the recognition and encouragement of a literary scholar and winner of the Israel Prize, Prof. Dov Sadan, who was the first to publish his remarks in the newspaper Sikot. The connection between Zimmerman and Sadan has been close over the years, including an exchange of letters and a mutual contribution to the study of literature and chazanut.
Zimmerman has been writing for the newspaper for more than fifty years. He has written articles on a variety of topics - from chazanut and Jewish music to current affairs in politics and society. He also published articles and responses in Al-Hamishmar, Yedioth Ahronoth, Maariv, Haaretz, and HaModi'a.
Zimmerman was a diligent literary critic. He constantly followed every book that appeared and eagerly read all the newspapers, where he regularly commented on many in a variety of fields. He has written about the classic writers as well as about books dealing with remote and marginal writers. He commented on general newspapers and literary journals as well as on memoir books, autobiographies, and biographies that were close to his heart. His literary articles and critiques have been published throughout the Hebrew press over the years and have never been collected. In his literary critiques, he emphasized the literary value and the connection to the tradition of Israel and the tradition of Hebrew culture and literature. In addition, he was a great proponent of Hebrew culture and literature for generations. Accuracy was important to him and he did not spare his critique from finding errors that stemmed from ignorance in books and newspapers.
Zimmerman was well versed in Agnon's work. He has written about it dozen of articles. He merged his two loves and specialties and published on cantors and chazanut in Agnon's work. In this field, he published new insights which made a significant contribution to Agnon's research (for example, identifying characters in his stories).
Zimmerman won the Shalom Aleichem Prize for Jewish Culture, and the Haifa Municipality Prize for Torah Literature. In 2014, he won the Et-Mol Prize by the Ben Zvi Institute.
In May 2016, at the age of 80, Zimmerman passed away at his home in Tel Aviv.
He is not survived by any children, but he left many friends who appreciated his fairness and honesty and the diligence with which he pursued his chosen profession.
For the list of Akiva Zimmerman's publications on the National Library website.
Sources:
גוברין נורית, 'איש התיקון: דברים לזכרו של עקיבא צימרמן', קשר לתיעוד, גליון 49 (חורף 2017), 169- 161
צימרמן עקיבא, 'ביני לבין דב סדן'. כתב-עת ליצירה יהודית, כרך ב׳ (ז׳) (חורף תשנ״א 1990), 160–164 (כולל מבחר מכתבים של פרופ׳ דב סדן ז״ל לעקיבא צימרמן).
