24 Facts About Leah Goldberg

Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher.

Leah Goldberg was born to a Jewish Lithuanian family from Kaunas, however her mother traveled to the nearby German city of Konigsberg in order to give birth in better medical conditions.

Leah Goldberg eventually lost his ability to function normally and left Kaunas and his family to receive treatment, though it is unclear what his fate was and why he never returned to his family.

Leah Goldberg's parents spoke several languages, though Hebrew was not one of them.

However, Leah Goldberg learned Hebrew at a very young age, as she received her elementary education in a Jewish Hebrew-language school.

Leah Goldberg began keeping a diary in Hebrew when she was 10 years old.

Leah Goldberg received a PhD from the Universities of Berlin and Bonn in Semitic languages and German.

Leah Goldberg never married and lived with her mother, first in Tel Aviv and later in Jerusalem.

Leah Goldberg was a heavy smoker, and in her late years she became aware of the damage in this habit, as reflected in her poem "About the Damage of Smoking".

Leah Goldberg went on a short visit to Switzerland, but returned in a bad physical condition, as the cancer spread through her body.

Leah Goldberg received the Israel Prize posthumously, her mother took the prize in her name.

Leah Goldberg worked as a high-school teacher she and earned a living writing rhymed advertisements until she was hired as an editor by the Hebrew newspapers Davar and Al HaMishmar.

Leah Goldberg worked as a children's book editor at Sifriyat Po'alim publishing house, while writing theatre reviews and literary columns.

In 1946, Leah Goldberg published her only novel, And This is the Light.

In 1948, Leah Goldberg wrote an Israeli children's short story and poem titled Room for Rent, which is based on an Eastern European folktale and was first published in Hebrew in the periodical Mishmar LiYedelim.

Leah Goldberg was widely read in Russian, German, and French poetry.

Leah Goldberg's poetry is notable for coherence and clarity, and for an emphasis on ideas over baroque forms.

Leah Goldberg's poetics perceive the general in the specific: a drop of dew represents vast distances and the concrete reflects the abstract.

Leah Goldberg's poetry has been described as "a system of echoes and mild reverberations, voices and whispers," that recognizes the limitations of the poem and language.

Leah Goldberg's work is minor and modest, taking a majestic landscape like the Jerusalem hills and focusing on a stone, a thorn, one yellow butterfly, a single bird in the sky.

Unlike many of her contemporary peers, most notably Nathan Alterman, Leah Goldberg avoided outright political poetry, and did not contribute occasional poetry to Hebrew periodicals with overt current-affairs discourse.

Leah Goldberg received in 1949 the Ruppin Prize and, in 1970, the Israel Prize for literature.

In 2011, Leah Goldberg was announced as one of four great Israeli poets who would appear on Israel's currency.

Many of Leah Goldberg's songs, including those written before the establishment of the State of Israel, have been composed and recorded over the years.