Lea Goldberg (1911–1970)

Lea or Leah Goldberg was born in the German city of Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) to Jewish parents living in Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania. At the start of World War I, when she was three, they fled to Russia, where they spent a year under difficult conditions as refugees. When they tried to return to Lithuania in 1919, her father was accused by the Bolsheviks of being a spy and tortured. When he was released, his mental state was precarious. He eventually lost his ability to function normally and was hospitalized, then disappeared. Lea and her mother Tsila Goldberg became very close and lived together for the rest of their lives. Goldberg's parents spoke several European languages, and she learned these as well as Hebrew at a very young age. She began writing poetry at age 12. She graduated from the University of Kaunus, and received a PhD from the Universities of Berlin and Bonn in Semitic languages and German. In 1935, Lea emigrated with her mother to the British Mandate of Palestine. There she published her first poetry collection, Taba'ot Ashan (Smoke Rings), and joined a group of young modernist poets of Eastern-European origin known as Yachdav (Together). Goldberg wrote for and edited the Hebrew newspapers Davar and Al HaMishmar. She later worked as a literary adviser to Habimah, the Israeli national theater, and as an editor for the publishing company Sifriyat Ha-Poalim. She became an accomplished translator of the works of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Petrarch, Ibsen, and many others. She also wrote original works, including novels, reference books, and works for children. Some of her poems were adapted into popular songs. Her first novel, Vehu ha'or (And This Is the Light), which was strongly autobiographical, was published in 1946. Goldberg founded the Department of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she was a lecturer and then a professor from 1955 to 1970. She was awarded the Israel Prize posthumously in 1970.