At Heaven’s Gate

The Hebrew writer Asher Barash was born in Lopatin, Galicia, and received both a secular and a religious education. He began writing at an early age and published poetry, stories, and plays in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and Polish. In 1914, he moved to Ottoman Palestine, where he taught Hebrew language and literature, first in Tel Aviv and then, after World War I, in Haifa. While much of his fiction drew on memories of his childhood in Galicia, his later writing portrayed the struggles of the pioneering generation in the Land of Israel. Although best known for his short stories, he also wrote essays on literature and culture and children’s literature.