The Grandfather I Once Had

Moshe Sartel

1967

Every day when his mind was at ease,
Relieved of the need to tell us about the countries he’d seen,
He would raise his hands high above our heads,
Appealing on our behalf before the Almighty to let our seed
Multiply, and to please keep us from evil and other ills.
And because he pleaded for us, as we were too small to plead
For ourselves, he…
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Creator Bio

Moshe Sartel

b. 1942

Moshe Sartel was born in Istanbul into a Ladino-speaking family. He moved to Israel in 1949, settling in Petaḥ Tikvah. Sartel studied literature, philosophy, and library sciences at the Hebrew University as well as military history at Tel Aviv University. He has published seven collections of poetry and has received awards for his work, including the President’s Prize for Literature (1997) and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Writers (1999–2000). His epic, intellectual poetry is heavily influenced by T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Middle Eastern folk history, and classic Hebrew texts.

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