The Oath

One of the leading modern poets of Mandatory Palestine, Abraham Shlonsky was born in a Ukrainian village and sent to study at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv when he was thirteen. He was joined by his entire family in 1921. Shlonsky became a manual laborer, paving roads, working on construction sites, and eventually laboring on the land, helping to establish Kibbutz Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley. He was associated with the group of younger poets who rebelled against the poetry of Bialik and his generation. His poetry is characterized by its linguistic inventiveness and its sophisticated wordplay. He was known for his many translations of world literature, especially the Russian classics, and for his children’s poetry and plays.