My Friends from Arnon Street

Hebrew poet, playwright, and professor Leah Goldberg was born in Königsberg and grew up in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, where she attended a Hebrew high school. She studied in Berlin and Bonn, earning a doctorate in Semitic languages. Goldberg returned to Kaunas in 1932 and was an active member of the Petaḥ group of poets. In 1935, she moved to Mandatory Palestine, where she taught and edited children’s books. In the 1950s, she commenced teaching at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and founded the department of comparative literature. Goldberg published a large number of volumes of poetry, novels, plays, translations, and books for children. Steeped in Russian culture and European aesthetics, she eschewed national themes in her writing. She was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature in 1970.