Literatureאברהם בן יצחק

Avraham Ben-Yitzhak

Avraham Ben-Yitzhak, born Avraham Sonne, was a Hebrew poet who published few poems in his lifetime and is seen as a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry.

1883 to 1950Pioneering modern Hebrew poetryA small body of published poemsFriendship with Leah Goldberg

Born: 13 September 1883, Przemyśl
Died: 29 May 1950, Hod HaSharon
Occupation: poet, writer

Avraham Ben-Yitzhak was born in 1883 in Przemyśl

He was born Avraham Sonne on September 13, 1883, in Przemyśl in Galicia. He grew up in the home of his maternal grandparents, with a traditional religious education and private lessons in secular subjects. As a teenager he took part in Zionist activities and began writing Hebrew poems.

He studied at the universities of Vienna and Berlin. In 1913 he was invited to teach at the Hebrew Teachers' Seminary in Jerusalem, where he taught Hebrew literature and psychology until the summer of 1914. Back in Vienna he worked as a teacher and later as principal of the Hebrew Pedagogium.

His first published poem, Bright Winter, appeared in 1908. He wrote short lyrics on nature, meditation and love in biblical diction and Sephardi pronunciation. He never published a book in his lifetime.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938 he fled and settled in Jerusalem. In his last years he was close to the poet Leah Goldberg, who later wrote a book about him. He died of tuberculosis in 1950 and was buried in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery.