Dina Rubina

Dina Rubina was born in 1953 in Tashkent

Rubina was born on 19 September 1953 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Her mother, Rita Zhukovsky, was a historian, and her father, Ilya Rubin, was a painter. Both were Jews of Ukrainian origin.

She studied music at the school of the Tashkent Conservatory and then at the conservatory itself. Her stories have been published since she was 15, and her first appeared in the magazine Yunost.

After several years of writing for stage and screen, she moved to Moscow in 1984. In 1990 she immigrated to Israel with her family. From 2000 to 2003 she headed community and culture work in Moscow for the Jewish Agency.

Her books deal with Jewish and Israeli history, migration, theatre and the meeting of Israeli and Russian Jewish cultures. Several films were made from her works in Russia, including Dual Surname in 2006. In 2007 she won the Russian Big Book award.

In 2014 she condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. In 2025, remarks she made about Gaza drew wide criticism, and some of her appearances abroad were canceled. She denied saying what was attributed to her and said her words were edited. She lives in Mevaseret Zion with her husband, the painter Boris Karafelov.