Esther Streit-Wurzel

Esther Streit-Wurzel was born in 1932 in Petah Tikva

Esther Streit-Wurzel was born in 1932 in Petah Tikva. Her father, the writer and educator Shalom Streit, founded the Ahad Ha'am Gymnasium there. At 12 she published her first story under the pen name Zvi Hadas.

She finished the Ahad Ha'am Gymnasium in 1949 and studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She earned a bachelor's degree in literature and psychology in 1952. In 1969 she completed a master's degree in literature and Bible.

She taught at her old school, then at the Kanot agricultural school near Gedera, and from 1958 at Brenner High School in Petah Tikva until she retired in 1987. In 1954 she married Dr. Mordechai Wurzel, a cardiologist, and they had 3 children.

Her first book, "Min HaMetzar", came out in 1962. Many of her books are set against the history of Israel, its wars and the Holocaust. Her book "Alifim" won the Ze'ev Prize in 1982 and was later made into a television series.

In 2008 she published "Kayitz Katom", a novel about the evacuation of Gush Katif, and was named an honored citizen of Petah Tikva. She died in 2013 and was buried in Petah Tikva. In 2017 a public library there was named after "Alifim".