Gurit Kadman

Gurit Kadman was born in 1897 in Leipzig

Gurit Kadman was born Gertrude Loewenstein in Leipzig, Germany, in 1897, to a secular Jewish family. As a young woman she joined the Wandervogel youth movement, where she encountered German and other European folk dances. She also studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Leipzig.

In 1919 she married Leo Kaufman, and the couple trained in farming with the Zionist youth movement Blau Weiss. In 1920 they moved to the Land of Israel with their son Raphael and helped found Heftziba. In the kibbutzim she came to know dances brought by pioneers from many countries.

In 1925 the family went to Austria on a mission, and their daughter Ayala was born there. The family later settled in Tel Aviv, where she taught dance and physical exercise. In 1929 she organized 2 folk dance festivals at the Ben Shemen youth village and taught folk dance there until 1931.

The couple later changed their family name to Kadman, and she took the name Gurit. In 1981 she received the Israel Prize for dance. She died in 1987.