Literatureחנוך לוין

Hanoch Levin

Hanoch Levin was an Israeli playwright, theatre director and poet, known for his plays and political satire.

1943 to 1999Comic and dramatic playsPolitical satire and cabaretPoetry

Born: 18 December 1943, Tel Aviv
Died: 18 August 1999, Tel Aviv
Occupation: poet, writer, playwright, theatre director
Education: Tel Aviv University

Hanoch Levin was born in 1943 in Tel Aviv

Levin was born in Tel Aviv in 1943 to Malka and Israel Levin, who came from Łódź, Poland, in 1935. He grew up in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood, and his father ran a grocery store. His father died of a heart attack when Levin was 12.

After ninth grade he left school to help support the family and worked as a messenger boy. He studied at a night school for working youth, where he joined a drama club. From 1964 to 1967 he studied philosophy and Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University.

He served in the army as a code clerk in the signal corps. In 1965 he joined the editorial board of the student newspaper Dorban, where he wrote satire.

In 1967 he published the poem Birkot ha-Shahar and won first prize in a Kol Israel radio drama competition. From 1967 to 1970 he focused on political satire, including the cabaret shows that mocked military pathos and politicians. He later published stories and poems in the journal Siman Kriah.

Levin rarely gave interviews. He received the Bialik Prize in 1994 and died in 1999.