Joshua Sobol

Joshua Sobol was born in 1939 in Tel Mond

Joshua Sobol was born in Tel Mond on 24 August 1939 to a secular Jewish family. His mother's family fled pogroms in Europe in 1922, and his father's family left Poland in 1934 to escape the Nazis. He went to Tichon Hadash high school in Tel Aviv.

He served in the Nahal and was a member of Kibbutz Shamir from 1958 to 1965. He studied literature and history at Oranim and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. In Paris he began reporting for the newspaper Al HaMishmar.

His first play, The Coming Days, was staged at the Haifa Theatre in 1971, where he later worked as playwright and became artistic director in 1984. His play Ghetto was translated into many languages and staged in many countries. In 1988 he resigned as artistic director after public protests over his play The Jerusalem Syndrome.

From 1995 he worked in Vienna with director Paulus Manker on works such as Alma and F@LCO. He taught drama and playwriting at schools and universities in Israel and abroad. He is married to designer Edna Sobol, and their children are Yahli and Neta.

In 2006 he first appeared on stage as an actor, and in 2007 he wrote the film Eskimos in the Galilee. In 2024 he wrote 2 plays following the Swords of Iron war. He lives in Tel Aviv.