Mordéhaï Kafri

Mordechai Kafri was an Israeli sculptor who designed close to 50 memorials and monuments across Israel.

1920 to 2001Memorials to Israel's fallenThe Sickle and Sword memorialPortraits and reliefs of public figures

Born: 12 March 1920, Warsaw
Occupation: sculptor

Mordéhaï Kafri was born in 1920 in Warsaw

Kafri was born in Warsaw, Poland, as Mordechai Wolfsdorf. He came to the Land of Israel with his brother Yosef through Youth Aliyah.

In 1938, in the youth group at Nahalal, he first tried sculpting in mud and plaster. In 1941 he joined the British Army in the Jewish Brigade and sculpted in his free time without any training. In 1945 he showed his works in an Allied soldiers' exhibition in Rome, which earned him a British government scholarship.

From 1946 to 1948 he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and trained in a marble studio. He returned to Israel at the end of 1948 to take part in the War of Independence.

He taught sculpture and made portraits and reliefs of figures such as David Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson. His first monument, in 1950, honored the fallen of Nahalal. His memorials, mostly in large raw stone, stand at memorial sites, parks and public institutions.

He lived in Nahalal with his wife Rachel, daughter of Zvi Livne, working as a sculptor and a farmer. He died in 2001.