Motti Lerner

Motti Lerner was born in 1949 in Zichron Yaakov

Motti Lerner was born on September 16, 1949, in Zichron Yaakov. His great-grandparents came to the land from Romania and Russia in 1882 and worked as farmers.

He studied mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1967 to 1970. He served in the IDF from 1970 to 1973, then took part in protests against the Golda Meir government. In 1975 he began theater studies at the Hebrew University and later trained in England and the United States.

In 1977 he founded the Maduga experimental theater in Jerusalem, and from 1978 to 1984 he was a dramaturge and director at the Khan Theatre. He has written plays and scripts since 1984 and has taught playwriting at the Kibbutzim College since 1986. He also taught at Tel Aviv University from 1992 to 2007 and was a visiting professor abroad.

His works on the Holocaust, the settlements and Israeli society led to public debate and court petitions. In 1997 a German theater staged The Murder of Isaac, about the Rabin assassination, and several Knesset members asked the government to act against it. Since 2016 he has written mainly for Habima, which staged plays such as The First Lady in 2023.

He won the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Writers in 1994 and the Landau Prize in 2014. He is separated, a father of 3, and lives in Ramat HaSharon.