Netiva Ben-Yehuda

Netiva Ben-Yehuda was born in 1928 in Tel Aviv

Netiva Ben-Yehuda was born in Tel Aviv on 26 July 1928. Her father, Baruch Ben-Yehuda, headed the Herzliya Gymnasium and later served as director general of Israel's first ministry of education. She studied at the Herzliya Gymnasium.

Before the War of Independence she trained in shot put and javelin, hoping to compete at the 1948 Olympics. The war changed her plans, and an arm wound later kept her from sport. She went on to study Hebrew language and philosophy at the Hebrew University and art at Bezalel.

She joined the Palmach and served in the Yiftach Brigade as a demolitions officer and fighter. After the state was founded she worked in the press office of the Ministry of Labor.

In 1972 she published a dictionary of Hebrew slang with Dahn Ben-Amotz. After a 1980 diagnosis of a brain tumor that proved wrong, she left her job to write. She published a trilogy of novels on her Palmach years between 1981 and 1991.

From 1995 to 2009 she hosted a late night program on Israel Radio, talking with callers and playing early Hebrew songs. She received the Yakir Yerushalayim award in 2004. She died on 28 February 2011.