Nina Pinto-Abecasis

Nina Pinto-Abecasis was born in 1971 in Ashkelon

Pinto-Abecasis was born in 1971 in Ashkelon. Her parents came to Israel from Tétouan, Morocco, in the 1960s, and the family spoke Haketia. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother worked as a bank clerk.

After her military service, she earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She also worked in media. She wrote and hosted a literature radio program on Kol Yisrael from 1995 to 1996 and covered police affairs for Haaretz.

She lectured at Ashkelon Academic College from 2001 to 2008. Her doctoral research dealt with humor in nicknames among the Haketia-speaking Jews of Tétouan. From 2012 she was a research fellow at Bar-Ilan University, and from 2015 she advised the board of the National Authority for the Culture of Ladino.

In 2014 she published a book on nicknames, humor and folklore among the Jews of Tétouan, which won the Ben-Zvi Prize. Her book Intimate Stories won the Prime Minister's Prize and was adapted into a play at Habima Theatre.

After being diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer, she wrote a story collection about living with the illness. She was married, had 2 children and lived in Tel Aviv. She died on 22 July 2019.