Pinchas Sadeh

Pinchas Sadeh was born in 1929 in Lviv

Pinchas Sadeh was born Pinchas Feldman in Lviv, then in Poland, in 1929. His family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1934 and settled in Tel Aviv. He was later educated at Tel Litwinsky and Kibbutz Sarid, where he also worked as a shepherd.

In 1947 he moved to Jerusalem and published poems and essays in periodicals. During the War of Independence he served as a platoon commander in the battles for Jerusalem. After the war he held various jobs and spent time in London.

His first book of poems, A Burden Resembling, appeared in 1951. His autobiographical novel Life as a Parable followed in 1958, and the novel One Man's Condition in 1967. His 1973 book Devotion, built on love letters a young woman wrote to him, caused a public dispute.

He also wrote children's stories and comics for the magazine Haaretz Shelanu under pen names such as Yariv Amazya. From the 1980s he collected and edited Hasidic tales, folk tales and Jewish prayers. He won the Bialik Prize in 1990.

Sadeh died of lung cancer in Jerusalem in 1994. He was buried at Har HaMenuchot.