Literatureרוני סומק

Ronny Someck

Ronny Someck is an Israeli poet, writer and artist, born in Baghdad in 1951, whose poems have been translated into 45 languages.

born 1951Hebrew poetry translated widelyAlbums with Elliott SharpChildren's books with his daughterExhibitions of drawings and installations

Born: 28 December 1951, Baghdad
Occupation: poet, writer, artist
Education: International Writing Program

Ronny Someck was born in 1951 in Baghdad

Ronny Someck was born on December 28, 1951, in Baghdad, to Avner and Daisy Somech. The family came to Israel in 1953. He grew up in a transit camp on the border of Holon and Bat Yam, and later in a housing estate near Tzahala.

He attended the Hasharon high school in Ramat HaSharon, where the artist Raffi Lavie was one of his teachers. At 17 a newspaper printed one of his poems with his surname misspelled as Someck, and he kept that spelling. He studied drawing at the Avni Institute and literature and Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University.

He worked with street gangs and taught literature at Ironi Yud Alef high school in Tel Aviv for over 30 years. Since 2000 he has led creative writing workshops. He has published 16 poetry books and 2 children's books written with his daughter Shirly.

He recorded three discs with the musician Elliott Sharp and has shown his visual art in exhibitions, including one with Benni Efrat in 1998. In 2012 he joined the founders of the Yesh Atid party and took the symbolic last place on its Knesset lists. In 2025 the University of Haifa gave him an honorary doctorate.