Ruth Almog

Ruth Almog was born in 1936 in Petah Tikva

Ruth Almog was born Ruth Lumpe on 15 May 1936 in Petah Tikva. Her parents, Yaakov and Miriam Lumpe, were both doctors who fled Germany when the Nazis came to power. In their first years in the country they kept bees and made honey.

The family was religious, and she went to religious schools in Petah Tikva. She later moved to Jerusalem to study at the David Yellin Teachers College. She also studied literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and served in Unit 515.

She published her first story in 1967 and began working at the literary supplement of Haaretz, where she became deputy editor. Her first book came out in 1969. She taught philosophy and film at Tel Aviv University and was writer in residence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Her novel Air Roots won the Brenner Prize in 1989, and her books were translated into English, German, Dutch and Chinese. She received the Bialik Prize in 2006. In 1959 she married the poet Aharon Almog, who died in 2021, and they had two daughters.