Shimon Lev

Shimon Lev was born in 1962 in Jerusalem

Shimon Lev was born in Jerusalem on August 1, 1962, the youngest child of Dvora and Zeev Lev. His mother died when he was a child, and he has said that death became a recurring theme in his work. He attended the Horev school and then a yeshiva high school, and belonged to the Ezra and Bnei Akiva youth movements.

He delayed his army service to study at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, then served as a combat soldier in Sayeret Matkal. He finished photography studies at Hadassah Academic College in 1988. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem he earned a B.A. in Indian studies, an M.A. with honors, and a doctorate in 2016 on the encounter between the Jewish and Indian worlds.

His book Soulmates, published in 2012, studies the friendship between Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach and rejects the claim that they had an intimate relationship. In 2015 the government of Lithuania decided to erect a statue marking their friendship. He also edited a 1998 book of monologues by people who left Orthodox Judaism.

Lev has shown his photographs in 28 solo exhibitions and directed 3 television films. In 2014 he created the exhibition Two Family Archives with Austrian artist Friedemann Derschmidt, and in 2016 he curated a show on photographers of Jerusalem at the Tower of David Museum. He teaches photography at Hadassah Academic College and the Israel Museum youth wing.

Lev is divorced, a father of 3, and lives in Jaffa. He raised his children as a custodial father.