Shmuel Ben-Artzi

Shmuel Ben-Artzi was born in 1914 in Biłgoraj

Ben-Artzi was born Shmuel Han on December 31, 1914, in Biłgoraj, Poland, to Moshe and Ita. He studied in a cheder and at a branch of the Novardok yeshiva in Mezhirichi. He later wrote about the Novardok yeshiva world in 3 of his books.

In 1933 he moved to Mandate Palestine and studied at the Beit Yosef yeshiva in Bnei Brak. After contact with a group of pioneers he left the yeshiva and stopped keeping a religious lifestyle. He worked as a farmer in the groves of Bnei Brak and as an administrator in Netanya.

He began teaching in 1946 in Tiberias and later taught at Kibbutz Mahanayim. In 1952 the family moved to Kfar Hittim and later to Kiryat Tiv'on. From 1967 he taught at the teachers' seminar in Nahalal, and he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Bible, literature and Hebrew from the University of Haifa.

He wrote 12 books for adults, youth and children, including poetry and a novel, and won the Ka-Tzetnik Prize in 2000. He married Chava Paritzky, and they had 4 children, among them Sara Netanyahu.

In his later years he returned to a religious lifestyle and moved to Jerusalem. He spent his last months at the prime minister's residence and died on November 9, 2011. He was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.