Literatureיונה וולך

Yona Wallach

Yona Wallach was an Israeli poet whose work dealt with sexuality, gender, identity and madness, and was influenced by Jewish mysticism.

1944 to 1985Hebrew poetry on sexuality and genderThe poem TefillinThe Tel Aviv Poets group

Born: 10 June 1944, Tel Aviv
Died: 26 September 1985, Kiryat Ono
Occupation: poet, writer
Education: Avni Institute of Art and Design

Yona Wallach was born in 1944 in Tel Aviv

Yona Wallach was born in 1944 in Kfar Ono, later Kiryat Ono. Her parents, Michael and Esther Wallach, came from Bessarabia and were among the founders of the town. Her father was killed in Israel's War of Independence, and she grew up with her mother and older sister Nira on a street named after him.

She was expelled from Tichon Hadash high school after tenth grade. In 1961 she began studying at the Avni Institute of Art in Tel Aviv for a short time. In her twenties she was admitted to psychiatric hospitals, where she was treated with LSD.

Her first poems were published in 1964, and her first book, Things, appeared in 1966. She was part of the Tel Aviv Poets group with Meir Wieseltier and Yair Hurvitz, and from 1972 she was close to the journal Siman Kriah. Her 1976 book drew wide attention, and in 1978 she won the Kugel Prize.

In 1982 her poem Tefillin caused a public storm because it placed a Jewish ritual object in a sexual context. She also performed her poetry with a rock band. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1981 and died in 1985, and she is buried in Holon.