Photo: © Jerusalem Print Workshop

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Haya Esther (Godlevski), Israeli, born 1941

Haya Esther was born in 1941 in Jerusalem to an ultraorthodox family. Until 1983 she worked as a teacher and in education. From the beginning of the 1980s she began to publish literature and poetry in different publications, such as Moznaim, Davar, etc., as well as working in art as an autodidact. In 1983 her first book, Soft Stones, was published and led to her being fired from her teaching job in an ultraorthodox school. She won a number of literary prizes, including the Tchernikovsky Prize for poetry (1995), and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Writers (2003). Haya Esther’s early work was primarily abstract, influenced by French “informal” art. Later images connected to Jewish tradition and Kabbalah began to appear in her works. In the 1980s and 1990s she also took part in poetry presentations that combined a number of different media. She also worked extensively in various printing techniques.

Education

1979 MEd, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
The Print Workshop, Jerusalem, engraving with Sidon Rotenberg

Awards And Prizes

2008 The Shoshana and Mordechai Ish-Shalom Prize, Jerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem