Yocheved Bat-Miriam

Yocheved Bat-Miriam (Zhelezniak) (1901-1980) was born in Keplits, Belorussia. She attended the Universities of Odessa and Moscow. Her first book of poems, published in 1932, was followed by an additional six collections of poetry published four years after she settled in pre-state Israel. The bulk of her poems were written between the two world wars and are set against the background of Jewish tragedy of this period, of her personal experiences as a child in Russia and of her experiences as a newcomer in Israel. In the 1948 War of Independence, her son Zuzik was killed and she never wrote again. Bat-Miriam was awarded the Bialik Prize in 1964 and the Israel Prize in 1972.