Mordechai Geldman

Mordechai Geldman was born in Munich to Polish parents who had survived the Holocaust. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he has lived ever since. Geldman studied World Literature and Clinical Psychology and works as a psychotherapist using psychoanalytical methods. Geldman has begun publishing poetry in 1966. His poetry is philosophical, psychological, and existential. It combines literary Hebrew and everyday language, even some slang. His later poetry tends to be meditative and includes many haiku. He was influenced by Zen Buddhist aesthetics and philosophy. His poetry sings with many voices – lyrical, philosophical, sensual, erotic, religious, ironic and others. A sober mind integrates all these aspects of his personality.

He has published 18 poetrybooks, a book of short stories and 6 non-fiction books. A two-volume collection of poems from his books was published in 2011. His last poetry book is the third volume of the collection of his poetry written till 2019. His poems were translated into many languages, Chinese and Japanese included. His book “Becoming One” was translated into Portuguese (“Teoria Do Um”), and published in Portugal in 2017. A large collection of his poems in English was published in 2018 by Suny Press, State University of N.Y.

His non-fiction books deal with subjects as the self in psychoanalytic theories and in Yoga and Buddhism, psychoanalytic interpretation of literature, doubles, and symmetries in Shakespeare’s plays, his favorite Israeli poets and artists, etc. As a visual artist, Geldman has engaged in painting, ceramics, and photography. Geldman was an art critic for the Israeli daily Haaretz, and curated exhibitions for many Israeli artists.

Awards: the Prime Minister Prize; the Brenner Prize for literature; the Amichai Prize; the Bialik Prize for Literature.