Have You Ever Heard of Leah Goldberg?

לאה גולדברג/Leah Goldberg (1911-1970) was a famous poet, author, playwright, and translator.  She is one of the greatest Hebrew language poets of the 20th century. She translated many important classics into Hebrew including War and Peace by Tolstoy.  Goldberg wrote quite a few books, songs, and poems for children.  Many of the poems were set to music. One of my favorite children's poems is Goldberg's? מה עושות האיילות? / What Do the Does Do?  You can read about the poem in one of my earlier posts.

Goldberg was born in Prussia and she made aliyah in 1935 to Tel-Aviv.

יקינתון / Hyacinth is a  joint biography of Leah Goldberg and the composer

 רבקה גוילי/Rivka Gvili.    The book tells the parallel stories of Goldberg and Gvili's life in Europe and their aliyah to pre-state Israel. Their life stories until they made aliyah were quite different.

 They met by chance as roommates in an Israeli guest house and became fast friends.  Together they wrote and put to music the song פזמון ליקינתון / Chorus to the Hyacinth, a favorite Israeli children's song for close to 80 years.

You and your children/grandchildren will enjoy looking at the detailed illustrations on every page. Ages 5-7.

איה פלוטו / Where is Pluto?  is the story of Pluto, a dog from Kibbutz Megiddo.  He's bored and runs away from home. He so enjoys being outside and meeting all sorts of interesting animals. Ages  2-3.

Dina and Ari Ron from Kibbtz Meggido created the book Where is Pluto?  Ari drew pictures of their dog Pluto for their baby daughter Osnat. Dina added text to create a book.  The book eventually got to the publishing house Sifriyat Poalim and to one of its editors - Leah Goldberg.  Goldberg suggested a rhyming text.  She wrote the rhyming text and changed the name of the book from איפה פלוטו to the more literary איה פלוטו.  Goldberg also condensed the Rons' dedication to their daughter to one word לאסנת / To Osnat!

In the book שלושה סיפורים / Three Stories, there are three stories by Leah Goldberg.  The first one דירה להשכיר / An Apartment for Rent is probably Goldberg's most famous children's story. When I think of classic Israeli children's stories/books, this is one of the first books that comes to mind.

 There is a five-story building with a vacant top apartment.  An ant, a hare, a white pig, and a nightingale live in the building.  All sorts of animals like the apartment but don't like one or the other of the tenants. In the end, a dove decides to rent the apartment.  She thinks the apartment is not very spacious but she does like the other tenants.

The other two stories in the book are כך ולא כך / This is Not the Case and מעשה בשלושה אגוזים / The Tale of Three Nuts.  Ages 4-7.

כובע קסמים / Magic Hat is a poem/song by Leah Goldberg.  It was published as a book in 2006. A girl dreams of having a magic hat that would do whatever she wants.  She imagines what would happen if her wishes came true.  The only problem is where, oh where can she find a magic hat. She can't ask her parents because they would not understand at all.  Ages 4-6.

Tip no. 26

This year  The Bank of Israel will be replacing the old 100 shekel note with a new one.  The new bill will be in orange with a picture of Leah Goldberg on the front side.  One of her songs will be printed in very small letters on the back.