Yehudit Kafri

Who is Yehudit Kafri?

Yehudit Kafri Meiri is a 20th-21st century Israeli poet and a writer, as well as editor and translator. br She was born in 1935 and lived as a child in Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, a kibbutz of which her parents were founding members. Yehudit belonged to the first group of children born in this kibbutz.

After she got married, she moved to Kibbutz Sasa where she wrote her first book, called which was published in 1962 one year after she moved to Kibbutz Shoval with her family. In Kibbutz Shoval she published a few more poetry books and children's books and made her first attempt at writing prose including a book describing her childhood memories called which was relatively successful and sold several editions.

Yehudit Kafri mother of three and grandmother of four lives since 1989 with her husband in Mazkeret Batya where she continues to write and publish books of poetry and biographies. In 2003 she published an historical biographic novel called 'Zosha from the Israel Valley to the Red Orchestra' which tells the life story of Zosha Poznanska who was a member of the Red Orchestra and eventually killed by the Gestapo. This novel won the prize of 'The Best Literary Achievement of the Year' in Israel. It has since been translated and published in English. Poems by Yehudit Kafri were published in Hebrew, Arabic, English, Spanish, Croatian and Russian. Kafri has won several literary prizes including the Prime Minister's prize in 1987 and other scholarship prizes. Here are the judges reasons for handing out the prize for 'Zosha':Following careful and extensive research, the author is displaying exceptional courage as she copes with the main character, a heroin in the true classical sense. The author developed an intricate and gentle relationship with Zosha a member of the “Red Orchestra”, who’s life story she set out to tell. Using precise and reserved language Kafri records this relationship while keeping intellectual and emotional levels within appropriate boundaries vis-à-vis the horrific historical events she describes. “Zosha” is a historical novel bringing successfully the individual and emotional stories of the characters in the face of the larger story of the era.