Esther Raab

Esther Raab (Hebrew: אסתר ראב‎‎; April 25, 1894 – September 4, 1981) was a Hebrew author of prose and poetry, known as "the first Sabra poet", for the prominence of her native landscape in her imagery.

Biography

Esther Raab was born and raised in the rural Moshava of Petah Tikva in Palestine (part of Ottoman Syria at the time), to founding residents Yehuda and Leah Raab. Raab's grandfather was an immigrant from the Hungarian village of Szent István who settled in Jerusalem. In late 1909, aged fifteen, she was prohibited by her father from attending the moshava's school, which was a mixed gender establishment, and later wrote that she was much hurt by that decision.

In 1913 she moved to Degania Alef, with Second Aliyah pioneers. In 1914, she returned to Petah Tikva.

In late 1921, Raab married her cousin, Yitzhak Green, in Cairo, and lived in Egypt for a few years. She first published her poetry in the early 1920s. She later returned to Palestine (by then under British rule) and lived in Tel Aviv until 1945, when she returned to Petah Tikva. During that time, she studied education, and worked in teaching and agriculture. Green died suddenly in 1930. Raab dedicated her first book of collected poetry to him.

Raab continued to publish over several decades, often silent for years due to financial and other difficulties.

commemorative plaque in Tel Aviv on the house Raab lived in

Awards and recognition

In 1964, Raab won the Kugel Prize, awarded by the municipality of Holon, Israel, for her book of poetry The Poems of Esther Raab (Hebrew).^[1]

Published works

Books in Hebrew^[2]

• Thistles (poems), Hedim, 1930 (Kimshonim, קמשונים)
• Poetry of Esther Raab (includes Thorns), Massada, 1963 (Shirey Esther Raab, שירי אסתר ראב)
• Last Prayer (poems), Am Oved, 1972 (Tefila Acharona, תפילה אחרונה)
• The Murmur of Roots, HaKibbutz HaMeuhad, 1976 (Hemyat Shorashim, המיית שורשים)
• Esther Raab, An Anthology: selected poems with an indtroduction, selected edited and introduced by Ehud Ben Ezer and Reuven Shoham, Yachdav and the Hebrew Writers Association, 1982 (Esther Raab, Yalkut Shirim, אסתר ראב, ילקוט שירים)
• A Destroyed Garden: selected stories and seven poems, Tarmil, 1983 (Gan Shecharav, גן שחרב)

Later Compilations and Editions in Hebrew

• Complete Poetry, Zmora Bitan, 1988 (Kol Hashirim, כל השירים); a second edition published 1994
• Complete Prose, Astrolog, 2001 (Kol Haproza, כל הפרוזה)

Books in Translation

• English: Thistles: Selected Poems of Esther Raab, translated and introduced by Harold Schimmel, Bnei Brak, Ehud Ben-Ezer/ITHL, 1996, ISBN 9789659012480

References

External links

• Biography and English bibliography from the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
• Complete and authorized bibliography of her writings,
• bibliography on Raab in the Lexicon of Modern Hebrew Literature (Hebrew)
• Entry on Raab in Jewish Women's Archive