Natan Yonatan - Biography

Biography

Natan Yonatan was born Natan Klein, in Kiev in the Ukraine in 1923. In 1925, his family immigrated to Mandate Palestine. They were among the early settlers (1935), of Kfar Ma'as, an agricultural village near Petah Tikva.

Yonatan was active in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement and in 1945 joined kibbutz Sarid in the Jezreel Valley. He was a member of Sarid for 46 years. From 1991 until his death, he resided in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

He fathered two sons with his first wife Tzefira: Lior—who fell in action in the Yom Kippur War at age 21—and Ziv, musician, composer and radio producer. Natan Yonatan was also father to his second wife Nili's daughter and grandson: Netta and Tom. While love and passion, as well as the Israeli landscape, permeate his work, the authenticity of Yonatan's poems mourning the loss of Lior – the terrible price of war – became this poet's hallmark.

He held degrees in Hebrew Literature and Comparative Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Oxford University. He lectured internationally, as well as within the Israeli public school system. One of Israel’s most eminent teachers of creative writing, he was known for his generous spirit and desire to foster new poetic talent.

While serving as long-term Editor-in-Chief of the Sifriat Poalim publishing house, he was also the unanimously elected President of the Hebrew Writers Union and represented Israel at literary conferences around the globe.

In 2005, he was voted the 104th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.