September 22, 2000
Yehuda Amichai, the poet laureate of Jerusalem, dies of lymphoma at the age of 76. Considered by many to be the most prominent modern-day Israeli poet, Amichai received awards and critical acclaim all over the world, with his poetry translated into more than 40 languages.
Born in Germany in 1924, Amichai moved with his family to the Land of Israel in 1935. He served with the British during World War II and in the Palmach, the special strike force of the Haganah, during the 1948 War of Independence. He later served in the IDF.
Themes of war, peace and loss are prevalent in Amichai’s poetry. Among his most famous works are “Exile at Home”; “Not of This Time, Not of This Place”; “The World Is a Room and Other Stories”; and “Great Tranquility: Questions and Answers.”
In 1994, Yitzhak Rabin quoted from his poem “God Takes Pity on Kindergartners” as part of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
Read Yehuda Amichai’s biography at the Poetry Foundation.
Listen to Amichai interviewed by NPR’s Henry Lyman in 1989.
