Renowned and prolific Israeli poet Tuvia Ruebner died on Monday morning at the age of 95 at his home in Kibbutz Merchavia.
Ruebner was born as Kurt Erich in 1924 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. He grew up in a German-speaking Jewish family, and in 1941, at the age of 17, immigrated to British Mandate Palestine with the Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. He left behind his parents and only sister, who later died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Ruebner settled in Kibbutz Merchavia and had a daughter, Miriam, with his first wife, Ada Klein, who was killed in a car accident in 1950. Three years later, he remarried pianist Galila Israeli, and they had two boys. Their youngest, Moran, disappeared in the 1980s during a trip to Ecuador.
Ruebner wrote poems in both Hebrew and German. He also translated and edited other works, taught and lectured, and took photos.
He was awarded every major literary prize in Israel, including the Jerusalem Prize and the Israel Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature twice. In 2008, he was awarded the coveted Israel Prize for Poetry. Ruebner as won several awards in Europe, including the Anne Frank Prize and the Adenauer Foundation Award.
His 17th book Od Lo Od, which translates to Not Yet, No More, was published this year; it was his third book in the past two years.
He recently agreed to have his personal archive stored in the Gnazim Archive of the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel. The transfer began on Monday, the day of his death, according to Haaretz.