Poet and Artist Chaya Esther Passes Away at 85

Poet and artist Chaya Esther (Adva Godlevsky) passed away at the age of 85. She was one of the most prominent and unique voices in Hebrew poetry, blending Kabbalistic motifs, religion, and femininity, and won prestigious awards. She leaves behind a large family and a rich literary and artistic legacy.

Poet and artist Chaya Esther (Adva Godlevsky) passed away at the age of 85. She was one of the most prominent, unique, and daring voices in Hebrew poetry, and her extensive work drew from the worlds of mysticism, Kabbalah, and the deep connection between body and soul. Her poetry was characterized by breaking linguistic and syntactic conventions and expressed a great spiritual thirst. Alongside her writing, she also engaged in plastic arts, painting, and drawing, and exhibited in various exhibitions. For her contribution to Hebrew poetry and literature, she won prestigious awards, including the Yehuda Amichai Prize for Hebrew Poetry, the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Writers and Poets, and the Brenner Prize. She was born in Jerusalem in 1941 and grew up in a religious-Zionist home with deep Jerusalemite roots. She leaves behind a large family – lovers of Torah, spirit, and art – and a rich cultural legacy that gave a different and unique voice to the tension between sacred and secular in Israeli society. She is the mother of Rabbi Ohad Teharlev, head of the Lindenbaum Midrasha of Ohr Torah Stone, and the grandmother of Sgt. First Class Elhai Teharlev, a Golani reconnaissance fighter who fell in a ramming attack at the Ofra junction in April 2017.

Poet and Artist Chaya Esther Passes Away at 85