Levin Kipnis

Biography

Kipnis was born in Ushomir in Volhynian Governorate which was part of the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (now in Ukraine), into a family of 12. His father, Pessach, who was a shaliach tzibbur, sent him to study in a Cheder, which he didn't like because of the strict discipline. He showed a passion for the arts from a young age, painting and woodcarving. His father, who saw his potential, encouraged him to become a sofer stam. He wrote mezuzot to provide additional income for the family.

He decided to become a writer at the age of 13, after seeing the Hebrew children's magazine "Haprachim" ("the flowers"). In his attic, he wrote, illustrated and produced his own magazine, later submitting one of his stories, "the sick child" to the children's magazine. The story was published in 1910. Kipnis completed his education in Jitomir and Warsaw, then went back to his hometown, where he founded an "improved Cheder," established a Hebrew library and wrote and directed plays. In 1913, he emigrated to Ottoman Palestine and continued his arts education at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The lack of content for children of kindergarten age convinced him to write songs suited for preschoolers.

With the outbreak of World War I, Kipnis established the "Little Library for Children" publisher in Jaffa, while concurrently doing agricultural forced labor for the Ottoman military. After the war he returned to Jerusalem at the invitation of Bezalel to write and edit content for preschoolers and published story and song collections for children as well as the first magazine for preschool teachers "Ganenu" ("our garden" or "our kindergarten").

In 1921, he managed an orphanage in Safed. In 1922, he traveled to Berlin, Germany for advanced studies in art and craftsmanship. There he published three books in German. He returned in 1923 and began teaching at the Levinsky Teacher's College in Tel Aviv.

In 1928, Kipnis wrote plays and participated actively in the foundation of a children's theater, later known as "Teatron Hagananot" ("the preschool-teacher theater"), where some well known Hebrew performers such as Bracha Zfira and Sara Levi-Tanai participated.

In 1956, he retired from his job as an educator and dedicated his time to writing.

Kipnis's writing is characterized by a light and happy style, devoid of pathos, yet rich and aesthetic. His collections in Hebrew encompass about 800 stories and 600 poems. Kipnis also wrote songs in Hebrew, including Shanah Tova. He also wrote children's books in Yiddish, publishing a collection in 1961. His work was translated into English, French, German, Russian, Arabic and Yiddish. He was active as a writer for 80 years, from 1910 to 1990.

Kipnis died in 1990 in Tel Aviv.

The archive of his work is at the Levin Kipnis Center for Children's Literature, Levinsky Teachers' College. The center awards a bi-annual prize named after Kipnis for a research project about children's literature.

Awards and honors

A street is named after him in Be'er Sheva