Miri Ben-Simhon (; 13 January 1950 – 24 June 1996) was an Israeli

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Biography

Miri Ben-Simhon was born in a transit camp in

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France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, while her parents, Zehava and Haim Ben-Simhon, were on their way from Fez,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, the youngest of their three children. The family was placed in a transit camp in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and later moved to the

Katamon Katamon or Qatamon (; ; ; from the Ancient Greek ), officially known as Gonen (; mainly used in municipal publications), is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem. It is built next to an old Greek Orthodox monastery, believed to have been cons ...

neighborhood of Jerusalem. According to a critical

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

of essays about Ben-Simhon, she was a bright student and identified in elementary school as having a gift for literature. Her father abandoned the family when Ben-Simhon was young. Her mother then married an immigrant from

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, which broadened her cultural horizons. Ben-Simhon did her military service in an intelligence unit and worked for two years in the secret security services. After witnessing things that disturbed her deeply, she left the service.She studied Hebrew Literature at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

and acting at the

Beit Zvi Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts, and Theater () is a school of acting and theatre arts, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel, established in 1950, and is named after Zvi Klir, who fell in the War of Independence. The ...

dramatic arts academy in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. After graduation she worked for an advertising agency, wrote for the local newspaper "Jerusalem," and worked as a translator and editor. Several episodes of mental illness led to hospitalization at the

Talbiya Talbiya or Talbiyeh (; ), officially Komemiyut (), is an upscale neighborhood in Jerusalem, between Rehavia and HaMoshava HaGermanit. It is renowned for its eclectic architectural styles, and often regarded as one of the most beautiful neighborh ...

psychiatric hospital in Jerusalem. She was in a long-term relationship with novelist Shimon Zimmer. On 24 June 1996, Ben-Simhon was killed in a car crash.

Literary career

Ben-Simhon started writing at age 25. She wrote short stories and poems, and also translated poems into Hebrew. Her first collection, ''Interested Not Interested'', was published in 1983. She published four volumes of poetry. In addition, her poems were included in anthologies, and some were translated to English. Ben-Simhon's work deals with issues relating to gender, ethnicity, class, culture and politics. She writes about being a

Mizrahi ''Mizrachi'' or ''Mizrahi'' () has two meanings. In the literal Hebrew meaning ''eastern'', it may refer to: * Mizrahi Jews, Jews from the Middle East and North Africa * Mizrahi (surname), a Sephardic surname, given to Jews who got to the Iberia ...

woman in Israel, and about being a Mizrahi poet in an

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literary world. Her poetry has been called "sensitive and brutal, personal and political," and also "fascinating, sharp and in particular, very intelligent." She wrote about racial stigmas, about societal power relations, about growing up poor, and living in a society where you "cannot gain entrance by being good", because you do not have the correct identity profile. A great deal of her poetry dealt with significant relationships in her life: For example, her friendship and collegial relationship with Israeli poet

Amira Hess Amira Hess (; 13 March 1943 – 1 December 2023) was an Israeli poet and artist. Arriving in Israel in 1951 to a refugee transit camp, she then made her home in Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the ...

, which spanned over 20 years, found its way into both women's books and poetry. Other poets whose work touched on hers in some way include that of her life-partner writer Shimon Zimmer, and poets Oded Peleg and Balfour Hakak. Israeli poet Meir Wieseltier also loomed large in her life. Many of the poems in ''Interested Not Interested'' are about her feelings for him, although little is known about the nature of this relationship and it may have been fantasy. Her life-partner, Shimon Zimmer, says that Ben-Simhon occasionally went to his house and tried to confront him. "I think one time a window was broken and he called the police." So much of what she wrote may have been a product of her imagination. Mutual acquaintances said that Wieseltier treated her in a condescending manner, and according to researcher and poet Mati Shemoelof, it is far from coincidental that one of her best-known poems in this collection is about the inferior status of a Mizrahi woman and the stereotypical way Mizrahi women are sexualized and dismissed as uninformed and unintelligent.Critic Eli Hirsch disagrees: "Attempting to attribute a central role to Wieseltier not only in her biography but also in the understanding of her poetry seems problematic to me. Wieseltier seems to mostly be a kind of hook on which the poet hung her yearning for a father. Much more significant is the influence of other women poets on the poetry of Ben-Simhon –

Yona Wallach Yona Wallach (; June 10, 1944 – September 26, 1985) was an Israeli poet. Her surname also appears as Volach. She is considered a revolutionary Israeli Feminism, feminist and Postmodernism, post-modernist. Wallach had wrote poetry from a young ...

, and

Hess High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) is a system of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) for the investigation of cosmic gamma rays in the photon energy range of 0.03 to 100 TeV. The acronym was chosen in honour of Victor ...

, a friend of Ben-Simhon, who shared the heavy burden of Mizrahi women's poetry in those years."

Commemoration

In 2017, a documentary film about Ben-Simhon's life, ''Miriam's Song'' (''Ahava Mitrageshet Lavo'') was created by filmmakers Eldad Boganim and Israel Winkler, with screenwriter Dan Albo. The film includes a recording from 1988, which was discovered by chance, after her death, in which Ben-Simhon reads a love letter to the poet Meir Wieseltier. The letter, the heart of this film, offers a glimpse at Ben-Simhon's ruptured soul.

Published works

* מעוניינת לא מעוניינת, הוצאת הקיבוץ המאוחד, תל אביב, 1983. ''Interested Not Interested'' * שבלת דקה בכד חרס עתיק, אל"ף, תל אביב, 1985. ''A Thin Wheat-Stalk in an Ancient Clay Jar'' * צמא, ספרית הפועלים, תל אביב, 1990. ''Thirst'' * אקזיסטנציאליזם חרד, הוצאת כרמל, ירושלים, 1998. ''Anxious Existentialism''. Published posthumously. In 2018, an anthology of all her works, with some additional poems from her estate, was published: * רק האויר בחוץ שגיא, גמא, תל אביב 2018 ''Only the Air Outside is Exalted''

References

External links