Shoshana Shababo (; 1910–1992) was an Israeli writer.

Biography

Shoshana Shababo was born in

Zikhron Ya'akov Zikhron Ya'akov () often shortened to just Zikhron, is a local council (Israel), town in northern Israel, south of the city of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Mount Carmel, Carmel mountain range over ...

to a

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

family originally from

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

. Her father, Shlomo Shababo, taught

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

and moved to

after being invited to teach there. As a teenager, Shababo attended a local school whose director was the writer

Yehuda Burla Yehuda Burla (; 18 September 1886 – 7 November 1969) was an Israeli author. Biography Burla was born in 1886 in Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to a Sephardi Jewish family with rabbinical roots, originating from İzmir. As a chil ...

. She was a gifted student and read a lot of Hebrew and foreign literature. At the age of 15, with the help of a letter of recommendation from Burla, she was accepted to study at the Levinsky College of Education 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 ...

. While she was at Levinsky, she began writing short stories and newspaper articles. At 16, she began writing her first book "Maria," which was published in 1932. After the death of her mother, she moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and spent time with her brother in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. After her return in 1942, she published her second book, "Ahava be-tsfat" (Love in Safed). That same year at the age of 32, she married David Karsanti. The couple moved to

Hadar HaCarmel Hadar HaCarmel ( lit. "''Splendor of the Carmel''"; or simply known as the neighbourhood of Hadar , الهدار in Arabic language, Arabic) is a district of Haifa, Israel. Located on the northern slope of Mount Carmel between the upper and lower c ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

where they opened a wool store. Despite her short stories being successful and popular among readers, the literary establishment heavily criticized her work. This alongside the death of her sister at 22, and her nephew being killed in the

1947–1949 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionism, Zionist forces conquered territory and established ...

led to her distancing herself from writing. Shababo died on July 4, 1992, in

. She was buried in

References

{{authority control 1910 births 1992 deaths Israeli Sephardi Jews Israeli women writers Jewish poets Jewish women writers Jewish Israeli writers Sephardi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Israeli Mizrahi Jews Sephardi Jews from Ottoman Palestine Israeli women short story writers People from Zikhron Ya'akov