All the Rivers

About the poet:

February 24, 1992
Avot Yeshurun, 88, Poet in Unusual Idiom

Avot Yeshurun, an Israeli poet who wove Arabic and Yiddish idiom into a unique and influential form of Hebrew verse, died Saturday. He was 88 years old.

No cause of death was given by his family, which announced his death.

Born in Ukraine as Yehiel Perlmutter, Mr. Yeshurun emigrated to Palestine in 1925, worked as a laborer and began publishing poetry. His family perished in the Holocaust.

After Israel was established in 1948, Mr. Yeshurun was one of its first literary figures to acknowledge the plight of the uprooted Palestinians. He saw the Palestinians and the Jews of Europe as having endured a common tragedy, and sought to fuse their experience in the language of his poetry.

Although long ignored by the establishment, Mr. Yeshurun was highly regarded by younger poets. His stature was formally recognized a month ago when he was awarded the Israel Prize.

Mr. Yeshurun's wife, Pesia, died six weeks ago. He is survived by a daughter, Helit.

OBIT from NYTimes