Yehonatan Geffen

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Yehonatan Geffen, (Heb: יהונתן גפן) also known as Yonatan Gefen, is an Israeli author, poet, songwriter, journalist, and playwright.

[edit] Biography

Yehonatan Geffen was born on February 22, 1947, in moshav Nahalal. He is the father of Aviv Geffen and Shira Geffen, as well as being Moshe Dayan's nephew. He has two grandsons.

In 1965, he served as a paratrooper under Matan Vilnai, and became an officer. In 1967, his mother overdosed on her medication and died. Geffen considers it to have been suicide.

After leaving the army in 1969 and moving to Tel-Aviv, he took up poetry, but while studying in London, his sister Nurit shot herself. He returned to Tel-Aviv and joined the enterntainment troupe "Lul" with Uri Zohar, Arik Einstein and Shalom Hanoch. The latter introduced Geffen to his future wife, Nurit Makober.

Geffen began his career as a journalist in 1972, for the weekend supplement of the newspaper "Ma'ariv".

He was often criticised for his strong left-wing leanings, which bordered on provocation, and was even sent some death threats.

Much of his success came from his works for children, like the song "HaYalda Hachi Yafa BaGan" ("The Prettiest Girl in Kindergarten") and the book "HaKeves HaShisha Asar" (the 16th sheep), but he has also written many popular songs, poems, plays and stories for adults. He frequently collaborated with David Broza, rendering Spanish songs into Hebrew.