Dorit Rabinyan


Dorit Rabinyan is an Israeli writer and screenwriter.
She was born in Kfar Saba to an Iranian Jewish family. She has published three novels, two of which have been widely translated. She has also published a poetry collection and an illustrated children's book. She also writes for television.
Her first novel Persian Brides won the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize in 1999.
She was a close friend of Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani, and wrote a eulogy for him in The Guardian after his death in 2003.
Her 2014 novel Gader Haya, which tells a love story between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, has become the center of controversy. The novel was well-received and won the Bernstein Prize. In 2015, a committee of teachers requested Borderlife be added to the recommended curriculum for Hebrew high school literature classes. A committee in the Israeli Ministry of Education found the book inappropriate and declined to add it, on the grounds, according to The Economist, that it promotes intermarriage and assimilation. Dalia Fenig, the leading committee member, argued that the book "could do more harm than good" at this time of heightened tensions, though she noted the book was not banned and could be added next year. The decision led to protests from high school teachers and principals and opposition politician Isaac Herzog. Sales of the book have surged in the aftermath.
In 2000, and again in 2002, Rabinyan was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works.

Books