אברהם קריב (1900–1976)

Avraham Yizhak Kariv was born to a Jewish family in Slobodka, Ukraine. During World War I, he entered the Tarbut Teachers' Seminary in Odessa, where his teachers included poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik and historian Joseph Klausner. He began his literary career while at the school, and Bialik encouraged him. In 1923, Kariv went to Moscow and completed his studies in mathematics and physics. His poetry was published in Hebrew journals that appeared in Soviet Russia and elsewhere. In 1934, he went to the British Mandate of Palestine and after a short period of teaching, took up editorial posts. He became a regular contributor to the Hebrew press, with literary criticism becoming his major field, eventually overshadowing his poetry. He wrote scathing criticism of the works of classic modern Hebrew authors. He published several collections of his essays; a book on the Bible, Shivat Ammudei ha-Tanakh (1968); and numerous translations from Russian and Yiddish literature.