Shmuel Ben-Artzi

Shmuel Ben-Artzi
Shmuel Ben-Artzi with his family in 1960.
Native name	שמואל בן ארצי
Born	Samuel Han (1914-12-31)31 December 1914 Biłgoraj, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	9 November 2011(2011-11-09) (aged 96) Jerusalem
Occupation	Writer, poet, educator
Nationality	Israeli
Spouse	Chava Paritzky

Shmuel Ben-Artzi (Hebrew: שמואל בן ארצי‎‎; December 31, 1914 – November 9, 2011) was an Israeli writer, poet and educator. Ben-Artzi was also the father in-law of the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ben-Artzi was born Samuel Han on December 31, 1914, in Biłgoraj, Russian Empire (now in Poland). Growing up Ben-Artzi learned in a cheder and in a branch of the Novardok yeshiva in Mezhirichi. Later on in his life Ben-Artzi immortalized the world of the Novardok yeshiva in three of his books.

He made aliyah to Mandate Palestine in 1933 and began studying at the Beit Yosef yeshiva in Bnei Brak which was headed by Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky. After about a year he left the yeshiva and went to work as a farmer in groves of Bnei Brak and as an agricultural administrator in Netanya. In 1945 he served in the Irgun underground military group, and afterwards, from 1946 until 1948 he served in the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah, which soon afterwards became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.

During the next several decades Ben-Artzi worked as a teacher, raised a family and earning a bachelor's and a master's degree in Bible, literature and Hebrew language from the University of Haifa. In addition, through the years Ben-Artzi also published several books, including poetry books, children's books and a novel.

Ben-Artzi began his career in teaching at 1946 in the school in Tiberias. In 1950 he began teaching at Kibbutz Mahanayim. After two years the family moved to Kfar Hittim. Afterwards the family moved to Kiryat Tiv'on. From 1967 Ben-Artzi began teaching in a seminar for teachers at Nahalal, and afterwards he also worked as the school principal of this seminar for a decade.