Yaffa Yomtovian Biography

Yaffa Yomtovian, a Jewish writer and poet.  She was born in 1960 in Tehran, Iran. In 1962 she immigrated to Israel with her family. The family settled in the village of  “Kadima” in the heart of the country.

The green and peaceful countryside, the strawberry fields and the citrus groves that spread a wonderful fragrance, were the setting of her childhood landscape. Later when she started writing they were a recurring motive in her poems and writings.

Her childhood and teenage years passed happily in her home village in the bosom of her loving familiy, where she also attended the elementary school. 

 She did her high school studies at “Hadassim” in the nearby youth village. The studies at “Hadassim” opened up new worlds for her and were an opportunity to meet children and teenagers from all over the world. By virtue of being a gifted student, she was well respected by her teachers and even received scholarships. Her teachers predicted her greatness, but she married right after graduating from high school with Yossef, the man who loved her with a great and extraordinary love. She moved to Tel Aviv – the big city, and there together they started a family and gave birth to 5 children, 4 sons and 1 daughter. 

Yaffa devoted herself to raising the children and nurturing them, at the same time she was tutoring children and helping her husband in his pursuits.

In 1996 the family moved to the city of Netanya.  

In 2016, after almost 4 decades of a happy married life, her husband Yossef passed away leaving behind a deep void.

A heavy burden of making a living, reuniting the family and handling a variety of different matters was placed on Yaffa. Thank to God, she passed the test and even began to dedicate herself to publishing her books.

Writing and words were always close to her heart, but she started writing when her first grandchild was born. 

 The book “Granny’s Heart” is her first children’s book, and it was published in 2017. The book is a collection of about 30 wonderful children’s songs written in full rhyme. In her unique language, which includes rhythm and dynamics, she is good at describing the inner world of the children from their own point of view, and all this while using a variety of images and pictorial expressions. The poems touch almost every area of the children’s world, come from the depths of the heart and penetrate the heart of the reader. This motif runs through all the poems and gives them a special touch and color. 

Yaffa also writes for adults, including poems and prose books, which will be published with God’s help.