100 New Israel Shekels

Goldberg’s poetry is contemplative, her language clear. Her works deal with intimate, personal issues and include descriptions of Israeli and European landscapes. Much of Goldberg’s work deals with the legacy from her life in Europe and with the Holocaust and its impact on her generation. Many of her poems have been set to music, among them “Is It True?”, “Atonement”, “The Love of Theresa di Meun” (“From My Window and Yours”), “Evening Opposite the Gilead” (“The Trees Are So Heavy”) and “The Hyacinth’s Song”. Goldberg wrote and edited numerous children’s books—among the most well-known are “Apartment for Rent”, “The Absent-Minded Man from Kfar Azar”, and “Where is Pluto”. Besides writing, Goldberg was involved in numerous related pursuits. She translated classics from world literature, including Tolstoy, Chekhov, Shakespeare and Ibsen. She also edited newspapers and children’s books, taught, and served as professor of general and comparative literature at Hebrew University. Goldberg’s writings earned her the Rubin Prize in 1949, and in 1970—posthumously—she was awarded the Israel Prize for belles-lettres.

The new NIS 100 denomination banknote is dedicated to Leah Goldberg’s work. The obverse bears her portrait against a background of almond blossoms, besides which in microlettering is the poem entitled “In the Land of my Love the Almond Tree is Blooming”. The reverse depicts a group of does—the inspiration for her poem “What Do the Does Do?”, the name of her first children’s book as well. The reverse also contains an excerpt from the poem “White Days, As Long As the Summer Rays of the Sun”.