Eli Sharfstein

Eli Sharfstein was born in Vilna in 1950 to a family of Yiddish actors. As a child he spoke Yiddish and Russian. In 1971 he made aliyah to Israel and learned Hebrew. Since the pandemic, and following his father’s death in 2020, Sharfstein has written stories and poems in Yiddish. In 2021, his short story won first place in Israel's National Yiddish Short Story Contest. His works have been published in Yidishland, Yidish Branzhe, Afn Shvel and Grine Medine, and he has published two books: Plutsem Yidish (an e-book of poetry) and Mayn Vilner Zavulik (stories about Jewish life in Lithuania). He is currently at work on two more short story collections.