Dorit Rabinyan


Dorit Rabinyan is an Israeli author and screenwriter. She is known for her novels Persian Brides, Strand of a Thousand Pearls, and All the Rivers. Her work has received literary recognition in Israel, including the Bernstein Prize. In 2016, All the Rivers became the subject of public debate after Israel’s Ministry of Education decided to ban it from the national high school literature curriculum.
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Biography

Dorit Rabinyan was born in Kfar Saba, Israel, to an Iranian-Jewish family. Her father, Zion, owned a textile factory in Tel Aviv. She has published four novels, two of which have been widely translated. She has also published a poetry collection and three illustrated children's books. Rabinian wrote the screenplay for the film "Shuli's Boy," which won the Israeli Film Academy Award in 1997. Her first novel, Persian Brides, won the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize in 1999.
She was a close friend of Palestinian artist Hasan Hourani, and wrote a eulogy for him in The Guardian after his death in 2003.
Her 2014 novel, All the Rivers, originally published in English as Borderlife in English, which tells a love story between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man and semi-biographical, has become the center of controversy. The novel was well-received and won the Bernstein Prize. In 2015, a committee of teachers requested Borderlife be added to the recommended curriculum for Hebrew high school literature classes.
A committee in the Israeli [Ministry of Education] found the book inappropriate and declined to add it, on the grounds, according to The Economist, that it promotes intermarriage and assimilation. Dalia Fenig, the leading committee member, argued that the book "could do more harm than good" at this time of heightened tensions, though she noted the book was not banned and could be added next year. The decision led to protests from high school teachers and principals and opposition politician Isaac Herzog. Sales of the book surged in the aftermath of the ban.
Rabinyan appeared on reality TV show MasterChef VIP in 2015.
In 2000, and again in 2002, Rabinyan was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works.

Books

  • Yes, Yes, Yes, 1991,
  • Persian Brides, 1995, translated into English, 1998,
  • Our Weddings , 1999, translated into English, 2001,
  • And Where Was I?, 2006 Az Eifo Hayiti Ani?]
  • All the Rivers, 2014
  • The Homes Swap, 2018 HaHatul Ve-Arnav Machlifim Batim]
  • The She-Cloud, 2019
  • Nine Singing Lessons, 2025