A Beloved Writer and Educator

Anna Miriam Roth (1910-2005) was born in what is now Slovakia to Jewish-Hungarian parents. She studied psychology and pedagogy at Brno University in the Czech Republic, and was a member of Hashomer Hatzair, the Zionist youth organization. Upon graduating, she made aliyah to the Holy Land on her own and took up studies at Tel Aviv’s teacher’s college before enrolling at the Hebrew University. In 1937, she co-founded Kibbutz Sha’ar HaGolan, where she lived most of her life and worked as a teacher. Back in Europe, her entire family perished in the Holocaust. To make matters worse, during Israel’s War of Independence, the Arab forces burned down her kibbutz—including all photographs and letters from her family. In 1955, Roth published The Preschool Method, one of the first textbooks for early childhood education. She followed that up with The Theory of the Kindergarten in 1956, and The Child and You in 1958. A couple of years later, Roth relocated to New York to further her studies. She went on to earn a Master’s in education from Columbia University, as well as a Master’s in pedagogy from City College, New York. Upon her return to Israel, she continued her writing career, and soon began writing children’s books, too. Among her first were the very popular A Tale of Five Balloons (which sold over half a million copies and won a UNICEF Smile Award), HaBayit Shel Yael (“Yael’s House”), and Hot Corn. Perhaps her most famous work is Yuval HaMebulbal (“Confused Yuval”), now also an Israeli television show for kids. All in all, Roth wrote 23 books for children, along with 6 books on childhood education. She won the Ze’ev Price for Lifetime Achievement in 1990, and the Bialik Prize for Literature in 2002. Roth worked as a teacher for nearly five decades, and trained many of Israel’s educators. She is credited with being both a pioneer of Israeli education and of early childhood education worldwide.

Words of the Week

Many parents do not know how to handle their children. They have not learned the laws governing a child’s development and are not familiar with his needs. It seems that ‘parenting’, too, is a profession that must be taught.
– Miriam Roth