Efratia Gitai: Correspondence (1929-1994)

Selected & edited by Rivka Gitai Translated by Timothy Aaron Priest.

This selection of Efratia Gitai’s engaging correspondence chronicles her life, intellectual journey, and relationships with influential figures against the backdrop of 20^th century upheaval and the founding of the State of Israel. Her family’s migration and sharp critical eye made her an astute observer of pivotal moments in history: the Bolshevik Revolution, Vienna’s cosmopolitan culture (where she studied psychology with Anna Freud), Hitler’s 1932 speech at Alexanderplatz, and Churchill’s declaration of war, which she heard while fleeing by boat from Poland to Haifa. In Israel, she documented early kibbutz experiments and the Six-Day War while building a life with her husband, Bauhaus architect Munio Weinraub Gitai, whose work helped shape the modern landscape of Tel Aviv. Efratia notes that Munio “had met the greats”—Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Moholy-Nagy, and Mies van der Rohe, with whom he worked in Berlin before Hitler’s rise. Together, they raised their son Amos, who would become an acclaimed Israeli filmmaker.

About the Author

Efratia Gitai (1909–1994) was a writer, educator, and intellectual born in Haifa to Russian Zionist parents. A prominent voice of the Second Aliyah generation, she was deeply engaged in the political and cultural developments of her time. Trained in psychology in Vienna, she later documented key moments in Israeli history through her prolific correspondence.