Do you know who adorns the 50-shekel bill? Shaul Tchernichovsky, an outstanding Jewish poet born and created in Ukraine.

Chernikhovsky was born in Mikhailovka (Taurida Governorate), now the urban-type settlement of Mikhailovka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. On August 20, 2020, a commemorative plaque for Chernikhovsky was unveiled on the building of the Mikhailovka Local History Museum (Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine). On March 1, 2022, Mikhailovka was occupied by Russian aggressors.

Do you know who adorns the 50-shekel bill? Yes, yes, it is him — Shaul Chernikhovsky, whose name is immortalized not only on banknotes but also on the streets of Israeli cities.

He is often called “second after Bialik” among Israeli poets. But isn’t that a compliment?

Shaul Gutmanovich Chernikhovsky was an outstanding Jewish poet, translator, and doctor, whose creations in Hebrew had a significant impact on Jewish culture.

Born in Mikhailovka (Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine), he knew several languages and began translating Pushkin’s works into Hebrew in his youth.

At the age of 15, he continued his education in Odessa. With the support of Yosef Klausner, he began publishing poems. He then went to Heidelberg and Lausanne, where he studied medicine. Upon returning from abroad, he worked as a doctor in Melitopol and in Kharkiv Governorate.

During the First World War, he was also a doctor in a hospital (Serafimovsky Lazaret in Minsk). He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, third class, and the Order of St. Anna, third class.

After the war, he returned to Odessa and engaged in private medical practice. In 1922, he emigrated from Russia and settled in Berlin.

His poems and translations brought him wide recognition. He wrote poems in Hebrew (at that time, Hebrew was not yet fully restored as a spoken language and was often called the “ancient Hebrew language”). His poetry celebrates inner revival through Zionism, the liberation of the Jewish soul.

For modern Hebrew speakers, however, Chernikhovsky’s metrics are often difficult to perceive because the stresses in modern Hebrew differ from the language in which the poet wrote; the language itself has significantly changed, becoming a living means of communication.

In 1931, Chernikhovsky made a move that changed his life: he moved to Eretz-Israel. Here he not only contributed to medicine by compiling a dictionary of terms (Latin — Hebrew — English) but also continued to heal with words, working as a doctor in a school.

His pen was no less powerful than a scalpel, as he translated the epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” into Hebrew, as well as “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” For translating the Finnish “Kalevala,” he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 1934. From 1936, Chernikhovsky represented Hebrew literature in the international PEN club and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1935 and 1937. He twice became a laureate of the Bialik Prize for Literature.

Twice (in 1935 and 1937) he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He passed away in 1943 in Jerusalem, leaving behind a rich literary legacy.

Shaul Chernikhovsky is not just a name, it is a symbol. A symbol of love for his people, language, and culture. A symbol of tireless pursuit of knowledge and creativity.