Born and educated in Russia, Rahel came to Eretz Yisrael in 1909 where she was greatly influenced by the writer, A.D. Gordon. She first worked as a laborer in Rehovot and later joined a training farm near the Kinneret. After a 6-year stay in France and Russia, she returned to Eretz-Israel (1919) and joined Kibbutz Deganiah. Having contracted tuberculosis, she was forced to leave the kibbutz, and spent the rest of her life in Jerusalem, Safed and Tel Aviv; references to her impending death are found in her later poems. Rahel is buried in the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery. |