Dwora Gilula

Dwora Gilula (((; born 9 May 1934, Lublin,Poland) is the Louis Lipsky Professor Emerita of Drama in the Department of Classical Studies and the Theater Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She also edits and translates from five different languages into Hebrew, including Greek and Latin literature. Her research interests are ancient Roman and Greek drama and theater, Greek oratory, and Nathan Alterman's works. She received the Israel Prize for Literature, Poetry and Translation in 2025.

Early life and education Dwora Gilula (née Cynamon) was born in 1934 in Lublin, Poland, to Simcha Cynamon and Leah (Lola) (née Glatstein). Lola was the sister of the Yiddish poet and writer Jacob Glatstein. In February 1946, after World War II, she immigrated to Israel as part of the Youth Aliyah movement as an orphaned Holocaust survivor, and was educated at Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk.

In 1961, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Hebrew literature and Bible at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and in 1966, she received a Master's of Arts in Classical Studies. She received her PhD in Classical Studies in 1977 from the Faculty of Humanities, Department of Classical Studies at Hebrew University. She wrote her PhD thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Baruch Lifshitz, on the comedy "The Eunuch" by Terentius, (Terence) written in Roman. The main focus of the work was the creation of a scientific edition of the play: the interpretation of the text, linguistic and literary, as well as the writing of introductions and appendices.

Career Upon receipt of her PhD in 1977, she joined the university faculty as an associate teacher in the Department of Classical Studies.

In addition to her extensive editing and translation of classics, from Latin, Greek, French, English, and Polish into Hebrew, Gilula researched the works of the poet and playwright, Nathan Alterman. She published editions of some of his never-published work, including an expanded and annotated version of his "Tur Hashevii" (The Seventh Column). Some of the poems had never seen the light of day. The project began in 2009 and lasted until 2017, when the sixth volume was released.

In 2025, she was awarded the Israel Prize, granted to Israelis who have contributed significantly to Israeli culture. In selecting Gilula, the prize committee stated that her classic language translations, which have received many accolades, have contributed significantly to the Israeli bookshelf.

Personal life She was married to Prof. Mordechai Gilula (1936–2002), a linguist and Egyptologist, and is the mother of Moshe, Simcha, and Leah Chaya. Her daughter, Dr. Leah Gilula, is the director of the IIsrael Goor Theater Archives and Museum. She is the niece of the Yiddish writer Jacob Glatstein.