Yohanan ben Yaakov

Winner of the  Dizengoff Prizes for the art of sculpture and painting on behalf of the Tel Aviv Municipality for 1950-1951, the Dubiner Prize (1950), the Munich Municipality Prize for Sculpture (1968) and the Writers' Union Prize (1980).

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Ben Ya'akov was born in Berlin in 1913. In 1933 he immigrated to Israel and from then until his death lived in Kibbutz Zora. Studied sculpture and painting in 1943 at the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Bezalel, under Mordechai Ardon and Isidore Ashheim. He drew his first drawing at the age of 4 on a matchbox. Since then he did not stop painting until the day of his death on April 12, 2003.

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His works have appeared in many exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Some of his works are still placed in prominent places in Israel - a relief in Beit Wilfrid in Kibbutz Zora; A relief at the Technion, in Haifa; Aron Kodesh in Kibbutz Yiftah; Mural painting in Kibbutz Karemi; And other works at Kibbutz Dorot, the Encampment and Navy Museum in Haifa, Beit Ha'am in Ne'am and more. His works were exhibited in well-known museums such as: Herzliya, Tafen, Ein Harod and others. His works are in the hands of many private collectors, such as Steph Wertheimer, the late Michael Caspi, Aharon Chachanover, Ben Zion Alon and others.

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Yohanan was the first to establish Kibbutz Zora in the Jezreel valley. Ben Ya'akov died in Kibbutz Zora in 2003 as a father of three children.