"A Flat for Rent": Leah Goldberg's Beloved Children's Classic

A Flat for Rent (Hebrew: דירה להשכיר, Dira Lehaskir) is a beloved children's book by the renowned Israeli poet and author Leah Goldberg, first published in 1948. The book, illustrated by Shmuel Katz, has remained on Israel's bestseller list for over five decades and is considered one of the most iconic children's books in Israeli literature.

Plot Summary

The story takes place in a five-story tower standing in a beautiful valley among vineyards and fields. Each floor is home to a different animal tenant:

A Flat for Rent most well-known book cover (by Shmuel Katz ).

- First floor: A fat hen

- Second floor: A cuckoo

- Third floor: A black (Kushite) cat

- Fourth floor: A squirrel

- Fifth floor: Mr. Mouse, who moved out a week earlier

When the mouse leaves, his apartment becomes available for rent, and the tenants begin searching for a new neighbor. Four prospective tenants come to view the apartment, and each one finds it charming but refuses to rent it because they object to one of the existing tenants:

- The hardworking ant doesn't want to live with the lazy hen

- The rabbit dislikes the cuckoo for abandoning her children

- The white pig refuses to live with the black cat

- The delicate nightingale can't tolerate the noisy squirrel

Finally, a dove arrives and, unlike the others, decides to rent the apartment precisely because of the neighbors, saying: "The neighbors are good in her eyes."

Themes and Messages

The book is a parable about accepting others, tolerance, and living in harmony as good neighbors. Goldberg presents, through a charming and humorous story, how prejudices and criticism of those who are different prevent people from finding a home, while acceptance and love of fellow human beings bring harmony.

The story is considered a classic for kindergarten and elementary school, and continues to delight generations of Israeli children since its first publication in the newspaper Mishmar LaYeladim in October 1948.

About the Author: Leah Goldberg (1911–1970)

Leah Goldberg was one of the most celebrated Hebrew poets and writers of the modern era. Born on May 29, 1911, in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), she grew up in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, where her family moved for her father's work as an economist.

Goldberg showed literary talent from childhood, writing Hebrew poetry as a young girl. She studied philosophy and Semitic languages at universities in Kovno, Berlin, and Bonn, earning a doctorate with a dissertation on the Samaritan dialect. After completing her studies, she taught literature at a Hebrew gymnasium in Lithuania.

In 1935, at age 24, Goldberg immigrated to Mandatory Palestine (now Israel) and settled in Tel Aviv. That same year, her first poetry collection, Smoke Rings (טבעות עשן), was published. She joined the literary circle "Yachdav" led by Nathan Alterman and Avraham Shlonsky, and worked as a journalist and editor for newspapers including Davar and Mishmar.

Goldberg's literary output was extraordinarily diverse: she wrote poetry, prose, children's books, plays, literary criticism, and translations. Many of her poems were set to music and became part of Israel's musical canon. In 1950, she moved to Jerusalem to teach at the Hebrew University, where she founded and headed the Department of Comparative Literature.

Goldberg passed away from cancer on January 15, 1970, in Jerusalem, at age 58. Later that year, she was posthumously awarded the Israel Prize for Literature, the state's highest cultural honor, in recognition of her immense contribution to Hebrew and Israeli culture.

Editions and Translations

A Flat for Rent has been published in numerous editions over the years, with different illustrations (Ruth Schloss in the first edition, Shoshana Hayman in 1959, and Shmuel Katz in the well-known 1970 edition). The book has been translated into English as A Flat for Rent or Room for Rent, and is also available as an interactive children's book.