Yehuda Amichai (born in Germany on May 3, 1924, and died in Jerusalem on September 22, 2000) was undoubtedly the most prominent and equally paramount Israeli poet during the last half century. His major poetic innovation was to part from lofty poetry and replace it with poetry that consists of simplicity when it comes to vocabulary, syntax, meter and rhyme, and rhythm. Simplicity is the name of his poetic game. Yet that simplicity does not eclipse nor cloud the inner sophistication which his poetry cultivates and displays.

Dr. Yair Mazor is a professor-emeritus of modern Hebrew and Biblical literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. To date, Professor-emeritus Mazor has authored 29 scholarly books and more than 250 articles and critical essays that have been published in USA, Israel, and numerous European countries. Dr Mazor is a popular guest lecturer and has spoken to audiences throughout Europe and many other venues around the world.

Among the many scholarly awards Dr. Mazor has received are the Sadan Prize and the Shpan Prize for two of his books, the Baron Prize for Excellency in the field of Jewish Studies, the distinguished teaching award by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Friedman Prize, a national award for the most distinguished Hebrew literature scholar in the United States. In his military service, Dr. Mazor acted as a fighting paratrooper, as well as an instructor of parachuting.