.Hanna Naveh was born in Włodawa, Poland, in 1938

With the onset of World War II, her family found refuge in Russia. The father was conscripted into the Red Army and killed in Estonia, in 1944. As the war ended, the mother and her five children came back to Poland. Shortly thereafter, the children were smuggled into a displaced persons camp in Germany. They were moved from one camp to another until they were finally reunited with their mother.

The first camp at Schwarzwald was an area “surrounded by a forest.” Home became the place where sad stories were being told about family members left behind and those who had not come back; while the forest turned into the children’s playground.

In 1949, the family moved to Israel and settled in Kiryat Yam, then called Gav Yam. The family struggled financially and the artist had to go to school and work at the same time. During her army service, she continued to study at a teachers’ seminar, focusing on proficiency in Bible and Literature.

Naveh graduated in 1967 with a BA in Humanities from Tel Aviv University. Later on, she began to study painting at the Avni Institute, courtesy of the Israeli Labour Settlements Movement (Her teachers included Avigdor Stematsky, Jacob Wexler, Jan Rauchwerger, Rachel Shavit...)

The painter Yehezkel Streichman was a key figure at the Institute and very influential in Naveh’s professional life, as he convinced her to abandon teaching and devote her life to painting. Naveh saw in teaching a calling and at the same time was apprehensive about the image of the artist as she saw herself a displaced refugee. Nevertheless, the Institute awarded her a scholarship for excellence in painting.

Hanna and Shmuel Naveh married in 1964.

Hanna, Shmuel, and their two sons, Uri and Danny, moved to Aseret community settlement in 1980. During her time there, Naveh brought together her love for teaching and painting. She established a painting workshop for adults in Aseret and she was mostly active in neighboring Gedera. The artist’s objective was to teach painting as well as to broaden the horizons of her students regarding international and Israeli culture and art (Dr. Dorit Kedar was a lecturer at the Gedera workshop for many years).

Naveh’s activity at the workshop spanned two decades. Concomitantly with her work as a teacher, she paved a path as an active and prolific artist in Israel and abroad, holding numerous one-person and group exhibitions.

Hanna Naveh passed away in 2015.