Hezi Leskali


Hezi Leskali was an Israeli poet, choreographer, painter and art critic.

Biography

Leskali was born in Rehovot to Czech-Jewish parents. They moved to Givatayim early in his childhood. At the age of 14, Leskali wrote his first poems and got them published in magazines at the age of 18. At age 22, Leskali moved to The Hague in the Netherlands where he studied dancing and art. He worked as a painter and a choreographer, and published four books of poems. One of his most popular works was in 1992, when he published Dutch Poetry - Four Imagined Dutch Poets and a Nonexistent Israeli Poet.
Leskali was among the first of several Israeli people to identify as gay and was frequently active in many LGBT organisations during that time. The primary topics of Leskali’s poetry mainly consisted of homosexual life and dance.

Death

Leskali died as a result of AIDS in Givatayim on May 26, 1994 at the age of 41. He was interred at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.