Sivan Baskin — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Sivan Beskin (Hebrew: סיון בסקין; born August 31, 1976) is an Israeli poet, translator, and literary editor.

Born in 1976 in Vilnius, in Soviet Lithuania to a Lithuanian Jewish family, Beskin emigrated to Israel with her family in 1990, settling in the kibbutz Ein Carmel. She later moved to Haifa, majoring in plastic arts in high school. In her mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force she served as an instructor at the central computers unit, Mamram. She went on to complete a bachelor's degree in economics at the Technion university in Haifa. She has been living in Tel Aviv since 2002, working as an information systems analyst.

Of her childhood in Vilnius Beskin said in an interview:

Vilnius is a multi-cultural city: there are Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, and Jewish elements there. I went to a Russian-language school, but I was born into a world in which, necessarily, you hear several languages spoken around you. It educates and develops you differently. You learn not to fear the other. When you read a book, there are words you don't understand – and you take it in stride. You develop curiosity and a tolerance for the unknown.

Regarding her non-literary day job, she said in a different interview:

I think every intellectual should have a degree in economics. [...] I am first and foremost a woman of letters, and I consider translation no less important than my original writing. [...] On the other hand, I am very glad I do not make my living in literature, or I'd have been miserable. Happily, I can afford to choose what to translate, what to edit[...]. And only secondly, I am a mother.

From: Wikipedia