Mordechai Tabib, an author, poet, and reviewer, was born in Shivat Zion, a Yemenite neighborhood of Rishon LeZion, Israel, on December 14, 1910. He attended ma‘lama, the traditional Yemenite school, until age thirteen. His father wanted him to become a shoḥeṭ (ritual slaughterer), but Mordechai went to public school for several months before he was forced to leave to help support his underprivileged family. Although he was unable to return to school to obtain a formal education, he read widely on his own. In 1938 he began publishing poetry in the literary section of the daily Davar, and in…