Jean Holkner (1926–2004)

Jean Holkner, née Green, was born in Perth, Australia to Jewish parents who had emigrated from the British Mandate of Palestine. The family then settled in Melbourne, which in the 1930s and 1940s was the center for Jewish life in the country. Jean initially worked as a primary school teacher, but later decided to attend university. She taught creative writing courses for adults at the Education Faculty at Melbourne University and at colleges of Advanced Education. She also wrote stories and educational literature for children, and fiction, humor, science fiction, and literature for young adults.

She was a member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers and of the Australian Society of Authors. Jean also contributed to Australian newspapers and educational magazines. Perhaps her best known book was Aviva Gold (1992), a children's story about a young Jewish girl whose family decides to emigrate from Australia to Palestine in the 1930s.