Alexander Penn (Hebrew: אלכסנדר פן, Russian: Александр Пэнн; 1906 – April 1972) was an Israeli poet.

According to one version of his biography, his father, Yosef Stern, ran a heder (a Jewish religious school for young boys) and taught Hebrew.

[6][7][8] From 1940 until his death in 1972, Penn lived in a small apartment in the northern section of Dizengoff Street, near the local police station.

Although he was ostracized for his political beliefs, leading literary figures continued to meet with him and admired his work, among them Avot Yeshurun.

The poem was set to music in the early 1970s and has been recorded since then by numerous Israeli singers and musicians, including Michal Tal, Yehudit Ravitz and more recently, Marina Maximilian Blumin.