Shirley Hirsch was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1934, her parents having moved here from England in 1932. The family returned to England in 1936. Shirley went to boarding school from 1944 until 1952 and then spent four years at the Central School of Art in London. She married Zeev Hirsch in 1956 and they moved to Israel. For a year they lived on Kibbutz Maagan Michael and then moved to Jerusalem where Shirley worked as a graphic artist. In 1960 the Hirsch’s went to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Zeev studied for his PhD at Harvard and Shirley worked, doing illustrations for the United Church of Christ. They then returned to live in Israel, with their two children. Since 1966 they have lived in Herzliya Pituach. Shirley has concentrated on painting and her much loved hobby of riding horses. She became an international judge for disabled riding and a national judge for able bodied riders in dressage. To date she continues to paint and judge.