Painter and printmaker Yossel Bergner (also spelled "Yosl") was born Vladimir Jossif Bergner in Vienna, Austria on October 31, 1920, and was raised in Warsaw, Poland. His father was Melech Ravitch, a Yiddish poet and writer, and his mother was opera singer Fanya Bergner. His early education took place at the Central Yiddish School, which was a part of the Polish "Bund," a socialist organization that promoted doikayt, or "hereness," the idea that Jewish people should be able to live, as anyone of any faith or race, in any country without threat of persecution. At this school he learned painting under Hirsch Altman, while also studiying metallurgy at the Warsaw University of Technology.

Despite the Bund's efforts, mounting Nazi violence made Jewish life in Poland increasingly impossible. The Bergners began looking into the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization, a U.S.-based organization that searched for potential Jewish homelands. Among the places taken into consideration was the Kimberleys in northwestern Australia, an idea known formally as the "Kimberley Plan." Though it never came to fruition, the Bergners emigrated there in 1937 while it was still in consideration, and Yossel enrolled the Art School of the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne. There, he became a part of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia which aimed to break away from academic painting and promote freedom of expression. His associates included artists that now epitomize Australian art: Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker, John Perceval, and Arthur Boyd, among others. Bergner studied at the Art School until the outbreak of World War II, when he was drafted into the Australian Army for four and a half years. He then completed his studies and moved with his wife, painter Audrey Bergner, to Paris. 

After two years, the Bergners separated and Yossel relocated to what had become Israel. There, he became a theater set designer and frequently collaborated with playwright Nissim Aloni. Bergner's paintings, which were rooted in social realism and impasto techniques, steadily became more Symbolist. He also worked as an illustrator and created several drawings for the works of Kafka.

He died on January 18, 2017, in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Awards and recognitions:
1955, 1956: Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture, Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa
1980: Israeli Prize for Painting
2006: Worthy Citizen of Tel Aviv Award, Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa