The Israel Years

I was born in Israel on May 4th, 1944, four years before Israel’s independence. My upbringing was warm and loving, even though we lived in the shadow of the Holocaust and life was economically difficult. In grade 2, at the age of 8, I made my singing debut playing “Abba” in our class Seder. My real break came in grade 5, when I joined the boys’ choir of the Bilu Orthodox School as one of the soloists. From the age of 9, I studied violin, quite seriously, at the Tel Aviv Music Conservatory. A few years later, I joined the Israeli Opera Chorus and a variety of synagogue choirs. In 1965, I sang at the Habima, Israel’s national theater, in a show called The Last War, which featured songs from the underground resistance movements. At 18, I proudly served in the IDF army. Our Nachal unit established Kibbutz Ma’Aleh Gilboa, which overlooks the Jordan border.