Bracha Zefira
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Bracha Zefira (, also spelled Braha Tzfira; 15 April 1910 – 1 April 1990) was a pioneering Israeli folk singer, songwriter,
musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...
, and actress of
Yemenite Jewish Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of persecution, the vast majority of Yemenite J ...
origin. She is credited with bringing Yemenite and other Middle Eastern Jewish music into the mix of ethnic music in Palestine to create a new "Israeli style", and opening the way for other Yemenite singers to succeed on the Israeli music scene. Her repertoire, which she estimated at more than 400 songs, included Yemenite,
Bukharan Bukhara ( ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half ...
,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
,
Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * Judeo-Spanish language (ISO 639–3 lad), spoken by Sephardic Jews *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especially in Guatemala * Black ladinos, a ...
, and North African Jewish folk songs, and Arabic and
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
folk songs and melodies. Born in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
to Yemenite Jewish immigrants, she was orphaned of both parents by the age of three. She was raised by a succession of
Sephardi Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
foster families in the city and imbibed the musical tradition of each, as well as the local Arabic songs. She rose to stardom in the 1930s with her musical interpretations of Yemenite and Middle Eastern Jewish folk songs, accompanied by Western arrangements on piano by Nahum Nardi. In the 1940s she began collaborating with
art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high culture, high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJa ...
composers such as
Paul Ben-Haim Paul Ben-Haim (or Paul Ben-Chaim, ; 5 July 1897 – 14 January 1984) was an Israeli composer. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, Germany, he studied composition with Friedrich Klose and he was assistant conductor to Bruno Walter and Hans Knapp ...
, Marc Lavry,
Alexander Uriah Boskovich Alexander (Sándor) Uriah Boskovich (Boskovits, Boskowitz, etc.) (; August 16, 1907 – November 5, 1964) was an Israeli composer born to a Hungarian-Jewish family. Life and career Boskovich was born in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Austria-Hu ...
,
Noam Sheriff Noam Sheriff (; 7 January 1935 – ) was an Israeli composer, conductor, educator, and arranger. Noam Sheriff was Artistic Director of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of the Israel Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Co ...
, and
Ben-Zion Orgad Ben-Zion Orgad ( Hebrew: בן ציון אורגד, originally ''Ben-Zion Büschel''; born Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 21 August 1926; died Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just ...
, performing her songs with classical music ensembles and orchestras. She was popular in Palestine, Europe, and the United States. In 1966, she received the Engel Prize for her musical contribution.


Early life

Bracha Zefira was born in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, in the Ottoman
Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (, ; , , ), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was a district in Ottoman Syria with special administrative status established in 1872.Büssow (2011), p5Abu-Manneh (1999), p39Jankowski & Gershoni (1997), p174 T ...
, in 1910. Her father, Yosef Zefira, had
immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
to the
Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...
from
Sanaa Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...
, Yemen, in 1877, and resided in the Nachalat Zvi neighborhood of Jerusalem. Here he married Na'ama Amrani, also a
Yemenite Jew Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of antisemitism, persecution, the vast majority ...
. Na'ama died giving birth to Bracha, and Yosef succumbed to
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
when Bracha was three years old. Bracha's uncle in Jerusalem took her in, but she ran away from his home at the age of five. She was adopted by a family in the
Bukharim Quarter The Bukharan Quarter (, ''Shkhunat HaBukharim''), also HaBukharim Quarter or Bukharim Quarter, is a neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem, Israel. The neighborhood was established by Bukharan Jews of the Old Yishuv. The neighborhood also ancho ...
, where she was surrounded by
Persian Jewish Iranian Jews, (; ) also Persian Jews ( ) or Parsim, constitute one of the oldest communities of the Jewish diaspora. Dating back to the biblical era, they originate from the Jews who relocated to Iran (historically known as Persia) during th ...
neighbors. Three years later, when that family left Jerusalem, Bracha lived with a widow in the
Yemin Moshe Yemin Moshe ( "Moses Memorial") is a historic neighborhood in Jerusalem, overlooking the Old City. History Yemin Moshe was established in 1892–1894 by the Montefiore Welfare Fund. Located outside Jerusalem's Old City, it was conceived as a ...
neighborhood, where the neighbors were mostly Sephardi Jews from
Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
. Bracha imbibed the religious liturgies,
piyyut A piyyuṭ (plural piyyuṭim, ; from ) is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. Most piyyuṭim are in Mishnaic Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, and most follow some p ...
im, and festive songs of each culture she lived alongside, which would manifest in her later musical career. She was also exposed to Arabic songs that she heard in the city; she and her friends would append lyrics from Hebrew poems to them. She attended school in the Old City and was also a student at the
Lämel School The Lämel School (; also the Von Lamel School) is a school established in Jerusalem in 1856 by the Austrian family of Simon von Lämel to educate members of the Old Yishuv in the city. It was initially established in the Jewish Quarter of the Ol ...
(often misspelled 'Lemel School') in central Jerusalem. In her early teens, she enrolled at the
Meir Shfeya Meir Shfeya () is a youth village and agricultural boarding school in northern Israel. Located near Zikhron Ya'akov, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The site of Meir Shfeya ...
youth village A youth village () is a boarding school model first developed in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s to care for groups of children and teenagers fleeing the Nazis. Henrietta Szold and Recha Freier were the pioneers in this sphere, known as youth ...
located near
Zikhron Ya'akov Zikhron Ya'akov () often shortened to just Zikhron, is a local council (Israel), town in northern Israel, south of the city of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Mount Carmel, Carmel mountain range over ...
in northern Israel. There her musical talent was recognized by Hadassah Calwary, a teacher and wife of the village director, and Bracha was asked to perform for students and teachers on Friday nights, singing the
Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...
zemirot Zemirot or Z'miros ( ''zǝmîrôt'', singular: zimrah but often called by the masculine zemer) are Jewish hymns, usually sung in the Hebrew or Aramaic languages, but sometimes also in Yiddish or Ladino during Shabbat and to some extent the Jewis ...
. The school decided that she should develop her talent at the Kedma Music School in Jerusalem, but a few months after transferring there, Zefira was sent by her conservatory teachers to
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
to study acting instead. In 1927, Zefira was accepted into the Palestine Theatre and its acting studio, founded by Menachem Gnessin. However, the theatre produced only a few plays before closing that same year. Zefira then joined the satirical theatre company HaKumkum (The Kettle), acting and singing with the company until it disbanded in 1929.
Henrietta Szold Henrietta Szold ( , ; December 21, 1860 – February 13, 1945) was an American-born Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandatory Pal ...
, then head of
Youth Aliyah Youth Aliyah (Hebrew: עלית הנוער, ''Aliyat Hano'ar'', German: Jugend-Alijah, Youth Immigration) is a Jewish organization that rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich. Youth Aliyah arranged for their r ...
, arranged for her to study acting and music at the studio of
Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...
in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. During her time in Germany, Zefira sang before notable personages including
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
and
Max Nordau Max Simon Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Südfeld; 29 July 1849 – 23 January 1923) was a Hungarian Zionism, Zionist leader, physician, author, and Social criticism, social critic. He was a co-founder of the Zionist Organization together with Theo ...
, and also performed at Jewish venues around the city. She always appeared with loose hair and bare feet, explaining that this was "out of a desire to feel the earth".


Collaboration with Nahum Nardi

Zefira met Russian-born pianist Nahum Nardi at one of her performances in the Berlin Jewish community center. Nardi had
immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
to
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
in 1923, but returned to Berlin in 1929 to pursue his musical studies. Zefira asked him to listen to some of her songs and to improvise arrangements for them. In her book she wrote:
I sang Bialik's "''Yesh Li Gan''" and "''Bein Nahar Prat''" for him, and Sephardi piyyutim ... and other songs that I was used to singing from Shefeyah. He was a quick study with an excellent ear and a light touch at the piano, and was familiar with Hebrew lyrics, although from a traditional galut (Diaspora) perspective. His playing and the simple harmonies electrified me. I felt that the song had taken on new sounds …
Blending Zefira's Oriental Jewish songs with Nardi's Western musical arrangements, the two first appeared together in concert in Berlin in 1929 and went on to perform in Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Nardi wrote arrangements for the songs Zefira had heard as a child, including Yemenite, Persian, and Bukharan Jewish songs, Bedouin songs, and melodies of Palestinian Arabs. Zefira sang and added dramatic gestures to her performances, which were favorably received by critics. An advertisement for one of their shows in Poland in 1929 in the Yiddish ''Tagblatt'' newspaper in
Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
showed a picture of Zefira dressed in traditional Yemenite garb and jewelry, with bare feet and uncovered arms, which "evoked the myths about women of the Orient". In 1930 the pair returned to Palestine. Zefira continued collecting folk songs from Middle Eastern Jewish, Arab, and Bedouin sources, to which Nardi wrote piano arrangements. Among Zefira's sources were old women from Middle Eastern Jewish communities;
Yitzhak Navon Yitzhak Rachamim Navon (; 9 April 1921 – 6 November 2015) was an Israeli politician, diplomat, playwright, and author. He served as the president of Israel between 1978 and 1983 as a member of the centre-left Alignment party. He was the f ...
, the scion of a Sephardic family; and Yehiel Adaki, a Yemenite musicologist. Zefira sang the Sephardi and Yemenite songs in their original languages and appended Hebrew lyrics to the Arab and Bedouin songs. Nardi also composed children's songs. The two performed a concert called ''Mi-Zimrat haaretz'' ("Songs of Palestine"), which included "songs from Yemen, Arab songs, shepherd's tunes, traditional zemirot, prayers and Sephardi songs". Zefira and Nardi married in 1931 and embarked on a successful local and international career. In addition to appearing in concert halls,
kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
im, and schools in Palestine, they performed in
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
and
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, Egypt, Jewish venues in Europe, and in the United States. On a 1937 U.S. tour, they recorded three
phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...
s for
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
.


Cultural impact

The
Sephardi Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
-
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...
partnership of Zefira and Nardi spearheaded the "ethnic integration" of Palestinian theatre and the local music scene in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In Tel Aviv, "their appearances were considered an integral part of the Tel Aviv cultural scene. Huge crowds gathered at the Beit Ha-Am and Gan Rinah halls, where the duo appeared with no microphone, set or orchestral accompaniment". The first radio program aired by the
Palestine Broadcasting Service The Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) was the state-owned radio broadcasting station that operated from Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel and Palestinian territories) with the main transmitter in Ramallah. It operated from March 1936 u ...
from the Palace Hotel in Tel Aviv opened with Zefira singing "''La-Midbar Sa'enu''", which became "the first song to be broadcast in Palestine". Zefira and Nardi also appeared on a 1936 Carmel newsreel performing "''Shir Ha-'avoda Ve-ha-melakha''" by
Hayim Nahman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik (; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934) was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew language, Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice ...
. Zefira's interpretation and presentation of Yemenite musical traditions influenced other European Jewish composers who were contributing new works to Hebrew song. While folk songs from the Jewish diaspora had been shunned in favor of new, Hebrew-language folk songs, Yemenite melodies were considered the original "Israeli idiom". Moreover, according to the ''Journal of Synagogue Music'': "the female Yemenite voice was seen as an ideal vehicle for performing Hebrew songs; it was thought to convey an Oriental/biblical sonority". Zefira is credited with bringing Yemenite and other Middle Eastern Jewish music into the mix of ethnic music in Palestine to create a new "Israeli style", and opening the way for other Yemenite singers to succeed on the Israeli music scene.


Other collaborations

Zefira and Nardi parted ways both professionally and personally in 1939. Zefira wanted to add works by other composers, notably Yedidia Admon, Emanuel Amiran, and Matityahu Shelem, to their repertoire, but Nardi refused. The couple divorced in 1939 but continued to perform together until July of that year. Zefira began collaborating with other composers while Nardi pursued his concert career with other singers. Nardi sued Zefira to obtain the copyrights for their joint compositions, but Zefira proved to the court that she had been the one who had sourced the original material. Over the following decade, Zefira called on numerous other composers not to improvise arrangements for her songs, as Nardi had done, but to arrange the melodies that she sang for them. These composers specialized in
art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high culture, high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJa ...
rather than Hebrew song, composing works for piano, chamber music ensemble, and orchestra. Zefira began billing herself as a classical rather than popular singer. While Zefira wanted her new composers to hear the songs firsthand from the families and members of the ethnic groups she sourced, they preferred to hear her sing and compose the arrangement accordingly.
Paul Ben-Haim Paul Ben-Haim (or Paul Ben-Chaim, ; 5 July 1897 – 14 January 1984) was an Israeli composer. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, Germany, he studied composition with Friedrich Klose and he was assistant conductor to Bruno Walter and Hans Knapp ...
, who wrote a total of 35 arrangements for Zefira, preferred Sephardi song. He used many of the melodies he learned from her in her major compositions. though his and other composers' approach to Zefira, and to the melodies they learned from her, has been critqued as reflecting a superficial, exotic attitude.
Ödön Pártos Ödön Pártos English_language.html" ;"title="lternate transcription in English: Oedoen Partos, , (Eden Partosh)(1 October 1907 in English language">English: Oedoen Partos, , (Eden Partosh)(1 October 1907 in Budapest – 6 July 1977 in Tel ...
composed arrangements for her Yemenite songs; and Marc Lavry opted to arrange "songs with a light and danceable style". Hanoch Jacoby also composed numerous arrangements for Zefira, including classical chamber ensemble and trumpet-only accompaniment. The British composer
Benjamin Frankel Benjamin Frankel (31 January 1906 – 12 February 1973) was a British composer. His best known pieces include a cycle of five string quartets, eight symphonies, and concertos for violin and viola. He was also notable for writing over 100 film sc ...
created arrangements for Zefira's Columbia recordings and her 1948 concert at
Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...
, London. Zefira also collaborated with the composers
Alexander Uriah Boskovich Alexander (Sándor) Uriah Boskovich (Boskovits, Boskowitz, etc.) (; August 16, 1907 – November 5, 1964) was an Israeli composer born to a Hungarian-Jewish family. Life and career Boskovich was born in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Austria-Hu ...
, Mendel Mahler-Kelkshtein,
Noam Sheriff Noam Sheriff (; 7 January 1935 – ) was an Israeli composer, conductor, educator, and arranger. Noam Sheriff was Artistic Director of the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of the Israel Rishon LeZion Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Co ...
, and
Ben-Zion Orgad Ben-Zion Orgad ( Hebrew: בן ציון אורגד, originally ''Ben-Zion Büschel''; born Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 21 August 1926; died Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just ...
. Though Zefira aimed to synchronize Eastern melodies with Western instruments, the marriage was not always harmonious. On her recordings, "differences in intonation were either ignored or smoothed down", but in concert, Zefira often was not pleased with the style of Western-trained musicians or the sound production of Western instruments, especially the strings. In one instance, she asked the musicians "to play without
vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...
, to arpeggiate chords, and to strike the wooden backs of the instruments with their fingers", but they would not comply. Zefira appeared on concert stages in Palestine to critical acclaim from 1940 to 1947. In 1942, she performed with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first soloist to sing Middle Eastern Jewish and
Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * Judeo-Spanish language (ISO 639–3 lad), spoken by Sephardic Jews *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especially in Guatemala * Black ladinos, a ...
songs with that group. In 1948, she launched a two-and-a-half-year European and U.S. tour, which included performances in displaced persons camps sponsored by the
Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...
and the
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. A ''
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'' review of her first U.S. recital in May 1949 noted: " was the exotic nature of her interpretations that gave them an air of novelty and lent them special fascination". In 1950, she sang in a
Histadrut Histadrut, fully the New General Workers' Federation () and until 1994 the General Federation of Labour in the Land of Israel (, ''HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael''), is Israel's national trade union center and represents the m ...
Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
Festival at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
. She gave her farewell performance at
Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
on 6 April 1950. The latter concert included "traditional, folk, shepherd and children's songs" based on "authentic Hebrew melodies", and "love songs, prayers, psalms, and poems" from Yemenite, Persian, and Ladino traditions, accompanied by a 35-piece orchestra.


Musical repertoire

Zefira estimated she had more than 400 songs in her repertoire. These included Yemenite, Bukharan, Persian,
Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * Judeo-Spanish language (ISO 639–3 lad), spoken by Sephardic Jews *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especially in Guatemala * Black ladinos, a ...
, and North African Jewish folk songs, and Arabic and Bedouin folk songs and melodies. Because she made them wider known, some ethnic melodies were later adapted into Hebrew songs.


Musical style

Zefira was a
contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...
. She emphasized traditional Yemenite diction, enunciating both the
guttural Guttural Phone (phonetics), speech sounds are those with a primary place of articulation near the back of the oral cavity, where it is difficult to distinguish a sound's place of articulation and its phonation. In popular usage it is an imprecise t ...
heth Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ḥēt'' 𐤇, Hebrew ''ḥēt'' , Aramaic ''ḥēṯ'' 𐡇, Syriac ''ḥēṯ'' ܚ, and Arabic ''ḥāʾ'' . It is also related to ...
and
ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician ''ʿayin'' 𐤏, Hebrew ''ʿayin'' , Aramaic ''ʿē'' 𐡏, Syriac ''ʿē'' ܥ, and Arabic ''ʿayn'' (where it is si ...
in every song. Zefira was also noted for her performance style. She wore exotic, Yemenite-styled clothing and jewelry, and performed in bare feet. This costuming "evoked the myths about women of the Orient". She accentuated her performances with dramatic hand gestures. In 1949 the American-British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein created a bronze sculpture of her hand in one of its expressive poses.


Later life

Zefira's popularity in Israel waned in the 1950s, possibly because of public dissatisfaction with her choice of art music over Hebrew song. In 1959, she contended that an accident had permanently damaged her vocal cords, although she continued to perform on occasion before small audiences. In the 1960s, she studied drawing in Israel and abstract painting in Paris, and mounted a few exhibitions. She gave her last concert in the mid-1970s at the
Tel Aviv Museum of Art The Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world. History The Tel Aviv ...
. Zefira published her autobiography, ''Kolot Rabim'' ("Many Voices"), in 1978. The book details "the folk songs of Oriental Jews in Israel, and songs of the Bedouin and the peasants, which had influenced the songs of the Land of Israel in the 1920s and 1930s". In 1989, Zefira released a recording of her poems.


Awards and honors

In 1966, Zefira received the Engel Prize for introducing Eastern melodies into Israeli music, symphonies, and folk songs over a 30-year career. The Israel Philatelic Federation issued a stamp in her honor in 2012. Streets in Jerusalem and
Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...
were named for her. The Tel Aviv municipality posted a commemorative plaque in her honor in 2008.


Musical legacy

Zefira's success in blending Eastern melodies with Western harmonies influenced the later music careers of European composers who worked with her, including Nahum Nardi and Paul Ben-Haim. Other Middle Eastern Jewish singers who were inspired to study European vocal technique following Zefira's lead included Naomi Tsuri and Hana Aharoni.


Personal life

Zefira was married to her first husband, pianist Nahum Nardi (1897–1984), from 1931 to 1939. They had one daughter, Na'amah Nardi (1932–1989), who also became a singer, performing at
La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
. In 1940 Zefira married Ben-Ami Zilber, a violinist with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra; they were married until his death in 1984. Their son,
Ariel Zilber Ariel Zilber (; born September 23, 1943) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. Biography Ariel Zilber was born in Tel Aviv. His mother, Bracha Zefira, was a popular singer of Yemenite Jewish origin and his father, Ben Ami Zilber, play ...
(born 1943), became a popular Israeli singer-songwriter. Zefira died on 1 April 1990 and was buried in the
Kiryat Shaul Cemetery Kiryat Shaul Cemetery () is a 320-dunam (32 hectares) Jewish burial ground in Northern Tel Aviv near the neighborhood of Kiryat Shaul. On the east side of the cemetery is a large military cemetery. Founded in 1943, it includes more than 80,000 gr ...
in Tel Aviv. News of her death was not broadcast in the media and her funeral was sparsely attended.


Discography

Zefira's 78 rpm
phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...
s were: *"'' Ein Adir''" (
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
) *"'' Ein Adir K'Adonai''" (Kol Zion) *"''Eshtachave''"/"''Yismach Har Zion''" (Reena, Tslil) *"''Hamavdil''" (Reena) *"''I Have a Garden''" (Columbia Records) *"''Tsuri Goali Yah/Hamavdil''" (Tslil)


Bibliography

*''Kolot Rabim'' ("Many Voices: The Nobility of Obliged Belonging"), Tel Aviv, Masada, 1978


References


Sources

* *


External links


"Shir Ha-'avoda Ve-ha-melakha" ("Song of Labor and Work")
Bracha Zefira accompanied by Nahum Nardi, 1936 newsreel
Selected recordings
National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Judaism, Jewish Cultural heritage, heritage. The library holds more ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zefira, Bracha 1910 births 1990 deaths Israeli stage actresses 20th-century Israeli actresses 20th-century Israeli women singers Israeli people of Yemeni-Jewish descent Jews from Ottoman Palestine Jews from Mandatory Palestine Musicians from Jerusalem Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery Jewish women singers Jewish Israeli actresses Jewish musicologists Israeli women musicologists