Yafa Yarkoni

Yafa Yarkoni (יפה ירקוני, also Yaffa Yarqoni, 24 December 1925 – 1 January 2012) was an Israeli singer, winner of the Israel Prize in 1998 for Hebrew song. She was dubbed Israel's "songstress of the wars" due to her frequent performances for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, especially in wartime. She was from a Mountain Jewish family. She was awarded with the Israel Prize for the Music of Israel.

Biography
Yafa Abramov (later Yafa Gustin and Yafa Yarkoni) was born in the south of Tel Aviv to a Jewish family that immigrated from the Caucasus. At the age of ten, she studied ballet dancing under Gertrude Kraus, one of Israel's dance pioneers.

Yafa was the middle child in a family of three children, with an older sister, Tikva (born in 1921), and a younger brother, Benjamin (born in 1927). When she was eight years old, her parents divorced, her father left the country for Rhodesia (where there was a Jewish community) and the family suffered from a difficult financial situation.

In the 1930s, she moved with her mother and brother to Givat Rambam (now a neighborhood in Givatayim), where her mother opened a cafe-restaurant called "Tzlil" (translated to "sound"), which gained popularity, especially among security personnel and artists.

In the 1940s, her mother ran a café in Givat Rambam, where Yafa performed with her sister Tikva and her brother Binyamin. On 21 September 1944, she married Joseph Gustin, who fought in World War II with the Jewish Brigade and was killed in battle in Italy in 1945. She began her artistic career at a young age, when she performed together with her sister and brother at the family cafe in Givat Rambam. The group they created, "Bamati" (the initials of the names of the four family members) - the singer Tikva, the dancer Yafa and the pianist Binyamin - He was successful in the Battle of the Cafe visitors, and following the recommendation of the singer and actor Shmuel Fisher, she was accepted to study at Gertrud Kraus's classical dance studio, where she also learned to play the piano, and a few years later she was also accepted into Kraus's troupe of dancers, which operated next to the Palestine National Opera.

She performed with the troupe for 12 years, until in one of the shows in 1945 she was injured in her leg and had to abandon her dancing career.

On September 21, 1944, she married Joseph Gustin. Gustin (originally Gortin), born in 1918, was a member of the Gordonia youth movement in his city of Lutsk (then in Poland, now in Ukraine), and after training he immigrated to Israel in 1938 and joined the nucleus that founded Kibbutz Neve Yam.

The two got married at the end of a two-year acquaintance, and the day after their marriage he volunteered for service in the British Army (these were the days of World War II) and was enlisted with his friends to the Jewish Brigade. Gustin was killed on March 29, 1945 in the campaign on the Senio River, in the Italian arena.

The song "Uri", performed by the widow Yafa Gustin, was written in his memory by Raphael Kalchkin and composed by Issachar Miron. In 1945, Yarkoni's mother and younger brother also changed their last name to "Gustin", as a tribute to Yafa's fallen husband.

At the end of 1947, Yarkoni enlisted in the Haganah as a radio operator, and continued to do so during outbreak of the Independence War as part of the Givati Brigade. She got her first experience as a singer in the "Ha-Hishtron" band of the brigade that was established during the war to which she was joined.

The duo of creators Toli Reviv and Bobby Panhassi wrote for the band salon music songs that were used as background music for dances and were later identified with Yarkoni, including "Don't tell me goodbye", "Sharhoret" and "It only happened only this time".

Two songs she sang at that time became the symbols of the difficult war: "Ha'amini Yom Yavo" brought especially for her by the actor Rafael Kalchakin and she sang it for the first time in front of the convoy escorts to Jerusalem, and "Bab al-Wad" written by Haim Guri in memory of the convoy escorts about a year after the end of the fighting.

In 1948 she remarried to Shaika Yarkoni. Yarkoni, born in Tel Aviv in 1920, the son of Moshe (Shaike) Yarkoni (Shachopak), one of the managers of the Mashbir, was a member of the Haganah (imprisoned by the British for about two years in the detention camp in Beltron) and one of the founders of the Hish (Haganah corps) (and later one of the "heroes" of the affair which was one of the grounds for the libel suit he filed Amos Ben-Gurion, his friend against the volunteer line organization), and a businessman.

The two were parents of three daughters. Sheika Yarkoni died on August 29, 1983.

Success as a singer
As Israel was established, still during the lull in the battles of the War of Independence, Yarkoni recorded a record at the "Radio Doctor" studio that was a great success. In particular, the hit "Green Eyes", which is considered the first pop song in Israel, became famous. After that, Yarkoni was signed to the record label Hed Artzi, which had just been established, and began recording all her albums there. She recorded the album "Bab al-Wad" which was composed of the songs of the War of Independence, including "Ha'amini Yom Yavo" which she performed during the war as well as "Gentlemen, history returns", "Hafinjan", "Han Pasha", "Dudo" and "Zano At" who became more identified with her than with the Cheesetron, the original performers of the songs. In 1951 she recorded a successful album composed of folk dance songs.

In the 1950s and 1960s she became a leading singer in Israel, and her songs - especially the national songs she recorded in 1948: "In the Negev Steppes" (lyrics: Raphael Kalchkin) and "The Grandmother in the Negev" (lyrics: Avshalom Cohen) - were played many times on the program "As You Request Hebrew Songs" In Kol Yisrael.

Her main success among the audience (and less among the radio editors) was in the salon music songs she recorded, the waltz and tango songs, which were also used as background music for dancing in the cafes at that time. In 1959, she released the album "Nirkoda Im Yafa Yarkoni", which collected many lounge songs that were identified with her, including "Habibi", "Arzeno HaKatanonat" and "Sh'Harhoret". The media used to attribute her rivalry with the singer Shoshana Damari, who was also very popular at the time, although this is not true and the two even collaborated several times.

In the 1950s she recorded a number of children's albums, two of which were particularly successful: the album "Children's Songs as You Request" from 1953, which included the children's song written by Avshalom Cohen "A Cart with a Horse", which was recorded back in 1948, and "Dubon Yambo" ( Also: Yumbo), written by Yehiel Mohar, and the album "Shirim MiKinneret" from 1957, which was dedicated to the children's songs written by Naomi Shemer in the Kvutzat Kinneret and exposed Shemer to the general public, with songs such as "The Mail Comes Today" and "Ahinu Little Brother". She also released a record of holiday songs for children and recorded other songs that became hits for children, including "Aba Shlei" ("My father has a ladder..."), written by Thelma Eligon. At the 1965 Singer and Chorus Festival, she won first place with the song "Ayelet Ha'Hen", which was also performed by Aric Einstein at the festival, with lyrics by Oded Betzer, music by Natan Shahar and arrangement by Yitzhak Graziani. A year later, at the 1966 Singer and Chorus Festival, she won again with the song "Autumn Night", which Aric Einstein also performed at the festival, with lyrics by Chaya Cohen, a melody by Haim Tzur and an arrangement by Shimon Cohen.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Yarkoni also performed in renowned halls and clubs in the world, mainly in the United States, London and Paris. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Olympia in Paris, Palladium in London as well as in Japan, Australia and Russia. During the sixties she even spent four years in the United States, recorded three records there and performed many shows. In Paris she met Boaz Sharabi who was performing there at the same time and recorded his song "Pamela" for the first time.

In a television special on Independence Day in 1969, Yarkoni performed the song "When We Were Children" (written by Uri Assaf and composed by Moshe Wilensky) which became one of the songs that was most identified with her. During the seventies she recorded a number of pop songs, including the hit "All the Pigeons" (1971) and a duet with Svika Pick called "Erev Stav Yaffe" (1976). With Pick she even performed in a joint show, which was not particularly successful.

Three more children's hits were performed by her as part of the Children's Song Festival in the 1970s: "En Den Dino", "I like to whistle" and "My Little Sister".

In 1986, the program "Such a Life" was dedicated to her.

In the years 1991-1992, together with her son-in-law Meir Suisa, she participated in the children's TV series of the First Channel "Hag Sameah with Faya Yarkoni", each episode of which was broadcast on one of the holidays.

In 1994, she played a secondary role for the first time in the movie "The Siren's Song", based on the book by Irit Linur.

In 1996, she released the duets album "Singing with Yafa Yarkoni" in which the best artists performed her songs in a duet with her, including Shoshana Damari, Aric Einstein and Chava Alberstein. Yarkoni won the Israel Prize award in the 50'th year for the State of Israel, 1998. In the same year, a five-volume collection of her poems was also published called "Yafa Yarkoni since then until now, 1948-1998". The collection also included a new song called "Dancer", written by Naomi Shemer based on Yarkoni's life story, with references to her being a dancer at the beginning of her career, her performances in the War of Independence, her songs "about the war and peace" up to the present day.

In 1999 she participated in Festigal as a guest artist.

In the summer of 2000 she recorded her last song, "Now it's been years (and it's hard to remember)". In the same year, a triple collection was released with 62 hits.

Most of Yarkoni's songs were written by Tuli Reviv and Haim Hefer. Yarkoni also performed some of Naomi Shemer's early children's songs.

Public action, political views, and personal life
Yarkoni was known to be involved in the state's matters. She performed hundreds of performances in front of the soldiers in Israel's wars and between the wars, she did not shy away from appearing right at the front of the battles and thus earned the nickname "Singer of the Wars", even though she did not like it and preferred to be called "The Soldiers' Singer".

She used to be involved in politics as well, and often voiced her political views identified with the Zionist left. In 2002, during Operation Defensive Shield, Yarkoni spoke out on the IDF's "What's Burning" Army Radio against soldiers who marked numbers on the arms of Palestinians, "We are a people that went through the Holocaust, how are we able to do such things?" she said. These words of hers were interpreted in the media As a comparison between the actions of the IDF in the territories and the actions of the Nazis in the Holocaust.

According to her, she did not make such a comparison but only tried to protest a specific act. This statement caused a media storm with right-wing people calling for a boycott.

Many threats and hateful letters were sent to her and even an event in her honor that was produced by the Israel Artists Union was cancelled. After a while, when the storm subsided, the Union of Israeli Artists produced an evening in her honor and in December 2006 a large salute evening was held for Yarkoni at the Heichal HaTarbut with the participation of many artists.

In 2000 Yarkoni was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and in 2008 her condition worsened. She died on January 1, 2012, at the age of 86 in Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv. She was buried next to her husband Sheika in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery. In 2007 she appeared for the last time on a television show produced in her honor by the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Family
Yarkoni was the mother of three daughters: Orit (1950), Tamar (1953) and Ruth (1956), grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of eight. Her eldest daughter, Orit Shohat, is a former journalist at Haaretz (married to Yigal Shohat, a doctor, a former pilot who was captured by the Egyptians during the War of Attrition and the chief medical officer of the Air Force). Her youngest daughter, Ruti Yarkoni-Suisa, was married to actor Meir Swissa (their joint children are music producer Yishai Suisa and rapper Michael Swissa).

Yarkoni has two brothers as well as a half brother. Her two brothers worked as musicians. Her sister, Tikva Handel, recorded some songs in 1947, accompanied by Nahum Nardi and Shmuel Fershko. She later moved to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, where she founded a Jewish school. Later she immigrated to the United States and settled in New York.

Recognition and commemoration
In May 2014, a memorial plaque was placed at the entrance to her home at 23 Dov Hoz Street in Tel Aviv. Streets were named after her in the cities of Holon, Afula, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin, Rosh HaAyin and Rishon LeZion. The city of Givatayim named after Yarkoni a square at the intersection of Remez and Rambam streets.
 * Memorial plaque to the singer Yaffa Yarkoni in Tel Aviv.JPG - Union of Israeli Artists award
 * 1998 - Israel Prize for Hebrew song
 * The City's Dear of Tel Aviv

In 2018, an exhibition dedicated to Yafa Yarkoni was presented at the "Hava" gallery in Holon. The exhibition featured diaries written by Yafa Yarkoni, album covers and photographs from her private album, dresses, jewelry and fashion accessories of Yaffa Yarkoni.

Its archives are deposited in the music department of the National Library in Jerusalem.

In 2021, the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa inaugurated a new inclusive elementary school, in the north of the city, named after the singer.