Arik Einstein

Arik Einstein was born in 1939 in Tel Aviv

Arieh Lieb Einstein was born in Tel Aviv in 1939, the only child of Ya'akov Einstein, an actor at the Ohel Theater, and Dvora, who was active in Na'amat. He studied at Ironi D high school in Tel Aviv and was a member of the HaShomer HaTzair youth movement.

As a teenager he competed for Hapoel Tel Aviv. He was Israel's junior champion in high jump and shot put, and he also played basketball for the club.

Poor eyesight kept him from becoming a sports instructor in the army, so he auditioned for the Nahal troupe and was accepted. There he first sang as a soloist and got the nickname Arik.

After his release in 1959 he worked in theater and with Batzal Yarok, then formed the Yarkon Bridge Trio. He acted in Sallah Shabati in 1964 and joined The High Windows in 1966. He later recorded with the Churchills, Miki Gavrielov, Shalom Hanoch and others, and took part in the TV show Lool.

He stopped performing live in the early 1980s and kept recording in the studio. He released an album in 2004 and a song for Gilad Shalit in 2011. He died in 2013.