Arik Lavie

Arik Lavie was born in 1927 in Erfurt

Lavie was born in Erfurt, Germany, in 1927 as Leo Alexander Hauben. His father, a medical student from Riga, left before he was born, and his mother later married Frank Inselsbacher, who gave him his surname. In 1936 he emigrated to Mandatory Palestine with distant relatives, without his parents, and studied in Kfar Yehoshua.

In 1945 he joined the Jewish Settlement Police and began performing while serving. In 1947 he joined the Carmel band. In the 1950s he acted at the Cameri Theater and sang with The Three Strings, a group of shepherds' songs, before starting a solo career.

He was among the first Israeli singers to perform pop songs. His song The Red Rock, about Petra, was banned from broadcast after claims that it encouraged young people to cross into Jordan. He performed for soldiers during Israel's wars, and after the Yom Kippur War and during the Lebanon War he recorded songs against war.

On stage he often worked with his wife, actress Shoshik Shani, including the 1963 show He and She by Ephraim Kishon. His films included Hill 24 Doesn't Answer and Operation Thunderbolt. He released albums through 1998, and his last album of rare 1970s recordings opened with his Hebrew version of My Way.

Lavie died in Petah Tikva in 2004 of heart disease and was buried at Yarkon Cemetery. In 2009 the Israeli Stamp Service issued a stamp in his memory.