Musicברכה צפירה

Bracha Tzfira

Bracha Zefira was an Israeli folk singer and actress of Yemenite Jewish origin who brought Yemenite and Middle Eastern Jewish music into a new Israeli style.

1910 to 1990Yemenite and Middle Eastern Jewish songsCollaboration with Nahum NardiShaping a new Israeli musical style

Born: 15 April 1910, Jerusalem
Died: 1 April 1990, Tel Aviv
Occupation: singer, stage actor

Bracha Tzfira was born in 1910 in Jerusalem

Zefira was born in Jerusalem in 1910 to Yemenite Jewish parents from Sanaa. Her mother died giving birth to her, and her father died of typhus when she was 3. She grew up with an uncle and then with foster families from different communities, and learned the songs of each.

She studied in Jerusalem and later at the Meir Shfeya youth village, where a teacher noticed her voice. She was sent to Tel Aviv to study acting. In 1927 she joined the Palestine Theatre and later the satirical company HaKumkum.

In Berlin she studied at the school of Max Reinhardt and met pianist Nahum Nardi. For about a decade they performed together in Europe, the United States, the Land of Israel and Egypt, and they married and later divorced. Their daughter is opera singer Naama Nardi.

In the 1940s she worked with composers such as Paul Ben-Haim and Marc Lavry. She sang at the opening of the second Maccabiah in 1935, and her song opened Hebrew broadcasts of the Mandate radio in 1936. In 1966 she received the Engel Prize.

She later married violinist Ben-Ami Zilber, and their son is singer Ariel Zilber. She died in 1990 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.