Meir Ariel

Meir Ariel was born in 1942 in Mishmarot

Meir Ariel was born in 1942 and grew up in Kibbutz Mishmarot. His father, Alexander (Sasha), was one of the kibbutz founders and ran the school his son attended. As a youth Ariel wrote poems, and his friend Shalom Hanoch set them to music for the kibbutz singing group.

He joined the paratroopers in 1960 and fought in Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. Right after the war he wrote "Jerusalem of Iron" to the tune of "Jerusalem of Gold", and became known as "the singing paratrooper". He did not want a career built on that image.

In 1968 he went to Detroit with his family as an emissary of the kibbutz movement, and there he was influenced by Bob Dylan. After returning he fought in the Yom Kippur War and went back to Mishmarot. He released his first album in 1978 and served as kibbutz secretary from 1983 to 1985.

The family moved to Tel Aviv in the late 1980s. He released more albums and poetry books through the 1990s. In 1991 he and his wife were arrested over drugs, and he was sentenced to community service, probation and a fine. He died in 1999.