Mordechai Zeira

Mordechai Zeira was born in 1905 in Kyiv

Zeira was born Dmitry Greben in Kyiv in 1905. He studied mechanics at the Kyiv Polytechnic for 2 semesters, then left to work sewing shoes. In 1924 he was arrested for belonging to Hashomer Hatzair, but he was allowed to leave the Soviet Union and moved to the Land of Israel.

He joined Kibbutz Afikim, where he led an orchestra of comb players, and wrote his first song, Blue Shirt. Moshe Halevy brought him to Tel Aviv to study acting. In 1927, after meeting composer Yoel Engel, he turned to composition and studied with Shlomo Rozovsky and David Shor.

In 1928 he published a collection of songs with Yitzchak Shanhar and took the name Zeira on the advice of Aharon Ashman. He married Sarah Gutman in 1933, and their son Yuval was born in 1935. From 1933 he worked at the Israel Electric Corporation, first reading meters and later as a bookkeeper.

In World War II he served in the British Army and helped found the Jewish Brigade band Me'ein Zeh. Many of his songs responded to events of the time, including Layla Layla, written during a British curfew. He retired in 1966 and died in 1968.