Rachel Shapira

Rachel Shapira was born in 1945 in Shefayim

Rachel Shapira was born in 1945 on Kibbutz Shefayim. She began writing songs at age 12 and sent some to children's magazines under a pen name. On the kibbutz she worked as a special education teacher, focusing on reading problems and dyslexia.

In 1967 she wrote a song in memory of Eldad Kravek, a kibbutz member who fell in the Six-Day War. Composer Yair Rosenblum found it in a memorial booklet, set it to music as "Mah Avarekh", and the Navy Band recorded it with soloist Rivka Zohar. After its success, her other songs reached a national audience.

From the early 1970s she worked with composer Moni Amarillo on many songs, including "Tzipur Bageshem" in 1971. In 1978 Chava Alberstein released an album of her songs called "Hitbaharut", and in 1989 Gali Atari released an album of her songs called "Bereshit". Her songs were also sung by Ilanit, Ruhama Raz, Yardena Arazi, Margalit Tzan'ani and others.

She describes her songs as personal ballads tied to the Land of Israel. She also wrote Hebrew versions of foreign songs. She received the ACUM Prize for lifetime achievement in 1999 and the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor in 2022.