Musicראובן ירון

Reuven Yaron

Reuven Yaron was an Israeli composer and conductor who was killed as a soldier in the 1956 Sinai War.

1932 to 1956Co-founding the Rinat ChoirComposing "From the Song of Songs"Falling in the Sinai War

Born: 18 September 1932, Zagreb
Died: 3 November 1956, Sinai Peninsula
Occupation: composer

Reuven Yaron was born in 1932 in Zagreb

Reuven Yaron was born Ruben Mihael Freiberger in 1932 in Yugoslavia. He was the only child of Irena Freiberger and Rabbi Miroslav Šalom Freiberger, who served as chief rabbi of Zagreb.

During World War II his father arranged for a group of Jewish children to leave Zagreb, and the boy was among them. He traveled through Istanbul and reached Mandatory Palestine in 1943, where he joined Kibbutz Sha'ar HaAmakim. His parents and other relatives who stayed behind were killed in the Holocaust.

He took the Hebrew name Reuven Yaron and studied music in Tel Aviv with the composer Mordechai Seter. He was among the founders of the Rinat Choir. In 1956 the choir won first prize at a choir competition in Paris with 16 countries taking part, performing a work he composed.

Yaron composed 10 songs for solo voice and choir and 2 instrumental pieces. His work "From the Song of Songs" received the Nissimov Prize.

On November 3, 1956, he was killed in battle near Dahab while serving as a reserve soldier in the Sinai War. He was buried at Sha'ar HaAmakim.