Rika Zaraï

Rika Zaraï was born in 1938 in Jerusalem

Rika Zaraï was born Rika Gozman in Jerusalem in 1938. Her father came from Odessa and her mother from Valozhyn.

She studied piano at the Jerusalem Music Conservatory and won a first prize. She also studied education at the Beit HaKerem teachers seminary.

In 1958 she married composer Yochanan Zarai, and their daughter Yael was born in 1959. She starred in the musical Hamesh Hamesh at the Ohel theater, with music by her husband.

After her divorce she married French musician Jean-Pierre Magnier and moved her work to France. In 1969 she had hits with Casatschok and Alors je chante, and she sang Israeli songs such as Hava Nagila for French audiences. That year she was badly hurt in a car accident and later turned to natural medicine.

Her 1985 book Ma médecine naturelle sold widely but drew opposition from French pharmacists. She returned to singing in 2000 with the album Hava, had a stroke in 2008, and sang in Paris in February 2020. She died on 23 December 2020 in Paris.