Musicיצחק לוי

Yitzhak Isaac Levy

Yitzhak Levy was an Israeli singer, composer and musicologist who collected and published Judeo-Spanish songs and ran Ladino broadcasts on Kol Yisrael.

1919 to 1977Collecting Judeo-Spanish songsLadino broadcasts on Kol YisraelAnthology of Sephardic cantorial music

Born: 15 May 1919, Manisa
Died: 21 July 1977, Jerusalem
Occupation: singer, composer, musicologist, radio editor

Yitzhak Isaac Levy was born in 1919 in Manisa

Yitzhak Levy was born in 1919 in Manisa, near Izmir, to a Sephardic Jewish family. In 1922 he moved with his parents to Mandatory Palestine.

He studied music and voice at the conservatory in Jerusalem and at the music academy in Tel Aviv, where he developed his baritone voice.

He set Biblical verses and piyyutim by poets of the golden age of Spanish Jewry to music, and also wrote Hebrew children's songs. Kol Yisrael began Ladino broadcasts in 1954, and in 1955 he became director of the daily Ladino programs. From 1963 he headed the station's ethnic music programs, and he collected Ladino songs and Sephardic cantorial music from elders and wrote them down in notation.

He published a book of Judeo-Spanish romances and folk songs and an anthology of Sephardic cantorial music. He worked with Yitzhak Navon on the musical Bustan Sefaradi and encouraged singers such as Yehoram Gaon to record in Ladino.

He died in 1977 at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and was awarded the Jerusalem Prize months later. His archive is kept at the National Library, and his daughter Yasmin Levy carries on his musical tradition.