November 19: Ofra Haza

Israel’s first international pop star, Ofra Haza, was born in the impoverished Hatikvah neighborhood of Tel Aviv on this date in 1957. Haza came from Yemenite background and fused styles of instrumentation, orchestration and rhythms that bridged the Jewish and Arab communities (she was voted Israel’s “Female Vocalist of the Year” four years in a row, 1980 to ’83). Haza provided the voice for Yocheved, Moses’ mother, in the Disney animated film, The Prince of Egypt, and sang the movie’s theme song, “Deliver Us.” After surviving a plane crash in 1987, she died thirteen years later at age 42 of AIDS-related pneumonia, possibly linked to a blood transfusion following a miscarriage. The fact that a star with a clean-living, even virginal image could die of AIDS engendered much public conversation about the stigmatizing disease. Gan Ofra, a park in Hatikvah, is named in her honor.

“Born in the back alleys of Tel Aviv’s worst slum, Haza rose from the poverty of her underprivileged Yemenite street to become a musical superstar. She became in many ways the best musical representation of Israel, singing without embarrassment old folk songs [and] religious music. . . . She defied the pop establishment, carried a book of Psalms with her everywhere, observed Jewish tradition with pride. Her dark-skinned beauty and innocence were as if out of the Song of Songs.... And she died of AIDS.” —Steven Plaut, University of Haifa

Watch Ofra Haza sing “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” live (with English subtitles)