Singer Yaffa Yarkoni Dies at 86

Image by Avi Simhoni

By Ben Shalev January 3, 2012

Crossposted from Haaretz

Yaffa Yarkoni, one of Israel’s greatest and best-loved singers, passed away January 1 in Tel Aviv at the age of 86, following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Image by Avi Simhoni

Lyricist Avi Koren, a close friend of the singer’s for 45 years, recalled yesterday that Yarkoni, an Israel Prize laureate, once said to him: “Look how I am fooling the entire world — after all, I have no voice.”

“She may not have had a voice, but she was the voice of the country. My mother listened to Yaffa Yarkoni; my grandson listens to Yaffa Yarkoni; and she accompanied us, the members of my generation, all our lives,” Koren said yesterday.

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