Posthumous Album for Israeli Legend

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Crossposted from Haaretz
Nearly six years after his death at the age of 73, the multitalented performer Yossi Banai remains an icon of Israeli culture. Next month will see the release of the album the writer, actor, singer and dramatist was working on when he died, in May 2006.
The album, “Old Songs,” consists of Banai’s words, set to music composed and performed by some of Israel’s best-known musicians. The first single, performed by Berry Sakharof, will reach radio stations on Wednesday.
Banai’s collaborators on the album included a son, Yuval Banai, and a nephew, Ehud Banai. “Old Songs” was completed after Banai’s family, including his widow, Aviva, gave their blessing to the Helicon recording company.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
