Yoram Taharlev
| Yoram Taharlev | |
|---|---|
 Yoram Taharlev, January 2008 | |
| Native name | יורם טהרלב |
| Born | January 24, 1938 |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation |
poet lyricist author comedian |
| Website |
www |
Yoram Taharlev (Hebrew: יורם טהרלב; born January 24, 1938) is a prominent Israeli poet, lyricist, author and comedian. Hundreds of his songs were composed and recorded by Israel's prominent composers and performers and are considered a sang reflection of the ever-changing Israeli culture.
His works have a significant role in creating and formulating the “Israeli identity”.
Biography
Early life
Yoram Taharlev was born January 24, 1938 in kibbutz Yagur to Yaffa Yitzikovitz and author and poet Haim Taharlev. During his military service, he served as a reporter for an army newspaper.
His works
Taharlev wrote several songs and melodies, most of them for festivals and various competitions, including the Israeli Song Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest. Likewise, he also published many poetry and song books. For many years he served as a publisher for the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Taharlev has a very diverse repertoire. Among his songs, one can find love songs, patriotic songs, songs about nature and about friendship and humorous songs. His song Ammunition Hill (Hebrew: גבעת התחמושת Givat Hatachmoshet) is among his many songs which struck a chord with the public due to its authentic description of the battle at Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill during the Six Day War. Be My Friend, Be My Brother (Hebrew: היֵה לי חבר היֵה לי אח Heye li Haver Heye li Ach) is a well-known song about friendship and The Ballad of Yoel Moshe Salomon (Hebrew: הבלדה על יואל משה סלומון HaBalada Shel Yoel Salomon) sung by Arik Einstein, which starts off with the words "On a humid morning in 1878" (Hebrew: בבוקר לח בשנת תרל"ח BeBoker Lach BeShnat Tarlach) is a description of an episode in Israeli history (the founding of the town of Petah Tikva).
A Secular reading of Holy books
After writing hundreds of poems, in the last 20 years, Taharlev dedicated himself to the reading and writing about the holy and traditional Jewish books and writings.
Taharlev: “I am reading the holly texts with secular eyes”. He wrote several books, in which, he review and analyze old Jewish texts.
Taharlev labels this works as: “a fresh and humoristic look at the holy and traditional Jewish books and writings”.
His interpretations are highly regarded by the secular and the religious communities. His Book: “Al Birkey Avot” (perush to ‘Pirkey Avot’) was among best sales in 2016.
His book “Simchat Tora” – is a well researched and humoristic commentary of all the ‘torah portions of the week’.
“Tharlev’s has a considerable successes in bringing closer to the Jewish tradition, people who are draw back, from everything which is seems to be religious and traditional” (Prof. Yona Shamir).
Taharlev exposed them to the beauty and the brilliance of it. His slogan is “learn with joy and smile”!
From Tharlev’s facebook: “If the religious and traditional books were being conveying to us in such way and a smile, we could find out much more about our roots and we wouldn’t be so detached from them”.
The “Israeli Prize” laureate, Eliyahu Ha’Cohen said: “although being born in a kibbutz and a main lyricist of the army bands and pop songs, Taharlev drowns a lot of his motives and inspiration from the bible; he is the most “Jewish” among the Israeli lyricists”.
Songs
One cannot visualize a national or private event, heart-breaking or joyful without Taharlev’s songs or poems. During the agriculture Jewish Biblical holidays, the National memorial ceremonies, weddings and the earth reserving battles, his songs are giving the spirit and the soul to the events.
“Go and walkabout the country”, became the slogan of the Nature reserve associations, “Be my friend, be my brother” is sang in every memorial, the “Ammunitions Hill” became a symbol of the “Independence day” ceremonies, the “Green mountain” about the Carmel mountain (the place Taharlev was born) is a symbol of the “Tu be’Svat holliday (the trees holiday). This song is the most popular among the Israeli kids, though, they are singing it without the last heart-breaking lines in which Taharlev is describing the bringing back to the mountain a fallen comrade who, like him, was born there. But the mountain stays always green.
The song By His Hands He Will Bring (Hebrew: על כפיו יביא Al Kapav Yavi) sung by Rivka Zohar, was written after an encounter with an unemployed carpenter, in a poor neighbourhood, who was sitting in his empty workshop with the hope of building a chair for the prophet Elijah who will come and redeem him from his troubles. His song "Hora" (Hebrew: הורה), endowed with the Israeli flavor, sung by Avi Toledano, won second place at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982.
Many of Taharlev's songs were written from his childhood experiences in kibbutz Yagur among which are The Mountain Which is Always Green (Hebrew: ההר הירוק תמיד HaHar HaYarok Tamid) written about Mount Carmel near Yagur, Four In The Afternoon (Hebrew: ארבע אחר הצהריים Arba Ahar HaTzhorhayim) about life in the kibbutz, In The Grove Near The Trough (Hebrew: בפרדס ליד השוקת BaPardes LeYad HaShoket) written about the tree groves where he worked and would often at times come to for solitude, and Shadow And Well Water (Hebrew: צלומי באר Tzel Ve Mei Beer) about an event from 1945 during which a group of immigrants were brought to Yagur after being release from a detention camp in Atlit to hide from the British. In the song he wrote "He whose hut has fallen dormant will walk through the door and may forever stay".
His songs were composed by many of Israel's finest composers among which are Moshe Vilenski, Nachum Hayman, Nurit Hirsh, Matti Caspi, Moni Amerillio, Shalom Hanoch and Efy Netzer. The first one to compose his songs was Nachum Hayman from Beit Alpha to whom Taharlev sent the lyrics of the song You, Me and the Wind (Hebrew: את ואני והרוח At Ve Ani Ve HaRuach) with a request to compose it. The song was performed by the singing group The Parvarim (The Suburbs).
Taharlev had a special connection with composer Yair Rosenblum and together they produced many hits for the Israeli Army bands among which are There Are Some Girls (Hebrew: ישנן בנות Yeshnan Banot), Be My Friend, Be My Brother (Hebrew: היה לי חבר היה לי אח Heye li Haver Heye li Ach), Ammunition Hill (Hebrew: גבעת התחמושת Givat HaTachmoshet), Song of the Paratrooper (Hebrew: שירו של צנחן Shiro Shel Tzanhan) and No Way Back (Hebrew: אין כבר דרך חזרהEin Kvar Derech Hazara). Many other songs written for the army bands were humorous songs like Hasake (Hebrew: חסקה), He Isn't So Smart (Hebrew: הוא לא כל כך חכם Hu Lo Kol Kach Haham), The Chaperone (Hebrew: המלווה HaMelave), Yideshe Piratan and Dying (To See Her Tonight) (Hebrew: אני מת לראות אותה הלילה Ani Met Lirot Ota Halayla), patriotic songs like An Angel From Jacob's Ladder (Hebrew: מלאך מסולם יעקב Malach MeSulam Yaacov), All Your Wonders Have Not Ceased (Hebrew: עוד לא תמו כל פלאייך Od Lo Tamu Kol Pla'ayich), Get Up And Tour The Country (Hebrew: קום והתהלך בארץ Kum Ve Hithalech BaAretz), To the Nahal (Hebrew: אל הנח"ל El HaNahal), Accordion Player (Hebrew: נגן אקורדיון Nagan Accordion), Ben-Gurion (Hebrew: בן-גוריון) and more. Another collaboration of the two is It Is Time (Hebrew: זה הזמן Ze HaZman) which was sung by Nira Gal.
Many others of his songs were composed in the pop and rock musical genres such as You Can't (Hebrew: אינך יכולה Einech Yechola) performed by The High Windows, Ya'ale Ve Yavo performed by Gidi Gov and Electricity Flows Through Your Hands (Hebrew: חשמל זורם בכפות ידייך Hashmal Zorem BeKapot Yadecha) sung by Ruti Navon. Among many of the other performers of his songs are Yoram Gaon, Hava Alberstein, Yardena Arazi, The Yarkon Bridge Trio, The Parvarim, The Dudaim, Edna Lev, The Hamtzitzim, Ilanit, Boaz Sharabi, Ilana Robina, Matti Caspi, The Boots Band and more.
Taharlev also wrote many children's songs for the Israeli Children Songs Festival like My Family (Hebrew: המשפחה שלי HaMishpacha Sheli) for Shlomo Nitzan, Barba'aba and Mr. Apchi for Tzipi Shavit, We Won't Stop (Hebrew: לא נעצור Lo Naatzor) and Come Back Romance (Hebrew: שובי רומנטיקה Shuvi Romantica) sung by Yardena Arazi, Donald Duck by Mike Burstein and more. The song The Way to the Village (Hebrew: הדרך אל הכפר HaDerech El HaKfar) was written for Rivka Zohar and based on her life from childhood and up till her return to Israel after a harsh drug ordeal in the United States. The song was composed by Nurit Hirsh for the Festigal in 1985 and it won first place. A year later, Taharlev and Hirsh wrote Piece of Heaven (God's Plot) (Hebrew: חלקת אלוהים Helkat Elohim) which was also performed by Zohar and it too won first place.
Taharlev was awarded a lifetime achievement award for Hebrew poetry by the president of Bar-Ilan University with the reasoning that Taharlev is one of the most potent lyricists of our time in Hebrew poetry and that he is a meaningful contributor to the renewed culture of Israeli song.[1]
In 2016, at the Haifa Children's Theatre Festival, The First Kiss (Hebrew: הנשיקה הראשונה HaNeshika HaRishona) based on Taharlev's earlier works, won first place in the youth category. Taharlev was also awarded a token of recognition by the Haifa Theatre Company.
Personal life
In 1963, Taharlev met poet Nurit Zarchi while they were philosophy majors at Tel Aviv University. A short while after that, in August 1963, they married. They had two daughters, artist Roni Taharlev and Arela. At the beginning, Taharlev and Zarchi lived in kibbutz Yagur, where their eldest daughter Roni was born but later on moved to Petah Tikva and from there to Rishon LeZion and eventually to Tel Aviv. After thirteen years of marriage, they separated. In 1978, Taharlev married Linda, a United States citizen. They gave birth to a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Michal. Linda passed away in 2011. Currently, Taharlev resides in Tel Aviv. Taharlev and Batia Keinan, ex-spokesperson for the president Ezer Weizman, married in 2014. A public square was named in his honor in the town of Or Yehuda. His songs are engraved in stone throughout Israel including Petah Tikva and Jerusalem.
Discography
- 2005 Yoram Taharlev - Get up and tour the country
- 2008 Yoram Taharlev - No way back - 4-CD set
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yoram Taharlev. |
- Official website
- Taharlev, Yoram (10 April 2009). "בוא שיר עברי זוהר בדשא" (in Hebrew). Haaretz. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
- Ely Eshed, Songs by Yoram Taharlev
- "ימי תרבות 2014: יורם טהרלב בטור מיוחד על הכותבים שהכי השפיעו עליו" (in Hebrew). Walla!. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2017.