Background
Yafa Abramov (later Yafa Gustin and Yafa Yarkoni) was born in Giv"at Rambam (today a neighbourhood of Giv"atayim) to a Jewish family that immigrated from the Caucasus.
Yafa Abramov (later Yafa Gustin and Yafa Yarkoni) was born in Giv"at Rambam (today a neighbourhood of Giv"atayim) to a Jewish family that immigrated from the Caucasus.
At the age of ten, she studied ballet dancing under Gertrude Kraus, one of Israel"s dance pioneers.
She was dubbed Israel"s “songstress of the wars” due to her frequent performances for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, especially in wartime. She was from a Mountain Jewish family. Yarkoni married Shaike Yarkoni in 1948.
They had three daughters.
In 2000, Yarkoni was diagnosed with Alzheimer"s disease. That year she appeared for the last time on a television show produced in her honor by the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
In 1948, during Israel"s War of Independence, Yarkoni joined an Israel Defense Forces song troupe affiliated with the Givati Brigade. Bab el-Wad, a song she performed at the time, became a classic, sung every year on Israel"s Memorial Day.
After the war, she performed songs for a program on the Kol Yisrael radio station.
Most of Yarkoni"s songs were written by Tuli Reviv and Haim Hefer. Yarkoni also performed some of Naomi Shemer"s early children"s songs. Among her most well-known songs are "Don"t Say Goodbye, Say I Will See You," about a soldier parting from his girlfriend before battle, and "Road to Jerusalem," about soldiers transporting food to Jerusalem when the city was under siege in 1948.
On 1 January 2012, Yarkoni died at Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv.