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All Music Guide:
When Chava Alberstein (b. circa 1946) was only four years old, her parents moved from their hometown of Szczecin, Poland, to Israel; since then, Alberstein has become CBS Israel's longest-tenured artist, with nearly fifty albums to her credit (many performed in Hebrew). Alberstein's first love was traditional Yiddish music, but she came to embrace various folk, traditional, and worldbeat styles from all over the globe. Alberstein scored her first Israeli hit record in 1964, the year she was drafted into the army; 34 years later, in 1998, Shanachie made a best-of collection titled Crazy Flower available in the U.S. Later that year, Alberstein set the poems of several 20th-century Yiddish writers to music, resulting in a collaborative album with the Klezmatics entitled The Well. Yiddish Songs followed in early 2000.
Wikipedia:
Chava Alberstein (Hebrew: חוה אלברשטיין, born December 8, 1947, in Szczecin, Poland) is an Israeli singer, lyricist, composer, and musical arranger.
Biography
Chava Alberstein, born in Szczecin, Poland, moved to Israel with her family in 1950. She grew up in Kiryat Haim.
In 1964, when she was 17, she was invited to appear at the Hammam Nightclub in Jaffa. She sang four songs accompanied by herself on guitar and her brother Alex on the clarinet. The program was broadcast live on the radio. After a guest appearance on Moadon Hazemer, recorded on Kibbutz Beit Alfa, she signed a recording contract with CBS. Early in her career, she appeared at the Amami Cinema in Haifa's Neve Sha'anan neighborhood. Haaretz columnist Neri Livneh describes her as "a little slip of a thing in a blue youth movement shirt, her face covered by huge glasses."
Alberstein was drafted into the Israel Defense Force in 1965, and became one of many Israeli artists to rise to stardom by entertaining the troops.
Musical career
Alberstein has released more than 60 albums. She has recorded in Hebrew, English and Yiddish. In 1980, Alberstein began to write and compose. Most of the songs on her album Mehagrim (Immigrants) are her own work. Alberstein's husband is the filmmaker Nadav Levitan, who wrote the lyrics for her "End of the Holiday" album. In 1986 she wrote music for Levitan's film Yaldei Stalin (Children of Stalin). Her songs have been included in a number of multi-artist collections, among them "Songs of The Vilna Ghetto" and "The Hidden Gate – Jewish Music Around the World."
Critical acclaim
According to Israel's largest daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Alberstein is the most important female folk singer in Israel history:
If [Israel has] a true folk singer, it is Chava Alberstein.Political views and controversy
Alberstein is a champion of liberal causes. Throughout her career she has been an activist for human rights and Arab-Israeli unity. In 1989, Alberstein's song Had Gadya (a spin-off on a traditional song named Chad Gadya which is sung at the Passover seder) in which she criticizes Israel's policy towards Palestinians, was banned by Israel State Radio. The song was later used in the movie Free Zone by director Amos Gitai in Natalie Portman's 7-minute crying scene.
Alberstein is also a champion of the Yiddish language both in her recordings and in a video titled "Too Early To Be Quiet, Too Late To Sing" which showcases the works of Yiddish poets.
Awards
Alberstein won the Kinor David (David's Harp) Prize.
In 2005, she was voted the 93rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
