אריק איינשטיין
Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein (Hebrew: אָרִיק אַייִנְשְׁטָייִן, pronounced [ˈaʁik ˈaɪnʃteɪn]; 3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actor, and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Israel". Through both high public and critical acclamation, Einstein is regarded as the greatest, most popular, and the most influential Israeli artist of all time.
An illustrious musical career that has spanned over 50 years saw Einstein recording over 500 songs and releasing, collaborating, and featuring in 34 albums, far more than any other Israeli musician. Through the years collaborated with many well-known Israeli singers and songwriters, including Shalom Hanoch Yoni Rechter, and Shmulik Kraus. Einstein wrote many of his own songs and was a vocalist with The Churchills, Green Onion and The High Windows.
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Arieh Leib Einstein was born and raised in Tel Aviv. His father, Yaakov, was an actor with the Ohel theater. Einstein was Israel's junior high jump and shot put champion, and also played basketball for Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C. His father urged him to audition for an army entertainment troupe, and he was accepted into the Nahal Brigade troupe.
In 1963, Arieh Einstein married Alona Shochat in the hall of Habima Theater (where he was onstage in a production of Irma La Douce). After four years of marriage, during which their daughter Shiri was born, the couple divorced. A year later, in 1968, they remarried. Their daughter Yasmin was born in 1971. They divorced again in 1972. Alona Einstein died in 2006 from cancer. Arik Einstein's second wife was Sima Eliyahu, whom he met shortly before filming the movie Metzitzim in 1972. They had a daughter and a son: Dina and Amir.
Despite a successful career of acting and singing, Einstein was the shy type and a homebody. In one of his songs he sang that his greatest pleasure was staying home with a cup of lemon tea and his books, and in this he was sincere. In a candid interview that was shown on TV, he said that performing in front of big crowds was difficult for him (without the help of a few glugs of cognac beforehand). For this reason he ceased to perform public concerts from the year of 1981 and on, despite many attractive offers which in the late 1990s even reached seven figures. In 1982 he was hurt in a major car accident. His wife was also hurt, and another friend lost her life. Following the accident Einstein's eyesight, which was already myopic, got worse and he spent less and less time in public.
Einstein was also well known for his love of sports and his deep knowledge of sports trivia, for which he jokingly nicknamed himself "world champion in unimportant information". He was an avid fan of Hapoel Tel Aviv sports club, for which he competed in his youth, particularly Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. and Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C. Several of his songs mention his love for sports in general and the Hapoel Tel Aviv clubs in particular. Fans of Hapoel's basketball team started a petition for the team's new arena, which was inaugurated in 2015, to be named after Einstein.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said of Einstein "Arik, you are Israel. The beautiful and charming Israel that we all grew up to adore."
In 2009, Haaretz columnist Ariel Hirschfeld wrote: "Arik Einstein's well-known reclusiveness, his ordinariness, his averseness to pomposity and grandiosity, his modest way of belonging to this place – these should not hide from those living here the fact that he is a very great and profound artist, with an acute artistic conscience, perfect and totally unique."
A prominent music critic, Yoav Kutner, described Einstein stating "Arik Einstein is more than the greatest Israeli artist of all time. Einstein is the real Israel himself."
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On 26 November 2013, Einstein died age 74 after a ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm. He arrived at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center unconscious after he collapsed at his home earlier in the day. His hospitalization in the hours leading up to his death was closely monitored and reported by every news network in Israel with all three major news channels broadcasting the developments as "breaking news" for hours. At the news of Einstein's death, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement describing his songs as the "soundtrack of Israel."President Shimon Peres stated that he was beloved for his voice that "came from the depths" and his songs would "continue playing life and hope" long after him. Israel's leading radio station, Galgalatz, played his songs for 48 consecutive hours. He was buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv. Prior to the funeral, his body lay in state in Rabin Square, where thousands gathered to pay their respects.
Einstein's funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, including the Prime Minister, Israel's leading artists and musicians, and hundreds of friends and family. The burial was led by one of his closest friends, Uri Zohar, a former Israeli film director, actor, and comedian who became a rabbi and with whom Einstein has 17 common grandchildren (two of Einstein's daughters became religious and married Zohar's oldest sons). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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