ZEIRA, MORDECHAI

ZEIRA, MORDECHAI (1905–1968), composer. Zeira was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and went to Ereẓ Israel after having been arrested in 1924 as a member of a Zionist youth organization. He joined the *Ha-Shomer Ha-Ẓa'ir pioneers' group in Jabneel and worked in road building, fishing, and construction work. Drawn to the theater and impressed by the songs of J. *Engel, he went to Tel Aviv in 1927 and joined the studio of the Ohel Theater. About 1928 Zeira went to Jerusalem for regular music studies with S. *Rosowsky, making his living as a laborer at the Dead Sea Works. In 1933 he settled permanently in Tel Aviv, where he was an employee of the Palestine Electric Corporation, steadily refusing to have his livelihood depend on his compositions. With the outbreak of World War ii, Zeira joined an army troupe which entertained Jewish soldiers in the allied forces.

Zeira wrote several hundred songs, of which more than 50 achieved a permanent and beloved place in the cultural heritage of modern Israel. The main influences evident in his work are those of the East European cantorial and Ḥasidic idioms as well as the Russian Romances and revolutionary songs, with the Near Eastern environment as a more covert but nevertheless subtly integrated element. Most important was his own extraordinary gift for melody, lyricism, and emotional intensity, and he may be called the greatest among the creators of the Israel song.

bibliography:

M. Ravina, in: M. Zeira, 111 Shirim (1960), pref.

[Bathja Bayer]