Yitzhak (Isaac) Levy

Yitzhak Levy was an Israeli singer-songwriter, musicologist and composer in Judaeo-Spanish. He also worked as director of a radio program and was an author of various works on musicology.

Biography

Yitzhak Levy was born in Manisa, near İzmir, to a Sephardic Jewish family, and moved with his parents to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 at the age of three. He studied at the Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv at the Samuel Rubin Israel Academy of Music, where he developed his baritone. Levy composed music for Biblical verses and piyyutim written by poets of the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, such as Judah Halevi, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Abraham ibn Ezra, and others.
In 1954 he founded a series of broadcasts in Judaeo-Spanish for the Israeli public radio, Kol Yisrael. With his wife Kohava Levy, Yitzhak Levy had four children, including Yasmin Levy who continues his musical tradition. Kohava Levy is also a singer of Sephardic songs and is a skilled interpreter of Sephardic music. In 1963 he was nominated as director of the section of ethnic music of Kol Yisrael.