Naomi Shemer

Naomi Shemer (Hebrew: נעמי שמר; July 13, 1930 – June 26, 2004) was a leading Israeli musician and songwriter, hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry." Her song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold"), written in 1967, became an unofficial second anthem after Israel won the Six-Day War that year and reunited Jerusalem. Naomi Sapir (נעמי ספיר) was born to Rivka and Meir Sapir (Sapirov) in Kvutzat Kinneret, an Israeli kibbutz which her parents had helped founding, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal entertainment troupe, and studied music at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, and in Tel Aviv with Paul Ben-Haim, Abel Ehrlich, Ilona Vincze-Kraus and Josef Tal.Encouraged by her mother, Naomi started playing the piano at the age of six. In 1935, at the age of five, Naomi and her mother traveled for a family visit to Vilna, where she met her aunt Berta, her father's only sister, and her family. Her aunt and her family were all perished in the Holocaust.

After completing her high school studies, she postponed her military service, despite the opposition of some group members, and embarked on music studies. Initially at the Israeli Conservatory in Tel Aviv and later at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Among her teachers were Paul Ben-Haim, Frank Pelleg, Abel Ehrlich, Ilona Vinze-Kraus, and Josef Tal. When she returned to the group after her studies at the academy, she taught the kibbutz children rhythmic skills, giving rise to her first songs, such as "The Mail Arrived Today" and "Our Little Brother" (Yaffa Yarkoni recorded them years later on her album "Songs from the Sea of Galilee" about her brother Yankale).

In 1951, after a deferment of about 4 years, she enlisted in the IDF and served in the Nahal Brigade as a pianist. In 1953, she met the actor Gideon Shemer while they were both serving together at an event for the Kibbutz Movement in Netzer Sereni. In 1954, they got married and had a daughter.