Esther Gamlielit

March 13, 1919–October 17, 2012

by Nathan Shahar
Last updated June 23, 2021

Yemenite singer, dancer, and actress Esther Gamalial, late 1930s. Via Wikipedia Commons.

In Brief

Esther Gamlielit was a talented Yemenite singer, dancer, and actress. As a young woman, Gamlielit belonged to the Biblical Ballet founded by ballerina Rina Nikova in the late 1920s. Through her appearances with the Biblical Ballet, Gamlielit’s talents as a singer also came to light, leading to performances on the "Kol-Yerushalayim" radio station, founded in 1936. As a result of her radio exposure, Gamlielit was invited to participate in the Matate satirical theater troupe, whose musical director, the well-known composer Moshe Wilensky (1910–1997), was also the theater’s house composer. Gamlielit became famous within for her performances of songs with the Yemenite-style pronunciation of the Hebrew letters het and ayin. Gamlielit was prominent in a lineage of Yemenite singers, after Brachah Zefira and before Shoshana Damari.

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Bibliography

Bar-on, Yaakov. “Esther Gamlielit: A Legend of the Land of Israel.” Habama, November 13, 2012.

Friedlander, Nili. “The Queen of the Endearing Song.” Maariv, January 30, 1970. [Hebrew]

Shahar, Natan. Song, Song, Please Ascend: The Birth of the Hebrew Song. Modan: 2006. [Hebrew]

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