…make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. (Isaiah 23:16)
Legendary Israeli singer Arik Einstein died suddenly at the age of 74 yesterday and will be laid to rest today, according to The Times of Israel. Einstein’s music had been previously referred to as the soundtrack of Israel.
Einstein was rushed to Ichilov hospital at around 10 p.m. Tuesday and died soon after of an aortic aneurysm, doctors said.
“We tried to operate on him but our attempts failed; he got here in too serious a condition,” hospital director Gabriel Barabash said. “There is nobody to sing for us anymore.”
There has been an overwhelming amount of public grief expressed by Israeli society for the singer whose career spanned six decades and released  44 albums.Vigils formed outside Ichilov hospital, below his Tel Aviv apartment and at Rabin Square, where media reports indicate his body may lay in state for several hours before a 5 p.m. funeral at Trumpeldor cemetery.
Israeli television channels halted their regular programming to broadcast clips and remembrances of the singer. Radio stations switched to all-Einstein soundtracks.
“We all grew up on his songs. The words of Arik Einstein were the words of the land of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement posted to Facebook. “Arik was a wonderful musician and a wonderful man. … I loved him very much. Israel bids farewell with great sadness from a giant of culture who will be missed. Me and my wife are greatly pained by his passing.”
Einstein’s wife, Sima Eliyahu, and close friends, including a number of fellow musicians, were with him in the hospital.
“This is terribly sad,” actor Haim Topol, a friend, told Ynet. “He was a happy kid, joking, funny. … There is no replacement. he was one of the greatest musicians in Israel. For decades he sang songs, sang from his heart, wrote some of them. I mean with every word that he was a singer. There are no signers like that today.”
Einstein, born in Tel Aviv in 1939, is considered the godfather of Israeli rock. He wrote classics like “Ani Veata” (Me and You), “Uf Gozal” (Fly Little Bird) and “Sa Leat” (Drive Slow).
President Shimon Peres said Einstein’s music was “a soundtrack to the whole nation.”
“He moved the earliest generations and the newer ones as one. Nobody questioned the depth of his feeling. The nation drank thirstily his beloved voice that flowed from the depths,” Peres said in a statement. “Also in passing, his songs will continue to play to life and hope.”
