Yehuda Poliker

Biography

Yehuda Poliker was born in Tel Aviv in 1950 to Greek-Jewish parents from Salonika (Thessaloniki), both of whom survived the Holocaust. His father, Zako, was a bouzouki player, and the sounds of Greek and Ladino music filled Poliker's childhood home.

In the 1980s he teamed up with lyricist Yaakov Gilad to create a series of landmark albums that fused Israeli rock with Greek, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern sounds — a sound later dubbed 'Mizrahi' or Mediterranean rock.

The 1988 album 'Afar VeAvak' (Ash and Dust) was a turning point: one of the first Israeli rock albums to confront the Holocaust directly, through the eyes of the second generation. Poliker sang about his parents' destroyed world with a tenderness and grief that resonated across Israeli society.

He is also a master instrumentalist — bouzouki, guitar, accordion — and has remained one of Israel's most beloved and respected musicians for over four decades.

Recently the police phoned him in the middle of the night: a fan was standing on the edge of a high floor, threatening to jump, and said he would come down only if he could speak with Poliker. Poliker took the call, talked to him — and saved his life. It is the clearest proof of what his songs mean to the people who grew up on them.

Quick facts

Born

Tel Aviv, 1950

Heritage

Greek-Jewish (Salonika)

Landmark album

'Afar VeAvak', 1988

Instruments

Guitar, bouzouki, accordion

Songs by Yehuda Poliker with Hebrew lyrics

• Afar VeAvakAsh and Dust · 1988

Culture quiz: Yehuda Poliker & Israel

Test what you know about Yehuda Poliker, the song's Hebrew words and Israeli culture.