Yitzhak Isaac Levy

1919 – 1977

Isaac Levy was born in Manisa, near Izmir, to a Sephardic family and lived with his parents in Palestine (1922) until the age of three. He studied the Conservatory of Music in Jerusalem (now the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance) (Hebrew: האקדמיה למוסיקה ולמחול בירושלים‎), and in Tel Aviv at the Samuel Rubin Israel Academy of Music where he developed his baritone. Isaac Levy composed music for Biblical verses and hymns written by poets of the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, such as Judah Halevi, Ibn Gabirol, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and others.

In 1954 he founded for the Israeli public radio, Kol Yisrael (‘Voice of Israel’), a series of broadcasts in the Djudeo Espanyol language. With his wife, Kohava Levy (born in 1946), Isaac Levy had a daughter, 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. He was also the editor of the magazine Aki Yerushalayim.