Yitzhak Levy

The name Yitzhak Levy appears in Israeli public life in connection with two entirely separate individuals.[1][2] One is a Sephardi singer, cantor, broadcaster, and researcher of Ladino and Sephardic music, born in 1919 in Magnesia, Turkey, and active at Kol Yisrael radio for decades.[1] The other is Rabbi Yitzhak Levy, a Moroccan-born religious-Zionist politician who led the National Religious Party, held several cabinet posts, and retired from politics in December 2008.[2][3] Sources use both the spellings "Levy" and "Levi" for the politician, though they refer to the same individual.[2][4] This article treats the two figures in separate sections.

Yitzhak Levy was born in 1919 in Magnesia, Turkey, to Daniel Levy, a merchant, and Bikhora Zimbul Abastado.[1] He died at the age of 58.[5] His family immigrated to Palestine when he was very young—sources differ slightly on whether he was two or three years old at the time.[1][6] The family first settled in Jerusalem's Yemin Moshe neighborhood before moving to Ohel Moshe, near Mahane Yehuda Market.[6] He was one of six children; his siblings were Hannah, Israel, Rivka, Victoria (Viki), and Haim.[6]

As a child in Ohel Moshe, Levy sang piyyutim at the small local synagogue and at the nearby Yanina synagogue.[6] His voice drew such crowds that people gathered at the doors and outside the building to hear him.[6] He went on to study music and voice development at conservatories in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and later at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv; one of his teachers was the opera singer and pedagogue Herman Jadlowker.[1] He performed in concerts and on radio and television, and gave performances in Israel, Spain, and South America.[1]

In 1955 Levy began directing Kol Yisrael's daily Ladino broadcasts, and from 1963 he also directed the station's music programs for the various Jewish communities.[1] He managed the radio's Sephardic department for many years, a role that placed him at the center of efforts to keep Ladino-language culture alive on the Israeli airwaves.[6]

His documentation work produced two major series of publications. The first was a ten-volume anthology of Sephardic cantorial music; the second was a four-volume collection titled Chants judéo-espagnols, containing Spanish romances and Jewish-Spanish folk songs.[1] Some melodies were transcribed from Levy's own memory; others were gathered through systematic research and fieldwork.[1] He also published Sefer ha-romansot ha-sefardiyot shel Yitzhak Levy (The Book of Sephardic Romances of Yitzhak Levy) and recorded Ladino romances, piyyutim, and sacred songs in his own voice.[5]

The breadth of the traditions he captured is illustrated by his anthology's treatment of the piyyut "Ben Adam Ma Lekha Nirdam," for which he documented eight distinct melodies—variants associated with Sephardi Jerusalem, Izmir, Moroccan communities including Casablanca and Meknes, Cairo, and the Portuguese community of Amsterdam.[1] A two-disc collection of his performances, catalogued by the National Library of Israel with a creation date of 1980, includes romances and folk songs alongside sacred songs linked to Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Bulgaria, Morocco, and Greece.[7]

Levy collaborated with Yitzhak Navon on the musical Bustan Sephardi and worked with Yehoram Gaon in reviving the Ladino spirit in Israeli music.[5][8] The scale of what he accomplished individually was captured by Yitzhak Navon, who said: "What entire institutes and institutions do in other countries, he did alone."[7] A photograph collection spanning 1920–1990, held by the Yad Yitzhak Ben-Zvi archive as part of a joint project documenting families who built the Nahlaot neighborhoods of Jerusalem, preserves an additional dimension of his connection to the city.[6]

Beyond documentation, Levy composed original music: he wrote melodies for biblical verses and piyyutim by poets of the Spanish Golden Age, including Judah Halevi, Solomon ibn Gabirol, and Abraham ibn Ezra.[1] He also wrote songs and children's songs; among the latter, "Bamedinat ha-Gamadim" ("In the Land of the Dwarfs")—known widely through a recording by Arik Einstein—became a classic of Israeli children's music.[1]

Levy died at the age of 58 from a brain hemorrhage.[5] His wife, singer Kokhava Levy, was 31 at the time of his death, and their daughter Yasmin was still an infant; four children survived him.[5] Kokhava Levy carried on the family's Ladino musical tradition after his death, and Yasmin Levy grew up to become an internationally successful performer of Ladino music.[9] At the 2025 opening of a Tower of David Museum exhibition on Yehoram Gaon, Kokhava Levy performed Ladino songs; the report described Yitzhak Levy as one of Gaon's collaborators in reviving Ladino music.[8]

Rabbi Yitzhak Levy was born on July 6, 1947, in Casablanca, Morocco, and immigrated to Israel in 1957.[2] His family first settled in an immigrant neighborhood in Ashkelon; a year later they moved to Bat Yam.[3] His father, Daniel Yitzhak Levy, had served in the Knesset for the National Religious Party (Mafdal) in the Sixth and Seventh Knessets.[3]

Levy studied at Netiv Meir yeshiva high school, Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavne, and Yeshivat HaKotel, where he received rabbinical ordination.[2][3] After enlisting in 1966, he served in the Paratroopers' 50th Battalion and completed his military service at the rank of major.[2][3] By profession an educator, he served on the Bnei Akiva Executive and World Secretariat and worked as rabbi of the Bnei Akiva Talmudic College in Kfar Maimon.[2] He was also among the initiators of the establishment of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter and the settlement of Elon Moreh in Judea.[2]

Levy was elected secretary-general of the National Religious Party in 1986, succeeding Zevulun Hammer in that role, and first entered the Knesset in 1988.[2][3] His political activity had begun around opposition to the evacuation of Yamit.[3] Over the following two decades he served in six Knessets.[3]

When Benjamin Netanyahu's first government was formed in June 1996, Levy was appointed Minister of Transport and Energy; he soon relinquished the energy portfolio to Ariel Sharon.[2][3] As transport minister, Levy stated publicly that Israeli ports would not be privatized while he held the office, calling the subject "complicated and highly problematic" and saying other transport-ministry operations needed attention first, while adding that he was not opposed to privatization in general.[10]

Following Zevulun Hammer's death, Levy became leader of the National Religious Party in February 1998 and was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport.[2][3] He also served as Minister of Religious Affairs in rotation during this period.[2] After the 1999 election, in which the NRP won five Knesset seats, the party joined Ehud Barak's coalition and Levy was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction in July 1999.[11][2] He then resigned his Knesset seat so that the next candidate on the NRP list could enter parliament.[2] He resigned the housing ministry in July 2000.[2]

The Jewish Virtual Library reports that Levy stepped down as NRP leader in April 2002 in favor of Efraim Eitam, while Encyclopaedia Judaica lists Levy's leadership as continuing through 2003.[2][12] Levy subsequently became a Minister without Portfolio and was appointed Minister of Tourism in September 2002.[2] He resigned the tourism portfolio because of his opposition to the disengagement plan.[3] A Jerusalem Center case study reports that in 2003 he was appointed deputy minister in charge of religious affairs in the Prime Minister's Office, with a mandate to oversee the dismantling of the Religious Affairs Ministry and the redistribution of its departments. It says he resigned before the commission for selecting religious-court judges held its first meeting under Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid in March 2004.[4]

In June 2004, Levy and Efraim Eitam left the National Religious Party and formed a parliamentary group called Religious Zionism.[12] In 2005 Levy was listed among the National Union's prospective candidates for the next Knesset, placed after Benny Elon, Zvi Hendel, and Effi Eitam.[13] A 2006 Jerusalem Post party guide described Levy and Eitam as key departures from the NRP who had joined the National Union, whose main platform issue was retaining all of Judea and Samaria.[14]

By 2007, Levy and Eitam were serving as MKs in the National Religious Zionist Renewal Party, which had run as part of the National Union–National Religious Party in the previous election. The party adopted the shorter name Ahi—a Hebrew acronym for land, society, and Judaism—and Levy expressed hope that it would attract secular right-wing voters.[15]

Levy announced his retirement from politics in December 2008, citing the new Jewish Home party's use of an internet-based vote rather than traditional primary elections as a factor in his decision.[2] In a later interview, he also said that he had felt unable to influence the political system.[3] His daughter Ayelet Hashachar was killed in a terrorist attack at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market toward the end of 2000.[3]

In 2009, Levy became a senior member of the Forum for Political Reform, headed by former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar, and served as head of the administration implementing the Forum's recommendations. The forum presented its proposals to Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin in March 2011, and Levy argued publicly that reforming the system of government and electoral rules should be a priority for protesters, contending that a more stable government would be better able to make substantial decisions.[16]

During Levy's tenure as education minister, a dispute arose around a proposed costume compromise for the Batsheva Dance Company at Israel's jubilee celebrations. The dancers ultimately refused to perform in the proposed garments, and a protest the following day accused Levy of religious coercion. In a 2016 interview, Levy said responsibility had been wrongly attributed to him and that the dispute was eventually resolved.[3]