lit a candle 10h agoMy father in law used to play Hag Li on an old cassette in the car, didn't understand a word of it but you couldn't not hum along. Saw a clip of the Kazablan scene shared online last year, that voice. 80 is no age.
Their story
Moshe Hillel was an Israeli singer and actor, known throughout his career as "the Singing Paratrooper", who had a string of hits in the 1970s, including "The Boy with the Banjo", "Al Tira Yisrael" and "Hag Li", and was a regular presence at the Israeli Oriental Song Festival. He died…
Moshe Hillel was an Israeli singer and actor, known throughout his career as "the Singing Paratrooper", who had a string of hits in the 1970s, including "The Boy with the Banjo", "Al Tira Yisrael" and "Hag Li", and was a regular presence at the Israeli Oriental Song Festival. He died on 6 November 2026 at the age of 80.
He was born on 18 January 1946 in Petah Tikva. Orphaned at a young age, he was brought up on Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael on the Carmel coast. He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces and served in the Paratroopers Brigade. After his discharge he began performing at the evenings hosted by the writer and broadcaster Dan Ben-Amotz at the Hamam club in Jaffa. Ben-Amotz and the entertainer Uri Zohar dubbed him "the Singing Paratrooper", a nickname that stayed with him for the rest of his life and became his trademark.
His breakthrough came in 1970 with "The Boy with the Banjo", which climbed high in the Israeli hit parade. In 1971 he was invited to the Oriental Song Festival, where his song "Yaakov HaTam", better known as "Al Tira Yisrael" (Fear Not, Israel), took third place. He returned to the festival several times, finishing second in 1972 with "Lo Hevel HaYofi". In 1976 "Hag Li" topped the annual hit parade. He recorded an album of his festival songs and other hits such as "HaMatador", "Tzel Gufech" and "Shir Shabbat".
He also worked in film and theatre. In Menahem Golan's 1973 musical film Kazablan he appeared as the mohel in the circumcision scene and sang a verse of the celebrated number "Kulanu Yehudim" (We Are All Jews). During the Yom Kippur War he performed with the Golani Brigade entertainment troupe the song "Al Shlosha Pish'ei Damesek", written at that time. He later appeared in Giora Godik's musical "Mazal Dagim" and sang "Haim Gnuvim", the theme song of Yehuda Barkan's film "Abba Ganuv".
In the 1980s and 1990s he ran pubs and clubs, where he hosted fellow artists and continued to perform his songs. In 1996 he took a break from singing and joined the vehicle location company Ituran, where he worked for eight years, before returning to the stage. Late in life he enjoyed a revival: in 2020 he won first place at HaShir HaBa, a festival set up to continue the tradition of the classic Israeli song festivals, and in 2022 the festival gave him a special award in recognition of his career.
His death was reported by Ynet, N12 and Haaretz on 6 and 7 November 2026. The cause was not made public. He was survived by his wife, Sarit.
Biography adapted from Hebrew Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); Ynet and Ynetnews (Yoav Birenberg, 6 Nov 2026); N12 (Amit Atias, 6 Nov 2026); Haaretz (7 Nov 2026); NEWSru.co.il (6 Nov 2026). Wikipedia ↗
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1Moshe Hillel
by People Forever
That cassette copy, so many of us had one.