Yair Rosenblum

Yair Rosenbloom (born January 6, 1944 in Tel Aviv, died August 27, 1996 in Holon, Israel) was a composer best known for his songs for for the Israel Defense Forces army and navy ensembles, which he also conducted. Rosenblum composed over 1,200 songs, many of which became Israeli folk standards or popular songs. He also composed songs for film and television. Rosenblum was credit for discovering popular Israeli singers Yardena Arazi, Gidi Gov, Shlomo Artzi, and Rivka Zohar. Of all his songs the one that is probably best known is "Shir Lashalom" (Song of Peace), which he composed in 1969, with lyrics by Yaakov (Yankele) Rotblit. On November 4, 1995 at a Tel Aviv peace rally, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres sang the song. After Rabin was shot, a bloodstained copy of the lyrics was found in his pocket. Rosenblum died after a two year battle with cancer in 1996 just 10 days before he was due to receive a lifetime achievement award from ACUM. The award was accepted posthumously by his daughter Karen.