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Ms. Yarkoni died of pneumonia after a years-long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter Ruth Yarkoni-Suissa told Israel’s Army Radio.
Ms. Yarkoni’s career largely echoed Israel’s own history, and she became a symbol of the generation that built the state, her classic ballads harking back to a time Israelis remember as more heroic and less complicated.
One of her most beloved songs, “Bab el Wad,” is an ode to the Israeli fighters who died in ambushes while driving convoys to Jerusalem during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The lyrics were written by Haim Gouri, who later became one of Israel’s national poets.
Yitzhak Rabin, who went on to become prime minister, commanded the brigade that captured the area where the ambushes occurred. In a television interview shortly before his assassination in 1995, Mr. Rabin said “Bab el Wad” was one of his favorite songs.
That and other vintage songs sung by Ms. Yarkoni became anthems of Israeli memorial days.
Though she was renowned for performing for the troops on the front lines, Ms. Yarkoni told interviewers in her later years that she did not like being known as “the songstress of the wars” — and that she was hurt by critics who said she had built a career on the back of military conflict.
In 2002, she caused an uproar at the height of Israel’s military offensive in the West Bank meant to quell the violent second Palestinian uprising. She criticized the military and expressed empathy for the Palestinians, telling Army Radio: “We are a nation that went through the Holocaust. How can we do things like this to another nation?” She described Israel as “leaderless.”
Coming after months of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli cities, her comments touched a nerve in Israeli society, which is particularly sensitive to any comparisons made between its actions and those of Nazi Germany.
Ms. Yarkoni was branded a traitor by some. An organization of Israeli patriots canceled a gala concert that had been planned in her honor.
Still, Ms. Yarkoni’s death prompted an outpouring of popular affection.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that her songs “were the soundtrack of Israel from its pre-state days, through the establishment of the state until our time.” President Shimon Peres said that while the Israeli military “conquered enemy positions, she conquered the hearts of the soldiers.” He called her the “nightingale” of the army and the entire nation.
Yaffa Abramov was born on Dec. 25, 1925, in Tel Aviv, to parents who had immigrated from the Caucasus. She began performing as a child with her siblings in a cafe run by their mother that became popular with artists.
She joined a local ballet company and married in 1944. Her husband, Joseph Gustin, joined the Jewish Brigade of the British Army and was killed in action in Italy in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II.
In 1948, she married Shaike Yarkoni, and together they had three daughters, Orit, Tamar and Ruth. Mr. Yarkoni died in 1983. Ms. Yarkoni is survived by her daughters, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
She initially served as a wireless operator during the 1948 war, but soon joined an army entertainment unit.
As her career progressed, Ms. Yarkoni moved from singing mostly nationalistic songs to ballroom dance music, being a fan of swing, jazz and blues.
She was surprised and upset by the furor over her Army Radio interview in 2002. “How can anybody call me a villain?” Ms. Yarkoni said in an interview at the time with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. She added, “Every time I see an Israeli flag, I cry.”
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