YEHORAM GAON

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Name Surname: Yehoram Gaon

Place and date of birth: Jerusalem, 28 December 1939

Education: Beit Kerem Primary School; Beit Kerem High School

Profession: Singer, actor, director, comedian, television and radio host, book writer and editor.

Biography -

He was born in 1939 in the Beit Hakerem district of Jerusalem. His father, Moshe-David Gaon, was a famous historian and educator, born in Sarajevo, from a family that had lived in Jerusalem for five generations. His father met and married Sara Hakim, who was born in Izmir, while he was teaching in Izmir; they married and immigrated to Jerusalem .

Yehoram joined Tsahal in 1957. He joined the “Nahal” group in the army and took the first step of his career in performing arts. After his military service, he joined the "Hayarkon Gesher Trio".

In early 1960’s he left Israel to study acting in New York and graduated from the TV Production Institute with honors.

He was chosen as the leading actor in the musical "Casablan" and this became his first major professional success. The musical was repeated more than 600 times. Gaon then started to fulfill his dream of a brilliant career as a singer, actor, and director. He produced nearly 50 albums, including Ladino music, performed intensively in Israel and abroad, and took part in television and film productions. Gaon's tremendous success would turn him into a figure of solidarity and pride for people of Sephardic descent.

In 1994, he performed at the Nobel Prize Ceremony honoring Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat in Oslo.

In addition to his work in the performing arts, Gaon joined the political arena. He was elected to the Jerusalem City Council in 1993 and worked intensively for this city, mainly as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem until 2002, especially in the fileds of culture and arts. He is also the Honorary Consul of Chile and Honduras in Israel.

Among Gaon's many contributions to Israel's cultural resources is the Moshe David Gaon Center for Ladino Studies at Ben Gurion University, which he and his brother Benny established in memory of their father.

Gaon has two children from his marriage to Orna Goldfarb: Moshe-David (named after his father) and Hila.

Works:

- “Be emtza ha derech” - (middle of the road): poems, family stories and photographs, written by himself.

- "Spices from Spain" - Ladino quotes by his father.

- "Eastern Jews in Israel" - Editor of the second edition of the encyclopedic work by his father.

- In 2017 "Od ani Poseah –“ Sipur Hayay" Hebrew autobiography

Awards - 2004 -Pras Israel- Israel Prize

- 2017 honored to light the Yom Atsmauth torch.

Outstanding and permanent contributions / Reasons for Selection:

He deserves to be part of this list, being one of the most successful representatives of Sephardic and Israeli culture and performing arts both at home and abroad.

Gaon was named the 27th greatest Israeli personality of all time in the country in a survey conducted in 2005.