Uri Kariv — an arranger, composer, and musical director who worked with Ofra Haza over many years, from her early appearances on leading Israeli TV show Sharti Lach Artzi to studio albums, recordings, and behind-the-scenes stories. In our conversation, he described Ofra as a quiet, focused, deeply professional artist — marked by rare humility and complete trust in his musical work.
Kariv served as the musical director of Sharti Lach Artzi, in the late 1970’s – one of Israeli television’s flagship programs, and recalled insisting that Ofra be brought onto the show even then:
“I insisted they bring her in… There was humility in her. Nothing over the top.”
He remembered that she never carried herself like a star, but as part of the ensemble:
“She sang one solo song and another together with the rest of the singers. She didn’t demand to do more solos.”
And he also recalled how seriously she approached the work:
“She sat down and learned the song. I felt there was a talent here that could grow into something very big.”
On the album Pituyim (1982), Uri Kariv composed and arranged both the title track and “Lavo El Tokh Ha-Perakh”. He recalled giving the melody to Bezalel Aloni and being genuinely surprised they chose to go with it:
“I gave Bezalel the melody and didn’t believe they’d go for it. It was completely different from anything Ofra had done… The musical style was totally unexpected – she didn’t do a song like that with anyone else… It was a huge opening on her part, and I was very surprised.”
Speaking more broadly about their studio work, he emphasized that the trust was absolute – and that he was given full creative freedom in his arrangements:
“They gave me complete freedom in the arrangements. They trusted me with their eyes closed.”
Kariv recalled a humorous behind-the-scenes detail from one of Ofra’s biggest hits – one he arranged:
“When we recorded ‘Yad BeYad,’ there wasn’t a ready-made clapping sound effect back then. So Ofra, Bezalel, and I did the claps you hear in the background… You can hear in the recording that we weren’t completely in sync.”
Looking back, he also remembered bold arrangement choices – like the striking guitar-driven opening of “Kayitz”:
“In ‘Kayitz,’ I decided to create a wild guitar intro. They didn’t interfere.”
Kariv described Ofra as quiet and inward – without “star behavior” and without drama:
“She was very self-contained… I never heard her break into a big rolling laugh… She was so quiet – she didn’t shout, she didn’t get angry… And even after she became very successful, she didn’t change.”
On trips abroad, he said, it was even more noticeable:
“She would go into her room… she didn’t go to restaurants, she didn’t go to pubs, she didn’t go to clubs… She’d arrive, close herself off in the room, we’d go to the show, and after the show she’d go straight back to the room.”
Within that same framework, he spoke with pride about their performance in Milan (1985), for the Jewish community, with musicians from abroad:
“In 1985, we went together to perform in Milan… and she was very, very excited.”
Regarding HaShana Inshallah, a song Ofra and Bezalel wrote especially for Yardena Arazi, Kariv recalled how Ofra immediately agreed to record it with a youth ensemble – something not every star would do:
“She was already a famous singer… I suggested we do one song with a youth group. She agreed right away—I was very surprised… She only asked that we record them separately and her separately, because she wanted quiet and didn’t want everyone in the session asking her for photos and autographs. Not every star agrees to sing with teenagers.”
He also described his own small attempt to cool things down between Yardena and Ofra:
“I asked Ofra, what’s the story with Yardena Arazi?… She said: I don’t know what people made of it. I have nothing against her. I asked her to write a short note to Yardena. Two weeks later I was on a plane with Yardena to Canada… and Yardena was totally shocked by the note Ofra wrote her.”
Kariv described seeing, up close, how Ofra composed – less in an “academic” way and more through intuition:
“I saw with my own eyes how she would write melodies. She bought herself a drum machine… you’d press ‘play’ and it would loop different rhythms. She would listen and sing, record it, and Bezalel would lay words over it. She didn’t know how to write notation or play an instrument, so this was her way of composing.”
And he ended with a line that summed up how he felt:
“Ofra touched the top of the sky. There’s no other Israeli artist who reached where she reached.”
✱ 1978 | Shir Mishmar HaGvul – Arrangement for the song on Sharti Lach Artzi.
✱ 1978 | Zecharia Ben Ezra – Arrangement for Ofra’s solo performance on Sharti Lach Artzi.
✱ 1982 | Pituyim – Composed and arranged the song that became the album’s title track.
✱ 1982 | Kayitz – A distinctive arrangement featuring an electric-guitar-driven intro.
✱ 1982 | Lavo El Tokh Ha-Perakh – A unique composition and arrangement within Ofra’s career.
✱ 1984 | Yad Be-Yad – Arrangement for one of the biggest hits of Ofra’s Israeli career.
✱ 1984 | Manginat Ha-Lev – Arrangement for the song that later gave its name to a memorial compilation dedicated to Ofra.
✱ 1985 | Etz Ha-Rimon –Arrangement for the song on the TV program Chaim She’Ka’Eleh (Israel’s version of “This Is Your Life”), in honor of Ya’akov Orland.
✱ 1985 | Le’atzmi Bilvad –Another arrangement fo Chaim She’Ka’Eleh.
✱ 1985 | Arrangements for a performance for the Jewish community in Milan.
✱ 1986 | Nous N’irons Plus – Arrangement for the French version of Manginat Ha-Lev.
✱ 1987 | Yerushalayim Shel Zahav – Arrangement for the famous Sultan’s Pool concert, alongside several of Israel’s leading artists.
✱ 1987 | Amen la-Milim – Arrangement for the Sultan’s Pool concert, alongside several of Israel’s leading artists.
✱ 1988 | HaShana Inshallah – Arrangement for a song written by Ofra and Bezalel, following Kariv’s suggestion that she record it with the Tel Aviv Scouts youth ensemble.
