Ofra and family

Описание: short segments from the documentary, Ofra Haza Chayeha Ve'Motah (Her Life and Her Death), Feb 2002.
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an excerpt from Ofra Haza's biography by Daniel.
http://www.ofra.haza.co.il/
"All the great success Ofra received did not change her. During the time of her success in Israel, she still visited her parents' home almost daily, and visited her brothers and sisters on Sabbaths, and when she was abroad for long periods of time, she never gave up on the strong bond with home. On one of the holiday evenings, the phone was kept open, so Ofra could listen to her father singing the holiday prayers.

"Once we were abroad on Friday night", says Shuli. "We searched for Sabbath candles (Jews light candles on Friday night to welcome Sabbath and bless it), but couldn't find any, so Ofra told me: `Hold two matches, instead of two candles, and I'll bless them'. I held and she blessed two Sabbath matches. I held it until my hands almost burned. When we didn't have wine (Jews bless the wine on Friday evening, to bless the Sabbath) Ofra blessed Sabbath with Coca-Cola". "On each and every birthday of one of the grandchildren in the family, Ofra would always call, from wherever she was, to sing `happy birthday to you'", says Ester, Ofra's sister.

If there was something in the world Ofra loved more than anything, it was children. "Ofra raised my children", says Shuli. "She had maternal sense, and children were the love of her life. After all, we were raised in a family that was blessed with children and grandchildren running around. She was expecting children of her own".

The emotional bond with her family members was more valuable to her than her career and the number of CDs sold in the stores. Shuli remembers the `surprise of her life' she got from Ofra. "I loved it in the USA, but I was missing my parents badly. I haven't seen them in a year, and it was like a million years. One day, Ofra took them in a plane to America. Two old people who had never left Israel. For two weeks she didn't go anywhere without them. Two weeks, practically hand in hand. She took them everywhere, in the biggest limousine in America: from Atlantic City to the amusement park in Coney Island. They were like small children taken on a trip, and Ofra was thrilled to give them this experience"."