About
Israeli soldier, composer and son of Miroslav Šalom Freiberger, the chief rabbi of Zagreb and Croatia. He died in 1956. After taking music lessons in Tel Aviv, he studied with composer Mordechai Seter. At 15 he conducted a choir. In 1956, his Rinat Choir, which he conducted, won first prize at an international festival in Paris.
Before Fame
After escaping the Nazis in Zagreb and arriving in Palestine in 1946, he was adopted by Avraam and Lina Avni and accepted into the Sha'ar HaAmakim Kibbutz.
Trivia
When he got to Palestine, he Hebraized his name and surname to Yaron, which means "singer" or "to sing."
Family Life
His full name is Reuven Mihael Freiberger. He was born in Zagreb and was the only child of Rabbi Miroslav Šalom and Irena (née Steiner) Freiberger. During World War II, at the end of 1942, Yaron's father had escorted the last group of rescued Jews from Zagreb to Budapest and Istanbul, from where they were transferred to Mandatory Palestine. Among the ten underage girls and boys was Yaron. His father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, and aunt were all killed in the Holocaust.
Associated With
He was killed while fighting as a soldier in the Suez War. Also known as the Suez Crisis, the conflict involved Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Great Britain Prime Minister Anthony Eden, and France's Premier Guy Mollet.
