Menachem Zilberman (1946-2014) was an entertainer, actor, and director. Zilberman spent his military service with the Nachal Troupe (‘lehakat hanachal’), taking part in some of the most memorable iterations of the band who produced the hit programmes From the Nachal with Love, and The Nachalites are Coming, The Nachalites are Coming, where classic hit songs such as If Birds (‘ili tziporim’), I was a Boy (‘hayiti naar’), Waltz for Nature Protection (‘vals lehaganat hatzomeach’), and Rain Cometh (‘geshem bo’) were first performed.
After completing his military service, Zilberman studied at the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts. Following his graduation, he appeared in a range of popular variety shows including Tzaz and Tzaza, and City of Men. However, his claim to fame came when he was cast as the lead alongside Yael Aviv in Hedva and Shlomik (‘hedva ve’shlomik’), which is considered Israel’s first-ever television series.
Zilberman collaborated with members of Israeli rock band Kaveret (aka Poogy), several of whom he had served with in the military. In the band’s early days, Zilberman would pop up in their gigs as the emcee, and also helped to co-write the songs Baruch’s Boots (‘hamagafyim shel baruch’) and This Way She’s in the Middle (‘kacha hi baemtza’). He also wrote numerous tunes and sketches including the famous and much-loved Dudu Topaz skit, Saturday Trip, more commonly known as Moshe and the Orangeade. He is considered one of the country’s stand-up comedy pioneers and his show, A Night without the Missus, ran upwards of 600 times.
In the early 1970s Zilberman headed to California to study film at USC, only to return to Israel two years later when the Yom Kippur War broke out. In 1978, he became one of the creators of cult comedy satire programme, Zehu Ze (‘that’s it!). In 1989, he directed the film April Fool’s (aka April Fool). Highlights of his acting credits include The Rooster (‘ha-tarnegol’) (Uri Zohar, 1971), Halfon Hill Doesn’t Answer (Assi Dayan, 1979), and Am Yisrael Hai (Assi Dayan, 1981).
Zilberman immigrated to Los Angeles in the noughties. He passed away in 2014.
