Rika Razal on her brother's recovery, women-only prayer and returning to music
Musician and singer Rika Razal told Channel 7 that her brother, singer, composer and conductor Yonatan Razal, is improving after a health scare. She said people everywhere ask about him, adding, “By God’s grace, Yonatan is getting better every day. He speaks, he eats. It all takes a little time, but God willing, the direction is good,” and thanked the public for its prayers.
Razal said her monthly women-only Rosh Chodesh prayer and musical Hallel gathering will be dedicated tomorrow, Monday, to her brother’s recovery. She described the event as a source of spiritual renewal for Jewish homes and said the monthly Hallel tradition has been held for several years. In her view, Rosh Chodesh is a special holiday given to women, and the event brings “new renewal and energy” to homes across Israel.
She said the gatherings are meaningful because they bring together women from across society. “What makes me very happy is the unity there,” she said, noting that ultra-Orthodox, secular and national-religious women attend and that there are no barriers, only gratitude.
Razal also reflected on growing up in a musical home, shaped by her father’s strict but loving musical education and family performances with her brothers Yonatan and Aharon Razal. After the brothers’ religious return, the family stopped performing together. Razal married, raised eight children, worked in real estate, and wrote songs privately for years, encouraged mainly by her husband, Yoni. She returned to public music at age 40, later closed her real estate office, and now performs at women’s events and with her daughters, Michal and Halli.
She said she sometimes calls herself a “women’s doctor” because her music is especially suited to women and “heals the female heart.” Over the past two years of the Gaza war, she said these events have become a therapeutic space for many women, including bereaved mothers and mothers of hostages. She also volunteers with Menucha V’Yeshua, which supports widows, hosts them for Shabbat, and recently took them on a 10-day trip to the United States.
