Departures of note

Ili Gorlitzki was born in Tel Aviv on 14 July 1935 and joined the Cameri Theater's drama school at 17, becoming one of its most prominent young actors in productions such as The Good Person of Szechwan (1955) and He Walked in the Fields (1956). In 1956 he enlisted in the Central Command entertainment troupe, where he was the soloist on Naomi Shemer's song "Hamsinim BaMishlat." He became famous for his leading role in the 1964 Cameri musical King Solomon and Shlomi the Cobbler, alongside Yona Atari and Rachel Attas, a production that became a beloved Israeli classic. He also appeared in films including Three Days and a Child (1967) and Tevye and His Seven Daughters (1968), dubbed the snake Kaa in the Hebrew version of The Jungle Book, and hosted the television series Popular Science in the 1980s. Beyond performing, Gorlitzki was a founder and first chairman of the Israeli artists' union AMI (1979-1987) and in 1983 established Eshkolot, the performers' rights company that distributes royalties to Israeli artists, serving as its CEO for 37 years. He also wrote two books of philosophy, The Hidden Secret (2002) and Tahiru (2006), and was named a Yakir (honored citizen) of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 2019.