Ran Eliran (Menachem Leizerovich) was born in Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine. He was the middle child among three siblings. His Polish-Jewish parents ran a bakery. In the late 1950s, he formed one of the first Israeli folk-style duos, Ran and Nama with Nechama Hendel. In 1958, Ed Sullivan visited Israel looking for young performers to appear on a special show celebrating Israel's tenth anniversary. Eliran and Hendel were the finalists. While the name Ran was not a problem for English speakers, they could not pronounce Nechama, so the duo became known as "Ran and Nama."[1] After their television appearance, the duo toured the United States for a year and a half.[2] Eliran was the first Israeli singer to perform in Las Vegas.[3]

In 1962, Eliran became an entertainer for the Israel Defense Forces. One of his greatest hits was the Sharm el-Sheikh song, composed after the Six-Day War. In the mid-1970s he appeared in a Broadway musical, "Don't Step on My Olive Branch" with Israeli performers Rivka Raz, Ruti Navon, Riki Gal and Hanan Goldblatt.[4] Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.