Bat-Sheva Ofra Haza was commonly known in the Western world as “The Israeli Madonna“, or “Madonna of the East”. She was born on 19 November 1957 and lived until 23 February 2000.

At the age of 12, Haza joined a local theater troupe, and manager Bezalel Aloni noticed her singing talent. He spotlighted her in many of his productions and later became her manager and mentor. At 19, she was Israel’s foremost pop star, and news articles have retrospectively described her as “the Madonna of the East”

Ofra Haza cause of death: How Ofra Haza did die?

Ofra Haza’s death caused a huge disturbance in the media world, as the result the cause of her death was revealed to be AIDS. Ofra Haza died on 23 February 2000, at the age of 42, of AIDS. While the fact that she was HIV-positive is now generally known, the decision by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz to report it shortly after her death was controversial in Israel.

There were many speculations as to where Ofra Haza had contracted the disease. Many had said her husband Doron Ashkenazi, had infected her with the disease. 

Haza’s manager Bezalel Aloni supported this belief, writing in his book that Haza acquired AIDS through sex with her husband. It was later revealed that her husband believed Haza became infected because of a blood transfusion she received in a hospital following a miscarriage.

Ashkenazi himself died of a drug overdose roughly one year later on 7 April 2001, leaving a daughter from a prior marriage and a 14-year-old adopted son, Shai Ashkenazi. Haza is buried in the Artists section of Yarkon Cemetery in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

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