Tribute to Elie Botbol (1954 - 2018)

Originaly of Meknes, Elie Botbol settled in Paris where he worked as a doctor-psychiatrist. A learned man, he taught at the synagogue of Boulogne Billancourt in which he was vice-president. He officiated also at the centre communautaire of Paris.

His passion for music brought him to found in 1979 the famous children’s choir « Les Chévatim » that he will lead for almost 40 years and for whom he writes songs some of which became big hits, particularly in Jewish communities all over the world.

The track Bar mitzva dans la joie is part of the original soundtrack of the film Coco by Gad Elmaleh (2008). The track Gam Gam, sold in millions of copies and charted number 1 in Italy, is sung in the original soundtrack of the film Années d’enfance about the Holocaust by Roberto Faenza (1994).


In 2017, Élie Botbol and his wife chose to live in Israel with their children. Élie Botbol disappeared the 4th November 2018 in Jerusalem.