Tzipporah (“Venus”) Lane was born and raised in a musical family of the Paradesi Jewish community in Kochi, Kerala. A close relative of the song expert Ruby Daniel (1912-2002), she grew up well acquainted with the traditional Malayalam Jewish women’s songs. After earning a BSc in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Kerala, she worked as an accountant in Kerala, and then in Israel after her aliyah in 1972.
Venus was an active participant in the Kochini song revival in Israel that began in the early years of this century, initially as an active member of the “Nirit Singers” performance group that was organized and led by another Kochini song expert, Galia Hacco. In addition to performing for many of the solo and group recordings on the Playlist of this book, Venus has been the key collaborator in our English translations of the songs. Venus, Galia, Scaria Zacharia and Barbara C. Johnson participated in a series of 2006 academic presentations on the songs in the Washington, D.C. area.
Barbara Johnson and Venus Lane at the Indian Embassy reception in Washington, April 2006.
