She was raised by a succession of Sephardi Jewish foster families in the city and imbibed the musical tradition of each, as well as the local Arabic songs.

She rose to stardom in the 1930s with her musical interpretations of Yemenite and Middle Eastern Jewish folk songs, accompanied by Western arrangements on piano by Nahum Nardi.

[2] Her father, Yosef Zefira, had immigrated to the Land of Israel from Sanaa, Yemen, in 1877, and resided in the Nachalat Zvi neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Three years later, when that family left Jerusalem, Bracha lived with a widow in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, where the neighbors were mostly Sephardi Jews from Salonika.

[4] Bracha imbibed the religious liturgies, piyyutim, and festive songs of each culture she lived alongside, which would manifest in her later musical career.

[3] Henrietta Szold, then head of Youth Aliyah, arranged for her to study acting and music at the studio of Max Reinhardt in Berlin.

[3][2] During her time in Germany, Zefira sang before notable personages including Albert Einstein and Max Nordau, and also performed at Jewish venues around the city.

In her book she wrote: I sang Bialik's "Yesh Li Gan" and "Bein Nahar Prat" for him, and Sephardi piyyutim ... and other songs that I was used to singing from Shefeyah.

He was a quick study with an excellent ear and a light touch at the piano, and was familiar with Hebrew lyrics, although from a traditional galut (Diaspora) perspective.

Zefira continued collecting folk songs from Middle Eastern Jewish, Arab, and Bedouin sources, to which Nardi wrote piano arrangements.

[4] Among Zefira's sources were old women from Middle Eastern Jewish communities; Yitzhak Navon, the scion of a Sephardic family; and Yehiel Adaki, a Yemenite musicologist.

In addition to appearing in concert halls, kibbutzim, and schools in Palestine, they performed in Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, Jewish venues in Europe, and in the United States.

[4] The Sephardi-Ashkenazi partnership of Zefira and Nardi spearheaded the "ethnic integration" of Palestinian theatre and the local music scene in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Huge crowds gathered at the Beit Ha-Am and Gan Rinah halls, where the duo appeared with no microphone, set or orchestral accompaniment".

[9] Zefira's interpretation and presentation of Yemenite musical traditions influenced other European Jewish composers who were contributing new works to Hebrew song.

[10] Moreover, according to the Journal of Synagogue Music: "the female Yemenite voice was seen as an ideal vehicle for performing Hebrew songs; it was thought to convey an Oriental/biblical sonority".

[5] Zefira wanted to add works by other composers, notably Yedidia Admon, Emanuel Amiran, and Matityahu Shelem, to their repertoire, but Nardi refused.

On her recordings, "differences in intonation were either ignored or smoothed down", but in concert, Zefira often was not pleased with the style of Western-trained musicians or the sound production of Western instruments, especially the strings.

[2] A New York Times review of her first U.S. recital in May 1949 noted: "[I]t was the exotic nature of her interpretations that gave them an air of novelty and lent them special fascination".

[2] In 1966, Zefira received the Engel Prize for introducing Eastern melodies into Israeli music, symphonies, and folk songs over a 30-year career.

[32] Zefira's success in blending Eastern melodies with Western harmonies influenced the later music careers of European composers who worked with her, including Nahum Nardi and Paul Ben-Haim.

[13] Other Middle Eastern Jewish singers who were inspired to study European vocal technique following Zefira's lead included Naomi Tsuri and Hana Aharoni.