Tzruya Lahav, Bruce Springsteen’s Violinist, Dies at 74

Tzruya “Suki” Lahav, an Israeli songwriter and poet best known to American audiences as a violinist who recorded and toured with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in the mid-1970s, died in Jerusalem on Wednesday at the age of 74.

Her son, musician Yonatan Lahav, announced her death in a Facebook post, stating that she died after a battle with cancer, according to reporting from Variety.

Lahav’s violin is prominently featured at the beginning of Springsteen’s iconic song “Jungleland,” from the album Born to Run. She also sang uncredited backing vocals on two earlier Springsteen tracks from The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle: “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “Incident on 57th Street.”

According to a report in Haaretz, Lahav was a member of Springsteen’s E Street Band from September 1974 to March 1975. During her time with the band, her violin playing became a focal point of slower songs during live performances, and her appearance onstage was described as “pale” and “willowy” in contrast to Springsteen’s energy.

Born on July 16, 1951, in Ayelet HaShahar, Israel, Lahav grew up playing both classical music and music associated with kibbutz harvest celebrations. She arrived in the United States in 1971 with her husband, Louis Lahav, a recording engineer who began working with Springsteen in 1972.

The couple returned to Israel in the spring of 1975. They divorced in 1977. Lahav continued to work as a musician, actress, lyricist, screenwriter, and novelist in Israel, becoming known by her Hebrew name, Tzruya.

Haaretz reported that Lahav tragically lost her daughter, Tal, in a road accident at the age of three and a half.

While her recorded contributions to Springsteen’s work were sometimes limited to unreleased takes, her live performances with the E Street Band were memorable. She was reportedly first asked to overdub violin and provide choir-like vocals on “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” when a scheduled children’s choir failed to appear for a recording session.

Lahav died on April 1, 2026, in Jerusalem, according to reports from Haaretz and Variety.