Nessim David Gaon

GAON, GEON

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from Jewish communal functionaries or traditional Jewish personal titles.

Gaon was the formal title of the heads of the academies of Pumbadita and Sura in Babylon, and then of Baghdad, (6th to 13th century ), which were recognized by Jews as the highest authority of instruction. Afterwards the word Gaon became a honorific title for rabbis or laymen with a great knowledge of the Torah. The origin of the word Gaon is the acronym (a name created from the initial letters of a Hebrew phrase, and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation) of 'Rosh Yeshivat Ge'on Yaakov' ("the Pride of Jacob"). Gaon became a surname of families who claimed to be descended from persons who had been called Gaon.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish surname Gaon include the Spanish Talmud scholar and kabbalist Ibn Shem Tov Ben Abraham Gaon (circa 1287-circa 1330), the 17th century Jerusalem-born Greek rabbi and author Samuel Ben Isaac Gaon, and Sudanese-born community leader and businessman Nessim David Gaon. In the 20th century Gaon is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Bosnian physician, educator and communal worker Jakob Gaon, and the Belgian-born Israeli army officer and diplomat Chaim Gaon.

Khartoum

In Arabic: خرطوم 

The capital of Sudan.

Khartoum lays at the confluence of the white and blue Niles, most of it between the two rivers, with the town center on the left bank of the Blue Nile. Khartoum is one of a conurbation of three sister towns at that location - Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman. Khartoum North lays on the right bank of the Blue Nile and Omdurman on the left bank of the White Nile.

The first Jews came to settle at Khartoum North following the opening of the railway line from Cairo in 1898. Murad Israel Al-Ayni, a military man, was granted a license to open a shop at Khartoum North, settled at the town and brought from Cairo his parents and his fiancée. His brother and other members of the family joined him and became merchants and entrepreneurs. In 1910 came additional families of merchants.

Following the development of Khartoum as the capital of the state, Jews from Khartoum North began in 1918 to move into Khartoum. In the 1940’s and 1950’s some Jews, business people, shop owners, and officials continued to live at Khartoum North. Among the prominent enterprises owned by Jews at that time was a packing enterprise of the Malka family and a soap factory. On Sabbath days and the Jewish holidays they used to travel to Khartoum to pray at the large synagogue of the town.

The Jewish community of Khartoum was first organized in 1918. Joseph Forti, the manager of the local branch of the textile company Nathan and Company was elected as the head of the community. The community acquired a large site at the middle of (then) Victoria Avenue and built on it a great and splendid synagogue in the Sephardi style, capable of seating 500 worshippers. It was inaugurated in 1926. The rabbi was Solomon Malka, originally from Omdurman. The prayers were conducted in the Sephardi practice, according to Moroccan and Egyptian customs. Rabbi Malka died in 1949 and at the beginning of the 1950’s the synagogue was named after him “Ohel Shlomo”. In the 1930’s and 1940’s many Jews came from Egypt for service in a variety of appointments in the British administration, in banks, and in Egyptian and foreign commercial establishments, or in Jewish owned business companies. At that time came to Khartoum also Jews from England, Eretz Israel, and refugees from Germany. They settled in Khartoum and the community was then at the peak of its prosperity. The Jews of Khartoum flourished in commerce and some of them reached senior positions in the law courts, in the health services and in other governmental fields.

In 1948 the Jewish sport club “Maccabi” was founded. Earlier in the 1940’s the community set up its own sport and recreation club on a lot behind the synagogue. Its football team played in the local league. The life of the community centered around that club, which had among other facilities a dance hall and a kosher restaurant.

Zionist activity at Khartoum was aroused in 1934, following a visit by Nahum Sokolow, the president of the World Zionist Organization. In that year was founded also a local branch of the B’nai B’rith organization.

Until 1945 all the heads of the community had come from the first generation of settlers. They were followed by members of the second generation. The last of them was Ishag Mussa Israel Al-Ayni who was elected in 1965, when the majority of the community had already left Khartoum. He occupied the position until 1970, when he emigrated to Britain. In the last years of the British rule in Sudan some 2000 Jews were living in Khartoum. On the eve of Sudan’s independence (1956) many Jews left Khartoum, particularly to Britain.

In 1965 many others emigrated mostly to the U.S.A. and Britain. When Numeiri came to power in 1969 the property of the Jews who had left the country in former years was confiscated by the state. In the 1970’s most of the remaining Jews left Sudan. Only a small number of the Jews of Sudan have come to Israel in the course of the years.

Geneva

Capital of Geneva canton, Switzerland.

Late 20th and early 21st centuries

As of 2010, some 6,000 Jews lived in the canton of Geneva (about 1.5% of the canton's total population). The community had six large congregations — five Orthodox and one Reform — and three day schools.

In 1995, the Geneva city authorities listed what was then known as the Great Synagogue as a historical monument. Two years later, the building, at Place de la Synagogue in the heart of the financial district, underwent a major restoration that brought it back to its original appearance. At the same time, the synagogue's name was changed to Beth Yaacov Synagogue to memorialize Jewish banker Jacob Safra.

There is an active Chabad organization operating a K-to-12 school, a nursery school, and a mikve.

Geneva’s only non-Orthodox congregation, Beit Gil, opened a campus and community center in the early 21st century.

There are two Geneva-area Jewish cemeteries: the new Jewish cemetery in Veyrier, on the French border, and the old Jewish cemetery in Carouge, a town separated from Geneva by the Arve River and formerly part of France. An 1876 Swiss law banned denominational cemeteries, so the entrance to the new Jewish cemetery is in Switzerland but the graves are in France. One of the graves here is of Stefan Lux, a Jewish Czech journalist, actor and film director. In 1936, Lux committed suicide in the League of Nations' General Assembly room to alert the world to the perils of German anti-Semitism. A large stone just inside the entrance to the cemetery memorializes the victims of the Holocaust.

The old Jewish cemetery dates to at least 1780 and was restored in 1996. Among others buried there, it is the resting place of Jewish soldiers who fell during World War II.

HISTORY

Jews apparently first settled in the area after their expulsion from France by Philip Augustus in 1182, receiving protection from the local bishop. The first mention of a Jew in an official document dates from the end of the 13th century.

At first, Jews were not authorized to settle in Geneva itself but only in the vicinity. They engaged in moneylending and money changing as well as in commerce on a partnership basis with Christian merchants. There were also some physicians among them. Jews passing through Geneva on business paid a poll tax of four denarii (pregnant women paid a double tax).

In 1348, at the time of the Black Death, the Jews were accused of having poisoned the wells and many were put to death.

From the early 15th century, the merchants and the municipal council restricted the Jewish activities, and from 1428, Jewish residence was confined to a separate quarter (near the present Rue des Granges). Relations between Jewish and Christian merchants were strained and the Jewish quarter was frequently attacked. The most serious attack occurred at Easter 1461. The duke's representatives admonished the city authorities but the situation of the Jews continued to deteriorate.

In 1488, Jewish physicians were forbidden to practice and in 1490, the Jews were expelled from the city. Subsequently, no Jews lived in Geneva for 300 years. In 1582, the municipal council rejected a proposal to allow a group from Germany to settle if they undertook to pay a high tax and perform military service obligations.

In 1783, Jewish residence was permitted in the nearby town of Carouge, which was then under the jurisdiction of the dukes of Savoy. After the French revolution, Geneva was annexed by France and remained under French rule until 1814. During this period, the Jews enjoyed equal rights of citizenship. However, in 1815 Geneva became a canton within the Swiss confederation and subsequently, their position deteriorated. The acquisition of real estate by Jews throughout the territory of the canton was now prohibited.

The Jews in Geneva were not granted civic rights until 1841, and were not granted freedom of religious worship until 1843. The Jewish community was officially recognized in 1853 and a synagogue, designed by Jean-Henri Bachofen, was inaugurated in 1859. The first rabbi of Geneva was Joseph Wertheimer, who also lectured at the University of Geneva.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the University of Geneva attracted many Jewish students from Russia. Chaim Weizmann lectured there in organic chemistry in 1900-04.

Jews of Geneva eventually became involved in watchmaking at this time. However, as of the early 21st century, Raymond Weil was the only Jewish-owned watch company out of 68 in the city.

After World War I, Geneva became the home of international Jewish organizations. For example, the World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva in 1936.

HOLOCAUST

During World War II, Switzerland admitted 22,000 Jews from Germany and other European countries. Many of those admitted were then interned in forced-labor camps. Swiss authorities turned away at least another 25,000 refugees, many of them Jews.

From its Geneva office, the World Jewish Congress made efforts to rescue European Jewry, and in August 1942, WJC representative Dr. Gerhart M. Riegner sent a famous cable from the office with news of the German plan to annihilate European Jewry.

POST-WAR

Immediately after the war, the Jewish population of Geneva was 2,245; it rose to 2,700 in 1968 and to 4,356 in 2000.

Until the middle of the 20th century, most of Geneva's Jews were Ashkenzi. However, as of the early 21st century, the majority are Mizrahim who began arriving after World War II.

Israel maintains a representative mission to international organizations in Geneva. Since 1948, 3,220 Swiss Jews have emigrated to Israel.