Shimon Moyal (1866–1915) was a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

activist and physician. He worked for several newspapers and started a short-lived newspaper with his wife,

Esther Moyal Esther Moyal (née Lazari or al-Azharī; 1874, Beirut – 1948, Jaffa) was a Lebanese Jewish journalist, writer and women's rights activist. She has been described as a key intellectual in the 20th century Nahda, or Arabic Renaissance. Biography ...

. He was the translator of the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

into Arabic language.

Early life and education

Moyal was born in

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

in 1866. His father was Yousef Moyal whose family were wealthy Jews from Morocco who settled in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. Shimon's brother, David Moyal (1880–1953), was a lawyer and activist. Shimon attended Jewish religious schools in Palestine. Then he went to Beirut where he studied Arabic and French languages. Next he studied medicine in Cairo.

Activities and career

During his studies in Cairo and later Moyal worked for different publications. One of them was ''

Al Muqattam ''Al Muqattam'' (Arabic: المقطم) was an Arabic newspaper which was published in Cairo, Egypt, between 1888 and 1952. It was one of the leading papers until its closure by the Egyptian government in 1954. The title of the paper was a referen ...

'', a Cairo-based newspaper. He and his wife, Esther Moyal, returned to Palestine in late 1908 shortly after the

Young Turk revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Constit ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. In 1909 Moyal published an Arabic translation of Talmud entitled ''At-Talmud: Asluhu wa-tasalsuluhu wa-adabuhu'' (Arabic: ''The Talmud: Its Origin, Transmission, and Ethics'') to make

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

much more known by both Muslims and Christians who could read the Arabic texts. In 1913 he and his friend Nissim Malul launched a Jewish newspaper, ''Sawt Al Uthmaniyah'' (Arabic: ''the Voice of Ottoman''), which was published in Arabic. The paper was edited by Moyal and his wife. Moyals and Malul also founded an association, Ha-Magen (Hebrew: The Shield), which aimed to answer to any hostile article against Zionism published in the Arabic publications. Another goal of the association was to encourage greater understanding between Jews and Arabs in Palestine and to support the peaceful relations with Arabs living in the region. Moyal was also very active in the Jaffa

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

society and participated in the activities of the Decentralization Party in Egypt (Al-Lamarkaziyah).

Personal life and death

Moyal married a Beirut-born Jewish journalist Esther Al Azhari in 1894. They had a son, Abdullah Ovadia Nadim. He died in Jaffa in 1915 at the age of 49.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moyal, Shimon 19th-century Moroccan Jews 20th-century Moroccan Jews 20th-century journalists 20th-century translators 1866 births 1915 deaths Palestinian journalists People from Jaffa Jewish physicians Jewish journalists