Moïse Rahmani (29 August 1944 – 18 September 2016) was a Belgian

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

author, editor, and publisher of ''Los Muestros'' ( Ladino-French-English language) magazine.

Biography

Rahmani was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt into a Jewish family. His Jewish paternal grandmother was from

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

. He grew up in the Heliopolis district. In 1956, at the age of 12, he and his family left for the then Belgian Congo, where a Greek-Sephardic Jewish community already existed. His family emigrated during the

Congo Crisis The Congo Crisis () was a period of Crisis, political upheaval and war, conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), Republic of the Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The crisis began almost ...

of 1960–1966. A resident of Belgium since 1980, Rahmani worked as a diamond dealer. In 1990, he founded the Institut Sefarade European and launched the quarterly review ''Los Muestros'' (“Our Kin”), which published news of

communities around the world. The review published in three languages–French, English, and Ladino–as testified by its three-language subtitle: "La voix des Séphardes," "The Sephardic Voice," and "La boz de los Sefardim." ''Los Muestros'' ceased publication in 2015 due to a combinations of Rahmani's fatigue, declining health, and finances.

Death

Rahmani died on 18 September 2016 in Brussels after a long illness. His funeral was held at the Cimetière de Wezembeek-Oppem on 22 September 2016.

Works

Rahmani researched and wrote numerous publications on the Jewish community of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

. (Many Jewish families left their ancestral homes of

in the early 20th century and immigrated to various part of the world, including the Belgian Congo.Avotaynu: the international review of Jewish genealogy: 12 1996 "In this issue is a summary of a talk given to the Cercle by Moise Rahmani, founder of the Sephardic review Los Muestros (66, ... In 1956, Rahmani's family left Cairo for the Congo, where a "Jewish Rhodes" was recreated.") He wrote in three languages. He published the following books (in French): * ''Rhodes, un pan de notre mémoire'' (2000): homage to the birthplace of his paternal grandmother on the Aegean Island of

* ''Shalom Bwana, la saga des Juifs du Congo'' (2002) * ''Les Juifs du soleil, portraits de Sépharades de Belgique'' (2002) * ''L’Exode oublié, Juifs des pays arabes'' (2003) * ''La Réponse de Noa'' (2003) * ''Lettre à un frère'' (2007) * ''Juifs du Congo La Confiance et l’Espoir'' (2007) * ''Tu choisiras le rire'' (2008) * ''14 ans, 4 mois, 6 jours'' (2009) * ''Juifs en terre d’Islam, une minorité opprimée'' (2009) * ''Une pierre pour l’éternité'' (2010) * ''Rodi, una parte della nostra memoria'' (2012)

Legacy

In 2014, King Felipe VI of Spain sent personal wishes for the 25th anniversary of ''Los Muestros''. In 2015, Rahmani said of his own concept of '' Convivencia'', "In my ideal community, I would no longer be amazed if the head of the Hebrew State visits an Arab country, nor if one of his counterparts visits Israel." In September 2016, the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif David Susskind remembered Rahman as a "pillar of the Sephardic community in Brussels, the Jews of Rhodes and memory of Congo" ("''Pilier de la communauté sépharade de Bruxelles, mémoire des Juifs de Rhodes et du Congo''").

References

External links