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Nawi

NAWI, rabbinical and philanthropic family in Iraq. REUBEN BEN DAVID (end of 18th century–1821) was a prominent disciple of outstanding ḥakhamim in *Baghdad. His main teacher, the ḥakham Moses b. Ḥayyim, nominated him during his lifetime (1810) as his successor as av bet din in Baghdad, but he died prior to his master. Nawi's teachings are extant in the works of his disciples, the dayyanim R. Abdullah Somekh, Jacob b. Joseph b. Jawb ha-Rofe, and others. Many legends concerning his life are current among Baghdad Jews. At the end of the 19th and in the first quarter of the 20th centuries SOLOMON REUBEN and MANASSEH SOLOMON took an active part in the affairs of the Baghdad community, and improving the health conditions of Baghdad Jewry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A. Ben-Yaacov, Yehudei Bavel (1965), index; D.S. Sassoon, History of the Jews in Baghdad (1949), 136–7.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.