IN MEMORIAM

By Dr. Esther Raizen

the stories of my maternal Greek Sephardi/Romaniote ancestors. This side of my family, like many Jews in the Ottoman Empire, undertook administrative/financial roles for the Ottomans, thus fomenting animosity from their Greek neighbors. During the Greek War of Independence, many in my family were even considered by Greek gentiles to be Ottoman collaborators, causing many to flee or even convert to Orthodox Christianity. This family history pushed me to uncover similar stories from the greater Sephardi world and to thus recount such histories.

For example, one can see this personal history come to fruition through my research initiatives on Yemenite Jewish history, specifically via my multiple works recounting how differing Yemenite Jewish communities suffered under the Mawza Exile. This exile was a forced decree by Yemen’s Zaydi Islamic ruler to banish all Yemenite Jews to a barren desert region unless they converted to Islam. This genocide was sparked in large part because the local Zaydis viewed Jews as potential Ottoman collaborators who desired Ottoman dominance over Yemen. The basis for Zaydi suspicions was the narrative that Jews wanted to create a single empire that would grant Jews direct access to Eretz Israel. Other factors, like Jewish messianic fervor and Zaydi Islamic fundamentalism, were likewise extremely important in generating the genocide; however, I could still clearly see parallels to my own family story in such history.

Beyond my research initiatives, I also had the pleasure to undertake fieldwork for Diarna. Previously, Diarna had never pursued recording Old Yishuv histories; however, the Diarna intern coordinator, Ruben Shimonov, alongside myself viewed many histories of the Old Yishuv in dire need of documentation. As I was living in both Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, I had easy access to a multitude of Old Yishuv sites. I specifically focused on documenting Jerusalem’s Old Bukharan Quarter, just northwest of Mea She’arim, and Musta’arabim/ Sephardi sites in Hebron. You can read some of my publications on BukharanJerusalem Jewish sites, like the “Yehudayoff-Hefetz Palace (Armon),” or Hebronite sites, like the “Avraham Avinu Synagogue,” on the Diarna site.

Overall, I went on to publish 15 articles on sites, cities, and regions which possessed a deep yet relatively unknown Jewish history for Diarna.

The Jewish spaces such publications dealt with ranged from Greek Island Jewry to Yemenite Jewry to Old Yishuv Bukharian Jewry to Old Yishuv Sephardi/Musta’arabim Jewry. My research demonstrated just how diverse yet interconnected Jewish history truly is.

Kahlenberg’s internship was supported in part by an Israel Studies Travel Fellowship.

Dr. Avraham Zilkha was born in Baghdad in 1938 and immigrated with his family to Israel from Iraq in 1950. He grew up in Jerusalem, served in the IDF, and studied at the Hebrew University. In 1965 he enrolled in UT’s Ph.D. program in linguistics, and upon graduating began a teaching career with positions at Indiana University (1971–73) and Ohio State University (1973–74). He then returned to UT Austin, where, as a tenured faculty member, he taught a variety of Hebrew in 2002, its entries including many technical terms, slang, and translations for common idioms. Both dictionaries were published by Yale University Press. Avraham’s exquisite landscape photographs, often exhibiting special light effects enhanced by computer technology, decorated for many years the walls of the department and college offices. and Middle Eastern Studies courses until his retirement in 2009. His scholarly work in Hebrew linguistics and lexicography culminated in the 1989 publication of his Modern HebrewEnglish Dictionary, which reflected the contemporaneous language of Israel with vocabulary from earlier periods, borrowings, colloquial expressions, and newly coined words. Modern EnglishHebrew Dictionary was published

Avraham’s was very proud of his three children, Orly, Gil, and Ron, all of whom crossed paths with our Hebrew program at some point. Gil, who as an undergraduate was a cartoonist for The Daily Texan provided the illustrations that are included in the Hebrew curriculum at UT Austin, serving our students until this very day.

Dr. Zilkha never got to fulfill his dream of visiting Iraq for archival work that would shed light on the history and culture of Jewish communities there. After his retirement, he spent a couple of years moving between Israel and Austin and finally settled permanently in Austin.

Upon his retirement, Dr. Zilkha established a scholarship fund that has supported our undergraduate Hebrew students. The fund was kept active with contributions from other faculty, and we will be grateful for additional contributions in his memory.

A memorial service for Dr. Zilkha was held at Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Blvd, Austin, TX, on Friday, September 30, 2022.

May his memory be of blessing.