Late Mr. George Elias
member of Jewish drama in Iraq
By Shmuel Moreh
Taken from the website All
About Jewish Theatre
The Association of Jewish Academics from
Iraq in Israel and the Academic Committee of the Babylonian
Heritage Center in Or-Yehuda, announce with sorrow the
untimely passing away of the philanthropist, the Late
Mr. George Elias, the eminent community leader and supporter
of educational, cultural, religious and medical centers
in Israel and abroad. Mr. Elias passed away on 4th March
2005 in Hale, Cheshire near Manchester after being for
a long time a resident of Hertzilia Pituah in Israel.
Mr. Elias was born in Baghdad, Iraq and graduated from
the Shammash School in Baghdad, where Jewish teachers
from the Holy Land taught Hebrew and sciences between
1927-1933, until they were expelled by the Iraqi government.
During these years teachers from Eretz Yisrael, such as
Dr. F. Qalai, Zeev Neidarman and Abrahm Rozen taught Modern
Hebrew language, established the monthly journal Shemesh,
a Student magazine in Hebrew and Hebrew Theatrical troops.
Talented students performed in Hebrew several Hebrew plays
such as King Ahashverosh, Purim Speil, by Bercovitz, David
and Goliath by Yisrael Duschmann, and Yehuda Hamacabi
by Longfellow. Other performances included well-known
Biblical plays such as Joseph and his Brothers, Queen
Esther, and The Binding of Isaac. These plays deepened
the ties of the Jews of Iraq with their past and the Zionist
activities in Eretz Yisrael, revived their Zionist aspiration
and restored their pride in their history and their national
ties. The talented young Elias took part in these Hebrew
plays. Because of his good looks, strong personality,
radio-phonic voice, and charismatic character he was given
leading roles in these plays. No other actor of these
plays was able to recite his role in these plays. However,
we were lucky to be able to record Mr. Elias role in a
Hebrew operetta dealing with the revival of Hebrew language
and Jewish national home. It was performed several times
during the years 1927-1933 on the stage of Shamash school
in Baghdad. The dialogue is between a weeping young lady
near a tomb, lamenting her destiny (she represents the
Jewish people and the Hebrew language) and an angel who
is coming to comfort her and to deliver her from her sorrow,
predicting the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem
and the Holy Land. Mr. Elias, because of his good looks
and special voice, played the role of the young lady.
The following is an English translation of this short
operetta, of which we were unable to verify the title
or the author. Students of Shammash School performed me:
Angel: Who are you, poor lady? Who are you, miserable
one?
Where have you been until now? When have you been
picked [tender flower], which hand has hurt you? And now
what are you doing here.
Young lady: Alas, I have been deteriorated low! From Zion
I am,
My name is Yehuda, and now I am living in the Diaspora!
Angel: You, the daughter of Yehuda! you look like a flower
in a
desert, in the mud your flowers are crushed. You are
humiliated, imprisoned, victimized and lonely, and now
no
one has mercy towards you! *
The angel continues his dialogue: Wait for your Lord
until he will
have mercy upon you! Wait until he will gather all of
us in the land of Zion, then he will revive your days
of lore when you were young, and to Jerusalem you will
return with exultation.
This operetta inspired Jewish drama in Iraq, mainly the
opera written by Mr. Nouri Menasheh, teacher of mathematics
at Frank Ini School in Baghdad, entitled Despair and Hope.
It was composed in 1942 in support of the orphans of the
Farhud Pogrom. The opera includes similar scene, of an
orphan child weeping beside the tomb of his father. An
old man is coming to comfort him after he was deprived
of his father-s property by their servant who expelled
the child from his home. The plot symbolizes the Farhud
massacre and the fate of some families who lost their
parents and remained helpless orphans. The old man directs
the boy to the orphanage committee for help. This could
be seen as a prophetic drama, anticipating the expulsion
of the Jews from Iraq and their finding refuge in Israel.
*
In 1941 Mr. Elias has narrowly escaped death during the
Pogrom of the Farhud against the Jews of Iraq. As a proud
Zionist his protest against the persecutions in Iraq,
he left to Manchester where he established himself as
one of the wealthy textile manufacturers, community leader,
and a philanthropist. He left England to Israel, and contributed
to the peace treaty with Jordan by establishing textile
factories in Amman, helped many academic institutions
in England and Israel, and initiated water project in
the Galilee. Yehie Zichro barouch.
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* The Hebrew text of this operetta and on the theatrical
Jewish Activities in Iraq, see: S. Moreh, The development
of Jewish Theatre and Cinema in Iraq, in: Studies in the
History and Culture of the Jews in Babylonia, ed. Y. Avishur
and Z. Yehuda, Or-Yehuda, Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center,
2002, pp. 39-59.
SHMUEL MOREH is Emeritus
Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Institute
of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University of Ramat-Gan. Fellow,
Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, Visiting Professor
of Arabic Literature at UC Berkeley, Center for Near Eastern
Studies, UCLA, and the Universities of Bonn (Germany),
London University (SOAS), Manchester (UK), Life Member
of Clare Hall (Cambridge-England), Helsinki University
(Finland), Leiden University (The Neitherlands), Oxford-Yarnton
(England), Maryland (USA). He was Israel Prize Laureate
in 1999, and has received fellwships and grants from the
Israel Acedemy for Scientific Research (Jerusalem), The
British Council, The German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD), The German Israeli Foundation (GIF), The National
Center for Scienticic Research (CNRS), France), and Oxford
Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Yarnton-Oxford (England).
As Chairman of the Israel-Findland Friendship Association,
Prof. Moreh was awarded the Insignia of the Commander
of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 1986. He is the
founder and Chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics
from Iraq in Israel, Chairman of the Academic Committee
of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, Or-Yehuda- Israel;
Chairman of the International Advicory Committee of al-Jabarti's
Project, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
He is the author of Modern Arabic Poetry 1800-1970 (Leiden,
Brill, 1975), Studies in Modern Arabic Prose and Poetry
(Leiden, 1988), The Jewish Contributio to Nineteenth-Century
Arabic Theatre (with P.C. Sadgrove, Manchester-Oxford,
1996), Hatred of Jews and the Farhud in Iraq (eds. S.
Moreh and Z. Yehuda)(The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center,
1992). Author of several article in the Encyclopaedia
of Islam (Leiden, Brill) and Encyclopadia of Arabic Literature
(England), including Arab and Jewish playwrights and theatre.
Prof. Moreh is the translator and editor of Al-Jabarti's
Chronicle of the First Seven Months of the French Occupation
of Egypt (1975), Napoleon in Egypt (1993); The Book of
Strangers: Medieval Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia
(With Prof. Patricia Crone, 2000). He published several
articles in English, Hebrew and Arabic on Arabic Theatre
in the Arab World. Email Address: Moreh@h2.hum.huji.ac.il
