(Cheshvan 13, 5721 / 1960 - 64th Yahrzeit)
Rav Chaim Nachum Effendi served as Sefardi chief Rav of Egypt. He was witness both to a vibrant community of eighty thousand Jews living in Egypt and also to the community’s disintegration after 1948, when government hostility, violence, economic restrictions, confiscation and deportation caused most Jews to leave. Born in Manisa, Turkey, he was sent by his parents to learn in a Yeshiva in Teverya and later went to a French lycée for his secondary education, obtaining a degree in Muslim law in Constantinople. He also attended the Sorbonne’s School of Oriental Languages, where he perfected his linguistic abilities and also studied history and philosophy. In 1923, Rav Nachum received an invitation from Moise Cattaoui Pacha, head of the Jewish community in Cairo, to become the chief Rav of Egypt, and was also appointed to serve as a Senator in the nation’s Legislative Assembly.
