Mizrahi, Haninah
MIZRAHI, HANINAH
MIZRAHI, HANINAH (1886–1974), teacher. Born in Teheran in 1886, he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1895 and died in Jerusalem. His father, Haim Elazar, was a paytan. Mizrahi began his studies at the Alliance school in Jerusalem, where he learned French. He also learned German by himself and could read the Judeo-Persian works by Wilhelm Bacher of Budapest. In 1907, he received his teaching certificate from the Ezra school in Jerusalem, where he also improved his German language. In 1911 he married Sarah, the daughter of R. Shalom Yehezqel. For 15 years, beginning in 1921, he taught at the talmud torah of the Sephardim in Old Jerusalem. After Israel's War of Independence, the school fell into the hands of Jordan, so Mizrahi continued to teach at Harel school in West Jerusalem until his retirement in 1951. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Bet ha-Kerem quarter in Jerusalem. Mizrahi published the following books on the Jews of Iran: Yehudei Paras (1959); Toldot Yehudei Paras (1966); Bi-Yshishim Ḥokhmah (1967). He was mainly a folklorist in his education and writings.
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A rather full account of Mizrahi's life and works can be found in A. Netzer, "Yādi az yek shakhsiyat-e farhangi," in: Pādyāvand: Judeo-Iranian and Jewish Studies Series, vol. 3 (1999), 361–70.
[Amnon Netzer (2nd ed.)]