Naddaf, Abraham Ḥayyim
NADDAF, ABRAHAM ḤAYYIM
NADDAF, ABRAHAM ḤAYYIM (1866–1940). Born in *San'a, Yemen, to a family of rabbis and communal leaders, he settled in Jerusalem in 1891 with R. Shalom *Alsheikh, his close friend and partner for many years in the leadership of the Yemenite community in Jerusalem. From his arrival he acted to disengage the Yemenite community from the Sephardi kolel (communal organization) in order to promote the economic and cultural life of his community, which was included in the Sephardi kolel and was discriminated against in the distribution of financial resources. With R. Alsheikh he took decisive steps to separate his community from the Sephardi kolel, against the policy of the older recognized leadership. As a young person he was the first in the communal leadership to understand and use modern political and communal standards. For that end he established independent community institutions such as schools, yeshivot, and a hostel for newcomers from Yemen, and what was crucial for their independent existence, namely, a network of fundraising to finance these institutions. He traveled several times as an emissary of both the Sephardi and the Yemenite communities to *Syria, *Lebanon, and Yemen. Following complaints by the Sephardi kolel, he and many other Yemenite separationist leaders were arrested in 1907 by the Ottoman government in Jerusalem, but he was successful in escaping from prison dressed as a woman and went to Constantinople, where he could obtain a firman from the Sublime Port for establishing an independent Yemenite kolel. In 1908 he carried out a comprehensive and detailed census of the Yemenite community in Jerusalem which constitutes a very helpful source for our knowledge of that community. To preserve the Yemenite tradition he worked for the publication of the essential liturgical religious books: tāj (Pentateuch, including the tafsīr, Arabic translation of *Sa'adia Gaon) and a tiklāl (siddur). In 1903, he represented the Yemenites of Jerusalem at the first assembly of Ereẓ-Israeli Jews in Zikhron Ya'akov's kolel. He was the first Yemenite rabbi in Ereẓ Israel to investigate Yemenite traditions and published several books and articles on the subject, such as the first bibliography of the works of Yemenite scholars, Seridei Teiman ("Remnants of Yemen," 1928), Anaf Ḥayyim (notes on tiklāl Eẓ Ḥayyim by R. Yiḥye Ṣaliḥ). In consequence of a disagreement with younger leaders in the community he retired and moved to Tel Aviv, devoting his last years to research. His rich literary legacy, preserved by his descendants, was used by Prof. Y. Ratzaby for his research on Yemenite Jews, including his memoir Zekhor le-Avraham.
bibliography:
Y. Ratzaby, "The Diary of Rabbi Avraham Alnadaf," in: Peraqim be-Toldot ha-Yishuv ha-Yehudi Bi-Yerushalayim, 2 (1976), 144–91; Y. Tobi, The Yemenite Community of Jerusalem 1881–1921 (Hebr., 1994).
[Yosef Tobi (2nd ed.)]