Catherine Cohen
If a man's actions are the best evidence of his convictions, then Iraqi-born Londoner Sami Shamoon has proved to his people that he considers their welfare as his own. Proprietor of Yakhin Industries, based in the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, Mr. Shamoon has spent the later part of his successful life reinvesting his assets in enterprises and causes which have strengthened Jewish life in Israel and in England to a substantial degree.
Unfazed by the hubbub of telephone interruptions and visitors at the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel suite door, a soft-spoken Mr. Shamoon eloquently tells his tale.
Born in Baghdad in the 1930s to a close-knit, affluent Iraqi family, Sami Shamoon witnessed first hand the importance of family in the continuity of Jewish culture and community. In 1957, Shamoon joined his father in Iran who had moved there years earlier.
"We worked together, we maintained a successful business," explains Shamoon calmly. "A son must stay with his father."
A year later Mr. Shamoon finally settled in London, England, where he married and his daughter was born.
Over the last decade, Mr. Shamoon has adopted a direct strategy to strengthen ties to his cultural roots, undertaking both business as well as philanthropic and community work in Israel.
Most recently, in 1991, Shamoon bought Yakhin Hakal Ltd., an Israeli landmark company, in operation since 1927.
"I bought Yakhin at the beginning of the peace process which heralded a new era in the Middle East," boasts a proud Mr. Shamoon. "I wanted to do my bit to promote regional cooperation, peace not war, commerce not strife, and the exchange of goods and ideas instead of bullets and blows.
"Yakhin is the first Israeli company to print a catalogue in Arabic and English, because we believe in the peace."
As Shamoon explains it, Yakhin had previously been co-owned by the Histadrut and the Jewish Agency.
"I was approached by Abraham Natan, Minister of Economics in the Israeli Embassy in London, and Secretary of the Histadrut Yisrael Kessar about buying the company, which was in a lot of trouble.
"I was practically fed up with the negotiations when well-known economist, Prof. Shishanski, came to London from Israel specially to convince us not to abandon the idea of buying the company after the other interested parties decided not to buy.
"I invested in studying the company, hiring six agronomists to study the groves, four packing experts from Florida to study the packing houses and two factory auditors to study how to improve factory and company management," notes Shamoon.
"Many Israeli businessmen also expressed interest in the company, but they were only interested in the land.
"Although I was accused of it, I did not buy Yakhin for the land. I didn't even know then where Ashkelon or Hadari Ginat was," Shamoon maintains, "and I didn't know anything about groves, I only knew that with American expertise on planting new varieties and with enough long-term vision, I could turn Yakhin into a thriving business, without selling one meter of land."
And that is exactly what he did. In 1991, Shamoon took all the existing liabilities and loss of the company from 1927, togother with payment for the previous shares holder, it come to 46 million dollars, and ingect 10 million to the company, more in refurbishing the factories and the groves and in planting 1800 more dunams.
In December 1991, Yakhin showed an 11,700,000 dollar loss for that year. Miraculously, only a few years later, Shamoon's efforts had turned the company around to the externt that it showed an operating profit. For the first time in decades, Yakhin was flourishing.
"I am happy to be contributing to the Israeli economy. I want to do more," says Shamoon.
"In 1992, we wanted to invest 15 million dollars in planting at Hevel Absor along the Egyptian border.
"Our plan was presented to former prime minister and minister of defense [Yitzhak Rabin], to former foreign minister [Shimon Peres], to the Agriculture Ministry, to the Israel Lands Authority, ...but we got nowhere.
"I thought it was Ben Gurion's dream to develop the Negev," Shamoon points out as I am treated to a freshly cut plate of sweetie, a large green citrus fruit that looks like a grapefruit but is as sweet as candy.
"This is one of our very successful Japanese exports," smiles Shamoon. "They love it in Japan, but it doesn't sell in Europe because they think it's a grapefruit that has not ripened."
Sami Shamoon has been equally successful with his recent cultural investments. A vital member of the thriving 5,000 - strong Iraqi Jewish community in London, Mr. Shamoon was recently elected head of the Jewish Sephardi Federation in England.
Living by his declared belief that education is the single, most important tool in maintaining and strengthening the Jewish community, the Shamoon family established the Naima Jewish Preparatory School, a traditional Jewish elementary school in London's Maida Vale neighborhood, as well as a synagogue that seats 700, both in the name of his parents. Operating for ten years now, the school has 135 students, with 160 registered for next year.
"As a private school teaching Jewish studies and Hebrew, the school fares are high" admits Shamoon, "but if a family cannot afford to pay, we subsidize them, because if one cannot afford to study, I have to help him, not push him down."
Sami Shamoon's generosity has not only been recognized in his home town of London. The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, Israel, a cultural center for Iraqi-Jewish culture, has also acknowledged his charitable works unanimously electing him its Honorary President.
Shamoon: "goal is to develop and to encourage education among the Jewish people. Five years ago, I opened a computer center at the Gordon High School in Petah Tikva [Israel], the first of five throughout low income neighborhoods in Israel.
"The last center was opened in Tel Mond in the name of three girls killed in a terrorist bomb at Dizengoff Center two years ago.
"I opened the centers, so elementary school children would know the computer even if their fathers didn't or couldn't afford one at home".
The centers, located within the school buildings, include about 30 computers each, plus all the necessary programs and network for a proper computer education.
"When I joined the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, I had a lot of respect for all those on the board and the staff, all those who have volunteered to make it their life's work to help the new generation of Jews from Iraqi heritage, and most especially Chairman Mordechai Ben-Porat, a former minister and MK, without whom the center could not have existed and flourished.
"Tradition is the most important, if a boy grows up without it he has no backbone."
Further demonstrating his dedication to the preservation of tradition and heritage, Shamoon also recently accepted appointment as Chairman of the Israel Diaspora Museum, Beth Hatefusot, Committee for the Preservation of the Jewish Family. The committee's annual competition, sponsored by Shamoon, in which children compete to build the best family tree has become a national event.
Also directly contributing to the encouragement of education among underprivileged Israelis, Mr. Shamoon has sponsored several students engaged in masters and doctorate studies programs in Israel.
"Only about four percent of Sephardi Israelis are presently studying for their Ph.D. This week I paid for the studies of 14 students from all backgrounds, but only students studying in Israel because I fear students studying abroad will stay there."
Shamoon's tireless efforts to strengthen the cause of the Jewish people in Britain and in Israel will culminate at the 1998 Jewish Agency Congress at which a British delegation, headed by Shamoon himself, will participate for the first time in years.
"I believe in these kinds of activities, to develop strong relations between the Diaspora and Israel. This kind of triangle between the Beth Hatefusot, the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center and the Jewish Sephardi Federation allows the tradition and the heritage to pass from one generation to the next. The next generation will have to know better than the one before it about their familial and historical roots.
"I will do all I can to strengthen Am Israel [the people of Israel] in Erez Israel [the land of Israel]," concludes Shamoon.
"Israel is a garden, when you enter, you say what a beautiful garden, with roses, daisies, tulips, ...all these different kinds of flowers are like the Jews who came to Israel from all over the world. Let us keep our tradition and make Israel our garden. The Jews have finally come back home."