The Family
In sorrow we took leave of my dear husband, our father and grandfather, David Chitayat, of blessed memory, who died on 22 March 1999.
He was born in Iraq, in the city of Baghdad, in 1914. He acquired his education at the Faculty of Law and qualified as a lawyer.
From 1937 to 1947 he occupied the position of secretary to the presidency of the Jewish community in the city of Basra. He also held the post of legal adviser to the community. As part of his duties he acted a liaison between the Jewish community and the Iraqi authorities. He assisted in underground Zionist activity in Iraq, and aided Jews fleeing Europe in the Second World War in order to reach Israel, and also Jewish activists who came from Israel to Iraq to carry out clandestine activities. One of the foremost such activists whom he helped was Enzio Sireni.
In May 1948, about a week after the declaration of the state of Israel, David was arrested on the orders of the military governor during the time of emergency on the charges of Zionist activity that endangered the security of the Iraqi state.
He was held for about a year and a half, and released from prison in 1950.
In 1951 he emigrated to Israel, and in the first years lived with his family in a hut at the Kiryat Ono transit camp (today Kir'on). Because of his great Zionist activity and in consequence of his imprisonment, he was recognized as a Prisoner of Zion.
Although he had been a renowned lawyer in Iraq, the authorities in Israel did not recognize his diploma, so he changed his profession to accountancy, and became a senior accounting manager in the Tnuva concern.
In Israel he continued his public activity in the framework of the Mapai party, and served as Deputy Chairman of the Kiryat Ono local council.
In 1955 he moved to Ramat Gan, and devoted most of his time to public activity on behalf of the community.
May his memory be blessed.