Nehardea Magazine

Journal of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center
No.15, Winter 2005/2006

BABYLONIAN JEWS IN RECENT GENERATIONS

THE AUTHOR YA'ACOV LEV
Dr. Lilian Dabby-Joury

Ya'acov Lev Bilbul, author, composer, essayist, lawyer and business man, was wholly involved and active in community life, and as I knew him, he was challenged as a humanist who could know no rest.
It may appear a line of superlatives, but this is the truth as it exists regarding this man and his activities. This expression is merely a taste, since it is impossible to measure his literary accomplishments, his illustrations and imprints on Jewish Arabic literature according to the amounts published: two books and written journalistic essays which were not inserted into the book. (A book of poetry - Mihnat al-Aql and a book of stories - Al-Jamra al-Ula).

Born in 1920, and having tried his hand at writing poetry from the age of 16, he would meet with esteemed writers at coffee houses frequented by them. At that time he had a strong connection with the composer Abud al-Falluji. During that same period, his poems began to be published on the front page of the daily newspaper: Al-Alam al-Arabi. Prof. Sasson Somekh mentioned the uniqueness of his Arabic poetry when he commented on Ya'acov Lev's distance from mystic sentimentalism in his study of Jubran Khalil Jubran, then dominant in the cupola.
Ya'acov Lev turned to rationalism for the title of his book Mihnat al-Aql, which is called 'Intellectual Tribulations'. He is counted among those who introduced the sonata style into Arabic verse.

Also during that time, he published his book Al-Jamra al-Ula, 'The first Ember', which placed him, in the words of Prof. Shmuel Moreh, in the front line with the pioneers of the short story in Iraq, together with Murad Michael, Anwar Shaul, Shalom Darwish, Ezra Haddad and others. The book caused favorable repercussions amongst orientalists such as Krachovsky. One of the stories was translated into French and included in the anthology: Antalogie de Literature Arab Moderne. The book and its author also raised repercussions, as testified by his brother Zvi Lev, amongst British spiritualists arriving in Iraq, including the famous author Alec Waugh.
In the course of his work at the French Embassy, Ya'acov Lev dealt with translating articles from French newspapers which were then published in the best of the Arabic newspapers such as Al-Bilad, Al-Sha'b, Al-Zaman, Sawt al-Ahali. Eventually, following his work at the Chamber of Commerce, where he gained the status of Manager, several of his financial articles were published, as well as his 'Baghdad Chamber of Commerce Monthly' magazine. His intellectual honesty, loyalty and courage were well known to all and paved the way for him to become one of the youngest achievers in his field. As a journalist for the newspaper Al-Bilad, he did not hesitate to interview the then Syrian Prime Minister, Jamil Mardam, and this interview was published in 1946.

The Baghdadi Commerce Committee with Mr. Y. Lev

Between the years 1940 to 1950, many of his articles were published in the Egyptian literary newspapers such as: Al-Risala, in which Tawfiq al-Hakim and Taha Husain were also published, and Al-Rewaya and in the monthly magazine Mahallati of Ahmad al-Sadi.
Regarding his social activities, in 1943 a club of western French orientation called 'The Alliance Graduates Club' was established, through his connections with Anzo Siraini, the envoy of the Jewish Agency in Iraq, who helped him to form ties with young Alliance graduates, such as: Hanina Basri (and may they be blessed with long life) Madeleine and Silvia Haim, Dr. Ezra Nisan and Shlomo Yitzhayik, who was also the treasurer. The activities of the club included sport, classical music, theatre and literature. Its fate was the same as the fate of all Jewish institutions in Iraq - it was nationalized for the good of the Palestinian refugees. The attempt to re-establish the club in Israel did not succeed, according to Shlomo Yitzhayik.

The Aliyah in 1951 to Israel stopped the run of Ya'acov Lev's writings. His books were lost and republished in Israel according to photographs found in the National Library in Jerusalem. His journalistic essay writings became scattered and bear evidence to the standing and the fate of Jewish-Arab authors who had placed their seal on the language and literature of modern Arabic, a phenomenon which was almost totally extinguished, except for the continuing eccentric existence of the writings of Samir Naqqash, who is perhaps the last of the Jewish Iraqi expatriates to have produced some of the best Arabic plays and stories of his day.
This special fate has symbolic expression in the publication of one of the poems of Ya'acov Lev translated by Prof. Sasson Somekh into Hebrew and included in an accumulation of poems collected by Itamar Yaoz Kest entitled: 'The Sign of a Star', meaning a yellow patch. Indeed, with or without the patch, a common destiny is exposed between the Jews and their spiritual creativity of the 20th century.
The responsibility is today placed squarely on our shoulders, to collect, to assemble, to gather and to publish these writings, for the honor of the Jewish-Arabic literature on the one hand and for the Jewish various languages library on the other.

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BABYLONIAN JEWS IN RECENT GENERATIONS
THE AUTHOR YA'ACOV LEV Dr. Lilian Dabby-Joury
Ya'acov Lev Bilbul, author, composer, essayist, lawyer and business man, was wholly involved and active in community life, and as I knew him, he was challenged as a humanist who could know no rest. It may appear a line of superlatives, but this is the truth as it exists regarding this man and his activities. This expression is merely a taste, since it is impossible to measure his literary accomplishments, his illustrations and imprints on Jewish Arabic literature according to the amounts published: two books and written journalistic essays which were not inserted into the book. (A book of poetry - Mihnat al-Aql and a book of stories - Al-Jamra al-Ula). Born in 1920, and having tried his hand at writing poetry from the age of 16, he would meet with esteemed writers at coffee houses frequented by them. At that time he had a strong connection with the composer Abud al-Falluji. During that same period, his poems began to be published on the front page of the daily newspaper: Al-Alam al-Arabi. Prof. Sasson Somekh mentioned the uniqueness of his Arabic poetry when he commented on Ya'acov Lev's distance from mystic sentimentalism in his study of Jubran Khalil Jubran, then dominant in the cupola. Ya'acov Lev turned to rationalism for the title of his book Mihnat al-Aql, which is called 'Intellectual Tribulations'. He is counted among those who introduced the sonata style into Arabic verse. Also during that time, he published his book Al-Jamra al-Ula, 'The first Ember', which placed him, in the words of Prof. Shmuel Moreh, in the front line with the pioneers of the short story in Iraq, together with Murad Michael, Anwar Shaul, Shalom Darwish, Ezra Haddad and others. The book caused favorable repercussions amongst orientalists such as Krachovsky. One of the stories was translated into French and included in the anthology: Antalogie de Literature Arab Moderne. The book and its author also raised repercussions, as testified by his brother Zvi Lev, amongst British spiritualists arriving in Iraq, including the famous author Alec Waugh. In the course of his work at the French Embassy, Ya'acov Lev dealt with translating articles from French newspapers which were then published in the best of the Arabic newspapers such as Al-Bilad, Al-Sha'b, Al-Zaman, Sawt al-Ahali. Eventually, following his work at the Chamber of Commerce, where he gained the status of Manager, several of his financial articles were published, as well as his 'Baghdad Chamber of Commerce Monthly' magazine. His intellectual honesty, loyalty and courage were well known to all and paved the way for him to become one of the youngest achievers in his field. As a journalist for the newspaper Al-Bilad, he did not hesitate to interview the then Syrian Prime Minister, Jamil Mardam, and this interview was published in 1946. The Baghdadi Commerce Committee with Mr. Y. Lev Between the years 1940 to 1950, many of his articles were published in the Egyptian literary newspapers such as: Al-Risala, in which Tawfiq al-Hakim and Taha Husain were also published, and Al-Rewaya and in the monthly magazine Mahallati of Ahmad al-Sadi. Regarding his social activities, in 1943 a club of western French orientation called 'The Alliance Graduates Club' was established, through his connections with Anzo Siraini, the envoy of the Jewish Agency in Iraq, who helped him to form ties with young Alliance graduates, such as: Hanina Basri (and may they be blessed with long life) Madeleine and Silvia Haim, Dr. Ezra Nisan and Shlomo Yitzhayik, who was also the treasurer. The activities of the club included sport, classical music, theatre and literature. Its fate was the same as the fate of all Jewish institutions in Iraq - it was nationalized for the good of the Palestinian refugees. The attempt to re-establish the club in Israel did not succeed, according to Shlomo Yitzhayik. The Aliyah in 1951 to Israel stopped the run of Ya'acov Lev's writings. His books were lost and republished in Israel according to photographs found in the National Library in Jerusalem. His journalistic essay writings became scattered and bear evidence to the standing and the fate of Jewish-Arab authors who had placed their seal on the language and literature of modern Arabic, a phenomenon which was almost totally extinguished, except for the continuing eccentric existence of the writings of Samir Naqqash, who is perhaps the last of the Jewish Iraqi expatriates to have produced some of the best Arabic plays and stories of his day. This special fate has symbolic expression in the publication of one of the poems of Ya'acov Lev translated by Prof. Sasson Somekh into Hebrew and included in an accumulation of poems collected by Itamar Yaoz Kest entitled: 'The Sign of a Star', meaning a yellow patch. Indeed, with or without the patch, a common destiny is exposed between the Jews and their spiritual creativity of the 20th century. The responsibility is today placed squarely on our shoulders, to collect, to assemble, to gather and to publish these writings, for the honor of the Jewish-Arabic literature on the one hand and for the Jewish various languages library on the other.
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