Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe Mammon (Maimon) Maravi (1741 – 7 December 1822) is the spiritual leader credited with helping strengthen religious observance and introducing the Sephardic liturgy to the Bukharian Jewish community. The title Maaravi signifies his North African (

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

) ancestry.

Biography

Born in either Tetouan or

Meknes Meknes ( ar, مكناس, maknās, ; ber, ⴰⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ, amknas; french: Meknès) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th c ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

, Rabbi Mammon made aliyah to teach in a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

in the city of Safed. Like most yeshivas at the time, Maimon's yeshiva relied on donations from the diaspora communities. It was during his search for funds in 1793 that Rabbi Mammon arrived in Bukhara, and chose to stay, in order to strengthen Judaism within the local Jewish population. At the time, the region was under the control of Muslim fundamentalists, who pressured the local Jews to convert to Islam. The community's physical isolation from major centers of Jewish learning was a result of the Bukhara Emirate's policy of closed borders, intended to avoid involvement in the

Great Game The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...

. For the local Jews, this meant fewer opportunities to connect with the larger Jewish community. He established yeshivas, and his children continued his work. He also founded Hibbat Zion, a precursor to Zionism, and encouraged aliyah to Palestine. Early 19th century travelers to Bukhara, including missionary

Joseph Wolff Joseph Wolff (1795 – 2 May 1862) was a Jewish Christian missionary born in Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany, named Wolff after his paternal grandfather. He travelled widely, and was known as "the missionary to the world". He published sev ...

, a Hebrew Christian, described in detail the impact of Yosef Mammon on the culture and religion of the Bukharian Jews. Yosef Mammon died in Bukhara. One of his descendants was Rabbi Shimon Hakham. Another descendant was Esther Gaonoff, the wife of Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi). Moussaieff's and Gaonoff's grandson is Shlomo Moussaieff (businessman) and their great grandchildren are author

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born March 28, 1941 as Jeffrey Lloyd Masson) is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. In his ''The Assault on Truth'' (1984), Masson argues that Freud may ha ...

and the former First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Moussaieff. Another distant descendant, Iosef Yusupov, has worked as an artistic director and conceptual designer for the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in

Sochi, Russia Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents i ...

Biography

References

Further reading