'Exilarch' Sir Naim Dangoor dies, aged 101

Point of No Return is saddened to learn of the passing of Sir Naim Dangoor, CBE, aged 101.

Born in Baghdad in 1914, Sir Naim - he was knighted in June 2015 - was a great philanthropist and entrepreneur. He introduced Coca Cola in Iraq, but  also pioneered the promotion of the issue of Jewish refugees from Iraq and their fight for justice after he was forced to leave in 1963. He re-established a thriving business in the UK and for 35 years, he published the journal, The Scribe - a vehicle for documenting the rich history of the Iraqi Jewish community. 

 Sir Naim Dangoor z"l

On the occasion of the 100th birthday which Sir Naim shared with the Coca Cola bottle, the US multinational published this tribute.

 His Wikipedia entry reads as follows:

"In the 1930s Sir Naim made the five-day journey from Baghdad to London, at the age of 17, in order to enrol in an engineering degree at the University of London.^[3] After graduating he returned to Iraq where he was conscripted to the army and became an officer. It was during his army training that he met his future business partner Ahmed Safwat.^[4]

Naim Dangoor with his partner (right) Ahmed Safwat in Nice

Initially on leaving the army he had hoped to become an engineer on the railways, but due to restrictions imposed upon Jews this was not possible, so he and Ahmed, a Muslim, decided to go into business together, setting up Eastern Industries in 1949.

Their first contract was to supply new windows to all Iraqi government buildings, and soon their portfolio grew to include property development and letting.^[5] In 1950, Eastern industries secured the first contract to bottle Coca Cola in Iraq.^[6] Alongside Eastern Industries, Sir Naim also ran factories producing matches and furniture.

In November 1947 Sir Naim married Renée Dangoor (who had been crowned Miss Baghdad earlier that year).^[7] They went on to have four sons.
With the rise of the Ba'ath party in Iraq, the situation for Jews in the country worsened and in 1959 Sir Naim took the difficult decision to take his family out. He continued travelling back and forth for business until 1963, when he decided that the worsening political situation made it too risky for him to return. As a result of laws specific to Jews, he lost his Iraqi citizenship, and his property and business interests were taken by the government.^[8] He was eventually permitted to settle in the UK where he set about rebuilding his life, setting up a property business that his four sons went on to join.^[9]

In order to preserve the heritage of the community he had left behind, soon after settling in the UK, he founded a community centre in West Kensington for new Iraqi Jewish immigrants, and in 1971 began editing and publishing "The Scribe", a "Journal of Babylonian Jewry", with 4000 subscribers in 25 countries which continued to be published for 35 years.^[9][10]

In 1970 he revived the title of Exilarch - an ancient title held by the supreme leader of all the Jewish communities in Babylonia, up until the 13th Century.^[11]
In 2003 he demanded £12 billion ($20 billion) from Iraq's leaders as compensation for what the Iraqi-Jewish community had lost in Iraq after the Second World War.^[1]

As his business in the UK grew, he wanted to give back to the country that had taken him in. In 1980 he set up the Exilarch's Foundation, a chairty that has made numerous donations to causes relating to education and health.^[12]

In 2004 he created the Dangoor Scholarships to help one thousand undergraduate students who had no family history of further education, at the 1994 Group of universities.^[13]

A few years later in 2009 he created the Eliahou Dangoor Scholarships, in honour of his father. These were awarded to four thousand undergraduate students, with limited means, studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. ^[14]

In the same year Sir Naim was made Honorary President for the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq.<sup>[15]"

His first cousin and wife Renee pre-deceased him in 2008. He leaves four sons,  seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.</sup> 

 ^{Renee Dangoor was crowned Miss Baghdad in 1947}