World’s Oldest Jew Dies At 117 — Leaves Behind 125 Descendants
Image by twitter
He was born when the Ottoman Empire still ruled modern-day Israel, the British held his native Iraq and Jews were spread throughout the Middle East. But the 117-year-old Rabbi Zecharia Barashi on Tuesday left a world very different from the one he found, as Israel’s oldest resident – and the world’s oldest Jew and rabbi – passed away from natural causes at his Jerusalem home.
Barashi immigrated to pre-state Israel in 1936 from his native Iraqi Kurdistan, first laboring as a construction worker and then as a rabbi ministering to his fellow Kurds, according to The Times of Israel. He also founded a national organization for Kurdish Jews and worked as an educator in Jerusalem.
His longevity records were not confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records due to issues with documentations, but his claim was accepted by Israeli authorities. He is survived by 29 grandchildren, 72 great-grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
