Irāqī, Eleazar ben Aaron Ha-Kohen°

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IRĀQĪ, ELEAZAR BEN AARON HA-KOHEN°

IRĀQĪ, ELEAZAR BEN AARON HA-KOHEN ° (d. 1864), Yemenite-*Indian scholar and printer. Though born in Cochin, India, before 1816, ʿ Irāqī was of Yemenite parentage. He spent most of his life in Calcutta where he served as teacher, ḥazzan, and shoḥet in the new Jewish community. He opened a printing press in Calcutta in 1841, becoming the first Jewish printer in India; during the next 16 years he printed 25 ritual books for the use of the Jewish communities of India and the East. He made special efforts to print the works of Yemenite scholars and poets. In the Sefer ha-Pizmonim ("Book of Hymns," 1842) which he printed, some of his own poems are also included.

bibliography:

A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Arẓot ha-Mizraḥ (1940), 9–13.

[Yehuda Ratzaby]