Rahabi (Raby), Naphtali Eliahu

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RAHABI (Raby), NAPHTALI ELIAHU

RAHABI (Raby ), NAPHTALI ELIAHU (1863–1951), "white" Jewish scholar of Cochin (*Kochi), India. He is the author of Divrei Yemei ha-Yehudim be-Cochin ("History of the Jews of Cochin"; Sasson Ms. 268), and of Toledot Beit Rahabi be-Cochin ("History of the Rahabi Family"), both unpublished. He edited Ḥuppat Ḥatanim (1917), a collection of songs and hymns for weddings, etc. Like many Cochin leaders, Rahabi had strong Zionist sympathies.

bibliography:

D.S. Sassoon, Ohel Dawid, 1 (1932), 370; 2 (1932), 844, 967; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Arẓot ha-Mizraḥ, 2 (1940), 70; W.J. Fischel, Ha-Yehudim be-Hodu (1960), 97–111; idem, in: Herzl Yearbook, 4 (1961–62), 309–28.

[Walter Joseph Fischel]