DANGOOR, EZRA SASSON BEN REUBEN

DANGOOR, EZRA SASSON BEN REUBEN (1848–1930), Iraqi rabbi. Dangoor studied in Baghdad and was a pupil of Abdallah *Somekh. Although he devoted much of his time to religious activity, he obtained his livelihood from business. From 1880 to 1886 he was in charge of documents issued by the Baghdad bet din. In 1894 he was appointed rabbi of Rangoon, Burma, but ill health compelled him to return a year later to Baghdad, where he was appointed chief of the shohatim. During 1923 to 1928 he served as chief rabbi of Baghdad but resigned office in consequence of communal disputes. Many books were published under his editorship in the Hebrew press he established in Baghdad in 1904, including festival prayer books according to the Baghdad rite; Seder ha-ʿIbbur, calendars for the years 5665–5683 (in other presses until 5691); Birkhot Shamayim (1905), on the blessings for precepts and for pleasures; Sefer ha-Shirim (1906), containing poems by different authors. There remain in manuscript in the Sassoon collection responsa, a history of Baghdad from the years 1793 to 1928, homilies, commentaries on biblical books, laws, customs, poems, and *piyyutim. After his death, his children published a memorial volume (1931).

bibliography:

Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 458; A. Yaari, Ha-Defus ha-Ivri be-Arẓot ha-Mizraḥ, 2 (1940), 104f., 131–48; A. Ben-Jacob, Yehudei Bavel (1965), 172–4; idem, Shirah u-Fiyyut shel Yehudei Bavel ba-Dorot ha-Aḥaronim (1970), index.

[Abraham David]