Pallache, also de Palacio(s), Palache, Palaçi, Palachi, Palatsi, Palacci, Palaggi, al-Fallashi, and many other variations, is a prominent Sephardic Jewish family from the Iberian Peninsula, who spread mostly through the Mediterranean after the Alhambra Decree in 1492, and related events.
The Pallaches established themselves in cities in Morocco, the Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt, and other countries from the 1500s to the 1900s. The family includes Chief Rabbis, rabbis, founders of synagogues and batei midrash, scientists, entrepreneurs, writers, and others. Best known are Moroccan envoys and brothers Samuel Pallache (–1616) and Joseph Pallache, at least three grand rabbis of Izmir – Gaon. Haim Palachi (1788–1868), his sons Abraham Palacci (1809–1899) and Rahamim Nissim Palacci (1814–1907), grand rabbi of Amsterdam Isaac Juda Palache (1858–1927), American mineralogist Charles Palache (1869–1954), and Dutch linguist Juda Lion Palache (1886–1944).
History
Inquisitions and expulsions
According to historians Mercedes García-Arenal and Gerard Wiegers, the Pallaches "were a family of Hispanic Jews who settled in Fez after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492." In 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from their kingdoms. Jews who had converted to Christianity were safe from expulsion. Some 200,000 Jews converted; between 40,000 and 100,000 fled.
In 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal decreed that all Jews must convert to Catholicism or leave the country. Jews who converted to Christianity were known as New Christians. This initial edict of expulsion turned into an edict of forced conversion by 1497. In 1506, the Lisbon Massacre erupted. In 1535, Portugal launched its own inquisition. Portuguese Jews fled to the Ottoman Empire, notably to Thessaloniki, Istanbul, and to Morocco. Some went to Amsterdam, France, Brazil, Curaçao, and the Antilles. As Portugal was under control of the Philippine Dynasty of the House of Habsburg (1581–1640), the Portuguese Inquisition blended with the Spanish.
The combined Spanish-Portuguese inquisitions caused one of the largest diasporas in Jewish history.
Iberia
According to Professor Mercedes García-Arenal, the Pallaches were "a Sephardi family perhaps descended from the Bene Palyāj mentioned by the twelfth-century chronicler Abraham ibn Daud as 'the greatest of the families of Córdoba'".
According to Professor Reginald Aldworth Daly, the Pallaches were "persecuted Sephardim Jews of Portugal who were exiled to Holland".
According to Professor Giovanna Fiume, "The Pallache family also emigrated to the Netherlands, perhaps from Portugal or Spain, or, second, another hypothesizes, they emigrated [directly] from their native Spain to Fez."
José Maria Abecassis cites historian Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo (–1180), who wrote:
Morocco
The Jewish presence in Morocco goes back to Carthage, fared moderately, and often prospered under Muslim rule (e.g., the Marinid dynasty). From Morocco, they filtered into Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain, 711–1492) but began to return during the Spanish Reconquista, which mounted in the 10th century. The Spanish-Portuguese expulsions and inquisitions sent Jews back to Morocco on a larger scale. Resultant overcrowding in Moroccan cities led to tension, fires, and famines in Jewish quarters.
Moïse Al Palas (also Moses al-Palas) (???–1535), born in Marrakesh, was a rabbi who moved to Tetuán and lived for a time in Salonica, then in the Ottoman Empire. Before dying in Venice, he published Va-Yakhel Moshe (1597) and Ho'il Moshe (1597), and an autobiography.
Isaac Pallache was a rabbi in Fez, Morocco, first mentioned in takkanot (Jewish community statutes) in 1588. His sons were Samuel Pallache (–1616) and Joseph Pallache. Isaac was married to a sister of Fez's grand rabbi, Judah Uziel; his nephew Isaac Uziel became a rabbi of the Neve Shalom community in Amsterdam.
Netherlands
Jews began to settle in the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century. Thanks to its independence from Spanish control in 1581, the Dutch Republic attracted Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands as a refuge from a common enemy, Spain.
After an unsuccessful attempt to return to Spain in the mid-1600s, Samuel and Joseph Pallache settled a new branch of the Pallache family in the Netherlands by 1608. There, they represented their benefactor, Zidan al-Nasir of Morocco, as well as the Dutch government, in complex negotiations with Morocco, the Netherlands, Spain, France, England, the Ottoman Empire, and other European states – often on behalf of more than one sponsoring state and (as stateless Jews) on their own behalf.
The sons of both brothers continued in their fathers's footsteps, some remaining in the Netherlands (e.g., David Pallache), others returning to Morocco (e.g., Moses Pallache).
In the Netherlands, the surname solidified as "Palache" (a spelling variation which started in the 16th century), and the family continues as Palache in the Netherlands to the present. Prominent members have included grand rabbi Isaac Juda Palache (1858–1927) and his son, Professor Juda Lion Palache (1887–1944).
The Pallache brothers and their sons did not marry members of the Portuguese Sephardic community in the Netherlands. "It seems significant that no male member of the Pallache family ever married a woman from the Portuguese community... it is surely significant that neither Samuel nor any of his heirs were ever to marry into the great trading families of 'the Portuguese nation'." In September 2016, however, two 1643 marriage certificates were discovered for David Pallache (1598–1650) and Judith Lindo (??? – October 30, 1665) of Antwerp, daughter of Ester Lindo In 1646, Samuel Pallache (1616–???), son of Isaac Joseph Pallache and nephew of David Joseph Pallache, married Abigail (born 1622), sister of Judith Lindo.
Turkey
The first reported Pallache in Turkey (then, the Ottoman Empire) dates to 1695, when Isaac Pallache of Leghorn (Livorno, Italy) wrote a letter to the Dutch consul in Smyrna (1695)
The Pallache appear in Izmir (then, "Smyrna") no later than the time of rabbi Jacob Pallache, who married the daughter of a grand rabbi Joseph ben Hayyim Hazan. Jacob's son became grand rabbi Haim Palachi (1788–1868), two of whose sons, Abraham (1809–1899) and Isaac, or Rahamim Nissim (1814–1907), also became grand rabbis there.
According to the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World: In 1863, a London-based Jewish newspaper noted "the chief rabbi of Smyrna, Palacci, a venerable, octogenarian, seems to command universal respect". In 1868, Die Deborah (part of The American Israelite) reported a gather of four rabbis who unanimously supported the wish of the late Abraham Palacci that his son (son not named) be appointed in his place. In 1872, the Bulletin de l'Alliance Israélite Universelle reported on a "real famine" for which relief was sent to Chief Rabbi Palacci to distribute. In early 1873, the name of Haim Nissim Palacci appears as treasurer in Smyrna of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In mid-1873, the Universal Israelitish Alliance of Paris and the Anglo-Jewish Association of London agreed to establish a school for Jewish boys and girls in Smyrna under the guidance of Dr. Palacci, Chief Rabbi of Smyrna. In 1891, a newspaper reported the a "good likeness" of chief rabbi Abraham Palacci was on its way from Smyrna to Istanbul as part of books sent there. In 1893, a newspaper reported that the importance of a grand rabbi Palacci (which one, unspecified), aided by his son Nissim Palacci.
The Pallache continued in Turkey past the 1922 great fire of Smyrna; some left during Allied evacuation during World War II and were murdered during the Holocaust.
Egypt
No later than the close of the 19th century, a branch of the Pallache family had settled in Egypt, with some remaining in Cairo into the 1950s.
Which members of the family had what foreign citizenship is as yet undetermined, e.g., Spanish under the Decree-Law of 29 December 1948. Neither "Palacci" nor variations on the surname appear in either the Egyptian or Greek lists.
Palacci department store
In 1897, Palacci brothers Vita, Henri, and family established the Palacci (Arabic: Balaatshi) department store. In 1904, the company's name was Palacci Menasce et Fils. Shortly thereafter, it had become Palacci Fils, Haim et Cie, located on Muski street near the old Opera House. By 1907, Vita Palacci had become head of the store. Also in 1907, newspapers mentions "Mr. Vita Pallacci, the distinguished chief of the house of Palacci Pils, Halm and Co., which is well known in Europe and America" as president of the "Ahemia Society". By 1909, the Palacci had partnered with A. Hayam, and the store employed 20 office clerks and more than 100–120 sales staff. In 1910, "Albert Palacci & Co." appears as a Cairo firm interested in trading in silk. At an unclear date, "Palacci, Menasce & Co." are recorded as having stores in Cairo, Tanta, and Mansoura.
In 1916, "Palacci, Fils, Haym, and Co." were listed among "persons who have been granted licenses to trade in Egypt, with the British Empire, and with Allies of Great Britain". The same year, "Palacci Fil, Haim & Co." filed a suit against "Mohamed Moh. Sélim".
When Vita died in 1917, his oldest son Albert Vita Palacci succeeded as manager. The store had offices overseas in Paris (1922) to purchase draperies and hardware, while its Cairo offices exported household essentials and perfumes. By the mid-1920s, Palacci had branches on Fuad Street and in Heliopolis.
In 1925, the Palacci partook in a "Gran Corso Carnivalesque" in Cairo, organized by the International Union of Commercial Establishment Employees of Cairo, along with 24 other department stores.
By November 1926, it added a new location in Heliopolis. By 1927, it had begun to advertise seasonally or special occasions like weddings, school supplies, carpets, brass beds, shirts, ties, and false collars. In 1928, it dropped Heliopolis as its second location but restored a more French version "Palacci Haym & Cie" as well as the second store in Heliopolis (alternate version "Palacci Haim & Cie.") in the first quarter of 1929, reverting again to "Palacci Haym & Co."
In 1933, the family of Mahmoud Abel Bak El Bitar had a lawsuit against "Pallaci, Haym & Co." By 1935, the Palacci department store had experienced financial difficulties.
In August 1937, the original department store of les "Grand Magasins" Palacci, Haym & Co. on Mouski Street burned; the family did not rebuild.
The 1948 Cairo bombings, which included the Ades and Gattegno stores, did not deter the family; both Albert Vita Palacci and Dr. Victor Palacci appear in a 1955 Who's Who for Egypt, while Henry Menahem Palacci in Cairo appears in the mid-1950s (along with an Albert Palacci in Belgium). By the time Nasser had nationalized all Jewish-owned assets in Egypt (1958), most Palacci had left Cairo in diaspora–yet "Palacci Fils, Hayem et Cie." remained listed as a business in Cairo as late as 1959.
Ahemia Society As community leaders, the Palacci supported Jewish causes inside and outside Egypt. In 1907, Vita Palacci was serving as president of la société de bienfaisence a "Hachemia" (from Hebrew Hakham: הכם ḥaḵam, "wise"?):
During 1916–1917, "Palacci Fils, Haym & Co." was one of numerous donors in Egypt to the "Yeshibat Erez Israel (Rabbinical Institution) for the Refugee Rabbis from the Holy Land". This group collected 120,427.5 PT (piasters), routed to its treasurer, E. Anzurat. Donors were from Alexandria, Cairo, "suburbs," England, Australia, Canada, S. Africa, India, France, and the U.s.. The local collector in Cairo was Rabbi Haim Mendelof. The Palacci donated 500 PT, as did Maurice Calamari, I.M. Cattaui & Fils, Le Fils de M. Cicurel, Jaques & Elie Green.
Cairo residences