Pallache family

"Pallache" – also de Palacio(s), Palache, Palaçi, Palachi, Palacci, Palaggi, and many other variations (documented below) – is the surname of a prominent, Ladino-speaking, Sephardic Jewish family from the Iberian Peninsula, who spread mostly through the Mediterranean after the Alhambra Decree of March 31, 1492, and related events.
The Pallache have had connections with Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic communities, as detailed below.
The Pallache established themselves in cities in Morocco, the Netherlands, Turkey, Egypt, and other countries from the 1500s through the 1900s. The family includes Chief Rabbis, rabbis, founders of synagogues and batei midrash, scientists, entrepreneurs, writers, and others. Best known to date are: Moroccan envoys and brothers Samuel Pallache (ca. 1550–1616) 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, ""Les Pallache étaient une famille de juifs d'origine hispanique installés à Fès depuis l'expulsion des juifs d'Espagne en 1492"." ("The Pallaches were a family of Hispanic Jews who settled in Fez after the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492.")
In 1480, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon established a Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ("Inquisición española"). Its dual purpose was to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in Spain while replacing the Medieval Inquisition under Papal control. On March 31, 1492, Isabella and Ferdinand issued the Alhambra Decree (or "Edict of Expulsion"), thereby ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, its territories, and it possessions by July 31 that year–in four months. Jews who had converted to Christianity ("conversos") were safe from expulsion. Some 200,000 Jews converted; between 40,000 and 100,000 fled from the kingdom. (On December 16, 1968, Spain revoked the Alhambra Edict. On June 25, 2015, King Felipe VI of Spain announced Law Number 12/2015, which grants right of return to Sephardic Jews. There are criticisms about shortcomings in the law. By October 2016, Spain had processed more than 4,500 applicants, of which only three (3) had gained citizenship based on the actual law: the rest (number unstated) were naturalized by royal decree.")
On December 5, 1496, King ManueI 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 Thessaloniki and Constantinople and to Morocco. Some went to Amsterdam, France, Brazil, Curaçao, and the Antilles. Some of the most famous descendants of Portuguese Jews who lived outside Portugal are the philosopher Baruch Spinoza (from Portuguese Bento de Espinosa), and the classical economist David Ricardo. While 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 Da’ud 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, "Verso i Paesi Bassi emigra anche la famiglia Pallache, forse dal Portogallo o dalla Spagna, oppure, secundo un'altra ipotesti, dalla nativa Spagna emigra a Fez." (translation: "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 (ca. 1110–1180), who wrote: 
Morocco.
 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 floods of 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 (ca. 1550–1616) 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 only at the end of the 16th Century. Thanks to its own recent (1581) independence from Spanish control, 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. In recent times, prominent members have included grand rabbi Isaac Juda Palache (1858-1927) and his son, Professor Juda Lion Palache (1887-1944).
"A Man in Three Worlds" did not find intermarriage between the Pallache brothers or sons and members of the Portuguese Sephardic community in the Netherlands. In fact, it documents the contrary, e.g., that sons Isaac and Joshuae did not go make such marriages. "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 Death details for David Pallache also confirm the marriage. Further, three years later, in 1646, Samuel Pallache (1616–???), son of Isaac Joseph Pallache and nephew of David Joseph Pallache, married Abigail (born 1622), sister of Judith Lindo.
Portugal.
At present, it is unclear as to whether members of the Pallache family went first to Portugal after Spain. However, new findings show that their intermarriage started earlier than supposed in "A Man in Three Worlds" (see "Netherlands," above).
Turkey.
 Jews have lived in Asia Minor (Turkey) since the 5th Century BCE. The Ottoman Empire welcomed Sephardic Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. (Today, the majority of Turkish Jews live in Israel, while modern-day Turkey continues to host a modest Jewish population.)
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) Currently, it is unknown whether the Pallache settled first in Istanbul or Izmir.
The Pallache appear in Izmir (then, "Smyrna") no later than the time of rabbi Jacob Pallache, who married the daughter of a previous grand rabbi Joseph Raphael ben Hayyim Hazzan. Jacob's son became grand rabbi Haim Palachi (1788–1868), two of whose sons, Abraham (1809–1899) and Isaac aka Rahamim Nissim (1814–1907) also became grand rabbis there.
According to the "Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World": 
The Pallache continued in Turkey past the 1922 great fire of Smyrna; some left during Allied evacuation during World War II and died during the Holocaust (see below).
Egypt.
 The Torah documents a long history of Jews in Egypt. Jews lived quietly under the Romans until the advent of Christianity (e.g., Emperor Heraclius I and Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria). After the Arab conquest, Jews survived reasonably well under the Tulunids (863–905), the Fatimids (969–1169), and the Ayyubids (1174–1250) during whose rule Maimonides lived. Under the Bahri Mamluks (1250–1390), Jews began to feel less secure and less so under the Burji Mamluks (1390–1517). The Ottomans (1517–1922) took more active interest in the Jewish community and made substantial changes in their governance. Shabbatai Zvi visited Cairo, where his movement continued under Abraham Miguel Cardozo, physician to the pasha Kara Mohammed. Following the Damascus Affair, Moses Montefiore, Adolphe Crémieux, and Salomon Munk visited Egypt in 1840 and helped found schools with Rabbi Moses Joseph Algazi.
It was a period of rapid change in Egypt. As of 1867, the government began changing from "pasha" to "khedive", to "sultan" and threw off Ottoman suzerainty. It also saw the building of the Suez Canal. Political unrest exploded after World War I, led by Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party) and culminating in the Egyptian revolution of 1919 and the issue by the UK government (colonial controllers in the 1800s) of a unilateral declaration of Egyptian independence on February 22, 1922.. (See History of Egypt under the British.) The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. In 1924, Zaghlul became Prime Minister of Egypt. In 1936, Egypt concluded a new treaty with the UK. In 1952, the 1952 Revolution of the Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad, secured a British promise of withdrawal by 1954–1956, and led to the accession of Egypt's first modern president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
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 ("Decreto-Ley de 29 de Deciembre de 1948") to extend Spanish protection for Sephardic Jews in Greece and Egypt: (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, the "Jewish Chronicle" of London mentions "Mr. Vita Pallacci, the distinguished chief of the house of Palacci Pils, Halm and Co., which is well known inEurope and America." 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."
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"": 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, established by the Alexandrian Rabbinate." From 1 Year 5676 through Sivan 5677 (4 April 1916 through to 29 June 1917), this group collected 120,427.5 PT (piasters), routed to its treasurer, E. Anzurat and published its third financial report. Donors were from Alexandria, Cairo, "suburbs," England, Australia, Canada, S. Africa, India, France, and the USA. 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.
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 grand department stores, including: Cicurel, Bon Marché, Mawardi, Salamander, and Paul Favre. Other department stores of that time included: Chemla Fréres (see Jacqueline Kahanoff), Orosdi-Back, Sednaoui (see Elisa Sednaoui), Hannaux, Chalons, Ades (see Ades Synagogue and Yaakov Ades), Gattegno (see Caleb Gattegno and Joseph Gattegno), Madkur, Ahmad, Yusuf Gamal, Benzion (see owner Moïse Lévy de Benzion and Levi de Benzion), Morum's, Stein's, Raff's, Robert Hughes, Mayer, Tiring. The history "Maadi: 1904-1962" lists the following Jewish families around the Adly synagogu including: Rasson, Romano, Gold, Kabili, Rofe, Mizrahi, Chalem, Calderon, Agami, setton, Simhon, Sofeir. It also lists those Jewish families close by, including: Harris, Risolevi, Hettena, Sullam, Ades, Watoury, Palacci, Curiel, Basri, Farhi, Hazan, and Hazan. The history "Egypt: The Lost Homeland" lists the following Jewish families in Cairo who "were considered Austrian and enjoyed the protection of the Austrian embassy, event though they were not Austrian citizens": Adda, Benarojo, Belilios, Cattaui, Forte, Goldstein, Heffez, Ismalun, Mondolfo, Pallaci, Picciotto, Rossano, and Romano.
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 and then burned down; the family did not rebuild. Nevertheless, the family company or derivatives continued. In 1947, an "H.M. Palacci & Co." appears as an agent of the G. R. Marshall & Co. exporting company of Richmond, Canada.
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.
Cairo residences.
The Pallache family settled around the main home of Vita Palacci, a villa ("Palacci-Naggar-Ades Building") at No. 23 Ahmed Basha Street (Ahmad Pasha Street) in Garden City, Cairo. Two of Vita Palacci's grandchildren, siblings Eddy and Colette, have written memoirs of their childhoods in Cairo (and Paris), which document Sephardic Jewish life in Cairo in the 1930s, including traditions, use of Ladino, and food recipes.
Alexandria.
Pallache also settled in Alexandria. "Mordahai Palacci-Miram was likewise a Sephardi but from Constantinople, when he married Rosa Alterman, an Ashkenazi of German origin. Several of their children were born in Constantinople... but to escape an outbreak of plague came to Alexandria..." A "Ventura Palacci-Miram" is also mentioned.
Congo venture: La Coupole.
After World War I, participation of the "Force Publique" in the East African campaign resulted in a League of Nations mandate over the previously German colony of Ruanda-Urundi to Belgium as Belgian Congo (read more at "Belgian Congo").
In the mid-1940s, Henri Palacci, son of Menahem, son of Aaron (Henri) Palacci, founded "La Coupole" store in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Leopoldville, Belgian Congo), as documented here: (See "Congo Crisis" for more on the emergence of the DR Congo.)
Other countries.
The Pallache had established themselves in Jamaica by the 19th Century in the sugar trade. In 1825, the London Gazette posted notice of a partnership that included Mordecai Palache and Alexander Palache "of Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica." A "Charles, son of Mordechai Palache" is recorded in 1847. Numerous people named Palache continued to appear. Most prominent among them was the Honorable John Thomson Palache ("a coloured solicitor").
A "Vita Palacci" appears in Argentina by 1855.
21st Century.
Continued expulsions and diaspora have dispersed the Pallache family to many countries in the Americas, Europe, and farther afield.
By the 20th Century, the Pallache had established and the United States. The family of noted American mineralogist Charles Palache (1869–1954) came to California from Jamaica. His descendants include Judith Palache Gregory (1932–2017), AKA "an American writer, counselor, educator, and permaculturalist
Numerous Palacci came to the States in diaspora from Turkey and Egypt, including Colette (Palacci) Rossant.
Synagogues.
Netherlands.
Samuel Pallache may have helped found the first synagogue in Amsterdam. As early as his 1769 "Memorias do Estabelecimento e Progresso dos Judeos Portuguezes e Espanhoes nesta Famosa Cidade de Amsterdam", David Franco Mendes records a first minyan in Amsterdam with sixteen worshippers, including Samuel and Joseph Pallache. Other sources go further to claim that this first "minyan" occurred in Palache's home, as they were dignitaries (envoys from Morocco) and occurred around 1590 or Yom Kippur 1596. However, in their book "A Man of Three Worlds"' on Samuel Pallache, Professors García-Arenal and Gerard A. Wiegers point out that the Pallache brothers arrived in Amsterdam in the first decade of the following century.
Turkey.
Around 1840, the Pallache home in Smyrna became today's Beth Hillel Synagogue (Turkish "Bet-Ilel Sinagogu") and seat of a yeshiva or beit madras. The synagogue lies in the Kemeraltı marketplace district in Izmir and is named after Haim or Abraham Palacci. Professor Stanford J. Shaw stated it was Haim who founded the "Beth Hillel Palacci". or his son Abraham. According to Jewish Izmir Heritage, "In the 19th century, Rabbi Avraham Palache founded in his home a synagogue named Beit Hillel, after the philanthropist from Bucharest who supported the publication of Rabbi Palache's books. However, the name 'Avraham Palache Synagogue' was also used by the community." This synagogue forms a cluster of eight extant (from a recorded peak of 34 in the 19th Century), all adjacent... [making] Izmir is the only city in the world in which an unusual cluster of synagogues bearing a typical medieval Spanish architectural style is preserved ...[and] creating an historical architectural complex unique in the world." The Zalman Shazar Center also refers to Beit Hillel synagogue as "Avraham Palaggi's synagogue" but then states that "the synagogue was founded by Palaggi Family in 1840" and that Rav Avraham Palaggi "used" it. "The building had been used as a synagogue and a "Beit Midrash". The synagogue has not been used since 1960's." It concludes, "The synagogue was founded by the Palaggi family and is therefore very important."
Egypt.
The Palaccis were one of many families that helped maintain the Sephardic Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue (Cairo) on Adly Street in downtown Cairo.
Yeshivas.
Turkey.
Journey into Jewish Heritage states that Haim Palacci founded the "Beit Hillel Yeshiva" in Izmir in the middle of the 19th century. Current sources are unclear, but it is likely the same as the "Beit Midrash" mentioned above.
Israel.
A seminary was named in Haim Palachi's honor in Bnei Brak, Israel.
Documented spellings of surname.
As the Pallache settled in new cities with new languages, spellings of the surname changed. Sometimes, the families themselves voluntarily changed their surnames while at other times changes occurred via officialdom. In the 20th Century, Turkish officials forced all nationals to adopt surnames under the 1934 Surname Law.
Variations on the Pallache name appear on both Spanish and Portuguese lists of Sephardic names. For instance, "Palacci" is listed as Spanish Sephardic, while "Pallache" is listed as Portuguese Sephardic.
Samuel Pallache's name appeared in several forms–including variations that he himself used. A German "Vierteljarhschrift" mentions both "Duarte de Palacios" and "Duarte Palache" when referring to the same person, thus making direct equation between the names "de Palacios" and "Palache."
Documented names include:
Family tree.
The approach that the outline below follows is: 1) use Moïse Rahmani's essay "Les Patronymes: une histoire de nom ou histoire tout court" as a base, 2) add findings from the penultimate chapter of García-Arenal and Wiegers's "A Man of Three Worlds: Samuel Pallache, a Moroccan Jew in Catholic and Protestant Europe" (1999, 2007), and 3) add further information – all with citations. The index developed for Abraham Galante's "Jews of Turkey" is another major source for the Izmir branch of the family.
16th-17th Centuries Morocco and Netherlands.
Pallache of the 16th-17th Centuries, who originated from Morocco include:
17th-20th Centuries Netherlands.
Pallache (as "Palache") of the 17th-20th Centuries in the Netherlands include:
17th-20th Centuries Ottoman empire.
Pallache of the 17th-20th Centuries in Smyrna / Izmir, Turkey (then Ottoman Empire) include:
19th-20th Centuries Egypt.
Other Pallache who left Turkey (Izmir or Istanbul) for Egypt include:
17th-20th Centuries elsewhere.
Other Pallache of the 17th-20th Centuries in other lands and who are (to date) unclearly connected to Dutch or Turkish/Egyptian branches include: