From Settat to Casablanca
Haim (Hayyim) Nahmani was born in February 1902 in Settat, a market town south of Casablanca, to Yosef Nahmani and Ester Abikasis, from a family of rabbis. He became a wholesale merchant in Casablanca and married Simha (Simi) Edri. They had eleven children, among them David (born 1925), Avraham, Avner, Ora, Yachin and Dina.
Hebrew, and the Mizrachi
From the early 1930s he represented the Mizrachi, the religious Zionist movement, in Morocco. He promoted the study of Hebrew as preparation for aliyah and founded Hebrew-language associations, among them Magen David and, during the Second World War, "Lovers of the Language". At the end of the war he helped young people leave for the Land of Israel through the illegal immigration networks. His son David was one of the family who went ahead.
A cell in Casablanca
He was imprisoned in Casablanca for his Zionist activity. His cellmate was Pierre Mendès France, the future Prime Minister of France, who had crossed to Morocco in 1940 and was held there by the Vichy authorities. A close friendship grew between the two men and lasted the rest of their lives.
The family also remembers a visit from Mendès France. We are still gathering the details of when and where it took place, and hope to find a photograph.
A newspaper, a book, and aliyah
From 1949 to 1956 he published a Judeo-Arabic newspaper of news from Israel and the Jewish world, more than two hundred issues. In 1953 he published a History of the Jews of Morocco in Judeo-Arabic. His daughter Dina worked as his secretary and read the news and his speeches to the community.
In 1954 he made aliyah with his family and settled in Kfar Saba, where he was active in HaPoel HaMizrachi and helped new immigrants from Morocco. He died in Kfar Saba on 6 February 1984.