Morris Schinasi

Morris Schinasi
Moris Şinasi
Born
Musa Eskenazi

April 27, 1855 [1]
DiedSeptember 10, 1928
NationalityAmerican–Ottoman
OccupationBusinessman
Spouse
Laurette Schinasi
(m. 1903)
Children3 daughters including Altina (1907–99)
AwardsOrder of the Medjidie of the Ottoman Empire

Morris Schinasi (Turkish: Moris Şinasi; born Musa Eskenazi;[2] April 27, 1855 – September 10, 1928) was an Ottoman-born wealthy American businessman in the tobacco industry.

Medjidie Medal of the Ottoman Empire bestowed to Morris Schinasi

He was born in 1855 in Manisa, Ottoman Empire to relatively poor Sephardic Jew parents. At the age of nine, he contracted diphtheria. He was treated by a Muslim physician named Şinasi (Shinasi or Schinasi in European languages) and regained his health. His parents named him henceforth Moris Şinasi as a gesture of gratitude.[3] He had two brothers Solomon (also known as Shlomo) and Yaakov, and a sister, Sultana.[4][5]

He was forced to leave the school and worked in a Jewish cemetery as a guard. At the age of fifteen, he left Turkey for Alexandria, Egypt, where he lived until he was nearly thirty. It was then that Garaffolo, a successful Greek tobacco merchant, who informally adopted Schinasi in Alexandria, determined that Schinasi should seek his fortune in America. In 1890, he immigrated to the United States.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ "Morris Schinasi". Ancestry.
  2. ^ Aşık, Melih (September 25, 2016). "Moris Şinasi..." Milliyet (in Turkish). Musa Eskenazi 1855 yılında Manisa'da doğdu. (translation: Musa Eskenazi was born in Manisa in 1855.)
  3. ^ "Morris Şinasi'nin vasiyeti yaşıyor". Radikal (in Turkish). August 13, 2010. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  4. ^ a b Askin, Nihal; Dokak, Fahrettin (January 1, 2004). "Manisa sevdalısı Morris Schinasi" [Manisa lover Morris Schinasi]. Sabah (in Turkish). Archived from the original on May 8, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Morris Schinasi and the Manisa Children's Hospital". Turk of America. July 13, 2008. Archived from the original on August 1, 2008. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  6. ^ Schinasi, Altina. The Road I Have Travelled Santa Fe: Apodaca Hill Press 1995, p. 4