Alfandari

Alfandari family
Family
EtymologyPossibly derived from the Spanish locality, Alfambra
Members
  • Aaron ben Moses Alfandari
  • Elijah Alfandari
  • Ḥayyim ben Isaac Raphael Alfandari the Younger
  • Ḥayyim ben Jacob Alfandari the Elder
  • Isaac Raphael Alfandari
  • Jacob ben Ḥayyim Alfandari
  • Solomon Eliezer Alfandari
  • Solomon Alfandari (Valencia, 1367)
Connected members
  • Moses Alphandéry (physician, 1506)
  • Lyon Alphanderic (1558)
  • Henri Alfandari (French MP, 2022)

Alfandari was a family of eastern rabbis prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries, found in Smyrna, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The name may be derived from a Spanish locality, perhaps from Alfambra. The following is a list of the chief members of the family:

Members of this family were to be found as of 1906 in Constantinople and in Beirut. A Portuguese family of the name Alphandéry still exists, as of 1906, in Paris and Avignon. In Avignon there was a physician, Moses Alphandéry, in 1506,[1] and a Lyon Alphanderic, in 1558.[2] Compare the names Moses אלפנדריך[3] and Aaron אלפנדארק.[4]

In addition to the persons mentioned above, there is known a Solomon Alfandari (Valencia, 1367), whose son Jacob assisted Samuel Ẓarẓa in tranṣlating the Sefer ha-'Aẓamim of pseudo-ibn Ezra from Arabic into Hebrew. A merchant, Isaac Alfandari, was wrecked in 1529 on the Nubian coast.[5] In Israeli popular culture, the principal family in the 1973 film Daughters, Daughters is named Alfandari.

For a possible explanation of the name, see Steinschneider.[6]

Henri Alfandari has been a French Member of Parliament since 2022.

  1. ^ Rev. Ét. Juives, xxxiv. 253
  2. ^ Rev. Ét. Juives, vii. 280
  3. ^ Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 2129
  4. ^ Neubauer, Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. No. 1080
  5. ^ Zunz, Z. G. p. 425; Steinschneider, Hebr. Uebers. p. 448
  6. ^ Jew. Quart. Rev. xi. 591.