The FARAGGI Family

The origin of the Faraggi surname is unclear. Written in Hebrew characters it can be pronounced in many ways. According to Encyclopedia Judaica (EJ) the origin of the name could be either from Arabic FARAG or from a town in Spain FRAGA. According to Gugenheim the origin of the name comes from Arabic Farache, Faradj, Farag, and Faraj, which, depending where the family stayed, took the form of Farachi, Farage, Faraggi, Fraggi, Fragi and Faraji. The name Farag is found for the first time in the 9th century in Sicily (merchants). In the 13th century a physician to "Charles I" king of Anjou, Moses ben Solomon Farag who translated from Arabic a medical book. In the 16th century one branch of the Faraggi family in Salonika belonged to the "old Sicily" synagogue. Other branches of the Faraggi family belonged to the "Aragon" "Portugal" and "Etz Ha-Haim" synagogues in Salonika. In the last synagogue it is stated that they were "visitors" which means, according to the author, that they previously belonged to another synagogue (or were "maranos") and join the Etz Ha-Haim synagogue later. In the two books on the Jewish cemetery in Salonika the first FARAGGI mentioned is Joseph who died in 1544. [(1) Michael Molho, "Tombstones of The Jew Cemetery of Salonika", The Institute for research on Jews in Salonika, Tel-Aviv 1975. (2) I.S. Emmanuel, "Precious Stones of The Jews of Salonika", Vols. 1 and 2, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, (1963)]. Also, in the book of M. Franco "Essai sur l'Histoire des Israelites de l'Empire Ottoman, 1897, Durlacher, Paris, pp. 57", there is a story on a Marane, Juda FARAGGI, who was sent in 1566 by the Jewish community in Pesaro to the Ottoman empire (Salonika, Constantinople, Adrianopol, Brousse and Moree) to persuade them to stop their commerce with the city of Ancona. This action was taken at the request of the duke of Pesaro-Urbino, Guido Ubaldo, after the "autodafe of Ancona" where maranes were put in conflagration (burned to death). This duke saved some maranes because his economic interests to shift the commerce between the Jews of the Ottoman Empire and Ancona to Pesaro. Also, in the Moment magazine (11/1988) a review article tells the story of Isaac FARAJI (probably FARAGGI as it should be written in Italian) a Jewish scholar and manuscript collector who was the owner of 15th-century medical text written in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic. All three languages were written in Hebrew characters. The book was written by a Jewish physician (Joseph ben Isaac) and was first bound in the 17th century by its owner. It was later bought by an English collector and brought to England. Parliament purchased the manuscript and presented them to Cambridge University in 1648. The manuscript is now in the Cambridge University Library (Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research, Stefan C. Reif, director). More recently we know that in 1780 Simon Faraggi appears in the French consulate documents as Simon Farach and some of the Faraggi and Fraggi families previous name was Farach. By the end of the 19^th century most of the Fraggi/Fragi families in the Ottoman Empire adopted the Faraggi surname. Also, we suspect that because of the American pronunciation all the Faragi families (Italians) had the Faraggi surname. The Faraçi families in Turkey are also members of the Faraggi family. Similarly, the Macedonian spelling of Faraschi, Faradschi (Zamila Kolonomos book) correspond to the Faraggi surname.

The original list was prepared from several unconnected trees of the Faraggi Family prepared by Anne-Marie Rychner Faraggi and myself. Intermarriages between persons of different trees could be found. It seems that all the family branches had lived in the 18^th century in the Ottoman empire and Italy. By the middle of the 19^th century and the 20^th century a major part of the family emigrated to France, Italy and Israel some to the USA, Canada, Chili and Argentina. The trees were defined according to the first person in the tree. The Simon tree started with Simon Faraggi who was in 1778 a drogman (translator) at the French consulate in Salonika. The Ovadia tree. The Raphael tree from Volo, Thessalia and later in Monastir (Bitola) Macedonia. The Moise-Abraham tree from Salonika and later in Istanbul Turkey. The Italian tree which started (at least in part) with a Faraggi who emigrated to Italy, probably at the beginning of the 19^th century, from the south part of Yugoslavia (Monastir?) via Trieste to La Spezia. Later information was obtained from the Bulletins of the Alliance Israelite Universelle (started in 1860) found in its library in Paris (BAIU). From Raphael Frezis (Volos Greece) letter and book "The History of the Jewish Community in Volos, Thesalia, Greece" (in Greek). From Zamila Kolonomos "The Jews in Macedonia During WWII" (Nazi list of deporties). Letters and trees from Moises Hasson (Santiago Chile), Ray and Gloria Fraggi, (California USA), Jack Faraggi (Montreal Canada), Raphael and Regina Faraggi (Tel Aviv, Israel), Haim Crispin (France), Bob Bedford (NY,USA), Olivier Kaiser (Belgium) and Ani Mari Faraggi (Faraçi) (Istanbul Turkey). Very recently (1998) Yad Vashem (Jerusalem Israel) have published the books "Pinkas Hakehilot Greece" and "Pinkas Hakehilot Yugoslavia" (in Hebrew).

Acknowledgement: We wish to thank Raphael Frezis, Jean Carasso (editor of "La Lettre Sepharade") for parts of Zamila Kolonomos book, Moises Hasson, Ray and Gloria Fraggi, Jack Faraggi Bob Bedford, Raphael and Regina Faraggi, Haim Crispin, Olivier Kaiser and Ani Mari Faraggi for valuable information they have provided. Special thanks are to Moshe David Faraggi originally from Volos, Greece and now in Tel Aviv, Israel, for the translation of parts of Raphael Frezis book.

Remarks: The number(s) appearing with each person indicates the belonging of this person to one or more trees. These are: (1) The Simon tree; (2) The Ovadia tree; (3) The Raphael tree; (4) The Moise tree; (5) The Italian tree and the new information from Jack Faraggi; (6) New information by Raphael Frezis and (7) Ray and Gloria Fraggi on the Faraggi and Fraggi families in Volos; (8) BAIU (# year of publication); (9) Moises Hasson list from Chile: (10) Bob Bedford list from the USA; (11) Olivier Kaiser list; (12) Raphael and Regina Faraggi tree; (13) Ani Mari Faraggi; (14) Zamila Kolonomos book (Nazi list of deporties); (15) Haim Crispin. In this list I have started to include families connected with the Faraggi family. These family surnames will appear in alphabetical order at the end of the list. Dates with the approximate mark (CA) is an estimated year with an error which could be (specially in later generations) very big. First names repetition is common in Sepharadic families because of the tradition to name children after their living grandparents. The name of the father is given as a second name as the tradition in the old Sepharadic families for boys. Although uncommon, it is also given to girls. Towns where these people lived (or living) is given in actual countries. Because of explicit demand of some living person, their names do not appear on this list.

Abbreviations: CH, Switzerland; FR, France; Mac., Macedonia; NJ. New Jersey USA; MN. Minnesota USA