Naim Dangoor
| Sir Naim Dangoor | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 1914 Baghdad, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 19 November 2015 (aged 101) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of London |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Philanthropy |
| Spouse(s) | Renée Dangoor (1947–2008) |
| Children | 4 sons |
| Parent(s) | Eliahou Dangoor |
| Relatives | Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor (grandfather) |
Sir Naim Eliahou Dangoor, CBE (April 1914 – 19 November 2015) was a British-naturalised Iraqi-born Jewish entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He was born in Baghdad in April 1914, the second of six siblings. His father Eliahou Dangoor (1883–1976) was the world's largest printer of Arabic books, and his grandfather Hakham Ezra Reuben Dangoor was the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad.
In the 1930s, Dangoor made the five-day journey from Baghdad to London, at the age of 17, in order to enrol in an engineering degree at the University of London. After graduating he returned to Iraq where he was conscripted into the army and became an officer. It was during his army training that he met his future business partner Ahmed Safwat.
Initially on leaving the army he had hoped to become an engineer on the railways, but due to restrictions imposed upon Jews this was not possible, so he and Ahmed, a Muslim, decided to go into business together, setting up Eastern Industries in 1949.
Their first contract was to supply new windows to all Iraqi government buildings, and soon their portfolio grew to include property development and letting. In 1950, Eastern industries secured the first contract to bottle Coca-Cola in Iraq. Alongside Eastern Industries, Dangoor also ran factories producing matches and furniture.
In November 1947 Dangoor married Chinese-born Renée Dangoor (who had been crowned Miss Baghdad earlier that year). They went on to have four sons.
With the rise of the Ba'ath party in Iraq, the situation for Jews in the country worsened and in 1959 Dangoor took the difficult decision to take his family out. He continued travelling back and forth for business until 1963, when he decided that the worsening political situation made it too risky for him to return. As a result of laws specific to Jews, he lost his Iraqi citizenship, and his property and business interests were taken by the government. He was eventually permitted to settle in the UK where he set about rebuilding his life, setting up a property business that his four sons went on to join.
In order to preserve the heritage of the community he had left behind, soon after settling in the UK, he founded a community centre in West Kensington for new Iraqi Jewish immigrants, and in 1971 began editing and publishing "The Scribe", a "Journal of Babylonian Jewry", with 4000 subscribers in 25 countries which continued to be published for 35 years.
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