Saadia Kobashi

Saadia Kobashi was born in 1904 in Yemen

Kobashi was born in 1902 in the village of Sha'hal in Yemen. His father, Yahya, was a leader of the local Jewish community and served as a ritual slaughterer and circumciser. In 1909 the family traveled to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem.

He studied at a Talmud Torah and at yeshivas in Jerusalem, then at the Mizrachi teachers' seminary. He was certified as a teacher in 1925. While studying, he taught regular lessons to children of the Falashas.

From 1926 to 1928 he taught at a Yemenite Talmud Torah in Tel Aviv. He then moved to the United States, where he taught at and later directed the Magen David Talmud Torah in Brooklyn. After returning in 1936, he worked as a teacher and principal in Mizrachi schools.

He represented the Yemenite Association in the Jewish National Council, Moetzet HaAm and the Provisional State Council. He was in besieged Jerusalem on the day of the declaration, and signed it later in Tel Aviv during the first truce. In 1948 he spoke for compulsory education and for a separate education minister.

After independence he became a supervisor of Religious Zionist education. In 1949 he became headmaster of a school in Rosh HaAyin, where a street bears his name. He died in 1990 and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.