Sassoon Eskell - Early Life

Early Life

Scion of an ancient, distinguished and aristocratic Jewish family of great affluence, the Shlomo-David’s, Sir Sassoon was born on 17 March 1860 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was a cousin of the celebrated English war poet and author Siegfried Sassoon, through their common ancestor, Heskel Elkebir (1740–1816). His father was Hakham Heskel, Shalma, Ezra, Shlomo-David, a student of Hakham Abdallah Somekh. In 1873, Hakham Heskel travelled to India to become the Chief Rabbi and Shohet of the thriving Baghdadi Jewish Community there. In 1885 he returned to Baghdad as the leading rabbinical authority and a great philanthropist. A wealthy man, in 1906 he built Slat Hakham Heskel which was one of the most prominent synagogues in Baghdad.

Sir Sassoon obtained his primary education at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Baghdad. In 1877, at age 17, he travelled to Constantinople (Istanbul) to continue his education, accompanied by his maternal uncle, the immensely wealthy magnate and land owner Menahem Salih Daniel who was elected deputy for Baghdad to the first Ottoman Parliament in 1876 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and later became Senator of the Kingdom of Iraq (1925–1932). Sir Sassoon then went to London and Vienna at the Konsular Academie to receive his higher education in economics and law. He was known to have been an outstanding pupil. He finally returned to Constantinople to obtain another law degree.