The Sir Dr. Naim Dangoor Program for Universal Monotheism

Visionary Leadership: Sir Dr. Naim Dangoor, CBE

 

Sir Naim Eliahou Dangoor, CBE, (April 1914 – 19 November 2015) doctor honoris causa, born in April of 1914 in Iraq, was the grandson of then Chief Rabbi Ezra Dangoor and son of the world's largest printer of Arabic books. As a young man, he traveled to the University of London to study engineering. So meaningful to him was this opportunity, he vowed that if he should succeed in business, he would donate money to education. In 1946 he married Renée Dangoor, the first Miss Baghdad, and took charge of the Coca Cola franchise in Iraq.

 

In 1963, while the Dangoor family was abroad visiting England, the Ba'ath party took control of Iraq and enacted harsh decrees against Jews. The Dangoor family was granted asylum by the British government. In London, Naim Dangoor established a property development business. Soon after settling in England, he founded a community centre for new immigrants in Kensington and a journal, The Scribe, to network Iraqi Jews since their scattering over the previous forty years.

 

In addition to establishing the Dr. Naim Dangoor Program for Universal Monotheism at Bar-Ilan University in 2007, Dr. Dangoor's many projects include trusts and endowments to provide food, education, and other benefits for refugees and disadvantaged communities across the globe; funding scholarships for students in need in the UK and in Israel at Bar-Ilan University and supporting cancer and other medical related research. He holds a very dear place in heart for helping fellow Jews and especially Iraqi refugees.

 

Dr. Naim Dangoor holds multiple honorary doctorates, and in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor, thus making him the second oldest person to be a knighted Sir.