Kadouri, Shlomo

Shlomo Salim Chalatschi Kadouri is a famed Iraqi-Israeli Jewish artist. Salim Chalaschi was born in Baghdad, Iraq, Shlomo was a fiercly dedicated student of the Torah and art. A graduate of some of the finest foreign-sponsored schools in a developing Iraq, Shlomo was a well-rounded artist and entrepreneur. Although art was a great passion for the young man, taking care of his young wife Aliza Murad (married in and growing (large!) family, entrepreneurship was his primary occupation in Baghdad, and his art was relegated to spare time and a form or enjoyment and stress-release. Shlomo was known to have a keen eye and great memory, and many of the childhood scenes of the Jewish quarter of Baghdad are vividly captured in his art - a lasting monument to the great community of exiles who lived there until the 1940's.

Although a fluent speaker of Arabic, and a well-integrated member of Iraqi society, like most Jews Salim was extremely troubled by the rise of anti-semitic violence preceding the Farhud pogroms inspired by [...]'s vitriolic campaigns in Europe, North Africa, USSR, and the Middle East. A disenfranchised feeling began spreading around the once proudly "arabized" Jews of Iraq. Fleeing in the 1930s and moving his young family to the British Mandate of Palestine (modern day Israel) in hindsight was one of the most critical and rewarding decisions of Chalatzgi's life.

In Israel, the aspiring artist found much more time for his passion of painting. Salim Chalatschi became Shlomo Kadouri in Israel, and settled Pardes'Katz, a village of Eastern (Mizrahi) Oriental Jews in the outskirts of Tel Aviv. His favorite mediums were Charcoals for sketching, and thick acrylic and oil paints for the majority of his famous work. His vivid and colorful life in Baghdad would serve as the driving force and inspiration for his works, and by his senior age was one of the most respected painters in all of Israel. He would host a few of his own galleries, as well as sharing some with other famous Israeli artists, and his works remain some of the few visual aids to remembering one of the greatest chapters in the Jewish history, the exile to Babylon and the thriving Baghdad Jewish community that became.

Kadouri's legacy is of a devout student of the Torah and observant of the Noachide laws and Jewish faith. He is known in Israel as a great painter, portrait artist, landscape artist - and amazingly, did most of his work off his memory. Although he had a very large family (12 children!) he still managed to produce many paintings and pieces which are held in circulation around Israel with his descendants and in various art galleries. He is known as a zionist and strong supporter of the state of Israel, and the life he knew and loved to contribute to the zionist experiment in Palestine. He is an inspiration to Israeli artists, and his entrepreneurial spirit lives on in Israel with Kadouri Signs, a business he started, and which has become very large under the direction of his children.