Isaac Loeb and Slomo Souiri – Belouajeb Nefrah – Olympia, c. 1950s

The Moroccan Jewish musician Isaac Loeb[1] recorded no more than a handful of records and perhaps only the soul-nourishing one featured here: “Belouajeb Nefrah” (بالواجب نفرح, We must rejoice), a duet with Slomo Souiri––complete with hand-clapping. Even if his recording output was scant, Loeb, a disciple of Rabbi David Bouzaglo, was certainly revered. This was as true in Casablanca, where this disc was made for the Olympia label sometime in the 1950s, as it was in Montreal, where he settled in the mid- to late-1960s and where he served as an important member of Maghen David.[2]

Gharamophone · Isaac Loeb & Slomo Souiri – Belouajeb Nefrah [Sides 1-2] (Olympia, c. 1950s)

Notes
Label: Olympia
Title: Belouajeb Nefrah (بالواجب نفرح)
Artist: Isaac Loeb and Slomo Souiri (Cheloumou Souiri)
Issue Number: 1021
Matrix Number: LSP 5353; 5354
Date of Pressing: c. 1950s

[1] As legend has it, three Loeb brothers, Ashkenazim originally from the Alsace region, settled in Morocco in the eighteenth century. The three were forced to settle in three different cities: Essaouira, Safi, and Azemmour.

[2] Maghen David was founded in 1968. It was one of the first Moroccan synagogues established in Montreal.