EZRA ZILKHA

ZILKHA--Ezra K., a financier and Investor, passed quietly at his Manhattan home on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019. He was 94 years old. Mr. Zilkha was a Babylonian Jew, born in Iraq in 1925. His life spanned, and he witnessed, many of the historical watersheds that have evolved into the current situation in the region. Mr. Zilkha was the son of Khedouri Zilkha, the founder of K.A. Zilkha Maison de Banque, one of the most far ranging branch banking networks in the Middle East prior to the Second World War. Their operations spanned Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon with correspondents throughout Europe and the United States. Mr. Zilkha attended Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt before migrating to the United States with a part of his family in 1941. He graduated from The Hill School and Wesleyan University. Subsequently, Mr. Zilkha served on Wesleyan's Board of Trustees, eventually becoming its head. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) in 1987. He joined the family bank in 1947. Between 1950 and 1956, the Zilkha Bank was nationalized in Iraq, Syria and Egypt. He established himself in New York while his brothers based their operations in the UK, France and Switzerland. A chronicle of this journey can be found in Mr. Zilkha's memoir, From Baghdad to Boardrooms. In the process, he joined the Boards of Handy & Harman, CIGNA, Newhall Land & Farming. Along with his wife Cecile, Mr. Zilkha became a generous benefactor to the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Zilkha also served on the Board of the Brookings Institution. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Finally, he established the K.A. Zilkha professorship for Jewish Civilization in the Near East at Princeton University and he funded the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University. Surviving are his son, Donald Zilkha, his two daughters, Donna and Bettina, and six grandchildren, Alexis, Rebecca, Laetitia, Adam, Alexandre and Nicolas.