Zmira Mani Zilkha

Zmira Mani Zilkha, 92 PIPER SHORES -- Zmira Mani Zilkha died peacefully on May 17, 2008, in her apartment at Piper Shores, surrounded by several members of her family. She was born in Jerusalem in 1915, at the close of the Ottoman Empire and as Palestine was being transferred to British rule. Her parents, Menashe Mani and Nehama Halaban, came from Hebron, where her great grandfather, the revered Kabbalist Rabbi Eliahu Mani of Baghdad, had settled in the late 1840s, close to the tombs of the Jewish Patriarchs. Zmira was raised in Tel Aviv, when that city consisted only of a few dwellings along the Mediterranean seashore. She escaped from Hebron a few hours before the massacre of 1929 which annihilated that town's Jewish community. In 1934 she married Abdulla Khedoury Zilkha, from Baghdad, a union that lasted over 65 years until his death in 2000. Their children, Elie, Daniel and Ruth, were born while they were living in Beirut, Cairo and Alexandria. She suffered a severe loss in the death of her brother, Eliahu, in the 1947 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem during the fight against the British Mandate. In 1948, at the time of the creation of the State of Israel, Zmira and Abdulla left Cairo and the Middle East. They moved to Paris where they lived for 30 years, then to Zurich where Abdulla's died in 2000. In 2003 Zmira moved to Piper Shores in Scarborough, where she very happily lived until her death. Her grandchildren, Eliane and David, Leonora, Rebecca, Nathaniel and Zmira; her great- grandchildren as well friends and relatives from Israel, Europe and the United States, gathered in Prouts Neck to celebrate her 90 birthday in 2005. Zmira lived a very full life, always with great warmth, taste and elegance, even in times and in areas of great turmoil. Wherever she lived, she created beautiful homes that were gathering places for her family and friends from all over the world. She developed the extraordinary and unusual skill of creating magnificent needlepoint tapestries, mostly interpretations of major works of modern art by Klimt, Monet, Magritte, Kandinsky, Matisse and others. Despite failing health following several surgeries, and with the help of devoted caregivers, she gracefully and with humor conveyed her warmth and love to all those around her until her last day. Oh! L'amour d'une m�re! Amour que nul n'oublie! Pain merveilleux qu'un dieu partage et multiplie! Table toujours servie au paternel foyer; Chacun en a sa part et tous l'ont tout entier. Victor Hugo Zmira will be buried, alongside her husband, at a private service in Zurich this week. A gathering in remembrance of her life will be scheduled in Maine this summer. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in her honor to: The Piper Shores Endowment Fund 15 Piper Rd. Scarborough, Maine 04074 Zmira Mani Zilkha Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home & Cremation Service 775-3763