Mayer Murad, Nessim Murad, Zaki Murad, and the Murad Family Legacy of Recorded Sound in the US and Egypt

Mayer Murad, Photo property of the Sephardic Heritage Museum. New York, New York.

Zaki Murad, Photo courtesy of AMAR Foundation for Arabic Music Archiving & Research.

Only known photographs of Nessim Murad. Photo courtesy of family member Stefanie B.

Most people who know anything about the history of Arabic music, record collecting, or Arab or Arab American 78 rpm records have heard of Zaki Murad and his daughter Layla Murad. Few people know that Layla’s uncles and Zaki’s brothers were also musicians who recorded in the United States – Nessim Murad and Mayer Murad. At Midwest Mahjar our collection contains dozens of 78s by Zaki and/or Layla Murad, but for years we were perplexed by the existence of Maloof Phonograph Records by Nessim and Mayer.  Mayer Murad’s career was known to us because of our familiarity with Dick Spottswood’s Ethnic Music on Record listing of Mayer’s Columbia recordings. Less clear was our personal knowledge that we owned discs by Nessim Murad as well. In attempting to determine who was who, we discover there were at least three Murad brothers who had professional, if short-lived music careers.

The story of the Murad (Mourad) brothers likely begins in Morocco or Iraq depending on the source one consults. Small populations of Jews lived in Morocco since approximately 70 CE, however Morocco became home to Sephardic Jewish populations who can trace their ancestry to Jews chased out of Spain under threat of conversion to Catholicism or death marked by the Alhambra Decree and continued persecution of the Iberian Peninsula’s Jewish populations. Jews in Iraq, of course, lived as one of the oldest communities in Babylonia. Whatever the case, Murad Assolin and Leyla Assolin found themselves in Alexandria, Egypt as early as 1880 when Leyla gave birth to Zaki Murad. As he came of age, Zaki labored as a textiles merchant, according to the AMAR foundation site, studied under the legendary Abd al-Hay Hilmi (1857-1912), and entered the Arab Music Conservatory by age 27. Meanwhile, Leyla gave birth to Zaki’s younger brothers Nessim (b. 1895) and Mayer (b. 1898) in Ash Shatibi, Alexandria, an Egyptian Jewish community which for a time included Halabi Jews like Moses Cohen.  By the turn of the century, Cohen soon joined the exodus of Syrian and Egyptian Jews to Mexico and the United States. Mayer and Nessim Murad would immigrate later.

As his musical reputation and repertoire grew through a combination of contacts with Jewish cantors, Nadha musicians, composers like Sayed Darwish, and public performances, Zaki Murad secured contracts with emergent Middle Eastern and European recording companies. Over the next eight years, Zaki reached the peak of his musical recording career. He recorded as a lead vocalist and musician on the Lebanese-based Baidaphon, German-based Odeon, and Gramophone Company, then joined forces with violin virtuoso Sami al-Shawwa to record a half dozen sides for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Canary Records producer, Ian Nagoski, estimates Murad had an output of approximately 500 sides by 1920. Recording as Zaki Effendi Mourad, Columbia, too, released five songs on ten sides for Columbia as a part of their special “X” sessions. Literature and ethnomusicologist Frederic Lagrange suggests Zaki Murad also had a yet-to-be-fully-researched career as an actor.

In New York’s Little Syria, Abraham J. Macksoud’s record shop at 89 Washington Street released duplicate pressings of some of Zaki Murad’s greatest sellers on his paste-over, but soon-to-be independent Macksoud Phonograph Company label. Zahleh-born composer, musician, and entrepreneur, Alexander Maloof, too, launched his Maloof Phonograph record label from New York City. Both labels recorded Syrian immigrants and/or US-born Arabic language musicians Louis Wardiny, Naim Karacand, and Salim Doumani.  Macksoud lay exclusive claim to Andrew Mekanna, Milhelm S. Hawie, Assad Dakroub, and Rev. Anton Aneed. Maloof, on the other hand, secured the lion’s share of artists with Anthony Shaptini, Samy Attaya, Wadeeh Badady, Lateefy Abdo, Edward Abdo Urban, Midhat Serbagi, Constantine Souss, Prince Mohiuddin, Marie Bashian Badikian, Mousa Kalooky, Rev. George Aziz, and Fadwa Kurban. Most importantly to this profile, Maloof eventually managed to record both Nessim Murad and Mayer Murad. 

An early Zaki Murad repressing on A.J. Macksoud's label. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.

 

Nessim Murad Assolin arrives in the US in 1927. Just before recording for Maloof Phonograph Co. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Now young men in their 20s, the two became less well known than their older brother Zaki. Mayer Murad entered the United States July 1924 via Mexico and Brownsville, Texas. He conveyed to immigration officials that he had lived in Mexico City and his destination was Houston. Connection to Mexico is consistent with evidence that suggests that Middle Eastern, Arabic-speaking Jews were more likely to build communities in Mexico City than say, Del Rio, Loredo, or Hildalgo. Mayer made his way to New York, where he cut his Maloof sides in September, October, and November 1924 and his Columbia Records sides in October 1928 and February 1929. Nessim traveled by way of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and headed directly to Brooklyn in 1927. He met up with his brother Mayer and appears to have recorded a few tracks only for Maloof Records. Some sources even suggest that Zaki Murad temporarily left Egypt to tour Algeria, Tunisia, France, and the United States between 1927 and 1932, by which time he returned to Egypt having exhausted his means and turned his attention, efforts, and energy toward the careers of children – Layla and Munir Murad (at least one and possibly both of Zaki's other daughters also were musicians). 

Maloof Phonograph Records recorded by Mayer Murad #3001A and Nessim Murad #511A. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. 
Mayer Murad, Maloof Phonograph, #3001 AB, https://youtu.be/Jy87zQz3A6g
Nessim Murad Maloof Phonograph, #511AB, Gouzy Tgawaz, https://youtu.be/hpk04rB6FfE

As his recorded output suggests, Mayer emerged as the more prolific of the Murad brothers who remained in the Americas. As early as 1926, some two years following his arrival, Mayer Murad teamed up with singer Elizabeth Awad, Hyman Zebede, Josephine Hawaweeny, and others to perform at the Saint Nicholas men’s club event at the Hotel Saint George. Some 300 Arab immigrants and Arab Americans attended the event. Halabi Jews, Arab immigrants, and Arab Americans across New Jersey and New York hired Mayer to perform at bar mitzvah, weddings, and other celebratory events in Brooklyn’s community.

Mayer Murad, Elizabeth Awad, and others perform at Hotel Saint George. 16 January 1926, Brooklyn Daily eagle, Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Ultimately, Mayer Murad found employment as a rug salesman and married Syrian-born Betty Fallas on 23 August 1928. Betty, too, had connections to Texas. When she was two or three years old her family immigrated from Aleppo, Syria to France and then Houston, Texas, entering through the Port of New Orleans. Whether Mayer and Betty previously met in Texas before both moved to New York is unclear; as Betty told it, her father offered Mayer one of his two older daughters before Mayer chose Betty as his betrothed. Betty’s parents made it a point that their daughters marry other Jews.

 

Halabi Syrian Jews in Brooklyn primarily attended Congregation Magen David Synagogue in Bensonhurst established in 1921. Shami Jews attended Ahi Ezer Synagogue. Of course, Melkites and Syrian Orthodox Christian made up the largest groups among mashriqi and maghrebi immigrants to settle in New York City.

 

The couple put down roots at 6326 Bay Parkway, 2235 65th Street, and later 6303 20th Avenue, in Brooklyn. Betty was about eleven years Mayer’s junior and within a year the couple’s daughter Lucille arrived. Although the birth of his daughter slowed him down a bit, Mayer played sometimes with Elizabeth Awad, other times without, on the rapidly emergent hafla and mahrajan circuit. The Great Depression hammered the Syrian immigrant and Syrian American community in Brooklyn. As an Arabic and Hebrew-speaking immigrant wage work dried up leaving Mayer to find creative ways to make ends meet. Mayer and Betty devised a plan that harkened back to the time the earliest immigrants from Greater Syria – go to the Chicago World’s Fair. Not to be confused with the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair or Century of Progress International Exposition celebrated the City of Chicago’s centennial. Replicating international city markets, as was the tradition for world’s fairs, in 1933 Mayer and Betty operated a shop in the Moroccan Village where Betty made doilies that she sold “by the dozen.”  The birth of three other children, all boys, increasingly restricted Mayer Murad to performing at local gigs – weddings, community celebrations, and birthday parties. By May 1939, Mayer Murad joined Mike Hamway, Fathalla Abiad, at the Syrian Democratic club and its Ladies’ auxiliary gathering of 400. The 1940 US Census is one of the few official government documents Mayer Murad self-identified as a signer rather than a rug seller. 

Mayer Murad stands at the mic and Naim Karacand plays violin in Brooklyn. Photo property of the Sephardic Heritage Museum. New York, New York. 

Mayer Murad and Mike Hamway among musicians who performed for the Syrian American Democratic Club. 8 May 1939, The Morning Call. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

 

Meanwhile, Nessim settled in Juarez, Mexico, started a curio shop, and travelled back and forth between Mexico and El Paso, Texas as a merchant, supplying and operating his store. Nessim, in fact, had already married Zakia Agami and the couple had a son named Max who was born in 1918.

 

The years Nessim did business across the US-Mexico border marked one of the most complicated and restrictive times in US immigration policy. From the side of Mexico, the Mexican Revolution took place between 1910 and 1920, although comparatively smaller, Arab and Middle Eastern immigration to Mexico began in the 1870s and persisted until the Revolutions beginning, then resumed after the war’s end, but encounter backlash from Mexican people, government officials in the form of foreigner registration in 1926 and 1927 immigration restrictions banning and threatening deportation of Middle Easterners in Mexico three years after similarly restrictive legislation passed by the US Congress. Commonly known as the Johnson-Reed Act, the 1924 Immigration Act limited immigration from Syria and Lebanon to 100 per year. Approximately, 1000 immigrants per year might be granted from the entire African continent including Egypt and Morocco, but in all likelihood Murad’s prior residency in Mexico likely helped his case. This was, of course, post Johnson-Reed Act America and immigrants from across the globe, toiled to find ways around the various quotas limiting immigration from most parts of the world to the US. Secondly, Nessim confounded border officials with his possession of a French passport, customary for relatively stateless people from areas under French or British mandate in the Near East. Moreover, between 1929 and 1933 some 500,000 to 1 million Mexican immigrants and Mexican American faced deportation under Mexican Repatriation policies. Although less restrictive under Franklin D. Roosevelt, repatriation did not seemingly reverse course until the years marked by the Americans All campaign and the Bracero Program launched in 1942. By 1944, Nessim continued to do business that required border crossing. By this time, he and Zakia lived at 312 Lascala Street in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Their son, Max Murad Assolin, married Amelia Bissu and they had a son named for Max's dad. Within two years, Nessim collapsed and cerebral hemorrhage and lung disease, brought on, doctors believed, by hypertension. The exhaustive work hours, stresses of doing business between Juarez and El Paso and caring for his family took its toll. He died 28 January 1946 and is buried in the Bnai Zion Cemetery in El Paso. Sadly, and perhaps ironically, Zaki Murad also passed in 1946. 

Nessim Murad Assolin's death certificate, 1946. 

Max Murad Assolin established, co-owned, and managed the Charmant and Crystal Palace cafes in Juarez as a premier stop for singers and entertainers from Mexico and the United States. Over the years, performers at the cafes included the Carlos Aceves Orchestra, Pancho Lachengo, Helen O'Connell, June Christy (formerly of the Stan Keaton Orchestra), Bob Manning, Lola Dee, and Patti Andrews (of the Andrews Sisters). The Crystal Palace featured "a blue French Moroccan Dining Room indirectly lighted and cooled for [customer's] comfort" and "The Red French Moroccan Cocktail Lounge" both nods to Murad's reported Moroccan ancestry. 

Nessim Murad Assolin's son owned the Charmant and Crystal Palace cafes in Juarez in the 1950s. El Paso Times, November 10, 1951. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

 

Attempting to fully grasp the comings and goings, solidarities and conflicts, policies and practices, racial and ethno-religious dynamic of Syrians, Lebanese, Moroccans, Egyptians, and others from Arabic-speaking lands is well outside scope of this post. With certainty we can say that the influx of Middle Easterners of all faiths became the source of growing resentment, backlash, anger, and expressions of nativism in Mexico, and no doubt people like Nessim Murad Assolin recognized such developments. In Mexico, as in the United States, Jews from Greater Syria settled in their own enclaves and uniquely positioned themselves between Ashkenazi Jewish communities and neighborhoods of largely Christian Arabs who numbered in the majority of those who put down new roots in the United States, Mexico, and other countries in the Americas. We point those interested in a more in-depth reading of US-Mexico borderland politics during the early twentieth century to the works of Theresa Valfaro-Velcamp (So Far from Allah, So Close to Mexico: Middle Eastern Immigrants in Modern Mexico), Camilla Pastor (The Mexican Mahjar: Transnational Maronites, Jews, and Arabs under the French Mandate), and Sarah Gualtieri (Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California). 

 

Drawing from Valfaro-Velcamp’s and Pastor’s work, we can estimate that only 53 mashriqi immigrants settle in Ciudad Juarez between 1920-1951. Similarly, only 49 of these immigrants who came to Juarez, Mexico were Jews. Nessim Murad Assolin would have been hard pressed to find too many other Egyptian-born Jews with Moroccan or Iraqi parents.

 

Back in Brooklyn, Mayer Murad became a naturalized United States citizen in 1944. He and Betty became US citizens on the same day in May, 1944, and the couple and their children moved to 2101 73^rd Street in Brooklyn. Just months before Nessim’s death, Mayer Murad and Alamphon star Jamili Matouk sang together Saint George Syrian Orthodox Church at 119 Carlilse Avenue in Paterson, New Jersey (today this is Saint John the Baptist Serbian Orthodox Church). Once again, Murad was backed by his old friends Mike Hamway and Fathalla Abiad. The concert celebrated the return of Syrian American servicemen from World War II. Some 15,000 Arab American served in the second World War.

Mayer Murad's World War II draft card. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

By the time census workers knocked on the door of 2103 71^3t Street Apartment 2F in Brooklyn, Mayer Murad Assoulin, Betty, and their three teen son Max, Fred, and David still lived together. Mayer seems to have been retired as he gave no occupation. Only Max, who was 19, worked outside the home as a dry goods salesperson. We also know by glancing at the 1950 US Census that most of the Assoulin’s neighbors identified as Syrian Jews. Within a year of the time of his enumeration in the US Census, Mayer Murad Assoulin died in August of 1951. Betty remarried, later moved to New Jersey, and died in 2014.

1940 Census Mayer Murad Assoulin, lists himself as head of household and a singer. Courtesy of Ancestry.com

Mayer Murad with friends and others at the Chicago Fair in 1933. Photo property of the Sephardic Heritage Museum. New York, New York. 

Layla Murad’s career experienced a surge in popularity as her father and uncle, Nessim, reached their lives’ final years. Two years after her uncle Mayer passed in Brooklyn, Egyptians chose Layla Murad over Oum Kalthoum (Umm Kulthum) as the official singer of Egypt’s revolution. Even stories in US newspapers in 1949 listed Layla Murad as one of the most sought-after stars and “reigning favorite” of Egypt’s booming post-World War II movie industry. Coverage of Layla Murad’s suspicion and clearance of contributions in excess of $84,000 to an Israeli benefit fund found its way into the Spokesman Review in Washington state in 1952.  

Story of Layla Murad's clearance of charges suspecting her support of Israel. 28 October 1952, The Spokesman, Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Fans of Layla Murad's music and movies could buy one of her 14 sides released on George N. Gorayeb's Arabphon Records, re-issues on Farid Alam's Alamphon, or catch an Albert Rashid presentation of one of Murad's films in Paterson, New Jersey, Brooklyn, New York, Union Town, Pennsylvania, Buffalo, New York, or North Adams, Massachusetts. Depending on the year, one could watch "Al Hawa Wal Shebab" (Romance & Youth), "Gazal El Banat" (Flirtation), "The Treasure of Ambar," or "Habeeb el Roh" (Eternal Love) starring Layla Murad and presented by Rashid Sales. Even the Arabian Nights Radio Program sponsored a viewing of "Gazal El Banat" at the New England Mutual Hall in Boston. 

Albert Rashid of Al-Chark Records and Rashid Sales poster for "The Treasure of Ambar" starring Layla Murad. 18 April 1957, Caravan. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Off screen, Layla had converted to Islam from Judaism, married three times, had at least two children, starred in some twenty-seven films, and released stacks of recordings by her disappearance from public life in 1963. Minus one or two reappearances in public and on radio, Layla’s career halted, yet maintained a perpetual syndication-like presence on radio and television. She died in Cairo at age 77 in 1995. News of Layla Murad’s death circled the globe and stretched across the United States from Miami to Biddeford, Maine, and from Boston to Phoenix, Spokane, and Vancouver. Professor and scholar Hanan Hammad has written the most detailed biography of Layla Murad’s life, Unknown Past: The Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt. It was published by Stanford University Press in 2022.

Obituaries for Layla Murad appeared in newspapers across the US. This one was printed in New Mexico. 23 November 1995, The Albuquerque Journal. Courtesy of Newspapers.com

Richard M. Breaux

© Midwest Mahjar