Jonas Foinquinos from Tangier

Today I am going to talk about one of my Great Gd-Father brothers. Jonas (Yona) Foinquinos was a prominent and very generous man.
On one of his numerous travels to the Azores in 1869, to Ponta Delgada- Island of San Miguel, he was asked if he would contribute to the Synagogue, he accepted gladly and made a contribuion of 7620 reis for the synagogue Shaar Hashamaim in Ponta Delgada.

Jonas was married to Reine Bensadon who was the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Bensadon, Rabbi of the Island of San Miguel. He was a prominent kabbalist born in Tlemcen -Algeria .

Jonas and his family had their home in Marseille (France). He had three sons and two daughters : Messod - Abraham - Leon (Yehuda) - Fortunee and Sol.
He was a wealthy man, and any prominent visitor in Marseille will be hosted in his house which was in The Olives quarter. He was Member of Cultural Societies - lover of old scripts - he even made a donation of a very old Pentateuque script to the Museum. Unfortunately, he lost a big part of his fortune in the crash of 1925.

One of his sons : Leon was an Engineer, he was a genious, I would even say a phenomenon. At age of 22, he had more diplomas than any person could obtain in a lifetime. He was an inventor, he invented everything one can think of in our modern times : from an amphibian car - to the traffic lights - the lottery system etc. etc. He spent all his fortune on inventions, finally he died at the age of 65 sad and lonely since no one recognized his work.

Many, many years after his death, the Municipality of Marseille honored his memory by
naming the place where he used to live : Place Leon Foenquinos.
Simone M. Foinquinos