Last week, Saadia Marciano, 58, a former member of the Israeli Knesset who got his start in public life as a leader of the "Israeli Black Panthers" movement of poor Sephardi Jews, died in a Jerusalem hospital. Marciano died in the type of poverty that he fought against on behalf of all Sephardi Jews throughout his life.
Marciano, who left his native Oujda, Morocco, after anti-Semitic pogroms and riots there in the wake of Israel's establishment in 1948, helped start the Israeli Black Panthers in his early 20s, along with other Sephardi Jews living in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood.
Although largely forgotten today, the Israeli Black Panthers protested "ignorance from the establishment for the hard social problems", and wanted to fight for a different future. Other founders of the movement included Charlie Bitton, Reuven Abergil and Eli Avichzer. However, it was the face of Marciano that became recognizable after being brutally beaten by the police during a demonstration that was organized without a permit.
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