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Salman Tsion Meir Shina (1898-1978), was an Iraqi-Jewish World War I veteran, a Jewish community advocate, lawyer, editor of Al-Misbah (The Menorah), and a member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq (1947-1951).

Early Years
Salman Shina was born in the Jewish quarter of Baghdad in 1898. His parents were Ben Tsion and Farha Shina (a branch of the Hardoon family). He received a conventional Jewish religious education in Midrash Bet Zilkha and continued his studies at the secular Jewish school of the Alliance Francaise Isra‘lite in Baghdad. Shina continued his secondary studies at the Turkish Gymnasium in Baghdad and excelled in languages.

First World War
He was recruited to the Ottoman Army as a reserve officer during the First World War, as an adjutant and interpreter to the German General von Becker at the Turkish Headquarters of General Halil Kut. After the defeat of the Ottoman Army in the Second Battle of Kut he was captured by British forces. In his memoir, Shina describes a conversation with a British intelligence officer, as a prisoner of war, in which he explains his refusal to join the British forces on the grounds that the Ottomans had always helped the Jews since their exile from Spain in 1492. This convinced the British to use him as an interpreter for the British commanders in the P.O.W camps in Basra and India. The Balfour Declaration convinced him to join the British army in July 1918.

Community Involvement
Salman Shina returned to Iraq in February 1919. During the early 1920s, he served as the Chief Accountant at Zion Abodi Bank. In 1921 Shina was one of the founders of two Zionist associations that operated in parallel; "The Zionist Organization for the Aramaic River" and the "Jewish Literary Association". The "Jewish Literary Association" operated a Hebrew club and library and also published the short-lived Hebrew literary magazine " Yeshurun ". Shina also served as the secretary and accountant of the two associations and corresponded regularly with the institutions of the World Zionist Organization.

Time as a Lawyer
In 1925 he received his certification as a lawyer from the Baghdad Law College. He worked as a lawyer and jurist and stood out in the leadership of the Baghdad Jewish community. Among other things, he served as a member of the committee that drafted the "Jewish Community Law No. 77 of 1931," which reshaped and anchored the institutions of the Jewish community and the hierarchy in the community. During the 1930s, Salman Shina, continued to fulfill a pivotal role in Iraqi-Jewish community as a defender against the rising sedition from the Nazis and Palestinian Arab exiles inspired by Amin al-Husseini propaganda.

Political Career
Salman Shina was elected to the Iraqi Parliament in 1947 and served in that office until 1951. After the majority of the Jewish community left Iraq in exile in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, Shina resigned from parliament and relocated to Israel. He received his law certification from the state of Israel and opened a law office in Tel-Aviv.

Salman Shina ran for the Third Knesset in 1955 as a member of the "Sephardim and Oriental Communities,” but the party did not gain enough support. He continued to work as a lawyer and man of the people until his death in Ramat Gan, 26 of Tamuz 5735 (According the Hebrew calendar) 31 of July 1978. He was buried at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Personal Life
He married Simha Battat in 1927. They had 7 children, David, Abraham, Kamal, Izhak, Moshe, Farah, and Olga. Their eldest son, David, died at the age of 12. His mother Farha (from the Farhana family) was murdered during a robbery in her house in the early 1920s.

His Writings
From Babylon to Zion: Thoughts and Memories, Shina's 1955 autobiography about his life in Iraq and in Israel.