203
mittee of investigation, because he did not regard Ayllon, the rabbi of the Sephardim, as a competent authority on such questions. Thereupon a fierce contention ensued, during the progress of 'which Hagis fought valiantly beside AshOpposition kenazi. great number of pamphlets, to Hayyun. some of them now quite rare, were issued by both sides, in which the contestants indulged in the most vehement abuse of each other. On July 23, 1713, Ashkenazi placed Hayyun under the ban, because the investigating committee appointed by the Sephardic directorate had not yet made its report. In consequence of this measure, both Ashkenazi and Hagis were subjected to street attacks, more particularly at the hands of the Portuguese, who threatened to kill them. In the midst of the constantly increasing bitterness and animosity, the report of the commit-
A
tee,
Ashkenazi, Zebi Hirsch Ashkinasi, Mikhail Osipovioh
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
which had been prepared by Ayllon
alone,
was
It was to the effect that the contained nothing which could be construed as offensive to Judaism. It was publicly announced in the synagogue that a yy un was to be exonerated from every suspicion of heresy, and on the following day a public reception was tendered him at the synagogue, on which occasion unparalleled honor was shown him. Naturally, the Sephardic opponents of Ashkenazi had found excellent support among the rabbi's adversaries in his own German congregation. The controversy was now waged so fiercely that even the family -life of the community became affected, and all peace vanished from the otherwise model congregation of Amsterdam. Ashkenazi was deserted, except for a few friends that remained faithful to him. When, finally, he was summoned by the directors of the Portuguese congregation to appear before their tribunal which, of course, had no jurisdiction he refused to do so, as he anticipated that he would be
publicly announced. "writings of
Hayy un
H
—
—
asked to retract and to praise and recommend Hayyun. Through a Christian advocate the directorate again summoned Ashkenazi to appear, Nov. 9, 1713; and when he again refused, he and Moses Hagis were formally placed under the ban Placed by the Portuguese community. AshUnder the kenazi was temporarily placed under probably to arrest in his own home Ban. protect his life by the municipal authorities, who had been influenced against him by Ayllon and the Portuguese leaders and the whole matter was brought before the magistracy in order to secure Ashkenazi 's deposition and banishment from Amsterdam. The magistrates thereupon sought the opinions of certain professors at Leyden, Utrecht, and Harderwyk, including Willem Surenhuis and Adrian Reland, on the dispute but their decision, if given, has not been made known. Ashkenazi forestalled the magisterial action by resigning his office and fleeing, in the beginning of 1714, from Amsterdam, perhaps secretly, with the aid of his friend Solomon Levi' Norden de Lima. After leaving his wife and children at Emden, he proceeded to London at the invitation of the SephIn 1705 he was ardic congregation of that city. invited to pronounce a judicial decision concerning the orthodoxy of the rabbi David Nieto, who, in
—
—
a certain sermon, had given utterance to Spinozistic views. In London Ashkenazi found many friends,
and received many tributes of regard. Even before this he had been invited to take the rabbinate of the Sephardic congregation, but refused. It seems that his portrait in oil was Sojourn in painted here, after he had refused, on London, account of religious scruples, to have his bust stamped on a coin. In the following spring he returned to Emden, and proceeded thence to Poland by way of Hanover, Halberstadt, Berlin, and Breslau, stopping at each place for some time. After roaming about in the vicinity of Opatow, Poland, he was called to Hamburg to serve as member of a judicial body convened to settle a complicated legal question. Upon the death of Simhah Cohen Eapoport, in
His
Ashkenazi was called as rabbi to Lemberg, where he stood in high repute, both in his congregation and in the community at large. Four months 1717,
upon this office, he died. Of a firm and unselfish but abrupt and passionate
after entering
Ashkenazi everywhere aroused the discontent and hatred of the rich and the scholarly. Extensive learning, keen intelligence, and exceptional linguistic attainments, all combined to make him one of the most distinguished men of his day. All his contemporaries, even those Praised by who knew him only as the head of the Contem- Klaus at Altona, unite in praising his poraries. profound learning, his astuteness, his clearness of exposition, which never degenerated into the subtleties of the pilpul, and his absolute disregard for the influence of money. He would suffer serious deprivation rather than accept disposition,
pecuniary assistance and this characteristic, interpreted by the wealthy of that day as obstinacy and arrogance, became to him a source of much suffering and enmity. Of his works, only a part of his responsa have been printed, under the title "Responsa Hakam Zebi" (Amsterdam, 1712, and since frequently re;
They
published).
are distinguished
by
lucidity of
adherence to the
undeviating
treatment and an subject.
Bibliography: Buber, Anshe Shem, pp. 187-192 Kaufmann, in Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, Gratz, Oesch. der Juden, x. 352 et seq. and Hi. 102 et seq. note 6; Jacob Emden, Torat ha-ICenaoth idem, Megillat Sefer: H. A. Wagenaar, beginning of Toledot Ta'bez; J. M. Schiltz, appendix to Mazehet Kodesh Dembitzer, KeUtot Yoi, i. 91 et seq. Fuenn, Kiryah Neimanah, pp. 86 et
Nederlondscli-Israelietisch Jaarboekje, idem. Jets over de Begraafplaatsen, No. 18, p. 17 inscriptions on the tombstones of two of Ashkenazi's children, who died in 1712-1713. J- Vk. L. G.
seq.;
Mulder, in
5620, pp. 42 et seq.
ASHKINASI,
OSIPOVICH
MIKHAIL,
born at Odessa Writer in French and Russian April 16, 1851. Having graduated from the Odessa High School, he studied medicine at the Academy of St. Petersburg and at the University of Kiev.
health forced him to discontinue his studies. "While recuperating he visited, in turn, Italy, Switzerland, and Nice. In the early eighties he published " in " Nedyelya " and in " Novorossiski Telegraf a Ill
series of articles on the Jewish question, in which he advocated a change in the economic mode of Jewish life, and suggested agriculture as a means of
