Rav Eliezer Ashkenazi, author of Ma’asei Hashem (1512-1585). Born in Turkey, he studied with Rav Yosef Taitatzak (1465-1546) in Salonica. He served as a rabbi in Egypt from 1538 to 1561. For unknown
reasons, he was compelled to leaved, serve in Famagusta, Cyprus, then to Venice, Italy. Due to a disagreement with Rav Shmuel Yehudah Katzenellengogen, he moved to Prague, where he helped develop the chevra kadisha, on which others are based. After a year, he moved back to Italy and lived in Cremona. In 1578, he moved to Posen, Poland and took his final post. He retired to Cracow, where he lived hism last few years.
Rav Meshulem Mirels, father-in-law of the Chacham Tzvi (1686).
Rav Pinchas of Ostroha (1805).
Rav Yechezkel Panet, Av Bais Din of De’esh (Dezh), Chief Rabbi of Transylvania and author of Mar’eh Yechezkel and Kenesses Yechezkel. (1929)
Rav Yoel Ashkenazi of Zlotchov (1906), brother-in-law of Rav Yosef Yoel Deutsch of Kretchinef, Hungary, author of Yad Yosef (1859).
Rav Chaim Kesar (Chassar), Rav in the Yemenite community in Israel (1997)
Rav Shalom Mordechai Schwadron, Yerushalmi maggid (1913-1997), brother-in-law of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. He was named for his grandfather, the Maharsham, the leading posek in Galicia before World War I. He lost his father at age seven, and for a time lived in an orphanage. After his bar mitzvah he studied in the Lomzer Yeshiva in Petach Tikvah, and later in the Chevron Yeshiva in Yerushalayim under Rav Yehuda Leib Chasman. After his marriage, he continued his studies in Kollel Ohel Torah. The kollel’s members included Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rav Shmuel Wosner. In addition to his renown as a maggid, he published approximately 25 of his grandfather’s works, as well as Lev Eliyahu (of Rab Elya Lopian), and the writings of Rav Chasman, Ohr Yohel.
Rav Yosef Chaim Klein – Born in New York, he learned at Torah Vodaas. His rebbe muvhack was Rav Shlomo Heiman. He subsequently learned under Rav Reuven Grozovsky at Beis Midrash Elyon in Monsey. His last 40 years were spent as menahel of the mesivta of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn. (1922-2004)
Today in History – 22 Kislev
· Avraham the Ger, born in Bavaria, was burned at the stake in Zeintzach, Germany for converting to Judaism, 1265.
· Charles IV issued letters of protection for the Jews of Strasbourg. Two years later, mobs burned 1000 Jews and forced many others to shmad, 1357.
· Abudraham’s Siddur first published in Lisbon, 1489.
· The king of Denmark invited the Jews of Amsterdam to settle in Norway and enjoy religious freedom, 1622.
· House-to-house inspection for Jews in Paris by Germans, 1941.
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