Azriel Diena

A rabbi in northern Italy in the early sixteenth century, Azriel Diena spent his youth in Piedmont. The region was a center of settlement for families of Jews exiled from France in 1410, likely including Diena’s. Diena studied either directly with Joseph Colon, the preeminent authority among French exiles in Italy and an influential figure throughout Ashkenazic lands, or followed his students and writings. Diena was later active in communities throughout the region and spent the last ten years of his life in Sabbioneta, where most of his surviving responsa were written.