Benjamin ha-Levi Ashkenazi

Benjamin ha-Levi Ashkenazi, originally of Nuremberg, was head of the Ashkenazic community in Salonika. Respected by the other Jewish communities in Salonika, he was sent to Constantinople to represent the city’s entire Jewish population. As there was a significant Ashkenazic community in Salonika, a maḥzor according to the Ashkenazic rite was printed there in 1550, with an explanatory commentary by Benjamin. The maḥzor contained several liturgical poems of his own composition as well. Among them is a lament to be recited on Tisha be-Av, which depicts the fire that ravaged the city in 1545 and the plagues of 1545 and 1548 (in the latter, four of Benjamin’s children apparently perished). Benjamin describes the splendor of Salonika as a center of Torah study and general knowledge, populated by wise rabbis, students, scholars, and physicians. A number of his responsa have survived.