The First Families of Ashkenaz

🏰 The four famed families of Rome and the multi-branched Kalonymos family were renowned as founders of Ashkenazi culture. Today, we further untangle the relationship of Italy to the Rhineland.

Lucca, Italy, said to be the Italian origin of the Kalonymos family. [Source]

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In this issue:

• The Italian Connection

• The Four Families of Rome

• The Kalonymides

• Reads and Resources

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Early Ashkenaz was dominated by several well-known families touched by legend of association with powerful kings, in particular the Kalonymos (or Kalonymus) family, which seeded Italy, Provence (southern France), and the Rhineland with rabbis. These families continued to produce prominent members through the Middle Ages and into the modern era. Their outsize influence in the central Middle Ages underscores the small size of the early Ashkenazi communities and the vibrancy of the culture they nonetheless created—and which has continued to shape a large sector of the Jewish community down to our own times.

The Italian Connection

The case of Italian Jewry is a complex one that demonstrates the difficulties of imposing modern paradigms on medieval realities. Today, we think of Italy as a unitary nation-state, encompassing a variety of regions, to be sure, but having a common language and government as well as discrete boundaries. In the medieval period, however, the south of Italy was for most of the period a separate entity, dominated by Byzantium politically and culturally, including the widespread use of Greek as opposed to Latin vernaculars. The lands surrounding Rome were dominated by the popes (though schisms within the Church leadership led to the claiming of papal lands in southern France later in the Middle Ages) while the remaining regions of the north were locally ruled. Later, in early modernity, certain locales operated with great independence, especially Genoa and Venice.

Even speaking of “Italian Jewry” is a conceptual imposition; the Jews of Rome were quite distinct from the Jews of Tuscany, and even more so from those of the Byzantine south, known as Romaniote Jews. The Jews of Italy were also notably diverse. The large-scale expulsions of the late Middle Ages, first from France and then from Spain, brought large numbers of immigrants into Italy, many of whom acculturated and contributed greatly to “Italian” Jewish culture. Also due to the influx of immigrants, the cultures of the Jews of Italy shifted from close ties to Ashkenaz to closer ties to Sefarad following the Spanish and Portuguese expulsions. And again, early modern Italian Jews in the period of the Renaissance developed a humanist intellectual culture as well as a keen interest in Kabbala (Jewish esotericism) that was homegrown and unique.

It remains debatable whether Italy, much like Provence (on which I plan to do a future series), belongs to “Ashkenaz” at all in its medieval period or should be examined as a separate entity (or, more accurately, entities). I would like to make the case that until the influx of Sefardi immigrants in early modernity, Italy was deeply connected to wider Ashkenaz, in fact, the primary source of immigrants to the Rhineland Valley. As I wrote last week on the origins of Ashkenazi Jewry, Italy was a likely conduit of early migration to northern Europe from southern Italy, as evidenced in part by the Greek and Latinate names of early recipients of charters of settlement and of leaders of the community, of which the Kalonymos family is the most prominent. In addition, we see Italian Jewish works from both the south and from Rome circulating widely in Ashkenaz, especially the Aruch of R. Natan ben Yechiel, the first Talmudic dictionary, as well as Midrash collections. (This was facilitated by the common and exclusive use of Hebrew as a literary language, in contradistinction to Sefardi culture, which used Judeo-Arabic for whole areas of scholarship, sometimes including Tanach commentary and halacha.) The great Italian Tosafist, Rid (R. Yeshayahu di Trani, c. 1200-before 1260), for example, studied in Ashkenaz and maintained extensive contact with the scholarly community there throughout his life. The Shibbolei ha-Leket, an important compendium of halacha (Jewish law) written by the Italian R. Tzedekia ha-Rofeh Anav in the thirteenth century, belongs to the Ashkenazi tradition. In what follows, I will regard the Italian peninsula as a special section of Ashkenaz.

The Four Families of Rome

The title page of David de Pomis’ trilingual Hebrew, Latin, and Italian dictionary titled Tzemach David, which tells at the top the legend of the four families’ exile by Titus.

The story goes like this: in the year 71 CE, after the fall of Jerusalem into his hands and the destruction of the second Beit ha-Mikdash (Jerusalem Temple), the Roman emperor Titus took captive the patriarchs of four noble families from the province of Yehuda and the city of Jerusalem and exiled them to Rome. If this sounds similar to the legendary origin of the Sefardi community, which saw itself as “the exile of Jerusalem that is in Sefarad,” that is not coincidental; it reflects the sense of nobility and continuity that these communities claimed from the elites of Jerusalem. The story circulated in the medieval and early modern periods, and is preserved on the title page of one of its sons’ well-regarded works, pictured above.

The four families were called, in their main lines, Anav or Anau (משפחת הענוים), de Pomis (משפחת התפוחים), dei Rossi (משפחת האדומים), and degli Adolescentoli (משפחת הנערים או הבחורים), each a vernacular translation—or perhaps vice versa—of the Hebrew descriptive name. (The Anav family had several Italian versions of their name, including delli Mansi, delli Piatelli, and Umano.) Indeed, many people with these early surnames are attested in medieval Italy, including many notable figures, often named as being, e.g., “from among the Pomis” (מן התפוחים). Though they remained centered in Rome, members of the families immigrated to other Italian towns. The Anav family, for example, had branches in Tuscany, including those of the powerful fourteenth-century banking families of da Pisa, da San Miniato, and da Tivoli. Perhaps the widest-ranging family, the Anav clan also encompassed the Bozeccos and the family known as de Synagoga, in Hebrew, Min ha-Keneset (מן הכנסת) or Mi-Bet El (מבית אל).

R. Binyamin of Tudela described the primacy of the Anav family in Rome at the time that he visited in the mid-twelfth century:

ומשם [לוכה] מהלך ששה ימים לעיר רומה רבתא והיא ראש מלכות אדום ושם כמו מאתים יהודים מכובדים ואין פורעין מס לשום אדם. ומהם משרתי האפיפיור אלכסנדוס הוא האגמון הממונה על כל אדוםץ ושם חכמים גדולים ובראשם ר’ דניאל הרב ור’ יחיאל משרת האפיפיור והוא בחור יפה נבון וחכם והוא יוצא ובא בבית האפיפיור והוא פקיד ביתו ועל כל אשר לו והוא נכדו של ר’ נתן שעשה ספר הערוך ופירושיו. .

From there [Lucca] it is six days’ journey to the great city of Rome. Rome is the head of the kingdoms of Christendom, and contains about 200 Jews, who occupy an honorable position and pay no tribute, and among them are officials of the pope Alexander [III], the spiritual head of all Christendom. Great scholars reside here, at the head of them being R. Daniel [Anav], the chief rabbi, and R. Yechiel, an official of the pope. He is a handsome young man of intelligence and wisdom, and he has the entry of the pope’s palace; for he is the steward of his house and of all that he has. He is a grandson of R. Natan, who composed the Aruch and its commentaries.

Masaot Binyamin, ed. and trans. Adler, pp. 6-7 [Heb.]; pp. 5-6 [English, with slight modifications]

This branch of the Anav family, as Binyamin says, included the aforementioned R. Natan ben Yechiel, the author of the highly significant Talmudic dictionary Sefer ha-Aruch. R. Natan, along with his brothers Daniel and Avraham, also scholars, were the sons of R. Yechiel b. Avraham (d. 1070), head of the Roman yeshiva (academy), a paytan (liturgical poet), and an early commentator on the Mishnah, which would later blossom into an Italian specialty. The brothers Avraham and Natan are known to have founded together a synagogue in Rome in the year 1101. Another branch of the Anav family included many more liturgical poets and experts in halacha, including the Shibbolei ha-Leket.

The de Pomis family produced Eliyahu de Pomi(s) (d. 1298), a rabbi and early victim of the Papal Inquisition in an unfortunate factional war in Rome against Pope Boniface VIII (r. 1294–1303); the family relocated from Rome to Spoleto following his persecution and execution at the stake. Later in Spoleto, R. David de Pomis (1525–1593), a scholar and physician in the humanist mold, translated several books of Tanach (Bible) into Italian, wrote a philosophical-ethical treatise in Italian about suffering, and produced the important aforementioned trilingual dictionary, Tzemach David. The dei Rossis also contributed a prominent and unique humanist in R. Azaria dei Rossi (c. 1511–c. 1578), whose interests included Latin, Italian, Jewish history, and textual criticism.

The Kalonymides

The many-branched Kalonymos family was even more single-handedly prolific in supplying scholars and leaders to the nascent Jewish communities of the medieval Rhineland and elsewhere. The name Kalonymos and at least one variant occur in the Talmud: Kalonymos is the father of Onkelos, the convert to Judaism to whom is attributed the definitive Aramaic Targum (interpretive translation) of the Torah (see Avoda Zara 11a, and Gitin 56b for the variant). This confirms the Greek sound of the name and places the putative origin of the family in Greek-speaking lands.

The Kalonymides (-ides being a classicizing Greek suffix meaning “son(s) of”) turn up in early medieval southern Italy, from where they immigrate around the second half of the ninth century to the Rhineland. This move is said to have occurred under charters of settlements granted by a Carolingian ruler. Some sources state explicitly that the Carolingian king responsible was Charlemagne (c. 747-814), but this is likely a later emendation and the date is considered improbably early. Rather, the consensus suggests that the king in question was Charles II “the Bald,” the grandson of Charlemagne and son of Louis I “the Pious,” who granted two extant charters of settlement to Jews, probably from Italy, to live in the Rhineland. There are also many individuals with the name Kalonymos in Provence, which are probably, though there is not definitive evidence, from the same family.

R. Eleazar of Worm’s Kalonymos family geneology. BNF Ms. heb. 772, f. 60a. (Extracts below.)

Around 1220, R. Eleazar bar Yehuda (ben Kalonymos) of Worms (c. 1165–c. 1230), prominent authority and author of the Rokeach, wrote out a family history in service of his claim about the antiquity and correctness of his family’s prayer traditions. R. Eleazar was involved in all the most characteristic forms of Ashkenazi cultural expression and elite social life of his time: he wrote a halachic compendium in the style of the Tosafists, titled Sefer ha-Rokeach; a member of Chasidei Ashkenaz, the pietist movement that grew up following the devastating violence of the Crusader period, latter parts of which R. Eleazar personally experienced; as well as being a Tanach commentator, paytan, and commentator on piyut. As he details, he was related to the Kalonymos clan and received its traditions through his father, R. Yehuda ben R. Kalonymos, as well as through his uncle, R. Shmuel he-Chasid, the father of R. Yehuda he-Chasid, founder of the Chasidei Ashkenaz movement. This means that the Kalonymos family was not only instrumental in supplying rabbinical leaders to Ashkenaz, but also its famed and unique pietists. R. Eleazar gives his lineage going back nine generations:

אני אלעזר הקטן קבלתי תיקון תפילות מאבי מארי יהודה בר’ קלונימוס בר’ משה בן רבנא יהודה בן רבנא קלונימוס בן רבנא משה בן רבנא בן רבנא קלונימוס בן רבנא יהודה.

I, Eleazar ha-Katan, received the correct version of the prayers from my father and teacher, Rabbi Yehuda, son of Rabbi Kalonymos, son of Rabbi Moshe, son of our Rabbi Yehuda, son of our Rabbi Kalonymos, son of our Rabbi Moshe, son of our Rabbi Kalonymos, son of our Rabbi Yehuda.

BNF Ms. heb. 772, f. 60a¹

He continues, mentioning other branches of the family, but from just his personal lineage, we can presume roots stretching back to the community’s founding based on the number of generations. As we see commonly in premodernity, family names are preserved through reuse intended to honor elders and maintain family traditions, here including the unusual name Kalonymos.

According the R. Eleazar of Worms,

וקבלו סוד תקון התפלות ושאר סודות רב מרב עד אבן אהרן בנו של ר’ שמואל הנשיא אשר עלה מבבל משום מעשה שהיה והוכרך לילך נע ונד בארץ ובאו בארץ לומברדיאה בעיר אחת ששמה לוקא ושם מצא רבי משה שפייט אימת נוראותיך ומסר לו כל סודותיו והוא רבו משה בן רבו קלונומוס בן רבי יהודה הוא היה הראשון שחצא מלומברדיאה הוא ובניו רבי קלונימוס ורבי יקותיאל וקרובו רבי איתיאל ושאר אנשים חשובים הביאם המלך קרלא עמו מארץ לומברדיאה והושיבו במגנצא ושמה פרו ושרצו וירבו מאד עד אשר פקדה שם חרון אפו על קהלות הקדש בשנת תתנ”ו

They all received the secret of the correct version of the prayers, one teacher from his teacher, up to Abu Aharon, the son of Rabbi Shmuel ha-Nasi, who came from Babylonia because of an event that happened there, and had to wander from place to place in the land, until he came to the country of Lombardy, to a city named Lucca, where he found Rabbi Moshe, who wrote the piyyut, Eimat Norotecha, and he [Abu Aharon] transmitted to him all his secrets. And he was his Rabbi Moshe, son of his Rabbi Kalonymus, son of Rabbi Yehuda. He was the first who left Lombardy, he and his sons, Rabbi Kalonymos and Rabbi Yekutiel, and his relative Rabbi Itiel, and other important persons, who the king, Charles, brought them with him from the country of Lombardy, and settled in Mainz, and there they multiplied greatly and increased very much, up until G-d’s fury came to govern the holy communities in the year 1096.

Apart from the notable corroboration of historians’ sketch of the Kalonymos family story, there is a fascinating Babylonian connection here. While the wellspring of Ashkenazi culture, via south Italy, is the Land of Israel traditions, as we noticed last week as well, there are indications of a melding in Ashkenaz (and likely earlier, in Italy and Eretz Yisrael itself) of both traditions. Here we see a clear indication of Babylonian prayer customs being integrated (or claimed to be integrated) into the Ashkenazi landscape, evidently with opposition, which R. Eleazar intends to obviate through impeccable tracing of oral traditions. In R. Eleazar’s portrayal of the Kalonymos family, their lineage links up to early traditions going back to the East, then to Italy, and then through settlement by the Carolingians. We have a microcosm of Ashkenaz in this portrayal, and in the Kalonymos family itself.

Reads and Resources

1. The entire passage is translated from this manuscript, BNF Ms. heb. 772, f. 60a, by Joseph Dan in the Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. “Kalonymus.” It is on page 127 of the digitized manuscript (linked). The passage occurs in multiple manuscripts and was first published in the seventeenth century by the polymath R. Yosef Shlomo Rofeh Delmedigo of Candia (Crete), known as Yashar, in his Matzref la-Chochma (1629), a part of a larger collection of Kabbalistic writings.