Ashkenazi, Benjamin.

By: Herman Rosenthal , Moses Beer

Russian communal worker and philanthropist; born in 1824; died at Grodno in 1894. He was the son of Joshua Heschel Ashkenazi, rabbi of Lublin, who was a descendant of Ḥakam Ẓebi. Ashkenazi settled at Grodno, where he became the leading spirit in communal affairs. On his initiative a hospital was built and, later, a home for the aged. The government, in recognition of his services, bestowed upon himand his children hereditary honorary citizenship. In 1882 Ashkenazi was sent as delegate to the rabbinical convention at St. Petersburg; and in 1883 he was one of the few Jewish representatives who attended officially the coronation of Alexander III. at Moscow. In 1884 he was appointed chairman of the committee on prisons of the government of Grodno.