Hezekiah (Gaon)

Principal of the academy at Pumbedita (1038-40). A member of an exilarchal family, he was elected to the office of principal after the murder of Hai Gaon, but was denounced to the fanatical government, imprisoned, and tortured to death. With him ended his family, with the exception of two sons who escaped to Spain, where they found a home with Joseph b. Samuel ha-Nagid. The death of Hezekiah also ended the line of the Geonim, which began four centuries before (see Hanan of Iskiya), and with it the Academy of Pumbedita.

Bibliography:

  * Rabad, Seder ha-Ḳabbalah;
  * Gans, Ẓemaḥ Dawid, i.;
  * Grätz, Gesch. v. 428;
  * Jost, Gesch. der Juden und Seiner Sekten, ii. 287.



S. S. M.