Cantarini, Judah (Leon) Ben Samuel (Simon) Ha-Kohen

Italian physician and rabbi; born about 1650 at Padua; died there April 28, 1694. He had a large practise among the Christian as well as the Jewish population of that city, visiting the poorer of his patients four times a day without charge. Cantarini founded a yeshibah in the synagogue of the Ashkenazim, where he taught the Talmud, in which he was very learned. He also officiated as preacher. A letter of his is extant, addressed to Jacob Lebet-Levi, and dealing with a legal quarrel in which Cantarini was involved. This letter, which testifies to his thorough knowledge of the Talmud, is written in a very pure and classical Hebrew. At Cantarini's death his nephew, Isaac Ḥayyim Cantarini, wrote his obituary.

Bibliography:

  * I. H. Cantarini, Paḥad Yiẓḥaḳ, pp. 10a, 42a;
  * idem, in Oẓar Neḥmad, iii. 145;
  * Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 198;
  * Steinschneider, in Monatsschrift, 1899, p. 472.



L. G. I. Ber.