Judah Leon Di Leone

Italian rabbi from 1796 to 1835. Sent as a messenger from Hebron to Rome, he became rabbi in the latter city during the troublous times following the struggles of the Jews for emancipation and reform. He was one of the collaborators to the collective work entitled  ("Letters of Italian Rabbis"), which first appeared at Leghorn, then in a German translation at Hamburg, and was subsequently translated into French. Judah represented the Jewish community when Pius VII. entered Rome in 1800; the pope, however, did not keep the promises of good-will toward the Jews which he then made. While Rome was under French rule Judah was director of the consistory of Rome (1811). He could not preach there, as he did not understand Italian. In his work "Hilkot Bekorot" he appears as a halakic author.

Bibliography:

  * Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 400;
  * Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 166;
  * Berliner, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 2, 130.



S. I. E.