Israel Moses Hazan

Israel Moses Hazan — also rendered Israel Moses Hazzan and catalogued in full as Israel Moses ben Eliezer Hazzan — was born in Smyrna in 1808.[2] His father, Eliezer Hazan, brought him to Jerusalem in 1811, where he was educated under his grandfather, Rabbi Joseph ben Hayyim Hazan.[2] He was later described as a Talmudic sage, orator, poet, and speaker of many languages.[1]

In 1840 Hazan became a member of a rabbinical college, and in 1848 he was appointed a meshullaḥ, or communal messenger.[2] While in Rome, he was elected chief rabbi of the Jewish community.[2] He was held in high esteem in both Rome and Corfu.[2]

After resigning the Roman rabbinate, Hazan served as rabbi of Corfu before being called to the rabbinate of Alexandria in 1857.[2][5] The poet Ludwig August Frankl, who encountered him in Corfu in 1856, reportedly wrote in glowing terms about his venerable personality.[2] In Alexandria, Hazan served as chief rabbi and endorsed a new curriculum and the study of foreign languages.[6] In 1862 he traveled to Jaffa, but ill health compelled him to move to Beirut, where he died in October 1862; he was buried in Sidon.[2]

Although a champion of Orthodoxy, Hazan challenged practices he regarded as superstitious among the Jews of Rome. He protested the insistence on washing corpses with warm water and the prohibition against placing a clock in the synagogue courtyard.[2]

Hazan's published writing and correspondence reveal an effort to foster respectful relations between Jewish and Christian religious leaders. In Naḥalah le-Yisrael, published in Vienna in 1851, he wrote: "The Christian scholars are genuine and science loving people, they judge fairly, they respect religion and religious people, always researching for the truth, and when they find it, I swear, they courageously make it publicly known."[3]

In the same work he addressed Christians directly: "Our Christian brethren! Our Messianic lovers! Aren't we brothers? Are we not two plants that feed off the same source, which is G-d's Torah?"[3] He praised the tolerance shown by Rome toward its Jewish community and argued that Christian apostles and Jewish rabbinic sages each provided interpretations of their respective traditions.[3]

A letter in the Meir Benayahu Collection, written by Hazan in Rome on December 16, 1847, was addressed to Chaim Avraham Gagin (1787–1848), Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine and Hazan's revered teacher.[3] Hazan reported meeting Pope Pius IX, who he said received the visitors with much love. He also praised Giuseppe Valerga (1813–1872), the incoming Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and urged Gagin and Valerga to relate to one another as two great religious leaders, each working according to the traditions of his forefathers.[3]

Hazan advised Gagin to visit Valerga soon after the patriarch's arrival in Jerusalem, wearing formal clothing and giving advance notice. He also suggested sending sweets occasionally, because Italians were known to enjoy them and, in Hazan's view, did not prepare them properly themselves.[3]

Hazan's literary output spanned halakhic responsa, polemics against religious reform, and homiletic works. He contributed a letter condemning reforms proposed at the Brunswick rabbinical conference, published in Kin'at Ẓiyyon in Amsterdam in 1846.[2] His Naḥalah le-Yisrael, a collection of decisions concerning an inheritance case, appeared in Vienna in 1851 and contains the interfaith passages for which he is remembered.[2][3] Dibre Shalom we-Emet replied to a Reform pamphlet addressed to the Jews of Great Britain, while She'erit ha-Naḥalah presented a discourse on religious questions together with a revised edition of Naḥalah le-Yisrael.[2] He also published a Ḳonṭres defending the sanctity of the second holy days.[2]

Two posthumous publications extended the circulation of work associated with him. Iyye ha-Yam, a collection of Geonic responsa with his annotations, was published at Leghorn in 1864.[2] Kerak shel Romi, a collection of responsa, appeared at Leghorn in 1876.[2] Additional responsa, homilies, and an apology for the Kabbalah were reported to remain in manuscript.[2] A two-part Hebrew study by José Faur, Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Hazzan: The Man and His Works, was published in Jerusalem in 1977.[4]

Secondary reference works preserve several chronological differences. The Jewish Encyclopedia dates Hazan's death to October 1862, while the National Library of Israel authority record gives 1862 or 1863.[7][2] The Jewish Encyclopedia places his departure from Rome for Corfu in 1852, whereas the Jewish Virtual Library lists his Corfu service as 1853–1857.[2][5] His biographical entry dates his call to Alexandria to 1857, while the Jewish Encyclopedia's Egypt entry lists him there in 1862.[2][8] Encyclopedia.com gives his Alexandria tenure as 1857–1863.[6]