Family name of frequent occurrence among Oriental Spanish Jews, and borne by several writers.
Turkish physician and Hebrew poet; lived at Constantinople in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Sancho composed poems particularly in praise of certain authors; for instance, Solomon Alḳabiẓ's "Shoresh Yishai" (Constantinople, 1566) has at the end a poem by Sancho, and Ḳimḥi's "Miklol" and "Shorashim" also include poems by Sancho in praise of these works. Sancho himself is praised by Bezaleel Ashkenazi (Responsa, No. 14).
Turkish rabbinical author; lived at Constantinople in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He was a disciple of Joseph Kassabi, and in collaboration with his brother Jacob wrote several works, which were nearly all destroyed by fire, only one, the "Dat wa-Din," a commentary on the Pentateuch, being preserved.
Spanish Talmudic scholar and polemist; flourished in Aragon in the twelfth century. Pedro the Great, King of Aragon, invited him to take part in a disputation with a certain Nicholas de Valencia (mentioned by J. R. de Castro in "Bibliotheca Española," 1:266, as one of the troubadours) on the question of the superiority of the Jewish over the Christian religion or vice versa. Ephraim answered very cleverly; and his answer was approved by the king. L. Dukes (in "Orient," 12:29) identifies Ephraim with Don Santo the poet, referred to by J. R. de Castro (c. p. 178); but Kayserling and Steinschneider have proved that the identification is faulty.
Portuguese physician; flourished at the end of the fifteenth century. He was court physician to Affonso V., King of Portugal; but the courtiers, out of jealousy, prevailed on the king, through all sorts of calumnies, to dismiss him. He then went to Constantinople, where he was received with great honor by Sultan Maḥmud II., the Great. The latter appointed him his court physician and treated him as one of his house-hold.
Turkish rabbinical author; born and lived at Salonica; died at Jerusalem in 1759. He wrote the following works: "Be'erot ha-Mayim" (Salonica, 1754), a collection of responsa and a commentary on Maimonides; "Be'er Yiẓḥaḳ," a collection of sermons in the order of the sections of the Pentateuch; "Be'er la-Ḥay," a collection of funeral orations; and "Be'er Reḥobot."