Born in Moravia, his wife and child were killed in the Hapsburg siege of Buda. He fled to Sarajevo, then under Ottoman rule, where the Sephardim appointed him their Hakham (rabbi).

From 1688 to 1709 he lived in Altona, Germany, where he was recognized as an eminent scholar of Jewish law, questions being submitted to him from many parts of Europe. In 1707, Ashkenazi was elected rabbi of the triple community of Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbeck and in 1710 was appointed chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jews in Amsterdam. There his 12-volumes of Responsa were published in 1712. A quarrel over a suspected Shabbatean led him to leave Amsterdam in 1714 for Lemberg (Lvov), Poland. He was the father of Jacob Emden.

Bibliography:

Zvi ASHKENAZI: Sefer Se’elot uTeshuvot Chacham Zvi. Pp. 104. Lemberg: M.F. Poremba, 1858 (in Hebrew)

Zvi ASHKENAZI (Ad. Author): Meuraot Zvi. Pp. 88. Warsaw: N. Springster, 1883 (in Hebrew)

PREDMESKY: Life and Work of R. Ashkenazi. 1946