Gheron, Yakkir Mordecai ben Eliakim
GHERON, YAKKIR MORDECAI BEN ELIAKIM
GHERON, YAKKIR MORDECAI BEN ELIAKIM (d. 1817), Turkish rabbi (the Italian branch of the family write the name Ghiron, and the Turkish, Gheron). Gheron succeeded his father as rabbi and dayyan of Adrianople and district in 1800. He devoted himself particularly to the building of synagogues and supervised the studies in a talmud torah which he had established during his period of office in Adrianople. A certain scholar who had converted to Islam was found burnt to death, and the pasha of the town accused the Jews of having been responsible. Gheron was imprisoned and sentenced to death. The pasha's secretary, to whom the rabbi had previously shown kindness, succeeded in having the death sentence repealed, and in its stead a fine was imposed on the Jewish community. In 1812 he went to Jerusalem and was appointed a member of the bet din of Jacob Moses *Ayash. His name appears as a signatory to a *takkanah of 1814 with reference to milk milked by gentiles. His responsa appear in the Dera Dakhya (Salonika, 1819) of Mordecai b. Menahem *Bekemoharar. He wrote an approbation for the Nimmukei Yosef (Leghorn, 1795) of Josef ibn Habib.
bibliography:
S. Marcus, in: Sinai, 41 (1957), 49–52.
[Simon Marcus]