Bardaki, Isaiah ben Issachar Ber
BARDAKI, ISAIAH BEN ISSACHAR BER
BARDAKI, ISAIAH BEN ISSACHAR BER (1790–1862), Polish rabbi and later head of the Jerusalem community. Bardaki was born in Pinsk and settled in Ereẓ Israel in 1810, after the death of his first wife. In 1823 he married the daughter of R. *Israel b. Samuel of Shklov who mentions Bardaki with great affection. This marriage assured him of a leading position in the growing Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem. Upon the death of his father-in-law, he became head of the community. Wherever he went he was accompanied by his own interpreter and his personal attendant. Bardaki greatly strengthened the community, although he was opposed to all modern trends. Several buildings adjoining the Or ha-Ḥayyim Yeshivah were constructed under his auspices and the compound was named after him Ḥaẓar Rabbi Yeshayahu. He was a vice consul of Austria (a post of great importance in the *capitulations regime prevailing in Jerusalem), and received the title of ḥakham bashi ("chief rabbi"). Several of his works are extant in manuscript.
bibliography:
A.M. Luncz, in: Yerushalayim, 5 (1898), 232–4; Y. Yellin, Zikhronot le-Ven Yerushalayim (1924), 8–10; Frumkin-Rivlin, 3 (1929), 227–9; A. Yaari, The Goodly Heritage (1958), 46, 53–4; J. Rimon and J.Z. Wassermann, Yerushalayim ha-Attikah (1958), 150–2.
[Itzhak Alfassi]