Avraham Ashkenazi Avraham Ashkenazi Avraham Ashkenazi (1813–1880) was a Sephardi chief rabbi (Rishon LeZion). Rabbi Ashkenazi was born at Janishar, near Salonica, in 1813. Aged fifteen, he was taken by his father to Jerusalem, where he studied rabbinical literature in the various colleges. The Turkish rabbis, in consulting him at the age of 35 on matters of religious law, addressed him as "Gaon." He authored several responsa and novellae. In 1850, he was appointed "dayyan" (religious judge) of the Jewish community of Jerusalem with the support of both Sephardim and Ashkenazim. In 1857 he became the "Av Beth Din" (chief judge) and
Sephardi Hebrew the Ashkenazi pronunciation was derived from that of Palestine in Geonic times (7th-11th centuries) and that the Sephardi pronunciation was derived from that of Babylonia. The theory was supported by the fact that in some respects, Ashkenazi Hebrew resembles the western dialect of Syriac, and Sephardi Hebrew resembles the eastern dialect: Eastern Syriac "Peshitta" as against Western Syriac "Peshito". Ashkenazi Hebrew, in its written form, also resembles Palestinian Hebrew in its tendency to "malē" spellings (see Mater lectionis). Others, including Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, believed that the distinction is more ancient and represents the distinction between the Judaean and Galilean dialects