BASCHKO, ZEVI HIRSCH BEN BENJAMIN

BASCHKO, ZEVI HIRSCH BEN BENJAMIN (1740–1807), rabbi and halakhist. Baschko was the last to occupy the position of rabbi (which he held from 1802) of the joint communities of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek (the "Three Communities") before the union was dissolved. Born in Zamosc, Poland, of a distinguished family, he was rabbi first of Tischwitz (Tyszowce), then from 1771 of Brody, and from 1788 of Glogau, where he established an important yeshivah. He was one of the greatest rabbis of his day; among those who addressed halakhic questions to him were Isaiah Berlin, Solomon Zalman Fuerth, Phinehas Horowitz of Frankfurt, and Meir Posner, while Ezekiel Landau and Akiva Eger referred to him in unusually high terms of esteem. He wrote Tiferet Ẓevi, responsa on the Sulḥan Arukh in two parts, the first on Oraḥ Ḥayyim and Yoreh De'ah (Warsaw, 1816 (?)) and the second on Even ha-Ezer (Jozsefov, 1867). His responsa also appear in the works of contemporary rabbis. Some of his commentaries and homilies are still in manuscript. He died in Ottensen, near Altona, and was buried at Altona, his tombstone bearing the inscription, "There arose none, nor will there ever be another, like him." His sons were also rabbis: Moses at Tomaszow, and Judah Loeb at Komarno.

bibliography:

E. Duckesz, Ivvah le-Moshav (1903), xxvii (Ger. pt.), 77–83 (Heb. pt.); I. Wolfsberg, in: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 2 (1948), 33f.; N.M. Gelber, ibid., 6 (1955), 59.

[Itzhak Alfassi]