MARGOLIOTH, JACOB

MARGOLIOTH, JACOB (d. between 1499 and 1512), rabbi of Regensburg (Ratisbon), originally from *Worms. In 1497 he corresponded with Johannes *Reuchlin on kabbalistic literature. Margolioth was considered a halakhic authority by his contemporaries and praised by them. His son samuel, father of the apostate Anton *Margarita, succeeded him as rabbi of Regensburg until the expulsion in 1519; he subsequently moved to Posen (Poznan), where he served as av betdin of Great Poland until after 1537. Another of Jacob's sons, isaac eizik (d. 1525), was a member of the bet din of R. Jacob *Pollak of Prague. Jacob's Seder Gittin ve-Ḥaliẓah has been preserved in two copies, one made by his son Isaac (Bodl. Ms. 2010/3) and the other by his son shalom shakhna under the title Yam she-Asah Shelomo (Bodl. Ms. 803). Part of his work was printed at the end of Tur Even ha-Ezer (Berlin, 1702). A privilege of Frederick iii dated 1487 mentions a second jacob margolioth (d. before 1492), of Nuremberg. A halakhic declaration by him is noted in the responsa of R. Judah *Minz (no. 13), on the legality of a declaration of refusal (me'un) to marry. R. Elijah *Capsali named Jacob Margolioth as one of the supporters of R. Moses *Capsali in his bitter controversy (1475–80) with R. Joseph *Colon (Likkutim Shonim, 1869, p. 16), but it is unclear to which of the two he was referring.

bibliography:

M. Wiener, in: mgwj, 12 (1868), 345–51; S. Wiener, Pesak ha-Ḥerem shel ha-Rav Ya'akov Pollak (1897), 67–68; Graetz-Rabinowitz, 6 (1898), 436–7; A. Freimann, in: Festschrift… M. Philippson (1916), 89–90; J. Mieses, Die aelteste gedruckte deutsche Uebersetzung des juedischen Gebetbuches aus dem Jahre 1530 (1916), 12–26; A. Marx, Studies in Jewish History and Booklore (1944), 123, no. 66; R. Straus, Urkunden und Aktenstuecke zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg (1960), no. 672.

[Abraham David]