The Famous Kalonymos Family of Judaism, So Important to our Genealogy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

The Christian Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land went through several European countries to do so, and as they rode through, they attacked to kill any Jews they found.  The Jewish community of Worms, Germany whose 1st Jews arrived in the 10th century (j900s) was annihilated in the First Crusade, re-established shortly afterward but again destroyed in the Black Death outbreaks (1349).                                                   

Massacre of the Jews of Metz, a town of Lorraine.  during the First Crusade, by Auguste Migette. Jews suffered severely here.  

Our ancestor used every available way to resist the attacks against them when they saw it coming.  When their communities were invaded, the Jewish people fought back with all their strength.  

Judah ben Kalonymus  was the grandson of Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol.  

Judah ben Kalonymus ben Moses of Mainz (died 1200) was a Jewish German scholar, halakhic authority, and kabbalist. In his early years, he studied in Speyer under Shemariah ben Mordecai who taught him mysticism. During the Third Crusade, Judah helped his community to prepare for the Anti-Semitic attacks to follow. Among his pupils were his son Eleazar of Worms, Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi and Baruch ben Samuel. 

Kalonymus is quoted in the Tosafot (Hullin 47b), and a responsum of his is included in the collection of responsa of Meir of Rothenburg (No. 501). From the account of Kalonymus given in the "Mordechai" (Pesachim, end), in the "Pardes" (§§ 75, 88, 245, 290), and in the "Mazref la-Hokmah" (p. 14a), it may be inferred that he was rabbi in Mainz, and that during the First Crusade (1096) he was compelled to flee to Speyer. He died in December, 1127. His body could not be buried because of the investment of the city by Lothar, the burial-ground being outside of the place. At a later time it was interred at Mainz.                

A replica of the capital of the pillar from Kalonymous house, Mainz (10th century)

Judah ben Kalonymus, was the grandson of Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol.  

Judah ben Kalonymus ben Moses of Mainz (died 1200) was a Jewish German scholar, halakhic authority, and kabbalist. In his early years, he studied in Speyer under Shemariah ben Mordecai who taught him mysticism. During the Third Crusade, Judah helped his community to prepare for the Anti-Semitic attacks to follow. Among his pupils were his son Eleazar of Worms, Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi and Baruch ben Samuel. 

An example is when the Jews of Mainz in Germany resisted the Crusader attack of 1096.  They had bribed the bishop, hoping he would give them the protection of his palace and his soldiers.

The Crusaders are appeared with their fluttering banners, drew up before the bishop's castle.  But the Jews (also called the sons of the covenant) knew no trembling in the face of these mighty numbers of the enemy.  All of them, strong or weak, put on armor and girded on swords. 

Mainz had been the principal community of northern Europe and the main center for the diffusion of rabbinic learning.  In 1012, Jews were expelled but soon returned.  The archbishop had promised protection.  Jews were wanted for their special skills in business.   

Rabbi Kalonymos ben Meshullam, led them.  This was an ancestor found to be a major one of my own family.  Cruelly, the combat raged.  Our enemies prevailed against us and streamed into the castle.  The bishop's men, pledged to help us, fled and delivered us into the hands of the wicked.  All the Jews were killed.  Kalonymus ben Meshullam, (Liturgical poet; flourished at Mainz about 1000. He figures in the Amnon legend as having written the Unetanneh Tokef, which had been revealed to him in a dream by the martyr Amnon of Mainz.)Judah ben Kalonymus, was the grandson of Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol.  

The Kalonymos family dynasty had begun with 70 CE's fall of Jerusalem with one Kalonymos brought to Rome.  The family survived and grew, then spreading out into Germany and France.  Kalonymos or Kalonymus (Hebrew: קָלוֹנִימוּס Qālōnīmūs) was a prominent Jewish family who lived in Italy, mostly in Lucca and in Rome, which, after the settlement at Mainz and Speyer of several of its members, took during many generations a leading part in the development of Jewish learning in Germany. The family is according to many considered the foundation of Hachmei Provence and the Ashkenazi Hasidim.

Eleazar of Worms (אלעזר מוורמייזא) (c. 1176–1238), or Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus, also sometimes known today as Eleazar Rokeach ("Eleazar the Perfumer" אלעזר רקח) from the title of his Book of the Perfumer (Sefer ha rokeah ספר הרקח)—where the numerical value of "Perfumer" (in Hebrew) is equal to Eleazar, was a leading Talmudist and Kabbalist,^[1] and the last major member of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, a group of German Jewish pietists.

Eleazar was most likely born in Mainz. Through his father, Judah ben Kalonymus, he was a descendant of the great Kalonymus family of Mainz. Eleazar was also a disciple of Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (Judah he-Hasid), who initiated him into the study of the Kabbalah, at that time little known in Germany. According to Zunz, Eleazar was hazzan at Erfurt before he became rabbi at Worms. In 1233 he took part in the Synod of Mainz which enacted the body of regulations known as "Takkanot Shum" (ShUM = "Speyer, Worms, Mainz"), of which he was a signatory.

Eleazar developed a vigorous activity in many directions. On the one hand, he was a Talmudist of vast erudition, a liturgist gifted with a clear and easy style, and an astronomer, and was well versed in the sciences open to the Jews of Germany at that time. At the same time, he was an adventurous mystic who experienced visions, seeing legions of angels and demons. He exerted himself to spread mystical systems which went far beyond the conceptions of the classical authors of Jewish esoterica. In his mystical works he developed and gave a new impulse to the mysticism associated with the letters of the alphabet. By the gematria and notarikon systems of interpretation found in the Talmud, Eleazar invented new combinations by which miracles could be performed. The haggadic anthropomorphism which he had combated in his earlier works (Ha-Roḳeaḥ, Sha'are ha-Sod weha-Yiḥud) occupied later the foremost place in his mystical writings. Eleazar's great merit therefore lies not only in his new mystical system, but also in his ethical works. In these he shows greatness of soul and a piety bordering upon asceticism. Though so severely tried by fate, he inculcates cheerfulness, patience, and love for humanity. He died at Worms in 1238.  According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Eleazar underwent great sufferings during the Crusades. The Jewish Encyclopedia states that on the night of 22 Kislev, 1196, he was engaged in his commentary on Genesis (Eleazar relates that he had reached the parashah Vayeshev), when two Crusaders entered his house and killed his wife Dulca (Dolce), his two daughters Belet (Belette) and Hannah, and wounded him and his son Jacob who did not escape. His wife had conducted a business in parchment scrolls in order to support the family and enable him to devote all his time to study. Many of the piyyutim he authored protest at Israel's suffering and hope for redemption and revenge against her tormentors. He also recorded the deaths of his family in a moving and poetic eulogy.

Kalonymus ben Todros (Hebrew: קלונימוס בן טודרוס) (d. ca. 1194) was a Provencal rabbi who flourished at Narbonne in the second half of the twelfth century. He bore the title Nasi, and was the leader of the community when Benjamin of Tudela visited Narbonne in 1165. He and his cousin Levi ben Moses were joint leaders at a later time. From certain letters of Sheshet Benveniste to Kalonymus, it seems probable that the latter died in 1194. The letters are contained in a manuscript of the historian Joseph ha-Kohen. Henri Gross believes that Kalonymus is identical with "Clarimoscus filius Tauroscii," mentioned in a deed of conveyance of 1195 reproduced by Gustave Saige.

Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, called Maestro Calo was born  in 1286 and died after 1328.  He was a French Hebrew author and translator.  He lived in various French centers and in Rome.  Kalonymos translated many philosophical and scientific works from arabic into Hebrew and Latin for King Robert of Naples.  His original works include a moral work in rhymed prose, and a satiric parody of a talmudic tractate.  This was pretty sophisticated literature.  

He studied philosophy and rabbinical literature at Thessaloniki under the direction of Abba Mari ben Eligdor and Moses ben Solomon of Beaucaire. He also studied medicine, although he seem never to have practised it.

He was from a prominent and distinguished Provençal Jewish family. The father of Kalonymus and Kalonymus themselves each bore the title "Nasi" (prince).

The following table, compiled from the accounts of Eleazar of Worms and Solomon Luria, gives the Italian and German heads of the family, which produced for nearly five centuries the most notable scholars of Germany and northern France, such as Samuel he-Hasid and his son Judah he-Hasid. Although all of them are mentioned as having been important scholars, the nature of the activity of only a few of them is known.

Family members to 1080

hideFamily tree to 1080
Meshullam I. (780) Ithiel I. (800) Meshullam II. (825) Moses I. (850) Jekuthiel I. (876) Kalonymus I. (900) Moses II. (926) Jekuthiel II. Kalonymus II. (950) Meshullam the Great of Rome or Lucca (976) Kalonymus III. (1000) Hananeel I. Moses III. (1020) Kalonymus IV. Hananeel II. Ithiel II. Jekuthiel of Speyer (fl. 1070) Moses IV. (1060) Moses V. of Speyer (1070) Meshullam of Mainz (1080)
Notes: (after the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906)

Kalonymus ben Isaac the Elder

German halachist; lived at Speyer in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; father of Samuel he-Hasid, grandfather of Judah he-Hasid, and great-grandfather of Judah ben Kalonymus, as the following pedigree shows:

hidePedigree
Kalon ymus ben Isaac t he Elder (d.1126 Samuel he Hasid Judah Meir Golde Abraham Juddah he Hasid (d. 1217) Kalonymus (c. 1160) Daughter Kalonymus " ha- Parnas" Moses Samuel Eleazer ha- Darshan (c.1240) Moses Zaltman Meir Judah David Simcha (c. 1223) Moses  Azriel ha- Darshan (c.1280) Tobiah Meshullam (c.1240)
Notes:

As there were many Kalonymos people, there are many descendants.  Traces of the family in Italy may be found as early as the second half of the eighth century. As to the date of the settlement of its members in Germany, the opinions of modern scholars are divided, owing to the conflicting statements of the Jewish sources.

Rapoport, Leopold Zunz, and many others place the settlement in 876, believing the King Charles, mentioned in the sources as having induced the Kalonymides to emigrate to Germany, to have been Charles the Bald, who was in Italy in that year; Luzzatto and others think that it took place under Charlemagne, in approximately 800 CE, alleging that the desire to attract scholars to the empire was more in keeping with the character of that monarch; still others assign it to the reign of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (973-983), whose life, according to the historian Thietmar von Merseburg, was saved in a battle with the Saracens by a Jew named Kalonymus. 

"Tying people to ancestors generally is not done lightly but let the buyer beware. Nevertheless when it comes to biblical figures, since they are spoken of in the course of religious studies some connections would perhaps have to be taken on faith. Rashi's being linked to King David is through his descent >from Hillel. The Talmud says that Hillel was descended >from King David. Since Hillel was not a member of the family of the Exilarchs which started with Zerubavel, there was not to my knowledge any practical reason for ascribing to Hillel descent >from King David. So in any event the question is to be solved by asking on what basis does the Talmud and even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, Hillel's descendant and compiler of the Mishna, claim descent for Hillel >from King David. It is to be noted, though, that claiming descent >from King David or any Biblical figure in those days may not have been as lightly taken as today."

Today we use DNA testing to establish people who share the same DNA.

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalonymos_family

Book:  My People-Abba Eban's History of the Jews, volume I, adapted by David Bamberger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalonymus_ben_Kalonymus

https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/topic/from_rashi_to_king_david/70515104?p=