Moses Hagiz

Who was Moses Hagiz?

Moses Hagiz was a Talmudic scholar, rabbi, kabbalist, and author born in Jerusalem, Palestine. He was one of the most prominent and influential Jewish leaders in 17th-century Amsterdam. During Hagiz's lifetime there was an overall decline in rabbinic authority which was the result of migration and assimilation, and Hagiz devoted his career to restoring rabbinic authority. His most prominent talent was as a polemicist, and he campaigned ceaselessly against Jewish heresy in an attempt to unify the rabbinate.