Perhaps the most gifted and learned of his Roman contemporaries (although chiefly a poet), Anaw possessed a thorough mastery of halakhic literature, diligently studied philology, mathematics, and astronomy, and wielded a keen, satirical pen.
His poetical activity began in 1239, when Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, assailed the Talmud and appealed to Pope Gregory IX to order its destruction and the persecution of its students.
In June, 1239, several wagon-loads of Talmudic manuscripts were burned in Paris and Rome: at the latter place the Jewish cemetery was destroyed.
These events stirred the poet to a bitter elegy, "My heart is convulsed", in which he deeply laments the fate of Israel and passionately appeals to God to avenge the desecration of the dead.
These events inspired the poet Rabbi Binyamin to compose the poem "My heart recoils", in which he deeply laments the fate of the people of Israel and pleads with God to avenge the desecration of the dead.