Kalonymos family
[3] The ancestors of the Kalonymos family are said to have left Judea after the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE) and fled to southern Italy.
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.
[4] 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.
(after the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906) A short selicha in eight strophes, beginning with תבלת משחרי בניך, bears the name of Ithiel without any other indication as to its authorship.
He was consulted on ritual questions by Rabbenu Gershom; and twelve responsa of his are included in the collection compiled by Joseph ben Samuel Tob Alam and published by D. Cassel under the title "Teshubot Geonim Kadmonim" (Nos.
Rabbenu Gershom remarks[6] that there exists in rabbinical literature a confusion concerning the identity of Kalonymus and his son Meshullam the Great, and the saying of one is sometimes attributed to the other.
He carried on with Rabbeinu Gershom and Simon the Great a scientific correspondence, which is included in the "Teshuvot Geonim Kadmonim" (13a), and was the author of a commentary on Avot[10] Meshullam engaged in polemics with the Karaites.
Of the piyyutim contained in the kerovah of the "Shacharit" service of the Day of Atonement, at least twenty (possibly thirty-two) belong to him.
He wrote also: an "'Avodah," recited after the prayer for the synagogue reader and containing a cursory review of Biblical history from Adam down to Levi; a yoẓer for Passover; and two zulot.
He was the author of אימת נוראותיך and of a kerovah consisting of various poems for the seventh day of Passover, which used to be recited in the congregations of Mainz.
(On the confusion existing in the rabbinical sources concerning the identity of the author of the לאימת נוראותיך, see Zunz[12]) Liturgical poet; flourished at Speyer in 1070.
[14] 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: He was the grandson of Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol.
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.
