Rav Yehuda Leon Ashkenazi (French spelling Léon Askénazi; Arabic: يهودا ليون اشكنازي; Hebrew: יהודא ליאון אשכנזי), also known as Manitou (June 21, 1922 in Oran, Algeria – October 21, 1996 in Jerusalem, Israel), a Jewish rabbi and educator, was a spiritual leader of 20th century French Jewry.

Rav Ashkenazi's life encompassed two different cultures, which resulted in his ability to bridge Western and Jewish frames of mind.

He was born in Oran to Rav David Ashkenazi, the last Chief Rabbi of Algeria, and Rachel Touboul, a descendant of a prestigious Rabbinical line of Spanish kabbalic scholars – one of its ancestors was Rav Yossef Ibn Touboul, a direct disciple of the Ha'ari, and another was Rabbi Asher ben Jehiel, 'The Rosh', a prominent Ashkenazi leader of 13th century Spain.

Rav Ashkenazi studied simultaneously in Yeshivah and in French secular high school in Oran, and Kabbalah in Marrakech, Morocco.

He met with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader, and held close contacts with many Christian priests, among which was Prof. Marcel-Jacques Dubois.

Rav Ashkenazi's thought can be described as historical and existential query into the meaning of the identity of Israel, by extracting the existential meaning of the Biblical stories, unifying and clarifying the coherence of Jewish commentary tradition and explaining Hebrew concepts and themes through the use of universal terminology, striving to integrate two opposing worlds: traditional orthodox Jewish heritage and Modern thought and values, while remaining loyal to both.

Rav Ashkenazi used traditional methods of Drash to introduce new ways of understanding Judaism, while using concepts and ideas taken from Kabbalah, Midrash, Hassidut and Gemara.

According to this view, biblical figures are the origins of nowadays identities and situations and reappear throughout history on an individual, social and national basis.

As Rav Ashkenazi applied a metahistorical and ethical terminology to Kabbalic principles, he managed all the while to connect the abstract framework of Kabbalah to the moral mundane activities of the Jewish believer.