Who is Rabbi Eliezer bar Zadek from The Source; a Novel and what is their importance?

Rabbi Eliezer is a German Jew married to a woman named Leah. When he asks to build a new synagogue, he is publicly humiliated and his synagogue is destroyed. As conditions worsen, he and his wife decide to leave Germany. Leah and his son die on the journey but Eliezer and his daughter Elisheba eventually arrive in Safed.