Rabbi (Hakham) Malkiel Ashkenazi (?1450) Sephardic rabbi best known for resettlement and leadership of the Jewish community in Hebron in 1540. Ottoman Turks had taken control of the land of Israel in 1517, allowing Sephardic Jews living in exile in Ottoman Salonika to legally return to Palestine. Many of these Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492. Hakham Malkiel Ashkenazi was responsible for the purchasing of a walled courtyard in Hebron, there he established the Abraham Avinu Synagogue which became a center of study for Kabalah, and built several buildings around this synagogue.
