SIMḤAH (FREUDEMANN) EPHRAIM BEN GERSHON BEN SIMEON BEN ISAIAH HA-KOHEN:

By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., Alexander Büchler

Rabbi in Belgrade; born about 1622; died 1669. He succeeded his teacher Judah Lerma as rabbi at Belgrade, and wrote a preface to the latter's "Peleṭat Bet Yehudah" (Venice, 1647).

In 1657 Simḥah published at Venice his "Sefer Shemot," on the orthography of Hebrew personal names as well as of the names of places and rivers in Asia and Europe. In 1660 he was made rabbi at Budapest, but he retained the rabbinate only two months, as he learned that Uri Shraga Feisch, rabbi at Vienna, had, in 1655, excommunicated those rabbis of Buda (Ofen) who had relatives living there. Since Simḥah's relatives were among the most prominent inhabitants of the city, he withdrew to Belgrade, where he remained until his death.

E. C. A. Bü.