COSTA, ISRAELE DI EMANUELE:

By: Isidore Singer, Giuseppe Jare

Italian rabbi; born 1819; died 1897. He succeeded Abraham Baruch Piperno as rabbi of Leghorn in 1864. Of his works the following may be mentioned: "Sefer Bet ha-Zikkaron" (Maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah), with annotations, 1869; complete Sephardic Maḥzor, with Italian translation, 1892; The Zohar, in square Hebrew letters, with punctuation and vowel-signs, Leghorn, 1888; "Miḳweh Yisrael" (Hope of Israel), one hundred stories, 1851; "Yashir Yisrael" (Let Israel Sing), 1853; "'Arabim be-Tokah" (The Willows in Her Midst), 1880; "Ki Na'ar Yisrael" (For Israel Is a Lad), 1890; a Hebrew grammar for the use of children, several times reprinted; a Hebrew-Italian dictionary, in collaboration with the rabbis Funaroand Cabib, 1853; various remarks on the validity of the celebrated will of Caid Nissim Samama, 1877-78.

Costa was a Freemason, and reached the thirty-third degree. His Italian songs are very popular among the youth of the Jewish schools.

S. G. J.