R. Joshua Soncino (d. 1569) was a scion of the famous Soncino pioneer printing family. He was the rabbi of the Sephardi Great Synagogue (Sinagoga Mayor) in Constantinople. In one of his responsa he intimates that his Ashkenazi friends disapproved of his holding that post. He maintained contact with R. Isaac Luria and R. Bezalel Ashkenazi, and was a close friend of R. Moses Almosnino. R. Soncino was asked by Dona Gracia Nasi to render halakhic decisions on business matters (responsa 12,20). At the time of the proposed Ancona boycott in 1556–57, which caused a great stir among Turkish Jews, R. Soncino originally favored the proposals, but later took up an attitude of vehement opposition. As the representative of Italian Jews who had settled in Turkey, it was his opinion that pressure on the city by Turkish Jewry would further imperil the situation of Ancona’s Jews (responsa 39–40). He thought that the solution to the difficulties facing Italian Jewry lay in their migration to the East.

R. Bezalel ben Abraham Ashkenazi (c. 1520–1592) was born to a distinguished Ashkenazi family. Nevertheless, he is considered a Sephardic rabbi, as his life was spent in a Sephardic environment. Born in Erez Israel, R. Ashkenazi went to Egypt when about twenty. He was a student of R. David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radvaz, 1479–1573), whom he succeeded as Chief Rabbi of Egyptian Jewry. R. Ashkenazi’s students included R. Isaac Luria (ha-Ari), R. Solomon Adeni, and R. Abraham Monson. R. Ashkenazi copyied and editing old manuscripts, even hiring scribes to help him. He copied the novellae of the geonim and rishonim on the Babylonian Talmud, and these served as the basis for his classic Asefat Zekenim, better known as the Shitah Mekubbezet. Through this collection, much of the commentaries and responsa of R. Gershom b. Judah, R. Hananel, R. Joseph ibn Migash, R. Meir ha-Levi Abulafia, and others, was preserved.

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