Isaac Uziel

Isaac ben Abraham Uziel was a Moroccan physician, poet and grammarian, born at Fez, Morocco. At one time he held the position of rabbi at Oran, Algeria, but late in life he left that city to settle in Amsterdam, where he opened a Talmudical school which counted among its pupils Manasseh ben Israel and Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. Dissatisfied with the laxity in religious matters which he noticed among many members of the Sephardic community, Uziel delivered a series of lectures which led to the foundation of a new congregation under the name of "Neveh Shalom". In 1610, at the death of Judah Vega, the first rabbi of the new congregation, Uziel was called to the rabbinate.