Rav Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi Chacham Tzvi

Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ashkenazi (1660-1718) was the rabbi of the Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck communities, and the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in Amsterdam. He passed through many communities in Germany and Poland and also served as a rabbi in Lviv. He wrote the responsa "Chacham Tzvi". His son, Rabbi Yaakov Emden, known as the Ya'avetz, relates that during his father's visit to England, his portrait was painted in secret in oil colors, in a precise fashion, so much so that when seeing the painting "I staggered back, as if he were standing before me".