COVO or COVOS:
By: Gotthard Deutsch, Isidore Singer, Richard Gottheil, M. Franco, Louis Ginzberg, Judah David Eisenstein
Name of a Jewish family of Salonica, Turkey, a branch of which lives at Widdin, Bulgaria. As the name indicates, the family was originally of Covo, near Milan, Italy. There have been several rabbis of this name.
Chief rabbi of Salonica, Turkey, and man of letters; born 1799; died 1874. He officiated for twenty-six years, rendering great services to his community. Sultan 'Abd al-Majid decorated Covo with the Order of Nishan-i-Medjidie. He wrote "Sha'ar Asher," a collection of responsa on the Shulḥan 'Aruk, with two appendixes. See Ḥazan, "Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomoh", s.v.
Turkish rabbi and author; died at Salonica in 1689. He wrote "Adderet Eliyahu" (The Mantle of Elijah), containing forty-three responsa. These, together with responsa by Joshua Ḥandali, were printed at Constantinople in 1739 under the title "Shene Me'orot ha-Gedolim." See Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," s.v.
Palestinian Talmudist; born in 1770; died Aug. 18, 1854, at Alexandria, Egypt. Apparently he was of the family of Asher Covo, rabbi in Salonica and author of "Sha'ar Asher" (See Ḥazan, "Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomoh," p. 6a). Isaac Covo succeeded Abraham Ḥayyim Gagin as the Sephardic Ḥakam-bashi of Jerusalem in July, 1848. At that time his congregation was encumbered by debt. English sympathizers promised that if the venerable rabbi would visit London, they would wipe out the whole of the liabilities. Covo went first to Egypt, and had succeeded in raising £400 ($2,000) in Cairo and Alexandria, when death terminated his efforts. He was buried in the latter city.
Covo was the author of "Gersa de-Yanḳuta" (Teachings of Childhood) and "Tif'eret Baḥurim" (The Glory of Young Men), still extant in manuscript.
- Luncz, Jerusalem iv. 211-212;
- idem, Luaḥ, 1900, p. 51;
- Schwartz, Tebu'ot ha-Areẓ, ed. Luncz, p. 496.
Chief rabbi of Salonica; born there in 1825. Orphaned at the age of one year, he was educated by relatives. After passing through the yeshibot of Salonica, his native city, he continued his studies alone. Covo was a distinguished lawyer before becoming successor to the chief rabbi, Samuel Arditti (1888). For several years he was a member of the Mu'arrif-Majlisi (Council of Public Instruction). He founded the Mutual Aid Society ('Eẓ, Ḥayyim) and a small rabbinical seminary (Bet-Yosef), and also reorganized the large Talmud Torah of Salonica. He has been decorated with the Order of the Medjidie, second class, and that of Osmanie, third and second classes.
Chief rabbi and author; lived at Salonica at the end of the eighteenth century. He wrote a Hebrew work, "Gib'ot 'Olam" (Everlasting Hills), Salonica, 1744, a collection of responsa and sermons arranged according to the order of the pericopes. See Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," s.v.
Turkish rabbi and author; grandson of Joseph Covo I. He lived at Salonica. at the end of the eighteenth century, and wrote "Ben Porat Yosef" (Fruit-Bearing Branch of Joseph), Salonica, 1797, a Hebrew work relating to the religious ordinances. See Azulai, "Shem ha-Gedolim," s.v.
Turkish rabbi and author; lived at Salonica, where he was chief rabbi from 1772 till his death in 1792; wrote the Hebrew responsa "Ḥayye Abraham," Salonica, 1804. See Ḥazan, "Ha-Ma'alot li-Shelomoh," s.v.
