Yehouda Léon ben David Askénazi, rabbi, educator, thinker, philosopher, and kabbalist, known as Manitou, was born in Oran, Algeria, on June 21, 1922, and died in Jerusalem on October 22, 1996. He was the son of David Ashkenazi (1893–1983), the last chief rabbi of Algerian Jewry, a descendant of Asher ben Jehiel (the Rosh, 1250–1327), and the grandson of the kabbalist Ḥayyim ibn Ṭubul (d. ca. 1925). The latter was himself a descendant of Joseph ibn Ṭubul al-Mughrabī, a disciple of Isaac Luria (the Ari, 1534–1572). Askénazi commenc…