AMIGO

AMIGO, Sephardi family prominent in Temesvár, Hungary (now Timiṣoara, Romania). Its founder, MEIR AMIGO, who was born in Constantinople, settled there together with four other Sephardi Jews in 1736, by a special authorization obtained for them by Diego D'Aguilar , who held the tobacco monopoly in Austria and appointed Amigo as his agent. Amigo became the organizer and leader of the combined community of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews which was subsequently established. He was nicknamed "rey chico" (little king) because of his wealth. Amigo maintained contacts between his community and the Sephardi community in Vienna. The Vienna community also enlisted his help in preventing the impending expulsion of the Jews from bohemia in 1745. Members of the Amigo family continued to play a leading role in Temesvár. ISAAC AMIGO, who headed the community from 1784 to 1788, afforded great assistance to the Jews from belgrade who sought refuge in Temesvár in 1791. The last member of the family to serve as head of the community was JOSEPH MEIR AMIGO, who held office from 1808 to 1810. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Loewy, Skizzen zur Geschichte der Juden in Temesvár (1890), 71–84; Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929), 34. (Yehouda Marton)