ARCADIUS – Byzantine emperor from 395 to 408. He was too weak a ruler to be able to withstand the influence exerted by his court favorites upon his policy toward the Jews. Such privileges as were accorded them were due to his privy...
ARCHA – Technical name in old English Treasury documents for the repository in which chirographs and other deeds were preserved. By the "Ordinances of the Jewry" in 1194 it was arranged that "all deeds, pledges, mortgages, lands,...
ARCHAGATHUS – See CÆcilius of Calacte.
ARCHELAUS – Son of Herod I.; king of Judea; born about 21 B.C., his mother being the Samaritan Malthace. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Rome for education, and, after a stay of two or three years, returned home with his brothers...
ARCHEOLOGY, BIBLICAL – The branch of archeology that has for its province a scientific presentation of the domestic, civil, and religious institutions of the Hebrews, in the lands of the Bible, especially in Palestine. It deals with these for the...
ARCHER, ARCHERY – The bow as a weapon in war and the chase was familiar to the Hebrews from patriarchal times (Gen. xxi. 20, xxvii. 3, xlviii. 22). Jonathan and Jehu were expert archers (II Sam. i. 22; II Kings ix. 24); the tribe of Benjamin was...
ARCHEVITES – A people whom Asnapper brought from Erech or Uruk, a political and religious center of Babylonia, and settled in Samaria. They wrote to Artaxerxes concerning the building of the Temple at Jerusalem and had the work on it stopped...
ARCHEVOLTI, SAMUEL BEN ELHANAN ISAAC – Italian grammarian, and poet of the sixteenth century. Many of his piyyuṭim were embodied in the Italian liturgy, notably his "Song on Circumcision." He was an excellent Talmudist, and, when quite young, reedited or rather...
ARCHIMEDES – The greatest mathematician of antiquity; born in Syracuse about 287 B.C. His influence on Jewish literature was not extensive. Only two of his works have come down to us in a Hebrew translation. Kalonymusben Kalonymus (after...
ARCHIPHERECITES – Grecized form of the Aramaic = "heads of the school" (pirḳa, literally "chapter," hence "discourse"). The name occurs in Justinian's "Novella," No. 146, Περὶ 'Εβραίων, of the year 553, in which the Archipherecites, the elders,...
ARCHISYNAGOGUE – Synagogue-chief. The use of this name as the title of the officer who supervised matters pertaining to the religious services of the synagogue can be traced from the time of Jesus to about the year 300 (Pes. 49b). It occurs...
ARCHITE – Inhabitant of a town or district on the southern border of Judah probably connected with the Erech (A. V. Archi) of Josh. xvi. 2. Hushai, David's friend, was from that region (II Sam. xv. 32). It would appear to be somewhere in...
ARCHITECTURE, JEWISH – See Almemar; America, Jewish Architecture in; Ark; Cemeteries;Galleries; Gravestones; Hospitals; New York; Philadelphia; Synagogue; Synagogue Architecture; Tombs, etc.
ARCHIVES ISRAÉLITES – A French Jewish review, founded in 1840 by Samuel Cahen, author of a French translation of the Hebrew Bible. The first number appeared in January, 1840, as an octavo pamphlet of sixty-four pages, entitled, "Archives...
ARCHIVES, JEWISH, OF OLD CONGREGATION – See Memorbuch; Pinkes.
ARCHON – The title of a member of the governing body in the independent Jewish communities throughout the Roman empire, as in Alexandria, Antioch, Berenice in Cyrenaica, Rome, Tlos in Lycia, and other cities. In Alexandria, where Emperor...
ARCTURUS – See Constellation.
ARDASHAR – Village in the government of Erivan, Transcaucasia, Russia, about 16 miles South-southeast from the capital of Erivan; the site of the old Armenian capital Artaxata, or Artashat; Artaxata is said to have been built for King...
ARDIT – The name of a family that emigrated from Aragon to Turkey, where their descendants still live. The following members are known:1. Abraham Ardit: Lived in 1483 at Barcelona.2. Ephraim Ardit: Lived in Smyrna; wrote, under the...
ARDOTIAL (ANDRUTIL) SHEM-ṬOB BEN ISAAC – Spanish poet; flourished at Soria in the beginning of the fourteenth century. The name has been wrongly transcribed as Androtil, Adrutil, Ardothiel. Steinschneider connects the name with Ardot; the ending "ial" having either a...
AREKA – See Abba Arika.
ARELIM – See Angelology.
ARENDAR – See Randar.
ARENDT, OTTO – German economist, author, and member of the Prussian Diet; born in Berlin, Oct. 10, 1854. He graduated as Ph.D. from the Berlin University and soon entered on a literary career, identifying himself with the Ultraconservative...
ARENS, LOUIS – Operatic singer (tenor); born in Mitau, Russia, March 23, 1865. He was educated at the Riga Gymnasium and studied music at the Imperial Conservatory of Moscow under the direction of Tschaikovsky, graduating in 1890. Arens sang...