OHOLIBAMAH – Daughter of Anah, a descendant of Seir the Horite (Gen. xxxvi. 2, 21), and one of the three wives of Esau. In an earlier narrative she is called "Judith, daughter of Beeri, the Hittite" (ib. xxvi. 34). See also ib. xxxvi. 40-43;...
OIL – In the Bible olive-oil alone is mentioned, although it may be inferred from the expression "shemen zayit" that other oils were known. Oliveoil, like grain and wine, was one of the chief products of Palestine; and at an early...
OINTMENT – See Anointment.
OKBARA AND OKBARITES – See Meshwi al-'Ukbari.
OKLAH WE-OKLAH – Old Masoretic work in which the notices and rules of the Masorah are collected; it consists of groups of rare words or of certain peculiarities of the text arranged either alphabetically, or in the order of the books of the...
OLD TESTAMENT – See Bible Canon.
OLDENBURG – Grand duchy of northern Germany. It includes nine Jewish communities, among which are Delmenhorst, Jever, Oldenburg, Varel, Vechta, and Wildeshausen. The presence of Jews in Oldenburg during the Middle Ages is proved by a very...
OLIPHANT, LAURENCE – English traveler, author, and politician; born at Cape Town in 1829; died at Twickenham, England, Dec. 23, 1888. He traveled in nearly every country and engaged in many occupations, from filibustering with Walker in Nicaragua to...
OLIVE – Evergreen tree, one of the most characteristic of Palestine. The term "zayit" is applied in the Old Testament only to the cultivated olive-tree, the wild olive, the oleaster of the ancients, being designated as "'eẓ shemen"...
OLIVER Y FULLANA, NICOLAS DE – See Fullana, Nicolas de Oliver y.
OLIVEYRA, SOLOMON DE – akam and author; son of the Portuguese scholar David Israel de Oliveyra of Amsterdam; died May 23, 1708, at Amsterdam. He was preacher at several philanthropic institutions, successor of Moses Raphael de Aguilar as teacher at...
OLLENDORF, GUSTAVE – Art critic; born at Paris March 4, 1850; died at Saint-Cloud Sept. 19, 1891. Both Gustave and his brother Paul, the present (1904) editor of "Gil Blas," received their Jewish education from the chief rabbi Zadoc Kahn. During the...
OLLENDORFF, HENRI – French linguist; originator of the Ollendorff method of teaching modern languages; born at Rawicz, Posen, in 1802; died at Paris April 3, 1865. At an early age he went to London, where he began to apply in his teaching the...
OLMO, JACOB DANIEL BEN ABRAHAM – Italian rabbi and poet; born at Ferrara about 1690; died there the first day of Pentecost, 1757. He studied Talmud under his father and, later, under Isaac Lampronti, and received the rabbinical diploma in 1715. He became one of...
OLMÜTZ – City of Moravia in which Jews were living as early as the twelfth century (Maḥzor Vitry, p. 388, Berlin, 1899-1903). In 1454, under Ladislaus, owing to the agitation of John Capistrano, the Jews were expelled from Olmütz, and...
OLSCHWANG (LEVIN), JACOB SOLOMON – Russian Hebraist; born at Kokhanovo, government of Moghilef, May 4, 1840; died at Yekaterinoslav Jan. 17, 1896. He was a descendant of David Conforte, the author of "Seder ha-Dorot." Olschwang received a thorough Ḥasidic...
OLSCHWANGER, ISAAC WOLF – Russian rabbi; born at Plungian, government of Kovno, Aug. 30, 1825; died in St. Petersburg Aug. 5, 1896. He was on one side a descendant of Mordecai Jaffe, the author of the "Lebushim," and on the other of Judah Löw ben...
OLSHAUSEN, JUSTUS – German Orientalist; born in Hohenfelde May 9, 1800; died at Berlin Dec. 22, 1882; educated at the universities of Kiel (Ph.D. 1823), Berlin, and Paris. He became professor of Oriental languages at Kiel in 1830, but lost this...
OMAHA – See Nebraska.
OMAR I. (IBN AL-KHAṬṬAB) – Second calif; succeeded Abu Bakr in 634 C.E.; assassinatedin 644. Omar I. was the great champion and organizer of Islam, and through his force of character and his influence over Mohammed and Abu Bakr he ruled long before he...
OMEN – Occurrence or incident regarded as fore-shadowing a favorable or unfavorable issue in a certain conjuncture. The belief in prognostic signs is closely connected with Divination and mantic, from which it is distinguished,...
'OMER – Biblical Data: The Israelites were commanded after the conquest of Canaan to bring at harvest-time an 'omer of the first-fruits to the priest as a wave-offering (Lev. xxiii. 10-11). The day on which the 'omer of the...
'OMER – See Weights and Measures.
'OMER, LAG BE- – Thirty-third day in the period of the counting of the 'omer ("Lag" = , the numerical value of which is 33), corresponding to the 18th day of Iyyar. This day is celebrated as a semi-holiday, although the reason for this...
OMNAM KEN – A penitential hymn in the ritual for the eve of Atonement, according to the Polish rite. The author has been identified by Joseph Jacobs with R. Yom-Ṭob of Joigny, the rabbi and leader of the Jews who so heroically faced their...