RIBASH – See Isaac ben Sheshet Barfat.
RIBEAUVILLÉ – See Rappoltsweiler.
RIBEIRO, JOÃO PINTO – Portuguese scholar; curator of the royal archives in Torre do Tombe, at Lisbon; died in that city Aug. 11, 1649. He was the author of a work defending the Maranos, entitled "Discurso si es Util, y Justo, Desterrar de los Reinos...
RIBKAS, MOSES BEN ẒEBI NAPHTALI HIRSCH SOFER – Russian Talmudist; died at Wilna in 1671 or 1672. He was a member of a Prague family, but settled early in life at Wilna. In 1655, in consequence of the war between Poland and Russia, he was compelled to flee from the city,...
RIBLAH – Town in the country of Hamath. It is now an insignificant hamlet, known as Riblah, in the Baḳa'ah, the broad valley between the two ranges of Lebanon and Hermon, and on the eastern shore of Nahr el-'Aṣi (Orontes), thirty-five...
RICARDO, DAVID – English political economist and publicist; born in London April 19, 1772; died Sept. 11, 1823. The Ricardo family removed from Italy to Holland in the beginning of the eighteenth century or, perhaps, earlier, and its members...
RICCHI (RAPHAEL), IMMANUEL ḤAY BEN ABRAHAM – Italian rabbi, cabalist, and poet; born at Ferrara 1688 (1693, according to Jellinek in "Orient, Lit." vii. 232); killed near Cento Feb. 25, 1743. About two years after Ricchi's birth his father removed to Rovigo, where he died...
RICCIO, PAULO – Jewish convert to Christianity in the first half of the sixteenth century. He was a native of Germany, and after his conversion became professor of philosophy in the University of Pavia; subsequently he was physician to Emperor...
RICE, ABRAHAM – American Talmudist and rabbi; born 1800 at Gagsheim, near Würzburg, Bavaria; died in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 29, 1862. As a young student he was placed in the care of Rabbi Abraham Bing of Würzburg, by whom he was ordained rabbi;...
RICE, ISAAC LEOPOLD – American lawyer, author, and chess-player; born Feb. 22, 1850, at Wachenheim in the Rhenish Palatinate. When six years of age he was taken by his mother to the United States. Rice was educated at the Central High School in...
RICE, JOSEPH MAYER – American physician and editor; born May 27, 1857, at Philadelphia, Pa. He was educated at the public schools of Philadelphia and New York, at the College of the City of New York, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons,...
RICHARDSON, SIR BENJAMIN WARD – English physician and friend of the Jews; born at Somersby 1828; died in London Nov. 21, 1896. He received his degree of M.D. in 1854, and became an active member of the British Medical Association. He was knighted in...
RICHETTI, JOSEPH SHALIṬ BEN ELIEZER – Rabbi of the second half of the seventeenth century; born in Safed, whence he removed to Italy. He was the author of "Sefer Ḥokmat ha-Mishkan," or "Iggeret Meleket ha-Mishkan," on the purposes of the Tabernacle (published with...
RICHMAN, JULIA – American educator; born in New York city Oct. 12, 1855. She was educated in the public schools of New York and at the Normal College, and did postgraduate work at New York University. From 1884 to 1903 she was principal of...
RICHMOND – Beth Shalome. Capital of Virgina, and, during the Civil war, of the Confederate States of America. By 1785 it had a Jewish community of over a dozen families, of Spanish-Portuguese descent. In 1791 a Sephardic congregation was...
RICIUS, AUGUSTINUS – Jewish convert to Christianity and astronomer of the fifteenth century. He was a disciple of Abraham Zacuto, and wrote a work on the motion of the eighth sphere, a Latin translation of which appeared at Paris in 1521. He quotes...
RIDBAZ (WILLOWSKI), JACOB DAVID B. ZEEB – Russian rabbi and commentator; born Feb. 7, 1845, in Kobrin, government of Grodno, Russia. He was successively rabbi at Izballin (1868), Bobruisk (1876), Wilna (1881), Polotsk (1883), Vilkomir (1887), and Slutsk (1890-1900). In...
RIDDLE – Among the ancients, as witness the story of Œdipus and the Sphinx, a riddle was a more serious matter than in modern times, more in the nature of a wager than of an amusement. Samson's riddle to the Philistines (Judges xiv. 14)...
RIEGER, PAUL – German rabbi and historian; born at Dresden July 4, 1870. He was educated at Dresden and at the universities of Breslau (Ph.D. 1894) and Berlin. At Breslau he studied also at the Jewish Theological Seminary and at Berlin at the...
RIEMANN, SOLOMON – Traveler of the nineteenth century; died at Vienna about 1873. He was for a time a rich merchant, having made large investments in Siam; but during the war of the English in that country all his property was seized by the...
RIES, ELIAS ELKAN – American electrical engineer; born at Randegg, Baden, Germany, Jan. 16, 1862. When only three years of age he was taken by his parents to America. He received his education at the public schools of Baltimore and New York,...
RIESSER, GABRIEL – German advocate of the emancipation of the Jews; born at Hamburg April 2, 1806; died there April 22, 1863; youngest son of Lazarus Jacob Riesser. For a few years Riesser's family lived in Lübeck, but it returned to Hamburg in...
RIESSER, LAZARUS JACOB – German rabbi, born 1763 in the valley of Riess (hence the name "Riesser"); died March 7, 1828, at Hamburg; father of Gabriel Riesser. In the "Zeker Ẓaddiḳ" Riesser calls himself "Eliezer, son of Jacob Katzenellenbogen," rabbi of...
RIETI – Italian family, deriving its name from the city of Rieti in the Pontifical States. Members of it are found at Rieti as early as the end of the fourteenth century; then in Rome, Sienna, Bologna, Mantua, and many other Italian...
RIF – See Alfasi, Isaac ben Jacob.