| ABADIA, JUAN DE LA – A Marano of the fifteenth century. He engaged in a project to subvert the Inquisition in Aragon; failing in this, he joined in a plot to assassinate the inquisitor Pedro Arbues, who was killed on September 15, 1485. Juan was... |
| AKRON, Ohio – Capital of Summit county, forty miles from Cleveland. This city was first settled by Jews in 1850. The Akron Hebrew Congregation (Reform) was organized on April 2, 1865, and was incorporated September 16, 1866. On the latter... |
| AMERICA – The name "America" is used in this article in its broadest signification, as applied to the entire western world; that is, North and South America and all the adjacent islands.The discovery of America by Columbus, and the... |
| AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY – A society formed for the dissemination of Jewish literature, and the first of its kind in the United States; founded at Philadelphia in 1845 by Isaac Leeser. The same year an auxiliary society was established at Richmond, Va.... |
| AMERICAN, SADIE – Corresponding secretary of the Council of Jewish Women; born at Chicago, March 3, 1862.Miss American has been connected with many philanthropic movements both in the general as well as in the Jewish community. She has been a... |
| AMRAM, DAVID WERNER – American lawyer; son of Werner David Amram; born at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1866; educated at the public schools and at the Rugby Academy in Philadelphia, and in the Collegiate and Law departments of the University of... |
| APPLE OF SODOM – A fruit described by Josephus ("B. J." iv. 8, § 4) and Tacitus ("Hist." v. 6) as growing near the site of Sodom, "externally of fair appearance, but turning to smoke and ashes when plucked with the hands." It has been identified... |
| ARARAT – A City of Refuge: A proposed city planned by Mordecai Manuel Noah in 1825. The reactionary policy adopted by many European governments after the battle of Waterloo led to the reimposition in many places of Jewish disabilities;... |
| ARBA' KANFOT – The "four-cornered garment"; a rectangular piece of cloth, usually of wool, about three feet long and one foot wide, with an aperture in the center sufficient to let it pass over the head, so that part falls in front and part... |
| 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... |
| ARK OF THE LAW – Supposed Earliest Representation of an Ark of the Law, in the Museo Borgiano at Rome.(From Garrucci, "Arte Christiana.")—In the Synagogue( ): A closet or chest in which are kept the Torah scrolls used in the public worship of... |
| ARK OF THE LAW – Supposed Earliest Representation of an Ark of the Law, in the Museo Borgiano at Rome.(From Garrucci, "Arte Christiana.")—In the Synagogue( ): A closet or chest in which are kept the Torah scrolls used in the public worship of... |
| ARKANSAS – One of the South-central states of the United States; admitted June 15, 1836; seceded May 6, 1861; and was readmitted June 22, 1868.Arkansas has about three thousand Jews. Though their settlement in different parts of the state... |
| ARONSON, RUDOLPH – Composer and theatrical manager; born in New York, April 8, 1856. He early manifested talent for music, and after his graduation from the New York high school was sent to the Vienna Conservatory. After completing his course... |
| ARONSSOHN, JACQUES LÉON – German physician; born at Metz May 2, 1793; died at Strasburg Sept. 8, 1861. His father, Jacques Aronssohn (died 1845), practised medicine at the garrison of Pont-à-Mousson. Aronssohn went to Strasburg in 1809 to matriculate at... |
| ARTHUR LEGEND – The cycle of stories clustering around the semi-mythical hero King Arthur of England, and which finds its place in Jewish literature in a Hebrew translation entitled ("The Book of the Destruction of the Round Table"), composed... |
| ARTISANS – Medieval: So far as they were allowed by the restrictions of the trade gilds, many Jews of medieval times obtained their livelihood by working with their hands. Benjamin of Tudela (1171) refers to many manufacturers of silk in... |
| ARTISANS – Medieval: So far as they were allowed by the restrictions of the trade gilds, many Jews of medieval times obtained their livelihood by working with their hands. Benjamin of Tudela (1171) refers to many manufacturers of silk in... |
| ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH – Talmudist; born in Semyatitch, Russia, about 1813; died in New York city May 6, 1888. Coming to the United States in 1852, he helped to organize, in New York city, the first Russian-American congregation, Bet ha-Midrash... |
| ASHAMNU – The old shorter form of the confession of sin ("Widdui"), mentioned in the Talmud and in the "Didache" (first century C. E.), in which each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is successively utilized as the initial of an... |
| ASHIRAH – ASHIRAH (B) The first word of the Song of Moses (Ex. xv.), known as "Shirat ha-Yam" (The Song at the Sea), read in the synagogues in the lesson of the seventh day of the Passover (the anniversary of the crossing of the Red Sea),... |
| ASHMURAH – A special term (compare "a watch in the night," Ps. xc. 4) in the synagogal rite of Avignon, denoting the early morning service on Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles.Bibliography: Zunz, Ritus der... |
| ASHRE – The initial word of the verses Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [A. V. 4] and cxliv. 15, which verses are always prefixed to Ps. cxlv. in its recital in the synagogal service. In the northern liturgies these opening verses are associated with a... |
| ASHRE HA-'AM – Ps. lxxxix. 16, prefixed to "Ashre" on the Day of Memorial, or New-Year, immediately after the sounding of the Shofar. It is then associated in Ashkenazic congregations with a beautiful and typical melody, ofmedieval origin, in... |
| ATHLETES, ATHLETICS, AND FIELD-SPORTS – Men who perform feats of strength, or practise games and sports the pursuit of which depends on physical strength; the feats, games, and sports themselves.—Biblical Data: Notable "Mighty" Men. Long before the Greeks made... |