PERGAMUS (BERGAMA) – City of Asia Minor a few hours distant from Smyrna. Although there are no documents to show that Jews lived there in ancient times, it is probable, in view of its flourishing condition in past ages, that it, like other cities,...
PERINGER, GUSTAV, VON LILIENBLAD – Christian Orientalist; born 1651; died at Stockholm Jan. 5, 1710; studied under Wagenseil at Altdorf. He was professor of Oriental languages at Upsala from 1681 to 1695, and then librarian at Stockholm. About 1690 King Charles...
PERIODICALS – Classification. In the broadest meaning of the term Jewish periodicals include all magazines as well as all newspapers which, either because of the language in which they are published or because of the special nature of their...
PERIZZITES – Canaanitish tribe settled in the south of Palestine between Hor and Negeb, although it is not mentioned in the genealogy in Gen. x. According to the Biblical references, Abraham, when he entered Palestine, found the Perizzites...
PERJURY – The violation of an oath or solemn promise; solemn assertion of a falsity. While perjury was regarded as one of the greatest sins (Zech. v. 4), and the perjurer was not considered worthy to enter the holy places (Ps. xv. 1-4),...
PERL, JOSEPH – Austrian Mæcenas and man of letters; born at Tarnopol, Galicia, 1774; died there Oct. 1, 1839. The son of a wealthy family, and growing to manhood at the time of the regenerative movement of the German Me'assefim, he devoted...
PERLBACH, MAX – German historian; born at Danzig, Prussia, Nov. 4, 1848. He attended the Friedrichs-Gymnasium at Breslau, and studied history at the universities of Breslau, Heidelberg, and Göttingen (Ph.D. 1871). He was employed in the...
PERLES – A family probably originating in Prague many members of which have been rabbis and scholars.Aaron b. Moses Meïr Perles: Rabbinical author; died at Prague June 4, 1739; son of Moses Meïr Perles. He edited that part of Isaac ben...
PERLHEFTER (EYBESCHÜTZ), ISSACHAR BÄR B. JUDAH LÖB B. MOSES – Bohemian rabbi and author; died after Sept. 9, 1701. He was a native of Prague and a scion of the Eibenschütz or Eybeschütz family; but in accordance witha custom common in those days he adopted the family name of his wife,...
PERLMAN, ELIEZER – See Ben Judah, Eliezer.
PERNAMBUCO – See Brazil.
PERPIGNAN – Disabilities and Restrictions. Ancient capital of the county of Roussillon, now the chief town of the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, France. Jews probably lived in Perpignan in the latter half of the twelfth century; for in...
PERREAU, PIETRO – Christian librarian and Oriental scholar; born at Piacenza Oct. 27, 1827; studied in the Alberoni College of his native town from 1844 to 1849. In 1860 he was placed at the head of the Oriental collection in the National Library...
PERSIA – One of the great kingdoms of the ancient world and a country connected in various ways with the history of the Jews since the time of the Babylonian captivity. As a designation the name "Persia" is employed in two ways:...
PERSONAL PROPERTY – See Property.
PERTUIS – Cantonal chief town of the department of Vaucluse, France. Jews were settled there as early as the thirteenth century. According to a document dated 1283, they, like theircoreligionists of the towns of Aix, Saint-Maximin,...
PERU – See South and Central America.
PERUGIA – Town in Umbria, Italy. It had a Jewish congregation as early as the fourteenth century. Several Jewish scholars lived there; e.g., Daniel b. Samuel Rofe b. Daniel (dayyan about 1400); the poet and physician Moses b. Isaac Rieti...
PERUSHIM – See Pharisees.
PESAḤ HAGGADAH – See Haggadah.
PESAḤ PETER – German baptized Jew of the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century. He charged that the Jews in their concluding prayer 'Alenu made a blasphemous allusion to Jesus in the words: "for they bow before vanity...
PESAḤ SHENI – The second Pesaḥ sacrifice. It was called also "Pesaḥ Ḳaṭon" (Aramaic, "Pisḥa Ze'ira") = "the lesser Pesaḥ" (R. H. i. 3), and was offered on the 14th of Iyyar by those who had been unable, because of absence from the Holy City...
PESAḤIM – Name of a treatise of the Mishnah and the Tosefta in Babli and Yerushalmi, treating chiefly of the regulations in Ex. xii., xiii. 3-7, xxiii. 15, xxxiv. 18; Lev. xxiii. 5 et seq.; Num. ix. 2-15, xxviii. 16-25; Deut. xvi. 1-8. In...
PESAḲ – Aramaic word used metaphorically of a (discussion cut short, and employed in rabbinical literature chiefly to denote a decision or decree made without reference to any discussion, and delivered either orally or in writing (B. B....
PESANTE (PIZANTE), MOSES B. ḤAYYIM B. SHEM-ṬOB – Turkish commentator of the second half of the sixteenth century. He was the author of "Yesha' Elohim," a commentary on the "Hosha'not" and on some Biblical texts and sayings (Constantinople, 1567; 2d ed. Salonica, 1569). A part...