15,454 figures who shaped the history of the Jewish people and of humanity
This gallery brings together the figures who mark the history of the Jewish people — patriarchs and prophets, kings and exiles, sages of the Talmud, rabbis, philosophers, kabbalists, scholars, writers — and those who, without belonging to it, shaped the world in which this history was written: pharaohs of Egypt, kings of Babylon and Persia, emperors of Rome and Byzantium, caliphs, princes and reformers, thinkers and witnesses of the great upheavals. Presented in chronological order, grouped by era and then by century, they trace a fresco of 58 centuries, from the first pharaoh who unified Egypt to the contemporaries of the 21st century. Each entry aims to be brief — a portrait, some dates, a few traits to situate the person in their time and, when it sheds light on the narrative, within the thread of biblical and Jewish history. The chronological thread on the left allows you to travel freely from one era to another.
Sumer, Egypt, Canaan — the backdrop of the patriarchal world.
The first man according to Genesis 1-5, created on the sixth day in the image of God and placed in Eden. Jewish tradition dates his creation to year 1 of the Hebrew calendar (c. 3760 BCE) — strikingly close to the rise of Mesopotamian proto-cities. He named the animals, transgressed, mourned Abel, and lived 930 years.
First of the seven legendary sages (apkallū) of Eridu in Sumerian tradition. A priest of Enki, he was summoned to heaven by Anu after offending the south wind, and missed immortality by refusing food and drink — a primordial figure often compared to Adam of Genesis.
Legendary king of Shuruppak, the last ruler before the Flood according to the Sumerian King List. Warned by Enki, he built an ark and survived — known as Atrahasis in the Akkadian poem and Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh. Direct precursor of biblical Noah.
A recurring figure on Uruk-period seals and sculpture: a bearded man in long netted skirt with headband, holding spear or sling, sometimes worshipping Inanna. Known by the Sumerian title EN ("lord"), he embodies the first attested model of Mesopotamian sacred kingship — combining political, military and priestly functions.
A predynastic ruler of Hierakonpolis (Naqada IIc), owner of "Painted Tomb 100" — the first Egyptian tomb with painted walls (discovered 1898). Its murals show boats, hunting, ritual combat, and a chief brandishing a mace over bound enemies — the iconographic prototype of pharaonic kingship.
A predynastic king of Abydos (Dynasty 0), probable owner of tomb U-j (excavated 1988 by Günter Dreyer). His burial contained ~200 inscribed bone and ivory tags — possibly the earliest known Egyptian writing, contemporary with the proto-cuneiform tablets of Uruk IV. Not to be confused with the later Scorpion II.
A predynastic king (Dynasty 0) attested at Abydos through inscribed pottery (Horus falcon over a "mouth" sign), and through rock inscriptions in Sinai (Wadi Ameyra). His existence, established only in the 1980s-90s, extends pre-pharaonic kingship by several generations.
A predynastic king (Dynasty 0), immediate predecessor of Narmer, attested by serekhs (early royal cartouches) on jars found in Upper Egypt, the Delta and even southern Palestine (Tel Lod, Tel Erani). First king whose name systematically appears in a serekh.
Second pharaoh of the First Dynasty, probable son of Narmer. He consolidated the unification of Egypt and founded the city of Memphis. The inscriptions of his reign are among the earliest documents of Egyptian history.
Legendary king of Uruk in Mesopotamia, mentioned in the earliest Sumerian tablets. According to tradition, he is said to have founded the city of Uruk and established the first trade routes. Some scholars identify him with the biblical Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-12).
First pharaoh of unified Egypt, founder of the First Dynasty. The Narmer Palette, discovered at Hierakonpolis, is one of the oldest known historical documents. His reign marks the beginning of Egyptian civilization, which would form the setting of biblical history.
Predynastic king of Egypt, probable predecessor of Narmer. His ceremonial mace head, found at Hierakonpolis, bears one of the oldest depictions of an Egyptian ruler. It attests to the emergence of the centralized state in the Nile Valley.
Legendary shepherd-king of Uruk and husband of the goddess Inanna in Sumerian mythology. His cycle of love poems and his descent into the underworld constitute one of the founding myths of Mesopotamian literature, with echoes in the Song of Songs.
Semi-legendary king of Uruk, hero of the oldest known epic. The Flood narrative in the Epic of Gilgamesh presents striking parallels with the biblical account of Noah (Genesis 6-9), attesting to a shared Mesopotamian substratum.
King of Ur whose royal tomb, excavated by Leonard Woolley, revealed an exceptional treasure. The royal tombs of Ur illustrate the Sumerian civilization that forms the cultural backdrop of the account of Abraham, who came from Ur of the Chaldeans.
Queen of Ur whose royal burial, one of the richest ever discovered in Mesopotamia, contained a gold diadem and sumptuous jewelry. Her tomb attests to the high status of women in Sumerian civilization.
Vizier and architect of Khufu, master builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza. His statue, preserved at the Hildesheim Museum, is one of the oldest realistic portraits in history. He embodies the technical genius of the Old Kingdom.
Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza. His reign represents the apogee of the Old Kingdom Egyptian civilization, within whose context the biblical patriarchal tradition is set.
Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, builder of the second pyramid of Giza and the Great Sphinx. His funerary complex illustrates the power of Egyptian divine monarchy at its zenith.
Founding pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, innovator in pyramid construction (the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur). His reign marks the transition toward the golden age of the Old Kingdom.
Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty who had the Step Pyramid of Saqqara built, the first monumental stone construction in history. His reign inaugurates the era of the great pyramids.
Queen of Egypt, mother of Khufu. Her secret tomb, discovered at Giza, contained funerary furnishings of extraordinary richness, a unique testimony to the art and daily life of the royal court of the Old Kingdom.
Last pharaoh of the Second Dynasty, he reunified Egypt after a period of unrest. His funerary enclosure at Abydos is the oldest stone building in Egypt. He paved the way for the Third Dynasty and the age of the pyramids.
Founder of the First Dynasty of Ur, the first king attested by inscriptions and the Sumerian King List. His reign marks the beginning of the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia.
King of Lagash who erected the Stele of the Vultures, one of the oldest monuments commemorating a military victory. Its inscription is among the earliest known narrative historical texts.
High priestess of Ur, daughter of Sargon of Akkad. The first known author in history, her hymns to the goddess Inanna are the oldest signed literary texts. She is regarded as humanity's first poet.
King of Umma and then of Uruk, he briefly unified all of Mesopotamia before being defeated by Sargon of Akkad. His victory stele bears witness to the first attempt at a Mesopotamian empire and to the transition between the Sumerian city-states and the Akkadian Empire.
King of Lagash, author of the oldest known code of social reforms, predating the Code of Hammurabi. His reforms in favor of the poor and widows prefigure biblical social ethics.
Architect, physician, and vizier of Pharaoh Djoser. Considered the first universal genius in history, he was deified after his death. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, attributed to him, is the oldest known medical treatise.
Legendary king of Uruk, father of Gilgamesh according to Sumerian tradition. The accounts concerning him are among the oldest literary works of humanity and nourish the Mesopotamian mythological substratum.
Pharaoh of the Tenth Dynasty, recipient of the Instruction for Merikare, one of humanity's oldest treatises of political wisdom. This text, which advocates justice and royal clemency, foreshadows biblical wisdom literature.
Vizier of Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi, author of the Maxims of Ptahhotep, one of humanity's oldest collections of wisdom. His teachings on justice, humility, and measured speech prefigure biblical wisdom literature (Proverbs).
King of Kish, the oldest Mesopotamian ruler attested by contemporary inscriptions. His existence confirms the partial historicity of the Sumerian King List.
Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, builder of the solar temple at Abu Ghurab. This temple, dedicated to the god Ra, attests to the growing importance of the solar cult in Egypt, a religious context that would be transformed by the monotheistic revolution.
Last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, the first to have the Pyramid Texts inscribed in his burial at Saqqara. These funerary texts are the oldest known religious writings and constitute a major source on the beliefs of ancient Egypt.
Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, known for his trade expeditions to the land of Punt. The reliefs of his funerary temple at Abusir are among the most beautiful of ancient Egyptian art.
Poet and high priestess, daughter of Sargon of Akkad installed at Ur. Her poetic compositions and temple hymns are among the first literary works attributable to an identified author in history.
Egyptian governor and explorer, he led four expeditions into Nubia under the Sixth Dynasty. His autobiography, carved in his tomb at Aswan, is one of the oldest known travel narratives, including a letter from the young pharaoh Pepi II.
Pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty whose reign of 94 years is the longest in history. The end of his reign marks the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the First Intermediate Period.
Founder of the Akkadian Empire, the first empire in history. His birth narrative (abandoned in a basket on the river) presents a striking parallel with that of Moses (Exodus 2:1-10).
Governor of Lagash, famous for his numerous statues and detailed inscriptions. Builder of the Eninnu temple, his texts constitute a major source on Sumerian religion and culture.
Son of Sargon of Akkad and king of the Akkadian Empire. His obelisk, preserved at the Louvre, details the first documented land transaction in history, illustrating the emergence of property law in the ancient Near East.
Grandson of Sargon of Akkad, he brought the Akkadian Empire to its apogee. His famous victory stele, preserved at the Louvre, is a masterpiece of Mesopotamian art. He was the first king to deify himself during his lifetime.
Son of Sargon of Akkad, he fought the Sumerian and Elamite revolts to maintain the Akkadian Empire. His victory inscriptions document the ethnic and political tensions of the first empire in history.
King of the Third Dynasty of Ur, son of Shulgi. Under his reign, the Sumerian bureaucracy reached an unrivaled degree of sophistication, with thousands of administrative tablets documenting every aspect of the state economy.
King of Isin, author of the Code of Lipit-Ishtar, one of the oldest known legal codes, written in Sumerian. His laws on property, family, and slavery prefigure the provisions of the Code of Hammurabi and of biblical legislation.
Son of Ur-Nammu, he brought the Third Dynasty of Ur to its apogee. A great reformer, he standardized weights and measures and founded the first scribal schools. Ur was then the city from which, according to tradition, Abraham came.
Founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, author of the oldest known law code, predating the Code of Hammurabi by three centuries. His code established principles of social justice that would find echo in the Torah.
Last king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose fall at the hands of the Elamites and Amorites marks the end of Sumerian civilization. This period corresponds traditionally to the era of the patriarchal migrations.
Founder of the dynasty of Isin, which took over from Ur as the center of Mesopotamian culture. His successors compiled legal collections that influenced biblical law.
Pharaoh of the Eleventh Dynasty who reunified Egypt after the First Intermediate Period, founding the Middle Kingdom. His funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari is one of the architectural masterpieces of ancient Egypt.
Pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, he led campaigns in Nubia and Canaan. The Execration Texts of his era, curses against Egypt's enemies, mention Jerusalem (Rushalimum) — one of the earliest attestations of the holy city.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob — the Covenant and the twelve tribes.
Founding patriarch of Abrahamic monotheism, father of the Jewish people. A native of Ur of the Chaldeans according to Genesis (11:31), he received the divine Covenant and the promise of the Land of Israel. A founding figure of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Eldest son of Abraham and Hagar (Genesis 16, 21). Ancestor of the Ishmaelites and, according to Islamic tradition, ancestor of the Prophet Muhammad. His reconciliation with Isaac at Abraham's funeral (Genesis 25:9) symbolizes the potential brotherhood among the Abrahamic peoples.
Nephew of Abraham, he settled in Sodom (Genesis 13-19). Ancestor of the Moabites and the Ammonites, he is an ambivalent figure in the Bible. Ruth the Moabite, his descendant, is the ancestor of King David and of the messianic lineage.
Matriarch of the Jewish people, wife of Abraham. According to Genesis, she gave birth to Isaac at the age of 90. Rabbinic tradition regards her as a prophetess and a model of faith. The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is dedicated to her.
Second son of Adam and Eve and younger brother of Cain, he was the first shepherd while Cain tilled the earth. God preferred his offering, the firstborn of his flock, to that of Cain, who offered him the fruits of the earth; out of jealousy, Cain killed him. Hellenistic and rabbinic literature make him the first innocent victim of evil and the first martyr, designated as « the Righteous ».
One of the two wives of Lamech, mentioned in the poem of Genesis iv, 19-24. According to the Midrash, her name would mean "the repudiated" and that of the other wife, Zillah, "she who puts herself in the shadow" : rabbinic tradition sees in this the illustration of a custom of the corrupt generation before the Flood, which took one wife for offspring and another for pleasure — Ada being, in the case of Lamech, the wife enslaved and tyrannized by her husband, while Zillah was his mistress.
Eldest son of Isaac, twin brother of Jacob. Ancestor of the Edomites, he sold his birthright for a dish of lentils (Genesis 25:29-34). Rabbinic tradition makes him the ancestor of Rome and of Western civilization, in contrast with the lineage of Jacob/Israel.
Third son of Terah and thus the youngest brother of Abraham, born at Ur of the Chaldeans, where he died during his father's lifetime; he had three children, Lot and his daughters Milka and Iska, Milka becoming the wife of his uncle Nahor. According to the rabbis, who interpreted « Ur » as meaning « fire », Haran, thrown into the furnace with Abraham by Nimrod, had no firm faith in God and had promised himself to take the side of the victor; this is why he perished in the flames, while Abraham escaped. Josephus reports that the monument of Haran was still visible in his time.
Hirah is an Adullamite, a friend of Judah, at whose house the latter stays after the sale of Joseph. He accompanies Judah to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, and it is he who carries the kid sent to Tamar on behalf of Judah.
Second patriarch, son of Abraham and Sarah. The episode of the Binding of Isaac (Akedat Yitzhak, Genesis 22) is one of the founding narratives of Judaism, a symbol of absolute faith and of the relationship between God and his people.
Eldest son of Abraham and his handmaid Agar, born when his father was eighty-six years old; God promised he would father twelve princes and become a great nation. Circumcised at thirteen, he was driven into the desert with his mother after Sara saw him mock Isaac, but an angel saved his life by revealing a well to Agar; becoming a skilled archer, he settled in the desert of Paran, where his mother chose him an Egyptian wife. He attended, with Isaac, the funeral of Abraham, and died at one hundred thirty-seven years old, leaving twelve sons, ancestors of twelve tribes.
Third patriarch, father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Renamed Israel after his struggle with the angel (Genesis 32:29), he is the eponymous ancestor of the Jewish people. His story illustrates the themes of exile, return, and blessing.
Son of Lamech, presented in Genesis as the father of all who handle the harp and the reed pipe: he is thus considered the founder of music and the inventor of the lyre (« kinnor ») and the reed pipe (« 'ugab »).
Matriarch of Israel, eldest daughter of Laban and first wife of Jacob. Mother of six of the twelve tribes — including Levi, from whom the priests descended, and Judah, from whom royalty descended — and of Dina. She is the only one of the four matriarchs buried in the Cave of Machpelah, beside Jacob.
Daughter of Haran and wife of her uncle Nahor, mother of eight sons of whom the youngest, Bethuel, will be the father of Rebecca. Ibn Ezra thinks that Haran, father of Milca, was a person distinct from Haran, brother of Abraham, and that Milca would therefore not have married her uncle.
Son of Lamech and ninth from Adam, the sole righteous man of his generation according to Genesis, he was charged by God, when he was about five hundred years old, to build an ark three hundred cubits long to escape the flood that was to destroy all life on earth, with the exception of one pair of each species embarked with him, his wife, his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, and their wives. He entered the ark in the six hundredth year of his life; after forty days of rain and one hundred fifty days of flood, the waters receded, and he sent successively a raven and then a dove to ascertain that the earth was dry again.
Daughter of Ana, descendant of Seir the Horite, she is one of the three wives of Esau. An older account designates her by the name of Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite.
Matriarch of Israel, younger daughter of Laban and beloved wife of Jacob, mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Her burial on the road to Bethlehem is one of the oldest pilgrimage sites in Judaism; Jeremiah shows her weeping for her exiled sons (Jeremiah 31).
Matriarch of the Jewish people, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau. A figure of prophetic discernment, it was she who directed the paternal blessing toward Jacob, ensuring the continuity of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 27).
Daughter of Betouel, sister of Laban and wife of Isaac according to Genesis: chosen by Abraham's servant, Eliezer, at the well of Aram-Naharaïm where she offers drink to his camels, she joins Isaac and remains long without child before giving birth to the twins Jacob and Esau. Settled with Isaac in Gerar, she passes herself off as his sister at the order of king Abimelech, then, at the end of her husband's life, favors by a trick the blessing of Jacob at the expense of Esau before urging him to flee to Laban; she is buried in the cave of Makhpéla. Rabbinical literature discusses at length her age at the time of her marriage, without agreement.
Father of Abraham, Nahor and Haran, originating from Ur of the Chaldeans, he emigrated with his sons to Haran, where he died; the book of Joshua presents him as an idolater. According to the Midrash, he manufactured and sold idols himself and employed Abraham as a merchant in his absence; the Sefer ha-Yashar makes him a general of Nimrod who, furious at the destruction of his idols by his son, would have denounced him to the king.
Bethuel is, according to Genesis, a descendant of Arpachshad, son of Nahor and Milka, father of Laban and Rebekah, presented elsewhere as an Aramean of Paddân-Aram. Rabbinical literature makes him a king of Ḥaran who exercised the droit du seigneur over his subjects on condition of applying it also to his own family; according to legend, God made him die suddenly at the moment when Eliezer came to ask for Rebekah's hand for Isaac, to spare her this ordeal — another tradition reporting that he attempted to poison Eliezer but drank himself, by mistake, the poison intended for the latter.
Servant of Abraham whose Hebrew name, associated with Damascus, gave rise to important philological discussions on the exact meaning of the verse that mentions him. Rabbinical tradition identifies him as the steward charged with choosing a wife for Isaac, and connects him to the account where Abraham pursues the kings to Damascus to deliver Lot.
According to the Genesis, Hagar is the Egyptian servant of Sara who becomes, at her request, the concubine of Abraham and the mother of Ishmael. Driven out the first time into the desert for her haughty attitude and then recalled by an angel, she is definitively separated from her son after the birth of Isaac ; saved a second time by a divine apparition that reveals a well to her, she settles with Ishmael in the desert of Paran, where he becomes an archer. Rabbinic literature sometimes identifies her with a daughter of Pharaoh.
King of Babylon, author of the famous Code that bears his name. The parallels between the Code of Hammurabi and biblical laws (Exodus 21-23) illuminate the Mesopotamian legal context in which the Torah is set.
Hammurabi is a king of Babylon, perhaps identifiable with the Amraphel contemporary with Abraham in Genesis, sixth sovereign of the first Babylonian dynasty and founder of the unified Babylonian empire after his victory over Rim-Sin, king of Larsa. His reign, from 2267 to 2213, is considered the golden age of Babylonian civilization. His code of laws, the oldest known legal monument, was unearthed at Susa by the archaeological expedition of J. de Morgan in December 1901.
Hamor is a Hivite prince, father of Shechem whose outrage of Dina brings about the destruction of an entire city, his own included. Enjoying great influence over the Shechemites, to the point of convincing them all to be circumcised on his advice, he is probably their founder, the biblical text designating its inhabitants as « the sons of Hamor ».
Ninth son of Jacob and fifth of Leah, born long after his other children; his name, variously interpreted, would mean "there is a reward" or "man of hire". He had four sons, founders of the four families of his tribe, and Jacob, blessing him before his death, compared him to a robust donkey. According to rabbinical literature, he was one of the five brothers presented by Joseph to Pharaoh, took a discreet part in the wars against the Canaanites, married Aridah, daughter of Yoktan, and his name was engraved on the sapphire of the high priest's breastplate; he died at the age of one hundred twenty-two.
Third patriarch, son of Isaac and Rébecca, born when his father was sixty years old and his mother had been sterile for twenty years; his name would mean « he who supplants ». Favorite of his mother, he obtained from Ésaü his right of primogeniture in exchange for a plate of lentils, then, on the advice of Rébecca, impersonated his brother in order to receive the blessing intended for him — a blessing that Isaac, discovering the ruse, nevertheless confirmed. Fearing Ésaü's revenge, Rébecca sent Jacob to take refuge with his uncle Laban, in Haran, to wait until his brother's anger subsided.
Son of Jacob, sold by his brothers and become vizier of Egypt (Genesis 37-50). His story, one of the most elaborate narratives in the Bible, illustrates divine providence and prefigures the exile and redemption of the Jewish people.
Fourth son of Jacob and Leah, ancestor of the royal tribe of Judah. His speech before Joseph (Genesis 44) is considered one of the finest pleas in the Bible. From his tribe would come David, Solomon, and the messianic lineage.
Second wife of Abraham, whom he married after the death of Sarah and who became the ancestor of sixteen tribes, including Arab and Midianite tribes. The Midrash, followed by Rashi, identifies her with Hagar, Abraham's first concubine, explaining her name by deeds as pleasant as incense; the doctors of the Talmud, however, distinguish the children of Ishmael from those of Keturah, as shown in the account of their joint complaint before Alexander the Macedonian.
Daughter of Ana, descendant of Seir the Horite, she was one of the three wives of Esau; an older account names her « Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite ».
Daughter-in-law of Judah (Genesis 38), she obtained justice by cunning when Judah refused to give her his son in levirate marriage. Judah acknowledged: "She is more righteous than I." An ancestor of the royal lineage of David, she stands among the women who shaped the history of Israel.
Pharaoh who founded the New Kingdom of Egypt, who drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. Some scholars see in the expulsion of the Hyksos a historical echo of the Exodus narrative, the Hyksos being sometimes identified with the Hebrews.
Daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, and wife of Joseph, according to Genesis. The union of Joseph « the righteous » with a pagan woman seemed shocking to the rabbis, who tell that she was in fact the daughter of Dinah, born after Shechem, son of Hamor, had violated her; fearing dishonor, her brothers wished to kill the child, but Jacob placed around her neck a talismanic plate bearing the name of God and had her exposed — according to one version, under a thornbush (« sené », from which comes the name Asenath) — from where the angel Gabriel brought her to the house of Potiphar, in Egypt, where the childless wife of the latter raised her as her own daughter.
Bilha is, according to Genesis, the servant of Rachel given as concubine to Jacob, to whom she gave Dan and Naphtali on the knees of her mistress; the biblical text also evokes an incestuous relationship between her and Reuben. Rabbinic tradition makes her a daughter of Laban, to whom Jacob turned after Rachel's death — much to Reuben's dismay, who removed her bed from his father's — while modern criticism sees in her, as with Hagar or Keturah, the name of a tribe incorporated by marriage into a more powerful tribe rather than that of a real person.
Third son of Jacob and Leah, ancestor of the priestly tribe. His descendants, the Levites, would be consecrated to the service of the Temple. Moses and Aaron are his great-grandsons. The tribe of Levi received no territory but Levitical cities (Numbers 35).
Son of Judah, he refused to perform levirate marriage with his sister-in-law after the death of his older brother Er, for which the Lord "caused him to die as well".
Theban pharaoh who launched the war of liberation against the Hyksos. His mummy, bearing terrible battle wounds, attests to the violence of this struggle. His sacrifice opened the way to the reunification of Egypt by his son Ahmose.
Youngest son of Juda and of the daughter of the Canaanite Choua, born in Kezib, in the Shephelah of Juda. His too young age at the time of the death of his brother Onan served as a pretext for his father to refuse to let him marry his sister-in-law Tamar, according to the account in Genesis. He became, according to rabbinical tradition, the ancestor of many families, which his name already announced.
According to Genesis, Shem is the son of Noah named first each time the three brothers are cited together, although rabbinic tradition unanimously considers him the youngest ; he is nonetheless held to be the most important, ancestor of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, priest and prophet. According to the Midrash, it was he who offered the sacrifices after the exit from the ark, Noah having become unfit for the priesthood, and he who, first, covered his father's nakedness — a gesture for which Noah blessed his descendants by declaring that the Shekhina would reside in the tents of Shem. The Rabbis also identify him with Melchizedek, king of Salem.
King of Mari whose archives (more than 20,000 tablets) constitute a major source on the ancient Near East. The Mari texts mention peoples and practices that illuminate the world of the biblical patriarchs.
Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, his reign represents the height of the luxury and diplomacy of the New Kingdom. The Amarna Letters, an international diplomatic correspondence found at his capital, illuminate the political world in which biblical history unfolds.
Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, one of the few women to have reigned over Egypt. Her prosperous reign and her expeditions to the land of Punt mark the apogee of the New Kingdom, the context of the pre-Mosaic period.
Architect and counselor of Hatshepsut, designer of her funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari. His astronomical ceiling is the oldest known celestial atlas. Of modest origin, he illustrates the meritocracy of New Kingdom Egypt.
Conquering pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, often called the "Napoleon of ancient Egypt." His campaigns in Canaan established Egyptian dominion over the future Land of Israel. Some consider him the pharaoh of the oppression.
Bondage, Exodus, Moses, entry into Canaan, Judges.
Revolutionary pharaoh who imposed the exclusive cult of Aten, the solar disk. His "monotheistic revolution" has prompted countless debates about its possible links with Mosaic monotheism. Freud likened him to Moses.
Egyptian king under whom, according to certain ancient authors, Joseph is said to have come to Egypt, and whom Syncelle places in the sixteenth century BCE. Monuments actually distinguish two Hyksos kings named Apophis; the one Syncelle had in mind, under whom the Hyksos were driven from Egypt, would have reigned at least thirty-three years according to monuments, forty-nine according to Manetho, until around 1570 BCE. The identification with the pharaoh of Joseph rests, however, only on Josephus's erroneous Hyksos theory, and Syncelle's dates for Joseph's arrival therefore have no reliability.
Great royal wife of Akhenaten, she played a central role in the Atenist religious revolution. Her bust, preserved in Berlin, is one of the most famous works of art of antiquity.
Founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, a former vizier who became pharaoh. Although his reign was brief, he inaugurated the line of the Ramesses that dominated Egyptian history for a century and constitutes the most likely historical setting of the biblical Exodus.
Great Hittite king who transformed Anatolia into an imperial power rival to Egypt. His diplomatic correspondence (Amarna Letters) illuminates the international relations of the ancient Near East, the backdrop of the pre-Mosaic biblical world.
Brother of Moses, first High Priest (Kohen Gadol) of Israel. Ancestor of the priestly lineage of the Cohanim, he embodies the ideal of peace and reconciliation in the rabbinic tradition: "Love peace and pursue peace" (Pirkei Avot 1:12).
One of the twelve scouts sent by Moses into Canaan (Numbers 13). With Joshua, he was the only one to encourage the conquest, which earned him entry into the Promised Land. At 85, he conquered Hebron. A model of courage and faithfulness, he embodies perseverance in the face of adversity.
Supreme prophet of Judaism, liberator of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and mediator of the Covenant at Sinai. The Torah (Pentateuch), foundational text of Judaism, is traditionally attributed to him. Moses remains the most decisive figure in Jewish history.
Elder sister of Moses and Aaron, prophetess of Israel (Exodus 15:20). She watched over the infant Moses in the reeds of the Nile and led the song of victory after the crossing of the Red Sea. Talmudic tradition attributes to her the "well of Miriam" that accompanied the Hebrews in the desert.
King of Jerusalem around 1400 BC, known through letters he sent to the Pharaoh of Egypt, preserved in the El-Amarna tablets. In them he explains that he holds his kingship solely from Pharaoh's favor, not from royal birth, and repeatedly demands an army in the face of the threat posed by the Habiru. Victim of a conspiracy, he defends himself against false accusations whose outcome remains unknown.
Successor of Moses, he led the conquest of the Promised Land (Book of Joshua). Military and spiritual leader, he renewed the Covenant at Shechem and divided the territory among the twelve tribes of Israel.
Prophetess, elder sister of Moses and Aaron. Guardian of the newborn on the Nile; leads the song of the women at the sea. The « well of Miriam » accompanies Israel in the desert.
Grandson of Aaron, he received the Covenant of perpetual peace (Numbers 25:12-13) for his zeal in the service of God. Tradition places him at the origin of the lineage of High Priests who officiated at the First Temple of Jerusalem.
Last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom, he repelled the invasion of the Sea Peoples (including the Philistines) who then settled on the coast of Canaan. His reign marks the geopolitical context of the period of the Judges in Israel.
Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty whose intact tomb, discovered in 1922, revealed the splendors of ancient Egypt. His reign marked the return to polytheism after the monotheistic parenthesis of Akhenaten.
Second son of Aaron and Elisheba, consecrated to the priesthood with his father and brothers. With his brother Nadab, he was put to death for offering strange fire to the Lord. Rabbinical literature sees in their death, despite the fault reported by the biblical text, that of pious men whose passing held an expiatory value.
Son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, he committed a sacrilege during the taking of Jericho by the Israelites by stealing a portion of the booty devoted to the Lord, which resulted in the defeat of Israel at Ai, where thirty-six men perished. Designated by lot as the culprit, he confessed to having hidden silver, gold and a precious Babylonian mantle in his tent; he was stoned and burned along with his possessions in the valley which from then on took the name "Valley of Achor". Rabbinic literature discusses whether the punishment struck also his children or only his livestock.
Daughter of Caleb, promised by her father to whoever would capture Qiryat-Sepher, she married Othniel, son of Kenaz and nephew of Caleb, who conquered the city. According to the book of Judges, she further asked her father for springs of water in addition to the « lands of the south », and obtained both the upper springs and the lower springs.
Canaanite king of Bezek, he was routed by Judah and then captured after his flight; his thumbs and big toes were cut off, a punishment that he himself recognized as just retribution for the same torture he had inflicted on seventy defeated kings, rendering them thus incapable of running or wielding the bow in case of war.
Son of Benjamin, he is called Éhi in Genesis and Aharah in the genealogical list of the first book of Chronicles. His family is known by the name of the Ahiramites.
Son of Kehat and grandson of Levi, he married his aunt Yokhévéd, sister of Kehat, by whom he had Moses, Aaron and Miriam; his descendants form the Levitical family of the Amramites. According to the Haggada, when Pharaoh orders all newborn males to be thrown into the river, Amram, chief of the Hebrew tribunal, separates from his wife so as no longer to father children destined for death — a decision that his daughter Miriam reproaches him for as more cruel than that of Pharaoh himself, pushing him to resume his marriage; it was then that he is counted, according to tradition, among the rare righteous who died without sin, solely by reason of the venom of the serpent.
Balaam is, according to Numbers, son of Beor and prophet of Petor, in Mesopotamia, called by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel. After consulting God and facing a first refusal, he eventually receives permission to depart, on condition that he speak only what God would command him; on the way, his donkey, seeing the angel of the Lord on his path, refuses to advance and miraculously begins to speak to him, before Balaam himself sees the angel and confesses his fault. He then pronounces, in four successive oracles, words of blessing upon Israel instead of the curse expected by Balak.
Bezalel is, according to Exodus, the principal architect of the Tabernacle, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, renowned for his skill in engraving metals and precious stones and sculpting wood, charged with directing the construction of the tent of meeting, its sacred furnishings and the priestly garments. Rabbinical literature reports that God asked the consent of Moses and then that of the people before designating him, and credits him with such wisdom that he would have known how to combine the letters by which heaven and earth were created.
Bithia is, according to the Chronicles, the daughter of Pharaoh whom Méred, of the tribe of Judah, married; the Midrash identifies her as the adoptive mother of Moses, whose name — « daughter of God » — she is said to have been given by God himself as a reward for calling Moses her son. Rabbinic tradition recounts that she bathed in the Nile to cure a skin disease which left her at the moment she touched Moses' basket, that her arm miraculously extended to reach it, and that she was spared during the death of the firstborn and counted, for having saved the child, among those who entered paradise while alive.
Midianite woman, daughter of Tsour, chief of a tribe. She was put to death with the Israelite Zimri by Phinéas, according to the account in the Book of Numbers.
Prophetess and judge of Israel (Judges 4-5). Her song of victory is one of the oldest poems of the Hebrew Bible. A figure of female leadership, she guided Israel in the battle against Sisera and the Canaanites.
Two men who prophesied in the Israelite camp during the crossing of the desert. According to an ancient rabbinic tradition, they would have announced the war of Gog and Magog, predicting that in the messianic age the Lord would consume by fire the pagan armies gathered against the Jews returned from exile, before the general resurrection of the people of Israel.
Son of Uzziel, prince of the Qehatites charged with carrying the sanctuary and its furnishings during the desert crossing. His descendants participated in the transfer of the Ark to the city of David and in the purification of the Temple under Hezekiah.
Judge of Israel who, with only 300 men, defeated the Midianites through a stratagem (Judges 7). He refused kingship, declaring: "The Lord shall rule over you." His victory illustrates the biblical theme of strength in weakness.
Elder son of Moses and Zipporah, whose circumcision, mentioned in Exodus iv, 25, is attributed by the Midrash to his brother Eliezer. The Chronicles mention him as the founder of a Levite family.
King of Gezer at the time of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. He came to the aid of the city of Lachish, besieged by the Israelites, but was killed by Joshua with all his people.
Youngest son of Aaron and Elisheba, consecrated to the priesthood with his father and brothers. At the death of Nadab and Abihou, he was, with his elder brother Éléazar, designated as successor to Aaron in the priesthood, and he directed during the crossing of the desert the service of the Gershonites and Merarites, who were in charge of the Tabernacle. The high priesthood passed through his lineage until Eli then Abiathar, deposed by Solomon in favor of the lineage of Éléazar; under David, the descendants of Itamar, fewer in number than those of Éléazar, were assigned the monthly services in the proportion of one to two.
Priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, also called Reuel in the account of his marriage to his daughter Zipporah. Having seen Moses defend his daughters at the well against shepherds, he gives her to him in marriage, then, after the crossing of the Red Sea, joins Moses in the wilderness, rejoices at the wonders accomplished for Israel and advises him to institute auxiliary judges to lighten his burden, before returning to his country. Rabbinic literature attributes up to seven different names to him and makes him, along with Balaam and Job, one of the three advisers consulted by Pharaoh about the fate of the children of Israel — but, unlike Balaam, he refuses to consent.
Jochebed, daughter of Levi, born in Egypt, was the wife of her uncle Amram and the mother of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. Rabbinic tradition identifies her with Shifra, one of the midwives who refused Pharaoh's order to kill the newborns, as well as with Yehoudiya, « the Jewess », a name that is said to have been given to her for having, through her disobedience, founded the Jewish nation.
Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, son of Ramesses II. His victory stele (c. 1208 BCE) contains the oldest known mention of "Israel" outside the Bible, attesting to the existence of the people of Israel in Canaan at that time.
King of Egypt, fourth sovereign of the nineteenth dynasty, son and successor of Ramesses II, central figure in debates over the chronology of the Exodus. Petrie's discovery of the famous Israel Stele, dated to the fifth year of his reign and proclaiming that "Israel is annihilated," made uncertain the traditional identification of Merneptah as pharaoh of the Exodus. He reigned at least twenty-five years, the first five of which were marked by repeated attacks from Libyan tribes and pirates; his mummy was recently found in Thebes and is now in the Cairo Museum.
Son of Amminadab, descendant in the fifth generation of Judah and brother-in-law of Aaron according to the Bible. Named prince of the tribe of Judah by Moses, he is the first to bring his offering to the dedication of the Tabernacle although his tribe is only fourth in the order of the patriarchs; through Boaz, he is the ancestor of David. Rabbinic literature makes him a model of nobility, the first to rush into the Red Sea during the crossing.
Second son of Jacob and Bilha, younger brother of Dan, whose name is said to mean « my struggle », in reference to the rivalry between sisters Rachel and Leah. He had four sons when Israel went down to Egypt. According to the Targums, he was a swift runner who first brought to Jacob the news that Joseph was alive, and he was among the five brothers presented to Pharaoh.
Amorite king of Bashan, defeated by Moses and Israel at the battle of Edrei; giant descended from the Rephaim, whose iron bed, kept in Rabbath, capital of Ammon, was said to measure nine cubits long. Rabbinical literature reports that he escaped the Flood, later brought to Abraham the news of Lot's captivity in hopes of marrying Sarah, and was then killed by Moses at the battle of Edrei, where his legs, eighteen cubits long, touched the ground while he sat on the city rampart.
Son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, contemporary of Moses, he is designated by God to assist Betsalel, son of Ouri, in the construction of the Tabernacle. A skilled engraver, he is also an embroiderer in blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen.
Judge of Israel, son of Kenaz and brother of Caleb according to the Bible, he receives as his wife Aksa, daughter of Caleb, as a reward for the capture of Kirjath-Sepher. When the Israelite tribes, scarcely settled in the land, fall for eight years under the domination of the Mesopotamian king Cushan-Rishathaim, the spirit of Yahweh comes upon Othniel, who delivers Israel from this oppressor; the land then experiences forty years of peace.
Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron according to the Bible, he distinguishes himself at Chittim by executing the Simeonite prince Zimri and the Midianite Cozbi, putting an end to the plague that struck Israel for its idolatry ; God rewards him by promising that the priesthood would remain forever in his family. He accompanies the expedition against Midian, leads the delegation reproaching the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh for the altar raised east of the Jordan, and delivers the oracle against Benjamin ; the Psalmist and the apocrypha celebrate his zeal, which the rabbis praise for his promptness when Moses remained without response.
Woman of Jericho who, according to the book of Joshua, hides in her house adjoining the rampart the two spies sent by Joshua, protects them from the king of the city, then has them let down by a window by agreeing on a sign, a scarlet cord, so that her family will be spared when the city is taken. Rabbinic literature portrays her as a woman of great beauty, exercising prostitution before sincerely converting to the worship of God when Jericho falls; she then marries Joshua and becomes the ancestor of eight prophets-priests, including Jeremiah, and the prophetess Huldah.
Pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, often identified as the pharaoh of the Exodus. His 66-year reign is marked by monumental constructions (Abu Simbel, Ramesseum). The Merneptah Stele, of his successor, contains the first extra-biblical mention of Israel.
Eldest son of Jacob and Leah according to Genesis, he brings his mother mandrakes found during the harvest, then becomes culpable toward his father by lying with Bilha, his father's concubine, thus losing his birthright to the sons of Joseph. When his brothers want to kill Joseph, it is he who persuades them to throw him into a pit rather than put him to death, in the secret hope of saving him later; he also offers two of his sons as pledge to his father to guarantee Benjamin's return from Egypt.
Daughter of Asher, son of Jacob, counted according to Genesis among the seventy members of the patriarch's family who emigrated from Canaan to Egypt, and whose name reappears in the census of Moses in the desert. The only woman mentioned in these genealogical lists, she became the heroine of several Rabbinic legends: according to one of them, she would have been the first to announce to Jacob that his son Joseph was still alive, which earned her the blessing of eternal life, and Moses would have addressed her to know where the remains of Joseph rested.
According to the Bible, Amorite king of the transjordanian country, whose kingdom extended from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north, with Heshbon as capital, taken from the king of Moab; suzerain of five Midianite kings, he refused the Israelites passage through his territory, assembled his army at Jahaz, where he was defeated and killed, leaving his kingdom to the invaders — like Og, king of Bashan, he was regarded as a great and mighty monarch. Rabbinic literature makes him the brother of Og, both grandsons of the fallen angel Shemhazai, identified with Arad the Canaanite, and reports that God permitted his defeat only by pushing the king to assemble his entire army in his capital.
Biblical Manassite, father of five daughters who, after his death in the desert, claimed and obtained their paternal inheritance — Moses having consulted the Lord, who sided with them, thereby establishing the principle of inheritance by daughters in the absence of sons. The biblical text specifies that Zelophehad « died for his own sin » without taking part in the rebellion of Korah; rabbinic tradition remains divided on his nature, some calling him righteous, others, such as R. Akiba, identifying him with the man stoned for gathering wood on a sabbath.
Father of Balak, king of Moab, who engaged Balaam to curse Israel. All biblical mentions of Tsippor associate him with his son Balak, and an allusion to him might be found in the expression "the ancient king of Moab" in the book of Numbers.
Daughter of Jethro and wife of Moses, whom she marries after he defends her and her sisters from shepherds who were driving them from a well. She accompanies him to Egypt, where she saves him from great peril, then rejoins him in the desert after the Exodus; designated in Numbers as « the Ethiopian woman », an epithet which rabbinic tradition interprets as a tribute to her beauty rather than an allusion to her origin, she is judged variously by the sages, some, such as R. Joshua, estimating that Moses never loved her.
Abinoam is the father of Barak, mentioned in the Book of Judges (iv, 6 and 12; v, 1 and 12). In the Greek versions, this name is transcribed « Abineem », with the exception of the Alexandrian codex which gives « Iabin ».
Son of Benjamin, mentioned in the genealogical list of the first book of Chronicles; the gentile « Ashbelite » appears in the book of Numbers.
Judge of Israel according to the Book of Judges (12, 13-15). From Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, where he is buried. The text attributes to him eight years of judgment, forty sons and thirty grandsons. No extra-biblical source documents him.
Biblical warrior, son of Abinoam, principal ally of Deborah in the struggle against the Canaanites; called from Kedesh in Naphtali, he led ten thousand men to Mount Tabor to confront Sisera, whose army was routed. The account shows him in a subordinate position to Deborah, whose presence he demands to accept the mission, and he joins in her song of triumph; he presumably belonged to the tribe of Issachar. Rabbinic tradition identifies him with Lappidoth, Deborah's husband, and also gives him the name Michael.
Son of Elimélek and Noémi, Bethlehemites who emigrated to Moab due to a severe famine in Judea — which might perhaps explain his name, "wasting", as well as that of his brother Mahlon, "sickness". In Moab, he married Orpa and died after living there ten years.
King of Moab who defeated the Israelites and seized the "city of palms", probably Jericho; he held Israel under his dominion for eighteen years before being assassinated by the judge Ehud, who delivered them.
Second judge of Israel, Benjaminite, son of Gera. He hid a two-edged sword under his garment to bring a gift to Eglon, king of Moab, who held Israel under his dominion for eighteen years, then, taking advantage of being left-handed, stabbed him during a private audience before fleeing to Seirah and raising an Israelite army that exterminated the Moabite forces, numbering ten thousand men.
Biblical character in the genealogy of Ephraim, son of Tahath and father of another Tahath of the same name; he met his death during a raid against the city of Gath.
Man of the tribe of Judah, from Bethlehem, in the time of the Judges. Famine forced him to emigrate with his family to the land of Moab, where he died and where one of his sons married Ruth; a kinsman of Boaz, he belonged to the family of the Hetsronites. According to Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥaï, Elimelech was one of the chiefs of Israel, and his premature death was the punishment for having left the Holy Land to settle in the land of Moab.
Judge of Israel for seven years after Jephté, native of Beth-Lehem, where he had thirty sons and thirty daughters and was buried. The Talmud identifies him with Boaz, explaining that all his children would have died in his lifetime for not having invited Manoah to their weddings.
Wife of the Kenite Heber, Jael belongs to the account of the Book of Judges: when Sisera, general of Jabin king of Canaan defeated by Israel under the leadership of Deborah and Barak, seeks refuge in her tent, she offers him hospitality then kills him in his sleep by driving a tent peg through his temple, before leading Barak to his body. Although contrary to ancient rules of hospitality, her action is praised in the Song of Deborah as an act of loyalty to Israel, to which the Kenites were related.
Jephthah, judge of Israel for six years, waged war against the Ammonites whom he defeated, taking from them twenty cities. Son of Gilead and a harlot, driven out by the legitimate sons of his father, he had taken refuge in the land of Tob at the head of a band, before being recalled by the elders of Gilead to take their command. Having made a vow to sacrifice to the Lord the first person coming out of his house on his victorious return, he saw coming forth his only daughter and fulfilled his vow, which gave rise to an annual lamentation of the daughters of Israel.
Wife of Elimelech and mother-in-law of Ruth, she accompanied her husband and two sons to the land of Moab, then, after their death, returned to Bethlehem with Ruth, whom she had vainly tried to persuade not to follow her. Changed by poverty and affliction to the point of no longer being recognized, she asked to be called Mara rather than Naomi, before contributing to the marriage of Ruth and Boaz and becoming the nurse of their child.
Moabite according to the book of Ruth, daughter-in-law of Naomi and wife of Mahlon, she decides, after her husband's death, to return to her people and her gods rather than follow Naomi as her sister-in-law Ruth does. Rabbinic literature identifies her with Harafa, mother of four Philistine giants, and reports that she was killed by the general of David, Abishai, son of Zeruiah.
Moabite convert to Judaism, model of loyalty and piety. Her story (Book of Ruth) is one of the most moving narratives in the Bible. Great-grandmother of King David, she is the proof that the messianic lineage also welcomes converts.
Judge of Israel endowed with superhuman strength (Judges 13-16). Popular hero of the resistance against the Philistines, his story illustrates the themes of the nazirite, temptation, and ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of the people.
Last of the Judges and first of the classical prophets. He anointed the first two kings of Israel—Saul then David—marking the transition from tribal theocracy to monarchy. The sanctuary of Shiloh was the religious center of his era.
First king of Israel, anointed by the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 10). A valiant but tormented warrior, his tragic trajectory — from divine election to downfall — constitutes one of the most psychologically profound narratives of the Hebrew Bible.
One of the Judges of Israel, son of Anath, he killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad and thus saved Israel, in a time so troubled that roads are deserted in favor of detours. The Song of Deborah connects him, however, to the moment of Israel's greatest humiliation, which has led some critics to see in him, not an Israelite judge, but a foreign oppressor — perhaps Hittite, judging by the form of his name — and to compare his exploit to those of David's heroes, in particular Shammah, son of Agee.
Midianite king of the period of the Judges, defeated in battle by Gideon and then killed by him, always mentioned in the Bible alongside the other Midianite king defeated with him, Zebah.
United monarchy, First Temple, divided kingdoms.
Eighth son of the patriarch Jacob, traditional ancestor of the tribe of Asher, younger brother of Gad, both sons of Zilpa, handmaid of Leah. Four sons and one daughter are born to Asher in Canaan, who descend with him into Egypt. According to rabbinical tradition, Asher quarrels for a time with his brothers for having revealed Reuben's fault toward Bilha, without being believed; he marries in second marriage Hadoura, great-granddaughter of Eber, whose daughter Serah is raised by Asher with such tenderness that the Bible designates her as his own daughter. The tribe of Asher is reputed for the beauty of its women.
Wife of King David and mother of Solomon. A figure of resilience, she secured the succession of her son to the throne (1 Kings 1). Rabbinic tradition sees in her a woman of wisdom who influenced the writing of Proverbs 31 (Eshet Hayil).
Boaz is, according to the book of Ruth, a wealthy kinsman of Elimelech established in Bethlehem, who redeems the family estate of Naomi by virtue of the right of redemption of the next of kin and, in doing so, marries Ruth the Moabite to perpetuate the name of the deceased; their son Obed is, according to tradition, the grandfather of David. Rabbinical literature sometimes identifies him with the judge Ibzan of Bethlehem, depicts him as a pious and learned judge whose practice of invoking the Divine Name in greeting received heavenly approval, and recounts that he lost his sixty children for not having invited Manoah, the father of Samson when childless, to their wedding.
High priest at Shiloh and judge of Israel, descendant of Ithamar, fourth son of Aaron. His two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, dishonored his house by their wickedness; when the Ark of the Covenant, carried into battle against the Philistines and borne by his sons, was captured and his sons were killed, Eli, aged ninety-eight, fell from his seat and died upon hearing the news, after having judged Israel for forty years.
Elder son of the high priest Eli, he officiated with his younger brother Phinehas in the tabernacle of Shiloh. Both are described in the Bible as rapacious and debauched, and were killed on the same day in a battle between Israel and the Philistines. The masters of the Talmud do not agree on the culpability of the two brothers: according to Rab, only Hophni committed the faults reproached, while R. Jonathan believes that neither of the two was guilty.
Son of Pinhas and grandson of Eli, born after the death of his father in combat and the tragic death of his grandfather. His dying mother named him "Ikhabod" ("the glory has departed"), echoing her own exclamation on the departure of the glory of Israel. His older brother Ahiya, son of Ahitoub, is mentioned as a priest, which attests to the priestly importance recognized for their lineage.
Fourth and youngest son of Saul, sole surviving male heir in the direct line and thus his legitimate successor to the throne; he originally bore the name Ishbaal, later changed as a sign of rejection of the theonym « Ba'al ». Under the protection of his uncle Abner, he became king against David and reigned from Mahanaïm, east of the Jordan, gathering the allegiance of all the tribes except that of Juda. He lost Abner's support by accusing him of intrigue with a concubine of Saul, and was assassinated in his bed by two of his own officers, whom David had executed for this crime.
Prophet of David's court, he dared to confront the king after the Bathsheba affair with the famous parable of the poor man and his ewe lamb (2 Samuel 12). He conveyed the Davidic Covenant and secured the succession of Solomon, embodying the prophetic role of moral conscience before power.
Second king of Israel, founder of the royal dynasty of Jerusalem. Poet and musician, he is the traditional author of the Psalms. The Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7) grounds the messianic hope of Judaism. The House of David is attested by the Tel Dan Stele.
Third king of Israel, son of David, builder of the First Temple of Jerusalem. Renowned for his proverbial wisdom, he is the traditional author of the Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. His reign represents the biblical golden age.
Prophet and author of the shortest book of the Hebrew Bible, directed against Edom. His oracle on the fall of Edom and the triumph of the kingdom of God illustrates divine justice against the nations hostile to Israel.
Son of Ahimelech, High Priest of the sanctuary of Nob, sole survivor of the massacre of his family ordered by Saul; taking refuge with David, he consulted the will of YHWH for him by means of the ephod and remained faithful to him during Absalom's revolt. Having later supported Adonijah against Solomon, he was banished with his family to his estate of Anatot, his priestly functions passing to the house of Ẓadoq.
Beautiful young woman from Shunem, brought by David's servants into his entourage to comfort the aging king. After Solomon's accession, Adonijah, his elder brother, sought through Bathsheba to obtain Abishag as a wife; Solomon saw in this the sign of a plot aimed at strengthening Adonijah's claims to the throne, and had him put to death.
Son of Tserouya, sister of David, he was general second in command under his brother Joab. He saved David's life and distinguished himself by his bravery within the royal guard; as loyal to his own as fearsome to his enemies, only David's moderation prevented him from killing Saul asleep in his camp, but he participated with Joab in the murder of Abner to avenge their brother Assaël.
One of the wives of David, she gave him birth, during the king's stay in Hebron, to his fifth son, named Shephatiah.
According to the Chronicles, uncle of Saul — or, according to another more probable reading, his cousin — he was the commander of his army. After the defeat of Mount Gilboa, Abner maintained the loyalty of the tribes, except Judah, to Ish-Bosheth, sheltered in Mahanaim, until a quarrel with the latter drove him to secretly rally to David. Joab, commander of David's army, then killed him treacherously to avenge the death of their brother Asahel, and Abner was buried in Hebron with royal mourning.
Third son of King David, born in Hebron of a mother named Maaka, daughter of Talmaï, king of Geshur. He avenged his sister Tamar, violated by their half-brother Amnon, by having him killed at a banquet, then fled for three years to his grandfather in Geshur before being brought back to Jerusalem through the intervention of Joab. Having become popular through his beauty, he finally rebelled against his father, entered Jerusalem and seized the royal harem as a sign of assumption of power.
Originating from Giloh, in the highlands of Judah, he is a privy counselor to King David, renowned for his political acumen. He joins the revolt of Absalom and gives him disastrous advice against the king; seeing his counsel rejected in favor of that of Hushai, he withdraws to Giloh and hangs himself. Rabbinic tradition makes him the grandfather of Bathsheba.
King of Jerusalem during the Hebrew invasion of Canaan, he led a coalition of five Amorite cities to resist the invaders, but was defeated at Gibeon and then afflicted at Beth-Horon by violent hail. Sheltering with his four allies in a cave at Makkedah, he was extracted from it on Joshua's order, humiliated, and then put to death.
Superintendent of tax collection under the reigns of David, Solomon and Rehoboam, he was stoned by the secessionist Israelites of the northern kingdom under the reign of Rehoboam, who had sent him to collect taxes in the north of the kingdom.
The Meholathite to whom Merab, daughter of Saul, was given in marriage in David's place; son of Barzillai, his name appears as an Aramaicized form of Azriel (« God is my help »), an identification confirmed by the Syriac version.
King of the Amalekites, captured by Saul after a victorious expedition; spared by the king, he was nevertheless put to death at Gilgal by the prophet Samuel, who saw in this clemency a defiance of the divine will. In the book of Numbers, Balaam evokes Agag in a manner that suggests this name was a title attached to the kings of Amalek rather than a proper name.
Compiler of a collection of proverbs reported in chapter xxx of Proverbs, whose identity remains uncertain — the biblical text calls him "Massaïte," a term that some Assyriologists connect to the land of Mash, between Palestine and Babylon, while Graetz sees in it a deformation of "ha-Moshel," "the collector of proverbs." Rabbinic literature interprets "Agour" and the enigmatic words that accompany it as epithets designating Solomon himself.
Son of Sharar the Hararite, he is numbered among the thirty mighty warriors of King David. The first book of Chronicles also designates him as the son of Sacar.
Steward of Solomon's palace, he held an office of trust comparable to that of Joseph in the house of Potiphar or Obadiah in the palace of Ahab.
Hero of the Anakim, whose city of Kirjath-Arba bears his name in his honor. He is also designated as the father of Anaq, which means he was considered the ancestor of the Anakim.
Third king of Judah, son of Abiyam and grandson of Rehoboam, he reigned from 917 to 876 B.C. The major event of his reign was the deliverance of Judah from Baasha, king of Israel, who had fortified Rama, near Jerusalem; to rid himself of him, Asa bought the help of Ben-Hadad I of Damascus with the Temple's money, drawing the Arameans of Syria into the affairs of Israel. He also repelled a raid by Zerah the Egyptian and Ethiopian, and proved himself a religious reformer against impure cults. Rabbinic tradition sees in the gout that afflicted him at the end of his life the punishment for having, in raising an army, exempted no man from service.
One of the Asaphites appointed by David to the service of the Temple, whose name appears elsewhere in the form « Yesharéla ». The variation of the initial syllable finds a parallel in the name of Jesse, usually written « Yishaï » but which appears once in the form « Ishaï »; the name itself could be a distortion of Israel followed by an emphatic ending.
Wife of Yeraḥméel and mother of Onam according to biblical genealogy (I Chronicles ii. 26); if Yeraḥméel designates, as seems likely, the name of a clan, the term "wife" could mean an alliance with another clan. According to rabbinic tradition, Atara was a high-ranking Canaanite woman whom Yeraḥméel married to "be crowned" by her, that is to be elevated in nobility; but she brought him misfortune, hence her other name of "mother of Onam," that is "mother of mourning." Because of this irregular union, a part of the tribe of Judah refused to recognize the children of Yeraḥméel as of pure descent.
Wealthy Gileadite nobleman of Rogelim, he comes to the aid of David and his men in Mahanaim, as the king flees his son Absalom, by providing them with provisions. After the death of Absalom, he escorts David upon his triumphal return, but declines the invitation to become the king's permanent host and sends his son Kimham in his place. On his deathbed, David commends the sons of Barzillaï to the favor of Solomon, and the memory of his loyalty perpetuates itself in a priestly lineage bearing his name.
Daughter of Eliam, she was first the wife of Uriah the Hittite before becoming, after his death provoked by David, one of the king's wives and the mother of Solomon. The prophet Nathan denounces to David the wrong committed against Uriah through the parable of the poor man's lamb, and the child born of this first union dies in punishment of the royal sin. Having become David's favorite wife, Bathsheba then obtains, with Nathan's support, that the succession to the throne falls to her son Solomon.
Supply officer of Solomon, he married one of the king's daughters and was placed in charge of the district of Dor, the present-day Tantourah.
Officer in charge of the provisioning of Solomon, he resided in Aroubot, in Judea, and his district included Hepher and Sokho, one of the localities bearing this name in Judea.
Owner of the threshing floor where Uzza, in attempting to hold the Ark of the Covenant, found his death; the same place is called Nakon in the second book of Samuel.
Son of David, born in Hebron of Abigail, whom David married after the death of her husband Nabal the Carmelite. The parallel narrative of the Chronicles gives his name in the form "Daniel", and the Talmud offers a midrashic interpretation of the name "Chileab", which it connects to the fact that he would have shamed Mephibosheth in matters of Law.
Son of Barzillai, who had supported David exiled in Mahanaim; after the death of Absalom, Barzillai, invited to end his days near the king, declined and sent his son Chimham in his place. The camp of Chimham, mentioned near Bethlehem in Jeremiah, suggests that David would have granted him land passed to his descendants — reading retained by the Targum and taken up by Rashi and Ḳimḥi.
Second king of Israel, successor of Saul. Tradition attributes to him the conquest of Jerusalem, which he made his capital, and the composition of a part of the Psalms. The dynastic promise made to him (II Samuel 7) founds the messianic expectation of Judaism.
Daughter of Jacob and Leah, Dinah is seduced by Sichem, son of Hamor the Hivvite, when she goes out to see the daughters of the land; her brothers Simeon and Levi, pretending to accept the marriage on condition that the men of Sichem be circumcised, take advantage of their weakness to massacre the city and avenge the outrage done to their sister, an act that Jacob disapproves of and that his final blessing condemns as cruel. Rabbinic tradition reproaches her for « going out » to meet the daughters of the land, and reports that Jacob, fearing that Esau would want to marry her, would have shut her in a chest before their meeting.
Edomite, chief of Saul's shepherds, Doëg is found at the priest Ahimelech's in Nob when David, fleeing Saul, receives the sword of Goliath there and escapes; it is he who later reveals what happened in Nob, and when Saul's guards refuse to kill the priests, Doëg does so on the king's order and destroys the city. Psalm 52 is directed against him. Rabbinic tradition, while counting him among the greatest scholars of his time — capable of raising three hundred questions on a single ritual case — attributes to him a malice and jealousy that lead him to set Saul against David, to contest his marriage to Michal and to massacre the priests with his own hand.
Levite, descendant of Kehath, he counts among the ancestors of the prophet Samuel and the singer Heman. Biblical genealogies contradict themselves regarding him: sometimes presented as son of Korah and brother of Assir and Elkana, sometimes as son of Elkana, himself son of Assir, son of Korah.
Eglah was one of David's wives and the mother of Ithream, his sixth son. The Targum identifies her with Michal, daughter of Saul, considered by tradition to be David's preferred wife.
Descendant of Ephraim mentioned in the genealogy of the First Book of Chronicles. He joined a band that attempted to raid the flocks of Gath and was killed by the Gittites.
Prophet of Israel, champion of monotheism against the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). According to tradition, he did not die but was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. He is awaited as the precursor of the Messiah and invited to every Passover seder.
First of Job's three visitors, surnamed « the Temanite » after the Edomite city of Teman, whose wisdom he embodied as it was reputed in antiquity. He opens each of the three series of discussions with Job, maintaining that the righteous cannot perish and that only the wicked suffer, in proportion to their sins; a later tradition makes him a king of Yemen.
Father of the prophet Samuel, resident of Rama, in the district of Tsouph. His genealogy, transmitted among the Qehatites, makes him a Levite — a fact that the books of Samuel themselves do not mention.
Seventh descendant of Adam, son of Jared and father of Methuselah, he lived three hundred sixty-five years and « walked with God » before He « took » him. Rabbinic literature offers two divergent readings: according to the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan, he was a pious worshipper of God, taken up to heaven and became Metatron, the « great scribe »; a less favorable tradition holds him instead to be inconsistent in his piety and withdrawn from the world beforehand, his death even being attributed to the plague rather than to a miraculous rapture. He is also credited with the invention of writing, and the teaching of astronomy and arithmetic.
Genubath is born from the union of Hadad the Edomite with an Egyptian princess, sister-in-law of the pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the time of David and Solomon.
Hadadezer, son of Rehob, is king of Aram-Zobah, defeated by David as he sought to establish his dominion to the Euphrates. After an initial failure of the Ammonites and their Syrian allies against Joab, he sends an army to relieve Maacah, Rehob, and Ishtob under the command of Shobach, chief of his troops; David then takes command himself and inflicts a total defeat upon the Arameans, killing forty thousand cavalry, including Shobach.
Haggith is one of the wives of King David, mother of Adonija, born in Hebron, whom she appears to marry after David's accession to the throne; she ranks fourth in the biblical list of his wives and their sons.
Hannah is one of the two wives of Elkana and the mother of the prophet Samuel, whose first book of Samuel relates the story at length. Considered a prophetess by Jonathan ben Ouziel, she is counted among the seven prophetesses and given as an example for her silent prayer; rabbinical tradition attributes to her the first use of the divine name « Tsevaot » and connects her memory to Rosh Hashanah, the day when I Samuel i is read as haftara.
Hatsarmaveth is the third son of Yoqtan, of the family of Sem, whose name has been preserved in Hadramaout, a province of southern Arabia; Strabo mentions the Khatramotites among the four main tribes of South Arabia, known for their incense trade.
Hezro is a native of Carmel counted among the heroes of David, mentioned in the second book of Samuel and in the Chronicles. The Masoretic text bears at this point the variant « Hezraï », which Kennicott considers to be the original form of the name.
Hiram, or Huram, is a king of Tyre contemporary with David and Solomon. After the conquest of Jerusalem by David, he sends him cedar wood as well as carpenters and masons to build his house, and remains his friend until his death; he subsequently pursues this friendship with Solomon, supplying him cedars, firs and Tyrian artisans for the construction of the Temple, in exchange for wheat and olive oil, then, later, for gold and wood, against Galilean cities. According to rabbinical literature, some identify him as Hira, the friend of Juda, while others, distinguishing the two figures, credit him with great age, making him still alive at the time of the prophet Ezekiel.
Namesake of a Kenite clan of the family of the Rékabites, integrated into the tribe of Juda, whose name, according to the biblical text, would come from his mother's cry upon giving birth to him « in pain ». Rabbinical tradition identifies him as Otniel the Kenizite, chief of the school after the death of Moïse, and sees in his prayer — « if you bless me and enlarge my territory » — a vow concerning his teaching: to have many disciples. He appears, with Jeremiah and Guedalia, among the holy leaders of the people at the destruction of the Temple according to the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch.
First king of the kingdom of Israel (North) after the schism. The separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (931 BCE) is a major turning point in biblical history, prefiguring the themes of division and exile.
Jesse, father of David and son of Obed, himself grandson of Boaz and Ruth, was surnamed "the Bethlehemite". A man of wealth, whose possessions consisted chiefly of flocks of sheep, he had eight sons according to the first book of Samuel — seven only according to Chronicles. The prophet Isaiah associates with the "stem of Jesse" and the "root of Jesse" one of his most sublime messianic prophecies, while David entrusted his parents to the guard of the king of Moab.
Joab, son of Zeruiah, sister of David, was the commander-in-chief of David's army. After avenging on Abner the death of his brother Asahel, he distinguished himself by being the first to capture Jebus, which earned him the title of « prince of the army » and the task of fortifying the conquered city. He then led David's campaigns against Edom and against the Ammonites, whose capital, Rabbah, he besieged.
Fourth son of Jacob and Leah, born in Paddan-Aram: he it is who proposes to sell Joseph to Ishmaelite merchants, pledges himself for Benjamin before their father, and powerfully pleads for his release before Joseph in Egypt. Through his union with Tamar, widow of his son Er, he becomes the father of Perez, ancestor of the royal house of David; rabbinic tradition places his birth in the year 2195 of Creation and his death at the age of one hundred nineteen years.
According to the Septuagint, the Book of Jubilees and the Gospel of Luke, son of Arpakshad and father of Shelah — a filiation absent from other versions of Genesis, where Shelah is given directly as son of Arpakshad. The Book of Jubilees reports that, having learned writing from his father, Cainan discovered engraved on rocks an inscription transmitting the astrological knowledge taught by the fallen angels, the Watchers, who had led humanity astray in the time of Jared; the « Sefer ha-Yashar », on the other hand, rather makes him a son of Seth.
Father of Saul, first king of Israel, a rich and powerful Benjamite, son of Ner and grandson of Abiel. His dwelling was located in Gibeah according to one biblical passage, but in Zela according to another, where the remains of Saul and Jonathan were buried « in the sepulcher of Kish » — the text being probably corrupted on this point. The only episode concerning him is the one where he sends Saul to search for his donkeys; the New Testament names him « Cis ».
Only son of Jonathan, son of Saul, also called Merib-Baal by the chronicler. Having become disabled after a fall during the flight of his nurse at the time of the massacre of Saul and his sons on Mount Gilboa, he is found by David, who, out of affection for Jonathan, restores to him the domain of Saul and admits him to his royal table; upon David's triumphal return after Absalom's revolt, a dispute with his servant Ziba leads the king to divide this inheritance equally between the two men. He had a son, Mika.
Elder of Saul's two daughters. The king promised her hand to David if he distinguished himself in the war against the Philistines; David held his part, but Saul broke his promise by giving Mérab to Adriel of Mehola.
Younger of Saul's two daughters, promised to David after he killed double the number of Philistines required to marry her sister Mérab, given to another in the meantime. She saves her husband from Saul's wrath by having him descend through a window and substituting a teraphim in his bed; after their separation, Saul gives her to Phalti ben Laïsh, but David later claims her through Abner. A religious dance of David before the Ark, which she reproaches him for, definitively ends their union; this biblical narrative inspired J. L. Gordon's celebrated poem "Ahabat David ou-Mikal".
Notable figure in the biblical account (I Samuel xxv), a wealthy owner of herds at Carmel but reputed to be miserly and crude. Having refused to reward the protection afforded by David to his flocks, he escapes David's revenge through the intervention of his wife Abigail; struck by shock upon learning what had occurred, he dies ten days later.
Legendary sovereign who visited King Solomon to test his wisdom (1 Kings 10). Their meeting symbolizes the international radiance of the kingdom of Israel at its apogee. Ethiopian tradition makes her the ancestor of the Solomonic dynasty.
Daughter of Ayya and concubine of Saul according to the second book of Samuel. After the death of Saul, Abner, the latter's general, seizes her, a gesture interpreted as a claim to the throne and cause of his rupture with Ish-Bosheth, son and successor of Saul. When the Gibeonites, to avenge Saul, put to death his two sons born of Rizpah and five of his grandsons and leave their bodies unburied, Rizpah spreads a sack upon a rock and watches over the corpses, driving away birds and wild beasts, until David, moved by this maternal love, has the remains buried in the family tomb.
Third king of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba. Builder of the first Temple in Jerusalem. Tradition attributes to him the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs; his figure is that of the king-judge whose wisdom is proverbial.
According to the Bible, Josephus and the Talmud, sovereign of a tribe of South Arabia, contemporary with Solomon, whom she visited in Jerusalem after hearing his wisdom and wealth praised, before returning amazed to her country after an exchange of sumptuous gifts. Josephus makes her the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, who is said to have introduced to the Holy Land the first balsam plants; Ethiopian traditions make the kings of Abyssinia descendants of Menelik, a son she is said to have had with Solomon, while Arab traditions, developed notably in the Quran, made her the heroine of a rich legendary cycle.
First king of the twenty-second dynasty of Egypt, descendant of a Libyan soldier ennobled by marriage to an Egyptian princess. Friend of Jeroboam, a refugee far from Solomon, he helped him take the throne of the northern tribes after the kingdom's division, then invaded Palestine under the reign of Rehoboam, king of Judah, targeting Jerusalem and plundering the royal palace and the Temple. His inscriptions at Luxor report the capture of one hundred fifty-six localities, including Megiddo, the most northerly — a campaign as much of plunder as of will to prevent the unification of Palestine.
Commander of the army of Hadadezer, king of Aram, defeated and killed by David at Helam, according to the second book of Samuel; the Talmudic Haggada also described him as formidable as Goliath, and the Samaritan Book of Joshua makes him, in a legendary account, the son of Haman, king of the Persians killed by Joshua, who assembled against the latter a coalition of neighboring kings before being defeated in turn thanks to the miraculous intervention of Joshua and his cousin Navih.
Principal character of the Song of Songs, where she is named only once. According to some modern critics, she was the betrothed of a shepherd whose beauty inflamed Solomon, who sought to attract her into his harem ; her name would mean « native of Chulem », a locality identified by Eusebius as Sunem, which led some to identify her with Abishag, who became an influential figure at the Jerusalem court after David's death.
Captain of David, from Choushan, near Ephrath-Bethlehem, who distinguished himself by slaying a Philistine giant and figures among the thirty mighty men of David; he might be identical to the Mebounaï mentioned in the second book of Samuel.
Biblical priest, perhaps high priest during the reign of David, son of Ahitub. First associated with Abiathar, he remained loyal to David during Absalom's revolt by agreeing to remain in Jerusalem with the Ark rather than follow the fleeing king, then supported Solomon's accession to the throne over Adonijah—which earned him appointment as sole high priest by the new king.
King of the northern kingdom of Israel (875–853 BCE), son and successor of Omri, he defended his country against the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, gaining several victories and obtaining in 855 BCE commercial privileges in that city. He was the first king of Israel to enter into conflict with Assyria, allying with Damascus in 854 BCE against Shalmaneser II at the Battle of Karkar, then the following year (853 BCE) fought the Arameans again at Ramoth-Gilead alongside Jehoshaphat, king of Juda; disguised as a common soldier, he was mortally wounded by a stray arrow and died at nightfall.
King of Israel, son and successor of Ahab, he reigned for less than two years, from 853 to 852 BCE, continuing his father's military activities. He attempts to partner with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, for maritime trade toward Ophir, but the latter refuses. Fallen from a window of his palace in Samaria, he consults the oracle of Baal-Zebub at Ekron to learn the outcome of his illness; the prophet Elijah denounces him and predicts his death.
King of Judah, son and successor of Joram, grandson of Josaphat, he reigned briefly, for one year, from 843 to 842 BCE. Allied with Joram, king of Israel, against the Syrians of Damascus, he became involved in Jehu's revolt at Jezreel; wounded while fleeing, he died at Megiddo, and his body was brought to Jerusalem to be buried in the royal tomb.
Prophet from Shiloh, he announced to Jeroboam that he would become king of Israel, then predicted the fall of his house and the kingdom of the North. Rabbinic tradition sees in him one of the seven sages whose life extended from one generation to another to transmit the sacred tradition, connecting him to the high priest Ahijah, son of Ahitub, in the time of King Saul.
Daughter of Ahab (II Kings viii. 26) and, presumably, of Jezebel, also called daughter of Omri (II Chronicles xxii. 2). The political alliance of Jehoshaphat, fourth king of Judah, with Ahab, king of Israel, is doubled by a family alliance between his son Joram and Athaliah, daughter of Ahab. The death of Ahaziah, sole surviving son of Joram and Athaliah, at the hands of Jehu, opens the way to the queen mother: she has all members of the royal family put to death and proclaims herself queen of Judah. Her influence, since her marriage to Joram, had favored the cult of Baal in Judah, temporarily relegating the cult of YHWH to the background; her reign lasts six years (842-836 B.C.).
Levite singer at the Temple, he assists Asaph, Heman, and Ethan in the musical service of the sanctuary. He is also named Jaaziel, and the name of the clan of the Azielites is associated with him.
Son of Ahijah, he became king of Israel by assassinating his master Nadab at Gibbethon and exploiting the latter's weakness, later revealing cruel traits by exterminating the entire house of Jeroboam. An energetic military leader but of obscure origin, he waged a long war against Asa of Judah, fortifying Ramah to block his northern cities, until Asa appealed to Ben-Hadad of Damascus, who invaded Israel and forced him to move his capital to Tirzah. He reigned twenty-four years and died of natural causes, but his dynasty was overthrown less than two years after his death.
King of Israel, son of Baasha, who seized the throne of the northern kingdom after the murder of Nadab, son and first king of the dynasty of Jeroboam. Before reigning two years, he was assassinated in Tirzah, drunk in the house of his steward Artsa, by Zimri, captain of half his chariots — according to Josephus, while the army was waging war at Gibbethon — and his family found no mercy from the conspirators.
Disciple and successor of Elijah, he receives 'two portions of his spirit'. His miracles — the widow of Zarephath, the Shunnamite, Naaman — profoundly imbue biblical and Qur'anic prophetic imagination.
Prophet of Israel, disciple and successor of Elijah. His numerous miracles (2 Kings 2-13)—resurrection, multiplication, healing—make him one of the most active prophets in the Bible. He exercised major political influence over the kings of Israel.
Successor to the prophet Élias, son of Shafath, wealthy landowner of Abel-Mehola, called from the plough by Élias whom he followed as servant before receiving his mantle and a double portion of his prophetic spirit. His activity, both political and private, marked the kingdom of Israël: he saved the Israelite army during the expedition against Mécha, king of Moab, thwarted the strategy of the king of Syria, predicted the raising of the siege of Samaria, announced to Hazaël his accession to the throne, had Jéhu anointed king and, on his deathbed, predicted to Joas his victory over the Syrians.
Servant of the prophet Elisha, Gehazi first appears in the episode of the Shunnamite, then in that of Naaman, whose chariot he secretly pursues to extort, in Elisha's name, money and garments which he then hides; unmasked by the prophet, he is stricken with Naaman's leprosy. Rabbinic tradition counts him, for having denied the resurrection of the dead, among those who have no share in the world to come, alongside Balaam, Doeg and Ahithophel.
Ḥazaël is the most powerful of the kings of Damascus, a figure both biblical and historical, whom the prophet Elijah is commanded by God to anoint as the future king in the time of King Ahab. Around 845 before the Common Era, Ben-Hadad II, ill, sends him to consult Elisha, who predicts to him that he will himself reign and strike Israel without mercy; Ḥazaël then assassinates Ben-Hadad and usurps the throne. He defeats Joram and Ahaziah at Ramoth-Gilead, seizes the country east of the Jordan, destroys Gath and imposes his rule on King Joash of Judah; he also stands alone against the two great Assyrian offensives of Shalmaneser II, in 842 and 839, without the latter managing to take Damascus.
Hiel is an inhabitant of Bethel who rebuilds Jericho during the reign of Ahab, according to the first book of Kings. The curse pronounced by Joshua is then fulfilled upon him: he lays the foundations of the city at the cost of the life of his eldest son Abiram, and establishes its gates at the cost of that of his youngest son, Segub. Some commentators have attempted to identify him with Jehu.
Prophet whose oracles were directed against Jeroboam, he is cited as an authority on the reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam and Abijah, author of a work entitled "Midrash of the prophet Iddo." Josephus and Jerome identify him with the prophet who denounced the altar of Jeroboam and was subsequently killed by a lion; Jerome also identifies him with Oded.
High priest under Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Joash, Jehoiada became brother-in-law of Ahaziah by marrying the princess Josabeth; after the massacre of the royal family by Athaliah, he hid young Joash, the sole survivor, in the Temple for six years, then had him proclaimed king at a great assembly, causing the altar and temple of Baal to be destroyed. According to the biblical text, he died at the age of one hundred thirty years and was buried among the kings, « for he had done good in Israel ».
King of Israel who overthrew the dynasty of Omri and rooted out the cult of Baal (2 Kings 9-10). His reign is attested by the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (British Museum), where he appears prostrate before the king of Assyria — the oldest known portrait of a biblical figure.
Queen of Israel, wife of King Ahab. A Phoenician princess, she introduced the cult of Baal into Israel, provoking the opposition of the prophet Elijah. A controversial figure, she embodies in biblical tradition the danger of idolatry and foreign influence.
Son of Ahaziah and Tsivia of Beer-Sheva, Joash (Jehoash) was the eighth king of Judah and the only descendant of the house of David to escape the massacre ordered by his grandmother Athaliah: hidden as a child by his aunt Jehosheba in the bedroom of the Temple, he was brought out by the high priest Jehoiada to be crowned king. Under the guardianship of Jehoiada, he had the altars of Baal destroyed, restored the Temple thanks to the donations of the people, but, after the death of his protector, allowed himself to be worshipped by the princes of Judah and had Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, killed for reproaching him for his actions.
Son of Asa, fourth king of Judah (approximately 873-849 BCE), contemporary of the kings of Israel Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram, Jehoshaphat broke with the policy of his predecessors by closely allying himself with the northern kingdom — an alliance sealed by the marriage of his son Joram to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab. He participated in Ahab's expedition against the Arameans and in the war waged with Joram against King Mesha of Moab, attempted unsuccessfully to imitate Solomon's maritime expeditions to Ophir, and was praised for his piety and for having sent priests and Levites to instruct the people in the Law throughout the land.
King of Moab, tributary to Ahab, king of Israel, to whom he owed a heavy annual tribute in wool. Having revolted and refused the tribute, he suffers the invasion of the armies allied with Israel, Judah and Edom, which ravage his country despite the resistance of his seven hundred warriors; besieged, he offers his eldest son in burnt offering on the rampart to appease his god Kemosh, causing such terror among the invaders that they evacuate the country leaving him in possession of his kingdom.
Syrian general miraculously healed of leprosy by the prophet Élisée, according to the account in the second Book of Kings, he came to him on the advice of a young Israelite captive; disappointed that Élisée did not come and touch him himself, he was persuaded by his servants to bathe seven times in the Jordan, and was healed. Upon his return, he recognized the Lord as his God and carried two loads of mules of soil from Israël to build an altar for him.
First king of the fourth dynasty of the kingdom of Israel, he was proclaimed king by the army besieging Gibbethon after the usurpation of the throne by Zimri, murderer of King Elah; after defeating his rival Tibni, he became sole master of the kingdom after four years and reigned in all twelve years (885-874 before the common era). Judging Tirzah poorly situated, he bought from Shemer, for two talents of silver, the site of Shomron (Samaria), which he made his capital and which remained a powerful fortress until its capture by Sargon II in 722 before the common era. He permanently subdued the Moabites, as attested by the stele of Mesha, and his son Ahab married the Phoenician princess Jezebel.
Son of Solomon and Naamah the Ammonite, he succeeded him on the throne of Jerusalem at the age of forty-one. His father's taxation policy and foreign alliances had already weakened the kingdom; summoned to the coronation at Shechem, Rehoboam refused, on the advice of his young companions rather than the elders, to lighten the demands made by the tribes of the North, which provoked their secession under the impetus of Jeroboam and the stoning of his tax collector Adoram; forced to flee to Jerusalem, he retained only the kingdom of Judah.
King of Israel, husband of Jezebel. A powerful sovereign and builder (ivory palace of Samaria), he is nevertheless condemned by the prophets for his compromise with the cult of Baal. The Battle of Qarqar (853) against Assyria is attested by extra-biblical sources.
Prophet under the reign of Rehoboam, charged with dissuading the king from going to war against the northern kingdom after its secession, the divine will being that Israel form an independent state. He reappears later during the invasion of Judah and the siege of Jerusalem by Shishak, king of Egypt, to announce that, as the princes of Israel had humbled themselves, God's wrath against their idolatry would not fall upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
One of the claimants to the throne of Israel during the interregnum between Zimri and Omri, son of Ginath. Upon the death of Zimri, the kingdom divides between the supporters of Omri and his own; the party of Omri prevails and, after the death of Tibni, Omri is proclaimed king. According to the biblical text, Tibni would have reigned over half the kingdom for four years; the Septuagint credits him with a brother, Joram, who would have supported him in this struggle and would have died at the same time as him, presumably at the hands of Omri's party.
Biblical reforming priest under King Joash of Judah, who denounced idolaters before being stoned by order of the king in the courtyard of the Temple — the king « did not remember the kindness that Yehoyada, father of Zechariah, had shown him ». According to rabbinical tradition, the king's son-in-law and himself a priest, prophet, and judge, he was killed on a day of Sabbath coinciding with Yom Kippur, and his blood, which remained boiling, was not appeased until Nebuzaradan had killed, in expiation, a very great number of priests, members of the Sanhedrin, and students.
King of Judah, son of Jotham, he reigned from 735 to 719 before the common era. Threatened by the coalition of Israel and Damascus, he appeals to Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser III, who delivers him from his neighbors but imposes his suzerainty on his kingdom. Received by Tiglath-Pileser in Damascus in 732, he had an altar built in Jerusalem inspired by the Assyrian model, provoking the opposition of the prophet Isaiah.
King of Judah, son of Joash and father of Azaria, ascended the throne around 795 B.C. He has the murderers of his father executed, but spares their children, contrary to custom. He wins a great victory over the revolted Edomites, killing ten thousand (twenty thousand according to the Chronicler), then, intoxicated by his success, provokes in combat Joash, king of Israel, whose contemptuous answer — the parable of the thistle and the cedar — drives him to a disastrous battle at Beth-Shémesh: defeated and captured, he sees four hundred cubits of the wall of Jerusalem demolished and the Temple plundered. Like his father, he dies murdered.
Prophet of social justice, shepherd of Tekoa become the first writing prophet. His denunciations of injustice and the exploitation of the poor ("Let justice roll down like water," Amos 5:24) ground the prophetic tradition of social justice in Judaism.
One of the Levites taken captive to Assyria, whom late Arab and Jewish legend presents as Solomon's vizier. He is attributed a remarkable treatise on medicine, the « Sefer Asaf » (or « Midrash Refouot »), probably the oldest treatise of this kind in Hebrew, preserved in manuscripts at Florence, Paris, Munich, Vienna, London and Oxford; its chapters deal with Persian months, physiology, diseases, hygiene and medicinal plants. Its introduction, in midrashic form, attributes the origin of medicine to Shem, son of Noah, who received it from the angels; Steinschneider has shown that the list of plants actually goes back to Dioscorides.
Descendant of Reuben, he is chief of the tribe at the time of his deportation by Tiglath-Pileser. Rabbinical literature identifies him as Beeri, father of the prophet Hosea and himself a prophet, nicknamed "well" for his inexhaustible learning. According to tradition, God caused him to die in Assyrian captivity so that his piety would benefit his companions in exile and lead them to the Land of Israel at the Resurrection.
Last of the nineteen kings of Israel, son of Éla, he seized the throne through a plot that cost Pékah his life, in the twelfth year of Achaz, king of Judah, and reigned nine years. He came into conflict with Salmanasar, king of Assyria, and first had to pay him tribute, then, having negotiated an alliance with the Egyptian sovereign So, ceased to pay it; he was then arrested and imprisoned, while Samaria, besieged for three years, fell in the ninth year of his reign and its population went into exile.
One of the greatest prophets of Israel, counselor of the kings of Judah. His visions of universal peace ("They shall beat their swords into plowshares," Isaiah 2:4) and of the suffering servant deeply marked Judaism and Christianity. The Isaiah Scroll is the most famous manuscript of Qumran.
Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath-Hepher, was a prophet in the time of Jeroboam II ; according to the second book of Kings, he announced in the name of the Eternal the extent of the restoration of the borders of the Northern kingdom by this king, which attests to his historicity. He is among the prophets who counseled the house of Jehu, and it is not excluded that with him closed the lineage of prophets opened by Elijah ; the biblical book bearing his name does not, however, claim to have been written by him, but only tells his story. According to rabbinical literature, his tribal lineage, disputed between Asher and Zebulun, was reconciled by attributing his mother to Asher and his father to Zebulun.
King of Israel from 748 to 738 before the Common Era, son of Gadi. He seized the throne by killing the usurper Shallum in Samaria, severely punished the city of Tiphsah which refused to submit, then, when Tiglath-Pileser III appeared on Israel's horizon, paid him a thousand talents of silver — collected at the rate of fifty shekels from each wealthy man — to preserve his throne; the inscriptions of the Assyrian king confirm this tribute by listing Menahem among his vassals. The only king of this troubled period of the Northern Kingdom to die a natural death, he left to his son the burden of Assyrian tribute.
Merodach-Baladan, or Berodach-Baladan, is a king of Babylon who sent, in 712 before our era, letters and gifts to Hezekiah, king of Juda, healed of his illness. Hezekiah showed the messengers all his treasures, which earned the king of Juda the reproaches of the prophet Isaiah, who announced the destruction of his kingdom and the captivity of Babylon; according to the Talmud, Baladan would have had his face changed into that of a dog, forcing him to abdicate in favor of his son Merodach, who out of respect associated his father's name with his own edicts.
Prophet contemporary with Isaiah, native of Moresheth in Judah. His summary of the Jewish faith ("To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God," Micah 6:8) is regarded as the quintessence of prophetic ethics.
Notable of Jezreel in the time of King Ahab, owner of a vineyard adjoining the royal palace which he refuses to cede to the king, invoking the inheritance of his fathers. By order of Queen Jezebel, he is wrongly accused of blasphemy by two false witnesses and then stoned, allowing Ahab to seize his vineyard; his sons are said to have perished with him so that no heir could claim it.
The prophet Hosea, citizen of the northern kingdom of Israel where he pursued all his prophetic activity, was the son of Beeri. His marriage to an unfaithful woman, whom he had to redeem after she left him, is presented by the book as a historical fact serving as a symbol of Israel's unfaithfulness to God, rather than as a mere allegory. According to Jewish tradition, he died in Babylon and his body, carried by a camel, was buried in Safed, in upper Galilee.
King of Judah, also called Azariah, ascended the throne at sixteen years of age; his reign lasted fifty-two years (788-737 BCE). As righteous as his father but tolerant of worship on the high places, he defeated the Philistines and Arabs, received tribute from the Ammonites, fortified his kingdom and reorganized his army, dominating then the vastest territory of Judah since the division of the kingdom — until 739, when Tiglath-Pileser III conquered the Syrian districts that belonged to him. Having wished to usurp the sacerdotal prerogatives by burning incense in the Temple, he was struck with leprosy and lived in seclusion until his death, his son Jotham exercising power in his place.
Son of Remalia and king of Israel during the period of turmoil that follows the fall of the dynasty of Jehu (750 B.C.) and precedes the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.). Captain of King Pekahia, he assassinates him in his own palace with the support of fifty Gileadites and usurps the throne around 736 B.C., then allies himself with Rezin, king of Damascus, against the Assyria of Tiglath-Pileser III, who had already forced Menahem to pay him tribute in 738 B.C. Their armies besiege Jerusalem in vain to impose a king of their choosing there, before Tiglath-Pileser invades Pekah's territory, who is finally assassinated by Hosea, son of Elah, who succeeds him on the throne.
King of Israel, successor to his father Menahem (736-735 BCE according to P. Rost), who ascended the throne when the kingdom of Israel was already in full dissolution. Shortly after his accession, he was assassinated in his palace in Samaria by his chief officer Pekah, who usurped the throne.
Usurper who mounted the throne of Babylon in 745 BCE and ruled there until 737, identified with Tiglath-Phalasar III; his identity, suggested by Rawlinson in 1863, was confirmed a few years later by Lepsius. After restoring peace in Babylon, he conquers Kullani—the biblical Calno—in 738 BCE and imposes tribute on Syria as far as Samaria, where his inscriptions mention Minaḥimu, identified with Menahem of Samaria.
Last king of the Damascus dynasty, killed in 732 BCE. Allied with Pekah, king of Israel, he attempted in 734 BCE to compel Ahaz, king of Judah, to join their coalition against Assyria; Ahaz then appealed, with rich gifts, to Tiglath-Pileser III, who immediately marched to his aid while Rezin and Pekah retreated into their fortresses. The Assyrian king captured Damascus, conquered sixteen districts and took the city, which became a Syrian province, while Rezin was killed.
King of Judah, religious reformer who resisted the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib of Assyria (701 BCE). His Siloam Tunnel, a masterpiece of engineering, is attested by a Hebrew inscription discovered in situ and preserved in the Istanbul museum.
King of Assyria who died in 705 before the Common Era, mentioned in the Bible in Isaiah xx, 1. His reign, which extends from 722 to 705, has been known only since the discovery of his palace at Khorsabad by Botta in 1843 ; the bas-reliefs that adorned it tell of the capture of Samaria in his first year of reign, the reconquest of Babylon in 709 after a revolt, his victory at Raphia over Egypt in 720, and the submission of Urartu between 719 and 708. Crowned king of Babylon in 709, he completed his new capital, Dur-Sharrukin, in 708 and died a violent death in 705, remaining one of the greatest kings of Assyria despite his inferiority to Tiglath-Pileser III.
Last king of Judah, youngest son of Josiah, originally called Mattaniah before Nebuchadnezzar, who enthroned him in 597 before the common era in place of his nephew Jehoiachin, renamed him Zedekiah. A capricious vassal of Babylon for eleven years, he breaks his allegiance in 588 before the common era under the influence of the Egyptian king Hophra, provoking the siege of Jerusalem : after a year and a half of siege, the walls give way and Zedekiah flees toward the Jordan.
Son of the prophet Isaiah, whose name, meaning that « a remnant shall return », announced according to his father that God would restore the remnant of His people. Isaiah took him with him when he went to meet King Achaz to urge him to trust in God and not despair of victory over Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel.
Chamberlain of the royal palace of Judah, whose pride the prophet Isaiah denounced for having had a tomb built for himself in the rock, near the royal burial places on Mount Zion. His name betrays a non-Israelite origin, probably Phoenician or Syrian, and he seems to have risen under the reign of Ahaz, favorable to foreign alliances; an advocate of a rapprochement between Judah and Egypt, he was likely taken prisoner by the Assyrians during one of their invasions. Although his identity with a scribe of the same name mentioned later in the book of Isaiah has been debated, it is likely the same person.
Name given to Azariah, one of the three companions of Daniel at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. It is a distortion of « Abed Nebo », meaning « servant of the Babylonian god Nebo », attested notably in an inscription from the seventh century before the Common Era. The substitution of Nego for Nebo was probably intended to erase the name of the pagan deity.
King of Judah, son of Manasseh and Meshoullémeth, daughter of Harots of Yotba, he ascends to the throne at twenty-two years old upon the death of his father. His brief reign of two years, around 640–638 B.C.E., resumes his father's idolatrous practices, worse according to the Chronicles: unlike Manasseh, who had repented, Amon never humbles himself before the Lord. Assassinated in his palace by his own servants, he is avenged by the people, who put the conspirators to death and place his son Josiah on the throne; he is buried, like his father before him, in the garden of Uzzah.
Biblical figure who transplanted the mixed population of tribes from Babylon to Samaria after the fall of that city (Ezra iv. 10). It is supposed that this name would be a misreading for Assurbanipal, although verse Ezra iv. 2 rather refers to Esarhaddon; the reading « Asbacaphath » from the first book of Ezra (v. 69) suggests that a letter fell from the text, which, if the hypothesis is correct, would make « Asnapper » the sole mention of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal in the Bible. According to rabbinical tradition, the Talmud identifies him with Sennacherib, who is said to have borne eight names, as did Hezekiah (Sanh. 94a).
One of three « holy singers, sons of Asaph » mentioned at the Passover of King Josiah; he was the only one of them to belong to the royal retinue. His name is the Greek equivalent of « Jeduthun ».
Esarhaddon was King of Assyria from 680 to 668 BCE, son and successor of Sennacherib. He rebuilt Babylon and extended his empire to the southwest, leading in 671 a second expedition to Egypt during which Memphis was taken and the Ethiopian king Tirhaka was pushed back beyond Thebes; Manasseh, king of Judah, was among the vassals who provided auxiliary troops. He died in 668, while traveling toward Egypt, after a revolt of the Assyrian nobility in 669 had led to making Ashurbanipal his co-regent.
Prophetess, wife of Challoum, keeper of the wardrobe in the time of King Josias, she lived in the second quarter of Jerusalem. When Hilqiya discovered the scroll of the Law, it was to her that it was brought for interpretation, and she prophesied the misfortune that would befall Jerusalem, while announcing to the king that he would die in peace before these days came. Rabbinic tradition sees in her, along with Deborah, one of the only two recognized prophetesses, and attributes to her public teaching in a school.
Jedida, whose name means « beloved », was daughter of Adaiah of Boscath; wife of Amon, king of Judah, she was the mother of King Josiah.
Prophet of the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE), he foretold the fall of Jerusalem while prophesying the restoration and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). His Lamentations are read on Tisha BeAv.
King of Judah who led the greatest religious reform in biblical history (2 Kings 22-23). The discovery of the "Book of the Torah" in the Temple during his reign is a founding event in the history of the biblical text.
King of Babylon who destroyed the First Temple of Jerusalem (586 BCE) and deported the Judean elite. This traumatic event founded the experience of exile (Galut) and transformed Judaism from a religion of the Temple into a religion of the Book.
Seventh minor prophet. His book, a poem of great poetic force, announces the fall of Nineveh (which occurred in -612) in inverted echo to the book of Jonah.
King of Assyria from 705 to 681 before the Common Era, son and successor of Sargon, whose reign, marked by numerous military campaigns, also witnessed a flourishing of architecture and art. After defeating Merodach-Baladan of Babylon in 703 and subjugating several peoples of the middle Euphrates, he marched in 701 against Hezekiah and besieged Jerusalem, which the king of Judah saved only by paying a ransom of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, the Temple being stripped to raise this sum.
Prophet of Judah, great-grandson of King Hezekiah. He prophesied the "Day of the Lord" as a day of universal judgment, but also as a day of purification and renewal. His message nourishes Jewish eschatology and the liturgy of the Dies Irae.
King of Ethiopia (Nubia), third pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, known in the Bible for coming to the aid of the Palestinians besieged by Sennacherib. He usurped the throne by marrying the widow of his predecessor Shabataka, and left numerous monuments in Egypt, from Tanis to Napata, his Nubian capital. Driven out of Egypt by the Assyrian king Assarhaddon in 671, he retook the country in 669, before a third Assyrian army pushed him back to Thebes, where he died preparing a new campaign.
Babylon, Cyrus, rebuilding of the Temple.
Father of Shelemiah, one of the men charged by King Jehoiakim to seize Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch. The Septuagint omits his name.
Son of Zerubbabel, he is counted among the ancestors of Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. His name is absent from the list of Zerubbabel's sons given in the first book of Chronicles.
One of the first captives deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, false prophet denounced by Jeremiah, who announced that he would be 'roasted in the fire' by the king, perhaps for having incited the people to revolt. Rabbinic tradition recounts that with Zedekiah, son of Maaseya, he attempted to lead into sin Semiramis, wife (or daughter) of Nebuchadnezzar, under the pretext that she would become mother of great kings; discovered, the two false prophets were thrown into the furnace and burned alive.
Tenth minor prophet, first prophet of return from Babylon. He urges Zeroubabel and high priest Yehoshoua to rebuild the Second Temple inaugurated in –515.
Son of Shaphan the scribe and father of Gedaliah, he was sent by King Josiah to consult the prophetess Huldah regarding the book of the Law found in the Temple. Under the reign of Jehoiakim, he protects the prophet Jeremiah from the anger of the rebellious people.
King of the Ammonites, he was the principal instigator of the murder of Gedaliah. The first element of his name, « Baal », is clear, but the second remains enigmatic: no satisfactory explanation for it has yet been proposed.
Disciple, secretary and faithful friend of the prophet Jeremiah, son of Neriah and brother of Seraiah, chamberlain of King Zedekiah, he wrote down at the prophet's dictation the two first editions of his prophecies and read them himself to the people assembled in the Temple on a day of fasting, while Jeremiah was in hiding. He was present during the final siege of Jerusalem, witness to the prophet's purchase of his ancestral estate of Anathoth, and according to Josephus continued to reside with Jeremiah at Mizpah after the fall of the city, before being taken with him to Egypt, where the tradition reported by Jerome says he died shortly after; other traditions say he was later taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.
King of Babylon mentioned in the book of Daniel as the son of Nebuchadnezzar and the last king before the advent of the Medes and Persians. At a banquet where the sacred vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem brought by Nebuchadnezzar were desecrated, a mysterious hand wrote a sentence on the wall that only the wise Daniel could decipher, announcing the division of his kingdom between Medes and Persians; Belshazzar was slain that very night, and power passed to Darius the Mede. The Talmud credits him with two years of reign after the forty-five of Nebuchadnezzar and the twenty-three of Evil-Merodach, and rabbinic tradition presents him as a tyrant oppressing the Jews.
Bilshan was one of the notables who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, cited variously as « Beelsarus » and connected to « Belshunu » (His Lord). According to rabbinic tradition, this is not a proper name but a nickname given to Mordecai because of his talent for languages — he spoke, it is said, seventy languages, as many as there were known nations, and even understood the language of the mute.
King of Persia, liberator of the Jewish exiles from Babylon (539 BCE). His edict authorizing the return and the rebuilding of the Temple is reported in Ezra 1. Isaiah 45:1 calls him "messiah" (mashiah) — the only such occurrence for a non-Jew in the Bible.
Jewish sage at the court of Babylon, interpreter of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams. The Book of Daniel, with its apocalyptic visions of the four empires, founds the apocalyptic genre and nourishes messianic hope. His faithfulness in the lions' den is a model of constancy in faith.
Cushite officer at the court of King Zedekiah, mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. He interceded in favor of the prophet Jeremiah and was charged by the king, with thirty men, to pull him out of the pit where the princes had thrown him; for this gesture, he received the prophetic assurance of being spared at the fall of Zedekiah.
Evil-Merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, was the third king of the new Babylonian empire and reigned from 561 to 560 B.C. Upon his accession, he freed the captive king Jehoiachin, invited him to his table and elevated him above the other captive kings of Babylon. Overthrown by the opposing faction, he was assassinated at the order of Neriglissar, his brother-in-law, who succeeded him.
Prophet-priest of the Babylonian exile, author of grandiose visions: the divine Chariot (Merkavah), the valley of dry bones (chapter 37), the future Temple. His visions are at the origin of Jewish mysticism (Maaseh Merkavah).
Ezekiel, son of Buzi, was a priest of Jerusalem of the family of Tsadok, deported to Babylon with the Judean aristocracy at the first capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, in 597 BCE. Settled near the river Kebar, where he lived married in his own house, he received there his prophetic calling on the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year of his exile, that is in 592 BCE, and prophesied for about twenty-two years, the latest date in his book going back to 570. Nothing is known of the circumstances of his death.
Son of Ahikam and grandson of the scribe Shaphan, Gedaliah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar governor of Judea after the conquest of the country, establishing his capital in Mizpah where the survivors of the nation gathered. Betrayed despite the warning of Yohanan son of Kareah, he was assassinated by Ishmael, son of Nathaniel, instigated by Baalis, king of the Ammonites, leading to the flight of the rest of the Jewish people to Egypt.
Hanameel, son of Shalloum, is the cousin of Jeremiah to whom he sells a field for seventeen shekels of silver, a gesture that the prophet interprets as a sign of the promise of Israel's return to its land. Rabbinic literature moreover makes him the son of the prophetess Huldah, and connects him through both parents to the lineage of Rahab and Joshua.
King of Egypt at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, called « Pharaoh » in most of the biblical passages that mention him. Fourth sovereign of the twenty-sixth dynasty, son of Psammetichus II and grandson of Necho, he marched to the aid of the Jews besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, temporarily interrupting the siege, and also came to the aid of the Tyrians against the same king. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel announced his fall and that of Egypt at the hands of the Babylonians; he was eventually deposed by Amasis and strangled by the crowd.
King of Judah (608-597 BCE), eldest son of Josiah, brother and successor of Jehoahaz whom Pharaoh-Necho had deposed, Jehoiakim — whose name, originally Eliakim, was changed upon his accession — had to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar after the invasion of Palestine, before rebelling against him three years later, which precipitated his ruin. He had the prophet Uriah killed and burned the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecies; dead after a reign of eleven years marked by impiety, he was buried « with the burial of a donkey », outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Job, hero of the biblical book bearing his name, was a native of the land of Uz, wealthy, pious and upright, father of seven sons and three daughters. Tested by the Accuser, who obtained permission to strike him with calamities, he lost his property then his children without ever renouncing God, before being himself struck in his flesh without losing his patience. God finally restored him to his former state, giving him double his possessions and fourteen sons, while his daughters remained three in number.
Johanan ben Kareah was one of the Israelite generals who presented themselves before Gedaliah, appointed governor of Mizpah by the Chaldeans after the destruction of the kingdom of Judah, around 586 before the common era. Having foreseen the plot of Ishmael son of Nethaniah against Gedaliah, he proposed in vain to kill him in advance; after Gedaliah's assassination, he fought and defeated Ishmael near the great waters of Gibeon and delivered the captives he held. Despite the counsel of Jeremiah to remain in the land, Johanan led the people to Egypt, where his trace is lost.
King of Judah, son and successor of Joiakim, Jehoiachin reigned only a little more than three months before Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; unable to resist, he surrendered with the queen mother Nehoushta, his servants and his officers, and was taken captive to Babylon with the treasures of the palace and the sacred vessels of the Temple. He remained imprisoned there for many years, his throne having been given by Nebuchadnezzar to Mattaniah, son of Josiah, renamed Zedekiah; at the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his son Evil-Merodach freed him and accorded him a place of honour at his table.
King of Babylon, son of Nabopolassar, also known by the name of Nabuchodrezzar (« Nabou, protect my border »), ascended to the throne in 604 before the common era after defeating the Egyptian army at the Euphrates and subduing Jehoiakim, king of Judah. In 598, he marched again on Jerusalem, deposed Jehoiakim and imposed his son Jehoiachin on the throne before taking him too captive to Babylon; he reigned until his death in 561.
One of the four chief officers sent by Nebuzaradan to bring Jeremiah out of the court of the prison and place him in safe hands; his exact function remains unknown. His name, probably the Babylonian-Assyrian equivalent of « Nabou-shouzibanni » (« Nabou, save me »), is found in lists of names from Babylonian-Assyrian inscriptions, as well as borne by a son of Neko I tributary of Assurbanipal.
Captain of the guard of Nebuchadnezzar. According to the biblical account, he entered Jerusalem in 586 before the common era, set fire to the Temple and the royal palace, razed the city's walls and took part of its population into captivity, before ordering the execution in Ribla of the high priest Seraya, the second priest Cephania and the principal people of the city. Five years later, he returned and took 745 other captives. Rabbinic tradition, which also nicknamed him Arioch, reports that he was sent by Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Jerusalem because the king feared to wage war himself.
King of Egypt from 610 to 594 before the common era, son of Psammeticus I, of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. He undertook to connect the Nile to the Red Sea by a canal already begun under Ramesses II, without completing it, and had Africa circumnavigated by Phoenicians in three years. In 608, marching in Asia, he defeated and killed at Megiddo Josiah, king of Judah, then deposed Joachaz to raise his brother Eliakim to the throne under the name of Joaqim; four years later, he was severely defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar and had to retreat to Egypt.
Prince of Judah, at the head of the first Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Exile, when Cyrus authorized their return in 539-538 before the Common Era. He might have been the legitimate heir of the last king Joiakin if he is indeed identical to Chenatsar mentioned in I Chronicles, but he faced opposition from the conservative party once in Jerusalem. It is certain that he is called « prince » in the book of Ezra, that the Persian officer Mithredath handed over to him by order of Cyrus the sacred vessels of the Temple taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and that Zerubbabel would later invoke, under the reign of Darius, the authorization that Cyrus had given him.
One of the twelve minor prophets, son of Berechia and grandson of Iddo, to whom is attributed the book bearing his name. He begins his prophetic ministry in the second year of the reign of Darius, shortly after Haggai, concerning himself above all with the reconstruction of the Temple; he receives his messages in the form of visions interpreted by an angel, calls the high priest Joshua to loyalty to the messianic prince designated as the « Branch », and denounces ritual substitutes for true piety such as fasting, while announcing to Jerusalem, « city of truth », peace and prosperity.
Son of Shealtiel and grandson of Yehoyakin, governor of Juda in the second year of Darius I (520 BCE), perhaps identical to the « prince of Juda » Sheshbatsar who had brought back the first group of exiles from Babylon. With the high priest Josué, he erects an altar for burnt offerings and lays the foundations of the Second Temple, whose construction, delayed seventeen years by the opposition of the « adversaries of Juda and Benjamin », resumes under the impulsion of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah and is completed thanks to a decree of Darius.
Descendant of the royal house of David, he led the first return from the exile in Babylon and laid the foundations of the Second Temple (Ezra 3). The prophets Haggai and Zechariah saw in him a messianic hope. He symbolizes the national restoration after the catastrophe of 586.
Son of Jezelus, one of the sons of Joab, he appears in the list of those who returned with Ezra. In the corresponding list in the book of Ezra, he is called Obadiah, son of Jehiel.
King of Persia, surnamed Longimanus ("the Long Hand"), who ascended the throne in 465 BC and died in 425. The second son of Xerxes, who was assassinated in the summer of 465 by his all-powerful vizier Artabanus, who falsely accused the eldest son Darius of the crime in order to have him executed by his younger brother, the future Artaxerxes I, whom he then placed on the throne; warned by his brother-in-law Megabyzus that Artabanus sought his life, the young king rid himself of the murderer in single combat. According to Babylonian chronographic lists and the Ptolemaic canon, he reigned forty-one years, including the six-week reign of his son Xerxes II — some Greek sources credit him with only forty.
Persian king identified with Xerxes (486-465 BCE), reigning according to the Book of Esther over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, he gave in the third year of his reign a banquet of one hundred eighty days to show his wealth, followed by another of seven days for all the people. Having repudiated Queen Vashti for refusing to appear before the guests, in the seventh year of his reign he chose Esther as his new queen; having thwarted a plot against his life thanks to Mordecai, he later elevated Haman then, upon Esther's intercession, had him put to death and elevated Mordecai in his place.
Levite who returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, he held there a rank of second among his brothers. He served as doorkeeper of the storehouse, at the gate of the city.
Bigthan is a eunuch of Ahasuerus who, with Teresh, conspired against the king; the conspiracy was discovered by Mordecai, and the two eunuchs were put to death. He is also named Bigthana.
Levite who had married a foreign woman and repudiated her at Ezra's insistence. He may be the same person as Kalitas who helped Ezra explain the Law, also called Kelita or, according to another reading, Kelaiah.
One of the seven chamberlains in the service of Ahasuerus, charged by him with bringing Queen Vashti before the king. The Septuagint gives him a different name, and the Targum, which interprets allegorically five of the names of these chamberlains, leaves Zethar and Carcas without explanation.
One of the "sons of Anân" who married a foreign woman, according to the first book of Ezra. The name cannot be identified with any on the parallel list in the book of Ezra, and probably results from the combination of the end of the name "Maluch" with the beginning of the name "Shemaria", both present in that list, the remaining syllables having been elided.
King of Persia from 521 to 485 B.C., son of Hystaspes, Darius I overthrows the usurper mage Gaumata in 521 and must then suppress several revolts, including that of Babylon, renewed in 520 and again subdued in 519. These upheavals directly affect the Jews, who see in the announced fall of the pagan kingdom the precursory signs of the messianic age and regard Zerubbabel, Persian governor of Judea and descendant of David, as the messiah to come; thus the prophet Haggai announces to Zerubbabel, already in the second year of Darius's reign, that the time has come, and the high priest Joshua undertakes the rebuilding of the Temple.
Priest (descendant of Aaron through Tzadok) and scribe. Restored the Torah after the exile, instituted public reading, founded the "Great Assembly". Pivot between biblical prophecy and nascent rabbinic Judaism.
Priest and scribe, he led the second return from exile and restored the study of the Torah in Jerusalem. The Talmudic tradition (Sanhedrin 21b) holds that "had the Torah not been given through Moses, it could have been given through Ezra." He founded the Great Assembly (Knesset ha-Gedolah).
Queen of Persia and heroine of the Book of Esther (Megillah). Together with her uncle Mordecai, she saved the Jewish people from Haman's genocidal plot. The festival of Purim commemorates this event. The Scroll of Esther is the only biblical book in which God is not named.
Ezra the Scribe, descendant of the high priest Seraya and himself a priest, obtained from King Artaxerxes, in 458 BCE (the seventh year of his reign), a firman authorizing him to bring a community of exiles back to Jerusalem. Approximately fifteen hundred of them, mainly from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, gathered with him near the river that flows toward Ahava.
Ally of Sanballat and Tobiah, opponent of Nehemiah, sometimes called « Gashmou », probably chief of an Arab tribe. When Nehemiah undertook to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he joined the Samaritans in attempting to prevent it, even going so far as to accuse him of conspiracy against the King of Persia.
Harbona is one of the seven eunuchs in the service of Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, the one who suggests to the king to hang Haman on the gallows that the latter had erected for Mordecai. According to R. Eléazar, he would have first been in collusion with Haman before abandoning him when his plot failed; a tradition even reports that it was the prophet Elijah who appeared under the traits of Harbona, hence the practice, in a liturgical song of Purim, of asking that « Harbona also be remembered for good ».
Hippocrates is a Greek physician born in Cos in 460 before the common era and died in Larissa, in Thessaly, around 360 before the common era, trained in medicine by Herodicus of Selymbria and by his father Heraclides, and in philosophy by Gorgias of Leontinoi and Democritus of Abdera. His influence among Muslim and Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages grew as his works were disseminated through translation; he is the only Greek author to receive in Hebrew sources the honorific epithet of « the Pious », and Maimonides designates him as « the chief of physicians ». His Aphorisms were the most studied by Jewish scholars, translated into Hebrew from the Arabic.
Jehoiada, son of Eliashib, was high priest around 450 before the Common Era. One of his children, having become the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, was expelled from the Temple by Nehemiah.
2nd-century BCE Jewish leader, head of the Jewish forces during the Maccabean Revolt
Uncle and guardian of Esther, counselor at the Persian court. He uncovered Haman's plot and guided Esther in the rescue of the Jewish people. Tradition counts him among the members of the Great Assembly who fixed the biblical canon.
Chief minister of Ahasuerus and cousin of Esther, whom he made his adoptive daughter, according to the book of Esther. After thwarting a plot of two eunuchs against the king, he incurred the hatred of Haman by refusing to bow before him, which brought Israel a decree of extermination; thanks to Esther's intervention, the king revoked the decree, had Haman executed, elevated Mordecai to the rank of viceroy, and the latter instituted the feast of Purim, celebrated on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar in memory of the deliverance of the Jews.
One of Nehemiah's principal adversaries during the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem, nicknamed « the Horonite » and associated with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. He first mocked Nehemiah's project then, seeing the work progress, organized a military coalition against Jerusalem and attempted, in vain, to lure Nehemiah into a trap at the Temple; Nehemiah later discovered that a grandson of the high priest Eliashib had married a daughter of Sanballat, which caused him to be expelled from Jerusalem for having defiled the priesthood.
Athenian philosopher whose maieutic method (dialectical questioning) presents parallels with the Talmudic method of discussion and refutation. His trial and death for impiety resonate with the martyrdom of the Jewish sages under persecution.
Governor of Coele-Syria under Darius I, he attempted to prevent Zerubbabel and Joshua from continuing the reconstruction of the Temple and asked Darius to verify in the royal archives whether Cyrus had indeed authorized the Jews to rebuild it. His name, transcribed Σισίνης by the Septuagint and by Flavius Josephus, would have been, in Old Persian, « Thithinaya » or « Thathanaia ».
Persian king, son of Darius (485-465 BC), identified with the biblical Ahasuerus. He is mentioned in the book of Ezra regarding a complaint of the Samaritans against the Jews, appears as the king in the narrative of Esther, and is cited in the book of Daniel as the father of Darius, "of the seed of the Medes".
King of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire. According to the Talmud (Yoma 69a), he met the High Priest Simon the Just at the gates of Jerusalem and bowed before him. The hellenization he initiated would profoundly transform Judaism.
Greek philosopher whose thought permeated medieval Jewish philosophy. Maimonides, Gersonides, and Ibn Gabirol sought to reconcile his metaphysics with biblical revelation. The Guide for the Perplexed is a dialogue between Jewish faith and Aristotelian reason.
King of Persia, first named Arsaces then surnamed Mnemon by the Greeks, eldest son of Darius II, he succeeded him in 404 B.C. and took the name of his grandfather Artaxerxes; he reigned until 359, that is forty-six years. Of noble character but weak despite his courage, he fell under the influence of his mother Parysatis, who favored his younger brother Cyrus to the point of wanting the throne for him; after the revolt of Cyrus and his death at Cunaxa, in 401 B.C., Parysatis completely dominated the king. His reign nonetheless saw Greece submit through the "Peace of the King," in 387 B.C.
Son of Artaxerxes II, called Ochus by the Greeks, he ascended to the throne in the autumn of 359 B.C., after removing the legitimate heir Darius, and reigned until the summer of 338, a reign of twenty-one years. A cruel despot, he began his reign by having his dangerous relatives assassinated, but proved energetic, cementing the declining Persian empire with blood; he crushed the revolt of Sidon in 345-344, and subjugated Egypt in 343 or 342. A conflict with his Jewish subjects is linked to this: the high priest Johanan kills his brother Jesus in the Temple, and the general Bagoas avenges the murder by imposing a tax of fifty drachmas per sacrificed lamb.
Jaddua was high priest of the Second Temple. According to Flavius Josephus, he is the high priest who welcomed Alexander the Great with deference at the gates of Jerusalem, an episode that talmudic tradition instead attributes to Simon the Just. His genealogy, as reported by Nehemiah, remains uncertain as to his father's name, Jonathan or Johanan according to different versions.
Johanan ben Jehoiada was high priest under Artaxerxes III Ochus (359-338 BCE), perhaps identical to the high priest mentioned by Nehemiah. According to Flavius Josephus, he would have assassinated in the Temple his younger brother Jesus, for fear of being supplanted by him through the favor of the Persian general Bagoas—an episode whose historical authenticity is not established, tradition reporting a similar account perhaps going back to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. The high priest Jaddua was his son.
Priest of Modiin, father of the Maccabee brothers. His refusal to sacrifice to the Greek idols and his cry "Whoever is for the Lord, let him follow me!" (1 Maccabees 2:27) triggered the Maccabean revolt, a decisive turning point in Jewish history.
Cupbearer to the king of Persia who became governor of Judea, he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). Together with Ezra, he reestablished the observance of the Torah and organized the post-exilic Jewish community.
Hellenization, Hasmoneans, Herod, destruction of 70 CE.
Sage of the Great Assembly, disciple of Simon the Just. His teaching "Be not like servants who serve the master for the sake of a reward" (Avot 1:3) lays the foundation of selfless ethics in Judaism.
First sage whose Pharisaic tradition preserved not only the name but also a theological doctrine, active toward the first half of the 3rd century B.C.E., disciple and successor of Simon the Just according to the Mishna. His maxim — « Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving reward; be like those who serve without regard to reward, and let the fear of Heaven be upon you » — rejects the idea that piety should be rewarded by material prosperity, as does the one making future reward the motive of virtue. He is also the first Jew known to bear a Greek name.
King of Syria, flattered with the epithet « Theos » (God), from 261 to 246 B.C.E.; date of birth unknown, fixed by certain chronologists to 286, died in 246. After long years of war against Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt, he marries, with peace concluded, the daughter of the latter, Berenice, in repudiating his wife Laodice, in 248; two years later, he takes Laodice back, who then poisons him and Berenice and has their son executed. Probably well disposed toward the Jews, he would not have granted them, contrary to what has sometimes been claimed, full citizenship in Hellenistic cities.
The greatest mathematician of Antiquity, born in Syracuse around 287 B.C. His influence on Jewish literature remains limited: only two of his works have come down to us in Hebrew translation. Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (after 1306) translated twice the treatise « On Conoids and Spheroids » into Hebrew, allegedly from an Arabic translation by Costa ben Louca — although Arabic bibliographers know of no trace of it. Abraham bar Ḥiyya testifies to a perfect knowledge of Archimedes' theories in his « Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences », as does Abraham ibn Ezra in his astronomical work « Reshit Ḥokhma ».
Sage of Jerusalem, author of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), a collection of wisdom composed in Hebrew around 180 BCE. Although excluded from the Jewish canon, Hebrew fragments were found in the Cairo Genizah and at Qumran, attesting to its importance in Second Temple Judaism.
Chronicler supposed to have lived in Alexandria in the third century B.C.E., Demetrius is known through fragments of his chronicles cited by Alexander Polyhistor and reported by Eusebius: one excerpt traces the history of Jacob from his departure for Mesopotamia until his death, dating each event up to the birth of Aaron and Moses; another establishes through the genealogy of Jethro that Zipporah is descended from Abraham and Keturah; a third relates the sweetening of the waters of Marah. A fragment preserved by Clement of Alexandria places the end of the exile of the tribes up to the reign of Ptolemy IV (222–205 B.C.E.), under whom he wrote; Josephus draws his « Antiquities » from it.
Joseph ben Tobiah held the revenues of Egypt from around 220 to 198 before the Common Era; nephew, by his mother, of the high priest Onias II, he founded the family of the Tobiades, influential in Judea until the execution of its last member, Menelaus, in 162. When Onias refused to pay tribute under Ptolemy IV Philopator, Joseph traveled to Alexandria to negotiate the matter, made himself appreciated by the king through his wit, and obtained the office of tax collector for Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, which he exercised for twenty-two years with severity, accumulating immense wealth. The rivalry between his seven sons from his first marriage and Hyrcanus, his son from the second, divided Judea into two camps, Oniads and Tobiads.
Greco-Egyptian writer, high priest of Sebennytos, active under the first two Ptolemies; his history of Egypt, written after 271 before the common era, serves as a source to Josephus in the « Against Apion ». After him, Julius Africanus (221) and Eusebius (326) drew from it chronological tables of Egyptian dynasties, both preserved by George the Syncellus (c. 792).
Greek sovereign of Egypt, satrap from 322 to 307 BCE and then king from 305 to 285, founder of the Lagid (Ptolemaic) dynasty, named after his father Lagos. He seized Jerusalem in 320 BCE by cunning, on a Sabbath day when the Jews did not fight, took captives to Egypt and settled them as a garrison in fortified places; his benevolence toward the Jews, opposed to later Seleucid persecutions, is noted several times by Flavius Josephus.
Pharaoh of Egypt who, according to tradition (Letter of Aristeas), commissioned the translation of the Torah into Greek (Septuagint) by 72 Jewish sages in Alexandria. This translation is one of the most important intellectual undertakings of antiquity.
King of Egypt from 285 to 247 BCE, he pursued the struggle for possession of Coele-Syria and Palestine, which he secured durably around 274, and founded several cities in Palestine, including Philadelphia and Ptolemais. He married his sister Bérénice to the Seleucid king Antiochos II to seal the peace between the two kingdoms, a union whose failure relaunched the war between Egypt and Syria; according to the Letter of Aristeas, it was under his reign that the Greek translation of the Septuagint was realized.
King of Egypt from 247 to 222 B.C.E., mentioned in the Book of Daniel for his conquests in Syria, from which he brought back to Egypt statues and vessels of gold and silver, earning him the surname Euergetes (« benefactor »). After his victory, he went to Jerusalem where he sacrificed according to Jewish rite; when the high priest Onias II refused to pay the talents of silver due to the king, his nephew Josephus appeased the crisis and obtained the position of tax collector for Judea and Cœle-Syria.
High Priest of Jerusalem, one of the last members of the Great Assembly. The Talmud (Avot 1:2) records his teaching: "The world rests on three things: the Torah, divine service, and acts of loving-kindness." Ben Sira (Sirach 50) paints a grandiose portrait of him.
King of Syria of obscure birth, died in 145 BCE. Claimant to the throne presented as son of Antiochus Epiphanes, he is proclaimed king in 153 BCE against Demetrius I Soter, and at once secures the alliance of Jonathan the Hasmonean by naming him High Priest of the Jews — a charge that Jonathan assumes at the Feast of Tabernacles of 152 BCE. A faithful ally of Alexander against the supporters of Demetrius II, Jonathan serves him notably in 147 BCE, and receives in return, at Alexander's marriage to the daughter of Ptolemy Philometor in 150 BCE, the titles of strategos and governor of a province.
Active in the 2nd century BCE, he represents the Jews in their religious controversy with the Samaritans, held before King Ptolemy VI Philometer around 150 BCE. He demonstrates through Scripture the historical continuity of the Jewish high priests and the prestige of the Temple of Jerusalem, thus refuting the Samaritans' claim to make Mount Gerizim their sacred place of worship; according to the account, his victory is said to have even resulted in the Samaritan champions, Sabbeus and Theodosus, being executed — a point that Josephus himself judges too implausible not to cast doubt on the entire account.
Second son of John Hyrcanus, born around 135 B.C. and died in 103, he proved himself, while still young, a capable soldier during his father's lifetime. With his brother Aristobulus, he besieged and took Samaria around 109, repelling attempts at Syrian and Egyptian relief. Becoming king around 105, Aristobulus imprisoned his other brothers but left Antigone at liberty, even associating him with power — a favor that aroused the jealousy of a court cabal, led according to tradition by Queen Alexandra (Salome), and which ultimately obtained his death by the king's order, around 104, at the Feast of Tabernacles; Aristobulus, consumed with grief at having caused his brother's death, did not long survive him.
King of Syria, born around 242 BC, reigning from 223, died in 187. Around 218, he invaded Palestine, claimed as part of his Seleucid domain, seizing numerous strongholds; in 198, after defeating the Egyptian general Scopas at Paneas, in the north of Palestine, the gates of Jerusalem opened to him. Between his entry into Palestine, in 218, and the formal incorporation of the country into the Seleucid empire, in 198, Judea, says Josephus, was like a ship tossed by storms. His defeat by the Romans at Magnesia, in 190, considerably weakened his power.
King of Syria, called « the Illustrious », he reigns from 175 BCE and dies in 164. Son of Antiochus the Great, he seizes the throne after the murder of his brother Seleucus, to the detriment of his nephew Demetrios, the legitimate heir; rabbinic sources call him « the Wicked ». Vain and profligate, he had learned in Rome to seduce the common people while harboring, at heart, a tyrannical contempt for his fellows; far from Hellenizing his subjects by conviction, he sought to denationalize them. It was the conflict between the Tobiads and high priest Onias III that gave him the occasion to meddle in Jewish affairs.
King of Syria, son of Antiochus IV, born in 173 BCE, died in 162. He succeeds his father at twelve years of age (nine according to others) and reigns two years, from 164 to 162, under the regency of Lysias: the army of Judas Maccabee is defeated at Beth-Zacharie, Beth-Tsour falls, and the Temple mount is near surrender for lack of provisions, in a sabbatical year. The internal troubles of the Seleucid kingdom nevertheless save the Jews: to counter Philip, who threatens Antioch, Lysias proclaims religious freedom for the Jews—a gain they retain despite the death of Antiochus V, assassinated in 162 by Demetrius I.
King of Syria, son of Alexander Balas, died in 142 BCE. Proclaimed king, still a minor, in 146, by Diodotus called Tryphon, former general of his father, he showed himself, like him, well disposed toward the Jews: he confirmed the Hasmonean Jonathan in his possessions and appointed his brother Simon military commander as far as the Egyptian frontier. However, the growing military power of the Hasmoneans worried Tryphon, who had Jonathan assassinated by treachery at the end of 143, then, a year later, dropped his mask and had Antiochus VI himself killed to seize the throne.
King of Syria, son of Demetrius I, born in 164, died in 129 BC. In 138, he rose against the usurper Tryphon and initially confirmed to the Hasmonean Simon the privileges granted by his predecessors, before going back on his promises and demanding the return of Jaffa, Gezer and the citadel of Jerusalem; Simon refused, and his general Cendebaeus was defeated in 137 by Simon's sons. Later, Antiochus besieged John Hyrcanus in Jerusalem, imposing the surrender of weapons, tribute and hostages; forced to follow him on his expedition against the Parthians in 129, Hyrcanus was freed by the king's death the following year.
King of Syria from 125 to 113 and then from 111 to 96 B.C., born in 141, died in 96. During the first three years of his reign, he must confront Alexandre Zabinas, his rival, which forces him to remain on good terms with the Jews, who then held a share of the balance of power. After Zabinas's defeat, he enjoyed eight years of peaceful rule and continued his friendly policy toward them, not yet feeling strong enough to impose the terms of the treaty concluded by Antiochus Sidetes, including between 113 and 96, when he wrested part of Syria from his rival Antiochus IX.
One of the Judeans sent to Rome, around 130 BCE, to conclude a pact of friendship with the Romans; Josephus designates him as «son of Alexander».
Peripatetic philosopher from Alexandria, active in the third or second century BCE — the dating remains uncertain, but the most reliable testimony makes him a contemporary of Ptolemy Philometer, in the middle of the second century BCE. He is the author of a work, whose exact title remains uncertain, setting forth the Law; Eusebius preserved two fragments of it. In the first, he shows that the anthropomorphic expressions of the Bible, understood in their true sense and not in mythical fashion, do not contradict the nature of God. The second maintains that Plato and Pythagoras had drawn from a translation of the Mosaic law prior to the one attributed to Demetrius of Phaleron.
Parthian king, according to some the sixth to bear this name, mentioned in the first book of Maccabees as having captured Demetrius, who had revolted against him. Demetrius marries a daughter of Arsaces and, according to Josephus, dies in captivity. Arsaces also appears among the kings to whom Rome addresses the edict forbidding the persecution of the Jews. He is also known by the name Mithridates I.
Historian active in Alexandria in the 2nd century B.C., whose history of the Jews is partially known to us through fragments preserved in Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria. Belonging to a circle of Hellenized Jews animated by clumsy apologetic zeal, he invents various fables glorifying Judaism in the eyes of the outside world: according to him, Moses — identified with the Museum of the Greeks, but presented as the master, not the pupil, of Orpheus — would be the inventor of navigation, architecture, military strategy and philosophy, and even the true founder of Greco-Egyptian worship, the Egyptians having nicknamed him Hermes for having interpreted the sacred writings of the priests.
General of the army of Judas Maccabee, he was left, with Joseph son of Zacharias, at the head of the Judean army in 165 before the common era, while Judas and Jonathan were warring in Gilead and Simon in Galilee, with orders to remain on the defensive. Impatient before the exploits of the others, he nonetheless engaged in combat at Jamnia against the Syrian general Gorgias, who repulsed him with a loss of two thousand men.
Syrian whom one believed to be involved in the burning of the gates of the Temple during the persecution led under the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. When the Jews celebrated their victory over Nicanor, in 135 before the Christian era, they captured him while he had taken refuge in a small house, and burned him.
Son of Gothoniel, one of three governors of Bethulia, a city besieged by Holofernes. Towards the end of the siege, which had caused great suffering to the Israelites, he agreed with his colleagues to hold out for another five days in hope of deliverance, promising the people to surrender if no relief appeared; Judith blamed them, promised her aid, and kept her word by killing Holofernes.
Father of Judas, one of the two captains who remained in combat when all the others, under Jonathan, had fled at the battle of the plain of Nasor. Josephus also mentions him, but under the name of Chapsios.
King of Syria from 162 to 150 before the Common Era, son of Seleukos IV Philopator, Demetrius I Soter seized the throne with the help of Polybe and defeated the satrap Timarque, who had cruelly subjugated Babylon, hence his epithet « Soter » (Savior). In 162, he appointed Alcime high priest of the Jews; his general Nicanor, charged with reinstalling him, was killed in combat in 161, and Bacchides defeated Judas Maccabee in 160, while Jonathan held fast and concluded peace with Bacchides in 157. Hated by the Syrians for his pride, and abandoned by the Jews rallied in 153 to Alexander Balas, he died in the decisive battle that opposed him to the latter.
King of Syria, son of Demetrius Soter, Demetrius II Nicator set out in 147 against Alexander Balas, whom he defeated, with the help of his father-in-law Ptolemy Philometor, at the decisive Battle of Antioch in 146. He confirmed Jonathan as high priest in exchange for a tribute of 300 talents and left him three districts taken from Samaria; when his mercenaries rebelled, Jonathan sent him 3,000 Jews to quell the uprising. Refusing to withdraw his garrisons from Judea, he provoked a new uprising led by Diodotus; defeated, he took refuge in Seleucia, recognized Simon as high priest, then, warring against the Parthians, was taken prisoner in 140.
Officer in the service of Lysias, Démophon is a Syrian general in Palestine around 164 BCE and, in that capacity, harasses a Jewish population already exhausted by numerous wars and then occupied with its agricultural work.
Sovereign of Syria from 141 to 138 BCE, born in Kasiana near Apamea, Diodotus, called Tryphon, officer of Alexander Balas, opposes the claims of Demetrius II by placing the young Antiochus, the minor son of Alexander, on the throne before attracting by ruse Jonathan the Hasmonean from Bethsan to Ptolemais to have him put to death in Baskama, then marching against Simon Maccabee in Judea. Having had the young Antiochus killed and having proclaimed himself « king of Asia », he drives Simon to obtain Jewish independence from Demetrius; finally besieged in Apamea by Antiochus VII Sidetes, ally of Simon, after having fled to Orthosia, Diodotus takes his own life.
Eupolème, son of Jean and grandson of Accos, was one of the envoys sent by Judas Maccabée to Rome, with Jason son of Éléazar, to secure the friendship and alliance of the Romans. The Roman senate received their request favorably, and the decree engraved on bronze tablets was displayed in Jerusalem. This Eupolème is not the Hellenistic writer of the same name.
Gorgias is a Syrian general of the 2nd century before the Common Era, sent with Nicanor at the head of an army against Judas Maccabee. While attempting to surprise the Jewish camp by night near Emmaus, Judas attacks and routs the bulk of the Syrian army left at camp, in 166 before the Common Era. Governor of Idumea, Gorgias later defeats the Jewish generals Joseph and Azariah near Jamnia, before withdrawing to Marissa.
Heliodorus is treasurer, or chancellor, of Seleucus IV Philopator, sent by the latter, at the instigation of Apollonius, to Jerusalem to seize the treasure of the Temple. Repelled by the high priest Onias, he nevertheless forces his way into the sanctuary but is driven out, struck unconscious, by the apparition of a horseman and two young men who flog him; restored to life by the prayer of the high priest, he renounces the treasure and advises Seleucus, upon his return, to send to Jerusalem only his worst enemy. According to Appian, a namesake assassinated Seleucus in 175 before the common era.
Collector of royal revenues in Egypt, born in Jerusalem around 220 before the common era, died in 175, younger son of the tax farmer Joseph ben Tobiah. Sent by his father to represent the family at the court of Egypt, he there won the favor of King Ptolemy by his wit and his generosity, but aroused the jealousy of his half-brothers, two of whom he killed during an armed confrontation before fleeing Jerusalem. Retired beyond the Jordan on lands conceded by Ptolemy V, he there built the fortress of Tyros and amassed an immense fortune, before taking his own life at the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, who sought to capture him.
High Priest and Hasmonean prince born around 175, died in 104. A skillful general, he distinguished himself by defeating the Syrian general Cendebaeus, a victory to which tradition attributes his surname Hyrcanus. After the assassination of his father Simon Maccabee by his son-in-law Ptolemy, he escaped an attempt on his life and was welcomed in Jerusalem as Simon's successor in 135. Subsequently besieged by the Syrian king Antiochus Sidetes, weakened by lack of provisions, he negotiated costly peace—surrender of weapons, tribute for Jaffa, hostages, including his own brother—after a truce of seven days granted for the Feast of Tabernacles.
Judeo-Hellenistic historian, Jason of Cyrene composed in Greek a history of the revolt of the Maccabees in five books, from which the author of the Second Book of Maccabees drew an abridgment covering fifteen years, from the death of Seleucus IV to the victory over Nicanor (175-161). Nothing else is known of him with certainty, except that he might be identical to a Jason of Cyrene who inscribed his name on the temple of Thutmose III in Egypt.
Johanan Gadi was the eldest of the five sons of Mattathias the Maccabee, although the least important of them. When his brother Jonathan, pressed by the enemy east of the Jordan, sent him with the baggage to the Nabataeans, a rival tribe, the sons of Jambri seized it and killed him; his death was avenged by his brothers Jonathan and Simon. Rabbinic sources give him greater importance, but their accounts remain confused.
leader of the Hasmonean dynasty of the 2nd century BCE. Successor to Mattathias
Jonathan ben Absalom was a general of Simon Maccabee. On his orders, he took possession of Jaffa and expelled its inhabitants so that they could not deliver the city to Trypho.
Jonathan Maccabee, son of Mattathias and surnamed Apphus (« the diplomat »), led the Jews in the Maccabean wars from 161 to 143 before the common era, after having fought alongside his brother Judas. At the death of the latter, while the Syrian general Bacchides was raging against the Maccabean party and famine struck the land, the Jews chose Jonathan as their leader; he withdrew with his brother Simeon into the desert east of the Jordan, where his brother Johanan, sent with the baggage to the Nabataeans, was killed by the sons of Jambri, which Jonathan avenged. He then escaped Bacchides and fortified, further into the desert, a place called Beth-Hoglah.
José ben Yoezer of Tserédah, rabbi of the first Maccabean period, perhaps a disciple of Antigonus of Sokho, formed with his colleague José ben Yohanan the first of the « pairs » (zougot) that succeeded one another until Hillel and Shammai, and held, according to tradition, the presidency of the Sanhedrin. A member of the Hasidim and fierce opponent of Hellenism, he declared « impure » pagan lands and glass vessels, while showing himself liberal enough in other respects to earn the surname « Sharaya » (« he who permits »). He probably perished crucified by order of the Syrian general Bacchides, at the instigation of his own nephew, the high priest Alcimus.
José ben Yohanan, native of Jerusalem, was president of the Sanhedrin in the second century before the common era; with his colleague José ben Yoézer, disciple of Antigonos of Sokho like himself, he formed the first of the "pairs" that transmitted the tradition, one holding the presidency, the other the vice-presidency. An opponent of Hellenism and member of the hasidim like his colleague, he left the maxim: "Let your house be widely open, let the poor be its guests, and do not prolong conversation with a woman."
Jewish general of the Maccabean era, left with Azariah at the head of the troops when Judas, Jonathan, and Simon left to defend the Jews of Galaad and Galilee. Despite the prohibition against engaging in battle, he attacked with Azariah the city of Jabné out of ambition to make a name for himself; the Syrians of Gorgias repelled them, inflicting the loss of two thousand men on them, and pursued them until Judea.
Son of Simon Tharsi: when the Syrian general Cendebaeus was sent against his father, he commanded the Judean army with his brother John, defeated him on the plain of Jabné and pursued him to Azot, where he himself was wounded (around 137 before the Common Era). He was killed with his brother Mattathias when Simon was assassinated by his son-in-law Ptolemy, in 135 before the Common Era.
Leader of the Maccabean revolt against the religious persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. His victory and the purification of the Temple (164 BCE) are commemorated by the festival of Hanukkah. He embodies Jewish resistance for religious freedom.
Syrian statesman of royal blood, died in 162 BC; appointed regent and tutor of the future king Antiochus V by Antiochus IV Epiphanes who left to war against the Parthians in 166-165, he was charged with suppressing the Jewish revolt and led an army against the rebels in 165, but was defeated at Beth-Zur and had to withdraw to Antioch. Returning to Judea in 163 with the young Antiochus V, he again besieged Beth-Zur and defeated the Jewish army at Beth-Zacharias, before having to make peace with the Jews to face his rival Philip; delivered with his ward to the pretender Demetrius I, he was put to death in 162.
Hellenistic writer of the 2nd century before the Common Era, known by the Semitic name Malchus and identified with Cleodemus the Prophet; his origin (Phoenician, Syrian, Samaritan, or Jewish) remains debated among scholars. Author of a history of the Jews in Greek mixing Jewish traditions and Greek mythology, now lost, of which an excerpt is cited by Josephus after Alexander Polyhistor.
Son of the Hasmonean prince Simon, whom he accompanied, with his brother Judah and their mother, on his last visit to the fortress of Docus, near Jericho, where their son-in-law and host Ptolemy had Simon assassinated after chaining his sons. The accounts diverge, between the first book of Maccabees and Josephus, on the exact moment when Mattathias was killed — at the same moment as his father or later — Josephus's account being authoritative.
high priest of Jerusalem
High Priest from 171 to around 161 before the common era, successor of Jason. The sources differ on his origin — the tribe of Benjamin according to II Maccabees, the priestly family of Onias III according to Josephus — but agree on his contempt for the religion of his fathers : he outbids Jason with Antiochus to obtain the office of high priest, then plunders the sacred vessels of the Temple. Accused of this sacrilege by Onias III, he has him assassinated through the intermediary of the royal lieutenant Andronicus, before continuing the plundering of the Temple until provoking riots in which his brother Lysimachos dies.
Son of Patrocle, general and friend of Antiochus Epiphanes, he was sent in 165 before the Common Era with Gorgias to fight the Jews, bringing a thousand slave merchants to sell the captives he expected to take, but had to flee disguised to Antioch after the defeat of Gorgias by Judas Maccabee. Perhaps identical to the keeper of the elephants sent later by King Demetrios I against the Jews, he was totally defeated and killed at Adasa on the 13th of adar of the year 161, a day that the Jews instituted as a festival of commemoration, also known in rabbinic sources as the "day of Nicanor".
Son of Antiochus, he was sent with Antipater, son of Jason, to Sparta and Rome, first by Jonathan Maccabee then by Simon, bringing back favorable decrees whose text is preserved. According to Valerius Maximus, it was during his second journey to Rome, in 139 before the common era, that Jewish proselytes were expelled from the city, a sign of then nascent Jewish propaganda.
King of Egypt from 222 to 205 BC, victor over Antiochos the Great at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC. According to the Third Book of Maccabees, he then went to Jerusalem and wanted to enter the Temple, but was prevented by divine intervention which left him struck with stupor; back in Alexandria, he ordered that the Jews be delivered to his elephants in the arena, but the beasts turned against his own troops, and the Jews commemorated this deliverance each year.
King of Egypt from 205 to 182 B.C., ascended to the throne at the age of five. Antiochus the Great took from him Cœle-Syria and Palestine in 202 B.C., defeating the Egyptian general Scopas near the sources of the Jordan then at Sidon; the Jews of Jerusalem, according to Flavius Josephus, lent their hand to Antiochus and themselves besieged the Egyptian garrison. Ptolemy Epiphanes died poisoned, according to testimony reported by Jerome after Porphyry.
King of Egypt from 182 to 146 b.c., eldest son of Ptolemy V, whose Jewish philosopher Aristobulus of Paneas was tutor. Defeated by Antiochus IV in 170 b.c., he must flee while the Alexandrians place his brother, the future Euergetes II, on the throne; in 150 b.c., when he marries his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander Balas in Ptolemais, the Jewish leader Jonathan Maccabee attends the ceremony and is treated with great honors there by both kings.
King of Egypt from 146 to 117 B.C., nicknamed Euergetes II or Physcon; after the death of his brother Ptolemy Philometor, he attempts to oust the widow of the latter, Cleopatra, whose army is commanded by the Jewish general Onias. It is under his reign, in the thirty-eighth year of his government counted from 170 B.C., that the grandson of Jesus ben Sira goes to Egypt and translates the book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach).
General of the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Dorymenes, sent with Nicanor and Gorgias to fight the Maccabees. Having betrayed Ptolemy Philometor by abandoning Cyprus, whose custody had been entrusted to him, he went into the service of Antiochus Epiphanes, who rewarded him with the government of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia; seeking to treat the Jews with benevolence, he is denounced to the king and ends his life by poison.
The only reigning queen of Judea (76-67 BCE), she presided over a golden age of peace and prosperity. An ally of the Pharisees, she fostered the rise of the rabbinic academies. The Talmud (Taanit 23a) evokes her reign as a blessed time when the rains fell abundantly.
Queen of Judea (76-67 BCE), the only woman to have reigned over an independent Jewish state. An ally of the Pharisees, she fostered the rise of rabbinic Judaism and presided over a period of peace and prosperity that the Talmud compares to a golden age.
Pharisee, president of the Sanhedrin and brother of Queen Salome Alexandra. He strengthened the authority of the rabbinic courts, instituted compulsory public education, and promoted the marriage contract (ketubah) to protect women.
son of Mattathias, Jewish leader of the 2nd century BCE
Simon Maccabee, Hasmonean prince and high priest, second son of Mattathias, dies in 135 BCE. He takes an active part in the war of liberation against the Syrians alongside his brothers Judah and Jonathan, before being appointed strategus of the coastal region, then elected leader of the people after Jonathan's capture. Under his leadership, Judea obtains from Demetrius II the tax exemption that amounts to recognition of its political independence.
Rabbi and Nasi of the Sanhedrin.
One of the five sons of John Hyrcanus, he was imprisoned with his mother and two of his brothers when Judas Aristobulus ascended the Hasmonean throne in 105 BCE, and released a year later at the latter's death. Having preferred a life as a simple subject, he was loaded with honors by his brother Alexander Jannaeus, who had another brother pretending to the crown executed, and survived all his brothers until he was taken prisoner by Pompey at the capture of Jerusalem in 63 BCE. Through his daughter, married to his nephew Aristobulus II, he became the great-grandfather of Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great.
Chief of the Pharisees and vice-president, according to tradition, of the great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem in the middle of the first century before the Christian era, of pagan origin, he was with his colleague Schemaya one of the most influential and beloved men of his time. He persuaded the inhabitants of Jerusalem to open the gates of the city to Herod, who rewarded him with great honors, and was, with his master Juda ben Ṭabbaï, forced to take refuge in Alexandria during the persecution of the Pharisees by Alexander Jannaeus.
Jewish slave of Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, she fell, during the family troubles of Herod's later years, under the influence of his son Antipater, then established in Rome. Seduced by gifts and promises, she forged a compromising letter attributed to Salome, Herod's sister, addressed to her mistress Livia, and had it conveyed to Herod through Antiphilus. Her guilt was discovered through an intercepted letter in which she admitted the forgery at Antipater's request ; Herod informed Augustus of it, and Acme was put to death in 5 before the Common Era.
King of Syria from 124 to 122 BCE, son of a simple merchant, he had himself proclaimed by the king of Egypt Ptolemy Physcon adoptive son of the Syrian king Antiochus VII Sidetes and thus seized power. In the game of political intrigues of the time, he judged it useful to secure the support of the Jewish king Hyrcanus, to whom he rendered in return various services for the benefit of Judea.
Son of Herod and the Hasmonean princess Mariamne, born around 35 BCE and died around 7 BCE. Sent to be educated in Rome in 23 BCE, he remained there until around 17 BCE, at which time Herod brought him back to Jerusalem with his younger brother Aristobulus; he then married Glaphyra, daughter of the king of Cappadocia Archelaus. Popular for his bearing but undermined by his vindictiveness, he became the target of the intrigues of Salome, who pushed his father to bring accusations against him before Augustus in 12 BCE, and then, around 10 BCE, to throw him in prison on the basis of testimony extracted under torture.
Only reigning Jewish queen along with the usurper Athalie, born in 139 BCE and died in 67 BCE, wife of Aristobule I then of Alexander Jannaeus. At the death of Aristobule, in 103 BCE, she has Alexander Jannaeus released from prison, whom she marries shortly after his accession. On his deathbed, Alexander entrusts her with the government rather than to his sons; she receives the reins of power in 76 or 75 BCE, at the camp before Ragaba, and knows how to appease the internal dissensions of the kingdom without harming its external relations.
Daughter of King Aristobule II, taken to Rome as a prisoner of war by Pompey in 63 B.C. with her parents and brothers. Freed by the Senate in 56 B.C., she found refuge, after the poisoning of her father by Pompey's supporters in 49 B.C., with her mother and brother Antigone at the court of Ptolemy, prince of Chalcis, whose son Philippion she married — whom her father-in-law, seduced by her beauty, had assassinated before marrying her himself.
Eldest son of Aristobulus II and son-in-law of Hyrcanus, born around 100 BCE and died in 47 BCE. Taken prisoner to Rome after the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey, he escapes and returns to Judea to rebuild the destroyed fortifications, then gathers an army of ten thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry to face Rome. Defeated near Jerusalem by the lieutenant of Gabinius, Mark Antony, he capitulates after a brave defense, rises again with reconstituted forces, but must finally retreat before the return of Gabinius.
King of Judea, born around 126 BC and died in 76 BC, third son of John Hyrcanus who ascended the throne in 102 BC. After the childless death of his brother Aristobulus I, who reigned only a year, he married his widow Salome — thirteen years his senior — and combined kingship and high priesthood, in rupture with the Sadducean conception of Levitical law. His reign, entirely devoted to the enlargement of Judea, opens with an expedition against the city of Ptolemais.
Last Hasmonean king of Judea, died in 37 BCE. Second son of Aristobulus II, he was taken prisoner to Rome by Pompey with his father in 63 BCE, and escaped in 57 to return to Palestine. Upon the death of his elder brother Alexander, he considered himself sole heir of the Hasmoneans and first sought the support of Rome, meeting Julius Caesar in Syria in 47 — without success. He then turned to Rome's adversaries and attempted in 42, with his brother-in-law Ptolemy Mennei, to seize power in Palestine, before succeeding two years later, taking advantage of the Parthian invasion of Syria in the year 40.
Father of Herod I, died in 43 BCE, son of Antipas, converted to Judaism and governor of Idumea under Alexander Jannaeus and then Alexandra. Fearing he would be sidelined by King Aristobulus II, he worked to depose him in favor of the weak Hyrcanus II, more tractable, persuading him that his brother was plotting against him. He secured the aid of Arab chief Aretas, to whom he promised money and twelve Hasmonean cities, and led him against Aristobulus, whom he defeated — a loss of independence for Judea, but a success for Antipater, who retained his influence over Hyrcanus even after Gabinius stripped him of all power in 57 BCE.
Greek rhetor and anti-Jewish writer, active in the 1st century BCE, still praised as a master of oratory around 75 BCE. Born in Alabanda, in Caria, he emigrated to Rhodes, where among his students he counted Cicero and Julius Caesar; it was there that he adopted the anti-Jewish ideas of the Syrian Stoic Posidonius (135-51 BCE), spreading in the Greek and Roman world extravagant slanders about the Jews — worship of a donkey in their Temple, annual sacrifice of a fattened Greek, hatred of all other nations —, which he gathered, unlike his master, in a treatise entirely devoted to the Jews.
Writer on Jewish history, mentioned by Eusebius, who cites an extract from his work "On the Jews" reproducing the story of Job almost as the Bible reports it, but identifying Job, under his original name Jobab, as the grandson of Esau from Genesis — an identification that the author of the book of Job had himself borrowed from Genesis. This identification is also found in the "additions" of the Septuagint to the book of Job. His time is located between the translation of the book of Job and that of Alexander Polyhistor, probably in the second century; he should not be confused with the author of the Letter of Aristeas, who borrows his name from him.
Son of Herod the Great and Mariamne the Hasmonean, born around 35 BCE, died in 7 BCE. Sent to Rome in 23 BCE with his older brother Alexander, they returned to Jerusalem in 18 BCE and became targets of the anti-Hasmonean faction at court; Herod married Aristobulus to Berenice, daughter of Salome, to ease tensions, to no avail. Antipater, a repudiated half-brother, slandered both princes to Augustus, whom Herod met in Aquileia in 12 BCE to accuse them of parricide; reconciled briefly, they were ultimately condemned to death by a council convened in Berytus and strangled in Sebastia in 7 BCE.
King of Judea, elder son of John Hyrcanus, born around 140 BCE, died in 104. He succeeds his father as high priest while his mother was to reign as queen; barely his father dead, he throws her in prison, where she dies of hunger, and imprisons three of his brothers, thus becoming the first Jewish king since the Babylonian exile, nearly five hundred years earlier. He makes war on Ituraea, subdues a large part of it and imposes circumcision on its inhabitants. Driven by court intrigues to suspect his preferred brother Antigone, whom he had almost made a partner in the throne, he orders his execution, then, consumed by remorse, allows himself to die of grief, in 104 BCE.
King of Judea, younger son of Alexander Jannaeus, born around 100 BCE, died in 49 BCE. Protector of the Sadducees against his older brother Hyrcanus II, he used the fortresses placed at his disposal by their mother the queen to prepare the usurpation of power; sent to fight Ptolemy Lathyrus in 70-69, he fails, then, upon the queen's death, marches against Hyrcanus and prevails, who renounces the throne after three months of rule. Hyrcanus, aided by Aretas of Arabia, then besieges Aristobulus on the Temple Mount; in 65, the Roman legate Scaurus, seduced by Aristobulus's gold, decides in his favor.
Last scion of the Hasmonean royal house, brother of Mariamne and grandson on the paternal side of Aristobulus II. Favored by the people for his noble birth and bearing, he troubled Herod, who first sought to set him aside by refusing him the high priesthood; but his mother Alexandra, through the intercession of Cleopatra and Antony, forced Herod to remove Ananel and appoint him in his place. Placed under close surveillance, he sought with his mother to flee to Cleopatra, but the plot was discovered, redoubling Herod's suspicions; not daring resort to open violence, Herod had him drowned while bathing at Jericho in 35 BCE.
Chief of the Jews during the insurrection under Archelaus (4 BCE–6 CE). A simple shepherd and bold adventurer, with no other title to power than his strength and gigantic stature, he manages, with his four brothers of equal size and vigor, to rally around him large troops of men then, after taking the royal title, to wage war both against the Romans and against the forces of Archelaus; after a prolonged and courageous struggle, he and his brothers are defeated. Rapoport has explained the name « Athronges » by a Persian word Hebraized meaning « orange » or « melon », identifying it with Ben Batia, « son of the cucumber », the popular hero.
Disciple of Shammai; advised Herod to restore the Temple.
Rhetorician, critic, and historian, active in the first century BCE at Calacte, on the north coast of Sicily; first Jew known for his literary activity at Rome. Born a slave under the name of Archagathos, he takes, once freed, the name of Caecilius, and goes to Rome to study rhetoric under Apollodorus, forming a friendship with Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived in Rome from 30 to 7 BCE. Suidas attests that he was Jewish, which modern criticism generally accepts. Representative of the Attic style against the verbose Asiatic style, he extends his work to philology and aesthetic criticism, notably on the ten Attic orators.
Quaestor of Crassus in Syria in 53 BCE, he became independent governor of the province after the disaster of Carrhes and, coming to Judea, seized the fortress of Tarichée, had Pitholaus killed at the instigation of Antipater, and led numerous Jews into captivity. Appointed praetor of Syria by Julius Caesar in 44, then proconsul by the Senate in 43, he returned to Judea where he demanded from the Jews seven hundred talents of silver, which Antipater had to distribute among the provinces, Herod being the first to pay his share. Allied with the party of Cassius and Brutus against Octavian and Anthony, he committed suicide after the Battle of Philippi, in 42 BCE.
Caius Julius Caesar is a dictator, consul, and Roman conqueror, born July 12, 100 before the common era (102 according to Mommsen) and assassinated March 15, 44 before the common era. His attitude toward the Jews is evident in several decrees taken in their favor by him and the Senate; the first, dated July 47 before the common era, recognizes the services rendered by Hyrcanus, son of Alexander, high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and grants him certain privileges. Another decree guarantees that the Jews possess Jerusalem and that Hyrcanus governs it as he wishes, with tax relief during the sabbatical year.
Cypros, a woman of Arab origin from noble lineage, married around 75 BCE to the Jewish governor Antipater, to whom she bore five children: Phasael, Herod, the future king, Joseph, Pheroras and Salome. When Herod had to travel to Augustus, he entrusted his mother Cypros and his sister to his brother Pheroras, who had them taken to Masada, while his wife Mariamne and her mother, who treated them haughtily, were sent elsewhere. Herod also gave the name Cypros, in honor of his mother, to a fortress he had built near Jericho.
Roman statesman and orator, born in 106 and died in 43 before the Christian era. In 59, in a speech pronounced in the Aurelian forum in favor of Flaccus — accused of having diverted, as proconsul of Asia, the money intended for the Temple of the Jews —, he spoke of the Jews with contempt, calling them « barbarous superstition », while invoking, not without sophistry, an edict forbidding the export of gold from the Roman provinces. Former disciple in rhetoric of the anti-Jewish writer Apollonius Molon, he also qualified, in a speech pronounced in the Senate in 56, Jews and Syrians as « peoples born for slavery ».
Queen of Egypt from 52 to 30 BCE, daughter of Ptolemy Auletes. Her influence over Rome's rulers weighed on the fate of Herod of Judea: allied with Antony, she obtained from him the coastal region and Jericho, forcing Herod to pay her an annual tribute, and pushed the Nabatean king Malichus into a war in which the Jews were defeated in 31 BCE. According to Flavius Josephus, she proved hostile to the Jews, refusing to send them grain during a famine in Alexandria.
One of the nine wives of Herod I, whom he marries late in his life. Cleopatra of Jerusalem gives him two sons, Herod and Philip, as reported by Flavius Josephus.
Darius III was the last King of Persia; he reigned from 336 to 330 before our era and was defeated by Alexander the Great. He would probably be this « Darius the Persian » whose reign closes the list of high priests mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.
King of Syria, son of Antiochus Grypos, Demetrius III Eucaerus supplanted in 95 BCE Antiochus X after a fierce struggle and shared power with his brother Philip, reserving Coele-Syria for himself; in 88, the Jews appealed to him against their king Alexander Jannaeus, whom he defeated, but many of them, fearing to fall again under Syrian domination, rallied again to their defeated king. Taken prisoner in a battle against his brother Philip, Demetrius died in captivity.
First wife of Herod, whom he married around 45 BCE, Doris, a Jewish woman from Jerusalem of the common people according to Josephus, gave him his eldest son Antipater; repudiated when Herod acceded to the throne in 37 BCE to marry the princess Mariamne, she was subsequently recalled to court due to preference for Antipater, where she enjoyed honors as his mother, before being the first to suffer the king's wrath, stripped of her jewels and again repudiated—though she was able to warn her son of the danger. Her subsequent fate remains unknown.
Proconsul of Asia Minor in 62-61 before the common era, remembered in Jewish history for having seized for the public treasury the money intended for the Temple of Jerusalem — nearly one hundred pounds of gold in Apamea, more than twenty pounds in Laodicea, smaller sums in Adramyttium and Pergamon. Accused of extortion at the end of his term, he was defended by Cicero, who argued that his edict prohibiting the export of currency from Asia applied without discrimination; the outcome of the trial remains unknown.
Daughter of the king of Cappadocia Archelaus. Widow of Alexander, son of Herod I and Mariamne, executed in 7 before the common era, she then married king Juba of Mauritania, whom she met during Caesar's eastern expedition, before this unhappy marriage was dissolved and she returned to her father. She finally married Archelaus, son of Herod the Great and Malthace, who repudiated his first wife for her — an illegitimate and controversial union, for Glaphyra had had children from her first husband, half-brother of Archelaus — and died shortly after her arrival in Judea.
Hanamel the Egyptian is a high priest of the 1st century before the Common Era, chosen by Herod to fill the position left vacant by the infamous death of Antigone. Egyptian according to the Mishna, Babylonian according to Flavius Josephus, but of priestly stock without belonging to the families of high priests, he is soon removed in favor of the young Hasmonean Aristobulus, brother of Mariamne, then reinstated in his position after the drowning of the latter, plotted by Herod himself. He is credited with preparing one of the seven red heifers offered since the restoration of Ezra until the final dispersal of the Jews.
priest
Queen of Adiabene
King of Chalcis
Herod I, called the Great, was king of Judea from 40 to 4 before the Common Era, founder of the Herodian dynasty, born around 73 before the Common Era, son of Antipater and of Idumean origin. Appointed prefect of Galilee by his father at the age of twenty-five, he executes without trial a band of zealots, in violation of the law of the Sanhedrin, which leads to his being summoned before that tribunal; he appears there in purple and under good guard, brandishing a threatening letter from the governor of Syria, and escapes condemnation only through the intervention of the president Chemaya. Warned to flee Jerusalem, he takes refuge with Sextus Caesar, who appoints him prefect of Coele-Syria.
King of Judea appointed by Rome, builder of the enlarged Second Temple (Herod's Temple), of Masada and of Caesarea. Despite his cruelty, his architectural work is considerable. The Western Wall (Kotel) is a remnant of his Temple.
Son of R. Hiyya; transmitted tannaitic tradition (2nd generation).
One of the greatest masters of Judaism, president of the Sanhedrin. Founder of the school of Beit Hillel, he formulated the golden rule: "What is hateful to you, do not do to another — that is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary" (Shabbat 31a). His seven rules of interpretation found rabbinic hermeneutics.
High Priest from 79 to approximately 40 before the Common Era, eldest son of Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra, who designated him as her successor. Barely enthroned, he had to face the rebellion of his younger brother Aristobule, who defeated him near Jericho after the defection of part of his troops; besieged in the citadel of Jerusalem, he had to surrender and renounce the throne and priesthood in exchange for the revenues of the office. Pushed by Antipater to flee to Arétas, king of the Nabateans, he besieged Aristobule in Jerusalem until the intervention of the Roman general Scaurus, who first sided with Aristobule before the arrival of Pompey in Syria.
Jesus b. Phabi was high priest around 30 BCE, before being deposed by Herod the Great in favor of Simon, son of Boéthos, the king's father-in-law. The same name was later borne by high priests Ishmael b. Phabi I and II, and Jesus b. Phabi, like his predecessor Hananeel and his successor Simon, appears to have originated from Egypt.
Jonathan the Sadducee was a familiar of the Hasmonean prince John Hyrcanus (135–104 BCE). While the Pharisees contested the prince's fitness to exercise the office of High Priest, Jonathan incited him against them and obtained their expulsion, so that John Hyrcanus, toward the end of his life, turned away from the Pharisees to favor the Sadducees. The corresponding Talmudic account assigns the same role to Eleazar b. Poéra.
President (« nasi ») of the Sanhedrin in the second half of the 2nd century before the common era, forming with his colleague Nittaï d'Arbel the second of the five pairs of sages who received and transmitted the tradition. Deposed during the persecution of the Pharisees by Jean Hyrcan, he took refuge in Alexandria before being recalled to Jerusalem when the persecutions ceased and the Pharisees triumphed over the Sadducees; only a single halakah and an ethical maxim that remained famous have been preserved from him: « appoint yourself a teacher, acquire yourself a friend, and judge every person on the favorable side ».
Person venerated for his prophetic gifts at the time of King Aristobulus (105-104 before the common era). Josephus reports that he had announced for a precise day the death of Antigone, brother of the king, at the Tower of Straton, near Caesarea Maritima; seeing Antigone pass near the Temple that day, he believed his prediction thwarted, before learning, a few hours later, that Antigone had indeed been killed that same day, in an underground passage also called Tower of Straton near Jerusalem.
Wife of Herod the Great, daughter of the Hasmonean Alexander and granddaughter of Hyrcanus II through her mother Alexandra. Their marriage, celebrated in Samaria in 37 before the common era after several years of engagement, gives her three sons and two daughters, but turns to discord: the queen does not forgive Herod for having destroyed her family, while the king, desperately in love, shows extreme jealousy, even going so far as to charge his brother-in-law Joseph to kill her if he did not return alive from a meeting with Antony.
Greek historian and philosopher, friend of King Herod the Great, born in Damascus, where his father Antipater held high office, died in Rome. Remaining faithful to Aristotelian philosophy, he lived nearly twenty years in Jerusalem without founding a family, encouraged by Herod, whose counselor and historiographer he became, to write a universal history. He accompanied him to Rome then to Asia Minor, where he successfully defended the rights of the Jews before Agrippa, and was sent to Rome to reconcile Herod with Augustus. Faithful counselor even in the family affairs of the king, he vainly attempted to prevent the execution of his sons Alexander, Aristobulus and Antipater.
Vice-president of the Sanhedrin alongside the nasi Joshua b. Perahia, in the time of John Hyrcanus; also called Mattai of Arbela, from the name of this town in Galilee near Tiberias. No halakha of his has been preserved, but a few maxims bear witness to his character, notably the call to distance oneself from a bad neighbor, not to join the wicked and not to abandon hope of retribution — words understood as addressed to the Pharisees after John Hyrcanus joined the Sadducees and persecuted his former friends.
Master and wonder-worker who lived in the first century before the Christian era, held by tradition to be a descendant of Moses and associated with the Essenes. Renowned for his piety and his power to bring rain through prayer, he traced a circle and prayed within it during a great drought, causing rain so abundant that he then had to pray for it to cease. Captured during the siege of the Temple during the war between the Hasmoneans Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, he refused to curse the besieged and was stoned to death by soldiers.
Older brother of Herod the Great, appointed governor of Jerusalem by their father Antipater while Herod received Galilee. Accused twice before Mark Antony by the Jewish party, he is finally made tetrarch with his brother; when the Hasmonean Antigone attempts to seize the throne with the help of the Parthians, Phasaël defends the walls of Jerusalem while Herod holds the palace, before being captured by trickery and delivered to Antigone, who has Hyrcanus II mutilated. Phasaël escapes this fate by smashing his own skull, happy to learn before dying that his brother had managed to escape; Herod later names a city and a tower of his palace in his memory.
Younger son of Antipater and Cypros, youngest brother of Herod the Great, died in 5 B.C.E. Entrusted by Herod with the low-intensity warfare against the supporters of Antigone and the rebuilding of the fortress of Alexandrion, he then conspires with his sister Salome and Antipater, son of Herod, against Alexander and Aristobulus, sons of Mariamne, while the Pharisees persuade him that he is the Messiah. Herod nevertheless obtains from Augustus that he be made tetrarch of Perea, around 20 B.C.E., with an allowance of one hundred talents; he refuses for love of a slave to marry the eldest daughter of Herod, but escapes by his early death the dire fate of many of Herod's house.
Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, pioneer of biblical allegory and of the synthesis between Greek thought and Torah. His immense body of work influenced Christian theology and prefigured medieval Jewish philosophy. He led the Jewish delegation to the emperor Caligula.
Pompey the Great is the Roman general who subdued Judea to Rome. During his campaign in Asia Minor, in 65 before the common era he sends his legate Scaurus to intervene in the rivalry between Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II, before going to the region himself and subduing in the spring of 63 the princes of Lebanon. After vainly attempting to arbitrate the conflict in Damascus, he besieges Jerusalem, whose Temple Mount, held by the popular party, only falls after three months of siege, on a Sabbath day, in a massacre where twelve thousand people perish ; Pompey himself then enters the Temple.
Roman procurator, treasurer of Augustus, sent to Caesarea to draw up an inventory of the goods left by Herod at his death. Despite his promise to remain in Caesarea, he went to Jerusalem, where his severity provoked a revolt during the week of Pentecost; besieged in the tower Phasaël, he set fire to the portico of the Temple, whose troops subsequently plundered the treasury. Threatened in turn in Herod's palace, he owed his salvation only to the arrival of Varus and immediately returned to Rome, under suspicion of sacrilege.
Tanna of the second and first centuries before the common era. According to Derenbourg, his mother was supposedly a Batanean proselyte, hence his nickname "ben Batnit", although this name appears elsewhere as a masculine first name. Associated in business with R. Eléazar b. Tsadoq, with whom he enacted a regulation on the sabbath, he had the custom of filling his measures of wine the eve of holidays to offer to children, and transmitted — or perhaps composed — a saying denouncing the abuses of certain priestly families.
Contemporary and intellectual rival of Hillel, co-president of the Sanhedrin. Founder of Beit Shammai (the school of Shammai), known for its strict halakhic positions. The debates between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai structure the Mishna and embody the pluralism of rabbinic Judaism.
Chief of the Pharisees in the first century before the common era, president of the Sanhedrin before and during the reign of Herod, counted with his colleague Avtalion among the "great ones of the generation". Only one episode of his political life is reported: when Herod, summoned before the Sanhedrin for having executed a leader of the national party of Galilee on his own authority, appeared in royal garments, intimidating the judges, only Shemaya dared to predict that he would one day deliver those who trembled before him. Almost nothing is known of his private life, except that he was a disciple of Judah ben Tabbaï and that his favorite maxim was to love manual labor and flee power.
1st century CE rabbi and nasi
Roman governor of Syria from 6 to 4 B.C.E., successor of Saturninus. He presides over the tribunal that condemns Antipater, son of Herod the Great, then, after Herod's death, suppresses in Judea a revolt led notably by Judas, son of Hezekiah, burning Sepphoris and Emmaus before entering unopposed the besieged Jerusalem, where approximately two thousand insurgents are crucified. According to Grätz, this repression exercised a lasting influence on Judaism, notably by favoring the entry of Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and the Hagiographa into the biblical canon, as well as the composition and regular introduction of the Psalms into the Temple service.
Grandson of Honi, pious laborer whose prayers brought rain.
Tanna; halakhic traditions on the gates and rites of the Temple.
Grocer of Jerusalem, model of honesty; criticized the high priests.
Rabbi of the Banu Tha'laba ibn Fityaun, presented by Muslim traditionists as one of the most learned rabbis of Medina and an opponent of Muhammad, brought forward by his coreligionists during theological controversies. He is credited with having provoked the revelation of suras ii. 129, by inviting Muhammad to convert to Judaism, and iv. 50, by his refusal to adopt Islam; he is said to have recognized Muhammad as a prophet one day before retracting.
Civil judge of Jerusalem cited in Mishna Ketubot for his rulings.
One of the three judges of the Jerusalem police court mentioned in the Talmud, with Ḥanan b. Abishalom and Nahum the Mede — among nearly four hundred judges of this type, of which only the most eminent are named, Admon being the first among them. These judges derogated from the rule forbidding all remuneration, their salary — ninety-nine manehs per year, more if family circumstances required — being drawn from the Temple treasury. The exact period of his activity is not known with precision, but the fact that Rabban Yoḥanan b. Zakaï and Rabban Gamliel ratified certain of his decisions shows that it preceded the fall of Jerusalem.
Jew of Jerusalem, one of the prophets who came to Antioch after the dispersion of the first disciples of Jesus, he predicted by the Spirit the great famine that struck Judea under Claudius — the one in which Queen Helena of Adiabene became a great benefactress of the Jews. Coming from Judea to Caesarea to the preacher Philip, he bound his hands and feet with Paul's belt to announce that the Jews of Jerusalem would deliver him thus into the hands of the Gentiles — a prediction that came true despite the supplications of Paul's entourage.
king of Chalcis
Mentioned as procurator of the Roman province of Asia in an inscription from Ephesus, he was probably a descendant of the royal house of Herod: his father, King Alexander, would be the same Alexander named by Vespasian king of an island of Cilicia, making him the great-great-grandson of Alexander, son of Herod the Great and Mariamne. His descendants lost all connection with Judaism and merged into paganism.
Younger son of the historian Flavius Josephus, born around the year 82 from his second wife, a Jewess from a distinguished family from the island of Crete.
Daughter of Germanicus and wife of the Emperor Claude, she sometimes took an interest in the internal affairs of Judea: at the urgent entreaty of Agrippa II, she obtained from the Emperor the removal and exile of the governor Cumanus, guilty of oppression toward the Jews. Her influence is measured by the fact that her name, associated with that of her imperial husband, appears frequently on the coins of Palestine.
Uncompromising Tanna regarding his traditions; aphorisms in Pirké Avot.
Roman procurator of Judea from 61 to 64, he was received on his arrival by a delegation of Jews demanding the punishment of high priest Ananias, whom he deposed three months later. If he repressed the Sicarii, Josephus depicts him in his work « The Jewish War » as a venal and greedy governor, enriched by ransoms and taxes, while his successor Gessius Florus made him appear, by contrast, almost virtuous.
One of the leaders of the political party of the zealots, around the year 50 of the common era. At the head, with his companion Elazar, of an armed band of Jews, he fell upon the city of Samaria and massacred without mercy elders, women and children, burning the Samaritan villages, in retaliation for the murder of Galilean pilgrims in the Samaritan village of Gema. The Roman governor Cumanus immediately set out in pursuit of the zealots, but Alexander seems to have escaped, while many of his companions were killed or deported to Rome.
Pretender to the throne of Judea, a young Jew from Sidon who passed himself off, around 4 BCE, as Alexander, son of Herod and Mariamne, supposedly spared by the executioners charged with executing him. His striking resemblance to the real Alexander even deceived those who had known him, and the Jewish communities of Crete, Milo and Rome received him with enthusiasm and financed his journey to Rome. But the Emperor Augustus, knowing Alexander's features well, detected the imposture at the sight of his calloused hands; the young man confessed and was sent to the galleys, while the instigator of the plot was executed.
Actor of Jewish origin at the court of Nero. It was through his intervention that Josephus became connected with the empress Poppaea, of whom he was the favorite, and obtained the pardon of the priests whom the procurator of Judea, Felix, had sent to Rome. In the novel by Sienkiewicz, 'Quo Vadis', Alityros teaches the art of gesture to Nero and accompanies him to Greece.
Born around the beginning of the common era, he is appointed high priest by Agrippa II in the year 62, but exercises for only three months: president of the Sanhedrin, he takes advantage of a vacancy in the position of procurator to have condemned and stoned opponents as transgressors of the Law, which results in his being dismissed by Agrippa at the remonstrance of the new procurator, Albinus. Still influential when the Jewish War breaks out in 66, he prepares with Joseph, son of Gorion, the defense of Jerusalem, then opposes the Zealots and their leader Simon bar-Giora; suspected of sympathy for Rome by Jean of Giscala, he is finally assassinated by the Idumaeans who had been called into the city.
Strategos, or governor of the Temple of Jerusalem, sent to Rome in 52 by Ummidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, to answer before the emperor Claude for troubles arising from the conflict between Judeans and Samaritans. Thanks to the influence of Agrippa II, he is acquitted, with his father and the former high priest Jonathan, and permitted to return to Jerusalem. He doubtless owed this important position to the position of his father, just as his brother Eleazar, who would hold it in turn from 63 to 66.
Jewish merchant, probably of Hellenic origin, active at the beginning of the Common Era at the court of Abennerig, king of Charax-Spasini. Zealous propagandist of Judaism, he converts several high-ranking women, including Princess Symacho, wife of the young prince Izates of Adiabene, and also gains Izates himself to the Jewish faith, around the year 18. Becoming king around the year 22, Izates wishes to be circumcised; Ananias opposes this, along with the queen mother Helen, judging the gesture risky and not necessary — until another Jew, Eleazar, a rigorous Galilean, persuades him otherwise.
1st century AD High Priest of Israel
High priest appointed by Herod of Chalcis, in office from approximately 47 to 59, then deposed by Agrippa II. In 52, the governor of Syria Ummidius Quadratus sends him to Rome to answer to Emperor Claude for the troubles between Judeans and Samaritans; acquitted, he continues to officiate and appears, around 58, as president of the Sanhedrin in the Acts of the Apostles. His fortune increases through abusive levies on the tithes of ordinary priests; his connections with procurator Albinus earn him the hatred of the Sicarii, who kill him at the beginning of the Great Revolt.
One of the high-ranking deputies sent in the year 66, in the name of Simon ben Gamaliel and the notables of Jerusalem, to reprimand Josephus, then charged with the defense of Galilee and suspected of embezzlement by Jean of Giscala. Informed of their arrival, Josephus has them captured and sent back to Jerusalem.
Son of Hanan ben Seth, high priest in the 1st century. According to Flavius Josephus (Jewish Antiquities), he had James, « brother of Jesus » (James the Just) stoned. A leading figure at the beginning of the Great Jewish Revolt.
Jewish high priest, son of Sethi, appointed to this office by Quirinius, governor of Syria, in succession to Joazar. He holds the position from 6 to 15, before being deposed by the procurator Valerius Gratus. Head of a family that will give five high priests under the Herods, he marries his daughter to the high priest Joseph, called Caiaphas, in office from approximately 27 to 37. The New Testament presents him alongside Caiaphas, his son-in-law, and it is before him that Jesus first appears, before being sent to Caiaphas — a sign that, despite his official deposition, Annas retained a large share of the authority attached to the office.
King of Syria, younger son of Grypos, the last Seleucid to come into contact with the Jews. During a campaign against Arétas, king of the Arabs, he attempts to cross Judea despite the refusal of Alexander Jannaeus, and overcomes the obstacles raised in his path; the episode remains without consequence, Antiochus finding death during this same campaign.
Seventh and, at his father's death, youngest son of Herod the Great, born of his Samaritan wife Malthacé before 20 B.C., died in exile around the year 39. Educated in Rome, he traveled extensively, though it is not known exactly when. In his last will, around 4 B.C., after discovering Antipater's poisoning attempt, Herod leaves Antipas only the tetrarchy of Galilee and Perea, while Archélaos, another son of Malthacé, receives the title of king of Judea. Antipas contests in vain this division before Augustus in Rome, and will petition several times without success for an extension of his territory, until a final appeal to Caligula which will precipitate his downfall.
Counselor and companion of the emperor Caligula (37-41), he first led a life of debauchery before becoming a tragic actor. Animated by a profound hatred of Jews, which he communicated to the emperor through their constant proximity, he is seconded in this undertaking by the buffoon Helicon of Egypt, a specialist in anti-Jewish jibes; when the embassy of the Jews of Alexandria, led by Philo, came to Rome to plead for equal rights before Caligula, Apellès and his companion supported the anti-Jewish delegation of Apion, and Philo was dismissed in anger. Apellès, whom his master often subjected to fantastic tortures, is said to have perished during one of them.
Greek grammarian and sophist of Alexandria, known for his fierce hatred of the Jews, born in the Great Oasis of Egypt between 20 and 30 BCE, died probably in Rome between 45 and 48. Raised in the house of the grammarian Didymus, he succeeded Theon at the head of the school of Homeric grammar in Alexandria, but it is especially as a traveling lecturer on Homer that he gained his popularity. Under Caligula, he put his talent to the service of anti-Jewish hatred, and his fellow citizens placed him, in the year 40, at the head of the delegation accusing the Jews of Alexandria of disloyalty before the emperor, facing the Jewish delegation of Philo.
Pythagorean philosopher and necromancer, born around the year 3 B.C., died, according to some sources, in his thirty-eighth year. Cited in Arab literature under the name of Balinas, he is credited with writings on talismans and the influence of pneumatic agents, of which an anonymous introduction circulates notably in a manuscript that belonged to the library of Leon Mosconi, in Majorca, in the 14th century. According to Johanan Allemanno, who died in 1500, a second magical work attributed to Apollonius would have been translated from Latin around 1390 by Solomon ben Nathan Orgueiri, of Aix, in Provence.
Learned Jew of Alexandria, collaborator of Paul. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he arrives around the year 56 in Ephesus, « eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures », to preach in the synagogue; Aquila and Priscilla, remarking his fervor but his ignorance of the new doctrine — he knew only the baptism of John — expose to him more fully the way of the Lord, and he becomes a fervent believer in Jesus as Messiah, in turn converting Jews in Achaia. A party quarrel will later arise in Corinth between disciples of Paul and disciples of Apollos.
Figure cited in the Mishna (Ta'anit iv. 6) concerning the burning of the Torah, one of five catastrophes linked to the 17th of Tammuz — mention so vague that his identity remains debated. He is sometimes associated with the Roman soldier who, around the year 50 according to Josephus, publicly burned a Torah scroll while mocking it, which nearly provoked a revolt before the procurator Cumanus appeased the crowd by beheading the culprit; others see rather the executioner who, during the persecutions of Hadrian, wrapped Ḥanina ben Teradyon in a Torah scroll before burning him alive.
Nabataean king, he reigned from 9 BCE to the year 40 of the Common Era, bearing the title « Aretas, King of the Nabataeans, Friend of His People ». The most powerful neighbor of Judaea, he shaped the destiny of its sovereigns, participating in 4 BCE in the expedition of Varus against the Jews. His relations with the ruling family then warmed to the point that Herod Antipas married his daughter — a marriage broken when Herod divorced her for Herodias, provoking a war in which Antipas was defeated, saved from ruin by Roman intervention. Tiberius ordered Aretas to be punished, but the death of the emperor in 37 prevented the execution of this order.
Younger brother of Agrippa I, son of Aristobulus, himself son of Herod, active in the first half of the 1st century. Left orphaned in infancy with his two brothers at the execution of their father, in 7 BCE, he married Jotapé, daughter of Sampsigéram, king of Emesa. At odds with his brother Agrippa, he caused his attempt to find refuge with Flaccus, governor of Syria, to fail by revealing to the latter a plot by which the Damascenes had bribed Agrippa in a border dispute with Sidon. He also pleaded successfully, before Publius Petronius, governor of Syria, in the year 40, against the erection of a statue of Caligula in the Temple of Jerusalem.
First Roman emperor to bear the honorary title of « Augustus », born on September 23, 63 B.C., died at Nola, in Campania, on August 19, 14 A.D., son of Caius Octavius. In his attitude toward the Jews, he pursued the friendly policy of his uncle Julius Caesar, who had made him his sole heir; anxious to revive interest in Rome for the national religion, he nevertheless showed broad tolerance toward other cults, displaying his sympathy for the Jews by sending gifts to the sanctuary of Jerusalem and having the daily sacrifice offered in his name.
Jewish leader of the revolt against Rome, born around the year 50 in Gerasa, son of a proselyte, he distinguished himself by his strength and courage: after the flight of Cestius, he devastated Idumaean lands, took refuge at Massada before pursuit, then conducted an escalating guerrilla campaign until commanding several thousand Sicarii. Having conquered Idumea and Hebron, he was called to Jerusalem by the Idumaeans in April 68 and imposed himself as master, in rivalry with Jean de Gischala, chief of the Zealots; after the taking of the city and the burning of the Temple, he took refuge in underground passages before being captured, starved, and brought before Titus for his triumph in Rome.
Jewish magician mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, « sorcerer and false prophet » also surnamed « Elymas », who was in Cyprus in the entourage of the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus when Paul and Barnabas came there. Having opposed the conversion of the proconsul, he was struck with temporary blindness by Paul, who called him « son of the Devil »; the proconsul then converted. The resemblance to Simon the Magician, also mentioned by Josephus as a Jew originally from Cyprus and friend of the procurator Felix, led some critics of the New Testament to doubt the authenticity of the account.
Prisoner released by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate at the request of the people, according to the custom of freeing one condemned prisoner on the eve of Passover; the Gospels diverge on the reason for his detention — "notorious prisoner" according to Matthew, implicated in an insurrection and a murder according to Mark and Luke, brigand according to John. Origen reports that certain Gospel manuscripts bore the name "Jesus Barabbas", and an explanation transmitted by Jerome suggests he was popular as the son of a rabbi or teacher.
Apostle of the tribe of Levi, originally from Cyprus, whose Aramaic name « Bar Naḥamah » (son of consolation) was Hellenized into Barnabas. An older companion of Paul, he sold his possessions for the first Christian community, recommended Paul's admission as a convert, then went to fetch him in Tarsus to found together in Antioch the first church of Gentiles, where the name « Christians » was employed. Sent on mission with Paul, he later separated from him — according to the Acts, over a disagreement concerning Mark; according to the epistle to the Galatians, over divergences relating to Mosaic Law — and departed again with Mark for Cyprus, where a fifth-century legend says he was martyred.
One of the apostles, mentioned in the synoptic Gospels and the Acts, whom some authors identify, without sufficient proof, with Nathanael of the Gospel of John. Eusebius reports that he preached the Gospel in India (a term then encompassing Arabia Felix), and other legends say he was martyred ; he is also frequently mentioned in Coptic gnostic literature.
Roman governor of Judea after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus in 70, having been prefect of the fleet of Ravenna and then delivered that fleet to Vespasian by betraying Vitellius. Entrusted by Vespasian with subduing the last Jewish fortresses still under arms, he takes Herodion without a fight, then Machaerus thanks to the capture of its commander Eleazar, whose garrison he spares while massacring the population. He dies during the siege of Masada, leaving to his successor Silva the task of completing the conquest.
Early Tanna, cited at the end of the treatise Avot with Ben Hê-Hê, of whom he might only be another name — both perhaps being one and the same proselyte, disciple of Hillel, to whom the latter demonstrated that even knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet assumes belief in an oral tradition. Several halakhic interpretations of biblical verses are attributed to him, notably on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Berenice is the daughter of Costobar and Salome, sister of Herod I. Her unhappy marriage to her cousin Aristobulus, who reproached her for her humble birth, ended with his assassination shortly after their wedding, of which Berenice was suspected of having had a part; becoming free, she subsequently married Theudion, maternal uncle of Antipater, then, after the execution of the latter for conspiracy against Herod, Archelaus, with whom she went to Rome to seek from Augustus the execution of her father's will, and where she remained until her death, enjoying the favor of Augustus and the friendship of Antonia, wife of Drusus.
Béturia Paulina, known as « Sarah », was a Roman proselyte converted to Judaism around the year fifty, died at eighty-six years and six months according to her Latin epitaph. For sixteen years, she was « mother of the synagogues » of the Campésienne and Volumnienne communities of Rome; a proselyte mentioned in Talmudic sources under the names of Beluryah, Beruryah, Belurit or Beruzia, versed in Jewish law and who persuaded her slaves to convert, may be identical to her.
Caiaphas is the son-in-law of the high priest Annas, whose office he assumed by appointment of Valerius Gratus, around 18-36, longer than several of his predecessors. Caiaphas appears in the accounts of the crucifixion in Matthew and John, but not in Mark and Luke; after his arrest, Jesus was taken not to Caiaphas but to Annas, before appearing before the Sanhedrin presided over by Caiaphas, who is said to have declared that it would be better for one man to die for the people — power seeming, in reality, to have remained in the hands of Annas even under Caiaphas's mandate. After the recall of Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas was deposed by Vitellius and replaced by Jonathan, son of Annas.
Caligula was the third emperor of Rome, born on August 31, 12 and assassinated in Rome on January 24, 41. Friend of the Jewish king Agrippa, said to have influenced his reign toward the worse, he proclaimed himself divine and demanded that altars be erected to him; in Alexandria, the governor Flaccus imposed this cult on the Jews and persecuted them under this pretext. In the year 40, Jews and pagans of Alexandria each sent a delegation to Caligula, with Philo leading the Jewish embassy, which was received with contempt and without redress. Furious that a Jewish community in Jamnia had destroyed an altar erected in his honor, Caligula ordered that his statue be placed in the Temple of Jerusalem, causing general mourning in Palestine.
Leader of the Zealots during the Judeo-Roman War, one of the most eminent men of Gamala. When the men of Bathyra, called "the Babylonians," supporters of Agrippa and the party of peace, found themselves in Gamala deprived of their leader Philip, they were attacked by the Gamalites, and Chares, a relative of Philip, was killed with his brother Jesus; his name is found in inscriptions.
Stoic philosopher and anti-Jewish writer, Egyptian priest, tutor of Nero and librarian of Alexandria, active around the middle of the first century. Younger contemporary of Josephus, who refuted his anti-Jewish writings in detail — notably a fragment of his history of Egypt ridiculing, in the manner of Manetho, the departure of the Jews from Egypt —, he described the Jews as escaped slaves and mocked their customs while being acquainted with ancient Egyptian rites to which he also devoted his writings. Fragments of his History of Egypt may survive in a treatise by Psellus published in 1877.
Cypros is the wife of King Agrippa I, daughter of Phasaël and Salampsio, and granddaughter of Herod I. She gives him three daughters, Berenice, Mariamne and Drusilla, and two sons, Agrippa and Drusus, the latter dying in infancy. While Agrippa, still a prince, contemplates suicide in Idumaea under the weight of his debts, she dissuades him and urges him to seek the help of her half-sister Herodias, princess of Galilee; the alabarch Alexander Lysimachos, who refuses a loan to Agrippa, finally grants the sum to Cypros herself.
Roman Emperor from 41 to 54, second son of Drusus and brother of Emperor Tiberius, of frail constitution and despised by all; he was finally poisoned by his wife Agrippina to ensure the succession of Nero. Proclaimed emperor after the murder of Caligula thanks to the support of the Jewish king Agrippa I, he confirmed and extended his possessions to Judea and Samaria, intervened between Jews and pagans in Alexandria, and proclaimed an edict of tolerance for the Jews of the entire empire; the Jews of Rome were nevertheless, in the year 49, deprived of the right of religious assembly due to disturbances linked to Christian messianic preaching.
First procurator of Judea, around the year 6 of the Christian era, of equestrian rank like his successors and invested with the power of life and death. Under his administration erupted the revolt of Judas the Galilean, provoked by the introduction of Roman soldiers and by the census conducted by Quirinius; during a Passover festival, Samaritans take advantage of the nocturnal opening of the Temple to spread human bones there. Shortly after, Coponius is recalled to Rome and replaced by Marcus Ambibulus.
Chief of the synagogue of Corinth, who became Christian with his entire household through Paul's preaching. In a letter to the Church of Corinth, Paul counts him among those he himself baptized; according to a tradition, Crispus became a sufficiently important figure of the early Church to be ordained bishop of Aegina.
Son-in-law of King Agrippa I, Demetrius marries Mariamne II, daughter of Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II, after she has repudiated Archelaus, son of Chelcias; among the first Jews of Alexandria by birth and fortune, he holds around the year 49 the office of alabarch and has a son with her, Agrippinus. The hypothesis that he is the son of Alexander, and therefore the brother of the apostate Tiberius Alexander, is supported by no testimony from Josephus; he more likely belongs to the priestly family of the Oniads.
Roman emperor from 81 to 96, born in 51 and assassinated in 96, Domitian, at the center of the Flavian party when his father Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in 69, succeeded his brother Titus and provoked the resistance of the aristocracy through despotic measures; his suspicion drove him toward bloody measures, and he expelled philosophers from Rome twice, in 89 and 95. He treated harshly converts to Judaism, putting to death his cousin, the consul Flavius Clemens, and exiling his wife, Domitilla, in 95; the planned hardening against the Jews, which prompted a trip to Rome by R. Gamaliel, was probably interrupted by his assassination.
Son of Nathanael, Dorothea was part of the embassy sent by the Jews to Rome in 45 of the Common Era, which obtained from the emperor Claude that the vestment of the high priest remain in the hands of the Jews.
Tanna of advanced age, halakhic authority consulted after Yavne.
Presumed founder of the Samaritan sect of the Dositheans, probably in the 1st century, Dosithaeus is said to have been the first to reject the Prophets, a heresy which, according to Pseudo-Tertullian and Jerome, gave rise to the Sadducean party; rabbinic sources associate him with a second founder, Sabbaeus, both defending before the king of Egypt Ptolemy Philometer the sanctity of Mount Gerizim, the rejection of prophetic books and the denial of resurrection. According to Origen, Dosithaeus proclaimed himself Messiah by applying Deuteronomy xviii, 15 to himself; other ancient authors confuse him with Simon Magus, making him sometimes the master, sometimes the disciple.
Daughter of Agrippa I and Cypros, born in 38, Drusilla was only six years old when her father died in 44, the year when Roman soldiers, celebrating this death, carried her portrait through houses of ill repute in Caesarea. Betrothed by her father to Epiphanes, son of Antiochus of Commagene, who refused after Agrippa's death to convert to Judaism as promised, she married at the initiative of her brother Agrippa II the king Azizus of Emesa, who converted for the occasion; around the year 53, she broke this marriage to marry Felix, the procurator of Judaea who had fallen in love with her. She bore Felix a son, Agrippa, who died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79.
Leader of the Zealots active between 35 and 60 of the Christian era. After border disputes between the Jews of Perea and the pagan population of Philadelphia, the procurator Fadus had one of the Jewish leaders killed and banished the other two, including a certain Eleazar, possibly identifiable with Eleazar b. Dinaï; called upon by the Jews to avenge the murder of pilgrims by Samaritans, he ravaged the Akrabatene before being captured by ruse by the procurator Felix and sent chained to Rome.
Chief of the Sicarii, descendant of Judah, founder of the party of the Zealots, who withdrew to Masada with his followers after their expulsion from Jerusalem around the year 70. Besieged by the Romans, he urged his companions to prefer death to slavery and, when the time came, to kill first their families and then themselves; this speech, accompanied by a lament on the fall of Jerusalem attributed to him, is preserved in Hebrew in the Yossippon.
Son of R. Zadok; testimonies on Jerusalem before the destruction.
Tanna of the second generation, in the first century, first of the disciples of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, who nicknamed him « flowing fountain » and judged his wisdom superior to that of all other sages combined. When asked about the best and worst of human qualities, he answered « a good heart » and then « a bad heart », two answers that his master fully approved. After the death of Yohanan, he withdrew to Emmaus, the residence of his wife, where, separated from his fellow disciples, he is said eventually to have forgotten everything he had learned.
Disciple of Yohanan b. Zakkai, praised as « overflowing source ».
1st-century CE Jewish rabbi and Tannaim sage
Disciple of Joshua b. Hananiah, renowned for his extreme charity.
Major disciple of Yohanan b. Zakkai, called « the Great »; excommunicated.
Tanna, mishnaic source on the structure of the Temple (« clear mishna »).
religious figure
Hellenized Jew converted to Christianity, martyred according to tradition in Jerusalem on December 26 of the year 29 of the Christian era. Considered one of the seven deacons charged with distributing the common fund entrusted to the apostles, he was accused of announcing that Jesus would destroy the Temple and change the customs instituted by Moses; his defense before the high priest having provoked the anger of the people, he was driven from the city and stoned, Saul of Tarsus attending his execution.
Evariste was the fifth pope, consecrated around the year 100 and died around 109. According to the breviary of Pope Pius V, he would have been Jewish, son of a resident of Bethlehem, and thus a Greek-speaking Jew, Roman subject. Little is known of his life; he is said to have died under Trajan or Hadrian and to have been buried near the tomb of Saint Peter, at the Vatican.
Fadus Cuspius was procurator of Judea after the death of Agrippa I, appointed by the emperor Claudius in 44 of the Christian era. He restored order between Perea and Philadelphia, but provoked the anger of the Jews by demanding that the sacred vestments of the high priest, returned by Vitellius, be again entrusted to the Romans — a demand that Claudius ultimately revoked after an embassy sent to Rome. He also contained the advance of the pseudo-prophet Theudas.
Freedman of the empress Antonia, Felix administers Samaria, then is appointed sole procurator of Judea by Claudius, in 52 CE, before being recalled by Nero around 60 CE for his injustice toward the Jews of Caesarea. He marries the Jewish princess Drusilla, sister of Agrippa II, and exercises during his tenure violent repression against the zealots and false prophets; it is under his government that the apostle Paul is taken prisoner in Caesarea.
Procurator of Judea around 60–62 of the Common Era, succeeding Felix. More just than his predecessor, he failed to appease Jewish bitterness after the Caesarea affair; he inherited the trial of Paul, whom he sent to Rome after his appeal to the emperor, and cracked down on the Sicarii. When King Agrippa II raised a wall to overlook the Temple court, the Jews built one higher to obstruct his view; Festus opposed it, but allowed the Jews to bring the matter before Nero, who ruled in their favor. He died after a short tenure and was succeeded by Albinus.
Roman governor of Syria around 32-35, about whom almost nothing else is known. When Agrippa, the future King Agrippa I, poor and humiliated by his brother-in-law Herod Antipas, finds himself in need, it is to him, his friend since their common stay in Rome, that he turns.
Convert to Judaism and martyr in Rome, Flavia Domitilla, granddaughter of the emperor Vespasian and cousin of Titus and Domitian, married Titus Flavius Clemens, future consul and martyr himself; their two sons, educated by Quintilian, were destined to succeed Domitian, before the couple's inclination toward « Oriental superstition » was discovered. According to Dio Cassius, Domitian had Clemens executed and Domitilla banished to the island of Pandataria for atheism. Rabbinic tradition records a similar episode, that of a senator, nephew of Domitian, who converted to Judaism; Eusebius, for his part, mentions only the conversion to Christianity of a Flavia Domitilla, presumably a different person.
Romanized Jewish historian, author of The Jewish War and the Jewish Antiquities, essential sources on Second Temple Judaism. Commander in Galilee during the revolt, he became the historian of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Last procurator of Judea (64-66 of the common era), so cruel and rapacious that the Jews almost regretted his predecessor Albinus by comparison. He precipitated the revolt by making their fate unbearable, protected the Sicarii against part of their plunder, then, after allowing the Jews of Caesarea to buy his inaction in vain, marched on Jerusalem where his soldiers massacred the population of the upper market without distinction of age or sex, despite the pleas of Queen Berenice; once the uprising began, he allowed the Greeks of Caesarea to freely attack the Jews, whose survivors were sent to the galleys.
Roman lady of high rank converted to Judaism through the teaching of a Jew who took refuge in Rome to escape punishment. This impostor and three accomplices persuaded her to finance, through donations of purple and gold, the Temple of Jerusalem, before diverting these contributions to their own profit. The discovery of the fraud by the emperor Tiberius, informed by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, resulted in the banishment of the Jews from Rome.
Suffect consul in the year 42, designated according to Tacitus as the successor to Corbulon in the position of legate of Syria in 63; however, his coins date only from the years 65 and 66. Governor at the outbreak of the Jewish war, he marched on Judea, massacring eight thousand Jews in Jaffa, besieged Jerusalem without managing to force its walls, then withdrew, pursued and defeated by the Jews at Gabao, before dying shortly after.
Son of Simon and grandson of Hillel, he would have been, according to talmudic tradition, their successor as nassi and first president of the great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. An eminent figure of the supreme court of Jerusalem in the second third of the first century, nicknamed 'Ha-Zaḳen', he legislated with a concern for the improvement of the world (tikkun ha-'olam) and sent three letters, one to the Jews of Galilee and the Darom on tithes, another to those of the Diaspora announcing an intercalary month. The Acts of the Apostles present him as a respected Pharisee, defending the disciples of Jesus threatened with death.
Judean rabbi
Grandson of Hillel, president of the Sanhedrin and one of the greatest Pharisaic masters. The first to bear the title of Rabban ("our master"). The Mishna (Sotah 9:15) says: "Since the death of Rabban Gamaliel, reverence for the Torah has ceased."
Compiled the Megillat Taanit; reconciled the book of Ezekiel with the Torah.
Sage and miracle-worker renowned for his piety and answered prayers.
2nd century Jewish rabbi and teacher
Helen is queen of Adiabène, wife of Monobaze I and mother of Monobaze II, died around the year 56 of the common era; of Greek origin and sister of her own husband, she converted to Judaism around the year 30. Renowned for her generosity, she brings grain from Alexandria and figs from Cyprus during a famine in Jerusalem, offers to the Temple a golden candelabrum and an inscribed tablet of the biblical passage read for the wife suspected of infidelity, and observes with exemplary rigor her Nazirite vow, extended several times according to the Talmud. At her death, Monobaze II has her remains transported to Jerusalem, in the pyramidal tomb she had had built for herself during her lifetime.
Herod II is king of Chalcis, son of Aristobulus and Berenice, grandson of Herod I and the first Mariamne, brother of Agrippa I and Herodias, died about 48-49 of the common era. Married first to Mariamne, granddaughter of Herod I, from whom is born Aristobulus, he then marries Berenice, daughter of his brother Agrippa I, by whom he has two sons, Berenicianus and Hyrcan. At the request of Agrippa I, the emperor Claude grants him the kingdom of Chalcis, then the office of governor of the Temple with the right to appoint the high priest, a function he exercises for four years, appointing successively Joseph, son of Camus, and Ananias, son of Nebedeus.
Rain-maker; drew a circle and prayed until answered.
Interpreter (meturgeman) of Gamliel II; one of the Ten Martyrs.
Wife of Éliézer ben Hyrcanus and sister of Gamaliel II, she received an education worthy of the sister of a nassi, descended from the family of Hillel the Elder. Rabbinic tradition attributes to her a famous retort defending Genesis against a skeptic, as well as a real influence over her husband, who transmitted traditions to her and deferred to her opinion in ritual matters. After the rift between Éliézer and Gamaliel, she long prevented her husband from praying against his brother, for fear that heaven would grant his prayer; the day she forgot to do so, Gamaliel died shortly after.
According to the Talmud (Yoma 47a) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Yoma 5a), Kimhit saw seven of her sons serve as High Priest. On several occasions, one of them — including Ishmael ben Kimhit — having become impure on the eve of Yom Kippur was replaced by a brother. Kimhit attributed this honor to her modesty (covering her hair even at home), an explanation that the Babylonian Talmud disputes.
High priest under Agrippa II, not to be confused with an earlier namesake appointed by Valerius Gratus. Worthy successor to high priest Phinee, he was appointed by Agrippa in the year 59 and enjoyed the sympathy of the people; very wealthy, his mother had made for him for the Day of Atonement a priestly robe that cost 100 mines. Initially a proponent of the Sadducean method for burning the sacrificial red heifer, he eventually rallied to the Pharisaic usage. Sent on an embassy to Nero among the ten first citizens of Jerusalem, he was held as a hostage by the Empress in Rome, then beheaded at Cyrene after the destruction of Jerusalem.
High priest of the house of Phiabi. According to Flavius Josephus, he was part of the delegation sent to Rome in the matter of the Temple wall under Agrippa II. Rabbinic literature preserves a famous critique of the high priests of his house (« Woe to me because of the house of Ishmael ben Phiabi… »).
Proselyte, king of Adiabene, son of Queen Helena and Monobaze I ; converted to Judaism through the Jewish merchant Ananias, he was circumcised at the urging of another Jew, Eleazar, after discovering that his mother had herself converted. Highly respected, he was chosen as arbiter between the Parthian king Artaban III and his rebellious nobles, defeated in war Abia, king of Arabia, who took his own life, and thwarted a conspiracy conducted with the support of Vologases, king of the Parthians. He reigned twenty-four years, leaving twenty-four sons and twenty-four daughters ; his body and that of his mother were sent by Monobaze II to Jerusalem to be buried there.
king of Adiabene
Idumean commander mentioned by Josephus during the Great War against Rome, Jacob ben Sosa led his men to Jerusalem alongside the Idumeans who came to support the zealots against the aristocracy suspected of leaning toward Rome, before joining the party of Simon bar Giora. Particularly prominent in the defense of the Antonia citadel and then of the Temple against the Romans, he was finally arrested and imprisoned by Simon bar Giora when the Idumeans, tired of fighting, began secret surrender negotiations with Titus.
Judeo-Christian of the first century, Jacob of Kefar Sekanya met R. Éliézer in the marketplace of Sepphoris and transmitted to him an interpretation of Jesus, drawn from Micah i. 7, on a ritual question from Deuteronomy xxiii. 18—which led R. Éliézer to be suspected of Christian sympathies. He also attempted to heal in the name of Jesus R. Éléazar ben Dama, bitten by a serpent, despite the opposition of R. Ismaël ; but Éléazar died before receiving this treatment.
Son of that Judah who stirred up the people against Rome during the census of Quirinius. Jacob followed his father's example and revolted in turn against the Romans with his brother Simeon; the procurator Tiberius Alexander had the two brothers crucified around the year 46.
Jean de Giscala (Johanan ben Lévi), from the small Galilean town of Giscala, played an important role in the great war against Rome (66-70). First poor and not inclined to combat, he persuaded his native town to remain loyal to the Romans; but when it was attacked and burned by neighboring tribes, he armed his fellow citizens, repelled the assailants and rebuilt Giscala more beautiful than before, surrounding it with walls. Fugitives from the Tyrian districts grouped around him, their number soon reaching several thousands, sustained by the oil trade he conducted with the Jews of Caesarea Philippi.
John the Baptist, Essene saint and preacher, was active between the 20s and 30s of the common era; he preceded Jesus of Nazareth and is held to be the initiator of the Christian movement. According to Flavius Josephus, a virtuous man, he exhorted the Jews to righteousness toward one another and piety toward God, then to join him in the rite of the purifying bath, the sanctification of the body being to follow the purification of the soul by righteousness. Fearing the influence he exercised over the crowds, King Herod Antipas had him imprisoned in the fortress of Machaerus then put to death, and the people saw in the subsequent defeat of Herod's army a divine punishment.
2nd century Jewish Tanna sage
Jesus ben Zappha was, in the first century, one of the generals of Idumea appointed by the revolutionary government of Jerusalem after the departure of Cestius Gallus; he shared this command with Eleazar b. Naos, both from families of high priests. Niger of Perea, until then governor of Idumea, received orders to place himself under their authority. He could be identical to a former high priest of the same name who, with other notables, took refuge with the Romans shortly before the destruction of the Temple.
Jesus of Nazareth, held by Christian tradition to be the founder of Christianity, was born in Nazareth and was executed in Jerusalem. His existence had, in the lifetime of his Jewish contemporaries, only an indirect influence on the course of Jewish history and thought; the Jewish literature of the period makes reference to it only in an interpolated passage of Flavius Josephus, and talmudic mentions are essentially of a legendary nature.
Jew of Galilee, itinerant preacher in Judea under Roman occupation, crucified in Jerusalem under the prefect Pontius Pilate. He himself wrote nothing: his life and teaching are known only through the testimony of his disciples — the Gospels, written in Greek a few decades after his death — and through brief mentions in Flavius Josephus and Tacitus. His preaching, delivered in Aramaic, was part of the debates of Second Temple Judaism, sharing its questions: the Law, purity, the coming of the Kingdom, the fate of the poor. The movement born after him separated from Judaism over the following two centuries.
Johanan b. Gudgada was a scholar and the chief of the Temple porters during its final years of existence, elder brother of Joshua b. Hanania. He survived the destruction of Jerusalem and was present at the sessions of the Sanhedrin of Jabneh that laid the foundations of the talmudic treatise Eduyot, before which he brought certain testimonies. Little else is known of his life, except that he was a ḥaber.
Johanan b. Zakkaï was the most important of the tannaïm of the last decade of the Second Temple, then, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the founder and first president of the academy of Jabné. Considered first and foremost as the youngest disciple of Hillel, he is said to have been designated by him on his deathbed as "the father of wisdom" and "the father of generations to come"; his life is said to have been divided into three periods of forty years, devoted first to commerce, then to study, then to teaching. Active in Jerusalem before the Temple's destruction, he there refuted the positions of the Sadducees, and his teaching took place in a school surnamed "the great house."
Johanan ben Ha-ḥoranit was a Palestininan tanna of the first generation, disciple of Hillel according to the common tradition — of Shammai according to Frankel —, and the master of Eleazar b. Sadoq. During a famine, his student found him eating dry bread with salt; when warned, the father of Eleazar, a disciple of Shammai, sent him olives, which Johanan refused to eat because they were wet and therefore, according to Hillel, likely to be impure. On Sukkot, the elders of the schools of Hillel and Shammai both came to visit him.
Palestinian rabbi
Jonathan b. Anan, son of the high priest Anan, was appointed high priest by Vitellius in place of Joseph Caiaphas, at Passover in the year 36, before being deposed in favor of his brother Theophilus. When King Agrippa I deposed Simon Cantheras, around 43, he proposed to Jonathan to resume the office, but Jonathan refused and recommended his brother Matthias; he obtained in 52 the appointment of Felix as procurator, whom he then continued to urge to govern better. Hated by the Sicarii, this just and peaceful man was assassinated at the instigation of Felix.
Jonathan ben Horqinas was a Palestinian scholar of the first century, contemporary of Eleazar b. Azaria and a disciple of the school of Shammai, renowned for the liveliness of his spirit. He persuaded certain rabbis to permit, in accordance with the school of Shammai, a marriage between a man and the widow of his brother when she had been the co-wife of his daughter, arguing three hundred reasons in its favor; coming to question him, the sages of the school of Hillel could not understand him, and he dismissed them impatiently. Meeting Akiba later, he told him, not without irony, how fortunate he was to have acquired such renown without yet possessing the knowledge of a simple cowherd.
Eminent disciple of Hillel; the Targum of the Prophets is attributed to him.
Jewish Tanna sage of the 3rd generation
Palestinian tanna active in the last decades before the destruction of the Temple, Abba José ben Ḥanin was the contemporary of Eliézer b. Jacob and of Ḥanina b. Antigonos, with whom he is associated in a halakhic discussion. He is chiefly known for a severe pronouncement reproaching several priestly families — those of Baithus, of Ḥanin, of Ḳatros and of Ismaël b. Phabi — for their violence and abusive practices toward the people.
A wealthy Jew, probably a member of the Essene brotherhood, who out of sympathy for Jesus offers him burial in a tomb hewn from rock near Jerusalem. According to Mark, he is a member of the Sanhedrin, of noble birth, and among those who "awaited the kingdom of God" — an Essene, by one interpretation; he obtains the body of Jesus from Pilate. Luke presents him as a member of the Sanhedrin who condemned Jesus, but without giving his assent; Matthew makes him a disciple of Jesus and gives his own tomb for burial; John associates him with Nicodemus in entombing Jesus. Arimathea, his native city, is identified with the biblical Ramathaïm-Tsofim.
Joseph of Gamala, son of a midwife, incited together with Chares the inhabitants of Gamala to revolt against Agrippa, and thereby against Rome, in the year 66. He was killed the same year when the Romans took the city.
General and historian born in 37 or 38, died after the year 100. He claimed through his mother descent from the Hasmonean lineage and passed through the schools of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes before joining, at nineteen, the Pharisaic faction; at twenty-six, a mission to Rome on behalf of imprisoned priests won him the favor of the Empress Poppaea. Upon his return to Jerusalem in 66, at the beginning of the great Jewish war, the Sanhedrin entrusted him with the defense of Galilee.
High Priest around 62–63 of the Common Era, appointed by King Agrippa II after the deposition of Anan son of Anan. Soon deposed in turn in favor of Jesus (Joshua) ben Gamaliel (Gamla), he entered into open conflict with his successor, the two men even going so far as to insult each other publicly and throw stones at one another—a confrontation from which Jesus ben Gamaliel emerged victorious.
Levite, disciple of Yohanan b. Zakkai; moderated Akiva's school.
According to Josephus (Antiquities 15:322), Josué ben Phiabi held the office of high priest; his entry into office marks the settlement of the Phiabi family in Judea, in the time of Herod.
Major tanna of the first generation after the destruction of the Temple, of Levitical descent, he was one of five disciples forming the inner circle of Yoḥanan ben Zakkaï, alongside Éliézer ben Hyrcanus, whose rival he was also on several points of doctrine. After the destruction of the Temple, he opposed the excessive asceticism by which some sought to express their mourning, arguing that such logic would likewise forbid both bread and water.
Sent by the sanhedrin of Jerusalem, with Joezar, to assist Josephus (66 of the common era) in his pacification mission and convince the people to lay down arms. Josephus, who first describes them as men of valor, subsequently accuses them of having accepted bribes from John of Giscala for the right to collect wheat from the imperial granaries of Galilee, before finally sending them back to Jerusalem.
Instigator of an uprising against Herod the Great: shortly before the death of the latter, he took advantage, with another renowned scribe of Jerusalem, of the rumor circulating about the king's death to incite young people, some of whom were their own students, to knock down the golden eagle that Herod had placed above the Temple gate. About forty of them were arrested; the king, furious, had the ringleaders burned alive, including the two scribes, and handed the others over to his servants, who put them to death.
Headed an academy at Nisibis (Babylonia), corresponded with Yavne.
Leader of a popular revolt against Rome during the first census of Judea, around the year 6 or 7 of the common era, born in Gamala in Gaulanitis; with the Pharisee Sadoq, he raised many zealots and declared the Jewish State a republic recognizing only God as king. He perished in the revolt, but two of his sons, James and Simon, were crucified by order of Tiberius Alexander, and a third, Menahem, became leader of the Sicarii before being killed by the party of the high priests.
Son of Chelcias, a Hellenized Jew probably of a rich and noble family, chosen by King Agrippa I as husband for his eldest daughter, Mariamne, who was only ten years old at her father's death (year 44); their union, celebrated under the reign of his brother Agrippa II, gave a daughter, Berenice, before Mariamne left him to marry the alabarch Demetrius. Josephus invokes him as a guarantor of the truthfulness of his account of the Jewish war, saying he was familiar with Hellenistic culture.
Jewish writer and historiographer
Historical writer and one of the leaders of the Jewish revolt of Galilee against Rome in the year 66, known chiefly through his adversary and rival Josephus. By his eloquence, he aroused the Tiberians, jealous of the favors accorded by Agrippa II and Rome to Sepphoris, and set fire to the villages of Gadara and Hippos ; he also participated, alongside Josephus, in the demolition of the palace of Herod the Tetrarch, adorned with figures of animals. After the surrender of Galilee, the inhabitants of Gadara and Hippos denounced him to Vespasian, and Agrippa II, solicited to put him to death, merely imprisoned him, at the prayer of his sister Berenice.
Enemy of the Jews who lived in the first century in Alexandria. During the anti-Jewish uprising that occurred in the year 38, under the reign of Caligula, when the governor of Egypt Flaccus did not intervene, Philo designates Lampon, with Isidore, as one of the leaders of the city; both were executed under Claudius for their participation in the troubles, as attested by fragments of papyri relating the trial before the emperor in Rome, as well as a papyrus from Oxyrhynchos evoking their martyrdom.
Alexandrian writer anti-Jewish, earlier than Apion, with whom he shared hostility toward the Hebrew Exodus narrative, going further still than Manetho and Cheremon. According to his account, known from the fragments preserved in Flavius Josephus, one hundred ten thousand Jews are said to have left Egypt under the reign of King Bocchoris, guided by a certain Moses, before founding in Judea the city of Hierosyla, later called Hierosolyma.
Leader of the Sicarii, grandson of Judas the Galilean, founder of the Zealot party. Under his leadership, the Sicarii seized the fortress of Massada in 66 CE and massacred the Roman garrison, then, after the Zealots under Eleazar ben Ananias captured the fortress Antonia, finished off the wounded and infirm left behind. Proclaiming himself messiah and demanding command of the Zealots, he drove his followers to such violence that Eleazar ben Ananias turned his own men against him; captured after fleeing to Ophla, he was executed and replaced by his brother Eleazar.
Colleague of Hillel on the court, resigned his position; linked to the Essenes.
Master of R. Akiva; said « this too is for the good ».
Tanna of the second generation, in the first century, known in the Talmud by the name of « man of Gimzo ». He was the master of Akiba, to whom he taught the exegetical principles of inclusion and exclusion, and left only a single halakha that was preserved. In his later years, struck by paralysis of the hands and feet, he bore his sufferings with patience.
Judge in Jerusalem, originally from Media; cited in the Mishna.
Tanna; principle of exegesis of the general and the particular; known prayer.
Roman Emperor, born in Antium on December 15 of the year 37, died near Rome in 68, adopted by the Emperor Claude under the name Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. After his accession in 54, he favored the Herodian family and the Jews of Rome were well treated during his reign; but in the year 60, in a conflict between Jews and Greeks in Caesarea, influenced by his secretary Burrus corrupted by the Greeks, he decided against the Jews and deprived them of their civil rights. In the year 66 broke out the great war that ended with the destruction of the Second Temple; Nero, then in Greece, entrusted its suppression to Vespasian.
Prominent member of the Sanhedrin and man of fortune, he lived in Jerusalem in the first century of our era. The Gospel of John presents him as a notable who discussed with Jesus the rebirth through baptism, visited him by night, then took charge, with Joseph of Arimathea, of the burial of his body. He is likely identical to Nicodemus ben Gorion of the Talmud, a popular saint reputed for his miraculous powers.
He lived in Jerusalem in the first century of our era and was the wealthiest and most respected member of the peace party during the revolt, under the reign of Vespasian. The Talmud reports that he hired twelve cisterns for the people during a pilgrimage, promising their owner twelve hundred talents of silver, and that his name was born from a play on words on his original name, Bouna. During the war against Titus, he took, like his friends Kalba Sabboua and Ben Tsitsit, the side of the Romans and tried to influence Bar Giora against the Zealots, who burned in retaliation the immense provisions accumulated by the three friends.
author of an edition of the Targum
Latin satirist, generally considered a contemporary of Nero. In a preserved fragment, he mocks the Jews by claiming that worshipping the pig and revering the sky is not enough without circumcision, which according to him is the only condition for observing the sabbath fast — three absurd claims widely spread in the Roman world. His satire of the « Widow of Ephesus » left a trace in Jewish literature, though by an indirect path.
Governor of Syria (39-42), died probably under the reign of Claudius. Charged by Caligula, who had himself worshipped as a god, to erect his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem, Petronius temporizes: he has the statue made in Sidon without ever shipping it, moved by the supplications of the Jews and the intervention of Aristobulus, brother of King Agrippa, then brings his troops back to Antioch and presses the emperor to revoke his order. Caligula, furious, sends him the order to take his own life, but news of Caligula's own death reaches Petronius twenty-seven days before this letter.
Son of Jacimus and grandson of Zamaris, both of whom governed the city of Bathyra in Trachonitide. Honored with the friendship of Agrippa II, who made him commander of his troops, he was sent to Jerusalem with two thousand horsemen during the riots of 66 to keep the city favorable to Rome, then, after the defeat of the governor Cestius Gallus, retreated to the Acra before fleeing to Jerusalem, narrowly escaping death. Accused by the Tyrians before Vespasian of causing Cestius's defeat, he was sent to plead his case in Rome before Nero, whom he never saw, and his subsequent fate is unknown.
Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, born around 20 BCE, died after 40. The only event of his life that can be dated with certainty is his participation, in the year 40, in the embassy that the Jews of Alexandria sent to Rome to the emperor Caligula to seek protection against the Greeks of Alexandria. In his work, he seeks to merge Greek wisdom and Hebrew religion through the allegorical method inherited from the Stoics — an approach poorly received by Judaism of his time but which would win Philo an enthusiastic reception from the early Christians, some of whom considered him one of their own.
Phinehas b. Samuel is the last High Priest of the Jews, the eighty-third since Aaron according to Josephus's count. Chosen by lot, without priestly lineage or knowledge of the office, he was forcibly removed in 67-68 from his village of Aphthia, where he was a farmer, by the revolutionary party, to replace the deposed High Priest Matthias ben Theophilus. Clothed despite himself in sacred vestments and mocked by some, he moved to tears the priests worthy of the name.
Keeper of the treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem. In the final days of the siege, in the year 70, he followed the example of his colleague the priest Jesus b. Thebouthi and betrayed his charge: to save his life, he delivered to the Romans the linen tunics of the priests, their girdles, the purple and silk destined for the sacred veil, and the precious spices of the incense. He is probably to be identified with Phinehas mentioned in the Mishnah, Sheqalim v, 1, keeper of the sacred wardrobe.
Chief of the Idumaeans at the time of the first Jewish revolt. After their complaints in Jerusalem against Simon bar Giora's requisitions went unanswered, the Idumaeans formed a troop of twenty thousand volunteers as merciless as the Sicarii, led notably by Johannès, Jacob b. Sosa, Simon b. Kathla and Phinehas ben Clusoth.
Polemon II is a king, first of Pontus and the Bosphorus, then of Pontus and Cilicia, finally of Cilicia alone, died in 74 of the common era. He visited King Agrippa I in Tiberias, then married the Herodian princess Berenice, widow of Herod of Chalcis, by having himself circumcised and adopting Judaism; but his wife soon left him, and he then abandoned his new religion. According to the Christian legend of Bartholomew, he later converted to Christianity before becoming pagan again.
Roman governor of Syria from 50 to 60 of the Common Era. Called upon to settle the dispute between Samaritans and Galileans under the administration of procurator Cumanus, he went to Samaria in 52 to suppress the unrest : the Samaritan and Galilean rebels were crucified, several Galileans executed at Lydda, and the high priest Ananias sent in chains to Rome. Fearing new disturbances, he hastened to Jerusalem, found it peacefully celebrating Passover, then returned to Antioch ; Cumanus was deposed and replaced by Felix. Quadratus died in office, according to Tacitus.
2nd century Mishnah rabbi
Tanna, student of Rabbi Akiva, persecuted by the Romans. According to tradition, he hid for 13 years in a cave with his son and there received mystical revelations. The Zohar is attributed to him. His tomb at Meron is the site of the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage.
Late 1st/early 2nd century Jewish rabbi and sage
scholar and religious
Roman general of the first century of the common era, he commanded the cavalry of the « men of Sebaste » — some three thousand soldiers, the flower of the Herodian royal army, who came to the aid of the Romans in the fighting following the death of Herod — while the infantry was under the orders of Gratus. Rufus and Gratus maintained their resistance until the arrival in Jerusalem of the legate Varus, who came with reinforcements.
daughter of Herodias
Born of Jewish parents in Tarsus of Cilicia before the year 10 and died after 63, he became the true founder of the Christian Church as a religion distinct from Judaism. Formed in a Hellenistic rather than rabbinical milieu, he cites Scripture according to the Greek version rather than the original Hebrew text, while claiming himself to be « a Hebrew born of Hebrews ».
Stoic philosopher, born around the year 6 before the common era, died in 65, tutor to Nero. In preserved fragments, notably his treatise De Superstitione cited by Augustine, he severely criticizes Jewish customs, in particular the Sabbath, reproaching the Jews for wasting a seventh of their lives in idleness while admitting that their practices have spread throughout the known world; he also mocks the lighting of the Sabbath lamp. Sharing Roman society's prejudices against Jews, he nevertheless had an ethics close to certain concepts of Judaism, which explains the tradition that he was Christian.
2nd century CE Judean rabbi and nasi and Great Sanhedrin president
Son of Hillel, reportedly his successor as nassi; little documented.
Composed the blessing against heretics (Birkat ha-Minim).
Simeon is a tanna of the first generation, brother of Azariah and uncle of Eleazar ben Azariah. He is mentioned only once in the Mishna, where one of his sayings is reported. His brother Azariah, a merchant, supported him so that he could devote himself unhindered to the study of the Law.
Siméon b. Ezron, of noble extraction, is one of the leaders of the Jewish war against Rome in the year 66, alongside the zealot Éléazar b. Simon. He might be the same man as Siméon b. Arinos, also mentioned alongside Éléazar, and thus as Siméon b. Ari, whose bravery Josephus praises.
Simeon b. Nathanael, tanna of the first generation, disciple of R. Yohanan b. Zakkai and son-in-law of R. Gamliel I, belonged to a noble priestly family; his master praised his piety and fear of sin. He taught that the most important habit to acquire is to carefully weigh the consequences of one's actions, and that the worst practice to avoid is failing to pay one's debts. No law from him has been preserved, but a saying illustrating his great piety has come down to us, exhorting never to neglect the Shema and daily prayer.
Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ, doctor of the Law and president of the Sanhedrin under the reigns of Alexander Jannaeus and then Queen Alexandra (Salome), his sister, used his influence at court to remove the Sadducees from the Sanhedrin and replace them with Pharisees. Forced to go into hiding when Alexander Jannaeus's attitude turned against the Pharisees, he regained his place at court and then, under Alexandra, together with his colleague Judah ben Tabbaï, restored the Pharisaic interpretation of the Law against Sadducean teaching — which earned him the title « restorer of the Law ».
Simeon of Qitron, a tanna whose only preserved agadic saying teaches that it was thanks to the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had carried out of Egypt, that the sea opened before them.
Simeon of Mizpah, tanna of the first generation and contemporary of R. Gamliel I, went with him to the court of the hall of hewn stone to learn a decision relating to the corner of the field (« pea »). He is credited with collecting laws relating to Temple service for the Day of Atonement, the « Seder Yoma ».
Ordained the 18 blessings of the Amida before Gamliel II at Yavne.
Simeon I, son of Hillel and father of Gamaliel I, succeeds his father as president of the Sanhedrin. Nothing else is known of him: neither his activity nor the circumstances of his office — only his name and this succession are attested.
Simeon, son of Gamaliel I, presides over the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem in the two last decades before the destruction of the Temple. Leader of the Pharisees, he nonetheless allies himself with the former Sadducean high priest Anan and takes part in the revolt against Rome, which Josephus praises for his foresight. He dies before the end of the uprising — it is reported that he was executed by the Romans, although nothing attests to this with certainty.
Tanna of 3rd generation at the Sanhedrin of Yavne, polyglot.
Simon Cephas, better known by the name Peter, is the first of the twelve apostles, principal disciple of Jesus and head of the first Church. Son of Jonas, a fisherman in Capernaum or Bethsaida, on the Lake of Gennesaret in Galilee, he was called by Jesus, with his brother Andrew, to become a « fisher of men ». He is, according to the synoptic gospels, the first of the disciples to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
Simon Magus is a figure frequently mentioned in the history of early Christianity: according to the Acts of the Apostles, he inspired great fear in Samaria through his magical powers, was baptized and sought to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, which earned him the curse of Peter. The most reliable sources, including Justin Martyr, say he was a native of Caesarea and a disciple of the Samaritan heresiarch Dosithaeus; he is said to have first proclaimed himself Messiah before claiming to be god, and was regarded by the Church Fathers as the source of later gnostic heresies.
queen of Adiabene
High priest, son of Anân and brother of Jonathan, appointed by Vitellius in 37 of the common era in place of the latter; he served for approximately three years before being replaced by Simon Cantheras. He would be, according to some, the father of the high priest Matthias and, according to Büchler, identical to Hananeel the Egyptian; his name appears in the Seder Olam.
Roman emperor from 79 to 81, born in 39 or 41, died on September 13, 81, son of Vespasian, the conqueror of Jerusalem. Trained at the courts of Claude and Nero, he served in Germania and Britain under his father before assisting him in suppressing the Jewish revolt; upon learning of Nero's death on June 9, 68, he is sent to Rome to pay allegiance to his successor, but turns back when the troops of Egypt and Syria proclaim Vespasian emperor. Charged with conducting the war of Judea, he reaches the walls of Jerusalem shortly before Passover of the year 70 and directs the siege of the city until its fall.
Roman emperor from 69 to 79, founder of the Flavian dynasty. After the defeat of Cestius Gallus, Nero entrusts him with the suppression of the Jewish revolt; in 67, he conquers Galilee, takes Jotapata after a siege where Josephus surrenders, then Tiberias and Tarichea, where more than 30,400 Jews are sold into slavery and 6,000 young men sent to work on the Isthmus of Corinth. The fortress of Gamala, taken after fierce resistance, sees the massacre of 4,000 Jews; Galilee is thus entirely subdued by Vespasian.
High Priest shortly before the destruction of the Second Temple, he is credited by the Talmud (Baba Batra 21a) with having instituted schoolmasters in each district and each city for children from six to seven years old — the foundation of universal Jewish education. The Talmud says that « without Yehoshua ben Gamla, the Torah would have been forgotten in Israel ». He was killed during the First Judeo-Roman War.
Disciple of Hillel, he founded the academy of Yavneh after the destruction of the Temple (70). By negotiating with Vespasian, he secured the survival of rabbinic Judaism. His decision to substitute study and prayer for sacrifices transformed Judaism forever.
Palestinian scholar and one of the leaders of the Zealots, active in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. According to the Talmud, the authority he enjoyed among the rabbis of Jerusalem contributed to the fall of the city: present at the banquet of the affair of Qamtsa and Bar Qamtsa, he could have prevented the humiliation of Bar Qamtsa but did nothing, then, by his decisive vote in favor of the school of Shammai, he caused the rejection of the imperial offering that the followers of Hillel wanted to accept — a decision that R. Yohanan later attributed to the destruction of the Temple.
Father of the apostles James and John, husband of Salome, native of Galilee and a fisherman by trade. The mention of his boat and his employees in the Gospels suggests that he enjoyed a certain affluence, although he worked himself.
Yavneh, Mishna, Talmuds, intellectual exile.
Name borne notably by a brother of Rabban Gamaliel — probably Gamaliel II — whose polygamy constitutes the only known case among the authorities of the talmudic era and whose widow married Gamaliel according to levirate law, and by a Palestinian amora born in Babylonia, active in the 3rd and 4th centuries, student of Huna and Judah, designated in the Babylonian schools as « our master in the land of Israel ». The latter, reputed for his halakhic learning and wealth, practiced charity in secret and chiefly chose verses from the Psalms as texts for his homilies.
2nd/3rd century Babylonian Jewish Talmudist
Tanna whose era cannot be determined, surnamed "the interpreter of Scripture". Two of his interpretations, bearing on verses from Deuteronomy, have been preserved in the Sifre.
Philanthropist established in Antioch in the first part of the second century. It is reported that he sold half of his possessions, already reduced by his alms, so as not to send away empty-handed the rabbis Eliezer, Joshua and Akiba, who came to collect donations intended for education, and that he discovered shortly after a treasure; his name seems to have served for centuries in Palestine to designate any man of exceptional benevolence.
Surgeon cited in the Talmud (Ta'anit 21b) as an example of Jewish piety and benevolence: living from his work, he never accepted direct payment from his patients, but had placed a box at his house where each person deposited what they wished. The Talmud also recounts that two young disciples tested his trust by reselling the mattresses on which they had slept, and that he received daily greetings from heaven, whereas Abaye, 280–339, was deemed worthy of them only once a week.
Tanna; minority opinions preserved in the Mishna.
Tanna whose dates of birth and death are unknown, he is the author of a homiletic interpretation of the verse Exodus xiv, 15, reported in his name in the Mekhilta (Beshallaḥ, 3). In a parallel passage, he is cited under the name "Abṭolis" or "Abṭelos," which the Gaon Elijah of Vilna corrected to accord with the Mekhilta.
Amora to whom is attributed a homiletic observation on Ecclesiastes (i, 4): he taught to consider the present generation and its sages as the equals of past generations and sages, without regretting the time of R. Aqiba, R. Zeira or R. Yoḥanan.
Tanna of the 2nd century, younger contemporary of Simon bar Yoḥaï, with whom he appears in halakhic controversies, he also intervenes in the field of Aggada: commenting on Exodus xiv, 15, he makes the Lord say to Moses that it is thanks to his prayers that Israel was not destroyed despite its idolatry. From Deuteronomy vi, 7, he deduces the duty to fix regular hours for the study of the Torah, rather than leave it dependent on occasions.
Head of the Jews of Babylonia in the 2nd century, perhaps Exilarch, he is the principal ally of Hanania, nephew of Joshua ben Hanania, in his attempt to free the intellectual authority of the Jews of Babylonia from that of Palestine. The Patriarch Simon ben Gamaliel ridicules his role by designating him as the builder of an illegitimate temple, alongside Hanania who would be its musician-priest.
Greek commentator on Aristotle, active at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, under the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla. Nicknamed "the Exegete" after his native city, Aphrodisias in Caria, his authority is such that Maimonides himself recommends the reading of his commentaries to Ibn Tibbon. In his commentary on the Aristotelian treatise "On the Soul", he develops a theory of the intellect — distinguishing the material intellect, in potentiality, from the acquired intellect, actualized by study — which will provoke lively controversy among Muslim and Jewish philosophers anxious to preserve the dogma of the immortality of the soul.
Ḥanania ben Juda is a tanna of the 2nd century, contemporary of Akiba, whose name appears only twice in rabbinical literature: once in a halakhic midrash addressed to Akiba, and once in a homiletic remark on the baneful effects of anger, which, according to him, would have even caused Moses to err.
Palestinian teacher of the last tannaitic generation, in the second and third centuries. Only two haggadot and one halakha from him have come down to us, including a parable on the pillar of cloud that preceded Israel in the desert: just as a king, leaving his court at nightfall, takes the torch himself to light his sons rather than letting his courtiers do it, out of affection and so that they might be honored, so God wished to manifest his love for Israel. According to sources, his name is sometimes given as Antigonos, sometimes, through confusion with the Roman emperor, as Antoninus.
Roman emperor, born in 86, died in 161, he reigned from 138. His reign came as a blessing for the Jews of Palestine, devastated by the persecutions of Hadrian: as soon as the change of reign occurred, a Jewish embassy obtained better conditions. On the 15th of Av (August 138 or 139), the emperor authorized the burial of Jewish martyrs who had fallen against Rome, until then forbidden; six months later (March 139 or 140), he abrogated Hadrian's edicts against the Jewish religion, on the condition that the Jews no longer receive proselytes.
Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, in 170, author of an « Apology of the Christian Faith » addressed to the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He also wrote two books « Against the Jews » as well as other works against pagans and the Montanist and Encratite heresies — all now lost.
Translator of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, pagan originating from the Pontus, related by marriage to the emperor Hadrian who reportedly charged him, around the year 128, with a task related to the reconstruction of Jerusalem as « Ælia Capitolina ». Having become a proselyte of Judaism after a passage among Christians, he would have been, according to Talmudic tradition, a disciple of Rabbi Akiba. His translation, completed before 177, was read by Greek-speaking Jews until the time of Justinian and used by Origen and Jerome, before surviving only in fragments of Origen's « Hexapla ».
Proselyte; literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
Christian apologist, active around the middle of the 2nd century, described by Jerome as a most eloquent man. His « Apology », addressed to the emperor Hadrian between 123 and 126, remained practically unknown until the publication of Armenian fragments in 1878, then of a complete Syriac text by Harris in 1891. Aristides defends the Jews with a justice rare among Christian apologists, praising their monotheism — which he holds for the true faith — and their religious practices, notably their compassion for the poor; his only reproach, borrowed from the New Testament rather than from direct observation, is that their rites are addressed according to him not to God but to angels.
Christian controversialist who wrote against Judaism in the 2nd century (135-170), author of a « Dialogue between Jason and Papiscus » presenting a Christian of Jewish origin and a Jew from Alexandria, the latter eventually converting. This dialogue, greatly prized in the 3rd century and « known to almost everyone by the year 500 » according to Harnack, still existed in the 7th century but has today disappeared; its substance is found in the analogous Latin composition, the « Altercatio Simonis Judæi et Theophili Christiani ». It likely contained the information, attributed to Ariston by Eusebius, according to which Hadrian's edict forbade Jews from treading the soil of Jerusalem.
Leader of the Jewish insurrection in Cyprus against Trajan in 117. According to Roman sources, the Jews destroy the capital of the island, Salamis, and kill two hundred and forty thousand Greeks; the revolt is crushed by Trajan's general, Martius Turbo, in repression of extreme cruelty. The law voted in Cyprus after the revolt, forbidding any Jew to set foot on the island under penalty of death in case of shipwreck, testifies to the hatred that Cypriot Greeks bore toward Jews.
rabbi
Leader of the last great Jewish revolt against Rome (132-135). Rabbi Akiva recognized him as messiah. His defeat brought about the ban on Jews entering Jerusalem and the renaming of Judea as Palestine. His letters, discovered in the Judean Desert, attest to his leadership.
Prominent tanna of the first third of the second century, his full name Simon ben Azaï, he remained throughout his life at the rank of disciple without ever receiving the title of rabbi, in spite of his vast erudition. With Ben Zoma, he embodied the highest degree of this category in tannaitic tradition. Close to the school of Yavne, he transmitted a halakhic decision accepted the day Eleazar ben Azaria was elected president in place of Gamliel II, as well as the resolution consecrating the holiness of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, which closed the biblical canon. Disciple of Joshua ben Hananiah, he was also close to Akiba; his piety and his devotion to study became proverbial.
Wealthy Palestinian notable of the mid-second century, son-in-law of R. Juda ha-Nassi I, he is best known in the Talmud for being the target of the jokes of Bar Ḳappara, and for having paid a barber a large sum to have his hair cut in the style of the high priests — anecdotes suggesting a wealthy man rather than a scholar. His identification with R. Elasah from a dialogue reported in the Midrash Tehillim, where a philosopher questions him about a prophecy of Malachi directed against Edom, remains uncertain.
Tanna of the first third of the 2nd century, his full name Simon ben Zoma, he remained throughout his life at the rank of disciple, like Ben Azaï, with whom he shared the status within the hierarchy of knowledge. Renowned for his legendary erudition in Halakha, he was especially known as an exegete, to the point that it was said that with his death disappeared the last of the interpreters. His most famous explanation concerns the obligation to recite the passage from Exodus in the evening as in the morning, an entry into the Haggada of Pessah; his research on the narrative of Creation troubled his master, who believed he had exceeded the permitted limits of speculation.
Benjamin ha-Ṣaddik is a philanthropist of the Tannaitic period, in charge of the management of charity funds. According to a baraïta, he one day came to the aid of a widow and her seven children from his own purse when the common fund was empty; legend reports that after falling gravely ill shortly thereafter, twenty-two years were added to his life in reward for this act.
R. Benjamin was a tanna of the second century, contemporary and interlocutor of R. Eléazar ben Shammou'a in a halakhic controversy, also cited alongside Symmachus and transmitting a halakha in the name of R. Akiba. He is probably identifiable with Abba Benjamin, to whom are attributed homilies on the malevolent spirits that populate the universe and the teaching that prayer is fully accepted only if offered in the public house of prayer.
Beruria is the daughter of the martyr R. Hanania ben Teradion and the wife of R. Méir, born in the first quarter of the second century and established in Tiberias after the Hadrianic persecutions. Talmudic sources depict her as an accomplished scholar — she is said to have studied three hundred talmudic subjects per day — whose keen mind manifests itself in several famous biblical interpretations, notably the exegetical rule « regard the end of the verse ». Her life was marked by misfortune: she lost her father in the persecutions, her mother died a violent death, and her sister was forcibly taken to Rome to be dishonored.
Learned woman of the Talmud, wife of Rabbi Meir and daughter of Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion (a Roman martyr). Her halakhic opinions are cited in the Mishna and the Talmud — a unique case for a woman in Talmudic literature. She symbolizes female scholarship in ancient Judaism.
daughter of Rabbi Haninah Ben Teradion
Roman Emperor (211-217), son of Septimius Severus. According to an anecdote reported by Spartianus, he supposedly had a Jewish playmate as a child and, having learned that he had been whipped because of his religion, could no longer bear the sight of his own father or the boy's; his mother, Julia Domna, was Syrian. Becoming Augustus under the name Antoninus from 198, he is identified by some scholars with the Antoninus whom the Talmud presents as a friend and protector of the patriarch Judah I.
Greek polemicist writer against Christianity, active in the second century. The first pagan to have attacked the new religion, he attempted in his True Discourse, now lost but known through large fragments preserved in Origen's Contra Celsum, to refute and ridicule Christian doctrines; he flourished probably around 180, under Marcus Aurelius (161-180), since he mentions the Marcionites and Marcelianists. Not favorable to the Jews, whom he held to be slaves escaped from Egypt, he ridiculed their history, particularly that of Genesis, as well as circumcision and the pork prohibition.
Non-Israelite from Ashkelon, where he held an elevated position as head of the council, Dama son of Netina is cited by Rabbi Eliezer and other masters as a model of love and filial piety: grossly insulted by his mother before his peers, he maintained a respectful attitude and let no angry word escape. Solicited to sell a precious stone intended for the high priest's breastplate, while the key to the chest lay under his sleeping father's pillow, he refused to disturb him and let the buyers depart; the following year, a red heifer was born in his flock, compensating for the loss occasioned by this filial respect.
Tanna; transmitted R. Meir and Jose; traveled to Babylon.
Talmudic penitent given as an example against debauchery and for the value of repentance. After a life of excess, he sought in vain for intercessors among natural elements, understood that his fate depended only on himself, and prayed and wept until he died; according to legend, a heavenly voice then announced that he would have his share of the world to come, which inspired Rabbi Juda Ier with this commentary: some acquire eternal happiness only after years of effort, others in an instant.
Learned contemporary of Aḳabia b. Mahalalel and Gamaliel II. According to Juda b. 'Illaï, it was he, not Aḳabia, whom the Sanhedrin excommunicated for contesting the rabbinical rules on the purification of hands; his notoriety is limited to this episode, none of his doctrines having been preserved in rabbinical literature.
Tanna of the second and third generations, in the 2nd century, disciple of Joshua b. Ḥanania and of Gamaliel II. Several halakhot are attributed to him in the Mishna, notably a rule concerning the salaried worker's share in his employer's harvest, as well as allegorical interpretations, such as the one linking Amalek's attack to Israel's neglect of the Law. Reputed to be learned even in the profane sciences — it was said of him that he could calculate the number of drops contained in the ocean — he was, like a poor colleague of his, provided by Gamaliel II with a remunerated position at the academy.
Tanna of the third and fourth generations, in the 2nd century, disciple of R. Tarphon and contemporary of Hanania b. Hakhinaï, Ben Azzaï and Simon of Teman. With Halafta and Hanania, he examined and evaluated the weight of the stones that Joshua had raised at Gilgal after crossing the Jordan, and was counted among the four linguistic experts of the Sanhedrin of Yavneh. He taught that whoever had been a witness to a transgression was destined to see it, the same for a good deed.
One of the most eminent tannaim of the first and second centuries, disciple of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkaï and brother-in-law of Gamaliel II, whose sister he married. According to legend, it was late, against the will of his father, that he left the labors of the fields for Jerusalem to study the Torah, enduring great hardships until an improvised discourse before his father who came to disinherit him revealed his knowledge and brought about their reconciliation. He later helped Yohanan escape besieged Jerusalem, then sat on the Sanhedrin of Yavne under the presidency of Gamaliel II while directing his own academy in Lydda, where his reputation as a great exegete was established.
Tanna of the fourth and fifth generations, in the second century, second of the five learned sons of José b. Ḥalafta. He accompanied Simon b. Yoḥaï to Rome to obtain the repeal of the Hadrianic decrees that weighed on Jewish religious life — a mission that succeeded despite a grave illness en route — and saw in Rome the veil of the Holy of Holies and the gold band of the high priest, carried away by Titus from Jerusalem. He taught that charity and beneficence intercede for Israel and restore peace between God and his people.
rabbi
Tanna arrested by Rome with R. Hanina; escaped miraculously.
Tanna of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, grandson of Éléazar ben Perata I, whose name is sometimes attached to his. He devoted his studies essentially to Halakha and was a contemporary of Rabbi Juda I.
Priest, disciple of R. Akiva; renowned master of halakha.
Son of bar Yochai; tanna and aggadist, stories in the Talmud.
Tanna of the 2nd century, son of Siméon b. Yoḥaï, whose retreat into a cave he shared to escape Roman persecutors and devoted himself there to the study of the Torah. Becoming, contrary to his father, an official of the Roman government, he incurred unpopularity, justifying himself by saying he was merely removing the thistles from the vineyard; later consumed by remorse, he imposed severe penance on himself and, fearing he would be denied proper funeral honors, asked his wife to keep his body under her roof after his death, which occurred in Akbara, in Upper Galilee.
Early 3rd century Jewish rabbi
Aggadist; present at Beitar during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Tanna of the fourth generation, in the second century, one of the last disciples of Akiba, cultivating both Halakha and Haggada but renowned especially for the latter — it was said that one needed to lend an ear like a funnel whenever one encountered one of his haggadic sayings. He compiled a collection of hermeneutical rules for the interpretation of Scripture and, upon the resumption of academic work after the Bar Kokhba revolt, publicly thanked the inhabitants of Usha for having lodged and fed the scholars.
Tanna of the 4th generation, disciple of R. Akiva.
1st-century CE rabbi
Tanna who became apostate (« Aher »); master of R. Meir.
Scholar of the 2nd century, disciple of Rabbi Meir, known only by a few homiletical remarks transmitted in the name of his master. One explains the choice of Obadiah to bring to the Edomites the announcement of misfortune by the fact that this prophet was himself a proselyte from Edom, illustrating the proverb: "from the wood itself must come what fells the trees".
Eurydemus ben Yossé was one of the sons of the tanna Yossé ben Ḥalafta. The rare maxims attributed to him are exhortations to charity.
R. Jose cites the testimony of a certain Eutolemus (Eutolemus ben Reuben), who rendered a halakhic decision in the name of five elders; because of his relations with dignitaries of the court, the rabbis allowed him to cut his hair according to pagan custom.
Greek physician and philosopher born around 131 in Pergamon, Mysia, died around 200. While his philosophy, eclipsed by that of Aristotle, was hardly esteemed by Jewish thinkers — Maimonides criticized it severely outside the medical field —, his authority in medicine remained undisputed: Maimonides himself diffused an abridgment of sixteen of his works, and many Jewish physicians translated or paraphrased his work from Arabic and Latin, including Samuel ibn Tibbon in 1199 and Zeraḥiah ben Isaac ben Shealtiel of Rome (1277-94).
Midrashic figure illustrating extreme opulence according to Ecclesiastes iv, 8: without brother or child, heir to an immense fortune accumulated by his father, to whom he could not, however, fully benefit, being blind in one eye. According to the Midrash, he died the very day of the birth of Balthazar, future governor of Babylonia, who then inherited all his wealth.
Mishnah rabbi
Ḥalafta of Kefar Ḥananiah, or Abba, is a tanna of the second century, disciple of R. Méir, to whom he transmits in his name a legal maxim on the validity of conditions. The Mishna preserves from him a remarkable homily on the number of persons required for the study of the Law.
Abba Ḥanan is a tanna of the 2nd century, younger contemporary of Simon de Chezour, of Josias and of Jonathan, probably a disciple of Eliezer ben Hyrcanos, from whom he transmitted numerous halakhic midrashim to the point of being scarcely more than his spokesman. Only once does he appear independent of his master's teaching.
Originally from Alexandria; disciple of R. Akiva debating at Yavne.
Ḥanania, nephew of R. Joshua, is a Tanna of the 2nd century, named after his grandfather and trained by his uncle, from whom he receives his surname. Forced by his uncle to leave Palestine after frequenting sectarians in Capernaum, he emigrated to Babylonia where he founded a renowned school, then, after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt, permanently resettled there at Nehar-Peqod. There he attempted to free the Babylonian schools from the authority of the Palestinian Sanhedrin by fixing the calendar of festivals himself, until the lifting of Hadrian's decrees, in March 139 or 140, enabled the reorganization of the Sanhedrin at Usha under the presidency of Simeon ben Gamliel II.
Ḥanania (Ḥanina) ben 'Aḳabia is a tanna of the 2nd century, contemporary of Juda ben Ilaï and probably one of the youngest disciples of Gamliel II, whose keenness of mind Rab admired. Residing in Tiberias, he abrogated many restrictions that weighed on the comfort of the population and did not hesitate to openly oppose the patriarch and his deputy, despite his uncertain patronymic identity, often confused with that of an older homonymous tanna, nephew of R. Joshua.
Ḥanania ben 'Aḳashia is a tanna remembered for a single homiletic remark: the Holy One, blessed be He, is said to have multiplied for Israel the Torah and the commandments in order to increase his merits. This mishna traditionally closes each chapter of the tractate Avot in prayer rituals. Nothing is known of his time nor of his teachers; he could have been the brother of Simon ben 'Aḳashia, equally rarely cited.
Ḥanania (Ḥanina) ben Ḥakinaï is a tanna of the 2nd century, contemporary of Ben 'Azzaï and Simon the Taymanite, disciple of Ṭarfon and especially of Akiba, whom he followed for twelve or thirteen years while leaving his wife without communication. Authorized to plead before the sages without having received ordination, he left several halakhot preserved thanks to Eleazar ben Jacob II, took an interest in the "mysteries of Creation" which he discussed with Akiba, and a late tradition counts him among the ten martyrs.
Ḥanania of Ono is a tanna of the second century remembered for an exploit in the service of traditional law: while Akiba awaited in prison his execution under Tyrannus Rufus, a marital question debated at the academy remained unanswered, and Ḥanania went to the master's prison to obtain the decision, which he reported to his colleagues. Cited alongside Meïr and Yossé, he thus belongs to the generation of Akiba's youngest disciples, between 139 and 165, and testified before Gamliel on the rule of intercalation in force in Galilee.
Tanna of the 4th generation; contemporary of Juda bar Ilai.
Ḥanina (Ḥanania) ben Gamliel II is a tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries, witness and perhaps victim of Roman persecutions at Betar, where only his younger brother Simon ben Gamliel II would have escaped the massacre of thousands of scholars. Discreet about his teachers, whom he never cites, not even his own father, he probably holds Tryphon as one of them and leaves at least fifteen halakhot under his name. Haggadist attached to the literal sense of texts, he notably comments on the pairing of the two tables of the Decalogue and teaches that once the legal penalty has been served, the sinner becomes once more fully « thy brother » in the eyes of the community.
Babylonian Jewish Talmudist (died c.250)
Tanna; traditions on the Temple and the priests in the Mishna.
Disciple of R. Akiva; sometimes counted among the Ten Martyrs.
Ḥidka is a tanna who lived in the middle of the second century, cited only in the Baraïta. He is best known for the halakha, reported in the Sabbath treatise, fixing at four the number of Sabbath meals, and for an aggadic saying in response to the question of who testifies against man's selfishness on the day of judgment: it is the soul itself, he says, relying on a verse from Micah.
Hillel b. Berechia, also known as Alaï or Ilaa b. Berechia, is a Palestinian haggadist cited only once under this name, author of an interpretation otherwise attributed to another sage. He is the author of a homiletic teaching according to which two disciples who travel together without discussing the Law deserve to be consumed by fire, a deduction he draws from the account of the prophet Elijah taken up to heaven: if Elijah and Elisha had not spoken of the Law, the chariot and horses of fire would have consumed them instead of simply separating them.
Palestinian amora of the first generation, around 200 of the Common Era, compiler of baraïtot explaining the Mishna-Tossefta. He led for many years the yeshiva of Sepphoris, where disciples flocked, and was nicknamed « father of the Mishna » for the way he explained and interpreted it rather than for having compiled it. Johanan, one of his greatest students, continued to visit him after becoming himself a renowned master, while Hoshaiah, aged, had transferred his school to Caesarea.
Palestinian Tanna of the 2nd century, contemporary of Simeon bar Yoḥaï and R. Meir, whom Bacher believes he can identify as Yossé the Babylonian. He held his colleagues in high esteem and taught that lack of mutual respect brings about the premature death of scholars; contrary to Yossé ha-Guelili, he judged that rising before white hair applies to every elder, not only scholars. His activity as a biblical exegete is evident in a remark, taken up by the Masorah, concerning five biblical passages where a word is connected neither to what precedes nor to what follows.
Tanna of the 2nd century (fourth generation of the Tannaim), contemporary of Simon ben Gamliel II, with whom he is often cited in agreement or disagreement; he once opposed his own father, Johanan ben Baroḳa, on a question of civil law. His name is associated with some forty halakhot concerning dietary laws, sacrifices, Levitical purity and civil law, but few to Aggada. He is credited with the maxim: "He who learns in order to teach receives Heaven's aid to learn and teach; he who learns in order to better fulfill his duties receives Heaven's aid to learn, teach and practice."
Tanna of the early 3rd century, who served as a Roman official alongside Eliezer ben Simon and helped suppress bands of Jewish brigands formed during the war between Severus and Pescennius Niger (193) — a role that Jews never forgave him. Renowned for his vast knowledge of Scripture, which he could, it is said, recite from memory in their entirety, he also transmitted his father's teachings to Judah I. A judge of absolute integrity, he was known for his modesty and wit, as shown by the anecdote in which, vainly seeking a compliment for an ugly woman, he praised the beauty... of her name.
Son of Jose ben Halafta; transmitted his teachings to Rabbi.
Tanna of the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century, descendant of a wealthy priestly family of Upper Galilee and doubtless grandson of the high priest of the same name, Ismaël ben Élisha was taken captive by the Romans in his youth before Joshua ben Ḥananya obtained his release and brought him back to Palestine, where he became an accomplished scholar and his close friend, who calls him « brother ». Known for his benevolence, he advocates clemency toward the elderly, responds calmly to insult as to blessing, and provides dowry and clothing to poor young girls so they might find a husband; he sits among the eminent members of the Sanhedrin of Yavneh and then of Usha.
2nd and 3rd-century Middle Eastern rabbi
Palestinian scholar of the second century, contemporary of Judah I, Jacob of Kefar Ḥiṭṭaya is said to have had the habit of visiting his master every day. According to Heilprin, he would have been a student of Akiba and master of Judah I, a filiation however uncertain.
Johanan b. ha-Nazuf ("the excommunicated") was a contemporary and friend of Gamaliel II in the first and second centuries. One day, Halafta found him in the company of the patriarch at his home in Tiberias, reading a targum of the book of Job; informed that a similar targum had been buried in a wall by order of Gamaliel I, Gamaliel II in turn ordered its use suppressed. Scholars have variously identified him with Johanan Sofer, secretary of Gamaliel II, or with the son of Eliezer b. Hyrcanus.
Johanan b. Nouri was a tanna of the first and second centuries, younger than Gamaliel II and senior to Akiba. A great decisioner known for the richness of his learning—some forty halakhot are attributed to him in the Mishna—he was, despite his poverty, appointed by Gamaliel to a salaried position through the intervention of Joshua b. Hanania, and remained faithful to him after his death by opposing Joshua's modification of a rule he had established. In his halakhic discussions, he took account equally of opportunity and practicality as of law and authority.
Disciple of Joshua b. Hananiah; rulings in the Mishna.
Tanna; reprimanded R. Akiva for seeing Bar Kokhba as the Messiah.
Johanan ha-Sandalar was a tanna of the second century, disciple of Akiba who survived the Hadrianic persecutions and transmitted traditional law; his nickname suggests he was originally from Alexandria. During Akiba's imprisonment, when condemned to death by Rufus, he disguised himself as a peddler to come near the prison and ask him for advice on a matrimonial question disputed by the scholars. He also attempted, with Eléazar b. Chammoua, to join Juda b. Bathyra at Nisibe, but homesickness made them turn back at Sidon.
Jonathan (Nathan) b. Amram was a semi-tanna of the second and third centuries, disciple of Judah I and elder of Yannaï, who consulted him on ritual questions. Loath to make his learning a means of profit, he refused, during a famine when Judah I was offering food to needy scholars, to avail himself of his erudition, saying only that he was « a creature who feels hunger »; when the dissimulation was discovered, the patriarch decided henceforth to give his aid to all without distinction.
Abba José ben Dossaï was a Palestinian tanna of the second century, both a halakhist and an agadist; he transmitted a halakha from R. José the Galilean. His agadot, mostly transmitted by Rabbi (Juda I), consist mainly of reconciliations of apparently contradictory biblical passages, several of which appear in the Sifré to Numbers. According to the Midrash, he would also be the hero of a demon tale, elsewhere attributed to a certain José of Tsitor.
Issi (José) ben Aqabya, a tanna of the early third century, was, according to Bacher, the brother of Hanania ben Aqabya, interpreter of R. Judah. An assiduous student of the Bible, several of his interpretations are preserved in midrashic literature: he thus deduced from the first book of Kings that a bronze altar should be filled with earth, and judged that the murderer of a non-Jew, if he escaped Jewish court, must nonetheless answer for his crime before God. He also held that the permission to glean, given in Deuteronomy, extended to all and not only to field workers, but only at harvest time.
2nd century Talmud rabbi and tanna
Late 2nd century Judean rabbi
Transitional sage tanna-amora; father-in-law of son of Rabbi.
José ha-Cohen, called « the pious », was a tanna of the second generation, in the first and second centuries, disciple of Johanan ben Zakkaï. He placed friendship above all worldly goods, according to his maxim: « Let the good of a friend be as precious to you as your own, and let all your actions be done in the name of Heaven. » Two aggadic teachings are owed to him and preserved: the consolation he brought to Johanan ben Zakkaï at the death of his son, evoking the high priest Aaron who lost two sons in one day without interrupting his service, and an answer, through parable, to a proselyte on an apparent biblical contradiction; he is also said to have devoted himself to mystical studies.
Joseph (José) b. Qisma, a tanna of the first and second centuries, was the elder and contemporary of Hanania b. Teradion. He placed the company of the wise above gold, refusing the offer of a rich man who wished to draw him away from the learned, and tried in vain to dissuade Hanania b. Teradion from defying the Roman prohibition against teaching the Law in public; at his death, the highest Roman dignitaries attended his funeral. Asked by his disciples about the coming of the Messiah, he replied with a riddle about a gate that was to fall and be raised three times.
Tanna; halakhic and aggadic teachings in the Mishna.
Tanna of the 2nd century, the most eminent disciple of R. Ishmael, about whom no mention is made in the Mishna—perhaps because he lived in the south of the country, far from Tiberias and Beth-Shearim where the compiler Juda ha-Nassi resided—but whose name frequently appears in the Mekhilta alongside Jonathan, with whom his disagreements concerned only the interpretation of biblical verses, never the halakha. During the persecution of Hadrian, he took refuge in Nisibe, where he taught at the college of Juda ben Batyra.
One of the most important tannaim of the 2nd century, born in Usha, in Galilee, trained by his father, by Akiba and by Tarfon, whose student he was so close that he rendered him domestic services; ordained by Judah ben Baba at a time when Rome forbade it, he was forced to flee and hide at the beginning of Hadrian's persecution. After the revocation of the edicts, the disciples of Akiba recognized him, at Usha, the right to speak first, so much authority did he have over traditions; close to the patriarch Simon ben Gamliel II, he lived in strict piety — drinking wine only on prescribed days, eating only vegetables — and in such poverty that his wife and he shared a single garment.
Tanna of the 2nd century, martyred at seventy years of age during the persecutions of Hadrian, who punished with death anyone who ordained a rabbi. He nevertheless gathered five disciples in a defile between Usha and Shefar'am to ordain them; discovered, he let his disciples escape and was killed by Roman soldiers. Nicknamed "the Hasid" and reputed faultless, he is the author of several halakhic decisions, the most notable authorizing the remarriage of a widow on the testimony of a single witness to her husband's death; Akiba was his most powerful opponent in halakhic debates.
Most cited Tanna in the Mishna; disciple of R. Akiva.
Martyr; ordained rabbis despite the Roman interdiction (Hadrian's law).
Tanna of the early 2nd c.; counted among the Ten Martyrs.
Tanna of the 2nd century whose name appears only in the Tosefta and the Mekhilta. He is credited with the halakha that a corpse may be transported on the Sabbath to protect it from fire, as well as a rule prohibiting a judge, once both parties have been heard and his opinion formed, from withdrawing from judging; a few of his aggadic sayings were also preserved, notably on the two arks of covenant of Israel and on the fate of the Ark, which remained hidden in the Temple rather than being taken to Babylon.
Nassi; edited and closed the Mishna around 200.
Father of the Church born around the year 100 in Flavia Neapolis — ancient Sichem, today Nablus — and executed around 165, of pagan parents, converted to Christianity under Hadrian, perhaps in Ephesus; he understood Hebrew poorly and knew Greek philosophy better than the teachings of the rabbis. His two Apologies and his "Dialogue with Trypho", written shortly after the Bar Kokhba war, around 135, are his only surviving writings dealing with Jews; Eusebius sees in Trypho the most eminent Jew of his time, identified by some, probably incorrectly, as the rabbi Tarfon.
Late 2nd/early 3rd century Jewish scholar
Leader of the revolt of the Jews of Cyrene against Rome, at the end of the reign of emperor Trajan, in 116 ; he is named Lucuas by Eusebius and Andreias by Dio Cassius, who seem to describe different phases of the uprising. According to Eusebius, he was proclaimed king ; according to a later source, Abu al-Faraj, he took refuge in Palestine, where he was defeated by Marcius Turbo.
Israeli religious and scholar
Roman Tanna of the second century, born in Judea, probably a disciple of R. Ishmael and friend of his fellow students R. Josiah and R. Jonathan. After his ordination, he goes to Rome — undoubtedly to escape Hadrian's persecution — where he founds a school and a Jewish court, devoting himself especially to aggada; he is credited with a maxim that remained famous in the Pirḳe Avot (« Greet each one with a friendly salutation; be the tail of lions rather than the head of foxes »).
The priest Mattityahou of Modiin triggered in -167 the revolt against the decrees of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. His son Yehouda ha-Maccabi led the reconquest and purified the Temple (origin of Hanukkah, -164); his brother Shimon made Judea quasi-independent and founded in -142 the Hasmonean dynasty, the only sovereign Jewish dynasty until -37.
Tanna of the 2nd century, born in Asia Minor, one of the most eminent masters of his time, of uncertain origin — a legend says he was descended from Nero converted to Judaism. Educated first under Akiba and then under Ishmael before returning to Akiba, who ordains him despite his youth, he holds aloof from the Bar Kokhba revolt but suffers its consequences: his father-in-law Hananiah ben Teradion is martyred during the Hadrianic persecutions, and his sister-in-law deported to Rome. Returning to Judea after the lifting of the edicts, he plays a leading role in the restoration of the Sanhedrin at Usha.
Av Beit Din; the Avot de-Rabbi Nathan are attributed to him.
Pagan philosopher of the school of Young Cynics, active during the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-138). Author of a work violently combating the system of oracles, he is identified by several scholars with Abnimos ha-Gardi, frequently cited in the Talmud and Midrash as the friend of the tanna Rabbi Meir, with whom he maintained dialogues and controversies reported in rabbinical literature.
Theologian born in Alexandria around 185, died in Tyre around 254. Trained in the Bible by his father and in philosophy by the Neoplatonist Ammonius Saccas, he became an influential teacher and author of, among other works, the treatise « De Principiis » and « Contra Celsum », a response to attacks by the philosopher Celsus against Christianity. The first Christian scholar to study Hebrew, he devoted twenty-eight years to the establishment of the Hexapla, a critical edition of the Septuagint in six columns.
Origen, called Adamantius, is a Christian theologian born in Alexandria around 185 and died in Tyre around 254, trained in the Bible by his father and in philosophy by the Neoplatonist Ammonius Saccas, who became an influential master of the Church and founder of a school. Among his surviving works are commentaries on the gospels of Matthew and John, the treatise De Principiis and the Contra Celsum, a response to attacks by the philosopher Celsus against Christianity. Considered the first Christian scholar to have undertaken the study of Hebrew, he devoted twenty-eight years to establishing the exact text of the Septuagint in his Hexapla.
Haggadist of the first half of the second century, companion and fellow prisoner of Akiba. During the persecutions of Hadrian forbidding the study of the Torah, he warns Akiba, who continues nonetheless to gather his disciples and responds to him with the famous parable of the fox and the fish ; found together in prison, Pappos tells him how much he envies him for having been imprisoned for the Torah when he himself is imprisoned for trivial reasons. He is credited with a haggadic exegesis of Genesis iii, 23, according to which man is assimilated to the angels — an interpretation which Akiba refutes.
Leader of a revolt under the Emperor Hadrian (117-138), always mentioned alongside Luliani, probably his brother; both natives of Alexandria but settled in Palestine. Made prisoners at Laodicea, they are released at the sudden death of their judge, a day commemorated since the 12th of Adar. When the Temple was to be rebuilt under Hadrian, they set up tables of exchange on the road from Acre to Antioch to finance, in reality, a revolt; once suppressed, they are executed at Lydda and called since the « martyrs of Lydda ».
Palestinian amora of the second generation, probably a disciple of R. Ammi, to whom he addressed a halakhic question. Answering one day his students announcing the visit of a descendant of Elazar ben Azaria, he declared that only learning matters, not birth. Of proverbial patience toward his students, he attributed his longevity to always having been first in the bet ha-midrash and never having failed to show respect to a priest; an aggadic interpretation by him on Psalm xvi has been preserved.
Phinehas ben Jair is a tanna of the fourth generation, active in the second half of the 2nd century, probably at Lydda; son-in-law of Simeon ben Yoḥaï and fellow disciple of Judah I. Renowned for his piety and honesty rather than for his erudition, he refused on principle any invitation to a meal, with the sole exception of that of Judah I. He attached particular importance to the prescriptions on tithes.
Pious sage; baraita on degrees of holiness; son-in-law of bar Yochai.
Plato of Rome is a scholar of the 2nd century, probable contemporary of Todos (Theodore) the Roman, who like him sought to inspire resignation and fortitude in his persecuted coreligionists. He taught that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah drew their courage to confront Nebuchadnezzar from the promise of Deuteronomy that he who seeks God with all his heart shall find him, and he interpreted literally the verse « you have come to stand under the mountain » by affirming that Sinai was detached from the earth and suspended in the air above the Israelites.
Roman general and governor of Judea in 117 of the common era, a Moorish prince of origin whose military qualities earned him the favor of Trajan, who even designated him as his successor. During the emperor's Parthian campaign, he ruthlessly suppressed the revolt of the Jews of Babylonia, which earned him the governorship of Judea, where he pursued his bloody policy; rabbinic tradition associates with this "war of Quietus" the prohibition of crowning brides and of studying Greek literature. Recalled by Hadrian, he was executed shortly after as a potential rival.
One of the greatest masters of the Talmud, he systematized the interpretation of the Torah and supported the Bar Kokhba revolt. Martyred by the Romans, he died reciting the Shema. His hermeneutic method is at the foundation of rabbinic Judaism.
Transitional aggadist; marked the tombs; master of R. Yohanan.
Disciple of Rabbi; compiled the baraitot (Tosefta); came from Babylon.
2nd-century Jewish Tanna sage/teacher
Disciple of R. Ishmael; exegetical debates with R. Josiah.
Disciple of R. Ishmael; halakhic exegesis often against Jonathan.
Disciple of Rabbi Akiva and master of the Mishna. Husband of Bruriah, one of the rare learned women of the Talmud. His teachings constitute an essential part of the Mishna, and anonymous mishnaiot are traditionally attributed to him.
Disciple of R. Akiva; attributed to the Tosefta.
Transitional sage tanna-amora; founded an academy at Akbara.
3rd-century Babylonian rabbi
Jew of the 2nd century, learned scholar and actor in the affairs of his time, active during the reign of Hadrian, when the government forbade the observance of the Sabbath, circumcision, and the use of women's ritual baths. Settled in Rome where he passes himself off, by his hairstyle, for a non-Jew, he cleverly persuades the authorities that letting Jews live according to their own laws is the best way to reduce their numbers; the prohibitions are lifted, then reinstated as soon as it is learned that a Jew is the author. Two of his sons, disciples of R. Judah the Patriarch, are condemned to death and invited to flee southward.
Governor of Judea in the first century of the common era, in office at the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in which he took an active part in its suppression without succeeding in putting an end to it alone. After the defeat of the uprising, he made, according to tradition, the Temple Mount plowed as a sign of humiliation and led severe religious persecutions often wrongly attributed solely to the emperor Hadrian rather than to himself. Jewish legend credits him with religious exchanges with Rabbi Akiba, and reports that his wife would have converted to Judaism.
Tanna of the second generation, active at the beginning of the second century of the common era, nicknamed "ha-Qaton" (the small) because, according to some, of his extreme modesty. Renowned for his piety and humility, he composed, at the request of the patriarch Gamaliel II, the curse against Judeo-Christians and informers integrated into the daily prayer of the Shemoneh Esreh, and pronounced on his deathbed a dark prophecy about the fate of Simeon and Ishmael, which was entirely fulfilled.
Head of the academy of Nehardea; authority in civil law ('halakha as Samuel').
Babylonian amora of the first generation, son of Abba b. Abba, at once master of the Law, judge, physician, and astronomer, born around 165 in Nehardea, in Babylonia, and died in that same city around 257. According to legend, his birth was announced by R. Judah b. Batyra to his father, a silk merchant, as a reward for his commercial scrupulousness. A precocious child, he was sent to study in Nisibe and then returned to Nehardea, where he trained under Levi b. Sisi, whose equal he quickly became, while also receiving, beyond the Bible and the Law, instruction in other sciences.
Roman general, consul in 127, who afterwards held several provincial offices as legate of Dacia, Moesia, and, according to an inscription, Britain. Sent from Britain to Judea to suppress the Bar Kokhba revolt, he was appointed legate and propraetor there and then legate of Syria; rather than face the Jews in pitched battle, he hunted them down one by one in their hiding places and caves until, in the words of Dio Cassius, he "annihilated, destroyed, and exterminated" them. The Senate awarded him a triumph for his successes in Judea.
Roman Emperor from 193 to 211, who first had to defeat his rival Pescennius Niger, supported by the Greeks, Syrians and Samaritans of Palestine; victorious, he deprived Neapolis (Shechem) of its citizenship until his victory over his last rival, Albinus, in 197. After the Parthian war of 199, he detached Palestine from Syria to make it a separate province, and in 202 the Senate awarded him, following a revolt of Samaritans and Jews, a triumph which his son Caracalla celebrated in his name.
Babylonian master of the late Tannaitic period and the beginning of the Amoraic period, head of the school of Nehardea. When Abba Arikha (Rav) went to Babylonia, he served for a time as an amora (interpreter) for R. Shela during his public lectures; the school of Nehardea, named in his honor, trained disciples known as the "Débé R. Shela". With the exception of one Mishnaic interpretation, no independent teaching of Shela is preserved, but certain sayings of his disciples appear in the Talmud.
Aggadist; contemporary and friend of Juda haNassi.
Son of Juda haNassi; colleague of Bar Kappara.
Simeon, son of Gamaliel II, is a tanna of the third generation and president of the Great Sanhedrin. A young man at Betar during the Bar Kokhba war, he escapes the massacre when the Romans take the fortress, then is elected president of the restored college of Usha, both for his descent from the house of Hillel and for his personal worth. Also versed in Greek philosophy, he instituted the office of ḥakam and appointed R. Meïr to it.
Simeon ben 'Aḳashya, tanna of the second generation, is known only by a single agadic saying preserved: commenting on Job, he teaches that uncultured and uneducated people lose intelligence with age, while the learned gain in clarity with age.
Simon b. Absalom is an amora whose period of activity remains unknown. Only two of his aggadic sayings have been preserved: one explains that Deborah sat under a palm tree rather than in her house in order to avoid any suspicion, the other why David, fleeing Absalom, composed a psalm and not a lament.
Simeon b. Ḥalafta, master of the transitional period between tannaim and amoraim, lived at 'En-Tina, near Sepphoris, in great poverty which was often relieved by his teacher the patriarch R. Judah I, whose close friend he also was, alongside Ḥiyya with whom he debated aggadic sayings. Highly respected, he is the subject of numerous legends — an encounter with the angel of death, a miraculous rescue from lions — and distinguishes himself by his observations on animals, which earned him the epithet of "experimenter".
Simeon b. Jose b. Leqonya, a tanna of the fourth generation and contemporary of R. Judah ha-Nassi I, is the brother-in-law of Elazar b. Simon, whose son he instructed in the Torah. Few of his halakhic statements have been preserved; he justified the thirty-nine categories of work forbidden on the Sabbath by the thirty-nine occurrences of the word "melakha" in the Torah, an account nevertheless inexact. An aggadic parable attributed to him illustrates the indestructibility of Israel, compared to the rock against the shards of the nations.
Simeon b. Tarfon, tanna of the second generation, left us four exegetical sentences: on the oath (Exodus xxii. 11), on the prohibition of favoritism to adultery (Exodus xx. 10), on a term of Deuteronomy (i. 27) which he interprets as an allusion to the profanation of the presence of God, and on the designation of the Euphrates as « the great river » (Deuteronomy i. 7) because it marks the frontier of Palestine.
2nd century tanna
Disciple of R. Meir; ethical maxims in the Tosefta.
Simeon ben ha-Segan, tanna of the second generation, is the author of several halakhic sentences preserved in the Mishnah, all transmitted by Simeon ben Gamliel. He might be identical to Simeon ben Kahana, in whose name Simeon ben Gamliel also transmits halakhic sentences.
Simeon ben Judah ha-Nassi, master of the transition period between tannaim and amoraim, is the younger son of Judah ha-Nassi; more learned than his brother Gamaliel, he was nonetheless destined by his father only for the office of ḥakham, Gamaliel to succeed him as nassi. Close to R. Ḥiyya and fellow student of Bar Qappara, whom he surpassed both in halakhic and aggadic exegesis, he was nicknamed by his father "the light of Israel" for his kindness and uprightness. He introduced several corrections in the text of the Mishna according to the lessons received from his father.
Late 2nd/early 3rd century Judean rabbi
Simeon ben Nanos, tanna of the second generation and contemporary of R. Ishmael and R. Akiba, with whom he had many halakhic discussions, is often simply designated by « Ben Nanos ». Reputed for his deep knowledge of Jewish civil law, he caused R. Ishmael to recommend his teaching to anyone wishing to study this branch of the Law. Several of his sentences on civil law, as well as some of his opinions on other halakhic subjects, have been preserved; neither his teachers nor his students are known.
Simeon ben Yoḥaï, disciple of Akiba, is a tanna of the second century to whom tradition attributes the Zohar; born in Galilee, he died, according to tradition, at Meron, on 18 Iyar (Lag ba-Omer). Among all of Akiba's students, only Meïr and he were ordained by their master, whose teaching he never ceased to seek—even going so far as to join him in prison under Hadrian. After Akiba's death, he was ordained in turn by Juda b. Bava.
Master exegete died young; mystical speculation (Maassé Beréchit).
Simeon of Chiqmona, tanna of the second generation and disciple of Akiba, is from Chiqmona, a locality near Mount Carmel. Only three of his exegetical sentences, transmitted by his fellow disciple R. Ḥidqa, have been preserved; all illustrate the principle that good and evil are accomplished through the agency of the righteous and the wicked respectively.
Simeon of Teiman, tanna of the second generation, discusses with R. Akiba a halakhic sentence deduced from Exodus (xxi. 18) and maintains relations of collegiality with R. Juda b. Bava. Several of his halakhic sentences appear in the Mishna, and an agadic word of his teaches that divine intervention during the crossing of the sea, at the time of the Exodus, was merited by Israel because of the covenant of circumcision.
Disciple of R. Tarfon; rulings on the get and tithes.
Translator of the Bible into Greek, active at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Common Era. According to Eusebius and Jerome, he was an Ebionite, thus Christian; according to Epiphanius, a Samaritan converted to Judaism — Geiger sought to identify him with the tanna Symmachus son of Joseph, though this thesis has not prevailed. His translation, written in purer Greek than that of Aquila or Theodotion, was adopted early enough to be incorporated by Origen into his Hexapla.
Disciple of R. Meir; rule of divisions in doubt ('half').
Tanna of the third generation, of priestly lineage, active between the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Betar. Renowned for his filial piety and generosity — he returned to the father the price of the redemption of the firstborn despite his priestly right —, he was an adherent of the school of Shammai while often leaning toward indulgence in the interpretation of its most severe decisions. He had numerous halakhic controversies with R. Akiba.
Roman Emperor from 98 to 117, whose reign profoundly marked the History of the Jews of Babylon, Palestine, and the Hellenistic diaspora. While he warred against the Parthians at the eastern frontiers of the empire, Jewish revolts broke out in Egypt, Cyrene, and Cyprus; he charged Marcius Turbo, then in 116 the Moorish prince Lusius Quietus, with suppressing these uprisings, which also spread to Mesopotamia and Judea. A rabbinic legend attributes the severity of his policy to a personal bereavement of his wife, which occurred on the very day the Jews mourned the destruction of the Temple.
2nd-century Tanna
Palestinian amora of the second and third centuries, surnamed Yannai Rabbah ("the Great") and linked by his genealogy to Eli. Very wealthy—he is said to have planted four hundred vineyards and given an orchard to the public—he first taught at Sepphoris before establishing at 'Akbara a school where students lived as members of his family; a disciple of Rabbi, his chief student was R. Yohanan and he refused to grant the Mishna greater authority than the other halakha collections of his time.
Tanna of Yavne; frequent opponent of R. Akiva in halakha.
With Yose ben Yohanan of Jerusalem, he forms the first of the « pairs » (zougot) of sages, both disciples of Antigone of Sokho. Yose ben Yoezer was nassi (president) of the Sanhedrin. His maxim appears in the Pirké Avot (1,4): « Let your house be a meeting place for the sages… » His decisions rank among the oldest halakhic statements preserved.
Famous Babylonian amora surnamed Rab, Abba Arika founded the academy of Sura and died in 247. Ordained by Judah I, he returned to Babylonia where his arrival marks, in talmudic chronology, the 530th year of the Seleucid calendar and the 219th of the common era; he taught first at Neardea before settling in Sura, which became under his direction the great intellectual center of Babylonian Judaism.
Amora of the third century, originally from Babylon and student of Rab, emigrated to Palestine where he became known for his numerous haggadic sayings. He is notably attributed the composition of a confession for the Day of Atonement, preserved in the Talmud of Jerusalem.
Palestinian scholar of the third and fourth centuries, contemporary of R. Abbahu; probably born in Babylonia, where he is noted seeking halakhic information from Rab Huna b. Ḥiyya, he later settled in Arbèle, where R. Abbahu visited him. Cited sometimes as b. Benjamin, sometimes as b. Minyomi or Minyomin, he transmitted traditions generally relating to baraitot.
Reputed Israeli aggadist; 3rd generation.
Refined Israeli halakhist, contemporary of R. Ammi and R. Assi.
Palestinian amora of the third century, trained in Babylonia under Rab and Huna, then established in Tiberias, where he held a respected position alongside Ammi and Assi. He is reported to have had the habit of praying aloud; among his aggadic productions is a sermon for a public fast day on Lamentations III, 41.
Scholar of the last Tannaitic generation, around the beginning of the third century. From him are preserved some halakot relating to rabbinic civil law as well as several homiletic biblical expositions, including a development on the day of judgment comparing Balaam's donkey and the silence imposed by Joseph on his elder brothers.
Palestinian amora active in the late third century, from Carthage—a nickname that it is erroneous to relate to Cartagena in Spain or to a city in Armenia. He is frequently mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud and in haggadic traditions.
Palestinian wool washer of the third century, of whom no learning is reported, but whose piety and honesty nourished the legends of the haggadists. It is said that he was born on the day of the death of a certain Rabbi Abun, and that having found the lost jewels of a Roman princess, he returned them to her in the name of Jewish Law, which made her exclaim: « Blessed be the God of the Jews! »
Sage of Acre (Akko) cited in the Talmud.
Babylonian Amora of the third century, son of Jeremiah b. Abba and disciple of Rab. Established in Sura, he transmitted to his generation the words of Rab and Samuel; several of his own sayings, preserved in Palestinian sources, notably report a messianic reading of Proverbs ix, 1-3.
member of the third generation of Amoraim
Palestinian scholar of the first generation of the amoraim, living around the beginning of the 3rd century, disciple and amora (usher-repeater) of Rabbi Judah I. He remained known for his altercation with R. Ishmael ben Yosé at the entrance of the rabbinic college, after which Rabbi ordered him to remain at the gate; legend adds that he was punished for his arrogance by a skin disease and the drowning of two of his sons.
Amora who lived in the third century. He is probably identical to a certain (Mar) Bar Hamdure, mentioned as a disciple of the sage Samuel.
Contemporary of R. Ḥiyya b. Abba and of Jacob b. Aḥa, he belonged to the numerous group of scholars pursuing a manual craft, in this case the manufacture of sails.
Palestinian Amora, contemporary of R. Judah (217-299) and his successor R. Ḥisda, head of the academy of Sura, with whom he maintained correspondence; he protested there against the influx of Babylonian students into Palestinian schools, who married before the end of their studies and left wives and children at the community's expense. He was regarded as a model of piety, Babylonians believing him to be in spiritual communication with the prophet Elijah.
Jewish sage of the third century, always cited as Abimi son of Rabbi Abbahou, whose exact origin and lineage remain disputed among talmudic authorities. He is known for having transmitted several baraitot, notably on the honor due to parents, and for having himself been cited by his own father as a model of filial piety.
Palestinian Amora, disciple of Rabbi Yohanan. A few exegetical remarks of his, preserved in midrashic literature, show that he was interested in languages and sought to clarify the meaning of Hebrew biblical words by comparison with related languages.
Palestinian scholar known for an original calculation by which he endeavors to show that the biblical expression « this soul shall be cut off from his people » designates a death occurring before the completion of the fiftieth year of age.
Babylonian amora of the second and third generations, carpenter by trade, he devoted his nights to study. Noticing the light constantly lit in his home, Rab Houna I predicted that learned sons would be born from this house — a prediction confirmed by his sons Hiyya bar Abin and Rabbi Iddi bar Abin.
Wise man and non-Jewish astrologer of Babylonia, bound in close friendship with Mar Samuel, who died in 254; this relationship illustrates the courtesy that could prevail between Babylonian Jews and pagan neighbors despite religious restrictions. An anecdote reports that Ablat, invited to the home of Mar Samuel, at first refused to drink the wine out of respect for the rabbinic prohibition concerning wine touched by idolaters, until his host served him cooked wine, which was not subject to this rule.
Babylonian Amora of the third century, younger contemporary of Rabina I and of Houna Mar b. Iddi, he is sometimes cited anonymously under the name of « Court of Nehardea ».
Palestinian Amora known principally for a body of ethical rules which he transmitted in the name of his predecessors, mentioned in the Talmud of Jerusalem and the Midrash Qohélet Rabba.
Two Jewish rabbis and Talmudic scholars
Disciple of R. Yoḥanan and master of the third generation of Amoraim, he was, because of his nickname, wrongly considered to be the son of R. Abbahou of Caesarea.
Disciple of R. Judah b. Ezekiel, he taught Rava how to measure the boundaries of a city for the regulation of permitted travels on the Sabbath day.
Babylonian halakist of the third generation of the Amoraim, he spent a time in Palestine where he followed the lessons of Rav Assi and presumably met Rabbi Yohanan; disciple of Rav Ḥisda in Babylonia, he frequently appears in controversy with Rav Ashi I.
Palestinian amora of the third-fourth centuries, he gathered rare Baraïtot among the scholars of the Darom, in the south of Judea, which he transmitted to his colleagues even in the Babylonian academies, often reporting halakhot in the name of Joshua ben Levi. It was from him that R. Levi held the explanation of the connection between the ninth and tenth blessings of the Amida; he also recommended visiting the sick, affirming that each visit relieved them of one-sixtieth of their suffering.
Aggadist of the second generation of Amoraim (3rd century), commenting on Esther ii, 23 ("and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king"), he saw in it an encouragement for those who fear God: if human chronicles ensure a reward for good deeds, all the more so can one be assured that the pious will be rewarded when God produces his own book, according to Malachi iii, 16.
Renowned Babylonian sage, contemporary of Abaye; dialectician.
Palestinian amora of the first generation (3rd century), nicknamed Berabbi, Ha-Gadol or Roba (« the Great »), he systematized the Baraïtot at the academy of Ḥiya ha-Gadol and was the master of Samuel ha-Zaqen. The Midrash preserves from him a homily on Numbers xiii, 2, illustrated by the parable of a king who, having promised a gift to a friend who dies before receiving it, keeps his promise to the son of the latter — an image of God's faithfulness to his promise made to Abraham, transmitted to his descendants despite the death of the patriarchs.
Israeli aggadist, preacher; his prayers are cited.
Head of Tiberias after R. Yohanan, with R. Assi (3rd generation).
The most famous of the amoraim bearing this name, Palestinian amora of the third generation, in the 3rd century, probably originally from Babylonia like his lifelong friend R. Assi, both sons of priests and perhaps brothers. Trained at the college of Caesarea and then a disciple of R. Johanan in Tiberias, he observes at the latter's death the mourning reserved for the closest relatives. He becomes in Tiberias the center of a circle of learned friends, among whom R. Abbahou and R. Isaac, and forms with R. Ḥiyya and R. Assi a court whose authority once put their own freedom in peril.
Son of a scholar and nephew of R. Ḥiyya ben Abba, he seems to have left no trace of his own in the scholarly world: his name is associated only with two homiletic observations that he reports in the name of R. Ḥanina.
Disciple of Samuel of Nehardea, 2nd Babylonian generation.
Israeli sage occasionally cited in the Talmud.
Palestinian amora of the third century, contemporary of R. Ammi. Laconic in halakha, he proves inventive in aggada instead: he explains, for instance, that priestly garments, like sacrifices, have an expiatory effect — the turban expiates, by his account, pride —, and develops, apropos the burning bush, the idea that God manifests himself according to his will, at times through an angel, at times in person, at times in the whirlwind where he answers Job. His name, sometimes spelled 'Inani or 'Inyani, would have 'Ananiel as its original form.
Palestinian scholar of the third generation of amoraim, in the 3rd century, colleague of R. Samuel ben Naḥman. The latter, commenting on the rain of sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, deplores that the seat of mercy becomes a place of punishment; R. Aristaï confirms this point of view by citing a psalm. He also reports an observation by R. Berekhia on the persecutions of Hadrian: Isaiah cries « Let thy dead live », that is, those who died for God — one crucified for circumcising his son, another burned for observing the Sabbath, a third killed for studying the Torah.
Last of the Parthian kings, died in 227. Son of Volageses V, whose throne he assumed around 216 after a struggle against his brother Volageses VI, he led for years a victorious war against Rome, defeating Caracalla then Macrin, before perishing in his battles against the Persians in 227. This last sovereign of the house of the Arsacids was well disposed toward Jews: Abba Arikha, head of the academy of Soura, received from him a gift of precious pearls, to which he replied by sending him a mezouzah, with the remark that the word of God is worth more than all precious stones. At his death, Rav exclaimed: « The bond of friendship is broken! »
Israeli rabbi
Babylonian halakist of the third generation of Amoraim, in the third and fourth centuries, contemporary of Rab Pappa the Elder and of Rabbah b. Ḥanan, he was born in Poumbedita and often sat at the feet of Rab Huna I, who held him for a great scholar. The Talmud reports two occasions when the depth of his reasoning put his teacher in difficulty, the latter then interrupting the discussion with the evasive formula: « A raven has passed. » He was probably the father of AḤa b. Awya.
Semi-tanna of Palestine in the early third century, he was one of the great aggadists of his time, fully recognizing the merit of the Mishna compiled by Rabbi as a stage in the development of tannaitic literature. His conception of the origin of the Pentateuch touches almost on biblical criticism: according to him, « the Torah was given in scrolls », that is to say promulgated by sections subsequently assembled. A legend from the Babylonian Talmud shows him marking graves to preserve ritual purity, and thus discovering the cave of Abraham, where he met Eliezer, the faithful servant of the patriarch.
Benjamin b. 'Ashtor is a Palestinian decisioner (halakhist) of the third amoraic generation, contemporary of R. Ḥiyya b. Abba and the elder of R. Hezekiah; Talmudic sources also cite him simply by the name Bar'Ashtor.
Benjamin b. Ihi (or Minyamin) is a Babylonian scholar of the second and third amoraic generations (third century), brother of Abbahou b. Ihi, disciple of Samuel. Both, fiercely closed to relations with non-Jews, showed instead great attentiveness to their servants — one had only one course from the master's table served to them, the other all the courses — and legend has it that the latter merited for this the visit of the prophet Elijah.
Benjamin b. Japhet is a Palestinian scholar of the third generation of amoraim (third century), disciple of R. Johanan and elder brother of R. Zeïra I. Active in both Halakha and Haggada, he was not considered very reliable in his legal decisions — R. Zeïra judging him clearly inferior to R. Ḥiyya b. Abba — but nevertheless remained indebted to him for transmitting to him a Halakha in the name of R. Johanan; in the Haggada, he became the reporter of the teachings of R. Eleazar b. Pedat.
Benjamin Ginzakayah is a Babylonian scholar of the third century, contemporary of Mar Samuel. Legend reports that death surprised him as he was about to resolve a ritual question in the sense of Rab rather than in that of Samuel, for which the latter gave thanks to God, seeing in it the prevention of an erroneous decision; the Babylonian Talmud designates him by the name of « Minyamin Sakasnaah ».
Benjamin the Shepherd is a shepherd of Babylonia from the beginning of the third century, whose blessing formula the Talmud has preserved. Ignorant of Hebrew and thus unable to recite the graces prescribed after the meal, he replaced them with a brief Aramaic invocation, « Blessed be the Merciful One, master of this bread », which Rab approved and which is still taught to young children.
R. Berechia I is a Palestinian scholar of the second generation of Amoraim (third century), always cited without patronymic or surname, except once when R. Abin III designates him as "Berechia Saba" (the Elder) to distinguish him from a later and more renowned homonym. Almost nothing is known of his life; his rare preserved teachings concern notably the merit of Torah study, which he debates with R. Ḥiyya of Kefar Teḥoumin.
second and third generation Amora Sage of the Land of Israel
Babylonian Amora active in the second half of the 3rd century, contemporary of Zeira, Daniel b. Ḳeṭina is cited in the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon by several masters of his generation, most often as a transmitter of the halakhot received from his predecessors. He is held to be a saint: it is told that he inspected his garden every day and marked the beds to be watered, and that rain then fell on the beds thus designated. Rabba bar bar Ḥana, nephew of Rav, married his son to Daniel's daughter.
Roman Emperor (285-305), son of Dalmatian slaves according to Eutropius, Diocletian owed his rise to his personal qualities alone; rabbinic sources depict him as a swineherd in his youth, spent in Palestine where Jewish schoolchildren mocked him — which led him to say, once emperor, that even the most insignificant of Romans should no longer be mocked. Present in Palestine in 286, at the time of Patriarch Juda III of Tiberias, he had hydraulic structures built there near Lake Phiala and, according to the Jerusalem Talmud, promulgated an edict ordering sacrifices to national gods from which Jews alone are exempt, while Christians suffer heavy persecution.
Amora of uncertain period, known for a controversy with a philosopher named Philippus on the verse of Malachi about Edom ("They shall build, but I will throw down"): when confronted with the objection that Edom's constructions subsisted nonetheless, El'asah replied that Scripture did not aim at buildings but at the machinations raised against Israel, always thwarted.
Palestinian scholar of the 3rd century, whose name is attached only to a single haggada, an interpretation of the Psalms verse according to which God erases the path of the wicked so that the righteous do not stray there. Probably identifiable with one named Yaqim, elder of Ammi, he also taught that breaking the prohibition against coveting the wife of one's neighbor was equivalent to transgressing all ten commandments, against the opinion of Judah, who saw in it only the violation of seven of them.
Babylonian sage of the third amoraic generation, in the 3rd century, contemporary of Rab Juda b. Ezekiel — both called « elders of Poumbedita ». A halakhic discourse he pronounced before the exilarch displeased his junior Rabba, but Rab Naḥman, who esteemed him more, acknowledged twice that their divergent views were both right according to circumstances, adding: « From me and from you the tradition will bear its name. »
From southern Judea, directed the academy of Sepphoris after Juda haNassi.
Master of the late period of the tannaïm, in the 3rd century, secretary of patriarch Juda I. After the latter's death, he directed an academy in southern Judea and then became head of the academy of Sepphoris, although the dying patriarch had designated Ḥanina b. Ḥama for this position — the latter refusing to supplant him, Efes being his senior by two and a half years. Hoshaya Rabba was his disciple; Efes survived only a few years after Juda I and was succeeded by Ḥanina b. Ḥama.
Palestinian sage of the 3rd century, disciple of Simeon b. Laḳish, in whose name he reports a civil law; certain versions of the same text read "Ephraim Maḳsha'ah" in his place, which would then reverse the order between author and reporter.
Ézéchias ben Parnak is a Palestinian amora who lived at the end of the third century. He is mentioned only once in the treatise Berakhot (63a), where is attributed to him the transmission of an exegetical explanation of Yohanan bar Nappaha on the fact that the passage relating to the unfaithful woman (Numbers v, 11-31) immediately follows that on the refusal of the priestly tithe.
3rd century Judean rabbi and nasi
Rabbi and nasi
Turbulent Babylonian sage, contemporary of Rav Huna; executed.
Ḥama b. Bisa is a third-century amora, an intermediate link in a trio of scholars between his predecessor and his son Hoshaya, whom he did not recognize when, returning from a twelve-year study exile, he confronted him unknowingly in Talmudic discussion at the house of study. It was his own wife who, seeing him rise before this young scholar who had come to continue the discussion at their home, exclaimed: « Does a father ever rise before his son? », an episode that remained famous in Talmudic tradition.
Israeli aggadist, son of Hanina bar Hama; active in Sepphoris.
Disciple of Rav; several sages bear this name (2nd generation).
Hamnuna of Babylonia is a master of the Bible, younger than Ḥanina ben Ḥama and older than Jeremiah ben Abba, who both consulted him on exegetical questions. He was the innocent cause of a quarrel between the Patriarch Judah I and his student Ḥanina: when the latter publicly corrected an erroneous biblical citation by the Patriarch by invoking the teaching received from Hamnuna, Judah, feeling mocked, thereafter refused to promote Ḥanina to the rectorate of the academy.
Hamnuna I was a Babylonian amora of the 3rd century, disciple of Rab (Abba Arika), from whom he received instruction in both Halakha and ethics, and whose memory he faithfully honored, even excommunicating a scholar who had ruled on a ritual point contrary to his master's opinion at the very place of his final residence. He notably recommended to women not to tear out their hair as a sign of mourning before a corpse, out of respect for the biblical prohibition.
Hamnuna II, called Hamnuna Saba to distinguish him from a younger namesake, is a Babylonian amora of the 3rd and 4th centuries, from Harpania. Trained under the greatest masters of the late 3rd century, notably Ḥisda and then Huna, he became a recognized rabbinic authority consulted by scholars of his generation and by the exilarch himself. A great defender of the study of the Law, which he placed above all good works, he attributed the destruction of Jerusalem to the lack of instruction of children, and left several liturgical blessings still recited at the sight of the ruins of Babylonia.
Babylonian scholar and philanthropist of the third century, younger than Huna I and Ḥisda. The Talmud recounts that he employed dozens of bakers to prepare bread for the poor, that his house, open on all sides to facilitate access for travelers, turned no one away empty-handed, and that he left food outside at night for those whom a direct request would have embarrassed; his house eventually was destroyed, and 'Ula saw in this a sign that, like the sanctuary of God, it would one day be restored. Despite his learning and wealth, he remained of great modesty, even unloading a porter's burden encountered in the street.
Hanan is a Babylonian sage of the third generation of amoraim, in the third century, a late disciple of Rab whose teachings he transmits, also active in Palestine where he debates with the great masters of his time. He teaches that he who calls divine punishment upon his neighbor suffers it first, following the example of Sara toward Abraham, and sees in the enslavement of Israel in Egypt a retribution for the sale of Joseph. Married into the patriarchal family, long childless, he dies at the very moment a son is born to him, who receives his name.
Son-in-law of Rav, transmitted traditions of his father-in-law.
Hananeel is a Babylonian scholar of the 3rd century, disciple of Rab and colleague of Beruna and Isaac ben Maḥseya, known for his perfect knowledge of his master's positions, to the point that any doubt about a decision was only settled after verification with him. A scribe by profession, of such reliability that Ḥisda affirmed that the entire Law could have been transcribed from memory by him were it not for the prohibition of the sages, his name appears frequently in the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon.
Ḥanina ben 'Agoul is a Palestinian scholar of the third century, younger contemporary of Ḥiyya ben Abba and Tanḥoum ben Ḥanilaï. Having asked Ḥiyya why the formula « that you may be happy » appears only in the second version of the Decalogue, he is referred to Tanḥoum, who explains to him that this promise was omitted from the first Tablets because they were destined to be broken. He also leaves a remark on the banquet of Ahasuerus, where the Jews present would have refused in advance any comparison with a future heavenly feast.
Ḥanina ben Torta is a Palestinian scholar of the 3rd century, disciple of Yoḥanan and contemporary of Ammi and Isaac Nappaḥa, born in Tirna or Torta, a place that Neubauer identifies either with a locality in Palestine or with Bé-Torta in Babylonia, which would make him a Babylonian immigrant. He reports halakhot in the name of Ḥizqiya ben Ḥiyya and of Hoshaya, while Ḥiyya ben Abba cites him himself as an authority.
Israeli halakhist and aggadist; 3rd/4th generation.
Jewish scholar
Ḥanina Katoba is a Palestinian scribe or notary who had acquired some familiarity with law; only one halakha, learned from Aḥa, is attached to his name.
Ḥasa is a Babylonian amora of the third century, contemporary of Naḥman ben Jacob and Ammi. Although poor, he was entrusted without receipt with the safekeeping of the property of others, so recognized was his integrity; when rumors spread that he had drowned, Naḥman permitted his widow to remarry, believing that the disappearance of a man of such reputation would necessarily have reached her had he survived.
important figure in Judaism
Hillel ben Gamaliel III is a sage of the second amoraic generation, in the third century, son of Gamaliel III and brother of Judah II, probably a student of his grandfather Judah I. His sense of modesty is illustrated by an episode that occurred in Biri, where he and his brother renounced wearing gold-buckled shoes in public so as not to offend local custom, even though they could have invoked the legality of their practice. Renowned interpreter of Scripture, he was consulted by Origen, and he is credited with the declaration that the Jews no longer have a messiah to await, since one had already appeared in the time of Hezekiah.
son of Gamliel III
Hippolytus is a Christian theologian of the second and third centuries, schismatic bishop of Rome in opposition to Calixte Ier (217), deported in 235 to Sardinia, where he dies. A prolific author among the Church Fathers and the first true Christian exegete, he also stands out as one of the great defenders of Catholic doctrine against gnostic systems; in 1551 a statue of him dating from the third century was discovered in Rome on the Via Tiburtina, bearing engraved the list of his numerous works, also known through Eusebius and Jerome. He attacks Jews in a treatise asserting that they themselves are responsible for their misfortune for having acted wrongly toward the Messiah.
Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, in the third and fourth centuries, principal disciple of Yossé ben Saül, whose halakhic decisions he transmitted, and also a student of Yossé ben Ḥanina and Assi. He reported an aggadic saying that, upon the death of a righteous person, the angels proclaim his arrival and God invites the other righteous to come to meet him. His love of the land of Israel was such that he would roll in its dust.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth generation, in the third and fourth centuries, known only through the Jerusalem Talmud, where he is cited as a disciple of R. Yona and R. Yossé. He transmitted, in the name of R. Lévi, an aggadah according to which a verse from the Psalms proves that a man's wife is destined for him before his birth.
Disciple of R. Yohanan, transmitter; traveled between Israel and Babylonia.
Palestinian amora of the first half of the third century, nephew of Bar Ḳappara and disciple of Siméon ben Laḳish. Several halakhic decisions are attributed to him, transmitted in the name of Aḥa, of Ḥanina and of Johanan. He died young, and Siméon ben Laḳish, in his funeral oration, compared him to a lily that the gardener hastens to pluck.
3rd- and 4th-generation Bablyonian Amora
Disciple of Rav at Sura, second generation of Babylonian Amoraim.
Disciple of Rav and Samuel; emigrated to the Land of Israel (2nd generation).
Palestinian scholar of the third and fourth centuries, disciple of Samuel ben Naḥman, in whose name he asserted that since the destruction of the Temple, one could no longer find either good wine or beautiful white pottery. His surname of « Ḳara » came from his great familiarity with the Bible.
early 3rd century Judean Jewish Amora
Babylonian Amora of the second generation (around 250), disciple of Johanan. The journey between his residence in Babylonia and the academy of Johanan in Tiberias took about three months, so he could devote only one day every six months to study — which earned him the surname of « scholar of one day ». He is also known by the name of Idi of Ḥuṭra, and probably identical to Idi of Caesarea.
Halakhist and aggadist, disciple of R. Yohanan; 3rd generation Israeli.
Israeli sage, transmitter of traditions of R. Yohanan.
Palestinian Amora of the third generation, active in the third and fourth centuries, Jacob of Kefar Ḥanan is chiefly known as an aggadist, although most of his sayings were transmitted only by his students and successors; his name appears once under the form "Jacob of Kefar Ḥananiah".
Palestinian scholar of the 3rd century, disciple of Johanan, who also gathered the teaching of Ḥanina ben Ḥama and reported its halakhot and aggadic teachings, sometimes even in Johanan's presence. He is responsible for the transmission of Ḥanina's eschatological interpretation of the verse « one generation passes, one generation comes » (Ecclesiastes), according to which the dead will be resurrected as they were — lame or blind — before God heals them of their infirmities.
Transitional amora Babylon–Israel; sage of the 1st/2nd generation.
Disciple and colleague of Rav, 2nd generation Babylonian.
Jeremiah ben Abba was a Babylonian amora of the third century, disciple and companion of Rab. He devoted himself to the study of Halakha, but is also cited for his agadic teachings, most of which appear in the Babylonian tractate Sanhedrin.
Johanan b. Nappaḥa, Palestinian scholar born in Sépphoris in the last quarter of the second century and died in Tiberias in 279, orphan raised by his grandfather, had as first masters Yannaï, Hanina b. Hama and Hoshaya Rabba, and briefly attended the lessons of Judah I. He sold the lands he had inherited to finance his studies, before being supported by a pension from the patriarch once his reputation was established. He began to teach in Sépphoris, where he quickly became very popular.
Jonathan b. 'Akmaï was a Palestinian amora of the third generation, one of the masters of Abbahou. He probably descended from the Jerusalemite family of the 'Akmaï, which numbered many High Priests.
Jonathan ben Eleazar was a Palestinian scholar of the third century, contemporary of Hanina b. Hama and disciple of Simon b. Yossé b. Laqonya. Born in Babylon, his first companions in Palestine were Hiyya Rabba and Hanina b. Hama, with whom, as well as with Joshua b. Lévi, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem one day. Renowned for his charity—he offered rich gifts to notable visitors to ensure their future intercession on behalf of a widow or orphan—he is also credited with the halakha that a son may be forced to provide for his father's needs, and the teaching that one must appear just before men as before God.
Jonathan (Nathan) of Bet Goubrin was a Palestinian scholar of the third century, younger than Joshua b. Levi and older than Simon b. Pazzi. He devoted his work to Aggada and contributed several homilies to the Midrash. He is credited with this saying: "Four great languages have been given to the world: Greek for song, Aramaic for lamentation, Hebrew for conversation, Latin for war."
José b. Qatsrata, Palestinian amora of the first generation, was the son-in-law of R. José. He taught that the Creator had chosen the finest earth to shape the first man, and defended, in a controversy recorded in the Jerusalem Talmud, the interests of women on a matter of marriage.
José b. Nehoraï, Palestinian amora of the first generation, had his halakhot transmitted by Johanan. Commenting on Ecclesiastes, he taught that God always comes to the aid of the persecuted, even if he himself is in the wrong against a righteous man who pursues him. He also held that religious rites imposed on children had educational value without being mandatory, and that tax collectors should be severe only regarding taxes intended for the maintenance of schools.
José b. Saul, Palestinian amora of the first generation, in the third century, was the disciple of the patriarch Juda I, whose teachings and traditions he transmitted; these were in turn reported by R. Joshua b. Levi and Hiyya ben Gamda. The Jerusalem Talmud preserved of him only a single anecdote, in Aramaic. He had brothers Johanan and Halafta, with the first of whom he was accustomed to conduct halakhic controversies.
Israeli halakhist, disciple of R. Yohanan; 2nd generation.
José de Maon was a popular preacher of the early third century, who held his discourses in a synagogue in Tiberias named after the locality of Maon, whence his epithet. Renowned for the aggressiveness of his remarks and his lack of regard for persons, he did not even spare the house of the patriarch in his attacks.
Abba José of Mahouza was a scholar of the third century (?), cited only once, in the Mekhilta, where an agada is attributed to him through transmission by R. Nathan. According to a conjecture by Weiss, he could be identical to José ha-Horem mentioned elsewhere, the variant being due to a confusion of surnames.
Joseph b. Joshua b. Levi, amora of the third century, was instructed by his father and became the son-in-law of Judah ha-Nassi; this tie caused his father Joshua b. Levi to rise at his approach, out of regard for the house of the patriarch. The Talmud reports that on the point of death, he had a vision of the world to come, where he saw the greatest brought low and the humblest exalted, and where he heard this greeting: « Happy is he who comes here furnished with his Talmud. »
Joseph b. Pétros, Palestinian amora of the first generation, in the third century, was the father of the first wife of Joshua b. Lévi. Bound in friendship with Bar Qappara, with whom he discussed the interpretation of a biblical verse, he also had an exegetical controversy with Zabdaï b. Lévi.
3rd century Judean scholar of the Talmud
Amora of the 3rd century, especially known as a transmitter of the haggadah of Levi; he also cites a haggadic saying of Aḥa. From his own hand only one sentence survives, reported by Yusta ben Shunam: "the death of sinners excludes them from heaven and from earth, while the death of the righteous establishes them there".
Palestinian amora of the first half of the third century, head of the school of Lydda, in southern Galilee, and close to the masters of the school of Tiberias, Yoḥanan bar Nappaḥa and Simeon ben Laḳish. Disciple of Bar Ḳappara then of R. Judah ben Pedaya, he was renowned for his piety, modesty and tolerance, including towards Judeo-Christians, and put his authority and fortune at the service of the common good, notably interceding with the proconsul of Caesarea on behalf of his people.
Palestinian Amora of the first generation, in the third century, son of the famous R. Ḥiyya and twin brother of Ḥizqiya; son-in-law of Yannaï, who outlived him. He and his brother, often referred to as « the sons of Ḥiyya », were renowned for their learning and piety: according to Simeon ben Laḳish, they had left Babylon with their father to go spread teaching in Palestine. Of great assiduity, Judah spent the entire week away from his family, at the rabbinical academy, returning home only for the Sabbath.
Palestinian Amora of the first generation, in the third century, nephew of Bar Ḳappara; his most important disciple was the haggadist Joshua ben Levi, who claimed to transmit from him numerous halakhot. Considered the most important of the haggadists of the South, he debated talmudic questions with the patriarch Judah I, and his numerous sentences in both Talmuds often departed from the traditional vocalization of biblical verses.
Founder of the academy of Poumbedita; disciple of Rav and Samuel.
Rabbi and Prince of the Sanhedrin.
Israeli rabbi
Kahana bar Tahlifa is a Babylonian amora of the third century, cited only twice in the Babylonian Talmud — once refuting R. Kahana, another time citing a sentence of R. Kahana bar Minyomi, apparently his master. He would have emigrated to Palestine, perhaps in the company of R. Zeira, if we are to believe a passage from the Talmud of Jerusalem mentioning him alongside Zeira and Hanan bar Bo — uncertain reading, as the text could also designate « R. Zeira Kahana » (the priest), Zeira himself being of priestly descent, in which case Bar Tahlifa would not be identical to Kahana bar Tahlifa.
Babylonian amora of the second generation, in the 3rd century, both a halakhist and haggadist, disciple of Rav (Abba Arikha); his halakhot are frequently cited in the Babylonian Talmud, transmitted by himself or in his name by Ḥisda and Rabba bar Houna. It was he who deduced from Isaiah xii, 11 that the existence of the world is divided into periods of six thousand years, separated by intervals of one thousand years of chaos.
Palestinian aggadist of the third century, disciple of Simeon ben Laqish whose aggadic teachings he transmitted, as well as some from Ḥama b. Ḥanina. The treatise Ta'anit reports three aggadic controversies that opposed him to Ḥanina — some, like Bacher, identifying him with Levi b. Ḥama who appears there. One of his aggadot affirms, from a connection between Exodus and the book of Job, that Job was a contemporary of Moïse.
Major Israeli aggadist, disciple of R. Yohanan.
Exilarch and head of the tribunal, disciple of Samuel; renowned for his charity.
Palestinian amora of the third century, active in Lydda, in Judea. Orphaned in infancy, he is raised by his grandfather, the eminent haggadist Joshua ben Levi, who loves to hear him recite the biblical passage of the week on Friday ; Midrash recounts that as a child, fallen ill, he remained in trance for several days and, upon awakening, said he had visited a world where those honored here were dishonored. Only a few halakhot and sayings of him are preserved in the Talmud.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, died in 320, disciple of Mar Samuel. Chief judge of the Jews under the Exilarch and head of the school of Nehardea, he transfers his students to Shekantzib after the destruction of that city; his marriage to the daughter of the wealthy Exilarch allows him to live in luxury and to receive scholars and travelers, including R. Isaac of Palestine. He is responsible for the rule according to which a defendant categorically denying his guilt must take the rabbinical oath called "shevou'at hesset".
Palestinian amora of the third century, son of the tanna Simaï. He was nicknamed "the holiest of men" and "the son of saints", because he had never in his life looked at the portrait appearing on a coin; at his funeral, statues were veiled so that he could not, even in death, see anyone's face. A few of his halakhic sayings have been preserved, and it is reported that he preached a sermon in Tarsus.
Amora of the first generation, he lived in the third century in Beth-Horon, a small town northwest of Jerusalem, and was designated by various names according to sources. Held in high esteem as a scholar and pious man, his opinion was sought for the fixing of the calendar in Jerusalem — it was said that the waters parted before him each time he went there for this purpose. Only a few of his halakhic and haggadic rulings have been preserved; he had a learned son named Uzziel.
Palṭiya of Naweh is a Palestinian haggadist of the 3rd century, whose teaching is known to us only through a single citation, transmitted by the amora Samuel. He explains there that the biblical expression "the land endures forever" actually designates Israel, a point he supports from Judges and Malachi.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, disciple of R. Judah b. Ezekiel at Pumbedita. He transmits sayings of Rab, which he held from his father or from R. Judah, as well as maxims of R. Isaac, but none of his own sayings have been preserved.
Babylonian amora of the first generation, nephew of R. Ḥiyya and cousin of Abba Arika (Rab). Like him, he traveled to Palestine, where he became one of the eminent disciples of Judah ha-Nassi I, who authorized him, upon his return to Babylonia and at the intercession of R. Ḥiyya, to resolve all religious questions and to serve as dayyan. Upon his return, he was frequently associated with his cousin Rab and transmitted teachings received from his uncle R. Ḥiyya.
Babylonian amora of the second generation. He is said to have performed the ceremony of ḥaliṣa according to a modality that only a tanna deemed licit, against the opinion of the majority, which earned him blame from R. Samuel.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, closely linked to Rabba b. Houna, who visited him at his home and consulted him with deference. Their relations deteriorate when Rabba b. Naḥman has trees of Rabba b. Houna felled that were impeding river navigation; furious, the latter curses him, and tradition reports that the children of Rabba b. Naḥman died as a consequence of this curse.
Babylonian Amora of the third century. He transmits a haggadic aphorism from R. Elazar b. Pedat and proposes a personal haggadic interpretation of Jeremiah xlix, 38; nothing more is known of him.
Exilarch and judge at Nehardea/Mahoza; master of Rav Nahman.
Babylonian disciple of R. Yohanan in Israel; famous aggadic stories.
"Rabba", head of Pumbedita, dialectician ("okér harim").
Head of the academy of Sura, son of Rav Huna; 3rd generation.
Jewish Talmudist and rabbi
Patriarch of Judea and editor of the Mishna (c. 200), the first codification of the Oral Law. This monumental work is the foundation of all rabbinic Judaism and the basis of the Talmud. Called simply "Rabbi," so unquestioned was his authority.
Israeli aggadist frequently cited; 3rd generation.
Greatest Amora of the Land of Israel, head of the academy of Tiberias. Principal editor of the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi). His teachings and biographical accounts occupy a central place in both Talmuds.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, brother of Rabba b. Adda and disciple of Juda b. Ezekiel of Pumbedita. He transmits traditions of R. Isaac and a decision of Rabbi, but no personal teaching of his has been preserved.
Babylonian amora of the third generation, disciple of R. Ḥisda and younger fellow disciple of Raba, whose daughter he marries; also associated with R. Naḥman, whom he often sought to refute. Dying prematurely, he leaves his widow to Raba, who sees in this early death the punishment for an affront to the disciple Manassé b. Tahlifa. Endowed with keen intelligence but prone, according to Raba, to hasty conclusions, he loses for this reason his pupil Isaac b. Juda, who joins R. Sheshet; his daughter will marry R. Ashi.
Babylonian amora of the third generation, younger brother of Juda b. Ezekiel, founder of the academy of Poumbedita, and trained by their common father. Defying his brother's opinion that leaving Babylon for Palestine was a sin, he travels to Bené-Beraq, where Aqiba's academy once stood, and becomes convinced that Palestine is indeed a land of milk and honey; returning to Babylon, he corrects several teachings that his brother had attributed to Rab or to Samuel. He maintained friendly relations with Rab Houna.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, from Pumbedita and probably a disciple of R. Juda. Having gone to Sura on the eve of Kippour, he attracts attention there by conduct deemed inappropriate, but justifies himself before R. Ḥisda by citing a teaching of R. Juda, proof of his perspicacity. He is sometimes identified with Rami b. Diqouli, sometimes designated as his father-in-law, according to the talmudic passages.
Founder of the academy of Sura in Babylonia, he inaugurated the golden age of Babylonian Judaism. His discussions with Samuel (master of Nehardea) structure the Babylonian Talmud. He is one of the fathers of the synagogue liturgy.
Colleague of Rav at Nehardea/Huzal, 1st generation of Babylonian Amoraim.
Babylonian Jewish Talmudist
Disciple of Rav, transmitted numerous traditions to Sura.
"Hamnuna the Elder", disciple of Rav; also appears in the Zohar.
Head of the academy of Sura after Rav; 2nd Babylonian generation.
Disciple of Rav; emigrated to Israel where he studied with R. Yohanan.
Babylonian judge (dayan) of the 1st generation, contemporary of Rav and Samuel.
Babylonian rabbi
Talmud Rabbi
amora of Babylonia
Pious merchant and scholar who traveled between Israel and Babylonia.
Directed an academy ('sidra') before Rav; sage of the 1st generation.
Blind amora, scholar of baraïtot; debated with Rav Nahman.
"Sinai", head of Pumbedita after Rabba; scholar of baraïtot.
Jewess from Smyrna who lived around the third century of the common era, known through a Greek inscription where she is designated as chief of the synagogue, a title otherwise unknown borne by a woman. There she has inscribed that she had a tomb built for her freedmen and slaves, forbidding any other burial under penalty of a fine paid to the sacred treasury and the Jewish community. This provision, like the wealth it presupposes, is consistent with the funeral practices of the time, similar to those of the surrounding pagan Greek world.
Head of the academy of Nehardea in Babylonia, astronomer and physician. He formulated the principle "Dina de-malkhuta dina" (the law of the land is the law), the legal foundation of Jewish loyalty to the State. An expert in civil law, halakha follows his opinion in financial matters.
Palestinian amora of the second half of the third century of the common era, of whom no halakhic or aggadic maxim has been preserved: he is known only through the remarks of others that he reports, cited twice in the Babylonian Talmud. He is probably identical to Samuel b. Ḥiyya b. Juda, often mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as reporting the teachings of R. Ḥanina b. Ḥama.
Palestinian amora of the second half of the third century, student of Johanan without having received ordination. He refused to allow Hela and Jacob to stand in his honor, and was also a student of R. Assi and Zeera, to whom he addressed several questions of halakha. He is sometimes confused with the great Samuel.
Palestinian amora of the third century. He explains the double occurrence of the word « michkan » in Exodus by the fact that the sanctuary was twice seized in pledge — an allusion to the two destructions of the Temple. He could be identical to Simeon ben Martha, mentioned in Midrash Rabba.
Major aggadist of the Land of Israel, disciple of R. Yonatan.
Byzantine chronographer, renowned for his interpretations of biblical questions, active in the first half of the third century, probably of Latin North African origin and son of Christian parents. He participated in 195 in the expedition of Septimius Severus against Osrhoene, was the friend of Abgar VIII of Edessa and knew Syriac and, it seems, Hebrew; toward the end of his life, he was priest or bishop of Emmaus, in Palestine. His main work, a chronography in five books, divides the history of the world into seven epochal weeks in the manner of the Book of Jubilees.
Babylonian amora of the third generation, colleague of R. Nahman bar Jacob with whom he had frequent discussions of religious law; hearer of the lessons of Rav Houna, he does not seem to have been a student of Rav himself, whose statements he sometimes criticized without the deference he would have shown to his own master. He first lived in Nehardea, then in Mahoza, before founding an academy in Shilhé; blind and of fragile health but possessed of an iron will, he knew by heart all the tannaitic and amoraic tradition, which he had read to him by an appointed reader, and always based his answers on a precise mishna or baraita.
Israeli sage cited in the Talmud, from Kefar Tamarta.
Disciple of R. Yohanan, Israeli halakhist often compared to R. Abba.
Resh Lakish, dialectical partner of R. Yohanan in Tiberias.
Israeli aggadist, transmitted from R. Yehoshua ben Levi.
Simeon b. Abba is a Palestinian amora of the third generation, disciple of Ḥanina b. Ḥama and of Johanan. Originally from Babylonia but established in Palestine in great poverty, he marries successively the two daughters of Mar Samuel, head of the school of Nehardea, both of whom die shortly after their marriage. He settles for a time in Damascus before Abbahou persuades him to return to Palestine after the death of Johanan.
Simeon b. Jakim, a Palestinian amora of the third generation, is a disciple of R. Yohanan to whom he often addresses learned questions, and a contemporary of R. Eliezer. A renowned teacher, he is considered an important authority; the Babylonian Talmud also mentions him, but under the name of Simeon b. Eliakim.
One of the two greatest Palestinian amoraïm of the second generation, born around 200 and died around 275, also known as Resh Laquich. Established in his youth at Sepphoris, where he studied under R. Yohanan — who became his brother-in-law and his great opponent in halakha — he is said to have initially abandoned study to hire himself out to circus directors, confronting wild beasts, until R. Yohanan, having seen him bathe in the Jordan, brought him back to study by promising him his sister in marriage. Endowed with strength and learning equally extraordinary, he soon reached a rank equal to that of R. Yohanan, and the two men are designated as "the two great authorities".
Simeon b. Pazzi, Palestinian amora of the third generation, bears in Palestine the Greek form of his name, « Simon », and his full name in Babylonia; he belongs to the Pazzi family of Tiberias, highly regarded, of which he was the most important member. Disciple of Joshua b. Levi, from whom he transmits a large number of aggadic sayings, he also sojourns in Babylonia, in the house of the exilarch, where he makes aggadic teachings and where he is considered a halakhic authority. He gives to the calendar calculators instructions to prevent the holidays of the shofar and the willow from falling on the Sabbath.
Simeon ben Yannaï, Palestinian amora of the 3rd century, transmits a halakhic teaching of his father, which he held from his sister. Several of his agadic explanations of biblical verses are preserved, including that of Psalm xii, where he explains that the power of God will not rise as long as Jerusalem remains covered with ashes, and that of Psalm cvi, where he reports that the people had wanted to elect Dathan and Abiram in place of Moses and Aaron, which caused their swallowing by the earth.
Simeon b. Zabdai, Palestinian amora of the 3rd century and master of the son of Assi, explains by several scriptural interpretations passages from Chronicles and Ecclesiastes — thus the postponement of Passover under King Hezekiah, which he attributes to the discovery of the skull of the Jebusite Ornân beneath the altar. At his death, two prominent men, Levi and Héla, delivered his eulogy.
Israeli sage often cited by R. Yohanan as a source of traditions.
Aggadist, enumerated the 613 commandments; debated with minim.
"of the West" (Israel), transmitted baraïtot to Babylonia.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, originating from Kefar Akko but residing in Tiberias, where he was part of the commission charged with fixing the intercalations of the calendar. Rich and philanthropic, he would buy as much meat for the poor as for his own house, and left several aggadic sentences as well as a prayer for those who had had a disturbing dream. According to tradition, all the statues of Tiberias moved at his death.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, he transmitted the teachings of Joshua ben Lévi, Yohanan and Bar Kappara, and some of his decisions are attributed by the Babylonian Talmud to older authorities. Active as a preacher in Tiberias, he is known for his maxims of high ethical import and for his agada method linking the last words of a biblical passage to the first words of the next. He died during the Hanukkah festival.
"Nahota", brought the teachings of Israel to Babylonia.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, father-in-law of Ammi, Yannaï took part in a controversy over the order of composition of the writings attributed to King Solomon, arguing that the book of Qohélet was the last one he wrote.
Palestinian amora of the third century, contemporary of Zeira and Abba bar Kahana, some of whose halakhic decisions and aggadic narratives have been preserved — notably on Adam's encounter with the angels and a farewell discourse. Sick, he received a visit from Zeira and Abba bar Kahana, with whom he debated Solomon's plantings.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, friend of Jacob bar Idi, with whom he exercised the office of commissioner for the poor and often debated halakhic questions. He transmitted on two occasions teachings of Joshua ben Lévi on the conversion of bought slaves, and was involved in controversies with Abdima of Haïfa and Simon ben Pazzi.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, contemporary of Joshua ben Levi and Yohanan, trained at the school of Eleazar ben Pedat. He transmitted several halakhot in the name of other masters and left an agada relating the quarrel between the shepherds of Abimelech and those of Abraham and its settlement.
Palestinian amora of the third century, contemporary of Eleazar ben Pedat, several of whose aggadic maxims have been preserved. He taught that God, proud of his creation, admits no criticism of it, and that offending a great man is equivalent to offending the king himself.
Palestinian amora of uncertain period, son of Parnak, to whom is attributed an apocryphal work describing the events surrounding a man's death: the angels of death, of memory and of the guard who come to his bedside to review his entire life, joined by other angels according to his piety — a narrative in which the influence of the Buddhist legend of the « Three Friends » has been noted.
Babylonian Amora of the third and fourth centuries, disciple of R. Nahman, to whom he posed questions on sacrifices. He transmitted in the name of Rab teachings on the remittance of letters of repudiation, and reported having heard at Nisibe the sage Simlaï denounce the widespread use of oil among Jews.
Palestinian Amora of the third and fourth centuries, nicknamed "the Smith," one of the greatest aggadists of his time. Disciple of Yohanan, he spent some time in Babylonia after the latter's death, frequenting the house of the Exilarch and becoming friends with Ammi, with whom he often sat as a judge alongside Abbahou and Hanina bar Pappaï; first established in Caesarea, he later settled in Tiberias.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, known for his midrashic controversies — one with Levi on a verse of Kings, another with Kahana on Joseph's abstinence from wine after his imprisonment by his brothers. He taught that even creatures born from the curse of the world, such as gnats and flies, have their usefulness.
Palestinian amora of the third century, probably brother of Yannaï ben Ismaël. He settled the question of the compensation of teachers of the Law by ruling that they should be reimbursed for the time they could have devoted to other work, and interpreted a verse of Job on the measure of waters as meaning that the Law is distributed to each by measure — one receiving biblical knowledge, another the Mishna, a third the Halakha, a fourth the Haggada.
Palestinian Amora of the third century, author of a halakhic maxim preserved in the Talmud of Jerusalem and of two agadic teachings in the Talmud of Babylon, based on the variable vocalization of a biblical word. He is known for his observation, often cited in midrashic literature, that even the passages enumerating the characteristics of impure animals begin by indicating the signs of their purity.
Palestinian amora of the third century, contemporary of Yohanan, with whom he debated the written law and oral law as well as succession law. His aggadic interpretations, often cosmogonic, include the legend of the phoenix — which would live a thousand years before being reborn from an egg formed after the fall of its feathers — and the idea that the behemoth and the leviathan were created to serve as game for the righteous in the world to come; he also readily resorted to parable and notarikon for his commentaries.
Palestinian Amora of the first generation, in the third century, member of the learned circle led by Hoshaya Rabba, whose halakhic teachings were transmitted by R. Yohanan. Eminent in biblical exegesis and Aggadah, he debated with Rab, Joshua ben Levi and Jose ben Petros — notably proposing his own reading of the "coolness of the day" from Genesis, opposed to that of Rab. Having survived Joshua ben Levi, he reported seeing him in a dream showing that those who had kept the study of the Law in memory advanced with face uplifted, and the others with face downcast.
Palestinian amora of the third generation, born in Babylonia where he spent his youth, disciple of Hisda, Houna and Juda ben Ezekiel in Pumbedita. For love of the Holy Land, he decided secretly to emigrate to Palestine despite the disapproval of his master Juda, fasted for one hundred days before departure to unlearn the Babylonian dialectical method, and, upon arriving at the Jordan, could not contain his impatience and crossed it fully clothed. Small of stature and of dark complexion, nicknamed "the black pot" by Assi because of his peculiar elocution, he bound himself in Palestine in close friendship with Assi and Hiyya bar Abba.
Babylonian who emigrated to Israel; pious, fasted to forget Babylonian study.
Babylonian sage who emigrated to Israel, disciple of R. Yohanan.
Empress of Palmyra, regent from 267 to 273 for her minor son Wahballat, appointed imperator by the emperor Aurelian. Reputed to be benevolent toward the Jews — and, according to unverified sources, herself of Jewish descent — she extended her dominion over Egypt and Syria to the point that Aurelian made war on her in 272, defeated her and led her in chains in triumph to Rome, before treating her with clemency and offering her a villa on the Tiber.
Babylonian Talmudic master, head of the academy of Pumbedita. His debates with Rava (sugiot of Abaye and Rava) are the model of Talmudic dialectical reasoning. His biography as an orphan who became a great master illustrates the meritocratic ideal of Judaism.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, mentioned occasionally as a haggadist and as a transmitter of certain halakhic opinions.
Palestinian amora of the early fourth century, son of Ḥiyya bar Abba, himself a student of Johanan. He transmitted to his generation the words of Johanan received from his father and maintained close ties of friendship with Zeira.
Palestinian amora of the 4th century, died in 375. Second link in the transmission of aggadic teachings of Levi, he is generally cited alongside Joshua of Siknin; he exchanged halakhic questions with Jose and Mani, sons of Jonah.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, student of R. Zeira whose many sayings he transmitted. Employed in Rome as a tailor for a non-Jew, he refused, under threat of death, to violate dietary laws; another anecdote, reported by Tanḥuma b. Abba concerning a pious tailor of Rome, might concern him.
Palestinian amora of the late third century or early fourth. He is mentioned only once, as transmitter of a haggadic saying of Samuel b. Naḥman.
Amora of Palestinian origin established in Babylon, older contemporary of Raba and Joseph, in the 4th century. Only a small number of halakot and a few haggadot are attributed to him, in which he resorts to wordplay and sound patterns in the biblical text, as in his commentary on Deuteronomy xxx, 11-13 or his interpretation of « Taanath-Shiloh ».
Palestinian Amora of the third generation (third and fourth centuries), recognized as an authority on halakhic matters, his views being cited by both his contemporaries and successors, and also active in the realm of Aggadah. He is attributed with rules of precedence to be observed toward the scholar, the ab bet din, and the nasi, as well as sayings such as « with the destruction of the First Temple, the gift of prophecy was withdrawn from the prophets and conferred upon the scholars ».
Palestinian amora of the 4th century, contemporary of the Babylonian amoraim Rab Ḥisda and Rab Joseph, and senior to R. Assi II who reported halakic decisions in his name. He had the custom of traveling to disseminate traditions between the academies of Palestine and Babylonia, whence his surname of Naḥota, « one who descends to Babylonia ».
Babylonian amora of the fourth century, disciple of Raba ben Joseph and master of Rab Mordekhaï, colleague of Rab Achi. He is notably responsible for the aphorism according to which, for the man lost by the fault of women, there exists neither law nor judge.
Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, colleague of Rabbi Jeremiah. Trained by Rabbi Zeira I and Rabbi Hila, among the greatest authorities of the third generation, he died after a brief life devoted to study, mourned by his contemporaries; it was said of him that he had accomplished, in the twenty-eight years given to the study of the Law, what no other distinguished scholar could have accomplished in a century.
Palestinian Amora, he was among the teachers of Rabbi Aboun ben Ḥiyya and was the junior colleague of Rabbi Hoshaya II. Rabbi Yona, of the fourth generation of Amoraim, reports in his name a discussion of halakha.
Babylonian amora of the fourth century, disciple of Rab Juda ben Ezekiel and elder contemporary of Raba ben Joseph. Without being an original thinker, he played a role as transmitter, preserving and reporting the decisions and observations of his illustrious predecessors, particularly those of Rabbi Isaac, notably in matters of Halakha and Haggada.
Palestinian amora of the second half of the fourth century, distinguished as an original haggadist; midrashic literature often appends to him the title of Berabbi. Tradition attributes to him the maxim: « He who forces the hour, the hour will repel him; give way to the hour, and the hour will give way to you ».
"Nahota" between Israel and Babylonia; aggadist (4th generation).
Amora of the third and fourth centuries, always cited without a surname. Born in Babylonia, disciple of Rab Houna I, he had halakhic controversies with Rab Ḥisda and Rab Sheshet before migrating, in his later years, to Palestine, where he became close to Rabbi Zeira I and Rabbi Jacob ben Aha, who often reported in his name decisions learned from him.
Physician, author and Jewish naturalist who lived in Alexandria in the 4th century, he composed a two-volume abridgment of the "Physiognomony" by the rhetorician Polemon, contemporary of Hadrian, which he dedicated to the emperor Constantius; he also wrote a treatise "On the winds", in which he drew mainly on the method of Aristotle's "Physiognomony". Also a naturalist, he is the author of remedies mentioned by Oribasius, who compiled his medical work under the reign of the emperor Julian.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth generation, disciple of R. Ḥanina b. Pappi and contemporary of R. Ḥizqiya, his surname Abimi would have been transformed into Oukmi or Ikkouma ("the Dark One") because his memory did not protect him sufficiently from errors of quotation in the transmission of traditions.
Babylonian amora of the second generation (third-fourth centuries), frequently cited in both Talmuds, he is said to have been born on the day of the death of Rabbi Juda I and was a disciple of Abba Arikha (Rav), whose garment he tore twice as a sign of mourning at his funeral. He gathered many disciples at Poumbedita, whom he sometimes taught in the street, and lived to a very advanced age. Having one day reprimanded a woman, Matoun, dressed improperly without knowing she was a Samaritan, he was condemned to a fine, which inspired him with the saying: « Matoun, Matoun is worth four hundred zouz ».
Babylonian amora of the 4th century, disciple of Abayé and Rava, he also received halakhic teachings from Rabina I and frequented, in his later years, Rabina II. To satisfy his thirst for knowledge, he had to leave his home; when his wife asked him what would become of their children, he answered laconically: "Have all the aquatic plants of the marshes disappeared?"
Babylonian Amora of the 4th century, disciple of Ḥisda, he emigrated to Palestine where R. Yona gave him the tithe, saying: « not because Aḥa is of priestly descent, but because he is assiduous in the study of Torah », citing II Chronicles xxxi, 4 in support. Aḥa himself presented King David as faithfully paying the tithe, relying on Psalm xl, 9, and saw in the appointment of Jonathan, son of Uzziah, at the head of the granaries, the means for David to enforce this rule.
Amora of the 4th century born and trained in Palestine, he emigrated to Babylonia where he became a disciple of Rav Judah ben Ezekiel and of Rav Hamnouna II, often reporting the decisions of his Palestinian masters. Grown old and with trembling hands, he was, it is said, imitated by a forger who made his own hand tremble to counterfeit his signature. Commenting on Malachi iii, 18, he taught that the service of God must not be a means but an end in itself.
Babylonian Amora of the 4th century, younger contemporary of Rava and nephew of Aḥa b. Jacob, he is frequently cited in halakhic discussions and received from his uncle the title of Bar be-Rav ("companion of the academy"), with which he also pursued halakhic controversies.
Palestinian amora of the third generation (4th century), younger contemporary of Zeira I, Ami I and Abba (Ba) b. Mamel, he told that Solomon had placed in the Temple golden trees that flowered each time their real counterparts flowered outside — a teaching he supported with Isaiah xxxv, 2, Lebanon being the symbolic name of the Temple.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation (4th century), disciple of Naḥman b. Jacob and contemporary of Abayé, he was probably the brother of Adda b. Minyomi.
Palestinian amora of the third generation (fourth century), contemporary of Abbahou, Zeira I and Abba II, nicknamed Arikha, he taught that repentance has the power to thwart heavenly decrees and even to annul divine oaths — proof provided by the fate of Yekhonia, declared « without child » by Jeremiah but of whom the Chronicles nonetheless count eight sons, including Shealtiel.
Babylonian Amora of the third and fourth generations (fourth century), contemporary of Rabina I and elder of Aḥa b. Jacob, his opinions were defended by his grandson Mesharsheya.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, disciple of Rabba b. Naḥmani and of Sheshet, Ḥisda employed him for his halakhic correspondence with Rava, who saw in him a great and wise man. It was to him, with Rav Safra, that Rava entrusted the task of burning on a sand bank, lacking possible sacrifices since the destruction of Jerusalem, the animal that Ifra-Hormizd, mother of the Persian king Sapor II, had sent as an offering to the God of the Jews.
Babylonian sage, contemporary of Rav Ashi; 6th generation.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, associated with the most eminent masters of his generation, R. Yona and R. Yossé II, he was native to Lod but settled in Tiberias, where he constituted a tribunal with Houna II and Judah bar Pazi. Though a recognized authority in halakha, it was in aggada that he excelled, being the most cited of the masters of his time; commenting on the binding of Isaac, he illustrates by a royal parable the idea that God, in asking Abraham to offer his son, was not asking him to kill him but to present him alive on the altar.
Palestinian amora of the third generation (fourth century), contemporary of Tanḥoum b. Ḥiyya of Kefar Akko, he left no original ruling under his own name but reported several halakhot and precedents in the name of others. With the help of Tanḥoum, he ransomed Jewish captives brought to Tiberias, and submitted, it seems, twice, halakhot to the sages of Ousha, former seat of the Sanhedrin.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth century, who taught in Caesarea, son of R. Zeira I, his reputation as a halakist surpassed the borders of Palestine as far as Babylonia, where sages came to consult him; he also transmitted, during his father's lifetime, the paternal halakhot to his colleagues. In midrash, he contrasted the brothers of Joseph, who expressed their hatred openly, with Absalom, who concealed it; commenting on the Song of Songs (ii, 3), he noted that Israel expressed its faith before even hearing the divine message, as the apple tree buds before covering itself with leaves.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation (fourth-fifth centuries), disciple of Rav Ḥisda and Rav Sheshet, he lost the power of speech one day after having, by way of a jest, embarrassed the latter in the midst of a Talmudic discussion — a heavenly punishment, according to tradition, for having shamed his master. His mother, who had been the nurse of Rav Sheshet, interceded with her former charge, who eventually forgave and prayed for his healing; Aḥadboï regained his speech, but his colleagues nicknamed him « the nurseling who confused the ways of his mother ». He reported in the name of R. Eleazar an image of charity as a breastplate made of accumulated scales.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, contemporary of Rava b. Joseph, he persuaded his dying sister to modify her will in his favor rather than in that of their learned brother, Rav Tobi, by making her understand that one would then say: "that one is learned, this one is not." A lawsuit ensued, and Rav Naḥman ruled that a testatrix could modify her will during her illness just as she could have annulled it in case of recovery; Aḥadboï was thus declared legitimate heir.
Tanna of the fourth and fifth generations (2nd century), probable son of the tanna R. Josiah, disciple of R. Ishmael, he is the subject of a legend where his ghost, questioned by the amora Nahman ben Isaac about the consciousness of the dead, discusses learnedly about the resurrection by citing Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Ezekiel. Several clues, including an excommunication he pronounced against fishermen violating the Sabbath in Birta de-Satia and a silver vessel he possessed in Nehardea, in Babylonia, suggest that he spent the end of his life there and was buried there.
Prominent haggadist of the fourth generation of amoraim, in the 4th century, contemporary of Judah (Judan) ben Simon. Versed in halakha, he reports opinions in the name of rabbi Yannaï, but is distinguished especially by his original biblical commentaries, notably on the rest of the sabbath and on the duty to pray for the welfare of animals.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth generation, in the fourth century, disciple of Hila and contemporary of Juda ben Simon ben Pazzi. He transmits the halakhic traditions of numerous predecessors and offers several original homiletic observations, notably an interpretation exculpating David for having violated the prohibition of sitting in the Temple.
Palestinian haggadist of the 4th century, contemporary of R. Lévi. Commenting on a verse of the Song of Songs, he concludes that if nights succeed nights for Israel, it is because Israel himself is asleep, neglecting the study of the Law and the observance of the commandments. Alexandra, Aramaic form of Alexander, was then commonly adopted by Jews as an equivalent of the name Benjamin.
Eminent geographer of the fourth century, intimate friend of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. Of noble and generous character, he is governor of Brittany from 355 to 360, before being recalled by the emperor to supervise the reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. At first full of zeal, he gradually loses heart before the little effort of the Jews to help him, and leaves the field open to the intrigues of enemies of the Jews, who seek by every means to cause this generous project of the emperor to fail.
Father of the Church and author, born around 340 in Trier, died in 397 in Milan. Bishop of Milan with a fiercely hostile attitude toward Jews, he protests vehemently to Emperor Theodosius when the latter, after the destruction of the synagogue of Callinicum in 388 by a mob led by the local bishop, orders its reconstruction at the expense of the rioters; Ambrose argues that obedience would amount to betraying his faith, and goes so far as to claim his own wish to see all synagogues destroyed. Taking advantage of Theodosius's visit to Milan during the winter of 388-89, he renews the attack from the pulpit, and ultimately prevails.
Roman historian, born in Antioch, Syria, around 320, died around 395. He wrote a history of Rome, from Nerva to Valens, which mentions the Jews several times; one of his passages is at the origin of the medieval legend of the « fœtor judaicus », the supposed bad odor of the Jews, and another book, the only surviving pagan testimony on the subject, relates the failed attempt by the Jews, under Emperor Julian, to rebuild the Temple.
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, in the 4th century, contemporary of R. Naḥman. His epithet « Ḥassida » (the Pious) comes from an episode where, to escape a great temptation, he raised a fire alarm; to his colleagues who reproached him for exposing them to shame, he replied that it was better to be confused before them in this world than before God in the next. Legend adds that he summoned the tempter within himself to depart, exclaiming: « You are fire and I am flesh, yet I am stronger than you. » Mistreated by the household of the exilarch, he fell ill from it, before being healed by Yalta, the wife of Naḥman.
Babylonian amora of the third generation, in the 4th century, contemporary of Ḥisda, Naḥman and Abba bar Mémel. More known in the field of halakha than in that of haggada, he rarely remains original even in legal matters. It is recounted that during a controversy with Rabba, where the latter, annoyed by his objections, called him a fool, a column of cedar in the study hall split — each of the two protagonists seeing in it a sign from heaven confirming that he had been wronged by the other.
Name under which is known a Syrian homilist of the 4th century, whose homilies, written between 337 and 345, prove to be of exceptional value for the historian of Judaism: no Church Father was more deeply marked by rabbinic Judaism than this defender of Christianity against the Jews. His doctrine of the two divine attributes, justice and mercy, is typically Jewish; his eschatology rests on a double nature of the soul — the « natural » soul, buried with the body until the resurrection, and the « heavenly » soul, which immediately recovers its proper nature —, a conception of the sleep of the soul then widespread among the Jews of his time.
Legendary child converted to Christianity and then martyr, born of Jewish parents, he is said to have lived at the end of the fourth century in Sinjar, between Nisibis and Mosul in Mesopotamia. Rejected by his companions as long as he remained Jewish, he is said to have been baptized by Christian children of the village, before being killed by his own father when his conversion was discovered. A church was later built at the site of his death.
Bishop of Alexandria, born in 293, probably in Alexandria, died on May 2, 373. One of the greatest combatants of the ancient Church, he spent twenty of his forty-seven years of official life in exile, due to enemies—personal, religious, and political—whom he had made for himself, having been made bishop in 326. His work, like his life, is marked by a largely polemical character; his very earliest writings, a « Discourse against the Pagans » and a « Discourse on the Incarnation of the Word », attack paganism and refute Judaism.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, in the fourth century, contemporary of Abaye and Raba and brother-in-law of Rammi b. Pappa, he was a disciple of R. Joseph and distinguished himself by the rigor of his ritual observances. A tradition reports that having visited the school of Raba with dusty shoes, he successfully answered difficult questions posed by the latter to refute him, arousing the sympathy of those present.
Babylonian amora of the third and fourth generation, in the fourth century, contemporary of Abaye and Safra, he emigrated to Palestine where he was a bailiff in the college of the "great master" (probably Ammi), before returning to his native country. He brought back from there numerous halakhic and aggadic traditions from R. Ammi and R. Assi, which he transmitted while sometimes confusing the names of their respective authors.
Palestinian master of the fourth generation of amoraim, in the fourth century, he transmitted the teachings of several amoraim of previous generations while himself being cited by his contemporaries. He distinguished himself as an innovative aggadist, able to draw a moral lesson from a single word of Scripture — thus from the term "eshel," in which he saw three duties of hospitality toward the guest.
Son of Nathanael and grandson of Aḳbun, High Priests, he was an eminent leader and High Priest of the Samaritans in the time of the Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century. According to Samaritan tradition, he restored during his forty years of reign the worship on Mount Garizim after having driven out the Roman guard and destroyed the eagle that had been erected there, reestablished schools for the study of the Law and reorganized the priesthood into twelve districts. A legend also attributes to him, with the help of his nephew Levi who became Christian archbishop in Constantinople, the definitive demolition of this eagle and the restoration of Samaritan worship.
Babylonian scholar of the fourth and fifth amoraic generations, active in the 4th century, son of the famous Abaye Nahmani and presiding judge at Pumbedita, where his father had headed the academy. Descendant of the priestly house of Eli, destined according to tradition to premature death, he was mocked by Pappi and Huna ben Joshua for this lineage which they judged fragile. He led a contemplative life, and legend attributes to him several singular narratives reported in the Talmud.
Benjamin Asya, also called Minyomi, is a Babylonian rabbinic scholar of the third and fourth amoraic generations (fourth century), contemporary of Rab Joseph and Raba, and founder of a school known as Debe Minyomi Asya. Renowned for his medical knowledge, from which Raba benefited, he saw his sons or disciples, who appear to have formed a corporation of physicians, take offense that Raba publicly divulged their professional secrets before the people of Maḥuza.
R. Benjamin b. Giddel (or Giddul) is a Palestinian amora of the fourth generation (fourth century), contemporary of R. Aḥa III, whose name appears rarely in the Talmud and only in the Halakha. He would be the son of Giddel b. Benjamin (Minyomi), which would suggest a Babylonian origin.
R. Benjamin b. Lévi is a Palestinian amora of the fourth century, young contemporary of R. Ammi and R. Isaac and elder of Abin II, known especially for his homiletical teachings. He thus comments on the verse of Jeremiah about he who hides to study the Law or to sin, and teaches that at the time of Israel's restoration, the order of nature will change to the point that the north and south winds will be able to blow together.
R. Berechia II is a Palestinian amora of the fourth century, cited by his first name alone in the Talmud and sometimes with the title « ha-Cohen » in the Midrashim. Probably of Babylonian origin but trained early in Palestine, he had for his master in Haggada R. Ḥelbo and lived long enough to still be in legal dispute with R. Mana the Younger; his teachings, almost all haggadic, number among the most frequently cited in midrashic literature, notably in the Pesiḳta and Midrash Tehillim.
Son of Abaye, Babylonian sage; 5th generation.
Bezalel was a Palestinian amora of the fourth century, known in midrashic literature solely as an author of aggadic sayings, two of which were transmitted by Berechia. He notably interpreted the particular form of the word "kehaḥallonot" from Ezekiel concerning the windows of the Temple, and proposed an allegorical explanation from Hosea comparing the Torah, when his students dishonor it by their conduct, to a mother treated as a prostitute.
Bisna (also Bisinah, Bisni, or Bizna) is a Palestinian scholar of the fourth generation of amoraim (fourth century), contemporary of Berechia II, with whom he appears in a halakhic discussion; his name is primarily associated with the transmission of the opinions of his predecessors and contemporaries, both in Halakha and in Haggada. Few of his own teachings are preserved, including an interpretation of the verse from Psalms about the man whom God instructs through suffering, where he compares suffering inflicted against one's will to that, voluntary, of nocturnal study of the Law.
Roman emperor, born on February 27, 274, died on May 22, 337, proclaimed emperor in Gaul at the death of his father Constance Chlore in 306. He defeats Maxentius in 312 then vanquishes Licinius in 323, becoming sole master of the empire ; in 330, he transfers his capital to Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, and convokes in 325 the ecumenical council of Nicaea. First Christian emperor, he hardened his policy toward the Jews: in 329, he forbade them to circumcise their slaves under pain of death and proscribed marriages between Jews and Christians, measures confirmed in 335.
Daniel Ḥayyaṭa ("the Tailor"), Palestinian sage whose two scriptural interpretations are preserved in the Midrash, regarding Genesis xxvi. 14 and Ecclesiastes iv. 1. His era can only be conjectured: the masters cited in his context belonging to the third and fourth generations, and he who takes up and completes his discourse belonging to the fourth generation of the amoraim, he could not be earlier than this generation.
Jewish philosopher who lived between 400 and 480, originating from Laodicea or Larissa in Syria, Domninus studied under Syrianus, whom he perhaps succeeded as master of the Neoplatonic school of Athens, contemporary of the philosopher Proclus. According to Suda, when hemoptysis struck him in Athens, he did not hesitate to eat pork, contrary to his pagan companion Plutarch, also ill, who refused — which disqualified Domninus as a true philosopher in Suda's eyes, although she credited him with great talent as a mathematician. A disciple of Plato attacked by Proclus, he practiced theurgy and died at an advanced age, probably in Athens.
Palestinian Amora probably of the 4th century, Dosa, whose decisions on halakha the Jerusalem Talmud preserves and whose aggadic sayings midrashic literature records in several places — notably that the dangerous « snare » from which God protects man is the function of judging in religious matters — dies at the new moon of Nissan, a date recorded because refreshments were offered that day to the bereaved, an unusual custom for a semi-holiday.
Palestinian Amora of the 4th century, Dosa b. Ṭébet is known through a maxim, transmitted by the haggadist Ḥouna, on the two most dangerous inclinations of man: « God created in his world two inclinations, that of idolatry and that of illicit love; the first has long since been uprooted [in Israel], the second still subsists. Whoever, says God, knows how to resist the latter, I consider him as having resisted both. » The name of his father, « Ṭébet », which appears nowhere else, illustrates the practice of using month names as patronymics.
Rabbinic scholar of the 4th century, from Babylonia, counted among the "ingenious scholars of Poumbedita" although few halakhot and aggadot are attributed to him. His full name, "'Efa b. Raḥba", appears only once in the Babylonian Talmud; the Jerusalem Talmud always cites him under the sole name of "Ḥefa", without patronymic.
Palestinian preacher of the fourth generation of Amoraim, in the 4th century, a younger contemporary of Aha III and senior to R. Yudan. One of the homilies bearing his name maintains that the observance of the Sabbath is equivalent to all of the other commandments, an argument he supports with a verse from each of the three parts of the Bible.
Palestinian scholar of the fourth century, whose name appears only once in the Babylonian Talmud, as a reporter of a homily by Simeon b. Laqish denouncing the corruption of courts — venal judges, forged scribes, crooked lawyers, lying litigants. It is not even certain that « Malaï » was his true surname, some editions reading « Simlaï ».
Palestinian sage of the fourth generation of amoraim, in the 4th century, to whom few haggadic teachings are attributed. Commenting on the verse from Psalms about the "river of your delights" (literally "your Edens," in the plural), he deduced from it that each pious soul possesses its own abode in Paradise; from the narrative in which Abraham "retraced his steps" upon returning from Egypt, he inferred that he retraced the same path to pay back the debts he had contracted there.
Church Father born in Nisibis, in Syria — whence his epithet "the Syrian" — or in Edessa, at the beginning of the 4th century. Author of numerous Syriac commentaries on the Pentateuch and most of the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament, he knew Hebrew and often resorted to the original text; his commentaries draw on numerous haggadot of Jewish origin, which he cites however without ever naming their source, through hostility toward the Jews, whom he designates as "circumcised vagabonds" and against whom he composed a hymn of denunciation, notably on the theme of messianic hope.
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea and "father of the history of the Church", was born around 270. In his "Demonstratio Evangelica", directed against Judaism, he urged the conversion of Jews, a position that influenced the anti-Jewish laws promulgated by Constantine, at whose side he sat at the Council of Nicaea. His "Præparatio Evangelica" nonetheless preserves precious fragments of Judeo-Hellenistic authors, such as Eupolemos, Philo or Flavius Josephus, transmitted by Alexander Polyhistor.
Jewish Rabbi and Prince of the Sanhedrin.
Rabbi and Prince of the Ancient Sanhedrin.
Babylonian sage of the fourth generation of Amoraim, contemporary of Papa and successor of Naḥman b. Isaac as head of the academy of Pumbedita, from 356 to 377. Coming from Nehardea, he was known there as « the amora of Nehardea »; as rector, many uncertain cases were submitted to him, and his decisions were approved by later generations as law-giving, with the notable exception of a question from King Shapor about the burial of the dead, to which he could not find an answer. He earned his living through « ṭarsha », selling goods on credit to retailers while assuming the risks of transport.
Hamnuna Zouta is a Babylonian amora of the 4th century, junior and contemporary of Hamnuna II, whose name (« the little one ») distinguishes him from his elder namesake. He appropriates for the recitation of the Day of Atonement the prayer of repentance composed by Hamnuna II, « My God, before I was formed I had no value », which Rava for his part had adopted for daily recitation.
Ḥana ben Bizna is a Babylonian scholar of the 3rd and 4th centuries, judge at Poumbedita, renowned for his mastery of aggada to the point that R. Sheshet, who had attempted to contradict him on this ground, had to acknowledge he could not rival him. An independent halakist, he did not hesitate to frequent the shops of pagan barbers in the suburbs of Nehardea despite criticism, and it is to him that the merit belongs of having preserved from oblivion the teaching of the late tanna Simon Ḥasida, whom scarcely any other rabbi mentions.
Hanania, called Ḥanina, is a Palestinian amora of the third and fourth centuries, junior disciple of Ḥiyya ben Abba and Ze'ira I, surnamed "the companion of the rabbis". Born in Babylonia, presumed brother of Rabba ben Naḥmani and descendant of the priestly house of Eli, he emigrated young to Palestine with his brother Hoshaya and settled in Tiberias, where the two brothers worked as shoemakers in a quarter of prostitutes without ever failing in their modesty, thus winning general respect. Yoḥanan desired to ordain them but never succeeded; Hanania died on a semi-holiday, and his coffin was, by exception, fashioned in public in a sign of mourning.
Hanania, called Ḥanina, is a Palestinian master of the fourth amoraic generation, in the 4th century, nephew of R. Hoshaya and junior disciple of Ze'ira the First, contemporary of Yossé II. He is notably known for having opposed the rabbis of Caesarea in a halakhic controversy, and for having consulted Abba ben Zabda on a point of law.
Ḥanina ben Abbahou, sometimes called Ḥanina of Caesarea, is a Palestinian amora of the fourth generation. Sent by his father, R. Abbahou, to study at the academies of Tiberias, he actually devoted himself to pious works such as attending to the dead, which earned his father this remark: « Is it because there are no tombs in Caesarea that I sent you to Tiberias? » In the field of haggada, he leaves original observations, sometimes hyperbolic, and willingly resorts to the numerical value of letters to reconcile divergent opinions, notably on the name of the Messiah of Israel.
Ḥanina (Ḥinena) ben Isaac is a Palestinian haggadist of the 4th century, contemporary of Samuel ben Ammi, with whom he had an exegetical controversy. He is credited with a famous parable about the ram offered by Abraham in place of Isaac, interpreted as a prefiguration of the successive empires under which Israel would be enslaved before its final deliverance at the sound of the shofar; he also believed that the impatience of the patriarchs annoyed God less than the patience of their descendants.
Ḥanina ben Pazzi is a Palestinian haggadist of the 3rd and 4th centuries, whose teaching is limited to midrashic literature and who might have been the brother of the better-known amora Simon ben Pazzi, although he never cites him. He is the author of a famous remark on God's choice of Betsalel, from the largest tribe, and Oholiab, from the smallest, to design the Tabernacle, in order to teach that great and small are equal before Him, as well as an image comparing the ease of weeds to the difficulty of wheat, regarding the early motherhood of Hagar and the daughters of Lot in contrast to the long sterility of Sarah.
Ḥanina of Shalḳa is a Palestinian haggadist of the 4th century, contemporary of Joshua of Siknin, with whom his name appears associated in the midrashim to report the interpretations of their predecessors John and Levi, without leaving himself any original haggada. He might be identical to the city of Salkha mentioned in Deuteronomy, or to the Seleucia of Flavius Josephus.
Ḥarith ibn 'Amr is a king of Yemen converted to Judaism, born around 260, ascended to the throne around 320 and died around 330, great-great-grandson of Abou Karib, the first Yemenite king to embrace Judaism. He must not be confused with his Kindite homonym, who lived two centuries later.
Hillel b. Samuel b. Nahman is a Palestinian haggadist of the fourth century, probably trained by his father, but also by other masters, including Levi b. Hama. According to him, the merit of the master is, in Heaven's eyes, five times superior to that of the disciple, as he deduces from a verse of the Song of Songs comparing Solomon's thousand pieces to the two hundred of the keeper of the fruit; elsewhere, he relies on a verse of Nehemiah to affirm that the authorities of his time merit the same respect as the ancients.
Patriarch of Judea who, around 359, fixed the perpetual Jewish calendar still in use today. This momentous reform allowed diaspora communities to celebrate the festivals on the same dates without depending on the monthly observation of the new moon in the Land of Israel.
Palestinian Amora of the third and fourth generations, died around 350 of the common era, descendant of the priest Eli, which, according to tradition, prevented Johanan from ordaining him with his colleague Ḥanina, perhaps his brother. Shoemakers by trade, both one day left a bathhouse whose property had been contested and ceded as sacred property. It is reported that on the day of his death, the greatest date palm in Tiberias was uprooted and fell.
Israeli sage of the 4th generation, namesake of Hoshaiah Rabbah.
Palestinian amora of the third generation, died around 350 of the Common Era, nicknamed « Zeéra » (the young) to distinguish him from Hoshaiah the Elder. Attached to the « southern » rabbis, in Lower Galilee, he might be the brother of Ḥanina, also a « ḥaber ». Only a single halakhic decision is reported in his name.
Babylonian Amora of the fifth generation, in the fourth century, disciple of Abaye and Raba, alongside whom studied R. Safra, Abba b. Huna and R. Papa. He once contested, with Huna b. Naḥman, a decision of Raba, and transmitted a halakha in the name of Ḥiyya b. Rab.
babylonian rabbi and exilarch
Palestinian amora of the first half of the fourth century, disciple of R. Jeremiah in whose name he transmitted several halakhic and aggadic teachings. Active at the school of Tiberias led by Yosef, with whom he had halakhic controversies, he also sojourned in Babylonia, where he became familiar with the traditions of the local amoraim and met Rabba, head of the school of Mehoza. He reports that, during the Roman persecutions under Gallus, the rabbis of Tiberias, refugees in a cave, deliberated on the expediency of intercalating an extra month in the calendar.
Exilarch, contemporary and friend of Rav Ashi.
Study companion of Rav Papa; 5th generation Babylonian.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth period, around 350, son of a craftsman nicknamed « Naggara » (carpenter) from Nerash, in Babylonia, and brother of Ḥiyya — Huna is said to have predicted their birth upon seeing the paternal house illuminated with candles on a Friday evening. He had exchanges with R. Joseph, Abayyé, Rabba and Ḥisda, married the daughter of a priest by whom he had two sons, Sheshet and Joshua, and exercised through this marriage his right to the priestly portions prescribed by Deuteronomy. Considered the principal authority of Nerash, where he introduced an ordinance, he later settled in Shekanzib.
Disciple of Rava; founded a lineage of sages at Naresh/Shekanzib.
Palestinian amora of the 4th century, known for having transmitted the aggadic teachings of Samuel ben Naḥman, Abbahou and Abba ben Kahana. He had a lively controversy with R. Jérémie on the question of payment of taxes to the Roman government.
Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, presumed disciple of Abbahou whose several halakhic decisions he transmits, Jacob ben Zabda firmly believed in the powers of magic: according to him, one should never touch bread or food found on the road, for fear that it might have been placed there for magical purposes. He also taught that speaking against one's master amounts to insulting divine majesty.
Fourth-century Judeo-Christian from Kefar Neburaya, near Safed, Jacob was first known as an aggadist, some of his interpretations — notably that of Habakkuk ii. 19 as a condemnation of simony — receiving the approval of the rabbis. Consulted in Tyre on halakhic questions, his decisions, judged too audacious, earned him being reprimanded and flogged on the order of R. Ḥaggaï; his contemporary Isi of Caesarea counted him among the Judeo-Christians.
Babylonian who emigrated to Israel; renowned for his dialectical questions.
Israeli sage, namesake of the 4th generation.
Jeremiah of Difta was a Babylonian amora of the fourth century, contemporary of Papi. Rabina, who later participated in the compilation of the Talmud of Babylon, was his student.
Johanan ben Meriya was a Palestinian amora of the fifth and sixth generations, in the fourth and fifth centuries. Frequently cited in the Jerusalem Talmud, in halakhic as well as, more often, aggadic matters, he notably supported, in a controversy between R. Mana and R. Hanania on the temporary use of a high place as an altar by a prophet, Hanania's favorable opinion by relying on biblical verses. He also transmitted an aggada from Johanan b. Nappaḥa.
Jonas, Palestinian amora of the fourth century, was one of the leading rabbinic authorities of his generation; trained under Zeira I and Ela alongside his classmate Yossé II, he had Jeremiah as his particular master, before succeeding them both at the head of the academy of Tiberias. He gave the tithe of his income to students of the Law rather than to priests, and quietly helped deserving poor by lending them money which he subsequently remitted as a gift, without ever wounding their dignity. It is recounted that when a fire broke out at his house one Sabbath day, the fire extinguished itself without his allowing a neighbor to profane it.
José b. Jacob b. Idi was a Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, in the fourth century, colleague of R. Youdan of Magdala and one of the interpreters of the agadot of R. Aha the Lydian. He is credited with the teaching that Jeroboam would have been elected king during a sabbatical year, when the leader of the nation was to read the Law publicly at the Temple of Jerusalem; to avoid seeing the king of Judah perform this reading, he would have established another place of worship with the golden calves. Only one halakha from him has been preserved.
Head of Tiberias with R. Yona; last great Israeli duo.
Late Israeli halakhist, authority of the Talmud of Jerusalem.
José de Mallahaya, Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, explained, on the basis of Psalm 57, that the misfortunes that befell the Jews came from their propensity for slander, already widespread in the time of David. Two halakhot are attributed to him, one relating to the transfer of lands, the other to the rules of purification of vessels used by non-Jews.
Joseph the Apostate, a Jew converted to Christianity in the first half of the fourth century, was one of the assessors of the rabbinical school of the Patriarch Juda III in Tiberias, who sent him as a delegate to the Jewish communities of Cilicia. He became close with a Christian bishop who persuaded him to read the New Testament, and, surprised while reading by Cilician Jews, publicly acknowledged his conversion; back in Palestine, he persecuted his former coreligionists and gained the favor of Epiphanius and Eusebius through flattering accounts of the progress of Christianity among the Jews. On the recommendation of Eusebius, the emperor Constantine raised him to the rank of count.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth century, whose name is chiefly associated with haggadot: he transmitted a haggadah of Lévi and a halakah of 'Anani ben Sason, and certain of his own haggadic sayings as well as paraphrases of biblical verses that he composed are also preserved.
Palestinian amora of the 4th century, almost exclusively devoted to the haggadah — no halakhic opinion of his is known — and whose name, cited only once in the Talmud, recurs frequently in midrashic literature. Many of his haggadic sayings, often constructed as parables, have been preserved, and he also transmitted those of other masters, notably Elazar II, Samuel ben Isaac, Ḥanina ben Isaac and Aḥa.
Palestinian amora and haggadist of the early fourth century, who frequently transmits halakhic and haggadic aphorisms in the name of his father, R. Joshua ben Levi, R. Johanan and Simeon ben Laḳish. In his own haggadic maxims, he often resorts to parable, such as that of the wolf and the dog concerning Balak, opposed to the Israelites after their victory over Sihon and Og.
Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, active in the second half of the 4th century; his halakhic decisions, few in number, are reported in the Jerusalem Talmud, where he notably opposes Ḥanania on the fine for illicit use of tithes. His name appears above all in haggadic literature, through sayings such as that on the love of God, which blesses even when one has no merit to claim, or that reporting that the sin of the golden calf caused the death of three thousand people when that of the women of Shittim caused twenty-four thousand.
Nasi of the Sanhedrin (385–400 CE) following Gamaliel V
Roman emperor, born on November 17, 331 and reigning from November 361 to June 363. Upon his accession to the throne, he proclaimed freedom of worship for all faiths, ended the heavy taxes weighing on the Jews, and showed, in his writings, an extensive knowledge of the Sabbath, Passover, dietary laws, and sacrifice, while judging Judaism inferior to Hellenism but far superior to Christianity which he combated with passion. At the beginning of 363, he announced in a letter to the « community of Jews » his intention to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem.
Palestinian scholar of the early 4th century, known especially as a transmitter of the haggadot of his master Isaac Nappaḥa, and frequently cited in pre-talmudic literature and the Midrash. A single haggadah is attributed to him alone, concerning the responsibility of the great toward the people whose burden they do not lighten; he was the father of that Ḥiyya ben Luliani of whom the Jerusalem Talmud reports that he brought rain in time of drought.
Jewish Amora sage of Babylon
Head of Sura, contemporary of Rav Ashi; 6th generation.
Grandson of Samuel through his daughter Rachel; Babylonian sage.
Babylonian amora of the fifth generation, born around the year 300 and died in 375, disciple of Rava and Abaye. After the death of his masters, he founded an academy at Neres, near Soura, where he served as « resh metivta » alongside his friend Houna b. Joshua. Rich thanks to an inheritance and the beer trade, a shrewd but unscrupulous businessman and little generous toward the poor, he was reputed to be learned without great independence of judgment — to such a point that he was nicknamed, with his associate Houna, « dardeki » (the children).
Palestinian amora of the fourth generation, in the first half of the fourth century, disciple of his father and assistant of R. Assi, whose teachings he completes by carefully distinguishing what he received from his father and what he received from other masters such as R. Hoshaya. Close friend of Zeira and Jeremiah ben Eleazar, he leaves several aggadic interpretations, notably on the modesty of Moses in matters of judgment and on the movement of air on the surface of water.
Phinehas b. Ḥama is a Palestinian amora of the 4th century, probably born in Siknin, disciple of R. Jeremiah and R. Hilkiah. He also spent some time in Babylonia and there publicly proclaimed in the academy that the genealogical purity of Jewish families was surpassed only by that of Palestine. He left numerous halakhic and aggadic maxims, often transmitted by Ḥananiah.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, born around 280 in Maḥoza and died in that same city in 352. Trained at Sourah under R. Ḥisda, whose widow daughter of Rami b. Ḥama he married, he studied especially under R. Naḥman b. Jacob and developed with his fellow student Abayé the dialectical method known as the "Hawayot de Abayé we-Raba"; he then founded his own school in Maḥoza, which became, after Abayé's death, the sole center of Jewish study in Babylonia under his direction. A major authority in both Halakha and Haggada, he is generally followed when his opinion differs from that of Abayé.
Babylonian amora of the third generation, whose exact period remains uncertain; friend of 'Ulla, disciple of R. Johanan, his opinions are cited before those of Raba b. Joseph b. Ḥama and R. Papa. Also a haggadist, he is notably credited with this maxim from Ecclesiastes: not being too wicked does not authorize one to sin a little, but invites one who has already committed evil not to repeat it and to repent. He should not be confused with the later Rabba b.'Ulla, despite the frequent confusion between their names.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, disciple of Rabba bar Naḥmani and fellow student of Abayé, whose contemporary he was; their master had predicted that they would both eulogize him. He frequently converses with Abayé, even going so far as to nickname him « tarda » (the scatterbrain), and also speaks with Raba on various problems. Residing in Artébana, a small town near Poumbedita which he could reach on the Sabbath day, he was evidently a man of means.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation, contemporary of Raba b. Joseph b. Ḥama, whose error he demonstrated in two decisions, leading to their annulment. One of his sayings has been preserved; vexed at being thus contradicted in public, Raba saw in a misfortune that subsequently struck him the punishment for this refutation.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation, Rabbah b. Mari spent some time in Palestine before returning to Babylonia, where he transmitted maxims from R. Yoḥanan and R. Joshua b. Lévi and pronounced aggadic teachings that were known even in Palestine. Familiar with the house of Raba, he provided him with the biblical foundations of several proverbs in use among the learned, notably citing a passage from Ben Sira which he held to be a hagiographic text.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, contemporary and colleague of R. Zeira II. Renowned for the slowness and rigor of his method, his conclusions were generally sound and carried authority in practical matters; the Talmud notably mentions him transmitting a baraita and commenting on a difficult passage of the Mishna.
Babylonian Amora of the second half of the 3rd century, son of Mar Samuel of Neardée. Associated with R. Ḥiyya bar Abba, R. Ḥisda and R. Sheshet, to whom he transmits several baraïtot previously unknown to them, he also raises an objection to a teaching of his own father reported by R. Naḥman. Several of his maxims, halakhic and haggadic, have been preserved.
Babylonian amora of the fourth generation, contemporary of Raba and judge, probably in Poumbedita, renowned for his integrity: he taught that a judge must not borrow anything from those under his jurisdiction, unless he can repay them in kind, on pain of hidden corruption. Probably a disciple of R. Ḥisda, he also transmits maxims of R. Naḥman and R. Matna, and several of his interpretations of biblical passages have been preserved.
Babylonian sage cited in the Talmud; 4th generation.
Prolific Israeli aggadist of the Talmud of Jerusalem; 4th generation.
Israeli aggadist cited in the midrashim.
Major Israeli aggadist of the midrashim; 4th/5th generation.
Head of Tiberias with R. Yossi; father of R. Mana II.
Head of Sepphoris, son of R. Yona; final authority of the Yerushalmi.
A great Amora of the Land of Israel, he founded the academy of Tiberias which produced the Jerusalem Talmud. Renowned for his beauty and piety, his tragic friendship with Resh Lakish is one of the most moving narratives of the Talmud (Bava Metzia 84a).
"Nahota", brought the teachings of Israel to Babylonia ("when Rabin came").
Babylonian amora of the 4th century, disciple of R. Ḥisda in his youth, in whose name he transmits several halakhic and haggadic teachings. He succeeds Rab Dimi at the head of the school of Pumbedita and dies, according to Abraham ibn Daoud, in 387, or, according to Sherira Gaon, in 395.
Babylonian dialectician, brother-in-law of Rava; 4th generation.
"Nahota", transmitted the teachings of Israel to Babylonia.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth generation, contemporary of Rava (Baba Metsia 96a). The Talmud reports his captivity, with the daughters of Rav Nahman: a fellow captive who understood the language of birds transmitted to him the call of a raven, then of a dove — "Ilish, flee!". He dismissed the first sign and accepted only that of the dove, to which Israel is compared (Berakhot 53b); he escaped, while his companion was caught and killed (Guittin 45a). Two other passages show him in the exercise of justice: he corrected Rava, about to render an erroneous judgment in a matter of goods related to a divorce (Guittin 77b); and Rava reassured him in turn when he worried he might have been mistaken in his own decisions (Baba Batra 133b).
Disciple of Rava, transmitted his teachings; 4th generation.
Disciple of Rava, Babylonian dialectician; 5th generation.
Disciple of Rava, colleague of Rav Papa; Babylonian judge.
Head of Sura, contemporary of Rav Ashi; 6th generation.
Head of Pumbedita after Rava; 5th generation Babylonian.
Babylonian Talmudic master, head of the academy of Mahoza. His debates with Abaye ("discussions of Abaye and Rava") are among the most subtle reasonings of the Talmud. The halakha almost always follows his opinion against Abaye.
rabbi
Babylonian amora of the sixth generation, contemporary of Rabina I, with whom he debated a halakhic question and to whom he transmitted a teaching from Rab Avia. He is probably identical to Rabbi Sama who sat with Rabina before R. Ashi.
Babylonian amora of the fourth century, known for a ritual controversy with R. Aḥaï concerning the consumption of the Circassian goat, which he judged permissible while his opponent opposed it; the question, submitted for arbitration to Palestine, was finally decided in his favor.
Palestinian amora of the early fourth century, known for his controversies with other scholars. He notably argued that King Abiya of Judah had, according to a verse in Chronicles, left the bodies of fallen Israelites exposed until their faces became unrecognizable, in order to prevent their widows from remarrying.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth century, perhaps identical to Samuel ben Inija. He gave an opinion on the system of calculation of the new moon by Samuel ben Naḥman, and transmitted traditions from Aḥa concerning the threefold designation of Daniel as "Ḥamoudot".
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, at the time when the Talmud of Jerusalem is said to have been ordered and completed by his father, Yossé. Some of his sayings are preserved in the Talmud of Jerusalem.
Amora of the early fourth century, known primarily as a transmitter of the teachings of Ḥama b. Ḥanina, who in turn reports a tradition from Samuel concerning a journey to the baths of Gadar undertaken with his father.
Palestinian Amora of the 4th century, disciple of R. Manis the Elder. Having rendered a religious decision in Hefer, in Galilee, while his master resided nearby, his action was judged unauthorized. Only one halakhic decision from his hand is preserved, alongside several aggadic sayings.
Jewish amora
Palestinian Amora of the fourth generation, surnamed "the Young" to distinguish him from Yannaï ben Ismaël. Exempted from the laws of priestly purity at the death of his father-in-law so that he could attend his burial, he left a ruling on the scope of an oath; at his own funeral, his students departed from existing customs, which led them to be corrected by R. Mani.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, greatly beloved teacher of his students in the ancient synagogue of Caesarea, where Jacob of Kefar Nibburaya placed him as high as God is in the Temple of Zion. Author of numerous halakhic decisions and renowned for his art of the table, he remained famous for the anecdote of a bone he attempted in vain to bury on a cliff near Caesarea and which caused an imperial messenger bearing edicts hostile to the Jews to stumble and perish.
Palestinian amora of the third and fourth centuries, disciple of Abbahou and then of Yohanan, whose teachings he particularly transmitted. According to one tradition, he was saved from an evil spirit by a cedar tree; it is his report on a Samaritan region where no one observed the Law that led Abbahou, Ammi and Assi to declare the Samaritans pagans. Respected intermediary between Palestine and Babylonia, intimate friend of Abayé, he transmitted thirteen halakhic decisions in the name of Yohanan.
Babylonian amora of the fourth century, young contemporary of Oulla, trained in the paternal house in Pumbedita. Sent by his father to Neardea to observe how Oulla pronounced the blessing of Habdala, he delegated Abayé in his place and incurred a severe reprimand. Successive student of Rabba and then of Rami bar Hama, whom he left to study under R. Sheshet — to the great displeasure of the latter — he counted among his close associates Aha bar Hana and Rami bar Samuel.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, transmitter of the agada of R. Ammi, author of several explanations of the Samson narratives. He interpreted a word from Isaiah evoking women who perfumed their sandals with myrrh and balsam to attract young men as derived from the Greek designating the serpent, and also left dissertations on the salvation of the tribe of Benjamin and on the idolatrous priests mentioned by Hosea.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, contemporary of Mani, known as a scribe. He is credited with a decision authorizing the use of various parchments for Torah scrolls — a rule he excluded for phylacteries and mezuzot — as well as several aggadic teachings, one of which explains why Saul consulted the witch of Ein-Dor rather than the Urim and Thummim.
Palestinian amora of the fourth century, contemporary of Jacob ben Zabdaï and Helbo, with whom he was called to decide a question of religious law. Unable to determine on his own whether the law of demaï applied to Syrian leek, he had to consult R. Yossé, and referred another time a question of divorce law to Eléazar; the Babylonian Talmud confused him with five other homoynomous amoraim, a confusion refuted by Bacher.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth century, to whom is attributed an interpretation of a verse of the Psalms comparing the setting sun to a drop of blood the size of a grain of mustard, as well as a commentary on a verse of the Song of Songs — an attribution that certain sources place rather under the name of Bar Nazira.
Palestinian Amora of the fourth century, disciple of Abba then colleague of Jossé, principal of the school of Tiberias, with whom he shared the office of judge and had frequent halakhic controversies. The only known biographical fact of his life is a flight to Nawé, in Perea, whose reason remains unknown — nothing is known of his family and his birthplace. A particularly prolific transmitter of the Haggada, he reported the maxims of many older masters, including Hanina, Yohanan and Joshua ben Levi.
Israeli sage, transmitted from R. Eleazar and R. Ammi.
Palestinian amora of the fifth century, disciple of R. Mana III and R. Huna II. His reputation is attested by the fact that his father is cited as « Immi, the father of Abdima of Sepphoris ».
According to Christian legend, the mythical son of Rabbi Gamaliel, the master of Paul, himself said to be baptized by John and Peter. In the year 415, Lucianus, bishop of Jerusalem, reported having had a vision of Gamaliel revealing to him that the body of Abibas lay without burial; the body was found and interred, and his ashes were subsequently believed to miraculously cure diseases.
Babylonian Amora of the fourth-fifth centuries with an exceptionally long life: in his youth he attended the lessons of Ḥisda (306), and in his old age he still debated halakha with Ashi II, who died in 427. Suffering from asthma, he received from Mar Ouqva a prescription of assa-fœtida to be taken over three days, and was treated by Kahana during another severe crisis.
Babylonian amora, son of Rava b. Joseph and contemporary of Amar II and Ashi, died in 419, he held during the last five years of his life the rectorship of the academy of Pumbedita.
Babylonian amora of the 4th and 5th centuries, he was a disciple of Rava, friend of Aḥa b. Iḳa, and older colleague of Rabina II, with whom the Talmud mentions him several times in halakhic discussions.
Babylonian Amora of the sixth generation (5th century), frequently in halakhic discussion with Rabina II, he was for a time the advisor (ḥakham) of the exilarch Mar Zouṭra I (441-450). Upon the death of Naḥman b. Houna, he should have been elected rector of the academy of Soura, but his friend Mar b. Ashi, believing he had a right to the seat once held by his own father, had himself elected from outside while the members, resolved to choose Aḥa, waited inside for the voting hour.
Babylonian talmudic master and judge at Nehardea. With Mar Zutra and Rav Ashi, he formed the triumvirate that presided over the final compilation of the Babylonian Talmud. His rulings on the shofar and the festivals remain normative.
Babylonian master of the fifth and sixth generations of Amoraim, martyr of the Jewish faith in Babylonian land alongside the exilarch Houna Mar II and Mesharshia ben Pakod, victims of the persecutions of King Firouz (458-85). Amemar is executed in the month of Adar 470, two months after his companions in martyrdom.
Byzantine emperor from 395 to 408, a sovereign too weak to resist the influence of his court favorites on his policy toward Jews. The favors he grants them owe chiefly to his private adviser Eutrope (396-399), easily corruptible in their favor. A law of 396 forbids any imperial official from fixing the price of Jewish goods, reserving this right to the Jews themselves; an edict of the same year protects the « illustrious patriarch » against insults, and in 397 the prefect of Illyricum receives orders to preserve the peace of synagogues. In 404, Arcadius confirms these privileges to the Jewish patriarchs and officials.
The greatest and most important of the Latin Church Fathers, born on November 13, 354 in Tagaste, Numidia, died in Hippo on August 28, 430. After a tumultuous youth as a pagan, he first became an adherent of Manichean confession, before being converted to Christianity, nine years later, by Ambrose, in 386; he became a priest in 392 and a bishop in 395, and eventually became one of the greatest pillars of the Catholic Church. This extraordinary path illustrates the complexity of his character, which united opposite qualities — imaginative exuberance and keen critical sense, romanticism and scholasticism, ardent sentimentalism and subtle casuistry.
Benveniste de Porta, also called de la Porta, is the bayle (bailiff) of Barcelona and the brother of Nahmanide, whose secular name was Bon Astruc de Porta. An important capitalist, he advanced on several occasions substantial sums to King Jaime I of Aragon, guaranteed notably on the rights of Villafranche, the Balearic Islands and Perpignan, thus acting as the king's banker for several years. This royal favor benefited his brother: when Nahmanide was pardoned for the alleged crime of blasphemy against Jesus during the famous controversy of 1263, two-thirds of the fine incurred were remitted to him, the king invoking his affection for Benveniste.
Bildad is one of the three friends of Job, descendant of Shuah, son of Abraham and Keturah; the meaning of his name remains uncertain. He intervenes three times in the dialogue with Job — first to evoke the wisdom of the ancients who preach the destruction of the wicked, then to describe this destruction, and finally, in a brief third discourse, to underscore human impurity in the face of divine majesty, leaving to Job the task of drawing the lesson.
Patriarch of Constantinople, one of the most famous Fathers of the Church, born in 347 in Antioch and died in 407 near Comana, in Pontus. Appointed bishop of Constantinople in 398 after being a priest from 386, he was exiled twice, in 403 and then in 404, for attacking the Empress Eudoxia in his sermons, and died in exile. His work, which earned him the surname "Chrysostom" from 636 onward, includes notably eight discourses against the Jews that mark a turning point in anti-Jewish polemic, in reaction to the friendly association that many Christians then maintained with the synagogues and Jewish feasts.
Roman poet, who had held high public office in Rome before returning in 416 to Gaul, his homeland, after its devastation by the Goths, an episode he recounts in his poem De Reditu Suo. Polytheist hostile to Judaism — by which he also aimed, covertly, at Christianity —, he ridiculed Jews for their dietary laws, circumcision and observance of the Sabbath, and concluded his diatribes by regretting that Pompey and Titus had conquered them, the scourge having, in his view, only spread it more. His poems were edited by Lucian Müller in 1870, and a German translation appeared in 1872.
Palestinian Amora of the fifth generation, in the 5th century, elder of Naḥman II and Aha III. Most of his words report what he had heard from Abbahou, Ḥanina b. Abbahou and Tanḥum b. Ḥiyya, but he also expressed his own views, doctrinal and homiletic; his father, José II, was his principal master and corrected him for his lack of zeal. Commenting on Pinḥas, he said: as long as the latter was zealous for the Law, the Lord was with him; as soon as he ceased to be, the Lord abandoned him.
Babylonian scholar of the fourth generation of amoraim, in the 5th century, junior to Aha b. Jacob and Raba. He incurred divine punishment for exercising rabbinic authority over the territory belonging to Aha b. Jacob, then, during a drought in Hagronia where Raba was passing through, reported a dream announcing Heaven's favor; rain fell shortly after a new prayer.
Palestinian amora of the 5th century, contemporary of Abdimi and Berekhia II. With Abba Mari and Mattania, he authorized Jews to bake bread on the Sabbath for Roman soldiers of Ursicinus; he was more a halakist than a haggadist.
Son of Yoyakim and grandson of Joshua son of Yotsadaq, Elyashiv was high priest when Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem under Artaxerxes I. He directed, with his priestly brothers, the reconstruction of the Sheep Gate and the towers of the northern sector (Neh. 3:1). During Nehemiah's absence, he arranged a Temple chamber for Tobiah the Ammonite, and his grandson married a relative of Sanballat, which provoked conflict with Nehemiah (Neh. 13).
Bishop of Constantia, in Cyprus, born in Bezandouké, near Eleuthéropolis, in Palestine, between 310 and 320 — or in 288 according to Bartolocci —, died at sea in 403. Perhaps born of Jewish parents, converted to Christianity in his youth, he founded a monastery in his native village before being elected bishop of Constantia in 367 and becoming a fierce opponent of Origen. His « Panarion », written in 374-376, describes eighty heretical sects and constitutes, despite its hostility, a precious source on ancient Judaism, Gnosticism, and Judeo-Christianity; it is also the sole known source of the Gospel of the Ebionites.
Babylonian scholar of the fifth century, contemporary of Ashi, the instigator of the compilation of the Babylonian Gemara. Huna ben Nathan once reported to Ashi a homiletical interpretation by Gebiha. Although wrongly ranked among the Saboraim in the « Seder Tanna'im we-Amora'im », he actually lived nearly a century before them.
Babylonian halakist of the 5th century, disciple of Aḥa ben Jacob, of Abaye and Rava, whose teachings he reported to Ashi whom he helped in the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud. During the last fourteen years of his life (419-433), he held the presidency of the academy of Pumbedita, left vacant by the death of Aḥa ben Rava.
Character known as the Glusker Maggid, originating from Glusk, near Lublin, where old inhabitants still remembered him. Max Letteris reports a parody he is said to have improvised after being thrown down a staircase by the impetuous Jacob Emden in Altona; after wandering aimlessly through several countries of Western Europe, having had troubles with the Jewish community of Berlin and then with its police, he is said to have returned to Poland in his old age, where his trace is lost.
Goliath is a Philistine giant from Gath, described in the first book of Samuel as the champion of the Philistines against Saul and the men of Israel in the valley of Ela. Defeated in single combat by the young David, who strikes him down with a stone from a sling before beheading him with his own sword, his death brings about the rout of the Philistines and David's entry into the house of Saul.
Ḥanina of Sura is a Babylonian scholar of the fifth century, younger than Mar Zouṭra, whose halakhic decision reported to Ashi he contests. According to tradition, his own birth results from the reconciliation, effected by Mar Zouṭra, between his parents separated by his mother's aversion to his father. An authority on halakha, he strives to reconcile divergent opinions and teaches that, lacking trial by the "bitter waters" to prove a wife's faithfulness, a husband should not too hastily suspect his spouse of infidelity.
Harfidil is the name of a Gothic Jew found on a Hebrew epitaph discovered near Parthenit, dated by Chwolson to the fifth century. The alteration of the Visigothic name « Harjafrithila » into « Harfidil » is attributed to the local Jewish jargon, as in another epitaph where « Berenike » becomes « Benike ».
Herodias is the daughter of Aristobulus and Berenice, granddaughter of Herod I and of his sister Salome. Married to her uncle Herod, son of Herod I and the second Mariamne, who bore Salome, future wife of the tetrarch Herod Philip, she became enamored during a Roman sojourn of her uncle and brother-in-law Herod Antipas, who repudiated his first wife, daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas VI, to marry her in violation of Jewish law, which brought Antipas a war with Aretas and then, at his wife's instigation, his disgrace and exile to Lyon, where Herodias chose to follow him rather than profit from the elevation of her brother Agrippa I. The Gospels attribute to her the execution of John the Baptist.
Emperor of the West from 395 to 423. He first countersigned the laws of Arcadius on the Jews, before promulgating his own laws, most often hostile: in 396, he granted the protection of the State to the patriarch of the Jews, but in 399 called him a « despoiler of the Jews » and had the patriarchal tax already collected seized, before again authorizing its collection in 404, the year he also prohibited the army to Jews and Samaritans. In 409, he ordered that their Sabbath be respected before the courts, a law modified in 412; he also permitted them to practice law and authorized baptized Jews to return to Judaism.
Jerome, Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, is a Church Father and the most learned of Latin ecclesiastical writers on biblical matters after Origen, the only Christian scholar of his time to study the Hebrew Bible in the original; he is generally thought to have lived from 337 to 420. Born in Stridon, Dalmatia, he went as a young man to Rome to study grammar and rhetoric, then went in 373 to Antioch, where he became a student of Apollinaris of Laodicea, before retiring to Chalcis, in the Syrian desert, where he led a hermit's life, learned Syriac, and then began, with the help of a converted Jew, the study of Hebrew.
Son of Rav Ashi and head of the academy of Sura, he continued the work of compiling the Babylonian Talmud. His contribution to the final redaction of the Talmud is often underestimated, yet essential to the completion of this monumental work.
Babylonian Amora of the sixth and last generation, active in Soura. He is imprisoned then executed, with Amémar bar Mar Yanḳaï and the exilarch Houna Mar, during the persecution of Jews by Persian king Pérozès (469-470).
False messiah of the mid-fifth century, who appeared in Crete under the name of Moses, his true identity remaining unknown. Having convinced within a year the Jewish communities of the island that he was the expected messiah, he led them one day toward the sea, ordering them to cast themselves into it, promising that the waters would open before them; many drowned there, others were saved by sailors, and Moses himself disappeared without ever being seen again, according to the account of the historian Socrates of Constantinople.
Babylonian Amora of the second generation, master and father-in-law of R. Naḥman b. Jacob, related to the house of the exilarchs and perhaps himself exilarch. He lived in Neardea then, after the destruction of that city in 259, settled with his son-in-law in Maḥoza. Disciple of Rab, he was not, by his own admission, an eminent master, but he is credited with several halakhic decisions as well as a haggadic maxim according to which the commandment to love one's neighbor applies even to the execution of a criminal, to whom one owes as gentle a death as possible; a legend also makes him a friend of the prophet Elijah, who gave him leaves of paradise, the source of his wealth.
Late sage, contributed to the additions ("tosafot") to the Talmud; 7th generation.
Babylonian Amora of the fifth generation, died around 420. Disciple of Raba b. Joseph b. Ḥama, whose extreme youth earned him the nickname « dardeḳi » (child) from his master, he is recognized early as a teacher and leaves the academy of Maḥoza during Raba's lifetime. Friend of Naḥman b. Isaac and colleague of R. Aḥa, with whom he often debated legal questions while defending more liberal positions, his decisions almost always prevail. Associated rather than disciple of R. Ashi at the academy of Sura, he holds, after the latter, the largest share in the redaction of the Talmud, and dies seven years before him.
Babylonian amora of the seventh generation, who did not know his father R. Houna, who died while he was still a child; his mother transmitted his father's teachings to him, and his maternal uncle, Rabina I, became his guardian. Judge at Sura shortly after the death of Ashi, he directed the academy of Sura for one year, in 474, upon the death of Rabba Tosfa'a. Regarded as the « last of the Hora'ah », he dies in 500, a date which marks the close of the amoraic period and the completion of the redaction of the Talmud.
Babylonian Amora of the seventh generation, disciple of R. Ashi, to whom he frequently addressed questions, and colleague of Rabina II. He succeeded R. Gebiha as head of the academy of Pumbedita, a position he held from 433 until his death in 443.
Head of the academy of Sura for 52 years, he undertook the writing of the Babylonian Talmud, the vastest compilation of rabbinic knowledge. This encyclopedic work became the central text of Judaism for the following 1500 years.
Last of the Amoraim (masters of the Talmud), he completed the writing of the Babylonian Talmud begun by Rav Ashi. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 86a) declares: "Rav Ashi and Ravina — the end of instruction" (sof horaah), closing the Talmudic era.
Babylonian Amora of the fifth generation, disciple of Raba b. Joseph b. Ḥama, to whom he also addresses questions alongside Abayé. He dies, according to legend, on the eve of Yom Kippur: so absorbed by his studies in Maḥoza that he fails, for the first time, to return home to his wife as was his custom, his wife weeps in disappointment, and heaven decrees his death in punishment for this neglect — the roof on which he was sitting collapses and kills him.
Babylonian amora of the seventh generation, disciple of Rabina I, for whom he explicates a teaching of Houna b. Tahlifa. He succeeded Rafram II at the head of the academy of Pumbedita, which he directed from 443 to 456, and died during the persecutions of Jews under Yezdgard II; he is often designated by the name of Naḥoumaï.
Babylonian Amora, last head of the academy of Pumbedita, successor of Raḥoumaï II, in office for approximately twenty years (456-476), contemporary of Mar b. Ashi and Rabba Tousfa'ah. Tradition reports that, thanks to the prayers of the two school leaders, Persian King Yezdegerd II was devoured in his bed by a dragon, ending the persecution of the Jews. He is mentioned only three times in the Talmud, and nothing else is known of him.
Head (« nagid ») of the Jewish community of Cairo, Egypt, following his uncle Nathan ha-Cohen Shalal, who died, according to Grätz, in Jerusalem in 1525. He chose the dayanim from worthy Spanish refugees, which led to abundant correspondence with Elijah Mizrahi, Jacob Beërab, and Jacob b. Habib; the last nagid in title, as the office was abolished by Selim I after his conquest of Egypt, he retired around 1517 to Jerusalem, whose communal statutes he approved in 1514, alongside his disciple David ibn Abi Zimra.
Sima (or Sama) was a Babylonian amora of the late 4th and early 5th century, son of Rab Ashi. He is known for the halakhic questions he posed to his father, and is said to have died before him, thus before 427.
Babylonian Amora of the 5th century, died at the end of Yom Kippur in 468, son of the director of the academy of Soura Achi, during whose lifetime he had already made a reputation as a master of the Law. He was only elected director of the academy of Soura in 455, in extraordinary circumstances, and continued the work of Talmudic revision undertaken by his father; according to Abraham ibn Daoud, he was, with Maremar, its final redactor. The death of King Yezdegerd III, in 457, instigator of the religious persecution of the time, was partly attributed to his prayer.
Jew of Telesia, established in Rome around 480. Pope Gelasius mentions him, in a letter to Bishop Quingesius, as a « vir clarissimus » and his most worthy friend, and recommends to the same bishop his relative Antonius ; papal documents also designate him as the physician of Pope Gelasius, although it has recently been doubted that he was his regular physician, or even a physician at all.
Christian bishop and Father of the Church, born and trained in Antioch, died at Mopsueste around 429; master of Nestorius and Theodoret, he was the greatest exegete of the Antiochene school, whose historical interpretation of the Old Testament opposed the allegorical hermeneutics of Origen. In his youth he published his commentary on the Psalms, his most important work for Jewish study, followed by commentaries on Job, the Song of Songs and the twelve minor prophets. After his death, the Fifth Ecumenical Council declared his writings heretical for interpreting the Psalms « in the Jewish manner ».
Exilarch from 401 to 409, successor of Mar Kahana and contemporary of R. Achi, whose decisions he was to follow despite his rank. Forced to leave Nehardea for Soura, he held there each year, at the opening of the harvest, a reception of delegates from all Babylonian communities, called « rigli », and received other delegations; nothing more is known of his career.
Sura, Pumbedita, the Judeo-Arabic golden age.
Palestinian monk established in a monastery on Mount Sinai, born around the end of the sixth century, he converted to Judaism around 615. After a long inner struggle against his doubts about Christian dogma, he left his cell on Sinai and wandered in the desert until he reached Palestine, arriving in Tiberias, where he had himself circumcised and became Jewish under the name of Abraham, which he henceforth bore.
A Babylonian to whom the invention of the Assyrian or Babylonian (superlinear) system of vocalization and accentuation is attributed, known only from unreliable Karaite sources. Pinsker, followed in part by Graetz, believed him identical to Nissi ben Noah, contemporary of Anan, but later research showed the latter lived in the 13th century, making identification impossible. Fürst places him in the first half of the 6th century and thinks he may be the Saboraim Aḥa bar Abbouhou, who died in 511.
Collective figure of the Savoraim, the last editors of the Babylonian Talmud after the close of the Amoraic era. They added the late explanations and discussions that gave the Talmud its finished form, ensuring the transition to the era of the Geonim.
Father of the prophet Jonah. According to rabbinic sources, Amittai originated from the tribe of Zebulun and lived in Zarephath. Tradition holds that the widow who nourished the prophet Elijah there was his wife, and that the child resurrected by Elijah was none other than Jonah himself.
Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, in France, in the sixth century, he sought by all means to forcibly convert the Jews of his city, against the practice of tolerance then in force in Frankish Gaul. On April 5, 576, the conversion of one first Jew provoked disturbances ; on May 14 the synagogue was destroyed by the crowd, and on May 18 more than five hundred Jews chose baptism rather than exile, while those who remained faithful to their religion emigrated to Marseille, where they were subsequently also forced to convert.
General and King of Persia from June 27, 590 to June 26, 591, he overthrew the cruel Hormizd IV, under whom the Jews had been persecuted and the academies of Sura and Pumbedita closed, and was at first hailed by the Jews of Persia and Babylonia as a liberator, who supported him in troops and money against Prince Chosroes II. His reign was brief: defeated by the army that the Byzantine emperor Maurice sent to assist Chosroes, he was forced to flee to the Huns, and the Jews paid dearly for their support in the massacre of Mahuza that followed his defeat.
King of Persia from 591 to 628, he invaded Asia Minor and Syria in 602 to avenge, he said, the death of his father-in-law the Byzantine emperor Maurice; many Jews, led by Benjamin of Tiberias, joined the Persians and took part, in 614, in the capture of Jerusalem — the account of a massacre of Christian prisoners ransomed by the Jews being a pure invention. Hoping in vain to obtain Jerusalem to establish a Jewish state, the Jews of Palestine, deported in large numbers to Persia after a falling out with Chosroes, then drew closer to the Roman emperor Heraclius, who promised them amnesty by a treaty of 627, after defeating and capturing the Persian king.
Roman procurator of Judea (48-52), Ventidius Cumanus must suppress three uprisings: a deadly crush in the Temple of Jerusalem provoked by a Roman soldier, the plundering of villages after the assault on the officer Stephanus near Beth-Horon, then a conflict between Samaritans and Judeans triggered by the murder of a Galilean pilgrim. Summoned to Rome along with other officials at the conclusion of this latter affair, he is banished by the emperor Claude.
Professor in the Bible Department of the School of Jewish Studies at Tel-Aviv University, chair of the program committee of the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Her research focuses on biblical theology in times of destruction and exile (6th century BCE). Author of several academic works.
Jewish king of Yemen from 515 to 525, known as « Dhou Nouwas » because of his curly hair, he converted to Judaism upon his accession to the throne, taking the name of Joseph, and actively propagated his new faith. After having Byzantine merchants executed in retaliation for persecutions suffered by the Jews, he was defeated in 521 by the pagan king Aidug, then, having conquered the Christian city of Najran and had its chief and three hundred forty notables who refused to convert executed, he perished drowned while attempting to escape an Ethiopian army sent against him at the request of the Roman emperor Justin I.
Byzantine Jew and poet
Bishop of Uzès, in France, from 553 to 581. Initially benevolent toward the numerous Jews in the town, he was banished to Paris by Childebert I after a complaint was brought against him, then returned to his diocese in 558, once his innocence was proved, but then changed his attitude: he convened a synod to convert the Jews by persuasion or by force, and drove out those who resisted. After his death in 581, several of his converts returned to Judaism.
Sabora, at the head of the Babylonian academy in the first half of the 6th century. The « Seder Tanna'im wa-Amora'im » names him, with Simouna, as the last of the Saboraïm, while the letter of Sherira mentions in his place 'Ena, teaching at Soura after the year 515 while Simouna presided at Poumbedita — the two names being probably identical. A third source says he was the brother of the ancestor of gaon Nehilaï and places him on the banks of the Zab during the Persian religious persecutions under Kobad, when the school of Soura was closed for a long time after the defeat of exilarch Mar Zouta.
Gregory I, called the Great, is pope from 590 to 604; born around 540, died in 604. From an ancient Roman senatorial family, he is elected pope after being ambassador to Constantinople and then abbot, and durably strengthens the authority of the Holy See. Experiencing a deep aversion for Judaism, which he judged superstitious and pernicious, he nonetheless protects the Jews in the practice of their festivals and possession of their synagogues, firmly opposing forced baptism while seeking to obtain conversions through gentleness; he fights, on the other hand, the possession of Christian slaves by Jews.
Gaon of Pumbedita, one of the very first.
Liturgical poet active in Andalusia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Jehiel ben Asher composed notably a lament of twenty-five stanzas on the persecution of the Jews of Spain in 1391, as well as the poetic work « Ma'aseh 'Ugah », published with the « Iggeret Al Tehi Ka-Aboteka » of Profiat Duran in Constantinople around 1577.
José ben José, called « the orphan », was the oldest paytan known by name; he lived in Palestine, at the latest toward the end of the sixth century. Some ancient sources, unconfirmed, make him a priest, even a high priest. His style, devoid of rhyme, is distinguished by depth of thought, conciseness, imagination and the use of acrostics; he is notably the author of the teki'ata of the Mussaf of Rosh Hashana, a confession of sins for the evening of Yom Kippur, and two avodot for that same day.
Leader of the Samaritan revolt of Nablus in 530 against the Romans, son of Samaron (or Sabarona). He took the title of king or emperor and wore the diadem and other insignia of royalty; the revolt quashed, he was executed and his head sent as a trophy to Constantinople.
Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 to 565, whose reign was marked, for both Jews and Samaritans, by violent events. Around 530, in Nablus, young Christian men who, according to custom, came each sabbath to mock the Samaritans as they left their service were attacked and killed by the furious crowd; Justinian had the resulting revolt severely repressed — many Samaritans were killed or sold as slaves, and Julian, son of Sabarona, whom the Samaritans had proclaimed king, was executed, his head sent as a trophy to the emperor.
Byzantine emperor whose Novella 146 (553) regulated the reading of the Torah in synagogues and banned the Mishna. His anti-Jewish legislation durably influenced the status of Jews in Christendom, but failed to suppress Talmudic study.
poet and one of the chiefs of the Jewish tribe of Medina, Banu Nadir
First Gaon of Sura according to traditional lists, around 591.
Exilarch of Babylonia who attempted to found an independent Jewish state in Mesopotamia (c. 513-520). This brief Jewish principality, established at Mahoza, is one of the last attempts at Jewish political autonomy before the modern era.
soldat juif mort lors de la bataille de Khaybar contre Mahomet en 628 de notre ère
Gaon of Pumbedita at the end of the 6th century.
Founder of Islam and the Muslim empire, born in Mecca between 569 and 571 of the Common Era, died in Medina in June 632. Orphaned of his father at birth, he lost his mother at six years old and was raised by his grandfather then by his uncle Abu Ṭalib. Around forty years old he began his religious activity, marked according to Islamic tradition by a divine revelation.
Pontius Pilate is the fifth Roman procurator of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, in office from 26 to 36 of the Common Era, succeeding Valerius Gratus. His government, marked according to Philo by corruption and violence, provoked several disturbances: the nocturnal introduction of imperial standards in Jerusalem, the misappropriation of Temple funds to finance an aqueduct, and then a massacre of Samaritans on Mount Gerizim that led to his summons to Rome by order of Vitellius. The end of his life remains uncertain: according to Eusebius, he was banished to Vienne, in Gaul, where he reportedly committed suicide.
Youngest savora of the first generation, he succeeded R. Simona at the head of the academy of Poumbedita and died in 550. According to the Letter of Sherira Gaon, he was said to have been gaon, but this term there simply designates the head of a school, without making him the first holder of this title.
Babylonian Amora of the sixth generation, contemporary of R. Ashi with whom he had numerous discussions; his learned son Houna was also a disciple of R. Ashi.
First of the Savoraim ("reasoners"), the intermediate generation between the Amoraim and the Geonim. The Savoraim added to the Talmud complementary explanations and discussions, contributing to the final form of the text as we know it.
One of the first savoraim, died in 505, in the month of Nissan. He is mentioned with his contemporary R. Yossé, each proposing a different explanation of an expression employed by an earlier authority.
Jewish poet
Arab poet
Simouna, sabora of the second generation, heads the academy of Pumbedita (520-540) while R. Éna holds a similar position in Sura. According to Grätz, these two scholars would have committed the Talmud to writing; no other details about Simouna are known.
Yemenite Jew of the seventh century, settled in Medina, where he embraced Islam before being banished for criticizing the administration of Caliph Othman. In Egypt, he founded a sect hostile to Othman to defend the claims of Ali to the caliphate; tradition reports that he rendered divine honors to Ali, which led to his exile to Madain, and that after Ali's assassination he taught that Ali had not died and would return to fill the earth with justice.
Jew of the tribe of the Banu Ḳainuḳa'a, in Medina, converted to Islam two years before the death of Muhammad, died in 663; first named Al-Husain, he claimed to be descended from Joseph and took at his conversion the name Abdallah ibn Salam. Prototype of Jews converted to Islam, to which Muslim tradition collections devote particular chapters, he provided Muhammad with information of Jewish origin and can be counted among the fathers of Hadith; a small pseudonymous catechism is attributed to him, the « Questions of Abdallah ibn Salam ».
Chief of the Arab tribe of the Banu al-Khazraj in Medina and influential opponent of Muhammad, at the head of the party that Muhammad called « Hanifa ». Allied with the Banu Ḳainuḳa'a, he prevented their massacre after their surrender and encouraged the Banu al-Nadhir to resist, without coming to their aid; during the expedition against Syria in 630, he formed with his Jewish allies a separate camp that did not join the army, and his disappearance led to the final expulsion of Jews remaining in Medina.
Father of Hananiah, exilarch (prince of the captivity) who flourished around 700, his name is the Persian form of a familiar Semitic name — Ida, or Ada (Adda) —, known from Jewish and Palmyrene sources, to which is added the Persian suffix of endearment -oï.
Author of the Sheiltot, the first halakhic collection of the Geonim period
Jewish poet of the tribe of Banu al-Nadir, in Medina, active shortly before the Hijra (622). Like most Jews of Medina, he took part in rivalries between the two Arab tribes of the city and participated in the battle of Bu'ath in 617 on the territory of the Banou Qouraïza. A renowned poet, he engaged in a verse contest with the famous Arab poet Al-Nabigha. His brother Sallam and the three sons of the latter were among the fiercest adversaries of Mahomet.
Sometimes presented as grandson of Isaac Alfasi, he is commonly cited as the author of the « Sha'are Shebu'ot », a treatise in twenty chapters on oaths, usually printed with the « Halakot » of Alfasi. It is however probable that the real author is another Isaac ben Reuben, of Barcelona or otherwise unknown, especially as he cites the Rif without claiming a family connection.
Founder of the Karaite sect, active in the second half of the 8th century, at a time of great religious ferment within Oriental Judaism under the effect of Arab conquests. Claiming the dignity of exilarch upon the death of the incumbent, around the year 760, he sees his younger brother Josias preferred to him, despite his seniority and superior learning, Josias being more pious and more respectful of rabbinic tradition, Anan having himself shown some lukewarmness toward traditional Judaism. He then gathers around him all the anti-rabbinic currents scattered about into a powerful sect.
Renowned preacher of the 16th and 17th centuries, died in Safed after traveling through Poland, Italy and Greece. His « Massoret ha-Berit » (Tradition of the Covenant), seven hundred chained homilies according to massoretic lists, appears in Cracow in 1619; his « Massoret ha-Berit ha-Gadol », which contains one thousand six hundred fifty, in Mantua in 1622. He also writes a moral work in verse and rimmed prose, the « Ḳeshet Neḥoushah » (Bow of Bronze), depicting a moral combat personifying the inclination to evil, published around 1593 in Belvedere, near Constantinople, by Reyna, widow of Joseph Nassi.
Arab poetess, contemporary of Muhammad, daughter of Marwan, married to a man of the tribe of Banou Hatma. After the murder of the Jewish poet Abou Afak, who despite his great age had stirred up his tribe against Muhammad, she composes verses condemning this act; Muhammad then sends 'Oumaïr, the only member of his tribe converted to Islam, who murders her in her sleep, surrounded by her children. Some Muslim traditionists, to justify this murder, make her a Jew, but this is very uncertain — Graetz ("Gesch. der Juden", v. 144) accepts it nonetheless as an established fact.
Poet belonging to the Jewish tribe of the Qurayza, in Medina. When this tribe is besieged by Muhammad, the wife of Aous saves his life by embracing Islam and calls her husband to do the same; he refuses and improvises verses in response, affirming loyalty to the law of Israel and rejecting the faith of Muhammad as pure vanity. The second verse reads today differently, a common alteration in hostile poems transmitted by Muslim scholars.
Palestinian aggadist of uncertain date, rarely cited, whose name also appears in the forms "Bebai Rabbah", "Beba Raba" and "Beba Abba". He is the author of a confession formula for the Day of Atonement, partially incorporated into the ritual of the evening service, which he justifies by the words of the prophet: "Let the wicked abandon his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts".
Benjamin of Tiberias is a wealthy Jew accused of hostility toward Christians when the emperor Heraclius came to Jerusalem in 628, during the war against the Persians. Despite this accusation, the emperor became his guest, and when he reproached him for his hostility, Benjamin replied frankly that « Christians too are enemies of my religion »; Heraclius spared him nevertheless, on condition that he convert to baptism.
The first Jewish exilarch under Arab rule, he was confirmed in his office by Caliph Omar. His marriage to a captive Sasanian princess gave rise to a famous rabbinic controversy over the status of his descendants.
Bulan is a king of the Khazars who embraces Judaism in 620. According to the letter addressed in 960 by Joseph, khagan of the Khazars, to Hasdai ibn Shaprut, one of his ancestors, Bulan, received in a dream the divine promise of power and glory, won great victories by marching through the Caucasus to Ardabil, capital of Adherbaijan, then resolved to adopt the Jewish religion. The Byzantine emperor and the caliph each sent a delegation of wise men to convert him to their faith; Bulan also summoned wise men of Israel and, noting that Christians and Muslims themselves recognized Judaism as the foundation of their faith, he embraced it.
King of France (602-638), Dagobert, wishing to emulate the religious zeal of the Byzantine and Visigothic sovereigns Heraclius and Sisebut, who persecuted the Jews, decreed around 629 that Jews who did not convert to Christianity before a certain date must leave his lands or be put to death; many then changed their religion, many others were massacred, according to the Jewish historian of « 'Emeḳ ha-Bakah ». The measure, local and directed against certain individuals rather than inspired by Heraclius, was not applied with rigor: a year later, at the Council of Reims, the earlier canonic decrees on these matters were simply renewed.
Rabbi and liturgical poet of Cochin, India, native of Aden — hence his surname « Ha-'Adeni » —, whose dates of birth and death are unknown. He composed « Azharot » on the six hundred and thirteen commandments, a piyyout read by the Jews of India, particularly those of Cochin, on the day of Shemini Atzeret (Amsterdam, 1688).
Gaon of Soura at the end of the 7th century
Babylonian Amora of the third generation, died at the age of ninety-two, from a priestly family. Disciple of Rab and then of Huna, he was at first poor before enriching himself as a brewer, and presided over the academy of Sura for ten years. His dialectical learning made him one of the great casuists of the Babylonian Talmud, whose halakhic decisions are frequently cited.
Babylonian Amora of the second generation, head of the academy of Sura, principal disciple of Rab, from whom he acquired such knowledge that he was counted among the dearest wishes of his disciple Raba. Poor in his early days to the point of having to pawn his belt to buy wine for the Sabbath, he later knew great wealth and proverbial generosity, rebuilding the houses of the poor and opening his table to anyone who was hungry. Under his direction, the academy of Sura, henceforth called "yeshiva", gathered up to eight hundred students overseen by thirteen assistant masters.
Chief of the tribe of Banu al-Nadir, executed in Medina in March 627, the most determined opponent of Muhammad according to his biographer Ibn Hisham, who nicknamed him "the enemy of Allah." After the expulsion of the Jews from Medina to Khaybar, he rallied the Arab tribes of Quraych and Ghatafan against Muhammad, then convinced the Banu Qourayza to join the revolt despite their oath of allegiance. Captured along with several hundred of his followers during the taking of the fortress of Qamus, he was executed in the marketplace of Medina; his daughter Safiyya, also captured, embraced Islam and became the wife of Muhammad.
Archbishop of Seville, active in the sixth-seventh centuries. He presided over the fourth Council of Toledo, convened by Visigothic king Sisenand in 633, where he asserted the principle that Jews should not be forced to enter the Christian Church. To convert them, however, he wrote a two-volume work, the « Contra Judæos », drawing on the Old Testament to defend the claims of Christianity.
Jewish Arab poet of the 7th century, contemporary of Muhammad. His Jewishness is reported only by Ibn Ḥajar, who specifies that he later embraced Islam; other Arab authors cite him without mentioning this fact. He is known for a poetic quarrel with Al-Shammakh, disputed over his sister Kalbah, as well as an elegy on the death of Ḥuyayy ibn Akhṭab, chief of the Banou al-Nadir, composed in response to the poet Ḥassan ibn Thabit after the defeat of this tribe and the Banou Qourayza against Muhammad.
Primate of Spain, born and baptized in Toledo, died in 690; first of a long lineage of princes of the Church of Jewish origin who persecuted their former coreligionists, according to Isidore of Beja and Paul of Burgos. A man reputed to be wise and of prudent judgment, he pushed the Visigothic king Erwig to have adopted, at the Twelfth Council of Toledo which he presided over, severe laws against Jews, and drew up in 686, at his request, a treatise aimed at refuting Judaism through messianic prophecies. Yet he sent, in 687, a book on the afterlife to the bishop of Barcelona, through the intermediary of a Jew named Restitutus.
One of the most eminent fathers of the Muslim tradition, who introduced into this literature the method and many details of Jewish haggada; died in 32 or 35 of the Hegira (652 or 655 of the Common Era). Jew from Yemen converted to Islam under the caliphate of Abou Bakr, he was nicknamed 'al-Aḥbar', an adaptation of the Hebrew 'ḥaver', for his theological erudition, taught the Quran and the life of Muhammad in a homiletic and haggadic manner, and counted among his disciples Ibn 'Abbas and Abou Hourayra. Great favorite of Caliph Omar, who consulted him often, he is notably attributed the saying that 'the world will last six thousand years'.
Jewish princess of a Berber tribe also bearing the name of Kahina, she lived in the second half of the seventh century and reigned, from the Aurès mountains, over the most powerful tribe of the Maghreb at the time of the Arab invasion. She defeated the Arab general Ḥassan ibn al-Nu'man and forced him to retreat; five years later, in 694, when he returned with reinforcements, she ordered the destruction of all Berber cities to discourage conquest, in vain — she fell near a well which still bears, in her memory, the name « Bir al-Kahina ».
One of the oldest and most prolific liturgical poets (payyetanim), whose name, origin and era remain disputed in modern Jewish scholarship — hypotheses placing his activity between the end of the seventh and the end of the tenth century, and his homeland alternately in Italy, Babylon, Mesopotamia or Palestine. Legend has it that a celestial fire surrounded him when he composed the « Ḳedushah », that he ascended to heaven to learn from the angels the art of alphabetic hymns, and that his master Yannaï, jealous of his knowledge, caused his death by placing a scorpion in his shoe.
Opponent of Muhammad, son of the poet Al-Rabi' ibn Abou al-Ḥuqayq, active in Medina in the 7th century before the appearance of the Prophet. After the expulsion of the Banou al-Nadir, of which he was a member, he withdrew with his family to Khaybar, whose strongholds were soon conquered by Muhammad; taken prisoner, he was tortured to death, accused of hiding the tribe's treasure, while Muhammad coveted his wife Safiyya, daughter of Rabbi Ḥuyayy, previously assassinated.
Prophet of Islam, whose preaching in Medina involved significant interactions with the Jewish tribes (Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza). The Quran's borrowings from biblical and talmudic traditions attest to the influence of Judaism on nascent Islam.
Gaon of Sura at the time of the Arab conquest, he negotiated the status of the Jewish community of Babylonia with the new Muslim masters. The transition to Arab rule inaugurated an era of relative tolerance that allowed the intellectual flourishing of Babylonian Judaism.
Warrior and Arab Jewish poet of Himyarite origin, killed around 628 during the attack on Khaybar by Mohammed, after having distinguished himself by his bravery in the defense of one of the oasis forts. According to Arab warrior custom, he launched a challenge in verse to the companions of Mohammed; accounts differ on the identity of his conqueror, Ibn Hisham attributing it to Mohammed ibn Maslamah, other sources to Ali, cousin and future successor of Mohammed.
Rabbi, seventh century. Died in 4413 of the Hebrew era (653). Son of Mussa. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-1.
Second caliph of Islam, conqueror of Jerusalem (637). He permitted the Jews to return to pray in Jerusalem, from which they had been banned by the Byzantines. The Pact of Omar defined the status of dhimmi that would govern Jewish communities in the lands of Islam for centuries.
Second caliph of Islam, he succeeded Abu Bakr in 634 and was assassinated in 644. A great organizer of the Muslim state, he placed Syria, Persia, and Egypt under Arab domination, established the divan responsible for revenues and shares of war booty, and introduced dating from the Hegira. His name remains attached to an ordinance imposing on Jews and Christians in Muslim countries vestimentary restrictions, a poll tax, and the prohibition of building new synagogues.
Gaon of Pumbedita, in office from 640 to 650 according to Halévy or from 670 to 680 according to Grätz, contemporary of Houna, gaon of Sura. With the latter, he institutes a major reform of divorce: a woman may henceforth obtain it for simple incompatibility, without waiting a year or losing her property, contrary to previous practice — a decision that introduces a form of legal equality between man and woman.
Babylonian amora of the seventh generation, disciple of Rabina I and contemporary of Rabina II. His principal work is to have completed, through additions and amplifications, the compilation of the Talmud begun by R. Ashi — hence his surname Tosefa'ah (« the completer »), or, according to another explanation, derived from his native city, Tousfa. He succeeds Mar b. R. Ashi as head of the academy of Sourah, which he directs for six years, and dies in 494.
First paytan to employ rhyme and to sign his poems with an acrostic, probably active in Palestine in the first half of the seventh century. A prolific poet whose works are mostly lost, only three liturgical fragments by him survive, of a style less obscure than that of his student Ḳalir, who reportedly killed him out of jealousy according to tradition.
Head of the academy of Pumbedita from approximately 772 to 780. Sherira Gaon adds to his name the mention "our grandfather," which does not, however, mean that Dudai was a direct ancestor of Sherira, the confusion being increased by a copyist's attempt to transform the rare name "Dudai" into "Judai."
Hebrew scholar of the Geonic period, probably from Nehardea. He is the author of an alphabetical treatise in rhyme, in Hebrew, on the Jewish calendar, printed in the « Kerem Ḥemed » — a precious text for the history of the Jewish calendar as well as for that of Neo-Hebrew poetry.
Founder of the Karaite movement, which rejected the oral law (Talmud) and recognized only the written Bible. Karaism, the principal dissent within rabbinic Judaism, stimulated in reaction a deepening of exegesis and Hebrew grammar.
Gaon of Soura at the end of the 8th century.
Abraham da Cagliari is rabbi in Cagliari, Sardinia, in the eighth century. He is mentioned by the historian of the period Antonio di Tharos and by Delotone in his « Ritmo di Gialeto », which reports that Abraham interpreted numerous Phoenician inscriptions gathered by the Sardinian king Gialeto; Antonio di Tharos adds that with another Jewish scholar named Canaïm, he deciphered Greek and Phoenician inscriptions found in the palace of Masu.
Italian archaeologist of the eighth century of whom nothing more is known except that, like his contemporary and compatriot Abraham di Cagliari, he devoted himself to copying and deciphering Phoenician and Greek inscriptions.
King of the Franks and Emperor of the West, born in 742 and died in 814. His attitude toward the Jews, dictated mainly by political calculation, left them full freedom in their commercial affairs — some held prominent positions at his court, such as the physician Ferragut or the ambassador Isaac, sent to Haroun al-Rachid — but their political status remained globally unchanged: his capitularies required of a Jew more witnesses than of a Christian to bring an accusation, and forbade him from employing a Christian worker on Sunday. Some capitularies, of proselytic spirit, also forbade Jews from marrying a relative up to the seventh degree.
Gaon of Pumpadita, brother of Yehudai Gaon.
Hanania (Aḥounaï) is exilarch, younger brother of Anan ben David, the founder of Karaism, and nephew, according to the Karaites, of exilarch Salomon ben Ḥasdaï. An anonymous Rabbinic author, cited by the Karaite Elijah ben Abraham, reports that Anan, although older and more learned, was not elected exilarch because of his lack of piety, and that his younger brother Hanania was preferred to him. Grätz supposes he might be identified with Aḥounaï, the father of exilarch Zakkaï, elected in 771.
Ḥaninaï Kahana ben Abraham is gaon of the academy of Poumbedita from 782 to 786. Almost nothing is known of his life or work, except that he displeased the exilarch and was removed from office, with Houna Mar ha-Lévi succeeding him.
Gaon of Soura at the end of the 8th century.
Ḥasdaï I is the third exilarch of the Arab period, died in 730, descendant of Bostanaï I and successor of Ḥanina ben Adaï. His eldest son, Solomon ben Ḥasdaï, succeeded him as exilarch, while his second son, David, is the father of Anan ben David, the founder of Karaism. His son-in-law was probably Natronaï ben Nehemiah, gaon of Pumbedita, in office from 719 to 739. He is identified with the anonymous exilarch mentioned in the Athar al-Bilad of al-Qazwini, who attributes to him having shown in 724 the two angels Harout and Marout.
Idit is an amora whose only known trace is a controversy with a heretic, reported by Naḥman (Sanh. 38b). The exact reading of his name would actually be "Idi", which identifies him with the Palestinian amora of that name.
Gaon of Soura in the early 8th century
José b. Abin, son of R. Abin I and master of R. Abin II, was a Palestinian amora of the fifth generation, in the fourth century. First a student of José of Yodqart, he left him, disappointed by his indifference towards his own family, to follow Assi or José II; he became one of the most important of the last Palestinian halakhists, as versed in the customs of Palestine as in those of Babylonia, knowledge he doubtless derived from his father. His halakhic work dealt chiefly with the exposition of the Mishna, while in Aggada he excelled in the transmission of the teachings of his predecessors, notably Hiyya, Joshua b. Levi, Johanan and Simon b. Laqish.
Palestinian amora of the third generation, in the 4th century, perhaps son of the famous R. Ammi. His house was a meeting place for scholars — R. Zeira, exhausted by study, would sit on his threshold so he could rise in honor of the rabbis who came and went — and he transmitted several halakhic decisions in the name of Simeon ben Laḳish.
One of the earliest Jews of medieval Europe known by name. Around 760, he disputed in Pavia with master Pierre de Pise on the truth of Christianity, a debate mentioned by Alcuin, friend of Charlemagne, present during a stay in Italy.
Jewish general of the 8th century, appointed by Tariq, who fought valiantly at Xérès against the Visigoths at the head of an army of Jews and Berbers, and occupied part of Catalonia. Having risen up against the tyrannical governor of Spain, Al-Ḥurr ibn 'Abd al-Raḥman, he was attacked by superior forces, forced to retreat toward Lérida, where he was defeated, captured and executed (718); the Jews of his army, pursued by Al-Ḥurr, were received with hospitality by their coreligionists in the cities of Catalonia.
Babylonian scholar settled in Narbonne, France, at the end of the eighth century, whose descendants led this important community for generations. According to a tradition reported by Abraham ibn Daoud, he descended from the House of David and is said to have been sent to Narbonne by Caliph Hâroun al-Rachîd at the request of Charlemagne, who would have conferred on him the title of « King of the Jews » — a narrative held to be legendary, even though the Machir family did indeed bear the title of nassi for centuries. Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Narbonne in 1165, attests to the eminent position of his descendants, and royal letters of 1364 still mention the existence of a « king » of the Jews in Narbonne.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 771 to 773. The only known fact about him is that he opposed, with Ḥaninaï Kahana ben Huna, Naṭronaï ben Ḥabibaï, who was attempting to supplant the exilarch Zakkaï ben Aḥounaï; the two gueonim compelled Naṭronaï to leave Babylonia; he later reportedly settled in Kairouan.
Jewish astronomer and astrologer of Basra, one of the founders of Arab astronomy. He took part in choosing the site of Baghdad for Caliph al-Mansur (762). His astronomical treatises were translated into Latin and influenced medieval Europe.
Babylonian amora of the fifth generation, died in 356, disciple like Raba of R. Naḥman ben Jacob. Noted as a youth for his halakhic learning, he became resh kallah and then, at Raba's death, succeeded him at the head of the school transferred from Maḥouza to Pumbedita, a position he held for four years. He contributed to the Halakha by gathering and transmitting the teachings of his predecessors and by resorting to mnemonics, thus initiating the redaction of the Talmud, while defining himself as « a transmitter and a codifier ».
Gaon of Pumbedita from 719 to 730, son-in-law of the exilarch Hasdaï I. His pride in his birth and his arrogance toward students led many of them to leave the academy, where they did not return until after his death. Two responsa are attributed to him, relating to the return of Jews who had followed heretical leaders — one admitting the return of followers of the false messiah Sérenus, the other refusing that of children of certain heretics — although Weiss attributes them rather to Natronaï b. Hilaï.
Gaon of Pumbedita at the beginning of the 8th century.
Gaon of Sura, he composed the first collection of halakhic responsa sent to the communities of Spain. These legal questions and answers became the principal means of communicating Jewish law between the Babylonian academies and the communities of the diaspora.
Karaite scholar who lived in Basra then in Jerusalem, in the eighth century, probably son of Abou Nissi Noah, contemporary and elder of Anan. An orphan from childhood and raised by a poor grandmother, he earned his living with difficulty as a tutor before traveling through Iraq, Persia and Syria to acquire Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin, then devoted himself to philosophy and rabbinic literature. He settled in his last years in Jerusalem, where he is attributed the "Sefer Asseret ha-Devarim", an autobiographical introduction to a work now lost on precepts drawn from the Decalogue, which Hadassi is said to have taken up without citing him.
Italian scholar of the eighth century, one of the first Jews of Europe known by name. According to Alcuin, he conducted around 760 in Pavia a religious controversy with the grammarian Maestro Pietro da Pisa, an episode related in a letter from Alcuin to Charlemagne; Jaffé's «Monumenta Alcuiniana» give his name in the form «Lullus» rather than «Julius».
Exilarch in Baghdad, probably between 773 and 816. His existence was known only from a difficult passage of a manuscript claiming that the pious held the basis of their liturgy from Aaron ben Samuel ha-Nasi, who left Babylonia; another manuscript of the fourteenth century specifies that the author of the liturgical work « Emet Nore'oteka » was a student of this Aaron ben Samuel ha-Nasi of Babylonia. The importance of Aaron in the Chronicle of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel, and his residence in Italy, attest to the existence of Samuel ha-Nasi.
rabbi
False messiah of the early 8th century, from Syria, known through a responsum of Natronaï Gaon. He presented himself as the Messiah, instituted observances contrary to Rabbinic law — abolition of prayer, work on the second day of festival, suppression of the ketouba — and, according to Isidore of Beja, appeared around 720, under the reign of Yazid II, leading many Jews in Spain to abandon their property in order to join him. Arrested and questioned by the caliph without being able to justify his messianic claims, he was handed over to the Jews for punishment, and his repentant followers were reintegrated into their communities on the counsel of Natronaï Gaon.
Presumed author of the Halakhot Guedolot, a major halakhic code.
Muslim traditionist of Dhimar, in Yemen, died at ninety years of age, in 725, 728, 732 or 737 of the common era according to Arab authors. Of Persian descent through his father and Himyarite through his mother, he was, according to a single source, converted from Judaism to Islam — the other biographers do not say he was Jewish either by race or by religion, although his deep knowledge of Jewish traditions, perhaps inherited from his master Ibn Abbas, may have given rise to this legend. A prolific narrator of tales about biblical prophets drawn from Jewish folklore, he is the author of the Kisas al-Anbiya and the Kitab al-Isra'iliyat, now lost.
Gaon (head) of the academy of Sura, author of the Halakhot Pesuqot, the first post-talmudic halakhic code. His work marks the beginning of the legal codification that would culminate in the Shulhan Arukh of Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century.
Gaon of Pumbedita, successor of Rabbi Joseph bar Abba, from 816 to 828. Inclined toward mysticism, he was credited with the gift of predicting the future by observing the movement of tree branches; he is cited in the Talmudic dictionary 'Aroukh.
Legendary figure who was said to have been designated prince of Poland in 842, under the following circumstances: after the death of Prince Popiel, the Poles gathered in council at Kruszwica and decided, lacking agreement, that the first man to enter the city the next morning would become their sovereign — this was the Jew Abraham the Powder Maker (prochownik), immediately escorted and proclaimed prince. Abraham refused this honor and had the wise man Piast elected in his place, founder of the Piast dynasty.
Gaon of Soura from 811 to 819, brother of rabbi Mordekhaï, he appears to have been the father of the gaon of Soura Cohen-Ṣedeq, renowned for his numerous ritual and judicial decisions.
Archbishop of Lyon born in 779 and died on June 6, 840, one of the principal adversaries of Judaism in the 9th century, he raised objections against the protections granted to the Jews of Lyon by King Louis the Pious, who had given them a special magistrate to defend them against the intolerance of the clergy. In several epistles addressed to the king and to bishops, including « De l'insolence des Juifs » [On the Insolence of the Jews], he detailed his grievances — new synagogues, royal favors, change of market day for their rest — and proposed restrictions on relations between Christians and Jews.
Babylonian Amora of the sixth and seventh generations, he presided over the academy of Soura in its decline, but only for six months: his death was caused by an earthquake that occurred on the day of Kippur, in the year 822 of the Seleucid era, or 511 of the Common Era. His name is a contraction of Aḥa de-Abba or De-Abboï ("brother of the father"), and corresponds to the biblical Ahab.
Head of the academy of Soura, died around 875, student of Natronaï II from whom he received the title of gaon during his master's lifetime; at his death, around 857, he fully inherited his dignity. Author of approximately one hundred twenty responsa touching almost all areas of Jewish law, for the most part published in Salonica in 1792 in the collection "Sha'aré Tsédek." He owes his place among the greatest geonim before Saadia above all to his "Siddour Rav Amram," the first complete prayer ritual of Judaism, foundation of both Sephardic and Ashkenazi liturgy.
Gaon of Sura, author of the Seder Rav Amram, the first complete liturgical compilation (siddur) in Jewish history. Composed in response to a question from the Jews of Spain, this foundational text structured Jewish prayer as it is practiced to this day.
Archbishop of Lyon from 841, under the reign of Charles the Bald, died in 852. Trained in hatred of the Jews by his teacher Agobard, he attempts, with the bishop of Reims and the archbishop of Sens, to revive at the council of Meaux, in 849, the anti-Jewish laws — but Charles refuses and dissolves the assembly. Amulo then addresses to the ecclesiastical authorities a virulent letter against the Jews, even evoking the conversion to Judaism of the court chaplain, Bodo; without immediate effect, it draws the attention of a clergy hitherto favourable to the Jews, and the calm which they enjoyed in France comes to an end.
Judging by his title "Mar Rab", he was one of the geonim, living probably toward the middle of the ninth century. His name appears in a fragment of the Cairo Genizah, the author of which might be Judah ben Barzilaï of Barcelona. This Asaph could be identical to the Asaph who figures among the transmitters of masoretic traditions, but nothing allows one to connect him to the physician of the same name.
Karaite scholar who lived in the ninth century, nicknamed « the master of the Diaspora » for the liveliness of his spirit, none of his works have survived, but they are known through the quotations of them by other Karaite authors: Salomon b. Yerouham mentions his « Sefer ha-Miṣwot », and Jephet ben Ali cites his biblical commentaries. Also known as « ha-medaḳdeḳ » (the grammarian), his etymologies are cited by the Karaite lexicographer David b. Abraham Alfasi; Bacher identified him with Abou Ya'aqoub Joseph ben Noah, an identification contested by Poznanski.
One of the greatest scholars of medieval Karaism, to the point that some consider him the true founder of Karaism as it was transmitted. His name refers to Nahavand, in Persia. He wrote, mainly in Judeo-Arabic, codes of Karaite law and highly esteemed biblical commentaries (Abraham ibn Ezra cites him with respect).
Constantine, called Cyril after entering monachism, is the apostle of the Slavs and author of the Slavic alphabet; he was born in Salonique around 820 and died in Rome on February 14, 869. In 848, the regent empress Theodora sends him, with his older brother Methodius, who died in 885, to debate with Jews and Muslims near the king of the Khazars; in Kherson, he learns Hebrew and translates the Old Testament and elements of Hebrew grammar into Slavic. The Khazar kingdom, whose king and court remain Jewish until around the middle of the 10th century—a letter from king Joseph to Ḥisdaï ibn Shaprut, dated around 960, attests to this.
Exilarch of Babylonia from 820 to 834, David ben Juda succeeded Iskawi II at a time of decline for this dignity; his election, contested by a faction favorable to the Karaite Daniel, was submitted to the caliph al-Ma'mun, who refused to rule and authorized, by edict, any community of at least ten persons — Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrian — to elect its own leader. David was finally recognized as exilarch, and appointed around 834 as gaon of Pumbedita a scholar named Isaac ben Ḥananya.
exilarch of the Jewish community of Babylon
Merchant and traveler of the 9th century who claimed to be from an independent Jewish state in East Africa populated by the tribes of Dan, Asher, Gad and Naphtali. Traveling through Babylonia, Kairouan and then Spain, he stirred emotion everywhere with his fabulous tales of the Ten Lost Tribes and with halakhot he claimed to bring from his native country, attributed to Joshua son of Nun or to Othniel son of Kenaz.
A mysterious Jewish traveler who claimed to come from an independent Jewish kingdom in Africa, a descendant of the tribe of Dan. His accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes fascinated medieval Jewish communities and fueled messianic hope.
Hai ben David is dayyan then gaon of Pumbedita from 890 to 897, mentioned in the Halakhot of Isaac ibn Ghayyat concerning a usage of Baghdad which he could not abolish. According to Karaite sources of uncertain authenticity, he is said to have written an anti-Karaite work intended to justify the rabbinite calendar.
Gaon of Soura, son of Nahshon ben Zadok.
Haman, son of Hammedata, called the Agagite, is the grand vizier of King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, descendant of Agag, king of the Amalekites, who remained in Jewish Memory as « the persecutor of the Jews ». Vexed that Mordecai refuses to bow down before him, he obtains from the king permission to exterminate the Jews of the kingdom, but his plot is foiled by Queen Esther, who denounces him to the king at a banquet ; he is then hanged on the gallows he had erected for Mordecai, and his ten sons are executed the same day. Rabbinic tradition identifies him with Memoukan, one of the seven princes of the court of Ahasuerus.
Hananel ben Amittaï is the spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Oria, Italy, in the 9th century, descended according to tradition from a Jerusalem family deported to Italy by Titus. The Chronicle of Aḥima'atz describes him as a man of great learning and piety, versed in the secrets of the Kabbalah to the point of performing miracles, and reports a controversy he had with the archbishop of Oria.
Biblical exegete and critic of the last quarter of the ninth century, born in Balkh, in Persia. He composed a work opposing two hundred objections to the divine origin of the Bible, combated by Saadia Gaon in a treatise now lost like the original work. His criticisms, transmitted through citations by later authors, focused notably on the necessity of sacrifices and on a natural explanation of the crossing of the Red Sea.
Spanish Talmudist of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, native of Barcelona and contemporary of Salomon Adret, without however having been his student. He is the author of the « Sefer ha-Shulḥan », a treatise in four parts devoted to ritual questions, which Gross supposes to be the work cited by Isaac b. Sheshet in his responsa.
Founder of the Jewish sect of the Akbarites, active in the era of Caliph Al-Mu'taṣim (833-841). Native of Akbara, in Iraq, ten parasangs from Baghdad, he had the reputation of a vain man and engaged in early biblical criticism, proposing several corrections to the Masoretic text of Genesis, Exodus and elsewhere — readings that Ḳirḳissani approached, without certainty, with Samaritan traditions.
Gaon of Sura from 801 to 815, where he succeeded Hilaï ben Mari, Jacob ben Mordekhaï Ha-Cohen inclined as much as possible toward the most lenient interpretation of the Law in his decisions, which Zadok — appointed gaon in 823 — and his contemporaries reproached him for. One of his long responsa, written in remarkably pure Hebrew, is preserved in the 'Or Zaroua'.'
10th century Karaite dogmatist and exegete
Son of Rekab the Kenite and founder of the Rechabites, Jehonadab met the king of Israel Jehu as he was heading to Samaria to root out the worship of Baal; becoming his ally, he accompanied him in his chariot and took part in the massacre of Baal's worshippers. His faithfulness, imitated by his descendants, earned him a blessing pronounced by the prophet Jeremiah.
Daughter of Joram, king of Judah, and wife of the high priest Jehoiada, Josabeth saved with her husband her nephew Joash from the hands of Athaliah, who had massacred the rest of the royal family.
Joseph ben Abba was Gaon of Poumbedita for two years; he died, according to Cherira Gaon, in 816 — Abraham ibn Daoud, who names him Joseph b. Juda, places his death in 824. Preferred over Mar Aaron, a greater Talmudist than him but lacking his miraculous powers, he was said to be in communication with the prophet Elijah, and an earthquake is said to have marked the day of his death. As a child, he had studied the Talmud with great diligence, and his teacher, Mar Chinaï Gaon, had blessed him while predicting that he would become the leader of the people.
Joseph ben Noah ha-Batsri, a Karaite scholar of the eighth and ninth centuries, brother of Nissim ben Noah, translated the Pentateuch into Arabic with a commentary, from which Abou al-Faraj Haroun drew an abridgment. According to Hadassi, he recognized only two foundations of religious law, Scripture and the harmony of the entire body of laws, and rejected logical deduction; Louzki wrongly confused him with Joseph al-Qirqissani, erroneously attributing to him the Sefer ha-Ma'or of the latter.
rabbi and historian
Grammarian and Hebraist lexicographer, born in Tahort, in North Africa, active in the eighth and ninth centuries. His contribution to comparative philology was of great value: he recognized that Semitic languages derive from a common source and obey the same laws, exposing it in his « Risala », a letter addressed in Arabic to the community of Fès and considered the first critical study of Semitic languages; he warns against neglecting the study of the Targoumim. His grammatical research, independent of the Mishna and the Talmud, led him to be wrongly held for a Karaite.
Philologist of Tahort, author of the Risala, comparative dictionary of Semitic languages.
Gaon of Soura in the 9th century.
Gaon, whose responsa — written in Hebrew (not in Aramaic as most earlier geonim) and in concise terms — cover all domains of halakha, particularly the laws of blessings and texts of the liturgy. He is said to have devoted an entire work to the Seder of Passover and is considered the first gaon (even before Natronaï b. Hilai) to have composed a prayer book. He was careful not to impose on communities the customs of the Babylonian academies.
One of the earliest Jewish physicians of Arabic language and the earliest translator from Syriac, active in Basra around 883. He translates into Arabic the Pandects of the archdeacon Aaron, from Syriac, and adds two chapters of his own hand to the thirty already existing; he also writes two treatises, one on the virtues of foods, the other on those of medicinal plants, neither of which has been preserved and which are known only through citations.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 858 to 860, probably elected more by virtue of his father's merits than his own. He had as rival the gaon Mar Mattithia ben Rabbi, who surpassed him in Talmudic learning, and the dissensions between them ceased only at Menahem's death.
Masorete, father of Aaron, generally called Ben Asher, active in Tiberias in the second half of the ninth century, descendant of Asher the Great, one of the first known Masoretes of Tiberias. Although Pinsker and Graetz held him, with his son, to be Karaite, it is more likely that they belonged to Rabbinic Judaism; a codex of the prophetic books preserved in the Karaite synagogue of Cairo was completed by him in Tiberias in 895.
Gaon of Soura from 832 to 843, son of the gaon Jacob ha-Cohen ben Mardochée (801–815). Reputed to be versed in Kabbalah and amulets, he leaves responsa on inheritance and on the use of untanned skin for a Torah scroll — the only gaon to have authorized it, a decision followed by several Babylonian communities. His death provoked dissensions over his succession, before Kohen Ẓedeḳ ben Abimaï was finally appointed.
Karaite founder of a new sect in the early 9th century, originating from Za'faran in Persia — whence his name « Al-Za'farani » — he later settled in Tiflis, which gave him the surname « Al-Tiflisi »; his sect, called the Abou 'Imranites, Mechwites, or Tiflisites, departed from classical Karaism by teaching that God, after creating the world, had abandoned it to itself, and by denying the resurrection of the dead.
Gaon of Soura, known for the calendrical cycle Iggoul de-Rav Nahshon.
Gaon of the academy of Soura in the early second half of the ninth century, he succeeded Sar Shalom. Although he was already elderly upon taking office and his tenure lasted less than a decade, he issued an unusual number of responsa, nearly three hundred of which have been preserved in various compilations, responding to his correspondents in their own language — Aramaic, neo-Hebrew, and, it is said, the first of the geonim to use Arabic. A fierce opponent of the Karaites, he worked to impose ritual uniformity of the Babylonian academies.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 842 to 858, first of a lineage of notable geonim who extended the influence of this academy to the point that the exilarch had to go there to hold a public assembly. Rigorous in his governance, he defends in his letters the resort to excommunication against disobedience to the Law; several of his responsa are preserved in the collection "Sha'are Ẓedeḳ" (Salonika, 1792).
Gaon of Pumbedita, ordered the copying of an annotated Talmud for Spain.
Gaon of Soura and founder of scientific activity in Judaism, born in Dilaẓ, Upper Egypt, in 892, and died in Soura in 942. His surname "Al-Fayyumi" refers to the Fayoum, his native region; he claims, in his "Sefer ha-Galui", descent tracing back to Shelah, son of Judah, and to the ascetic Ḥanina b. Dosa. In 913, in his twentieth year, he completed his first major work, the Hebrew dictionary "Agron".
Gaon of Sura, the first great Jewish philosopher. His Book of Beliefs and Opinions (Emunot ve-Deot) founds rational Jewish philosophy. He translated the Bible into Arabic (Tafsir) and combated Karaism. A major intellectual figure of medieval Judaism.
Physician, astrologer, and mathematician of the 9th century, active around 786-845, father of the physician Ali ben Sahl. He translated the "Almagest" of Ptolemy; Steinschneider identifies him with the famous Sahl ibn Bishr.
Gaon of Soura, author of numerous responsa.
Gaon of Pumbedita, born around 900, died around 1000, descended from families that held the gaonateship on both sides, which he traced back to a branch of the exilarchate that had renounced its rights for the sake of study. Chief judge and then gaon of the academy from 968 for thirty years, he retired at an advanced age in favor of his son Hai, but was imprisoned and stripped of his possessions on a slanderous denunciation to the caliph Al-Qadir, and died shortly after of grief. His numerous responsa, in Hebrew or Aramaic, defend a rigorous interpretation of the Talmud against the Karaites.
Gaon of Pumbedita, author of the Epistle of Sherira Gaon (Iggeret Rav Sherira), the first history of rabbinic Judaism. This fundamental document traces the chain of transmission of the oral law from Moses to the Geonim, founding Jewish historiography.
Professor in the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialist in piyyut and Hebrew poetry from late antiquity to the Middle Ages, as well as the history of liturgy. She has published around fifteen books and over a hundred articles, including critical editions of Eastern liturgical poets (9th–12th c.) and important discoveries in the Cairo Genizah (fragments of Ben Sira, of Yehuda ha-Lévi).
Rabbi, 9th century. Mentioned in 4650 of the Hebrew calendar (890). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-2.
Gaon of Soura from 820 to 821, known by a responsum cited in the « Sha'are Ẓedeq »: when he judged an accused guilty without being able to inflict sufficient punishment on him, he enjoined him to go ask pardon from his victim or to compensate him, under penalty of excommunication if he refused. One of the first gueonim to depart from certain Talmudic rules, he leaned rather toward rigor than leniency in their application.
Gaon of Soura at the end of the 9th century.
Gaon of Pumbedita, author of a Talmudic lexicon.
Gaon of the Land of Israel, opposed to Saadia in the calendar controversy of 922.
Masorite active in Tiberias in the first half of the 10th century, descendant of a family of masorites going back six generations to Asher the Elder. He established a manuscript of the Old Testament furnished with vowel signs and accents, several times revised, which became the reference for subsequent generations and on which rests, with few exceptions, the current masoretic text; he also left brief masoretic and grammatical treatises published under the title « Diḳduḳe ha-Ṭe'amim » and a list of eighty homonyms, « Shemonim Zugim ».
Karaite grammarian and Sage
Gaon of Pumbedita, opponent of Saadia Gaon.
Talmudist and liturgical poet born in Mérida around the beginning of the tenth century, died in Damascus around the year 970. After the death of his master Rabbi Moses « the prisoner of Bari » in Cordova, he opposed Rabbi Ḥanoc, elected to his succession, who obtained the support of the caliph Al-Ḥakim and had him struck with excommunication; forced into exile, Abitur sought in vain to have this sentence lifted by the rabbinical authorities of North Africa and Babylon.
Physician whose dates of birth and death are unknown, author in Hebrew of a medical work, "Mareot ha-Chetanim" (Aspects of the Urine), intended, according to its introduction, to guide young practitioners and serve as a reference for laymen. The author also promised a compilation on the same subject drawn from the best authorities; his book might be only an extract from the work on urine by Isaac Israéli, who died around 950.
Jewish scribe
Karaite translator and biblical commentator, active in Jerusalem between 950 and 980, Japheth ha-Levi was nicknamed « maskil ha-Golah » (the master of the Exile) for the importance he placed, unlike his Karaite predecessors, on grammar and lexicography in the interpretation of Scripture. His commentaries, rich in polemics against Rabbinites — particularly against Saadia Gaon —, refuse any authority external to the exegete while admitting certain allegorical readings, such as that of the Song of Songs; he also attacked Islam vigorously, identifying Mahomet with the « spoiler » denounced by Isaiah.
Mathematician of uncertain date, author of a treatise on the quadrature of the circle preserved in manuscript at the British Museum. He claims to have found and demonstrated the possibility of constructing a plane figure exactly equal, and not merely approximately, to the area of a given circle, thus claiming to close a debate that dated back to Aristotle, and refutes the positions of Averroes and Avicenna, who held this demonstration to be impossible.
Renowned liturgical poet, active in Oria, Italy, in the early 10th century. The only reliable source on his life, the « Chronicle of Ahimaaz » gives him as the son of Shephatia, who died towards the end of the 9th century, and grandson of the Amittaï who opens the chronicle. Very prolific poet — Zunz attributes twenty-four liturgical pieces to him —, he draws from the Midrash and Mekhilta and sometimes evokes historical events, such as the forced conversion of Jewish children. One of his seliḥot is still part of the Ne'ila service of the Day of Atonement.
Younger daughter of the triumvir Marc Antoine and sister-in-law of Tiberius, friend of Bérénice, daughter of Salomé, and of her son, the future King Agrippa Ier. When Agrippa, ruined in Rome, returns penniless to Judaea, Bérénice's freedman, bequeathed to Antonia, lends him money; having again owed three hundred thousand pieces of silver to the Roman treasury, Agrippa borrows this same sum from Antonia to pay his debt, then repays it to her. Antonia's son, the future Emperor Claude (41-54), is raised alongside Agrippa, and their friendship remains lasting.
One of two Judeo-Arab rabbis who, according to tradition, instructed the King of Yemen Aboû Karibah in Judaism — the other named Ka'b — both from the tribe of the Banou Qouraïza. Tabari, who reports this episode, presents them as the most learned Jews of their time; earlier historians, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham, do not, however, mention them.
Renowned physician and philosopher, born in Bukhara in 980, died in 1037. His works, having reached Spain about a hundred years after their publication, exert great influence on medieval Jewish thought; his philosophical research is gathered in a vast encyclopedic work, the "Al-Chifa" (The Healing), whose Latin translation was prepared with the aid of Jewish interpreters and used notably by Samuel ibn Tibbon. It is divided into four parts: logic, physics, mathematics and metaphysics. Alongside the "Chifa," a shorter encyclopedia, the "Al-Nadjah," was translated in 1330 by Todros Todrosi in Rome under the title "The Healing of the Soul."
One of the three disciples of Menahem ben Sarouk (end of the 10th century) who defended their master's honour against his detractor Dounash ben Labrat. Iehouda ben Sheshet, a disciple of Dounash, wrote a violent pamphlet against them in which he names Ben Kafron among the authors of the treatise; Moïse ibn Ezra also mentions a certain Isaac ibn Kafron, probably the same person — a name derived from the Latin « caper » (goat), which Iehouda ben Sheshet mocks repeatedly. This pamphlet was printed by S. G. Stern in 1870.
Palestinian Nassi of the first half of the tenth century, revealed by fragments found in several genizot. Introducing a new rule for fixing the "molad" of Tishri, he decreed that in the year 922, Passover and other Jewish holidays should be celebrated two days before the date prescribed by the traditional calendar, provoking controversy with the Babylonian academies. Saadia Gaon, then in Baghdad, joined their protest, but Ben Meïr refused to yield, before being excommunicated by the Exilarch David ben Zakkaï and the academies, who sent circular letters warning the Jews against his teachings.
Little-known Karaite master of the tenth century, originally from the Persian province of Qumis, David al-Qumisi died in Jerusalem in the year 334 of the Hijra (945 of the common era); of his biblical commentaries in Arabic, now lost, only two passages are known, one on the paschal sacrifice when the 15th of Nisan falls on a Sabbath, the other on the prohibition of eating the tail fat, which he deduces from Leviticus iii, 9 — a proof taken up by all Karaites although refuted by Saadia.
Karaite lexicographer of the 10th century from Fès, hence his epithet al-Fasi, David ben Abraham, active in the second half of the century, cites Saadia Gaon and composes in Arabic a biblical lexicon, the « Agron », whose introduction sets general rules for the formation of Hebrew words and whose twenty-two parts classify roots by number of letters. Systematically comparing Hebrew to Arabic, he considers certain words explicable by Arabic to be borrowings that entered biblical vocabulary, and frequently refers, in a polemical spirit, to the Targum, to which he attributes the Pentateuch version to Onkelos the Proselyte.
Karaite scholar of the tenth century, fifth descendant of Anan, founder of Karaism, David ben Boaz is mentioned by the Karaite chronicler al-Hiti in the year 383 of the Hijra (993 of the common era). He is responsible for three works — a commentary on Ecclesiastes, a commentary on the Pentateuch and a treatise on the fundamental principles of the Pentateuch — of which only a fragment survives in manuscript in Saint Petersburg, from the commentary on the Pentateuch covering Leviticus and the second half of Deuteronomy; in it he frequently attacks Saadia Gaon, whom he never names but designates as « that man ».
Medieval Judeo-Arabic philosopher and controversialist
Poet and grammarian of Fez and then Córdoba, he introduced Arabic meter into Hebrew poetry, revolutionizing Jewish prosody. His controversy with Menahem ben Saruq over Hebrew grammar founded scientific Hebrew philology.
Philologist and poet of the 10th century, from a family of Bagdad but born in Fès, where he was a student of the gaon of Sura Saadia. He was the first to apply Arabic metrics to Hebrew poetry, an innovation which his master marveled at as something unknown until then in Israel, and which opened a new era for this poetry.
Scholar, physician and astronomer from Kairouan, disciple of Isaac Israeli, author of a commentary on the Sefer Yetsira. He contributed to comparative Hebrew grammar.
Karaite exegete of the Bible, probably active in Egypt in the 10th century. An advocate of the rigorous, ascetic and Sadducean doctrines of Anan, which he nevertheless contested on occasion, he apparently left nothing in writing; his controversies with Saadia Gaon seem to have remained oral, and all that is known of him comes from the commentaries of Abraham ibn Ezra, who cites him as the first to have invoked certain biblical verses to establish the determination of months and festivals.
Egyptian Talmudist active in the tenth and eleventh centuries, son of Shemaria b. Elhanan of Kairouan, who left Egypt when his son was already established there. He addressed numerous responsa to Haï Gaon and maintained correspondence with Jacob b. Nissim of Kairouan.
11th-century French Tosafist
Jewish mathematician whom certain Muslim authors credit with establishing the Hebrew calendar. He is mentioned by Al-Biruni (972-1048) in his « Chronology of Ancient Nations », then by Al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) in his topographical history of Egypt; Steinschneider brought him close to a Jewish astronomer mentioned by Al-Qabisi and by Abraham ibn Ezra, whose name, with Persian resonance, suggests a Persian origin.
Eminent Rabbi of Cordova, 950-1024. As a child, he accompanied his father, one of four scholars taken prisoner at sea and sold into slavery who became founders of talmudic schools in exile; his father having become Rabbi of Cordova, Enoch succeeded him after a wealthy marriage, leading despite his fortune an ascetic life in service to the poor. After the death of his patron, Prince Ḥasdaï ibn Shaprut, a faction supported by wealthy silk manufacturers deposed him in favor of Joseph ibn Abitur, before Enoch was restored and served until 1024, the year he died from injuries sustained in a synagogue accident. His most famous student was Samuel ha-Nagid.
French rabbi born in Metz in 960, died in Mainz in 1040, founder of Talmudic studies in France and Germany. Established in Mainz, where he trained numerous students from all countries, he convened around the year 1000 a synod forbidding polygamy. Recognized author in biblical exegesis and masorah, he revised the text of the Mishnah and Talmud and composed seliḥot inspired by the persecutions of his time; upon the death of his son, apostate since the expulsion of Jews from Mainz in 1012, he nonetheless observed mourning according to Jewish rite.
Hai ben Sherira was gaon of Pumbedita, born in 939 and died on March 28, 1038. Trained in the Talmud by his father Sherira, whose assistant and then coadjutor as « ab bet din » he became, he was imprisoned with him in 997 on denunciation by their adversaries by caliph Al-Qadir, before being appointed gaon in 998 by his father, aged and ill. He holds this position until his death and leaves more than eight hundred responsa, addressed from Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, North Africa, India and Ethiopia, as well as a treatise on purchases translated into Hebrew in 1078 under the title Ha-Meḳaḥ weha-Mimkar.
Hananeel ben Ḥushiel is rabbi of Kairouan and biblical and talmudic commentator born in Kairouan around 990 and died, according to Abraham Zacuto, in 1050. Trained principally by his father Ḥushiel, he also corresponds with Haï Gaon and succeeds his father as rabbi of Kairouan alongside Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shahin. One of the first rabbis after the decline of the gaonic school, he contributes powerfully to the spread of the study of the Talmud, in particular that of the Talmud of Jerusalem then neglected, and leaves a commentary on the Pentateuch as well as a commentary on the Talmud, written in Hebrew, widely used by Isaac Alfasi and Nathan ben Jehiel.
Abraham al-Harselani is a Karaite scholar active in Babylonia in the 10th century, cited in the chronicle of al-Hiti for his controversies with the rabbinic authorities of his time, and mentioned as a Karaite authority by Mordekhaï ben Nissim in the Dod Mordekhaï. None of his works have come down to us.
Ḥasan ben Mashiaḥ is a Karaite master of the ninth or tenth century who, according to Sahl ben Maṣliaḥ, engaged in public debate with Saadia Gaon and then wrote against him after his death; Ibn al-Hiti places him in Baghdad, in controversy with the Christian physician Abou Ali Isa ibn Zara. A fragment of his polemical treatise against Saadia, concerning the antiquity of the Jewish calendar, is preserved; Hadassi cites his opinion on inheritance law, and Ibn Ezra ranks him, in the preface to his commentary on the Pentateuch, among the representatives of Karaite biblical exegesis.
Physician and diplomat in the service of the Caliph of Córdoba, he was the first great patron of Jewish culture in Spain (Sefarad). His correspondence with the Khazar king Joseph is a unique document on the Jewish kingdom of the Khazars.
Ḥefeṣ ben Yaṣliaḥ, called Ḥefeṣ Alouf, is a halakist active toward the end of the tenth century, probably in Kairouan. He is the author of a Sefer ha-Miṣwot, now lost, which enumerates the 613 commandments by giving, the first in this field, brief reasons for their existence, and which embraces both biblical precepts and their Talmudic and Geonic expansions. Highly esteemed by both Spanish and Franco-German authorities, to the point that Maimonides himself acknowledges owing much to him, his work is cited for its grammatical remarks by Jonas ibn Janaḥ, Juda ibn Balaam, Salomon Parḥon and Tanḥoum Yerouchalmi, and has durably influenced the thought of Baḥya ibn Paqouda.
Coming from Italy, led the yeshiva of Kairouan, introduced the Jerusalem Talmud there.
Karaite liturgical poet active in the first half of the tenth century, compiler of the prayer book « Tefillat Bene Miḳra », in which he inserted numerous poems and prayers of his own composition, interspersed with homilies, biblical explanations and polemics against the Rabbanites. According to Jephet ben Ali and his son Levi, he criticized, in a now-lost ritual, the Rabbanite obligation to recite the Eighteen Blessings morning and evening. A fierce opponent of Saadia Gaon, he attacked him in several writings that have also disappeared.
Silk manufacturer in Cordoba, in a high position at the court of the caliph Hisham, died around the year 1000. With his brother Joseph, he offered the caliph and the powerful hajib al-Manṣur ibn Abi Amir sumptuous silks and banners which earned him to be made prince and grand judge of all Jewish communities of the Andalusian caliphate, with the power to appoint judges and rabbis. Imprisoned for a time by al-Manṣur, displeased at not receiving more subsidies from him, he was later freed by the caliph and restored, though without regaining his former prestige.
Vizier of the Caliph of Egypt Al-'Aziz Nizar, born in Baghdad in 930, died in Cairo in 990-991. Born to Jewish parents and himself professing Judaism during the first half of his life, he was sent as a child to Egypt, where he rose through the ranks of the Caliph Kafur al-Ikhchidi's administration until becoming his trusted minister in 960; he embraced Islam in 967, then entered the service of Al-Mu'izz, whom he aided in conquering Egypt, became director of civil administration in 978 then vizier in 979 at the accession of Al-'Aziz Nizar, a position he held until his death.
Oriental mathematician active in the late tenth century. In 997, the Jacobite Abu 'Ali 'Isa ibn Zara'ah addressed him a pamphlet against Judaism, in response to a work favorable to the Jews that he himself had composed.
Jewish merchant-traveler of the tenth century, known through his own account of Slavic lands. Probably of North African origin, he crossed the Adriatic in 965, visited Prague and eastern Germany, then met at Magdeburg Bulgarian ambassadors to the court of Otto I, before continuing northward to Schwerin. His account, a precious source on the Western Slavs, mentions Jewish merchants come from Hungary to Bohemia; it was found by De Goeje in a manuscript of the scholar Abu 'Ubaid al-Bakri (1094), discovered by Schefer in 1875, and published in Arabic in 1878 then in Dutch translation in 1880.
Spanish grammarian born in 982 and died in Toledo around 1057-58, he was, according to Ibn Abi Uṣaibi'a, ordinary physician to the kings of Denia and trained in logic, Hebrew grammar and Jewish law; Moses ibn Ezra designated him, with Abou al-Walid, as one of the two masters of Hebrew grammar. Author in Arabic of the « Sefer ha-Ẓerufim » on inflection, he maintained there that the genealogy of the kings of Edom in Genesis xxxvi had not been written before the time of King Jehoshaphat — a criticism judged so bold by Abraham ibn Ezra that he believed the work deserved to be burned.
Jewish Neoplatonic physician and philosopher from Kairouan, one of the first medieval Jewish philosophical authors. His medical treatises were translated into Latin and studied in Europe.
Karaite scholar of the 10th century, with his full name Samuel ben Asher ben Manṣour, from the province of Jabal, near Hamadan. He refuted Saadia Gaon in a special writing, as well as a certain Menahem, school leader, in a controversy concerning a letter from the latter's son; if this Menahem is indeed the one who sent questions to Saadia in Arabic, Al-Jabali cannot have been active before 950-960. He should not be confused with another Karaite author of the same name, Samuel ibn Manṣour, who probably belonged to the 14th century.
Gaon of Sura (911-924), appointed after the death of his predecessor Shalom bar Mishaël, at a time when the academy of Sura, impoverished, had been abandoned by most of its students, Jacob bar Naṭronaï held this office for thirteen years. Halévy showed that he should not be identified with Amram ben Salomon, as Grätz contended.
Syrian Talmudist of the 10th century, author, according to Salmon ben Yeroham, of a commentary on the Talmud of Jerusalem. The Karaite Joseph al-Ḳirḳissani mentions him in his "Ha-Ma'or ha-Gadol" regarding a controversy over marriage to a niece, and reports having asked him why the Rabbanites intermarried with the Isawite sectarians. Pinsker wrongly identified him with the Karaite Ben Ephraim attacked by Abraham ibn Ezra, while Schorr denied his very existence.
Ifriqiyan Jewish philosopher and rabbi
Hebrew philologist of the tenth century, student of Dounash ben Labrat, Jehoudi ben Shéshet is known only through the polemic in which he defends his master against the students of Menahem ben Sarouq, composed during Dounash's lifetime. Consisting of one hundred fifty-four verses followed by a section in rimmed prose, it viciously ridicules his opponents—notably Juda ben David Ḥayyouj, whom he reproaches for Christian ancestry—and defends against them the application of Arabic rules of prosody to Hebrew verse. The text was published together with that of his opponents by S. G. Stern in Vienna in 1870.
Grammarian in Saragossa, author of Kitab al-Tanqih, first complete Hebrew grammar.
Philosopher and rabbi
Joseph ben Berekhia, rabbi of Kairouan and student of Jacob bar Nissim, lived in the tenth century. He maintained a learned correspondence with Haï Gaon, whom he consulted on halakhic decisions, one concerning the Tetragrammaton was published among the responsa of the gaon by Eliezer of Tunis. He is also mentioned in the letter of Houshiel ben Hananeel published by S. Schechter.
Joseph ben Jacob, called Bar Satya, was gaon of Soura from 930 to 936, then from 942 to 948. The exilarch David ben Zakkaï chose him to fill Saadia's place when the latter was dismissed, around 930; but in 936, the exilarch having reconciled with Saadia, Joseph lost his post, while continuing to receive its revenues. After Saadia's death in 942, Joseph was reinstated as gaon until 948, the year when the academy of Soura, impoverished and declining, he left for Basra, where he died.
Gaon of Soura, rival and then predecessor of Saadia.
rabbi
French rabbi
Moroccan rabbi, exegete and philologist
Andalusian rabbi
Karaite grammarian and liturgical poet, died in Jerusalem, where he was head of yeshiva, in 932. He is the author of a grammar treatise, « Me'or 'Enayim », which divides Hebrew names into thirty-five classes, as well as two piyyoutim and a lament on the ruin of Zion bearing in acrostic his own name.
Dogmatician and Karaite exegete, active in the first half of the tenth century, native of Circassia and great traveler through the centers of Muslim learning. In 937, he wrote in Arabic a work on the precepts, the 'Kitab al-Anwar wal-Marakib,' and a commentary on the non-legal parts of the Pentateuch; the first, in thirteen treatises, traces the history of Jewish sects, from the Samaritans to the sect of Daniel al-Ḳoumisi, and remarkably ranks Christianity among them, judging that the Christian religion as practiced has nothing in common with the teaching of Jesus but proceeds from Paul.
Gaon of Pumbedita, in conflict with the exilarch David ben Zakkaï.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 917 to 935. He obtained equal division of revenues between Sura and Pumbedita and confronted the exilarch David ben Zakkaï and then Mebasser ben Qimoï, rival gaon, in a schism healed around 922. During the conflict between the exilarch and Saadia Gaon (inheritance affair), he sided with David ben Zakkaï.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 917 to 935. He obtained that the revenues, previously divided two-thirds in favor of Sura, be henceforth distributed equally between the two academies, and defended the interests of Pumbedita against the exilarch Mar 'Uqba, whom he had banished to Kermanshah by the court of Baghdad. When the office of exilarch, vacant for five years, fell to David ben Zakkaï, Kohen Tsedeq refused to recognize him as a relative of Mar 'Uqba; David then deposed him in favor of Mebasser ben Qimoï (918), but the conflict was eventually resolved through the mediation of the blind Nissim Naharwani, and Kohen Tsedeq was reinstated as the legitimate gaon.
Karaite Jewish scholar
French scholar of the tenth and eleventh centuries, born in Metz, brother of Gershom Me'or ha-Golah. He is known for his dictionary, the Alfa Beta de-R. Makir, today lost but often cited by Rachi, Rachbam, Eliézer ben Nathan, Jacob Tam and other Tosafists, which dealt principally with difficult words and passages in the Talmud. He most often took up the interpretations of his brother, from whom he sometimes departed however.
Karaite scholar, active in Egypt or Babylon in the first half of the 10th century, younger contemporary of Saadia Gaon whom he is said to have challenged in religious controversy. He wrote a polemical work refuting an unpublished anti-Karaite writing of Saadia that came into his possession after the latter's death; he has also been credited, erroneously according to some, with the anonymous chapter « Sha'ar Ẓedeḳ » as well as a treatise on the commandments, the « Sefer ha-Miẓwot ».
Gaon of Pumbedita, rival of Kohen Tzedek for the geonicship.
Karaite philosopher and poet, born in Babylonia, contemporary of Saadia Gaon. He corresponds on philosophical subjects with David al-Muqammas, met in Babylonia, then travels to Alexandria, from where he seeks the aid of the Karaite community of Cairo, before settling himself in Cairo, where poverty prevents him from approaching his correspondent despite his presence in the same city. Three of his piyyoutim, as well as versified rules of ritual slaughter, are preserved in the Karaite prayer book, and he is cited as a grammarian in the « Sefer ha-Mibḥar » of Aaron ben Élie the Elder.
Spanish philologist of the tenth century, native of Tortosa, settled in Cordoba under the protection of Isaac, father of the future statesman Ḥasdaï ibn Shaprout. Recalled to Cordoba by Ḥasdaï after the death of Isaac, he completes at his encouragement a dictionary of the Hebrew language, the « Maḥberet », and drafts for his patron the letter addressed to the king of the Khazars. But Dunash ben Labraṭ, arrived from Fès, criticizes his work and gains the favor of Ḥasdaï, who turns violently against Menahem, whose house is destroyed; he dies shortly after, defended by his young disciples, including Juda ben David Ḥayyouj, future founder of scientific Hebrew grammar.
Hebrew lexicographer and grammarian of Córdoba, author of the Mahberet, the first dictionary of biblical Hebrew. He was secretary to Hasdai ibn Shaprut.
Founder of the study of the Talmud in Spain, died around 965. One of the scholars sent from Soura to collect funds, he is captured at sea by the Moorish admiral Ibn Roumahis, whose wife drowns according to legend after learning from him that there is no resurrection for the drowned; ransomed by the community of Cordova around 945 or 948 with his son Hénoch, he astounds the assembly with his talmudic learning during a course by the judge Nathan, who at once recognizes himself as his student. Elected rabbi by the community, he founds in Cordova an independent school of the geonim, making the city a major center of Jewish learning.
Founder of talmudic study in Cordova, one of the « Four Captives ».
French scholar of the second half of the 10th century, the earliest known scholar of the city of Arles. Only a ruling on a halakhic question submitted to Kalonymos survives from him, probably the liturgical poet Kalonymos of Lucca and not, as Zunz believes, Kalonymos ben Shabbethaï of the 11th century; his son, Juda ben Moïse of Arles, was also a rabbinic authority.
Babylonian historian of the tenth century, author of a history of the exilarchate rich in details about the exilarchs, in particular about his contemporary 'Ukba. Excerpts from it were published by Samuel Shullam in his edition of Zacuto's « Yuhasin », in Constantinople, in 1546, as well as by Neubauer. It was later wrongly confused by the historian Grätz with another homonymous scholar, Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome, author of the « Aroukh ».
Gaon of Pumbedita, predecessor of Sherira.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 960 to 968. While his predecessor Aaron b. Sargado was still in office, Nehemiah attempted in vain to have him removed, the college having refused and preferred to maintain him. After Sargado's death, he managed to seize the office by cunning, without the majority of the college, led by av beit din R. Sherira, recognizing him, and his authority rested only on a few members and wealthy laypeople; nothing is known of his erudition or activity as gaon.
Founder of an important Jewish banking house in Baghdad, highly influential at the court of the Abbasid caliphs. Under al-Muʿtaḍid, he is said to have thwarted the plan of a vizier to have many Jews put to death. With his father-in-law Joseph b. Phinehas, he supported the gaon in the conflict that opposed around 909–916 the academy of Poumbedita to the exilarch Ukba.
Gaon of Kairouan, author of the talmudic commentary ha-Mafteah and the Hibbur Yafe.
Vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt Al-Mu'izz and Abd al-Mansour, active in the second half of the tenth century, known only through the Chronicle of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel. According to this account, he wins the favor of Al-Mu'izz through his talents as an astrologer during the capture of Oria, follows him to North Africa where he manages State affairs, obtains by letter the liberation of Jewish prisoners from Bari and Otrante, and distinguishes himself through his generosity toward the poor of Jerusalem and the academy of Babylon. Upon his death, his son Samuel succeeds him as vizier.
Nicknamed "Light of the Exile" (Meor ha-Golah), he imposed revolutionary decrees (taqqanot) on Ashkenazi Judaism: the prohibition of polygamy, the prohibition of reading another's mail, and protection of the woman in divorce. Founder of the Rhineland talmudic school.
Scholar and poet of the tenth and eleventh centuries, probably brother of R. Nathan, the author of the "Aroukh". He wrote a commentary on the tractate Zera'im and a "yotser" of twenty-two verses for the Sabbath of Hanukkah, where he relates the story of Antiochus, in the style of the ancient payyetanim.
Karaite sage
Karaite philosopher and writer born in Jerusalem in 910. Attached to the Rechabites, he traveled the world to gain new followers to Karaism, distinguishing himself by his knowledge of biblical and post-biblical literature and his mastery of Arabic; one of the most ardent opponents of Saadia Gaon, he attacked especially his disciple Samuel ben Jacob on questions of ritual purity and Sabbath. He rendered important services to Karaism by formulating four fundamental exegetical principles — literal interpretation, speculation, analogy and general consensus — and left several works of biblical commentary and Hebrew grammar.
Sons of Netira, they held important positions in Babylonian Jewish society and were patrons of the caliphate. During the 930 conflict between Exilarch David ben Zakkai and Saadia Gaon, they sided with Saadia, whose student Sahl also was.
Salomon ben Jeremiah, Karaite exegete and polemicist, distinguished himself in Jerusalem between 940 and 960; the Karaites, who call him « the Sage », count him among their greatest authorities. In his work in verse « Milḥamot Adonaï », he violently attacks the Rabbanites and especially Saadia Gaon, whose arguments in favor of oral tradition he refutes; the same polemical spirit animates his biblical commentaries, where he denounces the study of secular sciences. His commentary on Lamentations, completed in 955 or 956, is the only one of his Arabic commentaries to have been published, in Krakow in 1898.
Liturgist of the tenth century, whose epithet "ha-Babli" most likely does not signify that he was originally from a Muslim country. He was the master of Meshoullam b. Ḳalonymos and belonged, it is said, to the generation that preceded Gershom Me'or ha-Golah. A prolific author of piyyoutim and seliḥot—including an "avodah" beginning with "Adderet tilboshet" and several "yotserot"—his compositions are sometimes confused with those of Salomon ibn Gabirol, the two poets signing in the same manner "Salomon b. Judah".
Statesman, grammarian, poet and Spanish Talmudist, born in Córdoba in 993, died in Granada in 1055. Trained in rabbinic letters by Enoch and in Hebrew grammar by Judah Ḥayyuj, he emigrated in 1013, during the civil war and the conquest of Córdoba by the Berber leader Sulaymān, and settled in Malaga. Noticed for his talent as an Arab calligrapher, he became private secretary to the vizir of Granada, gaining his confidence until he influenced matters of state.
Vizier of the kingdom of Granada, poet, talmudist and military commander — the most powerful Jew of Muslim Spain. Unique in medieval Jewish history, he commanded the armies of a Muslim state while composing brilliant Hebrew poetry and supporting the talmudic academies.
Medieval liturgical poet whose era and place of birth remain unknown. He composed a set of liturgical poems, the last four of which, noted by Zunz, were intended for the festival of Simhat Torah; he signs his name twice in acrostic under the form « Samuel ha-Qatan ha-Cohen Berabbi Memeli Sofer ».
According to Genesis, Seth was the third son of Adam, born after the murder of Abel by Cain, when Adam was one hundred and thirty years old; he lived until nine hundred and twelve years and begat Enoch at one hundred and five years, the lineage of Adam to Noah being reckoned through him. Rabbinic literature sees in his name the meaning of "foundation" and makes him the first of Adam's children to have human form, while biblical criticism connects his account, in Genesis, to the priestly document and brings it close to a Babylonian genealogical list preserved by Berossus.
Physician and astronomer born in Oria, author of the Sefer Hakhmoni on the Sefer Yetsira.
Head of the yeshiva of Cairo, in Egypt, toward the end of the tenth century. According to Abraham ibn Daoud, he was one of four scholars captured at sea by an Arab admiral while traveling from Bari to Sebaste to collect funds for the great school of Babylonia; sold as a slave in Alexandria, he was redeemed by wealthy Jews and then went to Cairo, where he founded a flourishing school and was, according to the most widespread opinion, consulted as a high rabbinical authority by rabbis of distant countries.
Head of the yeshivah of Cairo, Egypt
Simeon b. Isaac b. Aboun, called Simeon the Great, an eminent interpreter of the Law and one of the most important liturgical poets of the 10th and 11th centuries, originates from Mayence and is contemporary with R. Guerchom Meor ha-Gola. Reputed to be a wonder-worker, he used his influence in the service of his co-religionists, helping to prevent persecutions against them. Most of his liturgical pieces — festival poems, penitential prayers, Sabbath pieces including the hymn « Baroukh Adonaï Yom Yom » — have come down to us.
Rabbi, kabbalist, poet
French rabbi
Exilarch of Baghdad in the first half of the 10th century, second exilarch to die in exile. Entering into conflict with the gaon of Poumbedita Cohen Tsedek II over the revenues of Khorasan, he is deposed at the instigation of the latter's friends by caliph Al-Mouqtadir (908-932) and then leaves Baghdad for Karmisin in 917; he regains the caliph's favor by reciting verses to his secretary and recovers his position, before being deposed and banished again. Refugees in Africa, he is received in Kairouan with great honors as a descendant of the royal house, where a throne is set up for him in the synagogue.
Polish preacher of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, active in Lublin under the reign of Sigismond, to whom is attributed a collection of sermons entitled « Derashot ». Some sources identify him with a certain Judah ben Moïse, author of the collection of fifteen sermons « Malke Yehudah », published in Lublin in 1616.
German rabbi
Iraqi rabbi
German Talmudic Rabbi
Italian biblical commentator active in Rome in the tenth century, surnamed "of Magdiel" after the traditional identification of this biblical name with Rome. Young contemporary, perhaps disciple, of Saadia Gaon, he is the author of a commentary on the Chronicles of which only three fragments have been preserved, gathered with other ancient commentaries and edited by Kirchheim in 1874.
French Talmudist, liturgical poet and Tosafist
Rabbi, 10th century. Died in 4718 of the Hebrew era (958). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Gaon of Pumbedita from 936 to 938, at the time when Saadia had just been restored to the geonat of Sura after his excommunication. Nothing is known of his life or writings.
Rashi, Maimonides, Crusades, Kabbalah.
Tanna of the second century, he transmitted to posterity a saying of Abba Saul (Mishna, Ḳid. iv. 14, version of the Yerushalmi) and one of Rabban Gamaliel II. The latter, cited in the introduction of Esther Rabba, opens a midrash on the Book of Esther, which thus bears the name Midrash Abba Gorion.
Gaon of the Land of Israel, author of the Meguilat Evyatar.
Nagid (chief) of the Jews of Egypt, a position inherited from his ancestors, he lived at the end of the eleventh century and died before 1112. He played a leading role in the messianic movement of the year 1096, contemporary with the First Crusade: consulted by the Jewish community of Nablus in Palestine, he answered in favor of the movement, which contributed to agitation among Jews in Muslim countries.
Eminent kabbalist of the city of Le Mans, active around 1040, descendant of Rabbi Simon of Le Mans. He was the grandfather of Rabbi Simon the Great, himself contemporary of Rabbi Guershom ben Juda of Metz.
Hymnographer active in Germany around 1096, probably son of Isaac ben Eliezer ha-Cohen, who lived in Mainz in 1093. Author of several liturgical works, one of which evokes the cruelties perpetrated against Jews by crusaders, he also composed several yotserot for the Sabbath of Hanukkah, one of which retells the story of Judith and Holophernes.
Rabbi and hymnographer of the late eleventh century, established probably in Speyer. Colleague of Rachi, with whom he maintained scholarly correspondence, he composed in 1096 an elegy on the persecutions suffered by Jews, of which he himself was a witness.
Physician in Barcelona around 1030, contemporary of Abraham ben Ḥiyya. He was highly esteemed at the court of Count Bérenger for his knowledge of medical science.
Muslim poet who lived in Spain around the middle of the eleventh century. In one of his poems, he attacked Jews in general and, in particular, Joseph ibn Nagrela, whom Badis, king of the Berbers, had appointed vizier; his incendiary verses hastened, if not directly provoked, the assassination of Joseph ibn Nagrela.
Elegist probably a student of Isaac Alfassi, he would be the one whose death Moïse ibn Ezra mourns in one of his poems; two of his elegies appear in the Mahzor of Avignon.
Spanish poet active in the early eleventh century, first in Lucena then in Seville, of whom no works have survived and who is known only through citations by poets such as Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra, and Juda Al-Ḥarizi. Moses ibn Ezra praises his life in one poem and laments his death in another, while Al-Ḥarizi ranks him among the poets fallen into obscurity for failing to arouse enough interest.
King of Gath in the time of David and Solomon, he received David twice in flight from Saul — the first time incognito, but recognized, David had to feign madness to escape; the second time, he was treated well as a presumed enemy of Saul. Achish led the Philistine attack against Israel which cost Saul and his sons their lives, and was present at the battle of Gilboa; two servants of Shimei found refuge with him.
Rabbi of Debdou, 11th century. Mentioned in 4834 of the Hebrew era (1074). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
Liturgical poet and author of a family chronicle, he was born in 1017 in Capua, Italy, and died around 1060 in Oria. He compiled the « Sefer Yuḥasin » (Book of Genealogies), a precious source on the first Jewish settlements in the cities of Southern Italy — Oria, Bari, Otranto, Gaeta, Benevento, Capua and Amalfi — in Hebrew rimmed prose that would influence Juda al-Harizi and Emmanuel of Rome.
Pope under the name Alexander II (1061-73), born Anselm Baggio in Milan, died April 20, 1073. Elected in 1061 on the proposal of Hildebrand, whose policies he followed throughout his life, he must face the contestation of the imperial house, which imposes an antipope, Honorius II, later deposed by a council of Mantua. Attentive to the fate of the Jews, he congratulates in 1063 viscount Bérenger of Narbonne for having thwarted a nascent anti-Jewish riot and summons bishop Wilfred of Narbonne to protect them; two years later, he reprimands prince Landulphe of Benevento for having forced Jews to convert.
Controversialist and ordinary physician to King Alphonse VI of Castile, born Moïse Sépharadi in Huesca, in Aragon, in 1062, died in 1110 at forty-eight. Converted to Christianity, he was baptized in Huesca on Saint Peter's Day, June 29, 1106, in his forty-fifth year, and then took the name Petrus Alfonsi. He composed twelve dialogues against Judaism opposing Moïse and Peter — himself before and after his conversion — and left above all a collection of thirty-three Latin tales, « Disciplina Clericalis », which would enjoy remarkable fortune in comparative literature.
Ambassador of Alfonso VI of León and Castile in the 11th century, illustration of the place occupied by Jews in the administration of Christian Spain, the king going so far as to declare that "the Jews provide our viziers, our chancellors and most of the officers of our army". In 1085, he is sent as ambassador to Al-Mu'tamid, last Abbasid caliph residing in Seville, to claim the tribute due to Alfonso. The accounts of his death, which occurred following this mission, differ in all respects, some saying he was pinned to a stake, others killed by a blow from a writing case; his death marks the beginning of the Almoravid conquest of Spain.
Antipope against Innocent II, from 1130 to 1138. Of Jewish descent — which led Voltaire to ironically nickname him « the Jewish pope » — he descends from an ancestor who converted to Christianity under the name of Benedict, enriched in the 11th century by lending money to both sides of the struggle between popes and Roman nobility. Named toward the end of 1123 to head the papal legation in France by Callixtus II, Pierleoni was elected pope under the name Anacletus II in 1130 by a Roman faction, while another elected Innocent II; he retained authority over Rome to the end, subject to slanders targeting his Jewish origin.
Rabbinical authority of Siponte, born probably around 1040. With his colleague, slightly older, Kalonymus ben Shabbethaï, he signs a rabbinical responsum before the latter settles in Worms, in 1070. His colleagues in Siponte were Melchisédec ha-Cohen and Elhanan. He is known only through the mentions made of him by Roman rabbis Menahem ben Salomon and Sédécias ben Abraham 'Anav; he is credited with two halakhic decisions and a poem on Elijah.
Eldest son of King Habous of Granada, to whom he succeeded in 1038, he owed his position to the support of the Arabs and his vizier Samuel ibn Nagdela against the Berbers, who wished to place on the throne his younger brother Bologguin. Having become king, fearing an Arab plot, he planned to massacre the Arabs of his capital gathered at the mosque on a Friday; the vizier Joseph ibn Nagdela, son and successor of Samuel, managed to limit the massacre by secretly warning several Arab families. The king, an inveterate drinker who let Joseph govern in his place, later allowed the Berbers, jealous of the vizier, to have him assassinated along with four thousand other Jews, before being himself poisoned.
Dayyan and philosopher who lived in Saragossa in the first half of the eleventh century, he composed toward the end of his life, in Arabic, in 1040, the first system of Jewish ethics, « Al Hidayah ila Faraïd al-Ḳuloub », translated into Hebrew by Juda ibn Tibbon in 1161-80 under the title « Ḥobot ha-Lebabot » (The Duties of the Hearts). In it he deplored that rabbis concerned themselves only with the external duties of the Law without caring for the duties of the heart, and wished to found Judaism on Reason, Revelation and Tradition; the work became popular, and passages from it are recited during the penitential days.
Philosopher and moralist of Saragossa, author of the Duties of the Heart (Hovot ha-Levavot), the first systematic treatise of Jewish ethics and spirituality. His work, which explores the inner life and sincere devotion, remains one of the most widely read books of piety in Judaism.
According to the tradition reported by the Ibn Albaliah family, he was one of the first Jews to settle in Spain and was considered the ancestor of their lineage.
Spanish judge and head of a yeshivah in Córdoba
German rabbi
Arab philologist born in Badajoz — hence his name, Al-Baṭalyusi, « native of Badajoz » — in the second half of the eleventh century, died in Valencia in 1127. He directed the school of philology of Valencia, where his courses attracted many students, and left a philosophical treatise, « Al-Ḥada'ik » (The Orchard), on the resemblance of the world to an intellectual circle. Translated from Arabic to Hebrew by Moïse ibn Tibbon under the title « Ha-'Aggulot ha-Ra'yoniyot », this text was edited by D. Kaufmann in Budapest in 1880, who saw an influence on several medieval Jewish thinkers.
Daughter of Salomon ben Isaac, called Rachi (1040-1105), and wife of R. Eliézer. Like Rachi's other daughters, Belle-Assez was very learned in Hebrew and rabbinic literature. For a long time it was believed that she wrote down the legal responsa of her father, but Zunz showed that this was a mistake concerning only Rachi's grandson. A responsum of her nephew Jacob Tam reveals that she experienced an unhappy marriage and obtained a divorce from R. Eliézer.
Daughter of Ménahem and sister of Isaac ben Ménahem called « the Great », she lived in Orleans in the middle of the eleventh century. Rachi cites her, in a responsum, as an authority on a ritual question.
Benjamin b. Samuel of Coutances is a French Talmudist and liturgical poet of the first half of the eleventh century, native of Coutances, in Normandy — whom Grätz wrongly confuses with Constance, on the lake of the same name. Thirty-one of his liturgical poems, composed mainly for the three pilgrimage festivals and for Rosh Hashanah, as well as some for Yom Kippur, are preserved in the rituals; he was also regarded as a great Talmudic authority.
Benjamin ben Zeraḥ is a liturgical poet (payyeṭan) active in South-Eastern Europe in the mid-eleventh century, nicknamed « the Great » and « Ba'al Shem » for the frequent use in his poems of the names of God and angels. He composed fifteen « yoṣerot » for the Sabbaths preceding festivals and forty seliḥot, published in the Maḥzor of the German rite, in an elegant style close to that of Kalir, revealing through some of his compositions a clear inclination toward mysticism.
Pope from 1012 to 1024, during whose pontificate a serious persecution of the Jews occurred. An earthquake and a hurricane struck Rome on Good Friday 1021, causing many victims; convinced that the Jews had insulted the host and thus provoked God's anger, Benedict ordered the execution of Jews found guilty following a partial inquiry. According to Zunz, the seliḥah composed by Simeon ben Isaac relates to this persecution.
Berenger of Narbonne is a viscount of Narbonne of the eleventh century, praised by Pope Alexander II, zealous protector of the Jews, for having intervened energetically in their favor while their persecution was threatened. The same year, in 1063, Alexander wrote to Bishop Wifred of Narbonne asking him to protect the Jews with the same vigor as Berenger, should similar circumstances arise.
Bernard of Clairvaux, known as Saint Bernard, is a Church Father born in 1091 near Dijon and died at Clairvaux on August 20, 1153. Cistercian monk of Cîteaux who became abbot of Clairvaux, where he founds an order that will number one hundred sixty monasteries in his lifetime, he opposes Abelard in 1140 and actively preaches the second crusade of 1145-46; the massacres of Jews that ensued along the Rhine prompted from him a vigorous protest, in which he laid down the principles—Jews neither exterminated nor persecuted, but scattered as living witnesses of the Passion, called one day to convert—that have since guided the position of the Roman Catholic Church.
Conqueror of Valencia in 1094 and popular hero of Spain. Lacking money to pay his knights, he had his nephew Martin Antolinez negotiate a loan of six hundred marks from two wealthy Jews of Burgos, Don Rachel and Don Vidas, whom he eventually deceived despite their precautions; according to the Crónica General de Castilla, he also had as a page a young Jew named Gil, who later took the name of his master, Diaz, and was cited as an example of loyalty. The Poema del Cid, which dates from the middle of the twelfth century and bears no trace of Arab origin, was translated in full for the first time by O. L. B. Wolff, a Jew converted to Christianity, in Jena, in 1850.
Italian prelate born in Ravenna in 1007 and died in Faenza in 1072, Peter Damian entered around 1035 the monastery of Fonte Avellana, of which he became abbot, and ranks among the most zealous agents of Church reform alongside Hildebrand, future pope Gregory VII; he is appointed cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1057. At the request of an Egyptian clergyman, he wrote two short treatises against the Jews, the « Antilogus Contra Judæos », which relies on the Old Testament to establish the Trinity and the messiahship of Jesus, and the « Dialogus », which answers the Jewish objection that Christians do not observe the ceremonial law.
Gaon of the Land of Israel, descendant of Babylonian exilarchs.
German Talmudist of the 11th century, David ha-Levi is cited in the « Mordekhaï », at Baba Meṣi'a, where his decision on an important point of law appears, as well as in the « Shibbolé ha-Léqet » of Anav, in the sections devoted to Hanukkah and dietary prohibitions.
Historian born around 155 in Nicaea, in Bithynia, consul in 221 and died around 240, Dio Cassius wrote in Greek a vast history of Rome including Jewish history, of which only books LXI to LXXX have been preserved intact. The fragments of books LX to LXIX include scattered notices — the prohibition of religious assemblies in Rome under Claudius, the punishment of the consul Flavius Clemens, mentions of the princess Berenice — as well as a narrative, independent of Josephus and precise, of the Jewish War under Nero, Vespasian and Titus: he reports that Jewish deserters poisoned the water of the Romans, that Titus was wounded by a stone, and that Jerusalem fell on a day of Sabbath.
Greek physician of the first century, Dioscorides Pedacius, whose « Materia Medica » is cited in the Hebrew medical work « Midrash ha-Refu'ot », attributed to Asaf ben Berekhia but compiled from Syriac sources, saw his work translated into Arabic with the help of Ḥasdaï ibn Shaprut, minister of finance of Abd al-Raḥman III; however, no complete Hebrew translation of it is known, except for a short treatise, an alphabetical index of drug substitutions, translated by the French Jew Azaria Bonafoux under the title « Temurat ha-Sammim ».
Gaon of Soura, son of Saadia Gaon.
French Tosafist
German rabbi
French liturgical poet active in Le Mans in the eleventh century, presumed son-in-law of Sherira Gaon according to Solomon Luria, student of Rabbenou Gershom and companion of Joseph Tob-Elem, with whom he discussed liturgical recitation. He composed the « Azharot », a poem of one hundred seventy-six four-line strophes on the six hundred thirteen commandments, cited by the Tosafists, as well as the « Seder ha-Ma'arakhah », biblical passages arranged for daily recitation.
Liturgical poet of the 11th century, perhaps originally from Italy. One of his compositions, a « qerova » for the office of Minḥa of Yom Kippur, survives in the German-Polish rite; Eliezer ben Nathan wrote a commentary on it.
German rabbi of the eleventh century, student of his cousin R. Simon ha-Gadol of Mainz and of R. Gershom Meor ha-Gola. According to David Conforte, he would have been the teacher of Rashi, although Rashi himself, in citing him, does not say so; he is credited, according to Menahem di Lonsano, with the authorship of the famous « Orḥot Ḥayyim », generally attributed elsewhere to Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a confusion that has led some authors to see in « Eliezer ha-Gadol » and « Eliezer Gaon » two distinct persons.
Decisor, chronicler of the persecutions of 1096.
French rabbi
Gaon of the Land of Israel, last to sit in Tyre.
Greek philosopher disciple of Pythagoras, active in the fifth century before the common era. His system, reworked by the Neoplatonic school, influenced Arab philosophy and then the Jewish thinkers of Spain in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, foremost among them Ibn Gabirol, whose «Meḳor Ḥayyim» takes up his theory of universal matter; Moses ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi and Maimonides also cite him, and traces of his teaching are found even in the Zohar.
Muslim theologian and moralist born in Tus, Khorasan, in 1058, died in that same city in 1111. His work exercised considerable influence on medieval Jewish thought: the « Maḳaṣid al-Falasifah », an exposition of Aristotelian logic and metaphysics, nourished many Jewish thinkers, while his critique of philosophers in the « Tahafut al-Falasifah » inspired Judah ha-Lévi in his « Cuzari » and, later, Ḥasdaï Crescas.
Ḥafẓ al-Ḳuṭi is an author of the 11th century or earlier, probably identifiable with Ḥafẓ (Ḥefeṣ) ben Yaṣliaḥ according to Steinschneider, who translated the Book of Psalms into Arabic verse. Moses ibn Ezra cites a passage from his introduction in his Kitab al-Muḥaḍarah, and Solomon ibn Gabirol also cites him; a manuscript of this translation, copied in 1625 by Colville, is preserved in the library of the Escurial. His exact identity, Jewish, Arab or Syrian Christian, remains debated by scholars.
Last great gaon of Pumbedita, supreme halakhic authority of his time, author of numerous responsa and legal treatises. His death marked the end of the geonic era.
Talmudist from Kairouan, author of one of the first continuous commentaries on the Talmud, transmitting the traditions of the geonim. His work influenced Rashi and the Sephardic decisors.
Rabbi of Cordova, figure of talmudic autonomy in Spain.
Abou al-Faḍl ben Joseph ibn Ḥasdaï is a Jew converted to Islam, active in Saragossa in the second half of the eleventh century. Ibn Abi Usaïbia presents him, not without emphasis, as a descendant of the prophet Moses, and describes him as an excellent poet, an orator, a logician and a skilled physician, also versed in mathematics and astronomy.
Abou Omar Joseph ibn Ḥasdaï is a Judeo-Spanish poet of the eleventh century, probably born in Cordova and died between 1045 and 1055; Ibn Janaḥ says him already dead in his Louma, while one of his poems attests that he was still alive in 1045. Only one poem of his has come down to us, the Yetomah, panegyric of Samuel Naguid and his son Joseph, whose beauty was praised by Moïse ibn Ezra and by al-Ḥarizi; the Hebrew text was published by Dukes and translated into German by Geiger.
Eleazar ha-Ḥazzan is a cantor active in Speyer toward the end of the eleventh century, master of Samuel the Pious and perhaps identical to Eleazar son of Meshullam the Great, who provided numerous notes to the commentator of the Chronicles active in Narbonne around 1130; he was also the master of Shemaria ben Mordekhaï of Speyer.
Gaon of Pumbedita and exilarch, whose death marks the end of the geonicperiod.
Greek rabbi
Spanish rabbi
Spanish author of the eleventh century of whom nothing is known except that he embraced Christianity in 1094 and held the function of « official » to the famous Cid Campéador, who died in Valencia in 1099. Ibn Alfange wrote in Arabic a biography of his master, Spanish translations of which were made by the historian Pero Antón Beuter and by Spanish poets.
Hebrew grammarian of Toledo, active around 1070-90, cited by Abraham ibn Ezra among the first masters of Hebrew grammar. According to Moses ibn Ezra, he came from a respected family of Toledo, later settled in Seville and devoted himself in his old age to the study of religious law; his direct and concise style contrasted with an irritable character and merciless criticism of his predecessors. He wrote exclusively in Arabic several treatises on Hebrew grammar, including a work on verbs republished in Paris in 1879, as well as a biblical commentary partially preserved.
Spanish philosopher, linguist and poet born in Granada around 1070, died after 1138, relative of Abraham ibn Ezra and student of Isaac ibn Ghayyat. His surname « ha-Sallaḥ » comes from the numerous « seliḥot » he composed. Friend and correspondent of Juda Halévi, he experienced great romantic disappointment, caused by the rejection of his marriage proposal by a niece, which left a lasting mark on the melancholy of his poetry. Both philosopher and poet, he is the author of « 'Arugat ha-Bosem », a philosophical treatise in seven chapters, and « Kitab al-Muḥaḍarah wal-Mudhakarah », a treatise on rhetoric and poetry, the sole work of this kind in Hebrew literature.
Poet, philosopher and Spanish moralist, born in Málaga around 1021, died around 1058 in Valencia. Graetz calls him « the Jewish Plato », and Steinschneider « the most original philosophical writer among Jews and Arabs »; the name « Avicebron » is merely a corruption of « Ibn Gabirol ». Little is known of his life: his parents die while he is still a child, and at seventeen he becomes the friend and protégé of Yekoutiel Hassan, whose assassination inspires him to write an elegy of more than two hundred lines; barely twenty years old, he writes the « 'Anaḳ », a Hebrew grammar in verse composed of four hundred lines.
Rabbi, biblical exegete, philosopher and liturgical poet Spanish born in Lucena in 1038 (Graetz gives 1030), died in Cordoba in 1089 and buried in Lucena. Held in high esteem by Samuel ha-Nagid and his son Joseph, he succeeded him as rabbi of Lucena after his death in 1066. Author of an abridgement of the laws of religious festivals published under the title « Sha'are Simḥah » (Fürth, 1862; the laws of Pesaḥ reappeared separately under the title « Hilkot Pesaḥim », Berlin, 1864) and a philosophical commentary on Ecclesiastes, he displayed his talent especially in liturgical poetry, his hymns appearing in the Mahzor of Tripoli under the title « Sifte Renanot ».
Spanish Jew of the eleventh century, ancestor of an important family of scholars, probably born in Granada where he enjoyed great respect. At the death of King Ḥabus of Granada in 1037, he sided with Isaac of León and Nehemiah Iskaffa for the younger of his sons, Balḳin, against his brother Badis, crowned king in October 1037; when Balḳin submitted and was then put to death by Badis, Ibn Migas and other Jewish supporters of Balḳin had to flee and were received by the king of Seville, who employed him in his service.
Spanish rabbi and head of school in Lucena, born in 1077, died in Lucena in 1141, probably originally from Seville like his father and grandfather. After the move to Lucena, in 1089, of the talmudist Isaac Alfasi, he followed him there and studied under his direction for fourteen years; shortly before his death in 1103, Alfasi ordained him as rabbi and designated him, at twenty-six years of age, as his successor to head the academy, a position he held for thirty-eight years. His marriage was celebrated by a poem of Juda Halévi, with whom he maintained a deep friendship.
Spanish rabbi and president of the beit ha-midrash of Seville, active in the eleventh century, son of Joseph ibn Migas and father of Joseph ibn Migas ben Meïr ha-Levi. He had to leave Seville at the end of his life to retire to Toledo.
Andalusian Jewish Talmudist and astronomer (1035–1094)
Talmudist born in Algeria and active in Fez then in Spain, he composed the Sefer ha-Halakhot, a halakhic abridgement of the Talmud. His work was a major source for the Shulhan Arukh.
French Talmudist, active in the second half of the eleventh century. Established in Orléans, he was a student of Éliézer the Great of Mainz and the teacher of Éliézer ben Juda of Châlons as well as of Rashi, who cites him five times. He is also cited twice in the Tossafot under the name « Isaac of Orléans »; Gross identifies him, contrary to Zunz, with the Isaac of Orléans mentioned in Nathan ben Yehiel of Rome's « Aroukh ».
Karaite scholar, active at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. Two of his decisions are known to us through Hadassi: the first concerns the consumption of quails in the desert, the second the conditions allowing a sacrifice outside the sanctuary. He is also cited by Jacob Tamani and by the author of the "Ḥilluḳ", but nothing is otherwise known of his literary activity.
Spanish grammarian and liturgical poet, active in the first half of the eleventh century, contemporary of Isaac Gikatilla and Isaac ibn Ḥalfon. Cited under the name « Isaac b. Saül » by Ibn Janaḥ in the « Ha-Riḳmah », by Moses ibn Ezra and by Abraham ibn Ezra, several poems are attributed to him by their acrostic, including one for the seventeenth day of Tammuz and another for the seventh day of Passover.
12th century commentator on the Mishnah
poet
Andalusian Hebrew grammarian
Halakhist and payetan in Lucena, author of Meah Shearim, master of Isaac Alfasi.
Spanish poet of the 11th century whose father had emigrated from Africa to Andalusia, he frequented the house of Jacob ibn Jaso in Córdoba and is said to have introduced new meters into Hebrew poetry, later adopted by subsequent poets; only two of his poems can be attributed to him with certainty. According to the critic Al-Ḥarizi, few of his poems equaled the fruit of good trees, most being only thorns and thistles, but he was nevertheless « crowned king » among the many poets of his time.
Karaite scholar of the 11th century, whose « Chronicle » by Ibn al-Hiti warmly praises his erudition and cites two works: a polemic against Saadia Gaon, in the style of the « Sefer ha-Maor » of the Karaite Yusuf al-Baçir, and an ethical work entitled « I'tidal » (Moderation).
Last gaon of Soura, son of Samuel ben Hofni.
German Talmudist active in the first half of the eleventh century, student of Guershom ben Juda at Mainz, Jacob ben Yaqar was the master of Rashi, who called him « mori ha-zaqen » (my old master) while sometimes criticizing his opinions. A large portion of Rashi's talmudic commentary derives from his oral teachings; he was also interested in biblical exegesis and the study of Hebrew, and among his students were Eliaqim ben Meshoullam ha-Lévi and Salomon ben Samson.
French talmudic scholar born in Rouen and died in Arras in 1023, Jacob ben Jekuthiel went to Rome to bring to Pope John XVII a petition requesting the end of persecutions of the Jews of Lorraine, organized in 1007 by King Robert of France. Imprisoned on the way with his family by Duke Richard of Normandy, he nevertheless reached Rome, where the pope sent an emissary to King Robert; subsequently invited by Count Baldwin of Flanders to settle in his domain, he died three months after his arrival in Arras and was buried in Reims, for lack of a Jewish cemetery there.
Head of the yeshiva of Narbonne, probably active in the eleventh century — this is inferred from the fact that Moses ha-Darchan, mentioned by Abraham ben David, was his son —, Jacob ben Moses ben Aboun, surnamed « ha-Navi » (the prophet), is cited by Abraham ben Isaac, ab bet din of Narbonne, as the author of a responsum. This honorific surname was also borne by others.
Jeshua ben Judah was a Karaite exegete and philosopher who exercised, probably in Jerusalem, in the second half of the eleventh century. Student of Joseph ben Abraham ha-Ro'eh, surnamed "the great master" by the Karaites, he pursued intensive propaganda activity and carried out the reform of incest laws begun by his master. He translated the Pentateuch into Arabic, adding to it a detailed commentary of which he produced, in 1054, an abbreviated version.
Joseph ben Salomon of Carcassonne, French liturgical poet of the eleventh century, composed for Hanukkah a yotser beginning with « Odekha ki anafta », mentioned by Rachi in his commentary on Ezekiel. He drew from it the matter of various aggadot, which he reworked in the paytanic style, in verses of three lines arranged in alphabetical order.
Jewish exegete of Northern France
Son of Samuel haNagid, vizier of Granada, killed in the massacre of 1066.
Rabbi, poet and philosopher in Cordova, author of Microcosm (Olam Katan).
Andalusian rabbi and Talmudist (11th–12th century)
Spanish poet established in Seville, probably son of that Abun to whom Moses ibn Ezra dedicated several poems and whose death he mourned in an elegy. Counted by Moses ibn Ezra among Spanish poets and praised for his learning by Juda ha-Lévi, he left only a single short poem, addressed as a sign of friendship to the latter, who replied with another.
Scholar of the second half of the 11th century, enjoying great reputation and authority in France as in the Rhine countries. A contemporary of Rashi, Nathan ben Makir of Mainz, cites him among the "venerable" and most respected of Mainz.
12th century bible commentator, son-in-law of Rashi
Son-in-law and disciple of Rashi, glossator of the Talmud.
French biblical commentator, active in Toulouse in the first half of the 11th century, often cited by Rashi in his commentary on the Pentateuch. According to Geiger, he would be the son of Moses ha-Darshan of Narbonne, and could be identical to this Juda ben Moses, disciple of Rashi, of whom Abraham ibn Daoud reports that he taught in Narbonne.
Spanish Hebrew philosopher and poet born in Toledo, in southern Castile, in the last quarter of the 11th century — around 1085 or 1086, at the time of the Christian conquest of the city by Alfonso VI — and died in the East after 1140, he studied in Lucena under Isaac Alfassi, for whom he composed an elegy upon his death. Only son of Samuel « the Castilian », he chose medicine as his profession while revealing from his youth a poetic talent praised by his elder Moses ibn Ezra; married in Toledo, he had but one daughter, from whom was born a grandson named after him.
German Jewish martyr
Halakhist, exegete and liturgical poet, born in Rome around 1030, son of the president of the Jewish community, whose Talmudic authority extended well beyond his native city. Called to the rabbinate of Worms at the death of Jacob bar Yaḳar, in 1070, he held it until 1096, the year when he seems to have been a victim of the persecutions of the Crusaders; he directed the rabbinical school of Worms with Eleazar ben Juda, had as students Yaḳar ben Samuel ha-Lévi and the French exegete Joseph Kara, and left commentaries on the Talmud and the Bible cited by Rachi and other rabbinical authorities.
Spanish physician, patron of letters and protector of Jewish communities in Spain, Babylonia, and Egypt, who lived in Saragossa around the year 1100. He remains known in the history of Hebrew grammar by the mnemonic phrase gathering the eleven servile letters of the alphabet, and was celebrated by the poets Moses ibn Ezra, who dedicated his "Tarshish" to him and composed a wedding poem for him, and Judah ha-Lévi, who praised him in several poems and wrote his epitaph.
Karaite scholar surnamed « Al-Cheikh », active probably in Jerusalem in the first half of the 11th century, he composed in Arabic a vast work on the precepts, of which a partial Hebrew translation (« Sefer ha-Miṣwot ») survives in manuscript and which informs on the divergences between Karaites and Rabbanites, notably on the calendar — the year 1007 being mentioned for this purpose — and on internal dissensions within Karaism, where he sharply attacks Saadia Gaon. He is also the author of a lost introduction to the pericopes of the Pentateuch and a commentary, partly preserved, on the early Prophets.
12th-century Jewish grammarian and poet
Last great chief of the Palestinian yeshiva (gaonat) transferred to Fustat, he held the title of Ra'is al-Yahud (chief of the Jews) from at least 1127 until his death. Son of Gaon Solomon ben Elijah ha-Kohen, he belonged to the priestly family that had directed the gaonat since the mid-11th century. He was allegedly murdered in 1139 during the persecutions by vizier Ridwan ibn Walakhshi; after his death, the gaonat split between Damascus and Fustat.
Head of the talmudic school of Paris in the eleventh century, probably identical to Mattithia ben Moses, one of the disciples of Rachi, nicknamed « Mattithia the Great ». He corresponds with Samuel ben Meïr (Rashbam), who counts him among the « elders » of Paris.
Italian Talmudist of the 11th century, from a family of Oriental Jews and versed in Arabic. After being dayyan in Sicily, he went to Pumbedita to study under Hai Gaon, then returned to Europe after his death, delivering to Samuel ha-Nagid an Arabic work, "Sirat R. Hai Gaon," devoted to the life of the master and cited by Moses ibn Ezra and Joseph ibn Aknin. He may also have been one of the masters of Nathan ben Yehiel, who cites him in his "Arouk."
French liturgical poet, perhaps also biblical exegete, from the end of the eleventh century. He and his son Eleazar are cited in a commentary on Chronicles falsely attributed to Rashi; he notably composed the piyyout « Torah ha-Temimah », where he expresses his horror of apostasy, and the seliḥa of Yom Kippur « Almanot Ḥayyot », both signed in acrostic with the name Eleazar — the latter translated into German by Zunz. A seliḥa evoking the massacre of 3,000 Jews by the crusaders is also attributed to him, although Zunz judges it to be a century later.
Son-in-law of Rashi, father of Rabbeinu Tam and the Rashbam.
German liturgist of the 11th century, native of Regensburg, grandson of a namesake who was nephew of Gershom ben Juda and cousin of Isaac ben Juda, the master of Rashi. Witness to the massacres of Jews in 1096 in Germany, he commemorates them in several seliḥot and composes numerous piyyoutim for various liturgical occasions, notably for the fast of Esther, Yom Kippur, the 17th of Tammuz, and the 9th of Av.
French precursor exegete, anterior to the tosafist school.
French philanthropist of the second half of the 11th century, one of the most prominent Jews of Narbonne, where he devoted his time and fortune to the community and used his favor with the authorities to ward off measures unfavorable to Jews. He was at the origin of a lineage of scholars, including his son R. Isaac of Narbonne and his grandson, the nassi Moïse ben Joseph of Narbonne.
Jewish martyr and businesswoman
Italian scholar of the 11th century, identified by Kaufmann with the master Moses of Pavia who, around the year 900, left this city for northern Italy following a quarrel with Amittaï ben Chefatia. Cited as « gaon » in treatises on « ṭerefot » of medieval German and French schools, he would have died as a martyr, apparently in 1096, according to the « Miḳdash Me'aṭ » of Moses of Rieti; he is often confused, in printed Tossafot, with Moses of Pontoise.
French exegete, active in Narbonne around the middle of the 11th century, from a family of scholars who presided over the yeshivah of the city for several generations. Considered a rabbinic authority, he is above all, with Tobiah ben Éliézer, the principal representative of 11th-century midrashic-symbolic exegesis ("derash"); his biblical work, often called "Yesod" and known only through citations in Rashi, would also have inspired, according to Zunz, the Midrash Bereshit Rabbah Rabbati, a hypothesis contested by Epstein.
Satirical Hebrew poet of the eleventh century, member of a noble Jewish family of Saragossa; sole documented member of the patronym Ibn al-Taqana.
Italian scholar, active at the beginning of the 11th century in Bari, where he teaches at the yeshivah. Known through lexicographical explanations cited by Nathan ben Jehiel, author of the "'Aruk", who was probably his student.
Andalusian Hebrew grammarian and rabbi
Rabbi, eleventh century. Mentioned in 4800 of the Hebrew era (1040). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Joseph ibn Nagdela, called Joseph ha-Nagid, Spanish statesman, was born circa 1031 and died on December 30, 1066; son of Samuel ibn Nagdela, he succeeded him as vizier and rabbi of the community of Granada. Proud and haughty, he exercised complete influence over King Badis, often drunk, and aroused the hatred of the Berbers through his appointments of coreligionists to public office; accused falsely of plotting against the king, he was discovered and put to death during a riot in which most of the Jews of Granada perished. His wife took refuge in Lucena with their son Azaria.
écrivain juif
Italian lexicographer born in Rome no later than 1035, died in 1106, from a Roman family of Jewish scholars. After initially being a cloth peddler, he devoted himself to study, further completed under foreign masters in Sicily and then in Narbonne, under R. Moses ha-Darshan, before returning to Rome where the presidency of the rabbinical college was entrusted, along with his brothers Daniel and Abraham, to the three sons of R. Jehiel. His private life was saddened by the death of all his children in infancy, and he found comfort in philanthropy and study, building in 1085 a public bath.
French Talmudist of the eleventh century, brother of the liturgical poet Menahem b. Machir, to whom he addressed responsa on halakhic questions, and cousin of R. Isaac b. Juda. Student of Rashi, who esteemed him for his biblical and Talmudic learning as well as for his liturgical compositions, he compiled the "Ha-Orah," a collection of Rashi's decisions, and drafted parts of the "Ha-Pardès" as well as commentaries on liturgical poems and prayers.
Italian Jewish lexicographer, author of the Aroukh, the first great Talmudic dictionary. His work remains an essential tool for understanding the Talmud.
Talmudic exegete and North African moralist, active in Kairouan in the first half of the eleventh century. Trained by his father Jacob ben Nissim and then by Houshiel ben Elhanan, whose successor he became as head of the yeshiva, he maintained scholarly correspondence with the Gaon Haï ben Sherira of Soura, serving as intermediary with Samuel ha-Naggid of Granada. He is the author of the "Sefer Mafteah Man'oulé ha-Talmud," a "Key to the Locks of the Talmud" intended to facilitate the study of Talmudic passages, the surviving portion of which was edited by Goldenthal in Vienna in 1847.
Italo-Norman musician
Russian saint of the eleventh century (1057-74), hegumen of the monastery of Kiev, who, according to the so-called Nestorian chronicles, was in the habit of visiting learned Jews at night to debate religion with them, even hoping to find martyrdom there. His knowledge of Judaism appears in his letters to Grand Duke Izyaslav, where he justifies by observance of the Mosaic sabbath the abandonment of this practice by Christians; he nonetheless preached Christian charity toward Jews, and his correspondence attests to the existence of a large Jewish community in Kiev at that time.
Jewish writer of Andalusian origin
Born in Troyes around 1040, he studied in the yeshivot of Mainz and Worms, then returned to Troyes where he founded a school and lived by trade (wine). He is regarded as the greatest commentator on the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. His Talmud commentary has appeared in every edition since Bomberg's first printing (1520s) and the study of Bible and Talmud still begins today with his glosses.
French rabbi
Liturgical poet, and perhaps also biblical commentator, having lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He is credited with a piyyut for the feast of Sukkot as well as a commentary on the Chronicles long attributed to Rashi but recopied and sometimes modified by his own students. The numerous German and French words found in this commentary suggest that he originated from Germany and studied notably in Narbonne, where Kalonymus b. Juda, his maternal uncle, and Eleazar b. Meshullam, his teacher, are among his close associates.
Salomon ben Abraham ben Jehiel, Italian rabbi, served in Rome in the eleventh century; nephew of Nathan b. Jehiel, author of the "Aroukh", he became about a quarter century after the latter's death a member and then, for a time, president of the rabbinate of Rome, as well as head of the higher school founded by his uncle. His authority in rabbinical matters is evident in the numerous responsa addressed to him and in the one, sent by the rabbinate of Rome to the community of Paris, which he signs first in his capacity as president.
Salomon ben Samson, a scholar of Worms in the eleventh century, was the teacher and relative of Rashi, who cites him as an authority alongside his other teacher, Isaac ha-Lévi. It is very probably the same Salomon ben Samson mentioned as originating from Vitry, and counted among the scholars of Lorraine.
Salomon of Tours, French Talmudist, is a contemporary of Rashi with whom he maintains learned correspondence; Rashi addresses him as his «dear friend». The fact that Rashi corrects an error made by Salomon in Talmudic matters proves that the latter cannot be confused with the relative and master of Rashi bearing the same name, whom Rashi regarded as an authority even in his old age.
Poet and philosopher of Málaga, author of the Source of Life (Meqor Hayyim), a Neoplatonic treatise so universal that Christian scholastics believed him to be Muslim (under the name Avicebron). His poem Keter Malkhut (Royal Crown) is recited on Yom Kippur in the Sephardic rite.
French exegete of Ramerupt, near Troyes, born around 1085 and died around 1174, grandson of Rashi through his mother and elder of the family. Initially an adherent of aggadic interpretation before moving closer to the school of Menahem b. Ḥelbo, he was one of the first exegetes to privilege the literal sense and also counts among the Tosafists; he left commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Prophets, Job, the Psalms and the five Meguilot, including that on the Song of Songs, one of his earliest writings, which he reads as a dialogue between God and the Jewish people.
Martyr who lived in Neuss, in the Rhineland Palatinate, in the eleventh century. According to Salomon ben Simeon, he was murdered with his two sons on Saint John's Day, June 24, 1096; he and one of his sons were buried on the riverbank, while the body of the other son was hanged on the gate of his paternal house and left to public ridicule. According to another account, by Eliézer ben Nathan, neither of the two sons was buried, both having been defiled with earth then hanged.
Gaon of Sura, halakhist and exegete, father-in-law of Haï Gaon, author of rationalist commentaries on the Torah. He was one of the last great geonim of Babylonia.
Martyr of Cologne during the First Crusade, on June 25, 1096. When the crusaders hunted the Jews of Cologne who had taken refuge in villages under the protection of Archbishop Hermann, Samuel, standing in a marsh of the village of Wevelinghoven, pronounced a blessing before killing his son, whose « amen » led all the witnesses to chant the Shema, after which they threw themselves into the water; after this act of despair, Samuel handed the knife to Menahem, the bedeau of the synagogue, and was killed in his turn.
12th-century German Tosafist
Arab-Jewish poet of the eleventh century, great-grandfather of Samuel ibn Nazar and contemporary of Moïse ibn Ezra. One of his acrostic poems was edited by Luzzatto from the Maḥzor of Oran, and Moïse ibn Ezra composed an elegy at his death.
Rabbi from Hasidei Ashkenaz
Decisor and liturgical poet, active in Rome in the first half of the 11th century, of whom only a few fragments of halakhic decisions subsist. Considered the first Hebrew poet of Rome after Salomon ha-Bavli, he composed poems for Passover preserved in the Roman Mahzor as well as séli'hot, one of which, translated by Zunz, begins with "Re'eh tsoneka". His sons Moïse and Kalonymos were also liturgical poets, and he himself presided over the Jewish community of the city.
French rabbi
Simḥa b. Isaac b. Kalonymus ha-Cohen was one of the Jews of Worms killed by the pilgrims of the First Crusade on May 25, 1096. After the massacre of his father Mar Isaac and his seven brothers by the crusaders, he swore not to die without avenging them: feigning acceptance of baptism, he was led to the church, where, at the moment of the sacrament, he stabbed the bishop's nephew before being killed on the spot, as he had foreseen.
Gaon of Jerusalem, abundantly documented by the Cairo Genizah.
Talmudist and Bulgarian poet of the eleventh century, native of Castoria according to the demonstration of Salomon Buber, author of the Lekah Tov (or Pesikta Zoutarta), midrashic commentary on the Pentateuch and the five Meguilot. He frequently attacks the Karaites and is well acquainted with Muslim customs; according to Rapoport, he eventually settled in Palestine. Based on the dates he himself mentions in his work, he would have written it in 1097 and revised it in 1107 or 1108.
Byzantine exegete and payetan, author of the Lekah Tov (Pesikta Zutarta), a midrashic commentary on the Torah. He was a figure of medieval Greek Judaism.
German scholar of the eleventh century, who lived for a time in Speyer. Disciple of Kalonymos of Rome, he addressed questions to him which have been preserved, notably concerning a custom peculiar to the Jews of that city.
Rabbi of Fès, 11th century. Born in 4840 of the Hebrew era (1080). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 54-1.
Rabbi Yehuda ben Shmuel ha-Levi, born in Tudèle around 1075, one of the major figures of the Sephardic Golden Age, surnamed the 'Bard of Zion'. Physician in Toledo and Cordoba, he is the author of the Kuzari (defense of the Jewish faith written in Arabic around 1140) and of about eight hundred poems, including the celebrated Odes to Zion (Sionides).
Rabbi of Fès, 11th century. Born in 4774 of the Hebrew era (1014). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 11th century. Mentioned in 4800 of the Hebrew era (1040). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-4.
Author of an Arabic version of the « Yossippon », active in the tenth or eleventh century. His text, transmitted in several recensions, was printed in abridged form in the Paris and London polyglots (1645, 1657) under the title of the second book of the Maccabees, then edited in Beirut in 1873; according to Wellhausen's study published in 1897, the translator was an Egyptian Jew who worked from the Hebrew text.
Nephew of Simeon of Coucy-le-Château and Jacob of Corbeil, he lived around 1200 and was nicknamed « the Saint ». In 1227, after collating all copies of the French Maḥzor he had been able to gather, he established a version accompanied by a commentary made mostly of compilations of written explanations and traditional teachings received from his uncle Ephraïm ben Menahem, Shemaiah bar Isaac, Moses ben Kalonymus ha-Zaḳen and Meshullam bar Simson.
Biblical commentator and French rabbinical scholar, Aaron ben Joseph of Beaugency practiced in the twelfth century in this town near Orleans. He was the contemporary of Rabbenu Tam, with whom he maintained a learned correspondence.
Ritualist active at the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, died around 1210 according to the « Shebeṭ Yehudah » ; one of five sons of Meshullam ben Jacob of Lunel, he seems to have written a book of dinim and his decisions are cited in the « Sefer ha-Hashlamah » of his nephew Meshullam, while Judah ibn Tibbon praised his mastery of calendar calculation. In the controversy surrounding Maimonides, he sided with the Maimonideans and responded to the criticisms of Abba Mari with a defense concerning the interpretation of the principle of resurrection.
Dayyan (judge) and notable Jew of Alexandria in the 12th century, son of Joshua, apparently a physician of some repute. Judah ha-Levi stayed in his house during his passage through Alexandria and addressed to him two poems, one of which accompanied by a letter in rhymed prose preserved in the « Diwan ».
Jewish financier and Chief Rabbi of England
English exegete, cited in the « Minḥat Yehudah » of Judah ben Eliezer alongside Rashi and R. Jacob of Orléans, which would place him in the 12th century. An act of the Close Roll of 1242, entrusting the decision of a divorce matter to three « magistri » including Aaron of Canterbury, makes it probable that he lived in the 13th century and was dayyan in London around 1242, under the name of Aaron son of Samson.
English financier born in Lincoln around 1125, died in 1186, mentioned from 1166 in the pipe-roll as creditor to King Henry II. Operating through agents throughout England, he specialized in loans for the construction of abbeys and monasteries, among which the Abbey of Saint-Albans, the Cathedral of Lincoln and that of Peterborough. At his death, Henry II seized his possessions as reverting to the Crown, the treasure in specie, shipped to France, sinking between Shoreham and Dieppe.
rabbi and legalist of the Rishonim era
Jewish financier and Chief Rabbi of England, born in York before 1190 and died after 1253, probably son of Josce of York, a central figure in the massacre of 1190. Appointed presbyter, that is, Chief Rabbi of the Jews of England, in 1237, he was subjected to heavy fines and confided to Matthew Paris that he had paid the king in total 30,000 marks of silver and 200 of gold; several sheṭarot relating to his affairs survive, including one entirely in his own hand.
Inhabitant of St. Gilles, near Lunel in Languedoc, around the middle of the twelfth century. According to Benjamin of Tudèle, who visited the Jewish community of this locality, he held the office of bailli there around 1165, upon nomination by Raymond V; some have wished to see in him the father of Isaac ben Abba Mari, author of the « 'Iṭṭur », a hypothesis dismissed by Gross.
Poet, author of the piyyuṭ «Et Sha'are Raẓon» and first Jew known by the name of Abbas; of Arabic name Abu al-Baga ibn Abbas al-Maghribi, he died in Mosul in 1163. According to Al-Ḥarizi, he left the Maghreb for the East, living sometimes in Baghdad, sometimes in Aleppo; he is said to have been a friend of Judah ha-Levi, whose «Diwan» collection preserved one of his poems that provoked a response.
Scholastic, philosopher, and French theologian, born in 1079 in a village near Nantes and died in 1142 at the priory of Saint-Marcel near Châlons-sur-Saône; his affair with Héloïse, niece of the canon Fulbert, whom he married secretly, resulted in his being emasculated by her parents, and he spent the rest of his life in monasteries. His « Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian » is intended as an apology for Christianity, where the representative of Judaism defends the Old Testament against the accusation of materialism; Abelard there clearly disapproves of measures that restricted the activity of Jews to commerce and moneylending.
One of the rare Hebrew poets of Egypt, active in the second half of the twelfth century, he wrote in elegant rhymed prose the « Meguila Zouta », recounting a striking episode in the Jewish History of Egypt, framed by poems in prologue and epilogue that attest to his talent as a poet. This work, completed in 1176, was not discovered until 1896 in the Cairo Genizah.
Mathematician, astronomer and philosopher from Barcelona, one of the first to write scientific treatises in Hebrew. His work on geometry influenced Latin Europe.
Provençal rabbi and Talmud commentator (c.1125–1198)
French rabbi
French Talmudist who lived in Orléans, and perhaps in London, in the twelfth century. He belongs to the ancient tossafists, and his interpretations of the Talmud are cited several times in the Tossafot. Father of three daughters, he was the father-in-law of Juda ben Isaac of Paris, surnamed Sir Leon (1166-1224), and thus contemporary of Rabbenou Tam of Ramerupt, chief of the tossafist school in the middle of the twelfth century. Jacobs has suggested that he might be identical to the Abraham fil Rabbi Joce mentioned in the English archives of the twelfth century.
Only son of Maimonides, he succeeded him as Nagid of the Jewish community of Egypt and court physician from age eighteen. Author of the ethical and spiritual guide Kifayat al-Abidin (Hamaspik le-Ovdei Hashem), he defended his father's work and issued numerous responsa to the communities of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.
German Tosafist active around 1200 in Regensburg, whose interpretations of the Talmud and halakhic decisions appear in the Tossafot and other writings.
Originating from Lunel, author of the Sefer ha-Manhig on liturgical customs.
Abraham de Troyes heads the Jewish community of Troyes, in France, in the mid-12th century, in the time of Rabbenu Tam. His authority provokes a striking judicial incident: several litigants, including Eleazar ha-Nadib and then his son Yom-Ṭob ha-Nadib, refuse to appear before the rabbinical court of Troyes and obtain, supported respectively by Isaac ben Samuel de Dampierre and Judah Sire Leon de Paris, that their case be judged elsewhere.
Eminent Talmudist and elegist, brother of Judah the Pious, of the Kalonymus family, born in Speyer in the second half of the twelfth century. He reached a very advanced age: Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz, who died before 1170, held him as a first-order rabbinic authority, and Isaac of Vienna, author of the « Or Zaroua », active around 1250, knew him personally. Abraham composed several elegies on the sufferings of the Jews during the First Crusade (1096) and the Second (1147), as well as some seliḥot; he was also an active defender of Judaism, as witnessed by the « Nitsahon ».
Born in Córdoba, refugee in Toledo after the Almohad invasion, he was the first to attempt a systematic integration of Aristotelianism into Jewish thought. Historian of rabbinic transmission, he also contributed to the School of Translators of Toledo (perhaps under the name Avendauth).
Poet, grammarian, exegete, and astronomer of the Spanish Golden Age. His biblical commentaries, of pioneering philological rigor, foreshadow modern biblical criticism. A tireless traveler, he transmitted Judeo-Spanish culture throughout Europe.
Jewish martyr
médecin de cour égyptien
Joseph ben Juda ibn 'Aqnin, called al-Maghrabi, physician and poet, disciple of Maimonides, was born around 1160 and died in 1226. He spent his first twenty-five years with his father, a craftsman in Ceuta, under the religious persecution of the Almohades, before going to Egypt, where he studied for less than two years under the direction of Maimonides in Fostat, then settled in Aleppo as a physician. It was probably during a journey that he witnessed, in Baghdad, the autodafé of the works of the philosopher Abd al-Salam, in 1192 ; Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed was written for him to continue their dialogue in writing.
Grammarian and poet active in Saragossa at the beginning of the 12th century, friend and elder of Juda ha-Lévi, who calls him « King of Song » — a judgment not shared by al-Ḥarizi, more severe toward his poetic talent. He is the author of a treatise on Arabic grammar, the « Miftaḥ » (The Key), of which only the title has been preserved, and of several liturgical poems still recited in the rituals of Tripoli, Avignon and Algeria, identifiable by his usual acrostic. The melancholic tone of his penitential poem in the Tripoli ritual doubtless reflects the persecutions suffered during the devastation of the province of Saragossa by the Christians of Alfonso VI.
German philosopher and theologian, the most eminent of the Middle Ages and founder of the scientific tendency within the Dominican order; born in Lauingen, in Bavaria, in 1193, died in Cologne in 1280. He participates in Paris, in 1248, in the conference that decides the burning of the Talmud, a work which he nonetheless knew through Jewish authors. A great reader of Jewish philosophy, he quotes abundantly the physician and philosopher Isaac Israeli the Elder and devotes a critical study to the « Fons Vitæ » of Avicebron (Salomon ibn Gabirol), whose originality he acknowledges while contesting it vigorously.
Physician of Don Sancho of Navarre in the 12th century, colleague of Don Moses ben Samuel. In recognition of his services, the king grants him a share of the revenues from the Jews of Tudela.
Physician to King Sancho the Wise of Navarre, who appreciates his art so much that he gives him seven acres of land and twelve plots of vineyard in Mosquera and Fontellas, and grants him the privileges of "infanzon" (nobility) for the whole kingdom. In 1193, his royal master transferred to him the ownership of the baths located near the Albazares gate in Tudela.
Karaite scholar active in Ramla, Egypt, in the 12th century, author of a biblical commentary now lost. His name itself was only revealed to scholars recently, by the publication of the chronicle of Al-Hiti by G. Margoliouth, who mentions him among the Karaite scholars of the 12th century.
Gaon, head of the Academy of Baghdad in the first half of the twelfth century, he is the master of David al-Roï, the pseudo-messiah whom Disraeli made the hero of his novel under the name Alroy. He is said to be the father of Samuel ha-Lévy, who succeeded him at the head of the college of Baghdad and who, initially a friend of Maimonides, attacked him in 1190, in an open letter, on his doctrine of resurrection.
Pseudo-messiah born in Amadia, in Kurdistan, active around 1160. Trained in biblical and talmudic studies under Ḥisdaï, Prince of the Exile, and under Ali, head of the Baghdad academy, he also became known as a practitioner of magic. Taking advantage of the political turmoil brought about by the Crusades, he raised the standard of revolt against the Seljuk sultan Muktafi and proclaimed himself the awaited messiah, promising to reconquer Jerusalem; he won to his cause Jews from Adherbaïjan and sent letters to those of Mosul and Baghdad. His attack on the citadel of his native city failed, and he was put to death, according to accounts surrounded by legends.
Byzantine emperor, born in 1113, assassinated in Constantinople in 1185, he ruled from 1183 to 85. He wrote a book against the Jews and their religion, with the aim of converting them to Christianity.
Daughter of R. Meïr of Ramerupt, sister of Rabbénou Tam and of Rashbam, granddaughter of Rashi, a learned woman of Champagne who, around the middle of the twelfth century, taught Jewish religion to women.
Cardinal-bishop of Cologne, died on April 3, 1151, one of the rare prelates to protect Jews from popular violence during the Crusades. When the inflammatory sermons of the French monk Rodolphe trigger, during the Second Crusade, attacks against Jews along the Rhine, this cardinal-bishop agrees, for payment, to place at their disposal the castle of Wolkenburg, in Lorraine, as an asylum where they can defend themselves with arms—an event that occurred on September 23 and 24, 1146. Two Jews, Abraham and Samuel, are nonetheless murdered on the way to the castle; moved by a second gift, the bishop has their murderer executed with cruelty.
Cistercian monk who, with the assent of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), incited a crusade against the Albigensians and the Jews of southern France, provoking the attack of Simon de Montfort against the viscount Raymond-Roger, accused of protecting them: his capital, Béziers, fell on July 22, 1209 and was destroyed, with approximately twenty thousand victims, including two hundred members of the Jewish community — « the year of mourning » of Jewish chronicles. From Occitania, Arnold carried his fanaticism to Spain, inciting in June 1212 an attack against the Jews of Toledo, saved by the king Alphonse the Noble.
Egyptian physician, active in Cairo in the late twelfth century and early thirteenth, born in al-Mahalla, between Cairo and Damiette. Ibn Abi Ousaïbia, in his history of Arab physicians, praises him highly as one of the most learned physicians of his time. In 1201, he went to Damascus, where he engaged in numerous controversies with local physicians, including the Samaritan Sadaqa ben Mounajjah, before returning to die in Cairo.
Talmudist, active in Lunel in the second half of the 12th century, son of the scholar Meshoulam ben Jacob and student of Joseph ibn Plat and Abraham ben David of Posquières, whose ascetic tendencies he shared. According to Benjamin of Tudela, he lived in complete seclusion, entirely devoted to the study of Torah, and never tasted meat, yet was not hostile to philosophy — Judah ibn Tibbon praised his taste for learning. He is the author of several talmudic works, including the « Hilkhot Yom-Tov » and the « Sefer ha-Matanot », now lost.
Arab philosopher of the twelfth century, born in Cordova in 1126, died in 1198. A prolific writer in philosophy and medicine, he owes his importance chiefly to his commentaries on Aristotle, which earn him the title of « commentator par excellence »; like Avicenna, who had also commented on Aristotle, he writes an original abridgment, then the « Middle Commentaries », which follow the text while omitting certain passages, and finally a complete and detailed exposition of each Aristotelian statement, incorporated indistinguishably into his own text. His reputation is such that his books reach, during his lifetime, as far as Egypt, where in 1190 Maimonides becomes acquainted with them.
Kabbalist of Gérone, disciple of Isaac the Blind, theorist of Eïn Sof.
German Orthodox rabbi
Author of Sefer haTeroumah, disciple of Ritzba.
Spanish poet, probably from Toledo, who likely lived in the twelfth century; he wrote in clear and ornate Latin the history of the count of Lyon (Palanus), an old romantic legend taken up by the first Catalan chroniclers and echoed in the folklore of many countries, which Voltaire drew upon for his tragedies "Artémire" and "Tancrède." Boaistuau, in the preface to his own version of the legend, published in Lyon in 1596, mentions Barruchius's work in eulogistic terms.
Benedict of York is a prominent member of the Jewish community of York, England, died in 1189. Present with Josce of York at the coronation of Richard I, he is forced by the riot that breaks out on this occasion to be baptized under the name « William », before obtaining from the king permission to return to his religion; his widow and children perished burned alive in his house in York during the Easter riot of 1190.
Benjamin b. Isaac of Carcassonne is known only through his Hebrew translation — from Latin — of the treatise by Jean of Burgundy on the corruption of air by the plague, titled « 'Ezer Eloah », preserved in manuscript at the National Library of Paris. The second work of Jean of Burgundy having been written in 1365, the translation by Benjamin is dated to a few years later, around 1370.
Traveler and geographer of Navarre, author of the Book of Travels (Sefer ha-Massa'ot), an account of his fourteen-year journey across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. His descriptions of the Jewish communities constitute an invaluable ethnographic source on the medieval Jewish world.
Berechia ben Isaac Gerundi, also called Yiṣḥaḳi, is a liturgical poet (payyeṭan) of the twelfth century, probably active in Lunel. Although he wrote nothing on Halakha, his brother Zeraḥyah Gerundi cites him in his « Sefer ha-Ma'or » as an authority on the treatise Guittin; his poems, printed in various rituals, include a kerobah for the Sabbath following Purim, azharot for Sukkot, an introduction to the Kaddish, poems for Purim, prayers for Yom Kippur and a poem for Havdala.
Berechia ben Natronaï Krespia ha-Naḳdan, fabulist, exegete, moralist, grammarian and translator, is probably identical to Benedictus le Puncteur, an English Jew mentioned at Oxford in 1194. Long situated around 1260 in Provence by Zunz, he was repositioned by Joseph Jacobs in England, at the end of the twelfth century, a dating confirmed by an allusion, in the preface of his fables, to the English massacre of 1190. He is best known for his collection of one hundred and seven fables, « Mishlé Shou'alim », of which the first edition appeared in Mantua in 1557.
Andrei Bogolyubsky is the first grand duke autocrat of Russia, reigning from 1169 until his death. He conquers Kiev in 1169, then an important commercial center with a large Jewish population controlling trade between Western Europe and the Far East — which Jewish travelers Benjamin of Tudela and Petahiah of Regensburg visited —, but chooses the northern city of Vladimir as his capital and restricts the freedoms previously granted without religious distinction to the soldiers of his druzhina; having become tyrannical, he was assassinated in a conspiracy in which two Jewish converts, Anbal the Yassin and Ephraim Moïssitch, seem to have taken part.
Boleslas III Wrymouth was King of Poland from 1102 to 1139. According to historian Narouchevitch, Jews spread throughout Poland and Lithuania to Kiev during his reign, where they engaged in active commerce, notably in salt with Holics and Przemysl, and probably also in slaves; reputed, according to Dlugosz, to be a brave soldier and magnanimous sovereign, it is reasonable to suppose that Jews enjoyed considerable freedom during his reign.
One hundred and sixty-seventh pope, from 1119 to 1124, born near Besançon, France, and died in Rome. After defeating antipope Gregory VIII, he published from Rome a bull forbidding forced conversions of Jews and threatening excommunication to anyone who inflicted bodily or financial harm upon them without legal judgment, without hindering the exercise of their religion or desecrating their cemeteries. This bull served as a model for later popes favorable to the Jews.
Translator active in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, probably in southern France. At the request of Joseph ben Baruch, who, according to Zunz, traveled from France to Jerusalem via Egypt in 1211, he translated from Arabic into Hebrew the Kuzari of Yuda ha-Levi. This translation, now lost except for a few fragments, was used by Nathanael ben Nehemiah Kaspi in his commentary on the Kuzari and by Yuda ben Joseph Moscato in his own commentary.
King of Poland, born in 1138, ascended to the throne in 1177 after the deposition of his brother Mieczyslaw III, and died in 1194. A peaceful prince and friend of the people, he protected Jews from the exactions of the nobility and, by favorable legislation adopted at the diet of Łęczyca in 1180, paved the way for the famous privileges granted to the Jews of Poland in 1264 by the duke Boleslas of Kalisz.
Spanish moralist and poet, having lived in the early 12th century. Juda al-Ḥarizi counts him among the renowned poets of his time and attributes to him, by the title he gives him, a high official position. He is the author of an ethical work, the Sefer ha-Musar, identified by Steinschneider with the Mishle Anashim Ḥakamim, also known by the title Mishle 'Arab and published as a supplement to the journal Ha-Lebanon in 1867-68; this work, translated into Arabic by Joseph ibn Ḥasan under the title Maḥasin al-Adab, is composed essentially of verse, divided into fifty qasidas.
Karaite Jewish physician and scholar
Exilarch of Baghdad in the second half of the 12th century, Daniel ben Salomon, called ben Ḥasdai, belongs to a family claiming descent from King David and lived in great splendor, evoked by Abraham ibn Ezra, passing through Baghdad in the middle of the century, in his commentary to Zechariah xii, 7. Nothing is known of his political or literary activity, except that he approved, without openly committing himself, the opposition to Maimonides led by Samuel b. Ali of Baghdad. Having no children, he sees at his death the exilarchy transferred to Mosul, where two claimants, David ben Hodaya and Samuel, dispute it.
Religious philosopher and Kabbalist active after 1200, grandson of Juda, rabbi of Coucy-le-Château, David ben Abraham Ha-Laban is the author of « Masoret ha-Berit », a treatise on the existence, unity, and attributes of God as well as on creation and its purpose, preserved in several manuscript copies at the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, a sign of its wide circulation.
Prince of the Davidic house established in Mosul (ancient Nineveh) around 1150-1220, David ben Hodaya becomes one of two candidates, with his cousin Samuel, for the exilarchate after the childless death of the exilarch Daniel ben Ḥasdai; the election is still undecided when the traveler R. Pethahia passes through Mosul around 1175. Powerful protector of Samuel ben Ali of Baghdad, the principal eastern adversary of Maimonides, he pronounces around 1191 the excommunication of his detractors; finally recognized as exilarch, he is mentioned as such by al-Ḥarizi, who visited Mosul in 1217 and praised his merit as well as that of his nephew Hodaya.
Tosafist and German liturgical poet active at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, rabbi of Münzenberg, Hesse, David ben Kalonymus is the son of a daughter of Kalonymus the Elder of Speyer and a student of his grand-uncle Samuel the Hasid, also of Speyer; he is cited in the Tosafot as well as in the talmudic works of his student Simson of Sens, of Mordecai ben Hillel, of Isaac b. Moses of Vienna and of Meïr b. Baruch of Rothenburg, and also leaves several seliḥot.
Eastern rabbi, active in Mosul at the end of the twelfth century. Nephew of the Exilarch Daniel ben Salomon, who died in 1175 without a male heir, he disputed the office of Exilarch with his cousin Samuel; it ultimately fell to Samuel ben Ali ha-Levi.
Rabbi active around 1150, a great traveler who knew from his own experience Poland, Russia, Bohemia, France and Germany, Isaac ben Dorbolo visited shortly after 1140 R. Tam at Ramerupt, then stayed in Worms, where he says he saw a responsum from the rabbis of Palestine answering, in 960, a question from the Rhenish rabbis about the announced appearance of the Messiah — a document whose historical character remains debated. Several additions to the Maḥzor Vitry bear his name, without him necessarily being the compiler; he is also cited in the « Sefer Asufot », the « Shibbolé ha-Léqeṭ » and the « Kol Bo ».
German tosafist and liturgical poet (c. 1110–1175)
Talmudist and kabbalist probably born in Mayence around 1176, died in Worms in 1238, descendant of the Kalonymus family and disciple of Juda the Hasid, who initiated him into Kabbalah. On the night of 22 Kislev 1196, two crusaders killed his wife Dulcina and their three children while he was working on his commentary on Genesis. Talmudist, liturgist and astronomer as much as mystic, he developed a Kabbalah founded on the numerical value of letters and left ethical works stamped with serenity despite the trial, including « Ha-Roḳeaḥ », published for the first time in Fano in 1505.
French Tosafist died in 1198, student of Rabbenou Tam, cited in the tossafot under the initials « RAM » or as « R. Éléazar ». He wrote commentaries on Nedarim, Berakhot and Houllin, as well as the « Sefer Zera'im », devoted to the teachings of the Pentateuch and divided into twelve parts in imitation of the « Halakhot Guedolot » of the gaon Juda, written after the death of his daughters; an extract was printed in Venice in 1566.
Son of Ri haZaken, tosafist who died before his father.
Karaite scholar of the twelfth century, author of the « Ḥaluḳḳot ha-Ḳara'im weha-Rabbanim », on the controversy between Karaites and Rabbanites, published by Pinsker. The only Karaite known to have cited a work of Saadia Gaon, he lived at the latest in the twelfth century, as attested by his citation of the last Karaite scholar he mentions, contemporary of Juda Hadassi; Pinsker identifies him with Elijah b. Juda Tishbi, supposing that he was only his copyist.
French Talmudist of the twelfth century, often cited as an authority by later Talmudists, known for his controversy with Rabbenou Tam over the necessity of renewing the knot of the tefillin each day — a legend has it that he emerged from his tomb to continue to oppose him. He is the author of two piyyutim composed for the festival of Shavuot.
Italian rabbi and liturgical poet, active in Bari in the twelfth century, one of the masters of Samuel b. Natronaï. A renowned composer of hymns, he wrote a «reshout» for the «Ḳerovot» of Yoḥanan intended for Yom Kippur as well as a great number of seliḥot — thirty-six according to Zunz's count, arranged in alphabetical or reverse order and bearing the acrostic of his name.
Tosafist presumed to have been killed in the massacre of York in 1190, hence the surname « ha-Ḳadosh » (the Saint) generally reserved for martyrs. He was the pupil of the Tosafist R. Isaac ha-Zaqen and, according to Zunz, also of R. Samuel b. Salomon, called Sir Morel of Falaise.
German decisor, author of Sefer Ra'avya.
Rabbi and liturgist of Cologne, in the twelfth century, relative of the Tosafist R. Eliezer b. Nathan. Trained in Spire under R. Isaac b. Elhanan then in Mainz, he was one of the heads of the "great synod" bringing together one hundred fifty rabbis under the direction of Rabbenou Tam and his brother Samuel (Rashbam). Two of his piyyoutim, signed in acrostic with his name, have come down to us.
Disciple of Rabbeinu Tam, author of Sefer Yereïm.
French exegete of the 12th century, born in Beaugency, a canton town of the Loiret, and a student of Samuel ben Meïr, grandson of Rashi. One of the most distinguished representatives of the school of exegesis in northern France, he devoted himself especially to uncovering the link between successive verses and the chain of ideas, often resorting to French terms to clarify his thought. His interpretation, devoid of any midrashic input, focuses notably on Isaiah and Hosea, as well as, in preserved manuscripts, on the other minor prophets, Ezekiel and Job.
Italian rabbi
Tosafist and German liturgical poet of the 12th century, died in Regensburg around 1175, one of the oldest students of Rabbenou Tam. Established in Regensburg, probably his native city, he founded there a rabbinical college and distinguished himself by an uncommon independence of mind among German Talmudists, refusing any post-Talmudic authority, modifying established Passover rules and authorizing, despite remonstrances, images of lions and serpents in the synagogue; his boldness in Talmudic exegesis earned him a severe reprimand from Rabbenou Tam himself, who judged him presumptuous. An accomplished liturgical poet, he surpassed many of his German and French contemporaries.
Talmudist, liturgical poet and German chronicler born in 1133, died after 1196. As a child, he witnessed the persecution of Jews on the Rhine and found refuge in the castle of Wolkenburg; he later lived in Neuss and then Worms, leaving Cologne just before the massacre of 1187, where he lost much of his fortune. A renowned liturgical poet, Zunz attributes twenty-three piyyoutim to him, some of which are still recited in Germany at circumcisions; his account of the persecution of Jews between 1146 and 1196, based on his own experience, ranks among the major historical documents on the age of the Crusades.
Liturgical poet of the 12th century, probably established in northern France according to Zunz. The Maḥzor of Avignon preserves under his name a piyyout for the first day of Pessah, « Wayehi ba-ḥatsi ha-laylah », and an old Maḥzor of Rome contains two others attributed to him.
Exegete and Ashkenazi tosafist, esoteric commentary on the Torah.
Deciding rabbi, tosafist and German chronicler of the 12th century
Samuel Esperial was a physician of Córdoba, Spain. He is the author of a treatise on surgery intended for David de Jaén, written in Spanish but transcribed in Hebrew characters, now preserved in the Vatican Library under manuscript number 372.
Philosopher and talmudist active in Yemen around the middle of the 12th century. He is the author, in Judeo-Arabic, of « Bustan al'Uḳul », a treatise in seven parts devoted to the unity of God, to the human condition as a microcosm, to the necessity of obeying God, to repentance, to trust in God, to the merits of the Messiah and to the life to come; he cites Saadia, Baḥya ben Joseph, Solomon ha-Ḳaṭon and Judah ha-Levi, presented as contemporaries. R. Gottheil supposes he was the father of R. Jacob b. Nathanael al-Fayyumi, correspondent of Maimonides, but Steinschneider considers this identification doubtful.
King of Castile and Leon, son of Alphonse IX of Leon and the pious Bérengère, born in 1200, ascended the throne in 1217 and died in 1252. His reign marked a turning point for the Jews: despite the opposition of the clergy, he kept in office the general farmer of Jewish taxes Don Meïr and sanctioned the « Concordia » concluded by Archbishop Rodrigue of Toledo with the Jews of his diocese; conqueror of Cordova and then Seville, he allowed the Jews to share in the distribution of lands following the latter conquest, notably in Aznalfarache, Aznalcázar and Paterna.
Governor of Egypt, enemy and persecutor of the Jews of Alexandria, against whom Philo directs in 42 of the common era a special work, the «In Flaccum». Friend of Tiberius, under whom he was prefect of Egypt for five years with equity, he remained in office under Caligula for about a year and a half; it was after the massacre of Jews, which occurred in the autumn of the year 38, that he was suddenly recalled, then banished to the island of Andros, where he was executed in 39 of the common era.
Jewess of Toledo named Rahel, nicknamed « Fermosa » (the Beautiful) because of her beauty, she held under her spell King Alfonso VIII of Castile for nearly seven years. With the assent of the clergy, she was seized in the presence of the king by Spanish nobles and put to death, along with several of her coreligionists. This account, held by some Spanish historians to be a legend, is reported as fact by Alfonso X, grandson of Alfonso VIII, and inspired several works, including Grillparzer's play « Die Jüdin von Toledo ».
Talmudist active in Gerona in the 12th century, father of Zeraḥia ha-Lévi, author of the "Sefer ha-Ma'or", and of Berakhia ha-Lévi, author of piyyoutim. He composed a work on civil law now lost, "Megillat ha-Neḥamah", as well as about fifty religious poems for various Sabbaths, the feast of Shavuot and the Day of Atonement, highly prized by Menahem di Lonzano and incorporated into the rituals of Avignon, Carpentras, Montpellier, Oran and Tlemcen.
German Talmudist active in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, great-nephew and probably student of Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn. A mohel like his father Jacob ben Gershon ha-Gozer, he continued his work of collecting the rules and customs of circumcision in « Kelale ha-Milah », excerpts from which, drawn from the manuscript Asufot, were taken up by Glassberg in his collection « Zikron Berit ha-Rishonim » (Berlin, 1892); the work also contains numerous notes on remedies of interest to Jewish folklore.
French Talmudist active in Béziers in the twelfth century, author of a casuistic work, the "Sefer ha-Shalmon," completed by his son Samuel and cited by Isaac ben Sheshet in his responsa. He also compiled a collection of his own responsa.
Hebrew poet of the 12th century, perhaps grandson of Isaac ibn Ghayyat, the famous master of Lucena. Friend of Juda ha-Lévi, who dedicated to him one of the most important pieces of his Diwan, he left only two known religious poems: a seliḥah for the tenth of Tevet, in the Carpentras rite, and a tokhaḥah for the minḥah of the Day of Atonement, in the rites of Castile and Fès.
Gumplin is a German satirical poet of unknown date, of whom only one poem has been preserved: a satire in seven stanzas that, with great wit, mocks the inhabitants of the Rhineland province, and whose author signs his name in acrostic. Abraham Geiger published this poem, accompanied by a German translation, in his collection Melo Chofnajim.
Hadrian is a Roman emperor who reigned from 117 to 138. At the beginning of his reign, he suppresses the last convulsions of the Jewish revolt in Cyrene and Alexandria, where some 50,000 Jews are said to have been killed by his troops according to a late source but judged worthy of credence. He then seems to have avoided conflict with the Jews and granted them certain privileges: legend reports that he maintained friendly relations with R. Joshua ben Hanania and that he considered rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, while his presence in Judea in the year 130 is commemorated on coins.
Disciple and colleague of Rabbeinu Tam.
Ḥayyim ben Hananeel ha-Cohen is a French tosafist of the second half of the 12th century, disciple of R. Jacob ben Meïr (Rabbenou Tam), with whom he debated questions of law. Maternal grandfather of Moses of Coucy, author of the Semag, and of Naḥman ha-Cohen, author of the Naḥmoni, he is cited in the tosafot and in the Haggahot Mordekhaï; although Cohen, he agreed to participate in the funeral of Rabbenou Tam, believing that "great men do not render impure".
French rabbi
Arab physician of the 12th century born in Basra, he went to Baghdad to study medicine under Sa'id b. Hibat Allah, who admitted neither Jews nor Christians to his lessons; he bribed the porter to follow them secretly before becoming one of his most distinguished disciples. Becoming physician in ordinary to the caliph Al-Mustanjid (1160-70) in Baghdad, he converted to Islam at an advanced age after suffering insults due to his condition as a Jew, became blind and deaf, and died around eighty years old; he is the author of philosophical and medical writings, including a translation and commentary of Ecclesiastes composed in 1143.
Scholar and poet born in 1092 or 1093, died on January 28, according to Rosin, in 1167. Son of Meïr, probably from Toledo and then established in Cordoba, he probably belonged to the family of Ibn Ezra from which came Moïse ibn Ezra, who counted him among his intimates and praised him as a religious philosopher and a man of great eloquence. In the first period of his life, which extended almost until 1140, he made himself a name in his native land as a poet and thinker, before his emigration from Spain opened a second period of his life, devoted to learned studies in all branches of knowledge.
Ahub (or Oheb) ben Meïr ha-Nasi ibn Muhajar is a twelfth-century Hispano-Arabic poet, probably brother of the poets Joseph and Abraham ben Meïr ibn Muhajar. If this is indeed the poet signing « Oheb », he is responsible notably for the liturgical poems Eloah ḥai asher yaẓar and Asher libbi we-kilyotai, composed for the Feast of the Torah; the hymn of praise that Judah ha-Lévi dedicates to a certain Ahub seems instead to address a homonym, to judge by the different epithet he gives him.
Poet and scholar, died in Cordova in 1124, student of Isaac ibn Ghayyat and rabbi of Cordova for nine years, renowned for his erudition and piety. Counted by Al-Ḥarizi among the greatest poets of his time, he wrote verses without great artifice but fluid and easy, and maintained close ties with Moïse ibn Ezra, who addressed several poems to him.
Pope from 1198 to 1216, born in Anagni in 1161, elected on June 8, 1198 and died on July 17, 1216. He was the first pope not to protect the Jews but to persecute them with great severity: while renewing through the bull « Sicut Judæis » the protections enacted by Clement III, he had the Lateran Council, which he presided over, adopt humiliating laws notably imposing the wearing of a distinctive sign. In 1205, he blamed Alphonse the Noble for the protection he granted to his Jewish subjects, and threatened excommunication of the count of Nevers for the same reason.
12th-century Provençal rabbi
Successor of Ri haZaken at the head of the Dampierre school.
First known tosafist, student of Rashi, in Speyer.
Tosafist and liturgical poet active in Prague in the twelfth century, brother of the traveler Pethahia of Regensburg. Among the earliest Tosafists, contemporary of R. Eleazar of Metz and disciple of R. Tam, he reportedly directed, according to Recanati, the yeshiva of Regensburg, and also lived for some time in Worms. Isaac ben Moses cites him in his « Or Zaroua' » for a commentary on Ketubot preserved in manuscript in Munich, and Zunz attributes to him a piyyut signed « Isaac b. Jacob ».
Disciple of Rabbeinu Tam, commentary on the tractate Ketoubot.
Twelfth-century talmudist, master of Rashi. Originally from Lorraine, he settled early in Germany where he studied under Eleazar ha-Gadol, before successively heading the rabbinical schools of Mainz and then Worms — it was in this latter city that he trained Rashi. One of the greatest talmudic authorities of his time, he is the author of commentaries on the Talmud, some of which are cited by Rashi himself, and his responsa are scattered in several rabbinic collections.
French liturgical poet, active in the twelfth century. Several piyyoutim for Rosh Hashanah preserved in the Maḥzor of Provence are attributed to him. Zunz supposes he is identical to the "Ben Lévi" cited by Abraham Bédersi in his "Ḥereb ha-Mithappeket".
Grandson of Rashi, elder brother of Rabbeinu Tam, died young.
French liturgical poet of the first half of the twelfth century, mentioned as such by Joseph Ḳara in his commentary on Job. Probably five liturgical poems are attributed to him, including a pizmon deploring the condition of Jews of his time and expressing the desire to recover the holy places; all are distinguished by the liveliness of colors and ease of style.
Italian rabbi and talmudist, active around 1110-70, born in Siponto, in Apulia, a former center of Jewish study. He later settled in Salerno, where the traveler Benjamin of Tudela, who called him 'chief rabbi', met him; he addressed a halakhic question to R. Tam and wrote to the rabbis of Rome to clarify an obscure mishna. Author of a commentary on the Mishna of which only the part on the Seder Zera'im is preserved — printed in the Vilna edition of 1890 — he was one of the very first talmudists of southern Italy, and his commentary, frequently cited, spread in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Austria.
French Talmudist, active in the first third of the twelfth century, eldest son of Merwan of Narbonne. As respected as his father, he was elected rabbi of Narbonne and his Talmudic decisions carried authority. At the head of the yeshiva, he trained several students who distinguished themselves, including his nephew Moses ben Joseph, Moses ben Jacob ha-Nassi, and Abraham ben Isaac, "ab bet din" of Narbonne.
German decisor from Bohemia, active around 1200-70, known by the name Isaac Or Zaroua. Trained in Regensburg, in Paris under Juda ben Isaac Sir Léon, then in Worms and Speyer, he became head of yeshiva in Würzburg then in Vienna, where he was also "ab bet din". He witnessed the mandatory wearing of the yellow badge in France and lamented the massacres of Jews in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1241; around 1260, he composed his major ritual work, the "Or Zaroua'", the only known source of his biography.
Head of the tosafist school of Dampierre, nephew of Rabbeinu Tam.
French scholar, active in the first half of the 12th century, cited in an anonymous commentary on the Chronicles composed in Narbonne before 1140 as a source of verbal explanations of several verses. Zunz identifies him with the liturgical poet who composed piyyutim and seliḥot signed with the acrostic « Isaac b. Samuel », and also attributes to him the authorship of fourteen calendar tables bearing the same name.
Spanish biblical exegete, active in the 11th-12th centuries, whose commentary, written in Arabic, suggests he lived in Palestine — Steinschneider concluding rather to Aleppo. Considered the successor of Juda ibn Balaam and Moses ibn Gikatilla in biblical exegesis, he cites the geonim Saadia, Sherira and Hai as well as Juda ibn Quraysh and Nathan ben Yehiel; his commentary on the second book of Samuel, preserved in the British Museum, is itself often cited by the exegete Abraham ben Salomon.
French Tosafist and biblical commentator, active in Ramerupt then in Dampierre in the 12th century, nicknamed « ha-Zaḳen » to distinguish him from a younger Tosafist of the same name. According to Gross, he was born at the latest in 1115 and died between 1185 and 1195; grandson of R. Simḥa of Vitry and nephew of R. Tam, he studied under the latter before founding in Dampierre a flourishing school said to have been frequented by some sixty students. Living under Philippe Auguste, he forbade the purchase of confiscated Jewish property and completed Rashi's commentary on the Talmud with his own Tosafot.
Disciple of Abraham ben David of Posquières (the Rabad). He wrote a commentary, now lost, on several tractates of the Talmud Yerushalmi, cited by later authorities such as Isaac of Lattes and Menahem ha-Meïri. The Jewish Encyclopedia possibly links him to the "Isaac ha-Kohen" whose ritual authority is often invoked by Aaron ha-Kohen in the Orhot Hayyim.
Spanish poet
Son of the Raavad, one of the first kabbalists of Provence.
Leading Italian Talmudist, born around 1180, probably in Trani, a former center of Jewish learning, and died around 1250, after having lived mainly in Venice. Correspondent of Simḥa of Spires and his students — including Isaac ben Moses of Vienna —, he was the most eminent representative of Talmudic scholarship in Italy, writing commentaries on nearly the entire Talmud in the form of tossafot, ḥiddushim and pesaḳim, as well as a commentary on the Pentateuch, the « Nimmuḳim », printed as an appendix to Azoulaï's « Pené David » (Livorno, 1792). His tossafot were collected in two volumes published in Lemberg in 1861 and 1869.
Principal talmudist of Italy, author of tossafot and halakhic decisions.
Russian scholar of the 12th century, often consulted by his contemporaries on questions of biblical exegesis, probably identical to the Isaac of Russia mentioned in English archives of 1181. His explanation of the term "yabam," for which he found a parallel in the Russian language, is cited by Moses ben Isaac Nasi of London in his lexicon "Sefer ha-Shoham" — evidence, according to Zunz then Harkavy, that the Jews of Russia of his time spoke the language of the country.
German talmudist of the twelfth century, nicknamed « the Mohel », nephew of Ephraïm ben Jacob of Bonn with whom he maintained learned correspondence, and in personal contact with Éliézer ben Joël ha-Lévi. He appears to have been the first to compose a treatise on circumcision; the work published by Glassberg in his collection « Zikkaron Berit ha-Rishonim » (Berlin, 1892), under the title « Kelalé ha-Milah », was in fact composed not by Jacob himself but by one of his students, who cites Rachi and Jacob Tam among his authorities.
Head of the yeshiva of the Jews of Yemen in the second half of the twelfth century, Jacob ben Nathanaël ibn al-Fayyoumi wrote to Maimonides, on the advice of Solomon ha-Cohen, to ask his counsel regarding a false messiah who was leading the Jews of South Arabia astray — letter dated 1172. Maimonides replied with his « Iggeret Teman », also called « Petaḥ Tiḳwah ».
Leader of the Yemenite community, recipient of Maimonides' Epistle to Yemen (1172).
French Tosafist and liturgist, active in Paris or Falaise in the first third of the twelfth century, Jacob ben Samson — whom some, according to Moses Taku, claim was a student of Rashi and master of Jacob Tam, a genealogy contested by Zunz — is the author of a calendar, the « Sefer ha-Elqoshi », beginning in the year 1123, as well as commentaries on the Pirké Avot, on the Seder Olam Rabba, and on other talmudic treatises.
French Tosafist born in Courson, in the Yonne, active between 1180 and 1250, disciple of Samson of Sens and probably master of Meïr of Rothenburg, Jacob ben Solomon — also said Jacob of Courson — is the author of « Nimouqim », notes on the Talmud, and perhaps also of the « Maṭbea' », a collection of Talmudic decisions; his tossafot are cited in the « Shiṭṭah Meḳoubbetzet » on Bava Ḳamma.
French Tosafist, died as a martyr in London on September 3, 1189 during the anti-Jewish riots that accompanied the coronation of Richard I, Jacob of Orleans was one of the most distinguished disciples of Rabbenou Tam, whose name he often bore. Still in Orleans in 1171 according to the « 'Emeḳ ha-Bakha », he had settled in London, probably called as a teacher; his tosafot, frequently cited, and his glosses to the Pentateuch — rich in gematrias — appear notably in the « Pa'neaḥ Raza » of Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi.
French Tosafist, active around 1190-1260, student of Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre and master of Pérets of Corbeil; his two brothers, Nathanaël « the Saint » and Éliézer ben Joseph « the Martyr », were also renowned talmudists. He is the author of a « Shiṭṭah » probably on Sanhedrin, a commentary on Guittin and tossafot cited by Mordekhaï; he might be identical to « R. Tam of Chinon » also mentioned in rabbinical sources.
French tosafist of the 12th century, nicknamed « the Holy », brother of Juda of Corbeil, author of tossafot on several talmudic treatises. Praised by Aaron ben Ḥayyim ha-Cohen in his commentary on the Maḥzor and cited by Isaac ha-Lévi ben Juda as by Juda ben Éliézer, he is frequently mentioned in the Tossafot ; the « Memorbuch » of Mayence counts him among the martyrs of Corbeil.
British rabbi
John of Seville, also known as Johannes Toletanus, was a Jew converted to Christianity who worked between 1135 and 1153 as one of the first translators from Arabic. Associated for a time with archdeacon Dominicus Gundisalvi, he translated above all works of astrology and astronomy, as well as some philosophical and medical texts, including, with Gundisalvi's aid, Gabirol's Fons Vitae, from Arabic into Latin. He compiled in 1142 his Epitome Totius Astrologiae, printed in Nuremberg in 1548, and should be distinguished from archbishop John of Seville, correspondent of Hugh of Saint-Victor.
Tosafist and controversialist born in Meaux at the end of the twelfth century and died in Palestine in 1286, Jehiel ben Joseph of Paris — also called Sir Vives, Jehiel the Saint or Jehiel the Elder — succeeded in 1224 to Judah Sir Leon at the head of the talmudic school of Paris. Leader of the Parisian Jewish community, he had to face several controversies with Christians, notably the famous disputation of 1240 before Saint Louis against the apostate Nicolas Donin, which led to the condemnation of the Talmud; as the situation of the Jews of France subsequently deteriorated, he departed to settle in Palestine, where he remained until his death.
Joceus of York was, before the expulsion of Jews from England, the leader of the Jewish community of York at the time of the massacre of 1190. Mentioned in the first known English Jewish act in 1176, he had attended the coronation of Richard I and escaped the massacre upon his return to York, where his house rivaled a citadel in magnificence. Assailed by the crowd, he took refuge with his wife Anna and his children in Clifford Tower, where, the decision having been made to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of the assailants, he killed his family before being himself killed last by Yom-Tob of Joigny.
Rhineland tosafist, father of Ra'avya.
12th-century French commentator on the Talmud
médecin et moraliste catalan
Exegete and tosafist of Orléans, disciple of Rabbeinu Tam.
Joseph ben Ahmad ibn Hasdaï, physician and medical writer Egyptian, lived in Cairo in the early twelfth century; although his biographer Ibn Abi Usaybi'a does not explicitly assert his Jewish origin, he doubtless belonged to the Judeo-Spanish family of Hasdaï. Settling young in Egypt, where he found the protection of vizir Ma'moun Abou Abd Allah ibn Nour al-Dawla al-Amiri, he maintained a scientific correspondence with the Arab philosopher Avempace (Ibn Bajja) and composed several commentaries on the works of Hippocrates and Galen.
Tosafist, exegete and French poet, active in the second half of the twelfth century, student of Jacob Tam and contemporary of Samuel ben Meïr (Rachbam), with whom he shares the exegetical school attached to the literal sense (peshat). In his biblical commentary, he precedes subsequent biblical criticism in identifying doubled narratives in the text and proposing rational explanations for miraculous accounts — thus the « tree of life » of Genesis, which he interprets as a tree with healing virtues rather than conferring immortality. Part of his commentary on Genesis and Exodus was published by Jellinek in 1855, and excerpts on the other books by Berliner in 1872.
Joseph ben Jacob ibn Tsaddiq, Spanish rabbi, poet and philosopher, died in Cordova in 1149. A renowned Talmudist, he was appointed dayan of Cordova in 1138, a position he held jointly with Maïmon, father of Maimonides, until his death; an esteemed poet, several of his religious poems appear in Sephardic and North African mahzorim, and one of them, addressed to Judah ha-Levi upon his passage through Cordova toward Palestine, was inserted into the latter's divan. His reputation rests above all on his philosophical treatise in Arabic, translated into Hebrew under the title 'Olam Qatan, which develops, in the manner of the Brethren of Purity, the comparison between the macrocosm and man, microcosm of the world.
13th-century Jewish philosopher, poet and writer
Moroccan writer and physician
Joseph ben Moïse of Troyes was a French Talmudist of the first half of the twelfth century. Isaac ben Samuel the Elder reports in his responsa Talmudic explanations received orally from him; he would be the older contemporary of Rabbénou Tam, who calls him in a letter "my venerated master", while Joseph designates Tam as one of his most intimate friends and regrets having had to leave Troyes where he resided.
Joseph of Chartres, a French elegiac poet, was born in the second half of the twelfth century — Zunz places him active around 1200-10 — brother-in-law of Joseph b. Nathan of Étampes and great-uncle of the author of Joseph the Zealot, who reports a discussion in which Joseph, questioned by a monk about the burning bush, replied that one could not make an image of it. Disciple of Rabbénou Tam and of Rachbam, he is cited in the Semag of Moses of Coucy, and composed an elegy on the massacre of the Jews of York, in England, in 1191. He is probably to be identified with the biblical commentator Joseph me-Kartesh.
Talmudist of Lucena in Spain, disciple of the Rif, he was the teacher of Maimonides' father. His talmudic commentaries were highly esteemed by the decisors.
Grammarian, exegete and translator, father of David and Moïse Kimhi, a refugee from Spain to Provence. He introduced Andalusian Hebrew grammar into Christian lands.
Andalusian scholar, translator, linguist and rabbi
German historian and talmudic lexicographer, active in the second half of the 12th century, from one of the most illustrious Jewish families in Germany—his father Kalonymus was a scholar, notable of Speyer and respected at court—and trained by his great-uncle Abraham ben Samuel and his uncle Moses ben Meïr. He is the author of a talmudic lexicon, the « Agron », a treatise on blessings, tossafot to Betsa and Sota, and a work listing all persons cited in the Talmud and Midrash to establish their period—the only of his writings partially preserved, known under the title « Yiḥuse Tannaim wa-Amoraim ».
Disciple of Rashi, active in the early 12th century. With Shemaya, father-in-law of the Rashbam, he studied under Rashi then arranged the posthumous writings of their master and edited, according to his oral instructions, a work on the rite of Passover, cited in the Tossafot under the names of Rashi and Shemaya.
Spanish Talmudist of the late eleventh and early twelfth century, belonging to a distinguished Barcelona family which earned him the title of "ha-Nasi" (the prince); little is known of his life, except that he was consulted in difficult cases by Abraham ben Isaac of Lunel and that he opposed his fellow citizen Abraham ben Ḥiyya, who wanted to delay a marriage due to bad astrological omens, judging such a practice contrary to the biblical prohibition of augury. One of the greatest medieval codifiers, he saw the essence of his work — covering all ritual and civil law — lost and supplanted, a century later, by those of Maimonides and Judah ben Asher.
French Tosafist, born in Paris in 1166 and died in this city in 1224, probably a descendant of Rashi and disciple of Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre and his son Elhanan. Forced to leave Paris in 1182, at the time of the expulsion of Jews from the lands of the King of France, he did not return until 1198 and there founded an important school of Tosafists, where notably Jehiel ben Joseph, Isaac ben Moïse and Moïse of Coucy were trained; he composed tosafot on most of the treatises of the Talmud as well as several liturgical poems.
Founded an important tosafist school in Paris (Sir Léon).
Italian liturgical poet, probably active in Rome in the mid-twelfth century, father of the Roman dayan Menahem ben Juda. He is the author of fourteen piyyutim, some of which appear in the printed Roman Mahzor and others remained in manuscript.
kabbalist, teacher of Nachmanides
Spanish poet
French scholar, active in Narbonne in the second half of the 12th century, bearing the title of « Nasi »; he headed the community when Benjamin of Tudela visited Narbonne in 1165, then shared this leadership with his cousin Levi ben Moses. Letters from Sheshet Benveniste to Kalonymus suggest that he died in 1194.
Egyptian physician, active in Cairo at the end of the twelfth century, physician to Saladin and then, after his death, to his brother Al-Malik al-'Adil. According to Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, who praises his knowledge, generosity, and great influence at court, almost all his children converted to Islam; Steinschneider identifies him, with reservations, as Maimonides' brother-in-law. He is the author of several medical writings now lost, including a work entitled Ta'aliḳ wa-Maghrabat.
Spanish exegete and moralist, born around 1110, father of Moses Maimonides. Trained under Joseph ibn Migash in Lucena, he becomes dayyan and writes in Arabic a commentary on the Pentateuch as well as writings on rites and festivals. His only surviving work is a letter of consolation, identified with the « Iggeret ha-Shemad » attributed to his son, written in 1160 while he was in Fès with Moses.
Rabbi, exegete and Andalusian moralist of the 12th century
The greatest philosopher and codifier of Judaism, born in Córdoba. His Guide for the Perplexed achieves the synthesis between Aristotelian reason and Jewish faith. His Mishneh Torah is the first systematic codification of all Jewish law. Physician to Saladin in Cairo.
French scholar of the twelfth century, member of the family of Menahem Méiri of Perpignan, native of Carcassonne and disciple of Abraham ben David (RaBaD) of Posquières in Provence. Settled in Trinquetaille, near Arles, he composed « Sefer ha-'Ezer », defense of Alfasi against Zerahia ha-Lévi of Girona, and « Ḥibbur ha-Muḳẓeh », treatise on what is forbidden to touch on the Sabbath and festival days.
French scholar, active in Narbonne in the twelfth century, brother of nassi R. Moïse ben Joseph ben Merwan and disciple of Isaac ben Merwan, head of the academy of Narbonne. Highly esteemed, he is associated with Abraham ben Isaac, av bet din, who presides over the rabbinical college of Narbonne around 1165; according to Gross, he may be identical to Meïr ben Jacob, mentioned with other scholars at the end of a responsum dated from Narbonne, in the mid-twelfth century.
French biblical exegete of the late 12th century, native of Posquières and disciple of Joseph Ḳimḥi. The Bibliothèque nationale de Paris holds his commentary on Jeremiah, completed in 1191, and that on Ezekiel, interrupted in the middle of chapter forty.
Roman halakist of the twelfth century, of whom neither the year of birth nor that of death is known, but who came from a family of scholars; he is mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela and personally frequented Joseph ibn Plat. The only known date in his life is 1166, the year he directed the talmudic academy of Rome; son of the liturgical poet Juda ben Menahem, he devoted himself exclusively to halakha, and his only surviving response concerns the blessings of circumcision.
Author of the "Sekel Ṭob" and the "Eben Boḥan," active in Italy in the first half of the twelfth century. The "Sekel Ṭob," a midrashic compilation on the Pentateuch completed in Rome in 1139, survives only partially (Genesis xv, 1 to Exodus xi, 2, ed. Buber, Berlin, 1900); the "Eben Boḥan," a complete manual of Hebrew and biblical exegesis in fifty parts intended for his three sons, was completed in Rome in 1143 and aimed, according to Bacher, to defend the system of Menahem ben Sarouḳ against the theories of Ḥayyouj and ibn Janāḥ, then introduced to Italy by Abraham ibn Ezra.
French tosafist and biblical exegete of the 12th century. Zadoc Kahn identifies him with Menahem the Saint, killed according to him during the massacre of Bray-sur-Seine in 1190, while Gross, more cautious, dates his death around 1180. He actively participated in the synod of Troyes convened under the direction of R. Samuel ben Meïr and R. Jacob Tam, his tosafot are cited by numerous later authorities, and he left an unfinished massoretic work, the "Massorah Gedolah," which continues that of R. Guershom Meor ha-Gola.
French Talmudist, died in Lunel in 1170. He directs a Talmudic school that trains several renowned scholars and maintains an esteemed correspondence with Abraham ben Isaac, av bet din of Narbonne; his Talmudic decisions are cited in the "Sefer ha-Terumot." Passionate about philosophy, he encourages ibn Tibbon to translate into Hebrew "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" by Baḥya, writes himself works of moral philosophy, advises other Jewish writers and assembles a vast library.
French Tosafist, born in Narbonne around 1120, member of the rabbinical college of the city and signatory of a responsum around 1150. Settling shortly afterwards in Melun, where he acquired great authority and corresponded with the greatest rabbis of France, he obtained the title of "Rab"; his decisions, judged too lenient by R. Tam, sparked a polemical controversy that forced him to yield for fear of excommunication.
Liturgical poet of the 12th century, author of several piyyoutim for Passover, Shavuot, and certain particular sabbaths, whose style and composition distinguish themselves from those of earlier payyetanim.
Tosafist of the 12th century, disciple of Jacob Tam with whom he maintains a scholarly correspondence and whose assembly he frequents. Author of several liturgical poems preserved in manuscript, he also drafts, partly under the direction of R. Tam, tosafot often cited on various talmudic treatises, and a commentary on the Mishna whose manuscript the kabbalist Ḥayyim ben Bezalel (d. 1588) claims to have possessed.
French talmudist, active around the middle of the twelfth century, nephew and disciple of Isaac ben Merwan ha-Lévi, nicknamed by his peers « great scholar, nassi R. Moïse ». He directs the yeshivah of Narbonne — among his students, Abraham ben David of Posquières and Zerahia Gerondi — and maintains a regular correspondence with his younger Abraham ben Isaac, av bet din. A divorce document dated Narbonne in 1134 bears his signature; Gross identifies him with Moïse ben Joseph Merwan, which would also make him one of the principal kabbalists of southern France.
Liturgical poet of the late 12th century, perhaps the Moses ben Joseph who came to the aid of oppressed Jews in the Rhineland provinces in 1196. He composed a seliḥa, « Arba'ah Abot Neziḳin », where the four monarchies that oppressed Israel are represented by four animals — the bear, the lion, the panther and the pig.
Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer, and physician, born in Cordova on March 30, 1135, died in Cairo on December 13, 1204, known in Arabic by the name Abu 'Imran Musa ben Maimun ibn 'Abd Allah. Trained by his father Maimon, he left Spain with his family after the capture of Cordova by the Almohads, stayed in Fès from 1160 onwards, and finally settled in Cairo in 1165, where he practiced medicine after enduring several ordeals.
One of the greatest masters of medieval Talmudic literature. He held the Disputation of Barcelona (20–31 July 1263) against Pablo Christiani before James I of Aragon, winning the public debate but subsequently forced to leave Spain. He ended his days in the Land of Israel.
German Tosafist, active in Mainz in the 12th century, probably originally from France. Disciple of R. Isaac ha-Zaḳen then of Jacob Tam and, in Mainz, of Éliézer ben Nathan, he counts among his students R. Baruch of Mainz, R. Eleazar of Worms and Éliézer ben Joël ha-Lévi; his responsa are cited in the « Mordekai » and his « Sefer ha-Dinin » by Asher ben Jehiel.
Spanish rabbi, active around 1150. Long time nasi of Narbonne, reputed for his erudition and charity, he is surnamed « he'anaw », the modest, and figures among the signers of the celebrated appeal authorizing, in the absence of a proper manuscript, the public reading of the Torah from an ordinary manuscript; his son Levi was praised by Al-Ḥarizi for his philanthropy.
Russian Talmudist, active in the first half of the 12th century, probably moved to Western Europe after the expulsion of Jews from Kiev in 1124. Possibly a disciple of Jacob ben Meïr Tam, he corresponds from Russia with Samuel ben Ali, head of the Babylonian academy, transmitting to Western scholars important decisions of the Geonim.
Exegete, active in the mid-12th century, identified by Gross as Moïse ben Jehiel ben Mattathia, leader of the Jewish community of Paris, of whom the Maḥzor Vitry reports that he defended the Jews of Paris accused of bewitching converts by throwing dust behind them after a burial, explaining to the king that it was a simple funeral rite testifying to belief in resurrection. A Moïse of Paris is mentioned in England in 1204. He is the author of a biblical commentary, cited by his disciple Gabriel and by several exegetes of his time, including Joseph ha-Meḳanné, who contests his interpretation of a verse of Deuteronomy on lending at interest.
Russian engraver, known from a document dated 1284 relating to a dispute between a Russian and a German over a bell, bearing the signature of Duke Feodor of Smolensk followed by the mention « Moses, engraver of Feodor, made this seal ». The document does not specify that he was Jewish, but the name « Moses », then unused among Russian Christians, and the absence of a Russian tradition of seal engraving strongly suggest it.
French talmudist, active around 1200, one of the rabbis who criticized the writings of Maimonides. He drafts a series of critiques of the « Mishneh Torah », preserved at the Bodleian; Gross identifies him as the Moses ha-Cohen mentioned in the glosses of Simon ben Ẓémah Duran.
Poet and philosopher of Granada, one of the great masters of Andalusian Hebrew poetry. Author of widely circulated penitential poems (selichot).
Born in Cordova, fled to Fez then to Fostat (Cairo), physician at the Ayyubid court. Author of the Mishneh Torah (complete halakhic code) and the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevoukhim), a pinnacle of medieval Jewish philosophy. Central figure in Jewish thought.
Talmudist, exegete and Spanish physician, born in Gerona — from which his name « Gerondi » derives — in 1194, died in Palestine around 1270. Grandson of Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona and cousin of Jonas Gerondi, among his masters in Talmud are Juda ben Yakar and Meïr ben Nathan of Trinquetaille, while he would have been initiated into the Kabbalah by his compatriot Azriel. Besides rabbinical studies, he studies medicine, which he will later practice as a means of livelihood, and acquires vast knowledge of philosophy; he had not yet passed the age of puberty when his name already ranks among the talmudic authorities of his time.
Grammarian of Narbonne (ReMaK), author of the Mahalakh Shevilei ha-Daat.
Rabbi, 12th century. Mentioned in 4921 of the Hebrew era (1161). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 97-1.
Arab poet and physician, active in Ronda, probably in the first half of the twelfth century. Known to Arab historians as a poet, he is the subject of an anecdote reported by Al-Maqqari: having learned a compromising secret about a rival physician from the same city, he sends him in Arabic a couplet comparing their rivalry to a collision between the sun and the moon.
Samaritan writer, active in the 12th century, probably in Damascus, son of a reputed poet. He wrote several commentaries on the Pentateuch, which became works of reference for Samaritans, and a polemical treatise against the Karaites and Rabbanites, notably Saadia Gaon, of which only the second part survives; his son Ṣadaḳah, also a writer, was physician to the sultan Malik al-Ashraf.
French Tosafist, active toward the end of the twelfth century, son of Ḥayyim ben Hananeel ha-Cohen according to Gross. Author of the "Sefer Naḥmani", cited by Joseph Colon in his responsa (ed. Lemberg, 1798), he is identified by Gross with the Tosafist Naḥman whose tosafot are mentioned in the "Shiṭṭah Meḳubbetzet" on Bava Kamma (Venice, 1762).
Rabbi who lived in Narbonne, France, in the first half of the twelfth century, probably son of Joseph Gaon of Narbonne. He corresponded with Abraham ibn Ezra, to whom he addressed in 1139 three questions of chronology—including that of knowing how, that year, the gap between Jewish Passover and Christian Easter could reach four weeks—questions edited with the replies of Ibn Ezra by Steinschneider in Berlin in 1847.
Talmudist and biblical exegete active in twelfth and thirteenth century France. Paternal grandfather of Estori ha-Parhi, he was the master of Nahmanide and Samuel ha-Sardi, author of the « Sefer ha-Terumot », and maintained learned relations with Abraham ibn Daoud (the RABaD). His grandson cites him as author of a commentary on the Pentateuch, and Nahmanide as author of the « Sha'are Tefisah », a work on unlawful seizures.
One of the first Kabbalists, whom tradition — not without reservation — presents as the true founder of Kabbalah, whose secrets were allegedly revealed to him in a vision by the prophet Elijah. Isaac transmitted them to Jacob Nazir, who taught them to Abraham b. David, who in turn entrusted them to his son Isaac the Blind.
Spanish philologist of the twelfth century, originally from Calatayud, in Aragon, student of Juda ha-Lévi and Abraham ibn Ezra, from whom he reports remarks, notably on the inadmissibility of meter in Hebrew poetry. Only his biblical lexicon has survived: conceived in Salerno, where he observes the ignorance of Judeo-Spanish literature, he completes it in 1160 under the title « Maḥberet he-'Aruk », drawing essentially on the lexicon of ibn Janaḥ supplemented by Ḥayyuj.
King of Aragon (1196-1213), who went to Rome in 1204 to receive his crown from the hands of Pope Innocent III and swore to him loyalty and persecution of heretics—a gesture that alarmed the Jews of his kingdom, fearing expulsion. Upon his return, on December 24, 1204, the Jews of Gerona or Barcelona welcomed him with the Torah scroll and proclaimed a general fast; their fears proved groundless, however, as the king, a spendthrift and often indebted to them, could not afford to dispense with them.
Rabbi of Dreux, who takes part in his old age in the great synod held before 1160 under the presidency of Jacob b. Meïr (Rabbenou Tam). Father of Menahem Vardimas, author of an « aqeda » of forty-five verses, he is also said to be the author of a manuscript, the « Sefer Pereẓ », containing notes on the Masora.
Czech rabbi
Tosafist of the twelfth century, student of Samuel ben Meïr and Jacob Tam. He fell victim to the persecutions of the Second Crusade: while accompanying the remains of a parnas, he was assailed by the crusaders and killed, in a place that Ephraïm de Bonn locates and that Gross identifies with Carinthia, in Austria; according to a different and confused account by Joseph ha-Cohen, the event would have occurred at Ramerupt, where Jacob (Tam?) would have perished with him.
Traveler born in Prague, active between 1175 and 1190, who travels from Regensburg to the Orient crossing Poland, southern Russia, Armenia, Persia, Babylonia and Palestine. His travel notes, collected by his compatriot Judah b. Samuel he-Ḥasid, first appear under the abbreviated title « Sibbub » in Prague in 1595, then in Latin translation by Wagenseil (Strasbourg, 1687), in Hebrew and French by Carmoly (Paris, 1831), and in Hebrew and English by A. Benisch (London, 1856), the latest edition appearing in Lemberg in 1859.
Grandson of Rashi and a major figure of the Tosafists, he led the talmudic school of Ramerupt in Champagne. His halakhic rulings left a lasting mark on Ashkenazi Judaism.
One of the most celebrated and venerated tzaddikim of Moroccan Judaism, whose tomb stands on a mountain approximately 16 km from the village of Agouim, between Ouarzazate and Marrakech; his hiloula is celebrated on Rosh Hodesh Heshvan. According to a tradition reported on the symbolic stele, he would have been born on Rosh Hodesh Kislev of the year 4922 (1162). The sages of Jerusalem would have chosen him as an emissary (shadar) to collect donations intended for the talmidei hakhamim and the poor of the city, because of his immense erudition, his piety and his talents as a preacher. A famous miracle recounts that a menora of fire descended from heaven to mark the place of his burial, and numerous songs and piyutim were composed in his honor.
Master established in Morocco with whom Maimonides came to study Torah after leaving Córdoba (Spain), at a time when Morocco was renowned as a center of study.
Samuel ben Meir, grandson of Rashi, was a biblical commentator devoted to the literal sense (peshat) and a Tosafist. He also commented on talmudic tractates left unfinished by his grandfather.
Alleged martyr of a ritual murder accusation in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, in 1181. The circumstances of his death are not known, but the expulsion of Jews from the city, ten years later, is doubtless connected to it.
Salomon ben Abraham ibn Daoud, physician and translator, belonged according to Kaufmann and Gross to the family of the Spanish translator Abraham ben David ha-Lévi of Toledo. He translates under the title « Miklol » the medical work of Averroes, the « Kulliyyat ». According to Steinschneider, he might be the same as this Salomon Daoud to whom is attributed the translation into Hebrew, from Arabic, of a treatise on psychology and metaphysics preserved in the Turin library.
Salomon ben Isaac of Orléans, French tosafist of the twelfth century, is the senior colleague of tosafist Joseph ben Isaac of Orléans, with whom he co-signs responsa. Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi, citing a responsum signed by the two men, admits not knowing whether this R. Salomon is Rachi — proof that the two scholars were sometimes confused with each other. He maintains scholarly correspondence with his contemporary Rabbenou Tam, who addresses him sometimes by his full name, sometimes simply as « Rabbi Salomon ».
Solomon ben Méir, French biblical grammarian and exegete of the 12th century, grandson of Rachi, is the brother of the tosafists Isaac ben Méir (RIBaM), Samuel ben Méir (RaSHBaM) and Jacob Tam — although ancient authorities long recognized only three sons of Méir. It was in 1874 that A. Berliner discovered at the Vatican Library fragments of the biblical commentary of Abraham b. Azriel citing a commentary by Solomon, sometimes called « Solomon ben Méir », sometimes « Solomon, brother of Rabbenou Tam » — confirming his existence as the fourth son of Méir ben Samuel and earning him the title of « father of grammarians ». He served as « cheliaḥ tsibbour » at Ramerupt.
Salomon ibn Zaqbel, Spanish poet of the twelfth century, relative of Abou Omar Joseph ibn Sahl, who died in 1124, is the author of a satirical novel composed in the manner of Arabic "Maqamat," a genre that Juda al-Ḥarizi would later imitate in Hebrew in his famous "Taḥkemoni." The hero of this novel, Asher ben Juda, recounts in rhymed prose, interspersed with short poems of rigorous rhythm, his amorous adventures marked by disappointments and reversals of fortune—a work remarkable for the elegance of its language and for the blend of profound thought and levity that Juda al-Ḥarizi himself praised in his "Taḥkemoni."
Solomon the Egyptian, physician to the Byzantine emperor Emmanuel Comnène, lived in Constantinople in the second half of the 12th century. According to Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the city in 1176, Solomon enjoyed great esteem with the emperor, and it was through his influence that the Jews of Constantinople, though in a situation of oppression, benefited from certain advantages — notably their attachment to the jurisdiction of the municipal authorities, probably obtained through his intervention.
Author of the Tosafot of Sens, departed for the Holy Land around 1211.
Tosafist of the twelfth century, grandfather of the Tosafists Isaac b. Abraham of Dampierre and Samson of Sens, in scholarly correspondence with Jacob Tam, who esteemed him greatly. He is the author of tosafot on the talmudic treatises Shabbat, Erouvin, Yevamot and Hullin, as well as ritual decisions cited under the title « Pesaqim »; one of them, authorizing a nursing woman to remarry within three months of her divorce, was severely criticized by Jacob Tam.
person associated with Hebrew manuscripts
French Tosafist of the 12th and 13th centuries, disciple and correspondent of Isaac b. Samuel the Elder of Dampierre, mentioned in the Tosafot, the « Or Zarua' » and the « Haggahot Maimuniyyot » under the name « ha-Baḥour » (the young). He is sometimes confused with Samuel ben Ḥayyim, also cited as « Samuel of Verdun ».
Leader of the Erfurt community in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Author of several piyyoutim, including five for marriages celebrated on a Sabbath and others for the Friday evening service and for certain special Sabbaths, he died as a martyr with his wife Hannah on June 16, 1221.
Tosafist, liturgical poet, and twelfth-century philosopher, surnamed « the Prophet », who seems to have lived in Spain and then in France. He is cited in the tosafot and by Samuel b. Meïr (Rachbam), and from him are preserved a commentary on the treatise Tamid as well as a liturgical poem, the « Shir ha-Yiḥoud », a philosophical hymn on the unity of God in seven parts corresponding to the seven days of the week, inspired by the « Keter Malkhout » of Ibn Gabirol. Its recitation, forbidden by Solomon Louria, was defended by other rabbis, including Samuel Juda Katzenellenbogen, who wrote a commentary on it.
French liturgical poet, author of a « reshout » in Aramaic recited with the targoum of the haftara of Shavuot, composed of sixty rhymed hemistichs and signed « Samuel ha-Ketabi ». According to Gross, this enigmatic designation would refer to the name of his native city, Chartres, whose resemblance to the old French word « charte » would have inspired this Aramaic adjective.
Masorite and grammarian of the twelfth century, author of a grammatical work, the « Deyaqout », preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin, which treats various points of grammar and accentuation and testifies, according to Steinschneider, to the beginnings of grammatical study among the Jews of France before the influence of Qimḥi or the Spanish school. He might be identical to a certain Samuel the Pointer, mentioned in a fiscal roll of 1194 as residing in Bristol.
French Orthodox rabbi
Scholar of the 12th century, student of Rashi, author of several works that remained mostly in manuscript form: notes on the construction of the Tabernacle edited by Berliner in 1864, an exegesis of Deuteronomy, a commentary on the Mahzor, glosses on the Pentateuch and a commentary on the Song of Songs. He is often mistakenly confused with Chemaya of Troyes.
Tosafist of the early 12th century, student of Rashi and probably the father-in-law of Samuel b. Meïr, cited as a tosafist in several Talmudic treatises. The Sefer ha-Likkoutim is attributed to him, and the Sefer ha-Pardes of Rashi as it has come to us appears to be a compilation he made from the original; his Peirouch, commentary on the tractate Middot, was printed in the Talmud of 1522.
German tosafist of the first half of the twelfth century, student of the tosafist Isaac b. Asher, considered an eminent authority on religious rites; Jacob b. Meïr Tam himself consulted him on a difficult question. Among his students was Juda b. Kalonymos b. Meïr, author of the Yihoussé Tannaïm wa-Amoraïm, who designated him as his « old master », a sign that he died at an advanced age — contrary to what has sometimes been claimed, Eleazar of Worms was not his student.
French physician
Rabbi of Fès, twelfth century. Mentioned in 4874 of the Hebrew era (1114). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-4.
Simḥa b. Samuel of Vitry, French Talmudist of the eleventh and twelfth centuries who died in 1105, was a disciple of Rashi and the compiler of the Maḥzor of Vitry, which brings together decisions and rules of religious practice as well as responsa from Rashi and other authorities, contemporary or earlier. His grandson, R. Isaac the Elder, also mentions this Maḥzor as the work of his grandfather; the work subsequently received various additions, notably those of R. Isaac b. Dorbolo and Abraham b. Nathan Yarḥi, author of the "Ha-Manhig."
French scholar and liturgical poet, active in Narbonne in the first half of the twelfth century, son of Kalonymus the Great, a renowned scholar of Narbonne in the eleventh century. A war of succession opposing Narbonne to the count of Toulouse, which lasted nearly ten years, overwhelmed the Jews of the city, and Todros had to pawn his people to pay the war taxes imposed on them; he is the author of Azharot, liturgical poems. His nephew, Todros ben Moses, active in Narbonne around the middle of the twelfth century, signed around 1150 a responsum with other rabbis of the city.
French Jewish rabbi
French merchant and rabbi
Tosafist and liturgical poet, martyred in York, England, in March 1190, when the Jews of the city, sheltering in the fortress and cornered by the crowd after several days of resistance, chose on his counsel voluntary death rather than forced conversion. Disciple of Rabbenu Tam and called "the Holy," he was also biblical exegete and poet: he is credited with the hymn "Omnam Ken," sung on the eve of Kippur, a penitential prayer in fourteen strophes, and an elegy on the Jewish martyrs of Blois.
Almoravid king of Spain in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the sole Almoravid sovereign hostile to Jews, whom he attempted for a time to force to convert to Islam. Passing through Lucena in 1105, where he discovered a flourishing Jewish community, he summoned its representatives and threatened to withdraw his protection if they did not convert, invoking a promise that Jews were to embrace Islam if the Messiah had not come five hundred years after the Hegira; the Jews of Lucena averted the danger by offering him, through his vizier, substantial sums of money.
Rabbi, Talmudist
Talmudic author and liturgical poet of the twelfth century, disciple of Moses ben Joseph of Narbonne, from the Spanish family Yiẓhari of Girona before settling in Lunel, where he taught — his student Samuel ibn Tibbon recognized him as a greater scholar than himself. His major work, the « Sefer ha-Ma'or », a critique of Alfassi begun in his youth, provoked refutations from Nahmanide and Abraham ben David of Posquières; printed alongside Alfassi since 1552, it remains the work by which Zerahia remained famous.
Born in Gérone, active in Lunel, author of the Sefer ha-Maor criticizing the Rif.
English grammarian and lexicographer of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, probable son of a Jewess of Cambridge named Comitissa, whence his epithet "Hanessiah". He is the author of the "Sefer ha-Shoham" (Book of the Onyx), part of which was published at Oxford in 1882, demonstrating his knowledge of Arabic and the work of Joseph Ḳimḥi; a tombstone of a "Rabbi Moses son of Rabbi Isaac" from the Jewish cemetery of Jewin Street, if it is his, would date his death before 1215.
Spanish talmudist
German Talmudist of the 13th century, at the head of a rabbinical court to which Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg deferred in one of his responsa. Abigdor ha-Kohen, chief rabbi of Austria, corresponded regularly with him and called him « my master »; he is probably identical to R. Aaron mentioned in the « Or Zarua ».
Karaite theologian born in Cairo around 1300, died in Constantinople in 1369, long established in Nicomedia in Asia Minor, hence his nickname; called Aaron the Younger to distinguish him from Aaron ben Joseph. He completed in 1346 his philosophical work "'Eẓ ha-Ḥayyim", modeled on the "Moreh Nebukim" of Maimonides which he combats elsewhere, then "Gan Eden" on biblical commandments (1354) and "Keter Torah", commentary on the Pentateuch (1362); a compiler and eclectic, he adhered to the system of the Motazilites rather than Aristotelianism.
14th-century Provençal rabbi and scholar
Talmudist and critic, direct descendant of Zerahiah ha-Lévi and probably like him from Gérone, Spain, active at the end of the 13th century and died before 1303; student of Nahmanide in Gérone, he was rabbi in Saragossa in 1285. Author of Talmudic commentaries and « Peḳudat ha-Lewiyim » on the Halakhot of Alfasi, he owes his reputation chiefly to « Bedeḳ ha-Bayit », a critique of « Torat ha-Bayit » by his opponent Salomon ben Adret.
Teacher, philosopher, physician and Karaite liturgical poet of Constantinople, born in Sulchat, Crimea, around 1260 and died around 1320; called the Elder to distinguish him from Aaron ben Élie of Nicomedia. Spiritual leader of the Karaite community of his native city from the age of nineteen, he contributed to the renewal of Karaism with philosophical elements borrowed from rabbinic literature and composed in 1294 the « Mibḥar », commentary on the Pentateuch in the manner of Ibn Ezra.
Rabbi and French scholar born toward the middle of the thirteenth century and died in the first quarter of the fourteenth, Aaron ben Perez of Avignon was among the principal scholars of the community of Argentière, in Languedoc. He appeared, with other influential members of this community, among the signatories of an address sent to Solomon ben Adret during the great anti-Maimonidean controversy of 1303-05, an address intended to support Abba Mari in his struggle against the spread of doctrines deemed false.
French Jewish martyr
Kabbalist of whom little is known, author of the "Ḳarnayim", a work of "deep secrets" long wrongly attributed to Isaac b. Abraham b. David called "the Blind", and published for the first time in Zolkiev in 1709 with the commentary "Dan Yadin" by Simon b. Pesaḥ of Astropol. He refers in it to two other of his writings, "Kitro Yeshu'ah" and "Peraḥ Ẓiẓ".
Spanish Talmudist of the late thirteenth century, author of the "Sefer ha-Ḥinnuk" (Book of Education), an anonymous work long attributed to Aaron ben Joseph ha-Levi and considered the first book of Jewish religious instruction of the Middle Ages. Instructor of youth of modest condition, he enumerates in it the six hundred and thirteen commandments of Mosaic Law according to the order of weekly readings, emphasizing their ethical significance and drawing on Alfasi, Maimonides and Naḥmanide.
Rabbi of Lunel and Montpellier, instigator of the Maimonidean controversy.
Spanish scholar of the thirteenth century, Juda ben Samuel ibn Abbas is the author of the « Minḥat Yehoudah », also called « Mekor Ḥayyim », composed according to his account at the age of twenty and of a moral and religious character. Its fifteenth chapter presents a complete program of studies, in which the reading and interpretation of the Bible precede morality, medicine, arithmetic, logic, physics and, finally, metaphysics.
Physician, son of Abd-al-Aziz, son of Muhasan ha-Israeli, from a lineage of Jewish physicians, active around 1300. He completed on August 30, 1316 an Arabic work entitled « The Two Sciences », in two parts devoted one to physics, the other to metaphysics, presented in question and answer form; the manuscript is preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Physician ordinary to King James I of Aragon, to whom he was granted in January 1271 or 1272 an annual allowance of 500 sueldos. His name probably derives from the Arabic Ibn Tarf.
The earliest of the great Talmudists of Austria, active around the middle of the thirteenth century. Student of Rabbi Simḥa of Speyer (who flourished around 1220) and close to Rabbi Joel ha-Levi of Bonn (around 1175), he lived in Vienna, from where he directed the religious affairs of the Jewish community of Austria. He left a manuscript commentary on the Pentateuch and the five Megillot, as well as Tosafot on the tractate Ketubbot, and counted among his disciples the famous Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg.
French rabbinical scholar who lived in the second half of the thirteenth century, probably identical to « Abigdor the Frenchman » mentioned in old manuscripts as author of a commentary on the Maḥzor and an adherent of the Kabbalah. He could also be the son of rabbi Isaac of Béziers, cited by Naḥmanide in a letter to the Jewish community of that city.
Jew converted to Christianity and polemical writer against his former religion, born in 1270 and died in 1348 or shortly after. Trained in biblical studies, talmudic studies, and Peripatetic philosophy, he became a physician and then converted late in life, for a reason that his contemporaries judged more material than spiritual; he received in reward a position as sacristan at the metropolitan church of Valladolid, from which he took the name Alphonse. He later filed a complaint with King Alphonse XI of Castile against his former coreligionists, which resulted in a royal edict in February 1336.
Founder of ecstatic kabbalah, born in Saragossa, theorist of letter combinations.
French poet
Talmudist and grammarian of Bohemia, active in the first half of the thirteenth century, probably established in Prague. He is the author of a commentary on the Maḥzor entitled "Arougat ha-Bossem", one of the earliest known Jewish literary texts in Slavic lands, where he followed the method of the exegetes of northern France, particularly that of the Rashbam, frequently cited. His explanation of obscure Hebrew words by their equivalents in the Bohemian vernacular attests the use of the vernacular among the Jews of Bohemia of his time.
Author of ritual treatises, brother of Meïr of Rothenburg, he lived in southern Germany toward the end of the thirteenth century. He wrote the « Sefer Sinaï », a collection of legal and ritual decisions compiled from various rabbinical authorities, still preserved in manuscript in Wittenberg. He is mentioned by his contemporary Rabbi Mordekhaï ben Hillel Ashkenazi, author of « Mordekhaï ».
Catalan-Jewish physician
Kabbalist of the thirteenth century, author of several works on the Kabbalah: the "Sefer ha-Brit", cited by Moses Botarel in the introduction to his commentary on Sefer Yetsira; the "Brit Menouḥa", highly valued by Isaac Louria for the depth of its commentaries and whose style, as well as the manner in which Simon ben Yoḥaï is introduced as speaker, strongly recalls the Zohar; and the "Meguallé ha-Taaloumot", cited by the author in the previous work.
Active in the thirteenth century in Barcelona, Spain. According to De Rossi, an unpublished philosophical work from his hand, in four parts, titled "Arbaa Tourim," is preserved among the manuscripts of the Vatican Library; in it he treats the existence of God, divine providence, the reasons for Mosaic laws, and the purpose of Jewish prayers.
Hebrew translator and poet of Barcelona, active around 1230, ardent defender of Maimonides during the Maimonidean controversy. He translated from Arabic to Hebrew several major philosophical and ethical works, in a clear and elegant style, and adapted a famous tale of Indian origin. He had a brother, Judah ibn Hasdai, and is believed to be the son of the poet Samuel ibn Abraham ibn Hasdai ha-Levi (1165–1216).
Medical author born in the mid-thirteenth century, probably in Marseille, where his father, Chem-Tov ben Isaac of Tortosa, practiced medicine. He wrote a medical manual in ninety-one paragraphs, two manuscripts of which are preserved in the National Library of Paris. He is also designated by the name « Abraham the Hebrew of Tortosa » in Bonafos Bonfil Astruc, and « Abraham Judæus Tortuosensis » in Simon of Genoa. He participated in the translation of « Serapion of Simplicibus » (printed in 1473) and translated a chapter of « Liber Practicæ » under the title « Liber Servitoris », of which the Latin version survives, printed in Venice in 1471.
Talmudic scholar active in Italy in the early thirteenth century. Some of his interpretations and decisions are reported by Zedekia ben Abraham Anav, author of the « Shibolei ha-Leket » (Ears of Gleaning), who probably had access to some of his manuscripts. Abraham showed critical spirit in judging that the verse of Isaiah « I form the light and create darkness » was aimed at Zoroastrian dualism.
Abraham ben Solomon of Zamora is an eschatological writer of the 13th century. His work, preserved in the Munich library (Codex 47, 7d), has never been published; it has been supposed that one of the works of Abraham ibn Ḥiyyah would have been dedicated to him, although bibliographic sources sometimes confuse him with Solomon ben Abraham. A scribe bearing the same name copied, in 1299, a manuscript preserved in the Saraval collection.
Commentator who lived in Spain around 1300, he is the author of a commentary on the Talmudic treatise Baba Batra, preserved in manuscript at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England.
Skilled oculist active in the middle of the thirteenth century. Shortly after the council of Béziers forbade, in 1246, Jewish physicians to practice, he was solicited by Alphonse, count of Poitou and Toulouse and brother of Louis IX of France, to treat an eye ailment from which the latter suffered. A man of independent character, Abraham at first refused, considering that even the brother of a king was not exempt from the conciliar decree, and only agreed to treat him after the insistence of the lord of Lunel and his Jewish agent.
False messiah and miracle-worker who lived at the end of the thirteenth century, whose very identity remains uncertain, although the facts are well attested by Salomon ben Adret and by the apostate Abner of Burgos. An illiterate man, he claimed to have written, by the intervention of an angel, a work entitled « Wonders of Wisdom »; coming to Avila, in Spain, provided with a forged letter from David Ashkenazi, he announced that messianic times would begin on the last day of the fourth month of the year 1295, which aroused anxiety and then the cautious skepticism of Salomon ben Adret.
German rabbi active around 1240, considered the most eminent disciple of Eleazar of Worms. According to Salomon ben Adret, he went to the court of the King of Castile under the assumed name of Nathan, in order to conceal his identity, and preached before numerous eminent rabbis, showing great erudition. He is the author of a small work, the "Keter Chem Tov," whose final chapter, devoted to the Sefirot, makes him one of the earliest representatives of German mysticism to be acquainted with this doctrine.
Abraham of Toledo is the physician of King Alfonso X the Wise of Castile, who holds him in high esteem; he is active in the second half of the 13th century. At the king's request, he translates several works from Arabic into Spanish, notably Al-Heitham's treatise on the construction of the universe and, in 1277, the « Astrolabe » of Zarkali, which will serve as the basis for the Latin and Italian translations. He had already translated into Spanish, as early as 1264, the seventieth sura of the Quran, a text which will in turn found a French translation.
Tosafist whose precise identity remains uncertain: he is cited under this name alone in the « Piské Tossafot », and he is probably one of the many German or French tosafists named Abraham, the addition « ha-Lévi » having possibly been omitted for convenience. He could be identical to Abraham ben Baruch, brother of Meïr (ha-Lévi) of Rothenburg, who flourished around 1225-93 and of whom a work survives in manuscript.
French rabbi
Almohad Sultan, sovereign of Morocco and southern Spain in the early 13th century, he ascended the throne after his father Abou Youssouf Yaacoub (1184-98), who had imposed on Jews converted to Islam the wearing of distinctive clothing — a black robe with long sleeves and coarse veil as headwear. The Jews of the Maghreb attempted in vain to obtain the repeal of this law from him; he merely changed its color, imposing yellow upon them instead, at the origin of the distinctive costume worn by Jews in the Middle Ages.
Spanish poet of the thirteenth century, died at sea in 1259 or 1260, he converted to Islam under pressure from Almohad power, although it was believed in Spain that he had returned to his faith before dying. His poems, chiefly religious in character, are among the first to develop the muwashshaḥ, a poem with rhymes in the form of a girdle repeated in each stanza.
Perhaps identical to Moses ben Joseph Ḥazan, who lived in Toledo in 1245 and maintained business relations with Alphonse X the Wise, king of Castile, he informed the latter, while he was in Cuenca in 1271, of the commercial relations he maintained with the infante, Don Nuño de Lara and the magnates of Castile.
Spanish tax farmer established in Villa-Real or Ciudad-Real, he exercised his office during the reign of María de Molina (1300-10). Owner of a large fulling mill named « Batanejo », he is in prolonged dispute with his partner Israël Alḥadad, a dispute that the queen eventually entrusts to R. Asher ben Jehiel of Toledo. His daughter Dinah, wife of Abraham ben Xuxen, died of the plague in Toledo in 1349.
English theologian, member of the Franciscan order, born in Gloucestershire and died in Paris in 1245, where he had studied then taught. He is regarded as the initiator of Christian scholastic reform in the 13th century, being the first to make systematic use of Aristotelian logic in theology in his "Summa Universæ Theologiæ". Firm in his convictions but tolerant toward Jews, he pleads for them to be treated with indulgence — since it is through them that Christians received the Law and that Jesus descended from their people — and opposes constraining them to baptism or confiscating their property.
German rabbi
Aristotelian Jewish philosopher
Liturgical poet of the 13th century, perhaps established in Spain, author of a "zoulat" — liturgical poem placed between the Shema and the Amida — composed for the Passover service.
Physician and rabbi in Rome at the beginning of the 13th century, father of Shedaiah, author of the « Shibbolé ha-Léket », and of Benjamin, liturgical poet.
Jewish merchant in Rome in the 13th century, in commercial relations with the papal court, alongside other Jewish merchants — Sabbatinus, Museus, Salamon and Consiliolus — associated in business with Christians enjoying Roman citizenship, though not themselves belonging to the merchants' corporation. A bull by Pope Alexander IV, dated Naples 1 February 1255, exempts them from the circulation tax.
Daughter of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, she lives in Erfurt, where she dies as a martyr under the blows of crusaders, on December 6, 1213 or 1214. Her mother, Dolce, and her sister, Bellette, meet the same fate.
The most eminent of medieval Christian theological philosophers, born in 1227 in Aquino, in the kingdom of Naples, died in 1274. Like his master Albert the Great, he sought to reconcile philosophy and religion; though a Dominican little disposed toward Jews, he did not hesitate to draw from Jewish philosophical sources, notably in his major work, the "Summa Theologiae", which betrays a profound knowledge of Avicebron (ibn Gabirol) and all the Jewish philosophy of his time. His theodicy is modeled on that of Jewish philosophers: of his five proofs of the existence of God, three are directly borrowed from Maimonides and Baḥya ibn Paqouda.
Eminent Talmudist born around 1250 in western Germany, died in Toledo, Spain, in 1328. From a family reputed for its learning and piety, he became the most eminent disciple of Meïr b. Baruch of Rothenburg, left Germany under circumstances probably forced, settled first in the south of France then in Toledo, where he became rabbi on the recommendation of Solomon Adret. An advocate of strict orthodoxy, he showed hostility to lenient legal decisions and the study of philosophy, while claiming the right not to blindly follow the authority of the great masters.
Son of Abraham ben David of Posquières, active around the middle of the 13th century, disciple of his uncle Isaac the Blind and one of the first Kabbalist authors. He writes a commentary on the thirteen attributes of God and another on the Tetragrammaton and the Sefirot, of which only a small part has been published; in it he seeks to reconcile the number of ten Sefirot with the thirteen divine attributes of the Talmud, identifying the Sefirot with the ten spheres of philosophers and connecting the thirteen attributes to the three median Sefirot—love, justice, mercy. Trained by his father, he also confers with Jacob ben Samuel of Anduze, Meïr ben Simon and Abraham ben Isaac of Carcassonne.
Talmudic lexicographer, active in Osnabrück, in Prussia, toward the end of the 13th century, student of Samuel ben Baroukh of Bamberg. He composes explanations of various parts of the Maḥzor, severely criticizing the « men of France and the islands of the sea » for having altered the liturgy. He is best known for having compiled, in 1290, within the space of five weeks, a small edition of the Aroukh for his nephew Isaac ben Eleazar ha-Lévi — a recension of one hundred and forty-two folios that will serve as the basis for Buxtorf's « Lexicon Hebræo-Chaldaicum ». He should not be confused with a namesake of the 12th century who lived in Worms.
Provençal scholar, active in Béziers towards the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. Almost nothing is known of his life or scholarly activity; his name is transmitted to us through his relative, or perhaps his grandson, Abraham Bédersi, who, in an elegy composed at the death of Don Bonafos Roguet, also mourns Astruc de Gabbai, who had died several years earlier.
Austrian talmudist, one of the first tosafists of Vienna.
Head of the Academy of Baghdad before being displaced by a rival, he lived in the thirteenth century and was a contemporary of Al-Ḥarizi, who harshly ridiculed his poetry. Only one poem by him survives, a « girdle-poem » (muwashshaḥ) on friendship, rigorously metered and rhymed, in which his name appears as an acrostic—a piece judged to be of great merit both in form and content.
English philosopher and scholar of the thirteenth century, born in Ilchester around 1214 and died around 1294, he studied at Oxford then in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in theology, and became a Franciscan around 1250. His reputation for universal erudition and his experiments earned him the title of « doctor mirabilis », but also suspicions of magic that caused him to be closely watched in Paris for ten years. In 1266, Pope Clement IV asked him for his research, from which arose his three great treatises, « Opus Majus », « Opus Minus » and « Opus Tertium »; having returned to Oxford in 1268, he was nevertheless imprisoned for fourteen years starting in 1278, on condemnation of his writings.
Physician of the thirteenth century, court physician to King James I of Aragon, he accompanied him during the conquest of Majorca where he served as interpreter between the Arabic-speaking Majorcan Moors and the king, who understood only Limousin. In the controversy over the writings of Maimonides, he became the principal defender of the philosopher and wrote in 1232 an appeal to the Jewish communities of Aragon to recognize the excommunication pronounced against Solomon ben Abraham of Montpellier and his followers.
One of the most distinguished biblical exegetes of Spain, born around the middle of the thirteenth century in Saragossa and died in 1340, he was a student of Solomon ben Adret but devoted himself, unlike his master, to biblical exegesis rather than the Talmud, taking Moses ben Nahman as his model, the first to introduce the Kabbalah into the interpretation of Scripture. Preacher in Saragossa for a meager salary, he composed a commentary on the Pentateuch combining four methods he deemed essential — the simple sense, haggadic midrash, philosophical exegesis through Reason, and the way of the Kabbalah.
Talmudist and prolific liturgical poet (payetan), active in Germany in the early thirteenth century, he dies in Mainz on April 25, 1221. Student of Moses b. Solomon ha-Cohen of Mainz and Eliezer b. Samuel of Metz, he was one of the most eminent German rabbis of his time and participated in 1220 in the rabbinic synod of Mainz. His penitential poems and laments were incorporated into German and Polish rituals.
Provençal poet born in Béziers, whose exact birth and death dates are unknown. An elegy of youth on the « Confiscation of the Books of the Law » is linked, according to scholars, either with the auto-da-fé of the Talmud in Paris around 1242, or with its confiscation in Aragon in 1264; in the latter case, Bedersi could have been active around 1240. He may have gone to Perpignan as early as 1273, where he followed the teaching of Joseph Ezobi, and took refuge in Narbonne in 1285, during the war between France and Roussillon.
Prominent French Jew, established in Toulouse in the early 13th century, whose name appears in numerous acts with the title of "Dominus", a mark of superior rank, and whose wife, Domina Montaniera, herself had to consent to sales. Owner of an immense patrimony, he becomes in July 1202, with his brother Abraham, holder of lands belonging to the Templars, then, on April 2, 1203 and again in 1207, purchaser of goods sold by the Knights of Saint-John. His domains were several times confiscated by Raymond VII, but he always managed to recover them.
Elder brother of Zedekiah, liturgical poet (paytan) and physician in Rome, author of the satirical poem Massa Gei Hizzayon.
Liturgical poet and talmudist of Rome, author of the Massa Gei Hizzayon.
Benjamin of Canterbury, or of Cambridge, is an English rabbi, disciple of Rabbenou Tam, died in the early thirteenth century. Only one halakhic ruling is known from him — prohibiting the purchase of milk from a non-Jew in the absence of a Jew — and attributed notes on Joseph Ḳimḥi's « Sefer ha-Galuy »; he appears to have belonged to the English school of Massoretes and grammarians, and could be identified with the « Magister Benjamin » of Cambridge mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of 1204.
Benjamin Yerushalmi is an exile from Jerusalem established in Bordeaux, said to be one of the authors of the « Wehou Raḥoum », recited in the morning prayers on Mondays and Thursdays.
Benveniste ben Ḥiyyah ben Aldayyan, also called Al-Yasis (the Elder), is a thirteenth-century physician and religious poet, author of three metrical "baḳḳashot" mentioned by Zunz. At his request, Jacob ben Eléazar undertook the translation into Hebrew, from Arabic, of the "Kalīla wa-Dimna", and preceded this translation with verses in his praise.
English tosafist of the Tosafot Hakhmei Anglia, from Lincoln.
Jewish fabulist and grammarian, author of the Mishlé Choualim (Fox Fables), a Hebrew adaptation of European and Eastern fables. He likely lived in England and France.
Berḳamani ibn Abu al-Ḥasan, also called Barḳamani, is a physician and author probably active in the first half of the thirteenth century, who composed for an emir a treatise on hygiene in ten chapters, of which a manuscript copy is preserved in the Imperial Library of Berlin and described by Steinschneider. Composed at the request of a dignitary of Alexandria and citing no author prior to Maimonides, the work reveals in its author a familiarity with medical literature that suggests he himself practiced medicine.
Bernard de Gordon is a Christian physician probably born in Gordon, in Guyenne, professor of medicine at Montpellier around the year 1300. His « Lilium Medicinæ » was widely read by Jews and underwent several Hebrew translations, including that of Jekuthiel b. Solomon (Maestro Bonsenior) of Narbonne in 1387 and that of Moses ben Samuel of Roquemaure, in the Gard, in 1360.
Berthold of Ratisbonne, nicknamed « Rusticanus », was a monk and itinerant preacher born around 1220 and died in Ratisbonne on December 14, 1272, one of the most famous popular preachers of the Middle Ages, who travelled through Bavaria, the Rhineland provinces, Alsace, Austria, Moravia, Hungary, Silesia and Bohemia. A man of the Church steeped in the prejudices of his time, he nevertheless treated the Jews with relative benevolence: he opposed their forced conversion, judged kings bound to protect their property and persons as those of Christians, and cited their assiduity in prayer as an example for his listeners.
Boleslas the Pious, duke of Kalisz, died in 1278, renowned for his courage and administrative talents, more concerned with the welfare of his subjects than with conquests. Faced with the influx of Jews from neighboring lands, he promulgated in 1264 an edict of thirty-six articles granting them numerous privileges, in a spirit of tolerance far ahead of its time; these privileges were extended in 1334 by Casimir the Great to all the Jews of Poland.
Boleslas V the Chaste is king of Poland (1228-79). During his reign, in 1240, the Mongols of Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Poland and enslaved several thousand Jews; he also favored the immigration of German craftsmen and introduced Magdeburg law, which stirred up against Jews a hostility already present in Western Europe since the crusades — the beginning of persecutions in Poland, which did not end until with the beneficial legislation established in 1264 by Boleslas the Pious.
Bonafos (or Bonifas) Vidal is a Barcelona talmudist active at the end of the thirteenth century, who took a very active part in the anti-Maimonidean controversy and also attempted to dissuade his brother, Crescas Vidal of Perpignan, from studying philosophy; his two letters to the latter are printed in the collection « Minḥat Ḳena'ot » (Pressburg, 1838).
Meïr ben Salomon Bongodas is a Provençal poet active at the end of the thirteenth century, cited in the diwan of Abraham Bedersi, chosen as arbiter in a controversy opposing him to Don Salomon over the value of their Aramaic poems; according to Neubauer, he would be identical to Meïr ben Salomon Dels-Enfantz, to whom Jedaïa Bedersi dedicated his work "Oheb Nashim".
Astruc Bonsenyor, native of Barcelona, was from 1259 at the latest, dragoman and Arabic secretary to King Jaime I of Aragon, who died in 1280; he accompanied him in his campaigns as interpreter, was sent in 1265 to the besieged Saracens of Murcia, and enjoyed particular royal favor which allowed him to enlarge his house in the Jewish quarter; he is mentioned in a Barcelona document dated 1258.
Bonviva, or in French Bonnevie, ben Isaac is a French tosafist active probably in the early thirteenth century at Château-Thierry, mentioned with his father in a manuscript of Tossafot on the treatise Betza; he may be another name for Ḥayyim ben Isaac, of whom an important legal decision is cited in the "Mordekhaï".
Author active in Arles in the middle of the thirteenth century, perhaps died in Perpignan towards the end of that century; according to Abraham Zacuto and others, he was the father of Lévi ben Gerson (Gersonide). He compiled around 1280 an encyclopedia entitled Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, which reproduces many quotations and entire treatises drawn from translations of Arabic works, divided, following Ibn Palquera, into three parts devoted to physics, astronomy and theology — the latter being, by his own admission, only a reproduction of Maimonides' Book of the Soul. The work was published in Venice in 1547 and in Rödelheim in 1801.
13th century French Biblical commentator
Spanish philosopher and encyclopedist, popularizer of Aristotelian philosophy and defender of Maimonides. Author of the Sefer ha-Mevakech.
Prominent figure in the community of Carcassonne, in France, who lived in the second half of the thirteenth century. Syndic of the Jews of the entire district, he obtained for them special jurisdiction and a decree from Philip the Fair guaranteeing the peaceful possession of the synagogues, cemeteries and other communal property of the city; according to several historians, he might be identical to the talmudist of Carcassonne in correspondence with Salomon ben Adret of Barcelona and the poet who exchanged verses with Abraham Bedersi, and would have, around 1304, resided in Carpentras as rabbi.
German Talmudist
Talmudist established in Damascus in the 13th century, Daniel ben Saadia Ha-Babli, student of the anti-Maimonidean Samuel b. Ali Halévi, conducts after the death of Maimonides a campaign against his work, in a more measured spirit than his master: he addresses to Abraham, son of Maimonides, forty-seven questions on the « Mishneh Torah » and thirteen on the « Book of Precepts ». The supporters of Maimonides demand his excommunication; Abraham merely responds with a treatise, but Daniel, then accusing him of not believing in evil spirits, denounces him as a heretic. The exilarch David of Mossoul, solicited by the Maimonidean camp, finally excommunicates Daniel, who dies of grief.
Florentine poet born in 1265 and died in Ravenna on September 14, 1321, Dante Alighieri, banned from his native city in 1302, lived thereafter in exile, protected in turn by princes of northern Italy such as Can Grande della Scala of Verona and Guido da Polenta of Ravenna, and composed his major work, the « Divine Comedy ». Certain passages have suggested that he knew Hebrew, which his own testimony nevertheless denies; his poem also inspires his contemporary Immanuel ben Salomon, with whom several scholars attribute to him a friendship formed perhaps at the court of Verona or at the home of their common friend Bosone, in Gubbio.
Neo-Hebrew poet from northern Spain died after 1417, Solomon ben Meshullam Dapiera, related to poet Meshullam ben Solomon Dapiera who had taken sides against the "Moreh Nebukim" of Maimonides, experiences wealth and then ruin; taking refuge in Saragossa with patron Benveniste ben Labi, he becomes tutor of his sons and scribe of the community, before resuming his wanderings and finding himself in Monzon in 1417, where he meets young poet En-Samuel Bonastruc. Counted among the finest Hebrew poets of his time, he compiles a rhyme dictionary in three parts, the "Imre No'ash", and leaves more than forty piyyoutim.
Eminent rabbi established in Avignon in the 13th century, David ben Isaac ha-Kohen is cited as master of R. Eliezer ben Immanuel of Tarascon by his grandson Aaron b. Jacob ha-Kohen of Narbonne, settled in Majorca in 1306, in his "Orḥot Ḥayyim", which also reports his ritual work, the "Hilkot Ṭerefot". In his exchanges of responsa with R. Samuel of Agde, R. Eliezer mentions him frequently as his master and cites in his name casuistic decisions of R. Nathan of Trinquetaille.
German Kabbalist active in the thirteenth century, probably the great-nephew rather than the son of Judah the Hasid, David ben Judah is an eminent kabbalist praised by Eleazar of Worms. He left in manuscript several unpublished treatises, including the « Sodot shel Ma'aseh Bereshit », a kabbalistic commentary on Creation, the « Ma'aseh Merkabah », a description of the Divine Throne-Chariot, the « Sefer ha-Gebul » on the names of God, and the « Or Zaru'a », a mystical commentary on prayers whose attribution Luzzatto contests, this text citing passages from the Zohar, composed later.
Rabbi of Narbonne active in the late 13th century and doubtless into the 14th, David ben Lévi is the author of the « Miktam », an important collection of halakhic decisions of the Talmud arranged in the order they appear in it, often cited in the « Orḥot Ḥayyim » of Aaron ha-Kohen, the « Kol Bo » of David Aboudarham and the « Bet Yosef » of Joseph Caro; decisions signed with his name also appear in the responsa of Solomon b. Adret. Correspondent of Isaac b. Isaac of Chinon, who held him for his master, he leaves a part of the « Miktam » and a fragment of his commentary on Alfassi preserved in manuscript.
Judge in Narbonne, author of the Sefer ha-Mikhtam, halakhic work based on the Rif.
active 1300
French rabbi of the first half of the 13th century, student of R. Solomon of Montpellier, David ben Saül is among the rabbis of Provence who condemned the philosophical works of Maimonides and the study of philosophy; he is also cited in an anonymous commentary on Baba Meṣi'a due to a Provençal rabbi, itself later incorporated into the responsa of Joseph ibn Lab and Joseph di Trani.
Rabbi of Fès, thirteenth century. Died in 5046 of the Hebrew era (1286). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-2.
Italian scholar active in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, David Kalonymus of Naples transcribed in several copies, for fear the original would be lost in the persecutions then striking Jews of Portugal and western Castile, the letter written in 1286 by Jessé b. Hezekiah, exilarch of Damascus, anathematizing the slanderers of Maimonides; his copy, completed in Naples, bears the date of the 1st of Av 5266, that is 1506. Steinschneider supposes him to be the son of Ḥayyim Kalonymus and father of Kalo Kalonymus.
Grammarian and biblical exegete from Narbonne, author of the Mikhlol and of widely circulated biblical commentaries. He took part in the Maimonidean controversy as a defender of the philosopher.
French scholar established in Château-Thierry in the second half of the twelfth century and at the beginning of the thirteenth, David the Pious is identified by Zunz with R. David ben Joseph, who adopted, with Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre and others, the decisions of the synod of Troyes convened around 1160 under the authority of Rabbenou Tam. He counts, around 1204 or 1205, among the scholars of northern France — including Salomon ben Juda the Saint of Dreux, the brothers Simson and Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre, Samson of Corbeil and Abraham of Touques — to whom Meïr ben Todros ha-Lévi Aboulafia addressed his epistle against the Maimonidean doctrine of resurrection.
Provençal poet of the second half of the 13th century, whom Renan supposes the surname « Debash » (honey) translates into Hebrew the Provençal name « Miles »; Isaiah ben Samuel Debash is known by two poems addressed to the poet Gorni, in which he defends another poet, Shiloni, whom Gorni had criticized; these two pieces are preserved in manuscript.
King of Portugal (1279-1325), nicknamed « the father of the fatherland », Denis I proved to be one of the most tolerant sovereigns of his time toward Jews: he ensured that judges did not infringe on their rights, refused to impose on them a distinctive sign or tithe to the Church despite canon law, and upheld the privileges granted by him or his predecessors. In 1295, he appointed Don Juda chief rabbi (« Arrabi Mor ») and treasurer; his son and successor, Don Gedalia, treasurer of the queen Dona Brites, received from the king two lands or two towers at Beja — favors which the Portuguese clergy denounced in vain to the pope.
Jew converted to Christianity active in Paris in the 13th century, Nicolas Donin, excommunicated in 1225 by R. Yehiel of Paris for questioning the oral tradition, embraced Christianity ten years later; he incited the crusaders to persecutions in Brittany, Poitou and Anjou, where 3,000 Jews were killed and 500 converted. In 1238, he denounced the Talmud to Rome before Pope Gregory IX in thirty-five articles, obtaining an order to seize it everywhere — an order followed especially in France, where Jews were forced to deliver it in March 1240; Louis IX had four rabbis respond at a public disputation, after which the Talmud was condemned to the stake.
Franciscan friar, theologian and scholastic, born in Dunston, in Northumberland (according to some, in Dun, Ireland), around 1266, died in Cologne in 1308. Leader of the Franciscan order and founder of the Scotist school, opposed to the Thomists, he defended toward the Jews positions harsher than those of Thomas Aquinas, going so far as to justify the forced baptism of Jewish children and their parents in the name of an authority superior to that of parents.
Rhenish mystic and halakhist, last great master of the Hasidei Ashkenaz, author of the Rokeach. He transmitted the esoteric teachings of Judah the Pious.
French Talmudist active in the first half of the 13th century, at the origin of the family of Latas, or Lattes — his son Jacob adopted this name after the city where the family resided. Isaac b. Jacob Lattes, author of the "Sha'are Ẓiyyon", mentions these two ancestors and attributes to one of them the paternity of several works, though it is uncertain whether it is Elijah, as Michael and Zunz think, or Jacob, as Gross maintains.
Oriental scholar of the second half of the thirteenth century, who translated into Hebrew, under the title « Megillat ha-'Ofer », an Arabic maqama comparable to the « Séances » of Ḥariri; a manuscript copy is preserved at the Bodleian, and the beginning of the text was published by Steinschneider in « Ha-Karmel ».
Member of a family of scholars established in Tarascon since the first half of the thirteenth century. Of his numerous writings only his correspondence with R. Samuel of Agde survives; he was the master of the Dominican convert Pablo Christiani.
French Talmudist born around 1255, martyred on the Jewish New Year, September 25, 1321. Student of Pérets ben Élie of Corbeil, whose sister he married, he is chiefly known for his correspondence and controversies, particularly that on the application to donation acts of the talmudic law striking retroactive documents with nullity, decided in his favor by Salomon ben Adret. He perished during the terrible persecutions known as "the lepers."
Italian Tosafist active in the early thirteenth century, disciple of Rabbi Isaac the Elder of Dampierre and grandfather of the philosopher and physician Hillel of Forlì. He authorized the remarriage of a young woman whose husband had probably perished at sea, a decision contested by Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi, provoking a controversy that involved other rabbis; he is often cited on biblical and halakhic questions.
French Talmudist of the 13th century, identified by Gross as Eliezer ben Aaron of Burgundy, one of the six rabbis to whom Meïr Aboulafia addressed his letter on the doctrine of resurrection. He is the author of a talmudic work now lost, « Sha'ar ha-Penim », mentioned by Aaron ha-Cohen of Lunel.
French tosafist died around 1234. In his youth, he was tutor in the house of the wealthy scholar Ézéchias ben Reuben of Boppard; his tosafot on the treatise Beitza are cited by Tsidqiya Anav in his "Shibbole ha-Leqeṭ".
Among the last Tosafists, and editor of many Tosefot compositions
Chief of the Jews of England from 1237 to 1257, died in London in 1284. He succeeded Aaron of York, represented London at the "Jewish Parliament" of Worcester in 1240, and was subjected by Henry III to considerable exactions; imprisoned in 1255 as guarantee of the Jews' tax, he was deposed two years later in favor of his brother Hagin. In 1259, he was said to have converted to Christianity and accused of preparing poison against nobles; yet, from 1266, he was again treated as a Jew and compensated for his losses during the Barons' War. Recognized expert in Jewish law, he remained one of the most important Jews of London until 1277 and also practiced as a physician.
German Talmudist of the 13th century, died before 1293, student of Simḥa of Speyer and Isaac b. Moses of Vienna, alongside Meïr b. Baruch. He was the master of Mordekhaï b. Hillel, who often cites his halakhic writings, and composed a seliḥa for the Minḥa of Yom Kippur whose initial words of the strophes form an acrostic of fourteen words.
Esdras, called the prophet of Montcontour, was a French tosafist active in the thirteenth century; according to Zunz, the title of « prophet » would be honorific, perhaps a Hebrew translation of his French name « Profiat ». He is cited in the Tosafot in several forms — Azriel, Ezra, Ezra ha-Nabi — and Gross identifies him with a disciple of Isaac ben Salomon the Elder.
Éliézer ben Ḥanan Ezobi was a Provençal poet established in Béziers in the 13th century, brother of the poet Joseph Ezobi and contemporary of Abraham Bédersi, with whom he exchanged poems. He composed a didactic poem of thirty stanzas on man, adopting the form of ibn Ezra's "Ben Adamah".
Joseph ben Ḥanan ben Nathan Ezobi was a liturgical poet established in Perpignan in the thirteenth century, author of several liturgical poems as well as the « Ḳa'arat Kesef », composed for the marriage of his son Samuel and printed in Constantinople in 1523. This latter text, in which he counsels his son on his studies and conduct, was translated into Latin by Reuchlin and later by Jean Mercier.
Kabbalist of the Gérone circle, commentator on the Song of Songs.
Faraj ben Salim, also called Moses Farachi of Girgenti, was an Italian physician and translator active in the second half of the thirteenth century, engaged by King Charles of Anjou to translate medical works from Arabic into Latin. He notably gave a Latin translation of the great medical collection of Rhazes, the « Al-Ḥawi », published in 1486 under the title « Continens », as well as a translation of the « Taḳwim al-Abdan » of Ali ibn Jazla, printed in Strasbourg in 1532.
Estori Farḥi, explorer of Palestine, was born around 1282 in Florenza, Spain, and died in Palestine, probably in 1357. Expelled from France with the Jews on 22 July 1306, he went to Perpignan, then left in 1312 for Palestine, where he settled in Bethsan, near Jerusalem, after refusing to remain in Jerusalem because of the anti-Maimonidean hostility that prevailed there. He recorded his research on the history, geography and antiquities of the Holy Land in his « Kaftor u-Feraḥ », whose sole manuscript disappeared upon his death, but copies of which were found and printed in Venice between 1545 and 1548.
King of Castile and Leon (1295-1312), son of Sancho IV, who came to the throne very young. He has as his confidant a Jew of Andalusia, Don Samuel, who directs his finances as "almojarife mor", and shows himself, unlike his regent mother Doña Maria de Molina, very favorable to the Jews: he puts an end to persecutions in the city of Ocaña against them upon his accession and grants considerable privileges to those of Valladolid. In recognition of the services rendered by the Jews during his wars against Portugal, Aragon and the Moors, notably at the conquest of Gibraltar, he completely exempts the Jews of that city from taxes.
Italian tosafist of the thirteenth century, contemporary of Éléazar ben Samuel and Isaïe ben Mali, of whom no biographical details are known. He is cited three times as a tosafist in the « Haggahot Maimuni », and it is known that he copied the tossafot of R. Juda on the tractate Berakhot.
Physician to Pope Nicholas IV or Boniface VIII in the late thirteenth century, for whom Nathan of Cento translated into Hebrew an Arabic work by Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili on the treatment of eye diseases. Esteemed by physicians Zerahiah ben Shealtiel Ḥen and Hillel ben Samuel of Verona, he received from the latter two long letters on the controversy regarding the doctrines of Maimonides, which he followed with interest.
Rabbi and Spanish moralist of the thirteenth century, cousin of Nahmanide, from Gerona and died in Toledo in November 1263. The most prominent disciple of Solomon of Montpellier, he signed in 1233 the ban against Maimonides's « Moreh Nebukim » and was, according to his student Hillel of Verona, the instigator of the Paris pyre of the same year; after the burning of the Talmuds in 1242 at the same place, he publicly acknowledged his error in the synagogue of Montpellier, and became in Toledo one of the great Talmudic masters of his time, now citing Maimonides with reverence. His novellae, partly published in « Sam Ḥayyim » (Livorno, 1806), are among the rare writings of his preserved.
Hebrew poet, relative of Nahmanide, active in Gerona, Catalonia, in the second half of the thirteenth century. In a letter written from Jerusalem to his son, Nahmanide greets Gerondi, whom he calls « my son and my disciple », and tells him that he read his verses in tears on the Mount of Olives, probably in reference to an elegy on the destruction of Jerusalem included in Nahmanide's commentary on the Pentateuch. Only a Kaddish for the Sabbath Zakhor and a pizmon for Purim have survived from his religious works.
Provençal philosopher active in the second half of the thirteenth century, called father of Gersonide. He is the author of « Sha'ar ha-Shamayim » (Venice, 1547; Rödelheim, 1801), a kind of encyclopedia in three parts devoted to natural phenomena, astronomy and metaphysics.
Spanish Kabbalist, born in Medinaceli, in Old Castile, in 1248 and died in Peñafiel after 1305. Disciple for a time of the Kabbalist Abraham Aboulafia, who held him in high esteem, he acquired such profound Kabbalistic knowledge that he was said to be capable of miracles, hence his nickname « Joseph Ba'al ha-Nissim » (the thaumaturge); far from being hostile to philosophy, he strove to reconcile it with the Kabbalah. At the age of twenty-six he drafted his first work, Ginnat Egoz, a Kabbalistic treatise in three parts printed in Hanau in 1615, devoted notably to divine names and the letters of the alphabet.
Zerahiah ben Isaac ben Shealtiel Gracian, called Ḥen, was a physician, philosopher, and translator active in the late thirteenth century, born in Barcelona or Toledo. Settled in Rome around 1277, he composed the bulk of his work there, including a philosophical commentary on Proverbs completed in 1288, and translated from Arabic into Hebrew numerous philosophical and medical treatises by Aristotle, Averroes, Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Galen, and Maimonides, most of these translations having been made for Shabbethai ben Salomon in 1284.
Historian, physician, philosopher and Syrian Jacobite theologian, born in Malatia, in Asiatic Turkey, in 1226, and died in Maragha, in Persia, in 1286, he first studied medicine under his father Aaron, a Jewish physician converted to Christianity, before devoting himself to theology and philosophy. Bishop of Guba (1246), of Laḳaba (1247) then of Aleppo (1253), he was appointed in 1264 « mafriana », primate of the Jacobites of the East, with see at Tikrit on the Tigris. Prolific author of thirty-one works in Syriac and Arabic, he shows in his work no trace of knowledge of Hebrew, despite his surname of « son of a Hebrew ».
Last presbyter, or chief rabbi, of England, appointed on May 15, 1281, probably through the favor of Queen Eleanor, mother of King Edward I. Presumed nephew of Elyas, the « chief presbyter », he does not appear among the Jews expelled in 1290, although the house of his son Benedict fell into the hands of the king.
Hagin fil. Moses is a provost, or high rabbi, of the Jews of England, chirographer of the Jews of London who amassed great wealth there before losing it under Edward I. Appointed provost in 1255 at the dismissal of Elyas, whose brother he may have been, he fled to the continent during the riots preceding the Battle of Lewes in 1264; his wife Antera and his son Aaron seem to have retained the only synagogue remaining in London until the expulsion of the Jews of England in 1290.
Pseudonym of a Kabbalist attached, according to Jellinek, to the school of Isaac the Blind. The works bearing this name are the Sefer ha-Yiḥud, probably devoted to the Tetragram and cited by Meïr ibn Gabbai and Moses Cordovero, and the Sefer ha-'Iyyun, on the existence and unity of God, followed by a mystical prayer in the style of the Hekalot of Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Ḳanah; the latter was published in Warsaw in 1798 among the Liḳḳuṭim of Hai Gaon.
Judah (Aryeh) Harari is a liturgical poet active in Montpellier in the second half of the 13th century, praised by Abraham Bedersi in his poem Ḥereb ha-Mithappeket. Several of his piyyoutim are preserved in the Carpentras ritual and in maḥzor manuscripts; the surname « Harari » (of the mountain) was borne in the Middle Ages by several other scholars, including Jacob ben Makhir ibn Tibbon of Montpellier.
Abraham ben Samuel ha-Levi Ḥasdaï is a Hebraist translator active in Barcelona around 1230, probably son of the poet Samuel ibn Abraham ibn Ḥasdaï ha-Lévi. An enthusiastic supporter of Maimonides in the Maimonidean controversy, he sends several urgent letters to Juda ibn al-Fakhar of Toledo and to Meïr ben Todros ha-Lévi Aboulafia, and co-signs with his brother Juda a letter to the communities of Castile, Aragon, Navarre and León denouncing the opponents of the philosopher. A prolific translator from Arabic to Hebrew, he makes known notably the pseudo-Aristotelian Sefer ha-Tappuaḥ (Venice, 1519) and the Mozene Ṣedeḳ of Ghazali, edited by Goldenthal (Leipzig, 1839).
female physician and surgeon
Ḥayyim ben Samuel ben David de Tolède is a Spanish rabbi and author active in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, disciple of Salomon ben Adret. He leaves in manuscript the Ṣeror ha-Ḥayyim, on the laws of the service of sabbaths and festivals, partly taken up by Jacob Castro in his 'Erekh Leḥem, as well as an abridgment of rabbinic law, the Ṣeror ha-Kesef, a copy from 1461 of which was brought from Cairo by Tischendorf; both works are cited by Joseph Caro in his Bet Yosef and by Moïse ben Joseph di Trani in his responsa.
Ḥayyim ben Israël is a Spanish philosopher and author active in Toledo around 1272, descendant of the family Israéli and relative of Isaac Israéli, author of the astronomical work Yesod 'Olam. He composed a treatise on paradise, which remained in manuscript form.
Ḥayyim of Falaise, perhaps identical to Ḥayyim Paltiel, is a French biblical commentator of the thirteenth century, grandson of the tosafist Samuel of Falaise. His commentary on the Pentateuch, aggadic in character and nourished by solid knowledge of the Talmud, is cited as that of «my master Ḥayyim of Falaise» by an anonymous commentator and taken up under the name of Peri 'Eṣ Ḥayyim by Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi in his Pa'aneaḥ Raza. Gross established that it should not be confused with Ḥayyim Paltiel ben Jacob, rabbi of Magdeburg and correspondent of Meir of Rothenburg.
Spanish scholar and scribe of the thirteenth century, author of a treatise in Spanish on the preparation of gold leaf and colors for illuminations, as well as a treatise, probably in Hebrew, on the Masora and on the crowned letters of the Pentateuch scroll. Steinschneider identifies him with Abraham ben Ḥayyim, the French liturgist, but De Rossi clarifies that Ibn Ḥayyim wrote his first treatise in Spanish.
Hezekiah ben Jacob is a German rabbi and tosafist martyred in Bacharach in 1283, uncle and master of Meïr of Rothenburg and student of the Bohemian Talmudist Abraham Hladik. He succeeds his father in the rabbinate of Magdeburg, not without the intervention of Moses Taku to overcome the opposition of part of the community, and maintains correspondence with Isaac Or Zarua, who holds him in high esteem despite the nickname « Baḥur » (young man) that he gives him. He is cited by numerous decisors, including Israel Isserlein and Mordekhaï ben Hillel, and leaves a commentary on the Talmud as well as tosafot and responsa.
Hillel ben Samuel is a physician, philosopher and Italian Talmudist born around 1220 and died around 1295, grandson of the Talmudist Eleazar ben Samuel of Verona. Trained in Talmud and natural sciences in Barcelona, he becomes, after witnessing the repentance of his teacher Jonas Gerondi in the Maimonidean controversy of Montpellier, one of the most enthusiastic admirers of Maimonides' work. He studies medicine in Montpellier, practices in Rome and Capua, before retiring to Forli, where he defends Maimonides against the designs of Salomon Petit and proposes a council of Eastern rabbis to settle the fate of his work. His principal work is Tagmule ha-Nefesh (Lyck, 1874).
Physician and philosopher, author of the Tagmulei ha-Nefesh on the immortality of the soul.
Talmudist of Bohemia who lived around 1230, probably in France according to Zunz, and was the master of Ḥizqiya b. Jacob of Magdeburg. He is cited in the Budapest and Vienna manuscripts of the « Mordechai ben Hillel », as well as, under the name « Abraham Hadlik », in a De Rossi manuscript. Perles proposes to identify him with Abraham b. Azriel, author of the « Arugat ha-Bosem ».
English child born in 1247, alleged victim of a ritual murder imputed to the Jews of Lincoln in 1255. Missing on July 31, 1255, his body was found on August 29 following in the well of the house of a Jew named Jopin, who, under promise of being spared, was pushed to « confess » that the child had been crucified by Jews who came to Lincoln under the pretext of a marriage. Ninety-two Jews were brought to London, of whom eighteen were executed for refusing to plead. The accusation was based on no evidence whatsoever, and even if it had been a murder, nothing would have connected it to a ritual practice.
Spanish physician and Kabbalist probably born in Toledo, died in Jerusalem, where he had gone in destitution, around 1290. A natural philosopher among the Kabbalists of his time, he attempted, without great success, to give the doctrine of the Sefirot a foundation in natural philosophy. His principal work, the « Sha'ar ha-Shamayim », composed around 1244, follows the plan of Maimonides' « Guide »; he also wrote the « Ginze ha-Melek », published in 1847, the « Ẓeror ha-Mor », dedicated to Todros Aboulafia and printed in 1833, and the « Iggeret ha-Teshubah », a letter sent from Jerusalem to this same Aboulafia.
Spanish philosopher, astronomer and mathematician born in Toledo in 1215, grandson through his mother of Ziza ibn Shoushan. Student of Meïr Aboulafia, opposed to Maimonides, he was nonetheless led by the latter's « Guide » to the study of philosophy, thus making the link between philosophy and mystical doctrines. As a young man, he corresponded with scholars at the court of the emperor Frederick II, who consulted him personally on scientific questions and invited him to Tuscany in 1247, the year he composed in Arabic, then translated into Hebrew, his encyclopedic work the « Midrash ha-Ḥokmah ».
Poet and theologian probably Spanish, active in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the surname « Zabara » was borne by several scholars. Student of Aaron ha-Lévi, died in 1293-94, and of Meïr Aboulafia, he appears to have resided for a time in Montpellier. He is the author of the « Miktab ha-Teḥiyyah », a treatise on resurrection published in Constantinople in 1569; only one of his poems has survived, celebrating the work of Menahem Meiri of Perpignan.
Scholar and satirical poet Italian, one of the most striking figures of Italian Judaism, born in Rome around 1270 and died probably in Fermo around 1330. From an important and wealthy family, he held a prominent position within the Roman community before losing his entire fortune in 1325 and finding refuge in 1328 in Fermo, in the Marches of Ancona, with a protector named Daniel. Poet and biblical exegete trained also in mathematics, astronomy and medicine, he is the author of « Eben Boḥan » and biblical commentaries, including the one on the Proverbs printed in Naples in 1487.
Spanish philosopher
Provençal poet, active in Luc in the second half of the 13th century, known by the nickname « Gorni » — Hebrew equivalent of « Air ». Abraham Bedersi depicts him in his divan as a venal itinerant poet, selling his praises to the highest bidder; fragments preserved in Munich, however, show a poetic talent superior to that of his rival. A divan attributed to him is preserved in manuscript in Saint Petersburg.
Tosafist seemingly active at the beginning of the 13th century, died a martyr according to Mordekhaï ben Hillel. The "Da'at Zeḳenim" reports that he was born the very day the Tosafist Isaac ben Asher ha-Lévi died, which led Zunz to make him his grandson; Zunz also suggests that he was killed in Würzburg, although this latter point seemed to him unlikely.
French Tosafist of the second half of the 13th century, identified by Gross and Zunz with Isaac de Chinon. The responsa of Salomon ben Adret designate him as "chief of the French academies"; he corresponded with Isaac ben Joseph of Marseille, whom he urged toward moderation in a dispute with a relative of Isaac de Chinon named Nathan, as well as with David ben Lévi, author of the "Miktam," and Mordekhaï ben Isaac Ḳimḥi.
Kabbalist brothers born in Soria in Castile, they traveled through Spain and Provence in search of ancient kabbalistic traditions. Isaac elaborated a doctrine of emanation and a commentary on the Chariot of Ezekiel (taken up and completed by his student Moses of Burgos); Jacob left a commentary on the form of letters and on the Merkava. Their teaching on « left emanations » (tradition of evil) precedes the Zohar.
Son-in-law of Yehiel of Paris, author of Sefer Mitzvot Katan (Semak).
Liturgical poet active in the early thirteenth century. Zunz attributes thirty-eight synagogal hymns to him, mostly preserved in the rituals of Carpentras, Avignon, and Tripoli and dated between 1205 and 1220. He presents himself as an officiant in a locality that scholars locate either at Montauban or near Mont Ventoux; Al-Ḥarizi praises this poet "whose songs pale the stars."
French exegete and tosafist, active in Sens, probably in the second half of the 13th century, student of Ḥayyim of Falaise. He compiled the "Pa'aneaḥ Raza," a commentary on the Pentateuch mixing literal interpretation, notariqon, and gematria, first published in Prague in 1607 from an incomplete manuscript. Author also of tosafot on the Talmud, he is nicknamed "Ba'al Tosafot mi-Shanṣ," the tosafist of Sens.
Author of Sha'arei Dura on dietary laws.
Spanish rabbi and talmudist of the late 13th century, master of Shem-Ṭob ibn Gaon and of Nathan ben Juda, and friend of Baḥya ben Asher, who cites him in his commentary on the Pentateuch. Mentioned by Mordekhaï ben Hillel (died in 1310), he was still alive in 1305, the year he subscribed to the excommunication pronounced by Salomon ben Adret against the study of metaphysics before the age of thirty; probably one of the rabbis of Barcelona, he is the author of a commentary on the Mahzor and a halakhic commentary on the « Azharot » of Gabirol.
French rabbinical scholar and biblical commentator, active in the thirteenth century. His authority is invoked by Mordekhaï and by R. Pérets, who cites him as biblical commentator and author of responsa; he is also said to have corresponded with R. Nathanel. Gross identifies him with the tosafist Isaac ben Sheneor, teacher of Isaac of Corbeil.
English financier of the 12th-13th centuries, imprisoned with other Jews by King John in 1210; a house he owned in London perhaps then passed to the crown before being transferred in 1214 to the Count of Derby. He was the most important Jewish lender in Norwich at the beginning of the reign of Henry III, designated in the "Shetarot" as "Nadib" (Patron), and died before 1247. A caricature from 1233 depicts him, three-faced and crowned, attending the torture of another Jew and a Jewess by demons — a scene reflecting the greed that Christians of the time attributed to him.
Talmudist, author of the Or Zarua, a halakhic compendium that preserves many traditions of the Hasidei Ashkenaz. He was the teacher of the Maharam of Rothenburg.
Jewish philosopher
Spanish astronomer, active in Toledo in the second half of the 13th century, probably synagogue precentor to judge by his nickname « ha-Ḥazzan ». He took a major part in the compilation of the Alfonsine Tables and observed, on the order of Alphonse X, three lunar eclipses; the king referred to him as « our learned rabbi Çag ». In 1277, he translated from Arabic a treatise on the quadrant, and his name remains associated with the invention of several astronomical instruments.
German writer
Grandson of the Rid, author of the Piskei Halakhot, first ritual code produced in Italy.
Talmudist and Italian commentator active in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, grandson through his mother of Isaiah di Trani the Elder. He wrote commentaries on Joshua (Leipzig, 1712), Judges, Samuel, Kings and Job — the first published in Italy to break free from allegorical interpretation — drawing on Spanish grammarians Ibn Janaḥ, Ibn Ḥayyuj and Abraham ibn Ezra. Even more important, his « Pirḳe Halakot » constitute the first ritual code produced in Italy, excerpts of which were published in Joshua Boaz's « Shilṭe ha-Gibborim » (Sabbioneta, 1554).
rabbi, translator, and traveler
German Tosafist of the thirteenth century, died before 1298. Disciple of the Tosafist Samuel of Bamberg, he was called around 1250 to succeed him as rabbi of Bamberg. His family perished during the persecution of the end of the century, after his own death; his tosafot are often cited under the name « Tosafot ha-Rab R. Israël ».
Tosafist active around the middle of the thirteenth century, student of Samuel of Bamberg, to whom he succeeded in the rabbinate. According to Zunz, he would be the father of Jedidia of Nuremberg, active around 1270-80, whose son Israël was killed in Bamberg in 1298 during a persecution — and perhaps also the father of Anna, killed on the same occasion. His tosafot, bearing solely on Alfasi according to Benjacob, are cited by Mordekhaï; some identify him with Israël ben Uri-Shraga, but Kohen sees two distinct persons.
Spanish grammarian active in the first third of the 13th century (and not of the 12th, as was long mistakenly believed), probably from Toledo, where he had access to the famous biblical codex Hilleli, before moving to southern France where he composed the « Gan Te'oudot » at the request of Samuel and Ezra, sons of Juda. His major work, the « Kitab al-Kamil » (« Sefer ha-Shalem »), a grammar and lexicon written in Arabic, is today lost, but was abundantly cited by Tanhoum Yerouchalmi, Abraham Maimonides, and David Kimhi, and was still consulted in the 14th century by Isaac Israeli of Toledo.
Spanish kabbalist of the late thirteenth century, born in Soria and buried in Segovia, Jacob ben Jacob Ha-Cohen — whom Jellinek also identifies under the name of Gikatilla — had as his elder brother, who outlived him, the kabbalist Isaac ha-Cohen of Béziers. Nothing precise is known of his life; his most important work, the « Perush Ẓurot ha-Otiyyot », deals with the form of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and his kabbalistic prayer « Tefillat R. Ya'aḳob mi-Seguba » is the only of his writings to have been printed.
English codifier of the thirteenth century, grandson of Jacob he-Aruk, Jacob ben Judah Ḥazzan of London drafted in 1287 the « 'Eẓ Ḥayyim », a ritual code in two parts covering the whole of the Halakha, following largely Maimonides while relying on the « Halakot Gedolot », the Siddur of Rav Amram and the works of Alfasi and the Tosafists. Considered the principal literary work of an English Jew before the Expulsion, the work was published only in part, in the « Steinschneider Festschrift ».
Astronomer and translator of Montpellier (Profatius), inventor of an astronomical quadrant.
Spanish cabalist of Gerona, from which his surname comes, active in the thirteenth century, Jacob ben Sheshet Gerondi is the author of the « Sha'ar ha-Shamayim », cabalistic essay published by M. Mortara in the Oṣar Neḥmad, and of the « Meshiv Devarim Nekhoḥim », apology for the Kabbalah in thirty chapters that remained manuscript, composed in response to a work deemed heterodox and in which he notably cites Ibn Ezra, Maimonides and Samuel ibn Tibbon.
French Tosafist of the thirteenth century, mentioned in the Tosafot to Kiddushin, in Mordekhaï, and in the responsa of Joseph Colon (Venice, 1579), without any writings of his own being otherwise attributed to him.
French rabbi and kabbalist of the thirteenth century, active in Marvège, Jacob Ha-Lévi He-Ḥassid was reputed to obtain through prayer celestial answers communicated to him in dreams; his decisions were gathered in the « She'elot u-Teshuvot min ha-Shamayim », published by Juda Zerahia Azoulaï in the responsa of David ibn Zimra (Livorno, 1818), and some also appear in the « Shibbolei ha-Léqet » of Sédécias ben Abraham.
Italian man of letters, of the Middle Ages
Scholar and scribe of Rome, author of the Maalot ha-Middot.
Grammarian of Prague active in the second half of the thirteenth century, surnamed "ha-Naqdan" (the punctuator), Jekoutiel ben Juda ha-Cohen devoted himself especially to the Masorah and the punctuation of the biblical text, establishing with the help of six old Spanish manuscripts a vocalized and accented version of the Pentateuch and the book of Esther. His rules, set out in the "'En ha-Qore," were cited by Abraham de Balmes, Elijah Levita and Solomon Hanau; according to Heidenheim, who published its preface, he would have lived before David Qimḥi.
Jonathan ben David ha-Cohen of Lunel, French philosopher active in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, defended Maimonides against the attacks of Abraham ben David of Posquières (the RABaD); at his urging, Maimonides sent to Lunel his Guide for the Perplexed, which Samuel ibn Tibbon translated into Hebrew. He is the author of a commentary on a work by Alfasi and, around 1210, shortly before his departure for the Land of Israel with Tobiah and Samuel ben Simson, he corresponded with Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre on a talmudic question concerning the Land of Israel.
Joseph b. Isaac of Chinon was a French tosafist who lived in the second half of the twelfth century and early thirteenth. Cited as an eminent talmudist in the Ha-Teroumah and the Roqéah, and taken up in the Tossafot under the name « Joseph », he corresponded with the younger Juda Sir Léon of Paris; some of his talmudic decisions, cited in the Or Zaroua, are addressed to Isaac b. Samuel of Dampierre, called Isaac the Elder.
Joseph ben Kalonymos ha-Naqdan, German massorete and liturgical poet, lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. He composed a long acrostic poem on the accents, accompanied by commentary, as well as several liturgical poems preserved in a French manuscript of the Mahzor of 1278, including a lamentation and a seliha on the martyrs of Fulda.
Joseph ben Meïr, liturgical poet of the thirteenth century, perhaps uncle of Meïr of Rothenburg, is the author of a lament believed to be written on the occasion of the auto-da-fé of the Talmud in Paris. He could be identical to Joseph ben Meïr of Saulieu, whom Meïr of Rothenburg cites as one of his masters.
Joseph ben Nathan Official, called ha-Meqanné (« the Zealot »), was a French controversialist who probably lived in Sens in the thirteenth century, descendant of Todros Nassi of Narbonne. He succeeded his father in a public office, whence his surname of « Official », and like him was often called upon to participate in religious controversies with high ecclesiastical dignitaries, whose accounts he collected, along with those of his father and other French rabbis, in a work that remained in manuscript, the Yossef ha-Meqanné (or Techouvot ha-Minim).
Joseph of Chinon, French Talmudist, lived around the middle of the thirteenth century; Zunz makes him the son of Nathanael the Saint, which Gross disputes. He is cited in the Minhat Yehouda and in the responsa of Solomon ben Adret, but owes his fame chiefly to his three sons, Eliezer, Nathanael and Jacob, whom it has been supposed — without certainty, according to Gross — that they suffered martyrdom together in Chinon.
Joseph of Dreux was a French Talmudist of the first half of the thirteenth century, whose name appears in a manuscript of commentaries on the Pentateuch preserved in the British Museum. According to Gross, he would be the son of Solomon of Dreux, in the present department of Eure-et-Loir, and identical to the biblical commentator mentioned in a manuscript of the Minhat Yehouda; this Joseph ben Salomon would have corresponded with Isaac ben Abraham of Dreux.
Joseph de Mandeville, French exegete, was a student of Abraham ibn Ezra whose commentary on Exodus he composed a supercommentary on. He is probably identical to Joseph b. Jacob to whom ibn Ezra dedicated his Yessod Mora.
Castilian kabbalist, disciple of Abulafia, author of the Gates of Light (Shaarei Orah).
Joseph Hazzan ben Juda of Troyes was a French Talmudist and hazzan active in Troyes around the middle of the thirteenth century. He is credited with a commentary on Ecclesiastes, a grammar entitled Sefer Yedidot, some masoretic notes preserved in a manuscript of the Pentateuch, and a treatise on the calendar; Zunz attributes to him moreover an anonymous grammar.
Exegete, grammarian and philosopher of Argentière, influenced by Averroes.
Joseph Porat ben Moses, called Don Bendit, was a Tosafist of the thirteenth century, whose surname refers to a verse from Genesis. According to Gross, he would be identical to Joseph of Caen, cited by Samuel of Falaise as a rabbinic authority, but should not be confused, despite a hypothesis by Dembitzer, with Joseph ben Moses of Troyes; he was the student, and possibly the grandson, of Samuel ben Meir (the Rashbam), but certainly not his son. He is credited with a commentary on the Talmud, of which fragments appear in the Tossafot of Shabbat and Yoma.
Joseph Samuel ben Abraham ben Joseph ben Abraham Baruch ben Neriah, French rabbi born in Aix, Provence, was active in Avignon toward the end of the thirteenth century. Like his father, Abraham ben Joseph of Aix, he supported Abba Mari of Lunel, and, during the religious controversy of 1303-1306 that stirred all of southern France, he sent his support to Salomon ben Adret of Barcelona, who refers to him in their correspondence by the name « Joseph ben Samuel ben Abraham ».
Spanish rabbi (1280-1340)
Poet and translator, author of the Tahkemoni, a collection of maqamat in Hebrew. He translated Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew.
French tosafist of the first half of the thirteenth century, son of the tosafist David of Melun. He took over the direction of the talmudic school of Melun after 1224 and was one of the four rabbis who defended the Talmud against Nicolas Donin at the public disputation in Paris in 1240.
13th century Spanish Jewish philosopher
Spiritual leader of the Hasidei Ashkenaz at Regensburg, principal author of the Sefer Hasidim. His work shaped the Jewish ethics and piety of Central Europe.
French liturgical poet of the 13th century, in correspondence with Jacob ben Salomon of Courson around 1260. He composed, on the martyrs, an elegy of forty-five strophes opening with the words "Ẓiyyon halo tish'ali", cited by Aharon ha-Cohen.
German Talmudist who became rabbi of Toledo, born in western Germany on June 30, 1270 and died in Toledo on July 4, 1349, brother of Jacob ben Asher. Left for Spain in 1283, he arrived in 1285, married in 1286 the daughter of his elder brother Jehiel, and was then sent ahead by his father Asher ben Jehiel in 1305 to prepare his settlement; after the death of the latter, he was chosen by the community of Toledo to succeed him in the rabbinate, an office in which he was held in such high esteem that his congregation doubled his salary to retain him. His responsa were published under the title « Zikron Yehudah » (Berlin, 1846).
French liturgical poet, active in Beaucaire in the first quarter of the thirteenth century; Al-Ḥarizi, who knew him around 1211, speaks highly of him. He had five sons, all liturgical poets: the eldest, Samuel, composed the « Ḳerobot » inserted in the Avignon ritual for the fast of Tevet, and the third, Isaac, surnamed « ha-Sheniri », composed piyyoutim for the festivals of the year preserved in the Siddur of Avignon and Carpentras.
Ethical and mystical writer, died February 22, 1217, from a family of Kabbalists established in Germany; his grandfather Kalonymus was a scholar and parnass in Speyer, and his father directed a bet ha-midrash in the same city. Around 1195, after the persecutions suffered by the Jews of Speyer, he settled in Regensburg, where he founded a yeshiva that notably trained Eleazar of Worms, author of the « Roqéaḥ ». Legend attributes to him numerous miracles, performed, it is said, after a sudden awakening had transformed him from an archer ignorant of daily prayers into a venerated sage.
Tosafist of the thirteenth century, author of tosafot on a great number of talmudic treatises, cited notably in the « Kol Bo », the Tosafot Yeshanim and the tosafot of Asheri. He also drew up ritual decisions taken up in the « Haggahot Maimoniyyot » and in the responsa of Meïr of Rothenburg, as well as biblical explanations cited in the tosafot to the Pentateuch.
German Talmudist of the thirteenth century, contemporary of Eleazar of Worms and Menaḥem ben Jacob, with whom he had a halakhic controversy reported by Mordekhai ben Hillel and in the « Haggahot Maimoniyyot ».
French poet
Provençal philosopher and translator, born in Arles in 1286 and died after 1328, from a distinguished family which, like him, bore the title of « Nasi ». Trained in philosophy in Salonika, he settled around 1314 in Avignon, where Robert of Anjou sent him on a scientific mission to Rome, where his reputation was such that his family had to request his return. Prolific translator from the age of twenty, he completed in Arles, on 10 October 1307, his Hebrew version of a medical treatise by Ibn Riḍwân — the second he made of it, the first having been lost in 1306 during the banishment of Jews from France.
Provençal liturgical poet, active in Beaucaire in the mid-13th century, author of a poem for the Sabbath preceding Passover (« Shabbat ha-Gadol »), which sets out the ritual laws of the festival in thirty-nine alphabetic strophes each opening with a biblical verse. An elegy on his death appears in the divans of Abraham Bédersi.
Jewish Andalusian poetess, active in the 12th or 13th century, who wrote in Arabic; al-Maqqari ranks her among the Arab poets of Spain. Her father, Ismaël, a poet himself, oversaw her education and was accustomed to beginning a stanza which he had her complete; al-Maqqari preserved only two of her verses.
13th-century scribe, known for having copied in March 1243 a manuscript of « Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah » by Maimonides now preserved at the British Museum, where an « azharah » with an acrostic of his name is also found, referring to the Paris disputation of 1240. He was often confused, notably by Carmoly and Geiger, with Berekhia Naḳdan, the author of the fox fables.
Spanish compiler commissioned by the son of Alfonso X the Wise to assemble, for the use of his student the infant Alfonso Fernandez, a collection with an ethical aim: the « Flores de Derecho », a meticulous assemblage of extracts drawn from numerous moral works and divided into three books. The true author thereof would be, according to tradition, Moïse Ẓarfati.
Kabbalist writer, author or redactor of the Zohar, born in León (Spain) around 1250, died in Arévalo in 1305. He composes in rapid succession several mystical works signed with his name—« Sefer ha-Rimmon » (1287), « Ha-Nefesh ha-Ḥakamah » (1290), « Sheḳel ha-Ḳodesh » (1292), « Mishkan ha-'Edut » (1293)—before drafting a Kabbalistic midrash of the Pentateuch in Aramaic attributed to Simeon ben Yoḥai, the « Midrash of R. Shimeon ben Yoḥai », better known as the Zohar. According to a tradition, his widow admitted after his death that her husband was its true author.
Roman rabbi, died in 1216. He sent, on behalf of the Rome community, a halakhic decision to Juda ben Kalonymos of Spire for approval. The manuscript of the Roman Maḥzor preserves eleven seliḥot bearing his signature, one of which, composed for the seventeenth day of Tammouz, appears in the printed Roman Maḥzor.
13th-century French rabbi and encyclopedist
French exegete, born in Lyre, near Évreux, in Normandy, around 1270, and died in Paris on October 23, 1340. Entered the Franciscans at Verneuil in 1291, he studies and teaches at the Sorbonne until 1325, when he becomes provincial of his order for Burgundy. Considered the first to privilege the literal sense in biblical exegesis, he devotes from 1322 to 1330 his major work, the Postillae, drawing his knowledge of Jewish tradition from Rachi, whom he copies almost word for word; Luther made abundant use of his works.
Karaite scholar, active in Cairo in the 13th and 14th centuries, master of the Karaite physician and writer Japhet ibn Ẓaghir. He wrote in Arabic a work on precepts, of which only sections, dealing with ritual slaughter and the calendar, are preserved in manuscript; the section on slaughter appeared in Hebrew translation in Vienna in 1830. He there combats the theses of the Ba'ale ha-Rikkub on the laws of incest and defends the reform advocated by Joseph ha-Ro'eh.
Moroccan poet and Hebraist translator of the thirteenth century, whose poems are preserved only in Moroccan anthologies. He translated from Arabic into Hebrew several major works, including the Iggeret Teman of Maimonides, published in Basel in 1631 under the title Petaḥ Tiḳwah with a verse preface, a commentary on the Sefer Yeṣirah, the Microcosmos of Joseph ibn Ṣaddiq and the commentary of Saadia Gaon on the thirteen hermeneutical rules.
Author of the Yalḳuṭ ha-Makiri, whose country and era are not known with certainty — Steinschneider supposes he lived in Provence, but the question remains debated. His work, comparable to Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni but limited to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve minor prophets, the Psalms, Proverbs and Job, gathers scattered talmudic and midrashic sentences; the portions preserved on Isaiah and the Psalms were published respectively in 1894 and 1899.
Grand tax collector (« Almoxarif mayor ») of King Ferdinand III of Castile, whose favor he won through his honesty and zeal. Versed in the Talmud and highly esteemed by his coreligionists, he is described by Moses ben Nahman as « great prince, the learned Don Meïr Almoxarif ».
French Talmudist, active in Lunel in the second half of the 13th century. After a brief stay in Narbonne, where he studied under Meïr b. Simon and Reuben b. Ḥayyim, he returned to Lunel and wrote, as a disciple of Maimonides, a commentary on the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah known under the title « Sefer ha-Manoaḥ », printed in Constantinople in 1518.
Rabbi of Narbonne and Lunel, author of the commentary Sefer ha-Menuha on the Mishné Torah.
German halakist of the 13th century, died a martyr in Nuremberg on 1 August 1298, from a family of German scholars. His wife Selda and his five children perished with him; established around 1291 in Goslar after a hard-won but bitter trial, he later settled in Nuremberg, where he was one of the closest disciples of Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg, whose decisions and teachings he transmitted. He is the author of the great legal code « Sefer ha-Mordekai », of phenomenal halakhic erudition, citing approximately three hundred fifty authorities and serving, in the form of glosses, as an appendix to the « Halakot » of Alfasi.
Spanish Christian theologian, born in the first half of the thirteenth century in Subirats (Catalonia), died after 1284. Commissioned in 1250 to study oriental languages in a Dominican school in Toledo, he was commissioned in March 1264, with the Bishop of Barcelona Raymond de Peñafort, to examine the Hebrew manuscripts of the Jews — the first Dominican censorship of the Talmud in Spain — and concluded in his report that the Talmud should not be burned in its entirety. He is the author of « Pugio Fidei », an anti-Jewish work published in Paris in 1651 then reprinted in Leipzig in 1667, long the principal source of Dominican polemic against Judaism.
French scholar of the late 13th century, disciple of R. Peretz of Corbeil and contemporary of Mordecai ben Hillel, martyred in Nuremberg in 1298. He is sometimes wrongly confused with another Mattithia, master of Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi, author of the « Abi Asaf », who lived in the early 13th century.
Rabbi and talmudist of Toledo, he opposed the rationalist tendencies of Maimonides. His controversy with the followers of Maimonides (the "Maimonidean controversy") illustrates the creative tension between reason and tradition in medieval Judaism.
Grammarian of the last third of the thirteenth century, author of a critique of the "Kitab al-Mustalḥaḳ" of ibn Janāḥ entitled "Hassagat ha-Hassagah", known only through the citations made by Profiat Duran. Joseph ibn Kaspi, who knew him personally, also reports an oral teaching from him; he would be identical to the grammarian R. David cited by Abraham Bédersi.
Grammarian of the late 13th century, grandson, according to his own preface, of the author of the « Petaḥ Debarai ». In a short treatise preserved today at the Montefiore Library, he summarizes in seven chapters the transitive and intransitive verbs, the sense of the hif'il and pi'el, and the pronominal suffixes of Hebrew verbs.
French liturgical poet of the first half of the 13th century, also called Meïr Lombard or ha-Darshan. He composed poems for the seventh evening of Passover, an acrostic elegy signed « Meïr Ḥazaḳ », and an alphabetical introduction to the Targum read on the seventh day of the festival; Landshuth also attributes to him the Ninth of Av elegy « Aḥbirah millin », which Zunz prefers to connect to Meïr of Rothenbourg.
English poet, active around 1260 in Norwich. A long elegiac poem and fifteen shorter pieces from his hand, preserved in a Vatican manuscript, were published by A. Berliner (London, 1887); he may have been the son of Elias Levesque.
Talmudist and controversialist, active in Narbonne in the second half of the 13th century, disciple of Nathan ben Meïr of Trinquetaille and scientific correspondent of Nahmanide. Renowned as a commentator, he is the author of a polemical work, the « Milḥemet Miẓwah », which notably relates a religious disputation held in 1245 before the bishop En Guillem de la Broa, and of another treatise, « Meshib Nefesh », defending Maimonides against an anonymous critic.
Greatest Ashkenazi decisor of his time, he led the communities of Germany. Imprisoned by the emperor Rudolf I, he refused to allow his ransom to be paid.
German Rabbi
French Talmudist of the first half of the 13th century, cited as a biblical commentator in the "Pa'neaḥ Raza". According to Gross, he would be identical to Meïr ben Baroukh, who emigrated to Jerusalem in 1211 with his brother, the Tosafist Joseph of Clisson, and other French rabbis.
German liturgical poet, died in Worms on April 16, 1203, from an ancient family of Jewish scholars in the city — his great-grandfather Simson, called « Ha-Darshan », lived in Worms during the First Crusade. His epitaph designates him as « master of the Law », « preacher » and « payyetan »; Zunz attributes to him thirty-one liturgical poems, including the elegies « Me'one Shamayim », which remained in the German ritual for the ninth of Av, and « Alelaï Ki Ba'ou Rega' », devoted to the martyrs of Blois (1171) and Boppard (1195). A tone of mourning runs through his work, reflecting the condition of Jews in that era.
Liturgical compiler, active in Troyes in the thirteenth century, where he succeeds his father, Joseph Ḥazzan ben Juda, as hazzan. He is responsible for the collection of the order of prayers in use in the Troyes community, often cited under the title « Siddur Troyes »; his student Juda ben Éléazar, possibly identical to the author of the commentary « Minḥat Yehudah » (composed around 1313), arranged the collection.
Italian rabbi
Tosafist and French liturgist, died in Dreux in 1224. The name « Vardimas », borrowed from the Babylonian Talmud as a nickname of Menahem bar Yossé, would have served him to distinguish himself from other bearers of the name; according to Gross, he would be identical to the master of Samuel of Falaise, the epithet « ha-Ḳadosh » simply meaning « the Pious ». His authority in matters of halakha is invoked by Moses of Coucy and others, he would have participated in a famous discussion on phylacteries held at his home, and a liturgical poem from his hand on the sacrifice of Isaac figures in the ritual of Rosh Hashanah.
German Tosafist of the twelfth century or the first half of the thirteenth, son of the Tosafist and liturgist David ben Kalonymos of Münzenberg. He corresponds with R. Baruch, Simḥa of Spire and Isaac Or Zaroua'; Gross thinks that the Meshoullam cited in the « Mordekai » (Ḥoullin vi, 657) is actually Meshoullam of Melun.
Physician and translator of the thirteenth century, active in southern France, who never practiced medicine, interested in it only theoretically. At the request of a friend named Ḥafeẓ or Shalem, he translated into Hebrew the medical work « Kitab al-Taẓrif » by Zahrawi, prefaced with a Hebrew poem in honor of this same friend.
French scholar of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, nassi of Narbonne. He sides with Juda al-Fakhkhar in his attacks on the works of Maimonides and the philosophers, while reproaching him for excessive zeal, and convinces him by letter to be indulgent toward David Ḳimḥi.
Poet active in the early thirteenth century, probably originally from Spain despite his classification among Provençal poets by Jedaïa Bedersi. Defender of orthodoxy against the philosophers, he notably attacks the translator Juda al-Ḥarizi and composes satirical poems against the « Moreh Nebukim », published by Steinschneider; Abraham Bedersi places him, among the great Hebrew poets, before Benveniste.
Physician and Provençal philosopher, born in Marseille in 1294, also known under the name « Bongodos ». Trained in astronomy in Salon under Abba Mari Senior Astruc de Noves, he was taken prisoner at Beaucaire in 1322, then stayed in Murcia, Tarascon, Aix and Montélimar, and distinguished himself through his numerous Hebrew translations of Arab scientific and philosophical works, notably commentaries by Averroes on Aristotle and Plato, carried out between 1320 and 1340.
Spanish poet, born in Catalonia, perhaps identical to Moses Açan who, when King Alphonse X stayed in Cuenca in 1271, revealed to him the conspiracy of Infante Philip. He composed in Catalan a poem on the game of chess, beginning with a narrative of the creation of the world and condemning games of chance, translated into Castilian around 1350 and preserved in manuscript at the Escorial.
Liturgical poet and rabbinical authority, active in the 13th century. Only one liturgical poem survives from him, which remained in use in the German ritual, the sole known trace of his work.
Italian tosafist of the 13th century, whose tossafot were used by the compiler of « Haggahot Maimuniyyot ». He used himself the tossafot of Juda Sir Leon of Paris, without it being certain that he was his student.
Tosafist and French codifier, active in the first half of the 13th century, from a family of scholars and maternal grandson of Ḥayyim ben Hananel ha-Cohen of Paris. Trained in Paris under the great tosafist Juda ben Isaac, he knew French, Spanish and Arabic and was nicknamed 'ha-darshan' (the preacher); in 1235 and 1236, he traveled through France and then Spain to preach the observance of the Mosaic Law. In 1240, he was one of four rabbis required to defend the Talmud against the accusations of Donin in Paris, and he completed in 1250 his 'Sefer Miṣvot', better known as 'Sefer Miṣvot ha-Gadol' (SeMaG).
Moses ben Joshua of Narbonne, also called Maestro Vidal Blasom, is a French philosopher and physician born in Perpignan in the late thirteenth century and died after 1362. Trained from the age of thirteen by his father and then by Moses and Abraham Caslari, he also practiced medicine and acquired solid biblical and rabbinic learning, before going to Spain, where he is found in turn in Toledo, Soria and Valencia; sheltered in Cervera during the persecutions following the Black Death, he was forced to flee, abandoning all his possessions, including his books. A passionate admirer of Averroes, he devoted most of his scholarly activity to commenting on his work.
Spanish Kabbalist of the thirteenth century, disciple of Jacob ha-Cohen of Provence. A Hebrew manuscript of the Bodleian preserves from him a response to a friend on the Sacred Name, a small cabalistic treatise in which he cites Haï Gaon, Juda ben Yaḳar, Isaac ha-Laban and his master Jacob ha-Cohen.
Italian philosopher and commentator of the thirteenth century. Between 1240 and 1250, he wrote a commentary on the « Moreh Nebukim » of Maimonides, partially revised and known only through a fragment annotated by his son Isaiah; essentially a paraphrase translating technical terms into Italian, he also had it read in Latin for Nicalao da Giovenazzo, probably Nicolo Paglia.
French Tosafist, author of the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Semag), an enumeration of the 613 commandments. He preached the return to observance in the communities of Spain and France.
Castilian kabbalist, author or compiler of the Zohar (Book of Splendor), the fundamental work of the Kabbalah. Attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai (2nd c.), the Zohar became the third pillar of Judaism after the Bible and the Talmud.
Sicilian translator from Arabic into Latin, active in the second half of the 13th century. Charles of Anjou entrusts in 1277 Maestro Matteo Siciliaco to teach him Latin so that he can translate medical works preserved at the Castel Nuovo in Naples; he is also known as the translator of the pseudo-Hippocrates, « Liber de Curationibus Infirmitatum Equorum », published by Pietro Delpratto (Bologna, 1865).
Jewish philosopher
Tosafist, author of Ketav Tamim against philosophy.
Liturgical poet of the thirteenth century, originating from Italy or Greece. His penitential prayers (seliḥot), remarkable for their form and clear language, were incorporated into the German, Roman and Karaite rituals.
Provençal Talmudist, active in the middle of the 13th century, contemporary of the Dominican Pablo Christiani, whose attacks he particularly suffered, being the most prominent Jew in Provence. Imprisoned with a certain Israël for opposing the decree imposing the badge, he obtained his release only in exchange for ransom, then obtained through royal embassy the repeal of the measure by a decree of Charles I, count of Provence, on March 26, 1276. He is the author of « Maḥaziḳ ha-Emunah », a polemical work against Pablo Christiani, the only one of his works preserved, in manuscript.
French commentator, active in Corbeil toward the end of the 13th century. He is the author of a commentary on the "Sefer Miẓwot ha-Ḳaṭon" (SeMaḲ), published in the Constantinople edition.
German talmudist, author of the Mordekhai, a halakhic compendium appended to the printed Talmud. He was killed with his family during the Rindfleisch massacres.
Masorete and English grammarian, known as "Moses ben Yom-Ṭob of London", cited as a master by Moses ben Isaac. His work on the rules of Masoretic punctuation and accentuation, "Darke ha-Niḳḳud weha-Neginot", first printed in the Bomberg Rabbinical Bible and then republished separately (Wilna, 1822; Frankfurt-on-Main, 1854), is authoritative on medieval Hebrew punctuation; he cites Rashi, ibn Ezra, and Solomon Parḥon.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 1st century of the Hebrew era (1240–1339). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Spanish rabbi
Rabbi, kabbalist, and physician of Girona, he took part in the Disputation of Barcelona (1263) against the convert Pablo Christiani. His commentary on the Torah integrates the mystical dimension into classical exegesis. He settled in the Land of Israel in 1267 and restored the Jewish community of Jerusalem.
Spanish physician of the second half of the thirteenth century, perhaps identical to Nathan of Montpellier, master of the anonymous author of the « Sefer ha-Yashar ». Son of a physician, he devoted himself early to the study of medicine and was the author of the « Tsori ha-Guf », in which he gathered the opinions of Hippocrates, Galen, Averroes, Avicenna and Maimonides on therapeutics and hygiene, employing the medical and botanical terms of the Talmud and translating into the vernacular the technical Arabic expressions. He is also credited with a work on the celestial spheres.
French rabbi and controversialist, he lived in Sens in the second half of the thirteenth century and was one of the most renowned rabbis of medieval France, called by his son Joseph the Zealous « the prince of orators » for his frequent debates with Church dignitaries and baptized Jews. Befriended with the archbishop of Sens Gautier de Cornut, he had controversies with numerous bishops and theologians, up to Pope Gregory X, whom he met during the latter's visit to France in 1273 for the opening of the Council of Lyon. None of his writings survive, but his biblical commentaries are cited in the Tosafot to Ta'anit.
French Tosafist active around 1220, disciple of Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre. After 1224, he directed the yeshiva of Chinon and corresponded with the most renowned scholars of his time, including Samuel ben Sheneor of Évreux, Isaac of Évreux, Jehiel of Paris and Isaac ben Todros. He composed tossafot to the tractates Betsa, Hullin, Berakhot and Eruvin, and is designated in them as « our master Nathanael »; some of his ritual decisions have also been preserved.
Jew converted to Christianity, protagonist of the Talmud trial
Talmudist in Barcelona, commentator on Alfasi, major halakhic authority.
King of Aragon (1276-85), who protects Jews against persecutions by the clergy — particularly against the Bishop of Castellnou — but out of interest rather than humanity, subjecting them to crushing taxation and demanding subsidies for his wars against Africa, Sicily, and France. In 1278, he threatens to withdraw all their privileges if they do not have them confirmed within a month; in 1283, threatened with French invasion, he makes the Jews of Faca and Girona pay half the fortification costs, imposes heavy taxes on them, and forbids them from holding any public office involving authority over Christians.
Chaplain of Pope Alexander IV, grand master of the Dominican order until 1240 and confessor of James I of Aragon, active in Barcelona. He obtained from the king the organization of a public controversy between Moïse ben Naḥman, Astruc de Porta and the convert Pablo Christiani, held at the royal palace of Barcelona from July 20 to 24, 1263, where he presided over the theologians present. After the debate, he ordered that Jews be forced to listen to Dominican sermons and to delete from their books within three months anything opposed to Christianity.
Tosafist of the second half of the thirteenth century, author of novellae on several Talmudic tractates, some of which were reprinted by Mas'oud Ḥaï Roqéaḥ in his « Ma'aseh Roqéaḥ » (Venice, 1752). His commentary on the tractate Shabbat, which remained in manuscript, uses Arabic words and cites Abraham ben Moses Maimonides, to whom he adds the formula « of blessed memory ».
Talmudist and kabbalist
Author of the Tosafot of Rabbeinu Peretz, last great French tosafist.
Kabbalist known by the name « Gerondi », a designation that Jellinek wrongly attributed to him; this Pérets, active towards the end of the thirteenth century, is mentioned as the author of the kabbalistic work « Ma'areket ha-Elahut ».
French Tosafist, active in Corbeil in the second half of the thirteenth century, died before 1298, probably in 1295, son of the talmudist Elijah of Tours. Trained by R. Jehiel of Paris and Samuel of Evreux, he traveled to Brabant and Germany, where he met Meïr of Rothenburg, before giving on his return courses followed by the most famous rabbis of the fourteenth century. His commentaries, studied in France, Germany and Spain, include glosses on the "'Ammude ha-Golah" of Isaac of Corbeil (Cremona, 1556) and on the "Tashbaẓ" of Samson ben Sadoq (Cremona, 1556-61), as well as commentaries on the Talmud published in Livorno in 1819.
Catalan moralist and talmudist, author of the Shaarei Teshuvah (Gates of Repentance). He at first opposed the writings of Maimonides before repenting publicly.
Chief rabbi of Germany who emigrated to Toledo, he achieved the synthesis between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic talmudic traditions. His halakhic code (Piskei ha-Rosh) is one of the three sources of Joseph Caro's Shulhan Arukh, together with Maimonides and the Rif.
In 1285 he left the Draa for Barcelona (Spain). This fact attests to the link maintained between the Draa and Spain at that time, a link going back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
English Dominican friar, converted to Judaism around 1275 after learning Hebrew. Married to a Jew, he was circumcised and took the name Hagin; informed of the matter, King Edward I brought it before the Archbishop of Canterbury, an episode that is said to have counted among the causes that pushed the king and his mother, Eleanor, to aim at the expulsion of Jews from England.
German Meistersinger of the late 13th century, blacksmith by trade in Mainz, known for his virulent hatred of Jews whom he sought to convert by weaving Christian dogmas into his poems, where invective stands out especially; one of his songs ends with the words « Ich hazze iuch, Juden, sunder maze » (« I hate you, Jews, without measure »).
Provençal talmudist active in the mid-thirteenth century, brother of the liturgical poet Abraham ben Ḥayyim. Established in Narbonne, disciple of Isaac ha-Cohen and master of Menahem Meïri, who praises him as a great talmudist, he is described by Isaac of Lattes as an "accomplished philosophical thinker"; his nephew Lévi of Villefranche cites in his name philosophical explanations of the Haggada, and he is the author of the "Sefer ha-Tamid".
German nobleman of Röttingen, in Franconia, persecutor of Jews in the 13th century. During the civil war between Adolf of Nassau and Albert of Austria for the imperial crown, he claims to be entrusted with a heavenly mission to avenge an alleged desecration of the host by the Jews of Röttingen, whom he burns on April 20, 1298, then leads a crowd from town to town massacring Jews who refuse baptism; Würzburg and Nuremberg are destroyed, only Regensburg and Augsburg escape the massacre. In six months, approximately one hundred and twenty communities and one hundred thousand Jews disappear, until the death of Adolf of Nassau, which ends the civil war.
Italian scholar born in Rome in 1292 and died in that city after 1350, accomplished Latinist and versed in scholastic philosophy. He endeavored to make Christian scientific literature accessible to Jews, translating from 1328 onwards the « Liber de Causis » attributed to Aristotle and a treatise by Thomas Aquinas, then Averroes's commentary on Aristotle; he also composed a commentary on Maimonides's « Sefer ha-Madda' » entitled « Ben Porat » and a treatise on prophecy. Highly esteemed by Christians, he was summoned to the court of Naples by King Robert, who himself studied under his direction.
Jewish physician and statesman
Jewish physician and statesman, grand vizier from 1289 to 1291 under the Mongol sovereign of Persia Argoun Khan, assassinated on March 5, 1291, son of Hibbat Allah b. Muḥasib of Ebher. First employed at the treasury then as court physician, he gained Argoun's confidence by curing him of an illness and by denouncing the corruption of Bagdad officials, before becoming controller general of finances for the entire empire then grand vizier. His administration, judged variously as both severe and enlightened, employed only Jews and Christians and allowed Jewish communities to experience a period of prosperity, before his numerous enemies, both Mongol and Muslim, finally prevailed over him.
Jew converted to Islam, having lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He is the author of an apologetic work aimed at demonstrating, from Scripture, the authenticity of Muhammad's mission, accusing Jews in the process of having corrupted the biblical text. In the preface to this work, he relates his own conversion to Islam, which occurred in May 1298, which he presents as a response to a voice heard in a dream when he believed himself to be dying.
Physician and Samaritan philosopher died near Damascus in 1223. Physician to the court of Al-Malik al-Adil, an Ayyubid prince reigning in Damascus, he is the author of several treatises, including a commentary on Hippocrates, a work on soul and spirit, and a treatise on the unity of God; he is also credited with commentaries on the Pentateuch.
Spanish scholar and Hebrew poet of the thirteenth century, born in 1244, perhaps in Guadalajara. According to Abraham Zacuto, he died in 1268; he himself indicates having begun, at the age of thirty-seven, the composition of his « Meshal ha-Ḳadmoni » (Soncino, 1480), a collection of fables and allegories in rhymed prose organized in five parts, where he seeks to show that Hebrew lends itself as well as Arabic to this genre. The work, marked by kabbalistic tendencies, was translated into Judeo-German by Gershon Wiener (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1749).
Solomon ben Abraham ben Samuel, a French Talmudist of the first half of the 13th century, was rabbi in Montpellier and leader of the movement opposed to Maimonides when Ibn Tibbon's translation of the "Moreh Neboukhim" spread through Provence. Without real philosophical training, he attacked Maimonides on secondary points—his naturalistic interpretation of miracles, his non-literal reading of the Haggada—and pronounced, with his two sole disciples, a sentence of excommunication against his works in early 1232, soon confirmed by rabbis from northern France and then combated by the communities of Provence.
Solomon ben Joseph, French liturgist of Avallon, lived apparently in the 13th century. He composed several piyyoutim, including a seliḥa commemorating the massacre of Anjou of 1236 and naming several of its martyrs, as well as acrostic poems where the initials of the verses, read vertically, repeat his name four times followed by the alphabet.
Salomon ben Joseph ibn Ayyoub of Grenade, Spanish physician, lived in Béziers in the mid-13th century. At the request of notables of the city, he translated from Arabic into Hebrew Maimonides' « Sefer ha-Mitswot », Averroes' middle commentary on the treatise « On the Heavens », and a medical treatise by Avicenna, the « Sefer ha-Arguza ». He himself composed an original treatise on hemorrhoids, the « Ma'amar ba-Teḥorim ».
Solomon ben Judah of Châteaulandon, French Talmudist of the late thirteenth century, conducts a learned discussion with Samson of Chinon and Eliezer ben Joseph of Chinon regarding a backdated document, a question also submitted to Solomon ben Adret. Reputed as a great Talmudist, among his students are Eliezer, father of the author of the « Minḥat Yehouda », as well as the anonymous author of a Pentateuch commentary preserved in manuscript in Hamburg. His biblical glosses are frequently cited in the « Minḥat Yehouda », and some of his responsa appear in the collection of RaSHBA.
Solomon ben Judah of Dreux, called « the Holy », tosafist and biblical commentator of the 12th and 13th centuries, is a disciple of Isaac ben Samuel the Elder of Dampierre and presides over the school of Dreux during the first quarter of the 13th century. He is among the rabbis to whom Meïr ben Todros Aboulafia addresses his letter of protest against Maimonides, and his name is cited in the Tosafot, in the « Or Zaroua », and in a commentary by Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise. His brother Jacob ben Judah was also a biblical commentator, and Joseph ben Solomon of Dreux, correspondent of Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre, was probably his son.
Salomon ben Moïse ben Jekoutiel de Rossi, writer and composer of synagogal hymns, distinguishes himself in Rome in the thirteenth century and dies after 1284, still in the prime of life — the first learned member of the Rossi family. Husband of Paola Anaw, gifted daughter of the author Abraham ben Joab Anaw, he writes an apologetic work known under four different titles, in which he warns against religious controversies while refuting Christian attacks on the Jewish conception of the Messiah. A liturgical poet, he also composes three songs and a poem about the Ancona earthquake.
Salomon ben Moïse ben Joseph, Italian liturgist of the thirteenth century, identified by some with Yehiel b. Yekoutiel Anaw and by others with Salomon b. Yedidia, is said to be a descendant of Sédécias b. Benjamin Anaw. An exhortation, the « Vidouï » or « Tokhaha », is attributed to him in a Roman manuscript.
Salomon ben Moses of Melgueil, French philosophical writer and translator of the thirteenth century, owes his name to the surname « Melgueiri », probably linked to the locality of Melgueil (today Mauguio), although his exact identification remains debated by several scholars. He is incontestably the author of the « Bet Elohim », a philosophical commentary in three parts on the biblical account of the construction of the Temple of Solomon, written on the model of the « Hilkhot Bet ha-Beḥira » of Maimonides but in a more orthodox spirit, and translated the abridgment by Avicenna of Aristotle's treatise « On the Heavens and the World » under the title « Sefer ha-Chamayim veha-'Olam ».
Salomon Nasi ben Isaac Nasi Cayl, liturgical poet, lived in Marseille around 1285 — Cayl being a family name derived from Caylus, locality in Tarn-et-Garonne. He composed a piyyut preserved in the Maḥzor of Avignon; this poet should not be confused with Rabbi Salomon ben Isaac Cayl, who also lived in Marseille, but nearly a century later.
Author of Sefer Keritout, talmudic methodology.
French Tosafist who lived in the late twelfth century and in the first half of the thirteenth, descendant of Joseph b. Samuel Bonfils, nephew of the Tosafist Juda of Corbeil and brother-in-law of Moïse of Coucy. Disciple of Isaac b. Samuel the Elder of Dampierre, he was one of the rabbis to whom Meïr b. Todros Abulafia addressed his letter of protest against Maimonides, and counted Isaac b. Moïse of Vienne among his students and correspondents. Many of his ritual decisions are cited in the rabbinical works « Or Zarua' », « SeMaG », « Orḥot Ḥayyim » and « Pisqe Reqanati ».
French rabbi
French Talmudist of the first half of the thirteenth century, descendant of Rashi. In his youth, he addressed a circular letter, probably of Kabbalistic nature, to the Provençal Asher ben David, who makes allusion to it in his own Kabbalistic work on the explanation of the thirteen divine attributes.
Jewish Italian translator active in Capua in the late 13th century. He translated from Arabic into Hebrew a pharmacological treatise by Mesue the Elder (« Iṣlaḥ al-Adwiyah al-Mushilah ») under the title « Meha-'Eẓah weha-Teba'im weha-Tena'im », on the selection and correction of purgative medications. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that his translation survives only in manuscript.
Physician and French translator born in Marseille in 1294, also known by the Provençal name Meles Benjudas. Drawn from his youth toward science and philosophy, he studied astronomy at Salon around eighteen years of age, was imprisoned in the Rotonde tower of Beaucaire in 1322, then stayed in Murcia, Tarascon, Aix and Montélimar. He became known for his translations from Arabic into Hebrew of scientific works by Averroès, notably his commentary on Aristotle's « Nicomachean Ethics », completed in 1321, and his commentary on Plato's « Republic », completed the same year in Beaucaire prison.
Tosafist of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, known in French as Sire Morel, student of Juda Sire Léon of Paris and Isaac b. Abraham of Sens. He participated in 1240 in the famous controversy provoked by the converted Jew Nicolas Donin, and left tossafot on several talmudic treatises — including those on Avoda Zara, published with the text — as well as a commentary now lost on the laws of Passover and ritual decisions frequently cited by Meïr of Rothenburg and Mordekhaï ben Hillel.
French scholar of the thirteenth century, author of a commentary on « Moré Nevoukhim », preserved in manuscript at the Library of Neophytes in Rome. Gross identifies him with Samuel Sekili, presented by Menahem Meiri as one of the greatest scholars of his century, as versed in Rabbinic literature as in profane sciences, and whose authority is often invoked in « Orḥot Ḥayyim » and « Kol Bo ».
One of the « Grands d'Évreux », author of Tosafot on Sota.
German tosafist, student of Juda the Pious.
Spanish writer
Rabbi and scholar, active in Rome in the second half of the 13th century. In the controversy over the study of philosophy and Maimonides' Moreh Nevoukhim, which opposed Hillel b. Samuel of Verona to Zerahia b. Isaac of Barcelona, he sided with the latter by severely criticizing Hillel. He is the author of Cheelot ou-Techouvot and of Pisqé, and devoted himself to philosophy.
Spanish rabbi
Spanish scholar and physician of the 13th century, born in Tortosa in 1196. First a merchant travelling widely by sea and land, he abandoned commerce in 1226 to devote himself to rabbinical studies and then to medicine, which he subsequently practised in Montpellier and especially in Marseille. He translated into Hebrew, under the title Sefer ha-Chimmouch, the great medical treatise of Al-Zahrawi, the Kitab al-Tasrif, begun in 1254 and completed in Marseille in 1258, then in 1264 the Al-Mansouri of Al-Razi, works intended to make medical science accessible to Jews without recourse to Christian physicians.
Italian philosopher
Shlomo ben Abraham ibn Aderet (1235–1310), known as the Rashba, was rabbi of the great synagogue of Barcelona for fifty years and the major halakhic authority of his time (nicknamed « El Rab d'España »). A student of Nahmanide and Yona Gerondi, he received questions from throughout the Jewish world; his thousands of responsa profoundly shaped the subsequent codification of Jewish law, through to the Shulchan Arukh.
Simeon ben Samuel of Joinville, French tosafist and biblical commentator of the 13th century, is sometimes wrongly designated by the names of Samson b. Samuel or Chemaya. Disciple of Isaac b. Samuel ha-Zaqen, he in turn forms Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi, and his biblical teaching is cited by Isaac b. Juda in his « Pa'neaḥ Raza ».
Decisor and Rhineland tosafist, master of Or Zaroua.
Simḥa b. Samuel of Speyer, a German tosafist of the thirteenth century whose birth and death dates are unknown, participated in the rabbinical synod held in Mainz in Tammuz (July) 1223, where he appears among the signatories of the decrees and regulations promulgated. Nephew of the parnas Kalonymus, disciple of R. Eliezer of Metz and colleague of Eliezer b. Joel ha-Levi, he is the author of a commentary on the tractate Horayot, of tosafot and Talmudic novellae, of the 'Seder Olam' and the 'Tiqqoun Chetarot' on acts and documents, as well as sections on blessings.
Simḥa of Rome, scholar and rabbi of the Roman community in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, is charged by his community with finding the commentary of Maimonides on the Mishna. After a fruitless search in Provence and Catalonia, and with the help of Salomon ben Adret in Barcelona, he discovers in Huesca the commentary on the three first orders, then the Arabic original of the commentary on the five first, translated into Hebrew by several scholars in 1296–98, and brings it all back to Rome.
German troubadour (minnesinger) from Trimberg, in Franconia near Würzburg, active according to sources in the second half of the 13th century, or around 1200 according to Graetz; it is believed he practiced medicine. Six of his poems, preserved in the Manesse collection, are among the most notable of his time: he praises the virtuous woman and depicts the ideal of the noble knight, while complaining of the little support from the rich.
Author, in the Codex Manesse, of six poems (Spruchdichtung); if historically authentic, he would be the first documented Jewish poet writing in German. The portrait preceding his poems in the Codex Manesse depicts him as a Jew (pointed hat, Judenhut, long beard). He sings the virtue of the worthy wife and the misery of his children.
Wealthy resident of Frankfurt-am-Main, settled in Worms in the second half of the 13th century, he dies on the day of Yom Kippur in 1307. He devoted most of his fortune to ransoming the remains of Meir of Rothenburg, which had remained unburied for nearly fourteen years, asking only as reward to be buried at his side. His tombstone has been preserved almost intact.
Philologist and Oriental exegete of the 13th century, one of the last representatives of the rationalist school of biblical exegesis in the Orient, nicknamed by moderns "the Ibn Ezra of the Orient". He lived in Palestine, perhaps also in Egypt, mastered Arabic, the language of his writings, had some knowledge of Greek and solid philosophical and scientific culture. His existence remained unknown to European scholars until the 18th century, when Pocock brought back fragments from the Orient, published in his Porta Mosis; his biblical commentary in Arabic, the Kitab al-Ijaz wal-Bayan, has since been edited in fragments between 1791 and 1897.
French Tosafist of the thirteenth century, perhaps the younger contemporary and possibly student of Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre, whom he attends the funeral of in 1210. Reputed master of the Law, biblical commentator and liturgical poet, he is cited in the Tosafot, the Mordekhai, the Chibbolé ha-Léket, and the Tachbets; his selihot, inspired by the persecutions suffered by his coreligionists, appear in a Burgundian Mahzor and are distinguished by their formal mastery. According to a Cambridge manuscript, Jehiel of Paris visited him in 1260 while traveling to Palestine.
Talmudist active in Italy or southern France in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, author of novellae, preserved in manuscript, on the Talmudic tractate Nazir, which he says he composed in 1322, a year of persecutions for Jews — after the massacre of lepers and the incursion of the Pastoureaux, the Talmud was burned and the Roman emperor planned further persecutions. According to Grätz, this emperor would be Frederick, rival of Louis of Bavaria.
(1225 – c. 1285) (Hebrew: טודרוס בן יוסף אבולעפא) was a nephew of Meir Abulafia and chief rabbi of Castille, (Not to be confused with Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia.)
German scholar and liturgical poet of the second half of the thirteenth century, active in Cologne and Mainz, related to Meïr of Rothenburg and disciple of R. Yehiel of Paris. Author of several liturgical poems, including an elegy composed shortly before his death in memory of the martyrs of Pforzheim in 1267, he himself perished with his father in the massacre of 1271.
French philosopher
Son of the Rosh, rabbi of Toledo, author of responsa (Zikhron Yehouda).
Jewish poet whose name is preserved, having lived probably in the 13th century or at the beginning of the 14th century.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 1st century of the Hebrew era (1240–1339). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-1.
French Orthodox Rabbi
Exilarch of Damascus from the late thirteenth century, ardent defender of the writings of Maimonides against their detractors. Informed of the agitation by the mystic Salomon Petit against the « Guide of the Perplexed », he summoned him under pain of excommunication to cease; faced with his refusal, he convened several rabbis, including those of Safed, and issued in 1286 (or 1291 according to another reading) a formal excommunication against the agitator of Acre and his followers, sealed with the seal of the exilarchate and signed by him and twelve rabbis.
Jewish kabbalist
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 1st century of the Hebrew era (1240–1339). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Italian Talmudist of the 13th century established in Rome, trained in part in Germany (pupil of Jacob de Wurtzbourg, perhaps also of Meir de Rothenburg). Author of the Shibbolei ha-Leket, considered one of the first attempts to codify Jewish law in Italy (liturgy, Haggada of Passover, laws of festivals and fasts), organized in 13 « rows » and 372 « ears ».
Rabbi of Rome, author of the Shibbolei ha-Leket, compilation of ritual laws.
Talmudist and liturgist Italian active in Rome in the thirteenth century, died after 1280, elder cousin of Sedecias ben Abraham Anav. Student of Meïr ben Moïse in Rome, he then went to Germany to study under the tosafist Abigdor ben Élie ha-Cohen, and might be the disciple of the same name mentioned by Abraham Aboulafia. He is the author of several seliḥot preserved in the Foa collection.
Spanish Jewish scholar settled in Rome around 1277. Prolific translator from Arabic into Hebrew: Aristotle (Physics, Metaphysics, On the Soul), Averroès, Al-Farabi, medical treatises of Galen and Avicenna, and works by Maimonides. Author of philosophical commentaries on Proverbs (1288) and on Job.
author
theologian and rabbi
Sicilian scholar from Catania, kabbalist and astrologer active between 1400 and 1450, educated in Treviso, son-in-law of Don Moïse Gabbaï and the youngest of five brothers all rabbinical scholars. A traveler in Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Damascus and Kaffa, he disputed with the Karaites in Jerusalem and was received in Rome by Pope Martin V, who questioned him on biblical and talmudic passages; author of the « Maṭṭeh Aharon », in defense of the Law and tradition, and a rationalist-oriented commentary on the Pentateuch.
French ritualist from a family of scholars of Narbonne, victim of the expulsion of Jews in 1306, he emigrated to Majorca. There he composed, before 1327, a ritual work entitled « Orḥot Ḥayyim », a compilation of laws and Talmudic discussions also including ethical and doctrinal chapters, an abridged version of which known as « Kol Bo » supplanted the original in common use.
Italian merchant of Hebrew and ancient manuscripts, active in the early 14th century; after seven years spent in Toledo searching for Arabic and Hebrew books, he distributed among young students in Perugia a catalog of eighty manuscripts. Taking advantage of his absence, Immanuel of Rome and his friends forced open his cabinets to copy manuscripts, and Immanuel composed against him a biting satire in the form of a letter.
Talmudist, philosopher, physicist and astronomer active in the fourteenth century in Salonica, already very old in 1335. Author, according to his contemporary Isaac de Lattes, of commentaries on the Pentateuch, Job, parts of the Talmud and the Pirḳe de-Rabbi Eliezer, as well as works on physics, logic and metaphysics, of which only manuscript fragments survive; his commentary on Job, enriched by philosophical discussions on biblical theodicy, shows him to be a faithful disciple of Maimonides.
Born in Lunel, from which his surname Yarḥi derives, and a descendant of Meshullam ben Jacob of Lunel, he settled in Montpellier where he led the opposition to the rationalism of the Maimonideans during the controversy of 1303-1306. His letters to Salomon ben Adret of Barcelone, published under the title "Minḥat Ḳenaot", called for placing a ban on the study of philosophy and the allegorical interpretation of the Bible.
Disciple of Rabbi Ḥasdaï ben Solomon of Valencia and Tudela (1378). He maintained correspondence with Isaac ben Sheshet and the poet Solomon da Piera.
French Talmudist active at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, he was the master of Abraham ben Nathan, author of the « Ha-Manhig », a work in which Abigdor is cited twice. In 1304, the date of composition of the « Ha-Manhig », Abigdor was still alive.
Hebrew translator born in Provence in 1384. Aided by his father, Abraham Bonet ben Meshoullam, he translated from the age of fifteen, from Latin into Hebrew, the work of Arnaud de Villeneuve "De Judiciis Astronomiae", under the title "Panim ba-Michpat". In 1399, he also translated the "Sphaera Mundi" of Sacrobosco, under the title "Mareh ha-Ofanim", a text later printed in 1720 in the "Tsourat ha-Aretz" of Abraham bar Ḥiyya.
Son of Don Juceph, born in the village of Ablitas, near Tudela, from which he took his name, and died in 1342; he was called « the rich Jew of Ablitas ». He maintained business relations with the kings of Navarre and Aragon, who borrowed large sums from him that were never repaid, which prevented him from fulfilling his own obligations to the State. After his death, his goods were confiscated by the Queen of Navarre in 1343.
Spanish scholar born in Barcelona around the middle of the fourteenth century, author of a commentary on the Psalms preserved in manuscript in Oxford. Forced to leave his native city by the persecutions that began in late June 1348, he settled in Barbastro, in Aragon, where he remained for more than thirty years, until 1391, the year when persecutions resumed: his house was pillaged, his goods destroyed, and he himself imprisoned, before being released after taking part in a public disputation between Jews and Christians in Tortosa, in 1413 and 1414.
Spanish Talmudist and author born in Barcelona in the early fourteenth century, died in Narbonne in October 1393. Religious poet and leader of the Jewish community of Gerona, in Catalonia, he was praised for his deep Talmudic learning as much as for his disinterestedness in exercising his duties; he probably left Gerona during the terrible persecution of 1391 to settle in Narbonne. A poem for the Passover service and four poetic lamentations from his hand are preserved in manuscript. In 1394, Profiat Duran wrote a necrology in his memory, printed in the « Maassé Efod » (Vienna, 1865).
cartographer from Palma, Majorca
Talmudic commentator established in Niort, France, in the second half of the fourteenth century. Isaac de Lattes mentions him as a notable scholar and commentator of the Talmud in his chronicle "Chaaré Tsion". The name of his native city, variously spelled in Hebrew literature, was identified by Gross as Niort, the Latin Niortium.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 2nd century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Renowned philanthropist and financier, member of the famous Spanish family of whom the Sassoon claim descent. He lived in Spain, probably in Toledo, in the fourteenth century. He is mentioned several times in the responsa of Asher ben Yeḥiel, as well as in the ritual work of David Aboudraham.
Crimean rabbi
Rabbi, active in the second century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 14th century. Died in 5142 of the Hebrew era (1382). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 9-4.
The wealthiest Jew of Valencia, he was forced to embrace Christianity during the persecution of 1391; the jurors of the city reported his baptism, celebrated with great solemnity on 14 July 1391 in the palace of En Gasto, under the name Alfonso Ferrandes de Villanueva, taken from an estate he owned in the marquisate of Villanueva. Having later returned to Judaism, he was sent with Don Salomon ha-Lévi to Rome as ambassador of the Jews of Spain and was received in audience by the Pope.
Commentator on synagogal liturgy, he lived in Seville, Spain, around 1340, and was the student of Jacob ben Asher. In his untitled work, known as «Ḥibbour Peirouch ha-Berakhot we-ha-Tefillot», he assembled, for the benefit of an uneducated public, explanations drawn from the Talmuds of Babylon and Jerusalem, from the Geonim and commentators up to his time, for each part of the prayer book, adding to it a systematic exposition of the Jewish calendar.
Originally from Catalonia, active in the 14th century, he composed in the Catalan dialect a rhymed treatise on chess, which opens with an evocation of the creation of the world and urges glorifying the Creator through the practice of virtue; favorable to chess, he opposed all games of chance, particularly cards, which he judged ruinous for those who indulged in them. This treatise, of which a manuscript is preserved in the Escurial, was translated into Spanish in 1350, probably by a Castilian Jew.
Keeper of the royal lions in Saragossa, he led in 1384 or 1385, at the order of King Peter of Aragon, lions to Navarre as a gift to King Charles II; a certain Abraham Azen is mentioned in 1408 as his successor in Saragossa.
Rabbi of Fès, 14th century. Mentioned in 5137 of the Hebrew era (1377). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-2.
Mathematician and physician active in Arles in the second half of the fourteenth century. According to Nostradamus, an excellent mathematician versed in Arabic, Greek and Latin, he was appointed physician to Jeanne d'Anjou, Queen of Naples, in 1369, lodged at the royal palace and exempted, for himself and his descendants, from the special taxes weighing on the Jews. He is also said to have devoted himself to astrology, to the point of having predicted the tragic end of the queen.
Spanish physician active in Castile in the first half of the fourteenth century, contemporary of Abraham ibn Zarzal, physician to Peter the Cruel, king of Castile. He wrote a supercommentary on the Pentateuch commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra, where he often opposed Salomon Franco and his own supercommentary; Al-Tabib's work remains unpublished, preserved only in manuscript.
Spanish Talmudist active in the first half of the 14th century, student of Solomon ben Adret and master of Jeroham ben Meshullam. Author of numerous novellæ and responsa known mainly through the citations his student Jeroham makes of them, he leaves as his principal work the "Seder 'Abodat Yom ha-Kippourim" (The Order of the Service of the Day of Atonement), of which an abridgment was published in Jeroham's "Toledot Adam wa-Ḥawwah".
Wealthy Jewish notable from Frankfurt established in Worms, he bought back in 1307 the remains of the great decisioner Meir of Rothenburg (died in captivity in 1293), giving for this all his possessions. He asked only to be buried next to the Maharam; he died shortly after and the two tombstones stand side by side in the old Jewish cemetery of Worms.
Chief Spanish rabbi of the communities under the archiepiscopal see of Toledo. The Archbishop Don Pedro Tenorio removed him from his functions for negligence in 1388 and appointed in his place Ḥayen (Ḥayyim), his own physician, described in the appointment document as « a good man, prudent and very learned, issuing from a good family ».
Physician who, in 1379, treats with such success the English knight Sir Thomas Trivet that the latter obtains for him, from the king of Navarre, the gift of a house in the Jewish quarter of Pamplona.
Personal physician to King John II of Castile and "alcalde examinador" (director) of the surgeons' corporation. He is the author of two medical treatises in vernacular Castilian, including the famous Menor daño de la medicina, a manual of hygiene and therapeutics. He was the father of chronicler Mosén Diego de Valera.
Portuguese Jew who, with Isaac Belamy, was appointed tax farmer to King Alphonse IV in 1353. This position exempted them both from wearing the badge and gave them authority to enforce the collection of royal customs duties; during their tenure, the Jews of Portugal were exempted from all taxation except the poll tax.
Catholic bishop
Marrano born in Burgos, Spain, in 1385. Baptized in 1391 with his father, Salomon ha-Lévi (who became Paul of Burgos), and his brothers and sisters, he devotes himself early to philosophy and law and becomes dean of Saint-James then of Segovia. Influential at the court of Castile, he is sent to negotiate peace with Portugal in Lisbon, then represents Spain at the Council of Bâle. Having become bishop of Burgos at the death of his father, whose hostility toward Jews he inherits, he partly inspires the bull of Pope Eugene IV of August 8, 1442, which deprives Jews of their civil rights and forbids them all contact with Christians.
Collector of royal taxes in Tudela, in Navarre, from 1380 to 1391, charged in particular with the rights paid by the Jews and Moors of the city on real estate sold to Christians. At the Navarrese court, he also supervises the purchases of clothing, spices, and horses.
Spanish poet, active in Soria at the beginning of the 14th century. He is the author of the « Milḥamot ha-'Am weha-Mispariim » (Wars of the People and Numbers), short literary and poetic articles, the « Ma'assé », moral tale published in the collection « Divré Ḥakhamim » (Metz, 1849), the « Yam Ḳohélet » (Sea of Ecclesiastes), a prayer of two thousand words each starting with the letter mem, and several piyyoutim printed in the Spanish rite of the Maḥzor. He also translates into Hebrew, under the title « Mitswot Zemaniyot » (Temporary Prescriptions), an Arabic work by Israël Israéli of Toledo on ritual.
Spanish liturgist of the fourteenth century, author of the « ha-Pardès » (The Orchard), whose ten sections deal in detail with blessings, summarized in an extract entitled « Teroumot ha-Pardès ». Azoulaï saw the manuscript in Italy and extracted passages from it, published in his commentary « Shiyouré Berakha » to the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim; this manuscript would be identical to the one now preserved at the Bodleian. The last authority cited in the work is Yom-Tov ben Abraham of Seville.
French ritual writer of the fourteenth century, author of a work on the various rites in use among Jews, the « Sefer ha-Minhagot », preserved in manuscript at the library of Cambridge University. He is cited in the responsa of Salomon ben Simon Duran (Livorno, 1742) as well as in the « Kol Bo » and in the manuscript « Sefer Assoufot ».
Spanish rabbi
Spanish physician
Provost of Paris, born in Dijon, died in Burgundy in 1382. In office at the accession of Charles VI (1380), he witnessed a popular movement demanding, under the weight of taxes, that "Jews and usurers be driven from Paris"; without awaiting a royal decision, part of the common people roamed the city, plundering some forty Jewish houses of their vessels, jewelry, clothing and deeds, and for four days attacked the homes of Jews, slaughtering some of them and tearing from their mothers' arms children who were forcibly taken to churches to be baptized. Aubriot then ardently pleaded the cause of the Jews before the king.
Czech rabbi
Exegete and kabbalist from Saragossa, disciple of the Rashba, author of a fourfold commentary on the Torah. His work was widely circulated.
Rabbi of central France at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, nicknamed « Ha-Gadol » (the Great) in the responsa of Isaac b. Immanuel of Lattes, he first studies in Provence. A violent controversy opposes him in 1305 to his master Isaac Cohen of Manosque, who launches against him a sentence of excommunication deemed unjustified by many scholars of Provence, Salomon b. Adret taking the side of excommunication while several rabbis support Baruch. Following this quarrel, he leaves Digne and settles in central France.
Rabbi of Fès, fourteenth century. Mentioned in 5093 of the Hebrew era (1333). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-2.
Benjamin ben Joab, also called De Synagoga according to Zunz, is a liturgical poet (payyan) active in Montalcino in the fourteenth century. His printed poems include a metrical introduction to Nishmat of Passover and a seliḥa of five strophes.
Prominent citizen of Girona
Isaac Bonastruc is a rabbi of Palma de Majorca, probably born in Barcelona, active at the end of the fourteenth century. Having lost his entire fortune during the persecutions of 1391, he went to Algiers and imposed himself as rabbi of the Jewish community in return for an annual stipend of thirty doubloons; quarrelsome by nature, he opposed Isaac ben Sheshet, installed as rabbi by the community, and even attempted to slander him to oust him, before finally officiating at the rabbinate alongside Simon Duran and Isaac ben Sheshet himself.
Moses (Ḥefeẓ) Bonavoglio of Messina is a Sicilian physician born in the late fourteenth century and died in 1447, renowned for his learning and eloquence. Deputized in 1428 by seventeen Jewish communities of Sicily to King Alfonso V to obtain the repeal of anti-Jewish laws promulgated that year, he succeeded in his mission and gained the favor of the king, who appointed him his physician and counselor; upon the death of Joseph Nesia, he was elected chief rabbi ("naggid") of Sicily.
Bondavi is a translator active in Tarascon in the first half of the fourteenth century, brother of Samuel of Marseille, whom he helped revise the Hebrew translation, due to Jacob ben Makhir, of the abridgment of Ptolemy's Almagest by Abu Mohammed Jabir ibn Aflah; his brother describes him in the colophon as well versed in these matters.
Bonjudes Bondavin is a physician active in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, who practiced in Marseille from 1381 to 1389 before settling in 1390 in Alghero, Sardinia. His thorough knowledge of talmudic literature earned him election as rabbi by the Jewish community of Cagliari, an election confirmed by the king, which extended his jurisdiction to all Jews of Sardinia and admitted him among the dignitaries received by King Martin II during his stay in Cagliari; he also maintained learned correspondence with Isaac ben Sheshet Barfat.
Bonenfante de Milhaud, also called Ezekiel ha-Miliabi, is a French physician of the fourteenth century, author of a medical treatise entitled « Gabriel », preserved in manuscript, and translator into Hebrew of the work of Arnaud de Villeneuve « Tabula Super Vita Brevis ».
Bonet de Lunel, called Sen (« Senior »), is a French author of the Middle Ages who wrote a supercommentary on the biblical commentary of Ibn Ezra, mentioned by Nathaniel Caspi in his commentary on the « Cuzari » written in 1387, and preserved in manuscript.
Salomon ben Reuben Bonfed is a rabbi of Saragossa and poet active in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, whose divan, preserved in manuscript, is of great historical interest. Present at the Disputation of Tortosa (1413-14), to which several of his poems refer, he also responded, in rhymed prose, to a letter from the convert Astruc Raimuch of Fraga who attempted to demonstrate the Trinity from the Bible, refuting point by point these arguments as irrational.
Bongodas Cohen is a Provençal physician active in 1353, author of a Latin work on obstetrics preserved in manuscript in Turin; according to a hypothesis by Steinschneider, « Cohen » would be an error for « Nathan », which would identify him with Juda Nathan, medical writer and Provençal translator active between 1352 and 1358.
David ben Yom-Ṭob Bongoron, or Bonjorn — Provençal equivalent of the Hebrew name Yom-Ṭob — is an astronomer active in Perpignan in the mid-fourteenth century, cited by Juda Mosconi in his super-commentary on Ibn Ezra as one of the greatest astronomers of his time. Steinschneider supposes he might be identical to the astrologer and philosopher David ben Yom-Ṭob ibn Bilia, father of the astronomer Jacob Poel.
Salomon Bonirac (perhaps identical to Bon Isaac) is a Spanish translator active in Barcelona in the middle of the fourteenth century, who translated from Arabic into Hebrew the medical work of Galen on crisis, under the title "Sefer Buḥran", retaining the Arabic term for lack of a Hebrew equivalent; the work is preserved in manuscript in Leiden.
Astruc Bonsenyor, grandson of the dragoman Astruc Bonsenyor and father of Juda Bonsenyor, is a physician of Barcelona who received in 1334 the same privileges that his grandfather had enjoyed.
Juda (Jaffuda) Bonsenyor is the chief notary of Aragon and translator from Arabic, son of the eldest of the Astruc, interpreter first of Alfonso III then of Jaime II, died around 1334. After accompanying Alfonso III in his conquest of Minorca in 1287, he is appointed chief notary of the kingdom by Jaime II in 1294, charged with translating or authenticating any Arabic document; in 1305, the king grants him a passport for Provence, and on November 4, 1310, he is exempted from all taxes. Charged with collecting Arabic maxims translated into Catalan for the princes, his collection, long remained in manuscript, was published in 1889 and translated into Spanish in 1402.
Jacob ben Juda Cabret (or Cabrit) is a Spanish translator active in Spain toward the end of the fourteenth century. He translates from Latin into Hebrew, abridging it, the work of Arnaldus de Villanova, « De Judiciis Astronomiae » (or « Capitula Astrologiae »), on the application of astrology to medicine; this translation, made in Barcelona in 1381, still survives in manuscript.
Spanish rabbi, born in 1360 and died in Penafeel in 1463, at a time marked by the violence of Ferran Martinez and Vicente Ferrer and by the decline of talmudic learning among Spanish Jews. Surnamed the gaon of Castile, he had as students Samuel ibn Sadillo al-Valensi and Isaac Aboab, and left a single work, Darke ha-Gemara, a practical method for teaching the Talmud, reprinted several times until the nineteenth century.
Franciscan friar born in Capistrano, Italy, in 1386 and died in 1456. Sent by Pope Nicholas V as legate to Germany, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia to preach against the Hussites and, in accordance with the resolutions of the Council of Constance, against the Jews whom he accused of murdering Christian children and desecrating hosts, he provoked their expulsion from the Bavarian duchies in 1452 and their banishment from Franconia by Bishop Godfrey of Würzburg in 1453. In Breslau, Silesia, his accusations led to the stake more than forty Jews on 2 June 1453.
Spanish astronomer of the fourteenth century, commissioned by King Peter IV of Aragon to translate from Catalan into Hebrew the astronomical tables known as the Tables of Don Pedro, begun by Maestre Piero Gilebert and completed by his student Dalmacio de Planis. Toward 1376, he drafted in Seville a treatise in Arabic on the astrolabe, which he himself translated into Hebrew in Barcelona in 1378; Ḥayyim ibn Musa attributed to him cabalistic miracles.
Physician and poet, active in Avignon in 1327. He is the author of a liturgical poem for Purim, whose signature, found in a manuscript, led Neubauer — followed by Zunz — to connect him to the Yiẓhari family, a hypothesis that Gross contests, seeing it as a mere honorific title. According to Zunz, he also composed a poem on the history of Esther and Mordecai, which he translated into the vernacular; a fragment of a Provençal poem by the master Crescas was moreover published in the journal « Romania » in 1892.
Austrian rabbi, active in Wiener Neustadt in the second half of the 14th century, reputed for his talmudic learning and first to receive the title « Morenou ». Like his Viennese colleagues Meïr ha-Lévi and Abraham Klausner, he devoted himself to recording the religious customs (minhaguim) of Jewish communities, a collection preserved in the Minhaguim of his student Jacob Mölln; another of his disciples, Isaac Tyrnau of Hungary, also drew up a compilation.
Provençal philosopher of the mid-14th century, disciple of Samuel of Marseille and relative of Shelemiah of Lunel, at whose request he composed a commentary on Averroes' middle commentary on the Organon. In this treatise, he frequently corrects Averroes and cites Levi ben Gershom, whom he defends against the attacks of his own master, Samuel of Marseille. Part of this commentary, concerning the Isagoge and the Categories, is preserved in manuscript at Christ Church, Oxford.
Moralist who lived in Germany, probably in Coblence, in the second half of the fourteenth century. He is the author of an ethical work titled Sefer Ḥasidim (Book of the Pious), written in 1473 and published by Schriftsetzer in Warsaw in 1866, also known by the title Sefer ha-Maskil (Book of the Wise), which briefly describes Jewish piety of his time and contributes to the History of Jewish culture. He often cites the Ḥayye 'Olam of Isaac Ḥasid as well as the works of Juda ha-Ḥasid.
Burgomaster of Strasbourg at the time of the Black Death, in 1348. With counselors Goffe Sturm and Peter Schwarber, he opposes the crowd which, accusing the Jews of having poisoned the wells, demands their death, and has arrested an entire delegation that came to demand the arrest of the Jews; removed with his colleagues for this gesture, he sees his goods confiscated and is excluded from the council for ten years.
Provençal scholar, probably lived in Perpignan in the fourteenth century. Samuel, son of Salomon Shalom of Perpignan, consulted him on a halakhic question relating to a complex case of marriage; Samuel's question and Crescas's answer are preserved in manuscript.
Religious philosopher, born in Barcelona in 1340, died in 1410, from an illustrious and learned family. A disciple of the Talmudist and philosopher Nissim ben Reuven, he becomes a Talmudic authority and a philosopher of great originality, whose influence on Spinoza is profound; among his students are Joseph Albo and, among his fellow students, Isaac ben Sheshet. Appointed in 1393 executor of his uncle's will by the king and queen of Aragon, he was imprisoned on a false accusation in 1378 and lost in 1391 his only son, a martyr to his faith; he went in 1401-02 to Joseph Orabuena in Pamplona at the request of the king of Navarre.
French Talmudist, active in the first half of the fourteenth century, probably originating from Spain, established in Perpignan shortly before the Maimonidean controversy. Although rigorously orthodox, he maintains a neutral position in this debate, despite the efforts of his brother Don Bonafos Vidal of Barcelona and Solomon ben Adret to rally him to the anti-philosophical camp, and supports his friend Samuel Sulami, who had given refuge to the ostracized philosopher Lévi ben Abraham of Villefranche.
Cartographer active in Majorca and Barcelona at the end of the fourteenth century. In 1381, the prince John of Aragon sent to Charles VI of France a world map that he had created, probably the famous Catalan map now preserved in the Louvre; in 1390, he received sixty livres and eight sous for a map executed for King John of Aragon. Forcibly converted during the Spanish persecutions of 1391, he was then known under the name of Jaffuda Cresques; in 1419, Henry the Navigator, second son of King John I of Portugal, brought to his naval observatory at Sagres a certain Mestre Jaime of Majorca, probably identical to Cresques.
Liturgical poet established in Rome in the mid-14th century, grandfather of Daniel ben Samuel ha-Rofé, rabbi of Tivoli, Daniel ben Juda is, according to Luzzatto, the author of the famous hymn « Yigdal Elohim Ḥai », which takes up the thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides. This poem, integrated into the morning prayer among Ashkenazim, is sung by Sephardim on the eve of Sabbaths and holy days, and appears in the Romaniote ritual of Sabbath evening.
Martyr established in Barcelona, probably related to Isaac of Piera, baptized in the same city in 1391 under the name of Guillermo Vidal Puiol, Astruc Dapiera is accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in 1370 by the grand inquisitor of Aragon, Fr. Nicolas Eymeric; condemned to make public repentance in the cathedral, he is sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.
Spanish rabbi
Compiler of Midrash ha-Gadol, a vast midrashic collection on the Torah.
Author of the famous Sefer Abudarham, a systematic commentary on Jewish blessings and prayers, completed in Seville in 1340. To explain variations in customs among communities (Spanish, Provençal, French, German), he drew on both Talmuds, the literature of the Geonim, and many earlier custom collections. From a distinguished Sephardic family (a homonymous ancestor was leader of the Seville community).
Convert to Christianity from Catalonia, active in the second half of the fourteenth century and held to be the son of the astronomer Jacob Poel, David Bonet Bonjorn embraced Christianity during the persecutions of 1391 under the name of Maestre Bonet Bonjorn. Close friend of Profiat Duran, forced convert like himself, he persuaded him to leave with him abroad to return to Judaism, but changed his mind at the last moment and declared himself satisfied with his new religion; Profiat Duran left Spain alone and subsequently addressed him the famous satirical epistle « Al Tehi ka-Aboteka », directed against converts to Christianity.
In 1386, among the six ambassadors sent to Venice to conclude negotiations was a Jew, David of Semo (Jewish Encyclopedia, art. Corfu). Testifies to the antiquity and rank of the Semo family in the Corfiot community.
Rabbi, active in the 2nd century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-1.
Astronomer active in the second half of the fourteenth century, disciple of Emmanuel de Tarascon, Salomon Davin of Rodez translated from Latin into Hebrew, under the title "Sefer Mishpeṭe ha-Kokhavim", the astronomical and astrological work of Abu al-Ḥasan Ali ibn Abi Rijal, "Al-Bari'", already translated into Spanish for Alphonse X by physician Juda ben Moses Cohen in 1256 then from Spanish to Latin by Giles of Thebaldis of Parma; his translation, preserved in manuscript with his own glosses, is accompanied by a second one, that of the Paris astronomical tables, also annotated.
French physician established in Carcassonne in the 14th century, contemporary of physician Jacob de Lunel, who later practiced in Tarascon in 1424. Dolan Bellan would be identical to the surgeon Maystre Bellant, associated with Bénédit du Canet of Arles and Moses Marveaux of Marseille; a Jew named « Bellan » is otherwise attested in Carpentras in 1357.
Jewish dignitary of Toledo, « chief secretary to the king of Castile Don Alfonso XI », attested by documents from 1331–1339; his epitaph in Toledo mentions his death in 1355. He illustrates the rise of the Abzaradiel family in Castilian administration.
Rabbi of Fès, 14th century. Mentioned in 5160 of the Hebrew era (1400). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-3.
Rabbi of Valencia in the second half of the 14th century, contemporary of Nissim ben Reuben, rabbi of Barcelona, and of Simeon ben Tzémah (RaSHBaTz), whom he consulted on rabbinical questions. He held the rabbinate of Valencia for more than forty years, held in high esteem as a talmudist and reputed mystic, following Maimonides widely in his decisions and opposed to casuistry; toward the end of his life, the casuist Ḥasdaï ben Salomon came to slander him and attack him openly in Valencia. His writings are reduced to a few responsa preserved in the collection of Isaac ben Sheshet.
Italian physician born in Germany at the end of the 14th century, established in Italy, where the Senate granted him citizenship in Viterbe and then, in 1405, in Rome, confirmed by Pope Innocent VII on February 6, 1406; exempted from tolls, corvées and wearing the distinctive Jewish sign, he was authorized to carry weapons. Private physician to Pope Martin V, he retained this post under Eugene IV, who confirmed his citizenship and pension in 1433, and signed in December 1443 an agreement between the pope and the Jews of Italy on their religious freedom.
Learned Jew at the court of Murad I, at Brousse then Adrianople, in the second half of the fourteenth century, before falling into disgrace and being exiled. Franz Delitzsch identifies him as the author of the « Græcus Venetus »; his contemporary Gennadios reproaches him for his unbelief, probably because of his taste for philosophy. He was the master of Georgios Gemistos Pléthon, born in 1355, himself master of Cardinal Bessarion, who gave the manuscript of the « Græcus Venetus » to the city of Venice.
Physician and rabbi, founder of the Jewish community of Tlemcen.
Student of R. Nissim of Girona, rabbi in Palma and teacher of Simeon Duran. Highly esteemed by Isaac b. Sheshet, he was renowned for his mathematical knowledge and died a martyr to his faith.
Jucefe (Joseph) Faquin was a Spanish Jewish traveler of the fourteenth century, who first lived in Barcelona before settling in Majorca after traveling the known world. Summoned by the representatives of the Aljama to contribute to a tax of 18,000 pounds, he protested in a petition addressed to King Jacques II of Majorca, on March 20, 1334, who then charged his royal procurators to examine the matter.
Liturgical poet born in Avignon, grandson of Vitalis Farissol, one of the three principal Jewish bailiffs of Avignon in 1400. Student of Salomon ben Menahem, called Frat Maïmon, he composed in 1422, at the age of seventeen, a commentary on the Kuzari of Juda ha-Lévi entitled Bet Ya'aqob; he is probably the same as the poet mentioned by Zunz under the name of Comprad Farissol, active in Avignon in 1453.
Spanish rabbi, son of Abraham Galipapa, born in Monzón around 1310, died around 1380. Rabbi in Huesca then in Pamplona, where he directs a talmudic school, he belongs to the liberal school, authorizing for example the combing of hair on the Sabbath day, and introduces various ritual changes, which earns him a complaint addressed to Isaac ben Sheshet. He is the author of the polemical treatise « 'Emeḳ Refa'im », which describes the massacre of Catalan Jews in 1348, as well as a commentary on 'Abodah Zarah.
Physician, astronomer and Provençal grammarian, active in Beaumes in the late fourteenth century and early fifteenth. He is the author of several treatises, including one on grammar and Masorah, another in verse on astronomy, a third on the immortality of the soul, and his only surviving work, « Af Ḥokmati », a medical treatise in seven parts written, he says, during one hundred nineteen days of imprisonment, at the instigation of his masters Maïmon of Lunel, Moïse ha-Cohen and Prince Todros, who appeared to him in a dream.
Philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer of Bagnols-sur-Cèze (Provence). His philosophical work The Wars of the Lord (Milhamot Hashem) treats metaphysical questions with Aristotelian rigor. He invented Jacob's staff, an astronomical instrument used for centuries.
Gonzalo García de Santa María is a Spanish bishop and adversary of the Jews born in Burgos in 1379, baptized at eleven years old with his father Paul of Burgos. Appointed archdeacon of Briviesca in 1412, then bishop of Astorga, Plasencia, and finally Sigüenza, he distinguishes himself by his knowledge of Jewish literature as much as by his declared hostility toward Jews. Delegate of Aragon to the Council of Basel, he there pushed for decisions unfavorable to Jews and ensured the strict execution of anti-Jewish laws decreed by antipope Benedict XIII.
Gonzalo Martinez, also known as Martin de las Castillas, is a Spanish knight of modest extraction, promoted to high office through Joseph de Ecija, whose master he eventually brought down by accusing him before King Alphonse XI. Having become minister and grand master of the order of Alcántara, he conceived the project of exterminating the Jews of Castile and, in 1339, proposed their expulsion and confiscation of their property during the invasion of Abu al-Hasan of Morocco, a project rejected thanks to the opposition of the Archbishop of Toledo Gil de Albornoz. Overthrown shortly after by the king's favorite, Leonora de Guzmán, he was burned alive in 1340, his property confiscated.
Salomon ben Moses Gracian, called Ḥen, is a Talmudist of Barcelona active at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, died in 1307. He appears among the signatories, alongside Salomon ben Adret, of the decree of excommunication targeting the followers of Maimonides, before undertaking, after Bedersi's letter to Adret, to reconcile the two camps. His name appears three times in the Minḥat Ḳena'ot.
Ḥasdaï ben Salomon was a Spanish rabbi probably born in Tudela, disciple of R. Nissim Gerondi in Barcelona, whom his friend Isaac ben Sheshet called the "worthy one of Spain". Rabbi until 1379, the year the plague broke out in Tudela, he then left, still unmarried, to practice in Valencia. Correspondent of Ḥasdaï Crescas and Isaac ben Sheshet, he opposed through strict piety the ritual innovations introduced by Ḥayyim Galipapa of Pamplona.
Philosopher and rabbi of Barcelona, author of The Light of the Lord (Or Hashem), a major critique of Maimonides' Aristotelianism. His philosophy of free will and divine love influenced Spinoza. He lost his son in the massacres of 1391.
Ḥayyim ben Jehiel Ḥefeṣ Zahab is a talmudist of the fourteenth century who died in 1314, brother of Asher ben Jehiel (the Roch), trained by their father Jehiel and by Samuel d'Évreux. Several of his responsa appear in the collection of Meïr of Rothenburg alongside those of his brother; the attribution of the work Ḥefeṣ Zahab to him or to his father Jehiel remains uncertain.
Ḥayyim ha-Lévi is a physician and grand rabbi of the united communities of the archbishopric of Toledo, appointed in 1388 by archbishop Pedro Tenorio, of whom he was the personal physician, to replace grand rabbi Zoulaïma Alfahan, who remained residing in Seville. The archiepiscopal decree of May 17, 1388, sanctioned by the king on December 14, 1388, ordered all congregations to recognize him as rabbi and dayyan, his office to run for one year from January 1, 1389.
Henry II, called of Trastamare, is king of Castile born in Seville in 1333 and died in 1379, illegitimate brother of Peter I, toward whom he was as hostile to Jews as the latter had been favorable to them. After beheading his brother near Montiel on March 14, 1369 to ascend to the throne, he imposed a heavy war contribution on the Jewish community of Toledo to satisfy his ally Bertrand du Guesclin, while having to resort to Jewish financiers like Don Joseph Pichon, his chief tax collector. Nevertheless, yielding to the demands of the Cortes of Toro in 1369, then of Burgos, in 1374 and 1377, he imposed on the Jews the wearing of a badge and forbade them Christian names.
Portuguese philosopher of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, perhaps father of the astronomer Jacob Poel. Most of his numerous works are known only through citations, including a commentary on the Pentateuch abundantly cited by Caspi, Lévi ben Gershon and especially his compatriot Samuel Zarza. In his « Yesodot ha-Maskil », published with a French translation by S. Klein in Metz in 1849, he adds thirteen articles of faith to those of Maimonides, bringing their total to twenty-six, the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton.
Spanish philosopher active in Spain or Africa in the middle of the fourteenth century, steeped in Neoplatonism. He wrote in Arabic an important philosophical work in three parts: a dialogued introduction to the « Sefer Yeṣirah », a philosophical commentary on the same work, and a commentary on Pirḳe R. Éliézer completed on 8 February 1365. His theory of the « active intellect » is close to that of Ibn Gabirol, without it being known whether he was familiar with the « Fons Vitæ » of the latter.
Spanish philosopher, physician and polemicist born in Tudela in the middle of the fourteenth century, often confused with a homonymous physicist from Tortosa. While still young, he had to publicly debate original sin and redemption with Cardinal Pedro de Luna, future Pope Benedict XIII, in Pamplona on 26 December 1375. Driven from Navarre by war between Castilians and English, he settled as a physician in Tarazona, in Aragon, where he completed his « Eben Boḥan » (May 1380 or 1385), a polemical work in fourteen chapters directed against baptized Jews, written on the model of « Milḥamot Adonai » by Jacob ben Ruben.
Spanish Kabbalist, determined opponent of rationalist philosophy, president of a yeshiva and active around 1390-1440, father of Joseph and Isaac ibn Shem-Ṭob. He wrote the "Sefer ha-Emunot", published in Ferrara in 1556, a violent attack against Aristotelian philosophy and the rationalist conception of Judaism, combined with praise of Kabbalah as the only true teaching transmitted by tradition; in it he judged Maimonides, Abraham ibn Ezra and Levi ben Gershon severely.
Preacher and kabbalist active around 1328, disciple of Salomon ben Adret and master of Menahem ibn Zerah. He was accused, together with Shem-Ṭob ben Abraham ibn Gaon, by Isaac the Blind of Acco, of having reported unreliably the words and explanations of their masters. He is the author of the « Derashot al ha-Torah », homilies on the Pentateuch.
Spanish physician who died before 1372, father of Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives al-Lorqui. He revised the translation by Tibbon of Maimonides' « Millot Higgayon », dedicating this revision to his student Ezra ben Salomon ibn Gatigno, and also wrote the « Sefer Yesodot ».
Spanish physician active around 1400 in Alcañiz. In 1408, on the order of the rich and influential Benveniste ben Salomon b. Labi, he wrote in Arabic a treatise on the value and effects of simple and compound foods and remedies, translated into Hebrew under the title « Gerem ha-Ma'alot » by Benveniste's son, Joseph Vidal. He might be identical to Josué al-Lorqui who addressed to his friend Salomon ha-Lévi, who became Paul of Burgos, an anti-Christian letter marveling at his conversion and opposing eight arguments against the truth of Christianity, written when the latter, intended tutor of the young king Juan II, lived in luxury.
Tax collector, representative and traveling companion, around 1320, of the infant Don Juan Manuel, author of the « Conde Lucanor ». A very pious man and admirer of R. Jehiel b. Asher of Toledo, he relentlessly punished any moral or religious infraction.
Physician of King Alphonse XI of Castile, astronomer and astrologer active in the fourteenth century. Favorite of the king, he obtained influence over the finances of the kingdom and the privilege of minting coin at a lower standard, and had the importation of cereals from the kingdom of Granada forbidden, incurring the enmity of Joseph de Écija. Accused along with the latter by Gonzalo Martínez of enriching themselves at the expense of the state, he was imprisoned with his two brothers and died under torture, his body remaining unburied for a whole year; if he is indeed the one who cared for the queen before the birth of don Pedro, he would have died only at the end of 1333.
Biblical commentator probably of Italian origin, active in the 14th century. He is the author of the "Imre No'am", allegorical, cabalistic and grammatical commentary on the Pentateuch annotated with obscure passages from Rashi and ibn Ezra, published for the first time in Constantinople in 1546 then incorporated by Moïse Frankfurter in the "Mikraot Gedolot" (Amsterdam, 1724-27). He cites therein Rashi, the "Lekah Tob", the "Bekor Shor", Juda he-Hassid, the Tosafists and Moïse of Coucy.
Italian Jewish poet, author of the Mahbarot, blending satirical verve with Italian forms (the sonnet). He was a contemporary and reader of Dante.
14th century Spanish Talmudic scholar
French physician established in Avignon in the second half of the fourteenth century, student in 1373 of the astronomer Immanuel ben Jacob of Tarascon and Orange. Versed in rabbinic literature, philosophy and medicine, he witnessed the ravages of the plague that struck first the Jews of southern France, and wrote in 1377 a treatise, the "Be'er Leḥai", on the origin of epidemics and the means to combat them. He cites Hippocrates, Ibn Sina, Averroès, Razi and Galen, as well as Jewish physicians such as Isaac Israëli and Moïse of Narbonne, and was an eyewitness to the care provided by Jean of Tornamira, physician to Pope Gregory XI.
Spanish grammarian of the 14th century, author of « Sefer ha-Riḳmah », a grammar treatise preserved in manuscript at the National Library of Paris. He composed it for a Babylonian scholar, Aaron ben Abraham, for whom he had previously written another grammar, « Sefat Yeter ».
Decisor of Barcelona then of Algiers after the pogroms of 1391, famous for his responsa. He played a key role in the organization of the communities of North Africa.
Born in Valencia in 1326, he studied in Barcelona under Nissim ben Reuben (RaN), became rabbi of Saragossa and then, after the persecutions of 1391, settled in Algiers where he died in 1408. He is one of the greatest Sephardic decisors; his 417 responsa (She'elot u-Teshuvot ha-Ribash) are of great authority (cited by Joseph Caro) and a major historical source on Jewish life of the 14th century.
Liturgical poet active in Germany in the first half of the 14th century, author of the seliḥah "Ani hu ha-Geber" on the martyrs of the persecutions of 1337, of which he was the witness. The signature of this poem, "Yifraḥ Samak", would form, according to Zunz, a part of his name.
Spanish rabbi
French Talmudist of the first half of the 14th century, rabbi in Manosque, in the Basses-Alpes. His contemporaries considered him a great Talmudist, although he appears to have written nothing. A controversy opposed him to one of his students, Baruch, and concluded with the excommunication of the latter, confirmed by Salomon ben Adret despite protests from several rabbis who supported him.
Spanish Jewish philosopher of the first half of the 14th century, defender of rationalist Judaism (Ezer ha-Dat) against the convert Abner of Burgos; « Policar » is an attested spelling of his name.
Austro-Hungarian historian
French rabbi of the second half of the 14th century, also called Astruc of Savoy, remembered for his controversies and the divisions he provoked among French communities. Provided with a mandate from R. Meïr ha-Lévi of Vienna conferring supreme rabbinical authority upon him, he attempted to subject all the Jews of France to his jurisdiction and attacked the chief rabbi Johanan ben Mattithia, whom he sought to oust. Johanan brought the matter before the rabbis of Catalonia — Ḥasdaï Crescas, Sheshet and Moïse Halawa —, who entirely supported him and severely blamed Isaïe; the expulsion of the Jews of France, which occurred shortly after, presumably ended these rivalries.
Jew converted to Islam, active in Ceuta, Morocco, in the first half of the fourteenth century. He wrote in Arabic a polemical work against the Jews, in which the passages of the Bible he cites are given in Hebrew, transcribed in Arabic characters; manuscripts of it are preserved in the British Museum.
Rabbin et moraliste de Castille, auteur du Menorat ha-Maor — le Chandelier de la lumière —, recueil de morale juive bâti sur l'aggada et rangé par vertu, composé vers 1380. Un ouvrage homonyme d'Isaac Aboab, écrit dans la même Castille à la même génération, devint l'un des livres les plus réimprimés du monde juif ; le sien s'éteignit. Un seul manuscrit complet a survécu, à la Bodléienne d'Oxford (Ms. Opp. 146), et il fallut attendre l'édition de H. G. Enelow, en quatre volumes achevés en 1932, pour qu'il trouve son premier lecteur imprimé — cinq siècles et demi après sa rédaction. L'hypothèse généralement admise, sans être établie, est qu'Aboab a repris et condensé son texte : le livre que tout le monde a lu serait alors l'abrégé de celui que personne n'a lu. Israël Al-Naqawa mourut à Tolède dans les massacres de 1391, l'été où les communautés juives de Castille s'effondrèrent ; son fils Ephraïm gagna Tlemcen, où il devint le Rab el-Kebir. La famille Encaoua porte son nom.
Czech rabbi
French Talmudist of the first half of the fourteenth century, apparently established in Tarascon, one of the few Jews who remained in France after the expulsion of 1306. Student of Emmanuel of Tarascon, he is said to have composed several works; Gross supposes he is identical to Rotelus of Olobrega, mentioned in Tarascon in 1299 in a Latin document, this name being a diminutive of his own.
rabbin allemand
Spanish astronomer, active in Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century, student of Asher ben Yehiel, at whose request he wrote in 1310 the « Yesod 'Olam », the finest Hebrew contribution to astronomy of his time, dealing with geometry, trigonometry, the structure of the globe, celestial movements and calendars. The work, long studied and annotated in the Middle Ages, was not printed until 1777 in Berlin, then in a more complete edition in 1848; his son Joseph made an Arabic summary translated into Hebrew.
Spanish scholar who died in Toledo in 1326, probably identical to Israel ben Joseph of Toledo, brother of the astronomer Isaac Israeli. A student of Asheri, for whom he translated from Arabic the ordinances of Toledo and passages from Maimonides' commentary on the Mishna, he is also the author of a ritual work in Arabic translated into Hebrew under the title « Miẓwot Zemaniyyot » and an Arabic commentary on the Pirké Avot, rich in illustrations drawn from ancient Jewish literature. Zunz attributes to him furthermore six liturgical poems for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah signed « Israel ».
Jewish financier of Ulm in the fourteenth century, married to the daughter of the « Grossjude » Moses of Ehingen and probably president of the Jewish community of Ulm for many years, he lent considerable sums to the city. On October 1, 1378, he advanced to Ulm the sum necessary for the ransom of the monastery of Langenau; on November 13 following, the council annulled his other claims on the city. Pursued in 1376 by Eberhard of Württemberg for a tax that he refused to pay, he saw his wife and son placed under the ban of the Empire until September 5, 1376; this ban, like that affecting Ulm, was annulled by the Diet of Rothenburg on May 31, 1377.
Biblical commentator and Kabbalist active in the fourteenth century, author of the « Minḥat ha-Bikkurim », whose first part, the « Torat ha-Minḥah », gathers homilies on Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus delivered on Saturday afternoon, each section being related to a verse from the Prophets and enriched with Kabbalistic explanations. Knowing Arabic and citing Maimonides, he refers to his great commentary on the Pentateuch, the « Talmud Torah », and also wrote a work on Palestine, devoted to localities and the tombs of great men.
Provençal theologian of the second half of the fourteenth century, having lived successively in Salon, Avignon and Argon, Jacob ben Moïse of Bagnols is the author of a casuistic and philosophical work, preserved in manuscript, divided into three parts: the 'Pesaḳim,' on the permitted and the forbidden; ''Ezrat Nashim,' on marriage, levirate and divorce; and 'Sod ha-Hashgaḥah,' essays on ethics, philosophy and mysticism.
Medieval Spanish astronomer
Tax farmer for the Jews in France in the fourteenth century, Jacob de Pont-Sainte-Maxence was appointed in 1360, with Manecier de Vesoul and his brother Vivant, by King Charles V to collect the tax imposed on Jews entering the kingdom. A dispute opposed him to Manecier in 1365 before the parliament of Paris, where the latter was sentenced to a fine; reconciled in 1370, the two men obtained again, as Passover 1372 approached, the loan of Hebrew books deposited at the Sainte-Chapelle.
German rabbi
Spanish physician and writer born in Uclés in the second third of the fourteenth century, personal physician to D. Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa, Master of Santiago, for whom he translated from Limousin into Castilian a moral-philosophical work of sentences drawn from the Old and New Testament as well as from Aristotle, Seneca and Cicero. This "Libro de Dichos de Sabios é Filósofos", in seven parts, was completed at Vélez on July 8, 1402 and is still found in manuscript at the Escurial; it is unknown whether he was, as Amador de los Ríos suggests, converted to Christianity.
German rabbi
Juan de Valladolid, a Jew converted to Christianity born in 1335, persuaded King Henry of Castile that he could convince the Jews of the truth of Christianity if they were compelled to listen to him. He traveled through the Castilian provinces, preaching and debating in synagogues with very limited success; at Avila, he assembled the Jews four times before a Christian and Muslim public, and at Burgos he provoked a controversy, before the Archbishop of Toledo, Moses ha-Cohen of Tordesillas. Moses ha-Cohen easily refuted his biblical arguments in favor of the messiahship and divinity of Jesus, and the controversy was interrupted midway through the fourth session.
Jekuthiel ben Salomon, also called Maestro Bonsenior, is a French physician active in Narbonne in the second half of the fourteenth century. In 1387, he translated into Hebrew, under the title « Shoshan ha-Refu'ah », Bernard of Gordon's « Lilium Medicinæ »; the translation is preserved in manuscript.
Jeroham ben Meshullam was a French Talmudist who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. Originally from the Languedoc, he settled in Toledo after the expulsion of the Jews from that province in 1306, where he studied the Talmud under the direction of Asher ben Jehiel and Abraham b. Ismaël. He is the author of two works of casuistry, the Sefer Mesharim on civil laws and the Toledot Adam we-Ḥawwah, devoted to laws and observances related to marriage.
Joab ben Jehiel was a liturgical poet who lived in Rome in the fourteenth century and belonged to the Beth-El family. He composed five piyyutim inserted in the Roman Mahzor, intended for Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, as well as a prayer for Thursdays when Tahanun is not recited. He is also credited with a selichah preserved in the Tripoli collection, and he may be the young poet whom the poet Immanuel mocked in his Mahberot.
Joseph ben Johanan, French rabbi of the fourteenth century from Trier, was the first to bear this name as a surname ; he was nicknamed « the Great » for his erudition. Emigrated to France in 1306, he became in 1343 rabbi of Marseille, where he distinguished himself by a decision on the law of marriage, and Isaac b. Sheshet qualified him as « the ornament of the wise, crown of the ancients ». His wife, also versed in the Talmud, left a decision preserved by Simon b. Tsemah Duran ; having become a widow and settled in Paris near their son Matitya, rabbi of the city, she was exempted, in 1363, from wearing the Jewish badge.
Member of an ancient and illustrious Spanish family, student of Rabbenou Asher ben Yehiel (the Rosh) in Toledo. He commented on much of the Bible (Esther, Proverbs, Jeremiah), the Pirké Avot and a piyyut, translated parts of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, and wrote around 1330–1350 a treatise on astronomy in Arabic, « Nour al-'Alam » (The Light of the World).
Joseph ben Sheshet Latimi, Spanish liturgical poet, lived in Lérida in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In 1308, he composed the prayer Elef Alfin, a thousand words all beginning with the letter aleph, each verse opening with the last word of the previous one; the text was included in the collection Qovets Vikouhim, first published in Constantinople and then, in 1844, in Breslau.
Spanish rabbi
Chief rabbi of the Jews of Portugal and treasurer of King Denis I, whom he enjoyed with great favour; died before 1304. Very wealthy, he lent in 1298 six thousand pounds to Don Raimond de Cardona for the purchase of the city of Mourão, and a document dated October 2, 1303 still bears his signature; he was succeeded in his office by his son Don Guedelha (Gedalya), also treasurer of the queen mother Dona Brites.
Treasurer of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, appointed in 1378, he became after the death of the sovereign the favorite of Queen Leonore of Meneses, whom he accompanied as a page when she had to flee Lisbon before the aroused population. The deposed queen vainly tried to obtain for him the position of chief rabbi of Castile through her son-in-law John I of Castile, then found herself involved in a plot against the latter; the plot having failed, Judah was arrested with her, confessed everything before the king and was condemned to death before being pardoned through the intercession of David Negro.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica (via encyclopedia.com), in its entry on Sijilmassa, mentions "R. Judah b. Joseph Sijilmassi" who lived in Sijilmassa in the late 14th century, shortly before the city's destruction (after 1393). The Jewish community of Sijilmassa, active since the city's origins, controlled the gold trade and maintained commerce as far as Egypt and India; it was intellectually active. No written work is attributed to him in the source.
Bulgarian rabbi
Italian poet of the 14th century, who lived from poetry lessons and occasional poems — none of his poetic works have come down to us. He composed a dictionary of rhymes preserved in manuscript in Oxford and Rome, and became acquainted with Immanuel ben Salomon of Rome by sending him a poem; the latter, in his "Meḥabberot", praises Judah's mastery of the use of different meters.
French translator, active in the first half of the 14th century. He translated, after 1328, from Arabic into Hebrew, under the title "Happalat ha-Happalah", the treatise by Averroes against the "Tahafut al-Falasifa" by Ghazâlî, preceded by an introduction in rhymed prose where he justifies having propagated the work of such a heretic. He has often been confused by bibliographers with the Venetian physician of the same name, also a translator.
French astronomer of the 14th century, known in Provence under the name Samiel Astruc d'Escola or Dascala, Samuel Kansi writes the introduction to the astronomical work « Shesh Kenafayim » by Emmanuel ben Jacob of Tarascon. He is presumed identical to Samuel Nasi d'Escola, of whom survives a commentary on the astronomical tables of Jacob ben David ben Yom-Ṭob Bonet, known as Bonjorn; a certain Samuel d'Escola, perhaps this same Kansi, copies in 1406, in Avignon, the « Mishné Torah » of Maimonides.
Rabbi in Nuremberg toward the end of the 14th century. In 1406, the rabbi Israël came to teach in Nuremberg, first alongside Koppelmann; their disagreement, which rabbi Jacob Weil pressed the community council to settle, was resolved by alternating their teaching days, with students able to attend one or the other as they wished. Peace did not last, however: in 1412, a "Koppelmann, son of the schismatic" was banished from the city forever.
Physician, active in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, who devoted himself to translating medical works from Latin into Hebrew. Three of his translations survive in manuscript: a commentary on the ninth book, devoted to pathology, of Rhazes by Gérard de Solo, the "Meyashsher ha-Matḥilim", a medical manual by the same Gérard de Solo, and a chapter on the relationship between astronomy and medicine, attributed to Hippocrates.
Rabbi of Draa Valley, active in the 2nd century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-3.
Influential Jew of Estella, in Navarre, from 1380 to 1391. Charged from 1380, with Samuel Amarillo, with collecting the five percent tax on real estate sold or leased by Jews to Christians or Moors without royal authorization, he held in 1391, with Yuze Orabuena and Nathan Gabay, the position of general tax farmer, also engaging in banking and exchange; always favorable to his coreligionists in his affairs at court, he ended his days in complete destitution, and the king, acknowledging his services, granted him an annual pension of sixty florins. Died around 1392, he was unjustly taxed with heresy after his death.
Head of the Jewish community of France, originally from Vesoul, probably of the family of Héliot of Vesoul. He negotiates around 1358 the return of Jews to France and is appointed by the king "procureur général" of the Jews, charged with authorizing their entry into the kingdom and responsible for their contributions to the treasury, a function he still exercises in 1376. Accused by his rival Jacob of Pont-Saint-Maxence of misconduct and of having established a synagogue without authorization, he is imprisoned in the Châtelet before regaining his credit at court.
Italian statesman and Christian Hebraist, born in Florence in 1396, died in Naples on October 26, 1459. Secretary to Pope Nicholas V, he learns Hebrew from a Jew named Manuel and translates the Psalms at the Pope's request, whose principles he must defend in a treatise. Hoping for the 5,000 ducats promised for the discovery of the Hebrew original of the Gospel of Matthew, he assembles numerous Hebrew manuscripts now preserved in the Vatican, and undertakes a vast apologetic work against the Jews.
Archdeacon of Ecija in the 14th century, one of the most bitter opponents of the Jews, active in Seville where he stirs up hatred against them through his preaching and arrogates to himself jurisdiction over the community. Summoned by King Henry II, in a letter of 25 August 1378, to cease all interference, then recalled to order by John I on 3 March 1382 and by a new edict of 25 August 1383, he persists in his enterprise; brought before the secular tribunal on 11 February 1388, he declares he wants to continue and accuses the Jews of having offered him 10,000 doubloons.
Chief Rabbi of Paris and of France from 1360 to 1385, son of Joseph ben Johanan of Trier, rabbi of Marseille, and disciple of Perez ben Isaac ha-Cohen and Nissim ben Reuben of Gérone. Appointed in 1360 by King Charles V, who exempts him, with Manessier of Vesoul, from wearing the badge, he founded in Paris a rabbinical school that attracted many students, eight of whom became rabbis of other communities.
Spanish Talmudist, active at the end of the fourteenth century and beginning of the fifteenth, member of the Yiẓhari family of Narbonne, whose ancestors, banished from France in 1306, had settled in Catalonia and Aragon. He would be, according to Neubauer, identical to the rabbi of that name who took part in the disputation of Tortosa in 1413, and leaves several commentaries, including one on the Psalms (ch. cxix), published in Venice in 1546.
Scholar of the 14th century, also known as Ibn Ḥarṭon, who translated into Hebrew verse Maimonides' « Moreh Nebukim » in 1363; the work, now lost, may not be distinct from that of a certain Mattithia b. Shabbethai of Montepulciano, preserved in verse in the Vatican Library. An acrostic poem from his hand, « Mebine'Am », is also found there.
Rabbi of Vienna from 1360 to 1390, originally from Fulda, whose authority extends throughout Germany and even to Spanish rabbis. He introduces to Germany the system of rabbinic ordination, requiring that no Talmudic student serve as rabbi without having received the title of « morenou » — a measure first contested then accepted —, and extends his authority to French rabbis, sending Isaiah ben Abba Mari to appoint rabbis in his name. Although he left no work of his own, he reportedly collaborated with Abraham Klausner and Chalom of Neustadt on a collection of ritual customs.
Spanish rabbi
German scholar of the fourteenth century, native of Bingen, author of the « 'Aruk Goren », dictionary of the Talmud with German translations of difficult words, notably of Arabic and Greek origin, based on the « 'Aruk » of Nathan ben Jehiel from which he draws many extracts. Wolf concludes that despite the similarity of content, this work should not be confused with the anonymous « 'Aruk ha-Ḳaẓer ».
Talmudist of Perpignan, author of the Beth ha-Behira, a vast encyclopedic commentary on the Talmud. His tolerant view of other monotheistic nations remains famous.
German rabbi
French scholar, settled in Perpignan, where he died in 1306. His relative Abba Mari mourned his death in a condolence letter to the community of Perpignan and in a liturgical piece; Gross believes he is identical to Sen Bonet of Lunel, author of a commentary on ibn Ezra's commentary on the Bible.
Moses Navarro was personal physician to King Peter I of Portugal and arrabi mór (chief rabbi) of the Portuguese Jewish communities, as well as tax collector, for some thirty years. Highly esteemed, he was able to influence royal legislation in favor of the Jews. His son, also named Moses Navarro, was treasurer and general receiver under Peter I and John I.
Student of Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg (Maharam), he compiled a collection of the traditions and decisions of his master. Almost nothing is known of his life. His work became known to the great Ashkenazi decisors of the 15th century (Maharil, Isserlein, Colon, Israel Bruna).
Sephardic rabbi
French Talmudist, active in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, living in Carpentras during the religious controversies of 1303-6, esteemed correspondent of Abba Mari of Lunel. Wrongly confused by Zunz and Neubauer with Mordekhaï ben Isaac Ezobi (active in Carcassonne at the same period), he would according to Gross be identical to Mordekhaï ben Isaac Ḳimḥi, father of Isaac Ḳimḥi called « Mestre Petit de Nyons »; he is designated as « Gaon » by Isaac de Lattes and cited as « Mordecai b. Isaac » in the manuscript responsa of Solomon ben Adret.
Physician and translator of the fourteenth century, active in Avignon, Toledo and Seville. In Toledo, before 1358, he composed a satirical poem against Shemariah of Negropont, who claimed to be messiah and prophet in Castile; converted to Christianity in Seville under the name of Juan d'Avignon, he translated in 1360 the «Lilium Medicinae» of Bernard of Gordon from Latin into Hebrew, under the title «Peraḥ ha-Refu'ot».
Physician, philosopher and Italian poet, born in Rieti in 1388, died in Rome around 1460. Trained in the Talmud by his father and then in medicine, he practised in Rieti, sojourned in Perugia in 1436, founded a school in Narni, then served as rabbi in Rome under Eugenius IV, where Pope Pius II appointed him his physician. Fascinated by Dante's 'Divine Comedy', he composed a Hebrew counterpart, the 'Miḳdash Me'aṭ', a poem in two parts introducing terza rima into Hebrew poetry and reviewing medieval philosophy and then the history of Jewish literature.
French writer, active in Salon in the early fourteenth century, master of Kalonymos ben Kalonymos of Arles, who described him as a "learned scholar" and an "ornament of the wise." He translates into Hebrew the great commentary of Averroes on Aristotle's "Metaphysics" — the first four books of which were copied in 1342 by Asher ben Abraham Cohen of Lunel —, drafts with Abba Mari ben Eligdor a refutation of Joseph Caspi's "Sefer ha-Sod," and summarizes the commentary of Averroes on the "Physics."
French Talmudist, active in Perpignan in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whose influence, along with that of his father, obtained from King Jacques Ier of Mallorca the authorization for the Jews expelled from France in 1306 to settle in Perpignan. Close friend of Abba Mari of Lunel, whose son marries his daughter, he corresponds with him during the Montpellier controversy (1303-6), but, more liberal and conciliatory, does not share his views and strives to appease the disagreeing parties, including with Don Profiat Gracian of Barcelona.
Liturgical poet of the fourteenth century, perhaps identical to the Catalan parnas Moses Nathan, still alive in 1354. His liturgical poems appear in the maḥzorim of Avignon and North Africa.
15th-century rabbi
Italian physician and poet
Spanish commentator and translator, active in the second half of the 14th century in Guadalajara, where he probably was born. He is best known for his "Megillat Setarim" (Venice, 1554), a super-commentary on the commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra to the Pentateuch, where he displays an in-depth knowledge of the Talmud, Kabbalah and philosophy. He also leaves a Kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch (portion on Exodus preserved) and a Kabbalistic commentary on daily prayers published as a supplement to a work by Menahem Recanati (Constantinople, 1543-44).
Hispano-Arab poet, active in Seville in the first half of the 14th century. He is the author of a didactic Arabic poem entitled « Al-Sab'aniyyah », later translated into Hebrew under the title « Batte ha-Nefesh » by Salomon da Piera; the original and the translation were published by Hirschfeld in the annual report of Montefiore College in 1893-94.
Ḥayyim ibn Musa is a Spanish controversialist, physician and biblical commentator born in Béjar, near Salamanca, around 1390, and died in 1460. His medical reputation opened the princely courts of Spain to him, where he frequently disputed on religion with ecclesiastics and lay scholars, in an era when the Inquisition did not yet exist. He is the author of Magen wa-Romaḥ, a pamphlet written in 1456 in the form of a letter to his son Juda to refute those who, relying on Hillel, denied the coming of the Messiah, as well as a Hebrew translation of an Arabic medical treatise by al-Jazzar.
German liturgist who lived in the early fourteenth century. He is the author of a liturgical work entitled "Sefer Mahkim", sometimes cited under the name "Sefer ha-Minhagim"; remaining unpublished, it was nevertheless often used by other liturgical authors, and two manuscript copies survive, one in Vienna, the other in Hamburg.
Spanish physician active, it seems, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. He left a commentary on the Pentateuch, the « Zikkaron Tov », written around 1307, of which an abridged version, « Mivhar ha-Ma'amarim », appeared in Livorno in 1840. He should not be confused with his namesake Nathan the physician, active in Montpellier toward the end of the thirteenth century, whom Steinschneider identifies as the physician Nathan ben Joël Falaquera, author of the « Tsori ha-Guf ».
Talmudist who lived in the second half of the fourteenth century. He is the author of the "Hilkhot Shehita u-Bedika", a compendium of the laws concerning the slaughter of animals and the examination of their carcasses for consumption, in which he cites notably the rules of the rabbis of eastern France, including Jacob ben Yakar. The work survives in the margin of a manuscript of the "Sefer Mitzvot" of Isaac of Corbeil, held in the library of Cambridge University.
Provençal physician of the fourteenth century, probably from Avignon, also known by the Provençal names En Bongodas and Bonjues. He devoted himself especially to the translation into Hebrew of Arab scientific works—a medical treatise by Ibn Abi Salt, a philosophical treatise by Ghazali, a medical work by Ibn Wafid, an abbreviated version of the treatise « De Vinis » by Arnaud de Villeneuve, and a treatise on fevers drawn from Bernard of Gordon and Gilbert—and wrote himself a letter defending the study of philosophy against its orthodox detractors.
Yemenite commentator and poet of the fourteenth century, author of a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch, the "Nur al-Zulm wa-Masbah al-Hikm", composed in a mixture of Arabic and Hebrew and of a more midrashic than exegetical nature, which he began drafting on the 15th Tammuz of the year 1640 of the Seleucid era, that is June 23, 1328. He cites both Talmuds and the Targumim, relies especially on the Midrash Rabba and on Maimonides, the principal authority among Yemenites, and mixes in polemical remarks against Christianity and Islam.
Rabbi and exegete, author of the homiletical commentary Nour al-Zulm (Sefer Meor ha-Afela).
Physician, astronomer, and halakist, active in Barcelona from around 1340 to 1380. Despite slanders from powerful Jews in his community to the authorities, he was chosen to draft the petition addressed by the Jews of Spain to the king pleading for his protection. Probably trained by his father, Reuben ben Nissim, he was an independent and rigorous thinker, not hesitating to refute Rashi, Rabbenou Tam, Maimonides, Nahmanides, and Salomon ben Adret while remaining cautious in his own decisions, and left important commentaries on the « Halakot » of Alfasi as well as on several Talmudic treatises.
Philosopher active in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He is the author of a philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, written around 1306 in the midst of the quarrel between orthodoxy and philosophy advocates, in which he proposed rationalist explanations of miracles — thus attributing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to a volcanic eruption similar to the one that had devastated the island of Ischia in 1302. This commentary, preserved under several titles in various manuscripts, also earned him, according to Schorr, a philosophical homily on the book of Ruth.
Talmudist, philosopher and physician of Barcelona, author of a major commentary on the Rif. His Derashot ha-Ran set forth an influential political-religious thought.
Commentator born in 1325 according to Azoulaï, or in 1341 according to Steinschneider. He composed a supercommentary on the "Kiddouch ha-Hodech" of the "Yad" of Maimonides, expounding in detail the Jewish calendar and astronomy, published for the first time in the Amsterdam edition of the "Yad" of 1702.
King of Portugal (1357-67), a model of justice in his attitude toward Jews: when two young nobles in his service steal and murder a Jewish peddler, he has them beheaded despite the intercession of nobles who considered the life of a Jew of no importance, and he defended the Jews of Coimbra against the clergy who had invaded their quarter. His personal physician was the great Portuguese rabbi D. Moïse Navarro, and he required that any sale or rental of property between a Jew and a Christian be transacted before a judge or witnesses to prevent any fraud.
King of Aragon (1336-87), just toward the Jews of his kingdom and more benevolent than any of his predecessors; he has as his personal physician the rabbi Menahem, of whom he claims to be a student in astrology. He is said to have replied to the slanderer Nicolas de Valence that one cannot believe a convert since he changes his words as easily as his religion, and that he has « never seen good results come from constraint ». After annexing the Balearic Islands, he particularly favors the Jews of Majorca, frees them from the fines imposed by his predecessor James III and confirms their privileges, under penalty of a thousand maravedis in case of failure by royal officers.
Author of the « Toledot Aharon », which indicates opposite each biblical verse the place where it is commented on in the Talmud and Midrash. It is unknown where and when he lived, but it is probable that he lived in Germany after 1400; his work is printed for the first time in Basel in 1580, then separately in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1583 and in Venice in 1591 and 1592.
Joseph Pichon is almoxarife and general tax collector of Seville, appointed in 1369 by Henry II of Castile, who appreciated his honesty. Imprisoned on accusation by wealthy coreligionists then released against payment of a large sum, he is finally beheaded on August 21, 1379 in Burgos, on royal order obtained by Jews who accused him of being an informer; his execution subsequently deprives the rabbis and Jewish courts of the kingdom of the right to judge criminal matters.
Italian monk of the fourteenth century, born in Alexandria, in Italy. He translated around 1342, at the request of Pope Clement VI, the treatise of Lévi ben Gershom on his astronomical instrument, which would later influence the discovery of America, as well as the unfinished forecast of Gersonide on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.
Samson Pine (Pnie) is a German translator of the fourteenth century, probably from Peine, in the province of Hanover, who later lived in Strasbourg. He is chiefly known for having helped, in 1336, the German poets Claus Wysse and Philipp Kolin of Strasbourg to write a continuation of the 'Parzival' by Wolfram von Eschenbach, based on a French poem preserved in the manuscript of Ruediger von Manesse; the two poets explicitly thank him for this work of translation and invention of rhymes, designating him as a Jew.
Salomon Pletsch is a German physician of the 14th and 15th centuries, originally from Regensburg. He is appointed in 1394 municipal surgeon of Frankfurt-am-Main, with an annual salary of 36 florins and a supply of cloth for his uniform identical to that of Christian officers; the only difference is that he takes an oath more judaico. His letter of appointment obliges him to treat free of charge the members of the council and their servants as well as sick Jews received in the hospital, and to ask only moderate fees from other citizens.
Grammarian, astronomer and polemicist of Perpignan. Forcibly converted in 1391, he wrote Al Tehi ka-Avotekha ("Be Not Like Your Fathers"), an anti-Christian satire disguised as a letter of encouragement to a convert. His Maaseh Efod is a major treatise of Hebrew grammar.
Son of the Rosh, he composed the Arba'ah Turim (Four Columns), a halakhic codification that organized Jewish law into four parts—an architecture taken up by Joseph Caro in the Shulhan Arukh. His work bridges the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions.
Physician of Fraga in the fourteenth century. Orthodox Jew, he frequents Benveniste ibn Labi of Saragossa and other prominent Jewish personalities; but in 1391, he abjures his religion, takes the name of Francisco Dias-Corni, and then endeavors to convert his former Jewish friends, among whom En-Shéaltiel Bonfos, probably son of the physician Isaac Bonfos ben Shéaltiel of Falces.
14th century German Jewish female moneylender
Italian physician of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, active in Pisa and Perugia, specialist in Arabic medical writings, particularly Avicenna. His work « Eben Pinnah » was copied for him by Abraham ibn Karshef, who praises its merits as well as those of his father.
French scholar from Roquemartine, active in the fourteenth century, David Roquemartine is the author of the « Zekhut Adam », an allegorical interpretation — and not a literal one, according to him — of the biblical account of Adam's sin; part of this work, preserved in manuscript, is published in the « Yen Lebanon » (Paris, 1866) by Jehiel Brill, with notes by Senior Sachs showing that Isaac Abravanel used it in his commentary. Roquemartine also left, in manuscript, a commentary on Isaiah liii and another on Haggai ii.
Roman rabbi of the 14th century, who writes between 1373 and 1390 a compendium of Jewish rites, the « Sefer ha-Tadir », a manual for daily and synagogal use mixing ritual laws, moral maxims, homilies and hygienic precepts, but also the superstitions of his time (astrology, interpretation of dreams); he is also the author of a liturgical hymn, « Meshoḳ na El Ḥasdeḳa ».
Salomon ben Éli Charbit ha-Zahav, astronomer, poet and oriental grammarian, lived in Salonique and then in Ephesus in the second half of the 14th century. He translates from Greek into Hebrew the Persian astronomical tables under the title « Mahalakh ha-Kokhabim » and a treatise by Ptolemy on the astrolabe, composes a grammatical treatise, « Ḥéchèq Chelomoh », a gloss on the « Sefer ha-Chem » of Ibn Ezra, and numerous liturgical poems, several of which were published by David Cohen in 1893. He also writes a commentary on the Pentateuch combating Karaite interpretations.
Solomon ben Hénoch al-Qoustantini, Spanish exegete of the first half of the 14th century, would belong according to Grätz to the Al-Qoustantini family of Saragossa, several members of which took an active part in the controversy on Maimonides' « Moreh Neboukhim ». He is the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch entitled « Megalé 'Amouqot », preserved in manuscript at the Vatican Library and cited by Samuel Tsartsa of Valencia in his own philosophical commentary. A fervent believer in astrology, he endeavored to demonstrate through the Bible and the Talmud that the stars exert great influence on human destiny.
Decisioner (Rashbash), rabbi of Algiers, author of responsa and of the polemic Milhemet Hova.
Salomon of Sabalducchio, physician, practises in Perugia in the 14th and 15th centuries. Shortly after his appointment, Pope Boniface IX names him his personal physician, on October 13, 1392; the bull that this pope promulgates on April 15, 1402, granting certain rights and privileges to the Jews, results from the joint action of this physician and another named Angelo.
Salomon of Vesoul, son of Manessier of Vesoul, died in 1375 or 1378, is appointed by decree of Charles V the Wise clerk and tax collector for the Jews of France, on August 9, 1378. Like his father and brothers, he enjoys great favor at court and receives numerous marks of royal esteem, notably the privilege, shared with members of his family, of being exempt from wearing the yellow badge.
Scholar, physician and probably biblical commentator from Spain, died in Seville in May 1345. He is said to have written several works on medicine and other sciences, now lost, and might be the envoy named among those whom the assembly of the elders of Spanish Jews sent to King Alphonse.
German sofer (scribe) of the 14th century, born in Saxony then settled in Prague after becoming an orphan at the age of eight. Trained by the rabbi Issachar, he traveled through Austria, Poland, Lusatia, Thuringia and Bavaria before going to the Holy Land to study the scribal tradition. His work on the writing of tefillin and mezuzot, "Baruk she-Amar", was published in Shklov in 1804.
Liturgical poet of the fourteenth century, whose birthplace and residence are unknown. He is the author of three prayers, and certain manuscripts designate him under the name of Rabanou.
French Talmudist active in the early fourteenth century. One of the numerous correspondents of Salomon ben Adret during the religious controversy of 1303-6, he sent him a verse epistle defending his relative Lévi de Villefranche, while apologizing for having signed the letter of the liberal party to the rabbis of Barcelona, whose contents he claimed to ignore; he nevertheless joined Adret in forbidding young people the study of secular sciences. According to Gross, he might perhaps be the son of Reuben ben Ḥayyim of Narbonne, uncle of Lévi de Villefranche.
French scholar who lived in Provence in the fourteenth century, known by the Hebrew surname « Kenessi ». He wrote the preface to the astronomical work « Shesh Kenafayim » by Emmanuel ben Jacob, which remained in manuscript, and might be identified with the Nassi Samuel d'Escola who commented on the astronomical tables of Bonet Don Giorno.
Talmudist, poet and philanthropist of the fourteenth century, considered by Jacob of Provence as one of the first poets of the region, and praised by his contemporaries for his piety, knowledge and generosity. First established in Narbonne and then in Perpignan, he took an active part in the religious controversies of 1303-6 by hosting the persecuted Lévi of Villefranche in his home, despite the warnings of Ben Adret; but after the death of his daughter, which he believed was a punishment for his faults, he withdrew his protection from Lévi and sided, henceforth broken, with Ben Adret to forbid young people the study of secular sciences and the allegorical interpretation of biblical narratives.
Spanish treasurer and synagogue founder
Spanish philosopher
German rabbi, born in Schlettstadt, active in Strasbourg in the second half of the fourteenth century, where he directed an important yeshiva. Around 1370, he had two informers of the community condemned to death, an execution that led him to be pursued by the knights of Andlau and to take refuge for six years in the castle of Hohelandsberg, near Colmar. Having left for Babylonia in 1376, he obtained from the Exilarch a ḥerem against the leaders of the Strasbourg community before returning to Germany.
African liturgist, from Sijilmassa, in Morocco, who lived around 1400. Two of his seliḥot have come down to us, one beginning with « Eleh kokhevé maron », the other with « Mah e'essé li-tsedati », both signed « Juda b. Joseph Segelmessi »; part of the second was published by Dukes.
Greatest Judeo-Persian poet, author of epics versifying the Torah and the book of Esther.
Spanish rabbi
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 2nd century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Simeon ben Joseph of Lunel, called En Duran in Provençal, is a Talmudist of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, native of Perpignan, who lived successively in Montpellier, in Lunel, then, after the expulsion of Jews from France in 1306, in Aix. A supporter of Abba Mari in the controversy that opposed him to students of philosophy, he is known only through three letters, one addressed to Solomon ben Adret and another, written after this expulsion, in which he laments the fate of the communities of Lunel, Béziers, and Narbonne.
Smol von Derenburch (Samuel de Derenburg), court banker of the archbishops of Magdeburg in the 14th century, died after October 5, 1382. A document of November 28, 1347 attests that he received, with his brothers Marquard and Éphraïm, a sum of 300 marks from the city of Brunswick. Enjoying the particular favor of the archbishop Pierre of Magdeburg, he was expressly excepted, along with his children, from the measures taken against the Jews on April 21, 1372 — a favor that Pope Gregory XI condemned that same year, reproaching the banker for having established a synagogue in a former place of worship in Salince.
Alfonso de Spina, one of the most relentless enemies of the Jews — to whom he never belonged, whatever has been said —, was general of the Franciscans, rector of the University of Salamanca and confessor of King Henry IV of Castile. A feared preacher, he devoted his eloquence to combating the Jews and conversos whom he suspected of crypto-Judaism, and assembled in his "Fortalitium Fidei" (Nuremberg, 1494; Lyon, 1511 and 1525) all the accusations brought against them, including the poisoning of wells. It was he who, gathering the chapter of the order of Saint-Jerome on August 10, 1461, originated the Spanish Inquisition, winning over to this cause the ear of King Henry.
Queen of Bulgaria from 1335 to 1355, born in Tirnovo in a family of Byzantine Jews, under the Hebrew name of Sara and the nickname of « the beautiful Jewess » before receiving her Greek name. Noticed while carrying a petition to Tsar Ivan Alexandre, she married him after voluntarily converting to Christianity and gave him three children, including Ivan Chichman, whom she ensured would inherit the throne. In 1352, a national council pronounced the expulsion of Jews from Bulgaria; thanks to her intervention, three Jews condemned to death for blasphemy had their sentences commuted, but the community of Tirnovo, dispersed, never resettled there.
Provençal translator born in Arles in the early 14th century, of whom nothing is known except that he lived in 1337 in Trinquetaille, where he completed his translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric, signed by adding "of the seed of the Jews" — perhaps to avoid being confused with an homonymous convert to Christianity. He becomes known through his Hebrew translations of Arabic philosophical works, notably a selection of philosophical aphorisms by Al-Farabi, translated when he was only twenty years old, as well as the middle commentaries of Averroes on Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics.
Todros ben Moses Yom-Ṭob, also called Bondia, is a French physician active in Cavaillon in the second half of the fourteenth century, identified by Steinschneider as Todros of Cavaillon. In 1394, he translated into Hebrew a Latin treatise on fever by Johanan ibn Masuyah, accompanied by a commentary by Peter of Spain, as well as other works, including the treatise by Arnaud de Villeneuve on digestive and purgative medicines.
French physician of the late fourteenth century, active around 1375 according to Carmoly, author of a pharmaceutical treatise partly in Hebrew and partly in Latin, the Cha'aré ha-Harkavot. Carmoly asserts, without providing proof, that he was appointed rabbi of Cavaillon by the elders of the community; he would probably be identical to Maestro Toros of Cavaillon, one of the five "baylons" or directors of the Jewish community of Avignon in 1440.
Jewish translator of the 14th century, active in Arles, Todros Todrosi rendered into Hebrew numerous Arabic philosophical texts: works of al-Fārābī, the Kitāb al-Najāt of Avicenna (under the title Ḥaṣṣalat ha-Nefesh) and several Averroes Middle Commentaries (including Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics). Attested in the tax registers of Trinquetaille in 1337.
Spanish controversialist forced by persecution to defend his faith against an attempted forced conversion, stripped of his possessions but remained faithful to his convictions; chosen as rabbi by the community of Avila, he conducted there around 1372, before Christians and Muslims, a public debate with the convert Jean de Valladolid, whom he refutes in four sessions. In 1374, at the request of his community, he put in writing, in the form of a dialogue between a Jew and a Christian, the substance of these debates — the Trinity, the virginity of Mary, the sacrifice, the teachings of Jesus — in a work entitled Ézer ha-Emouna, manuscripts of which are found in Oxford, Berlin, Parma and Breslau.
Spanish scholar of the second half of the fourteenth century, established in Catalonia, where he composed his major work, the Maggid Mishné, commentary on the Yad of Maimonides, published for the first time with the Yad in Constantinople in 1509. He also composed, in Arabic, a commentary on the To'élet ha-Higgayon of Al-Ghazali, translated into Hebrew by Moïse ben Josué of Narbonne and preserved in manuscript in the Vatican Library; according to the preface of Joseph Caro to his Kessef Mishné, Vidal was the personal friend of R. Nissim. His son Isaac, also a renowned scholar, lived in Alcalá and corresponded with Isaac ben Sheshet.
Representative of the community of Seville, contemporary of Asher ben Yehiel. He was probably the brother of Salomon ben Abraham ibn Ya'ish and the father of Salomon ben David ibn Ya'ish, mentioned by Juda ben Asher.
Egyptian Jewish nagid (1310-1355)
Rabbi of Marrakech, 14th century. Died in 5070 of the Hebrew era (1310). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-1.
Rabbi of Fès, fourteenth century. Mentioned in 5125 of the Hebrew era (1365). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi and astrologer from Khorasan who came to Fès around 1365, he was a member of the city's Talmudic academy under the presidency of Rabbi Joseph Ha-Cohen Ha-Dayan Ibn Susan. He authored a biblical commentary and a short treatise on astrology.
Rabbi, active in the 2nd century of the Hebrew era (1340–1439). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Talmudist of Seville, disciple of the Rashba, author of luminous commentaries (hiddushim) on the Talmud. He defended the legitimacy of philosophical study.
rabbi
Celebrated Talmudic commentator, called the Ritba, active in the first half of the fourteenth century, originally from Seville but settled in Alcolea de Cinca in 1342. Student of Aaron ha-Lévi and Solomon Adret in Barcelona, he was engaged in a controversy with Rabbi Dan Ashkenazi, who had emigrated to Spain, and left voluminous Talmudic novellæ on numerous treatises as well as commentaries on Alfasi and Nahmanide.
Spanish physician and astrologer active at the Nasrid court of Granada in the first half of the fourteenth century, died after 1369. Fearing to be implicated in the murder of the minister Reduan, he withdrew to Castile, where his medical and astrological reputation, backed by the king of Granada, earned him appointment as astrologer and physician to Peter the Cruel, whose confidence he gained and whom he attempted to appease toward Granada. Shortly before the king's death, the latter summoned him to explain why his predictions had not come to pass; Abraham replied that the sovereign's sins had contradicted what his natal chart promised.
Byzantine moral writer of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, of whom nothing is known except that he is the author of the « Sefer ha-Yashar », a work of ethics in eighteen chapters inspired by the « Hovot ha-Levavot » of Bahya, long confused with the homonymous halakhic work of Jacob Tam before Menahem de Lonzano restored its authorship. Published for the first time in Constantinople in 1526, the book has since known twenty-four editions.
Inquisition, 1492, Sephardic diaspora, Safed.
Jewish notable of Fès, adviser then vizier of the Merinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II, killed during the 1465 revolt.
Talmudist of Austria who formed, with Shallum and Jaekel of Vienna, a triumvirate of Talmudic scholars at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century; uncle and principal teacher of Isserlein, who frequently cites his decisions. Author of an abridgement entitled « Hilkot Niddah » and a collection of sermons known only through three citations, he died a martyr in Vienna on 13 March 1421.
Marrano of the fifteenth century, he took part in a project aimed at overthrowing the Inquisition in Aragon and then, after this failure, in the plot to assassinate the inquisitor Pedro Arbués, killed on September 15, 1485. Arrested, he would have committed suicide in prison according to Graetz, while Kayserling reports that his attempt failed and he was quartered and delivered to the flames.
Poet active in Malaga, who appears to have left his city in 1492 for Oran, then settled in Tlemcen; reputed as a poet, few of his writings survive, including an address to his soul composed in Oran in 1493.
Founder of an important Spanish noble family that spread in the fifteenth century, he had two daughters, Esther and Leah. Esther, reputed for her beauty, was baptized then married by Don Alphonso of Aragon, illegitimate son of King John of Aragon, a union from which were born three sons and one daughter; Leah married the marrano Martin Sanchez.
German talmudist active in the early fifteenth century, of whose responsa copies are preserved in the manuscript collection of the Bodleian. He was contemporary to Rabbi Jacob Mölln, who died in 1427, and Rabbi Jacob Weil, active in 1410.
Italian rabbi renowned for his learning and fortune, he lived in Ferrara around the middle of the fifteenth century. Joseph Kolon, the most important Talmudist of Italy of his time, expressed himself about him in the most respectful terms.
Marrano of Seville active in the fifteenth century, he was one of those who opposed with the most zeal the introduction of the Inquisition in Seville in 1480, which cost him his life at the stake. A learned man, he exercised for several years the office of alcalde de justicia (criminal judge) and was a farmer of royal taxes.
Rabbi of Tlemcen in the 15th century, presented as correspondent of Simon b. Zemah Duran (the Rashbatz), Chief Rabbi of Algiers.
Rabbi of Bohemia born at the end of the fifteenth century, died in Prague in 1542, where he served as rabbi during the last twenty years of his life; among his students was Abraham Jaffe, father of Mordekhaï Jaffe. He drew up glosses on the « Ṭour Oraḥ Ḥayyim » of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, published in Augsburg in 1540, noted for their clarity and sobriety. He is also attributed a seliḥa, still recited, composed on the occasion of the threat of expulsion of Jews from Bohemia in 1542.
Kabbalist and Sephardic messianic visionary, member of the old Yishuv of Jerusalem.
Grandson of the famous philanthropist Jehiel of Pise, whose charity greatly helped to relieve the exiles of Spain in 1492. A worthy member of this distinguished family, Abraham died, according to the testimony of Guedalia ibn Yahya, in 1654, in the prime of life. Michael is mistaken in holding him to be identical to this other Abraham ben Isaac of Pise whose a responsum appears in the collection of Menahem Azaria da Fano, who died in 1620.
Catalan Jewish philosopher died in 1492, translator of philosophical texts from Latin into Hebrew (an abridgment of the physical sciences of Albert the Great; a discussion of problems from Aristotle's Organon after Marsilius of Inghen). His major work, Neveh Shalom, is a series of homilies on aggadic passages from the tractate Berakhot where he defends the philosophy of Maimonides against Gersonides and Ḥasdai Crescas.
Kabbalistic writer established in Pesaro, Italy, toward the end of the fifteenth century, probably a Spanish exile. He wrote the « Likouté Chikha ou-Péa » (Gleanings), a kabbalistic commentary on aggadic passages of the Talmud, whose preface provides some details of his life; the work was published in Ferrara in 1556, with Joseph ben Ḥayyim's commentary on the ten Sefirot and the kabbalistic treatise of Joseph Gikatilla.
Italian rabbi
Hebrew scholar and geographer
Expelled from Spain as a child during the expulsion of 1492, he was taken to Fès by his father Salomon de Torrutiel, an elderly Talmudist and student of Isaac Canpanton. In 1510 he composed in Hebrew a continuation (appendix) to Abraham ibn Daoud's Sefer ha-Kabbalah, extending the history of the Jews from 1180 to 1525, with direct testimony of the expulsion and the exiles in Fès. A kabbalistic work is also attributed to him.
Cabalist born in 1410 and died in 1440, author of « Segoulat Melakhim » (Treasures of Kings), a treatise gathering knowledge of practical Kabbalah, magic and natural sciences gleaned during his travels, written for his son Lamech, whom he warned against magic, qualified as « black art ». Student of Rabbi Jacob Elim in Egypt, he was contemporary with Pope Martin V.
Abraham ben Solomon of Torrutiel is a historian who lived at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century. Aged nine or ten, he had to leave Spain in 1492 with the Jews driven out by Ferdinand and Isabella, then joined Fès, in Morocco. He drafts an appendix to the « Sefer ha-Ḳabbalah » of Abraham ibn Daud, continuing the history of the Jews from 1180 to 1525, and provides an eyewitness account of the expulsion of 1492.
Abraham ben Yefet is a Karaite poet, born around the beginning of the fifteenth century and died after 1460. He claims descent from Moses Dar'i, the celebrated Karaite poet, and copied in 1460 the religio-legal collection of Samuel ha-Rofe ha-Ma'arabi; he is probably identical to the Karaite poet Abraham ha-Rofe. In his work as a scribe, he reveals his poetic nature by adding an epigram at the end of each manuscript he copies.
Astronomer and rabbi of Constantinople born around 1480, he was the student of Elijah Mizraḥi and an authority cited by Joseph Caro. In 1556, at the instigation of Joseph Nasi, he joined the rabbis of Constantinople who attempted to forbid commerce with Ancona because of the persecutions suffered by the marranos of that port under the jurisdiction of the popes. He edited a calendar for the Jewish, Christian and Muslim years, printed in the Greek Mahzor of 1526, following the system of Ulugh Beg.
Spanish-Jewish philosopher of religion
Italian physician and translator
Physician, surgeon and astrologer of whom nothing else is known except this: on September 12, 1468, he successfully operated on a cataract in the right eye of King John II of Aragon, then, with equal success, on the left eye.
Physician established in Marseille, France, during the first quarter of the fifteenth century. He is mentioned in commercial and official documents of the city for the years 1405-13.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
Spanish rabbi
Rabbi, 15th century. Born in 5248 of the Hebrew era (1488). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 14-3.
Sephardi rabbi, banker and politician, who converted to Catholicism
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
philosopher, physician and translator
Abraham Solomon of Saint-Maximin is a physician who practices in the 15th century in Provence, in high favor with René d'Anjou, Count of Provence, who exempts him from the taxes normally levied on Jews. He probably belonged to the Abigdor family and has been identified with Abraham Abigdor (1433-48), mentioned in a list of physicians practicing in Marseille in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Portuguese astronomer
Spanish scholar and translator of the 15th century, also known as Isaac ben Samuel, he was expelled from Spain in 1492 and settled in Padua, where he completed in 1496 a Hebrew commentary on the « Extract from the Almagest » of Al-Fergani — partly drawn, according to Steinschneider, from the commentary of Handali. He then translated into Hebrew, under the title « Sefer ha-Moladot », the « Liber de Nativitatibus » of Albubather, as well as the astronomical work « Completus » of Rajil; his works, which remained in manuscript, are found in several European libraries.
Jew exiled from Portugal in 1496, he settled in Azamor, in the province of Doukkala in Morocco. When this city, after submitting to Portugal in 1512 then renouncing its allegiance, was besieged by the Portuguese fleet commanded by Don Jaime, Duke of Braganza, Adibe presented himself at dawn before him to announce the evacuation of the city, asking in return for the protection of his family and his coreligionists. The duke consented, and several thousand Jews were escorted out of the city to settle in Safi and Fès; Adibe later returned to Azamor.
Karaite polymath born in Andrinople before 1430, he lived for some time in Belgrade and died around 1499 in Constantinople. Student of Mordecai Comtino in Andrinople, he pursued, from 1490, the "Adderet Eliyahou", a treatise of Karaite law left unfinished by his master Elias Bashyatzi, and composed notably an index of the "Eṣ ha-Ḥayyim" of Aaron ben Elie (1497) and his major work, the "Gan ha-Melekh", a collection of poems completed in 1495.
Influential scholar of Hungary and Bohemia in the second half of the fifteenth century, died in Prague in 1496. Titled 'Nassi' for his learning, wealth and charity, he occupied an influential position around 1480 at the court of King Mathias of Hungary, before being driven out by the jealousy of the nobles; taking refuge in Prague, he founded there a talmudic college where he taught himself, while surviving several attempts on his life.
Jewish scholar
Moralist writer active in Portugal in the 14th and 15th centuries, contemporary of Simon ben Tsémah Duran. Witness to the persecutions suffered by the Jews of Catalonia, Castile, and Aragon in 1391, he addressed to one of his disciples in 1415 the epistolary treatise « Iggeret Mousar », where he imputes these trials to the moral and religious decay of his co-religionists and calls them, in a grave and passionate Hebrew style, to moral reform.
Italian publisher born in Bassiano in 1449 or 1450, died in Venice on February 6, 1515. Trained in Latin in Rome then in Greek in Ferrara, he founded in 1494 a publishing house devoted to Latin and Greek texts. Also cultivating Hebrew, he published in 1501 an abridged Hebrew grammar intended for Christian students, the first printed Hebrew grammar; maintaining friendly relations with Jews, notably his fellow printer Gershom Soncino, he transmitted this tolerance to his children.
Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, born in 1460 and died in Vilna in 1506, son of King Casimir IV. Having ascended the throne of Lithuania in 1492 and then to that of Poland in 1501, upon the death of his brother John Albert, he confirms upon his accession, on 1 December 1492, the privileges granted to the Jews by his predecessors and grants them new rights. However, his attitude reversed brutally: in 1495, without warning, he orders by edict the expulsion of the Jews from Lithuania.
Physician in Pamplona, he received in 1413 from King Charles III of Navarre a monthly pension of nine florins, as a reward for cures accomplished and as encouragement for the future.
Spanish rabbi
Castilian court physician and chief rabbi of the 15th century, birth and death dates unknown, died before 1413. Trained in the Talmud in Toledo under Juda ben Asher, he practices medicine at the court of Castile and becomes, through the favor of King Henry III, chief rabbi of all the Jewish communities of Castile. At the request of his patron Benveniste ibn Labi of Saragossa, he translates into Hebrew, from Boethius's Latin, Aristotle's « Ethics », a translation published by Isaac Satanow in Berlin in 1790. The accusations brought against him after his death were long ago qualified as fables by Spanish historians.
Kabbalist born in Constantinople, active in Italy in the second half of the 15th century, where he becomes the teacher of Pico della Mirandola in Hebrew and Kabbalah, thereby contributing to the spread of Jewish mysticism among Christian humanists. His principal work, the « Ḥeshek Shelomoh » (The Desire of Solomon), opens with a discourse placing King Solomon above Plato for his artistic and intellectual talents; excerpts from this introduction were published, with additions by Jacob Baruch ben Moïse Ḥayyim, in Livorno in 1790. He is also the author of « 'Ené ha-'Edah », a Kabbalistic commentary on the Torah, and « Ḥayyé 'Olam », a treatise on immortality.
Marrano from Saragossa, private secretary of King Ferdinand of Aragon. He was burned alive on the accusation of remaining faithful to Judaism. A month later, on March 18, 1486, another Saragossan, Manuel de Almaçan, suffered the same fate.
One of the conspirators against the inquisitor Pedro d'Arbuès. He escaped death by flight, but his wife Isabelle, as well as his brothers Pedro the Younger and Manuel, were burned alive in Saragossa on January 25, 1487, while he himself was burned in effigy.
Head of the embassy sent by Alphonse V of Portugal to Pope Sixtus IV, in 1472, to congratulate him on his accession and to inform him of the king's victory over the Moors of Arzila, in Africa. Don Isaac Abravanel, influential at court, attempted to take advantage of this mission to plead on behalf of the Jews, asking his Italian friend Yeḥiel of Pisa to win over the ambassador; the success of this approach remains uncertain.
Spanish author born in 1435, died in 1487, son of the scholar Abraham Alvalensi of Toledo and student of Isaac Campanton, last gaon of Castile. He is the author of a short treatise on Talmudic methodology, the «Kelalé Ḳal weḤomer» (Rules of a fortiori reasoning), published in a collection by Abraham Akra, the «Meharéré Nemerim», in Venice.
Spanish statesman of the fifteenth century, he reached the rank of Constable of Castile and exercised, with Chancellor Juan Furtado de Mendoza and Don Abraham Benveniste, unlimited influence over the young king John II of Castile. Constant friend of the Jews and protector of the Marranos, whom he elevated to the highest positions, he remained associated with Abraham Benveniste for thirty years. This friendship earned him the enmity of the infant Don Henry and Paul de Burgos, primate of Spain, whose sons waged a fierce struggle against him that led to his downfall; taken prisoner, he was beheaded at Valladolid on July 2, 1453.
Associate and first private secretary of the Inquisition in Spain (1485-90), versed in the formularies of wills and marriage contracts of Marranos accused of practicing Judaism. In 1507, at Belchite, he drafted the "Libro Verde de Aragón", a genealogy of the richest baptized Jews in the time of Vicente Ferrer. In 1623, Philip IV charged the Inquisitor General Andreas Pacheco, himself of Marrano descent, with destroying all copies found; a single copy, from the sixteenth century, survives in Seville, published in 1885 in the "Revista de España", immediately confiscated.
Copyist active at the end of the 15th century. He copied anonymous commentaries on Ezobi's « Ḳa'arat Kessef » and on the « Beḥinat 'Olam », the latter bearing the date of 2 Adar 5255 (1495); the Hebrew codex containing these commentaries, preserved at the Royal Library of Turin, contains forty-six folios.
Grand Rabbi of several German provinces, also called R. Anshel ha-Levi of Cologne. He was appointed to this position in 1435 by Conrad of Weinsberg, hereditary chamberlain and plenipotentiary representative of the Holy Roman Empire for this matter, with authority over Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Bremen, Worms, Speyer, Basel, Strasbourg and several other cities and districts. This is the second example of such an appointment in the history of German Jews, the first being that of R. Israel, appointed in Nuremberg on May 3, 1407 by King Ruprecht. Anschelm is the younger contemporary of the group of eminent rabbis to which the Maharil and R. Salomon Runkel belonged.
Spanish rabbi and author, born around 1420, died in Naples in 1494. First principal of a rabbinical academy in Zamora, he is later called as rabbi and preacher in Tarragone, then in Fraga, in Aragon, before serving in Calatayud. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, he settles in Naples, where he dies. He is the author of the « 'Aḳédat Yitsḥaḳ », a philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch which earned him the surname of « Ba'al ha-'Aḳédah », as well as « Ḥazout Ḳasha », on philosophy and theology, and « Yad Avshalom », a commentary on Proverbs in memory of his son-in-law Absalom, who died shortly after his marriage.
Philosopher and biblical commentator, born in Saragossa at the end of the 15th century, died around 1556 in Salonique. His father is exiled from Spain in 1492 and dies in Naples; Méir, who had accompanied him there, remains there until the French invasion of 1495, then settles in Salonique. He is the author of the "Ourim we-Toumim", commentary on Isaiah and Jeremiah (Venice, 1603), the "Me'ir Iyov", commentary on Job written in 1506 and published in Salonique in 1517, the "Meïr Tehilot", commentary on the Psalms written in 1512 and published in Venice in 1590, and a commentary on the Song of Songs published in the Amsterdam Bible (1724-27).
Bishop of Calahorra and president of the council of Castile at the end of the 15th century, victim of persecutions against Marranos. Son of Gonzalo Alonzo, one of the Jews converted at the time of Vicente Ferrer, he saw the inquisitor Torquemada accuse his father of dying a Marrano, demanding the exhumation of his bones and the degradation of his sons. Pope Sixtus IV opposed this summary degradation of high dignitaries and ordered an investigation in Rome; Aranda, at first spared, eventually fell victim to papal greed and was accused of sacrilege. Two of his fellow Marrano companions managed to escape on April 20, 1497.
Spanish canon and inquisitor, called by some Jews « the creature and favorite of Torquemada », born around 1441 in Épila, in Aragon, died on September 17, 1485. Appointed canon of Saragossa in 1474, he is entrusted ten years later, with the Dominican Gaspar Juglar, with the inquisition of Aragon by Torquemada, and holds two autos-da-fé in the first month of his office where several marranos are executed. Wealthy marranos have him assassinated while attending Mass; he dies of his wounds two days later, and his canonization by Pius IX in 1867 will provoke protests from both Jews and Christians.
Physician and liturgical poet, active in Camerino, Italy, possibly from Ascoli, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Two of his « reshouyot » for the Nishmat are printed in the Maḥzor of Romaniote rite — one for the Day of Great Forgiveness, the other for the Feast of Tabernacles, invoking the Redeemer who spreads a tent of peace over the chosen people among all peoples. In signing these poems, Ascoli adds to his name a word that seems to echo a verse from the Psalms calling for divine mercy.
Talmudist, active in Spain at the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th. Delegate to the disputation of Tortosa in 1413, under the presidency of Pope Benedict XIII, he shows great energy in the face of attacks made against the Talmud from extravagant aggadic sentences, submitting to the assembly a written declaration denying any authority to the Aggada. He even defies the anger of the Pope: when Benedict XIII underlines the implausibility of the legend according to which the Messiah was born on the day of the destruction of the Temple and is to be found in paradise, Astruc replies to him: « Lord and Pope, you believe so many implausibilities about your Messiah, allow us to believe this one about ours. »
Spanish poet of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, brother of Juan Alfonso de Baena and secretary of the governor Diego de Ribera, one of his poems appears in his brother's « Cancionero ». Recent research suggests that his true first name was not Francisco but Fernando Alfonso, and that he was the father of the Spanish troubadour Anton de Montoro.
Spanish troubadour of the 14th and 15th centuries, born in Baena, in Córdoba, he worked as a notarial secretary at the court of John II of Castile. He compiled the « Cancionero de Baena », a collection of poems from the Castilian court, of which several authors were marranos, and is himself nicknamed « the Judino ». The collection is published in Madrid in 1851, then in Leipzig in 1852.
Ottoman sultan, born in 1447, came to the throne in 1481 and died in 1512, he assured the Jews of his empire a period of complete peace, conducive to the flourishing of Jewish culture — by 1483, a Hebrew printing press existed in Constantinople. The situation improved further with the arrival of Spanish exiles in 1492: Bayazid welcomed them with benevolence, mocking Ferdinand and Isabella for having driven away such useful subjects, and ordered his governors to receive these refugees well on pain of death. Several thousand emigrants settled in Turkey and, in less than a generation, came to dominate the administration of Jewish communities.
Karaite physician and hazzan active in Foli in the second half of the fifteenth century, student of Shabbethaï ben Melkiel Cohen. He is the author of several treatises, mostly still unpublished, notably on the prohibition of using fire on the day of the Sabbath — directed against Elie Bashyatzi —, on the fasting of the Sabbath, on the calendar and on ritual slaughter, as well as many liturgical poems printed in the Karaite prayer book.
Karaite physician and ḥakham in Cairo, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, he completed in 1489 a collection of 224 poems on the weekly readings, « Sefer Zeraḥ », then composed around 1500 a second collection of 237 poems for Sabbaths and festivals, « Taḥkemoni » — both preserved in manuscript in the Firkovitch collection in Saint Petersburg. Several of his liturgical poems have been wrongly attributed to Moses Dari, who bore the same Hebrew name « Moses ben Abraham ».
Karaite Hakham born in Andrinople around 1420, died in that city in 1490. Trained in Karaite literature and theology by his father and grandfather, he later studied in Constantinople under the direction of Mordekhai Comtino. In 1460, he succeeded his father as hakham of the Karaite community of Andrinople, and drafted the code « Aderet Eliyahou », which governs Karaite law and continues to hold authority in that community.
Italian artist, presumably established in Ferrara, active in the fifteenth century, son of physician Élie Beer. His name appears in acrostic in the Hebrew legend of a bronze medal discovered in Lyon in 1656, which several scholars at first believed represented Louis the Pious before Zunz, in 1840, established that it actually bore the name of Benjamin, son of Élie Beer the physician; the figure "D.III.M." which appears there could designate the year 1503.
German commentator and liturgical poet of the 15th century, rabbi, cantor, and teacher of Talmud in Worms in 1490, having previously, according to Zunz, lived in Bingen-on-the-Rhine. He wrote a super-commentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch, from which Simon Aschenburg took certain explanations in his own compilation, the « Devek Tov » (Venice, 1588); three of his Hebrew poems are preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Recognized as the greatest scribe of Yemenite Judaism and patriarch of a dynasty of copyists from Sana'a active from the second half of the 15th c. Approximately 40% of dated Yemenite manuscripts preserved between 1461 and 1540 came from the Benayah workshop. In 1469–1470 he copied a complete codex of the Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy) with masora.
Bendig Meïr of Arles is a Talmudist active in Arles, Provence, probably in the second half of the fifteenth century. He is the author of an index of biblical passages cited in the Babylonian Talmud, including the "minor tractates" and Abot de-Rabbi Nathan — later called "Em le-Miḳra" by a copyist —, as well as a collection of aggadic passages from the Talmud, continuing in this the plan outlined by Isaac Nathan, author of the "Meïr Netib", who had also lived in Arles, but before him.
Benjamin ben Moses is an Italian scholar active in Rome in the early fifteenth century, engaged in the administration of the Jewish community of the city and delegate to the assembly of Italian Jewish communities convened in Forli in 1426. He is the author of a polemical work, « Teshubot ha-Noṣrim Mikol ha-Miḳra ume-Re'iyyot ha-Da'at » (Refutations of Christianity by Scripture and Reason), preserved in manuscript.
Italian philanthropist and businesswoman
Benveniste b. Labi, also known as De la Caballeria, was a Jewish patron, son of the 'prince' Salomon ibn Labi de la Caballeria, active in Saragossa and then in Alcañiz, where he died on November 30, 1411. Wealthy, learned, and highly respected, he maintained correspondence with the great minds of his time — Ḥasdai Crescas, Isaac b. Sheshet, the rabbi of Navarre Joseph Orabuena — and was the patron of learned translations into Hebrew, including Aristotle's 'Ethics' by Meïr Alguadez at his request and Ghazâlî's 'Taḥafat al-Filasafah' by Zeraḥyah ha-Lévi. His death was marked by honored funerals and commemorative services in Saragossa, Calatayud, Daroca, and Soria.
Rabbi of Fez, 15th century. Mentioned in 5254 of the Hebrew era (1494). Son of Yosef I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-1.
Jacob Berab (b. Moïse ?) is a talmudist and rabbi born in Moqueda, near Toledo, in Spain, in 1474, and died in Safed on April 3, 1546. A student of Isaac Aboab, he fled Spain for Tlemcen, where the community, numbering five thousand families, chose him as rabbi at the age of eighteen; he then stayed in Jerusalem before 1522, then in Egypt, in Damascus in 1527, became rabbi of Cairo in 1533, and finally settled in Safed, where he conceived the famous project of reestablishing a central rabbinic ordination for all of Judaism.
Maestro Bernal is a marrano, ship's physician on Christophe Columbus' first voyage to America. He had lived in Tortosa and undergone, in October 1490, public penance for attachment to Judaism; Columbus' arrogant conduct provoked his enmity, and he instigated in Jamaica a conspiracy against the admiral that weighed seriously on the latter's fate.
Bernardinus of Feltre is a Franciscan friar born in Feltre, Italy, in 1439 and died on September 28, 1494, one of the most ferocious enemies the Jews ever encountered, openly preaching their extermination. Traveling through Italy to preach a crusade against them and stir up popular hatred — he notably obtained the violent expulsion of Jews from Ravenna and the prohibition, by the authorities of Florence, of residing in the city in 1487 — he nevertheless encountered resistance from the authorities and common sense in most Italian cities; it was in the Tyrol, particularly in Trent, that he managed to provoke a bloody persecution.
Religious philosopher and Spanish preacher born in Saragossa, established in Huesca in 1446 and still living in 1489. At the court of John II of Aragon, he debated as a young man with a reputed Christian scholar on the dogma of the Trinity, and distinguished himself by his knowledge of both Arab-Jewish philosophy and Latin Christian theology, which he studied the better to defend the Jewish faith with learning. His principal work, the « Derekh Emouna » (The Way of Faith), written toward the end of his life, was printed in 1521 in Constantinople.
Bikhakhanim is a reigning princess of the Taman peninsula, in Crimea, married in 1419 to the Genoese Jew Simeon of Guizolfi, who thus became possessor of this territory — his heir Zacharia of Guizolfi still reigned there in 1482. Russian historian F. K. Brun suggests that her true name would have been "Bikhakhatun" and that she would have been the daughter of Georgian prince Bek II, died in 1391.
Johannes Boeschenstain is a German Hebraist born in Esslingen in 1472, whose Jewish ancestry, sometimes asserted, was denied by himself. Student of Moïse Möllin, he was one of the first to revive the study of Hebrew in Germany, teaching in Ingolstadt in 1505, Augsbourg in 1513 and Wittenberg in 1518, where he published elementary grammars, before leading an itinerant life that led him to Nuremberg, Antwerp and Zurich, where reformer Zwingli was among his students; he translated into German certain Jewish prayers in 1525 and the graces before and after meals in 1530.
French astrologer
Bonsenior ibn Yaḥya, whose life remains unknown, is a Provençal author specialist in chess, active by the fifteenth century at the latest; his treatise « Melitzat Seḥoḳ ha-Ishḳaḳi », first published in Mantua in 1557, was translated into French by Léon Hollaenderski and published with Ibn Ezra's work on the same subject under the title « Délices Royales ou le Jeu des Échecs » (Paris, 1864).
Jules Benjamin Brandon is a French officer from an old Sephardic family that came from Spain after the expulsion of 1492, born on September 24, 1833 in Paris and died on May 22, 1871. Entered the École polytechnique in 1853, in the artillery, he married in 1866 the daughter of Colonel Salvador, nephew of historian Joseph Salvador; instructor at the École polytechnique when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, he immediately joined the active army, was taken prisoner at Sedan, then, after the armistice and the proclamation of the Commune, placed himself at the service of the Versailles army and was killed by a stray bullet when entering Paris, on May 22, 1871.
Budek was a Polish Catholic priest, canon of Wislica in the early fifteenth century and one of the most virulent persecutors of the Jews of his time; it was he who incited the attack against the Jews of Cracow on the third day of Easter, March 27, 1407, accusing them of the murder of a Christian child and of having assaulted a priest carrying the sacrament.
Abraham ibn Bulat, or Bolat, is a talmudist active in Spain in the fifteenth century, disciple of Isaac de León. During a halakhic controversy between his master and Isaac Gayyal, he sided with the latter and drafted a pamphlet demonstrating that Gayyal's decision was contrary to the law, published with the arguments of both protagonists in the collection Shib'a 'Enayim by Jacob London and Abraham Meldola (Livorno, 1745).
Bonafos de la Caballeria, known after his conversion to Christianity under the name « Micer Pedro », is a Spanish anti-Jewish writer of the fifteenth century, son of Salomon ibn Labi de la Caballeria of Saragossa. Versed from his youth in Hebrew, Arabic and law, he wins the favor of Queen Mary, who appoints him commissioner of the Cortes assembled at Monzón and Alcañiz (1436-37). In 1450, he undertook his « Zelus Christi contra Judaeos et Sarracenos », a work of great malice toward his former co-religionists; Pedro is assassinated in 1464, presumably at the instigation of Marranos, while his son Jaime becomes in turn, in 1504, a victim of the Inquisition in Saragossa.
Jewish writer and polyhistor
Turkish rabbi of the fifteenth century, born in Arta, in the Morea. He is the author of responsa entitled Mishpeṭe Shemuel, printed by his nephew in Venice between 1599 and 1600, and was the son-in-law of Benjamin b. Mattathias, author of Benjamin Ze'eb.
He probably lived in the fifteenth century. He is the author of notes on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch, published, it seems, in Constantinople in 1525.
German Hebraist, born in Haguenau, Alsace, in 1478 and died in 1541. Appointed professor of theology at Basel in 1515, he became a few years later provost of Saint-Thomas of Strasbourg, and left a Hebrew grammar as well as various theological works.
Talmudist and Spanish biblical commentator, active in the second half of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth. Born of a noble and learned family, he studied in Toledo, where he counted among the foremost rabbinical authorities of the country, before having to leave Spain during the expulsion of the Jews in 1492; sheltered for six years in Portugal, then expelled from that country in turn, he fled to Constantinople, in Turkey, where he died probably at an advanced age after 1518, the year he published his commentary on the Pentateuch, Toledot Yiẓḥaḳ, and left a collection of responsa never published.
Last great codifier of Rabbinic Judaism, born in Spain or Portugal in 1488 and died in Safed, Palestine, in 1575. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, he went with his parents to Nicopolis, in European Turkey. Established in Andrinople between 1520 and 1522, he met there Salomon Molcho, whose martyrdom at the stake in 1532 fostered in him a similar mystical aspiration; he emigrated to Palestine around 1535, after a stay in Salonique in 1533, and his reputation in Safed became, in the last thirty years of his life, superior to that of almost any other rabbi since Maimonides.
Converted to Christianity, son of Paul de Burgos, died in Burgos in 1456; baptized as a young man by his father, he became archdeacon of Compostelle and then succeeded him as bishop of Burgos, representing Castile at the Council of Basel in 1431. According to Grätz, it was his influence over Pope Eugène IV that explains the latter's change of attitude towards the Jews, his complaints about the pride of Castilian Jews having led to the bull of 1442 withdrawing privileges granted by previous popes; among his writings on history and morals is a commentary on the twenty-sixth psalm.
Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, born in 1427 and died in Grodno in 1492. Having become Grand Duke in 1440 and then King of Poland in 1447 following his brother Ladislas III, he continued the liberal policy of his predecessor Witold toward the Jews of Lithuania and renewed at Posen the privileges granted to the Jews by Casimir the Great in 1334. These privileges were abolished in 1454 under the influence of Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the friar Jean Capistran, which provoked the riots in Cracow of 1464; in 1467 the diet again confirmed the rights granted by Casimir in 1447.
King of Elam according to Genesis, whose conquests extended as far as Canaan; after twelve years of tribute, the five local kings revolted in the thirteenth year and were subdued the fourteenth by Chedorlaomer, allied with Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of the Goyim. The name, recognized as an authentic Elamite compound (« Kedor » meaning « servant of », « la'omer » designating an Elamite deity), has been the subject of identification attempts in Babylonian and Elamite tablets — notably by Scheil in 1896 and then by Pinches — but none has yielded definitive evidence, without the name itself being a fiction.
The greatest talmudist of Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century, probably born in Chambéry, Savoy, around 1420, died in Padua in 1480, descended from the Trabot family, who emigrated from France to Italy. After a wandering youth where he earned his living by teaching, he served around 1469 as rabbi in Pieve di Sacco then in Mestre, before becoming rabbi in Bologna, in Mantua, then in Pavia, where he became the center of talmudic study in Italy, consulted from Germany to Constantinople. His responsa, collected after his death by his son-in-law Gershon, rank among the great productions of rabbinic literature and were printed in Venice in 1519.
Printer, talmudist and Italian physician active in Mantua in the second half of the fifteenth century, where he obtained the title of « ḥaver » for his erudition, which he deployed above all in the selection of works he printed — an art he learned with his wife Estellina. He began printing in Mantua in 1476 and became one of the very first printers of Hebrew books in Europe; he had established his workshop as early as 1475, from which came notably the « Tour Oraḥ Ḥayyim » of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (1476) and several other works. His activity, continued until 1480, then ceased due to competition from Abraham ben Ḥayyim, established in Ferrara.
Spanish poet, born in Toledo, died in 1497, from a Marrano family three of whose members were removed from office in 1450. He sided with the persecutors of his former coreligionists, which led to him being blamed by Marrano poet Anton de Montoro ; he frequented the courts of Henry IV and Queen Isabella, and is said to be the author of the first act of the Celestina, the oldest Spanish drama, as well as the Dialogo Entre el Amor y un Viejo, one of the most beautiful Spanish poems of the 15th century, frequently reprinted since 1511.
Defender of the Jews, counselor of the supreme court and then bishop of Silves, under the reigns of Manuel and John III of Portugal. In February 1497, when Manuel considered forced baptism of the Jews, Coutinho protested vigorously, asserting that no constraint could make a Jew a sincere Christian; in 1531, tasked with judging a marrano of Loulé accused of disrespecting the Virgin, he refused to condemn him, judging the marranos still Jewish since their forced baptism had not converted them, and declared he preferred to leave judgment to younger men than himself.
Ordinary physician of King John II of Aragon (1458-79), skillful oculist and learned astrologer. In September 1468, when the king, aged seventy, had lost his sight due to a double cataract, he delivered him from his total blindness; he pronounced the funeral sermon at the obsequies celebrated by the Jewish community of Cervera upon the death of John II in January 1479.
Rabbi of Fez, fifteenth century. Born in 5182 of the Hebrew Era (1422). Son of Abraham, himself son of Yosef, himself son of David, himself son of Obadiah. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Italian astrologer of the 15th century, member of the Kalonymus family, David ben Jacob Meïr drafted in 1464 two treatises on astrology, the shorter one, on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, dedicated to King Ferdinand I of Naples in the hope of obtaining religious freedom for his coreligionists. In 1466, he translated from Latin into Hebrew, under the title « Mar'ot ha-Kokabim », an astronomical work by Jean of Gmünd describing an instrument invented in Vienna in 1417, and the king invested him with a position, probably that of astrologer; in 1484, he addressed to his son Ḥayyim Kalonymus a philosophical treatise on the « Destructio Destructionis » of Averroes.
Italian rabbi
Sephardic exile from Spain (1492), he settled in Cairo where he was appointed rabbinical chief (Nagid/Hakham Bashi) of Egypt, a position he held for some forty years; his yeshiva notably trained Betsalel Ashkenazi and Isaac Louria. Around age ninety, he distributed his fortune to the poor and settled in Safed, sitting on the rabbinical court presided over by Joseph Karo. He left more than 3,000 responsa.
Portuguese rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Sliman. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Spanish Talmudist and kabbalist known by the acronym RaDBaZ, born in Spain around 1479 and died in Safed, Palestine, in 1589, David ben Salomon ibn Abi Zimra settled as a child in Safed after the expulsion of his parents, studied under Joseph Saragossa, then established himself in Cairo, where he served from 1514 on the rabbinical court of the nagid Isaac Sholal; appointed chief rabbi of Egypt in 1517, he exercised this office for forty years, notably training Betsalel Ashkenazi and Isaac Louria, before retiring at ninety and settling in Safed, where he served on the court of Joseph Caro until his death at one hundred ten years. He left notably the « Dibre Dawid » (Livorno, 1828) and the « Kelale ha-Gemara » (Venice, 1599).
Jewish political activist
Minister and confidant of King Henry IV of Castile, born of Jewish parents in Segovia and died in 1466, Diego Arias Dávila embraces Christianity and distinguishes himself at the court of John II through Álvaro de Luna, then becomes a tax farmer before being appointed chief of the royal audit; despite his generosity toward the Church, he remains held to be Jewish, and only late opens fiscal charges to Marranos and, despite decrees of the Cortès, to Jews — the Marrano officers he appoints prove ruthless, unlike the more moderate Jewish tax farmers, which earns him the enmity of the people and the warnings of D. Gómez Manrique, who predicts for him the fate of Álvaro de Luna.
Cretan philosopher and physician born in Candie in 1460 and died in that city in March 1497, Élie Delmedigo, trained by his father in the Bible and the Talmud, impressed Joseph Colon in childhood before directing the talmudic school of Padua, where he teaches the philosophy of Aristotle, Maimonides and Averroes. Professor at twenty-three, he teaches in several Italian cities, befriends Count Pico della Mirandola, but must flee after a controversy with Rabbi Juda Minz over his « Beḥinat ha-Dat »; returned to Candie, he dies there from complications of an operation. His Latin translations of Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle appear in the « Quæstiones Tres » (Venice, 1501).
Spanish troubadour of the 15th century born of Jewish parents in Valencia de Don Juan, in the kingdom of León, Diego de Valence became, after his conversion, a Franciscan monk and doctor of theology, renowned learned physician, astrologer and man of science; one of the principal Valencian poets, most of whose works appear in the « Cancionero de Baena », he does not hesitate, in his satirical poems on Jews and Marranos, to employ Hebrew and rabbinical terms that turn himself to ridicule. His favorite target is a certain Juan de España, an accomplished Talmudist who, after accepting baptism in 1413, wrote a short account of his conversion.
Portuguese statesman, financier, and biblical exegete. Finance minister of Portugal and then of Spain, he tried in vain to prevent the edict of expulsion of 1492. His biblical commentaries, written in exile, analyze the political philosophy of the Bible with unprecedented depth.
Catholic theologian born in Eck, Bavaria, on November 13, 1486, died in Ingolstadt on February 10, 1543. One of the most active opponents of Luther, he was also an avowed enemy of Jews: his work published in Ingolstadt in 1542 sought to accredit against them the accusation of ritual crime, and his German translation of the Vulgate, the "Ingolstadter Bibel" of 1538, aimed to counter that of Luther without equaling its quality. He also edited the book of Haggai in Hebrew.
Cardinal and Christian Kabbalist born in 1470 at Villa Canapina, in the diocese of Viterbo, trained among the Augustinians and became general of his order in 1503, he died on November 12, 1532. Instructed in Hebrew by the grammarian Elias Lévita, whom he harbored for more than ten years in Rome — the first edition of Lévita's « Baḥour » (Rome, 1518) is dedicated to him, as is his « Concordance » in 1521 —, he was passionate about the Kabbalah and had the Zohar translated by Baruch di Benevento, while gathering an important collection of Hebrew manuscripts now preserved notably in Munich.
Italian moral writer of the 15th century, author of « Ṭob Shem Ṭob », a selection of texts from the Talmud and the Midrashim on retribution, the sufferings of the grave and resurrection, published in eleven chapters by his son in Venice in 1606. He mentions another of his works, « Eben Shetiyyah », now lost.
Romaniote Jew born in Constantinople, student of Élie ha-Lévi and Juda Minz of Padua. He succeeded Moïse Capsali as rabbinic leader (de facto Hakham Bashi) of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire. He is best known for his supercommentary on Rashi's Torah, in which he discusses almost every word and defends Rashi against the criticisms of Nahmanide. Also a mathematician, he composed a treatise on arithmetic and algebra.
Spanish physician and diplomat of the 15th century, court physician to the Duke of Bourbon, probably Louis II. Commissioned by Alphonse V, King of Aragon, on a mission to Pope Martin V, he went to Rome carrying a papal letter on September 8, 1420, under a one-year safe-conduct; a few years later, in Avignon, he had a bull favorable to the Jews of Spain legalized by a notary of the Curia.
Exegete and Bulgarian poet of the second half of the fifteenth century, active first in Vidin then in Constantinople, where he corresponded on scientific subjects with Moïse Capsali, Élie Mizrahi and other Talmudic authorities. He drafted in 1469 a grammatical and allegorical commentary on the Pentateuch, « Sefer ha-Zikkaron », followed by poetic pieces including twelve liturgical poems.
Rabbi and chronicler of Candia, author of histories of the Ottoman Empire and Venice.
Talmudist and Italian traveler of the early 15th century, engaged in 1437 as lecturer and teacher in Jerusalem, where he arrived after a stormy crossing during which he lost his son and grandson. Only one of his letters to his wife and children remaining in Ferrara, dated 1438, has been preserved — the « Iggeret », in rhymed prose, describing Jerusalem and the legends of the Ten Tribes and the river Sambation, published in Metz in 1853 and translated by Carmoly under the title « Ahabat Tsiyyon ».
Sephardic philosopher
Kabbalist, physician and Italian theologian, student of the Talmudist and Kabbalist Benjamin of Montalcino. He defended Kabbalah against Sephardic intellectuals who had fled Spain and engaged in a religious disputation with the Franciscan Francesco (Francisco) d'Acquapendente. His epistle Iggeret Ḥamudot, addressed to David, son of Benjamin of Montalcino, is a renowned defense of kabbalistic doctrine.
Talmudist and decisioner of Constantinople (the Re'em), mathematician.
German rabbi
Hebraist and Talmudist active in the late fifteenth century, author of the "Magen Dawid", a defense of the grammar of David Ḳimḥi against the criticisms of Efodi and David ben Yaḥya (Constantinople, 1517), preceded by an acrostic poem giving the author's name.
Turkish philosopher and Kabbalist — also physician according to Wolf —, active in Constantinople in the fifteenth century. He wrote « Mar'ot Elohim », a philosophical explanation, based on Maimonides' thought, of the visions of Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah's candlestick. Several manuscripts survive, including one that, according to Ghirondi, is continued by a supercommentary on Ibn Ezra for Genesis, which he also attributes to Enoch.
Turkish preacher and physician of the mid-15th century, active in Negropont and Constantinople, friend of Mordekhaï Comtino and Samuel Bueno, for whose sister he composed a funeral sermon. His sermons, preserved in manuscript, have literary and historical interest; he was probably the master of Elijah Mizrahi.
Italian mathematician and astronomer, active in Mantua in the late 15th century. In 1499, he wrote the « Iggeret Sefirah », a description of the astronomical sphere accompanied by diagrams.
Jewish apostate born in Prato, Italy, in the second half of the fifteenth century, died in Rome in 1539. While still Jewish, he published in Venice, in 1515, a Latin translation of the Psalms, the "Psalterium ex Hebræo ad Verbum Translatum"; he embraced Christianity in 1518, entered the Augustinians and devoted himself from then on to the conversion of the Jews, proving so intransigent in his sermons that he was nicknamed "the scourge of the Jews".
Ferdinand V the Catholic, king of Spain, born in 1452 and died in 1516, and his wife Isabella the Catholic, born in 1451 and died in 1504, were both surrounded by converted Jews or their descendants: their marriage was favored by Jews and Marranos, including Abraham Senior of Segovia, farmer general of taxes, and the wealthy Marrano Pedro de la Caballeria, who financed much of the wedding gift, a necklace of 40,000 ducats. It was, however, Ferdinand who was mainly at the origin of the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, despite the trust that Isabella herself placed in Jews like Don Isaac Abravanel.
Jew converted to Christianity, active in Spain in the fifteenth century, poet who puts his talent in service of the satire of his former coreligionists. Juan Alfonso de Baena cites in his "Canzionero" four of his poems, one of which attacks the rabbis of Alcalá; these attacks did not go unanswered, the rabbis themselves having devoted a poem to him.
Italian scholar active in Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century, whose Jewish name is unknown; around 1486, he lived in Fratta, near Ferrare, at the home of Count Jean Pic de la Mirandole, whom he introduced to Aramaic. Commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV to translate into Latin several cabalistic works, he also translated Maimonides' epistle on resurrection and Lévi ben Gershon's commentary on the Song of Songs, and himself composed the « De Tropis Hebraicis », a treatise on Hebrew accents praised by Sébastien Munster.
Dramatist and German physician of the 15th century, said to be born in Worms, mentioned under the name "Hans Falz zu Nurmberk balbirer". Author of numerous farces and Carnival plays often mixing Jewish characters for comic purposes, he has sung in "Die Alt und die Neu Ee" a corrupted version of the "Adon 'Olam" — the oldest known German rhymed translation of this prayer — and also composes biblical works such as "Busse Adams und Evas" (1480) and a rhymed disputation between a Jew and a Christian (1479); he was a predecessor and master of Hans Sachs.
Greek scholar and translator who lived in Candia in the 15th century. His most famous work, « Toledot Adam » (Constantinople, 1515), a treatise on chiromancy and physiognomy drawn principally from Ali ibn Abbas, was abridged and republished in Judeo-German translation under the title « Ḥokmat ha-Yad ». He also translated from Arabic into Hebrew a treatise on astronomy by Omar ibn Mohammed Meṣuman, « Sefer Mezuḳḳaḳ », and a treatise on geomancy, « Sefer ha-Goralot ».
Jewish sailor of German origin of the 15th century, born in Posen according to his own account, forced to leave the country in 1456 because of persecutions; he goes to Jerusalem then Alexandria before traveling to India, where he is captured and sold as a slave. In 1498, while in the service of the viceroy of Goa, he joins Vasco da Gama's returning fleet, which has him baptized under his own name and employs him as a pilot; having become a favorite of King Emmanuel in Lisbon, he then accompanies Cabral in 1502 on his expedition to the East.
Portuguese discoverer of the maritime route to India, aided, like Columbus, by the royal astrologer Abraham Zacuto. Commander-in-chief of the fleet bound for India, he set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497 after taking leave of Zacuto, whom he held in high esteem, before the entire crew.
Liturgical poet and Provençal commentator, probably established in Aix in the fifteenth century, member of the Gard family of Avignon whose surname corresponds, according to Neubauer, to the Hebrew « Shimroni ». Two of his works survive in manuscript: a liturgical poem for the New Year, preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, and a commentary on the liturgies of the four special Sabbaths.
Italian physician
Karaite scholar active in Constantinople between 1500 and 1540. His major work, a long poem entitled « Minḥat Yehudah » gathering all biblical commandments in the style of rabbinic azharot, paid homage to Maimonides and was incorporated into Karaite liturgy (Venice, 1529; Chufut-Kale, 1734 and 1805; Eupatoria, 1836). He is also the author of several works now lost, including a treatise on Karaite ritual slaughter and a theological treatise in six volumes on the mysteries of the Law, mentioned by Simḥah Luzki.
Portuguese dramatist born in Lisbon around 1470, nicknamed the Plautus or Shakespeare of Portugal and considered the father of national comedy. Counting secret Jews among his friends, he intervenes in January 1531, then aged sixty, when monks exploit an earthquake in Santarém to call for the persecution of those harboring Jews and Marranos; he convokes the religious and persuades them to stop the violence, a service he reports himself in a detailed report addressed to the king.
Italian dancing master
Benjamin Guglielmo is an Italian master of dance active in the fifteenth century in Pesaro, student of Domenico di Ferrara, who mentions him in his Liber Ballorum (1460). He is the author of a treatise on dance, the Trattato dell'Arte del Ballare, edited by Zambrini in Bologna in 1873 and reissued in 1885, one of the oldest known treatises on dance, in which he evokes choreographies of his own composition and those of a certain Giuseppe Ebreo.
Agathius Guidacerius is an Italian Christian Hebraist born in Rocca di Neto, in Calabria, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Trained in Hebrew by a Portuguese rabbi in Rome, where he teaches that language, he was appointed in 1530 by Francis I professor at the Collège de France, where he comments on the Hebrew and Greek texts of Scripture. He notably published a Hebrew grammar drawn from Qimḥi (Rome, 1514; reissued in Paris in 1529, 1539 and 1546), as well as commentaries on the Psalms, the Song of Songs (Rome, 1524) and Ecclesiastes (Paris, 1531).
Zacharias de Guizolfi was a 15th-century prince ruling the Taman peninsula on the Black Sea, descendant of the Genoese Jew Simeone de Guizolfi, who became sovereign of the region through his marriage to Princess Bikhakhanim in 1419. Besieged by the Turks in 1482 and driven from his fortress of Matriga, he continued resistance from the island of Matrice and entered into correspondence in 1484 with Tsar Ivan III, who invited him to settle in Russia; setting out to join him in 1487, he was robbed and tortured on the way by the voivode of Moldavia and had to turn back, but renewed his willingness to join the tsar in 1488.
Spanish Talmudist, born in Zamora around 1460 and died in Salonika in 1516. After studying the Talmud under R. Samuel Valensi, he settled in Salonika at the time of the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, where he composed his 'En Ya'aḳob, a collection of aggadic passages from the Talmud intended to convey the ethical spirit of talmudic literature. Printing began in 1516 but Ḥabib died before its completion; his son Lévi completed it, and the work, which became very popular, went through more than thirty editions, one of whose major additions appears in all editions since 1684.
Spanish philosopher, active in Monzón, Aragon, in the second half of the fifteenth century. Admirer of Christian scholasticism, he learned Latin to translate into Hebrew, in part or in whole, several works of Thomas Aquinas devoted notably to psychology, including the Treatise on the Soul, published by Jellinek in 1854 in Philosophie und Kabbala, as well as treatises by Occam and a text attributed to Aristotle on causation; he is also credited with an anonymous translation of the De Universalibus of Vincent of Beauvais.
Spanish talmudist of the fifteenth century, author of an unpublished commentary on Ecclesiastes, the book of Esther and the Haggada. He is cited in the Responsa of Joseph di Trani.
David ben Samuel Ḥalayo, probably son of Samuel Ḥalayo of Bersac, correspondent of Simon ben Ẓemaḥ Duran, is a ḥazzan and disciple of the latter, at whose suggestion Duran drafted his commentary on the Baruk Asher Ashash of Isaac Ghayyat, a work which David praises in verses.
Italian astronomer of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1492, he was in Naples, where he studied astronomy, and wrote the Ṭa'ame Miẓwot, explanatory notes on the Alfonsine Tables, preserved in manuscript; he is also attributed the Bayit Ne'eman, a Hebrew translation or paraphrase of a commentary by Ibn Rajal on the same tables, found in the same Naples codex and signed with the same initials. An elegy he composed in Lucca in 1490 on the death of Jehiel of Pisa was published by D. Kaufmann.
Judah ben Jacob Ḥayyaṭ is a Spanish Kabbalist of the 15th and 16th centuries, exiled from Spain, whose expulsion from Lisbon in 1493 opens a long series of trials: capture by Basque pirates, rejection from the port of Malaga, death of his wife from hunger, settlement in Barbary, before he finally reached Italy and established himself in Mantua. One of the greatest Kabbalists of his time, he wrote there, at the request of Joseph Jabez, a commentary on the Ma'areket ha-Elahut, published with the text in Ferrara in 1557 under the title Minḥat Yehudah.
Pioneer of Hebrew printing: member of Prague's first printing workshop from 1514, he became an itinerant printer after having to leave Prague in 1527. He produced quality works in Augsburg (1533–1540), aided by his son Isaac and his son-in-law Joseph b. Yakar, then in Ichenhausen, Heddernheim, and Lublin. « Shahor » (black) translates the German « Schwarz ». From his family descended generations of printers (Prague, Cracow, Lublin): his granddaughter married the printer Kalonymus Jaffe.
Paulus (Pablo) de Heredia is a Spanish anti-Jewish writer born around 1405 in Aragon and died at an advanced age after 1486. Baptized late after having himself defended Judaism, he composed, to attack the Talmud he had studied in his youth, a mystical apocryphal work, the Iggeret ha-Sodot, which he attributes to the tanna Neḥounya ben ha-Qana, making him hold therein a wholly Christianized discourse on the Trinity and the Messiahship of Jesus. His works De Mysteriis Fidei and Corona Regia, the latter dedicated to Pope Innocent VIII, as well as the Ensis Pauli, also aimed to convert the Jews, who never responded to his attacks.
Hillel of Erfurt is a Talmudic authority who lived in Erfurt in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, contemporary of Shalom of Neustadt and disciple of Meïr ben Baruch Faleri. According to A. Brüll, he would be identical to a certain « Hiller » who appears in a document of 1416 as having been appointed grand rabbi of Thuringia by margrave Wilhelm. It is recounted that he left Erfurt for Palestine to fulfill a vow, but upon arriving in Vienna he was seized with the desire to return, fearing that the Talmudic school of Erfurt would suffer from his absence; he then turned to the rabbis, who annulled his vow.
Karaite chronicler who lived, probably in Egypt, in the first half of the fifteenth century, native of Hit, on the Euphrates. He may have been the author of a manuscript dated 811 of the Hegira (1408-09) and wrote a chronicle listing Karaite scholars and their works up to Israël al-Maghrabi, published by Margoliouth from a fragment of the Genizah.
Belgian controversialist born in Hoogstraeten around 1460, died in Cologne on January 21, 1527. Dominican prior then professor of theology and inquisitor in Cologne, he protected the converted Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn and helped him in his attacks against the Talmud and against Reuchlin, obtaining in 1509 from Emperor Maximilian authorization to confiscate Jewish writings. Fierce opponent of Reuchlin, he had him cited in 1513 before the ecclesiastical tribunal of Mainz, but the bishop of Speyer ruled in favor of Reuchlin on March 29, 1514; Hoogstraten's appeal to the Pope obtained only in 1516 an indefinite postponement of the judgment.
Poet and pamphleteer born at Steckelberg castle, near Fulda, on April 21, 1488, died on the island of Ufnau, on Lake Zurich, on August 29, 1523. Humanist and one of the most ardent defenders of the Reformation, he took Reuchlin's side in his literary quarrel against Pfefferkorn, Hoogstraten and the Dominicans of Cologne, greeting his victory with a satirical poem and supporting him in his writings until Rome. In his "Exclamatio in Sceleratissimum Joannem Pfefferkorn", he depicted the misdeeds of a converted Jew executed in Halle under the name of "Pfaff Rapp", which was then taken for Pfefferkorn himself.
Physician of King Henry IV of Castile and his chief judge (« juez mayor »), also a rabbi according to his own account. In 1474, the king charged him with distributing in Segovia the taxes that the Jewish « aljamas » of all his domains were to pay annually; however, the collection itself was not carried out by Ibn Nuñez, but by royal tax collectors with whom he intervened for this purpose.
Philosophical commentator of the fifteenth century, younger brother of Joseph ibn Shem-Ṭob and disciple of Maimonides, whose side he took against their father, Shem-Ṭob ibn Shem-Ṭob, who had attacked him in his "Sefer ha-Emunot". His commentary on Maimonides' "Guide" is known only through a citation by Moses Alashkar, published in Ferrara in 1556. According to Steinschneider, he could be identical to the Isaac ibn Shem-Ṭob who drafted, in Aguilar de Campoo in 1459, a commentary on Ghazali's "Metaphysics".
One of the most prolific Judeo-Spanish writers of the fifteenth century, born in Castile, died in 1480. He lived successively in Medina del Campo (1441), Alcalá de Henares (1451) and Segovia (1454), frequenting Christian scholars with whom he held public disputations at court, including one on the Trinity that fed his later anti-Christian writings. In 1452, the prince of Asturias, Don Enrique, sent him to Segovia to prevent a popular riot against the Jews at Passover; he died a martyr, according to Grätz. His « Kebod Elohim », on sovereign good, was written in 1442 and printed in Ferrara in 1555.
Spanish writer and philosopher active around 1461-89, residing in Segovia and then in Almazán, disciple of Maimonides despite the declared opposition of his grandfather and father to the latter. He wrote in Segovia in 1461 a treatise on matter and form, completed in Almazán in 1478 a commentary on Aristotle's « De Anima » based on Averroes, then in 1480 a commentary on the « Physics » of the same Averroes, and completed in 1489 his « Derashot ha-Torah », homilies on the Pentateuch printed in Salonika, Venice and Padua during the sixteenth century. His commentary on Maimonides' « Guide », printed in Venice in 1551, remains his principal work.
Historian, Kabbalist and probably mathematician and Spanish astronomer of the fifteenth century, born in Seville and martyred in Lisbon. Held in high esteem by the governor of Andalusia, he one day defended by a kabbalistic writing Jews falsely accused of a crime, and sought to maintain understanding between Marranos and Jews before fleeing to Lisbon, where the Inquisition eventually captured him and had him die under torture. He composed a history of the persecutions of Jews which served as the basis for the « Shebeṭ Yehudah » of his descendant Salomon ibn Verga, as well as several scientific treatises, including one on an astronomical instrument of his invention, completed in Lisbon around 1457.
Spanish physician and anti-Jewish propagandist, born Josué ha-Lorki, baptized before the sermons of Vicente Ferrer in Lorca under the name Hieronymus de Santa Fé. Versed in the Talmud though not a rabbi, he attempted to prove in it that the Messiah had already come in Jesus, and obtained from Pope Benedict XIII, whose physician he was, a public disputation with Jewish scholars. He then wrote two treatises hostile to Jews, published under the title « Hebræomastix » in Zurich in 1552, to which Don Vidal Benveniste and Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus replied.
Spanish physician died before 1408, son of Joshua ibn Vives al-Lorqui. He translated from Arabic into Hebrew several books of the abbreviated canon of Avicenna, adding to it a commentary that was used by Shem-Ṭob Shaprut.
Philosopher and translator of the 15th century, probably of Spanish origin but established in Italy, mastering Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin. He wrote in ten chapters a Hebrew commentary on « Medicamenta Cordialia » by Avicenna, based on a Latin translation, and translated from Latin, at the request of Samuel Ẓarfati, Aristotle's « Metaphysics » (around 1485?), dividing it into chapters and preceding it with a detailed table of contents.
Grammarian and philosopher, son of the martyr Don Joseph, born in Lisbon in 1465 and died in 1543, David ibn Yaḥya studied under his relative David ben Salomon ibn Yaḥya before emigrating to Italy in 1496; having become rabbi of Naples in 1518, he remained so until the expulsion of Jews from the kingdom in 1540. Concerned for his coreligionists, he obtained in 1533 the liberation of Jewish prisoners brought from Tunis to Naples, launched an appeal in Genoa and Lombardy, then in Bologna in 1535, and attempted in 1534 to avert the decree of expulsion. Driven from Naples, he died at Imola, leaving works of grammar and philosophy preserved by his grandson, the chronicler Gedalia ibn Yaḥya.
Second great Judeo-Persian poet, born in Isfahan, author of Fath-nameh and Ganj-nameh.
Spanish prophetess
Jewish exegete, author of the Menôraṭ hammâôr
Spanish philosopher and preacher, author of the Akedat Yitzhak, a collection of philosophical sermons on the Torah. He left Spain during the expulsion of 1492.
Moral writer active in Worms, whose activity is situated between 1460 and 1480; he was the student of Moses ben Eliezer ha-Darshan. He wrote in German a treatise of edification and asceticism, the « Sefer ha-Gan » (Krakow, circa 1580), divided into seven parts, one for each day of the week. Translated into Hebrew by Moses Saertels then printed in Prague (1597, 1612) and Amsterdam (1663, 1713), this text was in turn rendered twice in German, in Hanau around 1620 and in Fürth in 1692.
15th-century Talmudist, author of the "Shelom Ester", a commentary on the scroll of Esther published in Constantinople. A distinction has sometimes been wrongly made between him and another author with the same name, Isaac Gershon, a proofreader in Venice, to whom in fact belong certain works that were wrongly attributed to him.
Spanish mathematician of the fifteenth century, born in Oriola, Aragon. According to Steinschneider, he may have been among those exiled from Spain in 1492 and then gone to Constantinople. He is the author of a treatise on mathematics, the « Meleket ha-Mispar », divided into three parts — theory of numbers, proportions and elementary geometry — conceived as an introduction to Euclid; one of the manuscripts preserving it was copied for Mordekhai Kumtiano around 1460.
Spanish rabbi
Talmudist and Italian editor, born in Rome at the end of the fifteenth century and died in Ferrara around 1570, grandson of physician and astronomer Immanuel Boneto. Rabbi in Avignon around 1530, he published the Zohar in Mantua in 1536 before having to flee to Bologna, directed the Hebrew printing house of Rome in 1546, then was recalled to Avignon in 1558. Returned to Bologna in great distress, he subsequently lived in Ancona and then Cesena, from where Isaac Abravanel called him to Ferrara as tutor to his sons; he is the author of a collection of responsa published in Vienna in 1860 and a commentary, which remained manuscript, on the « Beḥinat 'Olam » of Jedaya Bédersi.
Spanish rabbi
First "Hochmeister" (Chief Rabbi) of Germany, active in the early 15th century, instituted by an edict of Emperor Rupert III dated May 3, 1407 to end complaints about the mismanagement of certain German rabbis; his seat appears to have been Nuremberg. His authority was immediately contested, and a second edict, the same year, threatened with twenty marks of gold anyone who disobeyed him — without appeasing the opposition of German rabbis, who accused him of having sought the position himself and of being demanding in the collection of taxes to gain the emperor's favor.
Israël Bruna ben Hayyim is a German rabbi of the fifteenth century, first rabbi of Brünn, then, after the expulsion of Jews from that city in 1454, settled in Regensburg, where he opened a yeshiva despite the opposition of Rabbi Anshel; he is supported by the great rabbis of his time, including Jacob Weil and Israël Isserlein of Wiener-Neustadt. In 1474, he was imprisoned on an accusation made by his enemies, possibly for ritual murder, and likely held for ransom; released after thirteen days of detention, some believe he was imprisoned twice. Israël Bruna is the author of a collection of responsa (Salonique, 1798; Stettin, 1860).
Tsar of Russia from 1462 to 1505, whose attitude toward Jews was generally benevolent. During his reign, the Jew Skhariya founded in Novgorod a Judaizing sect that gained several influential Russians, and Ivan, through the mediation of the Jew from Caffa Khozi Kokos — whose role as agent is attested by an instruction dated March 1474 — concluded a lasting alliance with the Khan of Crimea. He nevertheless had his Jewish physician Leon beheaded on April 22, 1490, punished for having failed to cure his son as he had boasted.
Tsar of Russia (1533-84), under whose reign the prejudice against the Jews, feared as magicians and proselytes, was particularly marked in Muscovy. In 1545, he sent an embassy to Sigismund-Augustus of Poland concerning border disputes; in 1550, he flatly refused to authorize Lithuanian Jews to trade freely in Russia. When his army occupied the Polish city of Polotsk in 1563, he ordered the forced conversion of all Jews in the city to Orthodoxy; those who refused were drowned in the Dnieper or burned alive.
French Talmudist of the 15th century, not to be confused with the homonymous astronomer of the 14th century Jacob ben David ben Yom-Ṭob Po'el, called "Sen Bonet Bongoron de Perpignan". Established in Marseille, where he practiced maritime commerce, he later withdrew to Naples, from where he sent in 1490 a letter to David ben Juda Messer Leon of Mantua on the usefulness of secular studies, notably medicine. A learned Talmudist, he gave his approbation to the "Sefer Agur" of Jacob Landau and wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs.
Portuguese-Turkish rabbi and physician
Rabbi and Talmudist born in Zamora; after the expulsion from Spain (1492), he settled in Salonika, where he composed the Ein Yaakov, a compilation of all the aggadic material of the Talmud with commentary, in the library of Don Judah Benveniste. He died in Salonika as the first orders were coming off the press; his son completed the work.
Spanish tax collector
Polish rabbi
Italian musician of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, born around 1468, Jacopo Sansecondo was a renowned violinist who played in 1502 at the wedding of Lucrezia Borgia and held a prominent place at the court of Pope Leo X; reputed to be handsome, he may have served as a model for the Apollo of Parnassus painted by Raphael.
Jean Albert (Jan Olbracht) was King of Poland (1492-1501), ascending to the throne the same year his brother Alexandre Jagellon became Grand Duke of Lithuania. The hatred of Jews instilled in him by his tutors led him to ratify, at the diet of Piotrków in 1496, the statute of Nieszawa restricting their rights; he is credited with the creation of the first ghetto in Poland, after a fire destroyed part of Krakow in 1494 and the crowd looted Jewish houses, the king ordering their relocation to Kazimierz. During the expulsion of Jews from Lithuania in 1495, he allowed them to settle in Ratno.
Jean Paul (Johannes Pauli), German humorist converted to Christianity, was born around 1455 and died in Thann in 1530. Renowned preacher of the Franciscan order in Oppenheim and then in Strasbourg, he published at Schlettstadt, in 1517, the sermons of Geiler that he had collected there. He is best known for his collection of facetiae Schimpf und Ernst (Thann, 1519), which enjoyed countless editions and imitations, making him the "Joe Miller" of Germany.
Philanthropist and man of letters from Pisa, he made his fortune in banking and employed this wealth to protect Jewish learning. He maintained regular correspondence with Don Isaac Abravanel and engaged the scholar Yohanan Alemanno as tutor to his sons Isaac and Shemuel.
Philanthropist and man of letters from Pisa, who died in that city on February 10, 1492. Jehiel de Pise devoted to charitable works the fortune he had made in banking and protected Jewish learning — Johanan Alemanno, future master of Pico della Mirandola, lived several years in his house. Close friend of Don Isaac Abravanel, with whom he maintained correspondence and who had ambassadors of King Alphonso visit him at the pope in 1472, he devoted most of his fortune to helping Spanish refugees, and his death was mourned by the poets of his time.
15th-century Portuguese court physician and scientist
Jewish mystical figure
German rabbi
Spanish philosopher, author of the Sefer ha-Ikkarim on the fundamental dogmas of Judaism. He took part in the Disputation of Tortosa.
Pioneer of Hebrew printing born in Nuremberg, originally from Gunzenhausen; founded with his son Azriel a press in Naples producing Hebrew books from 1487 to 1492.
A victim of the expulsion from Spain (1492), he settled in Tlemcen where he directed a yeshiva. A prolific writer whose works remained in manuscript; he was among the first masters of Kabbalah in North Africa at the turn of the sixteenth century.
Joseph (Joslein) ben Moïse, Bavarian Talmudist, born in Höchstädt around 1420 and died after 1488. His life is known only through his Léqet Yosher, of which only one manuscript copy survives: after five years of study under Israël Isserlein, he traveled through the Rhine regions before returning to write down, at the request of his fellow students, the decisions of his master. In 1463, three years after Isserlein's death, he undertook to organize this material for publication, continuing his work in Cremona in 1474 and completing it in 1488, following the order of the four Tourim.
Rabbi in Arévalo, Spain, in the 15th century, author of a treatise in fifty chapters on ritual questions, the « Zeker Ẓaddiḳ », which remained in manuscript. The last chapter draws up a chronicle of Jewish personalities from Creation to his time, the last entry being dated 1487; events close to his time are treated with more precision, the rest being composed of names and dates often altered.
Author of the Shulhan Arukh (Set Table, 1565), the code of Jewish law that remains the universal halakhic reference. Born in Spain, exiled to Portugal and then Turkey, he settled in Safed in Galilee, which became the center of Jewish mysticism in the sixteenth century.
Italian rabbi
16th century physician and historian
Native of Granada, he settled in Istanbul in 1492/93 after the Spanish Expulsion and became court physician to the sultans Bayezid II and Selim I, whom he accompanied on his campaign in Egypt (1516-1517); he died of illness in Damascus on the return, in 1518.
Joseph ibn Hasan was an author in Arabic language of the fifteenth century or earlier. In 1467, he composed the Muhsin al-Adab, treatise on culture in fifty qasidas, adapted, according to Steinschneider, from the Sefer ha-Moussar of Isaac ibn Crispin.
rabbi
author (15th century)
Representative of the Marranos in 1482 and wealthy tax farmer established in Jerez de la Frontera. Summoned in 1481 to answer before the inquisitors the accusation of Judaism, he fled and settled in Évora, where his possessions were confiscated; his efforts obtained from Pope Sixtus IV, on August 2, 1483, the bull "Ad Futuram Rei Memoriam" admitting Marranos outside Spain to reconciliation, then, on January 7, 1484, his recognition by the bishop of Évora, which held back the Inquisition of Seville for ten years. He never returned to Spain and was burned in effigy.
Spanish poet of humble origin and marrano, born around 1420 in Valladolid. He lived at the courts of Naples, Mantua and Milan as an improviser and astrologer, was captured by Moorish pirates on his return to Spain then released, married several times, including to a Jewish woman named Jamila, and finally established himself in Cordoba, where he received honoraria from the city and exchanged satirical poems with Anton de Montoro, who designated him as his Jewish coreligionist; he also enjoyed great favor with Queen Isabella.
Italian philosopher, rabbi and physician
Uncle of Salomon ibn Verga. Forced to flee Seville when the Inquisition was established, he hid in Lisbon. An astronomer, he invented an instrument for determining the solar meridian (Lisbon, c. 1457) and left scientific treatises (arithmetic "Keli ha-Ofeḳi", method for measuring heights, astronomy), preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Italian rabbi
Spanish rabbi
228th pope, born in Rome in 1487, elected on February 8, 1550 and died on March 22, 1555. Personally well disposed toward Jews — he engaged a Jewish physician and prohibited the baptism of Jewish children without parental consent —, he nevertheless yielded to the reactionary party that had elected him: on August 12, 1553, he ordered the seizure and destruction of all copies of the Talmud, deliberately timed for the day of the Jewish New Year, then the following year required by bull that Jews surrender within four months all books deemed blasphemous against Jesus.
Turkish scholar of the fifteenth century, to whom is attributed a rationalist commentary on Job preserved in manuscript at the Bodleian, where he cites a « Sefer ha-Middot » in his hand on Aristotle's « Ethics » — a paternity that Steinschneider questions, supposing that the commentary would have only been copied for him. The patronym « Kalomiti » was borne by several eminent Turkish Jews.
Kabbalist writer of the fifteenth century, according to authors originally from Spain, Italy or Greece. He presents himself as « Ḳanah Abengedor, son of Nahum, of the family of Ram » and claims to be a descendant of the master of the Mishna Neḥounia ben ha-Ḳana. He is the author of the « Sefer ha-Peli'ah », printed in 1784 in Korets, and of the « Sefer ha-Ḳanah », printed in 1786 in Poretzk, whose introduction had already appeared separately in Prague in 1610.
Bohemian scholar, active in Prague in the first half of the 15th century, close relative—perhaps half-brother—of Abigdor ben Isaac Ḳara, whom he calls "my brother" in his writings. He left in manuscript a commentary on Proverbs xxx, drawn up at the request of Abigdor Ḳara, a commentary on the "Mar'ot Elohim" of Henoch al-Ḳusṭanṭini, and a commentary on the "Kawwanot ha-Pilusufim" of Ghazâlî and on parts of the "Guide for the Perplexed", where he cites Samuel and Moses ibn Tibbon, Moses of Narbonne, and Levi ben Gershon; he also mentions therein an imprisonment of eighteen months.
Court physician to the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, executed in Moscow on April 22, 1490. A Jew by birth, originally from Venice, he was probably the first Western European physician to enter Russia, arriving in 1490 in the retinue of Prince Andreas of Morea and the Russian ambassador to Rome. Having assured on his own head that he could cure the gout of the Grand Duke's son, Ivan Ivanovitch, he treated him with herbs and cupping; the prince died on March 7, 1490, and Leo, accused of ill will by a population convinced of the infallibility of medicine, was arrested and publicly beheaded, after forty days of mourning, at the Bolvanov square.
Two hundred and twenty-fourth Pope, born in Florence on December 11, 1475, elected on March 11, 1513 and died on December 1, 1521. His pontificate was favorable to the Jews of Rome, who saw in it a sign of the arrival of the Messiah; by a bull of September 8, 1514, he repealed the edict of the bishop of Carpentras imposing a distinctive mark on Jews, then, by a bull of November 1, 1519, remitted Jewish taxes on households and banking operations and granted amnesty for offenses committed by Jews. In 1518, he authorized a Hebrew printing house in Rome and granted the privilege of a new edition of the Talmud.
Physician, philosopher and poet, born in Lisbon in the second half of the fifteenth century and died in Venice in 1535, son of Isaac Abravanel whom he accompanied to Spain then to Naples, where he became ordinary physician to the Spanish captain-general Gonzalve de Cordoue, never abandoning his fathers' faith. His major work, the « Dialoghi di Amore », written around 1502 and published in Rome in 1535, saw five editions and was translated into French, Spanish, Latin and Hebrew. He also composed, at the request of Pico della Mirandola, a work on astronomy, as well as Hebrew poems.
Italian rabbi, active in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, trained in Naples in the school of his father Messer Leon, then in Padua under Judah Minz, before going to Turkey, where he was called to the rabbinate of Avlona. A prolific writer in secular sciences as in Jewish matters, he remained essentially known only through citation, preferring to clothe his philosophy in the garments of the Kabbalah and holding Plato for the greatest of Kabbalists. Among his works are the "Magen Dawid", Kabbalistic, and the "'En ha-Ḳore", a commentary on the "Moreh Nebukim" criticizing that of Isaac Abravanel.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the third century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-2.
Son of Jacob ibn Habib, known by the acronym HaRaLBaCh. Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem from 1525 until his death; he completed his father's Ein Yaakov and played a central role in the controversy over the restoration of semikha (ordination) against Jacob Berab.
Portuguese convert who lived at the end of the fifteenth century, known for his hostility toward his former coreligionists. According to Abraham b. Salomon de Torrutiel, it was he who advised King Emmanuel of Portugal to close the synagogues and forbid Jews to pray, then to order in April 1497 the baptism of all Jewish children. Some scholars identify him with a certain Antonio, chief surgeon to King John II, author of a pamphlet entitled « Ajudo da Fé Contra os Judeos ».
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Pinhas. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-3.
Grammarian, masorete and poet, born in Neustadt, near Nuremberg, in 1468, died in Venice in December 1549. Settled young in Venice, he taught Hebrew in Padua from 1504 onward; his commentary on the "Mahalakh" of Moses Kimḥi, published without his authorization under another's name, became a highly prized manual, translated into Latin by Sebastian Münster (Basle, 1531), before Elijah reclaimed paternity and published a corrected edition in Venice in 1546. Driven from Padua by the sack of the city in 1509, he went to Rome, where cardinal Ægidius of Viterbo welcomed him for thirteen years, a period during which he composed the "Sefer ha-Baḥour" (Rome, 1518).
Austrian controversialist, talmudist and kabbalist of the 14th-15th centuries, active in Prague, where a document dated 1413 mentions him as dayyan. On August 16, 1399, he is thrown into prison with other Jews on the accusation of a convert named Peter of having insulted Christianity in their writings; summoned to justify himself, he brilliantly refutes the charges, but seventy-seven Jews are martyred on August 22, 1400 and three others by fire on September 11 following — he alone escapes death. He is the author of « Sefer ha-Niẓẓaḥon », a refutation of Christianity and Karaism demonstrating the superiority of Rabbinic Judaism.
Ordinary physician to the German emperor Frederick III (1440-93) and Hebrew teacher of Johann Reuchlin, died in Linz around 1506. Faithful servant of the emperor, who ennobled him, he met young Reuchlin in Linz in 1492, sent to the imperial court by his patron Eberhard of Wurtemberg, and became his first master of Hebrew grammar; Reuchlin always cites him with gratitude as his "præceptor meus".
German religious reformer, born in Eisleben on November 10, 1483 and died in the same city on February 18, 1546. While placing Scripture alone as the infallible guide of faith and praising the Hebrew language, he acknowledges himself never having mastered its grammar, relying on the commentaries of Nicholas of Lyra and Paul of Burgos to understand Moses and David Ḳimḥi while vigorously denouncing rabbinical exegesis. His attitude towards Jews knows two distinct periods, the first, marked by compassion, extending until around 1537.
Russian painter, born in Wilkowiszk (government of Suwałki, Russian Poland) on February 4, 1860. Trained at the painting schools of Warsaw and Wilno, he entered in 1880 the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg, where he obtained a silver medal in 1881 and graduated in 1883. He painted numerous portraits, including that of the tsar, and exhibited notably "The Marranos" (1893) at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Rabbi of Constantine, refugee from Spain in 1395, halakhic correspondent of the Rashbatz.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name, refugee from Spain after the persecutions of 1391, established in Constantine in the first half of the 15th century. His son Nathan Najar also lived there.
Yemenite scholar and author of the 15th century, also called Ibn al-Mu'allim or, in Hebrew, Hoter ben Solomon. He composed a philosophical midrash in Judeo-Arabic, a commentary on Maimonides' commentary on the Mishnah, a commentary on the 13 principles, and about a hundred responsa. His thought bears traces of the doctrine of the Brethren of Purity.
New Christian of Portuguese origin (son of Dionysius Rodrigues, physician to the court of Portugal), he practiced medicine in England and then in Italy, before settling in Constantinople where he openly returned to Judaism. Author of a reputed treatise on diets in fevers.
Spanish surgeon whose life remains unknown. He wrote in Spanish, but in Hebrew characters, a work entitled "Libro de la Cirogia", a fragment of which is preserved in a collection of the Royal Library of Munich.
Jewish cartographer of Majorca, active in the early fifteenth century, author of a map dated 1413, now preserved in the National Library of Paris, where he highlights the African navigation of the Majorcan Jacme Ferrer. Founded on the work of Jaffuda Cresques, this map links him to the Judeo-Catalan school of cartography; a permit found in the archives of Majorca, dated January 20, 1401, authorizing the « convert Macia » to disembark in Sicily, would probably concern him.
Sephardic kabbalist, author of Avodat ha-Kodesh, precursor of Cordovero and Luria.
Biblical commentator whose country and year of birth are unknown; as he cites Levi b. Gershon, one may assume that he did not live before the fifteenth century. He is the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch entitled Minḥah Ḥadashah, extracts from which were published by Heidenheim in one of his editions of the Pentateuch, at Rödelheim, in 1818–21.
The "Maharam of Padua", chief rabbi of Padua, major talmudic authority of the 16th century.
Turkish liturgist of the fifteenth century, native of Kastoria, author of several piyyoutim, including a « tefillah » of one hundred forty verses with a particularly elaborate acrostic giving his full name fifty times. A letter evoking the Crusades, found among Egyptian fragments published by Neubauer, might be from his hand, but Zunz concludes that the liturgist lived in the second half of the fifteenth century.
German author, active between 1420 and 1450, known through the mentions made of him by Jacob Weil, Juda Minz and Solomon Louria. His collection of halakic decisions, appended to the responsa of Weil, has authority in the communities of Saxony and treats of rabbinical matrimonial law, civil law and communal taxation; he notably abrogates, judging it immoral, the « mi'oun » rule allowing a girl married as a minor without the consent of her father to dissolve the union upon reaching majority without a bill of divorce — a rule restored in the following century.
Kabbalist of the mid-15th century, author of the cabalistic commentary « Ẓiyyuni », founded on Rachi, Nahmanide and the ancient kabbalistic literature of the geonic period, and introduced by alphabetic poems and acrostics. The work, often cited in Yalḳuṭ Reubeni, was printed in Cremona by Vincentio Conti in 1559 in rabbinical characters, burned the same year by marauding Spanish soldiers, then reprinted the following year; it should not be confused with the 12th-century payyetan Menahem b. Machir, his namesake.
Rabbi, physician and Italian philosopher, active in Mantua in the second half of the 15th century, perhaps born in Naples. Expelled from Mantua in 1475 after a conflict with his colleague Joseph Colon, he wrote manuals of logic, grammar and rhetoric — the latter, the « Nofet Ẓufim », the only of his works printed (Mantua, before 1480; reissued by Jellinek in 1863) — following the theories of Cicero and Quintilian to show that Judaism is not hostile to secular studies. His son David, also a physician in Mantua, is the author of a work of philosophy edited by his grandson in 1577.
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-3.
Greek scholar, Hebrew poet and preacher, born on March 27, 1411. A Vatican manuscript preserves from him a poem on the taking of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror (1453), an elegy on the death of his father (1456), a homiletic commentary on Psalm 28 and three sermons preached in La Canée in 1471, 1475 and 1477; his identification with the author of various other works attributed to him remains debated among scholars, including Zunz, Steinschneider and Wolf.
Elder of the Jews of Lithuania under King Sigismond I of Poland, born in Brest-Litovsk around the middle of the fifteenth century, died in that city between 1530 and 1533. One of the principal tax collectors of Lithuania with his brothers Abraham and Isaac, he was exiled to Poland with the other Lithuanian Jews in 1495, but remained faithful to his religion and did not return to his native city until 1503. By royal decree of February 27, 1514, he was appointed to the newly created post of Elder of the Jews of Lithuania, mediator between them and the king and empowered to judge them.
Public figure renowned for his fortune and influence, born toward the end of the fifteenth century at Derenburg, near Halberstadt, died in 1549, held to be the illegitimate son of a count of Regenstein. Frequented by German princes, he obtained in 1529 the right to build a house in Hanover, and saw in 1544 the elector Joachim II ratify the dowry of his spouse. Captured by knights of Magdeburg after the splendor of the Diet of Augsburg in 1548, he escaped his captors, who were executed on the order of Joachim II, then died a few days after having forced, on 15 May 1549, Count Ulrich of Regenstein to sign a treaty in his favor.
Daughter of Benayah, she copied Hebrew manuscripts alongside her father and her brothers David and Joseph; the family is credited with approximately 400 volumes copied (prayer books, haftarah collections, Torah scrolls).
Probably born in Spain, grandson of a Moses Albelda established in Salonika. Rabbi of Arta (Greece) in 1534, then of Valona (Albania). His writings, predominantly philosophical, are collections of sermons and biblical expositions. His sons Juda and Abraham Albelda published his works after his death.
Son of Joseph Hamon, he succeeded his father as physician to the sultan and became the principal court physician of Suleiman the Magnificent, exercising great influence through the court faction. He obtained a firman protecting Jews from accusations of ritual murder, financed the Persian translation of the Pentateuch by Jacob Tavus (1546) and founded a school directed by Joseph Taitazak. He left a treatise on medicine.
Liturgical poet and astronomer, active in Avignon in the second half of the fifteenth century. He composed in 1462 a liturgical poem published in Thorn in 1873, and translated from Latin into Hebrew, at the request of Maestro Crescas Nathan, the astronomical tables of Alphonse, king of Castile, a work preserved in manuscript in Munich.
Hebrew grammarian from the Middle Ages
Moses Botarel, also called Moses Bonyak Botarel of Cisneros, is a Spanish scholar active in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, student of Jacob Sefardi for Kabbalah and student of medicine and philosophy, which he held to be a divine science parallel to Kabbalah. Renowned for believing in amulets and claiming to be capable of magically combining the names of God, he claimed that the prophet Elijah had appeared to him to designate him as Messiah; present at the Tortosa controversy (1413-14), he wrote in 1409, at the request of Christian scholar Maestro Juan, a commentary on the « Sefer Yeṣirah », printed for the first time in Mantua in 1562.
Astronomer and mathematician of the second half of the fifteenth century, author of a work on the calendar, « Meleket ha-Ḳebi'ah », and of calendrical tables, the « Nofet Ẓufim », both preserved in manuscript at the royal library of Munich.
Hakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.
Marrano kabbalist born Christian in Portugal around 1500 under the name Diogo Pires and died in Mantua in 1532, Salomon Molko circumcised himself and emigrated to Turkey, where he studied Kabbalah under Joseph Taitasak and became associated with Joseph Caro. Becoming an itinerant preacher in Palestine, he there announced the coming of the messianic kingdom for 1540 and published in 1529 part of his sermons, the « Derashot »; in Italy, he obtained the favor of Pope Clement VII before proclaiming himself the Messiah or his precursor. Setting out in 1532 for Regensburg with David Reubeni, he was arrested there, brought to Italy, and condemned to the stake in Mantua, where he refused to convert to obtain his pardon.
Spanish poet of the 15th century, born in Montoro in 1404, died after March 1477, close relative of poet Juan Alfonso de Baena. Dealer in old clothes, baptized late but remained Jewish at heart, he defended his persecuted coreligionists — lodging in 1474 a complaint with King Henry IV after the looting of the houses of the Marranos of Carmona — while suffering the contempt of poets of his own origin for his former faith. Protected by D. Alonso Fernandez de Aguilar after the persecution of March 1473, he died in Córdoba shortly after drafting his will in March 1477; his poems were collected under the title « Cancionero de Anton de Montoro » (Madrid, 1900).
French physician, active in Avignon in the mid-fifteenth century, correspondent of Joseph Colon, who highly praised his medical skill. Probably identical to the mathematician Mordecai Nadi, the astronomer Mordecai Nathan, and the maestro Mordecai Todros Nathan of Avignon, for whom Nathanaël ben Nehemiah Caspi of Largentière copied in 1454 in Arles a work of Alfasi, he has been wrongly confused with Isaac Nathan, author of the famous concordance.
Jewish scholar of Mantua in the 15th century: mathematician, astronomer, grammarian and physician. He wrote astronomical tables (Luḥot) and translated into Hebrew several scientific works, including the Algebra of Abu Kamil and a treatise on geometry. His library comprised approximately 200 codices.
Turkish astronomer
German rabbi
Rabbi and kabbalist of Pesaro, author of a travel narrative in the Holy Land.
Rabbi, 15th century. Mentioned in 5254 of the Hebrew era (1494). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Fez, 15th century. Mentioned in 5198 of the Hebrew era (1438). Son of Maimon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 97-1.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-4.
Rabbi, 15th century. Mentioned in 5257 of the Hebrew era (1497). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi, 15th century. Mentioned in 5232 of the Hebrew era (1472). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-4.
Jewish scribe from 15th-century Spain. He is the copyist of a Hebrew biblical manuscript held in the library of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (shelfmark G. II. 19), dated 17 Iyar 5213 (1453). The Usillo/Usiellys family is attested in 15th-century Spanish documents (Huesca, Calahorra, Osca).
Jewish mathematician of the 15th century, probably active in Lombardy, of whom almost nothing is known: his dating, toward the middle of the century, is deduced from the dedication of his algebra treatise to two friends active in Mantua between approximately 1445 and 1473. He translates and supplements with proofs a Christian mathematical work that contained none, under the title « Sefer ha-Alzibra », and writes a second treatise on the problem of asymptotes.
Hebrew scholar and cosmographer, born in 1489 in Ingelheim, died in Basel on May 23, 1552. Having become Protestant, he taught Hebrew at the University of Basel from 1529, published under the influence of Elijah Levita several editions and Hebrew translations, and published in 1536 the first complete Hebrew Bible edited by a Christian, accompanied by a German translation. He also published a Chaldean grammar (1527) and rabbinic grammar (1542), an edition of the « Yossippon » (1529–41), and, in 1537, the first book of the New Testament translated into Hebrew, the Gospel of Matthew.
French physician who lived in Avignon in the mid-fifteenth century, correspondent of Joseph Colon who praised his medical knowledge and gave him the title of « mori ». Between 1450-56, he had a complete copy, annotated in the margin, of the « Bet ha-Behirah » of Menahem Me'iri made; he is also identified with the astronomer Mordecai Nathan and the maestro Mordecai Todros of Avignon, for whom works of Alfasi were copied in 1454 in Arles. In 1470, he had a copy made of the translation by Moses Solomon of Averroes' commentary on Aristotle's « Metaphysics ».
Rabbi of Constantine, son of Maimon Najar, correspondent of the Rashbash.
Spanish scholar of the fifteenth century. His halakhic consultations exchanged with Isaac Aboab were published under the title « She'elah u-Teshouva » by Abraham Meldola in the « Shiv'ah Enayim », published in Leghorn in 1745.
Rabbi, biblical exegete, philosopher and physician, founder of the school of Bologna.
Italian rabbi, author of the standard commentary on the Mishna, printed in all standard editions. In 1488 he settled in Jerusalem and reorganized the Jewish community of the city. His travel letters are a precious source on the Land of Israel in the fifteenth century.
Born Jewish in Germany, he converted to Catholicism around 1505 in Italy. Professor of philosophy and medicine at Pavia, he was from 1514 the physician of Emperor Maximilian I in Augsburg, then holder of the chair of Hebrew at Pavia (1521) and ennobled baron von Sparzenstein (1530). Kabbalist, he introduced the Kabbalah to the Christian world.
Mathematician active towards the end of the fifteenth century, of whom we know only that he is the author of an unpublished work, the « Keli Faz », a manual for the construction of mathematical instruments. Steinschneider proposed to identify him with the physician, cosmographer and astronomer from Lisbon, Joseph, who advised the king of Portugal John in 1480 on the use of the astrolabe at sea and sat on the commission charged with examining Columbus's project; but his name, « Parsi », suggests rather a Persian origin.
Jew converted to Christianity in Germany, active at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He accuses Jews of concealing in the concluding prayer Alenu a blasphemous allusion to Jesus, the two words in question each having a numerical value of 316.
German convert to Christianity, born in 1469, died after 1521. Former butcher imprisoned for burglary according to Grätz, he converts and is baptized with his family in Cologne in 1505, then places himself under the protection of the Dominicans, for whom he publishes several pamphlets accusing Jewish literature of hostility to Christianity, including « Der Judenspiegel » (Nuremberg, 1507) and « Die Judenbeicht » (Cologne, 1508). Through the mediation of the sister of Emperor Maximilien, he obtains in 1509 two edicts ordering the destruction of Hebrew books, and the Jews of Frankfurt are forced to surrender them on April 10, 1510.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, count of the Concordia, is an Italian philosopher, theologian, and kabbalist, born on 24 February 1463 in Mirandola and died in Florence on 17 November 1494. A graduate of the University of Bologna, he published at twenty-three nine hundred theses against the philosophers and theologians of his time (Rome, 1486), one of which maintains that the Kabbalah proves the divinity of Jesus; trained in the Kabbalah by Johanan Aleman, he translated several of its works into Latin and sought to reconcile Plato and Aristotle with it, which led to an accusation of heresy from which he was acquitted.
Scribe of the Tanam community, one of the oldest in Yemen (called « resh galuta »). He transcribed a copy of the Midrash ha-Gadol, copying work financed by R. Abraham ben Saadia ha-Cohen. The Tanam community, renowned for talmudic study, had many scribes.
Megorash (exilee) from Spain, originally from Granada, he settled in Safi around 1500 and became its chief rabbi in 1510. According to the family entry on moreshet-morocco.com, he was renowned for his poetic talents to the point of composing wedding contracts entirely in verse. His family (the "Ouled Ben Zmirou") left a pilgrimage site in Safi.
Rabbi and exegete active in the Fès/Tlemcen/Tunis zone at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, author of a supercommentary on the biblical commentary of Ibn Ezra (one of his works is dated Tunis, 1512), attached to the Boukrat family whose patronym is a documented variant of Oukrat.
Descendant of Spanish rabbis who took refuge in the Maghreb after the persecutions of 1391, the family passed through Tlemcen before emigrating to Touat; Shelomo became rabbi of the great commercial oasis of Tamentit. During the destruction of the Touat communities in 1492, he fled but died of thirst in the desert with his son rabbi Itshak, and was buried near El Kandassa (Colomb-Béchar region). A dome was erected over his tomb in 1905; he became the patron saint of the community, venerated by Jews and Muslims until the exodus of 1961.
According to Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm citing the hypothesis of the researcher Rabbi Yaakov Toledano (in his book « Apiryon »), he was one of the greats of Spain established in Safi. He was responsible for an old manuscript commentary on Rashi's Torah, the colophon of which indicates: « completed on Monday 18 Kislev of the year 5228 (1472) in Asfi, by the hand of the humble Yehouda ben-Habib ». It is unknown whether he was its author or merely its copyist.
Lived in the fifteenth century. Presumably the brother of Rabbi Avraham ibn-Zimra. It is known that he aided the crown of Portugal, which then reigned over Safi, when the inhabitants rose up against it.
Pioneer of the Russian Haskalah movement, died in Berditchev on January 6, 1886 at an advanced age. One of the first in Berditchev to rally to the spirit of progress, he supports the efforts of the Russian government under Nicholas I to spread secular education among the Jews, and serves as secretary to Lilienthal when the latter travels through Russia to encourage Jewish communities to establish schools. A man of fortune and patron of Hebrew literature, he counts among the eminent members of the Jewish community of Berditchev in its final years.
Adventurer of Arab origin born around 1490 in Khaybar, central Arabia, and died in Llerena, Spain, after 1535. Left for Egypt late 1522, he presents himself to the Jews as the emissary of Jewish kingdoms of the East and reaches Rome in 1524, where he is received by Pope Clement VII to whom he narrates the existence of a kingdom governed by his brother Joseph, protecting the descendants of Moses near the legendary river Sambation. Subsequently introduced to the court of Portugal in 1525, he there arouses the messianic enthusiasm of the marrane Diego Pires, future Salomon Molko, before his political ambitions alarm the Portuguese authorities and he pursues his mission in Avignon, Milan then Venice.
German humanist born February 22, 1455 in Pforzheim, died June 30, 1522 in Liebenzell, Württemberg. Trained at the universities of Freiburg, Paris and Basel, he became in 1492 the Hebrew-teaching student of imperial physician Jacob Loans after discovering Kabbalah from Pico della Mirandola during a stay in Rome in 1490, then taught Greek and Hebrew at Ingolstadt from 1519 and at Tübingen from 1521. Solicited in 1510 to give his opinion on Pfefferkorn's request to destroy Hebrew books belonging to Jews of Cologne, he rendered a favorable opinion that prompted the emperor to revoke his edict on May 23, 1510.
Converted Jew to Christianity and fifteenth-century astronomer. A disciple of Abraham Zacuto, he writes a work on the movement of the eighth sphere, a Latin translation of which appears in Paris in 1521; he cites Ibn Ezra, Abraham bar Ḥiyya and other Jewish authors, and mentions the year 1477.
Physician, poet and martyr, born in Palma de Majorca around 1406 and died in Palermo in 1430, related to the first Moses Rimos, called "the Parchment-maker", baptized in Palma in 1391 under the name Raimund Bartholomeu. Familiar with philosophical writings and master of several languages, he left his native land young, sojourned in Rome then established himself in Palermo as a physician; accused of poisoning a Christian patient, he was imprisoned and condemned to death, and preferred to die at the executioner's hand rather than convert to save his life. Shortly before his death, he composed a metrical poem where he enumerated his talents, as well as an epithalamium and a liturgical poem.
Poet of Toledo from a Marrano (converso) family. Author of the 'Diálogo entre el Amor y un viejo', one of the notable Castilian dramatic poems of the fifteenth century; he has also been attributed (without sufficient proof) the first act of La Celestina. He appears on the 1497 Toledo list of Judaizers who abjured ('Rodrigo Cota el Viejo').
Physician and Italian scholar of the fifteenth century born in Fano, mentioned several times between 1430 and 1470. He writes a supercommentary on Ibn Ezra, marginal glosses to the commentaries of Qimḥi on Amos, Micah and Isaiah, a supplement to the « Apologie » of Solomon b. Moses, an annotated synthesis of Ibn Ezra's commentary on Genesis entitled « Ha-Gersa ha-Aḥeret », and an account of his journey to Crete in 1473.
Rabbi of Mainz then of Worms, died before 1426. Kabbalist, he is the author of the « Ḥatan Damim » (Prague, 1605), a Kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch based on gematria and notarikon, accompanied by collections of ritual laws on circumcision and wedding ceremonies. He did not complete this commentary, which was later completed by Isaac ha-Cohen, son-in-law of R. Liwa of Prague.
Man of culture active in Damascus and Safed between 1473 and 1485. He wrote a commentary on certain parts of the Yad ha-Ḥazaqah of Maimonides, copied a commentary by an Arab author on the first philosophical sections of this work, edited an Arabic commentary on the Pentateuch of which only fragments survive, and composed philosophical hymns in Arabic and Hebrew. In 1451, he had copied in Aden the dictionary of Tanḥuma, and circulated under his own name, under the title « Zakat al-Nufus », a work by the Arab author Ghazali on the doctrines of philosophers.
Rabbi of Fès, 15th century. Mentioned in 5245 of the Hebrew era (1485). Son of Maimon, himself son of Moshe, himself son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-3.
Rabbi and grammarian
Rabbi, physician and grammarian of Constantinople, author of a treatise on the interpretation of dreams.
Author of a work on Hebrew synonyms entitled « Ohel Mo'ed », completed around 1500 and dedicated to his master Obadiah. The work was printed in Venice in 1548, then reprinted (with notes by Heidenheim and Dukes) in Vienna in 1881 by Willheimer. A manuscript commentary, « Yetad ha-Ohel » by Isaac Berechiah Canton, relates to it.
Salomon ben Judah of Lunel, called Salomon Vives in Provençal, Provençal philosopher, born in 1411. At only thirteen years old, under the direction of his master Frat Maimon, he composed a commentary on the "Kuzari" of Judah ha-Levi, the "Ḥéchèq Chelomoh," which testifies to already considerable knowledge of the philosophical literature of his time. He may also have written a commentary on the "Roua'ḥ Ḥen," which he incorrectly attributes to Samuel ibn Tibbon.
A victim of the expulsions from Spain and Portugal, he lived in Lisbon as a marrano and witnessed the massacre of 1506 before fleeing to the Ottoman Empire. There he composed the Shevet Yehudah, a chronicle of the persecutions suffered by Jews throughout the centuries (approximately 75 accounts), one of the most popular Hebrew books of the sixteenth century and a pivotal work between medieval and modern historiography.
Rabbi of Spanish origin, commentator on the Talmud of Jerusalem.
Sephardic-Italian financier, academic, and supporter of Italian Jewry
Hebrew grammarian and poet, Italian, from the first half of the fifteenth century, originally from Naples according to Carmoly, and one of the masters of Juda Messer Léon. He is the author of the « Rav Pe'alim », an analytical Hebrew grammar completed, as he states in his preface, on the first day of Eloul 1429, the part devoted to numbers being printed in Paris in 1520 following the edition of Ruth and Lamentations by Justinian. According to Dukes, the Hebrew dictionary « Ba'al ha-Lashon » is also attributed to him, although Zunz attributes its authorship to a certain Joseph b. Yozadak.
German Dominican preacher and anti-Jewish polemicist of the 15th century, trained in theology and then in Hebrew, notably in Salamanca where he secretly frequented Jewish children to perfect himself in the language. Having entered the order of Saint-Dominique, he obtained an imperial edict requiring Jews to attend his sermons and preached in 1474 in Francfort, Ratisbonne and Worms, without obtaining a disputation from the rabbis he challenged; he then composed two virulent treatises against the Talmud, one in Latin (Esslingen, 1475), the other in German, Stern Maschiach (1477), then, called to direct the Dominican college of Alt-Ofen, in Hungary, the Clypeus Thomistarum (Venice, 1482).
Polish rabbi
Italian scholar and theologian, died in 1492. In his Névé Chalom (1574), he places scriptural and talmudic knowledge above philosophy, while admitting that the study of the latter is necessary for the perfection of biblical knowledge; he also translated a logic treatise by Marsile d'Inghen, published with his preface by Jellinek, and is said, according to De Rossi, to have written a commentary on al-Ghazâlî's Natural Philosophy.
Rabbi of Fès, 15th century. Mentioned in 5227 of the Hebrew era (1467). Son of Shem Tov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-4.
Portuguese crypto-Jew who became a mystical and messianic preacher. After his circumcision, he preached the imminent coming of the Messiah before Pope Clement VII. Burned alive by the Inquisition at Mantua, he is a tragic figure of Renaissance Jewish messianism.
According to the onomastic dictionary of A. I. Laredo ("The names of the Jews of Morocco"), Shelomoh ben Alzraq, originally from the city of Alzarcon, copied in 1472 an illuminated copy of the Yad ha-Hazaqah (Mishné Torah) by Maimonides for Don Joseph ben David Ibn Yahya, adviser to King Alphonse V of Portugal; the manuscript is kept in the British Museum (British Library), in London.
Rabbi of Fez, fifteenth century. Mentioned in 5252 of the Hebrew era (1492). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-1.
Grandson of the Rashbatz and son of the Rashbash (Chlomo Duran), he continued in the fifteenth century the rabbinic office of the Duran dynasty in Algiers, whose responsa count among the major sources of North African Judaism.
Kabbalist and poet, dayan in Tripoli; author of the Zohar commentary Ketem Paz and the hymn Bar Yochaï.
Rabbi of Fes, fifteenth century. Died in 5213 of the Hebrew era (1453). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Decisor and philosopher born in Majorca, refugee in Algiers after 1391, author of the collection of responsa Tashbetz. He was also a physician and exegete.
Salomon Sirillo, Spanish Talmudist of the 15th and 16th centuries, is among the exiles of 1492 and establishes himself in Safed, where he has a controversy with Jacob Berab on a question of kashrut. He is the author of a commentary on the order Zera'im and the treatise Shekalim of the Talmud of Jerusalem, and compiles a gemara on the Mishna of the treatise 'Edouyot by gathering the passages scattered throughout the Talmud, supplemented by his own commentary. His commentary on Berakhot was printed in the edition of this treatise by M. Lehmann, in Berlin in 1874.
Luso-Turkish rabbi and physician, born in Portugal in the second half of the 15th century, died in Constantinople between 1534 and 1542. Son of David b. Solomon, one of the principal members of the Yahya family, who had fled Portugal for Naples in 1493 and then Constantinople around 1497, he accompanied him on both journeys and was recognized as a Talmudic authority, probably succeeding Élie Mizrahi as rabbi of the Ottoman capital; he is said, without established certainty, to have been physician to Sultan Soliman. Only 213 of his responsa survive, published under the title Ohole Tam in the Toummat Yesharim (Venice, 1622).
Dayan of Algiers, scholar in kabbalah and philosophy, co-author of the responsa Yakhin u-Boaz.
Joseph Vecinho, Portuguese physician and scholar at court in the late fifteenth century, was a student of Abraham Zacuto, whose mathematics and cosmography he studied, to the point of being sent by King John II to measure the height of the sun on the coast of Guinea. In 1484, he was part of the royal commission that examined Christopher Columbus's project of a western route to the Indies and spoke against it — which Columbus largely attributed to « Joseph the Jew ». Vecinho nevertheless provided him with a translation of Zacuto's astronomical tables, which Columbus took on his voyage and judged valuable; this translation was published in Leiria in 1496 under the title Almanach Perpetuum.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-3.
Spanish scholar and biblical commentator of the 15th century, perhaps also a physician, though this is not established with certainty. He composed a commentary on Lamentations, the Peroush Meguillat Ekha, published in Salonika in 1595, as well as, remaining in manuscript, the Mevakkech ha-Chem, sermons on the weekly Torah readings from Ki Tissa to Nitsavim, and a commentary on the Song of Songs where his name appears in the form Samuel Bibas.
Italian jeweler of the 15th century, established in Florence, where he traded precious stones with his father Menahem ben Aaron Volterra, who possessed in 1460 a fortune of 100,000 ducats. In 1481, he undertook a journey to the Orient, passing through Rhodes, Alexandria — where at that time only sixty Jewish families lived — and Cairo, before reaching Jerusalem on July 29, where he fell seriously ill; shipwrecked en route to Crete, he lost his gemstones and owed his survival only to the care of a German Jewish physician, before returning to Venice. The manuscript account of his journey, preserved at the Laurenziana, was published by Luncz.
Rabbi and German Talmudist active in the first half of the fifteenth century, died, according to Grätz, before 1456, Jacob Weil was one of the principal students of Jacob Mölln (the MaHaRIL), who ordained him rabbi; called to the rabbinate of Erfurt, he admitted pilpoul only as an aid to study and based his decisions solely on logic. His collection of responsa, « She'elot u-Teshuvot » (Venice, 1549), to which is attached an appendix on the rules of ritual slaughter, was considered authoritative by later rabbis.
Convert from Judaism to Christianity who lived in the second half of the fifteenth century, known for his role in the Simon of Trent affair in 1475: seeking to avenge his former coreligionists, he claimed that the Jews had probably killed the child to obtain Christian blood for Passover. His testimony served a few months later as a pretext for Bishop Henry to accuse in turn the Jews of Ratisbon of having bought and ritually killed a Christian child eight years earlier.
Bavarian man of letters of the Middle Ages, known for having compiled around 1450 the "Lochheimer Liederbuch", a numbered collection of German popular songs. A dedication in Hebrew characters and an expression peculiar to Jews, found in this collection, led to the supposition that he was himself Jewish—a hypothesis contradicted, however, by the name "Barbara", rarely used among Jewish women, and the presence of a Christian grace among the songs.
Priest, statesman and Spanish grand inquisitor born in 1436 and died in 1517, confessor to Queen Isabella of Castile after studies in Rome. Made cardinal in 1507, he became the same year third grand inquisitor of Spain; less severe than his predecessors Torquemada and Diaz at the beginning of his tenure, he ended by dealing harshly with Marranos and Jews, sending two thousand five hundred people to the stake during his inquisitorship. Founder of the university of Alcalá de Henares, he also had compiled there the first polyglot Bible, completed in 1517, and was removed from government by Charles V the same year.
Notable of Spanish origin who fled the expulsion of 1492 and then that of Portugal in 1497; settled in Azemmour where he served as rabbi and community leader, engaged in diplomatic missions with Portuguese authorities. His sons succeeded him.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 15th century. Mentioned in 5206 of the Hebrew era (1446). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 15th century. Mentioned in 5253 of the Hebrew era (1493). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-2.
Rabbi, 15th century. Mentioned in 5235 of the Hebrew era (1475). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-4.
Leading Spanish Kabbalist, student of R. Samuel ibn Shraga. After the expulsion of Spain (1492) he endured great suffering (recounted in the introduction to his work) and settled in Mantoue. He composed at the beginning of the 16th century Minhat Yehuda, a commentary on the Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, a major work of Kabbalah from the generation of the expulsion.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the third century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931).
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-2.
Rabbi, fifteenth century. Mentioned in 5253 of the Hebrew era (1493). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-2.
Rabbi, 15th century. Mentioned in 5260 of the Hebrew era (1500). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Algerian talmudist of the fifteenth century born in Tlemcen, from which he fled in 1467 after massacres perpetrated by the Spanish against the Jews of the city. Arriving around 1469 in Toledo, where Don Vidal ibn Labi welcomed him and asked him to write, for his students, a manual of talmudic methodology, he composed around 1490 the « Halikot 'Olam », in five parts devoted to the Mishna, the Gemara and hermeneutical rules; the work, republished several times, appears with a Latin translation in Leiden in 1634.
Rabbi of Safi, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi of Safi, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 76-1.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the third century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Fès, fifteenth century. Mentioned in 5254 of the Hebrew era (1494). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Italian philosopher
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Levi. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 57-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 15th century. Mentioned in 5260 of the Hebrew era (1500). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-1.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 3rd century of the Hebrew era (1440–1539). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Biblical commentator and liturgical poet, Greek or Turkish, from the fifteenth century, maternal grandfather of Menahem ben Moïse Tamar. He drafted in 1451, under the title of « the philosopher », a work refuting Nahmanides' criticisms against Maimonides, as well as a pamphlet contesting those made against Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch, and composed several liturgical poems, including two penitential prayers for Rosh Hashanah and a metrical poem on the thirteen articles of faith.
Yemenite Jewish scholar of the 15th century, nicknamed "ha-Rofé" (the physician) / al-Tabib. His family originated from Dhamar. He practiced medicine and was a prolific commentator on the Bible, the Mishna and the work of Maimonides, blending Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic and Aramaic.
Spanish astronomer, mathematician and historian born in Salamanca around 1450 and died in Turkey after 1510. Professor then astronomer and royal historiographer in Lisbon under John II, he advised King Manuel on the expedition of Vasco da Gama, whose ships carried his improved astrolabe, the first iron one. Forced to flee during Manuel's persecutions, he went to Turkey after a stay in Tunis, where he wrote in 1504 his chronicle of the Jews from Creation to the year 1500, the "Sefer ha-Yuḥasin"; in 1473, in Salamanca, he had already composed his "Bi'ur Luḥot", published in Latin under the title "Almanach Perpetuum" in 1496.
Spanish physician and poet, ordinary physician of Henry III of Castile, son of Abraham ibn Zarzal, active in the second half of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth. On March 6, 1405, in Toro, he celebrated with a poem the birth of John II, a poem preserved in the « Cancionero de Baena »; he resided in 1389, 1400, and 1409 in Segovia. The date of his death remains unknown — the epitaph from Carmona indicating the year 1432 is a forgery.
Polish convert to Judaism born in 1460 and martyred in Krakow in 1540, widow of a town alderman. Following the example of the daughter of Nicholas Radziwiłł, she embraced Judaism at a time when Bible reading divided Polish Christendom into sects; condemned to the stake by the bishop of Krakow Piotr Gamrat, she faced, at eighty years old, death with serenity.
Rabbi born toward the end of the sixteenth century, died in Lemberg on 18 June 1643, where he presided over a rabbinical college. His decisions are preserved in the responsa of Abraham Rapoport, Joel Särkes and Meir Lublin, the latter speaking highly of him; in one instance, he condemns excessive rigor in the application of the Law.
person associated with Hebrew manuscripts
rabbi
Rabbi in Ragusa, born around 1580, educated in his native city and then in Venice before returning there to hold a chair; his maternal grandfather Solomon Oheb had likewise been rabbi there. Imprisoned in 1623 as an alleged accomplice of Isaac Jeshurun, falsely accused of ritual murder, he left sermons, « Zeḳan Aharon », published in Venice in 1657 after his death along with those of his grandfather and the account of the martyrdom of Jeshurun.
Liturgical poet established in Safed from 1545, nicknamed Saggi Nehor. He composed a collection of poems and prayers printed in Mantua in 1561 under the title « Sefer ha-Miẓnefet », devoted mainly to the glories of Palestine, for love of which he had left his country, and comprising poems on the thirteen articles of faith.
Ottoman Talmudic author
Talmudist active in Turkey in the early 16th century, renowned among the Oriental talmudic scholars of his time. He counted among his students many important Eastern talmudists and left nothing written except for a few responsa preserved in the works of his disciples and colleagues.
religious writer
rabbi of Ragusa
Born in Fès, biblical and talmudic exegete, author of Korban Aharon (commentary on the Sifra).
Italian Talmudist
Talmudist of the 16th century established in Constantinople. He exchanged scholarly correspondence with Samuel di Medina, rabbi of Salonica, who called him « the greatest of our masters », and wrote the preface to « Leḳaḥ Ṭob » by Moses Nagara (Constantinople, 1574).
Rabbi in Rome in 1543 and member of the administrative council of the community (manager of the ghetto) until 1564. In 1558, he stood as guarantor with other prominent Jews of Rome for the reimbursement to Elijah Corcos of the 1,000 scudi that the latter had paid to the papal authorities, a fine imposed on the Jewish community for not having burned certain Hebrew books.
Italian rabbi of German origin, active in the sixteenth century and died on 13 November 1601. Disciple of Samuel Juda Katzenellenbogen, he became his assistant at the rabbinical college of Venice and took part in the controversy over the mikvé of Rovigo, as testified by the work « Milḥamot Adonai » (Venice, 1601). His disciple Jacob ben Elhanan Heilprin, author of the responsa « Naḥlat Ya'aḳob » (Padua, 1623), testifies to the great credit he enjoyed in the rabbinical world of his time; his funeral oration was pronounced by Léon de Modène.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5317 of the Hebrew era (1557). Son of Shaul. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Rabbi, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5339 of the Hebrew era (1579). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Died in 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Rabbi of the Draa Valley, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7–2.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5325 of the Hebrew calendar (1565). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-2.
Kabbalist born in Fès, emigrated to Hebron, author of Hesed le-Abraham and a commentary on the Zohar.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the fourth century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-4.
Commentator born in Safed, originally from Syria, he exercised the rabbinical function in Aleppo in the second half of the sixteenth century. Disciple of Joseph Caro (1488-1575), with whom he later maintained learned correspondence, he drew up a commentary on Midrash Rabba, of which only the part devoted to Genesis was published, under the subtitle « Ma'adanné Melekh », in Venice in 1567, by his brother-in-law Senior ben Juda Falcon of Venice.
Italian rabbi and poet
Commentator probably contemporary with Elijah Mizrahi, active in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, probably in Constantinople, he drafted a supercommentary on the biblical commentary of Rashi, of which only a fragment, bearing on the weekly section Massé, was published in the collection of Jacob Canizal. Abraham died in 1525, at a very advanced age.
Born in Morocco, he immigrated to the Land of Israel before 1565. In Safed he joined the circle of Moïse Cordovero and became close to Elie de Vidas; Hayyim Vital reports teachings of the Ari that he received from him. Celebrated for his piety and his practice of tikkun hatzot (he walked through Safed at midnight to awaken the community to mourning for the Shekhina). He is credited with compiling the Zohar Hadash, a collection of texts from the Kabbalists of Safed.
Cabalist writer born before 1540, he lived long in Jerusalem and died at an advanced age in 1600. Disciple of Moses Cordovero and Isaac Louria (died in 1572), a man of great piety, he worked especially to ensure the strict observance of the Sabbath, exhorting to begin its celebration before sunset — hence his nickname « Beroukim » (Sayer of Blessings). His principal work, « Tikouné Chabbat », cabalistic dissertations on the Sabbath, appeared with the « Kitsour Menorat ha-Maor » in Amsterdam in 1663 and with the « Rechit Ḥokhma ha-Katser » in Verona in 1600.
Appears in the list of rabbis of Cremona. No preserved work is attested by the consulted sources.
Hebrew scholar, one of the proofreaders of the first edition of the Zohar, published in Mantua in 1558-60, of whose publication he celebrated with verses printed in the preface. He has often been confused with Abraham Abigdor ben Meshoullam, author of several philosophical treatises.
Printer and proofreader active in Prague around 1600. He translated the book of Ezekiel into Judeo-German verse and printed it in his own workshop in 1602, proving himself one of the finest representatives of this genre at the origin of Judeo-German folk songs. His father, Moses ben Abraham, lived in Prague (1585-1605) as a preacher and judge, and wrote a commentary on the Passover Haggada titled "Ḥelkat Meḥokek"; he was also a proofreader in the printing shop of Mordekhaï Cohen. His brothers, Juda (also called Loeb or Loew) and Azriel, also practiced the "holy art of printing".
Italian kabbalist linked to Safed, commentator on the Zohar and the Lamentations.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-2.
Italian scholar and publisher of scientific works, active at the end of the sixteenth century. He edited the work « Meharere Nemerim » in Venice in 1599, a collection of methodological essays and commentaries on various talmudic tractates, and published in Venice, in 1601, a methodological treatise on the Midrash Rabba as an appendix to the « Arzé Levanon », a collection of cabalistic essays. He reports having seen in Egypt the manuscript of the Midrash Abkir, the last known trace of this minor Midrash.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Died in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-2.
Leader of the Spanish Jewish community of the kingdom of Marrakech, minister of the first Saadian sultan, whom he advised in 1549 to take Fez; he obtained numerous favors for his coreligionists. His brothers Samuel (court financier) and Isaac controlled Morocco's foreign trade. The family, of Hispanic-Portuguese origin (Toledo, 13th century), later spread to Marseille, Hamburg and Amsterdam.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Haim II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Haim I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Jewish philosopher (1570–1635)
Italian physician and translator of the early sixteenth century, born in Lecce, in the former Kingdom of Naples, and died in Venice in 1523, shortly after becoming ordinary physician to Cardinal Dominico Grimani in Padua. His Latin translations of Hebrew works on philosophy and astronomy earned him great repute in the Christian world, notably that of an astronomical treatise by Ibn al-Haytham (died 1038), already translated into Hebrew by Jacob ben Makhir in 1372. He also compiled a Hebrew grammar, published under the title « Mikné Abram ».
Prefect of the Jews of Greater and Lesser Poland in the early sixteenth century. In 1512, King Sigismond I of Poland issued a decree appointing him to this position, notably charged with collecting taxes owed by Jews to the royal treasury; he had been recommended by the King of Hungary and Bohemia, brother of Sigismond, as well as by Emperor Maximilian of Germany. Polish courts had no jurisdiction over him; only the royal court could judge him. For these privileges he owed an annual personal tax of twenty ducats.
Renowned Talmudist for his Lehem Mishneh, a commentary on Maimonides' code.
Master of the Mint of Cairo under Selim I, figure in the Purim of Cairo (1524).
Famous French philologist of the sixteenth century, who is said to have mastered twenty languages. Converted to Christianity, he became around 1537 professor of Hebrew in Avignon. As he aged, attachment to his original faith reawakened in him, and, unable to conceal his true sentiments, he was accused of being secretly Jewish; he was deprived of his position in 1593. To escape a worse fate, he fled to Venice, where he openly returned to Judaism.
Scholar and physician of Algiers, author of the anthology Omer ha-Shikha (Livorno, 1748).
Exile from Spain established in Palestine, author and cabalist of the early sixteenth century, brother-in-law of Abraham Zacuto, author of the "Youḥassin". Expelled from Spain in 1492, he lived briefly in Egypt and Constantinople before going to Jerusalem and then to Safed, where he studied the Kabbalah and became a recognized rabbinic authority. He wrote a commentary on the "Neviout ha-Yéled", published in 1516, as well as the "Machré Kitrin" (Constantinople, 1510), on the prophecy of Daniel, in which he announced 1530 as the year of redemption.
Hebrew poet and liturgist, rabbi in Arta in 1521. Although not a Karaite, he is credited with the authorship of the seven poems of four verses each preceding the different sections of the nineteenth psalm, printed in the Karaite prayer book for the seven days of Passover.
Rabbi, 16th century. Died in 5323 of the Hebrew era (1563). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-4.
16th-century rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-3.
Author of a work on the six hundred and thirteen biblical commandments, published as an appendix to the « first » Rabbinical Bible (Daniel Bomberg, Venice, 1517) under the title « Commandments and Prohibitions ». Originally written in Arabic, this text was later considerably enriched by its Hebrew translator, Juda ben Chochan, who added passages from the Talmud and the Sifré. A Latin translation, due to the converted Polish Jew Philip Ferdinand, appeared in Canterbury in 1597 and was reprinted by J. von Lenz in 1694.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5313 of the Hebrew era (1553). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 16th century. Mentioned in 5329 of the Hebrew era (1569). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Renaissance rabbi, he studied in Venice (under Eliyahu Levita and physician Vittore Trincavella) then was proofreader for the Bragadin printing house before serving as rabbi in Cremona and Verona (1584-1592), where he directed a renowned yeshiva. He is best known for his Torah commentary Minhah Belulah (Verona, 1594), based on the midrashim, which contains testimony on the auto-da-fé of the Talmud in 1553.
Italian encyclopedist (1542–1612)
Talmudist of Lemberg, president of the Council of Four Countries, author of Eitan ha-Ezrachi.
Talmudist, preacher and liturgical poet active around the middle of the sixteenth century, student of Abraham Motal, rabbi of Salonique, then teacher and preacher in Istib, in Rumelia. He died without children around 1650 and was saved from oblivion by Nissim ben Moïse Cohen of Venice, who published in 1719 part of his manuscripts under the title "Chirat Dodi" (The Song of My Friend), a verse rendering of the laws of Mishna Shabbat — of little poetic value, the legal material lending itself poorly to it.
German rabbi
Portuguese Marrano nobleman born in Lisbon, initially consul and paymaster of Spain in Antwerp, he settled in Hamburg where he and his sons were circumcised (c. 1648), openly returning to Judaism. Head of the Hispano-Portuguese community of Hamburg, resident minister and financier to Queen Christina of Sweden; philanthropist (donation of 15,000 marks for the erection of a synagogue in 1659, founder of charitable works).
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-1.
Physician, philosopher and kabbalist, author of a Jewish catechism of the Renaissance.
Talmudist and dayan of Salonique, author of Ahot Ketannah.
Italian-Jewish polymath (1544–1599)
Rabbi of Aleppo around 1580, grandson of Jacob Berab, he was highly esteemed for his knowledge, prudence, acumen and piety by contemporary scholars such as Moïse Alshekh and Samuel Laniado, with whom he maintained a correspondence.
Italian Hebraist scholar born in Modena in 1529 and died in Ferrara in 1611, issuing from a family originally from France settled in Italy during an expulsion of Jews and son of Mordecai, rabbi and renowned physician of Bologna, he settled in Ferrara where he distinguished himself by his knowledge of Hebrew and secular sciences. He is chiefly known for his intervention with Pope Gregory XIII, who had decreed in 1581 the confiscation and destruction of the Talmud and rabbinic works: chosen as delegate by the Jewish communities of his region for his mastery of Latin, he delivered before the pope a discourse that obtained the revocation of the decree.
Italian rabbi born in Consiglio around 1540 and died on October 26, 1616, he was the student of Samuel Juda Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of Padua, whose teaching he venerated so much that he had his portrait painted to hang in his study. Becoming rabbi in Rovigo, he rendered a decision on the ritual validity of a miqvé that sparked a lively controversy with the rabbis of Venice, at the origin of several works for or against his position, including the "Milḥamot Adonai" (Venice, 1608) and the "Palge Mayim" (1617); Leon of Modena celebrated his name in an elegy that served as his epitaph.
Marrano of Vila Flor, in Portugal, born in 1587, he was sentenced to the galleys at the age of forty-five for having secretly followed the Law of Moses.
Casuist and preacher of the Chalom congregation of Salonique, active in the 16th century, he was the student of Joseph Taitasak and the fellow student of Samuel di Medina. He is the author of "Divré Ribot" (Polemics), four hundred thirty responsa mixed with halakhic discussions, published in Salonique in 1581 then in Venice in 1587, and of "Divré Chalom" (Words of Peace), thirty sermons and homiletic commentaries on the weekly pericopes, published in Salonique in 1585 and reprinted in Venice in 1586-87.
16th-century Hebraist, Jew of Spanish origin who emigrated early to Germany where he converted to Christianity, he was a physician by profession but distinguished himself especially as a professor of Hebrew. Called in 1513 to the chair of Hebrew at Heidelberg, he obtained in 1517, on the recommendation of Erasmus, a chair at the Collegium Trilingue in Louvain, a position he lost in 1519 after publicly affirming that Saint Jerome was not without error — remarks that earned him the hostility of Latomus. Driven out of Wittenberg in 1521, where Luther had nonetheless welcomed him with open arms, the place and date of his death remain uncertain.
Bibliographer, editor and Hebrew scholar born in Rödlsee, Germany, probably in the first quarter of the 16th century, converted to Christianity in Rome, died in 1575, he copied Hebrew manuscripts in the libraries of Paris, Louvain and Rome. He edited in Augsburg, in 1544, a Judeo-German translation of the Pentateuch, became in 1547 professor of Hebrew at Ingolstadt, and published in 1562 a Judeo-German translation of the Books of Samuel taking up, without stating so, that of Ḥayyim Schwarz (Augsburg, 1543). In 1574, he spent forty-six weeks cataloging the Hebrew manuscripts of the Munich library — making him the first Jewish bibliographer.
Physician, philosopher, and mathematician of Salonika who lived around 1540, he was the master of Daniel ben Peraḥya, whom he aided in translating from Spanish into Hebrew the Almanac of Abraham Zacuto, and also lent his assistance to the preacher Moïse Almosnino for his Hebrew translation of the « Tratado de la Esphera » by Jean de Sacrobosco. He published in Venice, in 1568, a collection of selected opinions of ancient philosophers on the soul.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5360 of the Hebrew era (1600). Son of Abraham, himself son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-1.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5287 of the Hebrew era (1527). Son of Nehemia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Turkish vizier and viceroy of Egypt under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), he received this position in recognition of his bravery during the conquest of Rhodes in 1523. Disappointed at not becoming grand vizier, he attempted to detach Egypt from Turkey; unmasked by the Master of the Mint Abraham de Castro, he was captured and beheaded in March 1524, after having exacted a heavy ransom from the Jews of Cairo, an episode commemorated since as the Purim of Cairo.
First known Jewish woman to have written German poetry, probably born in Vienna in 1522 and died in Iglau, Moravia, in 1544. After careful education in Latin and Greek, she revealed early poetic talent; her poem "Geheimniss des Hofes", which denounces court intrigues, resulted in her and her father being banished from Vienna—an exile of which she died with a broken heart.
16th-century Kabbalist established in Northwestern Africa, he is the author of the cabalistic work « Hekal ha-Ḳodesh » (The Holy Temple), begun in 1575 — a commentary on the prayer book drawn from the Zohar and other cabalistic writings —, published in Amsterdam in 1653 with an introduction by Jacob Sasportas.
Biblical commentator died in 1549, originally from the city of Albelda from which he takes his name. Established in Salonika, Turkey, at the beginning of the 16th century, he resides there until his death, at an advanced age. He drafts a supercommentary on Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch, published around 1525, probably in Constantinople, although neither the place nor the date is specified in the work itself.
Author and bishop of Forlì, of his Jewish name Elisha de Roma, active in Rome in the 16th century after his conversion and entry into the Dominicans, where he distinguishes himself as a preacher. Appointed by Pope Clement VIII procurator and then vicar general, he holds the bishopric of Forlì from 1594 to 1597, before ending his life as a private individual in Rome. He leaves Hebrew notes on Genesis and Exodus, compared with the text of the Vulgate, as well as a work entitled « De Tempore et de Sanctis ».
Translator into Hebrew of the famous medieval novel "Amadis of Gaul". His translation appeared probably in Constantinople between 1534 and 1546; a copy of this work, now very rare, is kept in the British Museum. His name, Algaba, could be either a surname or the apocopation of the Hebrew designating a "treasurer".
Talmudic commentator and historian who died shortly before 1588, from a family of scholars of Candia (Crete) whom Joseph Salomon Delmedigo described as "Gaon". Of his works only a brief chronicle was published, the "Toledot Adam" (The Generations of Adam), edited by his grandson Samuel ben Moses Sarfati in Venice in 1605; founded largely on the "Yuḥasin" of Abraham Zacuto, it spans from Adam to the auto-da-fé of Hebrew books in Italy of September 9, 1553. Algazi adopts a personal chronological system, taking the year 1583 as the starting point of his own reckoning.
Kabbalist and liturgical poet born in Safed, active in the first half of the 16th century, contemporary of Joseph Caro and master, as well as brother-in-law, of Moses Cordovero. Disciple of Joseph Taytatzak, he emigrated from Turkey — where he had lived in Salonica and Andrinople — to Safed, in upper Galilee, which had become the Mecca of Jewish mystics. The date of his death is unknown, but he was still alive in 1561, the year of his commentary on the book of Ruth. His reputation rests chiefly on his liturgical poem for the welcome of the sabbath, « Lekha Dodi », which entered both Sephardic and Ashkenazi rituals and is judged by R. Isaac Louria superior to all the poetry of ibn Ezra and ibn Gabirol.
Editor in Constantinople in the first quarter of the 16th century. In 1516, with Juda Sasson and Joseph Hamon, he published the « Toledot Adam wa-Ḥawwah » of Jeroham ben Meshoullam.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
Jewish preacher from Salonika, active around the middle of the sixteenth century. Of his numerous homiletical and theological writings, only two have been published: « WayaḲhel Mosheh » (And Moses Gathered), a collection of sermons, and « Hoyl Mosheh » (Moses Was Pleased), apologetic essays on Judaism and the excellence of Mosaic law, both published in Venice in 1597.
Rabbi of Safed, in Palestine, in the second half of the sixteenth century, son of Ḥayyim Alshech. Disciple of R. Joseph Caro, author of the « Shulḥan Arukh », he numbers among his own students the kabbalist R. Ḥayyim Vidal. Although belonging to the circle of kabbalists of Safed, his work bears little trace of Kabbalah; he distinguished himself especially as a teacher, preacher and casuist, and his homiletic commentaries on Scripture, drawn from his sabbath sermons, seek in each verse a moral lesson and an encouragement to patience and trust in God.
Italian rabbi of the 16th and 17th centuries, known as the author of a translation into Judeo-Spanish, in Latin characters, of the « Choulḥan Aroukh », entitled « Libro de Mantenimiento de la Alma », intended for marranos unable to read Hebrew (Salonique, 1568; Venice, 1609 and 1713). According to Steinschneider, Altaras was only its patron, the work having actually been written by a certain Meir, otherwise unknown.
Fernando Álvarez de Tolède, Duke of Alba, born in 1508, died in Thomar, Portugal, in 1582. Spanish general in the service of Charles V and later Philip II, he was sent in 1567 as governor to the Netherlands to suppress the revolt against Spain, and there established the Council of Blood. Seeking to purge the country of its Jews, he ordered the arrest of every Jew discovered in Arnhem and Zutphen. In 1570 and 1571, under his authority, copies of the Index of Trent with Spanish amendments appeared in Liège and Antwerp, prohibiting all Hebrew books or works dealing with Jewish life.
One of the greatest physicians of the 16th century, from a Marrano family named Chabib (= « Habib », translated into Latin as Amatus, « beloved »). Trained in Salamanca, he practiced in Antwerp, Ferrara and Ancona before ending his life in Salonika where he returned openly to Judaism. He is credited with pioneering observations on valves and blood circulation.
Learned and influential rabbi, probably born in Tunis, who left for Italy after 1550, at the time when Moses Provençal is chief rabbi of Mantua. In the controversy over the legality of divorce granted to Samuel Venturoso in Venice, he sides with Moses Provençal and Felice Melli, preaching caution in his decisions. Consulted in 1573 on a disputed question of levirate, he argues that the law of levirate takes precedence over that of ḥalitsah. The absence of date or place on his responsa makes his path difficult to trace, but the archaic form of his name, Amigo, suggests a Levantine or quasi-Spanish origin.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fourth century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
Baptized Jew, active in the mid-sixteenth century, head of a triumvirate of apostates who presented themselves in 1553 before Pope Julius III to denounce the Talmud as defamatory toward Jesus and Christianity. The Pope signed on August 12, 1553 the edict ordering its destruction, and the copies seized in Rome were burned on September 9 following at the Campo dei Fiori. Soon after, taking advantage of the murder of a ward by his converted guardian, Ananel accused the Jews of ritual murder; Pope Marcel II was about to condemn them severely when Cardinal Alexander Farnese discovered the true culprit and appeased the pontiff, in April 1555.
From Xàtiva, converted to Christianity in the sixteenth century, whose Jewish name remains unknown. In his missionary zeal, he addresses in 1552, from Paris, a letter to the Jewish communities of southern France urging them to convert. His writings, written in Spanish, are translated into Italian in Seville in 1537, then often reissued, in Leipzig in 1595, in Venice in 1597 and in Utrecht in 1646.
Descended from a family of conversos of Portuguese origin persecuted by the Inquisition, secretly practicing Judaism. Author of some forty plays and numerous texts in verse and prose, including "Academias morales de las musas" (1642) and "El siglo pitagórico y vida de don Gregorio Guadaña" (1644), published during his exile in France. He openly returned to Judaism in the Netherlands, was punished in effigy at an auto-da-fé in Seville in 1660, and died in prison in Seville in 1663.
Physician established in Lisbon in the first half of the sixteenth century. In 1539, he succeeded Duarte de Paz as representative of Portuguese Marranos in Rome, charged with preventing, or failing that, delaying the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal; he diverted, however, for his own profit the sums entrusted to him for this purpose, to obtain pontifical briefs of protection for himself and his family. His brother Hector succeeded him in this office.
Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal, died in 1595, legitimized natural son of Dom Luís, brother of King Henry of Portugal, and of the converted Jewess Iolanthe, mistress of Henry. The secret Jews of Portugal looked favorably on his possible accession, hoping he would have no reason to persecute the coreligionists of his own mother. After the death of Dom Henry, on 31 January 1580, Philip II of Spain offered him in vain forty thousand ducats in exchange for his rights; Antonio had himself proclaimed king, but, defeated at the Battle of Alcantara, he fled and died in exile.
Brother of Diogo Antonio, he represents him, around the middle of the sixteenth century, as delegate of the Portuguese Marranos in Rome, charged with settling his brother's finances and bringing to Pope Paul III a complaint against the chief inquisitor, the cardinal-infante Don Henrique. Although the Portuguese ambassador to the Vatican demanded the immediate imprisonment of the fugitive marrano, he was saved by the intercession of the pope; Hector's efforts on behalf of his persecuted brothers nevertheless remained unsuccessful.
Apothecary and writer, active in Vladimir, Volhynia, in the second half of the 16th century. He is the author of the "Elixir of Life", a work in Hebrew and Judeo-German on the duties of Jews of both sexes and all conditions, printed in Prague in 1590 thanks to the efforts of his compatriot Moses ben Shabbethaï of Lokatch. Having become rare like most Prague books intended for the edification of women, the work was in the library of Jehiel Heilprin, who cites it among his sources around 1725 in his "Seder ha-Dorot".
Italian apostate who renounced his religion in 1545 — eight years before the auto-da-fé of the Talmud in Rome, in 1553 — and who allegedly denounced Hebrew books, judging by a dedication of his "Trattato Pio". According to historian Joseph ha-Cohen, he might be identical to the most determined of three apostates of the time, Ananel di Foligno. His "Trattato Pio", an anti-Jewish work, was printed twice in Pesaro, in 1571 and then in 1581; he is also credited with a second anti-Jewish work, the "Magen David", which some identify with the homonymous book by Angelo Gabriele Anguisciola (Pesaro, 1621) — an identification that Steinschneider questions.
Hebraist, born in Carpentras around 1578, died in Paris in 1650. Converted to Christianity in Aquino, where he exchanged his name Mordecai for that of Philip of Aquino, he settled in Paris in 1610 and became, under Louis XIII, professor of Hebrew language; he appears in 1617 among the accusers in the trial for « crime of Judaism » brought against Concini, marquis of Ancre. A prolific author, he publishes a Hebrew grammar and a bilingual edition of the Pirké Avot (Paris, 1620), as well as a Hebrew-Chaldean-Talmudic dictionary and a translation of the « Beḥinat 'Olam » by Yedaya Bédersi (Paris, 1629).
Rabbinical author born in Turkey in 1525, active in Salonique. Barely twenty years old, he publishes the "Peirouch al Sefer Mishné Torah," a commentary on the "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah" of Maimonides, published in Salonique between 1546 and 1572 and then reprinted in Amsterdam in 1706. He is also the author of the "Teshouvot," a commentary on difficult Talmudic passages, published in Constantinople in 1579 and now entirely lost.
Italian grammarian and poet of the 16th century, several of whose piyyoutim enter into Italian liturgy. An excellent talmudist, he reprinted from his youth the 'Aroukh of Nathan ben Jehiel under the title « Sefer ha-'Aroukh » (Venice, 1531), and published his ethical work « Degel Ahavah » (Venice, 1551). His most notable works are the « 'Aroughat ha-Bosem », an exhaustive Hebrew grammar (Venice, 1602; reprinted in Amsterdam, 1730), and the « Ma'yan Gannim », a collection of fifty metrical letters (Venice, 1553).
Biblical commentator active in Safed and Salonika in the sixteenth century. He is the author of the « Imrot Éloah » (Words of God), homilies on the Pentateuch, of the « Wa'ad la-Ḥakhamim », commentary on the prayer book, of the « Lev Ḥakham », commentary on Ecclesiastes (Constantinople, 1586), of the « Mizmor le-Todah », commentary on a psalm and the Songs of Ascents (Venice, 1576), of the « Sar Shalom », commentary on the Song of Songs (Safed, 1579), and finally of the « Agoudat Shemouel », a collection of extracts from his previous works (Venice, 1576).
Spanish priest and orientalist, born in 1527 in Fregenal, in Extremadura, died in 1598 in Seville. Philip II entrusts him with the edition of the polyglot Bible printed in Antwerp (1568–1572). Accused of judaizing for having inserted in this edition certain Aramaic paraphrases judged favorable to Jewish theses, he is acquitted thanks to the favorable report of the inquisitor P. Mariana (1580). He translates into Latin the « Massa'ot » of Benjamin of Tudela (1575) and notably publishes his « Antiquitatum Judaicarum » (Leiden, 1593).
Active in Salonika toward the end of the sixteenth century. He writes the « Makhil Kohelet » (The Preacher Who Gathers) and the « Tanhumot El » (Consolations of God), philosophical expositions of Ecclesiastes and the Pentateuch, published in Salonika in 1597 and 1573.
Physician and translator, active in Cyprus and Damascus in the 15th and 16th centuries. He translated from Arabic into Italian the pseudepigraphic « Theology » attributed to Aristotle, at the request of Franciscus Roseus of Ravenna; this translation served as the basis for the Latin work of Nicholas Castellani, presented by Roseus to Pope Leo X and published in Rome in 1519. Aruvas then translated the Arabic text into Hebrew, with very little input from the Latin.
Rabbi and author of the 16th century, surnamed by Azoulaï "Angel and Saint", student of R. Joseph Sagis, colleague of Joseph Caro. Established in Safed, he founded the "Sukkah Shalom", a society of religious meditation, for which he wrote in 1585 his work "Ḥaredim" (The Devout), devoted to the three pillars of devotion — knowledge of God, strict observance of commandments and repentance — where he opposed excessive fasting as a means of penance. Although familiar with Kabbalah and personally linked to Isaac Louria, he cannot be counted among the Kabbalists. His commentary on the treatise Berakhot of the Talmud of Jerusalem is published in the Jitomir edition (1866).
Talmudic scholar established in Frankfurt-on-Main and then in Jerusalem, where he dies around 1598. He is the author of a useful supercommentary on the Pentateuch commentary of Rachi, the Devek Tov (A Good Bond), frequently reprinted thereafter, published for the first time by the author himself in Venice in 1588.
Italian writer active toward the middle of the 16th century. He is the author of the « Apologia Hebræorum », published in Strasbourg in 1559, in which he protests against the decree of Pope Pius IV imposing on the Jews of Catholic countries to wear an orange or yellow garment to distinguish them from Christians. Ascoli, like Cinelli, who praised the work in his « Bibliotheca Volante », suffered a long imprisonment for this criticism of ecclesiastical authorities.
German religious poet, active at least until 1546. He wrote a seliḥa (penitential poem), not to be confused with a similar seliḥa by Kalonymus ben Juda; composed of fifteen stanzas of five verses, it is a prayer for the well-being of the king of the country where the author lived. Zunz suggests a connection between Asher ben Simeon and Asher of Frankfurt, author of a short confession mentioned by Joseph ben Phinehas Hahn in his « Yosif Omets ».
Talmudist and rabbi, born in Germany around 1550, died in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1628. After completing his Talmudic training, he first practices in Bonn and then goes to Metz around 1595, where the ban on Jewish residence, in force for two hundred years, had just been lifted and a community of one hundred twenty people had recently formed; his devotion contributes to its growth, which triples by 1618, the year he has a synagogue built and founds a burial society coupled with a study circle. He is chiefly known for his controversy with Meïr ben Guedalia of Lublin concerning a strict ruling on the examination of slaughtered geese.
Polish Talmudist, born around 1590 in Frankfurt am Main, died around 1645 in Mogilev, on the Dnieper. Son of a dayan of Frankfurt who became rabbi in Danhausen, Bavaria, he went as a young man to Lublin to study under Meïr of Lublin, then became rabbi in Amstebowy, then in Mogilev, in White Russia. Regarded as a talmudic authority in Poland, he is known to posterity chiefly as the father of Shabbethai Cohen, author of the « Sifté Cohen »; nine of his responsa, for the most part on matrimonial questions, were published by his great-grandson Isaac. He is the oldest known Jewish author of White Russia.
Envoy of the Tatar khan in the 16th century, killed by pirates during a crossing from Gava to Dakhel, between the 15th and 25th of Tammuz (July) 1567. The testimony of Elijah ben Nehemia before the rabbinical court of Safed, in the matter of the widow and heirs of the deceased, reveals that he was originally from Kaffa, in Crimea, where his parents still lived, that he had a brother studying at the yeshiva of Brest-Litovsk, that he had brought Egyptian prisoners of war to Gava, and that he had been appointed envoy of the Tatar khan to the king of Poland.
Preacher of Safed in the sixteenth century, died in Venice in 1602. He writes the "Imré Shéfer" (Fair Words), homiletic and exegetic dissertations on the Bible, whose edition published in Venice in 1601 also includes several of his funeral orations.
Author of Talmudic novellae, active in Opatów, Poland, in the second half of the 16th century, student of Meïr ben Guedalia of Lublin. He writes the « Ḥidoushim », novellae on the Talmudic treatises Ketoubot and Kidoushin, focusing especially on Rashi and the Tosafot, drawn from the literature of responsa (Prossnitz, 1602).
Court physician to King Sigismond II Augustus of Poland (1548-72) and diplomat in Ottoman service, born probably around 1520, died in 1602. Descendant of a German family established in Udine, Italy, he went young to Krakow, probably in the retinue of Bona, the king's Italian wife, and became by his talent the sovereign's first physician. He then settled in Constantinople, where he distinguished himself as a diplomat in the service of Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu, participating in the preliminaries of peace during the Turkish-Venetian war for Cyprus (1570), then speaking out, during the election of the King of Poland in 1572, in favor of Henry of Anjou.
Talmudist and rabbi of several large communities, born in Posen around 1550, died on November 12, 1631 in Prague. His father was a rabbi, or at least a prominent Talmudic authority in Posen; his father-in-law, Salomon ben Yehiel Louria, left him the rabbinate of Lublin (1578-84) upon his death, which he occupied after serving as rabbi of the communities of Turbin and Lubomil in Poland. In Lublin, he engaged in a bitter quarrel with the famous Talmudist Meïr ben Guedalia (the Maharam), who, without official position but at the head of one of the largest yeshivot, possessed through his authority the power to make life difficult for the rabbi of the community.
born 1595; died 1663
Italian rabbi
Scholar and physician, author of Me'or Enayim, pioneer of Jewish historical criticism.
Italian halakhist of the sixteenth century, disciple of Nathaniel Trabotto and respected by Meïr Katzenellenbogen of Padua. After teaching at Reggio then at Pavia (fifteen years), he was rabbi of Sabbioneta until his death (1536). He corresponded in halakha with the great scholars of his generation and took public position against the adventurer David Reubeni, alongside Abraham ha-Kohen of Bologna. Azoulaï claims to have seen two volumes of his responsa.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-4.
Hebrew scholar and rabbinical erudite, born in Prague around 1580 and died in Sofia in 1651, daughter of Isaac ben Simson ha-Cohen and granddaughter, through her mother, of the famous rabbi of Prague Löwe ben Bezalel, she acquired a knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinical literature rare enough among women that she assisted rabbis with textual difficulties. Married in 1600 to Abraham Samuel Bacharach, she followed him to Worms, then returned to Prague with her children after his death in 1615; she died in Sofia in 1651, on her way to Palestine where she had been determined to go.
Converted Jew, professor of Hebrew and librarian of the Vatican, born in Safed on October 28, 1588 and died on May 26, 1668, he bore the Jewish name Judah Jona ben Isaac; after having studied the Talmud and traveled as a rabbi in Italy and Poland, then served as dayyan in Hamburg, he returned to Poland in 1625 and converted to Christianity in Warsaw. Expelled from Poland, he became professor of Hebrew at the university of Pisa then at the College of Neophytes in Rome, before joining the Vatican Library, where he translated the New Testament into Hebrew under the title "Berit Ḥadashah".
Rabbi of the Ashkenazim in Constantinople or its environs, in the second half of the 16th century, he maintains a learned correspondence with Tam ben Yahya, who mentions him in his collection of responsa « Ohole Tam ».
Cabalist active in Naples in the first half of the 16th century, he teaches the Zohar and other kabbalistic texts to Cardinal Ægidius of Viterbo and Johann Albrecht Widmanstadt, giving his lessons in the house of Samuel Abravanel. According to the testimony of Widmanstadt, it is through the intermediary of the Cardinal of Viterbo that knowledge of the Zohar spreads among Christian scholars at that time.
Italian rabbi ordained in Mantua in 1564, then head of a yeshiva in Ferrara. He took part in 1554 in the conference of Jewish communities of Italy in Ferrara. « Forti » is the Italian translation of the Hebrew « Hazak » (strong), hence the diminutive Chaschetto/Hazketto. He edited major texts (see works).
Philosopher, talmudist and biblical exegete Italian of the late sixteenth century, descended from the ancient noble Spanish family of Baruch, called « Bet Ya'aqob ». He is a member of the rabbinate of Venice in 1598-99, where he responds to numerous legal questions, then is found in Constantinople in 1602, in relation with the scholars of the city. A prolific author in matters of Halakha, he leaves above all a dual commentary on Ecclesiastes, mingling rabbinic exegesis and philosophical discussion on creation, the immortality of the soul, and free will.
Renowned Talmudist, active in Sabionetta and then in Savigliano, where he died in 1557; descendant of an ancient Judeo-Spanish family, he probably settled in Italy after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. From the age of twenty-three, he publishes several learned indexes of the Talmud — the « Massoret ha-Shas », the « 'En Mishpaṭ, Ner Miẓwah » and the « Torah Or » — printed with the Talmud in Venice in 1546-51. He also publishes in Sabionetta in 1554 an abridgment of the halakhic work of Mordekhaï ben Hillel, as well as the « Shilṭe ha-Gibborim », a collection of critical notes on Alfasi's abridgment of the Talmud and on the « Mordekaï ».
Karaite scholar who lived in Constantinople in the first half of the 16th century. He is the author of a commentary on the Karaite prayer book entitled « Tehillat Adonaï » (Praise of God), preserved in manuscript form and cited by Simha Yitzhak Luzki in his « Orah Tsaddikim ».
Rabbi of Verona, Italy, active in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He is the author of « Miktav le-Hizkiyahou », on divorce, and « Ma'amar Mordekhaï », on levirate, both published under the title « Péné Yitzhak » in Mantua in 1744. He also wrote « Sefer Bikkourim », published in Verona in 1710, devoted to prayers to be recited at the bedside of the sick.
Prince of Transylvania from 1571, then King of Poland from 1575, in succession to Henri d'Anjou. He pursued a remarkably liberal policy toward the Jews: as early as 1575, he abolished restrictions on Jewish commerce; in 1576, he forbade accusations of ritual murder and host desecration and instituted the death penalty for the murder of a Jew. At the Diet of Warsaw, in 1580, he confirmed their ancient privileges and granted them new commercial advantages.
Christian Hebraist of Cambridge, professor of Hebrew in Paris around the middle of the sixteenth century. He is the author of the « Compendium Michlol », a Latin summary of the first part of Kimhi's Hebrew grammar, methodically treating letters, pronunciation, nouns, regular and irregular verbs as well as prefixes and suffixes (Paris, 1554).
A prominent Jew of the Principality of Orange, in Burgundy, in the early 16th century. When a decree by Philibert of Luxembourg, issued in Courthézon on 20 April 1505, forced the Jews to leave Orange, they were granted a four-month delay to return without being able to spend the night there ; Abraham de Baze and Johann Cohen were tasked with ensuring the strict application of this measure.
One of the leading Jews of Cranganore, sixteen miles north of Cochin, in southern India, in the mid-16th century. With Samuel Castiel, Éphraïm Salah and Joseph Lévi, he had a synagogue built in Cranganore in 1568. According to an anonymous Hebrew chronicle preserved at Cambridge University, his grandfather is said to have come from Jerusalem — the same source also mentions a certain Hayyim Belilla, ḥazzan from Safed.
German Talmudist who died in Worms on February 26, 1587, after taking an active part in the affairs of the Jewish community of that city. A manuscript preserves a controversy in the form of questions and answers that he had with Naphtali Herz ben Guershom of Worms, dated 1578 and partly written in Judeo-German.
Woman of great Talmudic learning, born in Lemberg around the middle of the 16th century, died at a very advanced age in Jerusalem. Daughter of the philanthropist and leader of the Lemberg community, Israël Edels, she married the famous Talmudist Josué Falk ha-Cohen, author of the « Sefer Me'irat 'Enayim »; at her husband's death in 1614, she retired to Jerusalem. Inclined toward Talmudic study, she herself rendered certain decisions on difficult halakhic questions, notably that the blessing of festival lights should be said before, not after, their kindling.
One of the founders of the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam, alongside Jacob Tirado and Salomon Palache, born on the island of Madeira in 1570, died in Amsterdam on December 4, 1629. Arrived in Amsterdam on January 13, 1614, he wrote a poetic account of the Inquisition in one hundred octaves, entitled « Job », and participated, with Rahel Yeshouroun and Joseph Israël Pereyra, in drafting the statutes of the new communal cemetery at Oudekerk, the same day. Upon his death, Morteira founded a yeshiva in his memory.
Isaac Bencemero, relative of Abraham Bencemero of Azamor, saved in 1511 Nuno Fernandes de Atayde, commander-in-chief of Saffee, then besieged by an army of more than one hundred thousand men. With a certain Ismail, he armed at his own expense two ships, sailed to Saffee and entered the city at night by evading the sentries, thus saving Atayde and his men.
Abraham Bencemero, also called Ben Zamaira, was a Jewish mediator established in Azamor, on the western coast of Africa, in the service of the Portuguese. In 1526, he served as an intermediary between the Moors and the governor of Saffee and Azamor, a role also exercised in that city by Abraham Cazan (Ḥazan).
Benjamin b. Mattithiah is a rabbi and merchant active in Turkey in the first half of the sixteenth century, member of the rabbinical college of Arta, known for the independence of his legal decisions, which earned him many controversies with his contemporaries. His collection of responsa, « Benjamin Ze'eb » (Venice, 1539), published in part to justify himself, was poorly received by Italian and Polish rabbis of the time; his ordinance forbidding men and women to dance together met with considerable resistance.
Benjamin b. Meïr ha-Lévi of Nuremberg is a rabbi of German origin, descendant of Jacob Molin, active in Salonique at the beginning of the sixteenth century, where he is highly esteemed by Sephardic Jews and sent on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople. He writes lexical explanations of the Maḥzor of the German rite, printed in the Salonique editions of 1526 and 1555-56, the second containing also elegies, one of which is devoted to the great fire of Salonique of 1553.
Rabbi of Fes, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5344 of the Hebrew era (1584). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-1.
Cornelius Bonaventure Bertram is a Protestant minister and Hebraist born in Thouars, in France, in 1531, and died in Lausanne, in Switzerland, in 1594. After studies in Poitiers, Paris, Toulouse and Cahors, he fled to Geneva, where he became in 1567 professor of Oriental languages at the university; he published there several Hebrew works, including « De Politia Judaica tam Civili quam Ecclesiastica » (1580), which had numerous editions, and a highly appreciated Bible translation (1588), following Sebastian Münster and Tremellius while readily resorting to rabbinical commentaries.
Talmudist, author of the Shitah Mekubetzet, a vast collection of Talmudic commentaries.
David Blum is a German Talmudist of the mid-sixteenth century, rabbi of Sulzburg, near Freiburg-im-Breisgau, counted among the finest Talmudic authorities in Germany and an esteemed master of Joseph b. Isaac ha-Lévi Ashkenazi. He copied and compiled various works, including a copy of the "Niṣṣaḥon" and a collection of documents preserved in the Hamburg Municipal Library.
Daniel Bomberg is a Christian printer and publisher of Hebrew works, born in Antwerp and died in Venice in 1549. Trained in the art of printing by his father Cornelius, he publishes in Venice, from 1517 to 1549, a considerable number of Hebrew works, including the editio princeps of the Biblia Rabbinica, the first complete editions of the Babylonian Talmud — under the patronage of Pope Leo X — and the Jerusalem Talmud, as well as many commentaries, grammars and philosophical treatises; he was assisted in this editorial work by scholars such as Ḥiyya b. Meïr, Baruch Adelkind and Jacob b. Ḥayyim.
Isaac Borodavka (or Brodavka) is a Lithuanian farmer of taxes and distillery privileges active in the sixteenth century in Brest-Litovsk. First mentioned in a royal grant of January 1, 1560, he obtains with his associates, for seven years, the collection of customs duties between Minsk, Vilna, Novgorod, Brest and Grodno, then the monopoly on salt, and the right to build breweries in Byelsk, Narva and Kleshtcheli until January 1, 1566; in 1565, he takes over from Christian farmers Borzobogaty the farming of taxes in Volhynia. His privileges aroused the hostility of his Polish competitors and numerous accusations, all without foundation.
Ḥayyim Obadia ben Jacob Obadia di Bozzolo is a talmudist and kabbalist active in Salonike in the mid-sixteenth century, probably originating from Bozzolo, Italy. A prolific writer whose numerous halakhic decisions appear in later responsa, he is best known for his two-volume work, « Be'er Mayim Ḥayyim », kabbalistic explanations of ritual laws (Salonike, 1546).
Moses ben Mardochaeus Braunschweig is a Polish Talmudist active in the mid-sixteenth century in Kraków. He wrote a commentary on the well-known code of Jacob Weil concerning ritual slaughter and inspection of slaughtered animals (« Hilkhot Shehitot u-Vedikot »), commentary printed with Weil's text under the title « Tikkunei Zevach » (Prague, 1604) and composed of several sections each bearing its own subtitle.
Juda Löw ben Moïse Naphtali Bresch (or Bres) is the translator of the Pentateuch into Judeo-German, active in Germany in the sixteenth century; he is known only through De Rossi, who attributes to him this translation published in Cremona in 1560 and reprinted in Basel in 1583. The preface indicates, however, that it is the work of Paulus Æmilius, a converted Jew residing in Rome, which suggests that Bresch would have taken this name after his conversion — a doubt shared by Benjacob regarding the author's identity; the translation was also reprinted in Basel in 1603 and in Prague in 1610, following closely that of Elijah Levita published in 1544.
Hugh Broughton is an English Christian theologian and rabbinic scholar born in 1549 in Oldbury, Shropshire, and died in Tottenham, near London, on 4 August 1612. Trained in Hebrew at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he obtained his bachelor's degree in 1570 and distinguished himself in London as a Puritan preacher; his first work, « A Concent of Scripture » (1588), endeavors to establish biblical chronology. Desiring to convert Jews, he traveled around 1590 to Germany, where he disputed in Frankfurt with a « rabbi Elias »; disappointed at not being among the translators appointed on 22 July 1604 for the Authorized King James Version, he criticized its result sharply.
Simon Budny is a sixteenth-century Lithuanian Calvinist priest, founder of the Polish sect of the Budnites, nicknamed « half-Jews ». Trained at the Academy of Krakow, where he met disciples of Socin and Blandrata, he is invited in 1562 by Prince Nicolas Radziwill to become pastor of the new Calvinist church in Kleck, where he undertakes his Polish translation of the Bible, published in Nieśwież in 1572; he then turns to Socinianism, of which he becomes one of the most zealous missionaries in Lithuania. A great friend of the Jews, he is praised by Hezekiah David Aboulafia for his admiration of the Talmud; he would have died, according to Graetz, in 1584.
Edmund Bunney is an English preacher and Hebraist born at Vache, near Chalfont St Giles, in Buckinghamshire, in 1540, and died at Carwood, in Yorkshire, on 26 February 1618 or 1619. Appointed canon of Oxgate at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London in 1564, master of arts of Oxford and fellow of Merton College in 1565, he became sub-dean at Bolton Percy before becoming an itinerant preacher after 1579. Among his works are « The Whole Summe of Christian Religion » (1576), « The Scepter of Judah » (1584), on God's intended government of Israel, and « The Coronation of David » (1588), reflecting Puritan tendencies toward a republican regime.
Johannes Buxtorf, principal founder of rabbinic studies among Christian scholars, was born on December 25, 1564, in Kamen, Westphalia, and died on September 13, 1629, in Basel. Trained at Marburg and then at Herborn, where Johann Piscator initiated him into Hebrew, he continued his studies in Basel from 1584, obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1590, and was appointed the following year professor of Hebrew at the University of Basel, a position he held until his death. From 1617 he employed Jewish scholars to correct his edition of the Bible, and was fined for attending, in 1619, the circumcision of the son of one of them; his polemical zeal against Judaism is evident in his « Synagoga Judaica ».
Johannes Buxtorf II, son of the former, Christian Hebraicist, is born in Basel on August 13, 1599 and dies there on August 16, 1664. Enrolled at the University of Basel before age thirteen, he obtains his master of arts in December 1615, continues his studies in Heidelberg, then attends in 1618 the synod of Dordrecht; he succeeds his father to the chair of Hebrew in Basel, refusing the offers of Groningen and Leiden to remain there until his death. Married four times, he maintains, like his father, an extensive correspondence with numerous Jewish scholars — Jacob Roman of Constantinople, Salomon Gaï, Menasseh ben Israel, Jacob Abendana of Amsterdam — and engages in the trade of Hebrew books.
Christian professor of Hebrew at Louvain then at Cracow, where he was called by bishop-prince Peter Tomiki; died at Freiburg-im-Breisgau in 1538. He composed, based on the work of Elias Levita, a Hebrew grammar that saw three editions, and wrote a commentary on the Psalms praised by Hupfeld, joined to a paraphrase published in Paris, Leiden and Basel.
Italian rabbi, born in 1577 in Padua and died in that same city in 1653, where he was rabbi and preacher and directed the yeshiva Leḳaḥ Ṭob.
Italian physician, born in 1593 in Padua and died in that city in 1631, taken by the plague. He was renowned as a Talmudist and for his vast knowledge of profane sciences.
Official procurator of the Jewish community of Padua, born around 1561 and died in 1631, carried away by the plague that also took the lives of two of his sons and other family members. His sons were Azriel, Kalonymus, and Judah Cantarini, and Isaac Ḥayyim Cantarini was his grandson.
Opponent of the Talmud in Cremona in 1559, belonging, according to Steinschneider, to the Cantarini family. Following a dispute with Joseph Ottolenghi, he denounced the Talmud, with the convert Baptista Vittorio Eliano, as containing blasphemies against the Christian faith, which provoked the same year the public auto-da-fé of Hebrew books in Cremona. He was later found murdered in a street of the city.
Christian theologian and Hebraist, from an old French Huguenot family; born on October 15, 1585 near Sedan, as his parents fled following the Treaty of Nemours, and died on June 18, 1658. After studies in theology and Oriental languages in Sedan and four years of travel in England, Holland and Germany, he was appointed in 1613 preacher and Hebrew professor, then in 1633 professor of theology at the Reformed Academy of Saumur. He published the Arcanum Punctationis Revelatum in Leiden in 1624, in which he demonstrated that Hebrew text had only received its vowel points after the Christian era, then the Critica Sacra in Paris in 1650.
Converted Jew who lived in Cologne from 1442 to 1515. Like many converts, he sought to demonstrate his zeal for his new religion by writing against his former coreligionists, notably publishing at Cologne the Opus Aureum in 1509 and the Propugnaculum Fidei Christianae in 1504-8. Having become an ecclesiastic in his old age, he was, according to his epitaph engraved on the door of the church of Saint Ursula in Cologne, the author of four works against the errors of the Jews.
Converted to Christianity, born in France under the name Todros Cohen and established in Florence in the mid-sixteenth century. Physician to a Spanish duke, he was with the imperial troops that besieged Florence in 1530, then embraced Christianity in Genoa at the age of fifty. He is the author of Mar'ot Elohim, Liber Visorum Divinorum, account of his conversion supported by biblical and cabalistic citations in favor of Christianity, published in Paris in 1553 and translated into Latin in Florence in 1554.
Portuguese merchant, first naturalized English Jew, born around 1590, probably in Fundão, Portugal, and died in London in 1659. Having fled the persecutions of the Inquisition, he established himself in the Canaries and then, around 1635, in London, where he became a considerable merchant, receiving in 1649 a share of the army's wheat contract and owning in 1653 ships trading with the Indies, Brazil and the Levant. In 1655, he and his two sons obtained English naturalization; he joined in the petition of Manassé ben Israël for the return of Jews to England and numbered among the founders of the country's first Jewish cemetery.
One of the principal rabbis and Talmudists of late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century Poland, died in Posen around 1610. Although his name, probably a variant of the patronym Cases, suggests an Italian origin, he called himself Shapiro; after being chief rabbi of Lemberg, he became rabbi of the city of Posen, while Mordecai b. Abraham Jafe was rabbi of the district of Great Poland. Although he left no writings, he was among the foremost talmudic authorities of his time; his son Salomon, who died in 1612 in Lemberg, was also a prominent Talmudist.
Liturgical poet who lived in Avignon around 1540. He composed four elegies inserted in the manuscript Maḥzor of Avignon, the last of which bears his signature; he is most probably identical to Joshua of Cayslar cited, with Ferussol Pampelona, in a document dated June 15, 1558 as an elected member of the council of the Jewish community of Avignon.
Italian physician and philosopher who lived in Mantua in the sixteenth century. He is the author of a philosophical work on the articles of faith, Meor ha-Golah, preserved in manuscript, and is attributed a liturgical poem of consolation for a poor captive; he also showed solid knowledge of the Talmud in a casuistic note on a passage from R. Nissim's commentary to the Megilla, also preserved in manuscript, and might be identical to the physician and liturgist Samuel Castiglione, active in Mantua at the same time.
Secretary of the Jewish community of Rome, active in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. He edited and likely translated into Italian the piyyut of Juda ha-Lévi Mi kamoka and the liturgical work of Moïse Rieti Ma'on ha-Shoalim, both published in Venice in 1609; his name also appears in a halakhic decision of Reggio inserted in the Mashbit Milḥamot.
Hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, born around 1595 and died in Tchyhyryn in 1675. The spoliation of his estate of Soubotiv by the Polish bailiff Chaplinski fed his resentment toward Poles and Jews, but it was above all his ambition to govern a liberated Ukraine that drove him to incite the people against them. Making Jews the intermediaries of his administration with the peasants, he concentrated upon them the accumulated hatred, and the Cossacks massacred approximately three hundred thousand Jews in 1648-1649, a disaster that the Cossack uprising of 1637 should already have foreshadowed.
Eldest son of Abraham Coen, he is appointed general receiver (« contador mayor ») of Count Maurice of Nassau, Stadtholder of the United Provinces from 1584 to 1625. While the Jews of Holland did not enjoy citizens' rights, Maurice, rising above the prejudices of his time and in recognition of the great services rendered by Abraham Coen, confers this post on his son.
Italian engineer, born in Mantua around 1530. Highly sought after for his skill, he was in 1578 an engineer at the court of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who sent him to Prague in 1588, then to the court of Württemberg in 1597. Renowned also as a mathematician, archaeologist and man of multiple talents, including prowess with the sword, he is the author of several works, including an Italian translation of the Hebrew work of magic Mafteaḥ Shelomoh and a treatise on cipher writing, the Scotographia (Prague, 1593), dedicated to Rudolf II.
Talmudic scholar who lived in Safed in the 16th century, son of the famous kabbalist Moses Cordovero, nephew through his mother of the kabbalist Salomon Alqabets, and student of Salomon Sagis. He edits three works by his father, including the Or Ne'erab (Venice, 1585) and the Pardes Rimmonim (Venice, 1586), both preceded by his preface, as well as the Ḥesheq Shelomoh by an anonymous author (Venice, 1588), and compiles in 1616 in Venice a glossary of non-Hebrew words of the Bible with their Spanish equivalents.
Spanish orientalist, born in Segovia, died on September 30, 1534. Baptized before the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, he was nevertheless trained in the rabbinate and became, because of his knowledge of Hebrew and biblical literature, professor of Hebrew at the University of Salamanca. With Alfonso de Alcalá, baptized the same year 1492, he was commissioned by Cardinal Ximénez de Cisneros to translate the Bible into Latin for the Complutensian Polyglot (1514-17).
Christian scholar and Dutch Hebraist, born in Flushing in 1586 and died in Leiden in 1638, professor of law and politics at the University of Leiden from 1617. He holds a notable place in biblical archaeology as author of De Republica Hebræorum, published in three volumes in Leiden in 1617 and translated into French in 1703, where he presents the ancient Hebrew kingdom as a pure theocracy and compares Jewish laws, judged superior, to those of Rome and Greece. With Grotius, he was one of the first Christian scholars to accept, in biblical interpretation, the explanations of the rabbis.
Polish general born in 1599 and died in the village of Sokolovka, in Volhynia, on February 12, 1664, Stefan Czarniecki distinguished himself in the wars against Sweden and Russia (1656-61). Unlike Wiśniowiecki, protector of the Jews during the Cossack uprising, he showed great harshness toward them: after the Cossack revolt of 1648, he fought alongside Prince Potocki against Chmielnicki, then, withdrawing before the Swedes, devastated the country and had hundreds of Jews killed in several communities, notably in Cracow in 1656.
Unitarian Polish priest born in Zbąszyń around 1530 and died in 1613, Martin Czechowic was first a Catholic priest in Kórnik until 1555, then joined the Bohemian Brethren in Vilna. In 1575, he published in Lublin a text against infant baptism as well as, in Raków, a work refuting Jewish objections to the Messiahship of Jesus; the rabbi Jacob Naḥman of Bełżyce responded to him in 1581 with a text published in Lublin.
Rabbi and Italian preacher born in 1527, active in various places in the territory of the house of Este and died after 1585, Mordecai ben Judah Dato is the pupil of Kabbalist Moses Cordovero and practices Kabbalah himself; Azaria de' Rossi cites him regarding a messianic prediction, and Angelo Alatrini dedicates his "Angelica Tromba" (Ferrara, 1579) to him. His marginal notes to the "Asis Rimmonim", an abridgement of the "Sefer ha-Pardes" of his pupil Samuel Gallico published in Venice in 1601, are mutilated by editors then re-edited in Mantua in 1623; he also left in manuscript a Kabbalistic treatise, the "Migdal Dawid", annotations to the Zohar, sermons, and poems.
Italian scholar of Mantua, celebrated as one of the most eminent preachers of his century. With his brothers Moses and Juda, he was a leading member of the Mantuan community. First among Jews to assert the importance of Philo, he influenced the historical research of Azariah dei Rossi; he was corrector of Arama's Akedat Yitzhak (Venice, 1565) and planned a Jewish academy of higher learning.
Cabalistic author established in Salonika at the end of the 16th century, David ben Abraham Shemaria wrote the "Torat Emet", an abridgment of the Genesis section of the Zohar accompanied by commentary and glossary; having discovered a copy of the Zohar Ḥadash published in Salonika in 1597, he added to it the content of several parshiyot before having the work printed in Salonika in 1604.
Rabbi in Corfu and later in Patras, Greece, at the beginning of the 16th century, student of Juda Minz and contemporary of Élie Mizraḥi and Moshe Alashkar, with whom he maintained a sustained correspondence marked by disagreements, David ben Ḥayyim ha-Kohen became known through his attacks on Benjamin Ze'eb, who had authorized an agounah to remarry on the sole testimony of a non-Jew. Nearly all of his work perished in a fire in Adrianople, except for thirty-three responsa, gathered by his son-in-law David Vital and published under the title « She'elot u-Teshuvot MaHaRDaK » (Constantinople, 1537).
Rabbi, sixteenth century. Died in 5328 of the Hebrew era (1568). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Turkish talmudist active in Salonika around 1550, David ben Jacob ha-Kohen drafted essays on the talmudic orders Mo'ed, Nashim, and Nezikin, the section devoted to Gittin, the « Migdal Dawid », appearing after his death in Salonika in 1597; cited in the responsa of Samuel of Medina and Joseph di Trani, he is said by Azoulaï to have been the student of Salomon b. Jehiel Louria.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Rabbi of Avignon in the sixteenth century, Maestro David d'Arles intervenes in a casuistic controversy that agitated the rabbis of Provence, Italy, and Palestine, after the brothers Isaac and Jacob Gard, rabbis of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, had authorized, through misreading of the « Eben ha-'Ezer », a marriage that was actually forbidden. With his son-in-law Boniaquet de la Roque and the support of Isaac ben Immanuel of Lattes of Bologna, he opposed this decision and appealed to Joseph Caro, who, with his rabbinical college, sided with him and pronounced, in 1560 and then in 1562, the excommunication of Isaac Gard.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-4.
Italian-Jewish physician (1525–1588)
Brothers refugees from Spain after 1492, passing through Naples before reaching Constantinople, where they established a Hebrew printing house. They printed the Arba'ah Tourim (Tour Orah Hayyim)—one of the very first Hebrew books printed in the Ottoman Empire.
Ashkenazi Jewish mathematician and astronomer
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5356 of the Hebrew era (1596). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-4.
Dutch rabbi
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5356 of the Hebrew era (1596). Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-4.
German lexicographer of the sixteenth century, student of Isaac of Ahrweiler, tutor in Wendersheim in 1555 then in Rüsselsheim and elsewhere in southern Germany, Juda ben Benjamin Deckingen, also known as Leva Rokhausen, compiled in 1556 a Hebrew-German glossary intended to facilitate translation from German to Hebrew, published from the manuscript by N. Brüll.
Polish scholar of the middle of the sixteenth century, established early in Italy, where he studied Kabbalah and philosophy at the University of Bologna, Delacrut ben Salomon is the author of a commentary on the "Sha'are Orah" of Joseph Gikatilla (Krakow, 1600), a commentary on the Hebrew translation, by Solomon ben Abigdor, of Sacrobosco's treatise on astronomy, the "Mar'eh ha-Ofannim" (Krakow, 1720), and a translation, the "Ṣel ha-'Olam", of the French cosmography treatise by Gossouin, the "Livre de Clergie" (Amsterdam, 1733).
Portuguese Marrano of the sixteenth century, son of Juan Pinto Delgado, born in Tavira where he served as secretary of an orphanage, Gonçalo Delgado composed a poem recounting the English incursion of 1596 during which the city of Faro was taken and plundered, dedicated to Ruy Lourenço de Távora.
Marrano poet born in Tavira, Portugal, around 1530 and died in 1591, Juan Pinto Delgado studied humanities in Salamanca, where he befriended poet Luis de León, before, pursued by the Inquisition, leaving wife and child for Rome then France, where he openly professed Judaism under the name Moses. His poems, noted for their grace and variety of meters, include poetic versions of biblical books collected under the title « Poëma de la Reyna Ester, Lamentaciones del Propheta Jeremias, Historia de Rut, y Varias Poesias » (Rouen, 1627), dedicated to Cardinal de Richelieu.
Italian poet
Second Inquisitor General of Spain, Bishop of Salamanque then Archbishop of Seville, where he died in 1506, Diego de Deza, friend and protector of Christopher Columbus, succeeds Torquemada at the head of the Spanish Inquisition on September 1, 1499; under his mandate, 1,664 people are burned alive and 52,456 others undergo various penances and punishments. Himself of Jewish origin, he nevertheless persecutes his fellow marranos before being publicly accused, toward the end of his life, of remaining Jewish at heart.
Moroccan rabbi of the sixteenth century, listed alongside Moche Anfaoui among the rabbis and notables of the mellah of Fès.
Rabbi and ecclesiastical censor
Talmudist, physician, author and expurgator of Hebrew books born in Safed, Palestine, around 1550 and died in Italy around 1620, Dominico Irosolimitano taught Talmudic law in Safed before being called as court physician to Constantinople by the Ottoman sultan; converted to Christianity, he went to Rome, taught Hebrew at the College of Neophytes and became, under the Inquisition, one of the most sought-after expurgators of Hebrew books in Italy, first in Venice (1578-92?) then as chief revisers of the Mantua censorship commission (1595-97). He translated the New Testament into Hebrew and the bulk of the Apocrypha (1615-17) and compiled, in manuscript, the « Sefer ha-Zikkuk ».
Portuguese businesswoman and philanthropist, one of the most influential women of the Renaissance. A Marrano who had returned to Judaism, she organized escape networks for the crypto-Jews, negotiated with the Ottoman sultan, and attempted to found a Jewish colony in Tiberias.
Portuguese Marrano, Duarte de Paz first served King Jean III (decorated with the order of Christ after losing an eye in the African war), then acted in Rome as the first procurator of Portuguese New Christians. He obtained from Clément VII the annulment (1533) of the bull instituting the Inquisition in Portugal and the pardon of thousands of crypto-Jews. Attacked and left for dead in 1536, accused of embezzlement by his coreligionists, he eventually emigrated to Turkey.
German mathematician active in Frankfurt am Main in the first half of the sixteenth century, author of the « Sefer ha-Tsifar », a collection of mathematical problems with their solutions, completed on Tuesday, February 27, 1537.
Polish rabbi born in Poznań in 1555, died in Ostrog on November 30, 1631, son-in-law of Rabbi Moses Ashkenazi. He directed a yeshiva founded for him in 1585, became rabbi of Chelm in 1610, then rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Lublin in 1614, before ending his life at the head of that of Ostrog, in Volhynia. Innovative in the study of the Talmud, focused on the explanation of the Tosafot, he published his first "ḥiddushim" in 1600, then the rest in 1611, and a work on the Talmudic Haggada in 1627, opposing rabbis who explained it through Kabbalah.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5310 of the Hebrew era (1550). Son of Nehemia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.
Turkish Talmudist active in Constantinople in the 16th century, author of "Gal shel Egozim", a commentary on Genesis published in Belvédère, near Constantinople. He also edited the responsa of the Geonim, numbering four hundred, in Constantinople in 1575.
Polish rabbi born in Posen around 1570 and died in Austerlitz, Moravia, in 1623, trained in the Talmud by his father, he studied at the yeshiva of Rabbi Liva in Prague then at that of Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe in Posen, before becoming around 1600 rabbi of Göritz then, around 1620, rabbi of Austerlitz. He is the author of « Be'er Sheva' », commentaries in seven parts on the Talmud tractates lacking tossafot (Venice, 1614), and « Tsedah la-Derekh », supercommentary on Rashi to the Pentateuch (Prague, 1623-24).
Kabbalist of Safed, author of the Sefer Haredim and the celebrated liturgical poem Yedid Nefesh.
Son of Gershom Soncino and last printer of the family. He completed the « Miklol » (grammar of David Kimhi) and published grammatical works in Constantinople.
German scholar of the 16th century, known as « Eliezer the astronomer », author of « Ge Ḥizzayon », an astrological compilation drawing on Hebrew, Arabic and Latin sources and citing numerous authorities, including Ibn Ezra and, according to Dukes, Copernicus. He also undertook a vast work of astrology, one chapter of which, « Reshit Ḥokmah », is devoted to Ibn Ezra.
Jew converted to Christianity, grandson of Elijah Levita, active in Italy in the 16th century, where he became a priest and canon. Versed in Hebrew literature, he was appointed censor of Hebrew books, first in Cremona then, in 1567, in Venice; there he authorized in 1557 the publication of the Zohar and edited in 1558 the Tur, while playing an active role in the denunciation of the Talmud, publicly burned on April 17, 1559.
Turkish rabbi active in Constantinople in the 16th century, who succeeded in 1526 his master Elie Mizrahi as rabbi of the city. He constituted the first collection of prayers for the Maḥzor Romania (editio princeps, 1510), enriched with his own poems, and wrote « Tanna debe Eliyahou », four hundred fifty-one responsa of which a part appeared under the title « Zeḳan Aharon » (Constantinople, 1734); his « Ma'amar Kol Daï » was published in Benjamin Motal's « Tummat Yesharim » (Venice, 1622).
The Ranah, halakhic authority of Constantinople, author of the responsa Mayim Amukim.
Talmudist and Turkish commentator active in Salonique in the sixteenth century, author of « Ḳol Terua'h », homilies on the Pentateuch (Salonique, 1562), and of an unpublished commentary on Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Daniel, Ezra and Chronicles, entitled « Sefer ha-Tiḳḳunim ».
Talmudist and Italian philosopher of the 16th century, long a teacher of the Talmud in Venice, who left in 1563 for Palestine but, having arrived in Famagusta, Cyprus, renounced pursuing his journey upon learning that cholera was ravaging the Holy Land. His writings, preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, include a commentary on Job, an allegorical explanation of the Song of Songs, a philosophical treatise on the Talmud and the Midrashim, a funeral oration and a letter describing his journey, translated into German by Jost (1861) and into French by Moïse Schwab (1877).
Kabbalist of Safed, student of Cordovéro, author of the pious work Reshit Chochmah.
Karaite scholar died around 1584. He wrote in 1579 in Constantinople the « Pe'er », a super-commentary on the first part of the biblical commentary « Ha-Mibḥar » by Aaron ben Joseph, which his son-in-law Moses of Zuroudi revised in 1585.
rabbi
Italian physician and talmudic authority, born in Rome in the early sixteenth century, died probably in Siena on October 16, 1590. Brother-in-law of the physician and Talmudist David de Pomis, he is cited as an authority by Moses Provençal under the title of "Ha-Kohen ha-Gadol" and consulted in 1587 by the community of Bologna; he is believed to be identical to Theodoro de Sacerdotibus, physician to Pope Jules III. An elegy was composed at his death by Jacob de Tivoli.
Talmudist and Chief Rabbi of Chełm, linked to the legend of the Golem.
One of the leading rabbis of Rome in the late sixteenth century, also renowned as a physician and philosopher. He taught Hebrew to Tommaso Aldobrandini, brother of Pope Clement VIII, and assisted the scholar Moses Alatino in his translations from Hebrew to Latin. In 1568, while tutor to the papal family, he converted to Catholicism and became scriptor at the Vatican Library, for which he copied numerous Hebrew manuscripts (several in his hand are preserved there). After his conversion, he published « Sacro Settenario raccolto dalle sacre Scritture… » (Naples, 1579) on the symbolism of the number 7, and « Salutari discorsi » (Naples, 1582).
Rabbi and kabbalist of Worms, called Baal Shem of Worms, commentator on the Zohar.
Talmudist, led the yeshiva of Safed after Joseph Caro, author of homiletical commentaries.
Polish rabbi of the 16th century, author of the "Yesod Emounah" (Foundation of Faith), a treatise on the dogmas of Judaism, published in Cracow in 1582. He also wrote the "Yesod ha-Teshouvah," on repentance, drawn largely from the "Yoreh Ḥaṭṭa'im" of Eliezer ben Judah of Worms, published the same year and in the same place.
Professor of theology and oriental languages born in Bremen in July 1591, died in Leiden on July 1, 1648, son of a refugee for religious persecution. Graduated in 1619, he became the same year professor at Harderwijk university, then was called in 1627 to Leiden university to occupy the newly created chair of Jewish controversy, which he exercised with tact and moderation. He published numerous works, including a grammar of Chaldean, Syriac and Ethiopic (Amsterdam, 1628), a treatise on the measurements of the Temple (Leiden, 1630), and a Latin translation of the "Itinerary" of Benjamin of Tudela (1633).
Polish liturgist born in Chełm at the end of the sixteenth century, died in Wrzesnia around 1650. Son of the rabbi of Jambrower, trained by David ben Jacob of Szczebrzeszyn, he resided for a few years in Kraków before being called as rabbi to Wrzesnia. He wrote « Ba-Ḳosharot », in two parts, twenty-two liturgical poems accompanied in some cases by commentary and halakhic decisions (Kraków, 1607).
Physician from a Sephardic medical dynasty of the Iberian Peninsula, established in Amsterdam. Studied in Bordeaux. Leading figure of the Portuguese community of Amsterdam: he financed the Hebrew press of Menasseh ben Israël and encouraged Rabbi Moshe Rivkash to compose his glosses 'Be'er ha-Golah' on the Shulchan Aruch. Rembrandt and Jan Lievens painted his portrait.
Salomon ben Juda Ezobi was rabbi in Carpentras, Livorno, then Florence; born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the sixteenth century, he died in Italy around 1650. Rabbi of Carpentras (1620-35), he taught Hebrew there to the bishop of Lodève Jean Plantavit de la Pause and formed, around 1633, a friendship with the scholar Peiresc. He was appointed rabbi of Livorno in 1638, then of Florence, and left in manuscript a collection of homilies, the "Aguddat Ezob".
Rabbi and kabbalist of Mantua, disciple of Menahem Azariah da Fano.
Paul Fagius, whose real name was Paul Büchlein, was a Christian Hebraist born in Rheinzabern, in the Palatinate, in 1504, and died in Cambridge, England, on November 13, 1549. Educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Strasbourg, he learned Hebrew from Elias Lévita and founded a Hebrew printing house in Isny, before becoming professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. He translated several Hebrew texts into Latin, including the Pirké Avot (1541), and edited the Targoum Onkelos in 1546.
Emperor of Germany born on 9 July 1578, elected on 28 August 1619 and died on 15 February 1637. His reign, marked by the Thirty Years' War, is generally favorable to Jews: he authorizes in 1627 the building of the Hamburg synagogue, permits by a decree of December 1624 that of Vienna in exchange for 17,000 florins, and introduces in 1622, by ennobling Jacob Bassevi of Prague, the formal position of Court Jew. However, he orders in 1630 that the Jews of Prague and Vienna attend conversion sermons every Sunday.
Hebrew teacher born in Poland around 1555, died in Leiden, Holland, in 1598. After a turbulent career moving from Catholicism to Protestantism, he studied at Oxford and then Cambridge, where he matriculated on December 16, 1596; he received a pension from the "Domus Conversorum" in February 1598, before being attracted the same year to Leiden by Joseph Scaliger, who obtained a chair for him. His only publication is a translation of the six hundred thirteen commandments compiled by Abraham ben Kattani in the Bomberg Bible (Cambridge, 1597).
Rabbi and Greek author active in the 16th century, from Seres in European Turkey, before becoming rabbi in Salonika and then exercising rabbinical supervision of all communities in the Morea, in Greece. He left numerous unpublished decisions and is cited in the responsa of Moses di Trani, Jacob ha-Lévi, and his student Solomon Cohen; a second rabbi of the same name, his grandson, succeeded him.
Poet born in Évora, Portugal, on April 4, 1517, died in Ragusa, Sicily, in 1607, member of the Spanish family of Adumim, part of which settled in Italy under the name "De Rossi". His parents, outwardly converted, instilled in him a love of Judaism and urged him, barely seventeen years old, to leave his country; he went in 1536 to Flanders then Switzerland, before settling in Ancona in 1552, where he became one of the greatest Latin poets of his time.
Jew converted to Christianity, active in Rome in the sixteenth century, known for his slanderous accusations against his former coreligionists. With two other converts, he presented himself in 1553 before Pope Julius III as an accuser of the Talmud, causing the auto-da-fé of numerous copies; more serious still, he accused in 1555 before Pope Marcellus II the Jews of ritual murder after an apostate Muslim had crucified his own ward and deposited the body near the Jewish cemetery — an accusation that Cardinal Alexander Farnese, convinced of its falsity, had investigated until the true murderer was exposed.
Talmudist and Turkish translator active in the middle of the sixteenth century, author of the translation into Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) of « Ḥovot ha-Levavot » by Baḥya, under the title « Obligacion de los Coraçones », first published in Latin characters by David Pardo, who attributed its authorship to himself (Amsterdam, 1610) — Fürst actually attributes it to Joseph Pardo, rabbi of Amsterdam. An edition in Hebrew characters appeared in Venice in 1713; Formon is cited in the responsa of his contemporary Salomon Cohen.
Jew converted to Christianity, active in the sixteenth century, born in Gorima and established in Prague under Maximilian II. He is the author of a Hebrew grammar, the "Diḳduḳ Leshon Ḳodesh" (Prague, 1564-1566), and of the "De Mystica Literarum Significatione", on the different ways of writing the Divine Name, published by Kircher in his "Œdipus Ægyptiacus".
Spanish scholar active in Ferrara, Italy, around the middle of the 16th century, author of a commentary on the "Beḥinat ha-'Olam" of Yedaya Bédersi and on the "Baḳḳashat ha-Memin", published with the texts (Ferrara, 1552).
German preacher and author who died in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1597, son-in-law of R. Siméon Guenzburg of Frankfurt, whose preacher he was within the congregation and whose name he bore. He is the author of « Teḥinnot be-Kol Yom », prayers for the days of the week, published by Élie Loanza in Basel in 1599, « Zemirot we-Shirim le-Shabbot », songs for the Sabbath, and « Wikkuaḥ ha-Yayin we ha-Mayim », a dispute in verse between wine and water, published together then separately in Amsterdam in 1759, as well as « Zemirot le-Lel Shabbot », songs for Friday evening, published in Berlin in 1713.
Jew converted to Christianity, born in Rome, died in the same city around 1600. After his conversion, he entered the monastic order of Vallombreuse and devoted himself to spreading knowledge of Hebrew among Christians: he published in Rome in 1596 a Hebrew alphabet, the « Alphabeticum Hebraicum », then in 1599 a shortened Hebrew grammar, the « Sole della Lingua Sancta » (Bergamo).
victim of the Spanish Inquisition
Polish rabbi of the first half of the sixteenth century, first rabbi of Posen then of Brisk, or Brest-Litovsk. An order of King Sigismond I, dated September 4, 1531, enjoins the Jews of Brest-Litovsk to submit to his jurisdiction, and a letter from Queen Bona, dated May 28, 1532, forbids the starosta of the city from recognizing appeals against his decisions; it is supposed he was imposed on the community by Michael Esofovitch, appointed head of the Jews of Lithuania in 1514, who had received from the king the right to appoint rabbis.
Italian physician active in the 16th century, whose name suggests an origin in Vitry, in France, although Gross sees there rather « Vittoria », in Italy. He lived in Siena in 1530 then in Castro (1552-63), translating into Hebrew several medical works, including the « Liḳḳuṭe Refu'ot », and leaving notes preserved in a manuscript of the Bodleian.
French physician and translator active in the second half of the sixteenth century. He translates in 1583, under the title "Mebo Arnabat", the dissertation of Arnauld de Villeneuve on the Hippocratic maxim "Ars longa, vita brevis", which he accompanies with personal notes. Steinschneider identifies him with Gabriel Cohen de Lunel, an identification contested by Neubauer and Gross.
Italian scholar and Hebraist born in Mantua in 1600, died in that city in August 1638. Known chiefly as correspondent and friend of Johannes Buxtorf the Younger, he had taken refuge because of war in Botzen, in the Tyrol, where he was tutor to the sons of a wealthy merchant named Jacob Moravia, before returning to Mantua after five and a half years. An admirer of the Latin translation of the "Moreh" which he initially believed to be due to Buxtorf the Elder, he maintained with the son, in 1637, a learned correspondence in Latin and Hebrew.
Palestinian Talmudist who died in Safed around 1583. Student of Joseph Caro, he succeeds him at the head of the yeshiva of Safed after his death and leaves responsa cited in the « Keneset ha-Gedolah » of Ḥayyim Benveniste. He writes homiletic and allegorical commentaries on Ecclesiastes (Venice, 1577), on Esther (Venice, 1583) and on the Song of Songs (Venice, 1587).
David Gans ben Salomon ben Seligman is a German historian and astronomer born in Lippstadt, Westphalia, in 1541, and died in Prague on August 25, 1613. Trained in rabbinic literature in Bonn and Frankfurt, then in Cracow under Moses Isserles, he initiated himself to the sciences with the brothers Löwe ben Betsalel of Prague, where he settled around 1564 and frequented Kepler and Tycho Brahé, translating for the latter the Alfonsine Tables from Hebrew to German. His most famous work, "Ṣemaḥ David" (Prague, 1592), the first history of its kind among German Jews, was translated into Latin (Leiden, 1644) and into Judeo-German (Frankfurt, 1692).
Sixteenth-century scholar, he possessed the copy of the « Miklal Yofi » of Samuel de Sarsa, which he enriched with marginal notes and whose index he completed.
German mining expert born in Prague, mentioned in the English state archives of the reign of Elizabeth I, probably related to David Gans, established in Prague in 1564. Active in Keswick, Cumberland, from 1581, he introduced new copper treatment processes to England and remained there until the end of 1589; in September of that same year, in Bristol, he proclaimed himself a Jew « in the Hebrew language » before a pastor and was arrested and sent before the Privy Council in London, without any prosecution being brought.
Turkish rabbi active in Salonike in the sixteenth century, author of an index to the Jerusalem Talmud, "Masoret Talmud Yerushalmi" (Constantinople, 1573), a commentary on Midrash Rabbah published in the Salonike edition of 1595, and notes on the Zohar (Salonike, 1596-97).
Scholar born in Safed, son of Moshe Cordovero, transmitter of his father's legacy.
Rabbi and Italian chronicler, author of the chronicle Shalshelet ha-Qabbalah.
Portuguese printer born in Lisbon, where he was foreman in the workshop of Eliezer Toledano. Driven from Portugal at an advanced age, he settles in Salonika and establishes there around 1515 the first Hebrew press in the city, notably printing the « 'En Ya'aḳob » of Jacob ibn Ḥabib then, in 1522, the « 'Aḳedat Yiẓḥaḳ » of Isaac Arama. He dies around 1526 in Salonika, where his sons continue his activity, bringing the total output of his workshop to about thirty works.
Physician, theologian and Italian cabalist, active in the first half of the sixteenth century. He conducted a religious controversy with the friar Francisco da Acquapendente, attacking Christianity on original sin, the claim to exclusive salvation and hostility toward Judaism, a controversy described in a Hebrew manuscript opuscule, the « Wikkuaḥ ». His « Iggeret Ḥamudot », apology for kabbalistic doctrine that remained in manuscript but was widely known, attacked religious philosophers violently, notably Isaac Abravanel, and contributed to spreading the legend that Maimonides renounced his anti-Talmudic and anti-kabbalistic positions.
The most important printer of the Soncino family. He traveled, notably in France, to gather manuscripts to print and was said to be of great help to the exiles from Spain and Portugal. Forced to leave Italy, he installed his presses in Salonika (1527) and then in Constantinople (from 1530 onward), where he died in 1534.
Jewish apostate born in Recklinghausen, Prussia, on 1 August 1569, drowned in Dröhelm on 25 September 1627. After teaching Hebrew and Talmud in various German cities, he was baptized in Halberstadt on 9 October 1600 and became deacon and then Protestant pastor in Dröhelm, devoting his writings thereafter to disparaging the Talmud, notably in « Jüdischer Talmud » (Goslar, 1607) and « Ḥeleḳ », German translation of a chapter of the tractate Sanhedrin (Helmstädt, 1610); he figures nevertheless among those who refuted the blood libel accusation.
Polish diplomat
Manuel Gómez is a physician born around 1580 in Antwerp, of Portuguese parents. Trained in medicine in Évora, he established himself as a practitioner in Amsterdam and published De Pestilentiæ Curatione (Antwerp, 1603 ; 3rd ed. 1643), where he is among the first to emphasize the uselessness of milk in the treatment of phthisis. A poet in his spare time, he also published in 1643 a verse commentary on an aphorism of Hippocrates.
Ortuin de Graes, also called Ortuinus Gratius, is a German anti-Jewish writer of the sixteenth century born in Holtwick, in Westphalia, in 1491, and died in Cologne on 21 May 1542. Son of a priest and figure of the Dominican party of Cologne, he takes sides with Pfefferkorn against Reuchlin and drafts with the aid of the converted Jew Victor von Karben a violent pamphlet, De Vita et Moribus Judæorum (1504), which he then translates into German.
Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncompagni) was pope from 1572 to 1585; born in Bologna on February 7, 1502, died in Rome on April 10, 1585. His policy toward Jews mixes a certain natural benevolence—he allows them to return to the Comtat Venaissin, grants them in 1581 a safe-conduct to travel in Italy, and organizes their Roman community under a council of sixty members—and marked intolerance: he imposes on them in 1578 a heavy contribution for the Casa dei Catecumeni, forbids them in 1581 to treat Christian patients, orders in the same year the surrender of all copies of the Talmud to the Inquisition, and imposes on them in 1584 to listen every week to missionary sermons.
Hugo Grotius is a Dutch diplomat, theologian and scholar born in Delft on 10 April 1583 and died in Rostock on 28 August 1645. Imprisoned for life in 1619 for his adherence to Arminian theses, he escaped in 1621 thanks to a stratagem by his wife and published in 1644 in Paris his Annotationes in Vetus Testamentum. Ambassador of Sweden to Paris from 1635 to 1645, he was connected through Isaac Vossius with Manassé ben Israel, whose Conciliador (Amsterdam, 1641) he particularly admired and frequently followed Jewish exegesis in his own biblical commentaries, so much so that he was reproached for « judaizing ».
Simon ben Eliezer Günzburg-Ulma is a German scholar and community notable born in Günzburg, Bavaria, in 1506, and died in Burgau on January 9, 1585, the first to have adopted and transmitted to his descendants the family name « Günzburg ». A wealthy merchant traveling in Germany and Poland, also a great Talmudist, he had a synagogue built and a cemetery founded in Günzburg before settling in Burgau, where he worked for the community to such an extent that his name is still commemorated there in a special prayer. Some historians have mistakenly confused him with the physician Selig Günzburg of Slutsk.
Kalman Haberkasten, called Kalonymus, was a Polish rabbi of the 16th century, first known rabbi of Ostrog, in Volhynia, after having presided over a yeshiva in Lemberg. His daughter Lipka married Solomon Luria, who succeeded him in the rabbinate of Ostrog when Haberkasten left for the Holy Land around 1560, where he frequented the great Kabbalists of his time and is mentioned by Ḥayyim Vital Calabrese in his manuscript Liḳḳuṭe Torah.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Haim, himself son of Daniel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 32-1.
Joseph ibn Ḥabib, also called Joseph Ḥabiba, is a Spanish Talmudist active in the 14th and 15th centuries, author of a commentary on the halakhot of Isaac Alfasi, the Nimmuḳe Yosef, published with the text and commentary of R. Nissim ben Reuben in Constantinople in 1509. Certain parts of his commentary, long unpublished or wrongly attributed to R. Nissim, were published in Livorno in 1795; he is also the author, according to Azoulaï, of novellae on the entire Talmud.
Joseph Yuspa Nördlinger Hahn is a German rabbi born in Frankfurt am Main in the second half of the 16th century and died in that city on April 3, 1637, son of Rabbi Seligmann. Author of the Yosif Omeẓ, a popular work on religious law and pedagogy published posthumously in Frankfurt in 1723, he notably relates the expulsion of Jews from Frankfurt in 1614 during the persecutions of Vincent Fettmilch and their readmission in 1616; he also founded a charitable society, Gomel Ḥesed, charged with ensuring last rites for the dead without family.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5265 of the Hebrew era (1505). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 33-4.
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Son of Shem Tov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-4.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Cairo nicknamed Baʽal Nes; works Be'or HaChaim and Sifsei Chaim.
Rabbi, 16th century. Died in 5295 of the Hebrew era (1535). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-1.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5290 of the Hebrew era (1530). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Abraham I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the fourth century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Yosef the old. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-3.
Samuel Ḥaḳan (Samuel ha-Levi ibn Ḥakim) is a 16th-century Egyptian rabbi, first in Cairo then in Jerusalem, a student of Élie Mizraḥi. He edits and has printed in Constantinople, in 1546, the responsa of Isaac bar Sheshet, and his opinions are cited in the Bet Yosef of Caro as in the responsa of Moïse di Trani. However, no independent work of his survives, although according to testimony, he was one of the greatest scholars of his time.
Ḥakman ibn Ishmael is an Egyptian rabbi of the 16th century, author of novellae on the Talmud and on the Yad of Maimonides, some of which were taken up by R. Mas'ud Ḥaï ben Aaron Roḳeaḥ in his commentary Ma'aseh Roḳeaḥ, published in Venice in 1742.
Elijah Menahem Ḥalfon is an Italian talmudist and physician, son of the astronomer Abba Mari and son-in-law of Kalonymus ben David, active in Venice in the mid-16th century. A recognized talmudic authority, he pronounces in favor of the teaching of Hebrew to Christians and is among the rabbis consulted by Francesco Giorgio for the rabbinic opinion obtained by Richard Croke on the divorce of Henry VIII, which, combined with his friendship for Salomon Molcho, provokes a falling-out with the physician Jacob Mantino. Grandson of Joseph Colon, he also leaves a responsum in the collection of Moses Isserles as well as poems preserved in manuscript.
Eliezer Maẓliaḥ Ḥamul ben Abraham of Viterbo is a rabbi and Roman physician of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from a family of rabbis, physicians, and merchants. Representative of a Jewish congregation in 1570, he holds the rabbinate of Rome from 1587 and is among the most recognized scholars of his time; he addresses to Cardinal Sirleto, protector of neophytes, an essay in Latin defending his coreligionists against the charge of falsifying Scripture. He is best known to Italian readers for Il Tempio di Oratori (Venice, 1585), a translation of a work by Moses Rieti that became one of the most popular devotional books among Italian Jews.
Rabbi of Fès among the signatories of a Haskamah (rabbinical ordinance) of the Toshavim of Fès in 5286 (1526), relating to the prohibition of Nefiha. He thus counts among the decisors of the Fès community in the early 16th century.
Sixteenth-century rabbinic author, named Ḥanneles after the name of his mother, Hannah. He wrote Wayiggash Yehudah, a commentary on the Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim of Jacob ben Asher, printed with the text of the Ṭur in Lublin in 1599, then, in an eighteenth-century edition of Dyhernfurth, with the Bet Yosef and other commentaries.
Salomon ben Aaron Ḥason is a Turkish rabbi of the sixteenth century, author of Bet Shelomoh, a collection of responsa completed with those of R. Daniel Estorza (Salonica, 1720), and of Mishpaṭim Yesharim, responsa of his own and of R. Samuel Gaon published in two parts (Salonica, 1832).
German rabbi (died 1588)
Kabbalist of Aleppo, disciple of Hayyim Vital in Damascus, author of « Mekor Hayyim » on the Shulchan Aruch.
Ḥayyim ben Bezalel is a German Talmudist died in Friedberg on the day of Shavuot 1588, eldest of the four sons of Bezalel ben Ḥayyim and originally from Poznań. Classmate of Moïse Isserlès under Shalom Shakna, he begins his literary activity in Worms, where he settles in 1549, and succeeds his uncle Jacob ben Ḥayyim as rabbi of the city after the latter's death in 1563, before becoming rabbi of Friedberg. In 1578, quarantined by a plague epidemic, he writes his moral treatise in five books, Sefer ha-Ḥayyim (Kraków, 1593), and conducts a lively controversy with Isserlès against the codification of the Talmud, expounded in the preface to his Mayim Ḥayyim (Amsterdam, 1711).
Rabbi who came from Fès to organize the community of Tétouan, founder of a rabbinical dynasty.
Ḥayyim ha-Cohen is a German rabbi born in Prague at the end of the sixteenth century and died in Posen around the middle of the seventeenth, son of Isaac ben Samson ha-Cohen and maternal grandson of the famous Löw ben Betsalel, rabbi of Prague; his brother Naphtali was rabbi of Lublin and his sister Eve married a Bacharach. Rabbi of Frankfurt-am-Main from 1628 to 1630, where Joseph Hahn counts among his listeners, he accepts in 1630 a call to Posen, where he enjoys great consideration.
Rabbi and talmudist of Salonika (Maharhash), great sage of Greek Jewry.
Portuguese scholar, father of Don Joseph Ḥayyoun, rabbi of Lisbon, active in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He is the author of an ethical work entitled « Amarot Tehorot » (Constantinople, 1516).
Abraham ben Juda Ḥazzan is a cantor active in Kremenets, Volhynia, in the 16th century. Recovered from a serious illness in 1595, he undertook an aggadic commentary on the Prophets and the Hagiographs accompanied by a Judeo-German translation of difficult passages, drawn from his teachers and his readings of Rashi, Redaq, Ralbag and ibn Ezra. Having learned in 1593 of the publication in Cracow of the Ayyalah Sheluḥah by N. Hirsch Altschuler, he suspended his work before resuming and completing it, encouraged by rabbi Samson of Kremenets, in the spring of 1597; his collection, Ḥibboure Leḳeṭ, was printed after his death in Lublin in 1611.
Abraham ben Moïse Achkenazi Heilbronn (Heilprin) is Chief Rabbi of Lemberg, born in 1578 and died on January 2, 1649, whose father was related to R. Salomon Edels. He writes Birkat Abraham, a homily pronounced on the day of his bar-mitsva, and Ahabat Ṣiyyon, a commentary on the Pentateuch and the five Megillot (Lublin, 1639), in the preface of which he also mentions a commentary on the Prophets and the Hagiographa as well as a work entitled Sha'are Ṣiyyon.
Joseph ben Elhanan Heilbronn is a German Hebraist active in Posen in the sixteenth century, not to be confused with a namesake who died in Padua in 1622. He publishes Em ha-Yeled, elementary Hebrew grammar for children (Prague, 1597), Me'irat 'Enayim, presentation of the 613 commandments according to Maimonides' order, and Ḳol ha-Ḳore, brief school Hebrew grammar.
Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller, rabbi and liturgical poet, was born in Wallerstein, in Bavaria, in 1579, and died in Cracow in 1654 (the exact date of his death remains disputed by sources). Trained in Prague under Judah Löw ben Betsalel, he becomes dayyan there from 1597, then rabbi of Nikolsburg in 1624 and of Vienna in 1625, where he reorganizes the community, before being called in 1627 to the chief rabbinate of Prague. Charged, during the Thirty Years' War, with apportioning a heavy tax among the Jewish communities of Bohemia, he is accused of favoritism then of anti-Christian writings; summoned to Vienna in 1629, he narrowly escapes being sent in chains thanks to the intervention of Jewish notables of Prague.
Moïse Hénoc is a talmudist active in Jerusalem around 1570, author of the Mar'ah ha-Sorefet, a work of devotion translated into Judeo-German by Phinehas ben Juda Heilprin under the title Brandspiegel (Basel, 1602).
Ernst Friedrich Hess is a Christian convert and anti-Jewish German writer who lived in the sixteenth century. He is the author of the Neue Judengeissel, eine Polemische Schrift Gegen Juden und Judenthum, published in Fritzlar in 1589 and then reissued several times, notably in Paderborn in 1600 and 1606, in Regensburg in 1601, and in Erfurt in 1605, a work cited in Latin under the title Flagellum Judæorum. Hess was the first to spread the libel that Jews defiled the meat they sold to Christians.
Rabbi and talmudist of Rome, appointed rabbi of the Roman congregation in 1620, a position he held until his death, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia.
Appointed rabbi of the congregation of Rome in 1620, he was one of the most eminent Italian Talmudists of his time. Fragments of his literary activity survive in the contemporary responsa literature.
Hezekiah Roman ben Isaac ibn Paqouda is a Turkish scholar who lived in Constantinople around 1600. He is the author of the Zikron ha-Sefarim, a catalogue of grammatical works composed from the time of Juda Ḥayyouj to his own, reproduced in Hebrew and Latin by Wolf in his Bibliotheca Hebræa; his name also appears in the approbation of the Hod Malkut of Abraham ha-Yakini, published in Constantinople in 1655.
Italian Talmudist of the sixteenth century, dayyan of Venice from 1510 to 1520 under the rabbinate of Benedet ben Eliezer Acsildor. He participated in the dispute between Jacob Polak and Abraham Minz, then, after 1520, worked as a proofreader in Daniel Bomberg's printing house, notably editing the Talmud as well as responsa by Israël Isserlein and Joseph Colon.
Jewish martyr born in 1564 of New Christian parents in Coimbra, Portugal, burned alive in Lisbon on May 5, 1624. Destined for the Church like many secret Jews seeking to escape the Inquisition, he became a doctor in 1592 and then professor of canon law at the university of Coimbra. Suspected by the Inquisition, he appeared before its tribunal in 1611 and was acquitted, but in 1619 a secret synagogue he directed was discovered in Lisbon; brought before the Inquisition on December 18 of that same year, he was condemned to death and burned five years later.
Sixteenth-century Talmudist, author of the "Kelale ha-Gemara", rules for the study of the Talmud published in the collection of Abraham ibn 'Aḳra, the "Sefer me-Harare Nemerim", in Venice in 1599. The short work, divided into four chapters, deals first with the method of Talmudic study and halakhic phraseology, then with recourse to commentaries, particularly that of Rashi, which the author advises consulting only after having well understood the passage being studied.
Spanish physician and rabbinic scholar established in Constantinople in the sixteenth century, court physician to Suleiman the Magnificent, whom he followed in his army to Syria; several years after his return to Constantinople, the Jews of Damascus asked him to settle among them. Also known as a talmudist, he consulted Joseph Caro on rabbinic questions, and one of his responsa appears in Caro's « Abkat Rokhel ». In his only published work, « Kevod Elohim » (Constantinople, 1585), he recounts his travels and the customs of the Kurds and Druzes.
Rabbi and Turkish historian active in Adrianople in the early sixteenth century, son of Salomon ibn Verga, author of « Shebeṭ Yehudah », who fled Spain for Turkey as a marrano. Student of Joseph Fasi, he completed his father's work with an account of the events of his own time, incorporating into it tales translated from the Latin which he knew, as well as a supplication of his own composition. He is also the author of « She'erit Yosef », a methodology of the Talmud published in Adrianople in 1554.
Spanish historian and physician of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Sent by Spanish communities to collect ransom money for the prisoners of Malaga, he also lived as a marrano in Lisbon, where he witnessed the massacre, before escaping to Turkey, probably Adrianople, where he wrote « Shebeṭ Yehudah », an account of persecutions of Jews in different countries and epochs, completed and edited by his son Joseph ibn Verga. The work, first printed in Turkey around 1550, was translated into Judeo-German as early as 1591 in Cracow, then into Spanish by Meïr de León in Amsterdam in 1640.
Grandson of one of the richest and most influential Jews of Valencia. In 1510, at an auto-da-fé held in that city, he was condemned for judaizing, and his houses, located in the old Juderia, were demolished. His relative Luis Vives, a scholar of multiple talents, wrote, to dispel any suspicion of unbelief, his « De Veritate Fidei Christianæ », a work directed against Judaism.
Sephardic scholar active in Venice, apologist for the Jewish oral tradition.
Grammarian and proofreader in Mantua, active in the second half of the sixteenth century, connected to the workshops of Meïr Sofer ben Ephraïm of Padua and Jacob ben Naphtali ha-Cohen of Gazzuolo. He is the author of the « Liwyat Ḥen », a treatise on Hebrew grammar and prosody in eleven chapters (Mantua, 1557), where he explains in particular the riddle of Abraham ibn Ezra on the four letters — an explanation he was accused, wrongly according to Mortara, of having borrowed from Profiat Duran. He also annotated the 1557 Mantuan edition of the « Tikkoune Zohar ».
Court physician to King Sigismund I of Poland, son of Abraham of Jerusalem, died in Kazimierz, suburb of Krakow, around 1510. Recommended in 1504 to King Alexander Jagiello by Archbishop Andreas of Gniezno, he obtained the right to collect taxes from the Jews of Krakow, redeemed from the heirs of Frederick of Olmütz. To refute accusations of humble origin brought against him, he had his genealogy established by his sister Sarah, who remained in Jerusalem — a step confirmed by a royal decree dated Krakow on May 12, 1507 — and a second decree, of June 14, 1509, reaffirmed his rights shortly before his death.
Son of exiles from Spain, collector and savior of manuscripts; he stayed in Cairo in the house of the Radbaz then in Constantinople where he edited important historical and polemical collections. Part of his collection perished in the fire of 1569.
Rabbi in Fès, owner of a synagogue bearing his name (desecrated/destroyed in 1646). He figures among the signatories of the Haskamot (communal ordinances) of Fès in 1584 and 1595, after the family's settlement in Morocco following the expulsion from Spain (1492).
Greek Orthodox rabbi
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica (entry « Arbib »), Isaac ben Arroyo, born in Salonique in the sixteenth century and nicknamed Arbib, is the author of collections of sermons: Tanhumot El (1573) and Makhil Kohelet (1597).
Turkish rabbi, active in Constantinople in the first half of the sixteenth century. He is the author of « Me'ah She'arim », a double commentary, literal and Kabbalistic, on one hundred of the six hundred and thirteen commandments (Salonika, 1543), and revised and edited the « Ṭa'ame ha-Miẓwot » of Menahem Recanati (Salonika, 1544). He might be identical to Isaac ibn Farḥi.
Italian exegete, active successively in Bologna, Jesi, Recanati and Rome in the 15th and 16th centuries. He is the author of a commentary on the Song of Songs, the Lamentations and the Pirké Avot, as well as a commentary on Esther and sermons accompanied by didactic verses, preserved in part in manuscript.
Physician and parnass of Prague, active in the 16th century. He is the author of the "'Olat Yiẓḥaḳ", a collection of ritual laws organized according to the "Arba' Ṭurim" of Jacob ben Asher, presented in the form of eight hundred forty-three riddles distributed among one hundred chapters (Prague, 1606).
Polish rabbi born in Vladimir, in the government of Volhynie (Russia), around 1580, and died before 1646, elder brother and master of David ben Samuel ha-Lévi, author of the "Ṭure Zahav." Rabbi of Chelm in his youth then of Lemberg, he is the author of a work in two parts — a collection of responsa and novellæ entitled "Ḥiddushe Halakot" — published in Neuwied in 1736; others of his responsa appear in his brother's "Ṭure Zahav."
Biblical commentator active in Constantinople in the mid-sixteenth century. He is the author of a commentary on Job, published with the text in Constantinople in 1545, as well as a commentary on Pirké Avot that remained in manuscript form.
Rabbi first in Egypt then in Jerusalem in the first half of the 16th century.
First known member of the Coriat lineage, dayan and kabbalist of Marrakech.
Sephardic Italian scholar, author of the « Orden de Oraciones » (Venice, before 1583), an edition of the prayer ritual of Spanish and Portuguese Jews; name also spelled Caballero.
Sixteenth-century Egyptian rabbi, originally from Venice. He had a halakhic controversy with Joseph Caro regarding the taqqanot of Rabbénou Guershom (the prohibition of bigamy), on which he was more stringent than Caro. One of his responsa appears in Caro's collection 'Avqat Rokhel (no. 130).
Last nagid of Egypt (in Cairo), in office from 1502 until the Ottoman conquest of 1517 which ended the neguidat. Though of Spanish descent, his direct ancestors lived in Tlemcen (Algeria) from the 15th century. Patron of Talmudic studies, he also exercised his authority over the communities of Erets Israël (Jerusalem), where he died in 1525. He succeeded his uncle Nathan (Jonathan) Sholal, nagid from 1484 to 1502.
Physician and rabbi of Salonika in the 16th century.
Rabbi in Ancona in the first half of the 16th century, from a Spanish family established in Italy after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. He is the author of the "Megillat Ester", a defense of Maimonides' "Sefer ha-Miẓwot" against the criticisms of Naḥmanide (Venice, 1592; Amsterdam, 1660; Berlin, 1733). In 1546, he rendered with Jacob Israël Finzi, rabbi of Recanati, a halakhic decision in a dispute opposing Asher ben Salomon of Monte de Lulo to Jacob Catelano — a decision reversed by the rabbinical court of Rome and published with its refutation in Rome the same year under the title "Pesaḳ".
The greatest kabbalist of Safed, founder of Lurianic Kabbalah. His concepts of Tzimtzum (divine contraction), Shevirat ha-Kelim (the breaking of the vessels), and Tiqqun (repair) revolutionized Jewish mysticism and profoundly influenced Hasidism and modern Jewish thought.
Spanish poet and rabbi
German professor of Hebrew, born in 1515 and died in Cologne in 1577. First rabbi in Wetzlar, he converted to Protestantism in 1546 before embracing Catholicism when he was called to Cologne as a professor of Hebrew, a position he held until his death. In 1556 he wrote a widely distributed Hebrew grammar, the last of five editions of which appeared in Antwerp in 1570, and in 1555 he edited Maimonides' work on astrology as well as the commentary by Moïse ibn Tibbon on Aristotle's « Physics ».
Member of the troupe of the Jewish theater of Mantua, alongside the dramatist Leone de' Sommi and the composer Salomone Rossi. Choreographer for the court of the Gonzaga (dances of the Ingiusti Sdegni in 1583 for the wedding of Vincenzo Gonzaga, ballet of Pastor Fido in 1598, etc.).
Rabbi of Krakow, died on August 16, 1599, first head of the yeshiva of Szczebrzeszyn, in the government of Lublin, then rabbi of Vladimir, in Volhynia, where he was among those who signed a protest against the shameful sale of the rabbinate. Called from Vladimir to the rabbinate of Krakow, where he died, he was its first « ab bet din », community affairs having until then been decided by three dayyanim. He is the author of the « Sefer 'Ammude Golah », notes on the « Sefer Miẓwot Ḳaṭon » of Isaac of Corbeil (Krakow, 1596), and of a commentary on Rashi on the Pentateuch entitled « Ba-Urim Kabbedu Adonai » (Krakow, 1604).
rabbi of Spanish origin
Polish Kabbalist, active in the late sixteenth century, known only by his single work, the "Tamim Yaḥdaw", which gathers all the verses from the Psalms and Proverbs cited in the Zohar with the explanations accompanying them, preceded by a kabbalistic treatise on the soul and a supplication (baḳḳashah) in his hand.
Italian rabbi, active at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Corrector of the edition of the Talmud published in Pesaro in 1511-13, he approved in 1518 in Rome the first edition of « Ha-Baḥur » by Elias Levita. Member of the college of rabbis of Rome, where he enjoyed great respect, he issued in 1519 a ruling on a legal question concerning Donina, daughter of Samuel Ẓarfati, before emigrating, in old age, to Palestine.
Rabbi of Safed, ordained by Jacob Berab, sat on the beth din with Karo and Trani.
Liturgical poet and kabbalist, author of numerous piyyutim sung in the Mediterranean.
Polish scholar, active in the second half of the 16th century. He edited the anonymous philosophical work « She'elot 'Inyan ha-Neshamah », a dialogue between master and student on eighteen questions relating to the soul (Lublin, 1566), subsequently translated into Judeo-German by Isaac ben Ḥayyim.
Jewish kabbalist, student of Isaac Luria (1590–1610)
Palestinian mathematician
16th-century Polish commentator on Midrash (and the Bible)
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5290 of the Hebrew era (1530). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-4.
Rabbi of the community of Spanish exiles in Fès in the 16th century, one of the signatories of the Takkanot (communal ordinances). He is believed to be the author of a collection of sermons.
Biblical exegete and Turkish preacher of the second half of the 16th century, descendant of Joseph Jabez. He is the author of the « Ḥasde Abot », commentary on the Pirké Avot (Constantinople, 1583), the « Yafiḳ Raẓon », homiletical explanations of the Haftarot according to German and Portuguese rites (Belvédère, 1593), and the « Torat Ḥesed », commentaries on the Hagiographes (1593-94), most of which were incorporated into the rabbinical Bible « Ḳehillat Mosheh » (Amsterdam, 1727).
Spanish theologian of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, who lived for a time in Portugal with Joseph Ḥayyoun, from whom he received a taste for mysticism, before settling in Mantua after the expulsion from Spain — where he persuaded the cabalist Juda Ḥayyat to write the « Minḥat Yehudah ». An opponent of philosophy, for whom the truth of Judaism is demonstrated by biblical miracles, he criticized the thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides, the six of Ḥasdaï Crescas and the three of Albo, substituting for them three fundamental principles which he expounds notably in the « Ḥasde Adonai » (Constantinople, 1533), the « Ma'amar ha-Aḥdut » (Ferrara, 1554) and the « Or ha-Ḥayyim » (1555).
One of the founders of the Portuguese community of Amsterdam (arrived in 1614). He wrote a poetic narrative of the Inquisition in one hundred octaves, entitled 'Job'.
noble tchèque
Scholar born in the German states, trained in Prague, he traveled through Germany and Italy by teaching before settling in Padua where he was appointed rabbi. Prolific author in Hebrew, Yiddish and Italian, he corresponded with rabbinic notables of Italy (Samuel Archivolti, Simone Luzzatto, Abraham Menahem Porto). His patronymic form also appears as Halpron / Heilbronn.
Masorete and printer born around 1470 in Tunis, died before 1538, Jacob ben Ḥayyim ben Isaac ibn Adonijah left his native country during the persecutions of the early sixteenth century and settled in Venice, where he worked as proofreader for the Hebrew printing house of Daniel Bomberg. He is best known for his edition of the Rabbinic Bible (1524-25), enriched with Masoretic notes and an introduction devoted to the Masorah; at the end of his life, he converted to Christianity.
Italian printer born in Gazzuolo and active in the sixteenth century, Jacob ben Naphtali Ha-Cohen directed until 1556 the workshop of Tobiah Foa in Sabbioneta, which published Abravanel's « Merkevet ha-Mishné » (1551), before settling in Mantua where he supervised printing at Rufellini, alone and then with Meïr ben Éphraïm Sofer, then alone again from 1560 to 1563. There he first printed « Sefer ha-Baḥur » by Élie Lévita, and last « Midrash Yelammedenou ».
Italian scholar active in Venice in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Jacob ben Obadia Sforno is the presumed author of the « Iggeret ha-Ṭe'amim », a treatise on Hebrew accents (Venice, 1600) — which Steinschneider, however, considers identical to the homonymous work of Aaron Abraham ben Baroukh.
Sephardic Talmudist of Safed, initiator of the attempt to reinstate semikha to prepare for the messianic coming. He was a dominant figure in the city.
Jewish Italian physician, member of the rabbinical court, he was the effective printer of the Hebrew press of Riva di Trento (1558-1562), under the privilege granted by Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo to Rabbi Joseph Ottolengo. About 34 Hebrew works were published there, renowned for their very clear typography (Halakhot of Alfasi, Mordekhaï, novelties of R. Nissim, Mishna, Pentateuch). He himself wrote prefaces and abridgements, and sometimes appears to have composed texts published under other names.
Born into a family of conversos in northern Portugal, he left the country in his thirties to live openly as a Jew, first in Salonika, then in the Holy Land, where he became one of the great transmitters of Lurianic Kabbalah. Author/compiler of numerous kabbalistic writings; among the works printed under his name: "Ṣemaḥ Ṣaddiq" (Korets, 1785, posthumous).
Dutch colonial governor
Italian scholar active in the second half of the sixteenth century. At the request of Emmanuel de Fano, he translates in 1580 the « Moreh Nevoukhim » (Guide of the Perplexed) into Italian, under the title « Erudizione di Confusi »; extracts from this translation, which remained manuscript, are published in 1892 by G. Sacerdote. He is also the author of a Hebrew-Italian biblical vocabulary, the « Sefer Tourguemane ».
Rabbi and masorete, author of Minhat Shai, critical commentary on the biblical text.
Polish rabbi
Jonathan Lévi Sion represented the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main in its defense against the attacks of Johannes Pfefferkorn. When the latter obtained from Emperor Maximilian I an edict ordering the confiscation of all Hebrew books on 19 August 1509, Jonathan went to Worms and then to Italy to plead the cause of the Jews before the emperor in Verona. Despite the intimidations of Pfefferkorn, his efforts, backed by a letter from Archbishop Uriel of Mainz, succeeded in having the examination of the confiscated books entrusted to the latter, before a new imperial decree ordered the continuation of the confiscation.
Rabbi
Joseph ben Isaac ha-Levi was a Lithuanian philosopher of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, versed in philosophical literature; it was in Prague that Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller asked him to explain the Guide for the Perplexed to him. From this he drew the Giv'at ha-Moré, a critique in three parts of the Guide, published with annotations by Heller (Prague, 1611) and cited by Joseph Delmedigo in his Miktav Ahouz; a second work, the Ketonet Passim (1614), developed the principles of the Guide.
Rabbi and Sephardic commentator connected to the scholarly world of Safed and Jerusalem.
Joseph ben Mardochée Gershon ha-Cohen, Polish talmudist, was born in Cracow in 1510 and died in 1591. Trained in Talmud from an early age, he became the head of a yeshiva founded for him by his father-in-law, whose renown attracted many students, and counted Salomon Louria among his correspondents. He is the author of Cheérit Yossef (Cracow, 1590), responsa and discussions on various rabbinic subjects as well as commentary on the Mordekhaï, published at the request of his sons Tanhouma and Aaron Moïse.
Polish rabbi
Member of the great Corcos family, he lived in Palestine in the second half of the 16th century. He is the author of a commentary on Maimonides' Mishné Torah.
Joseph of Arles, French Talmudist and Kabbalist of the sixteenth century, is the author of a letter dated 1584 preserved among the halakhic decisions of Menahem Carmi. He is identified with the author of a letter addressed around 1560 to Emmanuel di Cropulo, in which he deplores the publication of the Zohar by men barely capable of explaining a biblical verse — a text which he dated, in his view, to the eleventh century and which Juda Modena reproduced in his Ari Nohem. Joseph also composed a work on gematria.
Chief rabbi of Smyrna, author of the Rosh Yosef, who excommunicated Shabbetaï Tsevi.
Sephardi rabbi
Sephardic diplomat of Portuguese Marrano origin, nephew of Doña Gracia Mendes, influential man at the Ottoman court under Suleiman the Magnificent and Selim II, who made him Duke of Naxos. He attempted to refound Tiberias (and Safed) to resettle Jews there in 1561 and maintained a Hebrew printing house (founded by his aunt) near Constantinople.
Moroccan Jewish merchant and diplomat
Rabbi born in Salonika, hakham of the Bet Yaakov congregation in Amsterdam.
Physician and scholar, engaged with Lurianic Kabbalah in his Maayan Ganim.
Talmudist and Kabbalist of Salonica, teacher of several great Sephardic rabbis including Joseph Caro. He was a central spiritual figure of the Ottoman Empire.
The Maharit, major Talmudist, chief rabbi of Constantinople, author of responsa.
German rabbi
Converted to Christianity and missionary to the Jews of Rome, died before 1597. He embraced Christianity in 1552, taking the name Andrea di Monti in honor of Pope Julius III; born in Fès, he is also called « Joseph Moro ». From 1576 onwards, he preached sermons aimed at converting Jews, whom the Jews were forced to hear, and published in Italian works hostile to Judaism, as well as a « Lettera di Pace » in 1581 — without great success, the Roman Jews protesting to the Curia and refusing to listen to him. Censor of Hebrew books in Spoleto and then Rome, he is also suspected of embezzlement and corruption.
Talmudist author of the annotations Ein Mishpat and Massoret ha-Shas of the printed Talmud.
Rabbi of Lemberg, author of the Sma and the commentaries Dricha and Pricha.
Eminent Talmudist at the head of the Cracow yeshiva, renowned for his halakhic acuity.
Rabbi of Damascus, author of the commentary Me'or Einayim on the Ein Yaakov.
Physician and rabbi of Constantinople, commentator on the Talmud of Jerusalem (Sdeh Yehoshua).
Physician, poet, and Neoplatonic philosopher, son of Isaac Abravanel, author of the Dialoghi d'amore. His work left its mark on European Renaissance thought.
Karaite scholar and liturgical poet, active in Belgrade in the first half of the sixteenth century, grandson of Abraham ben Judah whose exegetical work he copied and completed, the « Yesod Miḳra ». He himself composed liturgical poems, several of which were inserted into the Karaite ritual, and copied the « Yehi Me'orot », relating to the precepts attributed to Tobiah ben Moses.
Italian physician established in Perugia in the middle of the 16th century, counted by David de Pomis among the most eminent Italian physicians. An assiduous student of Kabbalah and close to Emanuel de Bénévent, editor of the "Tikkoune Zohar", he had a copy made in 1553 of the kabbalistic work "Sefer ha-Ḳaneh"; he might be identical to this Juda ben Salomon who copied in 1523 several letters from Jerusalem.
Talmudist and Austrian mathematician, born in the second decade of the sixteenth century in Posen, where his family had settled coming from Worms, and died in Prague on August 22, 1609. Territorial rabbi of Moravia in Nikolsburg from 1553 to 1573, he had the statutes (« taḳḳanot ») of the Moravian communities gathered before settling in Prague, where he founded the « Klaus », a Talmudic school, and organized the ḥebra ḳaddisha founded in 1564. Although considered for the chief rabbinate of Prague upon the death of Isaac Melnik, it was his brother-in-law Isaac Ḥayyot who was chosen instead.
Russian rabbi of the 16th century, he succeeded around 1570 to Naphtali Herz as rabbi of Brest-Litovsk. His signature appears, alongside those of Salomon of Lublin, Josué Falk and Samuel Edels, at the bottom of the ordinances promulgated in 1587 by the Council of the Four Lands at the fair of Gromnitza, in Lublin, which prohibited the purchase of rabbinic posts or their acquisition through influence. He is the author of the "Minḥat Yehudah", a super-commentary on Rashi to the Pentateuch, published in Lublin in 1609.
Chief rabbi of Mantua, preacher and author of the commentary Qol Yehuda on the Kuzari.
Karaite scholar established in Constantinople, nephew of Élie Bashyazi, died before 1501. He traveled through Palestine, Egypt, Babylonia and Persia to learn about the Karaite writings found there, and wrote the « Sha'ar Yehudah », a study of the laws on incestuous marriages, published after his death by his son Isaac in Constantinople in 1581.
First rabbi of the Neveh Shalom synagogue in Amsterdam (1608).
Printer in Constantinople in the 16th century. With Juda Sason and Moshe ben Joseph Hamon, he published « Toledot Adam we-Ḥawwah » by Jerouham ben Meshoullam (Constantinople, 1516).
Italian Talmudist, active in Venice in the first half of the sixteenth century, student of David Cohen of Corfu and son-in-law of Benjamin ben Mattithiah, author of the « Binyamin Ze'eb ». He is the author of the « Mishpeṭe Shemuel », a collection of responsa, decisions and novellae (Venice, 1599-1600).
Juda Kalaz is a kabbalist and moralist established in Algeria, probably in Tlemcen, at the beginning of the 16th century, descendant of a Spanish family settled in Algeria after the expulsion from Spain. He is the author of a precious work of ethics, "Séfer ha-Moussar" (Constantinople, 1536-37), frequently citing the Zohar and other kabbalistic writings which he held in great esteem; a grandson, also named Juda, was rabbi of Tlemcen at the end of the 16th century.
Polish rabbi, died in Lemberg on 28 April 1560, first known rabbi of that community and one of the very first chief rabbis of Poland. Probably from Worms, he directed the yeshiva of Lemberg for forty-two years and was consulted by R. Joseph ha-Cohen of Krakow, author of the « She'erit Yosef »; only a responsum dated 1558 and another from his son-in-law, R. Eliézer, remain of his work.
Italian physician born in Naples, active in Venice in the first half of the sixteenth century, who gained high reputation in the Christian world through his Latin translations of Hebrew philosophical works — including the "Destructio", version by Zerahia ha-Levi of Ghazâlî's "Tahafut al-Falasifa" (Venice, 1527), and a treatise by Averroes on the intellect (1531). He also translated into Hebrew the "Fundamentis" of Regiomontanus and composed a treatise on Hebrew accents, the "Sha'ar ha-Ṭa'amim", as a supplement to the grammar of Abraham de Balmes (Venice, 1523).
Dayan in Egypt around 1600, later known as "Ba'al ha-Nes" (the man of the miracle): having become blind, then suspected of accepting bribes, he called heaven to witness his innocence before the assembly of the community — that his blindness last forever if he had erred, otherwise that his sight be restored — and immediately recovered his sight, according to the testimony of Meïr Gavison; his tomb is still venerated in Cairo. He is the author of the "Sifre Ḥayyim," a commentary on the Mekhilta, Sifra and Sifré, as well as responsa preserved notably in the "Teshubot Yom-Ṭob Ẓahlun" (Venice, 1694).
Chief Rabbi of Bohemia, head of yeshiva and liturgist, died in Prague on 7 October 1542. He wrote a supercommentary on Rashi to the Pentateuch and glosses on the four Ṭurim, part of which was printed in the Augsburg edition of the Ṭurim in 1540, as well as a seliḥah, "Ana Elohe Abraham", whose verses follow alphabetical order and whose final acrostic gives his name.
Jewish favorite of the sultana Baffa, wife of Murad III and mother of Mohammed III, died in 1600. Widow of Elias Chandali, she owed her influence to the protection of Baffa; a firman of Osman II of 1618 confirms privileges that had been granted to her as early as 1548, and which it extends to her grandchildren. Intermediary of many diplomatic transactions under three sultans, she eventually converts to Islam under the name of Fatima towards the end of her life, while her sons remained Jewish.
German author and translator, born in the Breisgau in 1555 and died in 1598. Having left for Frankfurt am Main in 1583, he had to flee the city because of the plague and composed on the way his "Ohel Ya'aqov" (Freiburg, 1584), commentary on the "'Iqqarim" of Joseph Albo; he also published a Judeo-German translation of the five Meguilot (1583), a Yiddish version of the "Mishlé Shou'alim" of Berekhia ha-Naqdan (1588), and the "'Omeq Halakhah" (Cracow, 1598), illustrated explanations of the mathematical passages of the Talmud, approved by the Council of the Four Lands.
Egyptian rabbi and Kabbalist, born before 1572 and died in 1659. He studied under Moses ha-Cohen, head of the yeshiva of Egypt, alongside notably David Conforte, one of his fellow students.
Moravian rabbi, born in Cracow around 1600 and died in Mikulov on January 2, 1661. A student of Joël Sirkes, author of the "Bet Ḥadash", he opened with his permission a yeshiva that notably trained Gershon Ashkenazi, his future son-in-law, and was appointed dayan by the Cracow community. Around 1636, he left for Moravia as rabbi of Kremsier, where he also founded a yeshiva, returned to Cracow in 1645, became rabbi of Prostějov the following year, and accepted in 1650 the district rabbinate of Mikulov; his son Aryeh Löb, who succeeded him, published after his death a collection of his responsa, "Tsemaḥ Tsedeḳ" (Amsterdam, 1775).
Spanish rabbi and scholar of the sixteenth century. Wishing to go to the Holy Land, he stopped in Tripoli, where he found the Jewish community so disorganized that he judged it more meritorious to reorganize its affairs than to continue his journey; he accepted the rabbinate there and served from 1549, making the community a model. A profound Kabbalist, he is the author of a commentary on the Zohar on Genesis as well as liturgical hymns still in use among Sephardim during Friday evening services.
Italian rabbi and physician, born on 3 February 1679 in Ferrara and died on 16 November 1756. Trained notably in Padua, where he studied medicine and philosophy, then in Mantua for his rabbinic studies under R. Judah Brial, he returned in 1701 to Ferrara, where he established himself as a physician and teacher, giving lessons for adults at his home during the week and on Sabbath. Appointed in 1709 professor at the Italian Talmud Torah then, from 1717 onwards, preacher of the Italian synagogue — after having preached from 1704 in the Sephardic community —, he devoted a large part of his life to a vast encyclopedic work and formed most of the members of the Ferrara community.
A figure who presented himself as the precursor of the Messiah, appearing in Istria, near Venice, in 1502, announcing the imminent coming of the Messiah that same year if the Jews repented and practiced charity. Having gained many followers in Italy, he then traveled through Austria and Germany, where he received sympathy and credence, including, it is said, from Christians ; his passage sparked fasts, prayers and alms, to the point that the year of his preaching was called the year of penance, before he suddenly disappeared, ending the agitation he had provoked.
Scholar, rabbi, and Italian poet, born in Venice on April 23, 1571, son of Isaac of Modena, and died in the same city on March 24, 1648. A precocious child, he translated into Hebrew verse, at twelve years old, the first canto of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," then wrote against gambling a dialogue that achieved ten editions and was translated into several languages; married in 1590, he settled in Venice after his father's death in 1592 and was appointed in 1594 rabbi and preacher there, his sermons in Italian attracting large audiences, including Christian priests and nobles. Unwillingly passionate about games of chance, he had to exercise about twenty other professions to make a living.
Provençal Jew, author, under the pseudonym of Labi ha-Levi — for fear of being condemned by the orthodox — of a Purim parody entitled « Megillat Setarim » (Venice, 1552), divided into three sections and full of humor, in the manner of a Talmudic treatise provided with commentaries of the Rashi and Tosafot type. He composed the same year another work, « Sefer Ḥabaḳbuḳ », parody of the Pentateuch and the prophetic style staging a debate between wine and water, also intended for Purim.
Rabbi and Venetian writer, critic of the Kabbalah and author of Riti ebraici.
Spanish Talmudist, active in the mid-sixteenth century, author of the « Leḥem Yehudah », commentary on the Pirḳe Avot, and the « Derush 'al ha-Neshamah », treatise on the soul, published together in Sabbioneta in 1554 — the year when, as he laments in his preface, the Talmud was burned in Italy under Pope Julius III. Not to be confused with his namesake, rabbi of Belgrade in the following century, he left a large number of responsa, of which only thirty escaped a fire; his student Simḥa b. Gershon ha-Kohen published them under the title « Peleṭat Bet Yehudah » (Venice, 1647).
Seven tombs of seven brothers buried side by side in Todra. Their first names are unknown and the name « Asklilila » would be of Berber origin; the time of their lives as that of their death is unknown. According to local tradition, no one visited their tombs without first having immersed themselves and cut their nails, because of their holiness.
Decisor of Jerusalem, famous for his opposition to the project to restore rabbinic ordination (semikha) launched in Safed. Son of a rabbi who fled from Portugal.
Rabbi of Fez among the signatories of the Haskamah relating to the Nefiha, dated 18 Sivan 5291 (1531). Member of the rabbinic body of Fez in the first half of the sixteenth century.
Rabbi and scholar of the 16th century, born in Smyrna, he directs the academy 'Eẓ Ḥayyim in Salonika before settling in Venice, where he distinguishes himself as a preacher versed in philosophy, science and mathematics as much as in Talmud. He leaves several devotional and halakhic works: the commentary on Avot "Leb Abot" (Salonika, 1565 and 1571), the sermons "Dibre Shelomoh" (Venice, 1596), the commentary "Leḥem Shelomoh" (1597), and responsa on the Tur and the Shulhan Aruch (Salonika, 1652).
Physician and German financier born in Prague, active in Berlin in the sixteenth century, financial adviser and administrator of Jewish affairs for Elector Joachim II. After the sudden death of the latter in 1571, his son and successor Johann Georg accused him of poisoning him; subjected to torture, he confessed and then recanted, but was executed on January 28, 1573, the year the Jews of Berlin and Brandenburg were expelled from the country.
German rabbi and kabbalist born in Frankfurt am Main in 1555, died in Worms in July 1636, descended from the family of Rashi. Educated in Frankfurt and then in Kraków under Menahem Mendel, he prepares the edition of « Darke Mosheh » by Moses Isserles, successively holds the rabbinates of Fulda, which he leaves in 1612, of Hanau, of Friedberg (1620) and then of Worms (1630), where he remains until his death; nicknamed « Ba'al Shem » for his assiduous study of Kabbalah, he is the author of « Rinnat Dodim », commentary on the Song of Songs (Basel, 1600), and « Miklol Yofi », commentary on Ecclesiastes (Amsterdam, 1695).
Court physician, in the service of Queen Elizabeth I of England, born in Portugal around 1525 and executed on 7 June 1594 for plotting to poison the queen. Settled in London in 1559, he becomes a member of the College of Physicians and then physician to the Earl of Leicester before 1584, and obtains in 1589 the monopoly on the importation of anise and sumac into England. Involved in the intrigues of the court around the pretender to the Portuguese throne Don Antonio, he is arrested in 1593, put to torture, and admits having considered poisoning the queen for 50,000 ducats.
French silk manufacturer, established in Venice. In 1587, he went to Rome to develop the manufacture of silk, whose monopoly, according to a process perfected by him, was granted to him for sixty years, and he obtained permission to reside outside the ghetto for fifteen years. In 1588, he published in Italian lessons on the uses and manufacture of silk, dedicated to Pope Sixtus V, and received that same year a patent for the polishing of mirrors and cut glass by means of a vegetable oil he had discovered.
Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, chief rabbi of Prague, original thinker and legendary figure. His philosophical and ethical work anticipates modern themes (human dignity, education). The legend of the Golem, a clay creature he is said to have animated to protect the Jews, made him a universal cultural symbol.
Greek rabbi
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-1.
Turkish rabbi, active at the end of the 16th century in Salonika, where he directs the yeshiva. Several reputed rabbis are among his students, including Joseph Florentin, Abraham Falcon, and his own son Moses ibn Major. He is the author of responsa, published notably in the "Teshubot" of Ḥayyim Shabbethai (Salonika, 1651) and in the "Peleṭat Bet Yehudah" of Juda Lerma (Venice, 1647).
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Bohemian Talmudist of the 16th century, born in Prague. He is the author of several commentaries: « Teḥillat Dibre Shemuel » on the Targum of Esther (Prague, 1594 or 1601 according to bibliographers), « Bet Din shel Shemuel » on Rashi to Esther and Ruth (Lublin, 1606), and « Yegon Leb » on the Lamentations (Cracow, undated).
Hungarian author, converted to Christianity in 1534. He dedicates to his godfather, George, margrave of Brandenburg, his work « Dass Jesus Christus Sey das Ewig Wort » (1536), and also publishes « Rechnung der 70 Wochen Danielis » (1552) as well as another writing published in 1557 presenting Jesus as the Messiah.
Italian physician, died in Damascus in 1549; his parents, originally from Tortosa (Spain), left the country during the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Trained in medicine and philosophy at Padua and Bologna, he then settles in Venice, where the Council of Ten exempts him from wearing the Jewish hat, then in Rome, where he becomes in 1534 the physician of Pope Paul III while sitting, with the title of « gaon », in the Roman rabbinate.
Austrian commentator, active in Lemberg at the end of the 16th century. He publishes an ethical discourse on the Shema, « Petil Tekelet » (Prague, 1618), in three parts devoted to the love of God, to abstention from sin, and to misfortune.
Italian liturgical poet, active in Ferrara in the 16th century, whose name « Dato » is the Italian equivalent of « Nathan ». He adds notes to Samuel Gallico's « 'Asis Rimmonim » (Venice, 1601); Azariah dei Rossi attributes to him a work on the coming of the Messiah, « Migdal Dawid », and he composes numerous piyyoutim that remained in manuscript, one of which, for the eve of the Sabbath, entered Italian ritual.
Converted to Christianity in the first half of the sixteenth century, born around 1500 in Regensburg, son of rabbi Jacob Margolioth, died in Vienna; baptized in 1522 at Wasserburg, he teaches Hebrew in several German cities then, from 1537 onward, at the University of Vienna. He publishes in 1530 in Augsburg a pamphlet hostile to Judaism that influenced Luther, which earned him a complaint from Josel of Rosheim to Emperor Charles V: he was imprisoned then expelled from Augsburg.
Galician rabbi, born in Przemysl around 1550, died in Opatów in 1606. Trained in Talmud under his uncle R. Ẓebi and Solomon Louria, he was rabbi of Bełżyce then, after a private retreat in Vladimir, of Przemysl and, from 1597, of Luboml, before becoming at the end of his life head of the community of Opatów and district rabbi of Cracow. He is the author of "Taryag Miẓwot" (Cracow, 1581), a versification of the 613 commandments, of "Maṭṭeh Mosheh" (1590-91), a treatise on ritual law, and of "Ho'il Mosheh" (Prague, 1611), a commentary on the Pentateuch.
Turkish rabbinical scholar, active in Salonika in the 16th century, died prematurely. He left several works, two of which were published in Salonika in 1597: sermons, « She'erit Ya'aḳob », and a commentary on talmudic and midrashic haggadot, « Toledot Ya'aḳob ».
Rabbi of Salonika in the 16th century, uncle of Jacob ben Salomon Matalon. A reputed Talmudist, also versed in secular sciences according to his colleague Samuel di Modena, who often cites him in his responsa, he is the author of responsa inserted in the "Mishpeṭe Shemuel" of Samuel Ḳala'i (Venice, 1599).
Rabbi of Lublin, in Poland, in the second half of the 16th century. Having obtained in 1556, thanks to the favour of the starost of Lublin, land adjoining his house, he rendered it fit for the extension of the overcrowded Jewish quarter and reserved part of it to the community to found a yeshivah—the first high-level rabbinical school in Poland. A royal decree obtained on August 23, 1567 by Isaac May and other representatives of the community authorizes, on his land, the construction of a gymnasium and a synagogue.
Rabbi and maggid of Belgrade, died in Safed after travels in Europe.
Scribe and printer in Mantua, died in November 1583. Versed in the Talmud and friend of Moïse Provençal, he wrote forty-three scrolls for Italian communities between 1541 and 1582, including the model scroll preserved by the Mantua community; his writing method, disputed and then validated by R. Meïr Katzenellenbogen, was the subject of scholarly controversy. In 1556, he founded a printing press in Mantua which published, notably after his death, the first edition of the Zohar (1558-60), the Mishna, the Shoulhan Aroukh and the "Mishneh Torah".
Italian Talmudist and grammarian (?) of the 16th century, whose family name appears to have been "Meïri", always designated as "Meïr le-Bet Meïr". He is the author of the "Yaïr Natib" (Sabbioneta, 1553), a treatise on ritual slaughter often cited by Ḥayyim Benveniste, and of a treatise on the eight conjugations of Hebrew grammar, "Simane kol Shemonah Binyanim" (1554), revised and republished under the title "Diḳduḳ" (1597).
Moravian Talmudist, born in Ungarisch-Brod in 1593. Known for his « Megillat R. Meïr » (Cracow, 1632), where he recounts the adventure — which earns him the surname « Ḳadosh » (saint or martyr) — that occurred when he left his native city in 1608 with eight other students to join a yeshiva in Poland: kidnapped by the voivode of Auspitz, imprisoned and tortured to convert him to Christianity, he holds firm and is finally ransomed by the Jews of Cracow.
Rabbi of Lublin (the Maharam), author of the Talmudic commentary Meir Einei Chakhamim.
Rabbi of Meknès, sixteenth century. Died in 5283 of the Hebrew era (1523). Son of Pinhas, himself son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-4.
Rabbi and poet born in Spain around 1550, he translated part of the psalms into Spanish verse, which earned him being suspected by the Inquisition and imprisoned. Acquitted in 1611 after several years of torture, he settled in Amsterdam, where he became a member of the « De los Pintos » academy then rabbi of the Portuguese synagogue Bet Yisrael. His verses contain many allusions to the torments suffered during his imprisonment.
Member of the rabbinical family Egozi of Constantinople (16th–17th c.). Author of the Gal shel Egozim, a super-commentary on Rashi's commentary on the Torah, printed in Constantinople.
Chief Rabbi of Moravia at Nikolsburg, author of the Tzemach Tzedek responsa.
Italian rabbi
Poet and commentator, probably a student of Mordecai Comtino of Constantinople, active in the 15th and 16th centuries in Adrianople or Philippopolis. He wrote commentaries on Proverbs, Ruth and Esther, a super-gloss on the Pentateuch commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra, a Hebrew grammar, « Rashe Besamim », and enriched Hebrew poetry with his « Azharot », accompanied by a commentary, « Tanḥumot El », as well as other liturgical poems.
Rabbi, masorete and poet, connected to the kabbalistic circle of Safed and Jerusalem.
Polish rabbi and author of the sixteenth century, student of Moses Isserles. He devotes his work to the annotation of texts, notably the halakhot of Isaac Alfasi and Mordecai ben Hillel, published under the title « Haggahot Maharam Tiktin » by his son Asher (Kraków, 1597-1598) and then included in editions of Alfasi; according to Asher's preface, he would also have written notes on the Targum, on Rashi and Nahmanides, on prayers and piyyutim, and on the Zohar.
Member of one of the richest and most respected Portuguese Marrano families, died around 1536, husband of Béatrice of Luna. He owns in Lisbon an important banking house, with branches in Flanders and France, which advances funds to Charles V and other sovereigns; after his death, his brother Diogo, director of the Antwerp branch and husband of Béatrice of Luna's sister, becomes the richest Portuguese Marrano and sacrifices large sums to prevent the introduction of the Inquisition to Portugal, before dying in Antwerp around 1546.
Portuguese Marrano, physician to Don Alphonso, brother of the infant cardinal, active in Lisbon in the 16th century. The shoemaker Luis Diaz, who proclaimed himself the Messiah, convinced him to be circumcised and to confess Judaism around 1541 with other converts; Diaz is burned at the first auto-da-fé in Évora, toward the end of 1542, while Mendes escapes the same fate by fleeing.
Italian poet, active in Mantua and then in Venice at the end of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth. Corrector in Hebrew printing houses, like his father, he composes prefatory poems for several works as well as three liturgical poems, including an elegy on the fire of Mantua in 1610 and an alphabetically acrostic quadruple seliḥa.
Rabbi of Brest-Litovsk then Cracow, author of the Chemot Gittin.
Portuguese Marrano poet, also physician and mathematician. He began his career in Madrid as a royal mathematician and then physician to the House of Castile. Denounced to the Inquisition in 1634, he took refuge in Naples where his masterpiece was published, El Macabeo, a Baroque epic in Castilian (20 cantos) on the exploits of Judas Maccabee.
Moroccan rabbi of the 16th century, listed among the families of rabbis and notables of the mellah of Fès. Cited together with Dinar Anfaoui.
Rabbi and orator born around 1535 in Marrakech. He preached throughout the Ottoman world and Europe (Balkans, Turkey, Holy Land, Salonique). He is the author of collections of homilies and sermons printed at the end of the 16th century.
Renowned rabbi of Salonika, preacher and author, died in Constantinople.
Son of Ḥayyim Alshich, he studied in Salonique under Joseph Taitatzak and Joseph Karo, whom he followed to Safed. There he served as judge (dayyan) and trained prominent disciples such as Ḥayyim Vital. His homiletic commentaries on the Bible earned him great renown among the great exegetes.
Austrian author, active in Bisenz (Moravia) in the second half of the sixteenth century. He is the author of "Darash Mosheh" (Cracow, 1595), an explanation of Talmudic aggadot drawn from the "'En Ya'aḳob," a prayer on messianic redemption each of whose words begins with the letter aleph, "He ha-Yedi'ah," and a treatise on the education of children and asceticism, "'Ammude 'Abodah."
Italian scholar and Talmudist, born in Urbino on 30 November 1566, died in 1641. Student of Jedidiah of Rimini from 8 November 1579, he leaves observations on the treatise Ḥoullin, notes on Alfasi and on Talmudic haggadot, a responsum inserted in the « Shelom ha-Bayit » of Menahem Cazès, and a geometric demonstration on the sum of angles of a triangle, addressed in a letter to Isaac Finzi.
Born in Chadów, near Chavli (Lithuania), in 1449, died in the first quarter of the 16th century in Crimea, probably in Kaffa. Established for several years in Kiev, he wrote there polemical criticisms against the Karaite writer Abraham ben Elijah; captured by the Tatars during the sack of Kiev, he loses his notes, escapes to Lutsk then goes to Troki to raise the ransom of his captive children. According to his own account, he was made prisoner by the Tatars of Khan Muhammad during their invasion of Lida in 1482 and ransomed by his Rabbanite and Karaite brothers; he subsequently settled in Crimea, where he wrote various works, including a commentary on ibn Ezra (1515).
Educated in Jerusalem and later rabbi of Silistria (Bulgaria) in the second half of the 16th century. Author of a commentary on the Shulhan Arukh, Yoré Dea.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Safed, author of the Seder ha-Yom (prayer Modeh Ani).
Kabbalist of Safed, author of the Pardes Rimonim, the first systematic synthesis of Kabbalah. He was the teacher of Isaac Luria.
Halakhic authority of Safed, one of the city's leading rabbis alongside Joseph Caro. Author of the Kiryat Sefer and numerous responsa.
Greek talmudist and liturgical poet, active at the end of the 16th century, rabbi or head of the yeshivah of Corfu. Author of the « Yashir Mosheh » (Mantua, 1612), versification of the Book of Esther recited in Corfu on Shabbat Zakhor, accompanied by a hymn for Yom Kippur, he also composed many other liturgical poems and a commentary on the Targum, the « Patshegen Ketab ha-Dat ».
Prominent rabbi of the first half of the sixteenth century, father of Solomon Alkabetz. He serves as dayyan in Safed around 1530 and seems to have studied Kabbalah, since Isaac ibn Chochan of Safed drafted a kabbalistic work for him.
Karaite scholar, active in Constantinople in the second half of the 16th century, younger contemporary of Juda Poki whose « Sha'ar Yehudah » he praised. A prolific author, only a fragment of his commentary on the Pentateuch, « Yemin Mosheh », survives; Simḥa Luzki, in his « Oraḥ Ẓaddiḳim », nevertheless lists the titles of about ten other lost works, including commentaries on Lamentations, Proverbs, and Ruth.
Rabbi of Emden and one of the founders of the Sephardic community of Amsterdam, born in 1544, probably in Wittmund, died after 1622 in Emden. In 1593, a ship of marranos led by Jacob Tirado, blown off course to Emden, found him thanks to a Hebrew inscription; he advised them to go to Amsterdam, where he joined them shortly after, circumcised the marranos, founded a house of prayer and became its rabbi, his son Aaron being its hazzan. His grandson, Uri Phoebus ben Aaron ha-Lévi (born in 1623, died in Amsterdam in 1715), was a printer in Amsterdam from 1658 to 1689 then in Zolkiew, Galicia, from 1693 to 1705.
Portuguese physician, born in Castelo Branco in the mid-sixteenth century, died in Tours in 1616. Raised in Judaism by his Marrano parents, he left Spain for Italy, first settling in Livorno (c. 1598) then in Venice, before being called as a physician to the court of France by Marie de Medici, on condition of preserving his religious freedom and Sabbath rest. Becoming a favorite and royal adviser, he died suddenly while accompanying Louis XIII to Tours; his body, embalmed on the orders of Marie de Medici, was sent to Amsterdam for burial. Author of several medical works, including the « Archipathologia » (Paris, 1614), he also left polemical writings that remained unpublished.
Rabbinic and Talmudic scholar of the mid-sixteenth century, originating from Tétouan (Morocco), where he practices commerce before settling successively in Algiers, Oran and Cairo. In Cairo, a generous patron allows him to devote himself to study; he leaves in manuscript several works, including a collection of responsa, « Eshel Abraham », and commentaries on the Shabbat treatise and on the Yoreh De'ah.
Rabbi of the late sixteenth century, died in Constantinople. Pupil of Betsalel Achkenazi, he was nicknamed by his contemporaries « Sinaï vé-Oker Harim » (Polyhistor and Rooter of Mountains) for his knowledge and perspicacity. He first officiated in Egypt and then in Constantinople, where he remained until his death; an excellent scribe, he drew up numerous Torah scrolls still preserved in Egypt, and left a great number of decisions and responsa, partly collected in the collections of Samuel de Medina, Salomon ben Abraham Cohen, Abraham de Boton and Joseph di Trani.
Polish translator, active in Cracow, died in 1575. He translates into Judeo-German, with commentaries in Hebrew, the book of Proverbs (Cracow, 1582) and the book of Job (Prague, 1597), both published after his death.
Polish ritualist, active in Lamkumsh, died in 1584. He edits the Maḥzor with the commentary of Abraham Abigdor, adding to it his own notes (Lublin, 1567), then the seliḥot of the same author (Krakow, 1584), later reissued by his son-in-law Hirsch Sundels (Prague, 1587, and Lublin, 1643).
Cabalist and scholar, active in the second half of the 16th century, disciple of the famous cabalist Israël de Curiel and contemporary of R. Joseph di Trani, who mentions him in his responsa. He composed an allegorical and cabalistic commentary on the Pentateuch, « Sifte Kohen » (Venice, 1605; Wandsbeck, 1690).
Born in Prague, student of Moses Isserles and Salomon Luria (and of Mattithiah Delacrut in Kabbalah). Rabbi in several major communities of Central and Eastern Europe. Author of the Levush Malkhut, a codification of halakha in ten "garments" (levushim) integrating customs, exegesis, philosophy and mysticism, on which he worked for nearly 50 years. He is nicknamed "the Levush" or "Baal ha-Levushim" after this work.
Rabbi and preacher of Salonika, head of the Portuguese yeshiva.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5290 of the Hebrew era (1530). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-3.
Rabbi, poet and Italian philosopher of the 16th century, born in Osimo, near Ancona, died in Mantua before 1594. Established in Mantua after the expulsion of Jews from the Papal States in 1554, he became chief rabbi there in 1587, steeped in classical literature and Kabbalah. He published his fifty-two sermons, the « Nefuẓot Yehudah » (Venice, 1588), and left posthumously the first commentary on the « Kuzari », the « Ḳol Yehudah » (Venice, 1594).
16th-century Jewish scholar
rabbi
Turkish rabbi
According to the onomastic dictionary of Abraham I. Laredo ("The Names of the Jews of Morocco"), Moshe Abutam was chief of the Jews of Fez and counselor to Sultan Moulay Bou Hassoun in the sixteenth century. The name Abutam/Aboutam is of Berber origin and means "father of eight."
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93–3.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-3.
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5310 of the Hebrew era (1550). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5312 of the Hebrew era (1552). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-2.
Rabbi of Galicia, author of the Maté Moché on practical ritual law.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-3.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5335 of the Hebrew era (1575). Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-3.
Rabbi, 16th century. Died in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-2.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-2.
Chief rabbi of Mantua, Hebrew grammarian and decisor of the 16th century.
Rabbi, 16th century. Died in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 92-4.
According to the onomastic dictionary of Abraham I. Laredo (« The Names of the Jews of Morocco »), Mosseh Atejar, inhabitant of Fès, was a rabbi and member of the Rabbinical Court in the sixteenth century. The name Atejar (at-Tejâr, אטיזאר) comes from the Arabic « the merchants / those who practice maritime commerce », in the sense of « honorable », a title reserved in Morocco for non-Muslims.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
German Kabbalist born in Frankfurt am Main in the second half of the sixteenth century, he lived in Palestine where he was a disciple of Isaac Louria. He is the author of « 'Emek ha-Melek », introduction to the Kabbalah and commentary on passages from the Zohar and the writings of Louria, published in Amsterdam in 1648 ; the second part of this work, « Gan ha-Melek », commentary on the Zohar, remained in manuscript.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-2.
President of the community of Lemberg in the sixteenth century. He is the author of « Perush ha-Millot », explanations of difficult words in the Midrash Rabba, published in Cracow in 1569.
Duchess of Naxos, born in Portugal, only daughter of the Marrano Francisco Mendès-Nasi and of Gracia Mendesia (Beatrice of Luna). She lived with her mother in Antwerp then in Venice, before joining Constantinople around 1552, where she married her cousin Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos, after he had publicly embraced Judaism. Widowed in 1579, she devoted her fortune of ninety thousand ducats to Jewish learning and opened in 1593 a printing press near Constantinople, transferred in 1597 to Kuru Chesme.
Chief Rabbi of Cracow, kabbalist, author of the Megale Amoukot.
Sixteenth-century Austrian mathematician, scribe of R. Judah Löw ben Betsalel (the Maharal) of Prague. He is the author of a treatise on mathematics, the "Berit Abraham", published in Prague in 1609, founded essentially on the works of Elijah Mizrahi but also drawing from non-Jewish sources, and divided into five sections including a collection of problems entitled "Mozné Tsedek".
Kabbalist who lived in Safed in the early sixteenth century, contemporary of Moïse de Trani. Known chiefly as a commentator, he annotated the "Sefer ha-Yir'ah" and the "Dat ha-Nashim" of Jonas de Gérone, published in 1612 in Kraków with the "Iggeret Moussar" of Salomon Alami, and also wrote prayer directives, a commentary on Proverbs and a commentary on the "Seder Avodah" of Moïse Cordovero.
Italian physician and rabbi of the sixteenth century, established in Rome in 1563, where he exercised the function of rabbi and enjoyed a great reputation as a talmudic authority — one of his responsa, on the abolition of levirate, was inserted by Isaac Lampronti in his "Paḥad Yiṣḥaq". A student of philosophy, he translated from Latin to Hebrew the "Summa Librorum VIII. Physicorum" of Robert of Lincoln, and aided Moïse Alatino in his Latin translation of the "Paraphrase" of Themistius on Aristotle's "De Cœlo".
Italian converted to Christianity, born around 1540, died in Rome around 1602. Nothing is known of his life before his conversion, except that he was the Hebrew tutor of Thomas Aldobrandini, brother of Pope Clement VIII, who reportedly convinced him to embrace Christianity; he was baptized in 1568 under the name Eusthatius. He subsequently wrote several Italian works in defense of Christianity, including the « Sacro Settenario » (Naples, 1579) and the « Salutari Discorsi » (1582), nine sermons on Christian dogmas; manuscripts by him are preserved in the Vatican Library.
Judeo-Portuguese convert to Christianity, born in Borba, Portugal, died in July 1524. Baptized in Castile, he entered the service of the Inquisitor Lucero and was then recalled by King John III of Portugal to spy, under the cover of Judaism, on the New Christian families of Lisbon and Santarém and to denounce, even his own brother, those who remained faithful to Judaism. Unmasked, he was stabbed by two Marranos disguised as monks; nicknamed « Firme Fé », he was venerated as a saint, his tomb being attributed miraculous healing powers.
Daughter of the Portuguese marrano Gaspar Lopez Homem and Mayor Rodriguez, she lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To escape the Inquisition, she attempted to emigrate to Holland with her brother and uncle around 1590-1593; their ship was captured by an English vessel whose captain, seduced by her beauty, asked her to marry, and her reputation even attracted the curiosity of Queen Elizabeth in London. Having refused all suitors, she eventually reached Amsterdam, where she married her cousin Manuel Lopez Homem, joined by her mother, who died in that city on September 16, 1624.
Talmudist, poet and Turkish polemicist, active in Constantinople around the middle of the sixteenth century, friend of Don Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos, whose religious disputation with a Christian scholar he reportedly transcribed and prefaced, under the title « Ben Porat Yossef » (Constantinople, 1577). He is also the author of the « Tsofnat Pa'neah » (1566), a commentary on the laws of ritual slaughter, and of the « Ayoumah ka-Nidgalot », a collection of riddles and tales whose publication is dated 1577 by Zunz, but which Dukes claims was written in 1573 and printed in 1672.
Rabbi of Prossnitz, Moravia, in the sixteenth century, born in Bohemia. He is the author of "Hiddoushei...," novellae and responsa on the laws of marriage from the tractates Ketouvot and Kiddouchin of the Babylonian Talmud, published in Prossnitz in 1602 or 1618.
Italian scholar of the sixteenth century, of German origin, died around 1570. Established in Ettlingen and then Cremona, where he directed a school, he had a falling-out with Joshua dei Cantori, who would sit on the censorship committee that condemned the Talmud. Between 1558 and 1562, he had some twenty Hebrew works printed in Riva di Trento, including his « Luaḥ mi-Kol ha-Dinim » (1558), a list of the decisions of the RaN, and « Simane Mordekai » (1558); he is wrongly attributed with the edition of « Diḳduḳe Rashi », an abridgment of Elijah Mizrahi's supercommentary on Rashi.
Envoy of the King of Morocco to the Netherlands around 1591, then consul in The Hague, where he died in 1616. He attempted unsuccessfully to make Middelburg, in Zeeland, a refuge for Marranos, but contributed in 1593 to their settlement in Amsterdam and won the favor of the stadtholder; Prince Maurice of Orange attended his funeral.
Judeo-German author of the sixteenth century, settled in the ghetto of Prague at the time of Mordekhaï Meisel, daughter of Rabbi Moses Löb Pizker and wife of Rabbi Jacob Pan. Like other poets of her time, she publishes religious and moral texts in the vernacular thanks to the printing of the Gersonides then active in Prague, including a six-page poem, "Ein Schönes Lied," probably published in 1609, where she gives in the last strophe some autobiographical data about herself.
Hebrew printer in Venice from 1580 to 1600, brother of printer Meïr b. Jacob. Employed by Giovanni Bragadin, he printed a great number of Hebrew works, including the commentary on the Pentateuch by Isaac Abravanel (1579), the Bible (1586) and the fourth part of the « Ṭurim » (1594); he notes that his ancestors and close relatives were also printers.
Converted to Christianity, born around 1540 in Chełm, Poland, died in Prague toward the end of the sixteenth century. Baptized for the first time in Nuremberg in 1556, he was rebaptized in Chełm in 1568 and is said to have died after again abjuring Christianity. Author of works in German with Latin titles defending the Christian faith, including « Solida et Perspicua Demonstratio de SS. Trinitate » (Leipzig, 1574), he is best known for his « Mysterium Novum » (Helmstädt, 1580), in which he claims to demonstrate by gematria that the names of Jesus and Mary appear in Scripture.
Viceroy of Naples, friend and protector of Jews, who employs around 1530 Don Samuel Abravanel, youngest son of Don Isaac Abravanel, as minister of finance, and allows his daughter Leonora — future wife of Grand Duke Cosme de' Medici — to frequent and take lessons from Benvenida, wife of Samuel, renowned for her learning and virtues.
Scholar whose date and place of activity are unknown, author of « Or 'Enayim », treating the influence of constellations on men, the days of Creation and the wisdom of the patriarchs (Constantinople, 1519; Cremona, 1557; Breslau, 1807).
Turkish commentator of the second half of the sixteenth century, author of « Yesha' Elohim », commentary on the Hoshanot and various biblical texts (Constantinople, 1567; 2nd ed. Salonique, 1569), in part taken up in the « Batte Abot » of Joseph b. David of Salonique (1825). He also writes « Ner Miẓwah », commentary on the « Azharot » of Solomon ibn Gabirol (Constantinople, 1567), and « Ḥuḳḳot ha-Pesaḥ », commentary on the Haggada (Salonique, 1569).
German rabbi mentioned in the « Likouté Maharil », in the sections on Sabbath and Yom Kippur. He addressed two letters to the community of Halberstadt, in which he discussed commandments and prohibitions, requesting that his epistles be copied and read to others; they were printed in Basel in 1599.
Pius IV (Gian Angelo Medici) is Pope from 1559 to 1565, of modest Milanese origin, who became cardinal under Paul III and was elected upon the death of the rigorist Paul IV, whose policy he substantially softened. He convenes the Council of Trent for the third time and alleviates the condition of the Jews of Rome and the Papal States: he obtains from the Emperor Ferdinand the annulment of the edict of expulsion of the Jews from Bohemia, authorizes them to enlarge the ghetto, to open shops outside its walls and to acquire property up to 1,500 gold ducats, and even grants them the right to print the Talmud under another name.
David ben Eliezer ha-Levi of Pizzighettone is an Italian Talmudist and physician, active in the first half of the 16th century. Physician in Cremona, he also works as an editor in Venice, where he works for the Bomberg printing house and drafts the introduction to the edition of Maimonides' « Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah » published there; the claim of Landshuth that he was rabbi in Ferrara is erroneous.
Jacob (Joseph) b. Mordekhaï Poggetti, also called Pavieti, was an Italian Talmudist and moralist born in Asti, Piedmont, active in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His only known work, « Ḳiẓẓur Reshit Ḥokmah », an abridgment of « Reshit Ḥokmah » by Elie de Vidas intended to teach an ascetic and virtuous life, was reprinted several times, in Venice in 1600, in Cracow in 1667, in Amsterdam in 1725, and in Zolkiev in 1806.
Moses Potchi is a Karaite scholar, active in Constantinople in the second half of the sixteenth century, member of the Maruli family whose name was taken up by his son Joseph. Simḥa Luzki attributes to him the unpublished work « Shelemut ha-Nefesh », devoted to the creation of the world and the existence of God; a poem in his hand, in honor of the « Sha'ar Yehudah » (Constantinople, 1581) of Judah Poki, is placed at the head of this work.
Rabbi of Fès and Taroudant in the 16th century, author of a collection of sermons entitled « Sefer Hadrachot », known but never printed.
Disciple of Rabbi David Halevi Draa, trained by him in Kabbalah.
Expelled from Spain in 1492, a man of letters already enjoying renown there among the authorities. He first settled in Tlemcen (Algeria), where he co-signed a responsa with Rabbi Yaakov Berab and Rabbi Yehouda Khalatz; the sages of his generation nicknamed him "Goren Nakhon" for his mastery of the Tanakh, its commentaries, and the Guide for the Perplexed. A great poet, versed in both Hebrew and Arabic, he composed in Oran (Wahran) the tokhekha "Nafchi lama tisbeli" (1493). After Fès and Azemmour, he was appointed rabbi of the community of Safi, where he took part in diplomatic negotiations between the Portuguese and local sovereigns. His poems were printed in "Omer HaChikhkha" by Rabbi Avraham Gavishon (Livorno, 1748).
Buried in the cave-mausoleum of Oufran. His epitaph reads: "Gravestone of our master and our rabbi, the Rav David ben-Yisso, blessed are you", dated to the year 5328 (1568). Mentioned by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naim in Malkhei-Rabbanan.
According to local tradition he was an emissary of the Land of Israel; another version says he was an exile from Seville (Spain) in 1492, settled in Morocco. He studied the Torah in Fès under the gaon Rabbi Yehouda Ouziel I, then moved to Tamgrout in the Draa region where he served as dayan of the community. Counted among the most venerated kabbalists of Moroccan Jewry, he was also revered by Muslims who called him « Moul Draa ». He trained numerous disciples, including Rabbi Mordekhaï Bouzaglo and Rabbi Abraham Askira. His hilloula falls on 7 Sivan.
Pious and charitable rabbi of Béja, renowned for his knowledge of Torah and healing powers. Buried at Testour, where his mausoleum is the object of an important annual North African pilgrimage (Sukkot). Tradition names as his descendant the rabbi David Chaouat (died in Sousse in 1935), one of the representative figures of Tunisian Judaism.
Described in the Benzimra family record as one of the most celebrated poets of North Africa; active in Tlemcen.
Rabbi in Fès and Taroudant, author of a collection of sermons (Sefer Hadrachot) composed around 1570, which remained in manuscript.
Chief rabbi of Kraków, he completed Joseph Caro's Shulhan Arukh with his glosses (Mappah, "the tablecloth") reflecting Ashkenazi customs. Without the Rema, Caro's code would have remained a Sephardic work; with him, it became the universal code of Judaism.
Disciple of Rabbi Yosef Taitazak, signatory of the communal ordinances of Salonika, teacher at the Calabria-Yashan congregation (Neveh Shalom), renowned halakhic arbiter « versed in all sciences ». Died in 1580.
Disciple of Rabbi David Halevi Draa, from whom he received teaching of the Kabbalah.
At the head of a group of kabbalists in Taroudant, he lived at the time of the Ari (approximately 450 years ago) and trained many disciples. His work « Heikhal haKodesh » was published by Rabbi Yaakov Sasportas and printed in 1640, with the glosses of Rabbi Yehouda Asbaoni which introduced the teaching of the Ari to it, then unknown to the author.
Rabbi of Fès, disciple of Rabbi Yehuda Ouziel. Author of a two-volume Torah commentary, « Pri Etz Hagan », and of « Guefen Poriah » (both printed in Jerusalem in 1904), as well as of a collection of responsa, « Pri Megadim », which remained in manuscript.
Nephew (brother's son) of Rabbi Mordechaï Matalon of Salonika. He died young, leaving two works, She'erit Ya'akov and Toldot Ya'akov. The Matalon family was among the rabbinical lineages of Salonika of the 2nd-3rd generation after the expulsion from Spain.
Renowned Gaon and recognized decisioner of Fès. He was the master of Rabbi David Halevi Draa, who studied the Torah under him in Fès after his arrival in Morocco.
Lived in the 15th century and during the first half of the 16th century. Counted among the sages of Safi, he composed « Kaf-Nahat », a commentary on the Mishna.
Sage of Moroccan origin, he counted among the disciples of the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Louria).
Italian rabbi and author, active in Porto, near Verona, then in Cremona, where he died on December 30, 1596; descendant of the Rapa family, he changed his name to Rapoport. Trained in Venice in Hebrew under Elias Bahour and in medicine under Victor Trincavella, he became a proofreader of Hebrew printing there and assisted, in 1553, at the burning of the Talmud ordered by papal bull, observing the date by fasting for the rest of his life; he became rabbi of Cremona in 1574. He edited the "Yalḳuṭ Shim'oni" (Venice, 1565) and notably published "Ẓofnat Pa'neaḥ" (Venice, 1555) and the Pentateuch commentary "Minḥah Belulah" (Cremona, 1582).
Italian talmudist of the 16th century, author of the "Be'er Mayim Ḥayyim" (Corfu, 1599), on talmudic subjects, and of "Ereẓ Ḥefeẓ," undated, on biblical and talmudic subjects.
Italian convert to Christianity, active in Venice in the early sixteenth century, renowned halakhist who had reportedly been a grand rabbi before his conversion. Consulted by Henry VIII of England on the legality, in Jewish law, of his levirate marriage with his brother's widow, he arrives in London on January 28, 1531 and initially deems this marriage valid, before revising his opinion and declaring it illegitimate due to lack of offspring from the union; his opinion, entered into the dossier presented to Parliament, earns him substantial rewards, notably a wine import license in 1532.
Rabbi of Safed and Kabbalist, born in 1522, died on June 25, 1570, from a Spanish family probably originating from Córdoba, hence his name. Trained in rabbinical literature under Joseph Caro, he is initiated at twenty to the mysteries of Kabbalah by his brother-in-law Solomon Alqabets and becomes a recognized authority in the matter, devoting himself to speculative and metaphysical Kabbalah rather than to practical Kabbalah then propagated in Safed by Isaac Louria. His major work, the Pardes Rimmonim, exposes the doctrines of the sefirot and emanation; his conception of Divinity, expounded in the Shi'ur Qomah, presents a kinship with that which Spinoza would formulate later.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-3.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-2.
Former Portuguese marrano (Paulo de Pina), he joined Amsterdam in 1604 and openly returned to Judaism under the name Reuel Jesurun. In 1624, he composed a dramatic poem in praise of Judaism, recited by seven young people at Shavuot in Amsterdam's first synagogue (Beth Jacob).
Jew converted to Christianity in the first half of the 16th century, originally from Germany, who became professor of philosophy at the University of Pavia then physician to the emperor Maximilian I. Drawn to astrology and the Kabbalah, he translated the « Sha'are Orah » of Joseph Gikatilla under the title « De Porta Lucis » (Augsburg, 1516), influencing Reuchlin's « De Arte Cabbalistica », and delivered in 1519 the first known Latin translations of treatises of the Mishna. His major work, « De Cælesti Agricultura », dedicated to Charles V (Augsburg, 1541; 2nd ed., Basel, 1597), is accompanied by about ten other writings published in Augsburg in 1546 and reissued in Basel in 1597.
Monk, physician and Spanish poet born around 1600 to Marrano parents in Valencia, and died on April 8, 1684 in Amsterdam. Having become a Dominican monk under the name Vicente de Rocamora and confessor to the infanta Maria of Spain, future empress of Austria, he openly returned to Judaism in 1643 under the name of Isaac, studied medicine and settled in Amsterdam, where he practiced and directed several philanthropic societies; he was also judge of the poetry academy Los Sitibundos, founded by Manuel de Belmonte, although none of his own poems are preserved. His son Salomon de Rocamora was also a physician in Amsterdam.
Bibliographer and scholar of Spanish origin, born in Constantinople around 1570 and died in Jerusalem in 1650, Jacob Roman ibn Bakoda is said to have known the entire Mishna by heart and spoke Arabic, Turkish and Latin. Recommended to Johannes Buxtorf the Younger in Basel, he provided him with most of the bibliographic appendix to his father's « Bibliotheca Rabbinica ». In 1634, he conceived the project, never realized, of restoring a Hebrew printing press in Constantinople, where he planned to publish Maimonides' « Moreh Nebukim » in three languages; none of his own works were ever printed.
Physician, mathematician, astrologer and poet born in 1588 (or 1593 according to some) in Lisbon, and died in Florence or Livorno in 1662 or 1668, son of the Marrano physician Fernando Bocarro. Trained in medicine and mathematics in Montpellier, he practiced in Portugal with prestigious patients before going to Rome in 1625, where he became friends with Galileo, then settled in Amsterdam, where he openly embraced Judaism under the name of Jacob. Later established in Hamburg, he is appointed « Comes Palatinus » by Emperor Ferdinand III in July 1647, before returning to Amsterdam and ending his life in Italy.
Scholar and liturgical poet of the first half of the 16th century, born in Barcelona into a prominent family. Expelled from Naples during the expulsion of Jews in 1541, he took refuge in Avignon, then spent several years in Rome, where he completed in 1549 a manuscript treatise on the ten sefirot, the « Sha'are Ḥayyim », then was in Ferrare in 1550. He composed an elegy on the martyrdom of the priest Eleazar in the time of the Maccabees, since incorporated into the Carpentras ritual.
Italian physician and scholar, born in Mantua in 1513 or 1514 and died in 1578, he distinguished himself by his mastery of Hebrew, Latin and Italian, studying medicine, archaeology and history alike. Established in turn in Ferrara, Ancona, Bologna and Sabbioneta, he survived the earthquake of 1571 in Ferrara, which he related in his « Ḳol Elohim », and drafted in twenty days a Hebrew translation of the Letter of Aristeas, the « Hadrat Zeḳenim ». These two texts were integrated into his great work, the « Me'or 'Enayim » (Mantua, 1573-75).
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Amron. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-2.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-4.
Rabbi of Bagris, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi of Fes, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5310 of the Hebrew era (1550). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-1.
author
Salomon ben Nathan Ashkenazi (c. 1520-1602), born in Udine into a Jewish family of German origin, trained in medicine in Padua and as a rabbi, was court physician in Cracow and then Constantinople from 1564 onwards. A key intermediary between the Ottoman Empire and Venice during the war of 1570, he notably contributed to the readmission of Jews to Venice in 1573.
Yemenite Talmudist of Sanaa and Aden, author of Melekhet Shlomo on the Mishna.
rabbi, poet and Jewish kabbalist of the Ottoman Empire
Solomon ben Abraham ha-Cohen of Sérès (MaHaRShaQ), Eastern talmudist, lives in Salonique in the second half of the sixteenth century and studies under Joseph Firman. He is the author of the "Che'elot ou-Techouvot," a collection of responsa in three parts published in Salonique (1586), Venice (1592) and again in Salonique (1594), also comprising a commentary on the divorce laws of Maimonides and novellae on the Tossafot. Special editions of the work appeared in Wilmersdorf in 1720 and in Salonique in 1730.
Salomon ben Eliezer ha-Levi, Turkish Talmudist of the 15th and 16th centuries, brother of Abraham b. Eliezer ha-Levi who cites him in his « Ma'amar ha-Yiḥoud », is the author of the « Moré Tsedeq », or « Avodat ha-Levi » (published perhaps in Constantinople in 1516), a treatise on the six hundred thirteen commandments indicating passages of the Talmud and other rabbinic sources that treat them — a work he says he composed when he was still very young.
Salomon ben Mazal Tov, Hebrew-versed poet and proofreader—or perhaps printer—Turkish, distinguished himself in Constantinople in the first half of the sixteenth century. Active in Hebrew printing from 1513 to 1549, he notably signed David Qimḥi's "Sefer ha-Horachim" (1513) and the "Miklol" by the same author (1532), as well as a collection of hymns, "Chirim ou-Zemirot" (1545 or 1548), some pieces of which are from his own pen. He also left a poem on chess, published much later by Edelmann in "Divre Ḥefets" (London, 1853).
Born around 1505 in a Sephardic family of Salonique. Kabbalist, he composed the hymn welcoming the Sabbath Lekha Dodi (c. 1579), which entered all liturgies. Author of commentaries: Manot ha-Levi on the Book of Esther (completed 1529, printed 1585), Ayelet Ahavim on the Song of Songs (1552), Brit ha-Levi on the Haggada (1563). He subsequently settled in Safed, the center of Kabbalah.
Polish decisor, author of the Yam chel Chlomo, an independent Talmudist who favored a return to the sources over the codes. He headed the yeshiva of Lublin.
Rabbi and kabbalist, martyr of the 1648 massacres, author of kabbalistic commentaries.
Kabbalist, son of Hayyim Vital, editor and transmitter of Lurianic writings.
Talmudist of Safed in the sixteenth century, descendant of a family from Uceda banished from Spain. Head of the talmudic school of Safed thanks to the generosity of the wealthy Salomon di Shiraz, he became an itinerant preacher after the latter's death, and was aided in Constantinople by Abraham Algazi, who financed his last work. He is the author of the «Midrash Shemouel» (Venice, 1579), a commentary on Pirké Avot, of the «Lehem Dim'a» (1600), a commentary on Lamentations, and of the «Iggeret Shemouel» (Constantinople, 1600), a commentary on Ruth.
Rabbi of Ferrara in the 16th century, whose mastery of halakha is mentioned in the responsa of Jehiel b. Azriel Trabot. Author of a work of glosses on the code of Alfasi.
One of the three founders of the Paradesi synagogue in Cochin, built in 1568 with David Belila and Joseph Levi, on land given by the Raja of Kochi, for the Sephardic community of the 'White Jews' (Paradesi).
Dutch-Jewish physician
rabbi
Commentator and kabbalist of Safed, author of the Midrash Shmuel on the Pirké Avot.
Rabbi (the Maharcha), author of the Hidouchei Halakhot, major Talmudic commentary.
Rabbi of the sixteenth century, author of « Derekh Ḥayyim », on the 613 commandments, of « Ner Mitsva » (Venice, 1598), seventeen homilies on the thirteen articles of faith, and of « Torah Or » (1605), homilies on the Pentateuch.
Royal Prussian-born English polymath c. 1600–1662
Maternal grandson of Samuel de Modena, who lived in Salonika in the sixteenth century. He composed « Bene Shemuel », a collection of Talmudic tales on the Ṭour Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ as well as on the laws of festivals and mixtures, and his numerous responsa were published in Salonika in 1613, in two volumes.
Rabbi of Venice, son of the Maharam of Padua, renowned talmudic scholar.
Rabbi and exegete of Aleppo, author of biblical commentaries « Keli Yakar », surnamed Baal ha-Kelim.
Jewish-Moroccan merchant, diplomat and pirate
Preacher and actuary of the rabbinate of Prague under Ephraïm Salomon of Lenczyca, in the second half of the sixteenth century. He is the author of « Peroush al ha-Massoret », a complement to the masoretic explanations of Elijah Levita (Prague, 1610), of « Seder Nashim », on feminine commandments, written in Judeo-German (1629), of a work on the Massorah published in Kraków after 1629, and of additions to the rules of ritual slaughter by Jacob Weil (Prague, 1668).
Court physician to the popes Alexander VI and Julius II, died around 1519, probably from southern France. At the coronation of Julius II, he presented on behalf of the Jews a petition for the maintenance of their privileges; confirmed in his rights by a bull of May 14, 1504, he became physician to the court of Julius II, exempt from wearing the badge and placed with his family under the direct protection of the Pope, who granted him more confidence than his Christian physicians. On August 17, 1511, when all other physicians had declared the Pope dead, his contrary diagnosis proved correct, and Julius II lived two more years.
Poet and Jewish intellectual of Venice, known for her philosophical correspondence with the monk Ansaldo Cebà and her literary salon which attracted scholars from northern Italy; accused of heresy in 1621 for her positions on the immortality of the soul, she defended herself in her Manifesto.
Editor, and perhaps author, active in the sixteenth century. He edited the « Maḥzor Sefardi » (Venice, 1584) and had printed at his own expense, the same year, a Jewish calendar covering the period 1585–1639. He might be identical to the author of « Shemen Sason », a treatise on the Massorah citing ancient works on the subject, itself cited in the « Or Torah » of Lonzano and the « Minḥat Shai » of Norzi.
Dutch rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, head of the beth-din, halakhist and chronicler; author of Divrei ha-Yamim de Fès.
king for a day in Polish Jewish folklore
Moravian Talmudist of the 16th century, student of Moses Isserlès, who addressed him with a large number of his responsa, most devoted to the Sefer ha-Mordekhaï; he seems to have resided in Posen then remained long absent, seeking a position in a German city. His most known student was Joël Sirkes, author of the Bayit Hadash (BaH). An identification proposed by Fuenn with the rabbi of Brest-Litovsk Naphtali Herz has since been refuted.
Italian Christian merchant, active in Rome in the 16th century. He concludes with the Jew Samson Ceneda a wager on the conquest of Saint-Domingue, stipulating that in the event of defeat Ceneda would owe him a pound of his own flesh, while he himself would pay a thousand scudi in case of loss; the Jew having lost, Secchi demanded payment of the clause, and the affair was brought before Pope Sixtus V, who punished both parties for concluding such a wager. The episode inspired, with roles reversed, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
English jurist and orientalist, born December 16, 1584 in Salvington, Sussex, died at Whitefriars, London, on November 30, 1654. Admitted to the Inner Temple in 1612, he became one of the principal jurists of the Parliamentary party, imprisoned for his opinions, and was a prolific author constantly drawing on rabbinic sources; among his works are A Treatise on the Jews in England (1617), the Uxor Ebraica on Hebrew marriage and divorce (1646), and the De Synedriis Veterum Ebraeorum on the Sanhedrin (1646-53).
Polish rabbi
Kabbalistic author of Shefa Tal, disseminator of Cordoverian doctrine.
Polish Talmudist, born around 1510, died in Lublin on October 29, 1558. Student of Jacob Pollak, founder of the pilpul method, he was already a renowned master in 1528, attracting hundreds of students to his yeshiva in Lublin, among them Moïse Isserlès of Cracow, his son-in-law. Out of modesty, he forbade on his deathbed his son Israël to have his manuscripts printed; one of them, the Pessakim be-Inyan Kiddouchin, was nevertheless edited in Cracow.
Rabbi, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5355 of the Hebrew era (1595). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5360 of the Hebrew era (1600). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 108-4.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1545). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 120-1.
Jewish teacher
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Rabbi of Fes, 16th century. Mentioned in 5314 of the Hebrew era (1554). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-1.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-1.
Rabbi born in Łęczyca, author of the Torah commentary Keli Yakar.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Yehuda II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-1.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Died in 5326 of the Hebrew era (1566). Son of Maimon, himself son of Saadia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-3.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew calendar (1540–1639). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Haim. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-4.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5310 of the Hebrew era (1550). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Rabbi of Fes, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5319 of the Hebrew era (1559). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-2.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-4.
Jewish physician and historian, active in the second half of the 16th century, of Spanish origin, who after a eventful life went to Constantinople, where he was supported by Esther Kiera, in great favor at the sultan's court. Through her, he published, not without omissions, the Yuḥassin of Zacuto (Constantinople, 1566), to which he added a chronology of dynasties by the Syrian historian Grégoire Bar-Hebraeus as well as a Turkish history of his own; he also published a Hebrew translation of Josephus' Against Apion and the letter of Sherira Gaon.
Peruvian physician, polemicist and martyr, born in San Miguel, in the province of Tucumán, around 1592, burned alive in Lima on January 23, 1639. Son and brother of neo-Christians "reconciled" by the Inquisition in 1605, he remained a fervent Catholic until his father, in Callao, revealed to him his secret fidelity to the Mosaic law; having become a Jew believing in appearance to be Catholic, he was denounced by his own sister, arrested on December 12, 1626 then apprehended on April 29, 1627. Remaining unshaken despite conversion attempts, he refused pork, fasted for forty days awaiting the Messiah and had himself circumcised, being a surgeon by profession.
Simeon ben Samuel, philosopher and kabbalist of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, born in France or Germany, is the author of a philosophical and theological treatise on the Decalogue, the thirteen attributes of God and the thirteen articles of faith, entitled « Adam Sikli » or « Hadrat Qodech », accompanied by a commentary, « Guilayon », and a kabbalistic meditation in the form of a prayer. This work was written in 1400.
Italian rabbi
Polish rabbi born in Lublin in 1561 and died in Cracow in 1640, Joel ben Samuel Sirkes studied at the yeshivot of Salomon ben Juda and then R. Phoebus in Brest-Litovsk, before successively occupying several rabbinates—Pruszany, Lubkow, Lublin, Miedzyboz, Beldza, Szydlowka—and then, like his master R. Phoebus before him, those of Brest-Litovsk and Cracow. An adept of Kabbalah and opposed to pilpul as well as to philosophy, he is the author of the « Meshiv Nefesh » (Lublin, 1616) and the « Bayit Ḥadash », commentary on the Arba'ah Ṭourim (Cracow, 1631–40).
Sixtus of Siena, an Italian convert to Christianity and anti-Talmudic agitator, was born in Siena in 1520 and died in 1569. After entering the Franciscans following his conversion, he was condemned to the stake for heterodoxy but was saved by Cardinal Michele Ghislieri, the future Pius V. He then joined the Dominican order and traveled, on orders from Paul IV, through the Papal States to preach against the Jews. In April 1559, he went to Cremona to burn the Talmud, but spared the Zohar; he was also the author of the «Bibliotheca Sancta» (Venice, 1566).
Benjamin Aaron ben Abraham Sloniḳ is a Polish Talmudist born around 1550 and died after 1619, disciple of Salomon Louria, Moïse Isserlès and Nathan Spiro. Having become almost blind and destitute towards the end of his life, he is the author of a collection of responsa, « Mas'at Binyamin » (Cracow, 1632), and of a work in Yiddish on the religious duties of women, « Seder Miẓwot Nashim », which saw numerous editions from 1577 onwards; two of his sons, Abraham, rabbi of Brest-Litovsk, and Jäkel, were themselves renowned Talmudists.
Karaite scholar and author active in the second half of the sixteenth century, brother of Joseph ben Mardochée Troki. He is the author of a work on the calendar, « Ḳiddush ha-Ḥodesh we-Sod ha-'Ibbur », and of responsa on the laws of ritual slaughter, both mentioned by Simha Louzki in his « Orah Tsaddikim ».
Martin Alfonso de Sosa, Portuguese envoy and later governor of Goa, in the mid-16th century, discovers at Cranganore, near Cochin, several bronze tablets bearing ancient inscriptions that a Jewish philologist from Calcutta identifies as written in Malabar, Chaldean, and Arabic, and relating to privileges granted to the Jews of the region. He himself translates these inscriptions into Hebrew, a translation later rendered into Portuguese, and a Hebrew copy was found in the mid-19th century in the hands of a certain Leo, cantor of the synagogue on Greene Street in New York.
Polish scholar of the sixteenth century, editor of several Jewish prayer books accompanied by commentaries: the « Tefillot mi-Kol ha-Shanah » (Lublin, 1571; Krakow, 1606), in collaboration with Koppelmann, the « Maḥzor » according to Polish, Bohemian and Moravian rites (Lublin, 1579), the « Seliḥot » according to the Polish rite (Krakow, 1584), provided with a commentary by his father-in-law Mordecai Mardos, and the « Yoẓerot » (Krakow, 1592), also with Koppelmann.
Hungarian deputy treasurer, died in August 1526. Forced to convert to Christianity after an affair with a Christian woman, he used his position to protect his former co-religionists, notably obtaining the revocation of an order expelling Jews from Prague; accused by the nobility of being responsible for the kingdom's financial difficulties, he was targeted by a request for execution at the Diet of 1525, imprisoned by King Louis II then released, and died shortly after escaping a riot that looted his house. His descendants took the name Sachs.
Rabbi and Egyptian author of the 16th century, descendant of the Tanuji family of Tunis. In 1543, he writes, in a style intended for a wide audience, the Sefer ha-Zikkaron, a collection of halakhic decisions on matters of current concern, printed in Ferrare in 1555; at the head of the rabbis of Egypt, he appends his signature to the approbation of the responsa of R. Élie ben Hayyim. A synagogue in Egypt still bears his name.
Persian translator of the Bible active in the sixteenth century, Jacob ben Joseph Tawus gave, for the polyglot Pentateuch printed in Constantinople in 1546, a Persian version in Hebrew characters, based on ancient Judeo-Persian translations and influenced by the Targum of Onkelos, the Arabic version of Saadia Gaon as well as the commentaries of Rashi and ibn Ezra. His translation was taken up in 1657 in the fourth volume of the London Polyglot, but remained long unrecognized until Munk established its true nature in 1838.
Algerian Talmudist active in Algiers in the 16th century, grandson through his mother of Salomon b. Simeon Duran and thus descendant of Nahmanide, contemporary of Salomon b. Tsemah Duran and his brother Simeon b. Tsemah Duran II, whose son Tsemah was his student. Thirty-five of his responsa were inserted in the Hout ha-Meshoullash of Simeon b. Tsemah Duran, and others were cited by various authors under the titles of Nofek and Sappir — his responsa appear to have comprised twelve parts, named after the precious stones of the high priest's breastplate.
German Talmudist and Kabbalist, born in Worms in the late 16th century and died in Vienna around 1667. Having left for Poland at a young age, he directed a Talmudic school in Lublin, then lived much of his life in Krzemieniec before settling, in his old age, in Vienna, where he remained until his death. Enjoying a high reputation as a Talmudist and Kabbalist, praised for his great piety, he is the author of the « Sifra di-Ẓeni'uta de-Ya'aḳob », Kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch (Amsterdam, 1669), and left several other commentaries and a collection of responsa in manuscript.
Austrian author of the 16th century, active in Prague, where she is said to have died around 1550. She is credited with two works: the Menekèt Rivka, in seven parts devoted to the duties of a housewife and stuffed with talmudic and midrashic anecdotes, printed in Prague in 1609 and then in Krakow in 1618, and a poem for the Simhat Torah festival, the Simhat Torah Lied.
Convert to Judaism in Amsterdam in the sixteenth century, died in Jerusalem. Departed from Portugal with several marranos on a ship diverted to Emden, in East Frisia, he reaches Amsterdam on the advice of Rabbi Moses Ouri ha-Levi, openly professes his Jewish faith there and has himself circumcised despite his advanced age. With Jacob Israël Belmonte and Samuel Palache, he founds the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam, of which he is the first president, and transforms his house on Houtgracht into a synagogue, the Bet Ya'akov, consecrated in September 1597; he dies in Jerusalem, where he had gone in his old age.
Italian Hebraist born in Ferrara in 1510, died in Sedan on October 9, 1580, educated at the University of Padua. Converted to Catholicism around 1540 through the mediation of Cardinal Pole, he subsequently embraced Protestantism and taught Hebrew in Strasbourg, before finding refuge in England, where he resides at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop Cranmer in 1547 then succeeds, in 1549, Paul Fagius as royal professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. Professor of Old Testament at Heidelberg from 1561, he finally retires to the college of Sedan, where he dies; his Latin translation of the Bible from the Hebrew and Syriac, published at Frankfurt between 1575 and 1579, was reissued in London in 1580.
Palestinian commentator and preacher born in Safed in the first quarter of the 16th century, whose name comes from the city of Uceda, in the archdiocese of Toledo. Student of Isaac Louria and Hayyim Vital in Kabbalah, he became rabbi and preacher in Safed and then in Constantinople. He is the author of the Iggeret Chemouel, commentary on the Book of Ruth published in 1557, of the Lehem Dim'a, commentary on Lamentations (Venice, 1600), and especially of the Midrash Chemouel (Venice, 1579), detailed commentary on Pirké Avot drawing on numerous commentators still unpublished at the time.
Sixteenth-century scholar born in Bienne, established in Safed. From a 1537 manuscript cataloguing the tombs of patriarchs, prophets, amoraim and tannaim, he composed, enriched by his travel observations, the Yihous ha-Avot, published in Venice in 1659 and translated into Latin by Hottinger the same year; he is also the author of a calendar published in Venice in 1575 and translated into Latin in Heidelberg in 1594.
(1544–1621)
Physician and author active in the Greek archipelago in the second half of the sixteenth century. He wrote the Yad ha-Mélekh, commentary on the book of Esther completed in Corfu on 6 February 1579, and the Hazon la-Moëd, philosophical commentary on the book of Daniel completed on 7 February 1580 near Patras, in Morea — both published with the text in Venice in 1586, the latter being partly incorporated into the Amsterdam Rabbinic Bible (1724-27). He also left in manuscript the Émek ha-Baka, the Pi Hakham, and the Beit ha-Malkhout.
Judge and scholar of Fès, author of the biblical commentary Tsouf Devash.
Son of Yitzhak and grandson of Vidal I, both eminent in Fès. The Hida counted him among « the geniuses of the West ». Encyclopedic scholar (citing Greek, Arabic and rabbinical philosophers) and physician, he left important biblical and midrashic commentaries. Part of his writings remain unpublished.
Spanish scholar, emigrated from Spain in the early sixteenth century, died in Arta, Greece, after 1536. Passing through Turkey, he settled in Patras, in Morea, where he lost almost his entire library during the fall of the city in 1532, then withdrew to Arta. He is the author of Kéter Torah (Constantinople, 1536), on the 613 commandments, Mikhtam le-David (Venice, 1540), versification of the thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides, and several piyyoutim, including a poem on the divisions of the year.
Christian Hebraist born in 1600 in Hilton, in Yorkshire, died in London on November 29, 1661, trained at Cambridge. London ecclesiastic then king's chaplain, he conceived after his imprisonment the project of a polyglot Bible better and cheaper than the one published in Paris in 1645; launched by a subscription in 1652 under the patronage of Selden and Ussher, the work in six volumes and nine languages appeared between 1654 and 1657. Dedicated to Parliament and then, after the Restoration, to the king, it earned Walton his appointment as Bishop of Chester in 1660; his Polyglot remains the standard work to this day, although its texts no longer meet modern requirements.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi originally from Spain, head of the community of exiles (megorashim) of Fez in the 16th century, liturgical poet and signatory of the Taqqanot (ordinances of those exiled from Castile). Tradition nicknames him « the king of the Rif ».
Descendant of Jews who fled Portugal during the Inquisition, settled in Egypt. Student of the Radbaz, he is considered the last great rabbi (authority recognized by all communities) of Egypt. His halakhic authority was a reference throughout the country.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew Era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Masorite and editor. Refugee from Tunis to Venice, he established at the printer Daniel Bomberg the second rabbinic Bible (Miqraot Guedolot, 1524-1525), setting the arrangement of the text, the Targoumim, the commentaries and the Masoretic apparatus that would be a reference for centuries.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 16th century. Mentioned in 5339 of the Hebrew era (1579). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-1.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5301 of the Hebrew era (1541). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5304 of the Hebrew calendar (1544). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-3.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5270 of the Hebrew era (1510). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-1.
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5337 of the Hebrew calendar (1577). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1526). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 71-2.
Described as Chief Rabbi of Azemmour, close relative of Rabbi Yaacob Adiba; he was official interpreter to the Portuguese governor of Azemmour and mediator in conflicts between the King of Portugal and Moroccan tribes (negotiations in 1514 and 1530).
Renowned rabbi of Meknès, died in 1598, cited in the onomastic notice devoted to the name Azerad.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fourth century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
Member of the great family of bankers da Pisa of Tuscany. Author of treatises that first circulated in manuscript and were later printed: a treatise on credit and interest (Hayyei Olam / Ma'amar Hayei Olam) and Minhat Kena'ot, a work criticizing Aristotelianism and defending a kabbalistic approach. His works were published in the 19th–20th centuries (Minhat Kena'ot by D. Kaufmann, Berlin 1898; Hayyei Olam by G. S. Rosenthal, 1962).
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5306 of the Hebrew era (1546). Son of Shem Tov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-2.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5316 of the Hebrew era (1556). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5348 of the Hebrew era (1588). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5322 of the Hebrew era (1562). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-4.
Judeo-Persian poet of Lar, author of Makhzan al-pand (Treasury of Exhortation).
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5309 of the Hebrew era (1549). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5304 of the Hebrew era (1544). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-4.
Rabbi, 16th century. Mentioned in 5282 of the Hebrew era (1522). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-2.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-2.
Scholar of the early sixteenth century, also known as Salomon Isaac Sekel Ashkenazi. He is the author of a commentary on the book of Ruth, « Perush 'al Rut », published in Salonique in 1551 and then reprinted, with the « Pardès Rimmonim », in Sabbioneta in 1554.
Rabbi of Meknès, sixteenth century. Died in 5358 of the Hebrew era (1598). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5286 of the Hebrew era (1526). Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Yihye II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Rabbi, sixteenth century. Died in 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5344 of the Hebrew era (1584). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 73-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5301 of the Hebrew era (1541). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-2.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5351 of the Hebrew era (1591). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5323 of the Hebrew era (1563). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Mentioned in 5355 of the Hebrew era (1595). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi of Fes, 16th century. Mentioned in 5344 of the Hebrew era (1584). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 16th century. Mentioned in 5324 of the Hebrew era (1564). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-2.
Rabbi of Fez, sixteenth century. Died in 5330 of the Hebrew era (1570). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-1.
Rabbi, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 75-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
Rabbi and decisioner of Safed (the Maharitz), author of responsa.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Died in 5355 of the Hebrew era (1595). Son of Yehuda, himself son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-4.
Rabbi, 16th century. Died in 5302 of the Hebrew era (1542). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 16th century. Born in 5270 of the Hebrew era (1510). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Influential physician of the Jewish community of Venice, at the center of the famous halakhic controversy of the Tamari-Venturozzo affair (1560–1566), arising from the contested repudiation of his daughter Tamar by Shmuel Venturozzo. The affair mobilized most of the rabbis of Italy as well as those of Salonika, Constantinople and Eretz Israel; the Tamari camp, supported by the rabbis of Venice and the Radbaz, had a memorandum printed in Venice in 1566.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 56-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 4th century of the Hebrew era (1540–1639). Son of Yehuda II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-1.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5305 of the Hebrew era (1545). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
Rabbi of Fès, sixteenth century. Mentioned in 5344 of the Hebrew era (1584). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
First known member of the dynasty; author of the "Sefer Ha-Zikaron" (The Book of Remembrance), a clear compendium of laws following the order of Talmudic tractates, completed in 1543 and printed in Ferrara in 1555. The work aroused enough controversy that he subsequently settled in Cairo, where he briefly served as chief rabbi.
German Talmudist of the sixteenth century, rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem, where he died, and father-in-law of Joseph Caro, who held him for a fine connoisseur of rabbinic law. In 1565, he finds himself at the heart of a controversy over a case of ḥaliza: an Ashkenazi widower having married the widow of his brother rather than performing the rite, contrary to Ashkenazi custom, Zacharie and his colleagues excommunicate him, against the opinion of David ben Zimra — other Sephardic rabbis ultimately siding with them.
Associated, with Samuel Boehm, with the Christian printer Vincenzo Conti for the first Hebrew printing production in Cremona: the « Ammudei Golah » (Sefer Mitzvot Katan) of Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil, begun around 1556. Active as a corrector in the Cremonese workshop.
Hebrew poet renowned for the elegance of his style, active in Rhodes in the sixteenth century. During a stay in Constantinople, he composed the « Leḥem Yehudah » (Constantinople, 1560), which brings together an allegory on the soul, poems and epigrams targeting several celebrities, including Maimonides; some of his shorter poems were published by Edelmann in his « Dibre Ḥefeẓ » (London, 1853).
Ritual slaughterer in Kraków in the sixteenth century, student of Moïse Isserlès, author of « Haggahot le-Sefer Sheḥiṭah u-Bediḳah » (Kraków, 1631), annotations to Jacob Weil's work on the laws of ritual slaughter and examination of the lungs.
Son of Sa'īd (Sa'adia) al-Ḍāhirī, originating from Kawkaban (district of al-Mahwit). Considered one of the greatest Yemenite Jewish poets. He composed his rimmed prose while imprisoned with the Sanaa community in 1568. His work offers firsthand testimony of Safed and the yeshiva of Joseph Karo.
Poet and Rabbinical scholar, author of Sefer ha-Moussar, a travel narrative in rimmed prose.
Hasidism, Jewish Enlightenment, emancipation, migrations.
writer
German rabbi
Rabbi of Zempelburg, in western Prussia, formerly attached to the kingdom of Poland, active around the middle of the 17th century and intimate friend of Shabbethaï Hurwitz, rabbi of Prague. His work « Ḳorban Aharon », published for the first time in Amsterdam in 1646, summarizes in alphabetical order the decisions of Moïse Isserlès in his « Torat Ḥaṭat »; he is also the author of an acrostic teḥinnah beginning with « Elohai dalfah 'eni ».
German biblical scholar
Ottoman Talmudist, author of the treatise Hen Yeshallah, in controversy with Moses Benveniste.
Judeo-German poet of the seventeenth century, taken prisoner in Ofen (Buda), capital of Hungary, on 2 September 1686, when the imperial troops of the Duke Charles of Lorraine wrested it from the Turks. He is the author of "Ein Schoen Neu Lied von Ofen" (Bak, Prague, 1686), a poem describing the fate of the Jews of Buda and dedicated to Sender ben Joseph Tausk.
Judeo-Persian poet, author of Shoftim-nameh, versified paraphrase of the book of Judges.
Rabbi and Talmudist (Prague, Worms, Cracow), author of a commentary on the Haggada.
Member of the rabbinical college of Lemberg, where he figures among the rabbis called upon to decide a case of matrimonial law concerning the remarriage of the widow of a man killed by the bands of Chmielnicki. He died in Lemberg on 20 June 1651.
Hebrew author born around 1620, active in Germany in the second half of the 17th century. He published in 1690 in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, then elderly, the « Bet Aharon », a repertory of passages from the Talmud, the Midrashim, the Zohar and numerous rabbinical and kabbalistic works where each biblical verse is cited or explained, a work of ten years; he also translated into Judeo-German, at the request of his wife, the Midrash on the death of Moses (1693).
Rabbi active in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, author of the biblical concordance Beit Aharon.
Italian Kabbalist died in 1639, student of Rabbi Hillel of Modène and Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano; he established, at the request of the Ḥebrah Ḳaddisha of Mantua, the rites of this funeral confraternity. A prolific author, he notably composed the 'Ma'abar Yabboḳ,' dealing with separation, purity and holiness, with prayers and rules for the sick and the dead, as well as a set of four volumes on Kabbalah according to Moïse Cordovero and Isaac Luria.
Talmudist and head of yeshiva in Constantinople, master of several Ottoman scholars.
Talmudist and director of a yeshiva in Constantinople, active toward the end of the 17th century. Student of Ḥayyim Shabbethai in Salonika, he founded in Constantinople a talmudic school from which notably Aaron ben Isaac Sason and Isaac Raphael Alfandari emerged, and maintained scholarly correspondence with R. Benveniste, author of the « Keneset ha-Gedolah ».
Hungarian scholar died in Nikolsburg on April 10, 1670. Successor of Gerson Ashkenazi, he was rabbi of Nikolsburg while also serving as chief rabbi of the province of Moravia; the epithet "Ḥarif" (the penetrating thinker) had also been borne by four of his ancestors.
Rabbi and author of Salonika, student of Hasdaï Perahia ha-Kohen.
British rabbi
Ottoman rabbi
Polish Jewish rabbi
Court agent (Court Jew) of King Ladislas IV of Poland in the 17th century. He is known only through a letter of January 11, 1638, in the official correspondence between the Russian and Polish courts, where Ladislas asks Tsar Mikhail Fiodorovich for permission for his agent to travel to Moscow to purchase, duty-free, utensils intended for the royal household and to sell precious goods — a request that the tsar did not grant.
Rabbi, editor and merchant of Salé, of the Siboni family.
Author of the "Nishmat Adam" (Hanau, 1611), a collection of dissertations on the nature of the soul, the purpose of human existence, the world to come, rewards and punishments.
Lithuanian rabbi
Author active in the seventeenth century, he composed the « 'Amude Sheba' » (Seven Pillars), published in Cracow in 1637: commentaries and glosses on the old and new Zohar with explanation of foreign words, treatises not included in the old Zohar, indications of commentaries and references to the book « Tiḳḳunim », and remarks on the style of the Zohar.
Judeo-Turkish scholar active around the mid-17th century, author of the « Bet Aharon », a collection of sixty homilies following the order of the sections of the Pentateuch and accompanied by commentaries on the « 'En Ya'aḳob » of Jacob Ḥabib. The work was published after his death by his son Elihu in Constantinople, in 1678-79.
Rabbi in Amsterdam in the second half of the 17th century, where he died around 1693. He translated into Portuguese, after the Hebrew version by Ibn Tibbon, the "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" of Baḥya (Amsterdam, 1670), which contributed to the popularity of this work in the Sephardic communities of Western Europe ; he possessed a rich collection of books in Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin, a catalogue of which appeared in the year of his death.
Hebrew poet and Talmudist, lived around the middle of the 17th century in Rosette, Egypt, descended from the Abbas family. His full name would be, according to Pollak, Moses Juda Abbas ben Meïr; he left a commentary on the Talmudic tractates Kallah, Soferim and Semaḥot, which Azulai possessed, as well as several responsa remaining in manuscript in the Bodleian collection.
Purported martyr of the Roman Catholic Church in Prague who, according to the account of Jesuit John Eder, was killed by his father Lazarus Abeles on March 21, 1694 for persisting in his desire to embrace Christianity; his body was buried with great ceremony in the church of Teyn with the honors due to a martyr. The father, imprisoned, strangled himself with his tefillin, and a presumed accomplice, Söbl or Levy Kurtzhandl, was put to death; the Jesuit account is one-sided and implausible on many points, and an impartial inquiry into the sources is still lacking.
Refugee fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, he settled in Hamburg and was related to the ḥakam of the same name; his sons Jacob and Isaac, born in Spain, devoted themselves to works of erudition.
Probably the son of Daniel Abensur, he too served as resident minister of Poland to Hamburg after 1695. By instituting private religious services in his own house in 1701, he provoked a division within the Portuguese congregation, whose elders vainly sought the intervention of the authorities.
Author of « Sefer Toledot Yiẓḥaḳ », a collection of homilies on the Pentateuch of which only the first part was published by his son Solomon in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in 1691.
Christian Hebraist born in 1672 in Königsee, in the Principality of Schwarzbourg-Rudolstadt, and died in 1740. After studies in Jena and then Leipzig, he became professor of Oriental languages at the University of Jena in 1702, rector of the gymnasium in Danzig in 1707, and was then called to Wittenberg in 1729 as general superintendent and first professor of theology. Passionate about rabbinic literature, he translated into Latin excerpts from the commentaries of Rachi, Abravanel and Ibn Ezra, published notably under the title « Selecta Rabbinica » (Leipzig, 1703).
Kabbalist of the seventeenth century, he settled in Hebron, one of the principal centers of Jewish mystics of his time. His kabbalistic work « Bat Melek » (The Daughter of the King) was edited by Salomon Altaras in Venice in 1712.
Polish talmudist born around 1635 in Gombin, Russian Poland, and died around 1683 in Kalisz, where he was dayyan (assistant rabbinical judge) almost all his life. Son of Ḥayyim ha-Levi, killed by Cossacks in 1655, he is the author of the « Magen Abraham », commentary on the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, published in 1692, as well as other cabalistic and talmudic works published until 1732.
Rabbi and ritual slaughterer (shohet) in Fès in the 17th century. Author of novellas (hiddouchim) that were reproduced by the rabbi of Meknès Eliézer Bahloul in his book « Mar'eh Einayim » (Mree Enayim).
Sephardi rabbi settled in Jerusalem in 1655, author of commentaries on Jewish law.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Emissary from the Holy Land called Mwalin Dad, saint healer; hiloula on Lag Ba'omer.
physician
Polish Talmudist of the first half of the seventeenth century, died in Brest, in Lithuania, in 1642. Rabbi in Tarnopol in 1636, he was called the same year to the rabbinate of Brest, then the largest community in Poland, where he remained until his death. The great rabbis of his time — Joël Sirkès, Meïr Kohen-Tsedek and Rabbi Heschel of Cracow — treat him in their writings with the greatest respect. He left glosses on the « Ṭour Oraḥ Ḥayyim », annexed to the work of his father Benjamin Aaron, who died in 1620, himself author of the « Massat Binyamin ».
Polish author of the seventeenth century, he went to Vienna and, following the expulsion of Jews from that city in 1670, settled in Brest, in Lithuania, where he married a daughter of Elie Lipschütz. He is the author of the « Assara Maamarot » (Ten Sayings), on the ten divine sayings of creation according to Pirké Avot as well as on the Decalogue, published in 1680 in Hamburg or Frankfurt-on-the-Oder. In 1685, he published « Zéra Abraham », on the order of the weekly readings of the Pentateuch, and in 1698 a cabalistic treatise on the Decalogue in which he expressed his intention to emigrate to Palestine.
Polish preacher (darshan) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, great-grandson of Issachar Baer, surnamed Baerman Ashkenazi, commentator of the Rabbot. In Amsterdam, in 1673, he edited his grandfather's work, "Maré Cohen", adding an introduction. Having later become blind, he published forty years later, at an advanced age, his own work, "Ori vé-Yichi" (Berlin, 1714), a collection of sermons on repentance, prayer and charity.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Liturgical poet of the seventeenth century, born in Kosfeld and became rabbi in Münster. During a stay in Amsterdam in 1675, he learned of an attempt to defame the Jews by an ecclesiastic named Christopher Bernard, to which a victorious response was made. Abraham ben Isaac then composed seliḥot and then, once the danger passed, pizmonim, printed by Joseph Athias in Amsterdam in 1677 in a brochure that became very rare, approved by many rabbinic authorities.
Active commentator in the seventeenth century, author of the « Holekh Tamim » (He who walks in integrity), which explains the laws of the Pentateuch according to the method of four-level interpretation — literal, allegorical, homiletic and mystical (Cracow, 1634).
Physician trained in Padua, he practiced in Frankfurt. He is the author of the Sefer Refu'ot (1700), a treatise combining ailments of body and soul.
Palestinian rabbi and author born around 1670. He was rabbi in Jerusalem and member of the rabbinical court presided by Moses ben Jonathan Galante. He is the author of a theological work entitled 'Brit Abraham' (The Covenant of Abraham), cited by Ḥayyim Aboulafia in his book 'Ets Ḥayyim'.
Polish commentator born in Cracow around 1620, died probably in Hamburg around 1670, or at least sometime after 1659. Fleeing the Cossack persecutions of Jews in Poland in 1656, he took refuge in Hamburg, where he wrote a commentary on Megillat Taanit, printed in Amsterdam in 1659 and reprinted several times. His work was, however, poorly received by his contemporaries: Éphraïm Cohen, author of « Chaar Éphraïm », and Abraham Gombiner, author of « Maguen Abraham », both speak of it with some disdain.
Jewish scholar of the Sephardic Cavallero family (var. Caballero) established in Fès between 1688 and 1700, attesting to the presence of the surname in Morocco.
Egyptian rabbi of the late seventeenth century. In 1691, he edited in Venice the responsa of his father, "Darké Noam," adding to them a personal treatise on circumcision that aroused vigorous opposition among the rabbis of his time. His own collection of responsa, "Guinat Vradim" (Garden of roses), organized according to the order of the four Turim, and his treatise on divorce, "Yaïr Netiv" (Illuminator of the path), were published in Constantinople in 1716-18 by his son-in-law Ḥayyim ben Moses Tavila, physician to the sultan.
Rabbi and Moroccan kabbalist of the first half of the seventeenth century, who studied the Kabbalah under Abraham Azoulaï. He wrote commentaries on several Talmudic treatises; the one on Nazir was printed in the collection « Brit Yaakov » published by Jacob Feitoussi (Leghorn, 1800), while his commentaries on Yoma and Sota survive in manuscript at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Polish Orthodox rabbi
Rabbi of Mantua (after a stay in Sassuolo), author of several halakhic works. Several of his responsa were taken up by contemporaries, notably in the « Devar Shemuel » of Samuel Aboab (Venice, 1702).
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew calendar (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 16-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 17th century. Mentioned in 5366 of the Hebrew era (1606). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5418 of the Hebrew era (1658). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-1.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Born in 5413 of the Hebrew era (1653). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-3.
Rabbi of Amsterdam, student of Morteira, author of the Minhat Kohen.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Hebron in the 17th c.
Parnas and leading figure of the Ashkenazi community of London, born in Hamburg after 1650 and died in London after 1721. In 1705, he had Rabbi Judah Loeb ben Ephraim Anschel removed to install Uri Phœbus in his place, and also intervened in the affairs of the Sephardic community by pointing out to Ẓebi Ashkenazi a passage deemed heretical from a sermon by David Nieto. He failed, however, to have Mordecai Hamburger excommunicated, who then founded the Hambro' synagogue.
Polish rabbi active towards the end of the seventeenth century, son of Juda Loeb, rabbi of Ulanov, in Galicia. Left young for Fürth, in Germany, with the intention of publishing his father's work, « Ets Kol Peri », he ultimately published, encouraged by the court agent Model, son of Amshel of Ansbach, his own work, « Pétah ha-Ohel » (The Entrance of the Tent), in two parts — one collecting popular aggadic subjects, the other dealing with disputed talmudic legal points. Abraham of Przemysl was related to Joël Heilprin, rabbi of Lemberg.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew Era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-2.
Polish halakhic authority, author of the Magen Avraham, the reference commentary on the Orach Chayyim section of the Shulchan Aruch. He was active in Kalisz.
Son of David Gradis, he developed from 1728 the firm « David Gradis et fils », obtained exclusive trading rights with Canada and founded in 1748 the Canada Company. He risked his fortune to supply New France (1757–1758) despite the English blockade. An observant Jew, syndic of the Portuguese nation of Bordeaux from 1738, he founded the first mutual aid fund of the Bordeaux Jewish community.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5398 of the Hebrew era (1638). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5429 of the Hebrew era (1669). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5404 of the Hebrew era (1644). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-4.
Rabbi and member of the beth-din of Modena, ordained in 1647 by his grandfather Nathaniel Trabot. Renowned as 'first collector of books and manuscripts among Italian Jews'. He signed 'Ish Ger' ('a strange man'), a play on his name's initials and on his condition as a stranger to Modena. He did not publish a work in his lifetime: his decisions and glosses survive mostly in manuscript; one of his responsa (1665) is written in Italian mixed with Hebrew verses and citations. A collection of about fifty poems is also known from him.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Died in 5441 of the Hebrew era (1681). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-4.
Son of the musician Isacchino Massarano. Author of a Hebrew narrative of the expulsion and pillage of the Jews of Mantua during the siege of 1630 (siege by imperial troops) and of their return.
Son of Joseph Maymeran, he was nagid (chief) of Moroccan Jewry and agent of the sherifs at the court of Moulay Ismaïl (1672–1727) in Meknès; he was among the wealthy Jews who had rich residences built in the mellah of Meknès and contributed to the sultan's diplomacy.
Spanish physician
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Died in 5362 of the Hebrew era (1602). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 13-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Portuguese businessman
Posek, disciple of Judah Rosanes, chief rabbi of Constantinople from 1720.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Modena, editor of mystical manuscripts.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5426 of the Hebrew era (1666). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Lithuanian merchant, surnamed « the Honorable Sir Abraham, the Jew of Turisk », active at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. His name appears in the customs registers of Brest-Litovsk for the year 1583, as an exporter of wood and grain. On May 19, 1595, Alexander Pronski, castellan of Troki, rented to him, with the « Noble Sir Burkatzki », for three years, a feudal estate in the district of Vladimir; on May 27, 1595, Prince and Princess Grigori Sangushko rented to him and to his wife Rikla Odinna the village of Koszar and other neighboring localities, then, six years later, on August 29, 1601, other towns and hamlets again.
Karaite leader active in Poland at the end of the seventeenth century, favored by King John III Sobieski (1674-96) and greatly involved in the founding of Karaite colonies around Lemberg, in Galicia. According to a Hebrew manuscript on the Karaites of Poland, it was King John Sobieski who conceived the project of these colonies and, in 1688, charged Abraham Chofet with inviting several Karaite families from Lithuania and Crimea to settle in Galicia ; many of them, coming from Troki, received privileges and communal autonomy there. Neubauer supposes that the nickname Chofet ("Judge") indicates that the hakham of the Lithuanian Karaites exercised judicial authority.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Rabbi of Rif, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-2.
Turkish talmudist active in the mid-seventeenth century. In collaboration with Michael ben Moïse ha-Cohen, he composed the « Moré Tsedek » (Master of Justice), printed in Salonique in 1655, a sort of concordance to the works of the Aharonim, the late decision-makers.
Preacher (darshan) of Lemberg in the first half of the seventeenth century, he published several homiletic works: the « Ben Da'at » (Hanau, 1616), one hundred fifty sermons on the Psalms, the « Derush 'al 'Aseret ha-Dibberot » (Hanau, 1616), homilies on the Decalogue, and the « 'Abodat ha-Levi » (Cracow, between 1632 and 1648), sermons on Genesis — a fragment of a larger work, which remained unpublished, that was to cover the entire Pentateuch. A homiletic commentary on Proverbs, mentioned by him and confirmed by Aharon Samuel, rabbi of Fulda, has not survived.
Merchant established in Hamburg in the first half of the 17th century, descendant of a prominent Portuguese Marrano family, he was appointed, around 1640, first holder of the agency that King João IV of Portugal established in Hamburg, with the title of « noble of the house », despite local prejudices maintained by the propaganda of Jean Müller. Other members of the Acosta family held this position until the agency's disappearance in 1795.
English clergyman and author, father of Joseph Addison, born in Meaburn Town Head in 1632 and died on April 20, 1703, he was trained at Queen's College Oxford and served seven years (1662-70) as chaplain of the garrison of Tangier. This stay in Barbary gave him the opportunity to study the customs and habits of the Jews of the region, which he recorded in « The Present State of the Jews », published in London in 1675 (second edition in 1676, third in 1682).
Arab author and talmudist who lived in the first half of the 17th century in Sanaa and Aden, in southern Arabia, hence his nickname "Adeni". Student of the talmudist Bezalel Ashkenazi and the kabbalist Ḥayyim Vital, he wrote in 1624 (or 1622 according to other sources) a commentary on the Mishna, the "Melekhet Shelomoh", whose critical conclusions were taken up by Menasseh ben Israël in his 1632 edition of the Mishna. He also wrote "Divré Emet", critical notes on the Masorah; in 1854, the manuscript of "Melekhet Shelomoh" was in the hands of Nathan Coronel of Jerusalem.
Jew from Tunis who, to escape forced baptism, took his own life in the house of catechumens in Rome on May 2, 1666, at the very moment he was about to undergo the rite.
Friend and contemporary of De Barrios, whom he praises in his "Relación de los Poetas", he is known for his Spanish translation of the works of Philo of Alexandria, of which the manuscript now seems to be lost.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
Leading Moroccan kabbalist, disciple of Rabbi Isaac Eturqui of Salé. His glosses/annotations accompany the original edition of "Hekhal ha-Kodesh" by Rabbi Moshe Elbaz, in the spirit of the kabbalah of the Ari (R. Isaac Louria). He counted, with Yaʿakov Sasportas, among the Moroccan figures in the struggle against Sabbateanism.
Talmudist and Kabbalistic author, son of Joseph Hanoks, forced by the expulsion of Jews from Vienna in 1670 to settle in Bavaria, where he teaches from town to town before becoming rabbi in Zeckendorf. He publishes in 1688, in Wilmersdorf, his Kabbalistic commentary on daily prayers "'Abodat ha-Boreh", reprinted in Berlin in 1700 and, enlarged, in Sulzbach in 1707; he is also the author of a haggadic history of the patriarchs, "Abir Ya'aḳob" (Sulzbach, 1700).
Italian rabbi, posted in Florence at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th. He is the author of a collection of homilies on the Pentateuch, « Toledot Ya'aḳob » (The Generations of Jacob), published in Venice in 1609.
Assistant rabbi of Prague in the second half of the 17th century. His work « Sheḥiṭot u-Bediḳot », written in Hebrew and Judeo-German and published in Amsterdam in 1667, treats, as its title indicates, the rules of ritual slaughter and the inspection of internal organs.
Alabarch, brother of the philosopher Philo and father of Julius Alexander and Tiberius Julius Alexander, he held his office under the emperors Tiberius and Claudius. Imprisoned by Caligula, he was freed and restored to his position by Claudius, for whom he had served as procurator on behalf of his mother, Antonia. He refused a loan to Herod Agrippa I, then in financial embarrassment, but granted it to his wife Cypros, and had the doors of the Sanctuary adorned with gold and silver.
Theological writer of the 17th century, converted to Christianity in Rouen on April 21, 1621. He then drew up an open letter, in rabbinical Syriac, setting forth the reasons for his abandonment of Judaism and calling on his former coreligionists to do the same; translated into several European languages, it appeared in two English editions, in London, in 1688 and 1703.
Second tsar of the Romanov dynasty, born in Moscow on March 29, 1629, died on February 9, 1676. He succeeded his father, Michael Fiodorovitch, on July 26, 1645. Under his reign, the number of Jews living in Moscow increased, in part thanks to the influence of his personal Jewish physician, Stephan von Gaden; the tsar issued them safe-conducts allowing them to trade as far as Moscow. He later expelled the Jews from conquered Lithuanian and Polish cities — Mohilev in 1654, Wilna in 1658, Kiev in 1660 —, in part to spare local Christian merchants.
Presumably established in Smyrna in 1659, he would be the son of the author of the « Shema' Shelomoh » (The Fame of Solomon), published in Smyrna that same year and containing homiletic explanations of a part of the Torah. Very little is known of his own writings.
Rabbi of Constantinople in the 17th century, disciple of Joseph di Trani. He is the author of a commentary on the « Sefer Mesharim » — the section devoted to civil law in the ritual code « Toledot Adam wa-Ḥawwah » of R. Jeroham ben Meshullam —, published under the title « Netibot Mishpaṭ » (The Paths of Justice) in Constantinople in 1668.
Rabbi of Rhodes and Smyrna, active in the 17th century, author of « Bene Ḥayyai » (Children of My Life), notes and novelties on the four Ṭourim, edited by his student Meïr Danon in Orthokoï, near Constantinople, in 1712. The work includes in appendix his « Ḥiddoushim », miscellaneous notes on the treatises Shebou'ot, Sanhedrin and Gittin, edited by Ḥayyim ben Isaac Raphaël Alfandari.
Rabbinic writer active in Smyrna in the seventeenth century, brother of Salomon Algazi the Elder. He annotated two rabbinic works by his grandfather Moses Benveniste the Elder: the « Dobeb Sifte Yeshenim » (Smyrna, 1671) and the « Sefat Emet », a treatise on Hebrew etymology accompanied by a poem by Isaac Tshélébi — whose publication date in Constantinople varies according to bibliographers: 1799 for Zedner, 1722-23 and 1807 for Benjacob.
Rabbi of Smyrna and then of Jerusalem in the seventeenth century, not to be confused with his homonymous grandson, rabbi in Egypt in the eighteenth century. A prolific writer of rabbinical literature, he distinguishes himself through his work on hermeneutics and Talmudic methodology, notably his "Yabin Shemu'ah", commentary on the "Halikot 'Olam" of Joshua Lévi (Venice, 1639), and two other treatises on methodology, "Halikot Eli" (Smyrna, 1663) and "Gufe Halakot" (Smyrna, 1675); he also leaves several collections of homilies and notes on Talmudic aggadot, published in Constantinople, Venice, Smyrna and Salonique between 1642 and 1683.
Contemporary of Moses Benveniste, active in Constantinople around the middle of the 17th century. He writes a commentary on Maimonides' 'Sefer ha-Miṣwot', where he defends him against the attacks of Naḥmanide, published in Constantinople in 1652 under the title 'Lev Sameaḥ' (A Joyful Heart), a play on words on his own name, Allegri. Under the same title are published in Salonique, in 1793, several of his responsa.
Marrano born in Salamanca, Spain, of Jewish parents. He marries in 1696 Leonore de los Rios Sotte, then, after her death, a Christian woman. Emigrated to England, he publishes in 1703, in English and Spanish, an account of his conversion dedicated to the Bishop of London, in which he treats his former coreligionists with severity and denies having been Catholic in Spain, while also refusing to call himself Lutheran or Calvinist.
Turkish rabbi and author, born in the second half of the 17th century, died between 1723 and 1739. Assistant rabbi in Constantinople, his printed work, « Ḥiddoushim we-Sheelot ou-Teshouvot » (novellæ and responsa), appears in appendix to the « Shené ha-Meorot ha-Guedolim » by Elie ben Juda Covo (Constantinople, 1739). It is known that he was still alive in 1723, the « Neeman Shemouel » — published in Salonique that year — being mentioned there as recently printed.
Ordinary physician at the court of the Sultan Mourad IV (1623-40) in Constantinople. Rich and learned, protector of Jewish scholars, he returns in his old age to Salonika, his native city, where he dies.
One of the first Jewish colonists of New York, then New Amsterdam. He is part of a group of twenty-three Jews who arrived in New Netherland in September 1654, apparently after leaving Bahia, Brazil, reconquered by the Portuguese from the Dutch West India Company. Each member of the group having individually pledged for the passage fees of all, and the immigrants being unable to pay it entirely, Ambrosius was one of two placed in civil detention by the municipal authorities; he was however released shortly after and, like his companions, prospered on American soil under Dutch flag.
One of the first Jewish settlers of New York, whose name appears for the first time in 1655. More fortunate than most of his coreligionists, active in commerce, he is one of the leaders of efforts to secure the recognition of civil and political rights for Jews under Dutch rule, claiming their right to land ownership, tax equality, and commerce throughout all Dutch possessions of the New Netherlands.
Physician born in Pernambuco in 1657, of Portuguese parents who had fled to Dutch Brazil. When the Portuguese retake Brazil, he goes to Holland, practices successfully in The Hague and then settles in Antwerp. He writes a polemical work against the philosophy of Spinoza and translates into Portuguese the « Torat Mosheh » of Saül Morteira. In response to the work of pastor Isaac Jaquelot on messianic prophecies (The Hague, 1699), he composes, left in manuscript, a six-volume defense of Judaism, the « Messias Restaurado ».
Talmudic author and principal of the Talmudic colleges of Salonica and Smyrna, in the first half of the seventeenth century, student of Asher ha-Cohen ben Ardout and one of the most prominent masters of Turkey; his most famous student is David Conforte, author of the « Ḳoré ha-Dorot ». He writes novellae on the civil code « Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ » of Joseph Caro, published with the « Doresh Mishpaṭ » of Salomon Florentin (Salonica, 1655), other novellae on several Talmudic treatises (Salonica, 1717), as well as responsa corresponding with the greatest scholars of his time (Salonica, 1717).
Empress of Russia, born on February 8, 1693, crowned in 1730, died on October 28, 1740. Under the German influence of her court, represented by Ostermann and Biron, she adopts, in contrast to the Russian Orthodox clergy, a more favorable policy toward Jews, judged useful to commerce, and allows them retail trade at fairs. An edict of July 14, 1738 condemned to the stake the Jew Baruch Leibov for having converted an apostate navy officer to Judaism; she then promulgated, on August 29, 1739, an ukase forbidding Jews to own inns in Little Russia.
French Christian theologian converted to Judaism, born of Catholic parents in 1602 or 1603 in Briey, Lorraine, died at the stake in Geneva on 20 April 1632. Educated by the Jesuits, he detaches himself from Catholicism and then from Protestantism, convinced that only the Old Testament contains the truth. The rabbinate of Metz refuses to receive him, for fear of reprisals; in Venice and then in Padua, Jews, tolerated for commercial reasons and confined to a ghetto, can scarcely help him further. Returning to Geneva, he becomes Protestant pastor in Divonne while concealing his true convictions.
Christian Hebraist and learned Kabbalist, born in the first half of the seventeenth century, died in 1679, daughter of Duke Eberhard III of Württemberg (1629-74). She acquired remarkable mastery of Hebrew and deep knowledge of rabbinic and Kabbalistic literature; from July 1649 onward, Dean Esenwein of Urach writes to John Buxtorf of Basel that she wishes to learn to read Hebrew without vowels, and will later announce to him that she herself has vocalized the greater part of a Hebrew Bible in her own hand. Philipp Jacob Spener studied the Kabbalah with her in Heidelberg, and a manuscript of Kabbalistic diagrams preserved in Stuttgart is attributed to her.
Italian Jew residing in England from 1623 to 25, probably a teacher, doubtless of Hebrew, at King's College, Cambridge, whose records mention a subsidy of two pounds granted in 1623-24. Queen Henriette-Marie grants him a letter of recommendation for the University of Oxford on January 19, 1625; this is probably the same Jew who received a pension of forty pounds at Cambridge.
Dutch banker (1614 - 1685)
Hetman of the Cossacks of both sides of the Dnepr, born in South Russia in 1658, died on December 15, 1734. When Catherine I expels the Jews from Ukraine, May 7, 1727, Apostol is the first to ask the Senate to relax this law — the Cossacks, despite the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Jews perpetrated decades earlier under Chmielnicki, could no longer do without Jewish merchants, essential to trade between Ukraine and neighboring provinces. An edict of September 2, 1728 consequently authorizes Jews to frequent the fairs of Little Russia for wholesale commerce; the same privilege is granted to them in Smolensk on September 21, 1731.
Writer and translator of the 17th century, son of Philippe d'Aquin. Converted to Christianity at Aquino, in the Kingdom of Naples, he left several works on Hebrew language and literature, including a Latin translation of the commentary of R. Salomon ben Isaac on the Book of Esther, accompanied by excerpts from the Talmud and the Yalḳouṭ (Paris, 1622), and a Latin translation of the first four chapters of the commentary of Lévi ben Guershom on the Book of Job (Paris, 1623).
Active in the seventeenth century, he is a member of a poetic academy in Amsterdam in 1682, a good mathematician, and arouses the admiration of his peers for his skill in solving riddles.
Physician active in the 17th century in Amsterdam. In 1655, he composed an elegy in memory of the martyr Isaac de Almeyda Bernal.
Marrano man of letters, active in the latter part of the 17th century. Member of the literary circle of dramatist Joseph Penso, he holds a high rank in the Spanish army in Brussels, where he reaches the grade of captain, serving notably as adjutant to Colonel Nicolas Oliver y Fullano; he is also found in Brussels and other Dutch cities as companion of poet De Barrios. He is best known for his Spanish translation of Josephus's « Contra Apionem », published in Amsterdam in 1687 under the title « Repuesta de Josepho Contra Apion Alexandrino », dedicated to Isaac Orobio de Castro and published with the approval of Isaac Aboab de Fonseca.
Rabbi and author, son of R. Hananya Aruvas, active in the 17th century. After practicing the rabbinate in several communities in Africa, he settles in Venice. He is the author of « Emet we-Emounah » (Truth and Faith), a religious school manual published in Hebrew and Italian (Venice, 1672), taking up the six hundred and thirteen commandments according to the order of the « Sefer ha-Mitswot » of Maimonides and the thirteen principles of faith of Maimonides, as well as « Zivḥé Tsédek » (Offerings of Justice), a rimmed alphabetical poem on the laws of ritual slaughter, published in Venice in 1662.
The "Shaagas Aryeh", talmudist, rav in Metz; author of the eponymous collection of responsa.
Polish rabbi from a great lineage, who became Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam in 1740.
Dayan of Lublin, in Poland, in the 17th century. He is the author of « Likkouté ha-Or » (Collection of Light), in two volumes, the second of which, « ha-Maor ha-Gadol », remains unpublished; the first, published in Lublin in 1667 under the title « ha-Maor ha-Katan », contains a commentary on the laws of the sanctification of the new moon according to Maimonides.
Rabbi and one of the most eminent Talmudists of his time, born in Lithuania in the late seventeenth century, died in Metz on June 23, 1785. Rabbi in Pinsk then president of the yeshiva of Minsk, he was called in 1765 to the rabbinate of Metz, then one of the most important communities in Europe, confirmed by royal decree in October 1766. Having become blind toward the end of his life, he continued teaching. His masterwork, the "Sha'agat Aryé" (The Roar of the Lion), published in Frankfurt-on-Oder in 1755 and reprinted several times, is a classic of casuistic literature; he published in 1781 the "Ṭouré Even," glosses on several Talmudic treatises.
Kurdish-Jewish scholar, regarded as the first woman rabbi in history, head of a yeshiva in Mosul. She left writings in rabbinic Hebrew.
Cabalistic and rabbinic author, probably born in Lemberg in the early seventeenth century, died in that same city on April 3, 1681. He wrote the "Sefer ha-Echel", a collection of homilies whose first part, on Genesis, also included remarks by his grandfather Joseph Ḳalmanḳes, as well as the "Ma'yan ha-Ḥokhma", an introduction to the Cabala drawn notably from the works of Isaac Louria, first printed in Amsterdam in 1652, then in Koretz in 1684, and finally under the title "Tov ve-Yachar" in Berlin in 1706.
Preacher of Tarnogrod, in the government of Lublin, in Poland, in the 17th century. He is the author of the « Naḥalat Azriel » (The Heritage of Azriel), homilies and commentaries on parts of the Bible, published in Frankfurt-on-Oder in 1691.
Rabbi, born in 1658 in Moravia, died on May 2, 1718 in Lemberg, from a family of renowned scholars. As a child, he received his instruction from his father and then from his grandfather Ephraim ha-Cohen, rabbi of Alt-Ofen, before going to Salonika, where he attended for some time the school of Élihou Cobo and devoted himself to the study of Sephardic methods, while witnessing the deviations born from the schisms of the Sabbatean movement — an experience that would mark his entire career. On the return journey to Alt-Ofen, he stayed, probably until 1679, in Constantinople, where his erudition earned him, despite being a Polish scholar, the Sephardic title « Ḥakham ».
Rabbi and author, born in Morocco in 1700, died in Aleppo around 1760. Chief rabbi of Livorno, he emigrates to Jerusalem around 1729, where he remains about thirty years; he is the author of a « Widdouï » (confession of sins) entitled « Zovéa'h Toda », and enjoys a great reputation as a kabbalist.
Physician and founder of modern Pentateuchal criticism, born in Sauve, France, on 19 March 1684, died in Paris on 5 May 1766. Son of a Huguenot converted to Catholicism, he studied medicine and became professor of anatomy in Toulouse, Montpellier, then Paris. He owes his eminent place in biblical literature to his work « Conjectures sur les mémoires originaux dont il paroît que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Genèse », published anonymously in Brussels in 1753, which marks the starting point of modern Pentateuchal criticism.
Rabbi, banker, and Austrian commentator, born in Vienna in the early seventeenth century, died in Krotoschin, Poznania, on July 8, 1689, from the celebrated Auerbach-Fischhof family — his father, Mechoulam Salomon, and his maternal grandfather, the rabbi Juda Löb Rofé, both belonged to the Vienna ghetto. Trained in the Talmud, he was a student of Joël Sirkes, of Joshua ben Joseph of Cracow, and of Mena'hem Mendel Krochmal of Nikolsburg; he marries the daughter of Juda Löb Cohn of Cracow, who died in 1645, then settles in Cracow with his brother Ḥayyim. For many years, he serves as dayan of the Cracow community while directing, with his brother, a banking business.
Cabalist Bible commentator, active in the 17th century. His father David dies as a martyr during persecutions of Jews in Poland, and he himself narrowly escapes the same fate, first in Lublin on October 16, 1655, then in Reisen, near Lissa. He is the author of the « Ḥessed Chémo El » (Mercy, his name is God), published in Amsterdam in 1699, midrashic and cabalistic explanations of Genesis devoid, it must be said, of any value; on the other hand, the numerous scattered references to the persecutions of the Jews of Poland during the years 1648 and 1655 make it, in the historian's eyes, an eyewitness account of great interest.
Elector of Saxony (1694-1733) and, from 1697, King of Poland under the name Frédéric-Auguste I, born in Dresden on 12 May 1670, died in Warsaw on 1 February 1733. He confirms the privileges of the Jews, following the example of his predecessor John Sobieski (1674-96); but unlike the latter, always benevolent toward them, Auguste II — whose sumptuous expenditures impoverished Poland — showed indifference to their fate, even though Jewish bankers, Oppenheimer of Vienna, Liebmann of Berlin, Meyer and Lehmann of Dresden, had provided most of the ten million thalers used to buy the Polish nobility to secure him the throne.
Elector of Saxony and in this capacity Frederick-Augustus II, King of Poland, son of Augustus II "the Strong", born in Dresden on October 17, 1696, died in that city on October 5, 1763. Raised Protestant like his father, he secretly embraced Catholicism in 1712, not announcing his conversion until 1717; without his father's qualities, he inherited his passions, distinguishing himself by the splendor of his festivities and the extravagance of his court. Like his predecessors, he maintained the privileges of Jews in Poland, but these became a dead letter: neither he nor his favorite Count Brühl did anything to protect them from attacks by the Catholic clergy and Christian merchants.
German writer, born in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1691, died in Eschberge May 13, 1782. According to a biography printed anonymously during his lifetime and probably inspired by him, he left his home very young in the company of a 'mecholea'h,' collector of alms for the poor of Palestine named Yekoutiel, with the intention of accompanying him to the Holy Land; on the way, he was captured by Tatar brigands and sold as a slave in Turkey. Ransomed and freed in Smyrna by a wealthy Jew of Podolia, he went to Poland, where he spent several years in Pintzov, in the government of Kielce, and there discovered, through contact with Jews and Socinians, Latin and secular learning.
Christian orientalist, active in Leipzig at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. He devoted himself to Hebrew versification and published, in two volumes, a work entitled « Clavis Poeseos Sacræ » on the three main Oriental languages (Leipzig, 1627).
Rabbi and preacher in Meknes and then in Salé, Morocco, born in Meknes in 1687 or 1688, he published in 1715 in Amsterdam a collection of sermons entitled « Ozen Shemuel », gathering sermons on repentance, Sabbaths and funeral orations pronounced for several of his contemporaries. He brought out in 1725, also in Amsterdam, the « Keter Torah », arguing for the tax exemption of scholars and reproducing old regulations on the subject.
Haham of the Sephardic congregations of London and Amsterdam, adherent of Shabbetai Tsevi, he was born in the East in 1664 (perhaps 1660) and died in Amsterdam on 10 April 1728; his name comes from a locality in the Spanish province of Segovia. After a youth spent in the Sabbatean circles of Salonika, he came to Europe as an emissary charged with collecting funds for the poor of the Holy Land, leaving wife and children in Safed, then was appointed haham in London on 6 June 1689 after a stay in Leghorn in 1688. His Sabbatean past, revealed the following year, permanently undermined his authority, as shown by a letter of complaint he wrote in 1696.
Commentator and casuist, born in North Africa around 1690 and died in Jerusalem on September 11, 1760, he studied the Talmud in Algiers under Salomon Ẓeror and served as dayyan of that city from 1728 to 1756, before traveling via Livorno to Jerusalem, where he spent the last years of his life. A rigorous Talmudist but little open to subjects outside of Halakha, he is the author, among other works, of the 'Leḥem Yehudah', a commentary on the 'Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah' of Maimonides published in Livorno in 1745, and the 'Bet Yehudah', a collection of responsa published in Livorno in 1746 which sheds light on the social and economic conditions of the Jewish communities of North Africa in his time.
Moroccan orientalist established in Holland in the first half of the seventeenth century, he was the professor of Jewish literature of Hottinger and published in Amsterdam, in 1647, a versified paraphrase of the book of Esther entitled "Iggeret ha-Purim". The Bodleian Library preserves from him two manuscripts: a transcription in Arabic characters of the "Dalalat al-Ḥa'irin" of Maimonides, made for Golius, and a Hebrew translation of the "Lamiat al-Ayam" of Ḥusain b. Ali.
Diplomat of the seventeenth century, died in 1699, he was resident minister to Amsterdam for the dey of Algeria and negotiated on this basis a commercial treaty with the Netherlands; he was also an active member of the building committee of the great synagogue of the Portuguese congregation of Amsterdam and was renowned for his wisdom and learning.
Portuguese marrano of the seventeenth century, he was sent in 1673 to Rome to implore the papal curia to curb the cruelties of the Inquisition; well supplied with money and supported by the Jesuits, he succeeded in making known the abuses of its procedure. Pope Clement X published in consequence, on October 3, 1674, a bull suspending the activity of the Portuguese Inquisition and forbidding any new accusation, condemnation or confiscation until the examination of the grievances of the marranos by a Roman tribunal.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Died in 5387 of the Hebrew era (1627). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-4.
Poet-chronicler of Kashan, author of Kitab-i Anusi on the persecution of Jews under the Safavids.
Religious writer and hazzan (cantor) of Posen, also known as Aaron Ḥazzan, he lived in the seventeenth century and was the author of « Urim we-Tummim », an exhortation to morality and piety accompanied by a collection of prayers, published in Amsterdam in 1653.
German rabbi, born in Leipnik, in Moravia, in 1639 and died in Worms on January 1, 1702, he was appointed rabbi of Koblenz in 1666, was not reelected in 1669 — the position having to be renewed every three years — then returned to Worms as a simple member of the community, where he taught the Talmud without obtaining the succession of his father, entrusted to Aaron Teomim Fränkel. He drew up, under the title « 'Eẓ Ḥayyim » (Tree of Life), a compendium of the Jewish religion in three parts, and published in 1679 a collection of responsa of his father, his grandfather and himself, the « Ḥuṭ ha-Shani ».
Rabbi in Eibenschütz, born in Frankfurt an der Oder in the second half of the seventeenth century, he composed a collection of cabalistic homilies entitled « Arba' Ḥarashim » (The Four Skilled Artisans), in four parts devoted respectively to Judah, to the kings of Israel, to the prophets of the Former Prophets, and to the priests. Only the first two parts were published, in Frankfurt an der Oder, in 1710.
Kabbalist who lived in Kremnitz, Hungary, in the early seventeenth century, he apparently traveled to the East and stayed in Safed, whose Kabbalistic school he often evokes in his writings. He is the author, notably, of the « Pitḥe Yah », an introduction to the Kabbalah founded on the « Pardes Rimonim » of Cordovero (Prague, 1609), of « Yesh Sakar », on the ritual laws of the Zohar (Prague, 1609), and of « Meḳor Ḥokmah », explanations of difficult passages in the Zohar (Prague, 1610).
German writer established in Frankfurt-on-the-Main at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, he published in 1712 a play in Judeo-German with a Hebrew title, « Mekirat Yosef » (The Sale of Joseph), intended for Purim, which aroused great interest. Performed in Frankfurt for Purim 1713 with great success before many Christians, by Jewish students from Prague and Hamburg, the same comedy was revived in Metz and became an appreciated Purim play among Polish Jews.
Spanish physician and marrano, who declared himself openly Jewish in Amsterdam around 1640; versed in astronomy, medicine and botany, he knew Arabic and Syriac, and Manasseh ben Israel dedicated his essay « De la Fragilidad Humana » to him. He is the author of an almanac, the « Prognostico e Lunario de Anno de 1635 », published in Seville in 1630.
Writer who lived in the seventeenth century in Salonique, student, according to Azoulaï, of Ḥayyim Shabbethaï (died in 1647), he left little trace of his literary activity: a decision published in the responsa of his master, « Torat Ḥayyim » (Salonique, 1722), an opinion on ritual questions printed in appendix to « Sefer ha-Terumot » by Samuel ben Isaac Sardi (Salonique, 1628?), and annotations to Arba'ah Ṭurim reproduced in « Moreh Ṣedeḳ » by Michael Cohen (Salonique, 1655).
Bishop of Lincoln, born in Westmorland in 1607 and died on October 8, 1691, trained at Appleby then at Queen's College Oxford, he became keeper of the Bodleian in 1654, then principal of his college, Lady-Margaret professor and finally Bishop of Lincoln in 1675. Around 1654, at the time when the question of the return of Jews to England was raised by Manassé ben Israël, he drafted an essay favorable to their admission, while proposing to them restrictive legislation close to medieval canon law: profess their religion without propagating it, repair but not build synagogues, and wear distinctive clothing.
Hebrew teacher at Oxford around 1613, where he instructed students under the direction of Richard Kilbye, royal professor of Hebrew, he was noticed by Isaac Casaubon during his visit to the university in 1613, who took him to London to perfect his own knowledge of Hebrew. Having shown signs of attraction to Christianity, preparations were made for his solemn reception into the Church at Oxford, but he disappeared on the day; found and imprisoned, he was released on Casaubon's intercession then banished from the kingdom on November 16, 1613. What became of him afterward is unknown.
Son of Daniel Levi de Barrios, born on March 17, 1665 in Amsterdam and died on May 16, 1688 in Barbados, he was a member of the Ets Ḥayyim congregation and of several poetic academies in Amsterdam.
One of the very first Jewish colonists of New Amsterdam (New York), arrived at the port on the ship « Pear Tree » on July 8, 1654, probably from Holland — making him the oldest identified Jewish colonist on the territory of the present-day State of New York. A man of modest means according to tax records, he did not hesitate to assert his rights before the courts: in 1658, he obtained from the Dutch municipal court that no default judgment be rendered against him for having been cited to appear on Saturday, the day of his Sabbath.
Italian scholar of Jewish letters, born in Celleno on April 1, 1613, and died on October 19, 1687, he learned Hebrew from a convert Jew, Giovanni Battista, before becoming a Cistercian priest, then in 1651 professor of Hebrew and Rabbinic studies at the Collegium Neophytorum in Rome and « Scriptor Hebraicus » at the Vatican Library. There he undertook in 1675 the publication of his « Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica », a vast Latin and Hebrew bibliography of Jewish literature published in four folio volumes (1675-93) — the first major attempt to present to the world the literature of the Jews.
Talmudic author active in Gnesen, near Posen, in the early seventeenth century, he drafted the Gedullat Mordecai, annotations and corrections to the work of Mordekhaï ben Hillel, to which he joined the Agudat Ezov, an abridgment of the talmudic laws of Baba Metsia and Baba Batra applied to the civil law of Joseph Caro's Choulhan Aroukh, printed in Hanau in 1615 or 1616.
Italian writer of the seventeenth century, author of « Zikkaron li-Bene Yisrael » (Memorial for the Children of Israel), a short account of the agitation caused by Shabbethai Tsevi and his prophet Nathan of Gaza, covering the years 5425 to 5436 (1665 to 1676). Partisan of Shabbethai, Baruch wrote this text to convince other Jews to join the movement; according to Grätz, the account has little historical value. It should not be confused with an anti-Shabbatean account published anonymously in Venice in 1668 and reprinted in the « Ma'aseh Ṭobiah » of Tobiah Cohen in Venice in 1707.
Philosopher of Amsterdam, excommunicated (herem) by the Jewish community in 1656. His Theologico-Political Treatise (1670) founds modern biblical criticism. His Ethics, a masterpiece of rationalism, influenced the Enlightenment. Hegel called him "the starting point of all modern philosophy."
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-2.
Christian printer of Hebrew books and Orientalist, born in Hanau, Prussia, on October 26, 1679, died around 1750. He founded a printing workshop in his native city between 1709 and 1712, from which more than a hundred publications would emerge, and notably translated excerpts from rabbinical commentaries on the Psalms (Hanau, 1712) as well as part of Maimonides' « Mishné Torah ». Appointed professor of Oriental languages in Hanau in 1701, then of theology in 1703, he became in 1716 rector of the gymnasium of Zerbst.
Protestant pastor born in Rouen, France, on August 8, 1653, died in Holland on December 22, 1725. After directing the Protestant Church of Rouen, he becomes, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, pastor of the Walloon Church of Rotterdam in 1686, then of the Temple of The Hague in 1691. A reputed diplomat, he devotes his leisure to theology and the history of religions, publishing notably his « Histoire et Religion des Juifs Depuis Jésus-Christ Jusqu'à Présent », which appeared in Rotterdam from 1706 onward.
Casuist and rabbi of Constantinople in the seventeenth century. His responsa, published in Constantinople in 1737, are valued for the fineness of their analysis and the conciseness of their style. He maintained learned correspondence with the great Oriental masters of his time and is mentioned several times in the responsa of Joseph of Trani and of Meïr of Boton; Juda Lerma, rabbi of Belgrade, was among his disciples.
Daughter of Ebert Geronim, second wife of Jacob Bassevi, son of Abraham Bassevi and president of the Jewish community of Prague; she died in the summer of 1628. Her tomb bears the family coat of arms granted to her husband by Emperor Ferdinand in 1622. Renowned for her charity, she adopted orphans, endowed young married couples, supported scholars in need, financed the lighting of synagogues and equipped schools with books; at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, when Hebrew books were being confiscated, she worked to endow synagogues and distribute prayer books in Austria, Moravia and elsewhere.
Marrano poet of the seventeenth century, born in Spain, son of poet Antonio Enriquez Gomez. Like his father, he resided several years in Rouen before settling in the Netherlands. He is the author of "Triumpho de la Virtud y Paciencia de Job" (Rouen, 1646), a poem in several meters dedicated to the mother of Louis XIV.
Ambassador of Sultan Mehmed IV to King Charles XI of Sweden, died on May 29, 1673 in Amsterdam, where he was buried with great honors. His son, Juda Berbi, succeeded him as ambassador and returned from Amsterdam to Constantinople.
German orientalist and theologian born on May 22, 1649, died on February 2, 1701. Trained in oriental languages under Vossius in Jena, he established himself as a preacher in Augsburg. He published a translation of the Targum on the Chronicles and translated, without publishing them, several other works from Hebrew, including the travel narratives of Benjamin of Tudela and Pethahiah of Ratisbon, as well as commentaries by Abravanel on two of the Prophets; among his published works is also the « Monumenta Antiqua Judaica Augustæ Vindelicorum Reperta ».
Financial agent of the dukes and princes of Hanover, born around 1630, died in Hanover on January 1, 1714, whose honorable position is praised by Manassé ben Israël in his « Hope of Israel ». He constantly placed his influence at the service of his coreligionists, obtained in 1683 the position of superintendent of the ducal bleacheries, assisted Talmudic scholars and established a beth ha-midrash in his own house. In 1703, with his son Naphtali Hirz, he had a new synagogue built on the site of the old one, built by the duke of Hanover in 1609. The library of his son-in-law, the great rabbi of Prague David Oppenheimer, also passed through his care to Hanover.
Envoy of Morocco to Maurice of Nassau, Governor General of the Netherlands, in 1608, bearing credentials from the Moroccan sharif Mouley Zaïdane presenting him as his trusted minister, entrusted with diligence of his affairs. One of his possible descendants, G. Belias, published in Constantinople in 1855 a Spanish-Hebrew dictionary.
Preacher and teacher in Amsterdam, endowed with profound knowledge of biblical and rabbinical literature and accomplished Hebrew poet, he teaches the third class of the Talmud Torah and serves as preacher of the charitable societies Maskil el-Dal and Temimé Dérekh. He delivered the funeral oration for his father-in-law, Isaac da Fonseca Aboab, and then, in 1693, a commemorative sermon in his honor, still preserved in manuscript; his « Sermoens Pregados » appeared the same year in Amsterdam, as well as a more extensive Hebrew poem on Adam in Paradise, « Toledot Adam », which also remained in manuscript.
Relative of Daniel Belilhos, rabbi in Venice around 1680, he wrote the « Binyan Ne'arim », a refutation of Samuel Aboab, which was however never published.
Poet and translator, eighth child of Jacob Belmonte, born in 1619, died in Amsterdam on May 29, 1647. Student of Saül Morteira, whose sermons he edited, « Gib'at Sha'ul » (1645), with Benjamin Diaz, he translated the Song of Songs into Spanish, published in Amsterdam in 1644 under the title « Paraphrasis Caldaica en los Cantares de Selomo », as well as the Pirqé Abot, under the title « Perakym » (Amsterdam, 1644). He founded in 1639 the charitable society Guemilout Hassadim.
Poet, Spanish Marrano of the 17th century, son of a Jew of Murcia, reputed as editor and commentator of Spanish popular poetry. He is notably responsible for this quatrain (redondilla) which became famous: « O not to look or die, you say, amorous thought? Better to die looking than to live without looking. »
Benjamin b. Jehiel ha-Lévi is a Polish Talmudist active at the beginning of the seventeenth century, author of "Gib'at Benjamin" (Lublin, 1617), an alphabetical index of the four Ṭurim of Jacob b. Asher. The work, never reprinted and now very rare, remains an excellent tool for consulting the Ṭurim.
Judeo-Persian poet of Kashan called « Amina », author of some forty religious poems.
Jewish writer
Benjamin Wolf ben Isaac Lévi is a Kabbalist active in Leitmeritz, Bohemia, in the mid-seventeenth century, author of «Amarot Tehorot», a commentary on difficult passages of the Zohar published by his son Saul in Lublin in 1745. Another of his works, «Torat Mosheh», preserved in manuscript, expounds the thirteen articles of faith according to the Midrashim and the Haggada and gathers theological and metaphysical reflections drawn from Spanish, French and German scholars, enriched by his own contributions.
Benjamin Wolf b. Daniel is a rabbi of Chomsk, in the governorate of Grodno, in Russia, author of "Naḥlat Binyamin," a collection of festival sermons and a homiletic commentary on the Haggadah of Passover, published in Kraków in 1642.
Benveniste ben Jacob, of Spanish origin, is one of the leaders of the society Biḳḳur Ḥolim of the Spanish synagogue of Venice at the end of the seventeenth century, cited alongside Raphael ben Solomon Silva and Isaac ben Baroukh Carvalho in a collection of prayers for the sick and dying published by this society in Venice in 1685; Fürst wrongly attributes to him a part in the drafting of these prayers.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-1.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-4.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-1.
Berachah, called "the Hero", was a Polish Jewish soldier killed in the battle fought near Moscow during the war of Poland against Russia in 1610, son of Aaron ha-Ḳadosh ("the Martyr") of Tishovitz. A cavalry officer of such bravery that he earned this nickname from the Cossacks themselves, he was mortally struck by a bullet while attempting to break the enemy lines; these facts are known through the testimony of Moses ben Joseph, given on behalf of eleven Jews who accompanied the army, in the matter of the aguna, Berachah's widow, before the rabbis.
Berechia Berak b. Eliakim Goetzel, grandson of Berechia b. Isaac, was a rabbi and preacher active in Klementow, Poland, and then in Jaworow, Galicia, at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. A sincere preacher who suffered greatly from his frankness, he saw the government ban the publication of his sermons, except for the part devoted to Genesis, published in Halle in 1714 under the title « Zera' Berak Shelishi », as well as new Talmudic teachings on the first chapters of Berakot, approved by many rabbis of his time.
Berechia Berak b. Isaac Eisik is a Galician preacher who died in 1664 in Constantinople. Trained by Nathan Shapira, rabbi of Cracow, he becomes preacher of that city, where he spends most of his life, before leaving for Jerusalem and dying en route in Constantinople. His sermons on the Pentateuch, the Megillot and the Haggada of Pessa'h were collected in two volumes under the title « Zera' Berak », the first published in Cracow in 1646, the second in 1662 with a reprint of the first, itself reprinted in Amsterdam in 1730.
Austrian rabbi and private banker (1691/92–1753)
This second Joseph Bergel is a Judeo-German writer probably active in the seventeenth century, author of « Ein Schön Göttlich Lied », a religious poem that appears to have been printed in Prague in the seventeenth century as a supplement to the poem « Jüdischer Stamm » by Joseph ben Judah Heilbronn.
David b. (Judah) Loeb Berlin is the rabbi of the three united congregations of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck, probably born in Eisenstadt, Hungary, in the second half of the seventeenth century, and died in Altona on 5 March 1771. Little is known of his life, but his brother Isaïe Berlin and his brother-in-law Joseph b. Menahem Steinhart praise his great talmudic erudition and piety, also mentioned on his epitaph; initially rabbi in Dessau, he led the three congregations from 1768 until his death.
Abraham Núñez Bernal is a Spanish martyr, burned alive by the Inquisition of Córdoba on May 3, 1655. His martyrdom is celebrated in a work published the same year in Amsterdam by Jacob Bernal, which contains a sermon in his honor preached by Isaac Aboab as well as poems by several authors, including Daniel á Ribera and Jonas Abravanel.
Isaac (Marcos) de Almeyda Bernal was a Spanish martyr born in Montilla in 1633 and burned alive in Santiago de Compostela in March 1655, at the age of twenty-two, nephew of Abraham Núñez Bernal. Thrown in 1650, at seventeen years old, into the prisons of the Inquisition of Valladolid, he is mentioned as a relative by Daniel Levi de Barrios; his martyrdom is the subject of poems and a sermon by Jacob Abendana gathered in the collection « Elogios ».
Salomon Bernich, also called Berenicus or Beronicus, is a scholar, poet, and adventurer of uncertain origin, who appeared in the Netherlands around 1670, noted for his mastery of several languages and talent for improvising verses. Held by some to be a monk who escaped from France, he would be according to Yung a Jew native of Eger, in Bohemia, trained in Vienna and Italy; he lived among the lower classes, variously a chimney sweep or knife grinder, and was found dead in a marsh near Rotterdam. A collection of his Latin poetry, translated into Dutch (Amsterdam, 1692), appears in the British Museum catalogue under the name "Beronicus, Petrus Joannes".
Joseph Isaac Berruyer is a French Jesuit born in Rouen on November 7, 1681 and died in Paris in February 1758, author of the "Histoire du Peuple de Dieu" (Paris, 1728), a history of the Jews from the origins to the birth of Jesus, combined with a critical study of the Gospels and the Epistles. Written in a little religious spirit and scattered with hazardous observations, the work aroused the indignation of ecclesiastical authorities, which contributed to its popularity and earned it numerous editions and translations.
Mathias Bersohn is a Polish bibliographer, archaeologist and art writer born in Warsaw in 1826, owner of a rich library of rare books and manuscripts. He published notably « Tobias Kohn » (Cracow, 1872), biography of a Jewish physician of the seventeenth century, author of the « Ma'ase Tobia », as well as « W. Stosie » (1870) and « Marcin Teofil Polak » (1889), and regularly collaborated on Polish journals « Tygodnik Illustrowany » and « Biblioteka Warszawska ».
Ẓebi Hirsch ben Naphtali Herz Bialeh, called Ḥarif (« the perspicacious »), is a rabbi and Talmudist born around 1670 in Lemberg, in Galicia, and died on September 25, 1748 in Halberstadt, in Prussia. He directs a Talmudic school in his native city until 1718, the year he is called as chief rabbi of the wealthy community of Halberstadt, where his humanity and modesty earned him general admiration; eighteen of his students followed him during this move, and he notably trained Elhanan Ashkenazi, Isaiah Berlin and Meïr Barbi. Too modest to publish anything, he nonetheless denounced, orally and in his writings, the excesses of the pilpulistic method, and left five sons, all rabbis.
Bina ben David is a Kabbalist and rabbi of Lockacze, in Poland, active in the middle of the seventeenth century, author of "Zer Zahab" (Cracow, 1647), an alphabetical index of the Zohar and Midrash accompanied by extracts, explanations and talmudic novellas. A substantial part of the work was translated into Latin by Knorr von Rosenroth in his "Cabbala Denudata".
Salomon Bing is a German physician, son of Doctor Abraham Bing of Bingen and son-in-law of the learned Joseph Salomon del Medigo, born around 1615. Trained in Latin by the Jesuits of Mainz and Prague and in medicine under Del Medigo and at the University of Padua, he obtained in 1645, upon his father-in-law's departure for Prague, authorization to practice as a physician of the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt; accused in 1653 of having caused the death of a Christian patient through harmful remedies, he saw as a result of this affair the practice of Jewish physicians restricted to the Jewish quarter alone.
Philip Johann Bleibtreu is a Jew who converted to Christianity, born in Frankfurt am Main in the mid-seventeenth century and died in the same city in 1702. He published in German a work entitled « Meïr Naor » (based on his Jewish name, Meïr), relating his conversion and providing information on Jewish festivals and certain prayers.
Mattithiah Ashkenazi Bloch is a Kabbalist active in Jerusalem in the seventeenth century, blind devotee and tireless apostle of Shabbetai Ẓevi, who designated him as one of his prophets entrusted with announcing the Redemption.
Samuel Bochart is one of the greatest scholars of the seventeenth century and an eminent figure of the French Reformed Church, born in Rouen in 1599 and died in Caen on May 16, 1667. Trained in theology and oriental languages in France, England and Holland, he became pastor in Caen, where he distinguished himself in a nine-day debate with the Jesuit Véron, published in 1630 in Saumur; his sermon preparations on Genesis gave rise to his two major works, the « Geographia Sacra » (1646), on the names of nations and Phoenician colonies, and the « Hierozoicon » (1663), an erudite compendium on animals mentioned in the Bible.
Ḥayyim b. Benjamin Ze'eb Bochner is a kabbalist, talmudist, and grammarian born in Cracow, Galicia, in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, and died in Fürth, Bavaria, on February 2, 1684, son of one of the richest Jews in Cracow. A student of Israël Ganz, whose daughter he married, he sold to his father's death in 1647 his share of the inheritance in exchange for an annuity allowing him to study, opened a free rabbinical school, was a friend of Lipmann Heller, served as rabbi in Ebenfurth and then in Lackenbach, and settled in Vienna until the expulsion of Jews in 1670. He published his 'Or Ḥadash' (Amsterdam, 1671) as well as 'Toṣeot Ḥayyim', on grammar (Hamburg, 1710).
Boleslas I the Brave is king of Poland from 992 to 1025. According to the Polish preacher Matheusz Bembo and historian Maciejowski, it was during his reign that the first Jews would have settled in Poland, where this king treated them with benevolence; a tradition suggests, however, that they already lived there from the ninth century, and that their manuscripts attesting to ancient privileges were destroyed by fire during Boleslas's war against the German emperor Henry II — some historians even seeing in this a deliberate gesture by the king, concerned to prevent too much reading from softening his subjects.
Daniel Israël Bonafoux is an active follower of Shabbetai Ẓevi established in Smyrna in the seventeenth century, who claimed after his master's apostasy and death to have prophetic visions and asserted that Shabbetai had not died but was hidden, to reappear after forty-five years. Banished from Smyrna at the request of the rabbinate to the cadi, he continued his preaching in Kasaba, where he formed a friendship with Abraham Michael Cardoso, founder of kabbalistic dualism banished from Tripoli; his agitation lasted several years, until he embraced Islam like his master.
Moses ben Salomon of Boshal (or Bostal) is a Turkish Talmudist and preacher of the seventeenth century, author of 'Yismaḥ Mosheh', a homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch published in Smyrna in 1675, now very rare.
Fernando Alvarez Brandam is a Marrano and physician of Lisbon active in the seventeenth century, contemporary of Manuel Fernandez de Villa-Real, who qualified him as an eminent and illustrious spirit. At the instigation of his friend Isaac Fernando Cardoso, he wrote his "Tratado em Defensa del Color Azul," preserved in manuscript and testifying to vast erudition.
Moïse Brandeis, nicknamed Ḥarif ('the Perspicacious'), is a rabbi and German talmudic master born around 1685 and died June 24, 1761 in Mainz, son of rabbi Jacob Brandeis of Zorek. Trained at Abraham Broda's yeshiva in Prague, he then directed that of Fürth, Bavaria, before becoming chief rabbi of Jung-Bunzlau in 1717 then rabbi of Mainz in 1733; a Kabbalist who strictly observed the precepts of Isaac Luria, he had as sons the rabbis Bezaleel, Gabriel of Prague and Jacob of Düsseldorf.
Reviser of the rabbinic Bible published by the printer König of Basel in 1619, and assistant to Johannes Buxtorf, father and son, at whose request he was authorized to settle in Basel. During the circumcision of one of his sons in 1619, in the presence of several Jews, he was fined, as were König and Buxtorf, and all Jews present were briefly imprisoned. He subsequently lived in Lengnau and then Zurich, dealing in Hebrew books acquired during his travels in Alsace, and played an important role in the correspondence between Johannes Hottinger of Zurich and Johannes Buxtorf of Basel. He was still living in 1644.
Judah Leon ben Eliézer Brieli (or Briel) is a rabbi of Mantua born around 1643 and died in 1722, a high talmudic authority also versed in profane sciences. Esteemed by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam for his learning and age, he was solicited by Tsevi Ashkenazi (Hakham Tsevi) to support his campaign against the cabalistic extravagances of Hayoun, a hostility he expressed in several letters — to which Hayoun replied by treating him as an ignorant Latinist who knew nothing of the Kabbalah. Only his work on Hebrew grammar, « Chéfer Kelalé ha-Dikdouk », was published (Mantua, 1724); the rest remains in manuscript.
Johannes Buxtorf, nephew of Johannes Jakob Buxtorf, was born on January 8, 1663 and died on June 19, 1732. Professor of Hebrew at Basel, he published the « Specimen Phraseologiae V. T. Hebr. » (Frankfurt am Main, 1717).
Johannes Jakob Buxtorf, professor of Hebrew at Basel, son of Johannes Buxtorf II and his fourth wife, is born on 4 September 1645 and dies on 4 April 1705. According to a letter from his father to Coccejus, he already knew at eighteen how to read the Hebrew text of the Bible and the Targums, with some knowledge of Rabbinic and Syriac. After his death, the library assembled by the three Buxtorfs, valued at three hundred louis d'or, was acquired by the public library of Basel for a thousand thalers, where it still forms a separate collection today.
Baruch Calimani is an Italian editor active in Venice in the second half of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth. He publishes the work of his master Éliézer Ashkenazi, "Ma'assé Adonaï" (Venice, 1583), and the "Torat Mochè" of Moïse Alshekh (Venice, 1601), adding each time a preface of his own.
Professor of theology and philology, born of peasant parents in Molschleben in 1694 and died in 1760. Appointed professor of philology at the University of Halle in 1735 then of theology in 1739, he devoted himself to a missionary enterprise among the Jews and founded in 1728 the Institutum Judaicum, equipped with a printing press that distributed the Gospel and other Christian texts in Judeo-German dialect. The institute, which also sent missionaries to other countries in Europe, survived until 1791.
French Catholic theologian, historian and biblicist, born in 1672 in Lorraine and died in Paris in 1757. Entered the Benedictines in 1688, he learned Hebrew and became abbot of Senones. He published in 1707 a literal commentary on the Bible that broke with allegorical reading, then in 1722 a historical and critical dictionary of the Bible, the first work of its kind and the starting point for all those that followed.
English Hebraist, born in 1606 and died in York in 1679. He is the author of The Blessed Jew of Morocco, published in York in 1648, an adaptation of the famous letter of Samuel Maroccanus, itself probably derived from the polemical treatise of Samuel Abu Nasr ibn Abbas.
Lutheran theologian, born in 1650 in Hildesheim and died in 1725 in Clausthal. Deacon in Zellerfeld in 1677, he became superintendent in 1684, consistory counselor in 1708 and general superintendent of Clausthal in 1710. He conducted missionary work among Jews, to whom he distributed Christian books printed in Hebrew and German.
Poet of the seventeenth century, author of Aguddat Ezob, a collection of poems and rhetorical compositions in three parts, praised by Isaac Cansino and David Abu al-Khair. Arrested by Spanish authorities for possessing copies of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, he was sent with his son to Murcia, where they were treated as prisoners and the copies of the Talmud were confiscated; his relatives sent him poems of consolation, to which he replied from Murcia.
Liturgical poet and prominent member of the Jewish community of Oran, died in 1672, probably brother of Jacob Cansino II. Cantor at the synagogue on the Day of Atonement, a post held to be a position of honor, he is the author of the first part of the Maḥzor Oran, which assembles several of his poems.
Italian physician and rabbi, born around 1650 in Padua and died in that city in 1694. He had a large clientele of both Christian and Jewish patients, visiting his poorest patients free of charge, founded a yeshiva in the Ashkenazi synagogue where he taught Talmud, and served as a preacher.
Philanthropist and founder of the Hamburg synagogue, where he lived in the first half of the seventeenth century. A descendant of a Spanish family of that name and one of the first Jewish settlers of Hamburg, he founded in 1630 the first Portuguese synagogue in the city, at the risk of incurring the displeasure of the senate, which was reluctant to allow Jews to build a place of worship.
Sabbatean prophet and physician, born in Spain circa 1630 and died in Cairo in 1706; descendant of Marranos from the Portuguese town of Celorico. After studying medicine, he left Spain for Venice, where he embraced Judaism under the name of Abraham, then practiced as a physician in Leghorn before fervently supporting the messianic claim of Shabbetaï Tsevi, even proclaiming himself Messiah son of Ephraim. Banished from Tripoli, he settled in 1703 in Cairo as physician to the pasha of Egypt, where he was assassinated by his nephew.
Lived in Amsterdam in the second half of the seventeenth century; member of the Academia de los Floridos, founded by D. Manuel de Belmonte, he was administrator of the academy Temime Derech in 1683 and treasurer of the Maskil el Dal in 1684. Daniel Levi de Barrios, who praised his intelligence and piety, addressed to him a Dialogo Harmonico.
Spanish writer who lived in Hamburg in the first half of the seventeenth century. He translated the Song of Songs into Spanish under the title Cantares de Selomo, Traduzido de Lengua Caldayca en Espagnol, published in Hamburg in 1631; according to bibliographer Wolf, this work appeared in manuscript form in the catalog published in The Hague in 1728.
German Christian theologian and Hebraist, born in 1639 and died in 1699, from a family which, like the Buxtorfs, counted a long lineage of scholars. He studied Hebrew under Johannes Buxtorf II in Basel, was appointed professor of Oriental languages in Leipzig in 1668 and then professor of theology from 1684, and edited in 1674 the Jus Regium Hebræorum by Schikhard, then in 1687 the Pugio Fidei by Raymundus Martini, to which he added his own Introductio in Theologiam Judaicam. Dissertations by him appeared in 1699, and in 1703 his Collegium Rabbinico-Biblicum in Libellum Ruth.
German Protestant biblical scholar, born in 1679 in Dresden and died in 1767 in Lübeck, nephew of Johann Benedict II and son of Samuel Benedict — the most important biblical scholar of the Carpzov family. Full professor of oriental languages at Leipsic from 1719, preacher and theologian until his death, he opposed like his uncle the pietists and notably published his Introductio in Libros Vet. Test. in 1721, his Critica Sacra in 1728 and his Apparatus Historico-Criticus in 1748.
Apologist born in Madrid around 1670, of Marrano parents. First an Augustinian monk in Burgos and renowned preacher, he converted to Judaism in Livorno during a trip to Rome, then, settled in Holland where he was circumcised, wrote in Spanish his Apology for Judaism, published in The Hague in 1633 under the editorial pseudonym Nodriza and later taken up in Wiffen's Coleccion de Reformadores Españoles, who believed him to be Protestant.
Spanish poet who lived in Amsterdam in the middle of the seventeenth century. He is the author of an elegy on the martyr Abraham Nuñez de Bernal, burned in Córdoba in 1655, inserted in the Elogios que Zelosos Dedicaron á la Felice Memoria, published presumably in Amsterdam in 1656.
Poet active in Amsterdam, died after 1684. Member of several poetry academies in his city, renowned for his riddles, he composed verses for the Coro de las Musas of Miguel de Barrios and for the Rumbos Peligrosos of Joseph Penso.
Physician in Padua, died in 1642. He is the author of an unpublished manuscript treatise, 'Olam Hafuk, on the plague that raged from 1630 onwards, during which he was very active.
Reputed Talmudist of the seventeenth century. He, his son, also named Abraham Catalan, and his brother Elijah Catalan were contemporaries of R. Ḥayyim Shabbethai in Salonique.
Italian poet born in Padua, son of physician Abraham Catalan. Rabbi in his native city, where he died at an advanced age in 1661, he was the recipient of the very first letters from his pupil Isaac Vita Cantarini. He left a rhetorical pamphlet on man, Meẓaref ha-Sekel, unpublished, composed for the marriage of his sister Perla with Raphaël Gans Levi a poem readable in Hebrew as in Italian, wrote a similar one in 1645 for Shabbethai Astruc, and published in Padua an elegy on the Lamentations in octaves.
Chinese mandarin, active around 1653. After the sack of K'ai-Fong, following the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1642, the synagogue of the city was destroyed and the Jews took refuge on the other side of the Houang-Ho river, after having saved the Torah scrolls thrown into the water; ten years later, Chao, a Jewish mandarin from the Chen-Si province, was tasked with restoring the city and, with the help of his brother Yng-teou, persuaded the Jews to return and rebuild their temple in 1653. A complete Torah scroll was reconstructed from the fragments saved from the waters, and Chao wrote an account of it; a stele dated 1663 reports the details.
Jew converted to Christianity, born in the middle of the seventeenth century and died in Prossnitz at the beginning of the eighteenth, he was previously named Baruch and worked as ḥazzan in Bruchsal before being baptized in Strasbourg in 1674. After twenty years at the chair of Semitic studies at the University of Leipzig, he retired to Prossnitz, where he returned to Judaism. He published several works at Leipzig, including an epistle of Paul to the Jews translated from Greek into Hebrew (1676), a commentary by Abravanel on the former Prophets (1686), and a treatise on the faith and unbelief of Jews (1713).
Author and Jewish convert to Christianity, born in Altorf at the end of the seventeenth century and died in Prague around 1740, probably a member of the Keyser family of Schleusingen, Bavaria; he claimed to be a rabbi in Schleusingen before his baptism in 1715. He notably wrote an account of his conversion, Ausgang von dem Verstockten Judenthum, in Erfurt in 1720, as well as works published in Regensburg in 1723 and 1724, and a German translation of the Sefer ha-Minhagim of Jacob Lévi, published in Bremen in 1733.
Queen of Sweden, born in Stockholm in 1626 and died in Rome in 1689, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus and Marie-Éléonore of Brandenburg; she reigned from 1632 to 1654. Her attitude toward Jews was most benevolent: familiar with Hebrew literature, she welcomed eminent Hebraists to her court, received Manassé ben Israël with favor, advocated for the settlement of Jews in the West Indies, and appointed the Portuguese Marrano Isaac Manoel Texeira as financial agent and resident minister in Hamburg. She attempted in vain, by all means, to prevent the banishment of Jews from Vienna decreed by Emperor Leopold in 1670.
Bishop of Peterborough and Christian Hebraicist, born in 1671 and died in 1747. Royal professor of Hebrew at Oxford from 1715 until his death, he published there in 1705 a translation of sections of Maimonides' Yad, Hilkot Talmud Torah and Teshouva.
German theologian and Hebraist, born in Bremen in 1603, died in Leiden on November 5, 1669. Professor of Hebrew in Bremen from 1629 then in Franeker from 1636, he also teaches theology there before occupying the chair of theology in Leiden in 1650; he founds a theological school that bears his name. He compiles a Hebrew dictionary of the Old Testament published in Leiden in 1669, and leaves several Latin works on the Mishna useful for the study of Judaism.
Physician ordinary at the court of Prince Vassile Lupu, hospodar of Moldavia from 1634 to 1654; his dates of birth and death, as well as his first name, remain unknown. According to E. Schwarzfeld, he would descend from Eliezer Cohen of Safed, established in Poland. He enjoyed great credit with the Sultan of Turkey, who entrusted him with secret documents on an alliance between Sweden and Russia directed against Turkey, and the government of Venice sought his diplomatic advice.
Italian rabbi, born in Alessandria della Paglia in the second half of the 17th century, died in Reggio nell'Emilia in 1739. From a wealthy and prominent family, he was elected rabbi of Casale while still young, before becoming rabbi of Reggio nell'Emilia, then an important position; among his disciples were his son-in-law and successor Israel Bassano and Manasse Joshua Padova, rabbi of Modena. He is the author of several works, including Et ha-Zamir, Alon Bakut, a commentary on Lamentations, and Abot 'Olam, a commentary on Pirké Avot.
Writer established in Hamburg in the seventeenth century. In 1631, he translates into Spanish, or transliterates in Latin characters a Judeo-Spanish version in Hebrew letters, the Song of Songs, under the title Cantares de Selomoh Traduzido de Lengua Caldayca en Espagnol, published in Hamburg that same year.
Rabbi and Italian author of the second half of the seventeenth century, one of the rabbis of Modena, renowned as a fine Talmudist. His responsa on talmudic questions appear in the Paḥad Yiṣḥaq of Isaac Lampronti, in the Dibre Yosef of Joseph Ergas, concerning the right of redemption, and in the Shemesh Ṣedaqah of Samson Morpurgo. According to Nepi, he was the teacher of R. Ismaël Cohen, author of the Zera' Emet, and of Samson Ḥayyim Naḥamani, author of the Toledot Shimshon.
Converted to Christianity, he lived in Paris and then in Metz in the second half of the seventeenth century, descendant of Rabbi Jacob Weil of Nuremberg. Having embraced Christianity in his youth, he studied theology at the Sorbonne and devoted himself to the interpretation of the Yad ha-Ḥazaqah of Maimonide, several treatises of which he translated into Latin, published in Paris between 1667 and 1678, as well as the Sefer ha-Qorbanot with Abravanel's introduction to Leviticus, in London in 1683.
Italian author who lived in Asti and Chieri in the early seventeenth century. He publishes several Hebrew poems, including the Ot le-Ṭobah, twenty-two talmudic sentences arranged according to the Hebrew alphabet (Chieri, 1627), the Dibre Ester, an allegorical commentary on the book of Esther (1628), and the Ma'agal Ṭob (1627-28), printed with the help of his son Abraham; he also writes in Italian, notably Cinque Enimmi and Canto di Judit, both published in 1628.
Historian of Hebrew literature, born in Salonika around 1618, died around 1685, from a family of scholars. He married a granddaughter of Menahem of Lonsano, went twice to Palestine — in 1644 alone, then in 1652 with his family to settle in Jerusalem, where he founded a bet ha-midrash — before serving as dayyan in Egypt from 1671. His major work, the literary chronicle Qore ha-Dorot, composed in Egypt around 1683, lists Jewish masters and authors from the closure of the Talmud to his own time; the original manuscript, printed in Venice in 1746, was re-edited with notes by David Cassel in Berlin in 1846.
Nephew of Abraham ben Lévi Conque, he lived in Hebron, in Palestine, in the 17th century. He was the master of Isaac b. Juda Rapoport, and some of his novellæ and responsa are cited in the works of Ḥayyim Abulafia.
Rabbi of Zamość, Poland, at the end of the 17th century, also called Tarcziner. He writes « Pené Aryé Zouta » (The Small Face of the Lion), published in Wilhelmsdorf in 1720 — and, according to some, also in Sulzbach, undated —, an abridgment, according to Wolf, of his larger work and left unpublished, « Pené Aryé Rabba » (The Great Face of the Lion), commentary on the Pentateuch.
Portuguese Jew, agent at the court of Charles II of England, born in Beira, in Portugal, died after 1665. After a stay in Bordeaux from 1640 to 1644, he settled in Rouen the same year, before establishing himself in England as a merchant and royalist agent, receiving and distributing funds for Charles II. Having become consular agent and financier of Portugal in London after the Restoration, he first suggests the marriage of the king to the Infanta Catherine of Braganza; converted to Christianity in 1660, he is ennobled the same year, but goes bankrupt in 1665 and ends up imprisoned in Fleet Prison.
Spanish army contractor, born in 1656, died in London in 1742, fifth direct descendant of Emanuel José Cortissos, marquis of Villa, active around 1475. Ambassador of Emperor Charles to Morocco, he was charged in 1706 with provisioning the allied armies under the command of the Count of Peterborough, saving the army from famine, but never managed to obtain full payment for his services; he went to England in 1712 to assert his rights, in vain, and died in poverty.
Chamberlain to Queen Catherine of Bragance, wife of Charles II of England, active around 1665. His position at court owed to the influence of his brother Antonio Mendes, who had cured the queen of erysipelas in Portugal; she persuaded both brothers to accompany her to England, where they declared themselves openly Jewish. Andrea Mendes took an active interest in the affairs of the Jews of London and often intervened on their behalf with Charles II.
Dutch preacher hostile to Jews, active in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. He publishes in 1658 a Historia der Joden, history of the Jews from their dispersion until his time, where he describes customs, mores and fables of the exiles with the aim of influencing the authorities to prevent the Jews of Amsterdam from building a new synagogue.
Writer hostile to Jews in Germany, in the early 17th century. He is the author of De Judæorum Privilegiis (Darmstadt, 1604-12) and Geistliches Bedenken, ob die Juden und Ihr Wucher in dem Römischen Reich zu Dulden (Darmstadt, 1612).
Jew converted to Christianity, he lived in Rome in the seventeenth century. In 1666, he translates from Spanish into Italian the treatise on chocolate by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, printed with notes by Alexander Vitrioli in Rome in 1667. Mandosius describes him as a mathematician known for his report, accompanied by mathematical notes, on the eruption of Vesuvius in 1660.
Lord Protector of England, born April 25, 1599, died September 3, 1658. Favorable to the readmission of Jews to England, partly to fulfill messianic prophecy but chiefly because of the services rendered to him by the Marranos settled in the country since 1653 and the financial support provided to Parliament by the merchant Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, he summons Manasseh ben Israël after the Council's refusal in 1654, has a motion introduced in 1655, then convenes at Whitehall in December 1655 a conference that rules that the expulsion of 1290 had never had legal validity.
Jacob Curiel, known in public life under the name of Alexandre Nuñez da Costa, resides at the Portuguese court of Hamburg around the middle of the seventeenth century and dies there in 1665. Previously established in Amsterdam, where he participates in April 1639 in the meeting of the Portuguese community divided into three, he is sent around 1650 to Hamburg by King John IV of Portugal, who makes him « Hidalgo da Casa Real ». Elected in 1655 warden of the Portuguese synagogue, to which he donates a tebah, he is buried in the Portuguese cemetery of Altona.
Italian poet established in Padua, Sema Cuzzeri witnessed the attack on the ghetto of the city on August 20, 1684. He drew from it an Italian poem, « L'Innocenza Illesa », which takes up the cruelties reported in the « Paḥad Yiṣḥaq » of Isaac Cantarini, describes the ghetto of Padua and the persecutions that took place there, and defends the Jews against the then widespread accusation of cruelties committed against Christians in Budapest. The content of this unpublished poem is reported in the work by Antonio Ciscato published in Padua in 1901.
Rabbi of Turin in the 17th century, son of Rabbi Joseph Calvo. Encyclopaedia Judaica ranks him among the most important rabbis of the Turin community in the 17th century, alongside his father and Joseph ben Michael Ravenna: two generations of the same family at the head of teaching and rabbinical decision-making in ducal Piedmont.
Rabbi, notary and kabbalist of Meknès in the 17th century. Principal ideologue of Sabbatean messianism in Morocco after the conversion of Shabbetaï Tsvi in 1666; through gematria calculations he argued that redemption would occur in 1675. He remained strictly observant of halakha and retained his community prestige; his three sons (Shemuel, Eliezer, Yossef) were also rabbis in Meknès.
Born in Montilla into a family of Portuguese conversos, Daniel Levi de Barrios (Christian name Miguel) lived in Brussels before joining the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam, where he became its "poet laureate." A prolific poet in Spanish, he celebrated the endurance of Jewish faith, his repentance for having had to pose as a Christian, and also left major historiographical work on Sephardic scholars and institutions in Amsterdam.
Hebraist and Talmudist born in Belgrade around 1620 and died in London around the end of the seventeenth century, Joseph ben Jacob ben Moses ibn Danon is secretary of Joseph Almosnino, rabbi of Belgrade. During the city's capture by Prince Max Emmanuel of Austria on September 6, 1688, he is exiled with most of the Jewish community, survives preciously in Moravia, then goes to Amsterdam where the patron Joseph Ẓarfati takes him under his protection. There he composes the treatise « Sheloshah Sarigim » on Law, Worship, and Charity, before settling in London, where he remains esteemed until his death.
German theologian and Hebraist born in Sundhausen, near Gotha, in 1654 and died in Jena on 22 December 1727, Johann Andreas Danz studied at Wittenberg then at Hamburg, where he learned Hebrew from Esdras Edzardi, before becoming professor of Oriental languages at the University of Jena, in the faculty of theology from 1713; he is considered the greatest Christian Hebraist of his time. He publishes in Jena as early as 1686 the « Nucifrangibulum », then in 1699 the « Compendium Grammaticae Ebraicae-Chaldaicae », Hebrew grammar manuals that become standard references for nearly a century.
Rabbi and biblical commentator known as the « Baal Metzudot ». Seeing Tanakh study weaken, he composed a clear and simple commentary on the Nevi'im and Ketuvim, published in Zolkiew in 1753. After his death, his son Yehiel/Hillel Altschuler completed the work and divided it into Metzudat David (meaning of the verse) and Metzudat Zion (explanation of words) — the Metzudot, printed in most Miqraot Gedolot.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5458 of the Hebrew era (1698). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 17th century. Mentioned in 5387 of the Hebrew era (1627). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-4.
German Talmudist born in Posen and died in Ottensen, near Hamburg, in 1699, David (Tevele) b. Benjamin is the author of the « Masoret ha-Berit », a homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch and the five Megillot, edited by his son Meïr b. David (Hamburg, 1715), and of the « Sha'are Ẓiyyon », a collection of ethics and homilies drawn notably from the « Sefer Ḥasidim ».
Polish scholar known only as the author of a commentary, in reality a glossary, on the « Targoum Jonathan » and the « Targoum Yerushalmi » of the Pentateuch as well as on the Targoum Sheni of the book of Esther, published in Prague in 1609 ; an earlier edition, in Prague in 1537, would place David b. Jacob of Szczebrzyn in the first half of the sixteenth century, but Steinschneider contests its existence. The work is reprinted in Prague in 1781, then in 1789.
Lithuanian rabbi of the 17th century, nephew on his mother's side of R. Moses Rivkes, author of « Be'er ha-Golah », David ben Aryeh Löb of Lida exercised successively in Lida, Zwolen, Mainz and Ostrog before becoming, in 1682, rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Amsterdam; suspected by Sephardic rabbis of being an adherent of Sabbatai Tsevi, he is forced to resign and leave the city, before returning once the controversy has subsided, then departing for Poland, where he dies in Lemberg. He leaves several works, including « Be'er 'Eseḳ » on his Amsterdam troubles (Lublin, 1684) and « Migdal Dawid », a Cabalistic commentary on Ruth (Amsterdam, 1680).
Dutch scholar established in Amsterdam in the first half of the 17th century, David ben Menahem Cohen is the author of the "Mizmor le-Todah", edited by Elie Aboab in Amsterdam in 1644, which renders in Judeo-German verse the narratives of the Pentateuch and the five Meguilot; he also publishes, in Judeo-German, the prayers of Rosh Hodesh according to the German and Polish rite, in Hanau in 1626.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Italian rabbi and editor
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5429 of the Hebrew era (1669). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-2.
17th century rabbi
Around 1664, he led a group of Sephardic Jews (after expulsion from Brazil and then French Guiana) to Jodensavanne, in Dutch Surinam, founding one of the most privileged Jewish communities in the colonial world.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
17th-century Ottoman rabbi and literary historian
Portuguese printer
Rabbi of Rashid, Egypt, active in the mid-seventeenth century, David Gerson is the contemporary of Mordecai ben Juda ha-Lévi, author of the "Darke No'am" in which some of his responsa appear, and is cited as a great rabbinical authority by his student Abraham ben Mordecai ha-Lévi, author of the "Ginnat Weradim" and "Gan ha-Melek". Moses Ḥagiz, in his "Leḳeṭ ha-Ḳemaḥ", attributes to him the abandonment of the practice of lighting his pipe with a tallow candle, deemed forbidden by some; David Gerson gave as reason a dream in which he saw himself punished as if he had eaten fat for having thus used tallow.
Founder in 1685/1696 of a textile, wine and spirits trading house, he settled in Martinique then developed from 1728 onward the shipping business with his son Abraham under the name « David Gradis & son ».
Polish halakhic authority, author of the Turei Zahav (Taz), a fundamental commentary on the Shulchan Aruch. Son-in-law of the Bach, he survived the massacres of 1648.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Blind Kabbalist established in Salonique at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, David ibn Hin devoted himself to the study of Kabbalah and published the « Sefer Gerushim » of Moïse Cordovero (Venice, 1600) as well as the « Sodot » of Joseph Gikatilla; he also published his own work, the « Liḳḳuṭe Shoshannim », a collection of explanations of biblical passages drawn from the works of Jacob Berab, Meïr Arama, Ovadia Sforno, Isaac Gershon and Samuel Almosnino (Venice, 1602).
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Rabbi of Karasubazar, in Crimea, at the end of the seventeenth century, originally from Poland — hence his Tatar epithet « Laḥni », from « Liaḥ », designating Poland —, David Laḥni ben Eliezer is the presumed author of the « Mishkan David », a work in two parts on Hebrew roots and their meanings and then on Hebrew synonyms, of which Abraham Firkovitch claimed to possess the manuscript; he also established and published the « Ḥazanya » ritual of Crimea.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Ashkenazi rabbi, Chief Rabbi of Mainz then Amsterdam, author of halakhic works.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
scientist and physician, rabbi of the Sephardic community of London
Born in Amsterdam, trained at the yeshiva Ets Haim. Called around 1690 as rabbi of the Portuguese congregation of The Hague, a post he held until his death in 1728. Was president of the academies Abi Jethomim and Keter Shem Tob in Amsterdam. His library, sold after his death, contained 2,148 volumes (excluding Hebrew books), including « forbidden » works (Uriel da Costa), studied by Yosef Kaplan.
Chief Rabbi of Prague and famous collector of Hebrew books and manuscripts.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5449 of the Hebrew era (1689). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-2.
Italian rabbi born around 1618 and died in Ferrara on April 2, 1678, Juda Ashael Del Bene signs with Menahem Recanati a halakhic decision on the remission of debts in the jubilee year, cited by Isaac Lampronti, who counts him among the greatest talmudic authorities of his time. He is the author of Kis'ot le-Bet Dawid (Verona, 1646), a philosophical work treating the creation of the world, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection and the preeminence of Hebrew, as well as of Yehudah Meḥoḳeḳi; a skilled poet, his style suffers from too frequent use of synonyms, which he nonetheless considered one of the finest qualities of the Hebrew language.
One of the first members of the Portuguese community of Hamburg, Albertus Denis signs on May 31, 1611 the agreement guaranteeing to the community its cemetery in Altona and is admitted to the city in 1612. Banker to Count Ernest of Schauenburg, he comes into conflict with Hamburg authorities, who accuse him of buying reichsthalers to remelt them in Altona, and escapes imprisonment under the protection of the Count; Christian IV of Denmark entrusts him in 1619 with the royal mint of Glückstadt, and he intercedes again in 1637 for the renewal of the cemetery's privileges.
Author, editor and bookseller of Amsterdam, Moses b. Isaac Dias publishes in 1695 the Spanish translation of the Pentateuch by Joseph Franco Serrano, then, until 1715, several Hebrew works; he is himself the author of "Meditaciones Sobre la Historia Sagrada del Génesis" (Amsterdam, 1697), dedicated to Samuel Cohen Nasi, reissued and enlarged in 1705 with a dedication to Cavallero Selomo de Medina.
Italian rabbi established in Rovigo at the end of the 17th century, David Diena, consulted on talmudic questions by R. Nathaniel Segré, has his responsa first published in the collection « 'Afar Ya'aḳob » then taken up by Isaac Lampronti in his « Paḥad Yiṣḥaq » ; he states himself to be grandson of Azriel Diena, although Ghirondi and Mortara diverge on the exact identity of his father. He is himself the grandfather of David Ḥayyim Diena, chief rabbi of Rovigo.
Archbishop of Cranganor born in Lisbon in 1654 and died in Évora on October 28, 1713, doctor of theology charged with a mission to Rome, Diogo Justiniano Álvares da Anunciação was appointed in 1692 by Dom Pedro II archbishop of Cranganor, a seat he would never occupy, resigning in 1695 to become coadjutor of the archbishop of Évora. Author of a collection of sermons, the « Trofeo Evangelico » (Lisbon, 1693–1713), and of a manuscript work announcing the coming of the Messiah, he preached at the auto-da-fé in Lisbon on September 6, 1705, a sermon that provoked lively controversy and to which an anonymous Jew responded in 1709 under the title « Ante Exordio ».
Biblical commentator and poet of the 17th century born in Grodno, Lithuania, Samuel b. Moïse Dlugosz edited the Prophets and the Hagiographes of the Judeo-German Bible translation, the "Ha-Maggid", adding a commentary on the Book of Judges, the "Aguddat Shemuel" (Amsterdam, 1699; Wandsbeck, 1737); liturgical poet, he joined to his 1699 Bible translation an Aramaic rhymed seliḥa and two laments, taken up in the "Tiḳḳun Shobabim" (Mantua, 1732).
Syndic of the Jewish communities of Amsterdam and then London in the seventeenth century, born in a major city of Andalusia where he was alderman and lifetime treasurer of customs and royal revenues. Imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition with his wife and sister (1627-32), he subsequently took refuge in Bordeaux and then, in 1640, in Amsterdam, where he engaged in Brazilian trade; the Portuguese conquest of Pernambuco in 1654 ruined him. Charged by Manassé ben Israël to negotiate the return of Jews to England, he presented a petition to Cromwell and settled in London in 1663, where he became president of the first synagogue.
English ecclesiastic of the seventeenth century. He met Manasseh ben Israel in 1644 and gathered from him the account of the alleged discovery of the Ten Tribes in America by Antonio de Montesino; a new question posed to Manasseh in 1649 led to the publication of "The Hope of Israel." In 1656, he published a pamphlet in which he answered affirmatively to Samuel Hartlib on the permissibility of admitting Jews, while judging that opportunity might, according to circumstances, make such admission unwise.
Anti-Jewish author born in Mannheim in 1654, died in Heidelberg on December 20, 1704. Sent by the Elector Palatine to study in England and Holland, he subsequently devoted nearly twenty years to the study of rabbinic literature in Heidelberg and then in Frankfurt, under the guise of a feigned desire to convert to Judaism, before publishing in 1700 in Frankfurt his « Entdecktes Judenthum » (Judaism Unveiled), which earned him the chair of Oriental languages at the University of Heidelberg but which the Jews had placed under sequester by the Emperor. He died suddenly of apoplexy in 1704.
European rabbi
Rabbi born in Kraków around 1665, died in Safed, Palestine, in 1742. Dayyan of Kraków, he became rabbi of Rakow in 1708, then of Brody in 1714, before answering in 1735 the call of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam. A great Talmudist and Kabbalist, he went to Palestine in 1740 and settled in Safed, where he fought in vain against the reading of the works of the followers of Nehemiah Hayyoun and Shabbetai Tsevi. His published works include « Arba' Ṭure Eben » (Lemberg, 1789) and « Ma'aseh Roḳeaḥ » (Amsterdam, 1740).
Polish sage active in Posen in the 16th and 17th centuries, author of a commentary on Pirké Avot entitled "Ḳiryat Ḥannah" (Prague, 1612).
Religious writer in Hebrew and Judeo-German, active in the second half of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century in Prossnitz, Moravia, where he was beadle, cantor, and scribe. He published notably Judeo-German verses for Hanukkah (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1702), a collection of moral maxims (Dyhernfurth, 1693), a Judeo-German translation of seliḥot (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1703, then Berlin, 1712), as well as prayers for prosperity published in Prague (1684).
Moral writer active in Frankfurt-am-Main at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, author in Judeo-German of « Simḥat ha-Nefesh » (Frankfurt, 1707), a very popular work and often reprinted, cited by the famous preacher Vögele der Maggid. He published under the same title, in 1727 in Fürth, a collection of poems and music, and also devoted himself to biblical exegesis with « Ḥiddushim » on the Pentateuch (Offenbach, 1722).
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Nehemia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.
Talmudic scholar active in Lublin in the 17th century, author of a commentary on the Pentateuch entitled « Adderet Eliyahou » (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1649).
Rabbi of Hebron, author of responsa illuminating Jewish life in seventeenth-century Palestine.
German scholar of the seventeenth century, author of a calendar, « 'Ibronot » (Lublin, 1615), based on the work of Jacob Marcaria (Riva di Trento, 1561) and perfected by a circular table facilitating the determination of festivals; it was reprinted in Lublin (1640) and then in Frankfurt an der Oder (1691).
Talmudist of the seventeenth century, author of the « Petaḥ 'Enayim », an index of biblical passages cited in the Zohar and the Tiqqounim (Cracow, 1647; reissued with the Zohar, Sulzbach, 1684), and reviser, in 1619, of the « 'En Ya'aqob » of Jacob b. Ḥabib.
Printer of Mantua active in the early seventeenth century, who reopened in 1612 a Hebrew printing workshop in the city after a long interruption. That year, he published notably the « Ayyelet ha-Shaḥar », liturgical collection of Mordekhaï Yaré, the Purim poem « Yashir Mosheh » by Moses of Corfu, and the « Shilṭe ha-Gibborim » of Abraham Portaleone.
Ottoman rabbi
rabbi
Rabbi and decisionist, author of the Eliyahu Rabbah, active in Prague and Tiktin.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5433 of the Hebrew era (1673). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.
Judeo-Persian poet, author of Shahzada va Sufi, Persian adaptation of the Buddha legend.
Polish Talmudist active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, trained in Talmud at Posen then rabbi of Schwersenz, where he wrote around 1679 a haggadic commentary, before being called to Hildesheim while maintaining ties with the Posen community. In 1701, he became dayyan in Posen, or, according to another source, rabbi of Łuck. His works, published by his sons, include "Rappeduni be-Tappuḥim" (Berlin, 1712) and the responsa "Eben ha-Shoham" and "Me'irat 'Enayim" (Dyhernfurth, 1733).
Sephardic family of Iberian origin (Louzada/Lousada), refugeed and then established in London. Moses Baruh Lousada was appointed gabbay of the Sephardic community of London in 1663; the Baruh Lousada, merchants in the Caribbean (Barbados, Curaçao, Jamaica) then in England, counted among the notables of Bevis Marks synagogue for a century. Emanuel Lousada (born 1783, son of Isaac Baruh Lousada) is associated with Sidmouth, in Devon.
German Talmudist and resolute opponent of Sabbateanism, born in Altona on June 4, 1697 and died in that city on April 19, 1776, trained in the Talmud by his father, called « Ḥakam Ẓebi ». Married in 1715 to the daughter of the rabbi of Ungarisch-Brod, in Moravia, he continues his studies there before engaging in the jewelry trade, allowing himself to be convinced in 1728 to accept the rabbinate of Emden, from which he takes his name; returned to Altona in 1733, he obtains permission for a private synagogue and then, from the king of Denmark, permission to establish a printing press. He remains especially known for his long controversy with Jonathan Eybeschütz, whom he accused of Sabbatean heresy.
Talmudist and popular preacher who died after 1662, from a family of scholars of Posen. He left Krakow in 1649 to become rabbi of Gnesen, was sent in 1652 to collect funds in Germany for the heavily indebted community of Posen, then left Poland — perhaps due to the Swedish-Polish war that broke out in 1655 — to become rabbi of Oettingen, in Swabia, where he was still living in 1662. He published notably homilies (Amsterdam, 1680), a lament on the sufferings of the Jews of Ukraine (1652), and a commentary on Psalm 83 (Prague, 1657).
Rabbi and Italian cabalist born in Livorno in 1685, died on May 19, 1730. He fought in two polemical works (London, 1715) the theses of Nehemia Hayyoun, whom he accused of Sabbatean heresy, then published « Shomer Emunim », a dialogue between a philosopher and a cabalist, and « Mebo Petaḥim », an introduction to the « true Kabbalah » warned against « heretical Kabbalah » (Amsterdam, 1736), as well as a collection of sixty-eight responsa (Livorno, 1742).
Joseph ben Saül Escapa was rabbi of Smyrna in the first half of the 17th century, after having directed the yeshiva of Salonique. He remained sole rabbi of Smyrna after the death of his colleague Joshua Ashkenazi Azariah, and remained chiefly known for having been the master of Shabbethaï Tsevi, whom he eventually excommunicated. He is the author of the "Rosh Yosef", a commentary on the four Tourim of Jacob b. Asher, published in part in Smyrna in 1658 and 1659.
Lorenço Escudero, in Hebrew Abraham Israël, was a Spanish poet born in Cordova of marrano parents and died around 1683. Converted to Judaism, he lived in great poverty in Amsterdam and refused, despite advantages promised by the Marquis of Caracena, to return to Christianity. He is credited with the apologetic work « Fortaleza del Judaismo, y Confusion del Estraño ».
Issachar Berush Eskeles was an Austrian rabbi and financier, born in 1692 and died in Vienna on March 2, 1753, son of Gabriel Eskeles and son-in-law of Samson Wertheimer. Appointed rabbi of Kremsir in 1710 and then, in 1718, rabbi of Nikolsbourg, he was designated on September 10, 1725 by Emperor Charles VI « Landesrabbiner » of Hungary, while residing in Vienna. He obtained in 1742, together with the baron d'Aguilar, the annulment of a heavy tax imposed on the Jews of Moravia.
Gabriel Esperanssa was rabbi in Safed in the mid-17th century, contemporary of Jonathan Galante. Collected, according to tradition, as an orphan by a woman named Esperanssa from whom he took his name, he was a reputed Talmudist, although described as contentious and dogmatic. Only his collectanea on the Pentateuch has been published among his writings.
Alexander ben Moses Ethausen was a German scholar who lived in Fulda in the seventeenth century. He is the author of a work in Judeo-German in two parts: "Bet Yisrael", a history of the Jews until the destruction of the Second Temple, and "Bet ha-Beḥirah", in twenty-four chapters, a description of Jerusalem and the two Temples, published in Offenbach in 1719.
Polish-German rabbi
Chief Jewish merchant of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Cochin for nearly fifty years, he pursued a cultural policy of purchasing Hebrew books in Holland for his community. He deciphered ancient copper plates of Cochin and became the historian of his community; his 1768 letter to banker Tobias Boas remains a major source on the Jews of Cochin. He also wrote a polemical Hebrew translation of the Gospel.
Abraham Aboab Falero was a Portuguese philanthropist who died in Verona in 1642. Established in Hamburg at the turn of the 17th century, he had a synagogue built there for the Portuguese community, the "Keter Torah", founded yeshivot extending to Palestine and became known for the considerable sums he devoted to the ransom of captives. It was while going to visit, late in life, his son the rabbi Samuel Aboab in Verona that he died.
Juan de Faria was a Marrano poet who, residing in Brussels in 1672, composed a poem in honor of his friend Miguel de Barrios for his « Coro de las Musas ». Barrios designated him, with Aaron Dormido, as one of the « nightingales of the mosaic nest ».
Portuguese physician and poet born in Porto, died in Amsterdam in 1663. After practicing medicine in Lisbon, he emigrated to Amsterdam, where he became president of the Portuguese community in 1639. Nephew of Jacob Tirado, founder of the Portuguese congregation Bet Ya'aḳob, he was the friend of Manasseh b. Israël, who dedicated his "Thesauro dos Dinim" to him; he himself is the author of a poetic adaptation in Portuguese of the Taryag Miẓwot, the "Declaração das Seiscentas e Treze Encommendanças da Nossa Santa Ley" (Amsterdam, 1627).
Political economist and dramatist born in Lisbon of Marrano parents. After studies at the University of Madrid and a military career in which he became a captain, he settled in Paris as consul general of Portugal, before returning around 1650 to Lisbon, where the Inquisition had him garroted on December 1, 1652. He is the author of several works published in Madrid and Paris between 1637 and 1643; his son José da Villa-Real was a professor of Greek in Marseille in 1682.
Leader of the guilds of Frankfurt-am-Main against the Jews, instigator in 1614 of the riots that caused their expulsion from the city, he is hanged in 1616. After failing to obtain a position in 1595, then working as a soldier and baker, he terrorizes the magistrates of Frankfurt for four years and invades the Jewish quarter on August 22, 1614, driving out approximately two thousand Jews from the city. Arrested by imperial order, he is hanged and quartered on March 10, 1616; the Jewish community of Frankfurt thereafter instituted, on the twentieth day of Adar, the feast of « Purim Winẓ » in memory of their deliverance.
Preacher in Venice, died in Rovigo in 1647, also reputed to be an excellent scribe. He is the author of the 'Iggerot u-Teshuvot', letters and responsa published in the 'Be'er Sheva'' (Venice, 1614), of the 'Giddoulé Teroumah', a casuistic commentary on the 'Sefer ha-Teroumot' of Samuel ha-Sardi (1643), and of the 'Binah la-'Ittim', a collection of sermons for sabbaths and festivals (1647-48), long highly prized by the Jews of the Orient.
Rabbi in Vienna in the early 17th century, identified by G. Wolf as Abraham Austerlitz. He is the author of a funeral eulogy, 'Arid be-Siḥi', published at the end of the 'Minḥat Yiẓḥaḳ' of Isaac b. Juda Löb Mentz of Nikolsburg (Amsterdam, 1688).
Rabbi of Salonika, active in the 17th century, author of « Me'il Shemuel » (Salonika, 1725), a collection of responsa and Talmudic analecta accompanied by notes from his brother Isaac Florentin on Maimonides. He also left annotations to the Shulhan Arukh, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, gathered in the collection « Moreh Ṣedeq » by Michael b. Moses ha-Cohen (1655).
Turkish Talmudist active in Salonika in the 17th century, author of the « Doresh Mishpaṭ » (Salonika, 1655), a collection of marginal notes by Solomon ibn Ḥassoun, Solomon b. Isaac Lévi, Daniel Estrumsa, Baruch Angel and Samuel Florentin the Younger, conceived as a complement to the « Moreh Ṣedeq » of Michael b. Moses ha-Cohen.
Italian rabbi and author who died in Reggio after 1641, student of R. Moshe Isserlès and versed in the Talmud and Kabbalah. He founded in Reggio the society « Ḥebrat ha-'Alubim » and published during his lifetime the « Midrash Haggadah », commentary on the Haggadah of Pessa'h (Venice, 1641), a corrected edition of which appeared in Livorno in 1809; he also left in manuscript the « Goren Arnon », five collections of sermons on the Pentateuch, seen and cited by Azoulaï in his « Shem ha-Guedolim ».
Italian poet and rabbinical scholar born in Mantua on July 22, 1618 (?), died in Livorno after 1703, trained by his older brother Jacob and by Joseph Firmo of Ancona. A fierce opponent, with this brother, of the disciples of Shabbethaï Ẓevi, against whom they publish a collection of poems, the 'Ẓebi Muddaḥ' (Berlin, 1885), he is also forced by the rabbis of Mantua to leave the city for having opposed the kabbalists. After wanderings as far as Algiers, he settled in Livorno, where he composed his best-known work, the 'Meteḳ Sefatayim', a treatise on Hebrew prosody edited by H. Brody (Cracow, 1892).
Italian scholar and poet born in Mantua in 1615, died in Florence in 1667, trained in the Talmud by his father and then by Shemaya of Medina in Venice. His poetic reputation rests mainly on his satires against Shabbethaï Ẓevi and his followers, who replied by denouncing him as a heretic and attacking his house and life; having also published a poem condemning the study of Kabbalah by the uninitiated, he was the target of Kabbalists and rabbis of Mantua, who demanded that the work be burned — a controversy interrupted by his death, which his brother Immanuel pursued in his defense.
Dutch-Sephardi Jewish banker
Court Jew of the margraves of Ansbach around 1700, very influential at court and highly esteemed by the Jews of the margraviate, he maintained his eminent position until his death; in reward for his loyal services, all the privileges that had been granted to him were maintained for his heirs by a special charter in 1730.
German mystic of the 17th century, friend and correspondent of Manasseh ben Israël. Influential nobleman of the Oels district in Silesia and disciple of Jacob Böhme, he affirmed that 'true light will come from the Jews', wrote to Manasseh about the coming glory and salvation of Israel, and received from him, as a pledge of friendship, a portrait adorned with the emblem of the traveler with a torch and an inscription in Hebrew taken from the Psalms.
Dayyan and printer of Amsterdam, born in 1672, died in 1762, who took in his old age the name "Aaron". He established in 1720 a printing house in Amsterdam, from which came several of his own works between 1701 and 1749, including the "Nefesh Yehoudah", commentary on the "Menorat ha-Ma'or" of Isaac Aboab (1701), and the "Be'er Heṭeb", glosses on the Shulchan Aruch (1749); he also edited the rabbinic Bible "Ḳehillat Mosheh", which comprises his own glosses on the Pentateuch (1724).
Physician and Algerian man of letters of Granadian origin, died in Tlemcen in 1605. Established as a physician in Algiers from 1574, he acquired a wide clientele there and composed a commentary on the Proverbs, 'Omer ha-Shiḥah, citing Arabic literature abundantly and completed with didactic poems annotated by his son. The work was published in Livorno in 1748 by one of his descendants, in fulfillment of a vow made in 1740 at the death of his two sons, carried off by plague.
Russian physician of Polish Jewish origin, active at the court of Moscow under the tsars Alexis Mikhailovich and Fedor Alekseyevich, born in the first quarter of the seventeenth century and killed in Moscow during the streltsiy uprising in 1682. Sent to Moscow from Kiev in 1657, he began in 1659 as a barber-surgeon before being appointed assistant physician to the tsar in 1667 and ordinary physician in 1672, receiving a doctoral diploma despite the absence of university studies abroad. Having changed religions several times to end in Greek orthodoxy, he was put to death with the boyar Matveïev and the physician Gutmensch, both accused of having poisoned the tsar.
French Christian scholar specializing in Kabbalah, born in Mannes, Provence, in 1601, died in Sigonce in 1681. Although unreliable, his works on Hebrew mysticism include « Yom Yhwh » (1629) and an « Index Codicum Cabbalisticorum » (1651). Having met Léon de Modène in Venice in 1633, he published without his consent in Paris in 1637 his « Historia dei Riti Ebraici », adding a preface to it.
French Christian Orientalist born in Paris around 1670, died in Oxford on March 2, 1740. Trained early in Oriental languages, Hebrew and Arabic, he left the Catholic priesthood for Protestantism and published a virulent denunciation of the Roman Church, « L'Eglise Romaine Convaincue de Dépravation... » (The Hague, 1706). Having become in 1717 professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford University, he published a Latin translation of « Yosippon » (Oxford, 1706) and tables of conjugation of Hebrew verbs (1710).
Neo-Hebrew poet who died in Palestine on November 25, 1624. First hazzan of the first synagogue of Amsterdam, a position he held for fourteen years before settling in Palestine, he edits a collection of religious poems, « Imre No'am » (Amsterdam, 1628), and translates from Hebrew into Spanish the ethical writings of Jonah of Gerona, « Sendero de Vidas » (2nd ed., 1640).
Italian Talmudist and kabbalist of the 16th-17th centuries, student of Moses Cordovero and master of Menahem Azaria de Fano. He compiled « 'Asis Rimmonim », extracts from Cordovero's « Pardès Rimmonim » annotated by Mordekhaï Dato (Venice, 1601), a work later revised by Fano, who added a commentary, « Pelaḥ ha-Rimmon ».
Egyptian scholar active in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one of the rabbis of Cairo in the time of R. Jacob Castro, universally recognized as a great Talmudist. A volume of his responsa was seen in Egypt by Azoulaï, and his decisions are also cited by Abraham ha-Lévi in his "Ginnat Weradim".
English financier born in London in 1699 and died in 1762, son of Rowland Gideon who had Frenchified his Portuguese name « Abudiente » by settling in England, he began in business in 1720 and became one of the greatest financiers of the City, consulted by the government to raise loans during the wars of the mid-18th century. Wanting to found a landowning family — almost impossible for a Jew — he resigned in 1754 from the Sephardic congregation of London and raised his children in the Christian faith.
Talmudist and rabbi of the seventeenth century, originating from Jerusalem, who traveled in Italy and lived in Livorno while also serving as rabbi in Verona. Esteemed correspondent of Samuel Aboab and Moses Zacuto, he composed a commentary on the Yalḳuṭ, « Berit Abraham », printed in Livorno with the Yalḳuṭ (first part in 1650, second in 1660, the part on the Pentateuch being reprinted in 1713), and contributed to preserving its correct text.
Turkish Talmudist and preacher of the 17th century, active in Salonika where he died around 1705. He is the author of sermons entitled "Odeh Adonai" (Venice, 1681-82), and some of his talmudic decisions are cited by Ḥayyim Benveniste in his works.
German rabbi
Traveler of the first half of the seventeenth century, author of the curious and very rare « Gelilot Ereẓ Yisrael », in Judeo-German, which describes several routes to Jerusalem and relates his travels, around 1630, through Salonica, Alexandria, Mecca and Jeddah to the shores of the legendary Sambation river. The first edition, published in Lublin in 1635, was publicly burned in Warsaw by order of the Jesuits; the work was later reprinted in Fürth (1691), Amsterdam (1705) and Prague (1824), and translated into Hebrew under the title « Iggeret ha-Ḳodesh ».
Rabbi and proofreader at Venice at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, born in Safed where he returned after 1625. He corrected, according to Conforte, all the Hebrew books printed in Venice during his stay, his name appearing on works published between 1587 and 1615, including "Ḳol Bokim", commentary on Lamentations (Venice, 1589), the "Liḳḳuṭe Shoshannin" on Joshua (Venice, 1602) and the "Mashbit Milḥamot" on the ritual bath (Venice, 1606), to which he added a preface.
Businesswoman and memoirist of Hamburg, author of memoirs in Yiddish that constitute a unique testimony on the daily life of Ashkenazi Jews in the seventeenth century. Mother of fourteen children and a prosperous merchant, she embodies the resilience of Jewish women.
German Jewish businesswoman and diarist. Written over thirty years in her native Western Yiddish (with passages in Hebrew), her seven books of memoirs (Zikhroynes), initially conceived as an ethical testament for her children, are the only known pre-modern Yiddish memoirs written by a woman and a major source on Central European Jewish life (late 17th–early 18th c.).
Joanniki Golyatovski, or Galiatovski, is an ecclesiastic and anti-Jewish polemicist of Little Russia who died in 1688. Trained at the Mogilien college of Kiev, he became its rector and distinguished himself by his hostility toward Catholics, Jews and Muslims, targeting Jews in particular. Taking as a pretext the agitation stirred up by Sabbatai Tsevi, he wrote in the form of a dialogue between a Jew and a Christian a violent pamphlet titled Messia Pravdivi, later translated into Russian by I. Nitzkevitch (Kiev, 1887).
Isaac Gómez de Sosa, son of Abraham Gómez de Sosa, is a poet in Latin, arbiter of the academy of poetry founded by Don Manuel de Belmonte in 1677. He composes the Latin epitaph of his father's tomb, a poem in honor of the work of Jacob Judah Leon and other pieces in honor of a work by Joseph Penço de la Vega, and has the work Divinidad de la Ley translated.
Joseph Issachar Baer ben Elhanan Götz is a German rabbi born in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder around 1640 and died in Jerusalem after 1701. Rabbi of his native city from 1675, he became in 1687 rabbi of Kremsier in Moravia, where he organized in 1694 the district rabbinate with David Oppenheim, before resigning in 1696 to join Jerusalem. He notably left Kabbalistic sermons on the early Prophets (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1680) and a commentary on the Haftarot published in Venice in 1701.
David Grünhut is a German rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, born in Frankfurt am Main, where his father was secretary of the community and his maternal grandfather, Simon Günzburg, was a member of the rabbinic court. In 1682, he edits the work of Ḥayyim Vital on the transmigration of souls, Gilgulim, which brings him censure from the rabbinic court hostile to the Kabbalah; he nonetheless reprints it in 1684. He also publishes in Frankfurt, in 1712, Ṭob Ro'i and Migdal Dawid, as well as a commentary reprinted in 1713 in an edition of the Midrash Shemuel by Samuel Uceda. Rabbi in Aue, in Hesse-Nassau, he maintained cordial relations with the anti-Jewish writers Schudt and Eisenmenger.
Joseph ben Mordecai Günzburg is a Russian Talmudist active in Brest-Litovsk in the second half of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, son of the rabbi of Brest, in office from 1664 to 1685, and himself long chief of the community. He is the author of the Leḳeṭ Yosef, a lexicon for the use of preachers listing the aggadot and moral sayings of rabbinical literature, published for the first time in 1688, as well as of novellae on the Pentateuch published under the same title in Offenbach in 1716.
Zerahiah Gutah is a talmudic author of the seventeenth century died in Cairo in 1647. Student of Jehiel Bassani and Joseph di Trani in Constantinople, he then settles in Jerusalem and then Hebron before settling permanently in Cairo, where he notably trains the disciple Judah Sharaf. He is the author of a commentary on the Bet Yosef of Caro entitled Zera' Ya'aḳob, as well as several haggadic works and collections of responsa which remained in manuscript form.
rabbi (1616–1678)
Moses ibn Ḥabib is a Palestinian rabbi of the 17th century, disciple and son-in-law of Jacob Ḥagiz. He is the author of Geṭ Pashuṭ, on the laws of divorce (Ortaköy, 1714), of Talmudic novellae entitled Shammot ba-Areẓ (Constantinople, 1727) and of 'Ezrat Nashim, on matrimonial law (1731); some of his responsa appear in the Ginnat Weradim of Abraham ha-Levi, published in Constantinople from 1715.
Samuel ben Jacob ben Samuel Ḥagiz, called of Fès, died in 1634 according to his epitaph, is the father of Jacob Ḥagiz and the grandfather of Moses Ḥagiz. He edits around 1596 the Tif'eret Yisrael of Solomon Duran and publishes the same year in Venice Debar Shemu'el, haggadic commentary notably on Deuteronomy Rabba, as well as Mebaḳḳesh ha-Shem, sermons on the Pentateuch.
Printer active in Prague between 1612 and 1628, son of Siméon Haïda. Associated with Moïse Utitz and Gershon Popers, he participated from 1610 in the printing of « Kéli Ḥemda » by Samuel Laniado, then, in 1612, with Moïse Utitz, in that of « Manoaḥ Matsa Ḥen » by Manoah Hendel; he then printed many other works until 1626, working in the workshops of Samuel Meisel, Juda ben Jacob Cohen and Jacob Bak. His sons continued his work by printing, in 1641, « Kol Yehouda » by Löb ben Joseph Rofé.
Samuel Haida is a Bohemian Kabbalist author who died on June 1, 1685 in Prague, where he was a dayyan and preacher and probably a native. In 1676 he edits in Prague the Tanna debe Eliyahou Rabba, accompanied by two commentaries, but arbitrarily modifies its text, believing himself inspired by the prophet Elijah whom he held to be the author of this work by an unknown writer of the 10th century; he justifies pilpulistic methods, which earn him severe criticism from Jaïr Ḥayyim Bacharach.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5449 of the Hebrew era (1689). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Benyamin. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5442 of the Hebrew era (1682). Son of Habib. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Died in 5407 of the Hebrew era (1647). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-4.
Joseph Hammerschlag, or Nathan Nat'a Ḥazzan ben Moses Naphtali Hirsch, is a seventeenth-century Moravian Kabbalist, author of a commentary on part of the Zohar, the Or ha-Ganuz, begun in 1648, and of a treatise on the calendar written in Nikolsbourg from 1681 onwards, the Sefer Mo'ade ha-Shem, as well as manuscript Kabbalistic notes.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5412 of the Hebrew era (1652). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 41-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 41-4.
Salomon ben Juda Hanau is a German grammarian born in Hanau in 1687 and died in Hanover on September 4, 1746. He published very young in Frankfurt am Main a Hebrew grammar that severely criticized ancient grammarians, provoking such resentment that he had to add a retraction to it; forced to leave Frankfurt, then Hamburg after criticizing the prayer book of Elijah and Azriel of Vilna, he stayed in Amsterdam before settling in Fürth, where the opposition of Seligman Grieshaber drove him to leave for Berlin and then Hanover. He left several Hebrew grammars, including Binyan Shelomoh (Frankfurt, 1708), Sha'are Torah (Hamburg, 1718) and Ẓohar ha-Tebah (Berlin, 1733).
Ẓebi Hirsch ha-Levi Hanau, whose family name was Fränkel, is a German rabbi born in Vienna in 1662 and died in Gemünd, Bavaria, in 1740. He resided for a long time in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he assisted Jaïr Ḥayyim Bacharach in preparing his responsa Ḥawwot Ya'ir and edited the works of Gershon Ashkenazi in 1699, before becoming in 1702 district rabbi of the Palatinate in Heidelberg and, later, rabbi of Ansbach thanks to the influence of his brother Elhanan. Accused of sorcery because of his kabbalistic studies, he spent twenty-four years in prison, where he notably wrote an abridgement of the first hundred eighty-nine sections of the Yoreh De'ah, before finally being released.
Raphael Lévi Hanover, son of Jacob Joseph, is a mathematician and astronomer born in Weikersheim, Franconia, in 1685, and died in Hanover on May 17, 1779. Trained at the Jewish school of Hanover then at the yeshiva of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, he became bookkeeper for the Oppenheimers of Hanover, where he drew the attention of Leibniz, of whom he was for several years one of the most distinguished disciples before becoming himself professor of mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy. He publishes in 1756 astronomical tables for the Jewish calendar, Luḥot ha-'Ibbur (Leiden-Hanover), and a treatise on astronomy, Tekunat ha-Shamayim (Amsterdam).
Nathan ben Moïse Hanovre is a historian, talmudist and cabalist of Russian origin, died, according to Zunz, in Ungarisch-Brod, Moravia, on 14 July 1663. After fleeing the Cossack attack on Zaslav, in Volhynia, he went to Prague then Venice, where he studied the Kabbalah, before becoming rabbi of Jassy, in Moldavia. He is best known for the Yewen Meṣoula (Venice, 1653), a history of persecutions suffered by Jews of Russia and Poland under Bogdan Khmelnitsky in 1648 and 1649, later translated into German by Kayserling (Hanover, 1863); he also left Ṭa'ame Sukkah (Amsterdam, 1652), and a polyglot dictionary, Safa Berura (Prague, 1660).
Hermann von der Hardt was a Protestant theologian and German philologist born in Melle, Westphalia, on November 15, 1660, and died on February 28, 1746. He became in 1690 professor of oriental languages at the University of Helmstedt and published numerous works on Hebrew literature, including a treatise on Hebrew accentuation (Leipzig, 1692), a Latin version of the Mishnaic tractate Ta'anit (1712) and a commentary on Pirke Avot (1728).
Ḥasdaï ben Samuel ben Peraḥya ha-Cohen was a Turkish rabbi born and died in Salonica, in September 1677, claiming descent from Joseph ben Gorion. Son of the scholar Samuel ben Peraḥya and disciple of Ḥayyim Shabbethaï, whose rabbi he became in Salonica, he published a collection of responsa, Torat Ḥesed (Salonica, 1722). His uncle, Daniel ben Peraḥya, had annotated the She'erit Yosef of Joseph ben Shem-Ṭob (Salonica, 1568).
Rabbi in Meknès in the 17th–18th centuries, contemporary and study companion of Rabbi Hayim Toledano.
Rabbi of Meknès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5429 of the Hebrew era (1669). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-3.
Rabbinic authority of Smyrna who, in his old age, restored the Jewish community of Tiberias.
Rabbi of Constantinople then of Palestine, author of the homiletical work Esh Dat.
Ḥayyim ben Moïse 'Aṭṭar was an Italian rabbi born in Sale, near Brescia, in 1696, and died in Jerusalem in 1743, trained by his grandfather, the rabbi Ḥayyim. He published Ḥefeṣ ha-Shem, talmudic novellas (Amsterdam, 1732), Or ha-Ḥayyim, a commentary on the Pentateuch very popular among Oriental Jews (Venice, 1742), Perot Genousar, novellas on the Yoreh De'ah known for its critiques of the Peri Ḥadash of Ḥizqiya da Silva, and Rishon le-Ṣiyyon, explanations on several talmudic treatises and on the Prophets (Constantinople, 1751).
Ḥayyim ben Isaac Reizes, head of the yechiva of Lemberg, born in 1687, died a martyr on May 13, 1728. He and his brother Joshua were thrown into prison on the eve of Pesach, on March 24, 1728, on the false denunciation of a converted Jew who claimed that they had urged him to renounce Christianity; condemned to the stake, they were first subjected to cruel torture. Their death is commemorated in Lemberg by a special prayer recited at Shavuot.
Ḥayyim ben Nathan is a German scholar of the seventeenth century who translates into Judeo-German the historical parts of the Bible, based on Luther's translation enriched with legends drawn from the Midrashim (around 1630), reprinted in Prague in 1674 and in Dyhernfurth in 1704; he also publishes the Sefer ha-Ma'asim, a Judeo-German translation of the Apocrypha.
Born in Constantinople, he was appointed rabbi of Tira (near Izmir) in 1644 then chief rabbi of Smyrna (1655), where he played a leading role in the episode of Shabbetaï Tsevi. His halakhic work, the Knesset ha-Gedolah, was recognized as an authority of reference by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi rabbis.
Foremost disciple of Rabbi Isaac Luria, he recorded and disseminated Lurianic Kabbalah in the Etz Hayyim. His work is the foundation of modern Jewish mysticism.
Elijah ibn Ḥayyim is a rabbi of Constantinople, perhaps the immediate successor of Élie Mizraḥi, born around 1532 and died in the early 17th century; his responsa mention a date of 1562 and another of 1601, and his preface indicates that he had surpassed seventy years of age at his death. Of his work there remain responsa and novellae on Ketoubot, as well as a second part of responsa published with the Mayim 'Amuḳḳim (Venice, 1645) and homilies on the Pentateuch, Imre Shefer (Venice, 1629; 2nd ed. Frankfurt-on-Main, 1712).
Gedaliah Ḥayyon is a Turkish rabbi born in Constantinople in the second half of the seventeenth century, student of Alfandari the Younger. Established in Jerusalem, he travels as a volunteer emissary of the city of Hebron before returning there. Though not known as a scholar, he devoted himself to the study of the Kabbalah and was reputed to be a man of exceptional piety.
Kabbalist established in Jerusalem in the seventeenth century, Aaron ben David Ḥayyun sat as dayyan in the rabbinate of Moses Galante alongside David Yiẓḥaḳi and Jacob Molko. One of his decisions, rendered in the dispute between the Grand Rabbi of Cairo Mordecai ha-Levi and the Rabbi of Alexandria Judah Ḥabillo, was published in the « Darke No'am ». He is the author of a commentary on the Zohar, the « Maḥaneh Aharon », of which only a small part appeared, in Livorno in 1795.
Nehemia Ḥiyya ben Moïse Ḥayyoun is a Bosnian Kabbalist born around 1650 and died around 1730, from a Sephardic family of Sarajevo, trained in Talmud in Hebron. Becoming rabbi of Uskub, near Salonika, around eighteen years of age, for a brief period, he then leads a wandering life before publishing in Smyrna in 1708 his Mehemnuta de-Kulla, where he teaches a trinitarian conception of the divinity; the rabbis of Jerusalem excommunicate him before his arrival and have his book burned. After a stay in Venice in 1711, he sojourns in Prague from 1711 to 1712, where the Kabbalist Naphtali Cohen supports him, then has printed in Berlin in 1713 his Sabbatean-inspired sermons, Dibre Neḥemyah.
Menahem (Manus) ben Isaac Ḥayyut is a Polish rabbi who died in Vilna around May 1636, son of R. Isaac ben Abraham Ḥayyut, whose family traces back to Provence and who settled in Prague in 1584. Rabbi of Torbin, in Moravia, around 1590, he became the first known rabbi of Vilna, where his tombstone is the oldest in the old Jewish cemetery. His only known published work, Zemirot le-Shabbat, appeared in 1621; he is also the author of an elegy on the fire in Poznań and another on the death of his brother Samuel, published in his father's Pene Yiṣḥaḳ (Cracow, 1591).
Abraham ben Hezekiah Ḥazḳouni is a Galician Talmudist and Kabbalist born in Krakow in 1627 and died in Tripoli, Syria, disciple of Yom-Ṭob Lipman Heller. He publishes Zot Ḥuḳḳat ha-Torah, an abridgment of the Sefer ha-Kawwanot of Isaac Louria (Venice, 1659), and leaves, among other things, a collection of sermons, Shete Yadot, published by his son in Amsterdam in 1726, as well as a commentary on the Zohar and a collection of Talmudic novellae partially left in manuscript.
Éliézer ben Mordekhaï Heilprin is a Polish rabbi probably born in Jaroslaw, Galicia, in 1648, and died in Fürth in 1700. He successively held the rabbinate in Gross-Meseritz, Moravia, in Tomaszów, Russian Poland, then in Fürth, Bavaria, and leaves Siaḥ ha-Se'uddah, festive discourses delivered at the completion of the study of several talmudic tractates.
Jehiel ben Salomon Heilprin is a Lithuanian rabbi, Kabbalist and chronicler born around 1660 and died in Minsk around 1746, descendant of Solomon Louria and tracing back, via Rashi, to the tanna Yoḥanan ha-Sandlar. Rabbi of Glousk until 1711, then of Minsk until his death, he opposed casuistry. He is chiefly known for his Seder ha-Dorot, a chronicle whose first part stops at an event in 1697 and calculates the dates of biblical figures; the work was first published by his grandson Juda Löb Heilprin in Karlsruhe in 1769, and reissued in Warsaw in 1882.
Joel ben Isaac Heilprin is a Polish Hasidic rabbi active in Ostrog in the middle of the 17th century, known as the first « Baal Chem » for his reputation for Talmudic and kabbalistic erudition. The Toledot Adam (Zolkiew, 1720) reports that he miraculously saved in 1648 Jews pursued who had taken refuge on a ship; some of his writings were printed in the kabbalistic collection Mif'alot Elohim (Zolkiew, 1724).
Helicon is a court jester, favorite of the Roman emperor Caligula, of Egyptian origin, known for his hostility toward Jews. With Apelles of Ascalon, he contributed to the failure of the embassy of the Jews of Alexandria to Caligula, led by Philo.
Jacob Moses ben Abraham Ashkenazi Hélin is a Polish Talmudist born around 1625 and died around 1700, trained in Lublin under R. Naphtali ha-Cohen and R. Heshel, and son-in-law of Löb Heller, rabbi of Satanow. He is the author of Yede Mosheh, a critical commentary on the Midrash Rabba indicating the Talmudic sources of the legends, published by his son Abraham in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in 1705, then reprinted in 1713.
Isabella Henriquez is a Spanish poetess active in the academies of Madrid, died after 1680. Isaac (Fernando) Cardoso dedicates to her his work Del Color Verde (Madrid, 1634); openly converted to Judaism, she subsequently settled in Amsterdam, where she is said to have distributed protective amulets, and D. L. de Barrios cites a tenth extracted from her manuscript Obras Poéticas.
Alonzo de Herrera, also known as Abraham Cohen de Herrera, is a kabbalist born in Spain and died in Amsterdam in 1631. According to D. L. de Barrios, he was descended from the famous Spanish captain Fernandez Gonzalo de Cordova; representative of the Sultan of Morocco in Cádiz, he falls into the hands of the English during the capture of that city, then retires to Amsterdam, where he openly embraces Judaism under the name of Abraham and is initiated into the Kabbalah by Israël Sarug. His works in Spanish, which remained unpublished during his lifetime, Puerta del Cielo and Casa de Dios, are translated into Hebrew in Amsterdam in 1665 by Isaac da Fonseca Aboab, then partially into Latin in 1677 by Baron von Rosenroth.
Italian rabbi
Born and died in Rome, he was rabbi of the community from April 9, 1702 and one of the major figures of Italian Judaism of his time. Physician as much as rabbi, he intervened with the papal authorities to defend the ghetto community and was consulted as an authority by communities across Europe. Marina Caffiero devoted a biography to him (« Il grande mediatore. Tranquillo Vita Corcos, un rabbino nella Roma dei papi », Carocci).
Samuel ben Joseph Hildesheimer is a rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Main from 1618. He reorganizes the Jewish community, whose administration had been disrupted by the troubles of Fettmilch, by adding to the old council of ten members seven newly chosen representatives, called the Aussengemeinde, four of whom exercised in turn, two months a year, the functions of collectors and presidents of the synagogue; he also regulates the functions of the dayanim.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5414 of the Hebrew calendar (1654). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-2.
Hillel ben Naphtali Herz is a Lithuanian rabbi born in Brest-Litovsk in 1615 and died in Zolkiew on January 3, 1690. After studying under Hirsch Darshan, he went to Wilna, where he was a member of the rabbinical college from 1650 to 1651, remained there until 1666, then became rabbi in Kaidon and several other Lithuanian cities, before being called in 1670 to Altona and Hamburg, then in 1680 to Zolkiew; he was also a delegate to the Council of the Four Lands at the Yaroslav fair. He is the author of the Bet Hillel, a commentary on the four parts of the Shulhan Aruch, of which his son Moses ben Hillel published only the Yoré Déa and Even ha-Ézer sections, with the text (Dyhernfurth, 1691).
Lithuanian rabbi
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5455 of the Hebrew era (1695). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 33-1.
Turkish Talmudist established in Safed in the seventeenth century, sometimes called Ḥiyya ben Gabriel. He is the author of « Seder Zemannim », a calendar covering the years 5435-64 of the Hebrew computation, or 1675-1704, printed in Venice in 1675.
Rabbi of Safed, student of Solomon Sagis in Talmud and of Hayyim Vital in Kabbalah.
Dutch controversialist of the seventeenth century, author of a manual for use by missionaries among Jews, published in Leiden and Amsterdam in 1655, whose eight books had already appeared without the preliminary matter under the title "Disputationes Anti-Judaicæ" in Utrecht in 1645. Though apparently sympathetic to Jews, his true aim was to combat their religion; he also wrote, in 1697, an equivalent manual intended for missionaries among pagans.
Russian Talmudist who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century, son-in-law of Joseph ben Löb, rabbi of Minsk. He revised the commentary of David ben Samuel on Rashi to the Pentateuch, published in Dyhernfurth in 1689 under the title « Dibre Dawid », adding his own commentary covering the entire book of Genesis as well as a letter justifying his work.
Kabbalistic author who lived in Prague in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, son of Akiba and brother of Isaiah Horowitz. He wrote « Nishmat Shabbethai ha-Lewi », a kabbalistic treatise on the nature of the soul, published in Prague in 1616, and « Shefa Ṭal », another kabbalistic compendium published in Prague in 1612 and reissued in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1719, frequently reprinted and recommended by his cousin Shabbethai the Younger.
Lithuanian Talmudist of the seventeenth century, called R. Löb Zietiler. After directing several yeshivot in Germany, he was called to head the yeshiva of Minsk at the time when Jehiel Heilprin was its chief rabbi. He is the author of « Margenita Ṭaba », a defense of Maimonides' « Sefer ha-Miẓwot » against the criticisms of Naḥmanide, published in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1756; according to the preface added by his son, he also drew up novellæ on the Talmud and the « Elef ha-Magen », another defense of Maimonides.
Swiss Christian Hebraist born in Zurich on March 10, 1620, drowned in the Limmat on June 5, 1667. Trained in Oriental languages and theology in Geneva, Groningen and Leiden, he was appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at the university of Zurich in 1642, then professor of Oriental languages and, in 1653, of rhetoric and logic. In 1655, he became professor of Old Testament exegesis and Oriental languages at Heidelberg, before returning to Zurich in 1661, where he subsequently became rector of the university; he published numerous works of theology and philology, notably on the Samaritan Pentateuch and Semitic languages.
Christian Hebraicist born in Paris in 1686, died in that city on 31 October 1783. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory in 1704, disciple of Maclef whose anti-Masoretic biases he shared, he taught in Jeuilly, Marseille and Soissons before returning to Paris in 1722. He published his "Racines de la Langue Hébraïque" in 1732, his "Prolegomena in Scripturam Sacram" in 1746, in which he argued that the original text of the Old Testament had undergone numerous alterations, then his "Biblia Hebraica cum Notis Criticis et Versione Latina" in 1753, his masterwork, which led to him being attacked by several scholars for his alleged ignorance of Hebrew.
Russian rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, author of several exegetical and talmudic works: « Sefer Mayim Ḥayyim », commentary on the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot, published in Dyhernfurth in 1690, its complement « Sefer Mayim Ḥayyim Sheni » in 1703, then « Sefer Naḥalat Ḥayyim », novellae on several talmudic treatises published in Wilmersdorf in 1713, and its second volume, commentary on the Pentateuch, in 1714.
Oriental rabbi of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, descendant of the Ibn Ezra family of Spain, trained in Salonique under the direction of Samuel di Modena, whose talmudic school he became head of. Forced at the end of his life to take refuge in Constantinople, he was called to the rabbinate of Sofia, where he died. He published notably the « Massa' Melek » in Salonique in 1601 and the « 'Aẓamot Yosef », a commentary on Ḳiddushin, the same year, reissued in Berlin in 1699 and in Fürth in 1767.
Rabbi of Venice active in the second half of the seventeenth century, disciple of Joseph Escapa whose second part of « Rosh Yosef » he edited and prefaced in Smyrna in 1659. He also edited Salomon Algazi's « Me'ullefet Sappirim » in 1665, the responsa of R. Jacob Berab in Venice in 1663, enriched with his own decisions, and « Meḳor Baruk », responsa of Baruch Kalaï, in Smyrna in 1660.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5431 of the Hebrew era (1671). Son of Menahem. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-4.
Printed many Hebrew works including an edition of the Talmud
Italo-Hebrew poet and scholar, notably trained by his elder brother Jacob. With Jacob he waged a literary war (1664-1667) against supporters of Sabbatai Tsvi and against Kabbalah. After wandering (as far as Algiers), he settled in Livorno. His best-known work, Metek Sefatayim, is a treatise on Hebrew prosody.
Rabbi, kabbalist and poet born in Ferrara, author of Mishnat Hasidim.
Pope from 1676 to 1689, born in Como in 1611, elected on 21 September 1676 and died on 12 August 1689. His sense of justice extended to the Jews: he forced Venice to release the Jewish prisoners captured by general Morosini in 1685, and discouraged forced baptisms. He forbade them, however, on 30 October 1682, banking operations — a measure whose implementation was twice postponed (26 February 1683, 21 March 1684) once convinced that it would cause too much misery.
Former converso, professor of metaphysics at Salamanca and then of medicine at Toulouse, he was imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition before moving to Amsterdam around 1662 where he openly professed Judaism. He became the principal Sephardic apologist against Christianity and against Spinozist criticism of religion; his polemical writings circulated mainly as manuscripts in Jewish communities throughout Europe.
Born of Marrano parents in Portugal, physician trained in Salamanca, he was chief physician in Madrid under the name of Fernando. Having fled the Inquisition, he returned to Judaism in Venice (taking the name Isaac) and then settled in Verona. Opponent of the Kabbalah and the pseudo-messiah Sabbataï Zevi, he wrote a scientific work and a famous apology for Judaism.
Hakham of the first Judeo-Portuguese congregation of Hamburg, then rabbi of the Sephardic community of Venice (after 1622). Student of Isaac Uzziel, he wrote in Spanish the Tesoro de Preceptos (Venice 1627; 2nd ed. Amsterdam 1649), an exposition of the 613 commandments for Sephardic diaspora Jews no longer fluent in Hebrew.
Jewish professor in England, 1600s
translator of the Pentateuch into Spanish
Polish rabbi and author, died in Posen in 1685. Student of R. Jonas Teomim and colleague of R. Moïse Zacuto, he was rabbi of Lutsk in Volhynia and then of Grodno, before being called in 1664 to Vilna to succeed R. Moïse, author of the « Ḥelḳat Meḥoḳeḳ », and then in 1667 to the rabbinate of Posen. His vast knowledge of the Talmud and Kabbalah earned him the surname « Rabbi Isaac the Great ».
Rabbi of the Portuguese community of Hamburg. The Jesurun family is well represented in Hamburg in the 17th century (also Joseph Jesurun, † 1660, heading the Talmud Torah).
Moralist and German author, active in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is the author of the « Leb Ṭob » (Prague, 1620), an edifying work in twenty chapters written in Judeo-German, which enjoyed such success that it was reprinted many times. Critiques of it were published, anonymously, under the title « Hassagot », around 1707.
Rabbi and hazzan in Venice, born in 1621, son of a Kabbalist and grandson of Juda de Modena, whose "Bet Yehudah" he himself composed at the age of fourteen. Subject to persistent personal enemies in Venice, which he relates in a manuscript autobiography, he published poems in the "Hed Urim" of Yom-Tob Valvason (Venice, 1661) and the "Ma'assé Ḥakhamim" (Venice, 1647), a collection of anecdotes about the masters of the Talmud drawn notably from his grandfather's "Bet Yehudah", whose author and printer he himself was.
Founder of the Hariri family of kabbalists of the village of Harir (Erbil district, Kurdistan), he lived there in the first half of the 17th century. He is the author of the kabbalistic work « Naḥalat ha-Shem » and several religious piyyoutim. His son Phinehas, drawn to Sabbateanism, was also a paytan and author; the sons of Phinehas, Ḥayyim and Isaac, were rabbis in Rawanduz.
Polish rabbi of the 16th-17th centuries, grandson of Hirsch and master of Joël Sirkes, he pursued Talmudic studies in the yeshiva of Hayyim ben Samuel of Kremenetz before serving as rabbi in Gorodnitza and then Beresnitza, before being called to Mezhirichi. He is the author of the "Sefer Zikkaron", a versified collection of all the paragraphs of the Shulchan Aruch arranged in alphabetical order to facilitate memorization, published in Krakow or Prague in the 17th century, to which he added the "Petiḥat ha-Lev", an abridgment of his sermon work "Harḥabat ha-Lev".
Bohemian Talmudist, died on May 30, 1624 in Prague, where he was assistant rabbi and magistrate of the community; son-in-law of the great rabbi of Prague Judah Löw ben Betsalel (the Maharal) and father of the rabbis Ḥayyim ha-Kohen and Naphtali ha-Kohen. He drew up a supplement to Samuel Runkel's « Ḥatan Damim » (Prague, 1605), glosses on the « Pa'néaḥ Raza » (1602), a commentary on the Pentateuch in German (1608), notes on the Midrash Tehillim (1613) and the « Ḳiẓẓur Mizraḥi », a commentary on Rashi on Genesis; he also worked on a kabbalistic work left unfinished, the « Sidre Bereshit ».
Rabbi born in Prague around 1650, active in Ofen (Buda). During the imperial assault of 1686 that retook the city from the Ottomans, his wife was killed, his son died in captivity at Raab and he himself narrowly escaped death (September 3, 1686), an event commemorated by his family as the « Purim of Schulhof ». He died on January 19, 1733.
Sephardic Talmudist who began the study of the Talmud in Salonique around 1630, fellow student of the chronicler David Conforte.
Jewish martyr
Rabbi of Salé in the 17th-18th centuries, he was the teacher (professor) of the rabbi-kabbalist Aharon ha-Sibʿoni. His entry appears in the reference onomastic dictionary of Abraham I. Laredo, "The Names of the Jews of Morocco".
Russian rabbi, active in the 16th and 17th centuries. He is the author of « Mattenot 'Ani », or « Ḳiẓẓur Mizraḥi », an annotated abridgement of the commentary of Elijah Mizraḥi on Rashi (Prague, 1604-09).
Ottoman rabbi
Rabbi, physician and preacher of Padua, author of Pahad Yitzhaq on the ghetto attack.
Rabbi and physician of Ferrara, author of the talmudic encyclopedia Pahad Yitzhaq.
Chief rabbi of Tunis and rabbinical author, judge of the community.
Sephardi hakham and physician born in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Studied with Moses Zacuto and Baruch Spinoza under the direction of Saul Levi Morteira at Talmud Torah 'Ets Hayyim, where he later taught. Around 1666, he took charge of the rabbinate of Livorno. According to De Barrios, he wrote "Reglas del Din".
Isaac Wallich transcribed in Hebrew characters a collection of approximately 55 songs of his time (mostly German popular songs, twelve of which with Jewish theme). The 'Wallich manuscript' (early 17th century) preserves examples of the medieval badkhn repertoire and is among the earliest documentations of Yiddish song.
Spanish-Dutch poet
Polish rabbi of the 17th century, author of the "Be'er Heṭeb", a commentary on the Shulḥan 'Arukh, Ora'h Hayyim, based on later decisors (Amsterdam, 1708); he asserts in his preface to have written a similar commentary on the Yoré Dé'a. According to Steinschneider and Fürst, he was the grandson of David ben Samuel ha-Lévi (the Taz); Fürst further reports that he and his family perished in flames, probably accidentally, in 1723, while traveling to Palestine.
Talmudist and Kabbalist, author of the Shenei Luchot ha-Berit (the Shelah), a monument of ethics and piety. He emigrated from Prague to the Land of Israel.
Mystic and Jewish healer considered the founder of Hasidism. His teaching emphasizes communion with God in ordinary existence, the elevation of « divine sparks » and joyful devotion accessible to all, including the most humble. His disciples founded the great Hasidic dynasties.
Graduate of Padua, he practiced in Venice then went to Constantinople where he won the favor of the sultan and grand vizier Kara Mustapha. Physician and secretary to the Venetian envoy Carlo Ruzzini, he took part in the Congress of Karlowitz (1698–1699) and the delimitation of borders between Venice and the Ottoman Empire.
Rabbi of Smyrna and Jerusalem, Rishon LeZion at the end of his life.
Polish talmudic and halakhic author, established in Krakow around 1620, son of a physician of Spanish origin. Around 1624, he composed « Yismaḥ Yisrael », an alphabetical compendium of the laws of the Shulḥan 'Arukh (Krakow, 1626; Hamburg, 1686), republished in several volumes with commentary under the title « Ḥuḳḳat ha-Torah » between 1691 and 1700 then united in a single work in Sudilkov in 1834, as well as « Tiḳḳun Shemirat Shabbat » on the observance of the Sabbath (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1698) and a vast halakhic work in four parts founded on the Talmud, the Tosafot, and the decisors.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Eliahu. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
talmudist, mathematician, and poet
Russian rabbi and author, apparently born in Temesvár and rabbi in Belzyce then in Lublin, contemporary of Samuel (Aaron) Keidanover; he perished during the persecutions of Chmielnicki in 1648. He is credited with homilies on the Pentateuch, the « Tif'eret Yisrael », and especially the « Yalḳut Ḥadash », a collection of midrashim arranged in alphabetical order, printed for the first time in Lublin in 1648 then reissued in Prague in 1657, in Amsterdam in 1659 and, with an appendix, in Wilmersdorf in 1673.
Czech rabbi
Bohemian printer and author, active in Prague in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. In 1691, he was working in Fürth on the "Sefer Me'irat 'Enayim", then moved to Prague where he worked for various printers. He wrote the "'Ippush Lid fun Prag" (Prague, 1714), a narrative in verse in Judeo-German of the plague that ravaged Prague in 1713-14.
Christian theologian and German orientalist, born 26 November 1660 in Danzig and died 25 May 1741 in Berlin. After years of learned wandering in Holland and England, he settled in Lissa in 1686 then in Berlin, where he became a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1700. There he founded a Hebrew printing press from which came a text of the Old Testament (1699, based on that of Leusden of 1667), several prayer books and an edition of the Babylonian Talmud in twelve volumes (1715-21) — an attempt at a second edition led him into financial difficulties.
Sephardic hakham, rabbi of the Portuguese community in London from 1680.
Rabbi and av beit din of Venice, in correspondence with European scholars.
Rabbi of Alexandria (the Maharif), author of responsa.
Italian translator. He adapted and translated into Italian the « Miẓwot Nashim » (Precepts for Women) of Benjamin ben Abraham of Solnik, for the use of Italian Jewish women. The translation, very popular, had several editions in Padua and Venice (1625, 1652, 1710).
Polemicist writer of the 17th century, author in 1634 of a work in Latin against Christianity, entitled in Hebrew « Sha'ar Emet ». He borrows extensively from Menassé ben Israël, though Wolf demonstrated that he was not the author of the book; English bishop Richard Kidder published a refutation of it in his « Demonstratio Messiæ » (London, 1684).
Polish rabbi, died in Lublin in 1648. First rabbi and teacher at the yeshiva of this city, he was called to the rabbinate of Brest, where he received in 1631 R. Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller, who speaks of him with great respect, before returning as rabbi to Lublin until his death. Known as « the Gaon Rabbi Jacob of Lublin », he trained the most eminent Polish rabbis of his time; few of his responsa have been preserved, but novellæ of his and of his son R. Höschel remain in manuscript.
Talmudic author and rabbi of Istanbul in the 17th c. (Muzzal me-Esh).
Rabbi of Zante, died on that island in 1634, Jacob ben Israel Ha-Levi originated from Morea, in Greece, and studied in Salonica under Aaron Ḥaṣun before being called to the rabbinate of Zante, a position he held until his death. He is the author of responsa published in Venice (1614, with additions in 1632) and a Hebrew translation of the Quran, accompanied by an essay on Muhammad and his religion.
German translator of the seventeenth century, Jacob ben Jérémie Mattithiah Ha-Lévi put into Judeo-German the « Leḳaḥ Ṭob » by Abraham Jagel (Amsterdam, 1675) and « Sefer ha-Yashar », under the title « Tam we-Yashar » (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1674), a work of biblical history from Adam to the Judges enriched with aggadic elements, often reprinted thereafter.
German scholar, active in the 17th–18th centuries, native to Fulda — whence his epithet « Jacob of Fulda » — but banished from that city and established in Schwerin. He wrote the « Tiḳḳun Sheloshah Mishmarot » (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1691), prayers for the three night vigils drawn chiefly from the Zohar, which his wife Laza translated into Judeo-German (Frankfurt am Main, 1692) — Benjacob, following Wolf, even attributes authorship to Laza herself — as well as the « Shoshannat Ya'aḳob » (Amsterdam, 1706; Livorno, 1792), a treatise on chiromancy, physiognomy and astrology.
Talmudist of Gniezno active around 1650, son of a clerk of the Jewish community of Greater Poland who died in 1646, Jacob ben Naphtali lost his fortune and books in a fire before publishing in Amsterdam, in 1652, the « Naḥalat Ya'aḳob : Meliẓot », a collection of poems including elegies on the Cossack massacre of 1648. He subsequently oversaw the printing of Nathan Hanover's « Yewen Meẓulah » (Venice, 1653) and, in 1654, was recommended to Italian communities by Moïse Zacuto with a view to obtaining from the Pope a letter of protection.
Talmudist and rabbi of Fes, born in the second half of the seventeenth century and died after 1750, Jacob ben Reuben ibn Zur enjoyed high reputation, cited as recognized authority by all Moroccan Jewish communities in the responsa of Abraham Ankava (Kerem Ḥemed, Livorno, 1871). Liturgical poet, he composed laments on the destruction of the Temple integrated into the Ḳinot of the 9th of Av in use among Moroccan Jews, and his name appears in the approbations of various talmudic works, the last dated 1750.
Author of liturgical poems; father of Maimon Bendahan (dayyan in Tetouan) and Moses Bendahan (av bet din in Meknès).
Member of the Cansino dynasty, which held from father to son the office of interpreter (lengua) of the Spanish governors of Oran in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries. Jacob Cansino translated from Hebrew into Castilian the chronicle of Moses Almosnino on Constantinople, published in Madrid in 1638. His preface reproduces the list of offices held by the Cansino and a letter of thanks from King Philip IV.
Talmudist of Constantinople, initiator of the Me'am Lo'ez in Judeo-Spanish.
Elder brother of Immanuel, a highly cultured poet (Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Italian, Portuguese). A fierce opponent of Sabbatianism; his published poems were said to have been destroyed by kabbalist rabbis of his city.
Talmudist born in Fès, founded a yeshiva in Jerusalem, opponent of Sabbatianism.
Rabbi of Smyrna towards the end of the seventeenth century, correspondent of Ḥayyim Benveniste — author of the « Keneset ha-Gedolah » — of whom he seems to have succeeded in the rabbinate, Jacob ibn Na'im is the author of the « Mishkenot Ya'aḳob » (Salonica, 1721), homilies on the Pentateuch, followed by a short work on the duties of subjects towards their king. Some bibliographers dispute the attribution to him of a collection of responsa and a collection of sermons published in Livorno in 1784.
Great decisioner and paytan of Fès, head of the beth-din; responsa Mishpat ou-Tsedaka be-Yaakov.
Polish rabbi born in Krakow in 1680 and died in Offenbach on 16 January 1756, grandson of Joshua of Krakow, author of the « Maginne Shelomoh », Jacob Joshua ben Ẓebi Hirsch was chief rabbi of Lemberg from 1717, then rabbi in Berlin (1731), in Metz and finally chief rabbi of Frankfurt-am-Main, where the controversy between Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschütz forced him to leave the city in 1750. He is the author of the « Pene Yehoshua' », talmudic novellae published in Frankfurt (1752) and in Fürth (1766 and 1780).
Polish rabbi
Italian rabbi
Rabbi and Bohemian halakhist, author of the Shevut Yaakov and Minchat Yaakov responsa.
Rabbi born in Algeria, kabbalist and resolute opponent of Sabbatianism.
Catechist, philosopher and Italian kabbalist born in Monselice, active successively in Luzzara, Venice, Ferrara and Sassuolo in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Abraham Jagel was captured by bandits near Luzzara in 1615 with his traveling companion Raphaël of Modena, and released thanks to the intervention of influential Jews of Modena, the duke and the cardinal. He is the author of the catechism « Leqaḥ Ṭov » and the treatise « Moshia' Ḥosim » on the plague through prayer and fasting (Venice, 1587), as well as the « Eshet Ḥayil », on the duties of the wife (Venice, 1606).
Learned Italian active in Ferrara and then in Parma in the seventeenth century, where he was chief rabbi and head of the talmudic schools of the province, Gamaliel Jagel ben Hananya is the author of « Sifte Renanim », a commentary on « Pereq Shira » published in Mantua in 1661 with a commentary on the same poem due to his father; one of his responsa appears in the « Be'er 'Esheq » of Shabbetai Beer of Jerusalem.
John Casimir was king of Poland (1648-68), elected with the help of Chmielnicki. He first forbade the Jewish presence on Cossack lands, but later authorized Jews forcibly converted under threat from the Cossacks to return to Judaism, including women forced to marry Zaporogues and many children taken in. He confirmed on several occasions, between 1649 and 1653, the privileges of the Jewish communities of Wilna, Brest, Minsk and Grodno, while forbidding the Jews of Wilna to employ Christian servants, and authorized the Jews of Kamenetz to build a synagogue, on condition that it remain more modest than the churches.
Preacher and Galician masorite active in Lemberg in the seventeenth century, Jedidia (Gottlieb) ben Abraham Israël is the author of the « Ahavat ha-Shem », fifty aggadic expositions on Deuteronomy x. 12 (Cracow, 1641; Lublin, 1645), and of the « Shir Yedidut », Masorah commentary in four parts arranged in alphabetical order (1644).
Rabbi of Nemirov in Russia, assassinated in May 1648 during the massacre perpetrated by the hordes of Chmielnicki: a Cossack had first hidden him hoping he would reveal where the Jews had hidden their riches, but a cobbler discovered him and dragged him with his mother to the cemetery to kill them both. Jehiel Michael ben Eliezer is the author of « Shivré Luḥot », homilies on several sabbatic sections and biblical readings from the Talmud, published posthumously in Lublin in 1680.
Born in Wittmund (Germany), he was a proofreader in the Hebrew printing house of Uri Phoebus (Feibush) Halevi in Amsterdam, which commissioned him to produce the first complete translation of the Hebrew Bible into Yiddish (printed in Amsterdam, 1676-1679). The work includes three introductions (Hebrew, Judeo-German) and rabbinic approbations, as well as a privilege from the King of Poland John III Sobieski. Blitz also translated into Judeo-German the "Toʿaliyyot" of Lévi ben Gershom (Gersonides) on Joshua, Judges and Samuel.
Jeremiah ben Jacob ben Israel Naphtali, Talmudist and German philanthropist died in Halberstadt before 1664, was parnas of the community as his father Jacob before him. His fortune, placed at the service of the community, as well as his learning, earned him the recognition of the authorities and numerous advantages for his coreligionists. After the destruction by a riot of the synagogue built by his father, he had a new building erected at his own expense, despite the objections of the local authorities.
Scribe and Egyptian rabbi, student of Abraham ha-Lévi of Cairo.
Polish halakhic authority, author of the Bayit Hadash (Bach), a major commentary on the Tur. He was chief rabbi of Kraków.
Born in Casale Monferrato, rabbi of Florence for 34 years, honored with the title of Alluf Torah. Author of responsa and glosses on the Arba'ah Turim, as well as prayers composed after the earthquakes of Lugo (1688) and Ancona (1690); in correspondence with Shemuel Aboab. Founder of a Florentine rabbinical dynasty.
Jonathan ben Jacob, Hungarian Talmudist and author, lived in Buda toward the end of the seventeenth century. Taken prisoner during the capture of the city by imperial troops in 1688, he was ransomed by the Jews of Nikolsbourg. He is the author of the Kesset Yehonatan, a treatise on morality drawn from the Shené Louhot ha-Berit, as well as other Kabbalistic works and a collection of tales in Judeo-German, the Neu Ma'asse-Buch; he had previously edited the Ma'amar ha-Ittim of Menahem Azaria of Fano, in 1693.
Apothecary at the botica of the Rua Larga in Coimbra, which supplied doctors at the university. His family is a converso family; his sister Maria was arrested by the Inquisition in 1666 for "preserving Jewish customs" and then deported to Brazil. He compiled in 1668 a richly illustrated manuscript pharmaceutical collection.
Rabbi
Author of the poetry collection « Mizmor Shir Yedidot u-Benot ha-Shir » (Mantua, 1659), poems on various subjects. The Jewish Encyclopedia also attributes to him a Hebrew translation of astronomy that remained unpublished.
Marrano born in Lisbon, son of Abraham Athias (burned by the Inquisition in Cordova in 1667). Settled in Amsterdam around 1654, he founded there a Hebrew printing press from which came some 450 works, including the famous edition of Maimonides' Mishné Torah (Yad ha-Hazaka) with the Lehem Mishné (5 vol., 1702-3), completed by his son Emanuel, and celebrated Hebrew Bibles.
German Talmudist probably born in Breslau around 1691, died in Bamberg on January 22, 1752. A pupil of his father-in-law Abraham Broda, he was first rabbi in Grabfeld, then rabbi of Bamberg (1743-1752). Renowned for the acuity and wit of his reasoning; his first work is considered the most important Talmudic work to emerge from the circle of Abraham Broda.
Joseph ben Elimélekh of Torbin was a Polish scholar of the seventeenth century. He is the author of the Ben Tsiyyon (Amsterdam, 1690), a collection of mnemonic devices for the precepts, letter-header formulas, explanations of the zarqa accent, moral dissertations and hymns intended for sailors and merchants.
Jewish scholar and chronicler of Cairo in the 17th century. He completed on January 23, 1673 the Sefer Divrei Yosef, second part (preserved) of a chronicle reaching back to the creation of the world; the surviving text covers the 7th to 17th centuries, beginning with the emergence of Islam and covering Muslim dynasties to the Ottomans, with marked interest in the musta'rib community of Egypt and the Neguidim.
Joseph ben Jacob of Pinczow, Lithuanian talmudist of the seventeenth century, was the student of Tsevi Hirsch, rabbi of Lublin. Rabbi in Kosowi, Russia, from 1687 onwards, he was called to Syeltzy, from which he had to flee in 1702 due to persecutions suffered under Swedish occupation; sheltered in Hamburg until 1706, he then returned to Syeltzy, before leaving again in 1710 because of an epidemic, to settle in Berlin, where he published his Rosh Yosef, notes on various talmudic treatises.
Joseph ben Samuel ha-Hazzan, called Joseph ha-Machbir, Karaite hakham of Halicz, Galicia, died in 1700; he had been the student of R. Nissim. He is the author of several works that remained unpublished, including the Porat Yossef on Hebrew grammar and the Chever Yossef on religious philosophy, as well as numerous liturgical poems inserted in the Karaite ritual. Mordekhai, author of the Dod Mordekhai, who had consulted him on the response to give to Jacob Trigland concerning the origin of Karaism, pronounced his funeral oration.
Joseph ben Samuel ibn Rey, Italian rabbi, died prematurely in Venice on April 2, 1608; his epitaph suggests that his surname meant « son of the king ». He is the author of the Sefer Massoret, a treatise on the Masorah where he endeavored to show that no biblical repetition is devoid of reason, and he is cited by Samuel Aboab in his responsa.
Joseph ben Solomon, said Joseph Darshan of Posen, German preacher, was born in Posen in 1601 and died there in 1696. He studied at a young age in Biélaïa Tserkov, in Russia, where he witnessed, in 1648, the Chmielnicki massacres, before escaping to his native city, where he was appointed preacher in 1676, a position he held until his death. Three of his works were published in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1679: the Yessod Yossef, a denunciation of certain sins, the Sédé Bokhim, a homiletic commentary on Pereq Chira, and the Tiqoun Hatsot, a collection of psalms and prayers.
Russian liturgist of the seventeenth century, born in Kobrin, in the gouvernement of Grodno. He is the author of « Ma'arakah Ḥadashah » (Frankfurt am Main, 1699), which brings together three seliḥot composed in memory of the persecutions suffered by the Jews of Kaidan and Zausmer in 1698. The first, « Alluf baṭuaḥ », whose verses follow alphabetical order with each one beginning with the name of the corresponding letter, is accompanied by a commentary of his hand.
Rabbi of Turin in the 17th century. Encyclopaedia Judaica counts him, along with his son Daniel ben Joseph Calvo and Joseph ben Michael Ravenna, among the most important rabbis of the Turin community of this century — the one in which the Jews of Turin, placed since 1561 under the jurisdiction of a « conservator », founded in 1662 the Talmud Torah confraternity, before the ghetto was imposed on them in 1680.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Livorno, opponent of Sabbatianism, author of Shomer Emunim.
Rabbi and Italian kabbalist, author of the work Or Boqer.
Jewish merchant and community leader of Meknès; according to tradition he financed Moulay Ismaïl's accession to the throne and was, with the Toledano, at the heart of the management of the sultan's foreign affairs. Father of Abraham Maymeran.
Rabbi and judge of Salonika, author of Shulhan Gavoah.
Joseph Nazir ben Hayyim Moses ha-Levi, Palestinian rabbi, was born in Hebron around 1650 and probably died in Cairo in 1719. Trained by Moses Galante, he became rabbi of Hebron, from where he was sent to Europe to solicit alms; Tsevi Ashkenazi, who met him in Belgrade in 1679 in this capacity, reports that his nickname "Nazir" came from his status as a Nazir. He composed two volumes of responsa, the Matté Yossef (Constantinople, 1717-26), and edited the responsa of his friend Abraham ben Mordekhai ha-Levi, the Ginnat Veradim (1717-19), whose position as rabbi of Cairo he later succeeded.
Born in a family of Spanish Jews who fled the Inquisition and settled in Amsterdam; son of Isaac Penso, banker. Author in 1688 of "Confusión de confusiones," the first work describing the functioning of a Stock Exchange (Amsterdam's).
Joseph Shallit ben Eliézer Richetti, Italian scholar born in Safed, in Palestine, directed in the second half of the seventeenth century a Talmudic school in Verona. He is the author of Hokhmat ha-Michkan (Mantua, 1676), on the construction of the first Temple, and published a map of Palestine which Zunz supposes was intended to illustrate a Haggada of Passover; he also edited the Hibbour Ma'assiyyot (Venice, 1646), a collection of moral tales, and the Yihouss ha-Tsaddiqim of Gershon ben Asher, to which he added his own notes.
18th-century court Jew
17th Century Ascetic
Rabbi of Venice and Hebrew poet of the seventeenth century. He composed elegies on the death of Samuel Aboab and Moses Zacuto (Venice, 1694), as well as another, entitled "Kos Tanḥumin", on the death of Moses Lévi Majo, rabbi of Venice (1707).
German Talmudist born in Lissa, in the province of Posen. Schoolmaster in Hamburg toward the end of the seventeenth century, he is the author of « 'Emeḳ Yehoshua' » (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1699), a collection of annotations to the Pentateuch and novellae by other rabbis presented in the form of questions and answers; the Offenbach edition (1722) added to it notes by Joseph Yosbel of Fürth drawn from his « Emeḳ ha-Shaweh ».
Dutch rabbi
Court Jew (Hofjude) and jeweler to the court of Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg (future King Frederick I of Prussia) in Berlin. Originally from Göttingen, he settled in Berlin after his marriage to Esther, widow of court Jew Israel Aaron, and became one of the leaders of the Jewish community of Berlin, controlling the jewelry trade in the city. Among his descendants were Giacomo Meyerbeer and Wilhelm Beer.
Av beth din of Algiers, decisioner, author of Beit Yehuda and the Minhagim of Algiers.
Chief Rabbi and preacher of Pfersee, in Bavaria, at the end of the 17th century. His sermons for Pesaḥ, Shavuot and Sukkot were published together with those of his father, Henoch ben Abraham, under the title « Reshit Bikkurim » (Frankfurt am Main, 1708), and a collection of his responsa appeared in 1709 at his son Henoch ben Judah under the title « Ḥinnuk Bet Yehudah ».
Rabbi of Mantua, talmudist and polemicist, opponent of kabbalistic heterodoxy.
Polish rabbi
Jewish kabbalist and messiah claimant
Rabbi in Busk, in Poland (now Austrian Galicia), in the 17th century. He is the author of the « Leb Aryeh », a collection of homilies on the Pentateuch and the five Megillot, published in Wilmersdorf in 1673.
Rabbi and physician, born in Frankfurt am Main around the mid-seventeenth century and died in Mainz in 1714. He studied medicine and philosophy in Padua, where he obtained his doctorate in 1674, then was appointed dayan of Frankfurt before becoming, in 1687, chief rabbi of Mainz, a position he held for twenty-seven years. He is the author of « Yad Yehudah » (Frankfurt am Main, 1678), commentary on the « 'Asarah Ma'amarot » of Menahem Azaria de Fano, and « Zera' Yehudah » (Offenbach, 1721), commentary on the Haggada of Passover.
Rabbi and preacher active in Pinsk in the second half of the 17th century. He went to settle in the Holy Land, where he died before 1681. Author of several works of morality and penance printed in Germany.
Chief Rabbi (Hakham Bashi) of Constantinople, author of the Mishneh la-Melekh.
Hungarian talmudist of the 17th century, son of Ephraïm ben Jacob ha-Cohen, whose house in Ofen he left for Jerusalem in 1685. He edited the responsa of his father, "Sha'ar Efrayim", published in Prague in 1686, adding to them his own responsa under the title "Ḳontres Aḥaron", before returning to Jerusalem.
Portuguese cartographer, active in Palestine in the first half of the 17th century, author of a map of the Land of Israel written in Portuguese under the title « Relação do Sitio de Terra de Israel » and published in Latin in Amsterdam in 1631, accompanied by historical data on the places represented. The work, known in Hebrew as « Mappah », was republished in 1685 on the order of Isaac ben Mattithiah Aboab.
Polish rabbi born in Wilna in 1614 and died in Cracow in 1676 (or 1679 according to other sources), Aaron Samuel ben Israël Kaidanover saw his library and manuscripts plundered by the Cossacks and lost two of his daughters during the Chmielnicki revolt (1648-49), before fleeing to Moravia and successively exercising the rabbinate in Langenlois, Nikolsburg, Glogau, Fürth and Frankfurt-on-the-Main, then returning to Poland as rabbi of Cracow. He is the author of several talmudic works, including the « Birkat ha-Zebaḥ » (Amsterdam, 1669), the « Birkat Shemuel » (Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1682) and the « 'Emunat Shemuel » (1683).
Rabbi of Sardokupis, in Asia Minor, active in the early 17th century, author of the « Maḳor Baruk » (Smyrna, 1659), a collection of responsa following the order of the four Ṭurim. The work was published by his son Salomon Ḳala'i, who added to it responsa from Aaron Ḥason, master of Baruch, from Mordekhaï Ḳala'i, brother of Baruch, and his own; Salomon indicates that his father had also left a commentary on several talmudic treatises as well as sermons.
Turkish rabbi and author, active in the first half of the 17th century, student of R. Aaron Ḥason, R. Aaron Sason and R. Isaac Franco, and principal teacher of the Portuguese yeshiva in Salonica, where he taught R. Daniel Estrumsa and R. David Conforte. All his responsa and sermons prior to 1625 were destroyed in the great fire that devastated Salonica that year; he is cited in the responsa of Salomon ha-Lévi, at whose funeral he delivered a sermon, as well as in those of his brother Baruch Ḳala'i and R. Joseph di Trani.
Poet and polemicist born in Safi, Morocco, towards the end of the seventeenth century, related through his mother to the Bédersi family of Provence. Orphaned early but possessed of sufficient resources, he traveled throughout Morocco, studied in Fès under Juda ben 'Aṭṭar then Samuel Ẓarfati, before having to take refuge in Agadir after displeasing the governor of Safi; in 1728, the plague that ravaged the place took from him in a single day his wife Deborah and his daughter Estrella. He left in manuscript a commentary on the prayer book mixed with personal poems, «Ḳab we-Naḳi», and a treatise on religious controversy, «Raḳ we-Ṭob».
Polish physician of the 17th century, author of « Yerushat Mosheh » (2 vol., Frankfurt-on-Main and Wilmersdorf, 1677), a medical work in Judeo-German describing remedies for various illnesses, and of « Yarum Mosheh » (Amsterdam, 1679), reprinted several times.
Polish rabbi of the seventeenth century, died in 1713 at an advanced age; his name indicates that he was born in Kalisz, Poland, or that he exercised the rabbinate there. He is the author of "Sha'are Ẓiyyon" (Prague, 1657), the only published part of his ethical work "Sha'are Ḥokmah", and of "Sha'are Shamayim" (1675), a collection of sermons and novellae where he also inserted those of his father, his grandfather and his uncle Samuel Edels.
Turkish Talmudist of the seventeenth century, died between 1696 and 1698, mentioned from 1650 as a reputed dayan and student of Joseph Trani. Known for the flexibility of his decisions — he notably sought to permit the remarriage of an agunah and authorized the consumption of wine prepared by a convert to Islam — he was arbiter in fiscal matters in Salonique and Soria before becoming, in 1680, grand rabbi of Constantinople, succeeding Moses Benveniste. His responsa and sermons were published by his grandson Moses Kasabi under the title « Rab Yosef » (Constantinople, 1736).
Polish Talmudist, born in Krotoschin around the mid-17th century, son-in-law of Abraham Abele Gombiner and rabbi of Kutno. He drafted the « Ḥuḳḳat Torah », annotations to the Shulchan Aruch in four parts published between 1693 and 1701, as well as « Leḥem ha-Panim » on the Yoreh Dé'a (Hanau, 1716), an enlarged new version of which was published by his son Abraham (Amsterdam, 1732); he also left in manuscript commentaries on the Oraḥ Ḥayyim, the Haggada of Passover and the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-1.
Author and poet, active in the second half of the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th, author of the « Ḥag ha-Pesaḥ » (Cracow, 1597), commentary on the Haggada of Pessa'h completed with glosses from his father, a poem on the ritual of the feast and a long introduction, to which is added the « Ḳets ha-Pela'ot », on the end of the Exile and the coming of the Messiah.
German Talmudist, born circa 1700 and died in Prague on May 24, 1774, where he presided for more than forty years over an important yeshiva. When Empress Maria Theresa decreed on December 18, 1744, the banishment of Jews from Prague, he was the spokesperson of the delegation that came to protest to the authorities and, ordered to be silent, replied: « Ten thousand souls cry out in me. » After the departure of Jews from Prague on March 31, 1745, he was among the intercessors (« Schtadlanim ») who negotiated with the government until the repeal of the decree in August 1748, and was, once the Jews were readmitted, appointed by the government one of the four elders of the community.
Polish rabbinic author, active in Kalisz in the 17th century. He wrote the « Oraḥ Mishor » (Sulzbach, 1692), a commentary on Moses Isserlès' « Darkhé Mosheh » on the Yoré Dé'a, then a second work of the same title (Berlin, 1724), novellae on the tractate Nazir correcting the text of the Talmud, Rashi and the Tosafot, published with a revised and enlarged edition of the first; a third separate edition appeared in Fürth in 1766.
Talmudist and German poet, active in Cracow in the seventeenth century. He composed an elegy, "Ḳinah" (around 1650), on the one hundred twenty thousand Jews who died in the Khmelnytsky riots in Russia, as well as the "Ḳeṭoret ha-Mizbeaḥ" (Amsterdam, 1660), novellae on the haggada of the Berakhot treatise, and the "Ḳeṭoret ha-Sammim" (1660; edited with the Pentateuch in 1671), commentary on the pseudo-Jonathan and Jerusalem Targumim on the Pentateuch.
Polish Talmudist, born in 1626 and died in 1666 in Cracow, son-in-law of Abraham Chemiesch. A preacher for many years in the synagogues of Cracow, he was reputed for his erudition; his only surviving work, the "Meḳor Ḥayyim", elucidations of the Midrash on the Five Megillot and on the Prophets, was published by his grandson Yeḥiel Krochmal (Fürth, 1696)—two other of his writings remained unpublished.
Rabbi and South American Talmudist of the seventeenth century, probably son of Simon Lagarto of Amsterdam. Having gone to Brazil young, he was around 1680 ḥakham of the Jews of Tamarica and the author of a work entitled « Ohel Ya'aḳob » or « Tienda de Jacob », which Wolf supposes to have contained Talmudic aphorisms; according to Kayserling, it was however not written in America.
Bohemian Talmudist, born in 1678 and died in Prague on 9 October 1712, specialist in Masorah and the rules of writing Torah scrolls, hence his name. Versed also in profane sciences and Kabbalah, he was sent with Moïse Ḥassid by Abraham Broda to Vienna for a controversy against the Sabbateans. Dying young, he left several works: the "Ẓawwa'ah", a treatise on ethics published in 1717, the "Me'il Ẓedaḳah", a collection of responsa composed in 1710 and published by his grandson in 1757, as well as "Bene Yonah" (1802) and "Kanfe Yonah" (1812), novellae on the Masorah and the Shulchan Aruch.
Oriental rabbi and talmudist, died in 1674, first rabbi in Manissa, Turkey, then called, already elderly, as judge of civil affairs in Smyrna. In 1665, when the movement of Shabbetaï Tsevi reached its peak, he was one of the rare rabbis who dared to oppose the false prophet and excommunicated him; Shabbetaï and his followers deposed him and forced him to leave the city, but he was reinstated after Shabbetaï's conversion to Islam. Son-in-law of Salomon Algazi, he is the author of « Bene Aharon », responsa and novellæ published in Smyrna in 1674, and of « Yad Aharon », an index of the Talmud.
German glossator and theologian, son of Isaac Lévi, active in the early seventeenth century. In his "Amarot Ṭehorot", published by his son Saül, he defines and explains in alphabetical order the difficult words of the Zohar; his second work, "Yesode Torat Mosheh", a thorough dissertation on the dogmatic and ethical principles of Judaism, exists only in manuscript form.
Judeo-German author of the seventeenth century, probably son of printer Abraham Lemberger of Prague. He is the author, in Judeo-German, of the "Ein Hübsch Göttlich Büchel" (Prague, n.d.), a collection of moral maxims drawn from the Talmud and other rabbinic works, accompanied by an appendix, the "Ḥibbuṭ ha-Ḳeber", devoted to the sufferings of the dead in the grave.
According to tradition, this is a rabbi and his six sons — or a master and six of his disciples — buried in Safi since ancient times; it is unknown when they lived and died. It is told that, when the French wanted to build a road at the location of their tombs, all the tools employed broke without anyone understanding why, until a Jew revealed the presence of righteous ones in that place; the community then had the bodies transferred to the cemetery. A crowd of Jewish and Muslim pilgrims came to honor them. Their remains now rest in a vast complex built in Safi, site of a hilloula gathering the faithful from Morocco, Israel and elsewhere.
One of the first Jewish settlers of New Amsterdam, probably born in Amsterdam, died in 1680. Arrived in New Netherland in 1654, likely a refugee from Brazil, he refused the tax imposed on Jews exempt from watch duty and obtained, after an appeal to Holland, to be admitted as a burgher on April 21, 1657; he subsequently became one of the first Jewish merchants and landowners of the colony, buying land in Albany from 1661 onward and in New York from June 1662, and lent in 1664 one hundred guilders to the city for its fortifications.
Rabbi and preacher in Prague in the second half of the 17th century, died in that city in 1709. He is the author of « Mattat Yah », a collection of sermons on the Pentateuch stopping at Numbers XXXIII (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1696), and a second collection, « Peri Megadim », which remained manuscript.
English theologian and Christian Talmudist born in Stoke-upon-Trent in 1602, died in Ely in 1675, member of Christ's College Cambridge and, from 1650 until his death, principal of St Catherine Hall. Parliamentarian and Presbyterian, member of the Westminster Assembly, he devoted himself to the study of rabbinic Hebrew and published his « Horæ Hebraicæ et Talmudicæ », Talmudic parallels to the Gospels published at intervals from 1658 to 1674; his complete works appeared in London in 1684, then in Latin in Rotterdam (1686) and Franeker (1699).
Russian rabbi of the seventeenth century, native of Brest-Litovsk. After studying in the yeshivot of Lublin and Kraków, he was called to the rabbinate of Rossiena, in the government of Kovno. He is the author of the "Beer Abraham", a commentary on the six orders of the Mishna augmented with his own novellae under the title "Mé Beer"; only the part concerning the three first orders was published, Zeraïm (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1665) then Moëd and Nachim (1683).
Russian rabbi probably born in Pinczow, in the Kielce governorate, Poland, around 1630, died in Brest-Litovsk in 1714, grandson of Joël Sirkes and son-in-law and student of David ben Samuel ha-Lévi. Also trained under Joshua Höschel, author of « Maginne Shelomoh », and Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, he is rabbi successively in Swirz, Galicia, Kamorna, Stobnitz, Zamość (1679-89), Tiktin, Krakow, then Brest-Litovsk (1701-14); in 1669, he is sent to Constantinople with his half-brother Isaiah ha-Lévi to investigate the claims of Shabbetai Tsevi. His responsa are published later under the title « Sha'agat Aryeh » (Neuwied, 1736).
Polish rabbi born in Cracow around 1620, died in the same city in 1671. Called early to the rabbinate of Vienna, he then goes to Przemyśl, in Galicia, before becoming in 1665 rabbi of his native city, where he remains until his death. He is the author of « Tiḳḳune Teshubah », a work of ethics in Judeo-German (Cracow, 1666).
Rabbi of the second half of the 17th century, probably born in Wilna, whose father Ephraim b. Jacob ha-Cohen had taken refuge in Buda during the Cossack uprising of 1655; died in the Holy Land after 1686. Remaining in Buda until 1684, he went to Jerusalem, where with the help of Moses Galanti the Younger he prepared the edition of the paternal work « Sha'ar Efrayim »; the capture of Buda by Charles of Lorraine in 1686 ruined his family, which took refuge in Prague, where he returned to publish the annotated work (Sulzbach, 1686) before leaving again for the Holy Land, where he died in Safed.
Bohemian scholar who lived in Prague in the middle of the 17th century, secretary of Simon Spira, chief rabbi of Prague. He publishes, under the title "Milḥamah be-Shalom", a narrative of the siege of Prague by the Swedes in 1648 and the sufferings endured by the Jews, later reprinted with a Latin translation by Wagenseil and republished in the "Bikkure ha-'Ittim".
Spanish poet who lived in Amsterdam in the 17th century. He is among the poets who celebrated in 1655 the martyrdom of Abraham Nuñez Bernal, his elegies appearing in the collection « Elogios » (Amsterdam, 1655) ; Daniel de Barrios also mentions a poet with a similar name, Custodio Lobo, also called Moïse Jeshurun Ribero, who died in Livorno, which led Wolf to suppose the two poets identical.
Palestinian scholar, masorete and midrashist, lexicographer and poet, died after 1608 in Jerusalem, orphaned in childhood and remaining throughout his life in poverty and illness. Settling in Jerusalem as a young man where he married, he had to flee following the betrayal of a friend, stayed in Constantinople where he studied under Samuel di Modena, then returned to Italy in his old age, where he preached despite the paralysis of his legs and the loss of an eye. He is the author of a first collection composed around 1572, probably in Constantinople, comprising a moral poem and liturgical hymns.
Physician, planter and Jewish merchant settled in the province of Maryland in the middle of the 17th century, born in Lisbon and died between September 24, 1665 and May 31, 1666. Having left Portugal for the Netherlands, he settled in Maryland on January 24, 1656 and practiced medicine there with success; in 1658, he is arrested for blasphemy under the 1649 Toleration Act, but regains his freedom thanks to the general amnesty proclaimed ten days later on the accession of Richard Cromwell. First Jew of Maryland whose faith is attested by documents, he obtains letters of naturalization in 1663 and a commission for trade with the Indians in 1665.
Jew, perhaps a Marrano, of Spanish origin, established in Smyrna. He is the author of an apology in Spanish directed against a monk of Seville and an interpretation of the « seventy weeks » of Daniel, published in Latin translation in Basel in 1658.
Karaite writer and bibliographer, born in Lutsk at the end of the 17th century and died, according to Firkovitch, in Chufut-Kale, Crimea, or, according to another source, in Lutsk in March 1766. Versed in rabbinic literature and Cabala, tireless copyist, he went in 1751 to Chufut-Kale, where he was welcomed by Karaite writer Mordekhaï ben Berakha Yerushalmi and succeeded Samuel Ḳala'i as teacher of the bet ha-midrash. His copies and numerous writings, notably his bibliographic work, preserved an important part of ancient Karaite literature.
Dutch scholar and editor, member of a family of printers active in Amsterdam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He publishes in Judeo-German several translations from Dutch, including an account of the Amsterdam uprising of 1696 published in 1707, the tales of Boccaccio in 1710, the wisdom of Ben Sira in 1712, as well as manuals of Judeo-German letters and commercial formulas in 1714.
German Protestant theologian, born in Pforzheim in February 1653, died in Giessen in September 1719. Professor at the University of Giessen from 1689 onwards, he published notably a Synopsis Theologiæ Judaicæ (1698), an Exercitatio de Jure Anni Septimi (1707) and a Grammatica Rabbinica (1710).
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5384 of the Hebrew era (1624). Son of Saadia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-1.
Rabbi of Azaouia, 17th century. Mentioned in 5457 of the Hebrew era (1697). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5388 of the Hebrew era (1628). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew calendar (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Talmudist and methodologist of Livorno, author of the classic Yad Malachi.
Rabbi of Rhodes in the seventeenth century, brother-in-law of Hezekiah de Silva, author of « Peri Ḥadash ». He publishes « Malki ba-Ḳodesh » (Salonike, 1749), novellae on the laws of Passover, as well as « Shemen la-Ma'or » (Constantinople, 1760), in which he defends Zerahiah ha-Levi against Nahmanide, then a collection of responsa, « 'En Mishpaṭ » (1770), and sermons, « 'Enot Mayim » (Salonike, 1811).
Rabbinic scholar and physician of Palestine, active in Safed around 1627. Versed in astronomy and philosophy, he is the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch entitled « Perush 'al ha-Torah ».
Rabbi and printer of Amsterdam, he pleaded with Oliver Cromwell for the readmission of the Jews to England (1655), from which they had been expelled in 1290. His work The Hope of Israel linked the return of the Jews to England with messianic eschatology.
Born Manoel Dias Soeiro in a family of Portuguese Marranos, he founded in 1626 the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam. Rabbi and polymath, he corresponded with Christian scholars of his time and negotiated with Oliver Cromwell the readmission of Jews to England (1655–1656).
Polish author, born in Brzeszticzka (Volhynia), died in 1612. He is the author of « Ḥokmat Manoaḥ », Talmudic glosses printed in the Cracow Talmud edition (1602-5) then separately in Prague in 1602 by his son, as well as « Menoaḥ ha-Lebabot », a commentary on a work by Baḥya ben Joseph (Lublin, 1596).
Son of Diego/Abraham Senior Teixeira, he inherited the position of resident minister and financier to Queen Christina of Sweden, and was head of the Hispanic-Portuguese congregation (Talmud Torah) of Amsterdam.
Italian musician, born in Venice in 1686, died in the same city in 1739. He is particularly famous for his musical settings of the psalms, published in Venice between 1724 and 1727 in eight volumes under the title « Estro Poetico-Armonico », from which he draws the themes of eleven psalms from authentic Jewish melodies — six from German tradition and five from Spanish tradition — catalogued by himself, contrary to what some musicologists believed, who saw in them the intonations of the ancient Temple.
First Jewish court singer in Germany, active in the late 17th century. She lived with her father, Isaac Marcus, in Wesel (Brandenburg), where Frederick of Brandenburg, future king Frederick I of Prussia, heard her sing in 1690 and sent her, with her father, to train in Berlin; on July 16 of that year, he informed the Prince of Anhalt, who confirmed on July 25 that the necessary measures would be taken on her behalf.
Italian rabbi of the seventeenth century, died in 1670, sole rabbi of Padua to survive the plague of 1631, which decimated the community; his wisdom and eloquence contributed to the restoration of order. He wrote a commentary on Isaiah, "Tiḳḳun 'Olam" (Verona, 1652), and counted among his students the physician and rabbi Isaac Ḥayyim Cantarini; his brother, Shabbethaï b. Isaac Marini, died in 1685, was a physician.
Italian Talmudist and liturgist of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whose name, according to S. D. Luzzatto, would mean « from Arles ». Head of the yeshiva of Mantua, he takes part in the controversy over the « Miḳwah » of Rovigo.
Sephardic Hakham and shadar, student of the great rabbis of Izmir R. Ḥayyim Abulafia and R. Yitzhak ha-Kohen Rappaport, with whom he emigrated to Jerusalem. Appointed Chief Rabbi of Tripoli, he led the Jewish community of Libya for about twenty years until his death in 1768. Author of the celebrated commentary Maʽaseh Rokeaḥ on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah.
rabbi
Rabbi of Hebron, emissary (shadar) to Europe for his community.
German liturgist, probably active in Posen towards the end of the seventeenth century, author of the « Meïr Elohim », a collection of biblical verses to be recited upon entering the synagogue accompanied by indications on prayer. He mentions having composed two « Menorot », collections of prayers, one of which may be, according to Steinschneider, the « Menorah » printed in Prague in 1696.
Ottoman rabbi
rabbi
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yosef II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-4.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Died in 5371 of the Hebrew era (1611). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-4.
German rabbi of Frankfurt and Fulda (Maharam Schiff), celebrated for his Talmudic novellae.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 80-4.
Hebrew-writing author of the seventeenth century, who lived in Szczebrzeszyn (Russian Poland) during the terrible years of 1648-49 and fled to Krakow during the Cossack invasion; there he publishes his 'Ẓoḳ ha-'Ittim' (1650), a narrative in Hebrew verse of the persecutions suffered by the Jews during the Cossack uprising — later plagiarized by Joshua ben David of Lemberg, as Steinschneider discovered. He also wrote 'Mizmor Shir', a sabbatic hymn in Aramaic and Judeo-German (Venice, 1639).
Talmudist, rabbi in Modena (1642) and then in Ferrara (1655). He left works that remained in manuscript (unpublished), including a Shelom ha-Bayit and Ḥiddushim (Talmudic novellae). Responsa from the Cases family are cited by his contemporaries, notably in the Paḥad Yitzḥak of Isaac Lampronti.
Rabbi and Talmudic commentator, author of the halakhic work Ateret Zekenim.
Polish rabbi and preacher, died in Altona in 1681. First rabbi of Vladislav (government of Suwałki), then dayyan in Cracow, he published « Neḥamot Ẓiyyon » (Frankfurt-on-Main, 1677), a collection of twenty-two sermons.
Danish portraitist, born in Copenhagen in 1690, died in Dresden on 26 December 1765. Trained in miniature and enamel painting in Lübeck, he traveled in Germany, Italy and Austria before being appointed in 1764 professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and court painter to King Auguste III, from whom he received an annuity.
Poet and Chief Rabbi of Venice in the 17th century, one of the signatories of the decision concerning the warehouses of Ferrare. A Hebrew poem by his hand appears in the « Ḥanukkat ha-Bayit » of Moïse Ḥefeẓ (Venice, 1696).
Talmudic scholar of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, author of the « Mar'eh Meḳom ha-Dinim » (Krakow, 1647), an alphabetical index of the Shulhan Aruch. Also known by the name « Phoebus », he is said to have died in Amsterdam in 1652, praised by David de Barrios.
Hakham of Spanish and Portuguese Jews in England, born in 1688, died on 8 May 1751. Appointed hakham in 1744 in succession to Isaac Nieto, he celebrated in 1747 the latter's second marriage, then in 1749 that of his own daughter with Moses Cohen Dazevedo Ferme, future hakham in 1760.
Chief Rabbi of Algiers in the late seventeenth century, author of sermons with philosophical content. His reputation for Talmudic erudition earned him comparison to the masters Ravina and Rav Achi in Algerian communal memory.
Rabbi of Constantine surnamed El Hasid, author of the Torah commentary Zera Emet.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-3.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, 17th century. Mentioned in 5434 of the Hebrew era (1674). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 85-2.
Rabbi of Rif, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi of Safi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-3.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Jew converted to Christianity, born in Hamburg in the second half of the 17th century, died in Belgium around 1738. Baptized in Bremen, he became a missionary and published several works hostile to Judaism: « Licht zu Erleuchten die Juden » (Leipzig, 1711), « Me'irat 'Enayim » (Amsterdam, 1713), « Der Abscheuliche Mord Christi » (Hamburg, 1719), and « Vera Immanuelis Generatio », in Hebrew.
Rabbi and Palestinian liturgist, active in Jerusalem in the 17th century. He wrote an index of the laws of the Shulḥan Arukh, "Moreh Ẓedeḳ" (Salonika, 1655), and he is also attributed a collection of prayers for the western wall of the Temple, "'Et le-Ḥenenah" (Venice, 1708), completed by his son Moses — although Nepi-Ghirondi considers him to have been only its revisor.
Christian theologian and German Hebraist, born in Klettenberg on July 26, 1668, died in Halle on March 10, 1738. Trained in Ethiopian under Ludolf in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, he became assistant professor of Oriental languages at Halle in 1699 and then professor of theology in 1709; his masterwork, a Hebrew Bible text based on Jablonski's and compared with numerous editions and manuscripts, appeared in 1720 in Frankfurt-on-the-Main. He also published a Hebrew grammar (1702) and two works on Hebrew accents (1696, 1700), which were long authoritative.
Cantor and poet, born in Selichow (Little Poland) in the 17th century, hence his other name Juda ben Moïse Selichower, died at an advanced age in Altona or Hamburg on May 26, 1751; hazzan in Minden-on-the-Weser, from which his name derives. He is the author of « Shire Yehudah », Hebrew songs with German translations and music (Amsterdam, 1696), and of « Zemer wa-Shir » (Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1714).
German rabbi, born around 1620 in Vienna, died on 28 November 1706 in Altona. Expelled from Vienna with his family during the banishment of Jews in 1670, he emigrated to Berlin and was elected in 1678 chief rabbi (« av bet din ») of the communities of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck, a position he held until his death; his daughter Sarah, wife of Ẓebi Ashkenazi (Ḥakham Ẓebi), was the mother of Jacob Emden.
Poet, born in Mantua on August 1, 1679, died in the same city on June 10, 1727, accomplished linguist sent by the community to pay homage to Emperor Charles VI in Vienna. Encouraged by the rabbi of Mantua David Finzi, he devotes himself to poetry and publishes « Ḳol Musar » (Mantua, 1725), « Keter Torah » (Venice, 1721), and an elegy for his master Juda Brill, « Ẓir ha-Ẓirim » (1722), as well as a rabbinical encyclopedia that remained in manuscript, « Sefer Zikronot ».
French liturgical poet, active in Carpentras toward the end of the seventeenth century, author of several poems published in the "Seder ha-Tamid" (Avignon, 1760), a collection of prayers used in Carpentras, L'Isle, Avignon and Cavaillon. His hymn of thanksgiving "Ish hayah be-tam lebabo" commemorates the murder of a Jew of Carpentras in 1682, which nearly provoked a riot against the Jewish quarter; the community instituted thereafter the day of the incident, the 9th of Nisan, as a commemoration feast, where his poem is read in the synagogue.
Polish physician, active in Kalisz in the second half of the 17th century. He wrote in Yiddish two medical works, « Yerushat Mosheh » (Frankfurt am Main, 1677) and its sequel, « Yarim Mosheh » (Amsterdam, 1679).
Scholar and preacher of the late 17th century. He is the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch with notes on Rashi, "Wa-Yiktab Mosheh" (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1694), and "Ḳodesh la-Adonai," explanations of a verse from Exodus (1700).
Lithuanian rabbi, probably born in Brest-Litovsk in the early 17th century, died in Grodno on April 28, 1681, maternal grandson of R. Höschel of Brest-Litovsk. He became in 1673 chief rabbi and head of the yeshivah of Grodno, participated in 1679 in the Lithuanian council of Khomsk, and declined in 1680 the rabbinate of Cracow; his work "Tif'eret le-Mosheh", novellas on the Shulchan Aruch, was published by his grandson (Berlin, 1776).
Galician author of the late seventeenth century, residing in Zolkiew. He wrote « Sugyot ha-Talmud », a methodology of the Talmud and its commentaries (Zolkiew, 1693), translated into Latin by H. I. v. Bashuysen and published with the Latin translation of « Halikot 'Olam » by Joshua Lévi ben Joseph (Hanover, 1714).
Rabbi of Aussee (Moravia) in the second half of the seventeenth century, nephew of Mordecai Jaffé. He writes « Holek be-Derek Tamim » (Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1680), explanation of a psalm, and « Pene Mosheh » (Lublin, 1681), commentary on the first section of Genesis.
Disciple of Joseph Caro in Safed, ordained rabbi and author of kabbalistic writings.
Talmudist and polemicist, defender of rabbinic authority and opponent of Sabbatianism.
Rishon LeZion and Hakham Bashi, head of a great yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Rabbi and Kabbalist, born in Frankfurt am Main, died in Pinczów (Russian Poland) in 1682 (or 1662 according to Wolf). Disciple of Aaron Samuel Kaidanover in Talmud and of Jacob Temerles in Kabbalah, he was rabbi of Holleschau (Moravia) in 1669 and, still attested there in 1675, was called to the rabbinate of Pinczów, where he remained until his death; he is also known by the name « Löb Zunz ».
Rabbi and Hebrew grammarian Sephardic of Amsterdam, prolific author.
Exegete, active in Prague in the first half of the seventeenth century, whose name is a matronymic derived from "Sarah". He published the Pentateuch and the Five Scrolls with glosses in Judeo-German under the title "Be'er Mosheh" (Prague, 1605, frequently reprinted and highly esteemed by Ezekiel Landau), supplemented by glosses on the Prophets and Hagiographs, "Leḳaḥ Ṭob".
Born in Amsterdam in a Marrano family of Portuguese origin, student at the yeshiva Ets Ḥaïm, he became one of the great kabbalists and Jewish poets of Italy. Rabbi in Venice (c. 1645–1673) then in Mantua until his death, he annotated the entire Lurianic corpus and composed a lexicon of divine names as well as dramas in Hebrew.
Dutch financier and statesman of the 17th century. Settled in Amsterdam in 1679 as financial agent of King John III of Poland — which contradicts the assertion of De Barrios that Molo was a Spanish Jew —, he is exempted from taxes in recognition of his services to the Dutch state, and his influence with the States General allows Louis XIV to conclude the Treaty of Ryswick (1697).
American scholar whose dates of birth and death vary according to sources: circa 1683 in Algiers and 1764 in Northborough (Massachusetts) according to Hannah Adams, or 1680 and 1761 according to Josiah Quincy. Baptized on March 27, 1722 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) while continuing to observe the Jewish Sabbath, he taught Hebrew at Harvard from 1722 to 1759, and published in 1735 in Boston the first Hebrew grammar printed in America, the "Dickdook Leshon Gnebreet".
Marrano traveler of the seventeenth century, Antonio de Montezinos claimed to have encountered, around 1641 near Quito in Ecuador, indigenous populations practicing Jewish rites and reciting the Shema, which he connected to the tribes of Reuben and Levi. Returning to Holland in 1644, he reported this account to Manasseh ben Israel, who transmitted it to Thomas Thorowgood — the latter published it in his "Jews in America" — and published it himself in his "Hope of Israel".
Marrano, physician and poet, he openly returned to Judaism in Holland around 1605, at an advanced age; to celebrate his reintegration he composed tercets in Spanish. His presumed relative Tamar Barrocas died at the stake in Lisbon on August 3, 1603, alongside Diego de la Ascension.
Dutch ritualist, active in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17th century, disciple of Abraham Rovigo whose commentary on the Zohar, the "Eshel Abraham", he arranged and corrected, published with the text in Fürth in 1701—his preface having appeared the previous year. He also writes the "Miḳweh Yisrael", a treatise on circumcision in Judeo-German, published in 1710 with the "Sod Adonaï" of David de Lida in appendix.
Grand Rabbi of Cairo, preacher and biblical exegete, active in the seventeenth century, died in Jerusalem. He is the author of the "Darke No'am" (Venice, 1698), a collection of responsa on the four parts of the Shulḥan Aroukh edited by his son Abraham ha-Lévi, as well as four unpublished works: a commentary on the Pentateuch, sermons for holy days, sermons for circumcisions, bar-mitzvahs and weddings, and funeral orations.
Commentator, active in the late 17th century, rabbi of Dobří (Bohemia). His commentary on the Pentateuch, « Ma'amar Mordekai » (Dyhernfurth, 1719), was edited by his son Juda Löb, sexton of Breslau.
Polish commentator, died in Krakow in 1670, disciple of Shabbethaï Sheftel. His most important work is a commentary on the Targum Jonathan and the Targum of Jerusalem, « Ḳeṭoret ha-Sammim » (Amsterdam, 1671); he also wrote an elegy on the Polish martyrs of 1648, « Ḳinah » (Lublin, 1650), and a commentary on the haggadot of the tractate Berakhot, « Ḳeṭoret ha-Mizbeaḥ » (1660).
Rabbi and German kabbalist, active in Darmstadt and Düsseldorf, author of responsa.
Judeo-Persian poet, author of Maaseh Pillegesh ba-Givea versifying Judges 19-21.
Rabbi, decisioner and kabbalist born in Meknès, emigrated to Jerusalem; author of Zoveah Toda.
Son of Itshak, rabbi in Fez in the late seventeenth century. Author of two manuscript commentaries on the Torah, « Harouzim shel séder » and « Parashot ».
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5457 of the Hebrew era (1697). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5445 of the Hebrew era (1685). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-3.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 86-3.
Italian convert from Judaism to Christianity, born in Venice in 1612, died in 1687, descendant of a family traced, according to family tradition, to Nehemiah, and exiled from Spain at the time of the expulsion of the Jews. A student in Venice of rabbi Leon of Modena, he attended in 1649 a disputation on the "seventy weeks" of Daniel which decided him, with his brother Joseph, to convert; baptized on 22 November of that same year under the name of his godfather Angelo Morosini, he became in Rome, under Clement IX, "scrittore" of Hebrew at the Vatican Library and taught at the Propaganda, where he published the "Derek Emunah" (Rome, 1683).
Rabbi, physician and Italian liturgist, born in Gradisca (Austria) in 1681, died in Ancona on April 12, 1740, holder of a medical degree from Padua. He published in 1704 a philosophical gloss on Jedaïa Bedersi, accompanied by a satire of Kabbalists which brought him persecution from the rabbis of Padua, obtained in 1709 a rabbinical degree from Leon Briel of Mantua, then became sole rabbi of Ancona after 1721, a position he held until his death. A skilled physician during a flu epidemic in 1730, he received a testimonial from the archbishop; his responsa were published by his son (Venice, 1743).
Lithuanian rabbi, Chief Rabbi of Vilna, author of the Helkat Mehokek on the Even ha-Ezer.
person associated with Hebrew manuscripts
Jewish biblical commentator, physician, scholar, and Kabbalist from Italy
Traditional ruler
British businessman, founder of a synagogue in London
rabbi
Rabbi active in Prague, Leipnik then Worms, author of responsa.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Died in 5380 of the Hebrew era (1620). Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 91-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Died in 5381 of the Hebrew era (1621). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Rabbi of Tetuan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-2.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-3.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5435 of the Hebrew era (1675). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Died in 5382 of the Hebrew era (1622). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Shalem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96–1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5458 of the Hebrew era (1698). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-4.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-2.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, seventeenth century. Born in 5403 (1643), died in 5483 (1723) of the Hebrew era. Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-4.
Turkish rabbi of the 17th century, born around 1568, died in 1658, student of R. Samuel Ḥayyoun and probably of R. Salomon ben Abraham Cohen. Director of the yeshiva of the ancient Lisboete community of Salonique, he trained many disciples, including Aaron ben Isaac Lapapa; his responsa appear in several collections, including those of R. Ḥayyim Shabbethaï (1713-1718), and he himself published "Sefer Torat ha-Nazir" (Salonique, 1821) and "Magen Abraham", on acts of divorce.
Turkish scholar of the first half of the 17th century, renowned as an exceptional grammarian whose grammatical works have not survived. He edited the collection « Tummat Yesharim » (Venice, 1622), gathering several works by various authors — Jacob Tam ibn Yaḥya, Abraham ben David, Élie ha-Lévi, Samuel Sirillo — with his own notes and a preface in his hand.
Rabbi of Constantinople, active in the mid-seventeenth century. He writes « Yashir Mosheh » (Livorne, 1655 ; Amsterdam, 1735), commentary on the « Azharot » of Isaac ben Reuben Albargeloni, and a halakhic responsum preserved in the Responsa of Simon ben Ẓémah Duran (Amsterdam, 1738).
Spanish scholar and author, died in Venice in 1629. He writes in Spanish a treatise on prayer and knowledge of oneself and God, « Tratado de la Oracion y Meditacion y Conocimento Proprio y del Dio », published in Venice in 1654, after his death.
Physician and philologist of the 17th century, who called himself Dionysius in his Latin writings, born around 1606, probably in Spain, died in Amsterdam in 1675. Established as a physician in Hamburg, where his wife died in 1634, he composed in her memory « Zeker Rab » (Amsterdam, 1635; 2nd ed. with Latin translation, Hamburg, 1638) then, in 1640, « Sacro-Medicae Sententiae ex Bibliis »; appointed ordinary physician to King Christian IV of Denmark, he then lived in Glückstadt, in Holstein.
Hasidic leader
Polish-German rabbi born in Ostrov, Poland, in 1649, died in Constantinople in 1719. Made prisoner by the Tatars in 1663, he succeeded his father as rabbi of Ostrov then was called to the rabbinate of Posen in 1690, before entering that of Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1704, which he was forced to leave after the fire of 1711 that destroyed the entire Judenstrasse and for which he was accused and imprisoned. He then went to Prague, then to the court of King Augustus II of Poland in Dresden in 1715, before dying in Constantinople as he was leaving for Palestine in 1719.
rabbi and Kabbalist of German-Russian origin
Rabbi of Metz and father of physician Tobias Cohn, died in Metz in 1659. Rabbi and physician in Narol, in Galicia, he had fled to Germany during the Cossack uprising of 1648; he is the author of the "Sefer Birkot Tob", a collection of sermons on the Pentateuch and on the five Meguilot, as well as a prayer on the misfortunes that befell Poland in 1643, published with commentary in Amsterdam in 1699, and works on medicine and mathematics.
Rabbi in Mainz and then Hamburg, in the middle of the seventeenth century. He is the author of the « Shikhat Leket », a supplement to the « Yalkut Hadash » collecting the aggadot and Kabbalistic references to the Pentateuch omitted in this work, published in Prague in 1652 then reprinted in Amsterdam in 1700 with a preface and additions by Zebi Hirsch b. Abraham Wronke.
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, author of Hoq Nathan; founder of the Borgel dynasty.
Jewish theologian known for having been the prophet of the false messiah Sabbataï Tsevi (1643-1680)
Rabbi in Hotzenplotz then in Austerlitz in the seventeenth century. He is the author of the « Hok Natan », published in Cracow in 1609 with a preface by Phinehas b. Israel ha-Lévi Horowitz, and of a homily on the sabbatical reading of Wayiggash published in 1613 and then reissued in Prague in 1623. A work on the massacre of 1648, actually written by his son Samuel Feitel, was mistakenly attributed to him for a long time.
Italian poet born in Orvieto in 1607, Nathan Jedidia ben Eliezer paraphrased in 1625, while he was in Siena, three confessions (widouyim) in Hebrew terza rima — that of Baḥya, following the line of the Italian verse paraphrase of his maternal grandfather Johanan Juda Alatrini, that of R. Nissim, and an anonymous one —, as well as three sonnets in Hebrew and Italian and a Hebrew elegy in eight strophes; the whole appeared in one volume in Venice in 1628.
Moldavian rabbi
Provençal liturgist whose period and place of birth are unknown. He is the author of a didactic poem in fifty-eight sections, « Totzeot Hayyim », published in « Shete Yadot » by Menahem di Lonzano in Venice in 1618, and partially reproduced in the « Rabbinische Blumenlese » by Dukes in Leipzig in 1844. He is also credited with the popular Sabbath hymn « Ahabah be-Ta'anugim », present in most prayer books.
Italian rabbi of Piedmont, author of a collection of responsa which he named "ʿEzer Yaʿaḳob" after his father and which he dedicated to Abraham Rovigo. Born in the 17th century in Chieri, died in 1691 in Cento.
Rabbi of Karlsruhe, author of the halakhic commentary Korban Netanel.
Rabbi in Casale-Monferrato in 1650. Responsa from his hand are preserved in manuscript in the collections of David Kaufmann in Budapest and of the Jews' College in London.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5451 of the Hebrew era (1691). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Bosnian rabbi
Polish kabbalist and Sabbatean preacher, died in Amsterdam shortly after 1690, or, according to another version, in Poland in 1682. Sent in 1666 by Polish communities to Gallipoli to investigate the messianic claim of Sabbataï Tsevi, he declared him an impostor, narrowly escaped his followers by feigning conversion to Islam, then contributed to his downfall before finally proclaiming himself a fervent adherent of Tsevi upon his return, which earned him excommunication from those same communities.
Spanish historian, military personnel and jurist (1623-1692)
Author who lived in Jerusalem in the early seventeenth century, great-nephew of Moses Nigrin. He is attributed the "Derush al ha-Tefillah", published in Dyhernfurth in 1732, homiletical explanations of the principal prayers, also cited under the titles "Me'on Shelomoh" or "Bet Shim'on Shelomoh".
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 98-4.
Rabbi of Venice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sage, Talmudist and renowned liturgical poet, son of Isaïe — author of the « Derekh Yashar » (Venice, 1633) and « Yesha Yah » (1637), a commentary on the Zohar — and grandson of Eliezer Hayyim, rabbi of Padoue around 1600. Many Talmudists corresponded with him and published his decisions; he was the master of Moïse and Gershon Hefets, whose funeral eulogy he pronounced and which was published in 1660, and he composed a selihah in eight rhymed strophes incorporated into the morning service of Rosh Hashanah according to the Roman rite.
Community leader born in Worms, died in Heidelberg on December 2, 1692, son of Simon Wolf Oppenheim, brother of Samuel Oppenheim, court agent of Vienna, and father of David Oppenheim. Nicknamed "Abraham zur Kanne" after the sign of his beautiful house in Worms, he led the community of that city and enjoyed great favor with German princes as a "shtadlan", before fleeing to Heidelberg at the destruction of Worms in 1689, where he died at an advanced age and was buried in Mannheim.
Rabbi, cabalist, liturgist, mathematician and book collector born in Worms in 1664, died in Prague on 12 September 1736. He became one of the most influential Jews in Germany thanks to the fortune of his uncle Samuel Oppenheim, was appointed rabbi of Nikolsbourg and grand rabbi of Moravia in 1691, then grand rabbi of Prague in 1702 and «Landesrabbiner» of all Bohemia in 1718. A distinguished cabalist, he protected the Sabbatean Nehemia Hayoun and refused in 1725 to sign the excommunication of the Sabbateans, before becoming blind at the end of his life; he published few of his numerous writings, including talmudic novellae printed in Dessau in 1698.
German banker, imperial court agent and diplomat, born in Heidelberg around 1635, died in Vienna on May 3, 1703. Favorite of Emperor Leopold I, to whom he advanced substantial sums for the war against the Turks, he is authorized to settle in Vienna despite the recent expulsion of the Jews and receives the title of Oberfaktor. In 1701, with his two sons, he undertakes the supply of the imperial armies during the War of Spanish Succession, and works to have Eisenmenger's anti-Jewish work banned.
Rabbi of Wengrow, in Poland, in the first half of the seventeenth century. His first work, the « Berit ha-Lewi » (Lublin, 1645), is an ethical exposition of the prayer of Moses founded on tales from the Midrash and the Talmud. He is also credited with notes on the treatise Horayot, printed with the treatise Succah and then reissued in Amsterdam in 1727, but Steinschneider and Michael believe that this text is in reality the work of a tosafist of whom he was merely the editor.
Spanish hakham and preacher, killed in April 1664, son of Jacob Dias Pato and student of Saul Lévi Morteira, whose collection of sermons « Gibe'at Sha'ul » he edits in 1645, with his fellow student Moses Jacob Belmonte. First teacher of the educational and charitable institution « Abi Yetomim », founded in Amsterdam in 1648, he is the author of a Spanish poem on the death of the martyr Bernal; his epitaph, composed by his colleague Solomon de Oliveyra, confirms that he was murdered.
Danish religious fanatic, born in Copenhagen in 1644, died in that city in August 1714. Slave trader in the West Indies from 1680, he suddenly converted in 1694, proclaimed himself Messiah and king of the Jews, and published from 1697 in Amsterdam religious tracts announcing that he would rebuild Jerusalem and that he would bring down the Messiah there in 1720. Imprisoned in Amsterdam in 1701, he then traveled through Germany from 1702 to 1706 before returning to Copenhagen, where King Frederick IV put an end to his activities.
Rabbi of Lissa, born in Peisern, Poland, around 1690. He is the author of the « Naḥalat Shim'oni », a reference work in four parts listing biblical characters, masters of the Mishna and those of the baraitot and amoraim cited in the Babylonian Talmud; the first two parts appear in Wandsbeck in 1728, the last two remaining unpublished.
Rabbi and author active in Salonica in the seventeenth century, student of Ḥasdaï Peraḥya ha-Cohen. He left four works edited by his descendants: the « Paraḥ Maṭṭeh Aharon » (Amsterdam, 1703), responsa written between 1647 and 1695; the « Pirḥe Kehunnah » (1709), talmudic novellae, both edited by his son Azriel; the « Zikron Debarim » (Salonica, 1747), a collection of dinim and responsa; and the « Bigde Kehunnah » (1753), homilies and funeral orations, brought to press by his grandson Samuel Mishan.
Spanish writer and philanthropist born in Madrid, died in 1699 in Amsterdam, where he had taken refuge via Venice to escape the Inquisition. Esteemed for his wealth and culture, he presided for several years over the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam and became an ardent admirer of Sabbatai Tsevi, for whom he traveled to Italy in the company of Isaac Naar. He donated forty-six thousand florins to the Talmud Torah of Amsterdam and founded the talmudic seminary of Hebron. Among his published works are "La Certeza del Camino" (Amsterdam, 1666) and "Espejo de la Vanidad del Mundo" (1671).
Christian Orientalist, born in 1651, died in Stockholm on January 5, 1710, trained under Wagenseil in Altdorf. Professor of Oriental languages in Upsal from 1681 to 1695 then librarian in Stockholm, he was sent around 1690 by King Charles XI of Sweden on a mission to the Karaites of Poland and Lithuania, though the outcome of his endeavor is unknown. He translates into Latin several Talmudic treatises (Altdorf, 1680) and travel narratives to Palestine, and publishes a "Dissertatio de Tephillin sive Phylacteriis" (Upsal, 1690).
King of Spain called the « poet king » for his love of letters and the arts, born in Valladolid on April 8, 1605, died on September 17, 1665. He delegates state affairs to his favorite, the count-duke of Olivares, who, to remedy the shortage of men and money caused by the expulsion of the Jews and Moors, brings to Madrid Jews from Salonique and elsewhere, descendants of the Spanish exiles, despite the opposition of the tribunal of the Inquisition. But the Grand Inquisitor, the cardinal of Santa Balbina, alarmed the king about the danger incurred by the Church; intolerance prevails, Philip IV promises to drive out the Jews who had arrived, and he dismisses his minister in 1643.
Bernard Picart is a French draftsman and engraver, born in Paris in 1673 and died in Amsterdam in 1733. Trained by his father Étienne Picart and then by Le Brun and Jouvenet, he settled in Amsterdam in 1710, where he supplied plates and engravings to printers and booksellers. His work of Jewish interest appears in the « Cérémonies des Juifs », first volume of Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (1723-1743), one of the earliest series of engravings devoted to Jewish religious and ceremonial usages.
Joseph Pichon (Pitchon) is a rabbinic author who lived in Turkey at the end of the seventeenth century. He is the author of "Minhage ha-Bediḳah be-'Ir Saloniḳi", a work devoted to the method followed to render meat kosher at the slaughterhouse of Salonique.
Eliezer b. Juda of Pinczow is a Polish rabbi active at the end of the seventeenth century, grandson of R. Ẓebi Hirsch, rabbi of Lublin. Rabbi of Pinczow and other localities, then parnas in Cracow, he is the author of "Dammeseḳ Eli'ezer" (Jesnitz, 1723), notes on the Masoretic text of the Bible, and of "Mishnat Rabbi Eli'ezer" (Amsterdam, 1725), expositions of talmudic haggadot.
Joseph b. Jacob of Pinczow is a Polish rabbi and author active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, descendant of R. Jacob Pollak, son-in-law of R. Moses Krämer, chief rabbi of Wilna, and student of Ẓebi Hirsch, rabbi of Lublin. After directing a yeshiva in Wilna, he becomes rabbi of Kosovi in 1688, then of Seltzy; driven out by persecutions, he takes refuge in Hamburg in 1698 until 1702, then flees again to Berlin at the time of the plague of 1706, where he has his work "Rosh Yosef" printed (1717). His son Moses was rabbi of Copenhagen.
Moses Pinheiro is one of the most influential disciples of Shabbetai Tsevi; he lived in Livorno in the seventeenth century. Brother-in-law of Joseph Ergas, nevertheless an opponent of Sabbateanism, he exercised great influence over the Jews of Livorno, whom he exhorted to believe in Shabbetai, and remained faithful to him even after 1667, when rumors of his apostasy spread. He was the master of Abraham Michael Cardoso, whom he initiated into Kabbalah and the mysteries of Sabbateanism.
Juda Löb ben Joseph Pochowitzer is a rabbi and preacher of Russia, active in Pinsk in the second half of the 17th century, died in Palestine where he had gone before 1681. He is the author of « Ḳench Ḥokmah » (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1681), seventeen sermons of penitence, of « Derek Ḥokmah » (1683), a treatise on morality, and of « Dibre Ḥakamim » (Hamburg, 1692), in two parts devoted to morality and commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. Thirty-two excerpts from his works were published in Venice in 1700 under the title « Kebod Ḥakamim ».
Edward Pocock is an English orientalist and Christian theologian, born in Oxford on 8 November 1604 and died in the same city on 12 September 1691. Chaplain of the « Turkey Merchants » in Aleppo from 1630 to 1636, he became professor of Arabic at Oxford in 1636, stayed in Constantinople from 1637 to 1640, then resumed his chair of Arabic upon his return in 1647 and obtained the chair of Hebrew in 1649. He published « Porta Mosis » (Oxford, 1655), a partial translation of Maimonides' commentary on the Mishna, collaborated on Walton's polyglot Bible (1657), and published commentaries on Micah and Malachi (1677), Hosea (1685) and Joel (1691).
Jacob ben Benjamin Cohen Poppers is a German rabbi, born in Prague in the mid-seventeenth century and died in Frankfurt am Main in 1740. Rabbi successively in Koblenz, Trier and Halberstadt, he was called in 1718 to the rabbinate of Frankfurt am Main. He is the author of two works: « Shab Ya'aḳob », a collection of responsa in two volumes (Frankfurt am Main, 1742), and Talmudic novellae inserted by Shabbethai ben Moses in his « Minḥat Kohen » (Fürth, 1741).
Meïr ben Juda Löb ha-Kohen Ashkenazi Poppers is a Bohemian rabbi and kabbalist, born in Prague and died in Jerusalem in February or March 1662. Trained in the Kabbalah by Israël Ashkenazi and Jacob Ẓemaḥ, he composed a great number of works in the spirit of Isaac Luria, thirty-nine of which bear the word 'Or' at the head of their title, in reference to his own name. Among his published works are 'Or Ẓaddiḳim' (Hamburg, 1690), a mystical method of exhortation to asceticism, and 'Me'orot Natan' (Frankfurt am Main, 1709), an alphabetical compilation of cabalistic sacred names.
Aaron b. Benjamin Porges is a rabbi of Prague active in the seventeenth century. Under the title « Zikron Aharon », he drafted an introduction to the « Ḳiẓẓur Ma'abar Yabboḳ », devoted to ancient Jewish customs concerning death, and added advice for persons suffering from venereal diseases; the work, first published in Prague in 1682, has often been reprinted.
Moïse ben Israël Naphtali Hirsch Porges is a rabbinical author who lived in Jerusalem in the early 17th century. He is the author of « Darke Ẓiyyon » (Amsterdam, 1650), written in Judeo-German after his settlement in Prague, an illustrated work in four parts treating successively the return to Palestine, prayer, teaching and commemoration of the dead.
David ben Naphtali Herz Posner is a Polish talmudic compiler, active around the mid-17th century in Posen and then in Krotoschin. He is the author of « Yalḳuṭ Dawid » (Dyhernfurth, 1691), a homiletic collection on the Pentateuch drawn from the Talmud, the Midrashim, and post-talmudic authors, edited by his father Naphtali Herz Spitz; the identification proposed by Fuenn with David Tebele Posner, author of « Sha'are Ẓiyyon », appears to be erroneous.
Moses Prado, born Conrad Victor, was a Christian convert to Judaism who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries, first as a professor of classical languages at the University of Marburg, then in Salonika. Unable to accept the dogma of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, he went in 1607 to Salonika, where he embraced Judaism under the name Moses Prado; after seven years there, he sought in vain from the Duke of Hesse permission to return to Marburg to be with his wife, justifying his conversion in a series of letters to a friend, and remained in Salonika until his death.
Shabbethai of Premsla is a Galician grammarian and scribe of the 16th and 17th centuries, active in Przemyśl. He published a commentary (Lublin, 1622) on the « Sefer Mahalak » by Moses Ḳimḥi, where he defends the author against the criticisms of Elijah Levita, as well as annotations to prayers that first appeared in Dyhernfurth in 1690 and have been frequently reprinted since; one of his responsa, on the writing of the Tetragrammaton, appears in the « Teshubot ha-Geonim » (Amsterdam, 1707). Ḥayyim Bochner, who died in 1684 in Fürth, was his student.
English orientalist born in Padstow, Cornwall, on May 3, 1648, and died in Norwich on November 1, 1724. Reader in Hebrew at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1679, he publishes a life of Muhammad (London, 1697), conceived as a pamphlet against deists, then "The Old and New Testament Connected" (London, 1718, 2 vol.), which long serves as the standard history of the Jews between the two Testaments and will be translated into French in 1722 and into German in 1726.
Polish author of the 17th century, he wrote a commentary on the Zohar covering the pericopes from Chemot to Houkat, published in Berlin in 1724 with the Sefer Yirah, a work also attributed to him.
Cabalist impostor born near the end of the seventeenth century in Brody, Galicia, and died around 1750. Settled in Prossnitz, Moravia, where he lived by peddling, he proclaimed himself a prophet and staged a supposed appearance of the Shekhina, before being unmasked and excommunicated by the rabbis of Moravia, including the "Landrabbiner" David Oppenheimer. He nevertheless gained followers among the Sabbateans, proclaimed himself Messiah son of Joseph under the name Joseph ben Jacob, and, his excommunication renewed in 1725, took refuge in Hungary, where he taught that God had entrusted the government of the world to Shabbethai Tsevi.
Rabbi, Kabbalist and Russian author who lived in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, rabbi in Pinsk before emigrating in his old age to Palestine and settling in Jerusalem, where he charged his son Élie with publishing his writings. He is the author of the "Ḳene Ḥokmah" (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1681), of "Derek Ḥokmah" on morality and asceticism (1683), and of collections published in Hamburg in 1692 and, after his death, in Venice in 1700.
Successor to Shabbethaï Tsevi at the head of the Sabbatean movement, born in Salonique and died in Alexandria in 1690. Son of Joseph « the philosopher » and brother-in-law of Shabbethaï Tsevi, he is attributed by the latter's widow, his own sister, the lineage necessary to succeed him; supported by the Talmudist Salomon Florentin, he rallies numerous followers and converts to Islam around 1687, before dying upon his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca. He is considered the true founder of the apostate sect of Salonique known as the Dönmeh, and his son Berechiah succeeds him.
R. Joël of Wetzlar, rabbi, died in Minden (Westphalia) in 1698 (Jewish Encyclopedia, article « Wetzlar »). No written work is attributed to him by the source.
Scribe of Tanam, he too transcribed a copy of the Midrash ha-Gadol, financed by R. Abraham ben Saadia ha-Cohen. Illustrates the continuous scribal tradition of the Tanam family/locality over several centuries.
Counted among the righteous of Safi about whom no biographical details have been preserved.
Ancestor of the Hida (Rabbi Chaim David Azoulay), he was born in Fès and settled in Hebron at the beginning of the seventeenth century. His writings were lost at sea when the ship transporting them was wrecked. In memory of these lost manuscripts, he signed his writings with a drawing in the shape of a boat.
His time is unknown. His tomb is ancient and devoid of any inscription. Reputed just, it was customary to bow down on his tomb. Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm, author of Malkhei-Rabbanan, writes that he visited his tomb.
Buried in the cave of Oufran, alongside his son the Rav Makhlouf. Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
It is told that one day, passing through the market, a non-Jew spat on him from her window; he immediately pronounced the Ineffable Name and two horns grew on the woman's head, one pointing upward, the other downward. After she expressed her repentance and appeased the rabbi, she recovered her state. Many similar signs and miracles are attributed to him. Buried in the cave of Oufran, where his epitaph names him "the Rav miraculous in wonders, Rabbi Shlomo ben-Abou". Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
According to a tradition received from the ancients, he is said to have been one of the disciples of Rachi, the luminary of the exile; he is said to have become angry with his students, which brought about a decree of exile upon them. Buried in the cave of Oufran, where his epitaph designates him as « the divine kabbalist, diadem of Israel, our master and our rabbi ». Cited by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naim (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph is dated the year « Ke-ichoun » (1617). Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
The period in which he lived is unknown. He was buried with the seven Bnei-Zmiro: when the French authorities wanted to trace a road, they could not succeed and understood the reason only after the Jews of the place had his remains transferred. After the opening of the complex of the seven Bnei-Zmiro, his remains were also transferred there.
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph is dated the year « Beroura » (1653), in the 17th century. Cited by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Counted among the righteous of Safi about whom no biographical details have been preserved.
Counted among the sages of Safi, where he is buried. A letter preserved by his descendants describes him as « the righteous, the perfect and accomplished wise man, pious and holy, for whom the sun stopped on the day of his rest ». Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan) reports that, having died on a Friday toward evening, the merit of the righteous held back the sun from setting so that he could be buried before Shabbat, the cemetery being far from the city.
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph names him « our master and our rabbi, the Rav Soussan ben Amgar, called ben Sebaoni ». Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Counted among the sages of Gibraltar; how he came to Oufran is unknown. According to a tradition, the original name of his family was Lévi, changed to ben-Chabbat after a famous miracle that occurred on the Sabbath: a lion brought back to the caravan, after the end of the Sabbath, Rabbi Yaakov who had separated from it on Friday evening out of respect for the holiness of the day. Renowned as a great rabbi. Died on the 19th of Tishrei, buried in the cave of Oufran, where his epitaph describes him as « a pious Rav and kabbalist to whom miracles were performed for the observance of the Sabbath ». Hiloula on the 19th of Tishrei. Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm and S. Vanunu (Arzei HaLevanon).
Originating from Salé, he published the « Heikhal haKodesh » of Rabbi Moshe Elbaz, printed in 1640, inserting into it the positions of the Ari.
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph names him « the Rav Vaïsh ben-Yahya, called Vaïsh ». Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm in Malkhei-Rabbanan.
Sage of Salé, author of the glosses accompanying the 1640 edition of the « Heikhal haKodesh », where he introduced the teaching of the Ari.
Counted among the sages of Safi, he lived in the seventeenth century, as attested by a letter found dated in the year 5429 (1669).
The last of the fifty righteous burned for the sanctification of the Name (Kiddoush Hachem) in Oufran. Tradition holds that he consoled and encouraged his companions facing the pyre, promising them life in the world to come alongside Rabbi Akiva, so that none would deny their faith out of fear of fire. Last of all, he removed a golden ring from his ear to obtain some water, washed his hands, recited the Shema and threw himself into the flames; it is said that a dove of fire then rose to heaven. Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan) and Y. Ben-Ami.
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph designates him "diadem and holiness of Israel, the Rav Rabbi Yehouda ben-Moumou". Cited by Rabbi Yosef Ben-Naim (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Rabbi in Rabat-Salé in the 17th century; member of the Moroccan Jewish surname Bonafad ('Yom Tov'), documented by the Toledano list.
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph bears: « our master and our rabbi, the Rav Yeïsh ben-Moché », dated the year 5440 (1680). Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph is dated to the year 1686 (17th century according to the current reckoning). Cited by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Son of Rabbi Yaakov ben-Chabbat. Buried in the Oufran cave; his epitaph is dated to the year « Machiho » (1604). Cited by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph celebrates him as « our master, crown of our head, pious and holy, diadem of Israel, the Rav Yossef bar-Maimon ». Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Counted among the righteous of Safi about whom no biographical details have been preserved.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Oved. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-2.
Wealthy Jewish financier of Cairo, master of the Mint and tax farmer in service to the Ottoman governor. He protected and financed Shabbetaï Tsevi during the latter's stay in Cairo (c. 1660-1662) and organized his marriage to Sarah. He was also a financial supporter of the Jerusalem community, often threatened by taxes.
German astronomer and mathematician
Born in Jerusalem in the Meyuḥas family, he was Rishon le-Zion from 1756 until his death in 1771. He is the author of halakhic commentaries printed in Salonika. His son Moïse Joseph Mordekhaï Meyuḥas was himself also a renowned rabbi of Jerusalem.
Chief Rabbi of Algiers, from a lineage of talmudists, grandson of Rabbi Salomon Zeror.
Seventeenth-century scholar, probably martyred in Prague. He composed the prayer « 'Iyyoun Tefila » on the persecutions and martyrs of this city, reprinted in Amsterdam and Dessau in 1671, then, with a German translation by Tsvi Hirsch Kaïdanover, in Frankfurt am Main in 1709.
Converted to Christianity, born in Germany in 1648, probably from a family named Weil. He embraced Christianity in Cleves in 1671 and became pastor of a Dutch village. He published in Latin "Yefeh Mar'eh" (Amsterdam, 1671), in which he endeavored to demonstrate, against Jewish controversialists — particularly Lipmann of Mülhausen —, the Messianic mission of Jesus; a Dutch translation of this work, which also deals with Shabbethai Tsevi, appeared in Amsterdam in 1683, followed by several other religious writings until 1689.
Christian Hebraist and Dutch orientalist born in Ryp, near Alkmaar, on July 17, 1676, and died in Utrecht on February 5, 1718. Professor at Harderwijk in 1699, he joins the same year the chair of oriental languages at Utrecht, after having studied Hebrew and rabbinic matters in Amsterdam. He publishes "Analecta Rabbinica" (Utrecht, 1702), "Dissertationes Quinque de Nummis Veterum Hebræorum" (1709) and an edition of the book of Ruth with rabbinic commentary (1710); his "Antiquitates Sacræ Veterum Hebræorum" (1708) sees five editions, and his "Palæstina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata" (Utrecht, 1714; Nuremberg, 1716) becomes a long-standing reference.
Dutch painter born in Leiden on July 15, 1606 or 1607 and died in Amsterdam on October 8, 1669, contemporary and intimate friend of Manassé ben Israël, whose portrait he painted in 1645 and whom he engraved in 1654; in 1655, he created four illustrations for one of his works. Long settled near the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, in the Breedstraat, he drew the types and models from it for many paintings on biblical subjects and on Jewish life of his time, thus leaving the oldest known portraits of Jews by one of the greatest portraitists of all time.
17th century Bohemian rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5367 of the Hebrew era (1607). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Talmudist and Polish printer of the 16th-17th centuries. He edited in Lublin in 1608 the « Yen ha-Reḳaḥ » of Eleazar of Worms, which he annotated, then worked from 1626 to 1628 as proofreader of the Hanau edition of the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Caro; he is also the author of « Shib'im Temarim » (Krakow, 1626), interpretation in seventy sections of a verse from Proverbs.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-3.
Portuguese scholar, keeper of the royal archives of the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon, where he dies on August 11, 1649. He is the author of a work, left in manuscript, defending the Marranos against their expulsion from the kingdom despite their reconciliation by the tribunal of the Holy Office.
Russian talmudist died in Wilna in 1671 or 1672, descended from a Prague family settled early in Wilna. Forced to flee in 1655 during the war between Poland and Russia, he settled in Amsterdam, where Saul Morteira and Isaac Aboab took him under their protection, before returning to Wilna once peace was restored. In Amsterdam, he revised a new edition of the Shulḥan Arukh (Amsterdam, 1661-67), which he annotated with his « Be'er ha-Golah », giving the sources of halakhic decisions, and left in manuscript the « Kelale ha-Hora'ah » and the « Keli ha-Golah », commentary on the Mishna.
Russian Talmudist, died in Wilna in 1671 or 1672, from a Prague family settled early in Wilna. Forced to flee in 1655 during the war between Poland and Russia, he settled in Amsterdam, where his Talmudic learning earned him the friendship of Saul Morteira and Isaac Aboab, before prospering on his return to Wilna when peace was restored. In Amsterdam, he revised for Proops's printing house a new edition of the Shulchan Aruch (Amsterdam, 1661-67), which he enriched with marginal notes, the « Be'er ha-Golah », always reproduced since in the margins of this work.
Rabbi, kabbalist and Italian poet born in Ferrara in 1688 (or 1693 according to Jellinek) and killed near Cento on 25 February 1743. Trained in Talmud under Nathan Pinkerle, he worked as a tutor before being ordained rabbi in Trieste in 1717, then called to the rabbinate of Görz. Attracted by Kabbalah, he settled in Safed in 1718, studied there Isaac Luria and Ḥayyim Vital, before being brought back to Europe by an epidemic in 1720; he then held the rabbinate of Florence until 1723, became a merchant in Livorno, left again for Palestine in 1735, then returned to Livorno in 1741. He publishes « Ma'aseh Ḥosheb » (Venice, 1716) and « Hon 'Ashir » (Amsterdam, 1731).
Rabbi of the second half of the 17th century, born in Safed then settled in Italy. He is the author of « Sefer Ḥokmat ha-Mishkan », on the purposes of the Tabernacle, published with his edition of a work on the holy cities of Palestine (Mantua, 1676), and edits a collection of tales and legends drawn from the Talmud and Midrash (Verona, 1647) as well as a ritual for the day of the new moon (Venice, 1661).
17th-century scholar who spent his youth in Safed before settling in Verona, where in 1646 he published the « Yiḥus ha-Ẓaddiḳim » of Gerondi; he subsequently published in Amsterdam a map of Palestine entitled « Ḥokmat ha-Mishkan », then went to Mantua in 1676 to prepare a second edition of the « Yiḥus », which was published there.
German polemical writer born in Forchheim, near Bamberg, and died in Königsberg in 1652; born Jewish according to tradition, he converted successively to Catholicism, Calvinism then Lutheranism. Becoming professor of oriental languages in Königsberg, he published translations of Hebrew works, including the « Sefer Yetsira » (1642) and the Haggada of Pessah (1644, reproduced in his « Libra Veritatis », Franeker, 1698), as well as one of the first translations of Jewish prayers (Königsberg, 1652); his posthumous work « Bilibra Veritatis » aims to demonstrate, through the Targoumim, the doctrine of the Trinity, a theme taken up in his « Veritas Religionis Christianæ » (Franeker, 1699).
Talmudist of the 17th century who probably lived in Northern Italy, author of the « Shemen ha-Mor », responsa to the four ritual codes accompanied by exhortations addressed to his son (Livorno, 1793).
English merchant and shipowner Marrano born around 1620 in Fundão, Portugal, probably one of the New Christians involved in the attempt to restore Spanish domination in 1641. Settled in London in the Caribbean trade, he sees two of his ships seized in 1656, during the war between England and Spain, and is himself arrested as a Spanish subject; on the advice of his coreligionists, he claims compensation by asserting that he belongs not to Spain but to « the Jewish nation ». The Privy Council, finding the evidence in favor of his Portuguese Jewish origin, orders his release.
Rabbi and preacher of the 17th and 18th centuries, darshan in Semigrod then in Dessau, before ending his life in Metz. He is the author of « 'Ir Binyamin », a work in two parts on the haggadot of the two Talmuds (first part, Frankfurt an der Oder, 1698; second part, Fürth, 1722).
Name under which Joseph b. Juda Ḥamits is erroneously known, disciple of Leon of Modena, author of the « Belil Ḥamits », whose introduction Modena claims to have written. He writes a commentary on the Zohar on Genesis, later continued by Moses Zacuto, and publishes in Venice in 1663 the Zohar Ḥadash.
Christian Hebraist born in Alt-Randen, Silesia, on 15 July 1631. After studies in Wittenberg and Leipzig, he traveled in Holland, France and England, then settled in Sulzbach to dedicate himself to Hebrew and became a fervent student of Kabbalah, in which he believed to find proofs of Christian doctrines — for him, the kabbalists' "Adam Qadmon" is Jesus and the three highest sefirot represent the Trinity. In view of a Latin translation of the Zohar, he published the first two volumes of "Kabbala Denudata" (Sulzbach, 1677-78), followed by two others (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1684), comprising writings of Abraham Cohen of Herrera and Isaac Louria.
Rabbi and composer who lived in Mantua at the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th. Engaged in 1587 as a musician and singer at the ducal court of Vincent I of Mantua, where he enjoyed such favor that he was exempted from wearing the yellow badge imposed on other Jews in the city, he distinguished himself as a contrapuntist by composing synagogal music combining ancient sacred melodies with polyphonic forms, collected in "Ha-Shirim Asher li-Shelomoh" (Venice, 1622). His work also includes religious poems, hymns, madrigals, and a musical drama, "Maddalena".
German rabbi born around 1665, died in Altona on January 12, 1712. He served successively as rabbi of Tykoczin, Brest-Litovsk, and then Altona, where he initially shared the rabbinic office with Ẓebi Hirsch Ashkenazi before becoming sole holder from 1710, when the latter left the city. Some of his Talmudic novellae were published by his widow in the responsa of his father, in Amsterdam in 1747.
German rabbi born in Frankfurt am Main around 1650, died in Worms in October 1731. Grandson of Isaac, chief of the community of Frankfurt and founder of the Rothschild family, and son of Salomon, « Landesrabbiner » of Würzburg and Friedberg, he preached for several years in Prague before being chosen in 1686 as « Landesrabbiner » of Bamberg, in succession to Mordecai Lipschitz, while also being rabbi of Bayreuth and Baiersdorf. He remained in Bamberg until 1718, before becoming rabbi of the ancient community of Worms, where he remained until his death.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5440 of the Hebrew era (1680). Son of Yehuda, himself son of Saadia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-2.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Died in 5396 of the Hebrew era (1636). Son of Abraham, himself son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5440 of the Hebrew era (1680). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Died in 5409 of the Hebrew era (1649). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Eliahu. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-2.
After the plague of 1743 which decimated the rabbis of Baghdad, the community appealed to Aleppo, from which Rabbi Sadqa Bekhor Hussein was sent as Chief Rabbi. Recognized halakhic authority as far as Persia, Kurdistan and the Baghdad comptoirs of India, he is the author of the responsa collection Sedaqah u-Mishpat.
Rabbi and Sephardi Talmudist, major halakhic authority of the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire.
Hakham of the Sephardic congregations in London and then Amsterdam.
Salomon b. Mordekhai, Polish rabbi died in 1609, was a student of Salomon Louria and served as rabbi in Meseritz and Ostrog, also holding a rabbinical function in Lemberg. He is the author of the « Mizbe'aḥ ha-Zahav », an explanation of a talmudic passage on sacred incense (Basel, 1602), and is also mentioned as having written a « Seder Guittin » that remained in manuscript.
Talmudist of Salonique in the 17th century. He gathered the marginal glosses of several scholars (Salomon ibn Hassun, Salomon b. Isaac Levi, Daniel Estrumsa, Baruch Angel and Samuel Florentin the Younger) in the work Doresh Mishpat (Salonique, 1655), a complement to the Moreh Tzedek of Michael b. Moses ha-Kohen.
Born in Padua, he practices medicine in Venice and organizes preparatory courses for young students, mostly Jewish, admitted to the medical university of Padua. He wrote the preface (and a poem) to the Ma'aseh Tuviyyah (1709) of his student Tobias Cohn. Elder brother of Israel Conegliano; the brothers received Venetian citizenship and exemption from the Jewish distinctive sign.
Born in Lisbon or Amsterdam, son of the learned marrano David Israel de Oliveyra. Teacher at Keter Torah, member and then president of the rabbinical college of the Spanish-Portuguese community of Amsterdam. Described as the reference Hebrew poet of late 17th-century Jewish Amsterdam.
Italian engraver
Turkish Talmudist and Kabbalist of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, born in Salonique, died on June 6, 1629 in Venice, where he was rabbi and head of the yeshiva after having been in Padua; Ḥayyim Benveniste and Joseph Salomon Delmedigo were among his students. He is the author of the « Miqra'e Qodesh » (Venice, 1586), a treatise in two parts on the 613 commandments, and of the « Porat Yosef » (1590), a collection of talmudic innovations; his « Perush Derek Yamin », which attacked a work by Menahem Azariah da Fano, was in turn refuted by Delmedigo.
British banker (1699-1762)
Chief rabbi and physician of Ancona, liturgist and correspondent of great scholars.
Austrian banker, court Jew, chief rabbi
Rabbi and decisor of Venice, opponent of Sabbatianism, author of Devar Shmuel.
Rabbi
Scribe active in Worms in the seventeenth century. After the fire of 1689, he leaves Worms to settle in Hamburg, where he publishes « Ḥida Mezuqqaqa u-Ẓerufa », a rhymed riddle on tobacco (1693), as well as a poem on the Pentateuch dedicated to the Talmudic students of Worms, signed in acrostic « Samuel of Worms » (1692).
Polish Talmudist born around 1625, died on April 24, 1681 in Kleinsteinbach, Bavaria. An itinerant scholar who passed through Meseritz and Halberstadt, he became rabbi of Bamberg in 1660, residing in Zeckendorf, but made many enemies through his hot-tempered character and resigned from the rabbinate around 1665; he ended his career in the modest rabbinate of Kleinsteinbach. A great scholar but believer in magic and in the messianism of Shabbetai Tsevi, his fame rests on his « Naḥalat Shiv'a » (Amsterdam, 1667-68), a collection of legal formularies and discussions of civil and matrimonial law, reissued in 1681 and published posthumously by his son Abraham (Fürth, 1692).
Polish rabbi of the seventeenth century, born in Lublin. He served as dayan in Jassy then in Mainz, and was the author of "Divre Shemuel", sermons on the Pentateuch of which only the part devoted to Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus has come down to us (Amsterdam, 1678; Venice, 1702).
Polish talmudist of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, born in Lublin. First known rabbi of Jung-Bunzlau, he is the author of « Leḥem Rav » (Prague, 1609), a supplement to the Shulḥan Arukh, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, organized according to the same plan and approved by Judah Loew ben Bezalel.
Scholar and leader of the Jewish community of Lemberg. He suffered martyrdom of a horrifying form outside the walls of the city, on a Sabbath day, the 8th of Iyar 1667 — this is essentially what is known of him.
German rabbi
Talmudist and codifier, head of the beth-din of Fès; author of Vayomer Chmouel.
Scholar born in Salonika, rabbi in Jerusalem, author of Imré Binah.
Portuguese scholar of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, author of a commentary on difficult passages in Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job, where he discusses the immortality of the soul and the question of whether Job denied the resurrection of the dead; the work, divided into fourteen chapters, appeared in Venice in 1650.
Portuguese converso, renowned physician in Lisbon, he fled the Inquisition to London in 1726, returned to Judaism and served as physician to the Hebra of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation in London, taking the name Samuel Nunez in 1727. In 1733 he sailed to Savannah (Georgia) aboard the William and Sarah and distinguished himself against a yellow fever epidemic; the colonists founded the Mickve Israel congregation.
Austrian historiographer who lived in Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is the author of the « Tit ha-Yavên », a narrative of the exactions perpetrated during the Cossack uprising led by Bogdan Khmelnytsky in Ukraine and Galicia in the seventeenth century, citing several affected cities and numerous destroyed synagogues. The work, published for the first time in Venice after 1649, saw a second edition in Krakow in 1892.
Rabbi of Adrianople, former secretary of Shabbetaï Tsevi, prominent figure of Sabbatianism.
Rabbi and Talmudist of Frankfurt, yeshiva director and interim Chief Rabbi.
Court physician of Russia, born in 1699, died in Paris in 1783, member of a marrano family from Penamacor, in Portugal. Fleeing Portuguese persecutions, he studies medicine in Leiden, where he befriends his professor Herman Boerhaave. When the Empress Anna Ivanovna asks Boerhaave in 1731 to recommend a learned physician to her, Boerhaave designates Sanchez, who enters her service the same year. Upon the death of Anna Ivanovna in 1740, the regent Anna Leopoldovna appoints him physician to the young Prince Ivan Antonovitch; he then remains in the service of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, and cares in 1744 for the Princess Sophie Augusta, future Catherine II, whom he saves from a serious illness.
Persian poet of Jewish birth, active in the first half of the seventeenth century. Born in Kashan into a rabbinical family, he later embraced Islam and went to India as a merchant; in Tatta, near Karachi, he formed a bond with a young Hindu, Abhichand, whom he converted to a mixture of Judaism and Islam. In 1647, in Hyderabad, he met Moshan Fani, author of the "Dabistan-i Madhahib", to whom he provided material for a chapter on the Jews; spared under the reign of Shah Jahan, he was executed for heresy shortly after Aurangzeb's accession to the throne in 1658. A talented poet, he also edited with Moshan Fani part of Abhichand's Persian translation of the Pentateuch.
Italian rabbi of the seventeenth century, student of R. Ẓevi Hirsch b. Isaac of Cracow, exercising in Venice alongside León of Modena. Corrector of several works printed in Venice, he edited the «Haggahot» of his master on the rules of ritual slaughter by Jacob Weil, adding his own notes, and published the «Seder ha-Niqqour» (Venice, 1692), a collection of rules on the trimming of meat, said to be drawn from a work by his master.
Italian Kabbalist active in Venice at the beginning of the seventeenth century, author of the "Qol Mevasser" (Venice, 1605), a commentary on Daniel, of "Qol Sasson", on the coming of the Messiah, printed with the former, and of the "Appiryon Shelomo" (1609), essays on Kabbalah and mysticism.
Palestinian talmudist active in Safed at the end of the seventeenth century, student of Isaac Alfandari. He is the author of the « Bene Ya'aqov » (Constantinople, 1714), a commentary on part of the « Sefer ha-Ittour » of Isaac b. Abba Mari, accompanied by responsa and notes on the « Yad » of Maimonides and on the four Tourim of Jacob b. Asher; his premature death at thirty-one years left the work unfinished.
Russian Masorete of the seventeenth century, established in Zaslav, in the government of Volhynia. He wrote the « Naḥalat Ya'aqov » (Sulzbach, 1686), on the accentuations of the Decalogue intended for Sabbaths and Shavuot, accompanied by a supplement on the Masorah.
Russian rabbi died in 1623, author of the « Tal Orot » (Prague, 1615), a treatise in verse on the thirty-nine categories of labor forbidden on the Sabbath, with an appendix on eruvin, of the « Ḥanoukkat ha-Bayit » (1616), on the laws of Hanukkah, and of an elegy in memory of his master Solomon b. Juda, published in Amsterdam in 1697.
Liturgical poet active in Carpentras in the second half of the seventeenth century, probably son of the liturgical poet Joseph ben Abraham. The ritual of Avignon preserves from him a piyyut composed to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews of Carpentras during the riot that occurred on 9 Nisan 1682.
English physician, born in Fetzburg, in Germany, in 1690, died in London on March 4, 1761. Received doctor of medicine from the University of Giessen in 1710, he practiced in Schweinburg then in Blankenstein and Metz, before settling in England around 1720; admitted as a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1721, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1726.
Galician rabbi, died in Belz, near Lemberg, on 3 (or 23) January 1632, and buried in Lemberg. He was rabbi in Satanow and then in Belz, and published in particular the Torat Hayyim, novellae on nine Talmudic treatises (Lublin, 1624; Krakow, 1636), as well as the Tson Kodachim (Wandsbeck, 1729), written with Mordecai Asher, rabbi of Brzezany.
Polish rabbi, died in Lublin in 1633, son of Naphtali Hirsch of Moravia and descendant of the Tosafist Joseph Bekor Chor. Married to Hannele, daughter of Saul Wahl of Brest-Litovsk, whose rabbi he became, he then succeeded Samuel Edels (MaHaRSHA) as rabbi of Lublin until his death. He is the author of Tevouot Chor, an abridgement of Joseph Caro's Bet Yossef.
German polyhistor and orientalist, born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main on January 14, 1664, died in that city on February 14, 1722. After studying theology in Wittenberg and learning orientalism in Hamburg from 1684 under Ezra Edzardi, he taught in the gymnasium of his native city, whose rector he became in 1717. Devoted to Jewish history and antiquities, he published in 1700 a Compendium Historiae Judaicae and then, between 1714 and 1717, his major work, the Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, rich in details about contemporary Jewish life despite its prejudices.
Austrian rabbi, born circa 1650 in Prague, died in that city on January 19, 1733. Installed as rabbi of a small congregation in Ofen, he lived there through the siege of 1686 by the imperials: his wife was killed, his son died in prison in Raab, and he himself, imprisoned, narrowly escaped death on 14 Elul (September 3) 1686, an anniversary that his family afterwards celebrated as a "Purim of Schulhof." He composed elegies on this deliverance and recounted his trials in a megillah, published in 1895 by David Kaufmann.
Dutch Orientalist, born in Groningen on August 23, 1686, died on January 26, 1756. Trained in Arabic at Leiden under Van Til then at Utrecht under Reland, he obtained his doctorate in theology at Groningen in 1709, taught Hebrew at Franeker from 1713 onwards, then settled in Leiden as conservator of the manuscripts of the Warner oriental collection; he has been called the father of modern Hebrew grammar for having first employed Arabic scientifically in the study of Hebrew. He notably published the Institutiones (Leiden, 1737) and an edition of Job (1737).
Austrian military officer, born in Lissen on February 17, 1670, died on January 14, 1743. Appointed general commander of the troops of Moravia at the fortress of Spielberg, in Brünn, in October 1741, he ordered on March 14, 1742 the Jews of Moravia to pay a fine of 50,000 florins for presumed treason in favor of the Prussian army; the edict was repealed on March 21 thanks to the intercession of Baron Aguilar, but the same sum was demanded of them in another form and paid. This accusation resulted in the decree expelling all Jews from Moravia, on January 2, 1745.
Lithuanian Talmudist of the 17th and 18th centuries, member of the Hasidic group that accomplished in 1700 a pilgrimage to the Holy Land under the leadership of Juda Hasid. In his work Sha'alou Chelom Yeroushalayim (Berlin, 1716), he relates this pilgrimage, its vicissitudes and the death of Juda Hasid, as well as a description of the ruins of Jerusalem and a list of the burials of the Holy Land, followed by lamentations.
Halakhic authority of Vilna, author of the Siftei Kohen (Shakh), an essential commentary on the Shulchan Aruch covering Yoreh Deah and Choshen Mishpat. He fled the Chmielnicki pogroms.
Born in Izmir, son of broker Mordechai Zevi who came from Salonika. Trained in the Kabbalah, he proclaimed himself Messiah in 1665 after his meeting with Nathan of Gaza, triggering the greatest Jewish millenarian movement of the modern era, from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe. Summoned by the sultan, he converted to Islam in 1666; his followers formed the Dönme sect.
Russian Talmudist (the Shakh), born in Wilna in 1621, died in Holleschau in 1662. Entering the yeshiva of R. Joshua in Tyktizin in 1633, he then studied in Cracow and Lublin, then returned to Wilna where he became the assistant of R. Moses, author of the Ḥelḳat Meḥoḳeḳ. In 1646, he went to Cracow, where the following year he published his Sifte Kohen, an authoritative commentary on the Shulḥan 'Aruk ; in 1648, during the Chmielnicki massacres, he was among the victims, then became rabbi of Dresin then of Holleschau.
Born in Kalisz, founder of Jewish bibliography and author of the Siftei Chachamim on Rashi.
Rabbi and scholar of the late seventeenth century, active in Rosetta, Egypt. Contemporary of Abraham b. Mordekhaï ha-Lévi, in whose Guinat Vradim some of his responses appear, he is also cited in the Massaot Moché of Moses Israël and in the Chaaré Yechoua of Juda Zaïn; Azoulaï possessed the manuscripts of two of his halakhic and aggadic works.
Sabbatean agitator of the seventeenth century, from Morea. Around 1667, he preached the Sabbatean doctrine in Italy, then, after the false messiah's conversion to Islam became known, went to Germany where he passed himself off as a prophet, before going to Amsterdam in September 1667, where he gained many followers until being expelled from the city in November 1667 for claiming direct communication with the prophet Elijah. Opposed in Hamburg by Jacob Sasportas, unmasked after passing himself off as a physician, he had to flee to Poland in early 1668 and reappeared four years later in Smyrna, where rabbis finally had him imprisoned.
False messiah and kabbaliste, founder of the Sabbatean sect, born on the ninth of av (July 23, 1626) in Smyrna, died, according to some, on the day of Kippur (September 30) 1676 in Dulcigno, Albania, of Spanish descent. Son of a poultry merchant of Morea who became an agent of an English house in Smyrna, he was destined for the rabbinate but turned away from Talmudic studies towards the Kabbalah of Isaac Louria, whose asceticism and mortifications fascinated him, while he successively repudiated two wives with whom he refused any conjugal relations.
Pseudo-messiah and kabbalist, founder of the Sabbatean sect, born on the 9th of Av (July 23, 1626) in Smyrna, died, according to some, on the Day of Atonement (September 30) 1676, in Dulcigno, in Albania. Of Spanish origin, son of a poultry merchant who became a prosperous agent for an English house in Smyrna, he is destined for Talmudic study under Rabbi Joseph Escapa, but his fanciful spirit turns away from pilpul toward the mysticism of Luria, with its mortifications and fasts meant to allow communication with God. The millenarian climate widespread in Europe in the mid-seventeenth century, which fixed the year 1666 for the coming of the messiah, will favor the rise of his movement.
Rabbi of Salé, 17th century. Died in 5427 of the Hebrew era (1667). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-3.
Yemenite poet and kabbalist, active towards the end of the 17th century in Ta'izz. A weaver by trade, he also devoted himself to kabbalistic literature, notably to the Zohar, and composed in Hebrew and Arabic most of the liturgical hymns recited on the Sabbath and holy days by the Jews of Yemen, as well as mystical love songs published by Jacob Saphir. In 1687, he wrote in Arabic a lament on a catastrophe that occurred in the Yemenite city of Mawza. Venerated as a saint by the Jews of Yemen, he lies in Ta'izz, where his tomb is believed to cure all diseases.
Kabbalist born in Marrakech, dayan and commentator on the Zohar.
Yemenite rabbi
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Died in 5449 of the Hebrew era (1689). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-4.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5456 of the Hebrew era (1696). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-2.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-3.
Seventeenth-century scholar of whom nothing else is known save that he was the author of the Matsref la-Hokhma (Amsterdam, 1765), a list of the six hundred and thirteen commandments, each summarized in eight words whose initials probably formed an abbreviation of his own name.
Rabbi in Meknes in the 17th century, cited in the Ankri family notice.
Rabbi of Fez, seventeenth century. Died in 5451 of the Hebrew era (1691). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-4.
Rabbi of Demnate, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 17th century. Mentioned in 5451 of the Hebrew era (1691). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5451 of the Hebrew era (1691). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-2.
Rabbi of Bagris, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Died in 5370 of the Hebrew era (1610). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Fes, 17th century. Died in 5386 of the Hebrew era (1626). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Elazar. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Born in 5428 of the Hebrew era (1668). Son of Shaul. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-2.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-4.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5428 of the Hebrew era (1668). Son of Shimon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, 17th century. Mentioned in 5426 of the Hebrew era (1666). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5377 of the Hebrew era (1617). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5456 of the Hebrew era (1696). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Died in 5382 of the Hebrew era (1622). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-4.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-1.
Rabbi of Taza, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of David, himself son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Born in 5420 (1660), died in 5473 (1713) of the Hebrew era. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 122-3.
Physician in Constantinople and friend of Jewish sciences, active before 1633. He translated into Latin, from the Arabic, the Kuzari of Judah ha-Levi and the Hovot ha-Levavot of Bahya, which his friend Jacob Roman wished to publish with the Hebrew and Arabic text; in contact with Anton Léger, chaplain of the Dutch embassy in Constantinople, he recommended Roman to him by a Latin letter dated December 1633 addressed to Johannes Buxtorf the Younger, in Basel. In 1639, appointed physician of the court by Rakoczi I, Prince of Transylvania, he left Constantinople abandoning Judaism.
Brazilian poet and lawyer, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1656, died in Lisbon on 9 January 1736. Graduate in law from Coimbra, he married on his return to Brazil Lourença Coutinho, several times questioned by the Portuguese Inquisition for return to Judaism and "reconciled" at an auto-da-fé in 1713 before being condemned in 1739, one day before the execution of her youngest son, Antonio José da Silva. João Mendes followed his wife to Portugal, practicing law there with his son until the latter's arrest in 1726; an outwardly zealous Christian though a marrano, he was the only member of his family spared by the Inquisition, and left several poetic works now lost.
Poet and preacher, long resident of various French and Dutch cities before settling in Amsterdam. Member of the Academy of poets founded by D. Manuel de Belmonte in 1676, he is the author of a collection of Sermones bringing together six homilies on various biblical texts and a funeral oration for Rachel de Pinto, as well as Entretenimientos Gustosos, satirical dialogues between a Jew, a Turk, a Protestant and a Catholic, and Dissertaciones sobre el Mesías, translated from the French, which remained in manuscript.
Simḥa Éphraïm ben Gerchon ben Siméon ben Isaïe ha-Cohen is born around 1622 and dies in 1669. Rabbi in Belgrade succeeding his master Juda Lerma, he publishes in Venice in 1657 his « Sefer Chemot », devoted to the spelling of the names of persons and the names of places and rivers of Asia and Europe. Appointed rabbi in Budapest in 1660, he remains there only two months: learning that Ouri Chraga Feisch, rabbi of Vienna, had in 1655 excommunicated the rabbis of Buda who had family there—among whom were relatives of Simḥa—he withdrew to Belgrade, where he remains until his death.
Talmudist and rabbi, born in Belgrade, rabbi of Ofen (Bude) then of Belgrade, author of the Sefer Shemot (1657) on the spelling of Hebrew names.
Simmlein of Halberstadt, German Talmudist, was rabbi in Halberstadt from 1620 to 1650, a period almost exactly contemporary with the Thirty Years' War, particularly disastrous for Jews. While the city frequently changed hands, he succeeded in winning the favor of the parties involved — the bishop of Halberstadt as well as the Swedish governors — and preserved his community from many misfortunes, spending his own fortune to aid his people and opening his home to poor orphans.
Richard Simon, French scholar and orientalist, is born in Dieppe on May 13, 1638 and dies there on April 21, 1721. Trained at the Sorbonne then entered the Oratory, where he studies oriental manuscripts, he protests in writing against the blood accusation brought in Metz in 1670 and translates in 1674 Léon de Modène's « Historia dei Riti Ebraici ». His major work, the « Critical History of the Old Testament » (1678), treats biblical books as ordinary writings, which brings him the hostility of Bossuet and Port-Royal: the entire edition, 1,300 copies, is seized and destroyed, and Simon is expelled from the Oratory on May 21, 1678.
Venetian rabbi
Samuel Abravanel Soeira, son of Manasseh ben Israël, was born in Amsterdam in 1625 and died in London in September 1657. In 1654, he accompanied his uncle Manuel Martinez Dormido to England to present a petition to Cromwell in favor of the readmission of Jews, and is said to have received an honorary doctorate from Oxford on this occasion. In May 1655, he returns to Amsterdam to convince his father to go to England himself; Manasseh ben Israël, arrived in London with his son, loses him during their stay and dies himself on November 20, 1657, before having been able to bring his body back to Middelburg.
Italian rabbi and writer (c. 1680–1743)
Solomon b. Juda Löb of Dessau, German Hebraist and teacher, was born around 1662 and died after 1734. Teaching in Dessau, he is the author of the « Iggerot Chelomoh » (Wandsbeck, 1732), letters in Hebrew and in Judeo-German, as well as « 'Oz Mivtaḥa » (Amsterdam, 1734), account of an anti-Jewish riot that occurred in Hamburg in 1730, of which he was the eyewitness. Fürst also attributed to him a small Hebrew-Judeo-German dictionary, the « Ḥinnoukh Qatan », but earlier editions, from as early as 1658 and even 1640, show that this work should actually be credited to another author.
Dutch rabbi, poet, and philologist
Simon de Sosa, one of the richest Marranos in Portugal in the mid-17th century, participated, under the leadership of the archbishop of Braga, in a plot to set fire to the royal palaces, assassinate King John IV, and abduct the queen and princes. The plot is discovered in time, and Sosa is executed with the other conspirators. His family probably also included Isaac de Sosa Brito, correspondent of Francis de Oliviera, and Gabriel de Sosa Brito, reputed mathematician and cosmographer, both active in the 17th century.
Abraham (Naphtali Hirsch) ben Moïse ha-Lévi Spitz, Moravian rabbi, born around 1628 and died in Worms in 1712. Appointed in 1663 rabbi of a Moravian community, then in 1692 dayan in Nikolsbourg, where he serves for twelve years, he is called to Worms in 1704 and remains there until his death. He is the author of the « Malé Ratson » (Frankfurt am Main, 1710), novellae on forty-five treatises of the Talmud, supplemented by the « Yerouchat Naftali », as well as numerous talmudic works that remained unpublished.
Bohemian rabbi established in Prague, died in Metz on April 16, 1669. After serving as rabbi in Nikolsbourg and several other communities in Bohemia, he was called in 1660 to the rabbinate of Metz; appointed rabbi of Posen in 1666, he was retained by the Metz community, which persuaded him to remain. He is the author of the Nimoukim, notes on the Touré Zahav by David ben Samuel (Krakow, 1692), and the Kikayon de-Yonah, novellae on three Talmudic tractates (Amsterdam, 1669-70).
Portuguese traveler born in Lisbon to Marrano parents, died around the middle of the 17th century in Verona or Antwerp. A cultivated man and keen observer, he traveled for eighteen months through the Philippines, China and part of America, then, after a two-year stay in Lisbon, undertook a scientific voyage to India and Persia; he produced his Relaciones, published in Antwerp in 1610, which gather a history of the kings of Persia and precious information on the Jews of Aleppo and Baghdad.
Martyr, burned publicly as « judio impenitente » at the auto-da-fé of Palma de Majorca, on May 6, 1691, alongside his master Raphaël Valls and his sister Catalina Terongi. Succeeding in freeing himself from his bonds at the sight of the flames, he threw himself onto the pyre; according to eyewitness James Stanhope, the victims of these auto-da-fés were most often wealthy people, owners of large dwellings.
Jewish banker in The Hague (1696-1782)
médecin polonais
Polish rabbi of the seventeenth century, probably rabbi of Nemirov, where his wife and three sons were murdered in 1648 during the Khmelnitski massacres, of which his own father was perhaps also a victim. He then resolved to emigrate to Palestine but remained several years in Venice, where he published in 1667 his Ohel Ya'akov, a homily on the Akedah passage. He also left an unpublished work, the Toledot Ya'akov, homilies on the Pentateuch.
Martyr, burned alive in Mexico or Lima on April 11, 1649. Reconciled once before by the Inquisition, he was denounced in 1642, with his wife Maria Gomez, during the trial of Gabriel de Granada, then thrown into prison and held captive until his death. He died without a moan, mocking his torturers until his last breath; the Judeo-Spanish historian De Barrios, who visited Cayenne in 1660, dedicated two sonnets to him.
Rabbi and Talmudist of Baghdad, author of the responsa « Tsedaka ou-Michpat ».
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, architect of the renewal of Jewish study in Tunis in the 17th century.
Rabbi (Chacham Tzvi), opponent of Sabbateanism, Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam, author of responsa.
Italian polyhistor born in Venice around 1700, a convert from Judaism according to tradition, and a fine connoisseur of talmudic literature. He is the author of a vast compilation of Latin treatises on Jewish antiquities, the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum (34 vols., Venice, 1744-69), which assembles the principal works of the 17th century on the subject and to which he adds his own translations of numerous passages from the Midrashim as well as several talmudic treatises.
Great-grandson of Samuel Edels (the MaHaRSHA), rabbi of Pollno, in Lithuania, and chief rabbi of the district, active in the middle of the seventeenth century. He is the author of Or Torah (Lublin, 1672), commentaries and sermons on the Pentateuch, in which he includes several literal interpretations (peshatim) of his great-grandfather.
Dutch printer born in Amsterdam in 1623, died in that city on January 27, 1715 (and not in Zolkiew in 1713, as Steinschneider wrongly wrote), son of hazzan Aaron ha-Lévi and grandson of Moses Uri ha-Lévi, founder of the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam. First a typographer for Immanuel Benveniste, he opens his own workshop in 1658 and operates it until 1689, notably printing the Shulchan Aruch, Hoshen Mishpat, with the commentary Sifté Cohen (1663), and a Judeo-German translation of the Bible by Jekuthiel Blitz. In 1693, he opens a second workshop in Zolkiew, where he prints calendars and liturgical works until 1705.
Spanish Marrano, burned alive by the Inquisition in Palma de Majorca on 6 May 1691 as « rabbi » of the Chuetas, along with his student Raphaël Terongi and the latter's sister, Catalina Terongi, who remained faithful to Judaism. The popular poets of Majorca commemorated the death of these Marranos in verses still sung today by the women of the island.
Martyr and Spanish knight of noble family, born around 1619 in San Clemente de la Mancha, died 25 July 1644 in Valladolid. Drawn to Judaism by the study of Hebrew in Salamanca, he read the Psalms daily in Hebrew and declared, at twenty years old, unable to believe that the Messiah had already come; denounced by his own brother, he was imprisoned by the Inquisition of Valladolid in 1638, where he was circumcised and called himself "Juda the Believer." Burnt alive on 25 July 1644, he died, according to Spinoza, with the words of the Psalmist on his lips; the Marrano poets Antonio Enríquez Gómez and Manuel de Pina wept his death in their verses.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Born in 5391 (1631), died in 5464 (1704) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 31-1.
Christian Hebraist from the Netherlands born in Leeuwarden on May 16, 1669, died in Franeker on March 31, 1722. Trained at the universities of Franeker and Leiden, he became professor of oriental languages there. His two major works are his dissertation on the synagogue, De Synagoga Vetere Libri Tres (Franeker, 1685), still useful today, and his Commentary on Isaiah (Leeuwarden, 1714-20), the most important contribution to the exegesis of this biblical book until Gesenius.
Voltaire, born François Marie Arouet in Paris on November 21, 1694 and died in that city on May 30, 1778, adopts around 1718 the name under which he remained famous as one of the most active champions of free thought and of religious and political freedom—which makes all the more striking that he meanwhile maintained anti-Jewish prejudices. In exile in London in 1726, he loses part of his fortune in the bankruptcy of a Jewish banker; later, guest of Frederick the Great in Potsdam, he quarrels with a Jew named Abraham Hirsch over Saxon bond securities, a dispute which the king mocks in a satire and which causes Hirsch arrest followed by a fine.
German Christian Hebraist born in Nuremberg on 26 November 1633, died in Altdorf on 9 October 1705. Professor of history at Altdorf from 1667, then of Oriental languages from 1674 to 1697, he devoted his erudition to publishing anti-Christian works by Jewish authors whom he translated and refuted, notably in his collection Tela Ignea Satanae (Altdorf, 1681), which includes the Hizzouk Emouna of the Karaite Isaac ben Abraham of Troki. Convinced by the Toledot Yéshou that Jews blasphemed against Jesus, he wrote the Denunciatio Christiana de Blasphemiis Judaeorum (Altdorf, 1703), but opposed forced baptism and refuted the accusation of ritual murder in a special treatise.
Rabbi and talmudist born in Stühlingen in 1687, died in Rastatt on May 7, 1769, son of Naphtali Hirsch Weil. Raised in Fürth and then in Prague with his uncle Lippman Weil, he studied under R. Abraham of Brody, whose niece he married in 1708, then followed his father-in-law to the rabbinate of Mayence before returning to Prague in 1713. Driven from Bohemia by Maria Theresa's expulsion edict of December 18, 1744, he became rabbi of the Black Forest in 1745, then of Carlsruhe in 1750, where he completed in 1754 his commentary on Asher ben Yehiel, the Korban Netan'el, published in 1755. Two other works, the Netiv Hayyim and the Torat Netan'el, were published after his death by his son Simeon Hirsch.
German rabbi and scholar born in Wesel in the second half of the seventeenth century and died in Breslau in late 1753 or early 1754, from a prominent family in Germany, Austria and Holland. Appointed in 1728 by the Council of the Four Lands rabbi of the Polish congregation of Breslau, he lost his fortune in money trading and had his title stripped after a tax dispute, before being tolerated as a simple « Plautzen Rabbiner » after the expulsion decree of 1738, then appointed territorial rabbi without jurisdiction by the decree of 1744; he dies in the midst of a quarrel over the purchase of a cemetery and leaves a collection of ten responsa, « Meḳor Baruk », published posthumously in 1755.
Christian Hebraist and polyhistor born in Wernigerode on February 21, 1683 and died in Hamburg on July 25, 1739, trained in Wittenberg then traveling in Holland and England for his research. Professor of Oriental languages at the gymnasium in Hamburg from 1712, he devotes his « Bibliotheca Hebræa », in four volumes, to the description of Jewish literature from the Oppenheimer collection preserved in that city, and also publishes a history of Hebrew lexicons in 1705 and a « Notitia Karæorum » in 1721.
Physician, mathematician and German Hebraist born in Frankfurt am Main toward the end of the seventeenth century and died in that city in 1769. Doctor of philosophy and medicine in 1723, he became shortly thereafter physician of the Jewish hospital of his native city, a position he held for more than forty-five years; even before defending his thesis, he published an algebra manual (Offenbach, 1722), then devoted himself to mathematics, astronomy and music, the fruits of which, unpublished, are recorded in his masoretic commentary on the Pentateuch "Seyag la-Torah" (1766), whose content, known to scholars before its publication, was in part plagiarized.
One of the great Sephardic Kabbalists of the 17th-18th centuries, specialist in the writings of R. Isaac Louria (the Ari) and the Zohar. His commentary on the zoharic sections of the Idrot (Idra Rabba and Idra Zuta), « Emet le-Yaakov », earned him great renown and formed disciples (including R. Yaakov Taurel). The Hida praised him in the Shem ha-Gedolim. His tomb was rediscovered in the cemetery of Tétouan after about sixty years.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5379 of the Hebrew era (1619). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-3.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5429 of the Hebrew era (1669). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-1.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-3.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5408 of the Hebrew era (1648). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-1.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5370 of the Hebrew era (1610). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63–4.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, 17th century. Mentioned in 5436 of the Hebrew era (1676). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-2.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5395 of the Hebrew era (1635). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-3.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Died in 5366 of the Hebrew era (1606). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Rabbi of Salé, 17th century. Mentioned in 5446 of the Hebrew era (1686). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi of Fez, seventeenth century. Born in 5366 (1606), died in 5438 (1678) of the Hebrew era. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew calendar (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-2.
Rabbi of Rif, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Kabbalist and Yemenite scribe of the seventeenth century (Hebrew name Abner bar Ner ha-Sharoni), renowned for the precision and beauty of his copies; many Yemenite manuscripts (« codices Bashiri ») are from his hand. Two of his works survive in manuscript: « Ṣava'at (Ḥavatzelet) ha-Sharon », a kabbalistic work on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and « Bashiri », a commentary on the Pentateuch based on gematria. He is said to have composed other writings now lost (two commentaries on Jacob ibn Ḥabib's Ein Yaʿakov; « Amirat ha-Emunot »). Later Yemenite masters, including Yaḥya Salih (Maharits), cite him.
German rabbi of the 17th century, one of the greatest decisors of his time. Son and grandson of rabbis of Worms, great-great-grandson (through his grandmother Ḥava/Eva Bacharach) of the Maharal of Prague. Appointed rabbi of Worms in 1699, he died there in 1702. Renowned for his criticism of pilpul and his encyclopedic mastery (sciences, music, history, poetry).
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5449 of the Hebrew era (1689). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5440 of the Hebrew era (1680). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
German rabbi
Rabbi and chronicler of Minsk, author of Seder ha-Dorot on Jewish chronology.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5457 of the Hebrew era (1697). Son of Menahem I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 54-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
Kabbalah rabbi known in Safi at the end of the 17th century, son of Rabbi Messod, according to the onomastic dictionary of Joseph Toledano reproduced by Moreshet-Morocco.
Head of the dayanim of Fès, called « Rabbi al-Kabir »; author of Minhat Yehouda.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46–1.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5414 of the Hebrew era (1654). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-4.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5377 of the Hebrew Era (1617). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Born in 5415 (1655), died in 5493 (1733) of the Hebrew era. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-4.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Mentioned in 5378 of the Hebrew era (1618). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Fez, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5438 of the Hebrew era (1678). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi of Safi, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5429 of the Hebrew era (1669). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5420 of the Hebrew era (1660). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-1.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak II, himself son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Shalem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-4.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5377 of the Hebrew era (1617). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-4.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Benyamin. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Benyamin. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 44-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5377 of the Hebrew era (1617). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-1.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Born in 5380 (1620), died in 5449 (1689) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-3.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 79-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yehuda. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yaakov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yosef Menahem. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi and Yemenite scribe (the Maharib), copyist of sacred manuscripts.
Rabbi of Marrakech, seventeenth century. Died in 5456 of the Hebrew era (1696). Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi of Meknes, 17th century. Mentioned in 5369 of the Hebrew calendar (1609). Son of Pinhas. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Died in 5363 of the Hebrew era (1603). Son of Moshe, himself son of Shmuel, himself son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-1.
Rabbi of Tetuan, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5408 of the Hebrew era (1648). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5369 of the Hebrew era (1609). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71–4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5369 of the Hebrew era (1609). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Salé, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5456 of the Hebrew era (1696). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi of Tetouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5446 of the Hebrew era (1686). Son of Haim III, himself son of Yosef, himself son of Haim II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi of Fez, seventeenth century. Died in 5377 of the Hebrew era (1617). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5402 of the Hebrew calendar (1642). Son of Vidal. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 73-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Moshe I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 17th century. Mentioned in 5420 of the Hebrew era (1660). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-1.
Rabbi of Agadir, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5452 of the Hebrew era (1692). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi of Fes, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5403 of the Hebrew era (1643). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-2.
Rabbi of Fes, 17th century. Mentioned in 5388 of the Hebrew era (1628). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5449 of the Hebrew era (1689). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-3.
Palestinian rabbi and opponent of Sabbateanism born in 1661 and died in Jerusalem on June 10, 1729, grandson through his mother of Abraham Azoulaï. Student of Moses Galante and later master of Moses Hagiz, he actively opposes the followers of Shabbataï Tsevi, signs in 1708 the excommunication of Nehemiah Hayoun pronounced by the rabbinate of Jerusalem, then campaigns against him in Livorno in 1711 and, the following year, in Amsterdam, before joining, upon his return to Jerusalem in 1714, a new excommunication in Constantinople. He publishes a collection of responsa, "Zera' Abraham" (1732-1733).
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
Rabbi, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
Talmudist, author of the famous commentary on the Mishna, the Tossefot Yom-Tov. Chief rabbi of Prague and then of Cracow, he was imprisoned by the imperial authorities.
Rabbi of Meknès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5458 of the Hebrew era (1698). Son of Reuben. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5364 of the Hebrew era (1604). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931).
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of Yitshak II, himself son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 61-4.
Rabbi, 17th century. Mentioned in 5417 of the Hebrew era (1657). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
Rabbi of Fès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5398 of the Hebrew era (1638). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew calendar (1640–1739). Son of Mordekhay I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-3.
Rabbi, 17th century. Died in 5371 of the Hebrew era (1611). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-4.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 17th century. Mentioned in 5418 of the Hebrew era (1658). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, seventeenth century. Mentioned in 5399 of the Hebrew era (1639). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 5th century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 17th century. Born in 5402 (1642), died in 5478 (1718) of the Hebrew calendar. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the fifth century of the Hebrew era (1640–1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Kabbalist writer and poet born around 1625, probably in Amsterdam, died in Mantua on 1 October 1697. Student of Saul Levi Morteira in Venice and study companion of Baruch Spinoza, drawn to mysticism from his youth, he devotes himself to the study of the Kabbalah under Benjamin ha-Levi, serves as rabbi in Venice from 1645 to 1673 before being called to Mantua, where he remains until his death. He founded there a seminary for kabbalistic study and composed numerous liturgical poems, including penitential poems printed in Venice and Leghorn.
Polish Talmudist and mathematician born in Buberki around 1700 and died in Brody on April 20, 1772. Teaching at the yeshiva of Zamość while devoting himself to secular sciences, particularly mathematics, he went to Berlin around 1742, where he taught mathematics and logic to Moses Mendelssohn and won the esteem of Lessing. Author of the « Neẓaḥ Yisrael » (Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1741) and a commentary on the « Ruaḥ Ḥen » (Jessnitz, 1744), several of his other works, including commentaries on the Kuzari and the Ḥobot ha-Lebabot, appeared after his death.
Rabbi and Polish preacher active in Zausmer in the seventeenth century, author of the "Bet Ya'aḳob" (Dyhernfurth, 1696), collection of one hundred seventy-four responsa, in the preface of which he mentions another of his writings, homilies on the Pentateuch following the order of the weekly sections.
Polish Masorite of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, rabbi of Zausmer, near Krakow, died before 1644. He is the author of the « Perush ha-Massorah », supplement to the « Massoret ha-Massoret » of Elijah Levita, and of the « Ṭa'ame ha-Massorah » (Lublin, 1616), a commentary on the Masorah, re-edited and augmented by his son in 1644.
Russian rabbi
Dayan and hazan of Posen, active at the end of the seventeenth century. He edits under the title "Sefer Or Yashar" (Amsterdam, 1709) an Ashkenazi ritual that he enriches with his own notes, commentaries by ancient authorities, annotations of Isaac Louria and ethical dissertations drawn in particular from "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot".
Polish Talmudist of the seventeenth century, trained in Cracow under Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, author of the « Naḥalat Ẓebi » (Venice, 1661), a commentary on the Eben ha-'Ezer section of the Shulhan Aruch of Joseph Caro, and of « 'Aṭeret Ẓebi », a commentary on the Oraḥ Ḥayyim section ; he also left several other unpublished commentaries.
Rabbi born in Vilna, established in Frankfurt, author of the ethical work Kav ha-Yashar.
Eminent Talmudist born in Hebron in 1651 and died in 1731, son of Benjamin Zeebi and grandson on his mother's side of Abraham Azoulaï. Orphaned of his father at four, raised by his mother, married at eighteen to a daughter of Abraham Cuenqui, he served for about thirty years as chief rabbi of Hebron and was a supporter of Nehemiah Hiyya Hayoun. His son Isaac published after his death, in Smyrna in 1758, a collection of his responsa and a collection of his homilies.
Algerian rabbi born in Algiers on 8 September 1681 and died in that city on 21 December 1737, descendant of a family of reputed Talmudists — his grandfather, Salomon Tsror, was like him Chief Rabbi of Algiers. He signed with the other rabbis of his city the excommunication of Nehemia Hayoun, studied logic, physics and geography, devoted himself to poetry, practiced medicine with repute and maritime commerce; his responsa and novellas were gathered by his student Juda Ayache and published under the title "Peri Tsaddik" (Livorno, 1748).
Mathematician of the 17th century, author of "Meḥaddesh Ḥodashim" (Venice, 1653), a Hebrew calendar for the years 5414-34, that is 1654-74 of the Christian era.
Hasidic rabbi born in 1738 and died in 1771, known among the Ḥasidim as Rabbi Aaron the Great, the "Preacher" or the "Censor." Disciple of Rabbi Baer of Mezhirich, he contributed to the rapid spread of Hasidism in Eastern Europe through the fiery eloquence of his exhortations and composed a Sabbath hymn still in use in Hasidic liturgy.
Lithuanian rabbi born in Brest-Litovsk around the beginning of the eighteenth century and died in that city on November 3, 1777, descendant of the Katzenellenbogen-Padua family and student of Eliezer ben Eliezer Kolir. He pushed the method of pilpul to its extreme limits and composed the « Minḥat Aharon » (Novydvor, 1792), a collection of glosses on the talmudic tractate Sanhedrin, followed by an appendix, « Minḥah Belulah », containing responsa and commentaries.
Austro-Bohemian Talmudist (1795–1881), trained by his father R. Mordecai Baer, whose yeshiva he took over at age 18; it had up to 80 students. Last rosh yeshiva of Bohemia, he tolerated secular studies. Received a visit from Moses Montefiore after the Damascus Affair. Great-grandfather of expressionist writer Paul Kornfeld.
Translator active in the early 18th century, from Rödelheim near Frankfurt-on-the-Main. He translated the two Targums on Esther into Judeo-German, published under the title « Meẓaḥ Aharon » in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1718, then reprinted.
Active author around the mid-eighteenth century. He published at Zolkiev in 1755 « Shem Aharon », a collection of halakhic novelties on the whole of the Talmud accompanied by midrashic interpretations of the Pentateuch under the subtitle « Netibot la-Shebet », then in 1768 a commentary on the talmudic discussions of the Pentateuch entitled « Maḳlo shel Aharon ».
Hungarian rabbi
Member of the Portuguese Sephardic community of Amsterdam. He prepared in 1767 an edition of Rehuel Jesurun's "Dialogo dos Montes," to which he added a poem of his composition in Portuguese.
Disciple of Baer of Mezhirich and representative of the Ḥasidim, born around 1750 and died around 1820. He is the author of kabbalistic homilies on the Pentateuch, « Toledot Aharon », published in Berditchev in 1817.
Disciple of Dov Ber, the Maguid of Mezritch. He founded in 1762 the Hasidic center of Karlin, pioneer of Hasidism in Lithuania (« Karliner » became synonymous with « Hasid »). Reputed for his personal asceticism and the mystical intensity of his prayer; root of the Karlin-Stolin and Koidanov dynasties. The family name Perlov comes from « Perl », the name of his mother.
Galician rabbi born around the beginning of the 18th century and died in Lviv around 1769, from a prominent family of rabbis, he served the communities of Jaworów and Rzeszów. He vigorously opposed the nascent Hasidism in Galicia and particularly attacked Elimelech of Lizhensk, author of the « No'am Elimelech ».
Rabbi and Italian liturgical poet, guide of the communities of Massa-Carrara.
Writer and satirist of the Haskala, author of a play on false pietists.
Canadian Jewish businessman
Born Duarte Lopez in Lisbon in a family of conversos who practiced Judaism in secret under the Inquisition. He emigrated to Newport in 1752, where he resumed the name Aaron and practiced Judaism openly. He became the wealthiest merchant in Newport (spermaceti candles, whaling, rum, shipping), supporter of Touro Synagogue. His correspondence and account books form a major archival collection on Jewish commerce in colonial America.
Merchant of Philadelphia who, around 1777, signed an agreement accepting to receive colonial paper money authorized by King George III in place of gold and silver. He left Philadelphia for Europe in 1785.
Born December 10, 1723, the first Jew of Prussia to obtain a doctorate in medicine. Master of philosophy and languages to Moses Mendelssohn. Author of the Megalleh Sod, supercommentary on Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Five Scrolls, followed by the Ma'amar ha-Madda (essay on religion and philosophy). Died in Hamburg in 1769.
French rabbi
English boxer nicknamed « The Star of the East », born in London, at Duke's Place (Aldgate), on 21 November 1800 and died in Whitechapel in 1850. His career spanned fifteen years, marked notably by his victories over William Connelly in 1819, Ned Stockman in 1823 and Dick Curtis, knocked out at Andover on 27 February 1827.
First known Jewish resident of Philadelphia, mentioned in an article by Charles H. Browning devoted to a commercial directory of Philadelphia from 1703, published in « The American Historical Register » in April 1895; his name is noted there as appearing in the account books of Judge Trent.
Editor and printer in Amsterdam at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He published the responsa of Aaron Peraḥyah known under the title « Peraḥ Maṭṭeh Aharon » (Amsterdam, 1703), whose title page is decorated with woodcuts representing scenes from the life of the High Priest Aaron, as well as the talmudic treatise Ḥagigah (Amsterdam, 1706), which appears to have been part of a project for a complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud.
Printer and publisher in Amsterdam, contemporary and probably relative of Aaron Abbas, whose work he completed by publishing the other work of Aaron Peraḥyah, « Pirḳe Kehunah » (Amsterdam, 1709). He is probably the same as Raphael b. Joshua de Palacios, co-editor with Samuel ben Solomon Marques of the treatise 'Erubin (Amsterdam, 1716).
Merchant devoting most of his time to study, he lived in Sherwenty, in Lithuania, towards the end of the eighteenth century; his grandson, the rabbi of Kamienetz, reported that his devotion to the study of the Talmud was such that for twenty years he did not undress to sleep. He composed a methodology of the Mishnah and introductions to the orders Ḳodashim and Ṭeharot under the title « Zikron Yehudah », of which only certain parts were published, in Vilna in 1851 and 1860.
Portuguese Jew who died in Hamburg in 1711. He advanced a considerable sum to the Crown of Poland and became resident minister of the king of Poland in Hamburg; he was buried in the cemetery of the Portuguese congregation of Altona.
Rabbi active in Prouzhany, Rouchony, Vilkovichki and Selva, in Lithuania and Poland, from 1719 to 1768. Toward the end of his life, he settled in Vilna, where his son Samuel also served as rabbi; he died there in 1771. His responsa appear in the collection of Saül ben Moïse of Lomza.
German author born in Glogau in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. After serving as tutor in Berlin, he settled in Prague in 1768; arrested on a false accusation in 1773, he was imprisoned for ten months in Pirna, where he continued his biblical and talmudic studies, before being freed thanks to the intervention of Moses Mendelssohn, who replied to him on January 13, 1774. He subsequently published a Hebrew grammar in 1783, two series of Mendelssohn's letters in 1792 and 1797, an edition of the Pentateuch with Mendelssohn's commentary in 1802, then a final poem in 1810.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Interpreter of the Masora, active in the mid-eighteenth century in Kalwaria, in the government of Suvalk, in Russian Poland. He drafted the « Seder Abraham » (Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1752), a collection of interpretations of Masoretic notes on the Pentateuch classified in alphabetical order, and edited in 1769, also in Frankfurt-on-Oder, a poem composed of all Hebrew words beginning with the letter Sin.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5508 of the Hebrew era (1748). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shaul Yeshua. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Rabbi of Tetuan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-3.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-1.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 15-4.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-3.
Chief Rabbi and supreme judge of Aleppo for more than 40 years, author of « Ohel Yesharim » and « Mor ve-Ohalot ».
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-4.
Talmudic author and rabbi who lived in Stryjów, in Austrian Galicia, at the turning point of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His works, brought together under the general title « Derishat Ari », include « Even Pinna », on Jewish family law, « Otot ha-Chamayim », on circumcision, phylacteries, the Sabbath and festivals, and « Ḥok ou-Michpat », on civil law, published in Lemberg in 1804 and in Jitomir in 1805.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5485 of the Hebrew era (1725). Son of Sliman. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-3.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5557 of the Hebrew era (1797). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Son of Yeshua. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5524 of the Hebrew era (1764). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Died in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-3.
Rabbi of Fes, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-3.
Rabbi of Salonique who died in 1730, author of « Ṭirat Kesef » (Salonique, 1736), a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch, and « Ẓeror ha-Kesef » (Salonique, 1756), responsa and homilies completed by numerous additions from his son Benveniste Gatigno.
Lithuanian rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-2.
German rabbi
One of the sages of Constantinople in the 18th century and the most prolific Ladino translator of his generation. He realized the first complete Bible in Ladino (printed by Jonah Ashkenazi), in parallel Hebrew/Ladino columns, with Rashi commentary — a text that became the most widely distributed among Oriental Sephardim. He also translated the Yosippon (Sefer Ben Gurion) and composed edifying works to make texts accessible to the greatest number.
Ashkenazi Polish rabbi
Karaite author active in the first half of the eighteenth century, left Palestine for Crimea, where he completed in 1712 « Emouna Omen », a Karaite theology treatise edited later by Jacob ben Abraham Firkovitch (Eupatoria, 1846), dealing with divinity, the immutability of the Law and the relations between science and religion, and testifying to great familiarity with rabbinic literature as well as high esteem for Maimonides and Ibn Ezra. In 1715, under the pseudonym Abraham Kalaï, he wrote a work on the rules of ritual slaughter.
Piedmontese scholar born in Turin, died in Safed in 1772. He wrote commentaries on the Mishna and on Maimonides' "Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah", as well as a collection of responsa and sermons published under the title "Ḥibburim".
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Safi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-3.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5467 of the Hebrew era (1707). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-2.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov, himself son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5516 of the Hebrew era (1756). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-1.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rafael, himself son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Son of Meir. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
rabbin allemand
Muqaddim and consul of Algiers, he devoted himself to Talmudic and kabbalistic studies and published notably Berit Avraham (Livorno, 1791).
Rabbi trained who came from Livorno to Algiers in 1712, he became muqaddim of the Jewish community of Algiers and counselor to the deys.
Sephardic financier of London (attested in 1710), descendant of a Hispano-Portuguese family and one of the first Anglo-Jewish poets; he celebrated in verse the "Espejo Fiel de Vidas" (London, 1720) of Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5464 of the Hebrew era (1704). Son of Reuben Nahman. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-4.
Composer, active in Amsterdam from 1718 to 1738
Born in Amsterdam in a family of Portuguese Jews (the wine merchant Isaac Haim Capadose and Esther Mendes da Costa), physician trained in Leiden. He converted to Protestantism in 1822 with his friend Isaac da Costa and became a figure of the Dutch Awakening. A declared opponent of smallpox vaccination, he published several theological and medical writings.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5518 of the Hebrew era (1758). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Dayan of Tétouan and Mogador, kabbalist, died in Livorno.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-1.
Ukrainian rabbi
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-1.
Rabbi of Orcha in the second half of the eighteenth century, author of the "Well of Abraham", a collection of glosses on the first part of the Shulhan Aruch, Yoré Dea, published in Shklov in 1783.
Poet and educator of Vilna (Adam ha-Kohen), author of Shirei Sefat Kodesh.
Rabbi of Baiza, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew era (1751). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
Karaite Hakham born in Lutsk, died in Çufut Qale. He conducted expeditions in Crimea, the Caucasus and the Near East that gathered thousands of Hebrew, Karaite and Samaritan manuscripts. His first collection (more than 1,000 items) was sold to the Imperial Library of Saint Petersburg (1862/1870), his second (more than 15,000 items) after his death. These Firkovich collections form the foundation of modern Karaite research.
Born into a Jewish family of Portuguese Marrano origin, raised in Bordeaux. Elected president of the Assembly of Notables convened by Napoleon in 1806, then secretary of the Great Sanhedrin in 1807. Major figure in the emancipation of French Jews and the establishment of the Central Consistory. He left memoirs.
Rabbi of Tangier, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5526 of the Hebrew era (1766). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
chief rabbi of Denmark (1753-1827)
Brother-in-law of the Baal Shem Tov, kabbalist who emigrated to the Holy Land in 1747.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-1.
Rabbi of Livorno in the mid-eighteenth century, teacher of Malachi ha-Kohen (author of Yad Malachi) and praised as a Kabbalist. His halakhic decisions were published posthumously by his daughter (widow of Ḥayyim Hezekiah Fernandez Africano).
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-3.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shalem. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-3.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-1.
American rabbi
rabbi
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Community leader, historian and liturgical poet of Tripoli; author of Hayyei Avraham.
Rabbi. Period not specified by source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 11-4.
Rabbi of Baiza, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew era (1751). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 13-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-1.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Russian rabbi, only son of Dov Baer of Mezeritch, first leader of the Hasidim of southern Ukraine, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and son-in-law of Mechoulam Phoebus of Kremenets; he died relatively young in Fastov, a village in the Kiev governorate, around 1780. Of reserved temperament, he did not succeed his father and retired as a hermit in Hannipol before becoming a preacher in Fastov. His commentary on the Pentateuch, « Ḥessed le-Abraham », was published after his death (Czernowitz, 1851; Warsaw, 1883).
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5475 of the Hebrew era (1715). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Died in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-4.
Russian rabbi
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yitshak, himself son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 15-4.
Rabbi of Tetuan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5558 of the Hebrew era (1798). Son of Efraim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-2.
Rabbi of Fez, 18th century. Mentioned in 5541 of the Hebrew era (1781). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 15-4.
German rabbi
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Rabbinical author 'Turkish' established in Sarajevo at the end of the eighteenth century, student of David Pardo (whose daughter he married). He also edited the glosses of H. J. D. Azoulaï on the Shulchan Arukh (Mishpat Katouv, 1798).
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-3.
Moravian rabbi
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Born in 5547 (1787), died in 5566 (1806) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-3.
Kabbalist and preacher, brother of the Gaon of Vilna, author of Maalot HaTorah.
Swiss rabbi
Rabbi of Salé, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 15-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
Born in Istanbul, he inherited the family bank in 1832 and developed it considerably, becoming the banker of the Ottoman government before the creation of the Ottoman Bank (financing of the Crimean War). Count, patron and major Jewish philanthropist, he had the famous Camondo stairs built in Galata. Died in Paris in 1873, he was buried according to his wishes in the Jewish cemetery of Hasköy in Istanbul.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-3.
Rabbinical author born in Tunis, established in Jerusalem, died in Amsterdam.
Polish inventor
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 9-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-3.
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia called Baba Sidi; signatory of the taqqana Twânsa-Granas (1741).
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Mentioned in 5464 of the Hebrew era (1704). Son of Barukh. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Iyad, himself son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-4.
French rabbi
Rabbi of Gorizia, father of Isacco Samuel Reggio (Yashar). A Talmudist attached to tradition, he formed his son and represented rabbinical authority of Austrian Friuli at the turn of the 19th century.
Rabbi of Taza, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5556 of the Hebrew era (1796). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-3.
rabbin hassidique (1748–1825)
Danish scholar, professor of French language and literature at the University of Copenhagen, born in Copenhagen on September 6, 1798 and died in the same city on January 25, 1870, he studied law there from 1815 and obtained his diploma in 1818. Upon return from a stay abroad in 1828, he was then appointed reader of French at the university, then professor in 1832 after having himself baptized; he retired in 1857 to become a notary. He is the author of works such as Description des Manuscrits Français du Moyen-Âge de la Bibliothèque Royale de Copenhague (1844) and Fransk Sprogläre (1845).
German physician and medical writer born in Hamburg in 1764 and died in that city on October 21, 1817, he obtained his diploma from the University of Göttingen in 1783 before practicing in his native city, where he was appointed physician of the Jewish hospital and of the city's poor. A prolific author from 1784, he published notably « Abhandlungen und Beobachtungen über Einige Krankheiten der Augen » (1785) and a study on the mortality of pregnant women and newborns (1806), and was a member of several learned societies in Germany and Sweden.
German engraver-medallist and master of the Prussian Mint, born in Potsdam in 1754 (or 1752) and died in Berlin on July 23, 1811, he learned engraving from his father Jacob Abraham whom he soon surpassed in artistic execution, influenced by the style of Chodowiecki. He engraved numerous commemorative medals, including those of the emancipation of the Jews of Westphalia and their emancipation by Alexander I, and published in Berlin in 1801 an essay on the style of medals and coins.
German physician born in Danzig in 1740 and died in that same city in 1800, he studied medicine in Königsberg and practiced from 1775 in Hasenpoth, in Courland, before returning to his native city shortly before his death. He published in Königsberg, in 1785, his « Betrachtungen eines Arztes am Krankenbette seines Patienten ».
Hasidic rabbi (1759-1826)
Rabbi of Byeltsy, in Bessarabia, active in the mid-18th century. He is credited with a Kabbalistic work, the "Berit 'Olam" (Eternal Covenant), Kabbalistic explanations of letters followed by chapters on ethics, found among his papers and published under his name by Isaac Ḥayyim of Byelostok (Wilna, 1820).
Jester at the court of Peter the Great of Russia, in the first half of the 18th century, he was first a courtier in Hamburg before emigrating to Russia, where he obtained a position as jester; of comical appearance, witty and multilingual, he met the tsar, according to Doran, at the spa of Alonaitz in 1719. Peter appreciated his theological discussions, sometimes lively, and rewarded him by offering him the sandy and uninhabited island of Sammer in the Gulf of Finland; he retained his position as court jester under the Empress Anne.
American author of a history of the Jews, born in Medfield, near Boston, in 1755 or 1756, and died in Brookline (Massachusetts) on November 15, 1832, she learned the rudiments of Greek, Latin and Hebrew from student boarders in her father's house. Her correspondence with Abbé Grégoire was at the origin of her « History of the Jews from the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Present Time » (Boston, 1812; London, 1818), translated into German at Leipzig in 1819–20 — the first history of postbiblical Jewry published in America. She also published « A View of Religious Opinions » (1784) and « Evidences of Christianity » (1801).
Second President of the United States, born in Braintree (Massachusetts) on 19 October 1735 and died in Quincy on 4 July 1826, he devoted part of his final years to the history of religions, maintaining on this subject an extensive correspondence with Jefferson in which he displayed deep knowledge of Jewish history. In February 1809, he affirmed there that the Hebrews had done more to civilize humanity than any other nation; he expressed similar ideas in 1818 in a letter to Mordecai M. Noah.
Talmudist and author active in Tunis around the middle of the eighteenth century, he was the student of Isaac Lombroso and Abraham Ḥayat. His novellae and collections on several treatises of the Babylonian Talmud and on the "Yad ha-Ḥazaqah" of Maimonides were published in Livorno in 1759, at the expense of the sons of Samuel Nataf, under the title "Bené Shemouel" — the first work published by a Tunisian Jew.
English essayist born in Milston on 1 May 1672 and died on 17 June 1719, he was one of the principal architects of 18th-century English public opinion. His writings, notably an essay in the « Spectator » of 27 September 1712 entirely devoted to the Jews, testify to a sympathetic attitude and a relatively intimate knowledge of Judaism, particularly regarding their dispersion and their economic role as mediators between distant nations.
Translator and author active in the first half of the 18th century, he traveled from Tafilalet, Morocco, to Amsterdam to raise funds for the ransom of his family and his synagogue, held by the Moors. He published there in 1727 a translation of Salomon Sasportas's « Zékher Rav » under the title « Memoria de los 613 Preceptos », as well as « Bi-Neot Deshe », a collection of ritual and ethical exhortations and legends of Moses and Aaron, in 1735 (second edition in Russia, 1809).
German publisher
English lawyer and historical and political writer born in London in 1768 and died in that city on July 16, 1845, grandson of a German-born Jew, physician to Frederick the Great of Prussia, he was apprenticed to a solicitor in 1783 before being admitted to the bar in 1790. Long divided between law and literature — he notably published a « History of England » whose first volume appeared in 1802 and of which he had published seven volumes by 1845, working on the eighth at his death —, he eventually specialized in criminal law, pleading in 1820 the defense of Thistlewood and the other conspirators of Cato Street.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-1.
Kabbalist of the eighteenth century, who lived and died in Smyrna, gifted with extraordinary memory and perfect knowledge of talmudic and rabbinic literature, he composed twelve works, including commentaries on Maïmonide's « Michné Torah », Asher ben Yehiel's « Halakhot » and ritual codes, as well as rabbinic decisions and novellae on almost all treatises of the Babylonian Talmud; only a few were published, under the title « Moshé Baroukh », in Salonique in 1802.
Marrano active in the eighteenth century, probably born in Spain and died in London in 1759, he went in 1722 from Lisbon to London then to Vienna, where he held from 1725 to 1747 the monopoly on tobacco in Austria. Great favorite of the Empress Maria Theresa, who made him a baron, he financed the reconstruction of the Schönbrunn palace, founded the Judeo-Turkish community of Vienna and obtained that the Jews of Moravia be protected from plunder in 1742 and that the project of expulsion of the Jews of Austria, envisaged in 1748 or 1749, be abandoned. He left Vienna precipitously in 1749, Spain demanding his extradition, and settled in London.
Second Baron of Aguilar, born in Vienna in 1739 and died in London in 1802, naturalized English in 1757 after settling with his father, he married in 1758 the daughter of Moses Mendes da Costa, whose dowry amounted to one hundred fifty thousand pounds, and inherited the title and paternal fortune in 1759. Becoming eccentric and miserly after losing an estate of fifteen thousand acres in America during the War of Independence, he abandoned his residences for the « Starvation Farm » of Islington, where he died leaving, concealed in his dwelling, a fortune of two hundred thousand pounds to his two daughters.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-2.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi of Draa Valley. Period not specified by the source. Son of Sliman. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rahamim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi of Debdou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-3.
Rabbi of Fes. Period not specified by the source. Son of Eliahu. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi of Rif, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5478 of the Hebrew era (1718). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-3.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5513 of the Hebrew era (1753). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
Rabbi and Tunisian author, member of the Djerba community.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-2.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5491 of the Hebrew era (1731). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Died in 5467 of the Hebrew era (1707). Son of Yeshua I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Died in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
German rabbi established at Lehren-Steinsfeld, in Württemberg, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He is the author of « Ha-Ohel ha-'Olam » (The Eternal Tent), novellas on the talmudic treatise Ketoubot published in Frankfurt-on-Main in 1714, accompanied by four responsa; two works on Seder Tohorot remain unpublished, preserved as manuscripts.
rabbi (1720/21–1758)
(1778-1835)
Glossator active in the eighteenth century, author of a collection of casuistic glosses on the talmudic treatises Zebaḥim and Menaḥot, published in Metz in 1767 under the title « Ma'yan Ganim » (Fountain of Gardens). Carmoly sometimes transcribes his name as « Trenel », due to his usage among the Jews of France.
Judeo-German writer, born in Russia in the last quarter of the 18th century and died around 1868. First a Hasidic disciple of R. Nahman of Braslav, he later abandoned this circle to settle in Odessa, where he worked as a notary while writing a realistic work on Russian Jewish life. His best-known play, "Der Erste Jüdische Rekrut" (1862), evokes the decree of 1827 imposing military service on Jews for the first time.
historical figure
Founder of the Jewish Board of Guardians of London, born in Cheltenham in 1800, died in London on November 13, 1882. A prosperous man of business, he becomes in 1858 warden of the Great Synagogue and, struck by the insufficiency of relief for the poor, publishes in February 1859 the proposal for a "board of guardians for the relief of poor foreign destitute", whose organization will remain faithful to his initial project. First president of the institution, he presides over its proceedings until 1869, then continues to sit there until his death.
Emperor of Russia, born in Saint Petersburg on December 23, 1777, died in Taganrog on December 1, 1825. His reign (1801-25), begun upon the death of his father Paul I, assassinated in 1801, initiated more internal reforms than any of his predecessors since Peter the Great. By the ukase of October 9, 1802 and then the regulation of December 9, 1804 on the Jews, he granted them the right to purchase and rent land in the western and southern provinces — at the origin of the first Jewish agricultural colonies in Russia — and access to schools and universities.
Biblical scholar of the eighteenth century, author of the « Miẓnefet Bad » (The Linen Mitre), a collection of dissertations on the arrangement of the Pentateuch according to its weekly sections, published in Zolkiev in 1747. He should not be confused with his namesake Alexander Süsskind ben Moses of Grodno.
Kabbalist of Grodno, author of Yessod ve-Choresh ha-Avoda, guide to Jewish prayer.
German author active in southern Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century, he writes on philosophical subjects from a rationalist perspective. Among his works: « Von dem Dasein Gottes, die Selbstredende Vernunft » (Ratisbon, 1775), « Anmerkungen über die Erste Geschichte der Menschheit nach dem Zeugnisse Mosis » (Nuremberg, 1782), an attempt to reconcile Mosaic laws with the Talmud (Ratisbon, 1786), and a German translation of the « Shir ha-Yiḥoud » (Ratisbon, 1788).
First Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, born to Jewish parents in Schönlanke, in the Grand Duchy of Posen, in May 1799, died in Belbeis, Egypt, on November 23, 1845. Educated in strict Orthodox fashion, he taught the Talmud from age sixteen, then settled in England in 1820 as a private tutor. Converted to Christianity, he was baptized on June 22, 1825 in Plymouth, where he served as hazan of the Hebrew community. Appointed in 1832 professor of Hebrew at King's College London, he was ordained in 1841 as the first bishop of Jerusalem of the United Church of England and Ireland.
Chess player, born in Hohenfeld-on-the-Main, Germany, around 1766, died in London on 16 November 1850. Assiduous habitué of the Café de la Régence in Paris, where he spends most of his life, eminent member of the French school of chess without ranking among the very top players, he distinguishes himself by the brilliance of his combinations and his talent for solving problems. He publishes the « Encyclopedia of Chess » (Paris, 1837) and the « Collection of the Most Beautiful Chess Problems » (Paris, 1846).
Rabbi of Cairo, born in 1764, died after 1840 — the year in which he provided decisive support to Crémieux and Solomon Munk in their effort to found schools for the Jews of Egypt, following the journey of Montefiore, Crémieux and Munk linked to the blood libel of Damascus. Though seventy-six years old, Algazi works so actively, aided by the notable Adda, that two schools — one for boys, the other for girls — open in Cairo on October 4, 1840; he also defends, despite the opposition of certain zealots, the admission of Karaite children to these institutions.
Commentator active in Jerusalem in the 18th century, author of a commentary on the "Hilkot Bekorot" (Laws on Primogeniture) of Naḥmanide, published in Livorno in 1794. Some attribute to him also the "Shalme Ṣibbur," generally connected to his father, the scholar Israël Jacob Algazi.
Casuist active in Turkey at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. He writes the « Zekor le-Abraham » (Remember Abraham), alphabetical commentary on the laws of the four Ṭourim, published in two volumes in Salonique in 1798 and republished by Juda Ḥaï Alkalaï in Josefow in 1840. He also publishes two volumes of responsa under the title « Ḥesed le-Abraham » (Mercy toward Abraham), Salonique, 1813-14.
Dissenting minister, educator and English author, born in Truro in 1771. He directs for thirty years a private school in Hackney, near London, where he dies on June 17, 1839. He is chiefly known for his « Modern Judaism » (London, 1816), a work on the opinions, traditions, rites and ceremonies of modern Jews, praised by several English theologians as the best work on the subject in English language and reprinted in 1830. He also publishes a notable translation of Calvin's « Institutes » (1815; 2nd ed., 1838).
Writer active in Amsterdam at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He publishes in Portuguese the "Anagrama Achrostica do Sagrado Nome de Tora" (Amsterdam, 1706), dedicated to D. Abraham Israël Suasso, a collection of odes composed on the letters of the word Torah, now extremely rare. He also published in 1712 in Utrecht a volume of verse dedicated to Don J. G. de Silva, envoy of the King of Portugal as plenipotentiary for peace to the United Provinces of Holland — a work equally difficult to find.
French shipowner and philanthropist, born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1786, died in Aix on January 30, 1873. Son of a rabbi of Palestine, he left Jerusalem in 1806 to venture into the naval trade in Marseille. In 1846, armed with letters of introduction from Guizot, he traveled to Saint-Petersburg to try to obtain from the tsar the emigration of forty thousand Jewish families from Russia to Algeria; Count Nesselrode opposed him with conditions deemed insurmountable, and the project was abandoned. President of the Marseille consistory for thirty years, he helped found a school for Jewish children in the city.
Venetian rabbi of the eighteenth century, probably son of David Altaras, he notably edited a collection of prayers and canticles, published in Venice in 1718.
Rabbi of Salonika in the first half of the eighteenth century. He edits and annotates the works of his father, Solomon Amarillo, and himself composes novellae on legal questions treated by Maimonides, supplemented by two collections on penal law, united under the title "Halakhah le-Mosheh" (The Decision of Moses), Salonika, 1756. His responsa, published previously, appear under the title "Devar Mosheh" (The Word of Moses), Salonika, 1742-50.
Talmudic author of the eighteenth century, Aaron ben Solomon Amarillo belonged to the Amarillo family, a lineage of scholars that gave several great rabbis to Turkey. Like his father Salomon and his brother Moïse, both authors of rabbinical works, he published in 1796 a collection of responsa, the « Pene Aharon », organized according to the order of the Ṭur.
Rabbi of Salonika, died in 1722, father-in-law of Salomon Abdallah and intimate friend of the learned rabbi Joseph Cobo. All his works are published during his lifetime by his son Moses: first his sermons, of an ethical and theological order, under the title « Pené Shelomoh » (Salonika, 1717), then his responsa, annotated, under the title « Kerem Shelomoh » (Salonika, 1719), and finally, in 1722, a supplementary volume, the « 'Olelot ha-Kerem », published with the analogous work of Ḥayyim Shabbethaï, the « Torat Ḥayyim ».
Philosophical writer, active in Rome in the first half of the 18th century. He devoted his life to a work on the universe, the « Pancosmosophia », first mentioned in the « Giornale de' Letterati » of Venice in 1710; in it he refutes the astronomical views of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Tycho Brahe in favor of a cosmogony founded on a flat earth, drawing on Jewish tradition. The Roman Inquisition banned the printing of the work, and its manuscript eventually disappeared; a similar project for a rabbinical library met the same fate. In 1721, he was a member of the Roman Congrega.
Spanish Jew established in Temesvar, Hungary, in the second half of the eighteenth century, nicknamed « Re chico » (the little king) for his wealth and highly esteemed at the court of Marie-Thérèse. Intimate friend of Diego de Aguilar in Constantinople, he travels, at the latter's request, to the sultan to intercede on behalf of the Jews of Bohemia threatened with expulsion, and obtains the sending to the empress of an extraordinary emissary, the Jew Coronel, bearer of an autograph letter from the sultan — a step which results in the abrogation of the expulsion decree.
Author from Livorno, he wrote the « Tefilah le-David » (A Prayer of David), a commentary on the hundred daily blessings, published in Salonique in 1777.
Moroccan rabbi (1743-1782)
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5542 of the Hebrew era (1782). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
French rabbi, born in the last quarter of the 18th century, died in Bordeaux in 1836. During the Terror (1793-94), his energy and eloquence prevented the installation of a guillotine in the marketplace of Saint-Esprit, near Bayonne, replaced by a statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Elected in 1806 « deputy of the Jewish nation » to the assembly of notables convoked by Napoleon I, he sat on the committee charged with organizing the Great Sanhedrin held in Paris in 1807, then became in 1809 chief rabbi of Bordeaux, a position he held until his death, maintaining cordial relations with Catholic authorities.
Turkish biblical commentator, active in Salonique in the second half of the 18th century. He wrote the "'Ets Ḥayyim" (Tree of Life), disquisitions on Genesis, printed with the "Sefat Emet" of M. Algazi and the "Ya'aḳob Ḥevel" of H. J. Varshano, in Salonique, in 1772.
Turkish rabbi and preacher, active in Salonike around the mid-eighteenth century. He writes the « Sippour ha-Ḥayyim » (Tale of Life), a collection of funeral orations and various homilies on the Pentateuch, published in Salonike in 1760.
French religious writer, born around 1800, died in September 1872, sole brother of Philippe Anspach. He was the first to translate the daily prayers from Hebrew into French. In 1842, he published his "Paroles d'un Croyant Israélite," a polemical work directed against Catholic proselytism, which provoked numerous commentaries.
Honorary Counsel at the French Court of Cassation and officer of the Legion of Honour, born in Metz in 1800, died on December 3, 1875. Lawyer in Paris at the time of the July 1830 revolution, in which he took an active part, he was appointed substitute prosecutor in Meaux, then successively became deputy judge, substitute prosecutor general, counselor at the Court of Appeal and finally counselor at the Court of Cassation — the first Jew to hold such a position in the French supreme judiciary. Member of the Paris Consistory, he was elected in 1845 to the Central Consistory; one of his daughters married Baron Gustave de Rothschild.
German rabbi, born in Wongrowitz, Prussia, on February 6, 1796, died in the same city on September 22, 1865. Orphaned of his father in childhood, forced to earn his living from the age of twelve, he nevertheless acquired Latin, Greek and German; tutor in Neu-Strelitz, then teacher in Fraustadt (1824) and Glogau (1827), he published his first work there in 1830. In 1836, his annotated translation of the Book of Job earned him an invitation from Zunz and Sachs to collaborate on their Bible translation. Having become « Oberlehrer » in Glogau in 1840, he began to preach, and became rabbi of the Zeller Institution in 1849.
Austrian dramatist, grandson of the famous Viennese banker Adam Isaac von Arnstein, born in Vienna on October 15, 1765, died in the same city in 1840. Entered in 1782 in his grandfather's bank, he left it in 1786 to travel and frequent the writers of his time, notably befriending Retzer, Schreyvogel and Kotzebue. He published, among others, « Eine Jüdische Familienscene » (1782), « Die Kleinodien » (1796), « Die Maske » (1796), « Die Pflegetochter » (1798), « Das Billet » (1800) and « Das Geschenk » (1801).
Figure of Viennese high society, born in Berlin on September 29, 1757, died near Vienna on June 8, 1818, daughter of the Berlin banker Daniel Itzig, head of the Berlin Jewish community. Close to Mendelssohn's circle, she married banker Nathan Adam von Arnstein and brought Viennese the influence of Berlin high society; her salon distinguished itself by limitless charity, especially after the disasters of 1809, when she collected seven thousand florins for a hospital, and in 1813, when she sent relief to Rahel in Prague. Her salon becomes, at the Congress of Vienna, one of the centers of high society, frequented by Wellington and Talleyrand.
German-Jewish banker
German physician and medical writer, born in 1774, died on 12 June 1807. Doctor of medicine in 1800, he subsequently became a teacher at the University of Berlin. He published several works, including a French translation on yellow fever (Berlin, 1805), a treatise on dental art translated from French (Berlin, 1803), a work on the organization of pharmacies (Berlin, 1804), and a collection of beauty recipes (Berlin, 1805).
German physician, born in Metz on May 2, 1793, died in Strasbourg on September 8, 1861. He went to Strasbourg in 1809 to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine, obtained his doctorate in 1816, became assistant surgeon at the municipal hospital in 1823, then perfected himself in London under renowned physicians such as Astley Cooper. Back in France, he settled in Strasbourg, where he practiced for twenty-five years, organizing in 1832 one of the provisional hospitals during the cholera epidemic; he became in 1849 president of the Medical Society of Strasbourg and received the Legion of Honor in 1839.
Polish rabbi
Hasidic leader, known as Shpoler Zeide (Grandfather of Shpola)
First and only Chief Rabbi of Galicia, based in Brody.
Rabbi born in Grodno, kabbalist known as the Baal ha-Pardes, correspondent of the Gaon of Vilna.
Poet of the Galician Haskala, author of the collection Shirim Shonim.
Talmudist and German author, born in 1715, died in Hanover on March 6, 1789, son of the author of the « Pené Yehoshoua' », who died as rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1755. Assistant to his father in his youth, he taught at the yeshiva around 1745-1750, before being called as rabbi to Skala, in Galicia, then, in 1761, to Hanover, where he officiated until his death. He edited the fourth part of his father's work (Fürth, 1780), adding to it his own novellæ on the treatise Baba Ḳamma under the title « Pené Aryé ». His son, Issachar Bérisch (1747-1807), succeeded him.
Rabbi and author, son of Benjamin Asahel, chief rabbi of Salonique, where he lived in the first half of the 18th century. He is the author of the « Sam Ḥayyaï » (Spice of my life), a collection of sermons and responsa, published after his death by his son Benjamin (Salonique, 1746). He spent several years in Jerusalem, where he was entrusted with collecting donations throughout Asia Minor for the poor of Palestine, and died in Smyrna during this mission.
Rabbi and German author, born in Posen, rabbi of Zell toward the end of the eighteenth century, from a learned family tracing back to Meïr of Lublin; his father Joseph was rabbi of Dessau, and one of his relatives, the scholar Isaiah Berlin. He wrote the 'Maré Ech' (The Appearance of Fire), published after his death by his son Moses Jacob in 1803, a collection of critical notes on various Talmudic tractates. He probably is not to be confused with the other Abraham Asch, author of the 'Torah Koulah' (Berlin, 1796), who campaigned against the practice of hasty burials.
German rabbi
German author and translator, born in Berlin on 8 February 1767, died in the same city on 8 December 1822. He begins his literary career as a defender of Jewish emancipation, before broadening his field to history, politics and religion in general. Among his works are « Leviathan, oder über Religion in Rücksicht des Judenthums » (Berlin, 1792), « Eisenmenger der Zweite », addressed to Professor Fichte of Jena (Berlin, 1794), as well as « Die Germanomanie » (1815) and « Die Wartburgfeier » (1818), critiques of exalted German nationalism.
Hazan, born in Holland in 1789, died in London in December 1872. Reader and cantor of the Great Synagogue of London for thirty-seven years, he contributes, with composer Mombach, to systematizing English synagogal music; the memory of his beautiful voice, his clear tenor timbre and his style of recitative adorned with numerous roulades, remains a tradition among English Jews.
Editor, bibliographer and writer, born in Kammin, Prussia, on August 23, 1800, died in Venice on September 1, 1853. Intended for commerce, he became a jeweler merchant in Saint Petersburg, where the fortuitous purchase of an old library determined his vocation; he devoted himself to bibliography and publishing, settling in 1830 in Berlin as a bookseller, where he obtained the agency for purchasing foreign books for the British Museum. He notably edited the « Massa'ot » of Benjamin of Tudela (London, 1840) as well as, at his own expense, the « Ḳoré ha-Dorot » of Conforté (Berlin, 1846).
Preacher in Prenzlau, in Prussia, and teacher in the school founded by his father. In 1701, he published in Dessau a collection of discourses entitled "Shemena Laḥmo" (a pun on his name Asher), in two parts: the first brings together homilies on the Sabbath and holidays, including Hanukkah and Purim; the second deals with the seven solemn occasions of a man's life — circumcision, redemption of the firstborn, bar-mitzvah, marriage, ordination, burial and resurrection.
Talmudist active in the second half of the 18th century. He writes two works, both published in Fürth in 1785: the "Ben Emounim" (Son of the Faith), a homiletic commentary on the Bible, and the "Ḥidat Shimshon" (The Riddle of Samson), a moral work in three parts.
Chief of the beth-din of Slonim, in Lithuania, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He wrote two works: "Otot le-Mo'adim" (Signs for the Festivals), novellæ on the treatise Pessaḥim and laws of the festivals, and "Baroukh mi-Banim Asher" (Blessed among the sons, Asher), a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch, published respectively in Zolkiev in 1749 and 1752.
Polish talmudic scholar, active in the late 18th century. With his two sons, Yeḥiel Michel ha-Lévi of Glogau and Moses ha-Lévi of Glogau, he wrote homilies on the Pentateuch, published in 1820 under the title « Ḥout ha-Meshoulash » (The Threefold Thread).
Polish commentator on the Shulḥan Arukh, dayan in Tykocin, Poland, in the first half of the eighteenth century. His succinct commentary on the three first parts of the Shulḥan Arukh is appended to the Amsterdam editions of 1753 and 1760, and subsequently underwent numerous reprints; a similar commentary on the fourth part, the «Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ», is the work of Moses Frankfurter, dayan of Amsterdam.
Rabbi and Moravian author, born in the early eighteenth century, died on 16 July 1734. Rabbi of the communities of Aussee and Gewitsch, he lives in Aussee, at the home of his father-in-law, the rich and influential Israël Aussee — wealth that attracts to him the hostility of his faithful, to the point that he must obtain from the authorities an order threatening the congregation with a fine if they did not show him the honours due to his rank. He dies in Boskowitz. Ashkenazi writes a curious little book, the « Beth David » (Wilhelmsdorf, 1734), the first part of which illustrates the casuistic degeneration of the Talmud and the second gathers folk remedies.
Rabbi and author, born in Russia around the middle of the eighteenth century, officiating in Chodorow then in Lemberg, where he died on May 5, 1807. He is the author of the « Or ha-Ner » (Light of the lamp), commentary on the Haggada (Lemberg, 1788), and of the « Torat ha-Ḳodesh » (Law of holiness), commentary on the treatise Zevaḥim (Lemberg, 1792).
Commentator, ritualist, and liturgical editor, born in the second half of the eighteenth century, active in Tiberias, in Palestine, from where he was sent as a traveling communal agent in Europe, before settling in Livorno. There he published the "Yissa Berakha," a commentary on the "Sefer Mesharim" of Jeroham ben Meshoullam (1822), and the "Guèza Yishaï," an alphabetical collection of rites and laws of which only the first volume appeared (1842); he also edited a prayer book according to the Spanish rite in five parts, published in Livorno from 1843 to 1855.
Polish rabbi and man of letters, born in the second half of the 18th century, died in Lublin on May 1, 1843, son of Rabbi Meshoulam Zalman of Pomarin — of the Orenstein family, whose brother Mordekhaï Tsevi of Lemberg also bore the name — and grandson of the Ḥakham Tsevi. He served as rabbi in Kazimierz and Naselsk, then in Lublin from 1826 until his death. He wrote glosses on the Mishna, published in the Vilna edition in 1869.
Talmudist and author, born in Galicia around 1778, died in Safed, Palestine, in 1857. Rabbi in Tolcsva, Hungary, from 1803 to 1843, he emigrated thereafter to Palestine and settled permanently in Safed. He published in Jerusalem, in 1844, his masterwork, the "Toledot Adam" (Generations of Adam), novellæ on several treatises of the Babylonian Talmud, prefaced by the approbations of Jacob of Lissa and Jacob Orenstein, who considered him their equal. His second work, the "Beer Shéva", a collection of homiletic dissertations on the Pentateuch, appeared in Jerusalem in 1852; his two sons, Joël and Solomon, were rabbis in Galicia, the latter dying in Jerusalem in 1862.
Dutch jurist, son of Moïse Salomon Asser, born in Amsterdam on February 15, 1780, died on August 3, 1836. After studying law and philology at the Athenaeum of Amsterdam, he obtained his doctorate on July 3, 1799 and devoted himself to the practice of law in Amsterdam, where he became, with his friend Jonas Daniel Meyer, one of the first two Jews admitted to the bar since the establishment of the Batavian Republic. His defense of a certain Mascel of Dordrecht, accused of blasphemy for doubting the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity, attracts the attention of M. C. F. van Maanen, Minister of Justice; from sixteen years old, he was involved in the life of the Jewish community.
Dutch jurist, born in Amsterdam in August 1754, died in the same city on November 4, 1826. Originally destined for commerce, he turned toward the study of commercial law and became, as a prosecutor in Amsterdam, one of Holland's most renowned jurists. In 1798, he was appointed a member of the legislative commission charged, in Amsterdam, with adapting Holland's laws to the new conditions resulting from the transition of the United Provinces to the Batavian Republic; in 1808, when Napoleon imposed his code on his dependencies, he was charged, with Johannes van der Linden and Arnoldus van Gennep, by King Louis Bonaparte, to draft a commercial code for the kingdom.
German physician and poet, born in Königsberg in 1787, died April 25, 1842. He studied at the universities of Tübingen, Halle, Vienna and Göttingen, where he earned his doctorate on August 26, 1807, with a thesis on foods and chemico-dynamic laws, published in Göttingen in 1809. A few years later, he went to Hamburg to practice medicine, but Germany's war of liberation against Napoleon broke out almost immediately, and he enlisted as a cavalry physician, serving first in the Russian army then in the Prussian army. In 1815, he returned to Hamburg for love of Rosa Maria Varnhagen.
Talmudist from Galicia in the second half of the 18th century. He is the author of the « Meḥoḳeḳ Yehouda » (The Legislator of Judah), Lemberg, 1792, a commentary on the sections of the Ora'h Ḥayim of the Shulḥan Arukh of Joseph Caro dealing with the rules of Pessah, composed of two distinct parts: the « Ḥouḳé 'Olam » (Eternal Laws), which briefly expounds the halakhic decisions, and the « Ḥouḳé Da'at » (Laws of Knowledge), which develops their discussions.
German rabbi, born in Buxweiler, Alsace, in the mid-eighteenth century, died in Bonn November 3, 1846. From an old rabbinical family, destined for the rabbinate from childhood, he was first trained by his grandfather in Worms, then by his uncle David Sinzheim, future president of the central consistory in Paris, from whom he acquired vast talmudic knowledge as well as secular training. In Strasbourg, where a Jewish community was forming through the efforts of Cerfberr de Medelsheim, Auerbach took its leadership; when the Reign of Terror began, his proximity to Cerfberr resulted in his being imprisoned for an entire year.
Educator and philanthropist, born in Inowrazlaw, in the province of Posnania, in Prussia, on August 14, 1793, died in Berlin on January 22, 1864, founder and lifetime director of the Jewish orphanage in Berlin. Son of a poor rabbi, his childhood was spent studying Talmud and Jewish literature; in 1817, he moved to Berlin, where his elder brother, Dr. I. L. Auerbach, already enjoyed a certain reputation as a minister of religion and preacher. After university studies focused on classical languages, he became, in 1829, director of a school for Jewish boys in Berlin, then, in 1833, welcomed four orphaned children into his own home.
Grammarian and commentator on Rashi, active in the early eighteenth century in Fürth, Amsterdam and Frankfurt-on-the-Main. Devoted like all Jewish scholars of his time to the exclusive study of the Talmud, he recounts that Rashi's biblical commentary remained, on certain passages, a closed book to him, for lack of knowing even the rudiments of Hebrew grammar — which illuminates the educational conditions of German Jews of the time. The scholars of Fürth, unable themselves to explain these passages, mocked his singular taste for Hebrew philology; he then leaves Fürth for Amsterdam, where he studies Hebrew grammar for ten years.
Polish Talmudist, active in the first half of the eighteenth century. He is the author of « Péér Halakha » (Ornament of the Halakha), Zolkiev, 1738, novellas on the Talmud, its commentaries, and the Yad ha-Ḥazaka of Maimonides; the section of the treatise Pessahim known as « the section of R. Ḥanina, the High Priest » is treated there with particular depth.
Rabbi and Talmudist, active in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Head of the rabbinical court (« beth din ») of Cracow, he had to leave his homeland in 1714 due to persecutions against Jews in Poland, subsequently settled in Frankfurt am Main, where he married the daughter of Rabbi Joseph Samuel. He is the author of the « Halakha Beroura » (The Clear Law), commentary on the Shulḥan Arukh, Ora'h Ḥayim (Wilmersdorf, 1717), devoted especially to settling questions on which the Aharonim had widely divergent opinions.
Hebrew scholar, born in Posen at the end of the eighteenth century, died in that same city in 1836. He translates Habakkuk into German with explanatory notes (Breslau, 1821), and collaborates on the Bible translation undertaken by Zunz, for which he provides the translation of Ecclesiastes, on which he also writes a commentary in Hebrew (Breslau, 1837).
French singer and songwriter
Austrian member of parliament and major industrialist, born in Vienna on July 7, 1837, from one of the oldest and most notable Jewish families of Moravia, established in the town of Auspitz from which it takes its name. One of his ancestors, Abraham Auspitz, was chief rabbi of Moravia at the end of the 18th century; his grandfather, Lazar Auspitz, founded the house L. Auspitz, manufacturers of woolens, which are today directed by his older brother Karl and himself. Trained in his native city and at the Technische Hochschule, he completed his education in Berlin and Paris before returning to Austria in 1858, where he has since taken an active part in the industrial and political life of the country.
Rabbi of Bohemia, born in 1755, died March 25, 1855 in Goltsch-Jenikau. A representative of the strictest orthodoxy, he published in Prague in 1826 a polemical pamphlet against Aaron Chorin, the « Mefiboshet ben Yeonatan », where he defends the religious necessity of covering one's head during prayer. He also collaborated with the weekly « Zionswächter », directed by Enoch.
Talmudist who lived in Morocco in the eighteenth century, he is the author of "'Oz we-Hadar", a work published in Livorno in 1855 and containing innovative commentaries on the Talmudic treatises Shebu'ot, 'Avodah Zarah and Horayot.
18th-century Hasidic Rabbi
19th C. rabbi in Ciechanow
Talmudic judge
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102–1.
Rabbi of Rabat, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5533 of the Hebrew era (1773). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Son of Judah Ayyas, he lived in Jerusalem from where he was sent to collect funds for the poor of Palestine; in 1783, he was received with great honors in Algiers, then answered a call from Ferrara where he established himself as rabbi and teacher — one of his students was Nepi, coauthor of the « Toledot Gedole Yisrael ». He is the author of the « Derek Ḥayyim » (The Path of Life), published in Livorno in 1810, dealing notably with the annulment of vows and the ceremony of Tashlik.
Author and translator born in Fürth, Germany, he edited, with his own commentary on the thirteen hermeneutical rules, an excerpt from the 'Shulḥan 'Aruk' of his father-in-law Eliezer ha-Ḳaṭan, published in Fürth in 1696-97. Subsequently settled in Amsterdam, he published there in 1727 the 'Meẓiat 'Azariah', a translation into Judeo-German of the 'Sam Ḥayyim' by Moses Sulzbach, reissued in Zolkiew in 1795.
Kabbalist and rabbi in Livorno, born in the interior of Africa and died in Jerusalem in 1740, he had at Livorno a controversy with Abraham Ḥayyim Rodriguez before becoming rabbi in Aleppo and then in Jerusalem, where he remained until his death. He composed the « Zobeaḥ Todah », a long penitential prayer on the organs that lead man to sin, published in Constantinople in 1733 after the model of the « Sefer Ḥaredim » by Eleazar Azkari, as well as the « Yissa Berakah » and other mystical works.
Hakam of Amsterdam in the eighteenth century, died in 1792, he devoted himself to rabbinical studies and was elected hakam of Amsterdam in 1782; he published in 1788 a sermon entitled « Triumphos da Virtude », pronounced on the occasion of the anniversary of William V, Prince of Orange.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Grammarian who lived at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, he left around 1700 his native city of Wilna to settle with his family in Frankfurt am Main. There he published in 1704, with his son Élie, a prayer book entitled "Derek Siaḥ ha-Sadeh," accompanied by a commentary on the rules of punctuation and reading; a second edition appeared in Berlin in 1713, refuting the criticisms of Salomon Hanau, and a third in Wilhelmsdorf in 1721.
Rabbi of Algiers, died in Blida, Algeria, in January 1794, he assisted his father in his functions as rabbi of Algiers from his youth, whom he succeeded upon his death. He published, preceded by a preface from the bibliographer Azoulaï, a collection of sermons for all the holidays entitled « Yamim Ahadim », published in Livorno in 1790, and signed in 1791 one of the approbations attached to the work « Berit Abraham » by Abraham ben Raphael Jacob Bush'arah.
Rabbi of Algiers, died in October 1785, he composed several prayers for the annual commemoration of the defeat of the O'Reilly expedition against Algiers in 1775; some of his Arabic poems appear in the collection « Shibḥe Elohim », published in Oran. He also wrote a brief commentary on the « Kerobetz », a collection of hymns of the Algiers ritual, published in Livorno, and was reputed for his unselfishness.
German rabbi
Founder of Hasidism in Podolia (Ukraine). His revolutionary teaching emphasized joy, fervent prayer, and the divine presence in all things, making spirituality accessible to the Jewish masses. Hasidism became the most important movement of renewal in modern Judaism.
Chronicler of Kashan, grandson of Babai ben Lutf, author of Kitab-i sarguzasht-i Kashan (1729).
German painter, born in Potsdam in May 1756 and died in Breslau on April 8, 1829 (1826 according to other sources), he received his initial training from Potsdam painter A. B. Krüger before entering, thanks to the influence of Colonel Guichard, the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Protected by Count Jean Potocki, he traveled and studied for four years (1786-1792) in Italy, notably in Rome and Portici, was elected member of the Academy of Florence in 1788, then appointed in 1792 director and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Breslau and member of that of Berlin in 1794.
Italian miniature painter established in Paris in the middle of the eighteenth century, under the reign of Louis XV, he appears in a police list of Jews then residing in Paris, published by Paul d'Estrées, who describes him as a miniature painter of considerable talent.
Rabbi and talmudist born in Lithuania around 1775 and died in Seiny, in the government of Suwałki, on 25 April 1846, he descended at the seventh generation from Tobie Bachrach, beheaded with Israël ben Shalom under an accusation of ritual murder at Rushony on 19 September 1659. A model of piety, he distributed to the poor all the revenues of his charge as rabbi of Seiny and lived from the interest of a fund that his friends had placed for him; his talmudic annotations, « Nimmuḳe Hagrib », appear in the edition of the Talmud published by Rom in Wilna.
Baer of Meseritz, called the Maggid, is the first apostle of Hasidism and its most important propagator, born in Volhynia in 1710 and died in Meseritz on 15 December 1772. Trained, as was then customary in Poland, in the Talmud and rabbinic literature, he preached in Rowno and then in Meseritz and, without ever being a rabbi, established himself as an accomplished talmudist; converted to Luria's Kabbalistic system and great admirer of Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto, he led an ascetic life — frequent fasts, deprivation, prayers in tears — which, combined with his poverty, eventually made him infirm and led him to seek help from the Besht.
Russian rabbi of the first half of the eighteenth century, descendant of Rabbi Nathan Nata Shapira of Krakow, author of the « Megalleh 'Amuḳim », he himself composed the « Neṭa' Sha'ashuim », a commentary on certain parts of the Talmud, published in Zolkiev in 1748.
Author of the eighteenth century, established in Altona, Germany, he wrote there in 1737 the "Be'er-Ṭob" (A Good Explanation), a work of casuistic and homiletic explanations of the Talmud.
Polish Hasidic writer of the late eighteenth century, son-in-law of Alexandre, who for several years was the secretary of the Besht, he held from his father-in-law precious information on the origins of Hasidism. His son Juda Löb published after his death, in 1815, « Shibḥei ha-Besht » (Praises of the Ba'al Shem Tov), a collection of Hasidic legends that remains almost the only authentic source on these origins; the work appeared the same year in two versions, that of Kopys and that of Berditchev, the latter omitting several legends deemed too extraordinary.
Founder of a bookbookselling house in Frankfurt am Main, born in the second half of the eighteenth century and died in 1851, he opened a small secondhand book stall in Bockenheim in 1785 before obtaining Frankfurt citizenship and establishing himself there. The enterprise developed to become one of the most important in Germany, supplying many major European libraries, including the Imperial Public Library of Saint Petersburg; for its centenary, in 1885, the house published a jubilee catalogue of ten thousand works.
Court Jew of the Margrave Christian Ernst of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, died in 1712, he enjoyed great credit with the Margrave and used it for the good of his coreligionists, whose maintenance in peace in the country he obtained. His position, momentarily shaken in 1700 by a hostile adviser of the Margrave, was quickly restored; that same year, he married his daughter to Moses Hameln, son of Glückel Hameln, who later became rabbi of Baiersdorf and to whom we owe the preservation of his mother's precious memoirs. In 1714, Baiersdorf was slandered by the converted Jew Philipp Ernst Christfels and engaged in a lawsuit whose outcome is unknown.
Astronomer and politician, born in Paris on September 15, 1736 and guillotined on November 12, 1793, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1763 then to the French Academy in 1784, before becoming in 1789 deputy for Paris to the Estates General then mayor of Paris. Favorable to the oppressed, he was among those who obtained the emancipation of the Jews of France by the decree of September 27, 1791, which declared them full citizens; his popularity declined after he had forcibly dispersed, on July 17, 1791, the crowd at the Champ de Mars demanding the deposition of Louis XVI, and he was guillotined after fleeing and being tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal.
Chief of the Jews of Algeria and financier, born around 1770 and beheaded on 4 February 1811, he directed from a young age the house « Bakri Brothers » founded by his father, then, after his marriage in 1797 to the niece of Naphtali Busnach, the firm « Bakri Busnach », whose business prospered under the protection of the Regency of Algiers. After the ruin of the house following the assassination of Busnach, he refounded the firm « Bakri » and was appointed in 1806 chief of the Jews of Algeria, a position which brought him the enmity of David Duran and led him to a condemnation for high treason followed by his beheading.
Consul of France in Algiers before the French conquest, born in Algiers in 1763 and died in Paris on 23 November 1836, immensely rich and highly esteemed for his qualities, he was appointed consul under the Restoration and negotiated in 1827, under Charles X, a French claim against the dey Hasan; vigorously defending French interests, he was insulted by the dey, which the French government took as a national affront and which triggered the war resulting in the conquest of Algiers. Refuged in Paris from the start of the conflict, he was constantly harassed there by his creditors, unable to recover a debt of thirty-five million francs owed by the Spanish government.
Chief of the Jews of Algeria and financier, born in Algiers in the mid-eighteenth century and died in Livorno in 1817, he founded the house « Bakri Frères », which played a major role in Algerian politics for half a century. Upon the death of his son David, he resumed the direction of family affairs and was appointed by the dey as chief of the Jews of Algeria — a dignity which, as for his son, brought him misfortune: banished from Algeria in 1816 and stripped of his possessions by the dey, he retired to Livorno, where he spent the last years of his life in poverty and abandonment.
Hungarian rabbi, born in 1773 in Alt-Ofen and died on December 28, 1854, son of the learned rabbi Jacob Banet, he distinguished himself early by his knowledge of the Talmud, to which he devoted his spare time even after establishing himself in the wool trade and marrying; ruined, he had to seek a rabbinical post, serving successively in Szécsény, Paks and then Neutra, where he died at eighty-two. Opposed to the « pilpoul » then in vogue in Hungary, he took great medieval authors as his models, attracted students from far away without ever publishing a work himself, and was revered as a saint by Jews and Christians during his lifetime.
Italian officer and community notable, he lived in Rome at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth. During the French occupation of the city, he was appointed major of the national forces on March 18, 1798; after the reconquest by the Neapolitans and their allies, he paid 700 écus as part of the heavy tribute then exacted from the Jews. In 1811, he was elected deputy-representative of the Jewish community of Rome.
Christian translator of the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, born in Schwabach, Bavaria, in 1721 and died in 1740, he was only thirteen when he published in 1734 his annotated translation, in two volumes, of the "Travels of Rabbi Benjamin son of Jona of Tudela," accompanied by essays on the rabbis encountered by Benjamin, the exilarchs, the Khazars, and the ten lost tribes. The preface, dated 1733, attests to this precocious achievement, although the work repeats many errors of its predecessors and betrays prejudices against those of whom it treats.
Talmudist and rabbi, born around 1725 in Barby, near Halberstadt, in Prussia, and died on July 28, 1789 in Pressburg, he became dayyan and then, in 1756, serving rabbi in Halberstadt until 1763, before taking over the rabbinate and yeshiva of Pressburg, which he maintained for twenty-five years. Considered one of the greatest dialecticians of his time, whence his nickname "Ḥarif", he published his Talmudic novellae, the "Sefer Ḥiddushe Halakhot" (Dyhrenfurth-Prague, 1786-92), and distinguished himself by his rare interest for a Talmudist of his time in medicine and secular studies.
Merchant and Hebrew scholar, born in Lemberg in 1794 and died in Vienna on April 11, 1864, he devoted his leisure to the study of Hebrew literature and composed « 'Aḳedat Yiṣḥaḳ », a drama adapted from the Italian « Isacco » by Metastasio (Vienna, 1833), as well as a Hebrew-German dictionary, the « Ma'arik ha-Ma'arakot », published posthumously by Max Letteris in 1868. He also contributed to numerous Jewish periodicals.
Grammarian who lived in Lithuania at the end of the eighteenth century, he is the author of « Ṭa'ame Torah » (The Accents of the Law), second part of a grammatical treatise published in Wilna in 1822 by his brother Meïr, who added his own essay in defense of the Law. In his introduction, he also claims commentaries on the Idra Rabba, on the two Talmuds and on the Shoulhan Aroukh, as well as a work on ethics, « Darke ha-Shem ».
Translator into Judeo-Spanish of prayers composed by Malachi ben Jacob on the occasion of the earthquake in Livorno, in January 1742, under the title "Traduccion de la Oracion del Ajuno de los Temblores de Tierra" (Pisa, 1746), he lived in Italy in the middle of the eighteenth century. His name could be connected to the city of Barga, in Tuscany, or to a certain Alonzo de Bargas of Palma de Majorca, burned at the auto-da-fé of Seville on February 24, 1722.
French politician, member of the National Assembly, born in Grenoble, in Dauphiné, on 22 October 1761, and guillotined in Paris on 29 November 1793, from a Protestant family, he became known from age twenty-two as a political orator and was elected in 1789 as a deputy of the Third Estate to the Estates General, becoming one of the leaders of the popular party. Marked by the restrictive laws he himself had suffered as a Protestant, he pleaded ardently, alongside Mirabeau, the cause of the Jews, and delivered on 23 December 1789 a great speech in their favor against the attacks of abbé Maury and the bishop of Nancy, thereby greatly contributing to their emancipation.
Dayyan in London, locally known as « Rabbi Aryeh Loeb », born in Krotoschin, in the Grand Duchy of Posen, in 1797, and died in London on February 10, 1878, son of the head of the rabbinical tribunal of his native city, he was the student of the eminent rabbi Akiba Eger of Posen. Jointly with Rabbi Aaron, he exercised the functions of dayyan in London for nearly half a century, becoming one of the best-known figures of the community, Orthodox rabbi and fervent student of the Talmud; about five years before his death, he was struck with blindness.
Dramatist and actor, born in 1800 and died in Montreal on March 18, 1856, trained first in music before turning to theater, he achieved success at Drury Lane in 1833 in "The Schoolfellows" by Douglas Jerrold, then composed in 1837 "Monsieur Jacques", a musical play that triumphed at the St James's Theater and in which he excelled himself in the title role of French character. Music critic of the "Morning Post" and "Era" for about seven years, he left in September 1854 for America after farewell performances at the Adelphi Theater, but his tour failed because of the illness that was to carry him off.
French painter, born in Besançon in 1816 and died in Geneva in 1885, one of the principal representatives of the historical genre in France, he painted especially the light side of the social life of the Renaissance and rococo, with the easy touch and richness of detail characteristic of the French school of the eighteenth century. His watercolors, highly appreciated, and several of his paintings are in the Musée du Luxembourg, including « Fête aux Tuileries during the Paris Exposition of 1867 »; he also illustrated Rousseau, Boccaccio, Fénelon and Perrault, and received several medals, including a third-class medal at the Universal Exposition of 1867, as well as commissions from Napoleon III.
Author who remained largely unknown, not to be confused with Daniel Levi de Barrios, he is the author of the work « Theologia Natural Contra los Atheos, Epicureos, y Sectarios del Tiempo », published in The Hague in 1725.
Prussian diplomat and patron, uncle of composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, born May 13, 1779 in Berlin and died Protestant on July 27, 1825 in Rome, he converted to Protestantism in 1805 under the influence of Pastor Reinhard in Dresden, after a journey to Greece from which he brought back a work published the same year. Wounded at the Battle of Ebersberg during the 1809 campaign against Napoleon, he was appointed in 1815 consul general of Prussia in Italy and settled in Rome, where he became a passionate patron, having his house, Casa Bartholdy, decorated by four German artists whose frescoes on the history of Joseph later joined the National Gallery of Berlin.
Polish Jewish mechanic from the early eighteenth century, established in Pogrebishche, he manufactured two large brass chandeliers for the synagogue of the city, from scrap metal collected over years. One, intended for Hanukkah, takes the traditional form of the menorah ; the other is a plate with four corners equipped with arms. Poor, he earned his living by repairing metal objects.
Austrian rabbi of the 18th century, born in Leipnik in Moravia, he officiated in Semlin, in Croatia. He is the author of "Zera' Shemuel", novellae on the treatise Ketoubot published in Vienna in 1796, as well as "Le-David Baruk", an unpublished commentary on the Psalms accompanied by homilies.
Casuist who lived in Poland at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. He is the author of "Shema'tatade-Rab," a collection of discussions on halakhic questions left unresolved by Samuel Edels, part of which was published under the title "Sheṭara Berurin" in Wilna in 1819.
Rabbi and Talmudist
Hungarian rabbi
Russian rabbi and leader of the Hasidim of Ukraine, born around 1750 in Medzhibozh, Podolia, where he dies in 1810. Grandson of Israel Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, and twin brother of Moses Hayyim Ephraim of Sudylkov, he directed for more than thirty years the Hasidim of Podolia, first in Tulchin then in Medzhibozh, holding a court renowned for its splendor.
(1762-1813)
Judeo-Polish merchant burned at the stake in Saint Petersburg on July 15, 1738, he had prospered in commerce thanks to the protection of nobles. In 1722, merchants from Smolensk accused him of having erected a synagogue in Zvyerovichi and mistreated the village priest; the Holy Synod ordered the demolition of the place of worship, and Catherine I eventually ordered his expulsion from Russia. In 1783, accused of having converted and circumcised a naval officer, he perished at the stake by order of Empress Anna, an episode followed by repressive measures against Jews in 1739 and 1740.
Writer (1744-1808)
Polish financier, agent of the Polish prime minister Count Brühl, born in Starokonstantinov, in Volhynia, in the early 18th century, and died probably between 1770 and 1780. Descendant of Rabbi Shalom Shachna of Kraków, he placed his influence at the Polish court at the service of his coreligionists, fighting against the spread of Sabbatean teachings and striving, with the support of Count Brühl, to protect Jewish communities from persecution by the Catholic clergy.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Died in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Born in 5498 (1738), died in 5577 (1817) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-3.
Proofreader and author active in the second half of the eighteenth century, in Amsterdam and then in Hamburg. He composes poems published in the « Se'ah Solet » of Raphaël ben Gabriel Norzi (Amsterdam, 1757) and in the « Maskiyot Kesef » of Mardochée b. Isaac Tama (1765), before becoming hakham of the Portuguese-Spanish community of Hamburg. He is the author of « Sermones Funèbres » (Amsterdam, 1753), funeral sermons in Spanish, and is attributed the « Yashresh Ya'aẓob » (Nuremberg, 1778).
Hakham of the Portuguese community of Hamburg, he published in 1755 a prayer for a day of fasting proclaimed by this congregation on the occasion of the great Lisbon earthquake.
German poet and teacher born in Posen on July 17, 1800, died in Berlin on September 24, 1841. A precocious child, capable of explaining the Talmud from his earliest years, he went to Berlin in 1817, where he copied Hebrew manuscripts and collaborated with the « Wadzecks-Wochenblatt ». In 1825, he traveled through Southern Germany, where he met Goethe, before becoming professor of Hebrew at the Weyl seminary in Berlin; the closure of this establishment left him subsequently in destitution.
Italian physician and medical writer born in Pisa in 1799, died in Florence on September 18, 1869. Educated at the secondary school and at the university of his native city, he obtained his diploma in 1817 and published his first work, "Discorso", in 1823, followed the following year by "L'Esposizione della Medicina Fisiologica di Broussais". In 1825, the Grand Duke of Tuscany appointed him secretary of the Jewish community of Livorno.
Architect born in London in 1794, died in Ely in 1845. Son of George Basevi, whose sister Maria had married Isaac Disraeli, he was the student of Sir John Soane, traveled in Italy and Greece in 1816 and returned to England in 1819. Appointed in 1821 surveyor of the Guardian Assurance Company, he realized his best-known work, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, in classical style in 1837, before dying accidentally by falling from the bell tower of Ely Cathedral.
Italian jurist born in Mantua in 1780, died in Milan in 1867. His reputation led him to be chosen to defend Andreas Hofer before the court martial. When the Austrian government replaced the French government, Basevi settled in Milan, where he remained until his death. His principal works include a treatise on the dissolution of fiefs (1844) and a commentary on the Austrian civil code, reprinted seven times between 1845 and 1857.
Italian rabbi of the first half of the eighteenth century, son of Israel Hezekiah Bassani and student of Moses Zacuto and Juda Briel of Mantua. Rabbi in Cento from 1702 to 1707, he then settled in Padua, where he is still attested in 1716, then in Reggio, where he died sometime after 1736. Moses Hayyim Luzzatto counted among his students, and many of his rabbinical decisions are preserved in the « Pahad Yitzhak » of Lampronti.
Rabbi in Reggio, Italy, born in 1703, died in that city on January 20, 1790. Son of Isaïe Bassani, he was a skilled poet in both Hebrew and Italian: he composed eighty Hebrew poems in honor of Francesco III of Modena, accompanied by their Italian translation, published in Venice in 1750, as well as « La Corona Estense » (Venice, 1753) and « Todat Shelamim », a collection of halakhic writings (Venice, 1741). An eulogistic biographical notice was devoted to him by Benedetto Frizzi in 1791.
English scholar specializing in the Bible and Hebrew, born around 1711, died in Arundel on January 20, 1771. Trained at St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his master's degree in 1740, he took a particular interest in the Old Testament, entering into controversy with Bishop Warburton regarding his "Divine Legation of Moses" and with Kennicott over the variants of the Hebrew text that the latter had published. Among his works are a Hebrew-English dictionary without vowel points and a translation of the Pentateuch and historical books through the end of the second Book of Kings, published in 1773.
Christian author of a theology of the Old Testament, born in Hippolstein, Bavaria, on 14 August 1755, died on 13 January 1806. Appointed in 1789 professor of philosophy and oriental languages at the University of Altdorf, then in 1805 professor at the University of Heidelberg, where he died, he was one of the active representatives of Enlightenment rationalism. His work « Theologie des Alten Testaments », published anonymously in 1796 and based on the work of his colleague Johann Philipp Gabler from 1787, makes him the first to have produced a theology of the Old Testament; he pursued it with other volumes in 1801 and 1802.
Dayan and shoḥet (ritual slaughterer) in Leipnik, in Moravia, at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. He is the author of the « Zivhé Shelamim » (Sacrifices of Thanksgiving), treating in question-and-answer form the laws relating to ritual slaughter and the examination of the lungs, which he published himself in Brünn in 1795 ; the work, appreciated for the convenience of its method, was reprinted several times.
French banker
French journalist born in Metz in 1759, died in Paris on July 21, 1805. At twenty-five, he publishes a French translation of Moses Mendelssohn's « Phaedo » under the title « Treatise on the Soul », then, in 1788, attracts the attention of Abbé Grégoire, Mirabeau, Lafayette and Roederer through his writings in favor of Jews. He also translated Mendelssohn's « Phaedo » into Hebrew, with a preface by poet Hartwig Wessely (Berlin, 1786), before having to interrupt his literary career to support his family by managing salt works in eastern France.
Principal cantor of the Jewish community of Berlin, born in 1738, died January 3, 1821, in the fiftieth year of his ministry as cantor. Endowed with a tenor voice exceptional for its range and power, he attracted, around 1770, music lovers from afar to hear him. The Royal Library of Berlin preserves a fine portrait depicting him as a young man, holding in hand a title page.
German author born in July 1801 in Dresden, died in that city on 1 July 1861, descended through his mother from the Bondi family, established in Saxony in the mid-18th century. Self-taught, lacking access to public schools, he formed in 1824 a society for the study of the Bible and Hebrew literature, and became the first to introduce preaching in German in the synagogues of Dresden. In 1829, for the centenary of the birth of Mendelssohn, he founded with E. Collin the Mendelssohn-Verein to promote commerce, art and science among Jews; he received in 1834 the doctorate from the University of Leipzig.
Austrian pedagogue born February 19, 1758 in Neubydžov, Bohemia, died November 8, 1838 in Prague. Trained in the Talmud then, rarely, in German and Latin, he entered the yeshiva of Prague before beginning, in Hungary, a teaching career, which the desire to study led him to continue in Vienna. Teacher at the Jewish school of Prague from 1811, he reformed instructional methods and became an advanced advocate of religious reform for his time. He is the author of numerous pedagogical manuals, including "Toledot Yisrael", a biblical history published in Prague in 1796.
Astronomer, brother of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer and poet Michael Beer, born in Berlin on January 4, 1797, died in that city on March 27, 1850. After participating in the campaigns of 1813 and 1815 against Napoleon, he entered his father's bank, which he took over upon his father's death in 1826, while devoting himself to astronomy under the direction of J. H. Mädler. With him, he observed the planet Mars during the oppositions of 1828, 1832, 1835, and 1837, and published in 1830 the results of the first series; in 1846, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Prussia.
French surgeon and author born in Liège, Belgium, on November 2, 1793, died in Gorriquen, near Lacrouan, in Brittany, on April 13, 1859. Assistant surgeon during the Napoleonic campaigns, he became in 1821 instructor of physiology at the military gymnasium of Metz, obtained his doctorate in Strasbourg in 1823, then taught anatomy and surgery in Strasbourg from 1832 onward, before settling in Paris in 1835. Member of the French Academy of Medicine from its founding, he was its president in 1847, sat on the Health Council of the French armies from 1842 then presided over it from 1850 to 1857, and was made Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1851.
Rabbi and poet born in Tunis on 18 Ab 1773, died in London in 1853, with a career as curious as it was itinerant. First rabbi in Tunis and treasurer of the bey, pressed by creditors, he goes to Jerusalem, then travels through Europe from 1817 to collect donations, notably receiving a thousand francs from King Victor-Emmanuel I in Turin; in 1827, he stands as a candidate for the rabbinate of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam. Rabbi in Nice for a few years, he is from 1840 to 1853 attached to the yeshiva of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of Bevis Marks, in London.
English pugilist known as 'Aby' Belasco, born in London on April 9, 1797. He entered the ring in 1817 by defeating the protégé of Tom Cribb, then fought many bouts in the following years, notably winning his victories of 1818 and 1824 and suffering several defeats, including those of 1819, 1820, and 1823 against Phil Sampson. He then retired from the ring to open a gaming house, gradually descended into social decay, and died in extreme poverty.
English pugilist born in London in 1800, brother of the more famous Abraham "Aby" Belasco. He made his ring debut on July 23, 1817 at Moulsey Heath, where he was beaten by Ned Brown, then won on September 15, 1819 against Kit Barber at Tarbury Common. On October 30, 1821, he beat Saunders at the same place as before, but lost on March 19, 1823, at Moulsey Heath, against A. Matthewson.
Journalist, translator and author of Judeo-Dutch school manuals, born in The Hague on September 24, 1761, died in that city on June 29, 1827. He founded in 1806 the first Judeo-Dutch newspaper, « Sulamith », devoted to the interests of the Amsterdam Jewish community, interrupted in 1808. He notably published, in 1816, a Dutch translation of the Hebrew catechism of Shalom Cohen, « Shorashe Emounah », and, in 1822, « Parabelin », parables and legends drawn from the Talmud.
Christian Hebraicist and professor of theology at the University of Berlin, born in Erfurt on September 23, 1754, died in Berlin on October 25, 1842. A graduate of Göttingen, he taught for four years in Reval, Russia, before returning to Erfurt in 1782 as a Magister legens, then as associate professor of theology and philosophy at the university of that city. In 1804, he was appointed director of the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin and professor of theology at the university there. A pioneer of Hebrew epigraphy, he published notably, in 1795, a work on the twelve stones of the Jordan, in 1813 an essay on Hebrew metrics, and in 1824 a study of the Urim and Thummim.
Jurist and writer active in Surinam, in the Dutch Antilles, author of several works on colonial administration and the benevolent society of Surinam: « Over de Hervorming van het Regeringsstelsel in Nederlandsch West-Indië » (Leiden, 1857), « Werkzaamheden der Surinaamsche Maatschappij van Weldadigheid » (Paramaribo, 1858) and « Neêrlands West-Indië in z. belangen » (Leiden, 1855).
Poetess who lived in London in the early 18th century, sister of the patron Mardochai Nuñez Almeyda. She was among those who celebrated Lopez Laguna's « Espejo Fiel de Vidas » (London, 1720), and also composed a poem in honor of Samuel Nassy of Surinam.
Dutch diplomat who lived in Amsterdam in the first half of the eighteenth century, nephew of Baron Manuel de Belmonte, whom he succeeded in 1706 as resident of the King of Spain in the Netherlands — a position abolished upon the accession of the Bourbons to the throne of Spain.
One of the most eminent Oriental casuists, son of Moses Nuñez Belmonte, active in Smyrna at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. He published a commentary on the first two parts of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah under the title "Sha'ar ha-Melekh" (Salonique, 1771; 2nd annotated ed. by Baruch ben Jonas Jeiteles, Brünn, 1801; 3rd annotated ed. by Joseph Saül Nathanson, Lemberg, 1859), one of the most important productions of Oriental casuistry, as well as the "Derekh ha-Sha'ar", discourse published in the "Darkhé ha-Yam" of Raphaël Maggio (Salonique, 1813).
Chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, in the second half of the eighteenth century, where he succeeded his father Abraham Ben-Ezra; he died in 1782. He is the author of a series of Hebrew sermons, « Yad Shelomoh » (The Hand of Solomon), published in Saloniqua in 1826, as well as two other works, « Bet-Metabahia » and « Bet-Abtinas ».
First grammarian and lexicographer Jewish of modern times, born near Cracow in 1764, died in Vienna on March 12, 1811. Married very young, he settled in Cracow with his parents-in-law, dividing his days between the study of the Talmud and, at night, the clandestine learning of Hebrew philology, before joining Berlin, center of the Haskalah. He lived subsequently about ten years in Breslau, where he drafted his Hebrew grammar, « Talmud Leshon Ivri » (1796), before returning to Cracow and then settling in Vienna as a proofreader in the Hebrew printing house of Anton Schmid, a position he held until his death.
Lazarus Bendavid is a German philosopher and reformer born in Berlin on 18 October 1762 and died in the same city on 28 March 1832. Self-taught in mathematics, he became a convinced follower of Kantian philosophy after studies in Göttingen and Halle, and taught Kant's thought in Vienna from 1793 before returning to Berlin, where he directed from 1806 to 1825 the Freischule founded by David Friedländer and Daniel Itzig. Nicknamed « the modern Diogenes » for the extreme simplicity of his life, he remained Kantian until the end, never rallying to the new currents of Fichte, Schelling or Hegel.
Johann Heinrich Bender is a German jurist born in Frankfurt on May 29 or September 29, 1797 and died in the same city on September 6, 1859. He studied law at Giessen, where he taught from 1819 to 1823, then settled in 1831 in Frankfurt to practice, before joining the executive committee of the customs tariff commission, a position he held until his death; he is notably the author, in 1819, of the « Grundriss der Deutschen Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte ».
Moses Benedict is a German banker and artist born in 1772 in Stuttgart and died in the same city on July 8, 1852. Intended for sculpture, he is sent in 1785 with his brother Seligmann Löb to the Karlsschule in Stuttgart, before the two brothers together direct the Benedict Brothers bank; gifted for miniature painting, he was the intimate friend of the painter Christian Gottlieb Schick, with whom he corresponded for years.
Naphtali ben Mordecai Benet, son of the chief rabbi of Moravia Mordecai Benet, is a rabbi and author born in the late eighteenth century and died in October 1857 in Schafa, in Moravia, where he was active. He notably published, in Prague, a collection on the laws of meat salting (1816) and a Jewish catechism in Hebrew and German (1832), which knew several editions; of moderate orthodoxy, he nevertheless took up his father's positions against the reformed movement and attacked Aaron Chorin.
Mordecai Benet is a Talmudist, chief rabbi of Moravia, born in 1753 in Csurgő, Hungary, and died in Carlsbad on August 12, 1829. Sent as a child to his grandmother in Nikolsburg and then trained in Ittingen, Alsace, he afterwards studied for three years at the yeshiva of Joseph Steinhard in Fürth before establishing himself in Nikolsburg in 1773; he becomes rabbi of Lundenburg then of Schossberg, before being appointed in 1789 rabbi of Nikolsburg and chief rabbi of Moravia, a position he held until his death despite offers from Presburg and Cracow. His best-known Talmudic work, « Biur Mordecai », a commentary on the abridgment of Mordecai b. Hillel, appears in Vienna in 1813.
Benjamin ben Aaron is a hasidic author active at the end of the eighteenth century, disciple of Israël Baal Chem Tov and Baer of Mezeritch; he is preacher in Zlazitz in 1790. He is the author of several collections of biblical homilies, including "Amtaḥat Binyamin", on Ecclesiastes (Minkowicz, 1769), "Ahawat Dodim", on the Song of Songs (Lemberg, 1795), and "Ṭure Zahab", on the Pentateuch, Lamentations and Esther (Mohilev, 1816).
German Jewish district rabbi (Bezirksrabbiner), first district rabbi of Breisach am Rhein from 1825, died at age 28.
Printer and publisher active in Salonika around 1770. He edited and annotated the Sha'are Rahamim of Hayyim ha-Kohen and Solomon Abbadi. He belonged to the Ottoman branch of the Kimhi/Kamhi family, to be distinguished from the Provençal Kimhi (David and Joseph Kimhi of Narbonne).
Born into a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family of Bordeaux (of Portuguese descent), doctor in mathematics from the University of Paris (1815). Principal disciple of Saint-Simon, he codified Saint-Simonism after 1825. In mathematics, he leaves the "Rodrigues formula" (Legendre polynomials), the Rodrigues rotation formula and the Euler–Rodrigues parameters; his 1840 memoir anticipates quaternions.
son of Solomon Zalman; disciple of the Gaon of Vilna
Benjamin Wolf ben Ẓebi Hirsch is a Judeo-German writer active in the eighteenth century in Germany, author of the « Sefer ha-Ḥesheḳ », a Judeo-German collection of medical prescriptions published in Hanau in 1726.
Polish-Hungarian rabbi
Benjamin Ze'eb Wolf ben Shabbethai is a dayyan active in Pinczow at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, editor of the Shulḥan 'Arukh, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, furnished with notes gathering the opinions of rabbinical authorities of the seventeenth century and sometimes his own. The work, published in Berlin in 1712 under the title "Misgeret ha-Shulḥan," contains a preface by his son Shabbethai and, in appendix, the "Teḳanot ha-Boreḥim," laws on bankruptcies enacted by the Council of the Four Lands.
Hillel Benjamin is a Polish architect of the second half of the eighteenth century, born in Lasko, known for having built the synagogue of Lutomierz under the reign of the last king of Poland, Stanislas Auguste. Later tasked with building the one in Zloczow, he dies falling from the roof he was inspecting, before completing the work, and is buried in the cemetery of Zloczow.
Simeon Benjamin, also known as Levi Benjamin, is an English Hebraist grammarian who publishes in London, in 1773, "Da'at Ḳedoshim", a short Hebrew grammar among the very first works composed by an Ashkenazi in England.
Nathan Lazarus Benmohel, the first practicing Jew to obtain a degree from a British university, was born in Hamburg around 1800 and died in 1869. Settled in Dublin in 1829 as a languages teacher, he entered the university in 1832, obtained his B.A. in 1836 and his M.A. in 1846, and held the position of assistant professor of German and French at Dublin University from 1839 to 1842.
Solomon Bennett is an English theologian and engraver born in Russia before 1780 and died after 1841. Author of several biblical works, including "The Temple of Ezekiel" (1824) and "Critical Remarks on the Authorized Version" (1834), he undertook in 1841 a revised translation of the English Bible, of which only two fascicles, covering Genesis i-xli, were published before the project was abandoned; he lived in Berlin in 1795-99 before spending the end of his life in Bristol.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5558 of the Hebrew era (1798). Son of Yihye I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-4.
Benzion, whose full name is Benjamin Ze'eb Wolf ben Jacob ha-Lévi, is a talmudist active probably in Galicia in the mid-eighteenth century, author of "'Et Raṣon", a collection of moral essays intended for the first part of the Minḥa prayer on the Sabbath, published in Zolkiev in 1777. In his introduction, he mentions two other works of his hand, which remained unpublished.
German rabbi
Aryeh Löb ben Abraham Meïr Berlin, also called Berliner, is a German rabbi born in 1738 in Fürth, Bavaria, and died in Cassel on May 21, 1814. Dayyan then rabbi of Baiersdorf in his youth, he became Grand Rabbi of Bamberg in 1789, where a lawsuit over the division of an inheritance briefly threatened his reputation before he was acquitted; elected Grand Rabbi of Hesse-Cassel, he settled there in 1795 and became, at the foundation of the Kingdom of Westphalia, Grand Rabbi of the Israelite Consistory of Westphalia in 1808 then « Consistorialrath » in 1809. He also drafted annotations to the Talmud, published in Fürth in 1829-32.
Jacob Berlin, called Yokob, is a German Talmudist born in 1707, probably in Berlin, and died in 1749 in Fürth, Bavaria, student of Jacob ha-Cohen, author of the « Sheb Ya'aḳob », and established in Fürth by 1734 as a simple wealthy individual — unrelated to the famous Berlin family of that city. Two of his seven works were published after his death: « Be'er Ya'aḳob », a collection of responsa published by his brother Isaac and his son Abraham in 1767, and « Zikron Ya'aḳob », a homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch, in 1769.
Esther Bernard, née Gad, later Domeier, is a German poetess and woman of letters born in Breslau, Silesia, around 1770 and died around 1814, granddaughter through her mother of the famous rabbi Jonathan Eybeschütz. Married around twenty to a certain Bernard, with whom she settled in Berlin, she divorced after a few years and married Dr. Domeier of London, with whom she lived in Malta; from her youth she published poems and short stories in several German journals, including an English short story, « Marcus and Monima » (1795), as well as, after her second marriage, « Gesammelte Blätter » (Leipsic, 1805) and « Briefe Während Meines Aufenthaltes in England und Portugal » (1803).
Abraham Bernard is a Russian physician born in 1762. Trained in London in 1789, he practices in Hasenpoth in Courland, becomes district physician in Chavli in the government of Wilna, then inspector of military hospitals in Lithuania, and is appointed in 1809 chief surgeon of the Slonim hospital; a court counselor, he practices in Mitau in 1810-11 before settling in Moscow. He notably published, in 1799, observations on the premature burial of Jews in Mitau.
Hermann Bernard is professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, England, born of Austrian parents in Ouman, in southern Russia, in 1785; his father, a converted Jew, raised him in Christianity. Arriving in England in 1825, he settled in Cambridge in 1830 and was appointed on October 18, 1837, "Præceptor Linguæ Sacræ", succeeding Josephus Crool; he died there on November 15, 1857, at seventy-two, after twenty-seven years of teaching. He notably published "The Creed and Ethics of the Jews" (1832) and "Ha-Menahel" (1839), as well as a Hebrew grammar in two volumes despite his blindness, "Me Menuḥot" (1853).
Gottfried Bernhardy is a German philologist and historian of literature born in Landsberg, in Brandenburg, on March 20, 1800, and died in Halle on May 14, 1875. Supported by uncles in Saint Petersburg after his father's ruin, he studied in Berlin from 1817 under F. A. Wolf, Böckh and Buttmann, obtained his doctorate there in 1822 and became privatdozent in 1823, before receiving a chair at the University of Halle in 1829, where he spent his entire career, as prorector from 1841 to 1843 then chief librarian from 1844. He publishes notably the « Grundriss der Römischen Litteratur » (1830) and his edition of Suidas, completed in 1851 and rewarded by the King of Prussia.
Christian Günther, count of Bernstorff, is a Danish and then Prussian statesman born 3 April 1769 in Copenhagen and died 28 March 1835. Entered diplomacy in 1787 through his father, count Andreas Bernstorff, he served in Berlin from 1789 to 1794 then in Stockholm, became secretary of state in 1797, then prime minister of Denmark from 1800 to 1810; Denmark's representative in Vienna from 1811 to 1815, he there advocated the emancipation of Jews from Holstein at the Congress of Vienna, before being appointed in 1818 Prussian minister of foreign affairs, a position he held until his retirement in 1832.
Merchant/manufacturer in Nancy, elected in 1789 by the Jews of Alsace-Lorraine, he pleaded the cause of emancipation before the Constituent Assembly until the vote of September 27, 1791. He published significant texts on the citizenship of Jews, including the "Lettre d'un citoyen" (Nancy, 1791), and refuted the anti-Jewish discourse of the Bishop of Nancy, La Fare.
Berr Isaac Berr, known as of Turckheim, is a French manufacturer born in Nancy in 1744 and died in Turckheim, near Nancy, on November 5, 1828, heir to the title of syndic of the Jewish community of Nancy granted to his father in 1753 by King Stanislas. Elected in 1789 deputy of the Jews of Alsace to the Estates-General, where he pleads for Jewish emancipation, he subsequently sits in the Assembly of Notables and in the Sanhedrin, and retires in his old age, with a royal pension, to his estate in Turckheim, to whose name he adds his own; he publishes several speeches and letters on the Jewish cause between 1789 and 1806.
Michel Berr, first Jew to practice as a lawyer in France, was born in Nancy in 1780 and died in the same city on July 4, 1843, son of Isaac Berr of Turique. Trained by eminent masters, he began around age twenty as an author in Strasbourg, where he studied law, with a pamphlet against Europe's anti-Jewish laws, then moved to Paris around 1803, where he was elected deputy to the Assembly of Jewish Notables and became secretary of the Great Sanhedrin; head of division at the Ministry of the Interior of Westphalia, he led in 1809 the office of the prefecture of Meurthe, before abandoning the bar for literature in 1813.
Bernard Bertensohn is a Russian teacher and translator born in Odessa at the end of the eighteenth century and died in the same city in 1859. Trained at the school of Basilius Stern, he taught languages long in Odessa, collaborated on the « Odesski Vyestnik » and translated into Russian, in 1841, the novel by L. Philippson « Die Marannen ».
Abbé Bertolio is a French ecclesiastic, member of the Commune of Paris in 1790. When the Jews of France petitioned the National Assembly, on December 24, 1789, to obtain citizenship already granted to the Jews of Bordeaux, Bayonne and Avignon, but refused to those of Alsace and Lorraine, Bertolio presented on January 30, 1790 a favorable report to the Commune, which proposed to first consult the districts; on February 28, he was part of the delegation, led by Abbé Mulot, sent to the National Assembly to request the extension of citizenship to the Jews of Paris.
Auguste Arthur, count of Beugnot, is a French statesman and scholar born in Bar-sur-Aube in March 1797 and died in Paris on March 15, 1865. A lawyer by training, he soon devoted himself entirely to history, particularly that of the Crusades, and became a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres at thirty-five; his work « Les Juifs d'Occident » (Paris, 1824), despite some errors due to secondary sources, provides a valuable contribution to the history of the Jews of France, Spain and Italy, and the author, a Catholic, does not attenuate the horrors of medieval persecutions.
German rabbi
Samuel Bapuji Bhorupkar is a Beni-Israel soldier born near Bombay around 1790, who entered the Fourth Regiment of Bombay on February 2, 1811. After serving in numerous campaigns in Gujarat, Kathiawar, and southern Konkan between 1813 and 1827, he was promoted to jemidar in 1828, subedar in 1833, subedar-major in 1839, received the title of bahadur in 1841, and retired from service in 1847.
Christian Hermann Friedrich Bialloblotzky is a Jew converted to Christianity, born on April 9, 1799 in Pattensen, near Hanover, and died on March 28, 1868 in Ahlden-on-the-Aller. Doctor of theology from the University of Göttingen in 1824, he published works of Christian theology as well as, on Jewish subjects, an English translation of the « Dibré ha-Yamim » of Joseph ha-Cohen under the title « The Chronicles of R. Joseph ben Joshua Meïr, the Sephardi » (London, 1834-36) and a lexicon of Hebrew roots, « Oṣar ha-Shorashim » (London, 1843).
Dmitri Gavrilovitch Bibikov is a Russian military officer, administrator and statesman born in 1792 and died in 1870, appointed in 1837 military governor of Kiev and governor general of Volhynia and Podolia. He resorted to harsh measures against Jews involved in Polish agitation, particularly those of Berditchev, but also obtained, through his remonstrances with the government of Nicholas I, the relaxation of several restrictive laws against them; appointed Minister of the Interior in 1852, a position he held until 1855, he showed himself close to the anti-Jewish spirit of the regime. His brother Ilia Gavrilovitch Bibikov, governor general of Wilna, was on the contrary favorable to the Jews.
Jacob Samuel Bick is an Austrian writer born in the eighteenth century and died in Brody in 1831, a talented satirist and one of the pioneers of the Haskalah among the Jews of Galicia, known for his contributions to « Bikkuré ha-'Ittim » and « Kerem Ḥemed » advocating for the spread of secular knowledge and craftsmanship. Died of cholera in 1831, he left several manuscripts in prose and verse that were destroyed in the great fire of Brody in the spring of 1835, when the house of his son-in-law Isaac Rothenberg was completely razed.
Joachim Heinrich Biesenthal, born Raphael Hirsch, is a theologian and author born in Lobsens, in the province of Posen, in 1800, and died in Berlin in 1886. Destined for the rabbinate, he became linked at the University of Berlin with Wilhelm Vatke, studied Christian theology and published in 1837 a work attempting to prove, from Jewish literature, the doctrine of the Trinity; converted to Christianity the following year, he joined the Evangelical Church then, in 1844, the London Missionary Society, while publishing abundant work in rabbinical philology and biblical commentary. Under the pseudonym « Karl Ignaz Corvé », he defended the Jews in 1840 during the blood accusation of Damascus.
Kabbalist active in Turkey in the eighteenth century, author of several kabbalistic works: « Golel Or », on metempsychosis according to the teachings of Isaac Louria, Hayyim Vital and Azariah of Fano (Smyrna, 1737); « Meoré Or », kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch (Salonika, 1751); « Meïr Bat 'Ayin », explanations of the first volume of the « 'En Ya'aqov » (Smyrna, 1755); « Meïr la-Arets we-la-Dorim », on the order of Sabbatical sections (Salonika, 1747); « Magen Abot », commentary on Pirqé Abot (Salonika, 1748); and « Qarah Miqrah », on the expiation of sexual impurities (Salonika, 1752).
Raphaël (Nathan) Bischoffsheim is a merchant and philanthropist born in Bischofsheim-sur-la-Tauber in 1773 and died in Mainz on January 22, 1814. Settled in Mainz during the French Revolution, he progressed from small trader to army supplier, presided over the Jewish community of the city and figures, in a list dated April 21, 1808, among the twenty-five most prominent Jews of Mainz called upon to designate notables for the great Sanhedrin of Paris.
Naḥman ben Benjamin Cohen Ṣedeḳ Bishka is a Russian Talmudist active in the second half of the eighteenth century, co-author with his brother Shabbetai of the « Shebet Aḥim », essays on various passages of the Talmud accompanied by an appendix on the Haggada and the Bible; the work was published in Wilna-Grodno in 1833 by his grandson Joshua ben Kalonymus Cohen Ṣedeḳ, who added his own Talmudic essays.
Mordecai Loeb Bisliches, or Bisseliches, is an editor of medieval Hebrew works born in Brody, Austria, at the end of the eighteenth century and died around 1851. Married at age thirteen and then divorced, he found success in business in Paris, where he devoted himself to the study and publication of Hebrew manuscripts from the Library of Paris, before collecting other manuscripts in Holland and Italy; upon his return to Brody, he edited, with the help of his brother Ephraim, several medieval texts, including the « Sefer ha-Nefesh » of Shem-Ṭob Palquera (Lemberg, 1835) and a catalogue of his own manuscripts, « Ha-Paliṭ » (Berlin, 1850).
Isaac Bittoon, sometimes called Pittoon, is an English pugilist and master of arms born in 1778 and died in February 1838. After defeating Tom Jones at Wimbledon on July 31, 1801, he fought to draws against George Maddox in 1802 and against the London coachman William Wood in 1804, before retiring from the ring to found an athletics school in Whitechapel, where he taught boxing and fencing; he was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Bethnal Green.
Piotr Blanc is an 18th-century Polish financier, banker of the court under King Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski, died in Warsaw in 1797. He created the tobacco monopoly in 1776 and then the state lottery in 1781, negotiated the Dutch loan with Tepper, was ennobled in 1790, and guaranteed in 1792, with influential friends, the payment of several million rubles that the Jews of Poland committed to pay in lieu of their customary taxes, within the framework of the plan of Ignacy Potocki and Piatoli to improve their condition.
Maria Theresa Bland, née Romanzini, is an English actress and singer born in 1769 to Italian-Jewish parents and died in London on 15 January 1838. She first appeared on stage at the age of four and made her triumphant return to Drury Lane on 24 October 1786, becoming the principal interpreter of the theater; married on 21 October 1790 to the brother of Mrs Jordan, she played numerous roles until her mind declined in 1824, the year of her last appearance, for her own benefit, on 5 July.
Benjamin Blayney is an English theologian and Hebraist born in 1728 and died on September 20, 1801. Trained at Oxford, he became fellow and vice-principal of Hertford College in 1768, and prepared for the Clarendon Press a corrected edition of the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1769 but largely destroyed by fire; he then turned to Hebrew and obtained his doctorate in theology in 1787. Among his works are a new translation of Jeremiah and the Lamentations (1784) and an edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch in Hebrew characters (1790).
Friedrich Bleek is a Christian theologian born on July 4, 1793 in Ahrensböck, Holstein, and died in Bonn in 1859. Trained in Kiel then in Berlin under Schleiermacher, De Wette and Neander, he became tutor there in 1818 and assistant professor in 1823, before being appointed in 1829 professor of theology in Bonn, a position he held until his death. His research, devoted to the Old and New Testament, focuses notably on the origin of the Sibylline Books (1819-20) and on the composition of the Pentateuch; his « Einleitung in das Alte Testament », published after his death by his son and his student Adolf Kamphausen, had several editions, including that of Wellhausen in 1878.
Marcus Eliezer Bloch is a German ichthyologist and physician born in Ansbach in 1723 and died in Carlsbad on 6 August 1799. Virtually illiterate until nineteen years old due to lack of education, he learned German and Latin as a tutor with a Jewish surgeon in Hamburg, then devoted himself to natural sciences and medicine in Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1747) and practised for many years; from 1781, he turned to ichthyology and published, in twelve richly illustrated volumes (1781-95), the « Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische », a reference work of the discipline in the eighteenth century.
Samson (Simson) b. Isaac ha-Levi Bloch is a Galician author born in Kulikow, near Lemberg, in 1782, and died in the same city on October 7, 1845. Trained in Talmud, Bible and Hebrew grammar, he formed a lasting friendship with Nachman Krochmal, turned toward the Haskalah and published in 1809 in Lemberg a text by Solomon b. Adret against the study of philosophy together with the response of Bédersi. Called to Vienna in 1812 as proofreader for Hebrew printer Anton Schmid, he translated there in 1813 the "Vindiciae Judaeorum" of Manasseh ben Israel, then published in 1822, having returned to Kulikow, the first volume of his major work, "Shebilé 'Olam".
Simon Blumenfeldt, also known as Simon Sofer, is a Russian calligrapher born in Mitau, Courland, in 1770, and died in the same town in 1826, gifted with the talent of writing in microscopic characters — he thus transcribed the Lord's Prayer nine times on a square inch of paper. A traveler through Europe, he offered calligraphic portraits to the Russian emperor Alexander I and a Hebrew Pentateuch the size of a finger to Pope Pius VII; his biblical commentary "Pené Shim'on" was published after his death by his son Moses in "Magid Mesharim" (Hanover, 1851).
Johann Christian Georg Bodenschatz is a German Protestant theologian born in Hof on May 25, 1717 and died on October 4, 1797 in Baiersdorf, near Erlangen. Trained in oriental languages at the University of Jena from 1733 onwards, he entered the Church, became vicar of Uttenreuth and then, in 1780, superintendent of Baiersdorf, and devoted his life to Jewish antiquities; his major work, « Kirchliche Verfassung der Heutigen Juden » (Erlangen, 1748), provides a detailed and impartial account of Jewish ceremonial, illustrated with engravings, a second edition of which appeared in Frankfurt in 1756.
Moses Böhm is a German physician active in the mid-eighteenth century, engaged in 1740 by the Jewish community of Halberstadt to care for its poor members, a function he exercised with regular salary until at least 1747, according to community records. Having become very popular among both Jews and Christians, consulted by the nobility, he left learned Hebrew letters against the use of amulets and against the hasty burials then common among the Jews of his time.
Joseph b. Meïr Böhmer is a Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudist born in Skoudas in 1796 and died on May 7, 1864, in Sloutsk, one of the most eminent students of R. Ḥayyim of Volozhin, whose logical and rigorous method he followed while firmly opposing pilpul; his reputation was such that legal questions reached him from Palestine and Babylonia. Rabbi of Sloutsk for thirty-five years, greatly beloved by his community, he left a vast collection of responsa that remained manuscript, and his son Meïr succeeded him in the rabbinate.
Louis-Gabriel-Ambroise de Bonald was a French philosopher, politician and anti-Jewish polemicist born on October 2, 1774 and died in Nomma on November 23, 1840. Opposed to the Revolution, he emigrated in 1791 to Heidelberg, where he wrote his first important work, condemned by the Directory, before returning to France and becoming a leader of political and religious reaction; in an article in the "Mercure de France" of February 8, 1806, he repeats the usual antisemitic accusations and demands that Jews convert to Catholicism before emancipation. After the Restoration, he served as deputy from 1815 to 1822 and entered the French Academy in 1816.
Abraham ben Yom-Ṭob Bondi is a Bohemian Talmudist who died in 1787 in Prague. His posthumous work, « Zera' Abraham », essays on various Talmudic treatises and on post-Talmudic authors dealing with matrimonial questions, was published by his son Neḥemia Feiwel Bondi, who added an appendix to it (Prague, 1808); another of his works, « 'Iyyoun Mishpaṭ », remains in manuscript.
Elijah ben Selig Bondi is an Austrian preacher born in Prague at the end of the eighteenth century and died in the same city around 1860. Trained in the Talmud in Presbourg under Meshoulam Tismenitz and then in Alt-Ofen under Moses Münz, he is appointed in 1826 preacher of his native city, a position he holds until his death; he publishes in Prague (1832-56) two collections of sermons, "Sefer ha-She'arim" and "Tiferet Adam".
Kalman ben Phineas Seligman Borkum is the court Jew of Duke Peter Biron of Courland, born in the middle of the eighteenth century and died in Mitau in 1828, the same day as his brother Simson. Through the influence of the Borkum brothers, Jews were permitted to settle permanently in Mitau, to organize themselves as a community and to engage in commerce and crafts; in 1775, their children were able to attend the city's academic lycée, and in 1784, Kalman Borkum built at his own expense a synagogue and the necessary community buildings.
Karl Ludwig Börne, born Loeb Baruch, is a German political and literary writer born on May 6, 1786 in Frankfurt am Main and died in Paris on February 12, 1837. Sent to study medicine with Dr. Marcus Herz in Berlin as a teenager, he falls in love with Herz's wife, Henriette Herz, before pursuing his studies in Halle and then Heidelberg, turning toward law and administration; he receives his doctorate in philosophy from Giessen on August 8, 1809 and holds from 1811 onwards a position at the police bureau of his native city. His correspondence with Henriette Herz was published in 1861 under the title « Briefe des Jungen Börne an Henriette Herz ».
Ḥayyim ben Jacob Boskowitz is a Palestinian author active in the middle of the eighteenth century, author of the "Toṣeot Ḥayyim", a commentary on the Pentateuch published with the text in Amsterdam in 1764, devoted mainly to the moral precepts that can be drawn from biblical narratives.
John Braham, stage name of John Abraham, is an English tenor born in London in 1774 and died in the same city on 17 February 1856. Orphaned at an early age, chorister at the synagogue of Duke's Place then adopted by the singer Leoni, he debuts at Covent Garden on 21 April 1787, sings in Bath under the direction of Rauzzini until 1796, then at Drury Lane in 'Mahmoud' (30 April 1796); having left to study singing in Italy in 1797, he reappears at Covent Garden in 1801 and performs in 1806 the role of Sesto in Mozart's 'Clemenza di Tito', the composer's first work to be performed in England.
Bezaleel ben Moses Brandeis ha-Lévi is a Bohemian rabbi and author who died around 1750 in Jung-Bunzlau, where he was district rabbi and directed a Talmudic academy, son of a rabbi of Mainz nicknamed "Ḥarif". He compiled a collection of festival sermons and homiletical explanations of the Pentateuch, published in Prague in 1786 by his son Baruch Juda Brandeis under the title "Ṣedah-Baruk".
Mordecai ben Eliezer Brandes is a German Talmudist active in Frankfurt am Main in the mid-eighteenth century, employed by the Jewish community as « porsher » (responsible for removing prohibited nerves from slaughtered meat), a subject to which he devoted a work published in 1750; he also wrote « Zikron Ma'aseh », advice on conciliation for the Frankfurt community (1753), and « Zikron Terou'ah », on the handling of the shofar.
Benjamin Raphaël Dias Brandon was a Dutch Hebraic talmudist and author who died around 1750 in Amsterdam, where he was a cantor. He wrote « Orot ha-Miṣwot », on the purpose of biblical and talmudic commandments (Amsterdam, 1753), « 'Emeḳ Binyamin », on halakhic problems (1753), and « Keter Torah », a poem composed for the wedding of the Hebrew poet David Franco-Mendez of Amsterdam.
Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach is a German jurist born in Offenbach-am-Main on 13 November 1796 and died in Darmstadt on 2 April 1857, son of Wolf Breidenbach. Graduate in law from Heidelberg University in 1817, he practices in Darmstadt from 1820 onwards, becomes treasury counselor in 1831 then cabinet counselor in 1836, enters the State Council in 1848 but must resign at the outbreak of the Revolution, before being recalled in 1849 as chief counselor of education until his death; principal author of the Hessian penal code, he also participated in the drafting of German commercial and bill of exchange law.
Wolf Breidenbach is a German court agent and champion of Jewish emancipation, born in the village of Breidenbach, in Hesse-Cassel, in 1751, and died in Offenbach on February 28, 1829. Arriving poor in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he studies the Talmud, he becomes, through his integrity, the financial agent of a wealthy nobleman then a prosperous banker and jeweler, "Hoffaktor" of the elector of Cassel. He devotes his fortune to the Jewish cause, obtaining the abolition of the "Leibzoll" — the humiliating toll levied on Jews — in Isenburg on April 25, 1803, then in Frankfurt on August 24, 1804 and in Darmstadt on January 19, 1805; he was also the protector of the grammarian Wolf Heidenheim.
John Frederick Breithaupt is a Christian Hebraist and rabbinic scholar of the early eighteenth century, court advisor to the Emperor and the Duke of Gotha. He produces a learned edition of the Yossippon with Latin version, under the title « Josephus Gorionides » (Gotha, 1707), and especially a Latin translation of Rachi's commentary on the entire Bible, published in three volumes (Gotha, 1710-13) and noted for its fidelity to the text given the circumstances of its composition.
Aryeh Löb ben Hayyim Breslau is a German talmudist and rabbi born in 1741 in Breslau, Prussia, and died on 22 April 1809 in Rotterdam. After Lissa, Posen and Berlin, then Emden as city rabbi, he is called in 1781 to be chief rabbi of Rotterdam, where his reputation as a talmudist — consulted by Phinehas Hurwitz, Isaiah Berlin and David Tevele Schiff — goes beyond Jewish circles. He publishes a collection of responsa, « Péné Aryéh » (Amsterdam, 1790), noted for its logical method; when the revolutionary French army entered the Netherlands in 1793, he composes a series of prayers translated into Dutch for the synagogue.
Meïr Israel Bresselau is a German notary and secretary of the reformed community of Hamburg, born around 1785, died in Hamburg on December 25, 1839. Engaged from the beginning in the reformed movement, he responds, when the Orthodox party attacks the Hamburg Tempelverein in the pamphlet « Éléh Divré ha-Berit » (Altona, 1819), with his own polemical writing « Herev Nokemet Nekam Berit » (Dessau, 1819), whose Hebrew style is praised even by Graetz; he is also co-author of « Séder ha-Avodah », the Hebrew-German prayer book of the Reformed Temple of Hamburg (1819). His successor as secretary was Gabriel Riesser.
Victor-Claude, Prince of Broglie, is a French statesman opposed to the emancipation of Jews, born in Paris in 1757 and executed by the guillotine in 1794 for plotting against the French Revolution. In his « Opinion sur l'admission des Juifs à l'état civil » (Paris, 1791), he opposed their citizenship, holding that their reformed oath proved their renunciation of citizens' rights; he found in the representative Prugnan a vigorous opponent, who had his exclusion project rejected on 27 September 1791. After his death, a legend without historical foundation held that he had asked forgiveness for his anti-Jewish sentiments before his execution.
William Brown is a Scottish minister born in 1766, died in 1835, minister for forty-three years of the parish of Eskdalemuir, in Scotland. He is the author of the « Antiquities of the Jews, carefully compiled from authentic sources, and their customs illustrated by modern travels », in two volumes with a plan of the Temple (London, 1820; 2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1826), a work compiled mainly from Latin, French and English sources — Arias Montano, Calmet, Goodwin, Owen, Buxtorf, Basnage — and largely inspired by Lightfoot's « Prospect of the Temple », although Brown claims, in his preface, to adopt a broader perspective than the latter.
Salomon b. Hayyim Bruck is an Austrian Hebraist born in the second half of the eighteenth century and died around 1846. He is the author of "Hakirat ha-Emet" (Altona, 1839; 2nd ed., Vienna, 1842), a collection including, in its first edition, a sermon he delivered in English in England which Austrian censorship removed from the second. His other work, "Hezyoné Layil", was published after his death by his son Isaac Lévi Brück (born in 1817), a veteran of the Italian wars under Radetzky; the work gathers a series of imaginary visits in dreams in the other world, severely criticizing the customs of certain classes.
Jacob Éliézer Brunswick is a German Talmudic rabbi and author of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, died in Vienna on April 16, 1729. Rabbi first in Kanitz, in Moravia, then in Vienna, where he found a patron in Samson Wertheimer, who engaged him as a chaplain as Jews in the city were not permitted to employ a rabbi; he wrote several works — a concordance of the Talmud and the Midrashim, an exegetical commentary on the Pentateuch, an index of Talmudic passages on divine retribution — none of which were published, only the first surviving in manuscript in Berlin. His family subsequently adopted the name "Deutsch", from which descended Gotthard Deutsch of Cincinnati.
Carl August Buchholz is a German jurist and Christian author born in the second half of the eighteenth century and died in Lübeck on November 15, 1843, where he held at his death the position of second municipal syndic. Although his city was reputed hostile to Jews, he defended them in « Über die Aufnahme der jüdischen Glaubensgenossen zum Bürgerrecht » (Lübeck, 1814; 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1816), which led to him being chosen by the Jewish communities of the three Hanseatic cities as their representative at the Congress of Vienna (1815); he then published a collection of laws concerning Jews, among the finest Christian pleas for Jewish emancipation of that time.
Wolf b. David ha-Cohen Buchner is a Hebrew stylist born in Brody in the second half of the eighteenth century. A peddler of Hebrew books throughout Germany, Galicia, Poland and Lithuania, he also earned his living by writing letters for the illiterate and lost the sight of his right eye in an accident in Berlin. He is the author of « Zébed ha-Meliza », an imitation of the « Tahkemoni » by al-Harizi written in 1770 but published only from 1794, of « Kéter Malkhout » (Lemberg, 1794), of « Chiré Tehilah » (Berlin, 1797) and of « Tsahout ha-Meliza » (Prague, 1805); an imitator of the poetic Middle Ages, he nevertheless does not equal Gabirol, al-Harizi, or Bedersi.
Abraham David Buczacz, son of Asher Anshel, is a Galician talmudist born in 1770 in Nadworna and died in 1840 in Buczacz; a child prodigy of the Talmud, he was chosen as a bridegroom at the age of ten by Tsevi Hirsch, author of the 'Neta' Shaashouim', and became rabbi of Goslowitz at twenty. Initially skeptical of hasidic miracles, he turned to Kabbalah under the influence of Rabbi Lévi Isaac of Berditchev, an ordeal that nearly drove him mad before reconciling him with Hasidism. In 1813, he succeeded his father-in-law as rabbi of Buczacz, and left several works, including 'Da'at Kedochim' (Lemberg, 1870) and 'Eshel Avraham' (Lemberg, 1885).
Moses Israel ben Isaac Büdinger is a teacher in Metz in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, specialized in Hebrew grammar and literature, training many Hebrew grammarians and stylists. He publishes in Metz several works, including « Em le-Mikra », Hebrew manual (1816), an essay on the ritual laws of Purim (1816), a « Mahzor » in nine volumes with German translation by Prosper d'Alsace (1817), a discourse for bar mitzvah (1819) and a commentary on the penitential prayers (1822); he also reprints in 1769 the « Menorat ha-Maor » of Isaac Aboab with Judeo-German translation by Moses Frankfurter.
Moses Mordecai Büdinger is a German educator born in January 1783 in Maidorf, Hesse, and died in Cassel on January 31, 1841, father of historian Max Büdinger. Having become a shochet, hazan and religious instructor, he later studies in Naumbourg and at the university of Marburg, becomes tutor in 1820 to court banker Kaulla in Stuttgart, and holds from 1824 the position of principal professor of the Jewish pedagogical seminary of Cassel; an esteemed preacher, he receives in 1830 the honorary doctorate from the university of Marburg. His first work, « Derekh Emounah, oder die kleine Bibel » (1823), was adopted as a school manual.
Raphael Moses ben Joseph of Bulah is a Palestinian Talmudist and rabbi who died in Jerusalem on March 23, 1773, where he was rabbi and directed a Talmudic school. He wrote « Guet Mekouchar » on the laws of divorce (Constantinople, 1767), « Hayé Olam », homiletic essays on the first two books of the Pentateuch (Constantinople, 1752), and « Zekhout Mochè », Talmudic methodology and laws of divorce.
Solomon ben Raphael Moïse of Bulah is a Turkish Talmudist born in Jerusalem, where his father Raphael Moïse ben Joseph of Bulah was rabbi, and died in 1786 in Salonika, where he had settled. He is the author of « Léhem Chelomo », a halakhic work in three parts on the laws of acquisition, land property and divorce (Salonika, 1795); his other writings, including a commentary on the « Tour » of Jacob ben Asher, were never printed.
Jean-Rodolphe, Count of Buol-Schauenstein, is an Austrian diplomat born November 21, 1763 and died February 12, 1834 in Vienna. Ambassador at The Hague in 1790 and at Basel in 1792, he was elected in 1816 president of the Federal Diet assembled in Frankfurt, where he showed himself favorable to patriots; during the riots against the Jews of Frankfurt on August 9 and 10, 1819, he convoked the council and called on federal troops to protect the Jews, the municipal militia being unreliable. His liberal positions put him in conflict with Metternich, and he was recalled on March 20, 1823.
Rabbi of Tunis, son of Nathan Burgel, he is the author of "Migdanot Natan," in two parts. The first, printed with a text by his father (Leghorn, 1778), includes a commentary on the Talmudic tractate Baba Metsia and notes on several tractates of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds as well as on the Yad ha-Ḥazaka. The second part (Leghorn, 1785) gathers novellæ on various tractates and a funeral oration.
Joseph Burgel is a rabbi of Tunis, son of Élie Haï Burgel, born in 1791 and died in Tunis in 1857. He is the author of « Zéra de-Yossef », on the Tosafot (Livorno, 1849), and of « Va-Yiken Yossef », a collection of responsa (Livorno, 1852).
Nathan ben Abraham Burgel is a rabbi of Tunis around 1750, student of Isaac Lombroso, reputed rabbinical authority consulted from afar; having grown old, he traveled to Jerusalem, where he died shortly after his arrival in December 1791. He is the author of novellae and explanations on the Mishnaic order Kodachim and the treatise Horayot (Livorno, 1776-78), reprinted in the Wilna edition of the Talmud (1895-97).
Barthold Dowe von Burmania is a statesman and Dutch ambassador at the court of Vienna in the eighteenth century, sincere friend of the Jews. When, on 18 December 1744, Maria Theresa orders the expulsion of the Jews from Prague and then from all of Bohemia, Burmania intervenes relentlessly at court to have the edict revoked; the Jews of Prague are nevertheless expelled on 31 March 1745, and an edict of 8 April 1745 extends the measure to Moravia, before further efforts obtain authorization for the Jews to remain « until further notice ». Maria Theresa finally revokes, on 14 July 1748, her initial edict, and the Jews can return to Prague.
Lewis Bush is an American soldier born in Philadelphia and died in 1777, member of the celebrated Jewish merchant family Bush of Philadelphia. Appointed first lieutenant of the sixth battalion of Pennsylvania on January 9, 1776, then captain on June 24 of the same year, he was transferred on January 13, 1777 to the additional continental regiment of Colonel Thomas Hartley, where he was promoted major on March 12, 1777; a courageous soldier who served with distinction in numerous engagements, he received a fatal wound at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, and died shortly after.
Salomon Bush is an American soldier born in Philadelphia, son of Matthias Bush, signatory of the Non-Importation Agreement of 1765. Officer of the Pennsylvania militia (1777-87), he was appointed assistant adjutant general of the State on July 5, 1777, seriously wounded in the thigh during a skirmish in September of the same year, then taken prisoner by the British at the taking of Philadelphia in December before being released on parole. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on October 27, 1779, and on November 5, 1785 the Pennsylvania council, under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin, granted him a pension for his meritorious services.
Naphtali Busnash is the leader of the Jews of Algeria and statesman, born in Algiers in the mid-eighteenth century and assassinated on 28 June 1805. Associated with the Bakri brothers, he dominates the grain trade through the monopoly granted to him by dey Hassan, and the house Bakri & Busnash becomes the most influential in Algeria. In 1800, dey Mustapha, whom he had helped to power, appoints him leader of the Jews of Algeria and broker to the dey; he then governs with such skill that the dey leaves him practically in control of the state. Resented by the janissaries, Busnash, after narrowly escaping several assassination attempts, was finally shot by a janissary at the gate of the dey's palace.
Mathieu Butrymowicz is an eighteenth-century Polish statesman and landowner, one of the most enlightened members of the Diet assembled in Warsaw from 1788 to 1792. Convinced of the importance of using the capacities of Jewish inhabitants for the Polish economy, he strives to convince the assembly of the harmful nature of their condition and advocates for their emancipation. In 1789, he expounds in a pamphlet his plan to make them useful citizens, submitting it to King Stanislas Poniatowski; in June 1790, the Diet appoints him to the committee charged with reforming the condition of Jews, where he pleads for the inviolability of their faith.
Johannes Rudolphus Buxtorf, great-great-grandson of Johannes Buxtorf I, was born in Basel on October 24, 1747 and died in 1815. After completing his studies in his native city, he became private tutor in the family of the count of Schaumburg-Lippe, then, returning to Basel, professor of rhetoric and theology at the university in 1793; he also taught and wrote on biblical archaeology.
Chalom ben Moïse Buzaglio is a Kabbalist born in Morocco, where his father directed a yeshiva, in the early eighteenth century, and died in 1780. A student of the Kabbalist Abraham Azoulaï, rabbi of Morocco, he works as a dayyan and, collector of alms for the poor of Palestine, travels in the East then in Europe, notably in London. He publishes notably « Mikdach Melekh », commentary on the Zohar (4 vol., Amsterdam, 1750), and « Hadrat Melekh », another commentary drawn from Isaac Louria and Hayyim Vital (Amsterdam, 1766; London, 1772); he takes part in the Kabbalistic debate on vaccination, declaring himself in favor of it, while contesting Jenner's priority.
William Buzaglo is an English inventor and empiricist who died in London in 1788, first known for his stoves of a new model intended for heating large public buildings. He subsequently practiced medicine, claiming to cure gout without medications by muscle exercise alone — a method analogous to modern massage —, but was generally regarded as a charlatan because of his self-promotional advertisements; Captain Grose humorously parodied his manifesto in a prospectus titled "Patent Exercise, or Les Caprices de la Goutte".
George Gordon, lord Byron, is an English poet born in London on January 22, 1788, and died in Missolonghi, in Greece, on April 19, 1824. The only one of his works linked to Jewish themes is his « Hebrew Melodies », written in 1814 at the request of his friend Douglas Kinnaird for melodies composed by Isaac Nathan; their subject often has nothing Hebraic about it, such as « She Walks in Beauty », composed after a ball where Byron had admired Mrs Wilmot Horton dressed in black and sequins. « Oh Weep for Those », on the other hand, is profoundly Jewish and worthy of its author; Byron himself was never satisfied with this collection, attributing entire paternity to Kinnaird's insistence.
Joshua Abraham ben Simha Calamani is an Italian Talmudist born in Venice in 1704. A precocious child, he left only a single work, written at thirteen years of age, « Millé de-Vedihouta » (Words of Delight), a collection of parodies of Talmudic language and style, with Rachi and the Tossafot, composed for the festival of Hanukkah (Venice, 1717).
Simha ben Abraham Calimani is a Venetian rabbi and author who died in Venice on August 2, 1784, a versatile linguist, poet, orator and Talmudist, also a proofreader at the Hebrew printing house of Venice. He is the author of an Italian translation of the Mishnaic treatise Avot, "Il Rabbino Morale-Toscano" (with Jacob Saraval, Venice, 1729), of a Hebrew grammar inserted at the end of a Bible (Venice, 1739) then translated into Italian (Venice, 1751), and of an allegorical drama, "Kol Simha" (Venice, 1758); liberal in religious matters, he took part in Wessely's campaign against pilpul in synagogues.
Important figure in the French Jewish community of the eighteenth century, born in 1711 in Aurich, Hanover, and died in Paris in 1784. First settled in The Hague before establishing himself in France, where he obtained naturalization, he acquired in 1774, through a proxy, the barony of Picquigny and the viscounty of Amiens, thus becoming baron of Picquigny. Two of his three sons were guillotined during the Terror; the third died without issue in 1824.
Physician, rabbi, poet and Italian writer, active in Padua in the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, where he was also an instructor at the yeshiva. He published in Italian the Chirurgia Pratica in Padua in 1677, and left in Hebrew glosses on halakhic works as well as an account of a persecution of the Jews of Padua, besides responsa that remained in manuscript.
Italian Talmudist active around the middle of the eighteenth century in Turin, where he founded a yeshiva. He is the author of a responsum published in the Shemesh Ẓedaḳah of Simson Morpurgo, and left in manuscript other halakhic decisions as well as an index to the Hebrew dictionary of synonyms by Solomon Urbino.
Converted to Christianity, born in Amsterdam in 1795 and died in that city in 1874. Son of Portuguese Jews who gave him an entirely secular education with a view to medical studies, he was, after his studies in Leiden, adopted by his uncle, the physician Immanuel Capadoce, and converted through contact with Christians, particularly under the influence of Isaac da Costa. He published several writings in 1843 and 1851, and made himself known as a physician through his opposition to vaccination, set forth in a work published in Amsterdam in 1823.
Jewish convert, professor of Hebrew language in Helmstedt
German banker
Turkish rabbi active in Adrianople in the first half of the eighteenth century, descendant of Joseph Caro. Son-in-law and student of R. Eliezer b. Jacob Naḥum, author of the Ḥazon Naḥum, Constantinople, 1743-45, whom he likely succeeded as rabbi of Adrianople, he left several treatises, known only through the citations given in his father-in-law's work, and died young.
Preacher in Posen in the second half of the eighteenth century, author of El ha-Millu'im, a homiletical commentary on the Pentateuch and the Song of Songs, published with additions entitled Abne Ẓedeḳ by his grandson Abraham ben Isaac Zelig Caro, in Krotoschin, in 1845.
Prussian pedagogue, born around 1782 in Fordon, in the Grand Duchy of Posen, died on December 25, 1839 in Posen. Member of the school of the Meassefim, he devotes his literary talent to Jewish Enlightenment, to the reform of Judaism and to the cultivation of the Hebrew language. Under the pseudonym « Amittaï ben Abida Aḥitsédek », he defends the reformed temple of Hamburg in the « Berit Emet » (The Covenant of Truth), published in Dessau in 1820; the second part of the work will be reissued, enlarged, in Lemberg in 1879. He also collaborates on « Ha-Meassef » and « Bikkouré ha-'Ittim », and leaves in manuscript several Hebrew translations by Zunz.
German-Russian rabbi, born in 1800 and died in Wloclawek in 1895. Orthodox Talmudist trained in Konin, he was first a merchant in Gnesen before becoming, around age forty, rabbi of Pinne, then of Fordon, and finally of the Germanized community of Wloclawek, where he remained until his death; he was one of the first Orthodox rabbis of Russia to preach in German. Author notably of Minḥat Shabbat, in Krotoschin in 1847, and of Ḳol Omer Ḳera, a collection of sermons published in Warsaw from 1860 onward, he also defended the Zionist colonization of Palestine.
Italian writer, born in 1715 and settled in Leghorn. He took part in the controversy stirred up by Ḥayyon's work on Shabbetai Tsevi, writing a refutation against him of which extracts were published by N. Brüll under the title Toledot Shabbethai Ẓebi, in Vilna, in 1879; he also composed a Hebrew elegy on the death of Emmanuel Ricchi and maintained a correspondence with Joseph Ergas.
Italian revolutionary, born in Revere in the second half of the eighteenth century. After the French Revolution, he engaged in plots against the Austrian government of Lombardy and was imprisoned in Mantua with his son Mordecai Moses Carpi in 1799; when Napoleon reached the city in 1800, he was sent to Venice then, through Dalmatia, Carinthia and Croatia, to Peterwardein, in Hungary, where he was finally freed by Napoleon's order in 1801. He drew from this captivity a narrative, Toledot Yiẓḥaḳ, published in Cracow in 1892; his two other works are no longer preserved.
Wealthy Tunisian merchant, died in January 1785 at an advanced age, who devoted part of his time to rabbinical studies and succeeded in 1752 to his master Isaac Lumbroso as rabbi of the congregation of Leghorn in Tunis, where he enjoyed a high reputation as a rabbinical authority. He published To'afot Re'em, commentary on the work of Elie Mizraḥi, in Leghorn in 1761, and Mira Dakya, commentary on several treatises of the Babylonian Talmud and on the Yad ha-ḥazakah of Maimonides, in Leghorn in 1792, as well as the unfinished work of his son Isaac Carvalho, who died in January 1759.
Rabbi, preacher and poet, born in Ancona in 1726 and died in Leghorn in 1789. Arrived poor at thirteen years old in Leghorn, he became cantor thanks to his beautiful voice, succeeded his father-in-law Adam Bondi, then rose, after deepening his knowledge of Hebrew, Spanish and rabbinic learning, to the rank of rabbi and preacher esteemed even by Christian scholars; he is held to be the Jewish scholar that Lessing met during a journey with Duke Leopold of Brunswick, who then exclaimed that he surpassed Mendelssohn. He published in Leghorn several writings, including Oracion Doctrinal in 1753 and the allegorical drama Ḳol Millin in 1765, as well as Hebrew poems collected in 1788 and 1846.
Physician, born in Leghorn around 1746, son of Abraham Isaac Castello. After medical studies in Pisa, he returned to his native city, where he acquired a solid reputation; a medical work of his, dedicated to the archduke who later became the emperor Leopold II, appeared only after his death, which occurred in his prime. His brother Samuel was a renowned physician in Leghorn, and his son, also named Abraham Isaac, was a lawyer and poet there.
Empress of Russia, born in Stettin in 1729 and died in Saint Petersburg in 1796, wife and successor of Peter III, whose throne she usurped in 1762. Although of liberal inclination, she could not, brought to power by the strictest Orthodox faction, openly ratify the free admission of Jews to Russia and thus excluded them from the edict of December 15, 1762 authorizing foreigners to settle there. Her more favorable attitude is nevertheless evident in a letter of May 11, 1764 to the governor-general of Riga, concerning foreign merchants, several of whom were Jews, placed since 1763 under the protection of a bureau instituted for that purpose.
General superintendent of the Jewish nation of Alsace from 1764 to 1788, financier supplier of armies and close to royal authorities. He led the pre-revolutionary fight for the voice of Jews at the Estates General and for the abolition of the corporate tax (leibzoll), abolished in 1784 against payment in Strasbourg. He obtained letters of naturalization in 1775 and founded in 1786 the yechiva of Bischheim, directed by his brother-in-law David Sintzheim.
German theater director, born in 1782 and died in Berlin in 1845. Converted to Christianity at a very young age, he had to provide for his father's family at seventeen, then, after practicing the horse trade in Dessau, rose to the rank of chief military agent and participated, from 1813 onward, in the campaign under the orders of Count Wittgenstein, a Russian general, whose courage earned him the favor of Emperor Alexander. Later established in Berlin, he obtained from Frederick William III a perpetual concession for the construction of the Königsstädtisches Theater, devoted to French comedy and Italian opera, which he directed until his death.
French officer and deputy, born in Nancy in 1792 and died in 1876. Entering the army very young and made an officer by Napoleon I, he became captain of the general staff in 1827, squadron commander in 1834, then head of office at the Ministry of War under General Schneider from 1839; promoted lieutenant-colonel, he sat as deputy for Wissembourg from 1842, was reelected as colonel in 1846, and retired after the revolution of 1848, having also directed the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris.
French consul, born in Strasbourg in 1786 and died at sea in 1842, during a crossing from New York to France. Passionate about travel and languages, he obtained in 1809 the position of secretary of the imperial commissariat in the Ionian Islands, then represented France in New York in 1822, in New Orleans, then in Haiti from 1827, where he distinguished himself by his devotion — offering his services for Saint-Domingue in 1826 during a yellow fever epidemic, and sending at his own expense a ship of provisions after an earthquake in Cayes. The Haiti earthquake of 1842 killed his only daughter and wounded him so seriously that he died during his return journey.
French soldier and author, born in Strasbourg around 1780 and died by suicide in Paris in 1826. Leading an errant and adventurous life, changing his name and religion several times, he served in turn in the Turkish army disguised as a Muslim under the name Ibrahim Mansur Effendi, held a position in Westphalia under the name of Medelsheim, fought in 1813 against the Serbs in Bosnia, then, after staying in Austria and Naples, served from 1814 in the army of Ali Pasha of Janina. Upon his return, he published in Paris, in 1826, Memoirs on Greece and Albania during the government of Ali-Pasha.
Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine
Av Beit Din in Smyrna, then chief Sephardi rabbi (Rishon LeZion) of Jerusalem from 1861.
Most eminent disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, he founded in 1803 the Etz Chaïm yeshiva of Volozhin, the matrix of the world of Lithuanian yeshivot, which remained open for nearly 90 years (until 1892). His analytical method of study perpetuated that of the Gaon. He died in 1821.
Polish rabbi
Rosh yeshiva of Salé, grandfather and master of the author of the Or HaHaïm.
rabbi of Tiberias
Grand Rabbi and tsaddik of Mogador, venerated for his miracles; annual pilgrimage to his tomb.
Hungarian rabbi
Polish rabbi
German Talmudist, died in Halberstadt in 1793. Enjoying among his contemporaries an established reputation as a Talmudist and loved for his modesty, he could have, by his learning, aspired to the position of rabbinic assessor, but preferred to devote his life to instructing the young in talmudic science, often refusing, despite modest means, to accept his fees, for he taught out of love for the Torah and not for profit. Most of the Jewish scholars who lived in Halberstadt between 1780 and 1840 owe him their talmudic and religious education.
Italian abbé, born near Montepulciano in 1789 and died in Warsaw in 1832. Appointed professor of history and oriental languages at the University of Warsaw in 1826, he was a prominent member of the "Jewish Committee", composed exclusively of Christians and instituted by imperial decree in 1825; this committee charged him with translating the Babylonian Talmud, for which the Russian government granted him a substantial subsidy. He published in 1830 in Paris his Theory of Judaism, a preparatory work advocating the liberation of Jews from the influence of the Talmud through biblical instruction and an annotated French translation of the Talmud, of which only two volumes appeared, at Leipzig, in 1831.
German author and Christian missionary, born of Jewish parents, baptized in 1719 and died in Nuremberg around 1735. He is the author of two works in Judeo-German, Yesod Emunat Yeshu'a, published in Berlin in 1712, and Die Bekehrung Israels, published in Schwabach in 1722.
Spanish poet of Amsterdam. He translated from Hebrew into Spanish a Purim song, published in Amsterdam in 1772, a poem of one hundred ten stanzas of nine lines each.
Rabbi, born and died in Amsterdam (1729-1794). Settled in Hasenpoth, in Courland, first as a jeweler, he subsequently served for a long time as rabbi there and composed 'Arugah Ḳeṭannah, in which the two hundred forty-eight obligatory precepts are set to rhyme, published in Altona in 1787 and often reprinted; he also left in manuscript a commentary on the Pentateuch. One of his sons, a physician in the service of the Russian government with the title of state councillor, died in the government of Orel in 1846.
French rabbi and author, born around 1717, died in Metz in the first half of the 18th century. Student of Rabbi Jacob, author of the Shebut Ya'aḳob, he serves as dayan in Metz. He is the author of responsa, notably the Ḳiryat Ḥanah, completed at the age of twenty-five and published by his son Jacob in Metz in 1785, as well as novellae on the Ṭurim.
Italian rabbi and scholar, born around 1750 in Reggio nell'Emilia, died on March 28, 1834. Trained under Sansone Naḥmani and Isaiah Vita Carmi, he founded in his native city a school that trained several rabbis, before being called in 1825 as chief rabbi of Florence, where he founded a Hebrew printing press. He is the author of numerous pedagogical and grammatical works, including a Hebrew-Italian dictionary and a Hebrew grammar.
Banker in Ferrara, Italy, in the 18th century. He conducts business with popes Clement XIII, who asks him on February 22, 1764 to supply the papal government with as much wheat as possible as well as four thousand sacks of Indian wheat, and Clement XIV, whose confidant and adviser he becomes. During the famine of 1772-73, he supplies the government with five thousand sacks of Indian wheat, and at the time of the French invasion of 1798, he is part of the commission of six charged with selling confiscated goods.
French man of letters, born in Amersfoort, Netherlands, on October 17, 1781, died in Paris on April 6, 1848. After beginning in journalism, he settled in Paris in 1809, became censor for foreign languages in 1811 then librarian of the Sainte-Geneviève Library in 1824. Translator of several languages, he notably published in 1829 a translation of Washington Irving's History of the Conquest of Granada, as well as numerous historical works, including The Nobility of France in 1845.
Philanthropist, born in 1798 in Amsterdam, died in Paris on July 15, 1856. Settled in Paris where he pursued a prosperous commercial career, he presides over the committee of Israeli charities in Paris, presides as honorary president of the Rothschild hospital on rue Picpus, and often intervenes successfully with King Louis-Philippe and the Duke of Orléans in favor of the community. Member of the Israeli consistory, he founds and runs the Society of Friends of Labor, intended to help children access an honest trade.
Financier and English community notable, born in Amsterdam in 1740, died in England in 1808, son of Barent Cohen, wealthy merchant of Amsterdam. Established in London with his brother, he developed from 1778 an important trade there and had himself naturalized in 1798, becoming one of the great merchants of the city and founder of the Cohen family in England. Co-founder and first president of the Bread, Meat, and Coal Charity and of the Jews' Hospital, his daughters married Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Sir Moses Montefiore and Myer Davidson, thus allying his descendants with the great Jewish families of England.
English community notable, born in London in September 1799, died on March 15, 1882. Dominant figure of the Anglo-Jewish community for two generations, he was elected in 1837 marshal of the Great Synagogue, a position he held for many years, before becoming a lifetime member of the United Synagogue council. Close collaborator of Sir Moses Montefiore, member of the board of deputies whose constitution he inspired, he entered the London Stock Exchange in 1819 and founded the house Louis Cohen & Co.
North African rabbi, born in Djerba in 1772, died in the same city in April 1848. Blind and very poor, he is nevertheless the author of several works, including Netib Miẓwoteka, commentaries on the book of Ruth and the Azharot of Isaac b. Reuben and of Salomon ibn Gabirol, with prayers and religious poems for the Feast of Weeks (Livorno, 1841), and Sifte Renanot, commentary on the prayers of the penitent days according to the rite of Tripoli (1837). His grammatical work, Leḥem ha-Bikkurim, was published after him by his grandson David Cohen in 1870.
Polish hebraist, born in Meseritz (Międzyrzecz), Poland, on December 23, 1772, died in Hamburg on February 20, 1845. He left for Berlin at the age of seventeen, connected with the poet Wessely, who transmitted to him his passion for Hebrew poetry, and continued for two years the review Meassef; after a brief stay in London in 1813, he settled in Hamburg, then was called to Vienna in 1820 by printer Anton Schmid, where he founded the review Bikkure ha-'Ittim. He is the author of numerous works, including Mishle Agur (Berlin, 1803), Sefer Yirmeyah, German translation of Jeremiah (Fürth, 1810), and Ḳore ha-Dorot, history of the Jews from the Maccabean period (Wilna, 1837).
French philanthropist and scholar, born in Pressburg, Hungary, on September 14, 1814, died in Paris on March 15, 1877, from an Alsatian family settled in Hungary in the 18th century. Educated in Vienna from 1824 to 1836, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1834, he settles in Paris in 1836 and becomes in 1839 the administrator of the charitable works of the Rothschild family, a position he holds until his death. He travels to Algeria in 1845, 1847 and 1860 to defend persecuted Jewish communities, and visits Jerusalem five times between 1854 and 1869 on behalf of the Central Consistory of Israelites of France.
Italian author who lived in Modena in the 18th century. He writes a Hebrew correspondence guide, the Megillat Sefer, preserved in manuscript and containing thirty-one letters, and copies a similar older work, the Sofer Mahir by Ismaël Ḥazaq, dating from the 17th century; these letters contain valuable notices on the life of famous contemporaries and on events of the Judeo-Italian world of the time.
Active editor at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, son of Jacob b. Moses Raphael of Cordova. After a stay in Brazil, he settled in Amsterdam where, like his brother Abraham, he became a printer; he published in 1688 the Spanish sermons of Joshua de Silva, then various other works in Spanish and Hebrew between 1706 and 1709, before moving to Hamburg in 1709.
Rabbi and preacher active in Amsterdam around the middle of the 18th century. He is the author of a moral sermon preached in the synagogue Talmud Torah, published in Amsterdam in 1744.
Wealthy Jewish merchant of 18th-century London, he became, a rare occurrence for a Jew at the time, administrator of the Bank of England. In 1727, he took action against the Russia Company which refused to admit him because of his religion, and won his case before the Attorney General; in 1736, he was party to a matter concerning a bill of exchange with W. Monmartel. Son of Jacob da Costa, who arrived in England in 1655, he married his cousin Catherine Mendes in 1698, whose father Fernandez Mendes was the Marano physician of John IV of Portugal; their daughter Catherine da Costa is said to have painted in 1721 the portrait of her grandfather.
Philanthropist, born in 1704, died in England in 1764, descended from one of the oldest and most honorable Portuguese Jewish families and counted among the first Hebrew merchants of his time. He distributed three thousand pounds annually to the poor of all faiths, and endowed in 1762, with Isaac de David Levy, a yeshiva to which he ensured annual distributions to students; a codicil to his will extended his largesses for the benefit of the indigent families he had supported during his lifetime.
Librarian and member of the Royal Society of London, science writer, born in 1717, died in 1791, son of Abraham Mendez da Costa, who came from Normandy to settle in England around 1696 and married in 1702 to his cousin Esther da Costa. Botanist, renowned naturalist and collector, he is admitted to the Aurelian Society in 1739, to the Gentleman's Society of Spalding in 1746, then elected member of the Royal Society on 26 November 1747, of which he later becomes librarian. Author of Elements of Conchology (1776) and British Conchology (1778), it is in his library that the list of the first Jewish colonists of England was found.
Dutch poet, born January 14, 1798 in Amsterdam, died in that city April 28, 1860, son of Daniel da Costa, relative of Uriel Acosta. Trained at the Latin school from 1806 to 1811, he was connected through his Hebrew master Moses Lemans to the great poet Bilderdijk, who supervised his education; he left in 1817 for Leiden, where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1818 then in philosophy in 1821, before converting to Christianity with his cousin and wife Hannah Belmonte. Recognized as Bilderdijk's successor among Dutch poets, he published notably Israel en de Volken (Haarlem, 1848-49).
Donor of the Hebrew library of the British Museum, active around 1760. A merchant by profession, he amassed a fortune devoted largely to works of piety and charity. Thanks to his credit with several heads of the House of Commons, he secured the preservation of a collection of Hebrew books gathered under the Commonwealth, fallen to Charles II then neglected, before being sold to a bookseller under the reign of Anne; repurchased under George I by Solomon da Costa, then a young man eager for knowledge, it was given by him to the British Museum.
French Hebraicist, born in Étain, in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, in 1791, died in Paris on January 7, 1872. Secretary of the Committee of Israelite Charity, he devoted himself to the dissemination of religious works, notably publishing La Semaine Israélite (Paris, 1846), a French translation of the Haggada de Pessa'h (1847), the Tefillat 'Adat Yeshurun, prayers of French Jews in Hebrew and French (1850), the Minḥah Ḥadashah, Sephardic prayers (1855), an illustrated translation of the Psalms (1858), and holiday prayers for Franco-Spanish and Franco-Portuguese Jews in six volumes (1861-63); he also began publishing in 1870 an almanac, the Annuaire Parisien.
German educator and theologian, born in Mainz May 16, 1789, died in Frankfurt-on-Main August 5, 1842. Trained traditionally in talmudic studies, he opened to secular knowledge at sixteen during the French occupation, studied mathematics and founded a Jewish school in Mainz, of which he became principal; appointed in 1825 teacher at the Philanthropin in Frankfurt, he worked there alongside I. M. Jost on the reform of Judaism and wrote a Shulḥan 'Aruk intended to reconcile the Talmud with modern ideas, before advocating a return to pure Mosaism. He directed with Jost, during his last two years, the Hebrew journal Zion.
Hebraist and French judge, born in 1800, died in 1878, son of Mordecai Crémieux. Talmudic scholar, he taught Hebrew to Jewish children in Aix and often served as shoḥet, mohel and hazzan, before beginning a commercial career in 1821, and then sitting for seventeen years as a judge at the commercial court in Aix, Provence, where he helped have a law on bankruptcy adopted. He was among the founders of the Archives Israélites and was a member of the consistory of Marseille.
French statesman, born in Nîmes on April 22, 1796, died in Paris on February 9, 1880. Admitted to the bar of Nîmes at his majority in 1817, he became known through the defense of royalist bandit Trestaillon and then through his patriotic pleading of 1819 in the so-called « De la Marseillaise » case; settled in Paris after the 1830 revolution, he becomes the leader of his fellow Jews by obtaining the abolition of the humiliating More Judaico oath imposed on Jews before the courts. In 1840, he plays a decisive role in obtaining, from Méhémet-Ali, the acquittal of the Jewish victims of the Damascus affair, from which he returns crowned with the gratitude of the Jews of Vienna.
Rabbi of Aix-en-Provence, born in Carpentras in 1749, died on May 22, 1825. He is the author of Ma'amar Mordekai, a commentary on the Shulḥan 'Aruk, Ora'h 'Hayyim, in two parts, published in Livorno in 1784.
Scholar, born in Carpentras, France, in 1766, died on 4 May 1837, nephew and son-in-law of Mordecai Crémieux. Settled in Aix, Provence, in 1790, he founded there a Hebrew printing house from which he published, between 1829 and 1835, a corrected edition of the ritual of the four French communities of Avignon, Carpentras, L'Isle and Cavaillon, accompanied by a commentary entitled Ho'il Mosheh Be'er, as well as notes on Ibn Ezra's commentaries to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the Five Scrolls, Proverbs and Job (1833-36).
Warder Cresson, who became Michael C. Boaz Israël after his conversion, is a religious zealot born in Philadelphia on July 13, 1798 and died in Jerusalem on November 6, 1860. Raised a Quaker, seized from his youth with religious fervor that made him pass from one sect to another, he binds himself around 1840 to Isaac Leeser and draws near to Judaism; appointed on May 17, 1844 first consul of the United States in Jerusalem, he settles there that same year, abandoning wife and children, draws near the Sephardic community of the city, and has himself circumcised and received into Judaism in March 1848 despite the initial opposition of the bet din and the grand rabbi Abraham Ḥaï Gagin.
German publicist who lived in Neuwied, in Prussia, in the eighteenth century. He founds in 1758 in Neuwied the Jewish periodical Der Grosse Schauplatz (The Great Theater), printed in German.
English dramatist born on February 19, 1732 in Cambridge and died on May 7, 1811 in Tunbridge Wells, Richard Cumberland was trained at Bury St Edmunds and Westminster before entering Trinity College. Around 1750, secretary to Lord Halifax, he devotes himself to theatrical writing and meets with success with « A Summer's Tale » (1765) then « The West Indian » (1770), staged by Garrick. In 1777, he writes « The Jew », which opposes to Shakespeare's Shylock and Marlowe's Barabas the generous figure of Sheva, which appeared before « Nathan der Weise ».
Polish Hasidic rabbi
Polish statesman and author born in Poryck, Volhynia, on August 28, 1765, and died in Dubno on February 8, 1813, Tadeusz Czacki was appointed school inspector of Volhynia, Podolia, and Ukraine under the direction of Prince Adam Czartoryski. Opponent of the Jesuits, he raised by subscription two million Polish florins for the gymnasiums of Vinnitsa and Kiev, then founded in 1805 the lyceum of Krzemieniec. He is the author of the 'Rozprawa o Żydach' (Discourse on the Jews), published in Vilna in 1807 and reissued in 1845, which traces the history of Jews in Poland since their settlement in the 12th century.
Polish statesman and patriot born in Warsaw on January 14, 1770 and died at the château of Montfermeil, near Paris, on July 15, 1861, Prince Adam Czartoryski entered in 1795 the service of the Russian government, became the intimate friend of the future Emperor Alexander, then took the lead of the Polish insurrection of 1830-31 before retiring to Paris as leader of Polish exiles. Protector of Jewish scholar Mendel Levin, whom he engaged as tutor to his children, he sat in 1804 on the commission preparing the decree of December 9, 1804 on the Jews and pleaded, in 1844, for the equality of their rights.
Musician and composer born in Bordeaux on January 17, 1778 and died in the same city on November 29, 1864, Isaac-Francis Dacosta was a student at the Music Conservatory in 1798. First cornet at the Paris Opera, he was also sub-conductor of the Music of the Bodyguards under Louis XVIII and composed romances and concertos; Meyerbeer writes for him in 1836 the clarinet solo of the fifth act of « Les Huguenots ». He may be the son of musician Samuel-Franco Dacosta, brought before the revolutionary tribunal of Bordeaux in 1794.
Archbishop of Mainz then grand duke of Frankfurt, Karl Theodor von Dalberg was born February 8, 1744 and died February 10, 1817. Prince and statesman among the most enlightened in Germany, favorable to the complete emancipation of Jews but long held back by the patricians of Frankfurt and the Rhine Confederation, he promulgated on December 28, 1811 a law granting the Jews of Frankfurt and their descendants the same civil rights as other citizens; in exchange, they paid him 440,000 florins, which made it possible to eliminate the annual protection tax of 22,000 florins.
French Army officer and community organizer born in Mutzig, in Bas-Rhin, in 1776 and died on May 11, 1840, Simon Mayer Dalmbert participates in the early campaigns of the Empire and then organizes, in Cassel in 1809, the army of the kingdom of Westphalia; established in Paris from 1813, he devotes himself to the organization of the Israelite religion as vice-president of the Central Israelite Consistory of Paris from 1816. He obtains the repeal, in 1818, of the decree of March 17, 1808, has established by royal ordinance of June 29, 1819 the primary Israelite schools, then that of August 20, 1823, and contributes in 1829 to the creation of the Central Rabbinical School of Metz.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-1.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by source. Son of Yosef, himself son of Daniel I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-1.
Banker and Master of the Mint (with Veitel Heine Ephraim), court Jew of Frederick II and Frederick William II. First Prussian Jew to receive full naturalization (Naturalisationspatent, 1791) for himself and his family. Head of the Berlin community; collector of Hebrew manuscripts.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-4.
Sephardic Jewish prizefighter born in Whitechapel to Sephardic parents (Abraham Aaron Mendoza and Esther Lopez). Considered the father of « scientific » boxing. Beyond the ring, he left a written legacy: two technical treatises and an autobiography, among the very first sports memoirs in English.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 28-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-1.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe, himself son of Barukh. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-1.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Died in 5537 of the Hebrew era (1777). Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-1.
Lithuanian codifier born in Danzig in 1747 or 1748 and died in Vilna on September 12, 1820, Abraham ben Jehiel Danzig, from a family of scholars of western Prussia, studies the Talmud at the yeshiva of Prague under Ezekiel Landau then settles as a merchant in Vilna before accepting, after losing his fortune in the explosion of a powder magazine, the charge of dayyan which he keeps until his death. He is the author of the codes « Ḥayye Adam » (Vilna, 1810) and « Ḥokmat Adam » (1814), which rank among the most important works of codification since Joseph Caro, as well as « Sha'are Ẓedeḳ » (1812) and, published after his death, « Bet Abraham » (1821).
French Orientalist born on March 28, 1849 in Château-Salins, in Lorraine, and died on October 19, 1894 in Paris, James Darmesteter is the youngest son of a family of bookbinders and booksellers established in Lorraine, whose name « Darmesteter » derives from « Darmstädter », chosen in 1791 when the Jews of France had to adopt a surname. After his father's death in 1852, the family moved to Paris, to the Marais district, where privation affected his fragile health ; a Bischoffsheim scholar at eleven, he attended Charlemagne and Bonaparte colleges. In 1887, in Florence, the Florentines nicknamed him « Il piccolo Leopardi », struck by his resemblance to the poet of Recanati.
German Talmudist active in the second half of the 18th century, student of Mordecai Halberstadt, author of the "Ma'amar Mordecai", Joseph ben Meïrẓebi Darmstadt wrote the "'Eṣ Yosef", Talmudic novellae on the treatises Berakhot, Beitsa and Meguila, published in Karlsruhe in 1763.
Founder of the Lelov Hasidic dynasty, disciple of the Seer of Lublin (himself a disciple of Elimelech of Lizhensk). Renowned for his extreme compassion toward others; the Seer of Lublin held him to be a pillar of the tsaddikim. He did not himself compose a sefer; his teachings and tales were transmitted and collected by others.
Rabbi of Agadir, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Son of Asher. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew calendar (1751). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
Regarded as one of the greatest Moroccan Jewish poets and a major figure in Sephardic liturgical poetry. Disciple and son-in-law of Rabbi Mordekhaï Berdugo, he traveled through the communities of Morocco and went to Gibraltar where his poems were well received. His collection « Tehila le-David » is the first poetry book by a Moroccan author ever printed; his piyyutim, distributed by emissaries (chadarim), inspired many Moroccan singers.
Moroccan poet of the second half of the 18th century, David ben Aaron ibn Ḥusain composed in 1790 an elegy on the persecutions suffered that year by the Jews of Morocco following the death of Sultan Sidi Mohammed, a valuable text for knowledge of these events.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-1.
Hebrew scholar of the 18th century, David ben Elijah translates into Hebrew, under the title « Leshon Zahab » (Language of Gold), the second Targum of Esther, a translation published in Constantinople in 1732.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
The most famous paytan of Moroccan Judaism, born in Meknès, author of the collection Tehila le-David.
Rabbi of Szereszów, in the governorate of Grodno, one of the most influential rabbis of Lithuania in the late 18th century, David ben Jacob is the author of « Ḥomot Yerushalayim » (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1807), a commentary on the part of the Oraḥ Ḥayyim of the Shulhan Aruch from its beginning to the laws on tefillin.
Dayyan and preacher in Krotoschin, in Prussia, in the eighteenth century, David ben Joseph ha-Kohen is the author of « Pa'amone Zahab », a homiletic commentary on the first forty chapters of the Psalms, published in Fürth in 1769; Nepi also attributes to him a commentary on Moïse Isserles' « Torat ha-'Olah », entitled « Minḥat Kohen », of which only Fürst gives a different title, without other bibliographers confirming it.
Rabbi and Russian author born in Turets, in the Minsk Governorate, in 1792 and died in Minsk on April 27th, 1861, David Tevele ben Moses studied from age fifteen at the yeshiva of Volozhin under Rabbi Ḥayyim, became at twenty-five rabbi of Stoubtsy, a position he held from 1817 to 1849, when he was elected chief rabbi of Minsk, a function he retained until his death. He wrote the « Bet Dawid », a collection of responsa and sermons, and left after his death the « Naḥalat Dawid » (Vilna, 1864) and the « Dibre Dawid » (Vilna, 1882).
Russian rabbi born in 1769 and died at Novogroudok, in the governorate of Minsk, in 1836. David ben Moses of Novogroudok became its rabbi in 1794 and remained so for forty-three years, until his death; one of the great Talmudists of Russia in his time, renowned for his mastery of pilpul, he is the author of the "Galya Massekta", published in Vilna in 1844 in two volumes, one of responsa and novellae, the other of sermons and commentaries on the Haggada.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28–3.
Chief Rabbi of Berlin, master of Mendelssohn, commentator on the Jerusalem Talmud.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5513 of the Hebrew era (1753). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5469 of the Hebrew era (1709). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-1.
Polish Rabbi (1746-1814)
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5530 of the Hebrew era (1770). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Jewish physician born on December 20, 1789 in Remoulins (Gard). He defended his thesis at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier in 1811, was surgeon of the Grande Armée and followed Napoleon to Russia in 1812 (where he was taken prisoner). Settled in Nîmes, he became the dominant Jewish figure of the city under the July Monarchy and sat on the municipal council (1837-1848).
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Son of Barukh. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Died in 5468 of the Hebrew era (1708). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-1.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Haim. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Rabbi of Debdou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Dutch rabbi
London resident in 1720, he composed a Latin poem celebrating the Spanish translation of the Psalms by Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna, « Espejo Fiel de Vidas ».
Scholar, physician and Jewish planter of Surinam. In 1788 he publishes the « Essai historique sur la colonie de Surinam », an erudite defence of the place of Jews in the history of the colony, in response to Enlightenment historians (Voltaire, Raynal). A pioneering work of Creole Jewish historiography.
Liturgical poet established in L'Isle, France, around 1764, David de Milhau is the author of a responsum whose manuscript is preserved in the Montefiore library, under a call number taken from the Halberstamm collection.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Neo-Hebrew poet, author of the drama Gemul Atalyah inspired by Racine.
Hungarian maskil, rabbi, and astronomer
Rabbi of Taza, 18th century. Mentioned in 5500 of the Hebrew era (1740). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5490 (1730), died in 5550 (1790) of the Hebrew era. Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25–3.
Italian rabbi of the first half of the 18th century, student of N. Pincherle, he served successively in Reggio, Livorno and Trieste. His principal work, « Bet David », is a commentary on the Mishna published in Amsterdam in 1738-39, featuring diagrams on certain halakhic points that reveal solid mathematical knowledge. He also left glosses on the Shulḥan 'Arukh (partially published by Azoulaï), a manuscript collection of sermons delivered in Trieste and critical notes against David Pardo.
Arriving in Calcutta in 1821 from Baghdad with his father Joseph Ezra and his brother Nissim, he built an immense real estate fortune and became Calcutta's largest landowner. Leader of the Baghdadi Jewish community of Bengal; the family (also called Khalif/Horesh in Baghdad) was the most influential in the community.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-1.
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-4.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
rabbi
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-1.
Italian rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Son of Ezekiel Rahabi (I) who emigrated from Aleppo to Cochin in 1646, David Rahabi came to Cochin after his father's death and died there in 1726; his tombstone is preserved in the courtyard of the Paradesi Synagogue. He initiated the cultural enterprise pursued by his son Ezekiel.
British economist and philosopher
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-3.
Notable and Jewish treasurer of Baghdad, founder of the Sassoon merchant dynasty in Bombay.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5464 of the Hebrew era (1704). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-2.
Chief Rabbi of France
Ukrainian rabbi
German rabbi
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-1.
Rabbi of Demnate, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
librarian
French Deputy born in Niort, in the Deux-Sèvres, on 30 March 1796 and died in the same city on 24 January 1879, Benjamin Ferdinand David studied medicine and then served as an auxiliary naval surgeon in the Gulf of Mexico in 1813-14. Deputy for the Deux-Sèvres from 1834 to 1837 and then from 1842 to 1846, mayor of Niort in 1840, he sat in the Legislative Assembly of 1849 and then, from 1852 to 1870, under the Second Empire, whose government he supported after approving the coup d'État of 2 December 1851.
Danish economist and politician born in Copenhagen on January 16, 1793 and died in the same city on June 18, 1874, Christian Georg Nathan David left Judaism for the Protestant Church in 1830, the year he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Copenhagen ; he founded in 1834 the weekly « Faedrelandet », served as deputy from 1840 to 1846, directed the state statistics department from 1854 to 1875 and became administrator of the National Bank in 1858, before being, after the 1864 war, secretary to the Treasury in the Bluhme government, then retiring from political life in 1870.
Court banker in Hanover and agent of the finance council, born in Hanover in the middle of the eighteenth century, son of Michel David, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, Meyer Michel David bequeaths around 1798 one hundred thousand thalers to found in Hanover a school offering poor Jewish children free instruction in the sciences, Hebrew and modern languages, with a monthly allowance. Reorganized in 1835, the « Meyer Michel Davidsche Freischule » is directed by J. M. Frensdorff until 1861 then by S. Kayserling until 1898, and continues to train rabbis, teachers, bankers and artisans.
Polish rabbi who died in Działoszyce in 1751, Samuel ben Juda Löb David succeeded his father as rabbi of Szydłów when the latter became rabbi of Cracow, before being called in turn to Cracow around 1731; meeting with opposition that took advantage of his temporary absence to install another rabbi in his place, he nonetheless resumed his position upon his return, then retired to Działoszyce, where he died. His signature appears at the foot of the excommunication pronounced against Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto.
Farmer of the revenues of Lumbrales, in Castile, Joseph Delgado is condemned, on July 26, 1723, together with his wife Antonia de Cárdenas and his brother Gabriel Delgado, to perpetual imprisonment by the Inquisition of Llerena for having refused to abjure their faith; on the same day, his mother-in-law is burned alive for the same reason.
German-French historian born in Münster on May 11, 1784, and died in Paris on September 5, 1853, Georges Bernard Depping settled in Paris in 1803 and published « Jews in the Middle Ages, Historical Essay on their Civil, Commercial, and Literary Condition » (Paris, 1834; 2nd ed. 1844; German translation, Stuttgart, 1834), a work born of the prize offered in 1821 by the Royal Academy for a study on the Jews of France in the Middle Ages — an honorably mentioned but uncrowned work that he expanded to a general history of the Jews of Europe by mining medieval Christian sources, without consulting, for lack of translations, rabbinic sources.
Russian poet and senator born in Kazan on July 15, 1743 and died in Zvanka, in the governorate of Novgorod, on July 20, 1816, Gavriil Romanovitch Derjavine was entrusted in 1799 by Emperor Paul to investigate complaints from the Jews of Shklov against General Zoritch; despite proven abuses, the dissensions between mitnagdim and hasidim and his friendship for Koutaïssov, who coveted Zoritch's property, led him to render a favorable report, and Zoritch was acquitted. The following year, sent to investigate famine in White Russia and the condition of Jews, he drafted in Vitebsk, in September 1800, his famous « Opinion on the Means of Preserving White Russia from Famine ».
Talmudist of the 18th century nicknamed « Dessau » after the city where he lived, Moses b. Michael Dessau published in 1724 aggadic novelties on the treatises Berakhot, Shabbat, and Kiddushin as well as halakhic novelties on Pesachim and Ketubbot, then in 1765 the « Zikron Mosheh », novelties on various aggadic and halakhic subjects; he also edits and annotates the « Sha'are Doura » of Isaac b. Meïr of Dueren.
German composer born in Prague on May 28, 1798 and died in Mödling, near Vienna, on July 8, 1876, student of Tomaschek for piano, Josef Dessauer was first destined for commerce before a trip to Italy revealed his musical vocation; the favorable reception reserved for his canzonettas in Naples in 1821 led him to devote himself to composition. Established in Vienna, he acquired an international reputation for his melodies, while his operas, « Lidwinna » (Prague, 1836), « Ein Besuch in Saint-Cyr » (Dresden, 1838), « Paquita » (Vienna, 1851) and « Domingo » (1860), met with less success.
Hungarian rabbi
German rabbi born in Zülz, in Prussian Silesia, on April 2, 1800 and died in Beuthen on June 7, 1853, where he served as rabbi from 1829 until his death, distinguished himself as a preacher, Talmudist and Hebraist, Israel Deutsch vigorously opposed the Reform movement in two treatises written with his brother David (Breslau, 1843) then alone (1845); after his death, his brothers Abraham, rabbi of Gleiwitz, and David, rabbi of Sohrau, publish his posthumous writings, "Proben aus dem Literarischen Nachlasse des Israel Deutsch" (Gleiwitz, 1855).
Rabbi of Kolín, in Bohemia, and of its subordinate communities, active in the early eighteenth century, Mordecai ben Enoch Juda Deutsch is the author of the « Mor Deror », novellae on the talmudic treatises Ketouvot, Baba Kamma, Baba Metsia, Hulin, Yoma and Shevuot (Prague, 1738).
Rabbinic author established in Hamburg in the 17th and 18th centuries, Elijah ben Isaac Deutz is the author of the "Pi Eliyahu" (Altona, 1735), a commentary on the "Pereḳ Shirah".
French painter born in Bordeaux in 1794 and died on May 29, 1817, Félix Dias showed marked talent for painting from early youth, won several prizes at the Academy and obtained in 1817 the first prize for composition; the few works he left testify to a skillful blending of colors, sure taste in composition and great vigor of drawing.
French philosopher and encyclopedist born in Langres on 5 October 1713 and died in Paris on 30 July 1784, Denis Diderot showed little sympathy for Jews: the article on Jewish philosophy in the « Encyclopédie » betrays superficial knowledge of the subject, as does a passage from his « Voyage in Holland » on the Jews of Amsterdam. In his « Neveu de Rameau », two anecdotes feature Jews — a renegade who denounces to the Inquisition a wealthy Jew of Avignon, and an orthodox Jew of Utrecht in a licentious episode —, the second drawing on Dutch characters from « Voyage in Holland »; this trait testifies to the prejudices of his time against Jews.
Supplier to the Russian army born in Niasvij, in the governorate of Minsk, in the second half of the 18th century, and died in Vilna on June 25, 1838, Eliezer Dillon supplied the Russian army during the Franco-Russian War of 1812 and received in 1814 a gold medal from Emperor Alexander I for his faithful services. Elected delegate from Minsk in 1816 and again to go to Saint Petersburg to present the condition of the Jews, he intervened there in 1818 to delay the expulsion of Jews from the city and obtained an imperial audience; his growing influence earned him enemies who had him accused of dishonesty, arrested and had his property confiscated, before the Senate ordered his release.
Talmudist and homilist born around 1744, student of Joshua Cohen at the yeshiva, where he meets Joseph Steinhardt and Jacob Berlin, David ben Joël Dispeck becomes dayyan of Fürth and then, in 1771, rabbi of Mering, in Bavaria, and of the Black Forest; called in 1778 to direct the yeshiva of Metz, he finally becomes, in 1785, rabbi of Beyersdorf and Bayreuth, where he assembles his homilies in the « Pardes Dawid », arranged according to the order of the parachiot and accompanied by three hundred sixty-five solutions to difficult passages of the « Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah » of Maimonides (Sulzbach, 1786).
Soldier in the service of the East India Company and second founder of the Beni-Israel congregation of Bombay, born in Cochin in 1730 and died in that city in 1797, Samuel Ezekiel Divekar enlisted around 1760 in the Company's army and became native commander; taken prisoner with other Beni-Israel by Tippu Sahib during the Second Mysore War, he escaped execution thanks to Tippu Sahib's mother, who recognized the Quranic name of the Beni-Israel, and made a vow to revive Judaism among his people in Bombay. Having escaped in 1795, he had a synagogue built there, completed in 1796, before dying the following year in Cochin.
Polish rabbi who died in Lemberg in 1779, Dob Baer b. Loeb is rabbi of Kozienice, in the government of Lublin, in 1745, then of Krasnik in 1754, when he went to Jarosław to meet the rabbis defending the cause of Jonathan Eybeschütz against Jacob Emden; rabbi of Rzeszów in 1758, he finally became rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Lemberg, where he remained until his death.
Austrian writer and poet born July 12, 1753 in Brünn, Moravia, and guillotined April 5, 1793 in Paris, Moïse Dobruška, son of a wealthy Jewish merchant destined for the rabbinate, turned from talmudic studies to German letters despite paternal opposition, obtaining from his father 1,500 florins to buy books; converted to Catholicism in 1773 under the name Franz Thomas Schönfeld, he was ennobled with his brothers in 1778 and for a time directed the Garelli library in Vienna. The cause of his execution is unknown. He published « Etliche Gedichte zur Probe » (Vienna, 1773), « Schäferspiele » (Prague, 1774), and « David's Kriegsgesänge » (1789).
German historian and political writer, defender of Jews and friend of Moses Mendelssohn, born in Lemgo on 11 December 1751 and died near Nordhausen on 29 May 1820, Christian Wilhelm von Dohm published in 1781, at Mendelssohn's suggestion, a two-volume work on the emancipation of Jews, « Ueber die Bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden » (Berlin), pleading for their political equality in the name of humanity; hailed by the communities of Berlin, Halberstadt and Surinam, the work prompted criticisms that led Mendelssohn to clarify his views in the preface to the translation by Marcus Herz of Menasseh ben Israël's « Vindiciæ Judæorum ».
Austrian scholar died in Prague on January 25, 1743, Meïr ha-Lévi Dormitzer is the author of the "Ha'ataḳah," which explains the foreign words in Bertinoro's commentary on the Mishna (Prague, 1809).
Successor of the Baal Shem Tov and organizer of the Hasidic movement, he trained the first generation of Hasidic masters. His teaching spread Hasidism throughout Eastern Europe.
Polish rabbi
Second Rebbe of Chabad (1773–1827)
Printer of Amsterdam, active from 1680 to 1724 as typographer, editor, author and translator, successively employed at David Tartas, Moïse Mendes and Asher Anshel & Cie. He edits in 1690 a Judeo-German translation of the « Miḳwé Yisraël » of Menasseh ben Israël and the « Massa'ot Binyamin » of Benjamin of Tudela; publishes in 1706 his own « Lev Ḥakhamim », in 1711 a new edition of the « Tsé'enah ou-Re'enah », in 1718 a calendar for the year 5479 (= 1719), and in 1722 the « Menorat ha-Ma'or » of Isaac Aboab, in the Judeo-German translation of Moïse Frankfurter.
Russian poet, grammarian and Masorete born in Dubno, in Volhynia, in October 1738 and died in Amsterdam on June 26, 1813, Salomon ben Joël Dubno perfected himself in Galicia under Rabbi Salomon of Chelm, who tasked him with revising his work on Hebrew accents, the « Sha'are Ne'imah » (Frankfurt am Main, 1766); established in Amsterdam from 1767 to 1772 then in Berlin, he became the tutor of the son of Moses Mendelssohn, wrote part of the biblical commentary of Mendelssohn's translation (Amsterdam, 1778), and published in Vilna the « Birkat Yosef » (Dyhernfurth, 1783). Returning to finish his life in Amsterdam, forgotten, he published its library catalog, the « Reshimah » (1814).
French lawyer and friend of the Jews, born in 1758, died in exile in 1798. Deputy to the Estates General of 1789 and member of the Jacobin party, he became a royalist after the arrest of Louis XVI in June 1791. On September 27, 1791, he proposed that the Jews of France receive all the privileges of citizenship, a proposal adopted despite slight opposition, leading to the repeal of laws of exception targeting Jews.
Hungarian ecclesiastic born in Temesvár in 1734, died in 1797. Trained at the Talmud Torah of Prague, he received in 1760 the title of "Morenu", then, seized by religious doubts, began a wandering life across Europe — Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Amsterdam, Arnhem, Wesel, Halle, London — before receiving baptism in Amsterdam in 1767 under the influence of pastor van Essen. He subsequently studied theology at Utrecht and became in 1777 preacher at Mijdrecht, publishing several sermons and a major work in three volumes, "Israels Verlossinge en Eeuwige Behoudenis" (Amsterdam, 1769-93).
English Jew who, on May 15, 1800, saved the life of King George III at the Drury Lane theatre by deflecting the arm of a madman, Hadfield, at the moment when he fired on the sovereign with a pistol. He was the father of Henry Dyte, later honorary secretary of the Blind Society; it is reported that he asked for nothing but the monopoly of the sale of opera tickets as his sole reward.
Moravian scholar, active in Ungarisch-Brod in the early 18th century — perhaps a pseudonym, according to Steinschneider — known by the name appearing in the title of the "Mar'eh ha-Ketab we-Rashe Tebot", a guide to Hebrew-German and its abbreviations.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Israel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, 18th century. Mentioned in 5542 of the Hebrew era (1782). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Menashe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5471 of the Hebrew era (1711). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 23-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Born in 5470 (1710), died in 5540 (1780) of the Hebrew era. Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-3.
Austrian rabbi born in Galicia in 1733, died in Pressburg on September 21, 1785. As a child, he distinguished himself in Brody by a casuistic homily and a debate with rabbi Isaac Hurwitz, whose son-in-law he became; contemporary of Sender Margoliouth and teacher of Jacob Lissa, he was first rabbi of Tusmenetz then, from 1775, of Pressburg. His responsa, 'She'elot u-Teshubot RaMA', appeared in Czernowitz in 1862.
Danish philanthropist born on November 14, 1786 in Copenhagen, died in that city on November 25, 1856. He left a fortune of approximately one million seven hundred thousand Danish crowns, most of which went to Jewish and municipal institutions: the library of the University of Copenhagen received funds for the purchase of Hebrew and Oriental works, while the Polytechnic Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen, on condition of welcoming each year two young Jewish men, shared an equal sum, the Academy also undertaking to finance an art prize on a subject drawn from the Old Testament.
German orientalist and biblicist born in Dörrenzimmern, in the principality of Hohenlohe-Œhringen, on October 16, 1752, died in Göttingen on June 27, 1827. Professor of oriental languages in Iéna from 1775, then of philosophy in Göttingen in 1788, he succeeded his master Michaelis in 1794 as professor of Old Testament literature. His "Einleitung in das Alte Testament" (3 vol., Leipzig, 1780-82) was a landmark in the critical study of the Bible, as was "Die Hebräischen Propheten" (3 vol., 1816-1819).
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Polish writer (1758-1837)
Rabbi of Pinsk, in Russia, active in the second half of the 18th century, author of "Śiaḥ ha-Sadeh", homilies on the Pentateuch following the order of parachiyyot (Sklow, 1786), and its continuation, "Reaḥ ha-Sadeh" (1795).
Rabbi of Prague, opponent of Sabbateanism and Frankism, president of the rabbinical court.
German Talmudist born in Berlin on September 24, 1740, died in Hamburg on January 22, 1814. Trained under Tebele Scheuer, rabbi of Bamberg, then at the yeshiva of Schwersenz, he established himself as dayyan in Posen and then, in 1781, in Altona following his master Raphaël b. Jekoutiel ha-Cohen, before becoming « rosh bet-din » of the three communities of Altona, Wandsbeck and Hamburg. His commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, « Mishnat de Rabbi Eli'ezer », was published by his son Moses in 1815; the rest of his work remained in manuscript.
Rabbi of Schottland, near Danzig, born in 1713, died on September 27, 1780. Having become rabbi of Fordon in Prussia at eighteen years old, then chief rabbi of Schottland in 1752, he left several Talmudic commentaries that remained largely unpublished, except for three novellæ on the laws of purity published in Berlin in 1783 by his son Judah Löb.
German rabbi
(approximately 1786-1854?)
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-2.
Italian rabbi
Rabbi of Fes. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Reuben. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-4.
Rabbi of Taza, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5545 of the Hebrew era (1785). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-3.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-3.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5466 of the Hebrew era (1706). Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.
Kabbalist and grammarian active in London in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, author of about twenty works on kabbalah, including an abridgment of Joseph Delmedigo's « Nobelot Ḥokmah » and one of Joseph Gikatilla's « Ginnat Egoz », as well as a Hebrew grammar, « 'En Mishpaṭ » (Rödelheim, 1803). His first essays appeared in London in 1794-99, the one on Hebrew vocalization in Berlin in 1803; he is best known for having developed, in the « Ẓuf Nobelot », the kabbalistic theory of creation from nothingness.
Polish Talmudic scholar active in Yampol in the eighteenth century. Sent in 1757 by the Jews of Poland to Rome to defend them against the accusation of ritual crime, he presented a petition to Pope Benedict XIV, who charged Cardinal Ganganelli — future Clement XIV — with examining the matter; the latter concluded to the frivolous nature of the accusation, and the King of Poland August III consequently published a decree exonerating the Jews. In Roman documents, he appears under the name « Jacob Selech », but signed with his true name in his correspondence with Samuel Gallichi.
Turkish rabbi of Smyrna in the 18th century, author of "To'afot Re'em" (Smyrna, 1766), "Agurah be-Oholeka" (Salonika, 1781) and "Yiẓḥaḳ Yerannen" (Salonika, 1785).
Cantor, teacher and Galician translator born in Komarno, died in Amsterdam before 1709. Author of a guide to correspondence in Hebrew (Amsterdam, 1686) and several collections of prayers in Judeo-German, he also translated into Judeo-German Manassé ben Israël's « Miḳweh Yisra'el » (1691) and ibn Verga's « Shebeṭ Yehudah » (1700), as well as the daily prayers and seliḥot of the Lithuanian rite, continuing this translation work until 1720.
Polish rabbi and author died in 1715. Having left Poland as a young man, he established himself as rabbi in Fulda, Germany, where he wrote commentaries on the Talmud of Jerusalem: Shekalim (Frankfurt-on-Main, 1710), Berakhot and part of Zeraïm (Amsterdam, 1710), then Baba Qamma and Baba Metsia (Offenbach, 1729), republished with a commentary on Baba Batra in Frankfurt in 1742.
Leading member of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation of Bevis Marks (London), of which he was warden several times. He published in 1848 the first major history in English of the Jews of Spain and Portugal, which remained a reference until Graetz. He translated in his work the laws enacted against Jews in the Iberian peninsula.
English pugilist nicknamed « Dutch Sam », born on April 4, 1775 in London, died on July 3, 1816. Reputed to be the most formidable striker boxing had ever known, he strung together victories for more than a decade, introducing what is technically called « the uppercut » during his fight against Caleb Baldwin, before retiring from the ring with ruined health and dying in extreme poverty.
Russian Hebraist born in Ivenets in 1800, died in Minsk in 1847. He translated from Polish into Hebrew the medical work of Friedrich Pauliczki under the title « Marpe le-'Am », accompanied by a supplement, « Ḳonṭres Reshit Da'at » (2 vol., Wilna, 1834; 2nd ed., Jitomir, 1868).
Grammarian and author, died after 1748. He wrote « Ma'aneh Eliyahou », rules of Hebrew reading (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1704), « Miḳra Ḳodesh », a Hebrew grammar (Berlin, 1713), a commentary on the « Or Torah » of R. Menachem di Lonsano (Hamburg, 1738), the verse tale « Zori Gilead » (Rödelheim, 1748), and novellæ on the « Torat Ḥaṭṭa'ot » (Amsterdam, 1711).
Rabbi of Byelgorai, in Poland, in the eighteenth century, son of Ezekiel, rabbi of Ostrowiec in Galicia, and friend of Ḥayyim Rapoport, rabbi of Lemberg. He wrote « Har ha-Karmel », responsa classified according to the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch (Frankfurt am Main, 1782), as well as « Rosh ha-Karmel », talmudic novellae, and « Eshel ha-Neḥalim », an index to the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ.
Rabbi and Kabbalist of Oulianov, in Galicia, in the 18th century, contemporary of Jonathan Eybeschütz whose party he took in his quarrel with R. Jacob Emden, which forced him to flee through Italy and Turkey before settling in Amsterdam toward the end of his life. He is the author of « Birkat Eliyahou », novellæ on several Talmudic treatises (Wandsbeck, 1728), prefaced and published by Moses Ḥagis, which end with a defense of Ashkenazi customs.
Polish physician, mathematician and Talmudist of the eighteenth century, active in Pinczów, in the government of Kielce. He wrote « Meleket Maḥshebet », a treatise on arithmetic, algebra and geometry in two parts (Żółkiew, 1758; Frankfurt an der Oder and Berlin, 1765; Ostrog, 1806), « Ma'aneh Eliyahou », novellae and decisions (Żółkiew, 1758), and « Hadrat Eliyahou », ten Talmudic homilies (Prague, 1786); he also edited a collection of responsa from several rabbinic authorities (Soudilkov, 1795).
Palestinian rabbi born in Jerusalem, died in Alexandria on January 7, 1786. Having become rabbi of Rhodes in 1763, he was later offered the chief rabbinate of Alexandria; a prolific author, he published only a few of his writings, among them "Ḳol Eliyahou", responsa (Livorno, 1792), "'Uggat Eliyahou", other responsa (Livorno, 1830), "Shene Eliyahou", twenty-five homilies (1806), and "Ar'a de-Yisrael", on Talmudic methodology, published in Vienna in 1821.
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, son of Nathan, author of Migdanot Nathan.
Polish rabbi died in Hebron, Palestine, in 1735. Rabbi of Biała, then, after a stay in Brest-Litovsk, of Eibenschütz in Moravia, he retired to Hebron in his old age. He is the author of "Yad Eliyahou", responsa (Amsterdam, 1712).
Bene Israel poet of the 18th century, born and active in Bombay, under the birth name « Elloji Nagawkar ». Member of the Kalgiwalla caste, authorized to wear a plume in the turban, he improvised religious and moral poems in Marathi and Hindustani in the form of ballads, some of which survive, and was invited to the court of the Peshwa in Poona to display his talent.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Mentioned in 5478 of the Hebrew era (1718). Son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.
Talmudist and Kabbalist from Russia who lived in Strizhov (Strizhovka) in the 18th–19th centuries. Author of several homiletic and Kabbalistic works. He is notably credited with a commentary (Parashat Eliezer) on the Kabbalistic work Karnayim by Aaron b. Abraham.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-2.
Born in Salé in 1714, Chief Rabbi of Rabat, Marrakech and Salé, died in Rabat in 1761. From a lineage of scholars (father Samuel de Avila, grandfather Moshe; maternal uncle Hayyim ibn Attar, the Or ha-Hayyim). Nicknamed « Ner ha-Ma'aravi » (Light of the West), he left an important halakhic body of work, published in part posthumously by his son-in-law.
Russian rabbi active around the middle of the eighteenth century, author of two works: « Imre Shefer », a collection of sermons (Poryck, 1786), and « Dammeseḳ Eli'ezer », novellae on the Talmud and the Tosafot accompanied by moral sermons and a commentary on Psalms cxx to cxxxiv (1790).
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Born in 5471 (1711), died in 5521 (1761) of the Hebrew era. Son of Shmuel II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-2.
German rabbi
Austrian rabbi
Galician Kabbalist of the eighteenth century, author of two Kabbalistic commentaries: one on the Psalms, « Migdal Dawid », preceded by an introduction titled « Ṭal Orot » (Vienna, 1792), the other on the Proverbs, « Bet Shelomoh », preceded by « Petaḥ ha-Bayit » (Żółkiew, 1788).
Bulgarian rabbi
1794-1868, Polish-German private tutor, Jewish scholar and book collector, gave his name to the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5466 of the Hebrew era (1706). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.
(1794-1849)
Talmudist, Kabbalist, grammarian and Lithuanian mathematician, born in Wilna on April 23, 1720, died in that same city on October 9, 1797. Child prodigy trained in the Talmud from the age of seven, he continued his studies alone from age ten, traveled through Poland and Germany then returned to Wilna in 1748, already consulted by many rabbis. Never having studied in a yeshiva, he applied to the Talmud a rigorous philological method, also cultivating the Bible, Hebrew grammar and secular sciences; of great modesty, he always refused the position of rabbi and led a withdrawn life despite his fame.
Galician Hasidic master, author of the Noam Elimelekh, a foundational work of the doctrine of the tzaddik. He was one of the principal disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch.
Russian rabbi who died in Grodno on July 1, 1749, rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Lutsk, in Volhynia. He is the author of the « Ḳab we-Naḳi », a brief commentary on the Mishna (Amsterdam, 1697), and published annotated, under the title « Pi Shenayim » (Altona, 1735), the commentary of Asheri on the Mishna of Zeraïm; since the first edition of the « Ḳab we-Naḳi » dates to 1664 according to Benjacob, he would have lived more than a hundred years.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-1.
Judge and halakhic authority of the Maghreb from 1770, nicknamed « Light of Israel ».
rabbi
Influential reformer of the London community, born in Portsea, England, on January 9, 1783, died in London in January 1848. Emigrated at twenty-one to Barbados as a watchmaker, he became a merchant and then one of the most prosperous traders on the island before returning to England in 1830. He engaged in the movement for the creation of a new reformed synagogue in London, defended by his pamphlets and his « Rejected Letters », which influenced the reformist movement; the synagogue was consecrated in January 1842, without him being excluded from the Great Synagogue despite the excommunication decree targeting reformers.
German rabbi born in 1772, died on July 4, 1839 in Bingen-on-the-Rhine. Rabbi of Mayence in 1808 with his brother Löb, he directed from 1809 to 1821 the talmudic school of Hamburg, then was rabbi of Bingen until his death. Several of his talmudic manuscripts are preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and the Memorbuch of the Bingen community gives him the title of "ha-ḳadosh weha-ṭahor", normally reserved for martyrs.
Physician and neo-Hebrew poet. Born in Salonika toward the end of the 17th century, died before 1772. While still young, he goes to Livorno with his father, the scholar Raphael Calvo, and receives his doctorate in medicine in Padua on October 23, 1724. He practices medicine in Livorno with considerable success, and inclines toward the Kabbalah toward the end of his life. Several of his poems appear in the collection « Ḳol 'Ugab » by A. B. Piperno (Livorno, 1846). He was the intimate friend of the poet Abraham Isaac Castello and of Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto, who composed a Hebrew poem in his honor following his graduation and afterward maintained a correspondence with him. At his death, Joseph ben David wrote an elegy published in « Yeḳara de-Shakbe » (Salonika, 1774).
American rabbi and lexicographer
German physician and traveler born in Emrich, near Cleves, between 1770 and 1780, graduated from Frankfurt an der Oder in 1800. He lived in England from 1804 to 1816, then settled in Hamburg, before returning to England in 1838 and making a fortune in Brazil; returned to Europe, he settled in Altona. Collaborator of Hufeland's practical medicine journal, he published the « Continental Medical Repository » (Hamburg, 1817) and, with Isaac Metz, a Latin-Hebrew catalog of the Oppenheim collection, « Collectio Davidis » (Hamburg, 1826), of which he wrote the Latin part.
From a Sephardic family of Portuguese origin (Bayonne then Bordeaux), grandson of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, he was an adherent of Saint-Simonism and wrote regularly in Le Globe and Le National in the 1820s–1830s. With his brother Isaac, he founded in 1852 the Crédit Mobilier—Europe's first major investment bank—and developed the French railway network.
Chief Rabbi of France
businessman and politician in South Australia (1800–1873)
Dayyan of Prague in the second half of the eighteenth century, author of "Shishshah Zir'one 'Arugah", six discussions on ritual laws, one of them with Ezekiel Landau on the law of ḥalitsa (Prague, 1789); the initials of the title also correspond to those of his name, Shelomoh Zalman Emrich.
German Talmudist and rabbi of Schnaittach, active in the early eighteenth century. Trained by his father and by rabbi Abraham Broda, his writings were published with those of his father and grandfather in the « Reshit Bikkurim » and the « Ḥinnuk Bet Yehudah », a collection of responsa (1708).
Mathematician and liturgical poet, born in Metz in 1750, died in Bayonne on April 9, 1839. Destined for the rabbinate, he left Metz against his father's wishes for Germany, where he was the tutor of the son of Moïse Mendelssohn (1782-85); his manuscript works on integral and differential calculus were praised by Lagrange and Laplace. An activist in the Meassefim movement, he composed a revolutionary song in Hebrew sung at the Metz synagogue on October 21, 1793 to the tune of the Marseillaise. He spent his final years in Bayonne, bequeathing before his death twelve thousand francs to the Jewish school of his native city.
Rabbi and preacher of the Hassidim of Ukraine, born in Medzhybij, Podolia, around 1750, died in Sudylkiv, Volhynia, around 1799, grandson of the Baal Chem Tov and twin brother of Barukh of Tulchyn. Preferring meditation and retreat to the splendor of a tzaddik's court, he devoted himself to preaching and mystical biblical commentaries, largely based on what he had retained in childhood from his grandfather's words. His sermons were gathered by his son under the title « Degel Maḥaneh Efrayim » (Koretz, 1810), approved by the most renowned tzaddikim of the time; he settled in Sudylkiv around 1780, while regularly returning to his native city.
Galician rabbi from Brody
Protestant theologian and classical philologist born on August 4, 1707 in Tennstädt, in Thuringia, died in 1781 in Leipzig, where he was professor of classical literature, rhetoric and theology. Defender of a strictly philological interpretation of the Bible, especially applied to the New Testament, he nevertheless published several opuscules on Jewish subjects, including « De Templo Herodis Magni » (Leipzig, 1752) and « Exercitationum Flaviniarum Prima » (1756), republished in his « Opuscula Philologica-Critica ».
Banker and Italian deputy born on December 8, 1791, died in Venice on December 25, 1860, father of Jacques Errera. His family, according to tradition, descended from the Herrera expelled from Spain in 1492 and had settled in Venice around 1700. Member of the Chamber of Commerce and founder of the Stabilimento Mercantile of Venice (1852), he sat for a long time on the municipal council, represented the city at the National Assembly (1848-49) and was, during the siege of Venice, one of five members of the Committee of Public Safety; he also presided for thirty years over the Jewish community of the city.
Bernhard Eskeles was an Austrian financier, born in Vienna in 1753 and died in Hietzing, near Vienna, on August 7, 1839. Returning from Amsterdam, he married in 1774 a daughter of Daniel Itzig and founded with his brother-in-law Arnstein the banking house Arnstein and Eskeles, which played a prominent role at the Congress of Vienna. Founder in 1816 of the National Bank of Austria, which he directed for twenty-three years, he was ennobled in 1797 and created baron in 1822.
Benjamin Espinosa was an Italian Hebraist of the 18th century, member of the rabbinical college of Livorno. He published in Livorno in 1762 the ritual "Peri Etz Hadar", then in 1766 the didactic poems "Yefeh Nof" inserted in the "Siaḥ Yiẓḥaḳ" of Isaac Nuñes Vaez; he also left in manuscript a defense of the traditional text of prayers dated Altona, 1768.
Female convict transported to New South Wales
Isaac Seckel ben Menahem Etthausen was a German rabbi who served in various cities in Germany for fifty-five years, in the first half of the eighteenth century. He is the author of « Or Ne'elam », a collection of fifty-eight responsa from his exchanges with Baruch Rapoport and Jonathan Eybeschütz, as well as novellæ on Berakhot and Halakhot Ḳeṭannot collected under the title « Ur Lo be-Ẓiyyon ». These two works were published after his death by his son, Judah Löb Etthausen, in Carlsruhe in 1765.
Jacob Ettlinger was a German rabbi and author, one of the leading figures of modern Orthodoxy, born in Carlsruhe on March 17, 1798 and died in Altona on December 7, 1871. Appointed « Kreisrabbiner » of Ladenburg in 1826 and chief rabbi of Altona from 1836, he became one of the most fierce opponents of the Reform movement and led in 1844 the protest of one hundred seventy-three rabbis against the Brunswick Conference. The following year, he founded the first organ of Orthodoxy, « Der Zionswächter », and notably trained Samson Raphael Hirsch and Israel Hildesheimer.
Isaac Abraham Euchel was a Hebrew author, born in Copenhagen in 1758 and died in Berlin on 14 June 1804. Trained at the University of Königsberg under Emmanuel Kant, he learned his Hebrew style from Moses Mendelssohn and Naphtali Wessely ; in 1783, he founded the journal "Ha-Meassef", the organ of the Biurists, then founded in 1791, in Berlin, the Gesellschaft der Freunde. His best-known work remains his biography of Mendelssohn, "Toledot Rambeman", published in Berlin in 1789.
French woman of letters
Johann Ludwig Ewald was a German pedagogue and theologian, defender of Jews, born in Hain-zur-Dreieich, in the grand duchy of Hesse, on September 16, 1747, and died in Carlsruhe on March 19, 1822. Becoming adviser to the government of Baden toward the end of his life, he published two writings in defense of Jews against Fries and Rühs, including « Ideen über die nöthige Organisation der Israeliten in christlichen Staaten » (Carlsruhe and Baden, 1816), arguing that their defects resulted from persecution and not from any inherent nature.
Rabbi and author
Ezekiel Feiwel ben Zeev Wolf was a Russian Talmudist and preacher, born in Polangen in 1755 and died in Wilna in 1833. After preaching in his native city, then in Deretschin, and traveling in Germany and Hungary, he was appointed in 1811 preacher of the Wilna community, a post he held until his death. He is the author of « Musar Haskel », a commentary on the « Yad » of Maimonides (Dyhernfurth, 1790), and of « Toledot Adam », a biography of Rabbi Salomon Zelman ben Isaac whom he had met at Élie of Wilna.
Chief Rabbi of Prague, major decisioner, author of the Noda BiYehuda responsa.
rabbi
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Baruch ben Salomon Faïtoussi was a preacher in Tunis towards the end of the 18th century, inclined towards mystical and Kabbalistic studies. His "Mekor Baruk", a collection of sermons on the weekly portions, Talmudic commentaries, and Kabbalistic discourses, was published in Livorno in 1790 at the expense of Joshua ben Abraham Lombroso.
Ḥayyim Mu'allim Farḥi was minister to the pashas of Damascus and Acre; born in Damascus in the middle of the 18th century, he was assassinated in 1820 after having governed part of the Ottoman empire for more than forty years. Promoted by Aḥmad Jazzar, pasha of Acre and then also of Damascus, he was the soul of the defense of Acre during Napoleon's siege in 1799, then was confirmed in his functions after Jazzar's death in 1808 by his successor Sulaiman Pasha. He was finally assassinated during the reign of Abdallah, and his body thrown into the sea despite the prayers of the Jews for a decent burial.
Hungarian Jewish community leader
Polish poet and grammarian born in Przedborz around 1760, died in Tarnopol, Galicia, in 1817. Successively preacher, corrector, hazan and teacher from 1780, ardent admirer of Elijah of Vilna, he strongly opposed Hasidism and mysticism. Author of an abundant satirical work, including the « Bayit Ne'eman » (1794) and the « Ḳol Nehi », an elegy composed at the death of Elijah of Vilna (1798).
Austrian rabbi born in 1784, died at Strassnitz, in Moravia, on 3 March 1869. He served successively in Piesling, Pirnitz, Kanitz, Grand Meseritz, and Holleschau, where he was regarded as one of the most penetrating talmudists in Moravia and drafted numerous novellæ on various talmudic treatises. At Grand Meseritz, he counted among his students Isaac Hirsch Weiss, author of « Dor Dor we-Dorshaw ».
French officer born in 1789 and died in 1855, trained in the Talmud before joining Mainz in 1806 and being admitted to the École polytechnique. He entered the military, became artillery captain in 1813 then commander in 1835, participated in the retreat of 1848 and the Crimean campaign, before retiring with his family to Metz.
Rabbi of Dubrovno, in the government of Mohilev, in Russia, at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; he marries a daughter of Elijah of Vilna. He is the author of the "Minḥat Shelomoh," notes on the Pentateuch, and the "Menorat Shelomoh," on the Masorah, published with the commentary on the Pentateuch of Elijah of Vilna, the "Adderet Eliyahu" (Dubrovno, 1804).
German jurist, son of the chief rabbi of Bamberg, born in Bamberg on October 9, 1798, and died in Fürth on August 19, 1872. Trained in the Talmud, he studied at the University of Würzburg from 1818 and earned his doctorate in law there in 1822; refusing to convert to enter the bar, he first worked as an editor and then in the Bamberg court, before settling in 1831 in Fürth as secretary of the Jewish community. Admitted to the bar in 1848, he was made a knight of the Order of Saint Michael in 1868, for his seventieth birthday.
Rabbi of Ancona, in Italy, died in 1721, father-in-law (or, according to Steinschneider, son-in-law) of Samson Morpurgo, rabbi of the same city. He is the author of the "Widdui", prayers of penitence of the Italian rite included in the "Tiḳḳun Shobabim" of Moses Zacuto (Venice, 1712), and of the "Or Boḳer", a collection of prayers and seliḥot (Venice, 1709); he also gives his approval to the "'Oz le-Elohim" of Nehemiah Ḥayoun (Berlin, 1713) and a poem in honor of the "Kehunnat Abraham" of Abraham Cohen (Venice, 1719).
English scholar died in London in 1701, one of the first Jews, after the Return, to devote himself to the study of rabbinical literature. He is the author of notes on the commentary of Isaac Abravanel on the Former Prophets, published with the text in Hamburg in 1686, and revised and published a second edition of the « Miklal Yofi » of Solomon ben Melek in Amsterdam in 1685.
Rabbi of Rif, 18th century. Mentioned in 5478 of the Hebrew era (1718). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-1.
Italian poet born in Monte San Savino, Tuscany, on March 4, 1743, died in Florence on February 4, 1815. Imprisoned during the reaction of 1799, he subsequently lived in poverty in Siena and Florence before accepting the chair of Italian literature offered by the Jewish community of Livorno, where he taught until 1808; his principal work, the "Elegie", was written after the death of his wife Laura Gallico. His son Angiolo, born in Monte San Savino in 1770, accompanied him on his travels and was himself an instructor of Hebrew, in Livorno then in Florence, where he died in 1845.
German miniaturist painter born in Cassel on February 20, 1796, died in Dresden on June 22, 1847, son of merchant David Alexander Fiorino of Göttingen. Trained by a porcelain painter and then at the Cassel academy, where he received a medal in 1816, he settled in 1824 in Dresden, where he became court painter and received the title of professor. He is notably responsible for the medallion of Prince Maximilian of Saxony preserved in the Dresden gallery and that of King Albert of Saxony, which he reproduced in lithography.
Russian Karaite archaeologist born in Lutsk, in Volhynia, 27 September 1786, died in Chufut-Kale, in Crimea, 7 June 1874. Hazzan of his native city from 1818, he undertook from 1830 numerous trips — Jerusalem, Constantinople, the Caucasus, Egypt — to collect Karaite manuscripts and inscriptions, and began in 1839 excavations in the old cemetery of Chufut-Kale. His collection, acquired in 1859 by the Imperial Library of Saint Petersburg on the recommendation of Professor Chwolson, was judged by some scholars to be partly or entirely composed of fakes intended to glorify the Karaites.
German rabbi active in the eighteenth century, author of the « Imrah Ẓerufah », a collection of novellae on several tractates of the Talmud as well as on the work of Maimonides, published in Berlin in 1755.
Austrian Talmudist died in Prague on December 16, 1769, descended from a prestigious family tracing back to R. Löw ben Bezalel, the "hohe Rabbi Löw" of Prague. One of the greatest Talmudists of his time, he declined numerous invitations to remain in Prague, where he presided for more than forty years over the great bet din and directed a yeshiva renowned throughout Europe; his authority was such that even the city's celebrated chief rabbi deferred to his decisions. During the great fire of the Prague ghetto in 1754, he lost the manuscripts of his entire work, a grief from which he never recovered.
Christian censor of Hebrew books in Prague, born in Lichtenstadt, in Bohemia, on 5 July 1755, died in Prague on 22 January 1844. Assistant to the imperial censor Leopold Tirsch from 1781 and then his successor, he possessed extensive knowledge of Semitic languages, as evidenced by his introductory notes to the dictionary of Landau (1818) and to the translation of Rashi by Dukes (1833), and maintained a correspondence in Hebrew with rabbi Eleazar Flekeles; he was also librarian of the University of Prague.
Austrian Hebraist born in Vienna in 1783, died in Prague on May 22, 1853, son of Moses Fischer, rabbi of the Jewish community of Vienna. He publishes in Hebrew a work on the history of the Jews under the Moorish kings Mahdi and Imam Idris, the "Toledot Yeshouroun Taḥat Malkhé Moritaniyya" (Prague, 1818), and translates from Czech into German the "Wallerstein Chronicle," a manuscript now lost that related the history of the Jews of Prague during the Hussite period.
Austrian rabbi born in Prague around 1756, died in Eisenstadt, Hungary, around 1833, son of the wealthy talmudist Meïr Fischer and father of Marcus Fischer. Beyond the Talmud, he studied philosophy and mathematics, and his mastery of logic and Hebrew grammar earned him the praise of Moses Mendelssohn, with whom he corresponded. For nearly two decades, he served without holding the title of rabbi of the small community of Vienna, before retiring in 1827 to Eisenstadt.
Hungarian porcelain manufacturer born in Totis, Hungary, in 1800 and died in the same city on 25 February 1900. Starting in 1839, he develops the small Herend manufactory, near Veszprém, which he raises to the rank of the great houses of Sèvres, Meissen, and Berlin, rewarded at numerous international exhibitions; Francis Joseph I ennobled him in 1869 for his services to Hungarian industry.
Physician and chemist born 15 January 1782 at Groß Meseritz, in Moravia, died 19 August 1850 in Breslau. Trained at the universities of Vienna, Prague, Breslau, and Berlin, he obtained his doctorate at Erfurt in 1806 and settled there to practice medicine; appointed adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Breslau in 1813, he became full professor the following year and took charge of the Institute of Chemistry, a position he held until his death. He published numerous works on chemistry between 1806 and 1838, and converted with his entire family to Christianity in 1815, becoming thereafter a fervent supporter of Christian missionary work in the Jewish quarter of Breslau.
German actor born in Breslau in 1757, died in Berlin on 20 December 1801. He made his debut in 1777 in Leipzig, where he remained until 1779, then went to Hamburg before joining Berlin; one of the most respected actors of his time, his death was honored with a commemorative medal engraved by Abramson.
Rabbi and Austrian author born in Prague on August 26, 1754, died in the same city on April 27, 1826, student of Moses Cohen Rofé, Meïr Fischels and Ezéchiel Landau. Rabbi of Kojetein, in Moravia, at twenty-four years of age, he becomes dayyan of Prague in 1780 then rabbi of the bet ha-midrash founded by Joachim Popper and Israel Fränkel; renowned for his erudition and eloquence, he was received twice by the Emperor Francis I. He publishes notably the « 'Olat Ḥodesh », in four parts (Prague, 1785-1800), and the « Teshuvah me-Ahavah », responsa in three parts (Prague, 1800-21).
Rabbi of Salonika in the eighteenth century, nephew of Ḥayyim Samuel Florentin. He is the author of "Bet ha-Ro'eh", a collection of ritual laws of daily life with index and notes on the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah (Salonika, 1758), and of "Minḥat Shemuel", responsa, homilies and biblical commentaries (1776).
French woman of letters born Rodrigues in Bordeaux in 1795, died in Paris in 1853, renowned for her beauty. Under the pseudonym "Maria Fitz Clarence", she collaborated with numerous Parisian periodicals and published several novels, including "Kiddushim, or the Nuptial Ring of the Hebrews" (Paris, 1830), "The Jewess" (1835) and "Historical Tales" (1840).
French statesman and financier born in Paris on 17 November 1800, died in Tarbes on 5 October 1867. Son of a wealthy banker, he is elected deputy for Tarbes in 1847, then, after the 1848 revolution, elected representative of Paris to the Legislative Assembly on 8 July 1849 before being appointed Minister of Finance that same year by prince-president Louis-Napoléon; he retains his portfolio after the coup d'État of 2 December 1851 until 1852, becomes senator then minister of state, organizes the Universal Exposition of 1855 and resumes Finance in 1860 before retiring definitively in 1867. Married into a Protestant family, he never formally abjured Judaism.
French politician born in Paris on 21 November 1792, died in the same city on 28 July 1858. Appointed judge at the commercial court in 1827, he is elected deputy for Saint-Quentin in 1834, reelected in 1837 and then in 1839, before failing in 1842 and 1846; he took an active part in the affairs of the Jewish community.
Jew of Spanish origin who came to settle in Bordeaux, probably from London, around 1760. He is the author of several works, including « Choix de Poésies Fugitives » (Paris, 1783) and the « Histoire de l'Établissement des Juifs à Bordeaux Depuis 1500 » (Paris, 1797).
Born in London in a Sephardic (Spanish-Portuguese) Jewish family. Emigrated to South Carolina (1773) on lands purchased by the Salvador and Da Costa families. First practicing Jew elected to public office in the American colonies (Provincial Congress, 1774) and first Jew killed for American independence (1776), killed in combat on the frontier facing the Loyalists and Cherokees.
German preacher and religious teacher born in Breslau on 15 December 1788, died in the same city on 1 July 1849, doctor of philosophy from Leipzig in 1817. After directing an elementary Jewish school in Breslau, he is called in 1820 as preacher to Königsberg, in Prussia, where he modernizes synagogal worship and introduces to Germany the confirmation of girls, before orthodox members obtain from the government the prohibition of this practice. At the expiration of his contract in 1826, he becomes chief inspector of the Königliche Wilhelmsschule in Breslau, a position he holds until 1847.
Hungarian scholar born in Pressburg around 1777, died in the same city on the second day of Shavuot 1845, shohet and teacher in his native city for more than forty years. He notably published « Megillat Matityahu » (Vienna, 1806 and 1822), « Maḥeh Mosheh », an allegory drawn from the Talmud and Midrash (Pressburg, 1834), « Maḥaneh Yisrael » (Vienna, 1816) and « Ḥouṭ ha-Meshoullash » (Vienna, 1829); his last work, « Or ha-Emounah », stories from the Pentateuch annotated in Hebrew, was published in Pressburg in 1841.
Head of the Jewish community of Prague for two decades from May 20, 1724, a steadfast defender of his oppressed coreligionists, died on June 9, 1745. Rich by inheritance, he founded an orphanage and raised the level of the Jewish school system, but his taste for splendor — illustrated by the sumptuous celebration he organized at his own expense in April 1741 for the birth of the archduke, future Emperor Joseph — aroused the envy of the populace, and he collapsed under the weight of the trials that followed, notably the order for the expulsion of Jews from Bohemia by Maria Theresa. His successor, Israël Fränkel, son of his brother Koppel, died in Prague on April 15, 1767.
Court Jew (1703-12) of the margrave Wilhelm-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach, died in 1720 in the State prison of Wülzburg, near Weissenburg. His family was among those exiled from Vienna in 1670; mentioned from 1686 as a member of the Jewish community of Fürth, he managed the financial interests of the margrave, who named him parnass of Fürth in 1704 and then chief parnass of Ansbach in 1710, acquiring great influence at court. In 1712, denounced by a converted Jew for possession of blasphemous books and misappropriation of public funds, he was condemned, following a biased investigation, to be publicly whipped and then imprisoned for life; his property was confiscated and his family expelled.
Chief Rabbi of the margraviate of Ansbach, residing in Schwabach (1709–13), died in prison in 1723. Brother of Elkan Fränkel, he was accused alongside him of possessing blasphemous and superstitious books, and was condemned, following investigation and judgment by the University of Altorf, to life imprisonment.
German banker and philanthropist, son of Joel Wolf and grandson of David Fränkel, author of the « Ḳorban 'Edah », born in Breslau at the end of the 18th century, died in the same city on January 27, 1846. Starting from nothing, he became one of the principal bankers of Breslau and received from the Prussian government the title of « Kommerzienrath »; tireless in community action, he had a hospital with orphanage, bet ha-midrash and synagogue built at his expense, and bequeathed, having no children, the bulk of his fortune to charitable works, notably to a Jewish seminary bearing his name, inaugurated in Breslau in 1854.
German rabbi, father of David Fränkel, born in Berlin on June 30, 1739, died in Dessau on February 20, 1812. Settled in Dessau in 1787 as rabbi, he also served as "Messrabbiner" in Leipzig during the fairs, refused any salary and supported young Talmudic students. He is the author of the "Be'er Mosheh", responsa dealing mainly with succession (Berlin, 1803), and the "Ha-Bi'ourim de-Dibré Ḳohelet", dual Kabbalistic and Talmudic commentary on Ecclesiastes (1809).
German physician born in Bonn on 11 November 1795, died in Elberfeld on 5 March 1851. Officer in the Middle Rhine army, he took an active part in the campaigns of 1812 to 1815, first alongside Napoleon and then against him, before resuming his studies on his return in 1815 and obtaining his doctorate in medicine in 1824; he then settled in Elberfeld, where he practiced until his death, and converted to Christianity in 1840. He published notably « Die Flechten und Ihre Behandlung » (Elberfeld, 1830; 3rd ed., Wiesbaden, 1855) and several works on the emancipation of Jews, in 1841 and in 1844.
Dutch rabbinical scholar, father of Moïse Frankfurter, born in Schwerin, Germany, died in Amsterdam on 9 December 1712. He is the author of a two-part work on the rites and prayers for the sick and bereaved, one in Hebrew under the title "Dine Semaḥot", the other in Judeo-German, "Alle Dinim von Freuden" (Amsterdam, 1703), republished by Moïse Frankfurter under the title "Sefer ha-Ḥayyim" (1716); C. Rehfuss of Heidelberg published a German translation (Frankfurt am Main, 1834), and Benjamin H. Ascher of London an English translation, "The Book of Life" (London, 1847).
King of Prussia, born in 1712, he reigned from 1740 until his death in 1786. Unfavorable to the Jews despite granting a « Schutzjude » status to Moses Mendelssohn in October 1763, he promulgated in 1750 a restrictive « General-privilegium » that strictly limited the number of protected Jewish families in Berlin and imposed heavy taxes and professional prohibitions, several times tightened then partially relaxed until the end of his reign.
Daughter of Rabbi Abraham Adiba (settled in Tunis in the first half of the 18th century); presented by Toledano as one of the very few Hebrew-language poetesses in all the history of North Africa.
Richard Brothers is an English visionary, founder of Anglo-Israelism, born December 25, 1757 in Placentia, Newfoundland, and died in London on January 25, 1824. Entered the British navy in 1771, he was discharged in 1783; in 1790, he refused his pension because of the oath it required, and soon declared that he had received divine mission to announce a prophecy of Daniel. He claimed he would be revealed, on November 17, 1795, as Prince of the Hebrews and sovereign of the world; interned in an asylum, he there wrote the « Connaissance révélée des prophéties » (1794) and a « Description de la nouvelle Jérusalem » (1801).
Turkish Talmudist, born in Constantinople in 1780 and died in that same city in 1850. He succeeds Samuel Ḥayyim as hakham bashi (chief rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire in 1839. He is the author of a collection of responsa, « Yadaw shel Mosheh », published in Salonique in 1818 and abundantly cited by rabbis of the East.
Bohemian Talmudist born in Tuschkau in December 1794, died in Prague on June 18, 1881. Trained under Eleazar of Triesch and Baruch Fränkel of Leipnik and then at the Prague yeshiva, he became rabbi of Lobositz before being called to Prague in 1832 as assistant dayan to Samuel Landau. He served alone as chief dayan from 1834 until his retirement in 1879, leaving a body of Talmudic commentaries published between 1827 and 1870.
German banker and scholar born in 1779, died in Breslau on December 3, 1859. Although one of the principal bankers of the city, he devoted much time to study, particularly to religious philosophy and the dogmas of Judaism, in an apologetic spirit that nevertheless opened Talmudists to modern critical studies. He published notably « 'Iḳḳare Emunah » (1816-1818) and « Yesod ha-Dat » (1821-23), several of his works being translated into German by R. J. Fürstenthal and Wilhelm Freund.
German physician born April 20, 1790 in Königsberg, died in 1851 in Halle. Doctor of medicine from the University of Königsberg (1812), he participated in the 1813 campaign as far as Paris as chief physician of a field hospital, before staying in Carlsruhe and Vienna and traveling to Italy in 1815 with painter Philipp Veit. Returning to Germany in 1817, he became privatdocent at Halle, then assistant professor in 1819 and full professor of theoretical medicine in 1823, a position he held until his death.
German entrepreneur
German author and Hebraist born around 1755 in Berlin, died on February 19, 1810 in Amsterdam. Trained at the school of the Berlin Meassefim, he settled in 1781 in Amsterdam where he became one of the architects of the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews, publishing to that end his writings of 1795 and 1797. He is also the author of "Ma'aneh Raḳ" on the pronunciation of Hebrew among Sephardim (1808) and a biography of Hartwig Wessely, "Zeker Ẓaddiḳ" (1809).
German Christian writer hostile to Jews, born in Barby, Saxony, on August 23, 1773, died in Jena on August 10, 1843. He taught philosophy at the University of Jena from 1801, became professor of philosophy in 1805 then of physics in Heidelberg in 1812, where his antisemitic opinions colored his writings. Returning as professor in Jena in 1816, he published the same year, first in the Heidelberger Jahrbücher then as a book, « Ueber die Gefährdung des Wohlstandes und Charakters der Deutschen Durch die Juden », a pamphlet in violent tone recommending to princes to treat Jews as Pharaoh had done.
Bavarian mathematician born in Friesenhausen around the middle of the eighteenth century, died in Gyulafehérvár on March 23, 1828. After devoting his youth to the study of the Talmud, he turns for ten years toward algebra, astronomy, mechanics and optics, publishing a Hebrew manual of algebra and geometry, « Kelil ha-Ḥeshbon » (Berlin, 1796), then a treatise on astronomy explaining the Copernican system, « Mosedot Tebel » (Vienna, 1820). He was the first to propose the creation of a rabbinical seminary in Hungary, submitting his project to Prince Palatin Joseph as early as 1806.
German writer born in Berlin on October 4, 1783, date of death unknown. Daughter of a wealthy merchant named Salomo, she marries at eighteen, in 1801, a certain Friedländer, an unhappy marriage from which she divorces; converted to Christianity, she then takes the name Frohberg. Settled in Vienna from 1813, she publishes numerous novels and narratives there, including "Louise" (Berlin, 1808), "Schmerz der Liebe" (1811) and "Der Liebe Kämpfe" (Leipzig, 1826), as well as adaptations of French plays under the title "Theater" (Wiesbaden, 1817-1818).
Born in Paris, son of the hazzan Élie Halfon Halévy, secretary of the Jewish community of Paris and Hebrew writer. The patronym, originally « Lévy », was changed to « Halévy » following the decree of 1808 on fixed names. He composed La Juive (1835), one of the pillars of the French lyric repertoire for a century.
Italian poet of the 18th century, born in Siena, died in Livorno in 1794. After his Hebrew and secular studies completed in Siena, he went to Livorno where he entered the yeshiva and struck up a friendship with the family of the wealthy merchant Eliezer Shealtiel Recanati, pursuing his talmudic studies in the school founded by the latter. His poems appear in the collection « Ḳol 'Ugab » of Piperno.
German Talmudist born in Frankfurt-on-Main on 2 December 1790, died in that same city on 2 December 1847. Refusing the position of rabbi, he nevertheless took an active part in the religious debates of his time, drafting under the name of Rabbi Salomon Trier the Orthodox texts of the era and sending Zacharias Frankel a thank-you letter for having left with protest the Frankfurt rabbinical assembly; invited by Frankel to the convention of conservative rabbis in Dresden, he declined the invitation. He drafted annotations to Azoulaï's « Shem ha-Gedolim » (Frankfurt, 1844-47) and published « Bet Aharon » (1820).
Spanish author and publisher established in Amsterdam around 1723. He publishes that year "Varios y Honestos Entretenimientos..." as well as a "Tratados desde el Principio del Mundo hasta Moseh el Profeta", which remained manuscript, and co-edits with Aaron Hezekiah Querido the "Orden de los Mahamadot". In 1724, he publishes in Amsterdam a catalog of Spanish and Portuguese books and manuscripts.
Poet, translator, and German Hebraist born in Głogów in 1781, died in Breslau on February 16, 1855. He devoted the bulk of his work to the modernization of Jewish worship, translating into German the principal liturgical books and adding Hebrew commentaries to them, as well as the « Moreh Nebukim » of Maimonides and the « Ḥobot ha-Lebabot » of Baḥya ibn Paḳuda. A recognized national Hebrew poet celebrated for the elegance of his diction, he published notably his « Song on Zion » (« Ha-Meassef », 1810) and a rabbinic anthology (Breslau, 1834).
French banker born in Saint-Esprit on April 11, 1797, died in Bayonne on May 20, 1883, descendant of a Portuguese family and nephew of Abraham Furtado, president of the Assembly of Jewish Notables under Napoleon. Member of the municipal council of Bayonne from 1831 to 1871, he was twice its mayor (1851 and 1869) and administered the Bayonne branch of the Banque de France from 1861. Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1851, he chaired the Jewish consistory of Bayonne from 1846 until his death.
German writer and teacher limitedly attached to the school of the Meassefim, whose reformist orientations he nevertheless combats. He annotates a mathematical work by Abraham Joseph Mentz published in Berlin in 1775 and publishes several Hebrew and German works, including a treatise on algebra (Leipzig, 1806-08), a commentary refuting Mendelssohn's views on the soul (1810) and a pamphlet against the reformist movement, « Kebod Elohim » (1812).
Rabbi of Rhodes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, probably born in Bulgaria. He emigrates to Palestine before settling in Rhodes, where he composes « Yede Eliyahu », a work on rabbinic institutions following the order adopted by Maimonides (Constantinople, 1728).
German jurist born in Berlin on March 22, 1798, died in that city on May 5, 1839, son of banker Abraham Gans. Trained at the University of Berlin from 1816 and then at Göttingen and, in 1818, at Heidelberg, where he studies philosophy and law under Hegel and Thibaut, he becomes docent at Berlin and publishes in 1821 his « Scholien zum Gajus ». On November 27, 1819, he founds with Zunz and Moses Moser the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden, whose journal « Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums » (1822) ceases publication after the imperial ukase of January 1, 1822 on the suppression of kahals in Poland.
German jurist born in 1788, established in Celle, Hanover. He published « Das Erbrecht des Napoleonischen Gesetzbuches für Westphalen » (Hanover, 1810), « Ueber die Verarmung der Städte und des Landmannes » (Brunswick, 1831), and an « Entwurf einer Criminal-Processordnung » (Göttingen, 1836), and edited the « Zeitschrift für die Civil- und Criminalrechtspflege im Königreich Hanover », of which only four issues appeared.
Hungarian rabbi and author born in Ungvár around 1800, died in that city on 30 July 1886. After an unsuccessful commercial career, he accepts in 1830 the rabbinate of Brezovica, which he holds until 1849, then becomes dayan of his native city until his death; he is delegated to the Jewish congress of Budapest in 1869. A prolific author on ritual law, he owes his fame to his abridgment of the Shulhan Aruch, the « Ḳiẓẓur Shulḥan 'Aruk » (Warsaw, 1870), reprinted many times; his grandson is Heinrich Brody.
The greatest talmudic genius of Lithuanian Judaism, known as the Gaon of Vilna. A master of all disciplines (Talmud, Kabbalah, mathematics, astronomy), he opposed nascent Hasidism. His disciples founded the first immigration movement to the Land of Israel in the nineteenth century.
Spanish poet established in Amsterdam around the middle of the 18th century, whose burlesques and occasional poems survive in manuscript. Among them is an epithalamium composed in 1735 for the wedding of Don Isaac de Abraham Curiel and Donna Ester Alvares, as well as the interludes « Del Pintor Cornelio » and « Del Hurto de los Muertos ».
German Christian writer hostile to Jews, Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt am Main, born in that city on January 2, 1779 and died on October 30, 1862. At one time editor of the religious journal "Der Protestant", he published against Jews and their influence "Das Judenthum in der Freimaurerei" and "Ein Wort zur Beherzigung für Wahrheitsfreunde Gegen Fanatiker", both published in Frankfurt in 1816, the latter seeing two editions.
First Jewish religious leader born in the United States. From 1768 he led the Sephardic congregation Shearith Israel of New York for approximately half a century. First American Jewish clergyman to preach in English; he participated in the inauguration of George Washington and in the founding of Columbia College. Son of Isaac Mendes Seixas (1709–1780), a merchant born in Lisbon.
German physician born in Hamburg in 1788, died in that city in 1843. After traveling in Norway and Sweden and practicing in London, he becomes in 1811 assistant surgeon of the German Legion, participates in the Peninsular War in Spain, follows Wellington to France in 1813 and 1814, and attends the Battle of Waterloo. Returned to Hamburg upon the dissolution of the legion in 1815, he develops the anatomical institute there, retires in 1835 to direct the « Hamburger Magazin », and counts among the first authors to have written on astigmatism.
Christian Hebraist and orientalist born in Nordhausen on February 3, 1786, died on October 23, 1842. Teaching in Heiligenstadt from 1809, he became adjunct professor of theology at Halle the following year, where he taught until his death, placing the exegesis of the Old Testament on purely philological foundations. Author of a Hebrew « Handwörterbuch » in two volumes (1810-12) which became the reference Hebrew dictionary, a « Hebräische Grammatik » published as early as 1813 and reprinted twenty-seven times, and a « Thesaurus Philologico-Criticus » completed after his death by E. Rödiger in 1858, he also published in 1820 an annotated translation of Isaiah.
Trained at the Talmud Torà of Rome, he became one of the most learned Roman rabbis of the 19th century and was appointed director of Rome's rabbinical school, where he introduced teaching reforms (emphasis on philology and biblical exegesis, less place for Kabbalah). He was fluent in French, Spanish, Latin, Greek and some Arabic, and was interested in history, philosophy, astronomy and mathematics. He was also an actor in community affairs (1836 epidemic, Mortara affair).
Franco-German composer
Austrian-Jewish physician from Prossnitz, Moravia, and central figure of the Moravian Haskalah; the first Jew of Prossnitz to study medicine, author of a commentary on Judah ha-Levi's Kuzari and of scholarly works on Talmudic magic, healing practices, and circumcision.
German rabbi active in Halberstadt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, author of « Nezer ha-Ḳodesh », glosses on the Bereshit Rabbah (Jessnitz, 1719). A long responsum from his hand, addressed to Ẓebi Hirsch Ashkenazi, is cited in the « She'elat Ya'beẓ » (Altona, 1739).
German Hebrew scholar of the eighteenth century, author of an elementary Hebrew grammar, "Dabar Ṭob," printed with the "Marpe Lashon" of Moses ibn Ḥabib (Prague, 1783). He also edits letters of Mendelssohn under the title "Iggerot" (Vienna, 1794) and a collection of Hebrew poems, "Ḥotam Toknit," whose appendix contains a new series of letters from Mendelssohn (1797).
German Talmudist of the early eighteenth century, author of « Ḳol Yehudah », a collection of Talmudic notes by various rabbis of his time, accompanied by his own remarks (Amsterdam, 1729, reprinted several times).
German scholar active in Hamburg in the 18th century, author of « Ḥebel le-Haḥayot », a collection of moral essays, riddles and charades (Altona, 1803).
Baer ben Alexander Goldberg is a Russian Hebrew scholar born near Warsaw in 1799 and died in Paris on May 4, 1884. Settled in Berlin then in London, he settled permanently in Paris in 1852, where he edited from ancient manuscripts several major Hebrew texts, including the Sefer ha-Riḳmah of Ibn Janaḥ and the Sefer Taggin held at the National Library.
Lewis Goldsmith is an English publicist and political agitator born in 1763 and died on January 6, 1846. First an enthusiastic defender of the French Revolution, he took refuge in Paris in 1803 where he put his pen at the service of the French government against England, before breaking with Napoleon and founding in 1811 in London the Anti-Gallican Monitor, in which he now violently denounces the emperor. His defense of the restoration of Louis XVIII earned him a lifetime pension from the latter.
Benjamin Gompertz is a British actuary born in London on 5 March 1779 and died in that city on 14 July 1865. Mathematician active at the London Stock Exchange, he was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1819 before his religion closed to him, in 1821, access to the actuaryship of the Guardian Insurance Office. His brother-in-law Moses Montefiore and Nathan Rothschild then founded for him the Alliance Assurance Co. in 1824, where he elaborated in 1825 a mathematical law of human mortality that remains the foundation of actuarial calculation, before retiring in 1848 after twenty-four years of service.
Isaac Gompertz is an English poet, brother of Benjamin and Lewis Gompertz, born in 1774 and died in 1856. Author notably of The Modern Antique (London, 1813), of June, or Light and Shade, a poem in six parts (London, 1815) and of Devon, a Poem (Teignmouth, 1825), he was admired by his contemporaries — the rhetorician Dr Jamieson ranking him, in his Grammar of Rhetoric, alongside Dryden, Pope, Addison and Gray.
Lord George Gordon is an English political agitator converted to Judaism, born in London on 26 December 1751 and died in 1793, son of the third Duke of Gordon. Elected to Parliament for Inverness in 1774, he triggered in 1778 a riot by presenting a petition against the emancipation of Catholics, which earned him to be briefly imprisoned in the Tower and then acquitted. Received into the covenant in Birmingham by the rabbi Jacob, he adopts Jewish usages and dies in Newgate prison from a fever contracted during his imprisonment, where he was serving a five-year sentence pronounced in 1788.
German rabbi and politician
Italian physician
Henri Grégoire is a Catholic priest, politician, and defender of the Jews born in Vého, near Lunéville, on December 4, 1750, and died in Paris on May 28, 1831. In 1789, he published in Metz his Essay on the Physical, Moral and Political Regeneration of the Jews, awarded by the Royal Society of Sciences and Arts of that town, then, elected to the Estates General, he brought before the Assembly the motion in favor of the emancipation of the Jews, proclaiming on October 1, 1789 that « fifty thousand Frenchmen rose this morning as slaves ». He defended their complete emancipation, including political rights, relying on his authority as a Catholic priest knowledgeable in canon law.
Traveler and author born in 1720, died in 1774, great-uncle of Heine who describes him in his Memoirs as an adventurer and utopian dreamer, nicknamed « the Oriental » for his long journeys in Oriental lands. After learning the armorer's trade in North Africa, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he had a vision on Mount Moriah, became the chief of a tribe of nomadic Bedouins, then traveled the courts of Europe before taking refuge in England; claiming to be initiated in Kabbalah, he published in French verse a pamphlet, « Moïse sur Mont Horeb ».
Antoine Guenée is a French priest and Christian apologist born in Étampes in 1717 and died in 1803, author of Lettres de quelques Juifs portugais, allemands et polonais à M. de Voltaire (Paris, 1769), often reprinted and translated, which defends the authority of the Bible rather than Judaism itself.
Aaron Solomon Gumperz, also called Emrich or Emmerich, is a German scholar and physician born on December 10, 1723 and died in 1769. Doctor of Medicine from the University of Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in March 1751, the first Prussian Jew to obtain this title, he is chiefly known for having been the philosophy tutor of Moses Mendelssohn, to whom he inspired a taste for letters. He composed a calendar for the year 5509 and a supercommentary on Ibn Ezra on the Five Rolls, the Megalleh Sod, of which only the part devoted to Ecclesiastes was published, in Hamburg in 1765 and then in Wilna in 1836.
Karl Siegfried Günsburg is a German writer and preacher born on December 9, 1784 in Lissa and died in Breslau on January 23, 1860. Trained in philology and philosophy in Berlin, he preached for some time at the Jacobson Temple in Berlin before establishing himself in Breslau in 1819. Active in community life, he donated his library, on August 19, 1859, to the Lehr- und Leseverein founded by Abraham Geiger in 1842. He is the author of Parabeln (Berlin, 1820) and Der Geist des Orients (Breslau, 1830), and published with Eduard Kley a collection of edification from 1813 as well as a prayer book in two parts from 1817.
Benjamin Wolf Günzburg is an 18th-century Polish physician and Talmudist who, contrary to the practice of Polish Talmudists of his time, also studies the profane sciences at the University of Göttingen without neglecting the Talmud. In 1737, he consults Jacob Emden on the permission to dissect on the Sabbath the bodies of animals, obtaining a response that testifies to the high esteem in which he held him; he publishes in 1743 in Göttingen his work De Medicina ex Talmudicis Illustrata.
Gabriel Jacob Günzburg, son of Naphtali Hirz, is a Lithuanian financier and philanthropist born in Vilna around 1793 and died in Simferopol, Crimea, on May 2, 1853. Settled in Kamenetz-Podolsk after his marriage in Vitebsk, then active in St. Petersburg, he devoted his fortune to four cities—Vilna, Vitebsk, Kamenetz-Podolsk and Simferopol, where he had a hospital built—and received on October 22, 1848, at the proposal of the Minister of Finance, the title of honorary and hereditary citizen from the hands of Tsar Nicholas I.
Mordecai Aaron Günzburg, son of Judah Asher, is a Hebrew-writing Russian author born in Salant, in the government of Kovno, on December 3, 1795, and died in Wilna on November 5, 1846. Trained in Hebrew and Talmud by his father, he taught Hebrew in Courland before settling in Wilna, where he became the creator of modern Hebrew prose, fearlessly blending Talmudic turns of phrase with modern languages. Fighting against Kabbalah and Hasidism, he published numerous historical and pedagogical works, including an account of the discovery of America (Wilna, 1823), a universal history (1832), and an autobiography, Abi'ezer (Wilna, 1864).
Moses M. Haarbleicher is a German writer born in Hamburg on 14 November 1797 and died in that city on 25 September 1869, son of the founder of the Jewish school of Hamburg. Active in establishing the Tempelverein, whose prayer book he revises, he founds and directs from 1823 to 1840 the Verein zur Beförderung Nützlicher Gewerbe unter den Juden, before becoming in 1840 secretary of the Hamburg community. Forty of his hymns appear in the collection of canticles of the community, and he publishes in 1866 the first part of a history of the Jewish community of Hamburg, left unfinished.
Simḥah ben Joshua Haas is a traveler and preacher born in Dobrovice, Bohemia, in 1710, and died in Brahilov in 1768, father-in-law of Solomon Dubno. Preacher in Brahilov, he wrote in 1764 the account of his journey to the Holy Land, Ahabat Ẓiyyon, and previously published a collection of Hebrew poetry and rhetoric, Neṭi'ah shel Simḥah (Grodno, 1753), followed by a treatise on morals, Leb Simḥah (1757).
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 32-4.
Solomon von Haber is a German banker born in Breslau on November 3, 1760 and died on February 20, 1839, son of poor parents who became a leading banker in Carlsruhe, where he financed several major German loans and helped found industrial enterprises of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Appointed court banker, he received hereditary letters of nobility from Grand Duke Louis in 1829; in 1816 and 1819, he used his influence to protect his coreligionists of Carlsruhe from rising hostility, and helped found in 1818 a Cultusverein, before the consistory of the Grand Duchy, founded in 1809 and of which he was a member, introduced German sermons in 1824.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5476 of the Hebrew era (1716). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 32-1.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Born in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Son of Eliezer. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 32-3.
Elisha ben Solomon Ḥabillo is an eighteenth-century Venetian Talmudist, descended from a renowned Palestinian family and disciple of David Pardo. He publishes at Livorno several liturgical and ritual works: « Hamon Ḥogeg », a commentary on the Haggada of Passover, and « Shif'at Rebibim », liturgical poems by David Pardo augmented with his own (1793), then « Pat Leḥem », on blessings, and « 'Abodat ha-Tamid », a commentary on the Sephardic rite of the prayer book (1794).
Isaac Ḥaddad is a Talmudist from Djerba, an island near Tunis, where he died in 1755, student of Ẓemaḥ ha-Kohen. He is the author of Toledot Yiṣḥaḳ, novellae on the Haggada and the Midrashim, published in Livorno in 1761, and of Ḳarne Re'em, novellae on the commentaries of Rashi and Mizraḥi on the Pentateuch, followed by Zera' Yiṣḥaḳ, notes on the Midrashim, in 1765.
August Hahn is a German theologian and orientalist born in Grossosterhausen, Saxony, on March 27, 1792, and died in Silesia on May 13, 1863. Trained in theology and Oriental languages in Leipzig, he specializes in Syriac, and his treatise on Ephrem the Syrian, published in 1819, gains him a chair in Königsberg. Called in 1826 as professor of theology and preacher in Leipzig, he becomes in 1833 professor and member of the Breslau consistory, then in 1844 general superintendent of the province of Silesia, a position he held until his death. He is best known for his stereotype edition of the Old Testament, published by the Tauchnitz press in Leipzig in 1833.
Rabbi and kabbalist of Tunis venerated as a holy miracle-worker (« Lo Met »).
Moses ben Joseph Haida is a German mathematician active in Hamburg in the 17th and 18th centuries, grandson of Samuel Haida, author of the Ziḳḳuḳin de-Nura. He is the author of a treatise on arithmetic, Sefer Ma'aseh Ḥarash we-Ḥosheb, written at the time of the great fire of Altona and published in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1711.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Era not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov, himself son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Fes. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-2.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Benyamin. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of David, himself son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 41-1.
Son of Amram ben Diwan, saint venerated buried in Ouirgane, near Marrakech.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 34-3.
Rabbi of Debdou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Born in 5510 (1750), died in 5586 (1826) of the Hebrew era. Son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Died in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Son of Amor. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-3.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5465 of the Hebrew era (1705). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 34-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Abraham II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5493 of the Hebrew era (1733). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 37-2.
Rabbi of Salé, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yehuda, himself son of Haim III. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 37-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5526 (1766), died in 5546 (1786) of the Hebrew era. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 41-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yehonatan II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Rabbi of Draa Valley. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 33-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-3.
Chief rabbi of Smyrna, author of more than 70 works in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Rif, eighteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5478 of the Hebrew era (1718). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Barukh. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 36-2.
Alexander Haindorf is a German physician, writer and philanthropist born in Lenhausen, Westphalia, on May 12, 1784, and died in Hamm on October 16, 1862. Orphaned of poor parents, a peddler in his childhood, he then studied medicine in Würzburg, Erlangen, Heidelberg and Paris, became privat-docent in Heidelberg, then taught medicine and surgery at the Academy of Münster until its dissolution in 1847. He founded in 1825 in Münster the Verein zur Beförderung von Handwerken unter den Juden, endowed with a seminary for teachers, whose school enjoyed great success between 1830 and 1840 and received in 1835 an endowment of 25,000 thalers from his father-in-law.
Abraham Halberstadt ben Menki is a German Hebraist and Talmudist who died in Halberstadt around 1780, a student of Jonathan Eybeschütz whose memory he defended in a letter dated 1770. Author of an unpublished Talmudic treatise, the Pene Abraham, he maintained with his friend Rabbi Jeremiah of Berlin an extensive correspondence, published in German translation by Auerbach, in which he defended in 1774 the study of Hebrew synonyms and expressed his admiration for Wessely and Mendelssohn, while reproaching rabbis for their ignorance of mathematics and astronomy.
Judah ben Benjamin Halberstadt, also called Stadthagen, is a rabbinical author of the eighteenth century, author of the Minḥat Yehudah, which explains the passages where Rachi employs the expression « ke-lomar » in his commentary on Berakhot, followed by a similar work on Shabbat, Eruvin and Berakhot (Altona, 1768), and a discourse on the benediction to be recited when eating radishes and olives (Altona, 1765).
Élie Halévy, called Ḥalfan, is a French Hebraist poet and author born in Fürth in 1760 and died in Paris on 5 November 1826, father of Fromental and Léon Halévy. Having become a cantor in Paris from his earliest youth, he won the esteem of French scholars, notably the orientalist Sylvestre de Sacy, with his first poem, Ha-Shalom, composed for the Treaty of Amiens and sung in the Paris synagogue in 1801, then founded in 1817 the weekly L'Israélite Français. He published in 1820 in Metz a manual of religious instruction, Limmude Dat u-Musar, and left unpublished a Hebrew-French dictionary and an essay on the fables of Aesop, which he attributes to Solomon.
Jacques François Fromental Élie Halévy, of the family name Levi, is a French composer born in Paris on May 27, 1799 and died in Nice on March 17, 1862, son of Élie Halévy. Admitted to the Paris Conservatory, he won the solfège prize in 1811 and the second harmony prize in 1812, became a student of Cherubini, and obtained in 1819 the grand prize of Rome for his cantata Herminie. After several operas of mixed success, including L'Artisan (1827) and Clari (1829), he achieved his first great triumph with the ballet Manon Lescaut (1830), before establishing himself definitively with his masterpiece, La Juive, created at the Opéra on February 23, 1835 with unprecedented splendor.
Uri Sheraga Phoebus ben Eliezer Manneles Ḥalfan is a rabbi of Ungarisch-Brod, in Moravia, in the first half of the eighteenth century, author of Dat Esh, a collection of responsa and commentary on the laws of kilayim in Maimonides' code, published in Berlin in 1743.
Joseph Hambro is a royal privy councillor of the King of Denmark, born in Copenhagen on November 2, 1780 and died in London on October 3, 1848. After beginning in a trading house in Hamburg, he developed the family business, opened a branch in London and extended his activities throughout Northern Europe ; by 1820, he was nicknamed « the richest man in Copenhagen ». He married a Christian woman and had his son baptized, but settled permanently in London with his entire family in 1831, nevertheless remaining a member of the synagogue until his death and being buried there.
Jacob ben Mordecai Wiener Hamburger is grand rabbi of Prague, died on November 12, 1753. He appears in 1725 among the rabbis signing the address warning the Jews of Poland against the Sabbatean movement, and leaves a work published posthumously, Ḳol Ḳol Ya'aḳob, collection of Talmudic novellas, notes on the Shulḥan 'Arukh and homiletic commentaries on the Pentateuch (Prague, 1802).
Mordecai Hamburger, also called Marcus Moses, is an English community leader born in Hamburg around 1660 and died in London around 1730, founder of the Hambro' synagogue. Son of R. Moïse ben Löb, he married Fradche, daughter of Glückel of Hameln, and settled in London at the beginning of the 18th century. Struck by excommunication following a dispute, he opened a synagogue in his own house on Magpye Alley and bought a burial ground in Hoxton. Forced to emigrate by financial difficulties in 1711, he returned to London with a large fortune in 1721 and had built there in 1725 the synagogue that would bear his name.
Wolf Hamburger (Abraham Benjamin) was a Talmudist and head of the yeshiva of Fürth, born on January 26, 1770 and died on May 15, 1850, contemporary of R. Moses Sofer, who cites him in his Ḥatam Sofer. He published notably Sha'ar ha-Zeḳenim (Sulzbach, 1830) and Simlat Binyamin, in three parts (Fürth, 1840-41), as well as a funeral oration pronounced in 1825 at the death of Maximilien Joseph I, King of Bavaria. He saw his yeshiva closed with the rise of the reform movement, around 1830, and numbered among his disciples Seligman Baer Bamberger, Isaac Löwy and David Einhorn.
Isaac Hanan is a Turkish rabbi active in Salonique around the middle of the 18th century, author of a collection of homilies and responsa entitled Bene Yiṣḥaḳ (Salonique, 1757).
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-3.
Physician and rabbi of Florence, from the Ferrarese branch of the Cases family. He defended Maimonides' Sefer ha-Mitzvot against Nahmanides' criticisms and left halakhic glosses on the Yoreh Deʿah. His halakhic correspondence circulated among Italian decisors of his time.
From Fès, he worked as rabbi, notary and judge in Meknès in the 18th century. He is credited with the Hebrew rendering of a work related to Rabbi Samuel of Avila, under the title Ozen Chemouel (« Samuel's Ear »).
Raphaël Hanno is a German writer born in Hanau in 1791 and died in Heidelberg in 1871. Converted to Christianity, he became in 1824 professor of Oriental languages at the University of Heidelberg, a position he held until his death. He publishes notably Gedichte (1825), Das Schloss im Abendroth (Carlsruhe, 1828) and Vorreden Meines Vetters (Heidelberg, 1828); a selection of his writings, Liebe und Weisheit, appeared in Jena in 1876.
Moses Phinehas ben Israel Ḥarif is a Polish rabbi and author who died in Lemberg in 1722, grandson of Moses Ḥarif the Elder and father of Israel and Hirsch Ḥarif, the latter becoming rabbi of Yavoriv. Rabbi of Lemberg from 1684 until his death, he was one of the most influential members of the Council of Four Countries, his approbations dated from the council meeting in Yaroslav in 1685 appearing notably in the Naḥalat Azriel (1687) and in the collection of responsa Bet Ya'aḳob (1693); he is also known for his responsa on the spelling of names in divorce documents.
Anton Theodor Hartmann is a German author born in Düsseldorf on June 25, 1774 and died in Rostock on April 20, 1838. Directed by Eichhorn toward the study of the Old Testament and oriental languages, he is called in 1811 as professor of Old Testament theology at Rostock. His principal work, published in 1831, develops the so-called « fragments » theory on the formation of the Pentateuch; around 1835, he also publishes several pamphlets against the emancipation of the Jews, to which Gotthold Salomon responds.
Rabbi of Tangier, 18th century. Died in 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-3.
Moses ben Asher Anshel Hausen is a Danish Talmudist born in Copenhagen in 1752 and died on June 28, 1782. He is attributed the Ḳaran Or Pene Mosheh, homiletic commentary on Genesis published posthumously in Hamburg in 1787, although Zedner and Benjacob make it rather the work of a certain Meïr ben Isaac, also of Copenhagen, while Azoulaï indicates that the name of the author is not mentioned in it.
Polish businessman (1740 - 1785)
Ḥayyim (Josué) Pheibel ben Israël of Tarnogrod is an 18th-century geographer, author of a Hebrew geography of Palestine, Ḳaṣwe Areṣ (Żółkiew, 1772), reissued in Grodno in 1818 under the title Ereṣ Yisrael li-Gebuloteha Sabib.
Cited by Laredo as rabbi of Smyrne, died in Jerusalem in 1794. Bearer of the patronym Alazraqui in its modern spelling.
Ḥayyim Abraham ben Aryeh Löb is a Russian preacher active in Mogilev in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of Milḥamah be-Shalom, a dramatization of the history of Joseph and his brothers (Chklov, 1795), of Pat Leḥem, a commentary on the Ḥobot ha-Lebabot of Baḥya published with the text under the title Simḥat Lebab (Chklov, 1803), of Siddouro shel Shabbat, Kabbalistic reflections on the prayers of the sabbath (Poritsk, 1818), and of Sha'ar ha-Tefillah, a Kabbalistic homily on prayer (Sudilkov, 1873).
Ottoman rabbi and Talmudist
Ḥayyim ben Isaac of Volojine is a Russian rabbi and pedagogue born in Volojine, in the governorate of Wilna, on January 21, 1749, and died in that city on June 14, 1821. A reputed Talmudist and prosperous cloth merchant, he became at twenty-five the disciple of the Gaon Élie of Wilna, whose method of study he entirely adopted, and founded in 1803 the yeshiva of Volojine, beginning with ten students maintained at his expense. His principal work, Nefesh ha-Ḥayyim (Wilna, 1824), an ethico-kabbalistic treatise firmly opposed to Hasidism, insists on the observance of religious practices and the study of Torah; many of his responsa were lost in a fire in 1815.
Ḥayyim ben Menahem of Glogau is a German scholar active in the 17th and 18th centuries, author of Mar'eh ha-Ketab bi-Leshon Ashkenaz we-Rashe Tebot (Berlin, circa 1717), a manual intended mainly for women for the reading and writing of Judeo-German, comprising rules of vocalization, abbreviations and a vocabulary; Eber ben Pethahiah plagiarized an abridgement of it.
Ḥayyim ben Zeboulon Jacob Perlmutter is rabbi of Ostropol, in Russia, in the eighteenth century, author of Elef Omer, a collection of sentences beginning with the letter aleph according to the Beḥinat 'Olam of Jedaiah Bedersi (Grodno, 1795), and of Shirah le-Ḥayyim, azharot on the 613 commandments following the second song of Moses, published with a commentary entitled Yakhin ou-Bo'az (Warsaw, 1814; 2nd ed., Vienna, 1847).
Ḥayyim Jacob ben Jacob David is a rabbi of Smyrna active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, disciple of Ḥayyim ben Jacob Aboulafia, author of 'Eṣ Ḥayyim. Established in Safed, he is sent on mission for several years to North Africa, where he is found in Tunis in 1718 and then in Algeria in 1729, before being sent to Europe, where he publishes in Holland Ṣeror ha-Ḥayyim, novellae on the Yad of Maimonides (Amsterdam, 1738), and Samma de-Ḥayye, responsa and notes on the four Ṭourim (1739).
Polish rabbi
Chief Rabbi of Aleppo (from 1858) and head of the Beth Din, author of the responsa « Nokhah ha-Shulchan ».
rabbi
Rabbi and preacher of Salonika, author of Sippour ha-Hayyim.
Scholar, bibliographer, and emissary of the Land of Israel, author of the Shem ha-Gedolim, a vast register of rabbis and works. He traveled through Europe and the East as a collector.
Talmudist active in the eighteenth century, he is the author of « Peri Ëtz Ḥayyim » (Amsterdam, 1742), which gathers responsa, annotations to Maimonides' « Yad ha-Ḥazaka » and the « Arba Tourim », as well as sermons organized according to the order of the weekly Torah sections.
Moïse ben Aaron Ḥayyon is rabbi of Jerusalem then of Safed, active at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colleague of Abraham Yitzḥaki and son-in-law of Jacob Ḥagiz. In 1701, he signs in Jerusalem a circular letter in favor of Moïse Ḥagiz addressed to the community of Livorno. Son of Obadiah Aaron Ḥayyon, member of the rabbinical college around 1693 and author of Kabbalistic works, Moïse devotes himself for his part more to talmudic literature; only a few of his responsa have come down to us.
Isaac ben Jacob Ḥayyut is a Polish rabbi died in Skala, near Lemberg, in September 1726, descended from an ancient Provençal family established in Bohemia and grandson of R. Menahem Manesh Ḥayyut of Wilna. His thirteen works are enumerated in the preface of his Zera' Yiṣḥaḳ on the Mishna, published by his son Eliezer (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1732); his Iggeret Ḳeṣ Ḥai, describing in cabalistic terms visions of the higher world, appeared in Czernowitz in 1862.
Jacob Raphael Hezekiah Ḥazaḳ is an Italian rabbi of the 18th century, born in 1689 and died in Padua in 1782, disciple of Mordekhaï Basan of Verona and then, in Padua, of Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto. He succeeds Menahem Modène as rabbi of Padua, where he becomes involved in several controversies with the rabbis of Venice, and leaves responsa, notes on the four Ṭourim and a Sefer Kelalim on the Guemara and the decisors.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is a German philosopher born in Stuttgart in 1770 and died in Berlin in 1831. After studying in Tübingen and tutoring in Berne and Frankfurt, he becomes lecturer in 1801 and then professor of philosophy in 1805 at Jena, directs a gymnasium in Nuremberg from 1808, teaches at Heidelberg from 1816 and in Berlin from 1818. Founder of a "logical idealism" that dominated German thought, he gives the first impulse to a philosophy of history read as a dialectical process of revelation of absolute spirit, a reading that profoundly influenced the theology of the reformed Jewish movement, notably in Samuel Hirsch.
Wolf ben Samson Heidenheim is a German exegete and grammarian born in Heidenheim in 1757 and died in Rödelheim on February 23, 1832. Trained in Talmud in Fürth under Joseph Steinhardt then Hirsch Janow, he settled in 1782 in Frankfurt am Main. His first work, a critical edition of the Moznayim of ibn Ezra, appeared in Offenbach in 1791; he then undertook a critical edition of the Pentateuch, and, in partnership with Baruch Baschwitz, obtained in 1799 permission to open a printing house in Rödelheim, where his edition of the Maḥzor appeared in 1800. Becoming sole owner in 1806, he published that year his Mebo ha-Lashon and, in 1808, his Mishpeṭe ha-Ṭe'amim.
David Heilbron is a Dutch physician born in The Hague on July 4, 1762 and died in Amsterdam in 1847, doctor of medicine from Leiden in 1784. He practices in his native city from 1785 to 1800, before settling in Amsterdam, where he sits for a long time on the health council and practices until the end of his life. He publishes several medical treatises in Dutch between 1790 and 1824, notably on ocular affections revealing acute and chronic diseases.
Abraham ben Juda Heilbut is a German Talmudist active in Altona in the mid-eighteenth century, who drafted in July 1751 the Binah Rabbah, an unpublished commentary on the Midrash Rabba, focusing mainly on words absent from the Aroukh. He is also the author of a Talmudic vocabulary, the Aroukh Ḳaṭon, also unpublished, and a commentary on Pirké Avot, Kaf Naḥat (Altona, 1779).
German bibliographer
Jeremiah Heinemann is a German author born in Sandersleben on July 20, 1778 and died in Berlin on October 16, 1855, son of Rabbi Joachim Heinemann. Appointed in 1808 lay member of the consistory of Westphalia, he then becomes inspector of a teachers' seminary in Berlin and then devotes himself entirely to letters, publishing from 1817 the religious and pedagogical journal Jedidja, continued until 1831 then under other titles. A prolific translator of liturgy, he notably publishes a Catechism of the Jewish Religion (Rödelheim, 1812), the Grundlehren der Religion der Israeliten (Berlin, 1818), and an annotated edition of the Pentateuch (1831-33).
Ephraim ben Samuel Sanvel Hekscher was president of the Jewish community of Altona in the early 18th century, author of Dibre Ḥakamim we-Ḥidotam, on the sources and interpretations of many rabbinic laws (Altona, 1743), of Adne Faz, responsa on the Shulḥan Arukh (1743), and of Liwyat Ḥen, Talmudic novellae of which the first part appeared in 1732 and the second, edited by his son Issachar, in 1743.
German rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, great-grandson, through his father, of Salomon Louria, he was chief rabbi of Warta, in Poland, then of Glogau. During his stay in Vienna, he drafted the "Zéra Abraham", a commentary on Midrash Rabba, published with the text by his son Joseph (Amsterdam, 1725), as well as "Ḥidouchim", novellas on the Haggada of the Talmud of Jerusalem, printed with the "Yéfé Maré" in 1727. He also edited the "Yédé Moché" of his father, a commentary on Midrash Rabba, in 1705 in Frankfurt an der Oder, adding a preface and notes.
Elkan Henle is one of the very first defenders of the emancipation of Bavarian Jews, born on December 7, 1761, in Fürth, and died in that city on October 14, 1833. He published notably Ueber die Verbesserung des Judenthums (Offenbach, 1803), Ueber die Verfassung der Juden im Königreiche Baiern (Munich, 1812), and Die Stimme der Wahrheit in Beziehung auf den Kultus der Israeliten (Fürth, 1827).
Emma Henry is an English poetess born on September 17, 1788 and died on December 30, 1870, daughter of Reverend Salomon Lyon, professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, and wife of Abraham Henry. Considered the first English Jewish woman to have devoted herself to writing, she publishes in 1812 a collection of verses that meets with some success, and continues to compose occasional poems often recited at public ceremonies; she is the mother of Michael Henry.
Henry A. Henry is an Anglo-American rabbi and Hebraist born in London in 1800 and died in San Francisco on September 4, 1879. Director of the Jews' Free School in London until 1842, he compiled a prayer book in 1836 according to German and Polish rites, became rabbi of the St Albans congregation in 1844 until 1849, then emigrated to America, serving in Syracuse from 1851 and in New York until 1857, before joining the Congregation Shearith Israel of San Francisco in 1857, which he served as rabbi until 1871.
August Wilhelm Eduard Theodor Henschel is a German physician and botanist born in Breslau on 20 December 1790 and died in that city on 24 July 1856, doctorate in medicine in 1813. He practiced medicine there and then became in 1816 privat-docent of pathology, converted to Christianity in 1820, the year his noted work Von der Sexualität der Pflanzen appeared, became assistant professor in 1821 and then professor of anatomy, physiology and pathology in 1832. He published notably Zur Geschichte der Medicin in Schlesien (1837) and Das Medicinische Doctorat (1848).
Elias H. Henschel is a German physician born in Breslau on April 4, 1755 and died in 1839, father of A. W. Henschel. Clerk and then valet of a physician in his youth, he entered the University of Halle in 1785, where he obtained his doctorate in 1787, specializes in obstetrics and becomes public accoucheur of Breslau, contributing to the introduction of vaccination in Silesia. In 1813, he takes on, in addition to his activities, a lazaretto of two hundred twenty-eight beds in Neustadt, and publishes notably Ueber die Gewöhnlichsten Krankheiten der Schwangern (1797) and, after an epidemic of cholera, Guter Rath bei Annährung der Cholera (Breslau, 1831).
Johann Gottfried von Herder is a Protestant theologian, poet and German writer born in Mohrungen, in East Prussia, on August 25, 1744, and died in Weimar on December 21, 1803, trained in theology and letters at Königsberg. Court preacher in Riga from 1764 then in Bückeburg from 1771, he became in 1776 court preacher then president of the consistory of Weimar until his death. His work on Hebrew poetry exerts considerable influence: he publishes in 1774 Die Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts, in 1778 Lieder der Liebe on the Song of Songs, then in 1782 his major work, Vom Geiste der Ebräischen Poesie.
Czech rabbi
Sir William Herschel is an English astronomer born in Hanover on November 15, 1738 and died in Slough, near Windsor, on August 22, 1822, whose Jewish ancestry is attested by his biographer Holden. Trained as a musician, he went to England in 1755 with the Hanoverian guard, became organist in Bath in 1760, then devoted himself to astronomy and the manufacture of telescopes, discovering the planet Uranus on March 18, 1781, which earned him appointment as astronomer to the king. Considered the founder of modern sidereal astronomy, he compiled a complete inventory of the nebulae of the northern sky, conjectured the existence of binary stars and discovered solar infrared rays.
Salomon Herschell is the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazim of England, born in London in 1762, during the rabbinate of his father R. Hirsch Levin, and died in that city on October 31, 1842. Taken as a child by his father to Germany when the latter left the English rabbinate in 1764 for Halberstadt, he was trained there in Jewish theology and mathematics, exercised his first ministry at Prenzlau in Prussia, then became in 1802 Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London, whose authority soon extended over all the Ashkenazim of England, founding in particular the Neveh Ẓedeḳ and the Jews' Free School.
Henrik Hertz is a Danish poet born on August 25, 1798 in Copenhagen and died in this city on February 25, 1870. After studying law at the University of Copenhagen, he devoted himself to literature and embraced Christianity in 1832. His first work, the comedy Herr Burchard og Hans Familie, appeared in 1822, followed by other comedies such as Amors Genistreger (1830) and Sparekassen (1836), as well as the collection Gjengangerbreve eller Poetiske Epistler fra Paradis (1830) where he exposes his views on the primacy of form in poetry; his lyric drama Kong Renes Datter, one of his most famous works, was translated into German ten times.
Hartog Hertzveld is a Dutch rabbi born in Glogau on November 19, 1781 and died in Zwolle on January 30, 1864, son of the rabbi of Königsberg. Leaving as a young man for Amsterdam, where he was trained by rabbi Löwenstamm whose daughter he married in 1797, he was appointed rabbi of Nijkerk then called in 1808 to Zwolle, where he was the first to preach in the Dutch language. He seeks to organize the Jewish communities of Holland and to reform the synagogal service, a project that arouses the suspicion of his colleagues, and drafts on March 17, 1842 a pastoral message to defend himself from their attacks; he is decorated by King William II with the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands.
Elise Herz, née von Lämel, is an Austrian philanthropist born in Prague on December 20, 1788 and died in Vienna on July 25, 1868, whose Prague residence was a recognized intellectual center. At the death of her husband in 1850, she settled in Vienna, where she became honorary member of the Jewish community, and founded the orphanage in Jerusalem, which she entrusted the organization to Ludwig August Frankl.
Jacques-Simon Herz is a pianist born in Frankfurt am Main on 31 December 1794 and died in Nice on 27 January 1880. Leaving for Paris as a child, he is admitted in 1807 to the Conservatory, where he studies piano under Pradher, becomes a renowned pianist and gives a series of well-attended concerts, then performs and teaches for several years in England. Returning to Paris in 1857, he is appointed assistant professor of piano at the Conservatory, where his brother Henri Herz also teaches; he leaves notably two sonatas for violin, a sonata for horn and a waltz.
Markus Herz is a German physician and philosophy lecturer born on June 17, 1747 in Berlin and died in that city on January 19, 1803, son of modest parents. Sent in 1762 to Königsberg for a commercial career, he abandons his position as a clerk to follow university courses as a student of Kant, then returns to Germany in 1770 to study medicine in Halle, where he obtains his doctorate in 1774, the year he establishes himself in Berlin as a physician at the Jewish hospital. From 1777 onwards, he gives public lectures on medicine and philosophy that are widely attended, including by members of the royal family, and marries in 1779 Henriette de Lemos.
Adolf Herzfeld is a German actor born April 9, 1800 in Hamburg and died in Vienna on March 24, 1874, son of Jacob Herzfeld. He made his debut in Hamburg in 1821, performed there until 1829, then was engaged at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he remained forty years, retiring in 1869; he distinguished himself principally in dramas and comedies, in the roles of bon vivant and man of the world.
Jacob Herzfeld is a German actor and theater director born in Dessau on January 3, 1769 and died in Hamburg on October 24, 1826. After studying medicine at the University of Leipzig, he became an actor, making his debut in Vienna, and was then engaged in 1791 at the Hamburg theater under the direction of Schröder, whose assistant he became in 1798; appointed director of the Stadttheater in 1812, he retained this position until his death and owes his reputation mainly to his successes as a manager. He married in 1796 the actress Karoline Amalie Stegmann, born in Königsberg in 1766 and died in Hamburg on September 20, 1812.
Isaac Hess is a defender of Jewish emancipation in Württemberg born in Lauchheim, near Ellwangen, in 1789, and died on October 6, 1866. Destined for the rabbinate, he spent four years at the Talmudic school of Fürth, then, eager to improve the Jewish school system, presented a memorandum to the young King William of Württemberg in 1817, who appointed a commission to examine Jewish religious affairs; he addressed another memorandum to the assembly in 1821, then settled in 1823 in Ellwangen, where no Jew had yet resided, not without arousing the resentment of the inhabitants. He is at the origin of the Jewish orphanage of Ellwangen, the Wilhelmspflege, founded in 1831.
Michael Hess is a German pedagogue and author born in Stadt-Lengsfeld, Saxe-Weimar, on 9 April 1782, and died in Frankfurt am Main on 26 February 1860, brother of Mendel Hess. Destined for the rabbinate by his father, he studied at the yeshiva of Fürth and went in 1804 to Frankfurt, where he became tutor to the young baron James von Rothschild, before being elected in October 1806 director of the Philanthropin, a newly founded Jewish school in Frankfurt, a post he held for forty-nine years. A defender of the rights of his coreligionists and advocate of radical reform of Judaism, he is the author of numerous pedagogical pamphlets, published from 1816 to 1852.
Orthodox Jewish Chabad Rabbi
rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
German rabbi
Polish rabbi
Jacob von Hirsch is a German banker, grandfather of Maurice de Hirsch, born in 1764 in Königshofen, near Würzburg, and died on 23 March 1841 in Munich. Although he received in his youth an exclusively talmudic education, he later became court banker in Munich and the first Jew of Bavaria authorized to undertake agricultural enterprises; deeply devoted to Jewish affairs, he contributed substantially to the financing of charitable and religious institutions, and financed at his own expense, during the German War of Liberation from 1813 to 1815, the organization and equipment of a regiment of soldiers.
British rabbi
Levi Elias Hirschel is a German physician born on October 8, 1741 in Berlin and died in that city on December 17, 1772, trained at the Joachimsthal gymnasium and at the University of Halle, where he obtains his doctorate in 1763. He practices medicine in Berlin for two years, then settles in Posen, travels through Germany in 1770 before returning there, and dies during a visit to Berlin in 1772. He notably publishes works on venereal diseases (Berlin, 1763 and 1765) and on epilepsy (1767 and 1770), translated into French in Paris in 1769.
Moïse Hirschel, who became Christian Moritz after his baptism in 1804, is a German writer born on September 13, 1754 in Breslau, where he continues to live. He publishes notably Das Schach (Breslau, 1784), Kampf der Jüdischen Hierarchie and Jüdische Intoleranz und Fanatismus in Breslau (1789), Patriotische Bemerkungen (1790), and, in Zurich, the Apologie der Menschenrechte (1793) as well as a biography of the Jewish poet Ephraim Moses Kuh (1791).
Austrian merchant born on June 10, 1759 in Prostiebor, near Kladrau, in Bohemia, died in Vienna on December 12, 1849. Employed and then partner of the trading house of Joel Baruch in Vienna from 1788, he became sole owner in 1794 under the name « Hofmann und Löwinger », and was one of the first to lease the silk monopoly of the Hungarian government in 1802. President of the Jewish community of Vienna in 1806, he founded in 1822 an institution for the poor and was ennobled by the Emperor of Austria in 1835.
Austrian educator and writer born in Lieben, near Prague, in September 1749, died on August 24, 1841. Trained in Talmud in Prague, Pressburg and Gross-Glogau, he turned toward pedagogy under the influence of Rousseau's « Émile » and became in 1779, in Berlin, tutor of the eldest son of Mendelssohn, with whom he remained close. Recommended by Mendelssohn, he was appointed in 1784 superintendent of the Judeo-German schools of Galicia, then called to Vienna in 1793 by Emperor Francis II to draft the legislation governing the status of Jews in Austria, work completed in 1797.
Austrian tobacco manufacturer born in Kuttenplan, in Bohemia, in October 1724, died in Vienna on January 19, 1808, the first Jew ennobled in Austrian history. Son of a modest merchant, he entered the tobacco trade with his father and his brother Moïse, and obtained in 1752 the lease of Prague's tobacco commerce, later extended to several Austrian provinces. Having renounced his contract in 1783 at the request of Emperor Joseph II, he was appointed counsellor and then, in 1789, received the hereditary title of « Edler von Hönigsberg ».
German jurist and writer born in Hamburg on March 5, 1763, died in Bamberg on June 27, 1853. After studies in Bamberg, he became a lawyer, then district president in 1803, before being appointed in 1806 government commissioner and judge at the Supreme Court of Franconia, charged notably with improving the finances of the city of Nuremberg. Active in recruiting Bavarian volunteers during the War of Liberation (1813-15), he was ennobled in 1815 and became mayor of Bamberg, while publishing numerous political writings between 1816 and 1824.
Rabbi and Talmudic author born in Poland around 1731, died in Frankfurt am Main on 1 July 1805, descendant of a long rabbinical lineage. Trained in Talmud by his elder brother Schmelke, he became rabbi of Witkowo then of Lachovice before being elected rabbi of Frankfurt am Main in 1771. A Kabbalist, he fought Mendelssohn's translation of the Pentateuch, approved its auto-da-fé in Wilna in 1782, and opposed in 1794 the creation of a secular school; his major work, the "Hafla'ah," was published in Offenbach in 1786.
Rabbi and Kabbalist born in Poland in 1726, died in Nikolsburg on April 28, 1778, son of Hirsch Horowitz, rabbi of Czortkow, and brother of Phinehas Horowitz of Frankfurt am Main. Disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch, he acquired a reputation for holiness that earned him being called as rabbi to Nikolsburg in 1773, after having been rabbi of Ryczywol in Poland, then appointed chief rabbi of Moravia in 1775. He founded there a synagogue for adherents of the Hasidic rite, which subsisted until the end of the nineteenth century.
Physician and Austrian writer born in Bydzov, Bohemia, in 1788, died November 7, 1859 in Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary, where he practiced medicine since 1811. He devoted himself especially to the work of Josephus, of whose « Antiquities » he translated and partly annotated between 1826 and 1851, and displayed remarkable humor in his fictitious « Reiseberichte Nathan Ghazzati's », published in 1848 in « Orient, Lit. », which Julius Fürst took for a translation from Hebrew.
Daughter of the martyr Be'er ben Ḥizqiya ha-Lévi Horwitz and wife of Joseph ben Ḥayyim Ḥazzan, who died in Prague in 1713. She published in 1705 « Gesch. des Hauses David », and, with Rachel Porges, wife of Löb Porges, edited a primitive history, largely legendary, of the Jews of Prague entitled « Eine Schöne Geschichte, so Ist Geschehen, Ehe noch Jehudim zu Prag Gewohnt ». She also composed a « Teḥinnah » for the ten days of repentance.
Polish scholar born in Lublin around 1740, died in Paris in 1812. He left his native country while young, lived in Berlin, where he frequented Moses Mendelssohn, then in Nancy, Metz and Strasbourg, before settling in Paris. In 1789, he obtained the position of secretary-interpreter of Oriental languages at the Royal Library thanks to his « Apologie des Juifs », published the same year, which attracted the attention of Mirabeau. He thereafter devoted himself to the cause of the Revolution and the emancipation of the Jews of France, publishing notably an « Origine des Langues » in 1808.
German Christian biblical scholar born in Marburg on March 31, 1796, died in Halle on April 24, 1866. Professor of Old Testament exegesis at Marburg from 1825 to 1843, he succeeded Gesenius at Halle. In his « Quellen der Genesis » of 1853, taking up a suggestion made by Ilgen in 1798, he demonstrated the distinction between sources E and P and the independence of J, establishing the documentary hypothesis that durably oriented the analysis of the Pentateuch; his commentary on the Psalms, published from 1855, remained esteemed for the fineness of his grammatical analysis.
Professor of Hebrew and author born in 1770, died in 1844, originally from Poland where he acquired great proficiency in biblical and Talmudic studies before settling in England. Aided by friends, he founded in 1799 the "Highgate Academy", a seminary for Jewish youth, published in 1806 an "Introduction to Hebrew Grammar" and then a Hebrew grammar in two parts, reprinted a third time in 1841, and brought out in 1821 his "Vindicia Hebraica", the year he retired from active teaching before being elected to the chair of Hebrew at University College London.
Russian physician and writer born in Wilna in the first half of the eighteenth century, died in Grodno on November 12, 1797. Graduate in medicine from the University of Padua, he traveled through Europe and then settled in Wilna as physician of the Jewish community, before practicing in Ponedeli, Zhagory, and Mitau, and finally in Grodno. In 1765, during a trip to Germany and Amsterdam, he published his "Sefer 'Ammude Bet Yehudah" of moral philosophy, approved by Mendelssohn and Wessely; he also published, between 1764 and 1797, several other works of morals and thought, including the "Sefer Megillat Sedarim" in Prague in 1793.
Companion of King David, generally called the Arkite. When David had to flee before Absalom, he sent Ḥoushaï to thwart the latter's plans; feigning to rally to his cause, Ḥoushaï made his counsel prevail over that of Ahitofel, thus precipitating Absalom's downfall. His son was among Solomon's commissioners.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 103-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5494 of the Hebrew era (1734). Son of Yehonatan II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 103-2.
Rabbi of Fes, 18th century. Born in 5465 of the Hebrew era (1705). Son of Yehoshua I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 103-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Died in 5530 of the Hebrew era (1770). Son of Matatiah II, himself son of Haim David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 103-2.
German philologist born in Hamburg on September 4, 1792 and died in Minden on December 28, 1847. Converted to Christianity in 1809, he studied theology and philology at Helmstedt, Göttingen and Leipzig, before becoming a state teacher in Hirschberg in Silesia (1814) then, in 1821, principal of the gymnasium in Minden, a position he held until his death. There he introduced gymnastics into the school curriculum in 1831 and divided the school into literary and scientific sections in 1840.
Son of Joseph Aboulker, Grand Rabbi of Algiers, described as a learned sage. He is said to have been beheaded on the order of the Dey of Algiers along with several notables for defending the community against excessive fiscal pressure. No written work is attributed to him by the sources consulted.
Italian Talmudist, active in Ancona in the first half of the eighteenth century. He maintained scientific correspondence with Isaac Lampronti, who mentions him frequently in his "Paḥad Yiẓḥaḳ".
Dutch Kabbalist, assistant rabbi in Amsterdam in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, where he devoted himself to the editing of Kabbalistic texts. In 1701, he published from a manuscript in his possession the "Sefer Raziel ha-Gadol" of Eleazar of Worms, whose preface asserts that the work protects from fire the house where it is kept; the same year, he also edited the "Zohar he-Ḥadash," the "Midrash ha-Ne'elam" and several other Kabbalistic treatises. His son Löb added to the "Zohar he-Ḥadash" a glossary of the two Zohars.
Scholar, rabbinical judge (dayyan) and poet of Meknès, cited by the Encyclopaedia Judaica in the « Sebag » family entry. He is credited with piyyoutim, including a long poem preserved in the collection « Shir Yedidut ».
Born in Aleppo in 1755, dayyan and teacher at the city's yeshiva. After his family's death in the plague of 1787, he undertook around 1814 a long journey (Land of Israel, Egypt, France, Italy), staying several years in Livorno where he published his works. Author of responsa, sermons and Talmudic novellae.
Rabbi in Offenbach in the first half of the 18th century. He is the author of « Be'er Yiẓḥaḳ », a commentary on the Haftarot with the text (1729), and « Me'irat 'Enayim », on the six hundred and thirteen biblical precepts according to Maimonides (Fürth, 1730).
Rabbi of Lemberg, died in Kraków in 1799, son of the head of the yeshivah of Lemberg. He first officiated as rabbi in Leshnow, in Galicia, then in Chelm, in Poland, before leaving the latter city in 1776 for the rabbinate of Kraków, which he held until his death. Of his writings only two responsa survive, incorporated into the "Bet Ya'aḳob" and the "Peri Tebu'ah"; he is also known through his approbations to various works of his time.
Chief rabbi of Tétouan, decisioner; author of the responsa Vayomer Yitzhak.
Member of the Judeo-Portuguese community of Amsterdam, Isaac ben Elijah Cohen Belinfante was a preacher, poet of Hebrew language and great bibliophile. Active from the 1750s onwards in the Hebrew literary life of Amsterdam, he compiled manuscript anthologies and had the works of his contemporaries printed. He also revised the Sephardic ritual printed in Amsterdam.
British writer
Satirist and poet of the Galician Haskala, author of Ha-Tsofeh le-Veit Yisrael.
Born in Tripoli into a family tracing back to Jews from Huete (Spain). He lived long in Trieste then settled in the Holy Land, where he played a key role in founding talmudic seminaries in Tiberias and Safed. He wrote four volumes of ḥiddushim on the Babylonian Talmud, published in Livorno (1846–47) and Vienna (1851–56).
Peerage person ID=714520
Born in Lisbon in a Portuguese Jewish family, trained in Bordeaux and Leiden. Extraordinary physician of the Portuguese Embassy to the court of St James in London and honorary physician to the Portuguese Prince Regent. Licensed by the Royal College of Physicians, he practiced at Mark Lane (London).
Ottoman rabbi
Isaac Samuel Avigdor, banker and merchant of Nice, was deputy to the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon (1806–1807), whose secretariat he held alongside Isaac Rodrigues, under the presidency of Abraham Furtado. He was also a city councillor of Nice (1808–1813). His son Henri Salomon Avigdor married Rachel Goldsmid in London in 1840. The Avigdor family of Nice is documented from the 17th century onwards (F. Hildesheimer, « Un banquier juif à Nice au XVIIe siècle : Isaac-Samuel Avigdor »).
Ancestor of the lineage, member of the Great Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon (1807), founding figure of the prestige of the d'Avigdor family before its establishment in England.
Prolific writer of the early Haskala, author of Mishlei Asaf.
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, author of Erekh ha-Choulhan, a commentary in six volumes.
American inventor of the colonial and revolutionary period, died in 1798, established in Newport from 1755. In 1790, he offered to Washington, on a visit to Newport, a bottle of desalinated water obtained by his process; the following year, in 1791, he presented to the House of Representatives a petition proposing to cede to the State the rights to his desalting process, the examination of which was entrusted to Thomas Jefferson.
writer
German rabbi
Austrian businessman
Austrian rabbi
Italian rabbi
Talmudist, rabbi of Breslau, pioneer of critical annotation of the Talmud.
Talmudist and author, chief rabbi of Modena, born in 1724 and died in 1811. Recognized as a profound dialectician, he received numerous casuistical questions; his responsa and novellæ were gathered under the title « Zera' Emet », of which two volumes appeared during his lifetime (Livorno, 1786 and 1796), concerning the Ora'h Hayyim and the Yoré Dé'a.
Rabbi of Taza, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5532 of the Hebrew era (1772). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-4.
Printer and author, active in Prague in the 17th-18th centuries. He is the author of the « Hanhagot Yisrael », a treatise on the education of children whose first edition was published anonymously in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1712; the same year, he helped establish a printing house in Wilmersdorf, where his name appears only on two works of 1712: the « Bet Abot » of Moïse Heilburg and the talmudic treatise Beitsa.
Galician scholar born in Boberka at the beginning of the eighteenth century and died in Brody in April 1772. Trained in the Talmud by his father but passionate about philosophy and mathematics, he left Galicia for Germany and became, in Berlin, professor of Talmud at the Talmud Torah of Veitel-Heine Ephraïm, where he counted among his students Moses Mendelssohn, whom he initiated into mathematics and philosophy. Driven out of Berlin by persecutions from orthodox rabbis, he returned to live in poverty in Galicia; he is the author, among others, of the 'Neẓaḥ Yisrael' on the astronomical passages of the two Talmuds (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1741) and a commentary on the 'Cuzari' (Vienna, 1797).
Talmudic casuist born in Shklov around 1770 and died in Tiberias on 13 May 1839, one of the scholars of Shklov attracted to Vilna by the Gaon Elijah ben Solomon, of whom he was a disciple for less than a year but to whom he was entrusted with publishing his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Ora'h Hayyim (Shklov, 1803) and his notes on the treatise Shekalim, accompanied by his own commentary « Tiḳlin Ḥadtin » (Minsk, 1812). Emigrated to Palestine, he became leader of the Ashkenazi congregations of Safed then Jerusalem, and traveled in Europe as an emissary collecting alms; upon his return, he wrote his major work, the « Pe'at ha-Shulḥan », an agricultural supplement to the Shulchan Aruch, published in Safed in 1836.
Hasidic rabbi, Kabbalist and wonderworker known as the Maggid of Kozienice, born around 1745 in Kozienice, in the government of Radom, and died in 1815. Disciple of Baer of Meseritz, Samuel Shmelka Hurwitz and Elimélekh of Lizhensk, he became after the death of Baer, in 1772, one of the leaders of Hasidism, and his reputation as a wonderworker attracted to him Jews and Christians from afar. He left numerous Kabbalistic writings, published mostly after his death, including notes to the « Sefer Raziel » (Warsaw, 1812) and the « 'Abodat Yisrael » (Jozefow, 1842).
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-3.
Italian rabbi, eminent Talmudist and devotee of Kabbalah, active in Reggio Emilia then in Rovigo in the late seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century. He edited in Venice (1744) the « Mafteḥot ha-Zohar », a double index to the Zohar (index of subjects and index of biblical passages cited), attributed to a certain Samuel.
Chief Rabbi and physician of Mantua, figure of the Mantuan branch (the largest) of the Cases family. He composed a collection of prayers of thanksgiving published in Mantua in 1788.
Austrian tobacco manufacturer and financier, the first Jew ennobled in the Habsburg monarchy (1789).
German Jewish philanthropist and community organizer (1768-1828)
German rabbi
ḥazzan and composer (1773–1832)
Ḥayyim Abraham Israël is an eighteenth-century Italian rabbi who lived in Candie and then in Ancona. He is the author of Bet Abraham (Livorno, 1786), a casuistic commentary on the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ followed by a treatise on the laws of government, and of Amarot Ṭehorot (1787), a similar commentary on the Eben ha-'Ezer.
French rabbi
Rabbi of Podhajce, in Galicia, born in Lisko in 1712 and died in Berlin on October 28, 1744, son of the author of the "Pené Yehoshua'" and student of Hirsch, rabbi of Halberstadt. In 1741, he gave his approval for the printing of the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ with its three commentaries; called shortly thereafter to become "rosh yeshiva" of Metz, he fell ill on the way and died. A great Talmudist despite his youth, he left numerous responsa, published notably in the "Ḳiryat Ḥannah" and by his son Ẓebi Rosanes in his "Tesha' Shiṭṭot".
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by source. Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Turkish Talmudist of the 17th-18th centuries, son-in-law of Elijah Ḥako, author of the « Ruaḥ Eliyahou ». A Talmudist of great repute, he had many students, including his own son-in-law Juda Ashkenazi and Isaac Nuñez Belmonte, author of the « Sha'ar ha-Melekh ». He is the author of the « Leshon 'Arummim » (Smyrna, 1749), annotations to the supercommentary of Elijah Mizraḥi on Rachi, and of the « Leshon Limmudim » (1755), novellæ on the Ṭourim.
Member of the rabbinical court (Bet Din) established by the Portuguese kehilla of Amsterdam after the death of Haham Daniel Cohen d'Azevedo in 1822, the community having then preferred a college of dayanim to a single Chief Rabbi. He is specifically cited as « Dayan Jacob Ferares (1772–1852) », also spelled Jacob de Eliezer Ferares.
18th-century Talmudist
Chief Rabbi of Damascus, arrested and tortured during the Damascus Affair (1840); emigrated to Jerusalem.
Russian Talmudist
Tunisian Jewish scholar
Rabbi, posek and kabbalist said to be « of Vilna », member of the circle of Judah Hasid ha-Levi. He collaborated with Nathan Nata Mannheim on the Me'orot Natan, which takes up the Me'orei Or of Meir Poppers accompanied by their commentary Ya'ir Nativ (Frankfurt, 1709).
Russian rabbi of Brest-Litovsk in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jacob ben Joël is the author of the "She'erit Ya'aḳob" (Altona, 1727), a collection of ḥiddouchim on the Pentateuch, the five Meguilot and some Talmudic aggadot.
Polish rabbi of the second half of the eighteenth century, trained in Talmudism, Jacob ben Juda Löb became rabbi of Krasnopol, in the government of Suwałki. He is the author of the "Peduyot Ya'aḳob", an index of the halakhot and subjects of the Choulhan Aroukh classified in reverse alphabetical order, published in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in 1800 with the approval of Rabbi Naphtali Hirz ; in the preface, he recounts having been imprisoned for seven weeks by his enemies and having written this work in fulfillment of a vow made in prison.
Russian preacher known as the Maggid of Dubno, born in Zietil, in the Vilna governorate, around 1740 and died in Zamość on December 18, 1804, Jacob ben Wolf Kranz preached from the age of eighteen in Międzyrzecz, then successively in Żółkiew, Dubno, Włodawa, Kalisz, and Zamość, before joining Vilna at the request of the Gaon Elijah, who was recovering. An orator of matchless eloquence, he illustrates his sermons with parables drawn from everyday life; his works, published after his death by his son Isaac Kranz and his pupil Abraham Bär Plahm, include the "Ohel Ya'aḳob", a commentary on the Pentateuch, the "Ḳol Ya'aḳob" (Warsaw, 1819), and the "Sefer ha-Middot" (1862).
Rabbi of Algiers under Ottoman rule. On November 14, 1782, he appears — alongside Rabbi Tsemah Duran — as a witnessing rabbi before whom three brothers (Mordechai, Jacob and Solomon) conclude a commercial partnership deed. No written work is attributed to him.
Son of Moses de Chaves, wealthy merchant of Amsterdam. Student of the poet and kabbalist Moïse Ḥayyim Luzzatto, who published his drama « La-Yesharim Tehillah » on the occasion of Jacob's marriage to Rachel de Vega Enriques in 1743.
Poet and mathematician, author of Ha-Kerav describing the game of chess in verse.
German decisor and polemicist, famous for his struggle against the remnants of Sabbateanism. Author of a reference annotated siddur.
German rabbi
Preacher (maggid) of Dubno, celebrated for his parables illustrating Jewish tradition.
French rabbi
Posek and rosh yeshiva of Tripoli, author of some forty works including Kol Yaakov.
Son of Abraham, he succeeded him as muqaddim of Algiers, was one of the principal shipowners of his time, consul of Ragusa (1735) and supported the yeshivot by financing the printing of Hebrew works.
Sephardic Jew of converso origin (Seville), arrived in Newport via Curaçao in 1748. Second most powerful merchant in the Newport Jewish community after Aaron Lopez (his cousin, then father-in-law through the marriage of his daughter Sarah in 1763). Credited with introducing spermaceti candle manufacturing to the American colonies and founding member of the United Company of Spermaceti Candlers (1761).
-1801
Patriarch (c. 1704-1796) of the Jewish Minerbi family of Ferrara, renowned for his professional honesty and profound Jewish learning; his descendants numbered among the founders of Assicurazioni Generali of Trieste.
Israël Jacob, banker and German philanthropist born in 1729 in Halberstadt and died in 1803, was a court agent of the Duke of Brunswick and the Margrave of Baden; he is credited with the suppression of the corporate tax imposed on Jews in the State of Baden. He also participated in conferences held in Berlin and Spandau on the distribution of Jewish taxes among Prussian communities.
Danish physician born in Yaroslav, Galicia, in 1764, and died in Copenhagen in 1811, Samuel Jacobi first studied Talmud before turning to medicine, which he practiced at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Halle. Settled in Copenhagen in 1792, authorized to practice in Denmark in 1796, and assured by a royal decree in 1798 that his religion would not hinder his advancement, he was physician to poor Jews and helped found a free school for Jewish boys, which he administered until his death, while also being, in the last year of his life, vice-president of the Danish Medical Society.
Danish surgeon born in Copenhagen on January 10, 1783 and died in the same city on August 29, 1843, Ludwig Lewin Jacobson received his doctorate in medicine there in 1804 and served as military surgeon during the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807. He owes his fame mainly to the discovery, in 1809, of an absorbing organ previously unknown in the human nose — the « Jacobson's organ », described by Cuvier in 1811 — which earned him a silver medal, military rank, and a royal grant to study in Germany and France; he was appointed professor by Kiel University in 1816.
German rabbi
rabbi
German writer
Fifth son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, he settled in Paris in 1812 and founded in 1817 the house of Rothschild Frères with his brothers as partners. By 1823 the Paris house is the banker of the French government. He financed railways (concession of the Northern Railway, 1845), mines and industries, becoming the most powerful banker in France. Created a baron in 1822.
Aaron Jaroslaw was one of the Biurists, tutor in the house of Moses Mendelssohn before becoming a teacher in Lemberg. His commentary on the Book of Numbers appeared in the first edition of Mendelssohn's Pentateuch, the « Netibot ha-Shalom » (Berlin, 1783), and was taken up in all subsequent editions. He also published the third edition of Maimonides' « Millot ha-Higgayon », accompanied by Mendelssohn's Hebrew commentary (Berlin, 1784).
Rabbinical author versed in the Midrashim, died in Vienna in 1730, Jehiel Michael ben Uzziel of Glogau composed the « Nezer ha-Qodesh », vast commentary on Midrash Rabba of which the part devoted to the first section of Genesis appeared in Tessnitz in 1718; he maintained a correspondence with Jacob Emden, mentioned in the « She'elot Ya'beṣ ».
Austrian physician and poet born on June 20, 1794 (or 1795) in Brünn, Moravia, and died in that city on April 16, 1858. Alois Jeiteles, doctor of medicine from Vienna (1819), turned to poetry through contact with Beethoven and Grillparzer; his cycle "An die ferne Geliebte" was set to music by Beethoven, and his parody "Der Schicksalstriumph" (1818) made the rounds of German stages. Founder in 1819 of the weekly "Siona", he established himself as a physician in Brünn in 1821 and directed until his death, from 1848 onwards, the "Brünner Zeitung".
Russian physician and Kabbalist born in the early eighteenth century, reputed to be a Talmudist from his youth, Jekoutiel ben Löb Gordon studied medicine in Padua where he befriended the young Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto and initiated himself under his direction into the Cabala; his letters from 1729, published in the "Torat ha-Ḳena'ot" of Emden (Amsterdam, 1737), show his ardent faith in cabalistic teachings. Having contributed through his indiscretion to the persecution of Luzzatto, he returned to Lithuania where he made many followers, then was sent in 1742 as a delegate from Brest-Litovsk to Wilno, after which he is lost to view.
Samuel Jesi was an Italian engraver, born in Milan in 1789 and died in Florence on January 17, 1853. A pupil of G. Longhi at the Academy of Milan, he engraved notably The Abandonment of Hagar after Guercino, then devoted himself to the works of Raphael, several of whose paintings he interpreted; his masterpiece remains the group representing Pope Leo X with Cardinals Rossi and Giulio dei Medici, executed in 1834.
Czech rabbi
Joël b. Juda Selki ha-Lévi is the author of Dibre ha-Iggeret, an account of the sufferings of the Jews of Glogau during the siege of the city by the Prussians in the winter of 1740-41, published in 1741 in a place that remained unknown and so rare that many bibliographers were unaware of it. The work was reissued by Joseph Fischer in Cracow in 1895, with Nathan Hanover's Yewen Meẓoulah, under the title Shene Sefarim Niftaḥim; his brother Asher Lämmel, dayan in Glogau, signed a song at the end of the text, which probably explains why Steinschneider added the name "Lämmel" to that of Joël.
Johanan ben Isaac of Holleschau was, in the early eighteenth century, rabbi of the German community of London. He edited, adding his own remarks, the Teshouvot ha-Gueonim, responsa of contemporary rabbis on the pronunciation of divine names (Amsterdam, 1707), and wrote the Ma'assé Rav, in which he sharply criticized the conduct of a London rabbi in a matter of divorce and excommunication.
German artist
Joseph Johlson, German translator of the Bible and pedagogue, born in 1777 in Fulda and died in Frankfurt am Main on June 13, 1851, was sometimes called "Fulda", after the name of his native city where his father held the position of rabbi. Called to Frankfurt in 1813 as a teacher at the Philanthropin, he introduced systematic religious instruction there, then in 1814 devotional exercises. He published notably the Twelve Minor Prophets (Carlsruhe, 1827) and an annotated translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (1831-36), as well as his main work, Alume Yosef, a school manual in several parts.
Born in Lisbon into a Portuguese Jewish family, he settled in Virginia in 1745 where he practiced medicine. His father, Francisco Machado de Sequeira, a physician arrested in Rio in 1706 and transferred to Lisbon, later had himself circumcised in London under the name Abraham de Sequeira Machado. John de Sequeyra left medical observations and writings.
Ottoman rabbi
Member of a Prague family (the Wehle) of Sabbatean tradition, Jonas Wehle was the leader of the Frankist group in Prague, assisted by his brothers — including Aaron Beer Wehle (1750–1825) — and by his son-in-law Löw Enoch von Hönigsberg, who put into writing much of the circle's teachings. He was among the Prague Frankists who contributed to the court of Offenbach.
German-Hungarian rabbi
Jonathan ben Joseph, Lithuanian rabbi and astronomer, lived in Risenoï, in the Grodno governorate, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, versed in astronomy and mathematics as much as in Talmud. After a terrible epidemic struck Risenoï in 1710, forcing his family to live an entire year in the fields, he made a vow, if he were spared, to spread astronomical knowledge among his coreligionists; having become blind, he traveled to Germany to keep this promise, where the bibliographer Wolf met him in 1725. He is the author of two astronomical commentaries, published in Frankfurt-am-Main and Offenbach in 1720.
Talmudic and kabbalistic prodigy, chief rabbi of the « Three Communities » (Altona, Hamburg, Wandsbek). He was at the heart of a famous controversy with Jacob Emden.
Thomas Jones, English editor converted to Judaism, was born a Catholic in 1791 and died in London on May 25, 1882, his conversion resulting from long study and deep conviction. A bookseller and publisher for many years in Paternoster Row, he was versed in biblical literature and was a frequent attendant at the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, scrupulously observing the sacred festivals. Weakened by illness and financial reverses, he spent his last years with his daughter, a sister of Mercy at the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, remaining faithful to the end to his adopted faith.
German rabbi
Joseph b. Moses Phineas, called ha-Tsaddiq, was a Polish rabbi born in 1726 and died in Posen in 1801, a man of fortune, influence and great piety; his father-in-law, R. Ezekiel Landau of Prague, cites him frequently in his Noda bi-Yehouda. He successively held the rabbinate of Yaworow, Sokoli and then Posen, and is the author of Zikhron Cheérit Yossef, tales on the Babylonian Talmud.
Hungarian rabbi
Joseph ben Abraham Issachar Bärman Minkdam was a Dutch scholar of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He translated into Yiddish the targum of the Song of Songs (Amsterdam, 1711), a translation inserted into the famous homiletic paraphrase of the Pentateuch by Jacob b. Isaac, the Tsé'enah ou-Ré'enah.
Considered one of the great Moroccan scholars of his time, rabbi of Salé and then of Rabat (1780), where he maintained an important yeshiva that survived after his death. His responsa, concerning mainly the Ḥoshen Mishpat and partly the Even ha-Ezer, constitute a valuable source for the history of Moroccan Jews.
Joseph ben David Heilbronn of Eschau was a German masorete established in The Hague in the eighteenth century. He is the author of the Sefer Mevin Hidot (Amsterdam, 1765), an important work on the Masorah accompanied by a response to a criticism by Asher Worms, and edited in 1769, under the title Seder Tefillot li-Yemé Simhat Torah, a collection of prayers for the festival of Simhat Torah and other occasions.
Ottoman rabbi
Joseph ben Mardochée ha-Cohen, Turkish rabbi and liturgist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was born in Jerusalem. A student of Moses Galante the Younger, he brought to Amsterdam the Zevah ha-Chelamim of his master, printed in 1708, and was himself the author of Divré Yossef (Venice, 1751), a collection of homilies, and the Cha'aré Yeroushalayim (1707), hymns and songs in honor of Jerusalem, partly of his own composition and partly by other authors.
Joseph (Josel) ben Moses of Frankfurt was a dayan in Fürth in the first half of the eighteenth century; born in Frankfurt-am-Main, he is the author of the Torat Yossef, a massorah on the Pentateuch accompanied by commentary (Wilmersdorf, 1725).
Rabbi in Lesla in the first half of the 18th century, he is the author of a supercommentary on Rashi on the Pentateuch entitled « Tif'eret Yosef » (Prague, 1724), covering the first three books of the Pentateuch.
Tunisian rabbi
Joseph David, called "the Saint", was rabbi of Salonique in the first half of the eighteenth century, contemporary of Salomon Amarillo and Joseph Covo I; according to Azoulaï, he would have served as chief rabbi of the city between the two. He is the author of Bet David, new halakhic studies on the four Tourim (Salonique, 1740-46), of Yeqara de-Chikhbé, a collection of sermons (1774), and of Tsemah David, a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch with preaching rules (1785-1811).
Joseph David ben Tsevi, rabbi and Russian author, was born in Zetil, in the Grodno government, in 1767, and died in Mir, in the Minsk government, in 1846. Grandson of the rabbi of Zetil and son-in-law of R. Moses of Kletsk, he was appointed rabbi of his native town at a young age, then called to the rabbinate of Mir at twenty-six; his yeshiva attracted students from all sides, hundreds of whom he ordained as rabbis. His Talmudic novellae appear in part in the Nir David of his student R. Mordekhai Rabinowitz, and one of his responsa in the Galya Massekhet of R. David of Novogroudok.
Hungarian rabbi
Prussian-American businessman (1799–1881)
Uncle and father-in-law of Francis Salvador, an eminent businessman of London, investor in the British East India Company. The family, ruined by the Lisbon earthquake (1755) and the reverses of the East India Company, bought vast lands (« Jews Land ») in the Ninety-Six district of Carolina.
German rabbi
Galician rabbi, author of the Pri Megadim, reference supercommentary on the Shulchan Aruch.
German rabbi
English Hebraist and man of communal affairs, born in Königsberg on October 8, 1763 and died in London on February 9, 1849. Leaving for Berlin at age thirteen and then settling in London in 1781, he conducted commercial activities while cultivating Hebrew literature, collaborated with Hebrew periodicals and contributed in 1818, with Chief Rabbi Herschell and Doctor Van Oven, to founding the Jews' Free School, to which he devoted most of his life. He also edited an English-Hebrew dictionary titled "Midrash Millin".
American Talmudist born in Brest-Kuyavsk, in the government of Warsaw, in 1799, and died in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1864. Settling young in Kurnik, in Prussia, whence his surname « Joshua of Kurnik », he emigrated to America in 1854 and was rabbi in Newburgh then in Poughkeepsie before retiring; considered the father of American Hebrew literature, he is the author of « Abne Yehoshua' » (New York, 1860), a commentary on the Pirke Avot, as well as of « Binyan Yehoshua' », Talmudic novellae, and of « Ḥomat Yehoshua' », a collection of homilies.
Rabbinic author of the eighteenth century, died in Jerusalem, contemporary of Elijah of Vilna. He wrote "Maẓmiaḥ Yeshu'ah" (Nowydwor, 1782), composed of a commentary on the "Mordekai" of R. Mordekhaï ben Hillel and a second section objecting to the critical notes of the "Bet Ya'aḳob", as well as novellae on Baba Ḳamma; he is also the author of "Yeshua' be-Rosh" (Shklov, 1788), commentary of Rosh on Baba Ḳamma, Baba Meẓi'a and Baba Batra.
Polish rabbi died in Vilna, at an advanced age, on September 9, 1749. Named after his grandfather, R. Höschel, who died in 1663, he became rabbi of Vilna in 1712 and held this position until his death, surrounded by great consideration from his contemporaries, as evidenced by the approvals he received, notably in the "Geon Ẓebi" of Ẓebi Horwitz (Prague, 1736).
Russian rabbi
Russian mining engineer, born around 1800 and died in Saint Petersburg in 1874. Graduate of the Saint Petersburg School of Mines in 1823, he completed his training at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Germany, before returning to teach metallurgy and mining in his alma mater, a position he held for twenty-five years; he published notably « O Dobyvanii Syery » (Saint Petersburg, 1856) and converted to Christianity.
German historian born in Bernburg on February 22, 1793 and died in Frankfurt am Main on November 22, 1860. Orphaned of his father at age ten, he was raised in Wolfenbüttel, where he befriended Zunz, studied at the universities of Göttingen and then Berlin, from which he graduated in 1816, and devoted himself to teaching rather than the rabbinate. He directed a school where Jews and Christians studied together until Prussia forbade, in 1819, the admission of Christian students, then was called in 1835 to the "Philanthropin" of Frankfurt, where he taught until his death while publishing school manuals, including an English grammar published in Berlin in 1826.
Chief Rabbi of Tunis (1847), kabbalist, author of Avnei Tsedek on the Choulhan Aroukh.
French Hebrew scholar, active at the beginning of the 18th century, born in Krotoschin, Germany, and established in Avignon and then Carpentras, a city whose name he generally bears. He is the author of a Hebrew dictionary attentive to the etymology of proper names, « Ohole Yehudah » (Jessnitz, 1719), a short concordance, « Geza' Yehudah » (Offenbach, 1732), and two works on the Pentateuch, « Pene Aryeh » and « Ḥeleḳ Yehudah », of which the grammatical essay appeared with a German translation under the title « Yesod Leshon ha-Ḳodesh » (Wilmersdorf, 1724).
Rabbi in Slutsk, in the government of Minsk, in Russia, in the middle of the eighteenth century. He is the author of « Torah Or » (Berlin, 1745), halakhot on the reading and writing of the Law as well as on the rudiments of Hebrew grammar, and mentions in the twentieth chapter of this work another of his writings, « Sha'agat Aryeh ».
rabbi and Talmudist
Lithuanian Talmudist and philanthropist, born and died in Wilna, March 18, 1762, after having been a dayan, community secretary then, briefly, rabbi. Consulted as a Talmudic authority during the dispute between Jonathan Eybeschütz and Jacob Emden, he was especially venerated by the Jews of Wilna for his generosity—he had the half-ruined synagogue renovated, built a new one that still bears his name, and came to the aid of widows and orphans. The community appointed him interim rabbi to keep the position available for his young son-in-law, Samuel ben Abigdor, and as secretary he organized the community archives, making their maintenance binding for his successors by testament.
Rabbi in Venice and then in Amsterdam in the first half of the 18th century, prolific author of kabbalistic and homiletic works: « Seder Ḳeri'e Mo'ed » (Venice, 1706), « Peraḥ Lebanon » and « Naḥal Etan » (Berlin, 1712), « Sha'are Raḥamim » (Venice, 1716), « Fundamento Solido », compendium of Jewish theology in Spanish (Amsterdam, 1729), and « Aseret ha-Debarim » (1737); he also edited, in 1715 in Venice, the responsa of Joseph ben Mordekhaï ha-Cohen of Jerusalem under the title « Dibre Yosef ».
Grammarian and poet, author of the grammar Talmud Lashon Ivri.
Rationalist Galician maskil, author of the dialogue Kinat ha-Emet.
German writer
German physician and penitentiary reformer, born in Altona on October 3, 1783 and died in Hamburg on August 20, 1862. Trained in Hamburg and then Berlin, he studied medicine in Heidelberg and Würzburg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1809, then established himself as a physician in Hamburg after his conversion to Christianity; he served as surgeon of the Hanseatic legion during the wars of 1813 and 1815 against France. His writings on improving the lot of prisoners attracted the attention of the Crown Prince of Prussia, who called him to Berlin in 1840; he remained there attached to the Ministry of the Interior until his dismissal in 1849, then returned to Hamburg.
Russian rabbi of the eighteenth century, author of « Or ha-Ne'erab », Talmudic commentary completed with notes by his son Salomon Zalman Kahana (Ostrog, 1804). He also left in manuscript sermons, « Dibre Ḥemed », and a biblical commentary, « Zer Zahab ».
Karaite scholar of Tchoufout-Kalé, in Crimea, died on February 17, 1754, author of the « Me'il Shemuel », commentary on the « Ha-Mibḥar » of Aaron ben Joseph. Unable to complete the work, it was finished on September 20, 1757 by Simḥa Isaac ben Moïse, who wrote its preface.
Rabbi of Agadir. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-1.
Rabbi and colonization pioneer, born March 24, 1795 in Lissa, Posen, and died October 16, 1874 in Thorn, on the Vistula, where he served without remuneration, for more than forty years, as deputy rabbi. Author of halakhic commentaries from his youth — including "Sefer Moznayim la-Mishpaṭ" (Krotoschin and Königsberg, 1855) — and of a study in Jewish philosophy, "Sefer Emunah Yesharah" (Krotoschin, 1843 and 1871), he devoted himself especially to agricultural colonization of Palestine as a refuge for Eastern European Jews, a project he set forth in his "Derishat Ẓiyyon" (Lyck, 1862).
Rabbi of Kalisz, in Prussia, in the 18th century, trained by Elijah of Vilna and then by the Maggid of Mezeritch, whose ardent Hasidic disciple he became. After the latter's death, he settled in Horodok with Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, accompanied him in 1777 to Palestine, where they first settled in Safed and then, around 1783, in Tiberias, and succeeded him at his death, in 1788, as head of the Hasidim of Palestine. Accused of misappropriating funds intended for the poor, he was vigorously defended by his former fellow student Sheneor Zalman of Liadi; he left mystical novellae on the Pentateuch, published in « Ḥesed le-Abraham » (Lemberg, 1858).
German rabbi, born and died in Frankfurt-am-Main (1 December 1762), son of Löb Kann. Chief Rabbi of Hesse-Darmstadt, he directed for more than half a century the talmudic school of Frankfurt founded by his father-in-law Samson Wertheimer, and financed with him a new edition of the Talmud, confiscated on the denunciation of a baptized Jew, Paul Christian; he obtained, on 1 August 1753, the lifting of this confiscation by the imperial court, supported by the testimony of twenty-four Christian professors who had declared, in 1728, the Talmud harmless towards Christianity. It was largely through his influence that Jacob Josué was called to the rabbinate of Frankfurt in 1741.
German Talmudist, born in 1772 in Prostiboř, in Bohemia, and died in 1842 in Fürth, disciple of Ezekiel Landau in Prague and of Phinehas Horwitz in Frankfurt-on-the-Main. Merchant in Paris for several years, he spent the rest of his life in Fürth, where his lectures greatly contributed to the study of the Talmud; his work on the laws of the ritual bath, « Giddoulé Ṭohorah », was edited after his death. In 1840, he celebrated in a Hebrew poem the return of Sir Moses Montefiore from Damascus.
The Kaulla family (Caula/Kaulla) was an important family of court bankers in Hechingen then Stuttgart, in Württemberg. Karoline Kaulla (1739-1809), born in Buchau am Federsee, daughter of banker Isaak Raphael and Rifka Wasserman, ran the family bank, became court banker to the Duke of Württemberg from 1770 and co-founded the Royal Württemberg Court Bank; she is reputed to have been one of the wealthiest women in Germany of her time.
Rabbi of Bohemia, born in Prague around 1762 and died in that city on May 6, 1838. After his studies, he devoted himself to the Talmud without exercising a rabbinic function, was called around 1810 as district rabbi in Budweis, then succeeded in 1834 Samuel Landau as practicing rabbi of Prague, a position he held until his death ; a talmudist of the old school and strictly orthodox, he was nevertheless tolerant and favorable to secular education. He is the author of the responsa « 'Olat Shemuel » (Prague, 1823) and the collections « Pe'ullat Emet » (1828-29) and « Ahabat Emet » (1829).
English actor, born in London on November 4 (?) 1787 and died near London on May 15, 1833, natural son of a Jew, Aaron Kean. Abandoned in infancy by his mother, he made his debut in 1801, then led a wandering youth in the provinces until his talent, noticed in 1813, earned him an engagement at Drury Lane; his performance in "The Merchant of Venice", on January 26, 1814, made him immediately famous and the foremost actor of his time, notably in the roles of Shylock, Othello and Richard III. He enjoyed great success in the United States, in 1820 and 1825, before collapsing on stage while playing Othello on March 25, 1833.
English Christian Hebraist, born in Totnes on April 4, 1718 and died in Oxford on August 18, 1783. Trained at Wadham College, where he became passionate about Hebrew, he became canon of Christ Church in 1770 and undertook, at the suggestion of Dr Lowth (1751), to record for the Old Testament the variants of manuscripts as Mills had done for the New. Financed by numerous patrons, including the kings of Denmark and Sardinia, he began in 1758 the collation of Hebrew manuscripts, publishing the first volume in 1776 then the second in 1780 — first systematic, though incomplete, examination, which highlighted the uniformity of the Masoretic text.
Jewish Moroccan writer and poet (the Rakhbam) of the 18th c.
Bene Israel soldier, subadar in the Anglo-Indian army, enlisted in the sixteenth regiment of indigenous infantry of Bengal in 1790 and promoted subadar on May 21, 1802. He was decorated with a bronze medal dated May 4, 1799, depicting the British lion vanquishing the Indian tiger of Tipû Sâhib and, on the reverse, the entry of the British army into Seringapatam.
Polish scholar, born in Zamość, in the government of Lublin, in 1798, and died in Lemberg in 1873. After losing his early fortune, he made his living as a tutor in Galicia, drawing on his knowledge of classical philology and modern languages. He is the author of « Shirim Shonim » (Lemberg, 1834), poems noted for purity of style and richness of ideas, and left in manuscript Hebrew poems, a Latin work on the antiquity of the Hebrew language, and an apologetic treatise reproducing his religious controversies with an eminent Christian whose children he instructed.
Austrian physician and writer, born in Sieniawa, Galicia, in 1797, and died in Krakow in 1860. After studies in philosophy and medicine in Berlin, he established himself as a physician in Krakow, where under the nickname « Der Berliner Doctor » he built a considerable clientele and fortune; in order to acquire the estate of Siemota, near Chrzanów, he converted to Christianity under the name « Sigismond », while allowing his wife to remain faithful to Judaism until her death. He is the author of a long Hebrew essay, « Hilkot Yeme ha-Mashiaḥ », and published in German « Der Jüdische Alexandrinismus » (Leipzig, 1841) and « Der Familie Apotheose » (Krakow, 1858).
Talmudic author, born in Kittsee (Köpcsény), Hungary, around 1775, and died in Presbourg on September 28, 1845. Disciple of Marcus Benedict, he devoted himself to rabbinic studies without exercising an official rabbinical function, observing the precepts strictly while remaining tolerant toward those who thought otherwise. He is the author of « Shalme Nedabah » (Presbourg, 1838), notes on various talmudic treatises, whose second part, published in 1843, adds notes on the Shulchan Aruch and homilies.
Russian rabbi and author, born in Wilna in 1797 and died in Lida on July 2, 1883, descendant of Rabbi Meïr Katzenellenbogen of Padua. Appointed in 1831 principal teacher of a newly founded yeshiva, then dayan of Wilna in 1844, he was called in 1852 to Kalvarija, in the government of Suwalki, before being elected in 1864 to the rabbinate of Lida, a position he held until his death. One of the most eminent rabbis of Russia, he ordained a very large number of young rabbis, and his talmudic novellas appeared after his death under the title « Tekelet Mordekhaï » (Wilna, 1889).
German preacher, pedagogue and writer, born in Bernstadt, Silesia, on June 10, 1789, and died in Hamburg on October 4, 1867. Trained in Berlin under Fichte and Schleiermacher, he was called to Hamburg in 1817 as director of the free school founded in 1815, whose momentum gave rise to the Hamburg Temple, a center of liturgical reform; he was its first preacher until his resignation on May 9, 1840, and directed the free school until 1848. Often called the Jewish Schleiermacher, he published numerous catechisms, collections of hymns and volumes of sermons, including the "Deutsche Synagoge" (1817-18).
Grand dayan and preacher of Brody, in Galicia, born in Komarów, in Russian Poland, in 1783, and died in Brody on June 9, 1869. Rabbi successively in Rawa, Kulikow, and Jozefów, then preacher and, twice, rabbi in Brody, where he held the offices of dayan and preacher for more than fifty years, he wrote during his long life approximately one hundred and sixty volumes covering all branches of rabbinic literature, of which only a part was published, between 1825 ("Sefer ha-Ḥayyim," Zolkiev) and 1865 ("Sefer 'Abodat 'Abodah," Zolkiev), among which are the "Shenot Ḥayyim" (Lemberg, 1855) and the "Ṭub Ṭa'am wa-Da'at" (Lemberg, 1860).
Christian Hebraicist German scholar, born in Osnabrück in 1747 and died on April 2, 1792. He published in Jena, between 1772 and 1780, several philological studies on the Hebrew Bible, then a « Nova Bibliotheca Hebraica » in two volumes (1783-84), prefaced by J. G. Eichhorn and conceived as a supplement to Wolf's « Bibliotheca Hebraea ».
Hungarian Talmudist born in Vágújhely around 1765, died in Rechnitz on December 29, 1850, where he became rabbi in 1822; his family then took the name Engelsmann. Strictly Orthodox, he opposed any reform in worship, including the moving of the central platform of the synagogue. He published notably « 'Ene Yisrael » (Vienna, 1822 and 1825), « Derashot Gabri » (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1826) and a commentary on the Haggada of Passover, « Geburot Adonai » (Krotoschin, 1835).
Hazan in Munich, Bavaria, born toward the end of the 18th century, predecessor of Salomon Naumbourg, future great cantor of Paris. He was the first in Germany to abolish the irregular singing of the hazan and the « meshorerim » (male choir) in favor of a modernized musical service ; his traditional chants, collected and harmonized with compositions by non-Jewish musicians, appeared under the title « Münchner Synagogengesänge » (1839), printed right to left to carry the original Hebrew text.
German physician from Ulm, active in Ferrara in the 17th and 18th centuries. His name, Kokabi, translates into Hebrew his German name, Stern (« star »), which he latinizes into Stella. He is the author of a medical work, the Toẓe'ot Ḥayyim, published in Venice in 1714, and he is also mentioned in the Ma'aseh Ṭobiyyah of Tobiah b. Moïse.
Austrian Talmudist, born August 2, 1795 in Goltsch-Jenikau, Bohemia, and died in that same city on October 26, 1881. Trained solely by his father, who headed a yeshiva, he took over its direction upon his father's death while still only eighteen years old, and the school became so renowned that it sometimes had eighty students; Sir Moses Montefiore made a detour through Goltsch-Jenikau to meet him. In 1864, struck by an eye condition that prevented him from reading, he composed from memory an abridgment of three hundred commandments in gematria of biblical verses, published under the title « Ẓiyyunim le-Dibre ha-Ḳabbalah » (Prague, 1865).
German military commissioner, born on September 15, 1775 in Breslau and died in 1851. Having become Blücher's commissioner in 1806, in charge of the Prussian royal war treasury, he received the order « Pour le Mérite » for saving it at the risk of his life ; having lost his fortune, he obtained in 1822 a concession to operate omnibuses in Berlin, vehicles that took his name « Kremser », then, in 1827, left for Russia where he became commissioner with the honorary rank of major, receiving in return a pension and two Russian orders.
Rabbi and Turkish writer, active in Rhodes in the first half of the 18th century, son-in-law of R. Moïse Israël, author of the « Masse'ot Mosheh ». He is the author of the « Ma'amar Mordekhaï » (Salonika, 1828), commentary on Guittin, and of the « Dibré Mordekhaï » (1836), commentary on the four Ṭurim and the Talmud, both annotated by his grandson and namesake.
Austrian philosopher and historian, born in Brody, in Galicia, on February 17, 1785, and died in Tarnopol on July 31, 1840. Married at fourteen, he settled at his father-in-law's in Żółkiew, where he studied Maïmonide then German philosophy; exhaustion in 1808 brought him to Lemberg to recover, where a fruitful friendship with S. L. Rapoport was born, whose master he became. Returning to Żółkiew, he deepened his study of Hegel, whose system marked his thought; becoming a merchant in 1814, then a bookkeeper from 1836 to 1838, he retired ill to his daughter's in Tarnopol, where he died. He published only one Hebrew book, « Moreh Nebouké ha-Zeman » (Lemberg, 1851), edited by his friend Leopold Zunz.
Russian teacher and author, born in Tukums, in Courland, on February 1, 1793, and died in Mitau in 1831. Trained by rabbis J. W. Blumenfeld and M. Ezekiel as well as at the district school of his native city, he taught his entire life in Mitau and was received in 1826, before a school commission of the University of Dorpat, as a sworn translator of Hebrew, a position he held the same year with the magistracy of Mitau. He is the author of the « Derekh Seloulah » (Wilna, 1826), a Hebrew-German dictionary, of a German translation of the « Beḥinat ha-Olam » by Bedersi (Riga, 1829), and of the « Reshit ha-Limmoud » (Wilna, 1880), a work on the Hebrew alphabet.
Christian advocate for the emancipation of the Jews, born on 22 June 1770 near Wittenberg and died in Leipzig on 12 January 1842. Professor of philosophy in Frankfurt an der Oder, in Königsberg — where he succeeded Kant — then in Leipzig from 1809, he defended religious freedom, advocating from 1819 for the emancipation of the Jews and then, in 1828, in a pamphlet. When a Saxon constitution of 1830 restricted freedom of conscience to Christians alone, he protested in « Die Politik der Christen und die Politik der Juden » (1832), had a petition presented in 1833 to the Diet of Saxony, and proposed in vain, in the « Henotikon » (1836), equality of all religions.
Frankist leader, active in Galicia in the eighteenth century. Rabbi of Nadwórna before joining the Frankist movement at its birth and becoming its leader, he was sent to represent the Frankists at a religious controversy with Talmudists and proclaimed, on May 25, 1759, in the name of the sect, a profession of Christian (Roman) faith, declaring that the cross symbolized the « holy trinity » evoked in the Zohar; he also asserted, in his hatred of Talmudists, that the Talmud prescribed the use of Christian blood. Like his master Jacob Frank and most Frankists, he converted to Christianity in 1759.
German poet, born in 1731 in Breslau and died in that same city on April 3, 1790. Intended by his parents for the study of the Talmud, he turned to his father's business, then entered in 1763 into the service of his uncle Veitel Ephraim, jeweler to Frederick the Great, and became close to Moses Mendelssohn. Ruined by his travels and struck by madness for six years, he returned to poetry after his recovery until a stroke in 1786; his poems, admired by Mendelssohn, blend patriotism toward Frederick the Great and denunciation of the fate of Jews in Germany.
Rabbi and Polish cabalist, born in Kuty, in Galicia, and died in Jerusalem around 1760, follower of the practical Kabbalah of Isaac Louria and recognized as an authority on rabbinic matters, one of whose responses was inserted by Ezekiel Landau in his 'Noda' bi-Yehoudah'. Rabbi in Brody, where Israel Baal Chem Tov became his brother-in-law, he then departed for Palestine and lived, according to a letter from 1757, six years in Hebron then four years in Jerusalem with his family, where he became rosh yeshiva of the Midrash Ḥassidim founded by the disciples of Juda he-Ḥassid.
Christian Hebraist, born in Vaucouleurs on January 3, 1709 and died in Paris on December 29, 1765, a versatile mind who distinguished himself equally in belles-lettres, mathematics, philosophy and history as in oriental languages and biblical exegesis. Librarian of the Sorbonne from 1742, he was appointed in 1751 to the chair of biblical exegesis founded by the Duke of Orléans and notably published, in 1753, a "Grammaire Hébraïque à l'Usage des Écoles de la Sorbonne"; his "Interprétation Historique et Critique du Psalm 68" (1767) defends the necessity of a pure and critical Hebrew text for understanding the Scriptures properly.
Austrian merchant, born in Tuschkau, near Pilsen in Bohemia, on August 28, 1766, and died in Vienna on April 18, 1845. He founded a trading house at the age of twenty-one in Prague and rendered important services to his country during the Napoleonic Wars, notably in 1801 and 1805, where his purchases saved Austria more than three million gulden, then lent his entire fortune to the State in 1809 to facilitate the withdrawal of French troops from Vienna. Ennobled as a hereditary title in 1811, he obtained in 1817 a reduction of taxes weighing on the Jews of Bohemia.
Christian Hebraist English scholar, born in Bath in 1760 and died in Dublin in 1838. Appointed royal professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1814, then archbishop of Cashel, in Ireland, in 1822, he devoted himself especially to the study of Ethiopian versions of certain pseudepigrapha — « Ascensio Isaiæ Vatis » (1819), « Primi Ezræ Libri… Versio Æthiopica » (1820) and « The Book of Enoch the Prophet » (1821) — thus helping to revive the study of Ethiopian in England, neglected since the time of Walton. He also published, in 1828 in Dublin, an edition of the Book of Job conforming to the Masoretic text.
Hebraist, poet, and Russian grammarian, born in Vilna around 1789 and died in that city on November 19, 1878. Trained as a Talmudist, he became passionate about Hebrew grammar from age eleven, then taught most of his life in Vilna. His first collection, « Shir Ḥabibim » (Vilna, 1822), was followed in 1825 by an elegy that established his reputation, then, in 1842, by the volume « Shire Sefat Ḳodesh » (reissued in 1863), which marked a new era in Russian neo-Hebrew literature and made him the principal representative of the Haskalah in Lithuania. In 1846, he prepared a memoir for Sir Moses Montefiore, who came to Vilna, on the condition of the Jews of Russia.
German pedagogue, born in Memmelbach, Bavaria, on November 16, 1800, and died in Berlin on September 1, 1876, trained in Talmud in Fürth and then in Pressburg under Moses Sofer, before receiving from 1827 grammatical training from Gesenius in Halle. Teacher at the seminary of schoolmasters founded by Zunz in 1840 until 1848, he became in 1856 principal teacher of the Veitel Heine Ephraim establishment, founded in 1774, which he directed until his death. He published notably, in 1862 and 1864, works on the manuscripts and critical lessons of the Babylonian Talmud, and in 1877 his last work, « Bethar ».
rabbi
Dutch pedagogue, born in Naarden on November 5, 1785, and died in Amsterdam on October 17, 1832, trained by his father and, in mathematics, by Littwack. Becoming a professor of religion, he took over the direction of the newly founded religious school in 1818, then was appointed professor of mathematics at the Latin school of Amsterdam in 1828. He published in 1808 a work on the pronunciation of Hebrew, a Hebrew grammar in 1820, a biography of Maimonides in 1815, and, with Mulder, a Hebrew-Dutch dictionary (1829-31); his most remarkable service to Judaism was the translation of the prayer books in 1822, which spread knowledge of Dutch among his coreligionists.
Dutch physician and activist for the emancipation of Jews, born in the mid-eighteenth century and died at an advanced age in Amsterdam on December 5, 1823. Appointed physician to the poor in Amsterdam in 1788, he became after the arrival of the French in Holland (1795) one of the leaders of the Felix Libertate society; the Jews of Holland were emancipated on September 2, 1796, and on June 23, 1797 he delivered the inaugural address of the Adath Jeschurun congregation, before being elected, on August 1, 1797, a member of parliament. Accused of conspiracy, he was arrested during the night of February 12-13, 1813, imprisoned for two years, and was not released until April 6, 1814.
German poet and critic, born on 22 January 1729 at Kamenz, in Upper Lusatia, and died on 15 February 1781 at Brunswick. His quest for freedom of thought led him to a sympathetic attitude toward Jews: in his comedy « Die Juden », he stigmatized the aversion of non-Jews toward Jews as a stupid prejudice, before bringing this idea to its conclusion in his last masterpiece, « Nathan der Weise » (1779), whose main character was inspired by his friend Moses Mendelssohn and was meant to convince the world that tolerance could be expressed even from the mouth of a Jew. It was he who, in a sense, opened the gates of the ghetto to Jews.
German historian and poet, born in Soldin, in the Neumark, on January 18, 1784, and died by suicide between Kropstadt and Wittenberg on September 2, 1831. He interrupted his medical studies to fight during the 1813 war against Napoleon and was wounded at the Battle of Lützen on May 2, 1813; with peace restored, he settled in Berlin in 1824 to devote himself to literature, publishing a collection of poems, "Amathusia" (1824), and the novel "Louise von Halling" (1827), which drew Goethe's attention. Converted to Christianity in 1824 in hopes of advancing his career, without success, he sank into despair that marks his final writings.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-3.
Galician Talmudist who lived in Brody in the first half of the eighteenth century. He is the author of "Bet Lewi" (Zolkiev, 1732), a collection of halakhic novellae and explanations of difficult passages from Rashi and the Tosafot.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5467 of the Hebrew era (1707). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-2.
German traveler, born in Horn, in the principality of Lippe, in 1702, and died in Amsterdam on February 1, 1785. Sent to study from the age of five to Brog, near Lemgo, where he remained until 1714, he left the family home in 1719, at seventeen, to travel through Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Austria and Italy, noting synagogues in Frankfurt and the riches of his relative Samson Wertheimer in Vienna. He wrote an account of his travels in Yiddish, accompanied by a Hebrew poem, valuable for the statistics and customs it reports on communities that other travelers do not mention.
Converted to Christianity under the name of Joseph Jean François Élie, born in Haguenau in 1721, son of a Jewish commissioner. He left for Paris in March 1751 for a lawsuit, converted there and was baptized on August 10, 1752; his wife refused to follow him but had to abandon their two daughters to him, who were baptized ten years later. Having obtained favorable canonical opinions from the bishops of Verdun and Metz for a remarriage, he attempted to have the banns published for his union with Anne Thaevert, which the curate of his parish refused, opening a long series of lawsuits on the validity of the Jewish marriage; Parliament refused him redress on January 2, 1758.
Hebraist and author, born in London in 1742 and died in 1801. At first destined for the rabbinate, he was put to apprenticeship with a shoemaker and then launched into the hat-making business, without ceasing to study Hebrew. From 1783 to 1797, he published a long series of works on theology, grammar and Jewish liturgy, rendering great service to the Jews of London by translating their prayers into English and defending their faith against Priestley and Thomas Paine; he ended his life as a printer. Official poet of the synagogue, he composed odes for public celebrations, notably at the time of the failed attempt on the king in 1795.
Rabbi in Alexandria and Siena, died in 1790, author of the hymns composed for the reconsecration of the Siena synagogue in 1786, printed the same year in the "Seder Zemirot we-Limmud" in Livorno.
Italian physician, born in Guastalla in 1796 and died in Venice on December 27, 1859. Graduated in medicine from the University of Padua in 1817, he settled in Venice, where he practiced until his death. Prolific author, he published notably an essay on internal aneurysms rewarded by the Royal Academy of Naples (Venice, 1822) and several encyclopedic dictionaries of medical sciences from 1827 onward, as well as translations of the works of Hippocrates (1838) and Burdach's « Physiology » (1845).
Polish scholar and author, also known by the names Lefin and Satanower, born in Satanow, Podolia, around 1741, died in Mykolaiv in 1819. Trained in Talmud, he turned to secular sciences after reading the « Elim » of Delmedigo, stayed in Berlin in the circle of Moses Mendelssohn and then in Brody, where he influenced Perl and Krochmal, before becoming tutor to the children of prince Adam Czartoryski in Mykolaiv. He published notably « Moda' la-Binah » (Berlin, 1789), « Ḥeshbon ha-Nefesh », a work of practical ethics inspired by Franklin (Lemberg, 1809), and a Yiddish translation of the Book of Proverbs (Tarnopol, 1816).
Russian-Hebrew scholar and writer born in Kremenets on 13 October 1788, died in the same city on 12 February 1860. Trained from childhood in Talmud and Bible, he settled at eighteen in Radzivilov, then joined the circle of Maskilim in Brody, where he became close with Isaac Erter and Salomon Löb Rappoport, before teaching Hebrew at the gymnasium of Tarnopol and obtaining, thanks to Joseph Perl, a position at the Hebrew college of Brody. In 1817, he submitted to Nachman Krochmal his first critical studies, « Ha-Mazkir ».
German surgeon born in Berlin in a family called "Schnaber," died in Hamburg on February 10, 1797. Trained under David Fränkel, the Grand Rabbi of Berlin, he went to England where he studied under John Hunter then became physician to the Duke of Portland, before being called to Sweden by Gustavus III as professor at the University of Uppsala; he left the court in 1781 and settled in Hamburg in 1784. He notably published "Ma'amar ha-Torah we-Ḥokmah" (London, 1771) and "An Essay on the Blood" (1776).
Patriot of the American Revolution, founder of Aaronsburg, in Pennsylvania ; born in Amsterdam in 1742, died in Philadelphia on February 23, 1815. Settled early in Pennsylvania, he trades with the Indians and supplies the continental army during the War of Independence, lends significant sums to the Continental Congress through Robert Morris, then buys in 1779 the lands of Center County where he founds Aaronsburg, whose plan is recorded in Sunbury on October 4, 1786—the first city in the United States designed and named by a Jew. Founding member of the Mickvé Israel congregation of Philadelphia, he dies without descendants.
Alsatian martyr born in Wittolsheim, executed in Colmar on December 31, 1754. Wrongly accused, with three other Jews, of stealing from the house of a widow, he refuses to confess under torture and is broken on the wheel the day after his condemnation; the Privy Council of Paris, appealed to by the prominent Jews of Alsace, quashed the verdict and proclaimed him innocent on June 16, 1755. His remains were then removed from the gallows and buried in the Jewish cemetery of Jungholtz.
French mathematician and mineralogist born in Paris in 1794, died in the same city on June 26, 1841. Graduate of the École normale, where he taught mathematics (1814-15), he stayed in England until 1828 then in Belgium, where he held a lecturer position at Liège University and was a member of the Brussels Academy of Sciences, before returning to France in 1830 as professor of mineralogy at Charlemagne College.
Colonial resident of Philadelphia who signs, on November 7, 1765, with other citizens, the pledge not to import English goods as long as the Stamp Act is not repealed, then is appointed, on December 27, 1776, authorized signatory of credit notes on the recommendation of the treasurer of the United States.
German musician born on March 3, 1796 in Sankt Avold, Lorraine, died on June 3, 1846 in Vienna. Trained by his father, musician of the Duke of Deux-Ponts, then at the Paris Conservatory, he served in the French army during the Waterloo campaign in 1812, before undertaking concert tours and settling in Vienna in 1824 as soloist at the K. K. Hof-Oper; he became professor at the Vienna Conservatory in 1834 and member of the Imperial Hofkapelle in 1835.
Colonial resident of New York before the Revolution, he took refuge in Philadelphia during the British occupation and presented on August 26, 1779 a petition to the Continental Congress seeking compensation for fortifications erected on lands he held in mortgage at West Point — a request dismissed by a Congressional committee on May 23, 1783. In 1785, he is listed among the administrators of Haym Solomon's estate.
Colonial merchant of New York born in 1721, died in the same city in 1789. Active from a young age in the fur trade from 1760, he signed in 1770 in New York resolutions of non-importation, went bankrupt in 1768 before recovering, then took refuge in Philadelphia during the British occupation, where he was among the founders of the Mickve Israel congregation, created in 1782; returned to New York in 1784, he helped to reestablish the congregation there and was probably the first employer of John Jacob Astor.
English philanthropist born in London in 1706, died in that same city on 20 January 1803, daughter of Moses Hart, founder of the Great Synagogue of London, and wife of financier Elias Levy. Having become a wealthy widow, she contributed in 1790 £4,000 to the rebuilding of the Great Synagogue and died intestate, leaving £125,000 to her bankers; she was buried on 21 January in the Jewish cemetery of Mile End.
Founder of the first Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, born in February 1704, died in Philadelphia on 23 December 1753, probably came from New York, where a merchant of this name belonged in 1730 to the congregation Shearith Israel. Established in Philadelphia, he directed with David Franks the commission house Levy & Franks and obtained, on 25 September 1740, the first grant of land intended for the burial of the city's Jews, enlarged on 27 June 1752; threatened by gunfire in 1751, he had the land enclosed with a brick wall before being himself buried there.
German philanthropist born in Berlin in June 1761, died in the same city on March 11, 1854, daughter of Daniel Itzig and wife of Berlin banker Samuel Levy. Sought after by French diplomatic circles after the Battle of Jena, she remained faithful to Judaism when most of her relatives turned away from it, and at her death bequeathed thirty thousand thalers to the Jewish orphanage in Berlin as well as her house to King Frederick William IV.
American naval officer born in Philadelphia on April 22, 1792, died in New York on March 22, 1862. Apprentice sailor in 1806, he obtained on October 23, 1812 a commission as master of maneuvers in the United States Navy, served on the « Argus », then, despite several courts martial, was reinstated captain following an investigation in 1855 and raised to the rank of commodore. Admirer of Thomas Jefferson, he purchases Monticello and offers the state a statue of the president, now at the Capitol.
Russian physician born in 1741, died in Vilna on February 10, 1827. Trained at the University of Halle, he went to Saint Petersburg but, his religious confession preventing him from settling there, established himself in Vilna, where he acquired a great reputation as a physician, diplomat and philanthropist.
Hebraist and Polish Talmudist born in Lublin, in Russian Poland, on July 15, 1787, died in Odessa on January 17, 1870, known for his works of charity towards poor students as much as for his biblical and talmudic erudition. One of the founders of the Jewish public school of Odessa, he collaborated on « Ha-Meliẓ », « Ha-Karmel » and « Ha-Maggid », and publishes « Mi-Moḥorat ha-Shabbat » (Vienna, 1860), on Pentecost, directed against the Karaites.
Rabbi of Plonsk, in the government of Warsaw, in the eighteenth century. He is the author of "Zera' Abraham" (Dyhernfurth, 1811), a commentary on the Sifré accompanied by biblical and talmudic indices, and writes the preface and a homily added to the work of his son, "Shoshannat 'Amaḳim".
German mathematician born in Hanover in 1759, died in Berlin on December 5, 1849. He is the author of « Reshit Limmudim », a manual of natural sciences published in two parts — physics and geography (Berlin, 1789; Brünn, 1796; Krakow, 1820), then natural philosophy with additions by Joseph Wolf of Dessau (1810), reissued in complete edition in Lemberg in 1869 — as well as an epithalamium, « Shir Ḥatunnah », in honor of Juda ben Salomon of Hanover.
English communal activist born in London on August 14, 1772, died in the same city on February 26, 1852, uncle of Lord Beaconsfield, whom he circumcised himself. Closely connected to the Bevis Marks congregation, whose rigorously legalist position he defended, he helped found in 1838 and presided over the society "Shomere Mishmeret Akodesh", created to resist innovations and oppose Reform, before the Yehidim ordered its dissolution; he had eighteen children, of whom eight married recognized Sephardic families.
English author and historian born in 1783, died in London on 11 June 1865, who spent the first part of his life in Saint-Thomas, where he became a prominent merchant and presided over the local Hebrew congregation. Settled in England around 1832, he translates Manasseh ben Israel's "Conciliador" (London, 1842), publishes his "Calendar" in 1832, reprinted in 1860, and brings out in 1849 his "History of the Jews of Spain and Portugal", for which he visits the Iberian peninsula; he also leaves manuscript translations of Baḥya's "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" and Judah ha-Levi's "Cuzari", preserved at Jews' College.
Planter and merchant of South Carolina, probably born in England, died in Charleston on April 26, 1774, renowned for his expertise in the cochineal and indigo trade. Established in Charleston in 1756, he becomes a prosperous merchant there and contributes more than anyone else to the development of the colonial indigo industry, earning him in 1762 the title of « Surveyor and Inspector-General of Indigo, Drugs, and Dyes », a position he holds until 1772; he conducted experiments on American dyes from 1757, corresponding with naturalist Emanuel Mendez da Costa, librarian of the Royal Society.
Physician to the count at Galgóc and notable Hebraist; member of the same Bettelheim family of Pressburg. Family tradition links the name to the episode of an ancestor known as « Bethlen-Jude ».
German poet
Polish scholar who lived in Kleczewo at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He publishes with the text, in Frankfurt an der Oder (1792), a double commentary on the "Beḥinat 'Olam" of Yedaya Bédersi — "Migdenot Eleazar", interpretation of the text, and "Ha-Mazkir", lexicon —, then similar commentaries on the "Zeker Rab" of Benjamin Musafia (Altona, 1807) and on the "Ḥidah" of Abraham ibn Ezra, published under the title "Ḥomat Esh" (Breslau, 1799) with literary essays and riddles in appendix.
Rabbi and eminent talmudist of the second half of the eighteenth century, descendant of Joshua Falk Cohen of Lvov and of the Maharal of Prague, student of R. Moses Zerah Eidlitz of Prague. Dayan in Lissa under the chief rabbi David Tebele, he sat in 1782 on the council that condemned and burned Naphtali Herz Wessely's letter "Dibre Shalom we-Emet," and published commentaries accompanied by textual emendations on the minor tractates Abot de-Rabbi Natan, Semaḥot, and Derek Ereẓ Rabbah we-Zuṭa ("Binyan Yehoshua'", Dyhernfurth, 1788), reproduced in the Wilna edition of the Talmud (1897).
Dutch mathematician born in Poland around 1760, died on January 15, 1836, buried in Ouderveen. Disciple of Moses Mendelssohn, he settles in Amsterdam, where he becomes one of the most prominent members of the 'Adat Yeshurun congregation, and is part, with C. Asser and Lemon, of the delegation sent to the Sanhedrin of Paris, where he delivers a speech in German on February 12, 1807. He publishes "Verhandeling Over de Proefgetallen Gen. 11" (Amsterdam, 1817; 2nd ed. 1821).
Lithuanian rabbi of the 17th and 18th centuries. His notes on Rashi and on the Pentateuch commentaries of Elijah Mizrahi are published, under the title "Ḥiddoushé Maharsha", together with the novellae of Samuel Edel on the Pentateuch, by his brother Tsevi Hirsch ben Meïr (Hanover, 1716).
Hasidic rabbi from the early movement, died in Yaltushkov, in Podolia, around 1797, the most mysterious figure among the Hasidic wonder-working rabbis of the late eighteenth century. He constantly traveled through Polish towns, spending lavishly without ever accepting anything from his followers, and numerous legends connect him to kings and princes — including one, reported by a witness, of his unnoticed entry into the royal palace of Warsaw on the day of the coronation of Stanislas Poniatowski (1764). A letter from R. Bär of Meseritz (« Darke Yesharim », Jitomir, 1805) designates him as rendering important services to the Jews.
Polish rabbi of the 18th century, author of « Pene Aryeh » (Novidvor, 1787), Talmudic novellae accompanied by the fascicule « Ḳontres Mille de-Abot », gathering the novellae of his father and father-in-law.
German Rabbi (1737–1814)
Transylvanian-born German rabbi
Polish rabbi died in Cracow around 1730, grandson of R. Joshua, author of the « Maginne Shelomoh ». Rabbi of Shidlow, representative of Cracow at the Council of the Four Lands, he becomes after 1715 rabbi and president of the yeshiva of Cracow, where he remains until his death, and gives his approbations to numerous works, including « Panim Me'irot » by Meïr Eisenstadt (Amsterdam, 1714) and « Berit Shalom » by Phinehas b. Pelta (Frankfurt am Main, 1718).
Polish preacher and leader of the Hasidic movement in the second half of the eighteenth century, student of Israël Baal Chem Tov and of Bär of Meseritz, and he contributed to spreading the miraculous tales reported in the « Shibḥe Ba'al Shem-Ṭob ». He is the author of « Ḳol Aryeh » (Korzec, 1802), homiletic annotations on the Pentateuch.
Dutch mathematician born in Amsterdam on June 6, 1797, died in Delft on February 9, 1866, descended from a family of Portuguese Marranos settled in Holland in 1604. Trained by Littwack and Van Swinderen then, in Brussels, by Quetelet, with whom he co-directed the "Correspondance Mathématique et Physique", he published in 1823 "Wiskundige Mengelingen", became gauger at Delft in 1828 then professor of higher mathematics in 1842, directed from 1828 to 1849 the official statistical yearbook, and sat in 1841 on the public debt conversion commission appointed by Minister Rochussen.
English scholar, born in London in the early eighteenth century; while still young, he settled in Amsterdam where he lived for a long time, then traveled through Italy, where he was for a time taken for a spy because of the numerous papers he carried. He is the author of a work of morality, the Hista'arut Melek ha-Negeb 'im Melek ha-Ẓafon (Amsterdam, 1737), accompanied by two commentaries, and he edited in 1745 in Livorno the collection Shib'ah 'Enayim, bringing together texts by Nahmanides, Aboab Isaac de Leon and Abraham Bolat.
Austrian grammarian who lived in the early eighteenth century; baptized in Idstein, he took the name Wilhelm Heinrich Neumann. His Hebrew grammar, the Ḳinyan Abraham, is published in Zolkiew in 1723.
English politician, born in Jamaica on 22 January 1755 and died at Maristow House, Devon, in 1831, descended from an old Sephardic family; converted to Christianity with his father in 1802, he entered Parliament the same year as deputy for New Romney and was made baronet in 1805. Reelected several times, for Barnstaple and then for Westbury, he was condemned in 1819 for electoral corruption in Grampound to sentences of imprisonment and fine, without this ending his parliamentary career, which he concluded by resigning in 1826 in favor of Robert Peel.
Born in Mainz in 1800, apprentice to banker Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt, he developed an international banking house (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, London, Paris). In January 1872 he played a major role in the founding of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Paribas). His family allied with the Goldschmidt, Bamberger, Erlanger, Cahen d'Anvers and Hirsch families.
Austro-Hungarian rabbi (1794-1857)
Asher ben Aryeh Löb (Löw) is Grand Rabbi of Carlsruhe, born in Minsk in 1754 and died in Carlsruhe on July 23, 1837. Trained by his father, Aryeh Löb, rabbi of Metz, whose yeshiva he assisted when his father became blind, he was elected rabbi of Niederwerrn in 1783 then of Wallerstein in 1785, before being elected in 1809 member of the consistory and Grand Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Baden, when the Grand Duke organized Jewish communities on the Napoleonic model; he accepted these positions in 1810 and held them until his death. Some of his manuscripts were published posthumously in Vilna in 1873.
Talmudist, son of Naṭe ha-Lévi, born in Kolín, Bohemia, around 1720 and died on May 20, 1806 in Boskovice, Moravia, where he directed a yeshiva for nearly sixty years. He is the author of Maḥaẓit ha-Sheqel, a vast sub-commentary on the Magen Abraham by Abraham Abele Gombiner, published in Vienna in 1807-8, as well as Hilkot Niddah and Hilkot Meliḥah.
Joël Löwe, called Brill, is a German commentator born in 1760 and died in Breslau on 11 February 1802. He left for Berlin at twenty, where he receives instruction from Isaac Satanow, befriends Moses Mendelssohn — who obtains for him a position as tutor with David Friedländer — and Isaac Abraham Euchel; he ends his life as director of the Wilhelms-Schule of Breslau. An excellent Hebraist, he edits with Aaron Wolfsohn the periodical « Ha-Méassef », publishes in 1788 a critical commentary on the Psalms also forming a history of biblical poetry, translates first into German the Haggada of Passover (1785), and publishes in 1794 the first part of his « Ammoudé ha-Lachon ».
German painter and engraver, born in Königsberg on June 24, 1756 and died in the same city on May 10, 1831. Having acquired such a reputation by 1780 that Empress Catherine II of Russia commissioned her portrait, he became one of the principal miniaturists and pastel painters of his time, while also being renowned for his talent at chess. His collection of biographies of Berlin celebrities, published in 1806-7, was hailed by Goethe.
German geographer, born in Strzelno, Prussia, in 1800, and died in Berlin on 12 December 1893; trained in Berlin, he befriends Alexander von Humboldt, who helps him in various ways. Author of numerous works on geography and the history of geographical discoveries, published between 1835 and 1886, he spends his last years in the Jewish retirement home of Berlin.
Polish physician, born in Zamość in 1788 and died in Warsaw on February 3, 1879. He began his career as a military surgeon under Napoleon I, who made him an officer of the Legion of Honor, became chief physician of the military hospital in Zamość after the Franco-Russian War, then settled permanently in Warsaw from 1826 onwards to practice privately.
Grammarian, scribe and dayan of Lemberg in the 18th century, author of a Hebrew grammar in verse, Shirah Ḥadashah, published in Zolkiev in 1764, then of a complete Hebrew grammar in four parts, Ohel Mosheh, the following year. He also left Talmudic novellae and a treatise on the Hebrew language that remained unpublished.
Opera singer and hazzan, died in Kingston, Jamaica, around 1800, uncle of John Braham, with whom he sang in the choir of the Great Synagogue of London. He made his debut at Covent Garden in 1775 in Artaxerxes, directed an English opera in Dublin, then became the first qualified hazzan of the English colonies at the Anglo-German synagogue in Kingston. His manner of singing the hymn Yigdal inspired in 1770 the Methodist pastor Thomas Olivers with the melody known as « Leoni », associated from then on in English hymnals with the hymn The God of Abraham praise, whose thirtieth edition appeared in 1779.
One of the first Jewish settlers of Georgia, in the United States, ancestor of a family that counted among the most notable of that state; according to family tradition born in Spain, but always designated in archives as a vintner from Portugal. Arriving the same year as the founding of the colony by Oglethorpe, he settled in 1733 in Savannah, where he introduced viticulture and successfully cultivated several grape varieties, before proposing to the administrators to finance, against a loan of 200 sterling pounds, the importation of vines and Portuguese vignerons. He probably left Georgia around 1740, before returning to die in Savannah.
Hebrew teacher and author, born in Poland and died in 1770, emigrated to England where he settled in Cambridge and worked as a goldsmith while gaining a reputation as a Hebraist, which earned him appointment as professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University. He published a Hebrew grammar, of which a second edition appeared in 1757 and a fourth in 1823, as well as a treatise on observations on biblical history printed in Cambridge in 1768.
French mathematician, born in France in 1792 and died in Paris on February 27, 1865. Gifted for mathematics, he entered in 1813 the École Normale of Paris, whose studies were interrupted by the political troubles of 1815. Being unable, as a Jew, to obtain a chair, he became in 1818 an actuary of the General Insurance Company of Paris, then in 1828 president of a new insurance company founded by the Fould. Engaged for the Jewish cause, he became a member of the Central Consistory in 1830.
German painter, born in Berlin on January 7, 1799, died in the same city on August 8, 1872. After studies in medicine, architecture and then philosophy, he devoted himself to painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, of which he became a member in 1837 and then professor in 1841. He became known for his portraits, notably those of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Jenny Lind, preserved in the National Gallery of Berlin.
German mathematician, born in Berlin on 15 March 1790, died in that city on 25 September 1861, cousin of Heinrich Gustav Magnus. After serving as an artilleryman during the Napoleonic Wars (1813-1815), he pursued simultaneously a banking career in Berlin and teaching of mathematics, for which the University of Bonn awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1834.
Elder of the Jewish community of Berlin in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, court Jew of the crown prince who became King Frederick William I. His disputes with his rival Jost Liebmann divided the Berlin community; he obtained the substitution of a public synagogue for the two private synagogues previously maintained by Liebmann, Veit, and Riess. On March 16, 1722, he was appointed, with Moses Levi Gumpertz, chief elder for life, with a salary of 300 thalers.
German printer, born in Dyhernfurth on December 29, 1764, died in Breslau on December 1, 1810. He takes over with his brother the printing house founded by their father in Dyhernfurth. A Talmudist, he writes prefaces to the works of his father-in-law Isaiah Berlin, rabbi of Breslau, and publishes with his brother annotations to the four Turim (Dyhernfurth, 1790).
Rabbi of Rabat, 18th century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 82-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5527 (1767), died in 5584 (1824) of the Hebrew era. Son of Rafael. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Era not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Died in 5516 of the Hebrew era (1756). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5526 of the Hebrew era (1766). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5515 of the Hebrew era (1755). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5523 of the Hebrew era (1763). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Philosophical writer, born in Nieszwicz (Lithuania) in 1754, died in Niedersiegersdorf (Silesia) on November 22, 1800. Trained very young in rabbinical literature, he then turned to the study of Kabbalah then profane sciences and philosophy, before going to Berlin where the « Moreh Nebukim » of Maimonides, from which he takes his name, remains his major reference.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-1.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Son of Yosef, himself son of Makhluf I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-1.
Rabbi of Safi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Son of Shalem. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Talmudist and methodologist, last great rabbi of Italy, died before 1790. Dayyan in Livorno, he took the side of Eybeschütz in his controversy with Emden and rendered in 1732 a decision concerning a Roman civil matter. He is chiefly known for his methodological work "Yad Mal'aki" (Livorno, 1767) and for a liturgical collection, "Shibḥe Todah" (1744).
Rabbinic writer and Russian philosopher, also known as Ben Porat, born in Smorgon, government of Wilna, in 1767, died in Ilye, in the same government, in 1831. From his earliest youth devoted to rabbinic literature, he did not hesitate, once his erudition was recognized, to criticize authorities such as the Choulhan Aroukh and Rashi, and interpreted certain passages of the Mishna contrary to the Gemara. Close to Elijah of Vilna, whose method of literal interpretation (peshat) he held in high esteem, he expounded it in his « Binat Miqra » (Grodno, 1818), while being suspected by the Orthodox of Hasidic sympathies.
Hungarian linguist, born around 1780 in Pressburg, died in Paris on 22 December 1836. Considered one of the greatest linguists of his time, he is said to have surpassed in knowledge of foreign languages Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti; he devoted himself notably to Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Greek and Latin, from which he drew a language of his own composition.
Russian Hebraist and author, born in Zhagory towards the end of the 18th century, died in Simferopol on 8 May 1886. Employed by the Günzburgs for more than forty years, he is their representative in Simferopol from 1864. In 1877, he publishes « Ḥazon la-Mo'ed », which relates a journey from Zhagory to Moscow as well as letters written from Vilna in 1841-43 on the mission of Lilienthal in Russia, and, after a stay in Paris in 1875, a narrative entitled « Paris » (Warsaw, 1878).
Jewish preacher, born in Copenhagen on October 17, 1793, died in Vienna on March 17, 1865, son of a hazzan. First catechist appointed after the emancipation of Danish Jews in 1814, he organized in 1821 the congregation of Vienna before being called there in 1824 to the new synagogue, which he directed from 1825 and whose temple he dedicated in April 1826. His oratorical talents and his German translation of the prayer book earned him great influence; elected in 1848 to the Austrian Reichstag by Brody, he notably delivered a speech against capital punishment in January 1849.
Rabbi and Egyptian author, settled in Salonique around the end of the 18th century. He is the author of « Ẓur Todah » (Salonique, 1783), a commentary on the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah, of « Ben Pedahẓur » (1786), a collection of sermons, and of a talmudic commentary, « Ḳorban Eliẓur ».
French poet and author, born in Carpentras around 1780, died in Paris on February 21, 1825; his name is said to have originally been Moïse. Abducted in 1787 by the Catholic clergy and forcibly baptized, he was returned to his family in 1792 after the outbreak of the Revolution, then settled in Paris where he led a worldly and dissolute life that led to tuberculosis; he committed suicide with his English wife. He notably published « Chronique de Paris » (1819), « Eucharis, ou les Sensations de l'Amour » (1824), and a critical examination of Lamennais's « Essai sur l'Indifférence », in defense of Israelites.
French physician, born in Amsterdam on November 4, 1771, died in Paris on January 12, 1841. Doctor of medicine from Erlangen in 1792, he settled in Paris in 1795 where he co-founded the Medical Society of Emulation, then entered in 1816 the Health Council and in 1820 the Academy of Medicine. In 1829, he founded with Esquirol and others the « Annals of Public Hygiene and Legal Medicine », and became after the July Revolution of 1830 first physician to King Louis-Philippe; he converted to Christianity.
Chief Rabbi of France
Rabbi of the Livornese congregation of Tunis, successor of Isaac Lumbroso.
German Catholic orientalist, born in Höchstädt, near Bamberg, in January 1800; date of death unknown. Professor at the gymnasium of Bamberg, he published in 1837 a Hebrew chrestomathy, « Tif'eret Yisrael », bringing together excerpts from Rapoport, Wessely, Friedländer and other modern Hebrew authors.
German music writer, born in Halle on May 15, 1799, died in Berlin on May 17, 1866. Renouncing the legal career wanted by his father, he devoted himself to music in Berlin, a student of Zelter, and founded in 1824 with publisher Schlesinger the « Berliner Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung », which he directed until 1830, the year Berlin University appointed him director of music for its student choir. Doctorate from the University of Marburg (1827), he founded in 1850 with Kullak and Stern the Berliner Musikschule, which became the Stern Conservatory, where he taught until 1856; his friendship with Mendelssohn broke over the latter's criticism of his compositions.
German physician, born in Bonn in 1743, died in Hanover on January 24, 1789, doctor of medicine from Halle (1765). After study travels in Holland and England, where he frequents doctor John Fothergill, he settled in Hanover; he remained known for opposing Herz when the latter attacked the Jewish funeral customs of the time. He published several medical works, including « Observationes Medicae » (Hanover, 1774-87) and a treatise on the burial of the dead, « Ueber die Beerdigung der Toten » (Hanover, 1787).
Russian rabbi and author born in 1788, died in Minsk in 1848, descendant of Rabbi Israel Jaffé of Shklov, author of the « Or Israël ». Refusing to profit from his Kabbalistic knowledge as wonder-working rabbis did, he devoted his entire life to study, living in relative poverty. He notably published the « Maskil le-Etan » (Shklov, 1818) and « Beer Abraham » (Vilna, 1848); after his death appeared « Naḥal Etan » (1859), « Mitspé Etan » (Jitomir, 1858-64; Vilna, 1880-86), and « Yad Abraham » (Vilna, 1888).
Chief Rabbi of Tunis, author of Mishha de-Rabbuta, commentary on the Shulchan Aruch.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5550 of the Hebrew era (1790). Son of Menahem I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-1.
Rabbi and Italian liturgist, author of poems and responsa.
German convert to Christianity, born in Fürth in 1715, died in Nuremberg in 1779. After studying the Talmud in Prague under his father and teaching in Fürth under the name of Simeon, he announces in April 1748 his intention to convert and is baptized in Nuremberg on September 20 of the same year, where he becomes sacristan of the Dominican church. He subsequently publishes, between 1750 and 1776, several works in German presented as a defense of Christianity but which are in reality attacks on Judaism.
Hungarian soldier and philanthropist, born in 1763 in Stampfen (Hungary), died on November 22, 1842. Entered the service of the Jewish hospital of Vienna, he became its superintendent in 1799, then directed, during the war against the Turks, the hospital of the Leopoldstadt fortress on the appointment of Emperor Joseph II, before resuming the direction of the Jewish hospital of Vienna. In 1813, he received the gold medal of Emperor Francis and the Order of Merit of the Emperor of Russia; in 1814, he directed the military munitions store, then, in 1830, presided over the health council of the Viennese suburb of Rossau during the cholera epidemic.
German music publisher who worked in Paris
Biblical exegete of the eighteenth century, author of commentaries on the Pentateuch and the former prophets (Olomouc, 1757), then on the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Tobit and Judith (1758).
banker (1744–1812)
French rabbi
Austrian rabbi
German military physician, born in Frankfurt-am-Main, where his father already practiced medicine, and diploma from a German university. After the Frankfurt council refused to authorize him to practice in 1753, he was appointed in 1760 military physician of an imperial infantry regiment, where his commander, Angelo de Pasquali, warmly recommends him — an episode in a several-year debate between the municipal council and the Jewish community over the right of Jews to practice medicine.
English Christian missionary and author, born in Dublin on May 16, 1799, died in London on November 13, 1863. Sent on mission to Poland in 1821, he studied Hebrew and German in Warsaw, where he settled for about ten years, and published in 1837 a thorough attack on Jewish legalism, "Old Paths", translated into several languages including Hebrew; a Hebrew refutation appeared in 1847. A resolute opponent of the blood libel, he refused the Protestant bishopric of Jerusalem, judging that it should fall to a Jew by birth, and became professor of Hebrew and rabbinic literature at King's College London.
German rabbi
Purveyor to the English armies, active around 1711. A wealthy Jew who came to England with William III, known by the name of the « Jew Medina », he accompanied the Duke of Marlborough during the War of Spanish Succession (1702-14), advanced him funds and provisioned his troops, establishing a messenger network faster than that of the government. An attack in Parliament in 1711 revealed that he paid Marlborough 6,000 pounds per year; he was knighted, the first Jew of England to receive this honor, and remained one of the principal donors to the Bevis Marks synagogue, although his descendants later abandoned Judaism.
German philologist, born in Glogau (Silesia) on January 1, 1796, died in Halle on December 5, 1855. Converted to Christianity in 1817, doctorate from Berlin (1818), he became a private lecturer at Halle in 1819, assistant professor at Greifswald in 1820, then professor of ancient philology at Halle in 1825. A prolific author rewarded by the Berlin Academy for his « Attische Process » (1827), he co-edited from 1828 the « Allgemeine Litteraturzeitung » and directed a section of the « Allgemeine Encyklopädie » of Ersch and Gruber from 1830; his essays were collected in Leipzig under the title « Opuscula Academica » (1861-63).
Appointed banker of the Sublime Porte under Selim III (1789-1807), he held a position close to that of a finance minister and exercised great influence in government. He was assassinated by the Janissaries; his position passed to his nephews Baruch and Jacob Adjiman.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5533 of the Hebrew era (1773). Son of Haim. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Talmudist and biblical exegete of early eighteenth-century Austria, native of Zolkiew. Under the title « Liḳḳuṭe Shoshannim » (Jessnitz, 1722), he compiled the commentaries of the Geonim on the Pentateuch according to the order of weekly readings, then republished the revised and annotated work under the title « Miḳsheh Zahab » (2nd ed., Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1733).
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by source. Son of Rafael, himself son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Died in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 80-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov, himself son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-4.
Hungarian rabbi
Poet, editor and translator, student of Krochmal, master of the historical ballad.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5505 of the Hebrew era (1745). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Rabbi
Printing compositor and translator in Livorno (1777-93), son of Jacob Raphaël Melol and brother of David Ḥayyim Melol. He translates or edits the "Sefer Azharot ha-Ḳodesh" and the Book of Ruth (Livorno, 1777), as well as in Ladino the "Seder Hattarat Nedarim", ritual for the annulment of vows (1792); his relative Mordechai Melol edited the "Alegria de Purim" (1792).
German rabbi, died in Posen(?) in 1724, student of R. Heschel and Aaron Samuel Kaidanover. He is the author of the « Ẓinẓenet Menaḥem » (Berlin, 1719), clarifications of difficult passages in the Haggada, of the « Leḥem Menaḥem », responsa and Talmudic explanations, and of the « Ṭa'ame Menaḥem », on the commentary of Rachi to the Pentateuch.
Polish rabbi and author, died in Lemberg in 1742, descendant of R. Joseph Cohen of Kraków, of R. Isaac Shrenzel and of R. Saül Wahl. Dayyan in Lemberg under the presidency of R. Ḥayyim Rapoport, he publishes « Zera' Baruk » (Wandsbeck, 1730), novellae on several talmudic treatises, then « 'Emeḳ Halakah we-Ṭa'am Man » (Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, 1745), which brings together approbations and novellae of rabbis of Lemberg.
Menachem Mendel Morgenstern, the "Kotzker Rebbe," disciple of Rabbi Bunim of Pshiskha whom he succeeded, founded the Hasidic school of Kotsk, renowned for its radical demand for truth, intellectual rigor, and rejection of superficial piety. From 1839 onward, he lived in seclusion during the last twenty years of his life.
1728–1793
Disciple of the Maggid, spread Hasidism in Belarus then emigrated to the Land of Israel.
Founder of the Chernobyl dynasty, author of the Meor Einayim among the earliest Hasidic writings.
Disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezeritch, he is the paternal ancestor from whom the entire Twersky dynasty descends, including the Rachmastrivka branch. His work Meor Einayim is a classic of Hasidic thought.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 84-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5483 of the Hebrew era (1723). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Taza, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Son of Yeshua. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5461 of the Hebrew calendar (1701). Son of Haim David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-2.
Rabbi of Taza. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Born in 5453 (1693), died in 5479 (1719) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yehoshua I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-3.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Died in 5540 of the Hebrew era (1780). Son of Matitiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 83-4.
Lithuanian Talmudist of the eighteenth century, born in Shklov, died in Palestine. A disciple of Elijah of Vilna, he edits and publishes several of his commentaries — on Proverbs, the Shulhan Arukh, the Pirké Avot, the Sefer Yetsira and the Haggada of Pesah — and then, after his master's death, settles in Safed as a professor of Talmud in the bet ha-midrash founded in his memory. He leaves ten works of a mystical nature, which remained unpublished.
Famous Hasidic rebbe, one of the five principal disciples and disseminators of Elimelech of Lizhensk in Poland and Galicia. His Torah teachings were collected by his students (notably R. Yehezkel Paneth) and published posthumously. He remained famous for his opposition to Napoleonic campaigns.
Nicknamed 'Ahavat Shalom' after his work, he was a rebbe and founder of the Hasidic dynasty of Kosov, which he led from 1802 until his death in 1825. A student of Moshe Leib of Sassov and Meshulam Feivush Heller, he is the root of the Hager family from which the dynasties of Vizhnitz and Seret-Vizhnitz would emerge.
hasidic rebbe (1768–1825)
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5527 of the Hebrew era (1767). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-3.
Danish merchant and press man (1780–1868)
German rabbi
English poet and playwright, born in London, died in Old Buckenham (Norfolk) on February 4, 1758, son of James Mendes and grandson of Fernando Mendes, trained at St Mary Hall, Oxford (1750). Becoming a broker then a landowner in Old Buckenham, he devoted himself to literature: his opera-ballad "The Double Disappointment" premiered at Drury Lane on March 18, 1746, and he published notably "The Seasons" (1751) and "The Battiad" (1751), a satire written with Paul Whitehead and Schomberg, as well as a translation of the continuation of the "Aeneid" by Maphée (1767) ; his "The Blatant Beast" was only published in 1792.
Austrian painter, born in Aussig (Bohemia) on 12 March 1728, died in Rome on 29 June 1779, son of Ismael Israel Mengs. Taken to Rome as early as 1741, he was appointed court painter to King Augustus III upon his return to Dresden in 1744, before returning to Rome, where his first major painting, « The Holy Family », appeared in 1748; to marry his model Margareta Guazzi, he abandoned Judaism and converted to Catholicism. In 1754 he became first director of the Academy of Painting in Rome, before being called to Madrid in 1761 by King Charles III of Spain, where he notably painted « The Apotheosis of Trajan ».
German author
matriarch of the Hebron community
Rabbi in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in the early eighteenth century. He drafts an elementary manual of mathematics, « Reshit Limmudim », in three parts devoted to algebra, geometry and astronomy, of which only the first was published (Berlin, 1775); it reprises the first book of Euclid, reorganized and enriched with original examples.
British Chief Rabbi
Rabbi of Azaouia, 18th century. Mentioned in 5527 of the Hebrew era (1767). Son of Makhluf. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-3.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-4.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5542 of the Hebrew era (1782). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86–1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi of Tangier, 18th century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the sixth century of the Hebrew Era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Bagris. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo, himself son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Died in 5480 of the Hebrew era (1720). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yomtov I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5483 of the Hebrew era (1723). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Died in 5480 of the Hebrew era (1720). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5528 of the Hebrew era (1768). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Safi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-3.
German Reform rabbi (1785–1839)
German rabbi (1744-1826)
Danish financier, born in Copenhagen on January 18, 1753, died in the same city on August 30, 1813. Associated with his nephew S. S. Trier after his brother's death, he founded the house Meyer & Trier, which weathered unscathed the crises of 1795 and 1799; in 1806, he publicly denounced the irresponsible issuance of paper money, then, consulted by King Frederick VI from 1808 on state finances, acted in 1811 as government agent to prevent financial disaster. Retired from business in late 1811, he received in 1812 a letter of royal thanks and the title of "Hofraad", and left at his death a considerable fortune, a significant portion of which went to schools and Jewish charitable works in Copenhagen.
Danish genre painter, born on May 11, 1797 in Altona (Schleswig-Holstein), died in Rome on February 1, 1861. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts and Lorentzen's school in Copenhagen, he won two silver medals there (1816 and 1818) before giving up history painting; after a stay in Munich (1821-24), he settled in Rome, where he frequented the sculptor Thorwaldsen. His most famous canvas, « Sailors Landing Travelers at Capri », exhibited at the Academy in Copenhagen in 1837, was so successful that he produced several copies.
Polish poet, born in the village of Sluzewo (governorate of Warsaw) in 1796, died on March 25, 1869. Sent by his father to Berlin in 1810 to be trained in commerce, he there revealed a poetic talent, returned to Poland in 1816 to establish himself in business while continuing to write in German, and saw his writings collected posthumously under the title « Hinterlassene Deutsche Schriften eines Polnischen Juden » (Berlin, 1871).
Danish author, born in Gandersheim (Brunswick) on January 3, 1780, died in Copenhagen on July 28, 1854. Naturalized Danish in 1810, he directed the national debt office before resigning in 1821 with the title of professor, thereafter devoting himself to writing; his first work appeared in Copenhagen in 1828, followed in 1837 by a glossary of foreign words in the Danish language, which became under the name of « Meyer's Fremmedordbog » a lexicographical reference reprinted several times.
German woman of letters and salon hostess, born in Berlin in the second half of the eighteenth century, died in Oranienburg on December 11, 1828. She counts among her friends Goethe, Lessing, and Schiller — only twenty-one letters from Goethe, written between 1797 and 1815, having survived and published by Varnhagen von Ense — and, after a first broken marriage, converts and marries Baron von Grotthusz; her young sister Mariane, legitimate wife of Prince Reuss revealed after her death, lived in Vienna under the name Frau von Eybenburg from 1799.
Danish physician and author, born in Copenhagen November 26, 1756, died in the same city April 6, 1844, son of physician Christian de Meza with whom he converted to Christianity in 1783, the year he also obtained his doctorate from Copenhagen University. He practiced in Elseneur from 1784, published various medical essays, and had a play, « Dormon og Vilhelmine », performed at the Royal Theater of Copenhagen in 1796; his son Christian Julius de Meza (1792-1865) was a general in the Danish army during the war against Germany (1864).
Danish physician, born in Amsterdam on September 4, 1727, died in Copenhagen in June 1800, son of Portuguese rabbi Abraham de Meza. Trained in Amsterdam and then in Utrecht (doctorate 1749), he settles in 1753 in Copenhagen, where he practices as the sole Jewish physician for a long time, publishes in 1769 a treatise on hygiene in French and, in 1772, joins the new medical society of Copenhagen. In 1783, after his wife's death, he converted to Christianity with a son and a daughter.
Czech rabbi
German poet
Born in Pressburg in 1769, engraver then jeweler (he engraved the imperial seal in 1798, became court jeweler in 1830), he founded one of Austria's first banks. Leading figure in the birth of organized Jewish community life in Vienna: he contributed to the founding of a Jewish school (1812) and Vienna's first synagogue, the Stadttempel on Seitenstettengasse (1826). Died in Vienna in 1843.
Orientalist and Christian polyhistor, born in Halle on 27 February 1717, died in Göttingen on 22 August 1791, grand-nephew of Johann Heinrich Michaelis. Professor at the University of Göttingen since 1746 (tenured from 1750), he teaches there the exegesis of the Old Testament, Hebrew antiquities and Mosaic law, publishes a Hebrew grammar (1745), translates and comments on the Old Testament (1769-83), writes one of the first introductions to the Old Testament (1787) and his « Das Mosaische Recht » (1770-75); he also directs the « Orientalische Bibliothek » from 1771 to 1791.
Born in Nancy in 1797, son of Jewish banker Gerson-Jacob Goudchaux, he settled in Paris in 1825 and joined the liberal opposition. After the revolution of 1848, he was twice Minister of Finance of the Second Republic (February then June–October 1848) and deputy for the Seine. He resigned in October 1848 on principle after a vote.
French rabbi and historian of Alsatian Judaism
French scholar and poet, active in Carpentras in the second half of the 18th century, probably father of Joseph ben Moïse Milhau. He publishes in Livorno in 1787 three works: 'Mishpaṭ Emet', a philosophical essay on Job, 'Maṭṭeh Mosheh', a rhymed paraphrase of Ruth, and 'Iggeret ha-Neḥamah', a poem of consolation; a poem for Napoleon I (Paris, 1806) is sometimes attributed to him, but improbably, given his age.
English historian, born in London on 10 February 1791, died in the same city on 24 September 1868. Known first for his dramatic poems, including « Fazio » (1815), he publishes in 1830 a rationalist « History of the Jews » that brings him censure from the Church despite recognition from Jewish representatives, and becomes dean of St Paul's in 1849. Editor of Gibbon (1838) and Horace (1849), he also expresses his sympathy for the Jews in his « History of Latin Christianity » (1855).
German lexicographer, active in Berlin in the middle of the eighteenth century. He publishes in 1760, with the approval of the rabbinates of Berlin and Halberstadt, the first Hebrew-German dictionary written by a Jew, the « Millim le-Eloah », based on that of David Ḳimḥi, then, in 1765, a new edition of the « Zeker Rab » of Musafia as a complement to his own work.
French statesman of the revolutionary era, born in Bignon on March 9, 1749, died in Paris on April 2, 1791. Familiar in Berlin with the Jewish circle of Henriette Herz and Dohm, he published in London in 1787 a plea for the political reform of Jews. Elected deputy for Provence at the States-General, he becomes one of the most zealous advocates for their emancipation at the National Assembly, presenting the Declaration of the Rights of Man on August 17, 1789 and arguing on December 24 for the admission of Jews to civil and military offices.
German Talmudist, rabbi of Schwerin in the mid-18th century, first trained in London then in various yeshivas before becoming rabbi of Wreschen, in Poland, then of Schwerin. He is the author of « Mispar Ẓeba'am » (Berlin, 1787), a pilpulistic treatise on the Talmud in two parts, « Pinnot Ẓeba'aw » and « Ereẓ Ẓebi ».
Lithuanian Talmudist of the 18th century, native of Mir (governorate of Minsk). He publishes in Königsberg in 1769 a funeral oration for R. Abraham, chief rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, then, having become in 1771 rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, he publishes there the same year two talmudic works, « Sharsheret ha-'Abotot » and « Shulḥan Shelomoh ».
Rabbi in Séfrou (Morocco), author of a collection of sermons and novelties (derushim ve-hiddushim), according to the rabbi records of the Jewish Moroccan Archive.
Court Jew of Margrave Wilhelm-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1703-1723). Exempted from customs duties and holder from 1691 of the privilege of printing the Talmud, he also uses his influence in favor of his coreligionists while showing authority towards the Fürth community; his rival Elhanan Fränkel attempts in vain, notably in 1711, to have him disgraced, but it is Fränkel who ends up ruined. Around 1716, denounced for fraud on public revenues, Model is not condemned but sees his reputation tarnished to the point of withdrawing from court.
Turkish rabbinical author, active in Salonika at the end of the 18th century, from a family originating in Modena, Italy. Correspondent of Ḥayyim ben David Aboulafia, rabbi of Smyrna, he publishes « Uryan Telitai » (Salonika, 1795), a collection of Talmudic novellae, and leaves a work of responsa, « Rosh Mashbir », published posthumously in two volumes (1821 and 1840).
Moshe Wallich, of Worms, selected and versified in Judeo-German 34 fables drawn from Aesop, Arabic sources and medieval Hebrew and German tales. His 'Sefer Meshalim' (Book of Fables, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1697) is a toned-down reworking of the earlier 'Kü-Bukh'; it was the most widely distributed collection of Yiddish fables in Europe.
Rabbi of Salonika in the first half of the 18th century.
Moravian and German rabbi, born in Lemberg around 1705, died in Nikolsburg (Moravia) on December 28, 1757. Rabbi of Leipnik from his youth, he is imposed as Chief Rabbi of Berlin by a decree of Frederick William I of January 24, 1729, despite the opposition of the community elders, who obtain his dismissal a year later by paying 4,500 marks to the royal treasury. Then appointed rabbi of Frankfurt an der Oder, he remains there until 1743, returns to Leipnik, then becomes in 1753 "Landesrabbiner" of Moravia.
Convert from Christianity to Judaism, printer and author, born in Nikolsburg, died in Amsterdam in 1733 or 1734. Printer in Amsterdam from 1690 to 1694, he established a printing house in Halle in 1709, where he published in 1712 a Judeo-German work on the Ten Tribes, « Tela'ot Mosheh », then in 1714 a prayer book and another work deemed anti-Christian, which led to the closure of his printing house by royal order and his imprisonment; rescued by his coreligionists, he fled to Amsterdam, where his children would in turn become printers.
Karaite scholar and poet, active in Tchufut-Kalé, Crimea, in the eighteenth century. He is the author of « Darosh Darash Mosheh », a collection of treatises on various subjects, and an elegy composed at the death of a scholar, preserved in the Karaite « ḥazanya ».
Polish rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, disciple of Salomon Louria, successively rabbi of Miedzyboz, Brody and Przemysl. He is credited with certainty to « Pene Mosheh », a commentary on talmudic haggadot (Wilmersdorf, 1716), and « Ḳaran 'Or », homilies on a verse from Exodus (Zolkiew, 1721); some identify him also with Moses Wengrow, author of the « Berit Maṭṭeh Mosheh » (Berlin, 1701).
German Talmudist and Hebraist of the early 18th century, nicknamed by his contemporaries « the father of interpreters by gematria ». He is the author of « 'Iṭṭur Soferim » (Hamburg, 1715), a Hebrew epistolary manual for youth, and « Shomer Emunim » (Offenbach, 1724), a partly Kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch, the Five Scrolls and the Masorah.
Rabbi of Salonika in the first half of the 18th century, author of a collection of responsa, « Kehunnat 'Olam » (Constantinople, 1740), followed by novellæ on the Ṭour Yoreh De'ah.
Chief rabbi of Lemberg, where he dies on 17 September 1702, grandson of Moses Ḥarif I ben Salomon, probably born in Lemberg. First chief rabbi of the two communities, urban and suburban, of the city, he sits actively in the Council of Four Lands, which he sometimes presides over — his signature appearing at the head of the approbations given at the Yaroslav fair in 1697 — and supplements with notes his grandfather's « Seder Giṭṭin ».
Austrian moralist writer, active in Prague in the 17th and 18th centuries. He is the author of a « Ẓawwa'ah » of ethical instructions (Prague, 1717), part of which was published by Hirsch ben Meïr as an appendix to the commentary on the Prophets by Moïse Alschech (Frankfurt am Main, 1720).
Italian kabbalist, poet and moralist, author of the Messilat Yecharim (The Path of the Just), a classic of Jewish ethics. He was a pioneer of modern literary Hebrew.
Berlin philosopher, father of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment). His Jerusalem (1783) defends freedom of conscience and the separation of Church and State. His translation of the Torah into German (in Hebrew characters) opened the Jews to European culture. Nicknamed the "Socrates of Berlin."
Cabalist and Turkish Talmudist, born in 1747, died in Baghdad in 1831, where he lived. He publishes « Ḳol Sason », on ethics (Leghorn, 1859), « Dabar be-'Itto », commentary on the Pentateuch and Talmud (1862-64), and « Tehillah le-Dawid » (1892); a great number of his manuscripts were destroyed in a fire in his house in 1853.
Polish rabbi
German Christian Kabbalist, born on 8 June 1779 in Ober-Ursel (Taunus), died in Frankfurt-am-Main on 23 March 1860. Initially influenced by Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Baader's theosophy, he turned, after receiving initiation into the Kabbalah in 1813 from the Jewish Kabbalist Metz, toward exclusive study of the Zohar, and published the four volumes of his « Philosophie der Geschichte oder über die Tradition » in 1824, 1834, 1839 and 1853, in which he sought to demonstrate the superiority of Kabbalistic mysticism over that of Christianity.
Writer and educator of Vilna, called the father of Hebrew prose.
Russian grammarian and av bet din of Slawatyetz-on-the-Bug, active in the early eighteenth century. He composed "Mera Dakya" (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1734, often reprinted), a grammatical commentary correcting, on linguistic grounds, certain improbable explanations of Rashi on the Pentateuch, the Five Scrolls, and many talmudic passages.
Italian rabbi
Disciple of Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin, he founded at Lyakhavichy the Hasidic dynasty of Lechovitch, root of the courts of Kobrin, Slonim, Koidanov and Novominsk. His Hasidout, in the line of Karlin, emphasizes fervent prayer and simple faith. Like the rebbes of Lechovitch and Kobrin, he did not himself write down his teachings: they were transmitted orally and then compiled by his successors.
Moravian Talmudist
Dayan of Meknès called « Ha-Marbitz » (the spreader of Torah); author of Mishne la-Melekh.
Disciple of Yehiel Mikhl of Zloczów (himself a student of the Maggid of Mezritch). Renowned for his great erudition and devotion to the settlement of cases of agunot (abandoned women). The Seer of Lublin praised his disinterested piety. Founder of the Hasidic dynasty that radiated over Volhynia.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-3.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-3.
Rabbi of Baiza, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rafael, himself son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-4.
Rabbi of Fez, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Died in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-4.
Rabbi of Mazagan (El Jadida). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86–3.
Rabbi of Rabat, 18th century. Mentioned in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-3.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5534 of the Hebrew era (1774). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Tetouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew calendar (1726). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-3.
Rabbi of Tangier. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87–2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Tangier. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Died in 5527 of the Hebrew era (1767). Son of Hasday, himself son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5547 of the Hebrew era (1787). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-4.
Rabbi of Draa Valley. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Messod. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Physician and honorary rabbi of Corfu, born in 1744, died in 1823, trained in Venice and Padua. Appointed in 1814 chief physician of the island of Corfu, esteemed by the government and the population for his learning and philanthropy, he left numerous manuscript works, including « Nozioni Miscellanee Interno a Corcira » (Corfu, 1809), dedicated to his friend Emanule Theotoky, president of the Senate.
Austrian writer
British-born American rabbi
Austrian pianist, born in Prague on May 30, 1794, died in Leipzig on March 10, 1870. Trained by Dionys Weber at the Prague Conservatory, he plays in public in 1808 a concerto of his composition, then settles in Vienna, where he studies under Albrechtsberger and Salieri and becomes acquainted with Meyerbeer, Hummel and Beethoven. His career as a virtuoso affirms itself with the "Variationen über den Alexandermarsch" (1815); he settles in London in 1825 after his marriage in Hamburg, becomes in 1832 director of the London Philharmonic Society, then accepts shortly after, on invitation from Mendelssohn, the first chair of piano at the Leipzig Conservatory, which he holds until his death.
Hungarian rabbi
Writer of the Portuguese community of Amsterdam in the early 18th century. He composed a Hebrew poem placed at the head of the edition of the Pentateuch and Haftarot published by S. Rodrigues Mendes (Amsterdam, 1726) and a Jewish calendar (Calendario Ebraico) printed in Amsterdam in 1724.
Karaite scholar of the first half of the 18th century, called « ha-'Anaw » (the modest) and « he-Ḥasid » (the pious), father of Simḥa Isaac, author of the « Oraḥ Ẓaddiḳim ». He composed the « Torat Mosheh », in four parts, bringing together liturgical poems, prayers, and sermons.
President of the rabbinic court of Meknes; his piyyutim (liturgical poems) appear in the mahzorim of North Africa, and he left halakhic decisions.
Son of Daniel Cohen d'Azevedo, born in Amsterdam c. 1720. In 1761 he succeeded his father-in-law Moses Gomez da Mesquitta as Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London (Bevis Marks). His documented writings are reduced to two sermons, pronounced in Spanish, published with English translation in 1776.
Chief Rabbi of Cairo and Alexandria
Hungarian rabbi
English poet and librettist from a Sephardic Jewish family of London. Grandson of physician Fernando Mendes, physician to Queen Catherine of Braganza. Author of successful plays (ballad operas) performed at Drury Lane and Covent Garden in the 1740s, and of poetry collections.
Partner broker at Mocatta & Goldsmid (precious metals brokers to the Bank of England); his sister Rachel was the mother of Sir Moses Montefiore. During the 1841 schism he left Bevis Marks and helped found the West London Synagogue of British Jews. Retired from business, he devoted himself to study: he translated from Hebrew Isaac of Troki's Hizzuk Emunah (Faith Strengthened, 1851) and published The Inquisition and Judaism (1845) and The Wisdom of Solomon (1834).
journalist
German rabbi probably born in Glogau and died in Ansbach in Bavaria in 1780, Aaron ben Moses Mosessohn was elected rabbi of Berlin in 1763 after holding this position in Dessau, and Moses Mendelssohn associated his name with the thanksgiving sermon that he drew up that year for the peace of Hubertsburg. In 1767, he published in Berlin the commentary of his great-grandfather Shabbethai Cohen on the Shoulḥan Aroukh, and in 1771 he became rabbi of Schwabach and chief rabbi of the principality of Ansbach.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5558 of the Hebrew era (1798). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-2.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Died in 5466 of the Hebrew calendar (1706). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-2.
Rabbi of Bagris. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-4.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5499 of the Hebrew era (1739). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5513 of the Hebrew era (1753). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 93-4.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-1.
Rabbi of Agadir, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5485 of the Hebrew era (1725). Son of Ayush. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef, himself son of Daniel. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Died in 5467 of the Hebrew era (1707). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Died in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Son of Yehoshua, himself son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 91-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Mussa. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi of Agadir, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-4.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5491 of the Hebrew era (1731). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5518 of the Hebrew era (1758). Son of Eliahu, himself son of Yosef, himself son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-1.
Son of David Biderman and son-in-law of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz (the Yid ha-Kadosh of Przysucha). He led the dynasty and settled in Jerusalem toward the end of his life (1851), opening the Lelov-Jerusalem branch.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 91-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5520 of the Hebrew era (1760). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-4.
Rabbi of Fez, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5474 of the Hebrew Era (1714). Son of Nehemia II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5547 of the Hebrew era (1787). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
rabbi (-1830)
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Died in 5465 of the Hebrew era (1705). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5539 of the Hebrew era (1779). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi of Agadir, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Tangier, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5553 of the Hebrew era (1793). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 90-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 94-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Died in 5546 of the Hebrew era (1786). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Born in 5554 of the Hebrew era (1794). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5535 of the Hebrew era (1775). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-4.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yaakov, himself son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Died in 5485 of the Hebrew era (1725). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 90-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Son of Yitshak II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-2.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Died in 5523 of the Hebrew era (1763). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 93-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 97-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5530 of the Hebrew era (1770). Son of Menahem. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-1.
Rabbi of Tangier, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Son of Messod. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5482 of the Hebrew era (1722). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Era not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 90-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5558 of the Hebrew era (1798). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-3.
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5499 of the Hebrew era (1739). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-3.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Born in 5484 (1724), died in 5533 (1773) of the Hebrew era. Son of Daniel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5535 of the Hebrew era (1775). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
Disciple of R. Shmelke of Nikolsburg, the Maguid of Mezritch, and R. Elimelekh of Lizhensk, he was the first rebbe of Sassov and founder of the dynasty. A paradigmatic figure of "ahavat Israël" (love of Israel), he taught through aphorisms and parables and believed that joyful prayer surpasses prayer in tears.
chief Rabbi of Israel
First Rebbe of the Hassidic dynasty of Savran, son of Rabbi Shimon Shlomo (I), maggid of Savran and disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch. Disciple of his father, of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev and of Rabbi Boruch of Mezhbizh; he became after them rabbi of Berditchev, then of Ouman and Kishinev, at the head of thousands of hassidim.
Chief Rabbi of Beghris in the Tafilalet, renowned for his erudition and vast library throughout the region. His legal decisions (pesakim) are preserved in the collection Shophriya di-Ya'aqob.
Turkish rabbinic author, died around 1800 in Jerusalem, where he had settled from Salonike. He is the author of « Be'er Mayim Ḥayyim », a collection of responsa in two volumes (Salonike, 1764 and 1814).
Polish Rabbi (1776-1851)
Pioneer of South Carolina, born in the Spanish Antilles on January 5, 1761, died on May 15, 1821, whose family had fled to the New World to escape Spanish persecution. Formed in Charleston, where he becomes a well-known figure, particularly in Freemasonry, he is said to have served during the War of Independence and that of 1812; settled after the Revolution in Savannah, he contributed in 1786 to restoring the « old congregation » and then, in 1790, founded the Mickva Israel congregation, of which he served free of charge as hazzan for many years.
American physician, son of Emanuel de la Motta, born around 1789, died in Charleston (South Carolina) on February 13, 1845. Member of the Medical Society of South Carolina in 1810, surgeon of the American army during the War of 1812, he subsequently helped erect a synagogue in Savannah, where he preached free of charge, before returning to Charleston as one of its most prominent physicians. He delivered in 1816 the funeral oration of Gershom Mendes Seixas and, in 1820, an address at the dedication of the Savannah synagogue which attracted the attention of Jefferson and Madison; President Harrison appointed him general receiver of his district in 1841.
German philanthropist, born in Berlin on April 7, 1781, died in Breslau on June 12, 1847. Established in 1806 as a tutor and then merchant in Plesse (Prussian Silesia), he actively campaigned for the emancipation of German Jews in the periodical press and obtained for them the right to practice as apothecaries; president of the municipal council of Plesse for many years, he traveled to Berlin in 1847 to influence Landtag deputies favorable to emancipation, without living long enough to see the outcome.
Dutch pedagogue, born in Amsterdam on June 20, 1792, died in the same city on December 29, 1862. Sabbath teacher from 1812, sworn translator in 1817, inspector of religious schools in 1835 then secretary of the Amsterdam community in 1849, he directed from 1826 the theological seminary Sa'adat Baḥurim, recognized as a State institution in 1836. He published in 1824 the first Hebrew translation into Dutch of the Bible, and numerous pedagogical works; doctor of the University of Giessen in 1843, he received in 1860 the order of the Lion of the Netherlands.
French rabbi, presumed descendant of Löwe ben Bezalel, born in 1760 in Mutzig, died in May 1842 in Rixheim. Principal of the Talmudic school of Strasbourg after his studies at the famous yeshivah of Prague, he then intercedes, at risk of his life, with Schneider, the formidable accuser of Strasbourg's revolutionary court, on behalf of Rabbi Simon Cohen then imprisoned — Schneider, arrested in turn and executed in Paris in 1794, could not keep his promise to free him. Munius then accepts the rabbinate of Rixheim, where he dies, leaving manuscripts testifying to his great Talmudic learning.
Hungarian rabbi, born around 1750 in Podolia, died in 1831 in Alt-Ofen. Renowned as a Talmudist after several years in Brody, he was called in 1790, on the recommendation of Ezekiel Landau, to the chief rabbinate of Alt-Ofen, vacant since the death of Nathan Günsburger in 1781, a position he held until his death. In 1794, he defended against Mordecai Benet the legality of double-strapped phylacteries; in 1805, solicited by the Arad community, he pronounced with nuance on the controversial work "'Emeḳ ha-Shaweh" by Aaron Chorin, which he had approved in 1803, without deeming it heretical.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yeshua. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Talmudist, born in Jerusalem in 1760, died in Split (Dalmatia) on June 10, 1837. Trained under David Pardo of Sarajevo, he became very young rabbi of the Split congregation, a post he held until his death. He left « Ḥayyim wa-Ḥesed », discussions on the Tourim of Jacob ben Asher, published after his death by his children (Livorno, 1840), and « Ḥiddushe Dinim » (1844); his son Jacob succeeded him as rabbi of Split and edited the responsa of the Geonim (Lyck, 1864).
Great-great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov (founder of Hasidism) and grandson of Nachman of Horodenka, he founded the Hasidic movement of Breslov. His teachings were recorded by his principal disciple, Nathan Sternhartz (Reb Noson), who composed the Likoutei Moharan and transcribed the Sippourei Ma'asiyot (Tales). His tomb in Ouman is a major pilgrimage site at Rosh Hashana.
German scholar
Disciple of Elimelech of Lizhensk, Menachem Mendel of Rymanov and the Seer of Lublin, he was the first rebbe of Ropshitz and a central figure in Galician Hasidism, renowned for his wisdom, wit and musical gifts. His writings, which he at first refused to publish, appeared with the consent of his disciple Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (Divrei Chaim). He is a spiritual ancestor of the dynasties of Tsanz and Dzikov.
First rebbe of Ropshitz, founder of a Galician Hasidic dynasty.
Frankist, rabbi of Busk (Galicia), active in the first part of the 18th century. He was among the Frankist delegates to the disputation with representatives of Judaism organized on July 16, 1759 by Mikulski, administrator of the archdiocese of Lviv; later converted to Christianity, he took the name Piotr Jacobski.
Naḥman b. Simḥa of Bratzlav is the founder of the Hasidic sect of the « Bratzlaver Hasidim », born in Międzybóż, Podolia, on October 9, 1770, and died in Ouman in 1811. After a youth of rigorous asceticism, he traveled in 1798 to Palestine, where he helped reconcile Lithuanian and Volhynian Hasidim, then settled in Bratzlav, from which he diffused a teaching centered on the role of the tsaddik as an intermediary between man and God, on fasting and self-penitence. Contested by other tsaddikim, who accused him of Sabbateanism, he withdrew to Ouman; his doctrines were published, after his death, by his disciple Nathan of Niémirov, in « Liḳḳuṭé Maharan » (1808-1815).
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Matitiah I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Italian Talmudist, active in the second half of the eighteenth century, student of Ephraim Cohen of Ostrog, rabbi of Modena, of Abi'ad Sar-Shalom Basilea, rabbi of Mantua, and, in Kabbalah, of Benjamin Alexander ha-Cohen, rabbi of Reggio. He is the author of the "Toledot Shimshon", commentary on the Mishna Avot (Livorno, 1766), and of the "Zera' Shimshon", on the Pentateuch and the five Scrolls (Mantua, 1778).
Talmudist and rabbi of Larissa in the eighteenth century, father-in-law of Isaac ibn Shangi, author of the "Be'er Yitzḥaḳ", and student of Ḥayyim Aboulafia. He is the author of the "Eshel ha-Neḥalim", a collection of homilies for Sabbaths and holy days, and of the "Ashdot ha-Pisgah", published with the "Middot ha-Mizbeaḥ" of Ḥayyim Aboulafia.
Rabbi active from the second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 18th, born around 1660, died around 1746, student of R. Jacob Striemer. Chief rabbi of Adrianople where he directed a renowned yeshivah, he ends his life in Jerusalem as chief rabbi, disputing to his last days with rabbis Isaac Zeraḥya Azoulaï and Meïr Mizraḥi. Only « Ḥazon Naḥum » (Constantinople, 1745), a commentary on the Mishnaic orders Kodashim and Tohorot, was published among his numerous writings.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-2.
Hasidic master of the late eighteenth century, disciple of Baer of Meseritz who sent him to Galicia to spread the teachings of Hasidism. In 1772, at the death of Baer of Meseritz and facing the attacks of Elijah of Vilna, he founded with other masters the dynasties of tsaddikim, becoming himself the founder of a dynasty in southern Russia to which his son Mordekhaï succeeded him. He is the author of the "Me'or 'Enayim", cabalistic homilies on the Pentateuch published in 1798.
Rabbi of Dubno, in Russia, in the eighteenth century. His responsa relating to the Cleves divorce case appear in the collection of Israël Lipschütz « Or Israel », published in 1770, which also gathers responsa from his brother Salomon Dob Baer, rabbi of Glogau, and his other brother Simha, rabbi of Dessau.
Rabbi and German philosopher of the eighteenth century. After serving for some time as dayan in Halberstadt, he settled in Amsterdam where he devoted himself to the study of philosophy, publishing in 1762 the "Merome Sadeh," Talmudic novellæ, as well as an apologetic work refuting the belief in prime matter and natural religion.
Emperor of the French, born in Ajaccio, in Corsica, on August 15, 1769, died on Saint Helena in 1821. His policy toward the Jews oscillated between mistrust and openness: after judging their strong presence in eastern France as dangerous, he convened in 1806 an assembly of notables that led in 1807 to the French Sanhedrin, then organized the Jews of the empire into consistories. In breaking the feudal frameworks of Europe and importing the equality of the French Revolution into them, he did more for Jewish emancipation than the three preceding centuries, and remains held, notably by German Jews, as one of the principal architects of this emancipation.
1805-1870
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-1.
Hakham and kabbalist, one of the leaders of the Tripoli community for half a century.
German rabbi
Ukrainian rabbi
English theater and music impresario, known under the name Baron Nathan, born in 1793 and died in London in 1856. Dance professor from 1844 until his death, he was for many years master of ceremonies and director of the Rosherville Gardens, near Gravesend, where he became famous by dancing, at his benefit evening, the egg dance blindfolded.
English musician and composer born in Canterbury in 1792, died in Sydney on January 15, 1864. Intended for the religious ministry, he turned to music and was a student of Dominico Corri; after inconclusive debuts at Covent Garden in 1816, he became a dramatic composer, music professor to Princess Charlotte of Wales and musical historiographer of George IV, before settling in Sydney in 1841. He is known for having set to music Byron's "Hebrew Melodies", of which six melodies entered synagogal use.
German biblical exegete and theologian, born in Dessau July 8, 1751, died in the same city September 6, 1784. He composed a commentary on the Book of Job, « Pesher Dabar », published in Berlin in 1777 and praised by Moses Mendelssohn and Naphtali H. Wessely, but his pedagogical work « Grundsätze der Jüdischen Religion » (Dessau, 1782), intended for the young, drew the anger of his coreligionists for its criticisms of the Jewish people in the preface; he modified it and offered formal apologies, defended by German educators Basedow and Salzmann.
Russian scholar born in Vilna in 1793, died in Telsiai, in the governorate of Kovno, on June 10, 1868, son-in-law of Joshua Zeitels. He devoted himself to the study of ancient Hebrew literature, publishing critical notes on chapters of Midrash Tehilim, a study of Jewish proper names, and a work on the Karaites published in Vilna in 1864.
Rabbi of Mainz and Offenbach at the end of the eighteenth century, grandson of Jonah Te'omim, author of the « Kikayon de-Yonah ». He wrote the « Nahalat Ya'akov », a commentary on the minor tractates published in Fürth in 1793, as well as notes on the Pentateuch and on the Midrash and sermons preached in Mainz and Offenbach between 1770 and 1781, these three latter works remaining unpublished.
German Church historian, born in Göttingen on January 17, 1789, died in Berlin on July 14, 1850. Born David Mendel and related through his mother to Moses Mendelssohn, he embraced Christianity at seventeen before becoming, in 1813, professor of Church history at the newly founded University of Berlin, where he published the bulk of his work, including his great « Allgemeine Geschichte der Christlichen Religion und Kirche » from 1825. In 1846, when the Jews of Damascus were persecuted and the ancient « blood libel » was revived, he publicly denounced it as a « medieval lie ».
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Time period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa. Period not specified by the source. Son of Israel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 98-4.
Czech rabbi (1779–1842)
Rabbi and poet of Algiers, author of commentaries on piyyutim (Hokhmat Misken, Livorno 1772).
Born in Tripoli where his father Yitshaq was a martyr, raised by R. Yitshaq Lumbroso. Commentator of many talmudic treatises and decisionist; several of his works were destroyed during the Algerian invasion of Tunis in 1752. Author of the collection of halakhic decisions « Yeter habbaz » (1787).
Hebraist author born in Witzenhausen, Germany, he lived in Amsterdam in the early eighteenth century and belonged to the family of R. Moses Isserlès. Reputed Talmudist and cabalist, he published in 1729 in Amsterdam a single work, « Ben Dawid », critique of the kabbalistic work « 'Omer Man » by Menahem Lonzano.
Rabbi of Fes. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-4.
German orientalist and historian, born in Reichmansdorf, near Bamberg, on December 22, 1798, died in Berlin on March 17, 1870, born under the name Bamberger. After studying at Heidelberg, Munich and Göttingen, he became professor at the gymnasium of Speyer in 1822, then, after a study sojourn in Armenia and China from 1830 where he assembled ten thousand Chinese works for the Royal Library of Berlin, professor of Chinese at the University of Munich from 1832. Dismissed in 1852 for his overly progressive opinions and his role in the revolution of 1847-1848, he settled in Berlin in 1863.
Hungarian poet born in Bán, Hungary, in 1769, died in Budapest on November 29, 1831, son of a poor cantor who died prematurely. After a difficult journey — student at Boskovice then Prague, tutor at Presbourg and Kittsee before settling in Budapest in 1822 — he displayed remarkable mastery of Hebrew in his drama "Bat Yiftah" (Vienna, 1805) and his "Shire Musar" (1814), as well as in several grammars and manuals, including the "Ma'gal Yosher" (Prague, 1808 and 1816; Vienna, 1831).
German Talmudist, father of Tsevi Ashkenazi, died in Hamburg on November 28, 1706. Meshoulam Zalman was one of the most respected members of the Vienna ghetto; expelled from that city with his family, he made his way to Berlin where he established himself by combining Talmudic study, philanthropy and business affairs. In December 1678, he returned for a few weeks to Vienna, armed with an imperial safe-conduct obtained by the Brandenburg ambassador, to negotiate a loan for the Elector, before accepting the rabbinate of the twin communities of Hamburg and Altona.
English schoolmaster born in Posen in 1787, died at Kew, near London, in April 1875. After teaching at Göttingen, he settled in England around 1816 and became headmaster of a boarding school at Highgate, whose name remained familiar for half a century to the Anglo-Jewish community — among his pupils were Sir George Jessel, Sir B. S. Phillips, Professors Waley and Sylvester, Sampson Lucas and Sebag Montefiore. Retired after many years, then ruined by unsuccessful investments, he reopened a school at Gloucester House, Kew.
Russian writer born in Letichev, Volhynia, in the second half of the eighteenth century, died in Saint Petersburg in 1831. Friend and protégé of Abram Peretz, he turned to literature after beginnings in commerce and was one of the first Russian Jews to master the Russian language. In 1804, he published a vibrant call for tolerance toward Jews, « Vopl Docheri Iudeiskoï », first public defense of his coreligionists by a Russian Jewish writer; his play was performed successfully before the emperor at the Imperial Theatre of Saint Petersburg in 1809.
German Hebraist born in Posen, in Prussian Poland, in 1788, died in Williamsburg, in the State of New York, on February 20, 1871. Trained in Posen, he left in 1814 for England, where he was appointed minister of the Plymouth congregation while teaching Hebrew at Oxford, his faith preventing him from holding a chair. Later emigrated to America, he lived there by teaching and writing, publishing notably in 1850 « The Challenge Accepted », dialogues between a Jew and a Christian on messianic prophecies, as well as a Hebrew-English lexicon in 1841.
Hakham of the Portuguese congregation Sha'are Shamayim, at Bevis Marks, London, born in 1702, died in London in 1774, son of David Nieto. Appointed « hakham ha-shalem » in 1733, he abandoned his post in 1741 to travel, returned in 1747 as notary, then accepted in 1751 the charge of av beit din before resigning in 1757 following a conflict over the titles of the rabbinical court. He is best known for his translation of the prayer book in two volumes, published in London in 1740 and 1771, which served as the basis for all subsequent translations.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov, himself son of Nissim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-4.
Ḥayyim ben Elijah Nissim is a Turkish rabbi probably active in the second half of the eighteenth century, author of Maẓa Ḥayyim, homilies and commentaries on the Pentateuch, published with additions by his son Samuel ben Ḥayyim Nissim in Salonica in 1816.
American politician, journalist, dramatist and philanthropist, born in Philadelphia on July 19, 1785, died in New York on March 22, 1851, of Portuguese Jewish origin. Orphaned at an early age, he began in journalism in 1800 in Harrisburg and then became editor of the City Gazette in Charleston, where he defended the war against England, declared in 1812. Appointed in 1813 United States consul in Tunis, he negotiated there the liberation of American sailors held captive by Algerians, but was recalled after his political opponents exploited the affair, Secretary of State Monroe acknowledging that the cause was his religion.
Military contractor and Russian financier, born in Shklov around the middle of the eighteenth century, died in Saint Petersburg in 1804. Well regarded by Potemkin, he maintained relations with Derjavine, whose "Avis" influenced the condition of Jews in Russia, and submitted from 1797 and then in 1800 and 1803 projects for improving their lot, notably proposing the creation of agricultural and industrial colonies in the government of Yekaterinoslav. His efforts contributed to the reforms of 1804, particularly when he intervened on behalf of the Jews of Kovno and Smolensk threatened with expulsion in 1803.
Rabbi and Italian poet of Verona, in the eighteenth century, grandson of Hizkiya Mordekhaï Basan. His three responsa were published as an appendix to his grandfather's work in Mantua in 1744, and he himself was the author of funeral sermons and poems published in Venice in 1753, as well as regulations for a free school in 1756 and a text on the dedication of a new Spanish synagogue in Verona in 1759. He died suddenly in the Verona synagogue, on a Friday evening, singing « Lekha Dodi ».
Spanish poetess born in London, mother of Mordekhaï Nunes Almeyda, protector of the poet Daniel Israël Lopez Laguna. With her two talented daughters, Benvenida Cohen Belmonte and Sara de Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, wife of Manuel Fonseca Pina, she composed Spanish verses in honor of Laguna's work.
Marrano physician of the 18th century, born in Lisbon in a distinguished family, he was denounced to the Inquisition despite his status as court physician and imprisoned with his family before being released for his services. He then fled to England and embarked for Georgia, arriving in Savannah in 1733, a month after the founding of the colony; despite the reluctance of administrators to grant lands to Jews, he received six farms and became the ancestor of Mordecai Manuel Noah of New York.
Rabbi of Livorno, Italy, died before 1788, a follower of the Kabbalah and respected for his learning and piety. He published « Siaḥ Yitzhak » in Livorno in 1766, novellae on the treatise Yoma with commentaries on the « Tosefot Yeshanim »; the second part of the work, drawn from his manuscript « Bet Yitzhak », was printed after his death by his son Jacob under the title « Hedwat Ya'akov » in 1788.
Biurist and one of the Me'assefim, born in 1764, died in Vienna on November 6, 1805. He contributed to the « Meassef » with numerous fables, translated into German the books of Joshua and Judges with a commentary, as well as, with Samuel Detmold, the book of Samuel, and directed the edition of the complete translation of the Bible with bi'ur under the title « Minha Hadasha », published in Vienna from 1792 to 1806.
Born in Metz in 1782, died in Paris in 1862; French Jewish mathematician, admitted to the École polytechnique in 1801 (only the second Jew to study there). He co-founded in 1842, with Camille-Christophe Gerono, the Nouvelles annales de mathématiques, the first French journal devoted to mathematical research and teaching. An Enlightenment figure, he published under the pseudonym Tsarphati letters advocating for a reform of Judaism and the emancipation of Jews.
Born Olry Hayem Worms, banker established in Paris in 1790, he participated in the founding of the Caisse des comptes courants (1796) and acquired the château of Romilly-sur-Seine (1797), taking the name « Olry Worms de Romilly » (fixed at the Napoleonic decree of 1808 on names). He chaired the Central Consistory of Israelites of France from 1826 to 1843, taking part in the communal organization of emancipation.
German Orientalist born in Hohenfelde on May 9, 1800, died in Berlin on December 22, 1882, trained at the universities of Kiel, Berlin and Paris (doctorate in 1823). Professor of Oriental languages at Kiel from 1830, he lost this position in 1853 for his political opinions before being called to Königsberg in 1858, where he spent the rest of his life. A pioneer in the study of Pahlavi, he also devoted himself to the criticism of the Old Testament, notably in his commentary on the Psalms (Leipzig, 1853) and his « Lehrbuch der Hebräischen Sprache » (1861), where his Hebrew grammar, based on ancient forms and Arabic analogies, opposed that of Ewald.
German rabbi born in Mannheim, died in Hanover on November 2, 1786, son of Löb Oppenheim. Long a prebendary at the Klaus of Mannheim, he was called to the same position in Amsterdam and then in Hanover, where he died at an advanced age, leaving several collections of commentaries on the Oraḥ Ḥayim, including « Margenita Shappira » on the rules of the shofar, published in Amsterdam in 1767.
Dayyan in Pest, he is born in Kromau, Moravia, in 1753, and dies on January 24, 1851. After studies in Prague, he publishes there in 1789 the « Ammud ha-Shaḥar », plagiarism of a manual by Baruch Lindau published the previous year in Berlin, then in 1831 in Ofen the « Nezer ha-Ḳodesh », plagiarism of a religious ethics treatise by Jehiel ben Jekuthiel Anaw. He also publishes in 1812 in Prague Talmudic novellae on the laws of niddah, entitled « Har ha-Karmel ».
German Ab bet din, born around 1743 in Prague, died in 1822 in Hamburg. Dayyan in Hamburg from 1783 to 1814, he became in January 1814 president of the city's rabbinate, then occupied and pillaged by the French. After the founding of the Reform Tempel in 1818, he protests on behalf of Hamburg's rabbinate against the reforms in worship, publishes in 1819 the opinions of Orthodox rabbis he had consulted under the title « Eleh Dibre ha-Berit », and retires in 1821 due to advanced age.
Hungarian physician, born in Alt-Ofen in 1756, died in Vienna on December 14, 1831. Authorized to practice after the emperor Joseph II's edict of tolerance in 1781, he obtained his medical degree in 1782, became physician of his native city and then of the Zala region, before establishing himself in Vienna in 1802. His research on food adulteration won him the favor of Emperor Francis, who appointed him chief physician of the imperial household in 1818.
German author, born in 1784, died on May 22, 1858 in Fürth. Precocious reader and self-taught scholar, he translates and annotates the books of Job, Isaiah and Jeremiah, edits philosophical works by Maimonides, Bedersi and Shem-Ṭob ben Joseph Falaquera, writes a Jewish history based on Flavius Josephus and publishes anecdotes drawn from the Talmud and Maimonides. He was, at a time when the yechiva of Fürth was experiencing its heyday, a constant benefactor of its students.
German rabbi, born in Weimarsschmieden in 1798, died in Hochstädt in August 1878, son of cantor Naphtali Ottensoser. First a peddler, he became a teacher in Scheinfeld, then moreh tsedek in Aub in 1821 and in Hochstädt in 1828. In 1861, the Bavarian government officially recognized the Talmud Torah he had founded there.
German rabbi, born in Glogau in 1780, died in Berlin on November 7, 1860. A student of Hirsch Samose, he acquires vast knowledge of rabbinical literature and is called in 1820 to Berlin as assistant rabbi, before becoming practicing rabbi a few years later, upon the death of Meyer Simon Weyl. Alongside his colleague Elhanan Rosenstein, he approves many modern Hebrew works and takes a firm position against Reform.
Italian rabbi, born in Acqui in 1776, died in 1851, brother of Israël Emanuel Ottolenghi. Upon the entry of the French army in 1796, after the battle of Montenotte, he delivered a speech on the tree of liberty; but following French setbacks in 1799 and the battle of Novi, the population rose up against the Jews of the city, and the Ottolenghi brothers had to flee to the Alps while their father was taken hostage by French troops. Returned after the battle of Marengo, he assumed the rabbinical functions of Acqui without compensation and published the "Shir le-Kabod ha-Torah" (Livorno, 1808).
Italian rabbi of the Kabbalistic school, active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, born in Casale-Monferrato and died on 25 Iyar 1718. Chief rabbi of Padua then of Venice, he published « Ḳiryah Ne'emanah » (Venice, 1701), excerpts from « Ma'abar Yabboḳ » by Aaron Berechiah of Modena, « Me'il Shemuel » (1705) and « Tiḳḳun Shobabim » (1719), as well as responsa, piyyoutim and elegies.
French jurist, born in Metz in July 1794, died in Paris on March 3, 1867. First Jew received as doctor of law in Strasbourg (December 1815), he is admitted to the Metz bar then obtains, in 1816 and again in 1827, the abolition of the oath more judaico within the jurisdiction of the Metz tribunal. At the end of 1834, he accepts the chair of law at the University of Brussels, which he occupies for more than thirty years, while remaining committed to Jewish institutions and receives the Legion of Honor in 1837.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yaakov II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-4.
Polish rabbi, died in Zolkiev in May 1710, great-great-grandson of Salomon Louria. Rabbi of Clementow, he is the author of the "Eben 'Ozer 'al Yad" on the Yoreh De'ah, the Oraḥ Ḥayyim and the Eben ha-'Ezer (Amsterdam, 1742), as well as novellae on several talmudic treatises, published in Zolkiev in 1753 and in the "Maginne Ereẓ" (Amsterdam, 1753).
Italian talmudist of the eighteenth century, born in Modena, died in Padua in 1830. Rabbi in his native city, then co-rabbi of Mantua with Jacob Cases, he finally became rabbi of Padua, where he trained M. G. Ghirondi. Author of sermons, halakhic decisions and an abridgment of the Shulḥan 'Arukh, he also published anonymously in 1797 in Modena notes on "Ha-Torah weha-Filosofia" by Reggio and, the same year in Parma, "Il Luminario Ecclissato", in response to the "Luminario dei Ciechi" of the convert Maria Gazzoli.
Italian Hebraist, born in Siena on May 4, 1789, died in Florence on June 7, 1867. Trained in Hebrew by Leon Vita Monseles, he opened an educational establishment based on a rational method, then directed from 1836 to 1846 the Jewish school of Florence, before retiring for reasons of health while continuing to write. With his student Fausto Lasinio, he translated from Syriac the hymns of Saint Ephrem, and published a « Grammatica Ebraica » as well as a « Compendio di Tutte le Dottrine Israelitiche »; his review of Renan's « Life of Jesus » appeared posthumously in the « Vessillo Israelitico » in 1879.
Turkish rabbi and author, born in Smyrna in 1788, died in the same city in 1869, maternal grandson of Joseph b. Ḥayyim Hazan. After presiding over the rabbinical court of his city, he was appointed hakham bachi in 1854; his funeral was escorted by a battalion of troops, an extremely rare honor reserved for only two or three great rabbis. A very prolific writer — twenty-six published works without counting manuscripts lost in a fire — he is notably the author of Leb Ḥayyim (Salonica, 1823) and Nishmat Kol Ḥai (1832-37).
English historian born Francis Cohen in London in July 1788, died in that same city on July 6, 1861, son of Meyer Cohen, member of the London Stock Exchange. Child prodigy, he translated at eight years old Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice, published by his father in 1796; converted to Christianity, he changed his name to Palgrave in 1823 and became a lawyer in 1827. Author in 1832 of The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, a founding work of English constitutional history, he was knighted the same year and became in 1838 deputy keeper of the royal archives, before publishing his major work in four volumes, A History of Normandy and England (1851-63).
Hungarian rabbi, born in 1783 in Bielitz, in Silesia, died on 20 Nisan 1845 in Karlsbourg, in Transylvania. Trained at the yeshiva of Leipnik under Baruch Fränkel and then in Prague under the chief rabbi Samuel Landau, he joined after his marriage of 1802 Polish Hasidism, became rabbi of Ostrik (1807-13) and then of Tarczal (1813-23), and finally chief rabbi of Karlsbourg from 1823 to 1845. His main work, a collection of responsa edited by his son M. M. Panet, appeared in Máramarossziget in 1875; several of his sons and grandsons succeeded him as rabbis.
German writer, born in Dembiohammer in 1773, died in Ratibor on August 6, 1840. First a tutor then manager of a pottery in Ratibor, he becomes the official poet of the « Allgemeiner Oberschlesischer Anzeiger », founded in Ratibor in 1802, which he directs from 1811 upon the retirement of Baron von Reiswitz; from 1816 onwards, he publishes the newspaper at his own expense and continues to direct it until his death.
Russian painter, born in Odessa in 1862, according to family tradition descended from Spanish Jewish refugees established in Padua and then, in the eighteenth century, in Galicia, before the family settled in Odessa. Trained in drawing in Odessa and then in Moscow in the studio of Professor Sorokine, he subsequently studied for three years in Munich before settling in Moscow. His painting « A Letter from Home », exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1889 and bought by Tretiakov, is followed by « Students before the Exam » (1895), gold medal purchased by the Luxembourg Museum; professor at the Moscow School of Painting since 1894, he also illustrated Tolstoy's « Resurrection ».
Member of the college of rabbis of Jerusalem in the eighteenth century. In 1705, he approved the « Peri Ḥadash » of Ḥizqiya de Silva, published in 1706.
Rabbi of Peisern in the eighteenth century, author of the « Or la-Yesharim », novellae on several Talmudic treatises and commentary on the Haggada of Pesaḥ, published together for the first time in Dyhernfurth in 1778, and of the « Gullat Taḥtiyyot », collection of novellae on the treatises Gittin and Kiddushin, published in 1805.
Russian financier, friend and contemporary of Nathan Notkin and Nevakhovitch, son of the rabbi of Levertov, Galicia, and son-in-law of Joshua Zeitlin of Chklov. Under the reign of Paul I, he obtains with the merchant Stiglitz a contract for the purchase of Crimean salt, becomes linked with Derjavine and then, on the advice of Potemkine, settles in Saint Petersburg despite the prohibition against Jews; intimate of Speranski, he participates from 1802 in the work of the imperial commission on the Jewish question. Becoming a widower, he converts and remarries; his son Hirsch, implicated in the Decembrist uprising of 1825, dies in exile in Odessa, and Peretz sinks into poverty after the fall of Speranski.
Patron and man of letters Austrian, born in Tarnopol, Galicia, in 1774, died in that city on October 1, 1839. From a wealthy family, he devotes himself from his youth to the emancipation and education of Jews, becomes friends with Krochmal and Rapoport, and founds in Poland the first modern Jewish school, next to which he builds in 1815 at his own expense a reformed synagogue with choir. To counter the influence of Hasidism, he publishes under the pseudonym "Obadia ben Pethahia" the satire "Megalleh Ṭemirin" (Vienna, 1819), long attributed to Rapoport, then two other similar pamphlets in Prague in 1838.
Bohemian rabbi and author, died after September 9, 1701, native of Prague and member of the Eibenschütz family, whose name he adopted from his wife Bella Perlhefter. Established in Vienna until the expulsion of the Jews in 1670, he took refuge in Altdorf where he taught Hebrew to Wagenseil, then became rabbi of Mantua, a position already held by his father, before being forced to leave after unmasking the false messiah Mordekhaï of Eisenstadt, whom he had initially supported. Returning to Prague, he succeeds his grandfather Moses as dayyan and scribe; he is the author of « Ohel Yissakar » (Wilhelmsdorf, 1670), « Ma'aseh Ḥoshen u-Ḳeṭoret » (Prague, 1686) and « Ba'er Heṭeb » (Prague, 1699).
One of the most prominent Jews of Vilna in the mid and late eighteenth century, son of Rabbi Elias Pesseles, grandson of Moses ben Naphtali Ribkas (author of the "Be'er ha-Golah") and close to the gaon of Vilna. His correspondence from 1773 with David Friedländer concerning Salomon Dubno then lodged with him in Vilna and accused of neglecting his mission to edit Mendelssohn's manuscripts reveals a remarkable proximity between this family of rabbinic tradition and the disciples of the Berlin Haskalah.
Dayan of Meknès, author of the responsa Nofet Tsoufim and of the commentary Pittuhei Hotam.
(1798-1881)
Polish merchant active around 1775, head of the Jewish community of Krotoschin, then a fief of the princes of Thurn and Taxis, whose esteem and personal commissions he gained. Frequenting the fairs of Leipzig and other cities, he extended his business to England in 1775 and settled in London, where he traded in indigo and gum. After his death, which occurred during a visit to his native city, his son Samuel Phillips settled in London and became the father of Sir Benjamin Phillips and grandfather of Sir George Faudel-Phillips, both lord mayors of London.
Sara de Fonseca Pina y Pimentel is a poetess of Spanish origin who lived in England in the early eighteenth century. She is the author of « Espejo Fiel de Vidas » (London, 1720), a collection of Spanish verses in praise of the metrical Spanish translation of the Psalms by the Marrano poet Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna.
Polish and German rabbi
Elijah b. Moïse Gershon of Pinczow is an 18th-century Polish physician and talmudist, author of several works: « Ir Ḥeshbon » on arithmetic and algebra and « Berure ha-Middot » on geometry, both published in 1765, as well as « Ma'aneh Eliyahu » (1758), discussions on the talmudic treatises Betsa and Baba Metsia, and « Hadrat Eliyahu » (1786), a work of homiletics.
Elijah b. Aaron Pines is a rabbi of Chklov, in the government of Moghilev, in Russia, in the eighteenth century, descendant of the families of Jacob Polak and Judah Löb Puchowitzer. He is the author of "Tanna debe Eliyahu" (Zolkiev, 1753), a work of religion and ethics divided into seven parts according to the seven days of the week.
Hasidic master, companion of the Baal Shem Tov, renowned for his teachings on truth and humility. He profoundly influenced Hasidic thought.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Baroukh. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5461 of the Hebrew era (1701). Son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-1.
Jacob Pinhas is a German journalist and community leader, born in August 1788 and died in Cassel on December 8, 1861. After renouncing his father's career as a miniaturist painter, he becomes a journalist during the Napoleonic era and obtains, after the Battle of Waterloo, the license to publish the "Kassel'sche Allgemeine Zeitung", which he directs until his death. Doctor of the University of Marburg in 1817, he is appointed in 1821 to the head of the "Vorsteheramt" of Niederhessen upon the reorganization of Jewish communities in Hesse-Cassel, and contributes to the law of October 31, 1833 granting full citizenship to Jews willing to renounce petty commerce.
Ephraïm Moïse Pinner (b. Alexander Süsskind) is a German talmudist and archaeologist, born in Pinne around 1800 and died in Berlin in 1880. His first work, a comparative summary of the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon (Berlin, 1831), announced a project for a complete translation of the Talmud; having left Constantinople for Saint Petersburg in 1837, he obtained from Emperor Nicholas I permission to dedicate this work to him, of which only the Berakhot treatise appeared, in Berlin, in 1842. In 1845, he published in Odessa a « Prospectus » that revealed to the world the archaeological discoveries of Abraham Firkovitch.
Dob Bär b. Nathan Pinsker is an 18th-century Polish Talmudist, descendant of Nathan Spira of Cracow. He is the author of "Neṭa' Sha'ashu'im" (Zolkiev, 1748), novellae on the Nashim section of the Babylonian Talmud and on the tractates Makkot and Shevu'ot.
Phinehas b. Juda of Polotsk is a Polish biblical commentator, active in Polotsk in the 18th century. He drafts commentaries on four books of the Hebrew Bible: « Shebeṭ mi-Yehudah » (Wilna, 1803) on Proverbs, « Derek ha-Melek » (Grodno, 1804) on the Song of Songs, a commentary on Ecclesiastes the same year, and « Gibe'at Pineḥas » (Wilna, 1808) on the book of Job ; he also publishes an extract from the work of Kalonymus b. Kalonymus (1799) and « Rosh ha-Gibe'ah » (1820), while his « Maggid Ẓedeḳ » on the 613 commandments remains unpublished.
Man of letters, composer and Italian-American professor, born in Ceneda, Italy, in 1749, died in 1837. Baptized in his fourteenth year, he took the name Da Ponte, became professor of belles-lettres in Treviso then in Venice, then exiled himself to Austria where he became poet of the imperial theaters of Vienna under Joseph II and wrote for Mozart the librettos of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Juan. Emigrated to America after a stay in London, he became in 1826 professor of Italian language and literature at Columbia College, where he made Dante known.
Benjamin Pontremoli is a Turkish rabbinic author who lived in Smyrna at the end of the 18th century. He is the author of « Shebeṭ Binyamin » (Salonique, 1824), a treatise on the drafting of commercial documents, and had two sons, Ḥayyim Isaïe and Ḥiyya.
Meïr Posner, also called Munk or Meïr Pinner, is a Prussian rabbi, born in 1735 and died in Danzig on February 3, 1807, rabbi of the Schottland congregation in Danzig from 1782 until his death. He is the author of 'Bet Meïr' (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1787; Lviv, 1836), a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Even ha-Ezer, accompanied by his novellae 'Ẓal'ot ha-Bayit'.
Salomon Zalman Posner is a Polish rabbi, born in Landsberg around 1778 and died in Loslau in 1863, son of Joseph Landsberg, rabbi of Posen. He is the author of several unpublished works, among which « Zemir 'Ariẓim », a plea for the study of the Talmud, and « Nir Rah », a commentary on the Pentateuch annotated on Rashi; in 1870 appeared in Krotoschin the « To'ar Pene Shelomoh », which traces his biography and that of his ancestors to the beginning of the 17th century.
Count Valentin Potocki (Abraham b. Abraham) is a Polish nobleman converted to Judaism, burned alive in Vilna on 24 May 1749, whose memory has remained venerated among the Jews of Russia under the name of Ger Ẓedeḳ (righteous proselyte). According to tradition, initiated into Hebrew and the Old Testament by an old Jewish scholar met in Paris, he went to Amsterdam to formally embrace Judaism, then returned to live discreetly among the Jews of Poland until his identity was denounced; the prayers of his mother and friends could not make him return to Christianity, and a letter of grace from the king arrived too late to save him.
Benjamin Wolf Prerau is a Moravian Hebraist, active in Prerau in the 18th and 19th centuries. He publishes the « Baḳḳashat ha-Memin » of Bedersi, accompanied by a German translation, a Hebrew commentary and an introduction in which each word begins, as in the work itself, with the letter « mem » (Brünn, 1799), and he is the author of « Ben Yemini », a super-gloss on Ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch (Vienna, 1823).
Roman governor of Syria around the year 6 of the Common Era. After the deposition of Archelaus that same year, Judea came under direct Roman administration and was attached to the province of Syria; Emperor Augustus then sent the ex-consul Quirinius to conduct a fiscal census there, while Coponius was appointed procurator of Judea. This census provoked strong discontent among the Jews, which was scarcely appeased by the high priest Joazar, but it also provoked the revolt of Judas the Galilean and the formation of the party of the Zealots.
Counted among the great scholars of his generation in Meknès: kabbalist, grammarian, mohel and scribe. Forced to flee his native city in 1805 (debts/troubles), he returned in 1809. Documented by the dictionary of families of Joseph Toledano (Moreshet portal).
Cited among the numerous disciples (over one hundred) trained by R. Yosef Zarka according to the 'iyoun study method, according to the records of the Hida (list of Sages of Tunisia).
Rabbi of Meknès at the end of the 18th / beginning of the 19th century, member of the same Zenou family. Documented by Moreshet (Toledano dictionary).
Son of the Hasidic Rabbi Kalifa ben Malka, nicknamed « the Nazir » (the ascetic), he was raised by his father in Torah and detachment from the world, leading a life of withdrawal and study. On the day of his wedding in Agadir, a band of armed Arabs attacked the wedding procession and demanded a victim, the chief demanding the bridegroom himself. After addressing the community and drawing up a bill of divorce (guet) for his wife so that she would not remain agouna, Rabbi Abraham surrendered and was killed while sanctifying the Divine Name. Many years later, his bones were transferred to the Land of Israel by Rabbi Haïm Pinto, rabbi of Kiryat-Malachi, and buried in Kiryat-Malachi; when his tomb was opened, his hair and bones are said to have been found intact.
Scholar (talmid hakham) from Ouarzazate. His remains and those of his brother Rabbi Shlomo were transferred to Israel by his cousin Rabbi Meïr Tanji and buried at Har haMenouhot.
Counted among the sages of Safi, where he was moreh-tzedek. Signatory of a judgment (psak-din) from the year 1712, he also appears among the signatories of the responsa « Michpat u-Tzvi » (§54).
Sage of Moroccan origin, he was among the disciples of the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Louria). His detailed entry appears in the encyclopedia at the section devoted to the city of Safed.
Leader of the Jewish community of Tripoli, he composed a history of the Jews of Tripoli (now lost) which served as a source for later historians (Adadi, Slouschz), as well as piyyutim. He is the author of Hayyei Avraham, a commentary on the mitzvot of the Shulchan Arukh (written in 1780, printed posthumously in 1826 by his son Rahamim).
Cantor (hazan) of the synagogue of Rabbi Raphaël Encaoua and treasurer (gizbar) of the community of Salé. At the request of Rabbi Raphaël, moved by the sight of a desecrated and unfenced cemetery, he obtained from a wealthy merchant of Casablanca, M. Toledano, a substantial donation which enabled the erection of an enclosing wall, the paving of an alley, and the installation of an iron gate.
Born and raised in Sale (1696-1743), he is the author of the famous commentary « Or haHayim » on the Torah, one of the most studied Torah works in the world, both among Sephardim and Ashkenazim. The old mellah of Sale preserved the alley and the room that served as his residence and study place. (His detailed notice appears in the Jerusalem chapter.)
Buried in the Oufran cave. His epitaph: « Gravestone of Rav Shlomo bar-Massoud », dated to the year « Ha'emanti » (1746). Cited by Rabbi Yosef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Buried in Oufran; his epitaph is dated the year 5557 (1797). Cited by S. Vanunu (Arzei HaLevanon).
Son of Rabbi Yaakov ben-Chabbat. Buried in the cave of Oufran; his epitaph is dated the year 5507 (1747). Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Venerated tzaddik whose tomb is located in Aghzou Bahammou, near Taroudant, in southern Morocco. Numerous accounts of miracles are attributed to him: a luminous crystal menora appearing one Seder evening, the healing of a visitor who had gone blind, and the punishment of a dishonest associate, for his curses came to pass. It is also told that a wealthy French merchant, saved from the gallows after invoking his name three times, subsequently had the road leading to his isolated tomb paved.
Holy from birth, descended from a lineage of Kabbalists; his father, the great Kabbalist Rabbi Baroukh El-Kbir ("the Great"), traced the family to Baroukh ben Neriah, disciple of Jeremiah. The family is said to have migrated from Egypt to Sudan and then to the mountains of the Moroccan Atlas. Known as "HaCohen Azoug" (Azoug = "the great" in Berber), he lived successively in Imine-Taga (Mantaga), Oulad Berhil, then Aghzou n'Ba-Hmou, near Taroudant, where he is buried. Tradition holds he was an emissary (shadar) sent from Jerusalem to collect funds; he married, through the intermediation of Rabbi Khalifa ben-Malka of Agadir, a woman older than himself. Numerous miracles are attributed to him (the "holy name" engraved on his forehead blinding whoever looked upon him; the rescue and conversion to benevolence of the governor "n'Ba-Hmou"). Died on 3 Tevet 5521 (1761), his tomb is a great pilgrimage site (hiloula on 3 Tevet), under the patronage of Moroccan authorities. He left numerous unpublished Kabbalah manuscripts.
Son of Rabbi Yosef Knafo, he was grand rabbi (rav rashi) of the city of Mogador (Essaouira). Paternal grandfather of the writer and researcher Asher Knafo.
Member of the inner circle (Chevraya Kadisha) of Dov Ber of Mezeritch, he was, with his brother Zusha of Anipoli, one of the founders of Galician Hasidism. Author of the Noam Elimelech, he developed therein the doctrine of the interceding tsaddik. He formed an entire generation of masters: the Seer of Lublin, the Maggid of Koznitz, Menachem Mendel of Rymanov, Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta, Naftali Zvi of Ropshitz, Moshe Leib of Sassov, Klonymos Kalman Epstein.
Rabbi, judge and liturgical poet of Meknes in the eighteenth century, author of the collection Chir Yedidot ("Song of Friendships"), piyyutim very popular in Morocco.
Rabbi of Oran among the notable rabbis of the city, appointed assessor of the first rabbinical court of Oran created in 1835 (presided over by Rabbi Messaoud Darmon).
According to the onomastic entry drawing on Maurice Eisenbeth, a Rabbi Josué Sidoun appears among the signatories of the « Approbation » of the Algiers rabbinate for the Rabbinical Consultations of Sémah and Simon (printed in Livorno in 1782).
Moroccan sage born around 1680, probably in Tétouan, he studied under the sages of Fès and Safi and lived many years in Tétouan before settling in Agadir, where he served as rabbi and judge in the rabbinical court. A wealthy merchant whose ships sailed the world, he chose to conduct his own affairs without intermediaries, out of concern for honesty, while making study his principal occupation. A great grammarian and poet, he devoted a central part of his life to correcting and establishing versions of prayers and to defending the liturgical customs of Morocco. Praised by the Hida (who nicknames him "the Hassid" and "he who is versed in miracles"), he was reputed as one of the greatest rabbis of Morocco of his time. According to Agadir tradition, in his great age (over 80 years), he prayed on Yom Kippur itself that his ships laden with cargo would sink to prove that his fortune meant nothing compared to his love of God; ruined at the end of his life, he died on 2 Eloul after 1760 and was buried in the old cemetery of Agadir.
Wealthy merchant trading between Oufran and Mogador (Essaouira). Become a widower already with ten children, he married a young woman and brought her to Oufran. When the Bacha of Oufran wanted to force the Jews to Islam and built a bonfire for eight days, Makhlouf, whose eighth day coincided with the circumcision of his son, obtained permission to circumcise the child first before being thrown into the fire. He died a martyr with his other sons for the sanctification of the Name, while his young wife escaped through the window with the infant.
Lived in the eighteenth century. Counted among the sages of Safi, he served as scribe at the rabbinical court. He appears as a signatory to a receipt of testimony dated 1785 in the responsa « Tokpo chel Yossef » (Part I, §26).
Sage of Moroccan origin, he was among the disciples of the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Louria). His detailed note appears in the encyclopedia under the entry devoted to the city of Safed.
Half-brother (maternal) of the Baba Sali, known as a wise, shrewd and spiritual man in all matters, always filled with joy. He engaged in small commerce and his hilloula is celebrated on 24 Kislev. It is told how, denounced to the cruel governor during the rebellion of the Arabs against the French, he escaped death through his shrewdness and cunning by offering gifts to his informer.
Lived, according to conjecture, in the first half of the 18th century or at the end of the 17th. Counted among the sages of Safi, he was there moreh-tzedek and grand Talmudic master.
Member of the family of saints « Aït Nahmiash » of Ouarzazate. His hilloula, celebrated on the 15th of Elul, brought together numerous Jews from the city and surrounding villages.
Rabbi in Sefrou in the 18th century; the surname Bonafad (origin probably Provençal, "good feast" = translation of Yom Tov) is a Moroccan Jewish name documented by the Toledano list.
At the end of the 18th century, Rabbi Moïse Crief lived in Tunis; he is cited as the author of a commentary on the Talmudic treatise Nazir. He constitutes the first notable attestation of the patronym Krief/Crief according to onomastic notices (based on Maurice Eisenbeth, Les Juifs de l'Afrique du Nord, 1936).
Grandson of Rabbi Shmouel Amar; in the biographical notice opening the "Dvar Shmouel", he reports the existence of the former Jewish cemetery of Tazda in Ouarzazate, purchased by the Jews since time immemorial.
From Salé, author of "Méarat Sdé haMakhpela", abbreviated in verse of "Otsrot Haïm".
Son of Rabbi Makhlouf Knafo. An infant circumcised during the events of Oufran, he was saved from the pyre: his mother bound him to her back, escaped from the window with sheets and, after three months of wandering, reached Mogador (Essaouira), his face and hands blackened by the sun. He is the ancestor through whom the Knafo family connects to the « Burned of Oufran ».
Buried in the cave of Oufran. His epitaph is dated the year 5511 (1751), in the eighteenth century. Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, hasidic master and storyteller of genius. His Tales (Sippurei Maasiot) are allegorical narratives of unheard-of mystical depth. His teaching — "The whole world is a very narrow bridge; the essential thing is not to be afraid" — remains alive in Bratslav Hasidism.
Kabbalist of Fès, author of « Tzenif Meloukha ».
His biography is unknown; according to tradition he came to Morocco as an emissary (shadar) from the Land of Israel to collect funds for the poor and the students of the yeshivas. He is buried at the summit of the high mountain Jbel Lekaria, near Aït Bayout. Venerated tzaddik, his tomb was long modest and of difficult access, and numerous accounts of miracles are attached to it.
Son of the great rabbi Rabbi Yossef Amar, he appears as a signatory of the old deed of purchase of the Tazda cemetery in Ouarzazate, a document preserved by R. David Tanzi of Marrakech.
Yemenite poet, brother (or close relative) of the negid Shalom Mansoura of Sanaa. He lived in precarity, wandering from place to place, as he writes in the colophon of a prayerbook of 1832. His main work, in rhymed prose, is considered the last maqama composed in Yemen.
Yemenite sage born in Sanaa, renowned for his halakhic learning; he was an advisor (« chief of advisors ») to the imam, as reported by Yaakov Sapir during his visit to Yemen in 1859. He left several works on halakha, especially on the laws of ritual slaughter.
Famous kabbalist, author of the « Mikdash Melekh », commentary on the Zohar. He was the disciple of Rabbi Abraham Azoulay of Marrakech.
Father of Rabbi Mishaël Makhlouf Dahan, established in Zagoura (south Morocco), whose genealogy is said by the family to trace back to King David. He died when his son Mishaël was about five years old.
Reputed disciple of Rabbi Yossef Pinto; according to the account, he appeared at his side to the Jews of Ouarzazate going up to the Land of Israel on the Tichka road.
Dayan (rabbinical judge) of the city of Sefrou. Under the reign of Sultan Moulay el-Yazid (1790-1792), he was imprisoned with his colleague Rabbi Shlomo Abitbol, seemingly following false accusations from the governor Hajj Abed el-Kebir. Heavy fines were imposed on them and they were only released after payment.
Descendant of the Ouazana lineage, he has presided for about fifty years over the hilloula of Rabbi Avraham Ouazana celebrated in Netanya, Israel, in continuity with the one that once took place with great pomp on the saint's tomb in Morocco.
Tsadik buried at the top of a steep hill facing the tomb of Rabbi Yitzhak Israël Halevi, near Bzou. A miraculous spring gushing forth is reported there.
Dayan (rabbinical judge) of Sefrou. Under Moulay el-Yazid (1790-1792), he was imprisoned along with the dayan Rabbi Shaoul Yeshoua Abitbol following accusations by the city's governor, and freed only after payment of heavy fines.
Counted among the most renowned and venerated tzaddikim of Morocco, especially in the southern region, he is buried approximately 2 km from the village of Aghbalou, in the Ourika valley; his hiloula takes place at Lag Ba'omer. According to a tradition, he was originally from Eretz Israël and came to Morocco in ancient times, his name appearing in the lists of Demnat among seven rabbis who came for conversions; another tradition says he came as an emissary (chadar) to collect money for the benefit of the poor and yeshiva students. His first stop was Marrakech, which he left due to disagreement with the local rabbis. He is linked by very many legends to the motif of the serpent, which variously explains his nickname « Belhanch », and the miracle of water gushing from his tomb is reported.
Brother of Rabbi Abraham Tanji; his remains were transferred from Ouarzazate to Israel and buried at Har haMenouhot.
Erudite Talmudist from Tunis, who studied at the yeshiva of Rabbi Raphaël El-Fassi. Went to Nabeul in 1773 to stay with his daughter, wife of Rabbi Mardochée El-Guez. Died in 1774, he became the object of popular veneration, with a pilgrimage held at his tomb.
According to tradition, he was originally from the Land of Israel, one of the ten sages who came long ago from Eretz Israel to Morocco. It is said that, pursued by brigands while riding, he entered a rock where he disappeared; the Muslims made it a holy place and built a dome above it. He then appeared in a dream to a local Jew to indicate to him the place of his burial in Ouarzazate, where Jews began to gather from then on.
Sage of Marrakesh, presented as companion of Rabbi Abraham Azoulay.
One of the two great kabbalists of the Taroudant circle, author of "HaPerah Shoshan", rediscovered by the recent publication of his manuscripts.
Saint of the Nahmiash family of Ouarzazate, on whom few details remain. Tradition reports that when the French wanted to trace a road crossing the cemetery, the engineer charged with the plans was struck by muteness on the spot; the incident was attributed to the attempt to harm the tsadik's tomb, and the place was thereafter respected.
Sage of Marrakech, presented as companion of Rabbi Abraham Azoulay.
Chief (manhig) of the Jewish community of Oran and last of the fifty martyrs burned alive for refusing to convert to Islam, an episode known as the « Burned of Oran ». According to sources, the event took place around 1775, 1790 or 1792 (Dr Issachar Ben-Ami gives the year 5552 / 1792). He encouraged his faithful to die for the sanctification of the Name; when his turn came, he tore off his gold ring to buy a jug of water, purified his hands, recited the Shema and threw himself into the fire. The fifty martyrs belonged to the families Afriat, Knafo, Chriki, Sebbag and Amselem.
Saint buried in Ouarzazate, whose very existence was little known before Shaul Tanji discovered it during a guided visit. An imposing complex (hotel, synagogue, hilloula hall, ohel and marble stele) stands on his tomb. The epitaph describes him as a holy rabbi « from a pure stem of the lineage of Aaron, versed in miracles, answering barren women and healing the sick » and gives his name, Yihya ben-Baroukh HaCohen Azoug; the date of his death does not appear there.
An upright man fearing God, he counted among the notables and the wealthy of Erfoud. A great grain merchant owning stores of wheat and barley, he consulted the Baba Sali when heavy rains, on a day of Passover, caused his grains to ferment: the master ordered everything burned as hametz, which was done during hol ha-moëd. Tradition also reports his exchange with the Baba Sali on how to support Rabbi Moshé Tourjeman, in the manner of Issachar and Zebulun.
Served as shohet-bodek (ritual slaughterer) in the community of Guercif, a town near Oujda, close to the Algerian border. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi Mishaël Makhlouf Dahan, who married his daughter Rachel.
Tunisian rabbi listed among the Sages of Tunisia (fifth generation), author of the work Ushvuto le-Yitzhak (1825).
Surnamed « Moul el-Berj » (master of the tower) and, by Muslims, « Sidi Mohammed el-Mashzouz / el-Mokhfi ». According to tradition, he is numbered among the tsadikim who came from the Land of Israel, appearing on the list of seven or ten rabbis who came to Morocco for missionary purposes, cited in the work of Dr Issachar Ben-Ami « The Saints of Morocco and Their Wonders ». His hilloula takes place in the month of Hechvan.
Born in Erfoud, he was ordained by the Baba Sali, the Baba Haki and Rabbi Meïr, son of the Baba Sali. He exercised as a shohet-bodek, mohel, teacher (melamed) and preacher (darshan), and was distinguished especially by his fear of Heaven. The work « Maor Israell » reports that the Baba Sali gave letters of approbation only to a few chosen ones, of which this author was one.
Counted among the sages of Safi, he was scribe of deeds at the rabbinical court alongside Rabbi Yossef Korkos. Both of them, with other rabbis, signed in 1750 in a responsa of Rabbi Eliézer d'Avila concerning the reception of testimony.
Rabbi of Fès very concerned with the preservation of his writings, fearing they might suffer the fate of the lost books of other sages. His library contained more than 10,000 works; solicited by academic institutions, he always refused to part with them, saying « my books are my sons ». After his death, his sons sold the collection to a « University College » in New York; after fumigation, the books caught fire in a warehouse and most of them burned, only a few remaining.
Disciple of Rabbi Yits'haq Lumbroso, president of the rabbinical court of Tunis, he trained more than a hundred students according to the iyoun method. Author of several published works (by E. Moshe Hayim Zeitoun).
Chief Rabbi described as « holy and ascetic hassid » (חסידא קדישא ופרישא), father of Rabbi Reouven Amar, associated with the old act of the cemetery of Tazda in Ouarzazate.
Son of Rabbi Yaakov Cohen buried in Taznakht, he served as dayan and co-signed decisions with the rabbis of Mogador (Essaouira), who described him as "the perfect sage, pious and withdrawn, versed in miracles, whose prayer never returned empty". The tradition connects one of his holy ancestors to the hasidim gathered around the kabbalist Shalom Sharabi to hasten the coming of the Messiah. He died and was buried in Ouarzazate.
Son of the kabbalist Rabbi Yaakov Pinto of Marrakech (uncle of the famous Rabbi Haïm Pinto the Great), he counted among the sages of Marrakech, where he co-signed a rabbinic judgment in 1748. Reputed to be « versed in miracles », he left Marrakech for Ouarzazate — according to tradition, on account of a prayer intention (kavana) divergent from that of the kabbalists of Marrakech — and held there a yeshiva of thirty-five students near Taourirt. He co-signed another judgment with the sages of Marrakech in 1778. His work « Lekah Tov » (sermons on the Torah, in three parts) has recently been published; he is buried in Ouarzazate.
Kabbalist of the Taroudant circle, author of « Guinot Bitan », revealed by the recent publication of his manuscripts.
Son of Rabbi Moshé Knafo, tzadik of Mogador (Essaouira) reputed to have written dozens of works.
Cited by Shaul Tanji among the saints of Ouarzazate on whom no biographical detail is preserved (to be distinguished from Rabbi Yossef Nahmiash, son of Rabbi David, who taught in Marrakech).
Tsadik buried in Ouarzazate. According to the account reported in "Keter Kedoucha" (history of the dynasty of the tsadikkim Pinto), he appeared with two of his disciples to the Jews of Ouarzazate ascending to the Land of Israel, on the road of Tichka, introducing himself: "I am Rabbi Yossef Pinto".
Cited by Shaul Tanji among the saints of Ouarzazate on whom no biographical details are preserved.
Russian rabbi born in Sloboda, a suburb of Bauske in Courland, in 1758, and died in Bauske in 1830, descended through his mother from Mordekhai Jaffé, author of the Lebushim. Rabbi of Bauske from 1800 to 1830, he is the author of responsa (« Gedullat Mordekhaï ») and sermons (« Parachat Mordekhaï »), published after his death by his grandson Rabbi Bär Rabbiner together with his own responsa.
German translator of the Mishna and Talmud, born in 1710 in Lindflur, Lower Franconia, and died on February 12, 1798; chaplain of the city of Ansbach. Moses Mendelssohn praised him in 1771 in a letter to Herder for his patience as a Talmudist. He notably published his annotated translation of the Mishna from 1760 in Ansbach, then the treatises Berakhot (Halle, 1777) and Peah (Ansbach, 1781).
Hebrew poetess of Trieste, one of the first women maskilot.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Shlomo Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-3.
Rabbi of Safi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 107-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 107–4.
Dayan (judge) in Marrakech from 5596, then av beit din (president of the rabbinical court) and rabbi of the city until his death. Kabbalist renowned for his piety and erudition throughout Morocco in the 19th century. He studied in the yeshivot of R. Chelomo Asbag and R. Yossef Harosh. He signed his responsa with the acronym RMBM (Rafael Masoud Ben Moha). His court rendered hundreds of decisions.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Born in 5466 (1706), died in 5529 (1769) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-1.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
Lithuanian Talmudist of the 18th century born in Wilna, brother of Elijah b. Solomon, the Gaon of Vilna. Preacher in Chklov, he is the author of "Ma'alot ha-Torah" (2nd ed., Königsberg, 1851), a collection of Talmudic passages celebrating the study of the Torah.
Polish rabbi and Hebrew scholar died in Eibenschütz, in Moravia, in November 1707, where he exercised after leaving Krakow. He owes his notoriety to the « Leshon Naḳi », one of the best Hebrew epistolary manuals of his time, first appeared in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1689 and several times reissued; he also leaves in manuscript a « Merkebet ha-Mishnah », which concludes by describing a fire that occurred in Plock.
Austrian pedagogue born in Randegg on February 9, 1780 and died in Trieste on March 12, 1853. Educated in Switzerland, Bavaria and Pressburg, he first taught in Vienna then settled in Trieste, where he opened a private school and spent most of his life, except for the years 1838 to 1847 devoted to teaching in Fiume and Fiorenzuola; he also served occasionally as rabbi in 1832 and 1834. He published « Ẓinnat Dawid » (Vienna, 1841) and a « Haggada » (1851), translated into Italian by his daughter.
Talmudist and author, born in Livonia on 4 November 1722, died in Altona on 26 November 1803. Trained in Minsk under Aryeh Löb ben Asher, whose successor he becomes at the head of the yeshiva in 1742, he is called to the rabbinate of Rakov in 1744, then to that of Vilkomir in 1747, before becoming chief rabbi of Minsk in 1757 then of Pinsk. In 1771, he travels to Berlin to publish his Torat Yekutiel (Berlin, 1772), then becomes rabbi of Posen that same year and takes charge of the « Three Communities » of Altona, Hamburg and Wandsbeck, which he serves for twenty-three years, as a fierce opponent of Mendelssohn.
Dayan and great scholar of Meknès, reference authority of Moroccan Judaism.
Father of the physician and poet Emanuel Calvo, designated in the encyclopedic notice devoted to his son as a man of learning (« his learned father »). He left Salonique for Livorno with his son while still young, at the turn of the 18th century — a move that established this branch of the lineage in the Sephardic community of Livorno. The documentation concerning him does not, as far as the sources consulted are concerned, go beyond this mention.
rabbi
Ottoman rabbi
Italian rabbi
English rabbi
chief Rabbi of Israel from 1756 to 1771
Hasidic rabbi and theologian
Swiss rabbi
Rabbi and decisioner of Aleppo from 1740 until his death; at the heart of the Franco controversy in the 1760s.
German physician and writer born in Raschkow, in the province of Posen, in 1798, and died on August 2, 1870. Trained in Hebrew by his father, a local rabbi, he becomes a tutor in Neisse and then studies medicine at the University of Budapest; appointed surgeon in the Austrian army, he must resign because of his writings in favor of Jewish emancipation, briefly practices in Mad, in Tokay County, then devotes himself to tutoring and writing. He publishes in his youth the dramatic poem "Amnon we-Tamar" (Breslau, 1832) and composes shortly before his death his own epitaph, in which he recounts his life.
Hebrew poet born in Vilkoviškis, in Lithuania, in 1793, and died in London on September 11, 1877. First a merchant in his native city, he is part of the delegation that receives Sir Moses Montefiore during his visit to Russia in 1846, then settles in London in 1848, where he occupies for nearly a quarter of a century the position of librarian of the bet ha-midrash. Hebrew scholar and erudite talmudist endowed with real poetic talent, he publishes numerous Hebrew compositions and was considered, for nearly thirty years, as the unofficial poet of the London community.
American Jewish philanthropist and educator (1781-1869), founder of the first Hebrew Sunday School in the United States (1838) and a founding member of the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society of Philadelphia; Gratz College is named in her honor.
Danish merchant and author born in Fredericia, in Jutland, on October 12, 1778, and died in Copenhagen on October 1, 1859. He takes over his father's business upon his death while studying Jewish philosophy under the itinerant master Eleazar Lisser, and becomes one of the richest men in Jutland through maritime trade and industry. First Danish Jew to obtain full citizenship, in 1814, he finances the first synagogue in Aarhus and covers its costs (1820-25); settled in Copenhagen in 1850, he publishes « Forschungen über die Ueberschriften der Psalmen » (Leipzig, 1846) and is the father of Anton, Bernhard Philip and Julius Ree.
Rabbi and Italian Kabbalist born in Ferrara in 1755 and died in Gorizia on January 8, 1842. Trained by Samuel Lampronti, he teaches Hebrew to children from wealthy Jewish families and then becomes the son-in-law of Abraham Morpurgo, whose lessons he follows in Gradisca; appointed teacher of the Talmud at the Talmud Torah of Gorizia, he succeeded his master Moïse Ḥefeẓ as rabbi in 1798, a position he held until his death and in which he exercised authority, consulted notably by Mordekhaï Benet. He published "Tiglaḥat ha-Ma'amar" (Livorno, 1844), a refutation of his son Isaac Reggio's work.
Scholar and rabbi born in Gorizia, Illyria, on August 15, 1784, and died in that city on August 29, 1855, son of rabbi Abraham Vita Reggio. Trained in Hebrew and rabbinic studies by his father, he distinguished himself early by a gift for mathematics, publishing in 1802 the solution to a problem considered difficult and discovering a proof of the Pythagorean theorem praised by Cauchy. Tutor in Trieste from 1803, he returned to Gorizia in 1807, then devoted himself to Jewish literature after being removed from his chair by Austrian anti-Jewish laws; he published in Venice in 1822 a call for the creation of a rabbinical seminary.
Italian rabbi and grammarian born in Ferrara in 1774 and died in 1837, on the 1st of Elul. Student of Graziadio Neppi and Joseph David Bassano, who made him his assistant at the Talmud Torah in Ferrara, he succeeded the latter as rabbi, in association with Shabbetaï Elhanan Pesaro, then became head of the Spanish synagogue upon the death of the latter; he founded several religious institutions in his community.
German pedagogue born in 1792 in Altdorf-im-Breisgau and died in 1842 in Heidelberg. Teacher in schools in Gailingen, Basel and Bühl from 1809 to 1816, he was appointed in 1819 « Israelitischer Oberlehrer und Prediger » by the Grand Duke of Baden and received a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1834. He published « Imre Emet », on the admissibility of confirmation among Israelites (Heidelberg, 1830), « Leshon Yehudit », a Judeo-German manual (1833), and « Sefer ha-Ḥayyim », a collection of devotions for the afflicted (1839).
Austrian rabbi born in Prague and died in Metz in February 1733, son of Rabbi Joseph, author of the « Gib'ot 'Olam », and son-in-law of R. Simon Spira of Prague, he was dayyan in Prague before being called to the rabbinate of Rzeszow, in Galicia — whence his name Reischer —, then to that of Anspach, then to Worms from 1713 to 1719, and finally to Metz where he officiated until his death. He is the author of numerous works on halakha, including the « Minḥat Ya'aḳob » (Prague, 1689) and the responsa in three parts of the « Shebut Ya'aḳob » (Halle, 1709 ; Offenbach, 1719 ; Metz, 1789).
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5502 of the Hebrew era (1742). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-3.
Rabbi of Fez, 18th century. Died in 5473 of the Hebrew era (1713). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 104-2.
Rabbi of Tangier. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 104-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Alsatian deputy to the French National Assembly from 1789 to 1791, which he presided over in that last year; born in Colmar on October 8, 1747 and died in that city on November 23, 1807. During the debate on the emancipation of Jews at the end of December 1789, he opposed, with Abbot Maury and several bishops, the motion of Clermont-Tonnerre supported by Robespierre and Mirabeau, deeming it dangerous to grant full citizenship to the Jews of Alsace; despite this opposition, the Assembly declared Jews French citizens on September 27, 1791. Remaining true to his republican convictions, he withdrew from political life after the coup d'État of 1799.
Talmudist and American rabbi born in 1800 in Gagsheim, near Würzburg, in Bavaria, and died in Baltimore on October 29, 1862. Ordained rabbi by Abraham Bing of Würzburg, then trained under Wolf Hamburger, he emigrated to America in 1840 and became the first rabbi of the Nidḥé Israël congregation of Baltimore, a position he held until 1849 before becoming a merchant, while serving free of charge for a small congregation; recalled to the rabbinate of the Hebrew Congregation of Baltimore in 1862, he died shortly after. A renowned Talmudist and a resolute opponent of Reform, he founded in 1845 one of the first Hebrew schools in the United States.
German rabbi born in 1763 in the Riess valley and died on March 7, 1828 in Hamburg, father of Gabriel Riesser. Chosen as son-in-law by Raphael b. Jekoutiel Süsskind ha-Cohen, rabbi of Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbeck, he serves as secretary of the bet din of Altona until his father-in-law's resignation in 1799, then follows him to Hamburg where he embarks without great success in business. He then writes, in classical Hebrew, his father-in-law's biography, « Ma'alele Ish », published with two sermons by the latter under the title « Zeker Ẓaddiḳ » (Altona, 1805); forced to take refuge in Lübeck during the Russian blockade of Hamburg in 1813, he returns there in 1816.
Economist and French reformer born in Bordeaux on 16 October 1794 and died in Paris on 26 December 1850. Trained at the École Normale Supérieure and later assistant at the École Polytechnique, he met Saint-Simon in 1823 and converted to his doctrine; after his master's death, he founded the journal « Le Producteur », which he directed from 1825, then organized the Saint-Simonian disciples into a sect in 1829 before ceding its direction to Bazard and Enfantin, from whom he separated in late 1831. Having become a banker in 1832, he published « Poésies Sociales des Ouvriers » in 1841, supported the republic in 1848, and devoted his final years to a biography of Saint-Simon, published by Hubbard in 1857.
German physician born in Meiningen, Saxony, on November 11, 1795, and died in Berlin on June 16, 1873. A graduate in medicine from Berlin in 1817, he settled there the following year after a stay in Vienna, became physician to the poor in 1820 then privat-docent in 1830; he directed a Berlin hospital during the cholera epidemics of 1831 and 1837, became assistant professor in 1838 and was appointed full professor in 1845. A specialist in neuropathology, he published his « Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten » (1840-46), the first systematic exposition of nervous diseases, and received the title of « Geheime Medizinalrath » in 1851 before retiring in 1867.
Galician Hebraist author born in Dynów, near Przemyśl, on 21 October 1797, and died in Sosnica on 5 June 1885. Educated in Talmud, Hebrew and German in Przemyśl and then Brody from the age of seven, he becomes around 1830 ritual slaughterer in Sosnica, where he spends the rest of his life. He publishes a commentary on « Beḥinat 'Olam » (Przemyśl, 1872), another on « Or ha-Ḥayyim » by J. Yabetz with an appendix on the origin of Kabbalah (1873), and an annotated edition of Job (Lemberg, 1875), while contributing to periodicals such as « Ha-Maggid ».
German rabbi born in Markt Uhlfeld, Bavaria, on January 4, 1780, and died in Bamberg on May 12, 1862. Trained at the yeshiva of Fürth from age thirteen, he was elected in 1808 rabbi of Uhlfeld, where he served without salary and founded a school; he had a new synagogue dedicated in 1819 and preached in German, a rare practice among Bavarian rabbis of his time. The law of June 10, 1813 forced him to retake a university examination; he was elected in 1826 rabbi of Bamberg, a position he held until his death, and campaigned for the emancipation of Bavarian Jews. He edited the « Stunden der Andacht für Israeliten » (Dinkelsbühl, 1834).
Orientalist and Christian theologian born on December 10, 1768 in Hesselberg and died in Leipzig on September 17, 1835, trained at Erlangen, Giessen and Leipzig under his father, of whom he becomes adjunct professor of Arabic in 1796. He devotes much of his life to his « Scholia in Vetus Testamentum », in twenty-four parts (Leipzig, 1788-1835), which form the foundation of 19th-century Old Testament exegesis, as well as to his « Handbuch der Biblischen Alterthumskunde » (Leipzig, 1831); he also publishes annotated editions of Bochart's « Hierozoicon » (1796) and Lowth's « Prælectiones » (1815), as well as a pocket Hebrew Bible (Halle, 1822).
Hungarian scholar born on June 13, 1764 in Moór, Hungary, died in Pesth on April 8, 1845. Trained by Mordecai Benet, future chief rabbi of Moravia, and by Meïr Barby, at the head of the yeshiva of Pressburg, he devoted himself to commerce while cultivating Jewish literature and corresponding with Hartwig Wessely and Isaac Euchel, before settling in Pesth in 1819. He is the author of « Bet Awen » (Ofen, 1839), a pamphlet against Creizenach, Luzzatto and Reggio, and published the « Ari Nohem » of Leo da Modena, accompanied by a preface and notes.
Christian Hebraist born on 25 October 1742 in Castelnuovo, died in Parma in March 1831. Appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Parma in 1769, he devotes himself to the typographical, bibliographical and textual study of the Hebrew Old Testament, collecting manuscripts and early editions for his major works « Annales Hebræo-Typographici » (1795) and « Variæ Lectiones Veteris Testamenti » (1784-88), the most complete collection of variants of the Hebrew text of his time. He also published a historical dictionary of Hebrew authors (1802) and an anti-Christian bibliography (1800).
Austrian actor, nephew of composer Ignaz Moscheles, born in Prague on September 17, 1797 and died in Berlin in 1860, one of the most prominent actors of his time and a favorite of the Prussian public and the king. Destined for commerce, he chose the stage, making his debut in Vienna in 1817 in Schiller's "The Robbers", then became in 1821 the leading actor of the Theater an der Wien, where he remained until 1829, before joining the Hoftheater in Leipzig as stage manager; he began a lifetime engagement at the Hoftheater in Berlin in 1832, then performed in Vienna in 1840 and, seven years later, in Prague.
Hungarian composer born in Balassa-Gyarmath in 1787, died in Pesth on January 23, 1848. Trained in Vienna, Pressburg and Prague, he became one of the most popular violinists of his time through works inspired by Magyar songs, then conductor of the German Theatre in Pesth in 1812 and member of the Philharmonic Society of Veszprém County in 1824, the year his name was officially Magyarized. He performed at the Vienna Court Opera in 1835 and counted several renowned Romani musicians among his students.
German jurist born in Halberstadt on 9 June 1794, died in Berlin on 13 March 1866. After serving as a volunteer in the war against Napoleon, he studied law in Göttingen and Berlin, where he obtained his diploma in 1817; his religion, however, closed the doors to him for an academic career or the practice of law in several cities, and the legislation of 1822, which rendered Jews ineligible for academic posts, deprived him of his position as privat-docent in Halle. Settled in Berlin, he was appointed in 1824 « Syndikus » of the Jewish community, a position he held for twenty-five years before being removed in 1849 and then reinstated following a lengthy legal proceeding.
German historian and anti-Jewish pamphleteer born in Greifswald on 1 March 1781, died in Florence on 1 February 1820. Professor of history at the universities of Greifswald, Göttingen (1801-9) and Berlin (1810-1820), and historiographer of the Prussian State, he opposed, after the fall of Napoleon I, the emancipation of Jews in Germany, publishing in 1815 and then in 1816 writings arguing that Jews, forming a dispersed people governed by a rabbinical aristocracy, were not fit for citizenship. His texts, highly influential, sparked similar writings as well as refutations in defense of Jews.
The sole identified person bearing this name in the reference onomastic source: Sa'adiah Lahboz, 'Nagid' (sheikly leader) of the Jews of Taza around 1716. No other biographical details are provided by the source.
Rabbi of Fez, 18th century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-2.
Rabbi of Safi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi of Baiza, 18th century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Son of Yaakov. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-2.
Rabbi of Algiers, co-author with Judah Ayache of works describing the customs of the Jews of Algiers.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yosef. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
Turkish scholar of the eighteenth century, author of the « Maṭṭeh Asher » (Salonique, 1748), a collection of responsa, novellas on certain parts of the Yad ha-Ḥazaqah, laws on ritual slaughter according to the method of Jacob Weil, and sermons.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi of Tunis, son of Rabbi Yéhouda Samama and grandson, through his mother, of the chief rabbi of the Tunisian (native) community Nathan Borgel (d. 1792). He is the author of a rabbinical work, "Sheresh Ishi," published posthumously in Livorno in 1809 thanks to his brother Isaac Haï Semama. He is also the father of the famous qaid Nessim Samama.
Rabbinical judge of Marrakech recognized as an authority on Talmudic and legal matters; his decisions appear in the responsa of various Moroccan rabbis. Cited by the Encyclopaedia Judaica in the family entry "Sebag".
Salomon ben Simeon Wetzlar, of Fürth, is the author of an ethical code entitled Ḥakirot ha-Lev ("Examinations of the Heart"), printed in Amsterdam in 1731.
German banker
British rabbi
Jewish astronomer and poet of Baghdad, whose piyyoutim remain in Iraqi liturgy.
Self-taught Jewish philosopher born in Polish Lithuania, he went to Berlin and became one of the first great critics of Kantian philosophy. Kant himself acknowledged the acuteness of his objections. He took the name "Maimon" in homage to Maimonides. His autobiography is a major document of the Haskalah and the transition from traditional Judaism of Eastern Europe to German philosophy.
Austrian banker and businessman (1774-1855)
banquier allemand
German rabbi and Bible commentator
Salomon Chalem b. Ḥayyim Yeḥiel Cohen, rabbi of the second half of the 18th century, died in Amsterdam in 1781. He resided successively in Andrinople, Bologna, Sofia and Amsterdam, where he served as rabbi of the Portuguese community, and published « Divré Chelomoh » (Amsterdam, 1753), a collection of sermons on the Pentateuch, « Choné Halakhot », commentary on « Halakhot Guedolot » (1762), and « Lev Chalem », notes on the « Yad ha-Ḥazaqa » of Maimonides (1773).
American financier born in Lissa, Poland, in 1740, died in Philadelphia on January 6, 1785. Established in New York, where he married Rachel, daughter of Moses B. Franks, he embraced the American cause during the Revolution and was arrested as a spy after the British occupation of New York in 1776; released thanks to his mastery of languages, he helped prisoners escape before fleeing New York in 1778 to settle in Philadelphia. Having become a reputed exchange broker, from 1781 he became the principal agent of the Superintendent of Finances Robert Morris for the negotiation of bills of exchange that supported the credit of the young American government.
Myer Salomon, founder of the synagogue of St Alban's Place in London, was born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century and died on December 31, 1840. Appointed in 1824 to the head of the Denmark Court congregation, he plays a leading role in the founding of the new place of worship at St Alban's Place, dedicated on September 7, 1826, where he often officiates as preacher and as hazzan, while exercising the functions of mohel and chohet. He delivers in 1830 a funeral sermon at the death of George IV and composes several Hebrew hymns.
Born in Monte San Savino (Tuscany). Trained in Jewish studies in Siena and an avid reader of Italian poetry, he corresponded with Metastasio, Cesarotti, Monti and Alfieri. Teacher of Italian in the Jewish community of Livorno (1801–1808). His poetry, rooted in Italian literary tradition, is imbued with biblical references and a religiosity drawn from Jewish sources.
Bene Israel officer in the 6th Battalion of the British East India Company Army, captured during the Mysore Wars by Tipu Sultan and spared, according to tradition, because he was Jewish. He made a vow to erect a synagogue and founded in 1796 in Bombay the Shaar ha-Rahamim Synagogue (« Gate of Mercy »), the first Bene Israel synagogue and the oldest in the city.
Russian talmudist, member of a prominent rabbinic family, born in Smiela around 1780, died in Brody on 17 July 1854. Devoted to the history of rabbinic literature, he drafted several genealogical essays that remained unpublished, and published under the name « Eliakim ben Juda ha-Milzahagi » his only published work, the « Sefer Rabiyah » (Ofen, 1837), a critique of Zunz's « Gottesdienstliche Vorträge » and of Rapoport's biography of Kalir.
German author of Hebrew books for children, born in Kempen, in the province of Posen, on December 29, 1789, died in Breslau on April 29, 1864. Tutor then private teacher in Breslau until 1822, he then turned to business before returning, after setbacks, to literature toward the end of his life. Prolific author of tales for children in Hebrew, often adapted from German, and of manuals of religious instruction, including « Ger Ẓedeq » (Breslau, 1816) and a three-part work on learning Hebrew (1834).
Galician maskil, author of Shevilei Olam, the first general geography in Hebrew.
Born in Mantua on September 19, 1757, died in Casale Monferrato on October 17, 1814. Polyglot (about ten languages), figure of the renaissance of modern Hebrew literature. Spent four years in Morocco, from which he drew his famous travel narrative Massa ba-Arav (Berlin, 1792). Translated Pope into Hebrew and composed poems, dramas and a Hebrew-Italian grammar.
Russian rabbi born around 1720, died in 1793 in Wilna, where his father had served as rabbi. Son-in-law of Juda b. Eliézer, called "Yesod", the most influential citizen of Wilna, he was chosen in 1750, while still young, as rabbi of the ancient community of Wilna, although his father-in-law long administered the position, then became rabbi of Smorgon and, it seems, of Königsberg around 1777. That same year, the community council of Wilna decided to remove him, provoking a bitter quarrel where civil and ecclesiastical authorities opposed each other ; Samuel, taking refuge with his supporters in the suburb of Antokol, remained rabbi only in name, and Wilna had no titular rabbi thereafter.
German rabbi and scholar, possibly established in Frankfurt an der Oder, died July 6, 1707. He is the author of the « Peri Megadim », an alphabetical index of the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ of the Shulḥan Arukh, published in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1691.
Russian kabbalist who lived in Swislotz, in the government of Grodno, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He is the author of the « Shem Shemuel », kabbalistic interpretations of the Pentateuch justifying the commandments found therein, and cites in his preface another of his works, the « Yad Shemuel », devoted to the Psalms.
Born in Kolín in Bohemia, he directed for nearly sixty years a renowned yeshiva in Boskovice (Moravia), where he died in 1806, without ever holding an official rabbinical position. He is famous for his commentary Mahatsit ha-Shekel on the Shulchan Aruch (Orah Hayyim and Yoreh De'ah), a reference commentary still studied.
Dutch chief rabbi (1773-1838)
Born in Metz in 1796, he directed the school of the Consistoire israélite of Paris (1822-1836). He was the first to translate the Hebrew Bible into French for a Jewish audience: the first volume appeared in 1831, the complete work in 18 volumes (with Hebrew facing text and notes) was finished in 1851. This enterprise exercised great influence on a whole generation of French Judaism; he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1849.
rabbi of Prague
Samuel Lasry, born in Tétouan (Morocco) in 1800, became Chief Rabbi of Gibraltar; he was related to Jacob Lasry, the merchant of Oran.
German rabbi
Czech rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
Medical degree from the University of Ferrare (1802), he practiced in Mantua where he was also a Hebrew scholar. He drafted commentaries, sermons and responsa (especially on medical questions) that remained in manuscript form, and collaborated with the journal Kerem Ḥemed. He maintained a correspondence with Samuel David Luzzatto. A great bibliophile, he assembled an important Hebrew library of which 131 manuscripts subsequently passed to Marco Mortara.
English financier born in 1782, died in London in 1860, from a Polish family with several eminent rabbis among its ancestors. Established early in business in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he acquired there a high position as a merchant and influence at court, contributing in 1821 to obtaining for the English permission to erect a church there and to practice Protestant worship publicly — a letter of thanks was addressed to him by the Protestants of Rio and read to Parliament in 1848. Returning to marry in London after a long stay in Brazil, he remained in favor at the Brazilian court, decorated with the Order of the Rose, and later received the title of baron from the Portuguese government.
English author born in London in 1795, died in Liverpool in 1860, renowned as a Hebraicist and authority on rabbinic literature. He published an address strongly protesting against attempts to convert Jews by missionary societies, as well as a pamphlet on the condition of Jews in Great Britain, and co-edited the monthly journal « The Cup of Salvation ». An activist for the emancipation of his coreligionists, he translated « The Book of Yashar » and Mendelssohn's « Jerusalem » (London, 1838).
Italian Talmudist who lived in Livorno in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of « Edout bi-Yehossef » (Livorno, 1800), in two volumes — the first of talmudic innovations on the Baba Meẓia treatise, the second a collection of responsa —, to which is annexed the « Leqaḥ Tov », innovations and responsa of his son Shem-Tov, rabbi of Livorno.
Rabbi and Yemenite kabbalist (the Rashash), head of the Bet El yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Indian convert to Christianity born in Cochin in 1795, died around 1855. Converted in 1818 by T. Jarrett of Madras, he became the first missionary in India of the London Society for the Propagation of Christianity among Jews, returned in 1820 to see his parents in Cochin, who received him with kindness, and was transferred in 1824 to Bombay, where he opened a school for Jewish children. His efforts in Cochin resulted in the baptism of one Jew and two Jewesses in 1828, after which the London society ceased its activities in India; he and his brother Abraham nevertheless continued for nearly thirty years in Bombay teaching the precepts of Judaism, without seeking to convert anyone.
Rabbi, Kabbalist and poet of Baghdad, author of piyyoutim and works of Kabbalah.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5476 of the Hebrew era (1716). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
Scholar and poet born in Satanow, Poland, in 1733, died in Berlin on December 25, 1805. Having left early for the Prussian capital in pursuit of knowledge, he became the protégé of Isaac Daniel and David Friedländer, who procured for him a position as tutor, orthodox in his beliefs but favorable to reform, an authority on Jewish tradition but a free-thinking spirit. His major work, the « Mishle Asaf », blends ancient biblical style with modern writing so well that his contemporaries hesitated to believe it authentic; he later evolved toward the sobriety of biblical writers, which earned him the distinction of being called a restorer of biblical poetry.
German rabbi
Dutch rabbi
Russian rabbi and printer, probably born in Koretz, in Volhynia, around 1758, died in Slavouta in 1838, son of the Hasidic rabbi Pinehas of Koretz. Rabbi of Slavouta from 1808, he published there an edition of the Talmud superior to previous ones (1808-13), imitated without success by the printers of Kopys (1816-28), then by a new edition by Schapiro himself (1817-22). Competition from the Romm of Wilna, who launched their own in 1836, provoked a very bitter dispute; his sons, continuing a third edition, are arrested on a false accusation, condemned to the knout and deported to Siberia — the eldest succumbing there, while the father, in his eighties, dies of grief shortly after.
Polish rabbi died in Lemberg on August 7, 1796, probably from Dobromil, first rabbi in Sale then preacher and president of the rabbinic tribunal in Lemberg until his death. He is the author of the « Shem mi-Shemuel » (Lemberg, 1817), collection of sermons on the Pentateuch followed by talmudic novellas.
German Talmudist born in the early eighteenth century in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, died in 1782 in Mainz, from an old Frankfurt family. Eminent student of Jacob Cohen, rabbi of Frankfurt, he was appointed dayan of that city, then, at an advanced age, called in 1759 as rabbi to Bamberg to succeed his father-in-law Nathan Utiz; held in high esteem, he negotiated in 1760, as arbiter between Jews and local authorities, an agreement ending long-standing disputes, but repeated attacks by an apostate Jew forced him to leave Bamberg. He accepted in 1767 the district rabbinate of Mainz, where he remained until his death.
Hungarian merchant and philanthropist, born in Güns (Köszeg) on September 20, 1798, died in Baden, near Vienna, on June 28, 1881. He was the first Jew of Hungary elevated to Austrian nobility: his patent, granted on May 13, 1859 by Francis Joseph I, mentions his services to the imperial dynasty during the 1848-1849 revolution as well as his great charity toward all suffering humanity, without distinction of creed.
Christian editor of Hebrew books, born in Zwettl, in Lower Austria, on 23 January 1765, died in Vienna on 27 June 1855. Entered in 1785 as an apprentice to the court printer Kurzbeck, whose Hebrew typefaces he purchased, he obtained from Emperor Francis II the privilege of printing Hebrew books, taking advantage in 1800 of the import ban to reprint the editions of Wolf Heidenheim; he notably published the Hebrew Bible with German translation and the commentary of the Biurists, the Talmud and the periodical Bikkure ha-'Ittim.
English physician, born in Cologne on August 14, 1714, died in London on May 4, 1780, son of Meyer Löw Schomberg. After studying medicine in Leiden, he settled in London, where his dispute with the Royal College of Physicians, which long refused to admit him despite his doctorate obtained by royal mandate at Cambridge in 1749, was resolved only with his admission as a licentiate on December 23, 1765; he subsequently obtained a fellowship in 1771 and was censor of the college in 1773 and again in 1778.
English physician and writer, born in Cologne on 14 August 1714, died in Reading, England, on 29 June 1792, twin brother of Isaac Schomberg. Trained at Merchant Taylor's School and then in medicine in Rotterdam, he first practiced in Yarmouth, was elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1752, then practiced successfully in Bath before retiring to Pangborne, Berkshire, and finally to Reading. A prolific author, he published numerous medical and literary works between 1746 and 1775, including A Treatise on the Colica Pictonum or Dry Belly-Ache (1764).
British naval officer, born in 1716, died in Dublin on 19 March 1804, younger son of Meyer Löw Schomberg. Entered the navy in 1743, he was promoted to lieutenant in 1747, took command of the Richmond in 1757 and then of the frigate Diana, which participated in 1760 in the defence of Quebec against a French attempt, and was knighted in 1777. He is the author of a maritime manual intended for young officers, published in 1789.
Hungarian Hebraist, born in Szenicz in 1778, died in Budapest on December 29, 1852. Teaching in several cities in Hungary and Moravia, he published notably Tseror Perahim, essays in prose and verse (Vienna, 1814), Moussar Haskel, a manual of morality for Jewish youth adapted from Campe (Prague, 1831), and Minha Beloula, a collection of prose and verse (Vienna, 1850).
Hungarian merchant and landowner, born in 1796 in Sasvár, died in Budapest on 25 March 1874. Enriched by his commercial, industrial and agricultural enterprises, notably in the tobacco industry, he was twice president of the Jewish community of Pest before 1861, then became in 1862 the first Hungarian Jew to be ennobled by Emperor Francis Joseph I, taking the name « De Torna ». His son Sigmund von Schossberger was made a baron in 1885, the first Jew so honored in Hungary.
German educator, born in Danzig on March 11, 1763 (or 1764), died in Seesen on July 21, 1846. An orphan from an early age, he was a tutor in Berlin in the house of banker Herz Beer, father of the composer Meyerbeer, before being called in 1804 as a teacher to the Jacobsonschule in Seesen, of which he became director in 1806; the same year, mandated by Jacobson, he went to Paris to present a memoir to the Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon. He retired from the school in 1838, in his seventy-fifth year.
German rabbi, born in Frankfurt am Main on September 14, 1763, died in Pressburg on October 3, 1839. Student from age nine of the yeshivah of R. Nathan Adler in Frankfurt, he impresses from age thirteen by his public lectures, then studies under R. Phinehas Horowitz and then R. Tebele Scheuer in Mainz, and becomes rabbi successively in Dresnitz (1798), Mattersdorf in Hungary, then from 1803 in Pressburg, where he directs a yeshivah frequented by several hundred students. In 1819, he vigorously opposes the nascent Reform movement in Hamburg.
Hungarian rabbi and talmudist, born in 1760 in Schwerin-on-the-Warthe, in the region of Posen, died on 15 January 1845, trained at the yeshivot of Presbourg and Prague. Established in Hungary in 1796, he was appointed rabbi of Szabadka in 1812 then of Baja in 1815, before being elected in 1827 Grand Rabbi of Hungary, with authority to settle religious and communal disputes throughout the country; in 1844, he participated in the rabbinical conference at Paks.
German-Jewish communal activist and scholar
German rabbi
Rabbinic author and cabalist of Tunis, active in the second half of the eighteenth century. He composed a kabbalistic treatise, the Ahavat Adonaï, commentary on the Idra Zouta, written in 1778 but not published until 1871, in Livorno, thanks to the efforts of natives of Tunis.
Polish Talmudist of the 17th and 18th centuries, born in Polotsk, died probably in Palestine. Preacher in Prague then in Kalisz, he went to Yaroslav after the death of Israel Darshan, then was from 1701 to 1711 beneficiary of the study house of Bärmann Levi in Halberstadt, which finally sent him to Palestine. He is the author of the Kessef Nivhar, a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch (Amsterdam, 1712), and of the Hibbouré Likkoutim (1715), a collection of novellas and talmudic responsa.
Talmudic scholar, active in the first half of the 18th century. He composed a commentary on the six orders of the Mishna, the Melo Kaf Nahat, bringing together explanations drawn from Rachi, Maimonides, Bertinoro and the Tossefot Yom Tov, as well as excerpts from the Kaf Nahat of Isaac ibn Gabbaï; his work was printed with the text of the Mishna in six volumes (Amsterdam, 1732; Offenbach, 1737), then taken up in the edition of the Mishna with German translation by Jost (Berlin, 1832-34).
English physician, born in Lisbon in 1738, died in London in November 1816, from a family of physicians. Trained at the University of Bordeaux and then at Leiden, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine on August 31st, 1758, he established himself in London, was admitted as a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on March 25th, 1771 and became honorary extraordinary physician to the regent prince of Portugal as well as physician to the Portuguese embassy at the court of Saint James. He lived to an advanced age and was, at his death, the dean of licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians.
Anti-Jewish author, born in Breslau on December 20, 1786, died in that city on December 4, 1813. Doctor of medicine from Frankfurt an der Oder in 1807 and district physician in his native city, he wrote the comedy Die Judenschule, which depicts Jewish characters in a crude and contemptuous manner; performed for the first time in Breslau on February 11, 1813, it was subsequently revived under the title Unser Verkehr before being banned by the police, then published anonymously in Breslau in 1815.
Rabbinical author, born in Tunis at the beginning of the 18th century, died in Amsterdam in 1784 while serving as rabbinical collector for the community of Jerusalem. He had left his native city to settle in Jerusalem, after a sojourn in Constantinople, and left a commentary on the Yad ha-Hazaka of Maimonides, the Éné Avraham (Amsterdam, 1784).
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118–1.
Italian rabbi and decisor, active as a teacher in Livorno, Ancona and Lugo (1730–1739), then appointed rabbi of Casale. Remarkably, twenty of his responsa were included in the « Pahad Yitzhak » of Isaac Lampronti — an isolated case among his Italian contemporaries. He signed « SHaBA ».
Rabbi of Spalato (Split) in the 18th century, student of David Pardo. Author of « Nehar Shalom », published in Amsterdam in 1775.
Talmudist and grammarian, born in Lublin, Poland, active in Przemyśl in the 16th and 17th centuries, master of the talmudist and kabbalist Hayyim Bochner. He is the author of a responsum on the writing of the Tetragrammaton addressed to Meïr of Lublin and published in the Techouvot ha-Guéonim (Amsterdam, 1717), as well as annotations to the grammatical treatise Mahalakh of Moses ben Joseph Kimhi (Lublin, 1622) and grammatical glosses to the prayer book (Dyhernfurth, 1690).
Rabbi of Semeez, near Tykocin, in Russia, in the first half of the 18th century. He edited the Minhat Kohen (Fürth, 1741), a compendium of Talmudic novellae by Abraham Broda, Tsevi Ashkenazi and Jacob Kohen Poppers, rabbi of Frankfurt am Main, to which he added some of his own contributions.
Disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and then of the Maggid of Mezritch, he opposed Frankism. He is the author of the famous « Siddur Reb Shabsi », prayer book with kabbalistic kavvanot (intentions), still used by many rebbes, and of an abridgment, « Klaliyus Tikkun ve-Aliyas ha-Olamos ». Buried in Rashkov.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-1.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew era (1751). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5515 of the Hebrew era (1755). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5541 of the Hebrew era (1781). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112–4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5547 of the Hebrew era (1787). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Mazagan (El Jadida), eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew Era (1751). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-3.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112–4.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 112-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rafael. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Maimon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Died in 5472 of the Hebrew era (1712). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-3.
Leader of the Yemenite Jewish community in the 18th century. Appointed governor of the Mint and superintendent of tax and royal property collection under the imams al-Mahdi and al-Mansur (1731–1761). Under his authority, the community enjoyed a period of tranquility. He had several synagogues built, including the famous Kanisat al-Usta in Sana'a, and disseminated printed Sephardic prayer books. Deposed, imprisoned and heavily ransomed in 1761.
Poet, founder of the journal Bikure ha-Itim, author of the epic Nir David.
rabbi (1800–1851)
hasidic Rabbi and father of the Ruzhiner Rebbe
German-Hungarian rabbi (1755-1825)
Polish rabbi and grammarian, born in 1701, died in Wilna in April 1761. Settled in Wilna from childhood, he there married the daughter of Mordekhaï b. Azriel, a notable of the city, studied Talmud extensively as well as mathematics and grammar, and corresponded in his youth with the learned Karaite scholar Salomon of Troki; in his later years, he was a dayan and scribe of the Wilna community. He is the author of a small work, the "Keter Chem Tov," whose last chapter, devoted to the Sefirot, makes him one of the earliest representatives of German mysticism to know this doctrine, and the "Kevoutsat Kessef" (Zolkiev, 1741), on Hebrew grammar.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5557 of the Hebrew era (1797). Son of Yaakov, himself son of Shaul. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-3.
Rabbi of Fez, 18th century. Died in 5478 of the Hebrew era (1718). Son of Yehoshua I, himself son of Menahem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-1.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 120-1.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-2.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5533 of the Hebrew era (1773). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5519 of the Hebrew era (1759). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
Originally from Tiberias, he gained a reputation for learning and piety, stayed in Algiers and settled in Tunis (1750). Close friend of Abraham Cohen Baberrebi, one of the oldest rabbis of Tunis. Author of a commentary on the first two orders of the Mishna, printed in Livorno in 1843 by his friend's grandson.
Rabbi of Debdou. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew era (1751). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yeshua. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Son of Saadia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-2.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-2.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Polish rabbinical scholar, died in Wilna, at an advanced age, on 28 March 1797. He is best known as the author of the Chevil ha-Yachar, on the decisions of Alfassi, of which only the first part was published, in Wilna, in 1839, with the help of Salomon, the younger brother of Hayyim of Volozhin, who annotated it. His son Tsevi died in 1771 at the age of twenty-two.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 115-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Died in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5466 of the Hebrew era (1706). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5501 of the Hebrew era (1741). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5506 of the Hebrew calendar (1746). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-4.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 117-3.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yihye. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 118-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-1.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5540 of the Hebrew era (1780). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew calendar (1726). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5475 of the Hebrew era (1715). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yehuda, himself son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 118-4.
Shlomo Chaim Perlov founded the Hasidic court of Koidanov in 1833, a branch of the Lechovitch and Karlin-Stolin Hasidisms: he was the paternal grandson of Rabbi Mordekhaï of Lechovitch and the maternal grandson of Rabbi Asher of Stolin. The dynasty later spread to Jerusalem and is now based in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-3.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5465 of the Hebrew era (1705). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi of Fes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi of Bagris, 18th century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Son of Messod. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-1.
Hasidic rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5550 of the Hebrew era (1790). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Era not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Eliezer. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of Shalem. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Galician rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5555 of the Hebrew era (1795). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Shalem. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5549 of the Hebrew era (1789). Son of Eliezer. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
rabbi (1785-1851)
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5511 of the Hebrew era (1751). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
Rabbi of Fez, eighteenth century. Died in 5558 of the Hebrew era (1798). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5552 of the Hebrew era (1792). Son of Rafael Oved. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-3.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Died in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 126-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5498 (1738), died in 5578 (1818) of the Hebrew era. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Era not specified by the source. Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-1.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Hofni. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Born in 5458 (1698), died in 5509 (1749) of the Hebrew era. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Era not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-4.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-3.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Born in 5452 (1692), died in 5529 (1769) of the Hebrew era. Son of Saadia. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5473 of the Hebrew era (1713). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122–4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-2.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5519 of the Hebrew era (1759). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Son of Yaakov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Abraham, himself son of Yehonathan II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 125-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-4.
Hassidic Rebbi
Rabbi of Taza, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-3.
Converted to Hasidism, founder of the rationalist movement known as « HaBaD », born in Liozna, in the province of Mogilev, in 1747, died near Kursk and buried in Haditch, in Poltava, on December 28, 1812. A precocious Talmudist, he married the daughter of a wealthy notable of Vitebsk, which allowed him to devote himself to study, and devoted twelve years to Lurianic Kabbalah under Baer of Mezheritch, before becoming, in 1772, one of the chiefs of Hasidism sent to pacify the Gaon Elijah in Vilna, then, upon Baer's death, the chief of the Hasidim of White Russia and Lithuania.
Lithuanian Orthodox Rabbi and first Rebbe of Chabad (1745–1812)
First Rebbe of Belz (1783-1855)
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5557 of the Hebrew era (1797). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 115-3.
Hakham of the Bene Israël community of Bombay, born in Cochin at the end of the 18th century, died in Bombay on 17 April 1856. Shipwrecked around 1836 during a voyage from Cochin to Bombay with his maternal grandfather, he was taken in by a Bene Israël soldier who found him employment as a binder; noted for his knowledge of Judaism and his talent as a cantor, he was appointed reader of a new synagogue and instructed the Bene Israël in their traditions, contributing to the founding of synagogues in Bombay, Alibag, Revdanda and Panwell.
Portuguese poet, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 8 May 1705, burned alive in Lisbon on 19 October 1739. Brought before the tribunal of the Inquisition as early as 1726 for his satirical poems and observance of Mosaic laws, he was tortured and recognized as penitent the same year; continuing in secret his practice of Judaism, he was imprisoned in 1737 with his wife, who died in 1739 a few months before him. Despite the intervention of personalities and King John V, he was burned publicly. Nicknamed « the Portuguese Plautus », he is the author of comedies performed in the Bairro Alto between 1733 and 1738, published anonymously for fear of the Inquisition.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 99-3.
Jean Henri Simon, Belgian engraver and soldier, born in Brussels on 28 October 1752 and died there on 12 March 1834. Trained by his father, engraver Jacob Simon, he is appointed engraver to the prince Charles of Lorraine before turning fifteen, then settles in Paris in 1775 as engraver to the duke of Orleans, and becomes engraver to the king until 1792. He subsequently serves in the armies of the French Republic, is wounded at the battles of Anderlecht and Boucar, then returns to service in 1813 before settling permanently in Brussels in 1816.
Joseph David Sinzheim, first rabbi of Strasbourg, born in 1745 and died in Paris on 11 February 1812. Son of rabbi Isaac Sinzheim of Trier and brother-in-law of Herz Cerfbeer, he is the most learned member of the Assembly of Notables convened by Napoleon I on 30 May 1806, charged with answering questions posed by the imperial commissioner. Appointed president (« nassi ») of the Grand Sanhedrin convoked on 9 February 1807, then president of the Central Consistory upon its creation by the decree of 17 March 1808, he is considered the greatest French talmudist of his time and the author of « Yad David » (Offenbach, 1799).
Born in London, son of Levy Salomons of St Mary Axe. Banker, co-founder of the London and Westminster Bank and member of the London Stock Exchange. First Jewish sheriff of the City (1835), first Jewish alderman, then in 1851 elected MP for Greenwich but unable to take his seat without taking the Christian oath — a foundational case of British Jewish political emancipation; he finally took his seat from 1859. Elected Lord Mayor of London in 1855.
Born in Jamaica into a wealthy Portuguese Sephardic family (parents Mordecai Rodriguez Lopes and Rebecca Pereira). Emigrated to Great Britain, he converted to the Church of England in 1802, which allowed him to sit in the Commons (New Romney, Evesham, Barnstaple, Westbury). Created baronet in 1805, he added 'Masseh' to his name. Celebrated for the electoral corruption of rotten boroughs (condemned in 1819, disfranchisement of Grampound).
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5509 of the Hebrew era (1749). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-3.
Henry Sloman, English actor, born in Rochester, England, in 1793 and died there in August 1873. Appreciated comedian under Glossop's direction at the Coburg Theatre, he became known in the role of Watty Wagstaff in « Edward the Black Prince », before becoming around 1834, with his brother Charles, proprietor of Rochester Theatre.
Polish rabbi, author of the Merkevet HaMishneh on the code of Maimonides, scholar in grammar.
Poet and grammarian, first translator of Shakespeare into Hebrew.
Hebrew poet
Austrian rabbi
Henry Naphtali Solomon, Hebrew scholar and English pedagogue, born in London in 1796 and died there on November 12, 1881. Son of Rabbi Moses Eliezer Solomon, who kept a school in Brixton where he himself was educated, he directed the Jews' Free School from 1817 to 1822, then opened his own school in Queen's Square, later transferred to Hammersmith, before settling permanently in Edmonton in 1838. Founder of the Jewish literary and scientific institution, one of the pioneers of Anglo-Jewish preaching at St Albans Synagogue, translator of the prayer book, he contributed from 1833 to the « Hebrew Review » and taught for over forty years in Edmonton, where he was greatly respected.
Samuel Solomon, English charlatan, was born in 1780 and died in London in 1818. An original and eccentric figure of Liverpool, he invented and patented an empirical remedy, the « Balm of Gilead », whose sale brought him considerable fortune, and settled in 1805 in a vast residence on Kensington Road, « Gilead House », whose gardens attracted visitors from all walks of life — streets in the neighborhood, named « Gilead », « Balm » and « Solomon », still recall his presence. He left two children, a son and a daughter.
Levy Solomons, one of the founders of the Jewish community of Canada, was born in the early eighteenth century and died May 18, 1792. Settled in Montreal after the British conquest, he conducted a flourishing trade with Indian nations as far as the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; appointed purveyor to the American hospitals by General Montgomery during the invasion of Canada in 1775, he lost everything in the latter's defeat and was expelled by General Burgoyne in July 1776, before being allowed to return to Montreal, where he drafted in 1788 the code of the Sephardic synagogue. He married in 1775 Rebekah Franks, by whom he had two sons and eight daughters.
Young girl nicknamed « Lalla Soulika the Just », from Tangier, beheaded in Fès for refusing to renounce her faith and embrace Islam. She is cited, alongside the burned ones of Ufran, as a symbol of sacrifice (kiddouch ha-Shem) of the Jews of Morocco. The complete account appears, according to the author, in the notice devoted to the city of Fès.
Sage from Morocco, he was among the disciples of the Ari (Rabbi Yitzhak Louria) in Safed. His detailed notice appears in the encyclopedia under the entry devoted to the city of Safed.
Joseph Moses Spiro, also called Benjamin Wolf b. Aaron, is an Austrian rabbi and Talmudic author born in Trietsch, Moravia, around 1770, and died in Kanitz, Moravia, on August 3, 1830, son of Rabbi Abraham of Trietsch who educated him. Becoming early on a renowned Talmudist despite fragile health, he was dayyan in his native city then rabbi in Schafa, Habern, and finally, from 1824 until his death, in Kanitz; an early defender of systematic teaching and severe criticism of pilpul, he edited the "Sefer ha-Ḥinnuk" (Brünn, 1799) and composed the "Mesillah le-Elohenu" (Prague, 1810).
Isaac (Eizig) Spitz, av beit din in Bunzlau, Bohemia, was born in 1764 and died there on May 6, 1842. He is the author of the « Mat'amé Yitsḥaq », a collection of songs, melodies and maxims, published in Prague in 1843 by his son Yom-Tov.
Rabbi of Oronie, Hungary, in the 18th century. He is the author of « Katit la-Ma'or », novellae on several Talmudic tractates, and of « Shemen ha-Ma'or », novellae on ritual questions, two works published in Vienna in 1792.
German author and Talmudist of the 18th century. He is the author of « Dibre Ḥakamim we-Ḥidotam » (Offenbach, 1802), a commentary on the Talmudic passages where it is said that « the Torah speaks the language of men » or that « the passage is explained according to its literal sense ».
German rabbi, apologist and author, died in Stadthagen on September 5, 1715. He served for several decades as « Landesrabbiner » of the Schaumburg-Lippe district, from which he took his name, and his knowledge of apologetic literature and the New Testament made him a skilled religious controversialist: called to Hanover, he took part on July 21, 1704, before the elector Georg Ludwig and the electress Sophie, in a religious disputation with a convert, then published in 1705 in Amsterdam his « Dibre Zikkaron », a work in two parts devoted to the rules of ritual slaughter.
German convert to Judaism, son of a Catholic butcher, born in Nikolai, Upper Silesia, around 1726, and died in the same city on May 16, 1807. Becoming a teacher then municipal treasurer and member of the city council, he withdrew from active life in 1780 to devote himself to religious study, observed the Sabbath and dietary laws, had himself circumcised, then attended, on Yom Kippur 1785, the synagogue services in white garments. Denounced to the authorities, he escaped the death penalty provided by law when King Frederick II suspended the proceedings, and lived thereafter for more than twenty years in peace with his wife and son within the small Jewish community of Nikolai.
German rabbi born around 1720, died in Fürth in 1776, after spending his youth in Schwabach, Bavaria. After a first rabbinate in Rixheim and then serving as chief rabbi of Upper Alsace, he was chosen in 1755 chief rabbi of Nieder-Ehenheim, in Lower Alsace, before being called to Fürth, where he served until his death; one of the most respected Talmudists of his time, he received questions from Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He is the author of « Zikron Yosef » (Fürth, 1773), a collection of responsa and ritual decisions.
Physician, poet and German philosopher born on August 6, 1789 in Altona, died on May 19, 1866 in Zurich. Trained at the Christianeum in Altona and then at the faculty of medicine in Kiel, he practiced there until his health forced him to abandon medicine in 1845 and settle in Rome. A follower of Kant, he devoted most of his work to the philosophy of religion, publishing from 1835 onwards the successive volumes of his « Die Offenbarung nach dem Lehrbegriff der Synagoge », in which he strove to elevate biblical revelation to the rank of philosophical truth, and furthermore advocated for the emancipation of Jews.
German physician born in Stendal on October 22, 1798, died in Berlin on May 8, 1892. Doctor of medicine from Berlin University in 1821, he settled after some years of travel on the continent and in England as a practitioner in Berlin, where he practiced until his death and where he was, in 1847, the first Prussian Jew to receive the title of « Sanitätsrath ». He published various medical works and brought out in 1870 a new edition of Hufeland's « Makrobiotik ».
Russian educator born in Tarnopol, in Galicia, in 1798, died in Odessa on March 15, 1853. Trained in the Talmud then instructor for ten years at Joseph Perl's school, he was appointed in 1828 director of the Jewish school of Odessa upon the death of Ephraim Sittenfeld, a position he held with great success even rallying Orthodox opponents; he obtained in 1837 permission to open a school for boys and girls in Kishinev, in Bessarabia. Consulted by the government of Tsar Nicholas I on the reorganization of the rabbinate, he sat in 1840 on the committee charged with the question in Odessa and was called in 1843 to Saint Petersburg to participate in the sessions of the committee on educational affairs.
German soprano born in Mainz on 10 April 1800, date of death unknown. Trained by her father, a renowned violinist, then by Heidelhof, she made her debut in 1816 at the Nationaltheater of Trier in an opera by Spontini, performed in Düsseldorf, where she frequented the Heine family, became in 1819 prima donna of the Hoftheater of Stuttgart, then sang in Mainz, Munich, Augsburg and Würzburg before retiring from the stage in 1841; she continued to perform as a concert singer until 1855.
Russian banker born in Arolsen, in Waldeck, Germany, in 1778, died in Saint Petersburg on March 18, 1843. Emigrated young to Russia, he became banker to the tsar's court and, after converting to Christianity, was elevated on August 22, 1826 to the dignity of hereditary Russian baron; he played an active role in his adopted country's financial affairs and notably contributed to the introduction of steamship navigation between Lübeck and Saint Petersburg. His son Alexander succeeded him at the head of the Stieglitz & Company bank house, until its voluntary liquidation in 1863.
Russian Talmudist born in Zaskevich, in the governorate of Wilna, in 1794, died in Wilna on March 21, 1872. Trained by his father and married young, he settled in the village of Streszyn, called Strashun, from which he took his name, before returning to Wilna after the destruction of the family distillery by the French army in 1812, where he became an eminent member of the community while devoting most of his time to the study of Talmud and free teaching of his disciples. His daily courses at the synagogue on Poplaves Street gave rise to his annotations, incorporated in current editions of the Babylonian Talmud; he refused the rabbinate of Suwałki to maintain his independence.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
18th-century printer, he founded in 1750 a Hebrew press in the workshop of Johann Jansen in Amsterdam, before opening his own workshop where he published several works between 1763 and 1771, including the Minhat Yehouda of Juda ben Benjamin Stadthagen and the Book of Job with the commentary of Bahya. He then settled in Leiden, then in 1779 partnered with J. H. Munnikhuisen in The Hague, where he published Falaquera's Mebbaqesh.
Eighteenth-century scholar, he compiled under the title Meïr Nativ (Altona, 1793-1802) a general index in three volumes to the Tosafot of the entire Talmud. In the introduction, he mentions other works of his hand — Amoudé Kessef, Damessek Eliézer, Ner Tamid and Katit la-Maor — which were nevertheless never published.
German rabbi born in Brück, near Erlangen, on July 5, 1784, died in Münster on October 10, 1869. A teacher from 1814 onwards, he became Landesrabbiner of Münster and Dortmund in 1815, then Chief Rabbi of the Paderborn district in 1828, a position he held until his death. Author of the Milchamot Adonaï (Hanover, 1836) against religious reforms, he advocated for the emancipation of Jews and witnessed, shortly before his death, the abolition of their civil disabilities by the law of July 3, 1869.
rabbi
German scholar of the 18th century, he translated into German the Pentateuch, the haftarot and the five Megillot under the title Be'er ha-Torah, published in Amsterdam in 1758. He is also the author of the Sefer Torat Katan — in two parts, Elé ha-Mitsvot on the 613 commandments and Hen ha-Lashon on Hebrew grammar (1765) — and of the Emounot Israël, an exposition of the ethical principles of Judaism with German translation, published in Amsterdam in 1764 and later reissued in Wilna and Grodno in 1837 and in Warsaw in 1844 and 1861.
English author active in London in the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1773, he publishes a philosophical commentary on Ecclesiastes testifying to solid classical learning, citing the Anthologia Graeca, Ovid, Virgil, and Seneca; he had previously published, in London in 1772, an explanation of Talmudic passages citing the words of the « Elders of Athens », dedicated to R. Moses of Minsk.
Lithuanian rabbi and merchant born in 1746, died in Grodno on January 12, 1819, son of rabbi Eliezer of Orle to whom he succeeded in that office and as rosh bet din of Grodno. Having failed to obtain the rabbinate of Grodno after his father's death in 1791, he successfully turned to business; tradition credits him with the confidence of the last king of Poland and the esteem of Emperor Alexander I. His signature appears at the head of the resolutions adopted by Jewish delegates assembled in Vilna in 1818 to designate their representatives to the government of Saint-Petersburg.
Romanian rabbi and author born in Lemberg in 1787, died in Jassy in 1852. Rabbi of Sniatyn and its surroundings from 1820, he was appointed in 1841 rabbi of Jassy, a position he held until his death. He notably left responsa on the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch, the To'afot Re'em (Zolkiev, 1855), and corresponded on halakhic matters with rabbis Salomon Kluger and Jacob Ornstein.
Rabbi successively in Przemyśl, Zülz and Breslau in the 17th and 18th centuries, son-in-law of David Oppenheim, rabbi of Prague, then of Hirsch ben Benjamin, rabbi of Berlin. He is the author of the Aleh de-Yonah, novellae on the Hoshen Mishpat of the Shulhan Arukh including excerpts from his commentary on the Perouch ha-Mishna of Maimonides, the Kontres R. Hayyim Yonah on ritual laws (Jesnitz, 1723), and novellae on the tractate Chevouot (1724).
Rabbi of Przemyśl, active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, author of Teka be-Shofar (Breslau, 1719), which assembles the documents of the dispute opposing him to the community of Przemyśl after it had, despite a properly drawn contract, appointed rabbi Samuel of Lemberg, previously rabbi of Slonim.
Joseph ben Meïr Te'omim, Galician rabbi, was born in Lemberg in 1727 and died in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1793. He succeeded his father at a young age as preacher and rabbinic instructor at the yeshiva of Lemberg, stayed for several years in Berlin at the beth-hamidrash of Daniel Jaffé, then resumed his Lemberg post before being appointed, in 1782, rabbi of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he remained until his death. One of the most prominent rabbis of his time, he is the author of Péri Meguadim, a dual commentary on the Orah Hayim (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1753) and on the Yoré Dé'a (Berlin, 1772), as well as several other talmudic works.
Rabbi of Przemyśl, active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, author in 1715 of the Panim Masbirot, a polemical work directed against Rabbi Meïr ben Isaac Eisenstadt.
Polish talmudist of the 18th century, died on July 10, 1773, grandson of Joseph Te'omim and preacher in Lemberg. He is the author of the Nofet Tsoufim, included in the Rab Peninim of his son Joseph Te'omim (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1782), and the Birkat Yossef we-Eliyahou Rabba (Zolkiev, 1750); according to his son, he also drafted an Émek Halakha, explanations of a large part of the Talmud. His decisions are cited by later talmudists.
Rabbi, poet and Italian exegete of the 18th and 19th centuries, from Ancona, who taught in Lugo before being called to the rabbinate of Florence. He notably published the Se'ouddat Mitsva, sermons for holy days (Venice, 1791), the Simhat Mitsva, a dramatic poem composed for the inauguration of a new synagogue in Florence (1793), the Mattenat Yad, a treatise on charity (1795), and the Ikkaré Dinim, a compendium of the laws of the Shulḥan Arukh (1803).
Rabbi and Italian poet of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, serving in Florence, Urbino, Pesaro and Sinigaglia. He publishes the Sefat Emet, halakhic decisions (Livorno, 1797), the Midbar ba-Arava on the laws of marriage (Florence, circa 1807), and the Midbar Mattana, responsa in four parts (1810), as well as a collection of poems entitled No'am we-Hobelim we-Derekh Emouna.
Born in Frankfurt, became Chief Rabbi of Great Britain at the Great Synagogue in London.
President of the Jewish community of Pressburg, died in Prague on August 26, 1799. Shtadlan of Hungarian Jews under Joseph II, Leopold II and Francis I, he worked tirelessly for their protection: he obtained the revocation of the clause forbidding the wearing of beards in the imperial proclamation of March 31, 1783, but failed to lift the obligation of military service. In 1791, at the coronation of Leopold II in Pressburg, he organized the celebration of Hungarian Jews and intervened against their conscription, receiving from the king a gold medal; the same year, he endeavored to free Jews imprisoned and tortured in Pér on an accusation of ritual murder.
Russian rabbi of the 18th century, ab beth din in Zagora and then resident in Wilna. He is the author of the Chalmei Simha (2 vol., Wilna, 1806), novellae on the decisions of Asher ben Yehiel preceded by an exposition of the fundamental principles of the Talmud and various casuistic writings — work that remained unfinished, not exceeding the treatise Ta'anit.
German Talmudist born in Lissa, died in Berlin on June 12, 1743. A poor young man who came to Berlin, he was adopted there by a certain Frau Tockels, whose name he took in gratitude; appointed dayan in 1723 then assistant rabbi in 1726 under the chief rabbi Michael Hassid, he directed the hevra kaddisha from 1729 until his death. His work, the Torat Hayyim we-Ahavat Hessed, was published after his death by his brother-in-law Abraham ben Meïr (Berlin, 1750, 1829).
Austrian financier and philanthropist born in Presbourg in 1792, died in the same city on November 23, 1844. First in the silk trade and then cotton, he founded at Marienthal, near Vienna, one of the first mechanized spinning mills, then, after purchasing in 1835 the Legnaro estate near Padua, another spinning mill that becomes one of the largest in Europe. He devoted the bulk of his fortune to philanthropy, notably founding a primary school in his native city in 1843 and among the principal founders of the Jewish hospital in Baden, near Vienna.
American philanthropist born in Newport (Rhode Island) on June 16, 1775, died in New Orleans on January 13, 1854, son of the Reverend Isaac Touro and Reyna Hays. Raised in Boston by his uncle after the closure of the Newport synagogue during the American Revolution, he settles in 1802 in New Orleans, where he builds a considerable fortune in commerce and real estate. Gravely wounded on January 1, 1815 defending the city under the command of Andrew Jackson, he becomes one of the greatest American philanthropists, notably financing the completion of the Bunker Hill monument, celebrated by a banquet at Faneuil Hall in 1843.
Austrian rabbi born in Prague on August 14, 1779, died in the same city on July 4, 1842, son of Selig Trebitsch, hazzan of the Altneuschul. Rabbi of Prossnitz in 1826, he was confirmed Landesrabbiner of Moravia on May 13, 1832 in succession to Mordecai Benet; a decree of 1833 giving him the power to nominate candidates for rabbinic positions in the province earned him the opposition of several communities, until a decree of May 23, 1838 withdrew this privilege. He authored the Chelom Yeroushalayim, glosses on the order Mo'ed of the Jerusalem Talmud (Vienna, 1821), and the Kovets al Yad, notes on the Yad ha-Hazaka of Maimonides (1835).
Danish physician born in Copenhagen on June 7, 1800, died in the same city on December 20, 1863, son of modest parents spotted by the family physician, Professor Herholdt, who had him admitted to the University of Copenhagen. Graduated in 1823, physician to poor Jews from 1825 then chief physician of the Royal Frederik Hospital in 1842, he became in 1828 one of the first in Denmark to study Laënnec's discoveries on auscultation, publishing in 1830 the first Danish manual of stethoscopy; appointed professor in 1847 and ennobled with the title of Etatsraad by King Frederick VII in 1857, he also sat on the revision committee of the Pharmacopea Danica in 1863.
Italian merchant and philanthropist born on December 24, 1784, died in Padua on March 9, 1860, president of the Jewish community of Padua. Among his numerous charitable foundations are an endowment of 24,000 Austrian lire for the promotion of art among young Jewish artists and a prize of 1,000 florins, instituted in 1850, for the publication of a history of the Jews; he also translated Troki's Hizzouk Emouna.
Austrian rabbi active in the second half of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth, died in Vilna. Active in several communities, he left at the end of his life for Palestine but fell ill in Vilna, where he died. He is the author of the Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, sermons on the Pentateuch published by his son Joseph Yospa in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1707 (and not 1717, as some bibliographers mistakenly wrote).
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Born in 5541 of the Hebrew era (1781). Son of Haim David. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104–2.
Disciple of the Seer of Lublin, the Maggid of Kozhnitz, Menahem Mendel of Rymanów and Moshe Leib of Sassov. He devoted his teaching to spreading the study of Kabbalah (Zohar and writings of the Ari) in Galician Hasidism. His nephews Yitzhak Isaac of Komarno and Yitzhak Isaac of Zidichov were among his students and continuators.
Educator and Russian author born in Breslau in 1791, died in Warsaw on April 20, 1871. Convinced that education is the best way to improve the condition of Jews in Poland and Lithuania, he founded in Warsaw in 1819 a school for Jewish children teaching according to modern pedagogical principles, became in 1820 censor of Jewish publications for the Russian government, then directed from 1853 to 1862 the city's rabbinical school, whose kahal he also presided over. He translated into Polish works by Manasseh ben Israel and Moses Mendelssohn, and published a drama, Marnot (1851).
Christian Hebraist and orientalist born in Tondern, in Danish Sleswick, on December 14, 1734, died in Rostock on December 30, 1815. Trained in rabbinics at the University of Halle, he traveled through Germany and Denmark in 1759 and 1760 on a fruitless mission to convert Jews, before being called the same year to the new University of Bützow, in Mecklenburg, where he taught Oriental languages until its closure in 1789, then became chief librarian and director of the Rostock museum. He published notably the Bützowische Nebenstunden (6 vol., Wismar, 1766-69) and denied, in a special monograph, the authenticity of Maccabean coins.
Nephew of Elimelech of Lizhensk and student of the Seer of Lublin and Menahem Mendel of Rymanów, he was rabbi of several towns, mainly Dynów. Prolific writer and opponent of the Haskalah, he is best known as the author of the « Bnei Yissaschar ». His dynasty gave notably the lineages of Munkács and of Bluzhov.
First Rebbe of Liska and founder of the dynasty, disciple of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, renowned for his frugality and his tsedaka. Born Tzvi Hirsh Frishman, he changed his name to Friedman to escape conscription. His Hasidic teachings were gathered posthumously in the Ach Pri Tevuah.
German rabbi
Polish rabbi
German educator and author born in Coswig-on-the-Elbe on March 8, 1789, died on November 1, 1870. Trained in philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences at the University of Erfurt, he was a private lecturer there from 1810 to 1816, then founded in 1820, with his brother David, a school of mathematics and modern languages, later transformed into a real-school; he refused the post of director, contingent on his conversion to Christianity, but remained Oberlehrer until his retirement in 1862. Architect in 1812 of the legal recognition of the Jewish community of Erfurt, he published the Handbuch der Mathematischen Analysis (Gotha, 1824-27).
One of the first Hasidic rebbes, disciple of Shlomo of Karlin. His ecstatic manner of prayer earned him the nickname « ha-Saraf » (the seraph). Opposed to miracle-workers, he demanded of his Hasidim ethical perfection and renunciation of the lure of gain, living himself in extreme poverty.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-4.
English journalist and community activist born in Belgium in 1793, died in London in 1868, son of Reverend N. I. Vallentine. He founds the first Anglo-Jewish periodical, at first without success but which will give birth to the Jewish Chronicle, and participates in the founding of the Jewish Orphanage of London as well as other charitable and literary institutions. In 1848, he publishes The Hebrew Almanack and Calendar, table of holy days and fasts, which will become the community's standard pocket calendar.
Physician died in England in 1778, grandson of Samuel Basan, who had fled Spain in the early eighteenth century to settle in Oven, in Holland, from which the surname. Graduated in medicine from Leiden on December 14, 1759, he practiced for some time in Hamburg before emigrating to England and settling in London, where he acquired an extensive Jewish clientele; good Hebraist, he translated into Hebrew The Mourning Bride by Congreve.
English physician and community leader born in London in 1796, died in the same city on July 9, 1860, youngest son of Joshua Van Oven. Trained under Sir William Blizard (graduated in 1818), he practiced throughout his life in London serving a large Jewish clientele and became a pioneer of the movement for the abolition of civil disabilities of English Jews, publishing in 1829 the first public appeal on this subject and then, in 1847, the pamphlet Ought Baron Rothschild to Sit in Parliament? Physician to the poor of the Great Synagogue from 1827, he also contributed to the creation of Jewish infant schools and published The Decline of Life in Health and Disease (London, 1853).
English surgeon and community activist born in England in 1766, died in Liverpool in 1838, son of Abraham Van Oven. Trained under Sir William Blizard, graduated in 1784, he practices as a surgeon in London with a large Jewish clientele before settling in Liverpool in 1830 after financial setbacks. Founder of the Jews' Free School which he presides over for a long time and architect of the creation of the Jews' Hospital of Mile End, he was also a volunteer physician to the poor of the Great Synagogue of London and, in Liverpool, delivered from the pulpit sermons in the vernacular — a practice then unprecedented. A reputed Hebraist, he published notably A Manual of Judaism (1835).
German painter of portraits and genre scenes, born on February 13, 1793 in Berlin, died on December 18, 1877 in Mainz, grandson of Moses Mendelssohn through his mother, who remarried Friedrich von Schlegel. Trained in Dresden and then Vienna, he participated in the Napoleonic wars from 1813 before settling in Rome from 1815 to 1830, where he joined the neo-German school (Cornelius, Von Schadow, Overbeck) and painted several frescoes, including The Triumph of Religion in the Vatican. Back in Germany, he directed the Staedel Institute in Frankfurt from 1830 onwards, painted his famous Germania there, then became in 1853 director of the art gallery in Mainz, where he designed the cycle of cathedral frescoes, completed in 1868.
Soldier born in Finale, in the Duchy of Modena, in 1795, died in Toulouse on April 5, 1858. After leaving Italy in 1817, he went to Constantinople then Persia, where he trained the shah's troops and became colonel; pushed aside by English officers hostile to the French, he joined in India the army of Ranjit Singh in Lahore, led campaigns in Afghanistan and expanded the kingdom. After a trip to Paris and London in 1837, he remained in the service of Lahore until an advanced age, before retiring to Paris; he brought back from India Greek coins offered to Louis-Philippe, witnesses to the passage of Alexander the Great, and would have, according to Flaminio Servi, received baptism at the end of his life.
French scholar active in Avignon at the end of the 18th century. With Isaïe Vidal, he composes the Seder ha-Kontres (Avignon, 1765), a collection of liturgical chants for Jews of the Comtat Venaissin, including a piyyout of his hand in Hebrew and Provençal, translated into French by Sabatier in 1876 then by the Emperor of Brazil Peter II in 1891. He himself translated into French several collections of prayers, including the Prières Journalières à l'Usage des Juifs Portugais ou Espagnols (Nice, 1772) and the Prières des Fêtes de Pessach, Schebouot, et de Souccot (1807; 2nd ed. 1845).
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-2.
Italian physician and Hebraist born on September 24, 1772, died on March 29, 1853, active in Mantua. Owner of an important Hebrew library, comprising 131 manuscripts, which passed after him into the hands of Marco Mortara, he collaborated on the periodical Kerem Hémed.
Hungarian rabbi born in 1791, died in Pest on November 14, 1868, son of Israël Wahrmann. Appointed assistant rabbi and professor of religion at the gymnasium in Budapest on February 9, 1851, he is the author of the Ma'areket ha-Ha'atakot (Ofen, 1831) and the Dat Yehouda, Mosaische Religionslehre (1861; 2nd ed. 1868).
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 29-2.
German scholar and rabbi of the 18th century, serving in Schnaittach, in Bavaria. He is the author of the Ma'amar Abraham (Fürth, 1757), Hebrew sermons on the weekly readings of the Pentateuch, the Zéra Abraham (1761), an ethical work in eighteen chapters founded on biblical and rabbinic principles, and the Mahazé Abraham (1761), an alphabetical index of the four ritual codices, published with the latter.
Dayan and preacher in Amsterdam toward the end of the 18th century. He published the Meguillat Sefer (Amsterdam, 1790), a collection of homilies including a eulogy of the chief rabbi of Amsterdam Saül Löwenstamm; his surname refers to the city of Wannfried, in Hesse, from which his family probably originated. He should not be confused with a homonym, rabbi in Kanitz, in Moravia, around 1760.
English clergyman born in Denham (Buckinghamshire) on February 11, 1772, died in London on January 26, 1840. Admitted to the bar in 1797, he enters the Church and founds in 1808 the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. Convinced that the Jewish nation would return to its ancestral land and embrace Christianity, he travels at his own expense through Holland, Germany and Russia to study the condition of Jews, and obtains from Tsar Alexander I, in 1817, two ukases guaranteeing protection and land to baptized Jews. He presented in 1818 to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle a memorandum for the emancipation of Jews in Europe, published in Paris in 1819.
German educator and author born in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1792, died in the same city on November 18, 1864. Instructor at the Philanthropin, a Jewish school in Frankfurt, he directed from 1818 to 1845 an educational institute, defended Jews against the attacks of Rühs and Fries in a 1816 pamphlet, and founded in 1823 the Verein zur Beförderung der Handwerke Unter den Juden. Enthusiastic supporter of Gabriel Riesser, whose biography he wrote, he published numerous political and religious essays, including Das Junge Deutschland und die Juden (1836), and regularly contributed to the Frankfurt press; his son Henri Weil was professor at the University of Besançon.
German scholar, son of Nethanel Weil, active in Carlsruhe in the 18th century. He published the posthumous works of his father, the Netiv Hayyim, the Torat Netan'el, and his responsa, and himself composed the Sefer Eldad ha-Dani, with a German translation, in 1769.
German rabbi born in Prague on 2 October 1721, died in Carlsruhe on 10 October 1805, son of Nathanael Weil. Driven from Prague by the expulsion ordered by Maria Theresa, he took refuge in Metz in 1745 then studied under Jonathan Eybeschütz, before becoming rabbi of Wottitz, Bohemia, in 1754, then succeeding his father as rabbi of Carlsruhe in 1770. Only a commentary on the Haggadah of Passover was printed during his lifetime (Carlsruhe, 1791, anonymous); his responsa appear in the collection of Ezekiel Landau, and several of his descendants, including his grandson Jacob Weil, were also rabbis.
Hungarian advocate of Reform, he runs a small business in Pesth in 1792 and then leases an estate near Munkács in 1794, where his exactions provoke complaints from the Jews of Galicia. He publishes in 1802 a pamphlet calling Jews to adopt the ideas of Reform, then, attacked by his coreligionists, another in Vienna in 1803 to defend himself; unable to overcome this hostility, he converts to Christianity and publishes several more works, in 1805, 1806 and 1807.
English printer born in London at the end of the eighteenth century and died in that city on December 18, 1883, senior partner of the firm Wertheimer, Lea & Co. Active as a printer in London from 1820, he published numerous educational, medical and philological works, notably those requiring Hebrew characters, as well as commercial reports and the "Jewish Chronicle".
Austrian philanthropist and author born in Vienna on 15 March 1800, died in that same city on 15 March 1887, from a prominent Jewish family. Traveler in Germany, Italy, France and England, where he studied the kindergartens of London, he opened in 1830 the first kindergarten in the Austrian capital, then founded in 1840 an association for the learning of manual trades by Jewish children and, in 1843, a Jewish infant school in Leopoldstadt; he also directed for several decades the Jewish community of Vienna, first as administrator then as president.
German physician born in Bleicherode, near Erfurt, on October 15, 1800, and died in Nordhausen on March 7, 1850, nephew of Naphtali Hirz Wessely. Trained at the universities of Halle and Göttingen (doctor of medicine in 1823), he studied afterward in Paris until 1828 before settling in Nordhausen, where he practiced medicine until his death; in 1849, with L. Blödan, he founded two medical journals which he directed until his death.
Hebraist and German pedagogue born in Hamburg in 1725 and died in that city on February 28, 1805, descendant of a family that had fled the persecutions of Chmielnicki in Podolia in 1648. Trained notably under Jonathan Eybeschütz, he makes himself known through his philological study of Hebrew « Lebanon », then bonds in Berlin with Moses Mendelssohn, whom he encourages in his project of a German translation of the Bible; he subsequently publishes a manifesto advocating secular instruction of the Jews in accordance with the edict of tolerance of Emperor Joseph II, translated into French in 1792, into Italian in 1793 and into German in 1798.
Biblical critic and Christian theologian born in Ulla, near Weimar, on January 12, 1780, and died in Basel on June 16, 1849. Doctor of Jena, where he became privatdozent in 1806, then professor of theology at Heidelberg and Berlin, he was dismissed from his position in 1819 for having expressed sympathy toward the assassin of Kotzebue, before being called in 1822 as professor of theology in Basel, where he spent the rest of his life. Author from 1805 of a dissertation on Deuteronomy, he published in 1814 a handbook of Hebraico-Jewish archaeology and, in 1817, the work of biblical criticism that founded his reputation, translated into English in 1843.
German rabbi born in Lissa in 1744 and died in Berlin in 1826, student of Hirsch Janow. Assistant rabbi in Lissa in 1771 then in Berlin in 1784, he was elected grand rabbi there in 1800 and received in 1809 the title of grand rabbi of the district; opposed to ritual innovations, he was nevertheless one of the first promoters of the creation of seminaries for rabbis and teachers in Prussia.
German jurist born in Altona on August 17, 1800 and died in Kiel on August 9, 1856, educated at the Johanneum in Hamburg and at the universities of Göttingen, Heidelberg, Kiel and Copenhagen. Lawyer in Hamburg from 1826 to 1830, he became assistant professor at Halle, then full professor at Breslau in 1842 and finally at Kiel in 1854; founder of comparative law, he published notably "Das Gildewesen im Mittelalter" (Halle, 1831) and "Das Strafrecht der Germanen" (Halle, 1842), and founded in 1838 with Reyscher the journal "Zeitschrift für Deutsches Recht", which appeared until 1861.
Hungarian philanthropist born in the county of Zips, Hungary, in 1778, and died in Hunsdorf, in the same county, on February 24, 1859, after working for sixty years for his local community. He is credited with the construction of the Hunsdorf synagogue around 1820 and the school in 1840, and represented the communities of the county at the congress of Jewish notables in Budapest.
Scholar and German author born in Dessau in 1762 and died in that city on March 16, 1826, orphaned at a very young age, Wolf ben Joseph of Dessau lived from 1775 with his uncle in Berlin, taught in Freienwalde (1780-1782), in Wriezen (1782-1789) then in Sandersleben (1789-1796) before settling in Dessau as tutor and preacher. He published the « Minḥah Ṭehorah » (Dessau, 1805), a « Daniel » (1808), a collection of sermons (1812), the « Charakter des Judentums » (Leipzig, 1817) and the « Yesode ha-Limmud » (Dessau, 1819), an elementary Hebrew manual.
German scholar born in Dessau in 1751 and died in that city in 1784, esteemed by Moses Mendelssohn for his liberal ideas but persecuted by the conservative wing of Jewish scholars, who nicknamed him « the renegade ». He is the author of a commentary on the Book of Job, « Pesher Dabar » (Berlin, 1777), praised by Mendelssohn for its rabbinical rigor, and of « Grundzüge der Jüdischen Religion » (1782), in addition to contributions to « Ha-Meassef » and to « Bikkure ha-'Ittim ».
German physician born in Lobsens, in the province of Posen, in 1738, and died in Hamburg on April 14, 1820, trained at the University of Giessen (doctor of medicine in 1779). After practicing in Altona, he settled in Hamburg, where he is physician of the poorhouse from 1786 to 1788, and published several medical works between 1785 and 1815, including a treatise on fever reprinted in 1818.
Danish merchant born on the island of Saint Christopher on August 6, 1795 and died in London on January 12, 1872, descendant of Daniel Robles de Fonseca. Settled shortly after 1814 in Saint Thomas, in the Danish Antilles, he became there mayor, member of the Royal Council, president for thirty-two years of the Bank of Saint Thomas and long president of the synagogue; he freed his slaves of his own initiative, ahead of the Danish emancipation proclamation of 1843.
Missionary and orientalist traveler born in Weilersbach, near Bamberg, in 1795, and died at Ile Brewers, in English Somerset, on May 2, 1862, son of a rabbi from Württemberg. Converted to Christianity, he was baptized in 1812, studied theology and oriental languages at Tübingen and then in Rome, from which he was expelled in 1818 for contesting papal infallibility, before joining the Church of England; he then traveled through Egypt, Persia, Central Asia and Abyssinia as an itinerant missionary, preaching notably to the Jews near Jerusalem, and received the title of doctor of theology from Annapolis in 1836.
German improviser and novelist born in Altona on July 26, 1799 and died in Jena on September 13, 1851, gifted from an early age for languages to the point of translating into German verse Shakespeare's « Macbeth ». Trained in Berlin from 1817, he launched in 1825 a tour of impromptu recitals across Germany that won him the admiration of Goethe, converted to Christianity, and became in 1829 assistant professor and then, in 1837, full professor of modern literature at the University of Jena, where he published several anthologies and handbooks of German literature.
London merchant born around 1762 and died after 1830, who made his fortune on the London Stock Exchange. Elected in 1802 warden of Bevis Marks synagogue, he refuses the position and, condemned to a fine, leaves the community and converts to Christianity; he then embraces a military career under the name of Captain Ximenes, is made a knight and becomes high sheriff of Kent county. His son, Sir David Ximenes, had no connection with the Jewish community.
Rabbi of the Benisti family of Marrakech, called around 1780 to serve as rabbi in Mogador.
Head of the beth-din of Meknès, dayan and poet; author of Kol Yaakov.
Rabbi born in Algiers, ascended to Jerusalem where he became Rishon le-Tsion, author of Derekh Hayim.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shaul, himself son of Saadia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Born in 5433 (1673), died in 5513 (1753) of the Hebrew era. Son of Reuben, himself son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-1.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-3.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 18th century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Polish Rabbi (1792-1874)
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew calendar (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5470 of the Hebrew era (1710). Son of Barukh. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5480 of the Hebrew era (1720). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shaya. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5517 of the Hebrew era (1757). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Rabbi of Taza. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5469 of the Hebrew era (1709). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Aharfi. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-3.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5503 of the Hebrew era (1743). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-1.
Rabbi of Azaouia. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-1.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Aharon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Talmudist and Rabbinical judge of Baghdad, considered one of the great scholars of his generation.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Yekutiel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 70-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5475 of the Hebrew era (1715). Son of Levi. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-2.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5515 of the Hebrew era (1755). Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-1.
Rabbi of Tetuan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5518 of the Hebrew era (1758). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-1.
Rabbi of Meknes, eighteenth century. Died in 5485 of the Hebrew era (1725). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5495 of the Hebrew era (1735). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1760). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 67-4.
Rabbi of Debdou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5469 of the Hebrew era (1709). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Reuben. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69–4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5466 of the Hebrew era (1706). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-1.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5513 of the Hebrew era (1753). Son of Haim III, himself son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-2.
Rabbi of Rabat. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5470 of the Hebrew era (1710). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67–2.
Rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5545 of the Hebrew era (1785). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5476 of the Hebrew era (1716). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 18th century. Died in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68–2.
Rabbi of Fes, 18th century. Died in 5531 of the Hebrew era (1771). Son of Yosef, himself son of Salem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yedidia Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5530 of the Hebrew era (1770). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 69-1.
Rabbi of Fes. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-4.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5485 of the Hebrew era (1725). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Died in 5523 of the Hebrew era (1763). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5526 of the Hebrew era (1766). Son of Barukh. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Principal disciple of the Seer of Lublin (Yaakov Yitzhak of Lublin), he founded the school of Pshyskha, which broke with the popular Hasidism of the courts to advocate demanding Talmudic study allied with spiritual interiority and individuality of thought, at the cost of conflict with the Hasidic establishment. He published no work during his lifetime; his teachings, transmitted orally, were edited after his death. His disciple Simcha Bunim of Pshyskha succeeded him, opening the way to Kotsk, Ger and Ishbitz.
Disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the first author to commit his teachings to writing in the Toledot Yaakov Yosef. His book is the major source of early Hasidism.
One of the first and principal disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. He was rabbi (av beit din) of Rashkov, of Nemirov, and from 1770, of Polonnoye. His book « Toldot Yaakov Yossef » (1780) was the very first Hasidic work ever printed and remains one of the major sources of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, whom he cites in a section entitled « Words I heard from my master ».
Rabbi who died in Tangier in 1727, founder of the city's oldest synagogue, which bears his name. His son Samuel Auday appears in a marriage document of 1753.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5556 of the Hebrew era (1796). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
First minister officiating of the congregation of Liverpool, in England, died in that city in 1798, eldest son of Eliakim Getz of Strelitz and probably himself a native of that city. Itinerant seal engraver then jeweler established in Liverpool, he held the cumulative positions of minister, hazzan, shohet and mohel of the young congregation; his residence on Frederick Street, whose garden served as a cemetery where he was the last to be buried, is considered the first regular synagogue of the Jews of Liverpool.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5553 of the Hebrew Era (1793). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Died in 5560 of the Hebrew era (1800). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-4.
19th-century kabbalist, Rosh Yeshiva of Bet El Yeshiva
Talmudist and merchant of Baghdad, founder of the first Jewish synagogues in Calcutta.
Born in Brody in 1726, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov then of the Maggid of Mezritch. Preacher ('Maggid of Zlotchov') and Kabbalist, he formed an influential Hassidic court. He did not write a book himself: his teachings were transmitted and published by his disciples and descendants, notably in the collection 'Mayim Rabbim' (מים רבים), gathered by R. Nathan Neta Donner, and in the anthology 'Likkutei Yekarim'.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Imanuel I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Born in 5535 of the Hebrew era (1775). Son of Haim David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 54-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
rabbi (1798–1878)
Born in Gibraltar in a lineage of rabbis from Tetuan who emigrated after a pogrom, he studied medicine in Italy, directed a yeshiva in Gibraltar and was Chief Rabbi of Corfu (1831). Precursor of religious Zionism, he was the mentor of Yehuda Alkalai and ascended to the Land of Israel in 1852.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Son of Abraham. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Reuben, himself son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Levi, himself son of Meir. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Son of Menahem. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Born in 5485 (1725), died in 5572 (1812) of the Hebrew era. Son of Oved. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-1.
Rabbi of Fes, 18th century. Mentioned in 5539 of the Hebrew era (1779). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5553 of the Hebrew era (1793). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 43-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5481 of the Hebrew era (1721). Son of Nissim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-4.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5547 of the Hebrew era (1787). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5440 (1680), died in 5504 (1744) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yosef, himself son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-2.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-3.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-3.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5530 of the Hebrew era (1770). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-2.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5474 of the Hebrew era (1714). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Rabbi of Azaouia, 18th century. Mentioned in 5527 of the Hebrew era (1767). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5461 of the Hebrew calendar (1701). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Era not specified by the source. Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 42-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5479 of the Hebrew era (1719). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
rabbi (1743-1819)
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 18th century. Died in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Rafael Abraham, himself son of Yehuda I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-1.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5470 of the Hebrew era (1710). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-1.
Rabbi of Tetuan, 18th century. Mentioned in 5531 of the Hebrew era (1771). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 46-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Nissim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Era not specified by the source. Son of Imanuel I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-1.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 6th century of the Hebrew calendar (1740–1839). Son of Makhluf. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 52-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rabi. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 52-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Elazar. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 51-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5486 of the Hebrew era (1726). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 52-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Born in 5509 (1749), died in 5580 (1820) of the Hebrew era. Son of Meir. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Son of Haim I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5540 of the Hebrew era (1780). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-3.
Rabbi and judge of Meknès, author of essays in various domains of the Torah.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Amram. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-4.
Rabbi of Debdou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-4.
Treasurer in the service of the sultans, recognized supporter of rabbinical studies and charitable works. A Yeshaya Ajiman established an inn in Jaffa in 1820 for Jewish travelers traveling to Jerusalem; his son Barukh Ajiman made a donation of 1,800 groush for a rabbinical school in Florence around 1820.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 78-4.
Rabbi of Agadir, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5506 of the Hebrew era (1746). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir, 18th century. Died in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5470 of the Hebrew era (1710). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-4.
Great decisor (posek) and liturgist of Yemenite Judaism, head of the rabbinical court of Sanaa, author of the liturgical commentary Etz Hayyim and the responsa Pe'ulath Sadiq. Salah is a confirmed family patronym over three generations (father Yosef Salah, grandfather Salah, son Abraham succeeded him).
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5471 of the Hebrew era (1711). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Rabbi of Agadir, 18th century. Mentioned in 5516 of the Hebrew era (1756). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5513 of the Hebrew era (1753). Son of Maimon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Rabbi of Tafilalet. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-3.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5489 of the Hebrew era (1729). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-2.
Rabbi of Meknes. Period not specified by the source. Son of Meir. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Greatest decisor of Yemen, av beit din of Sanaa, author of the liturgical commentary Etz Hayyim.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-2.
Lithuanian rabbi
religious leader
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by source. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi of Vallée du Draa. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Born in 5517 of the Hebrew era (1757). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5549 of the Hebrew era (1789). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Hanania. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-4.
Rabbi of Tetuan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Hanania. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 73-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, 18th century. Died in 5559 of the Hebrew era (1799). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5463 of the Hebrew era (1703). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 73-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5488 of the Hebrew era (1728). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 76-1.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-1.
Rabbi of Taza. Period not specified by the source. Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5559 of the Hebrew era (1799). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-3.
Rabbi of Taza, 18th century. Mentioned in 5521 of the Hebrew era (1761). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-1.
Rabbi of Ksar el-Kébir. Period not specified by source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi. Time period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi. Era not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 74-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-1.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Died in 5463 of the Hebrew era (1703). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-3.
Rabbi of Salé, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Born in 5550 of the Hebrew calendar (1790). Son of Yehuda I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi of Tangier, 18th century. Died in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Died in 5526 of the Hebrew era (1766). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5480 of the Hebrew era (1720). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 73-4.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew calendar (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5483 of the Hebrew era (1723). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Rafael Aharon II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-1.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 77-2.
Rabbi of Fez, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-1.
Rabbi of Safi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-4.
Rabbi of Sale, eighteenth century. Died in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-1.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5477 of the Hebrew era (1717). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5476 of the Hebrew Era (1716). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-1.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77–3.
Chabad Rabbi
Disciple of Simha Bunim of Pshiskha (and of the Seer of Lublin, of David of Lelov). After Simha Bunim's death, he gathered part of the community and founded the Vorka dynasty. Having become unofficial representative of Polish Judaism, he negotiated with authorities the repeal of hostile decrees (conscription of young Jews — cantonists, 1827; prohibition of traditional clothing).
Founder of the Kaliv dynasty and first Hasidic rebbe of Hungary. Discovered as a child shepherd by Rabbi Leib Sarah's, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, he studied at Nikolsburg under Rabbi Shmelke. Nicknamed the "sweet singer of Israel," he composed numerous Hasidic melodies, often adapted from Hungarian folk songs, including the famous "Szól a kakas már."
Son of Reb Chaim, rosh yeshiva of Volozhin (« Reb Itzele »), mitnagdim figure.
18th century Ottoman rabbi
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5538 of the Hebrew era (1778). Son of Amor. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
Rabbi, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5499 of the Hebrew era (1739). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
18th through 19th century rabbi and author
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shaul Yeshua. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yehuda I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58–3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yom Tov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5536 of the Hebrew era (1776). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 18th century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew era (1727). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, eighteenth century. Died in 5471 of the Hebrew era (1711). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Rabbi of Demnate. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Born in Tétouan (hence the nickname « Maaravi », the Maghrebi), he went up to the Holy Land and taught in Safed. Sent to collect funds, he arrived in Bukhara in 1793, remained there and undertook to strengthen observance. Under his direction, the Jews of Bukhara abandoned the Persian rite to adopt Sephardic traditions. He died in Bukhara; among his descendants is the rabbi-translator Shimon Hakham.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew Era (1750). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5497 of the Hebrew era (1737). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5556 of the Hebrew era (1796). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Fes, 18th century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Son of Eliahu. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi of Fès, eighteenth century. Died in 5538 of the Hebrew era (1778). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the sixth century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Son of Shimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5543 of the Hebrew era (1783). Son of Eliahu. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi of Debdou, eighteenth century. Died in 5484 of the Hebrew era (1724). Son of Shimon. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57–1.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5528 of the Hebrew era (1768). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5480 of the Hebrew era (1720). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi of Tangier, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5462 of the Hebrew era (1702). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira). Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Mentioned in 5547 of the Hebrew era (1787). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi, 18th century. Mentioned in 5487 of the Hebrew calendar (1727). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan. Period not specified by the source. Son of Haim II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 60-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5491 of the Hebrew era (1731). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-4.
Rabbi of Meknès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5473 of the Hebrew era (1713). Son of Yehuda I. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5490 of the Hebrew era (1730). Son of Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Salem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Son of Rafael. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-1.
Rabbi of Fès. Era not specified by the source. Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech. Period not specified by the source. Son of Messod I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5558 of the Hebrew Era (1798). Son of Yaakov I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5510 of the Hebrew era (1750). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Rabbi of Tetuan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Salé, 18th century. Mentioned in 5470 of the Hebrew era (1710). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 61-2.
Rabbi of Fès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Kalifa. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 61-1.
Rabbi, 18th century. Died in 5528 of the Hebrew era (1768). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi of Salé. Era not specified by the source. Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, eighteenth century. Mentioned in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Meknès. Era not specified by the source. Son of Makhluf I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5492 of the Hebrew era (1732). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 18th century. Mentioned in 5508 of the Hebrew era (1748). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi of Fez. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi of Salé. Period not specified by the source. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 59-4.
Rabbi of Tangier, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 6th century of the Hebrew era (1740–1839). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 18th century. Died in 5548 of the Hebrew era (1788). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-4.
Rabbi. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 18th century. Died in 5471 of the Hebrew era (1711). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 58-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou. Period not specified by the source. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 45-3.
Considered one of the greatest rabbis of his generation in Meknès; he led a yeshiva in the synagogue built by his father for nearly 70 years and refused judicial positions so as not to cease teaching. Teacher of Moché Berdugo. His tomb became a pilgrimage site (nicknamed "Moul Elkrma").
Rabbi of Fez cited in the biographical dictionary « Malké Rabanan » of Rabbi Yossef Benaïm, with a ruling (rabbinical judgment) signed by his hand in 1732.
Tunisian rabbi whose renown extended to Europe and Asia; author of « Béné Yosséf » (1793), which gathers commentaries on several parts of the Talmud and notes on Maimonides, citing Tsemah Sarfati, Abraham Taïeb, and Itshak Lumbroso.
Chief rabbi of Tunis and head of the Beth Din in the 18th c.
Moroccan envoy to England born in Mogador, Morocco, at the end of the eighteenth century, and died in Portsea, England, in January 1872, related to the family Guedalla, agents of the Sultan of Morocco and one of the richest commercial houses of Mogador. In 1820, he went to England as accredited representative of the sultan to the British government, where he subsequently settled permanently while maintaining his commercial relations with Mogador.
Polish Talmudist of the eighteenth century, born in Cracow and became chief rabbi and head of the yeshiva of Belz, in Galicia. He is the author of the « Be'er Heṭeb », a reputed commentary on the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De'ah, first edition in Amsterdam in 1754; Hoshen Mishpat, in 1764), which mainly condenses the « Sifte Kohen » and the « Ṭure Zahab ».
Polish rabbi of the eighteenth century, opponent of Sabbatianism and rabbi of Tarłów, active against the Sabbateans established in Podolia, with whom he corresponded on this subject with Jacob Emden in 1759 and 1760, siding with him in his quarrel with Jonathan Eybeschütz. He is the author of « Bet Abraham » (Berlin, 1753), a collection of two responsa followed by new Talmudic studies.
Polish rabbi of the eighteenth century, rabbi of Zamość, author of « Mishnat Ḥakamim » (Lemberg, 1792), an analytical study of the commandments distinguishing those drawn directly from the Pentateuch from those added by the scribes, followed by an appendix of notes on the « Sefer ha-Madda » of Maimonides. He mentions therein another of his works, « Otot le-Mo'adim », devoted in the form of responsa to the laws of the Sabbath and holy days.
German rabbi born in 1740 and died in Altona in 1807, who served in several communities, including Brody and Glogau, before holding from 1803 until his death the joint rabbinate of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck. Author of numerous responsa and notes on the Bible, the Talmud, and the decisors, he published only one collection, which appeared after his death, « Tif'eret Ẓebi » (Lemberg, 1811).
Austrian philanthropist born in Prague in 1795 and died in that city in 1865, grandson of Wolf Zappert, founder of the family and court jeweler, who had established by will twenty-two charitable institutions. Administrator of this legacy after his father, he directs many Jewish charitable works in Prague and founds several others himself, notably to endow poor young girls and to care for the sick.
Lithuanian Talmudist of the mid-eighteenth century, dayan and preacher of the Vitebsk community under the rabbinates of R. Isaïe and R. Löb, reputed one of the foremost talmudic authorities in this region of Lithuania and consulted by many rabbis on difficult ritual questions. Of his numerous writings, only one was printed, posthumously by his grandsons: the « Hadrat Zeqenim » (Doubrovna, 1802), unfinished codification of the laws after the Shulhan Arukh.
Rebbe hassidique en Pologne
Rabbi
Rabbi of Fès. Period not specified by the source. Son of Nissim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 31-4.
Rabbi of Posen died between 1710 and 1716, author of the "Maẓref la-Kesef" (Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1681), excerpts and index of the "Shene Luḥot ha-Berit" by Isaiah Horowitz, accompanied by two appendices: the "Kur la-Zahab," excerpts from Gabirol's "Mivḥar ha-Peninim," published separately in Offenbach in 1710, and the "Teshubot Shib'im Zeqenim," a collection of maxims printed with it in 1716.
Hasidic master, brother of Elimelekh of Lizhensk, a figure of simplicity and devotion celebrated in many Hasidic tales. Disciple of the Maggid of Mezeritch.
Polish rabbi born in Pinczów around 1773 and died in Warsaw in 1833, accomplished Talmudist and versed in Kabbalah. Rabbi of Płock then of Prague before settling in Warsaw, where he died, he published only two of his numerous writings, most of which remained in manuscript: a collection of responsa, « Ya'alat Ḥen » (Prague, 1793), and « Ṭib Gittin » (Warsaw, 1812), written when he was only eighteen years old and whose decisions were widely followed.
Lithuanian rabbi
Palestinian scholar born on the very day his father was crucified; his mother fled with him to Palestine, where he was later appointed archiphérécite. According to Brüll, he worked to gather and examine the scientific materials assembled in Palestine, and the Talmud of Jerusalem is said to have been completed during his lifetime; it was under his mandate, probably residing in Tiberias and as official chief of the Jews of Palestine, that the edict of Justinian on the reading of the Scriptures was promulgated, to which he opposed the first known protest.
Galician Yiddish short-story writer.
Son of Abraham Gerschel (1794–1851), merchant of Niederrœdern, the Gerschel brothers (Samuel, Mathias, Aron, Édouard, Jules) founded in 1856 in Strasbourg (3 rue de la Mésange) the studio « Gerschel Frères », one of the great photography studios of the Second Empire. After 1870, remaining French, they settled in Reims, Nancy and Paris; Aron worked there from 1885, followed by his son Charles. Aaron Gerschel collaborated with the Alsatian Press.
Hasidic rabbi of northwestern Russia, born in 1802 and died on June 23, 1872, who exercised in Karlin, near Pinsk, in succession to his father and his grandfather Aaron ben Jacob, before settling in Stolin a few years before his death after a quarrel with a wealthy family of Karlin. Followed by thousands of devotees who came to see him each year around the New Year, he is the author of « Bet Aharon » (Brody, 1875), a collection of Kabbalistic and ethical expositions of the Pentateuch including the preserved writings of his grandfather, his father and his son.
Exegete active in the first half of the 19th century in Grodno, Russia. He is the author of the "Moreh Derek", which recounts the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, their wanderings in the wilderness and the division of Canaan among the twelve tribes, a work accompanied by a colored map of Palestine and published in Grodno in 1836.
Russian rabbi active in the early 19th century, author of the « Seyag la-Torah » (Lemberg, 1810), which lists the passages of the Babylonian Talmud cited in the Tosafot; the work is a plagiarism of a similar work by Mordecai Jaffe.
Rabbi in Kretingen, in the government of Kovno, then in Pinsk, where he died in 1841. He is the author of the « Tosafot Aharon », devoted to resolving the questions of the Tosafists in various Talmudic treatises, notably Zera'im, Mo'ed, and Niddah, and also containing scholastic and kabbalistic developments; the work was printed in 1858.
Yiddish poet (A. Leyeles), cofounder and theorist of the In Zikh group.
rabbi and author
Soviet Yiddish poet from the Kiev circles (Vidervuks).
One of the rare cabalistic authors of recent times in East Prussia, author of the « Nishmat Shelomoh Mordecai » (Johannisberg, 1852), so named in memory of his son who died in infancy. Presented on the title page as a commentary on the « Ḥoḳer u-Meḳubbal » of M. Ḥ. Luzzatto, the work actually comments on the « 'Eẓ Ḥayyim » of Ḥayyim Vital ; he declares he has also written a commentary on Midrash Tanḥuma, « Zebed Ṭob », which remained unpublished.
American rabbi
Yiddish and Hebrew playwright, poet and essayist, author of "Chelmer Chachomim".
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Son of Yehonatan. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-1.
American rabbi
Thirty-fourth Ottoman sultan, born September 22, 1842, he succeeded his brother Murad V on August 31, 1876. First Turkish sovereign to grant Jews equality before the law with their Muslim fellow-citizens, he ordered the payment of regular salaries to the Chief Rabbis of Turkey, cancelled in 1881 the municipal elections in Crete from which Jews had been excluded, and aided the six thousand Jewish families affected by the fire in the Haskeni quarter in Constantinople in 1882.
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1839-61), he continues toward the Jews of Turkey the work of his predecessor Mahmoud II. The Ottoman charters of 1839 and 1856 grant them equality before the law, access to public office, and religious freedom. In 1840, at the request of Moses Montefiore, he has the trial for ritual murder brought against the Jews of Damascus and Rhodes revised, a trial that establishes their innocence.
Rosh yeshiva and posek of Iraqi Jewry
Born in Lutsk in Volhynia, son of a hazzan. Yiddish poet, one of the pioneers of printed Yiddish poetry in Argentina. He published collections of poems and translated Indian and Buddhist texts into Yiddish. Died in New York in 1961.
Russian teacher and moral author, born March 11, 1857 in Novomyesto-Sugint (Neustadt), district of Rossieny, government of Kovno, died in Telsh on October 12, 1886; his success as a teacher at the Telsh yeshibah led to its being ranked among the first educational institutions in Lithuania. He is best known for his posthumous work « Bet Shelomoh » (Wilna, 1893), a compendium of rabbinical jurisprudence on business and succession matters, written in neo-Hebrew and emphasizing the ethical dimension of the subject. A student of political economy, he also wrote polemical texts against anarchism and socialism.
Physician and private lecturer at the University of Vienna, born in Nedraschitz (Bohemia) in 1837, died in Vienna on December 31, 1894; after his studies in Prague and Vienna, he settled in Cairo, where he directed the European hospital, then in Alexandria as delegate of the Austrian government to the International Sanitary Commission. Returning to Europe in 1870, he practiced in Carlsbad and continued his research in Vienna, where he was appointed private lecturer in 1884; his numerous works focus mainly on diabetes.
Russian astronomer born in Dünaburg (today Dvinsk) in 1866 and died in Wilna on December 29, 1898, trained in Moscow and then Berlin, he worked at the observatories of Pulkovo and Saint Petersburg. Member of the Imperial Astronomical Society of Russia, he notably published « O Padayushchikh Zvyezdakh », adopted as a manual by the University of Moscow, as well as articles on astronomy in Russian and German press.
Violinist and orchestra conductor born in Worms in 1804, died in Stuttgart on January 18, 1891; student of Schlösser and then Reicha, he entered in 1825 the royal orchestras of Stuttgart, which he directed from 1854 after having often replaced conductor Lindpaintner. Author of numerous melodies and instrumental pieces, overtures, ballets and the music to the drama « Hariadan » given in Stuttgart in 1842, he published very few of them.
Moravian Hebraist established in Austerlitz in the third decade of the 19th century. The entirety of his literary production — poems, metrical translations, exegetical notes and riddles — appeared in volumes IX and X of the periodical « Bikkure ha-'Ittim ».
Jewish author of the nineteenth century, he resided in Jerusalem where he wrote several works: « Michmeret ha-Berit » (1846), a defense of Judaism against irreligion, « Cha'aré Tsédek » (1848), on the prerogatives of the Holy Land and the sufferings of Jerusalem and Safed, and « Mekor ha-Berakha » (1851), the first part of a three-volume work devoted to the Talmudic treatise Berakhot. He is regarded as an authority among rabbinic authors.
Rabbi, kabbalist and historian of Fès, author of the chronicle Yahas Fas.
Rabbi, 19th century. Born in 5586 (1826), died in 5644 (1884) of the Hebrew era. Son of Vidal IV. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-4.
Born in Novogroudok, trained at the Volozhin yeshiva then at the University of Saint Petersburg, Harkavy was a major orientalist and historian. Head of the department of Jewish and Oriental manuscripts of the Imperial Library of Saint Petersburg from 1877, he devoted his work to the ancient history of Jews in Russia, the Khazars and the Karaites. A 1910 festschrift lists 399 of his publications.
Russian rabbi
Born in Tafilalet in 1866, he moved to Jerusalem with his family in 1871, and settled around 1892 in Alexandria where he was secretary-notary of the Community, directed a rabbinical school and published Ha-'Ibri, a manual for teaching Hebrew. He succeeded Eliahu Hazan as chief rabbi of Alexandria in 1908, then presided over the Moroccan Community of Jerusalem (1929).
Rabbi in Kherson in the first half of the nineteenth century, author of « Bet Abraham » (Szydlkow, 1837), which gathers notes on ritual codes, drawn mainly from the literature of responsa, as well as various novellae, homilies and three responsa.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Born in 5556 (1796), died in 5593 (1833) of the Hebrew era. Son of Menashe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-2.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
rabbi (1813–1880)
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5566 of the Hebrew era (1806). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-1.
Rabbi of Safi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5621 of the Hebrew era (1861). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-3.
Poet, dramatist and memoirist of the Russian Haskala.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5609 of the Hebrew era (1849). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Judge at the rabbinic court of Taza, member of the Cohen-Scali/Squili sacerdotal family of Debdou. Author of works on the laws of circumcision and on the Orah Hayyim.
Rabbi of Fez, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5601 of the Hebrew era (1841). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-2.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 15-4.
Rabbi of Debdou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-3.
Rabbi of Mogador, he played a role in the spiritual and community life of the Jews of Morocco and was one of its important poets. He published « Sova Semaḥot », a collection of poems imbued with religious fervor and aspiration to Zion, an abridged version of which appeared in Algiers in 1890.
Karaite rabbi of Koslov, today Eupatoria, in Crimea, active in the first half of the nineteenth century. Trained by his father, Joseph Salomon, in Karaite literature and science, he succeeded him in the rabbinate. He is the author of six Hebrew poems appearing in the « Karaite Liturgy » (Vienna edition), one of which, composed in honor of Simha Bobovitch, chief of the community of Koslov, where he designates himself, after the initials of his father's name, under the name Ibn Yachar.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 7-2.
Rabbi, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Died in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-4.
German Jewish theologian and historian
French rabbi
Russian rabbi
English scholar (1887–1957)
Rabbi of Taza, 19th century. Died in 5631 of the Hebrew era (1871). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-2.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5601 of the Hebrew era (1841). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-1.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Died in 5596 of the Hebrew era (1836). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 10-1.
American rabbi
Rabbi and judge (dayan) of the first generation of French occupation in Algeria, born in Algiers and died in Tlemcen around 1870; his tomb in the old cemetery of Tlemcen became a pilgrimage site. Father of Rabbi Yossef Dadoun.
Son of Rabbi Maatouk, prolific author whose manuscripts were published posthumously: « Ismah Moché » (Jerusalem, 1971) and « Hessed vérahamim » (Jerusalem, 1979).
French rabbi (1857-1925)
Canadian rabbi
Dutch Rabbi
Rabbi of Jitomir, in Russia, around 1840. Trained in Talmudic study under Mordekhaï, rabbi of Chernobyl and disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, he wrote homilies on the Pentateuch, entitled « Beth Ḥayyim », interpreting the biblical text according to the four levels of reading — literal, allegorical, homiletic and mystical. He spent the last years of his life in Safed, in Palestine.
Rabbi born in Mogilev (Belarus, 1844-1917), trained at the yeshiva of Volozhin, official rabbi ("Kazionny Ravin") of Saint Petersburg from 1876 to 1908.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Mentioned in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-4.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5589 of the Hebrew era (1829). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 13-1.
Russo-Austrian scholar
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Abraham Gatigno was appointed ḥakham bashi (chief rabbi) of Salonika on January 10, 1875 and founded the first modern Jewish school in the city. He is the author of "Ẓel ha-Kesef" (Salonika, 1872).
German rabbi and scholar, the principal theorist of Reform Judaism and its historical-critical approach. Cofounder of the science of Judaism.
Born in Starokostiantyniv in 1840, he discovered theater at the rabbinical school in Jitomir. In 1876 he founded in Iași the first professional company of theater in Yiddish language, serving as its playwright, director, composer, and scenographer. Author of some forty plays, he is regarded as the father of modern Jewish theater.
Chief Rabbi of Tunis (1873–1880), author of Zaro shel Abraham.
Hakham and av beit din of Tripoli; author of the Vayikra Avraham (responsa) and HaShomer Emet.
Galician Talmudist active in the early nineteenth century, disciple of the brothers Pinḥas and Samuel Horowitz and considered, like them, among the most learned Ḥassidim. He held his Ḥassidic principles not from these masters but directly from the maggid of Mezritch, whose sayings he often cites in his "Orah la-Ḥayyim" (Zolkiev, 1817), a posthumous work preceded by an introduction by Rabbi Ephraïm Salomon Margaliot.
Russian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Born in Tangier in 1895, historian and community notable who contributed to the development of health and education institutions. Author of a reference onomastic dictionary on the names of Moroccan Jews, remarkable for its erudition.
Galician rabbinic scholar best known as the author of "Taamei HaMinhagim U'Mekorei HaDinim" (Reasons for Jewish Customs and Sources of Jewish Law), a widely cited reference work on the origins of Jewish customs, still reprinted today.
Educator and critic of the Russian Haskala, theorist of Hebrew poetry.
rabbi (1884-1941)
Second Kopishnitzer Rebbe
Hungarian rabbi
Czech rabbi
Alsatian physician and professor of otology at the University of Strasbourg (1838–1900)
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5565 of the Hebrew era (1805). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 14-3.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Died in 5563 of the Hebrew era (1803). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-4.
German rabbi
Hasidic rabbi from Romania
German rabbi
Rabbi of Fes, 19th century. Died in 5633 of the Hebrew era (1873). Son of Yeshua. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 16-4.
Czech rabbi
Chief rabbi of Smyrna for thirty years, author of some twenty works on Jewish law.
British Orthodox rabbi (1825–1893)
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-1.
Poet, author for youth and translator, innovative Hebrew style.
American rabbi
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 12-4.
Chief Rabbi (1862–1934)
Hungarian rabbi
From a family of Jewish merchants (of Alsatian origin according to Encyclopedia.com), he had a long career in public administration, was governor general of Madagascar (1918–1919), Minister of the Interior in 1925 (Painlevé cabinet) and senator for Bouches-du-Rhône. He was the target of an antisemitic open letter from Charles Maurras. Although he voted full powers to Pétain in 1940, he was later confined to his residence and then interned because of his Jewishness.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 17-2.
Writer and editor (Ha-Melitz, Ha-Tsefira), activist of the early Hibbat Zion.
German rabbi (1818–1884)
rabbi of a Hebrew congregation (1844-1923)
Dutch rabbi (1847–1925)
German rabbi
Slonimer Rebbi
Academic and traditional Talmudic scholar (1895–1970)
Founder in 1852 at Stralsund of the Wertheim department store chain, extended to Berlin by his sons from 1885 onwards. The immense flagship at Leipziger Platz (1897, architect Alfred Messel) became a symbol of commercial modernity in the Reich; the company was aryanized in 1937.
Born in New York in 1895, trained at the New York College of Music and Columbia. Musical director of the Stephen S. Wise Free Synagogue and teacher of liturgical music at the Jewish Institute of Religion (later Hebrew Union College). Major figure in New York Jewish music circles for more than four decades; author of studies and collections on Jewish music.
Chief Rabbi of Denmark (1801-1891)
Rabbi and pacifist (1877–1957)
Polish Talmudist active in the early 19th century, he was rabbi in several Polish communities, including Piotrków, where he died. His work « Berit Abraham » (Dyhernfurth, 1818) collects responsa concerning the four parts of the Shulchan Aruch; others of his responsa appear in the writings of his contemporaries.
English author and community leader, died on March 31, 1863 in Liverpool, where he resided for forty years and held various honorific positions in the synagogue and Jewish institutions of the city. He is credited with introducing, as early as 1827 in Liverpool, regular preaching in the vernacular language in synagogue services, a practice which then extended to provincial synagogues and London. He also translated from French several works intended for young people.
French colonel born in Thionville on March 21, 1814, enlisted as a volunteer at eighteen, he participated in the siege of Antwerp then rose through the ranks to the rank of lieutenant in 1846. He received the cross of the Legion of Honor after the June days of 1848, was promoted captain in 1851, fought during the Crimean War then, in 1859, during the Italian War, where he was wounded at Magenta. Made officer of the Legion of Honor in 1864, he was recalled to active service in 1870 and fought at Champigny, before presiding over the congregation of Versailles until 1891.
French artillery brigadier general, born in Nancy on January 12, 1824. Entered the École polytechnique in 1843, he served as a lieutenant in Strasbourg, was promoted captain in 1854 and fought in the Crimea, where he received the cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor after the fall of Sevastopol. He participated in the Italian campaign in 1859 then in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, where he was decorated officer of the Legion of Honor after the battle of Gravelotte, before being promoted colonel in 1877 then brigadier general in 1883.
French dramatic author born in Paris in 1833, he devoted himself entirely to the theater as author, dramatic critic and editor of the theater column of the « Petit Journal », before becoming general secretary of the Porte-Saint-Martin and Gymnase theaters. He signed numerous comedies, vaudevilles and operetta librettos, including « Chapitre V » (1863) and « La Charité chrétienne » (1885), and published under the pseudonym « Adrien Laroque » a biographical directory of the theater, « Acteurs et actrices de Paris ».
English author and Hebraist born in 1803, died in London on December 17, 1890. He published notably « The Autobiography of a Jewish Gentleman » (1860), « Autumn Gatherings », collection of prose and poetry (London, 1866), « Ha-Nistarot weha-Niglot » (The hidden and revealed things), and « Curiosities of Judaism » (London, 1879).
West Indian merchant born in Jamaica in the early nineteenth century and died on February 19, 1887, one of the last survivors of that body of West Indian merchants who contributed largely to the prosperity of the colonial possessions of the West Indies. He was one of the largest landholders on the island of Jamaica, held various offices outside the Jewish community — chief justice of the peace for the parish of Trelawny, Lloyd's agent and last surviving captain of the Trelawny militia — and was one of the first members of the synagogue on Berkeley Street, in London.
Author of works on sheḥiṭah, he was born in Siedlce, Poland in December 1801 and died in Jerusalem on January 23, 1880. Fleeing persecution by the Russian government, he went to England in 1837, became a shoḥet in Leeds then chief shoḥet of London, a position he held for nearly half a century; he settled in Jerusalem shortly before his death.
Dayyan of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London and principal of Jews' College, he was born in Warsaw in 1831 and died in London on November 15, 1863. Trained at University College and holder of a B.A. from the University of London, he received his rabbinical instruction from his father and succeeded Dr. Loewe as head of Jews' College, where he founded the Society for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge Among the Young.
English author and teacher born in London on November 26, 1858, son of Barnett Abrahams, he was trained at Jews' College and at University College London, where he obtained a master's degree in 1881, before becoming senior tutor of Jews' College in 1900. Co-author with Claude G. Montefiore of « Aspects of Judaism » (1895), he notably published « Jewish Life in the Middle Ages » (1896) and « Chapters on Jewish Literature » (1898), and co-edited the « Jewish Quarterly Review » from 1889.
Director of the Jews' Free School in London, born in Swansea (Wales) in 1842, he was engaged as a student teacher with Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School in 1854, became principal instructor of English in 1864 then assistant director in 1884, before succeeding Angel as director in 1897-1898. Graduated from the University of London and co-founder of the Jewish Educational Board, he published notably a « Manual of Scriptural History for Jewish Schools and Families » (London, 1882) and was the first editor-in-chief of the « Jewish Record » upon its creation in 1868.
Swedish philanthropist and founder of the Sloyd Seminary of Nääs, near Gothenburg, born on December 29, 1817 in Karlskrona and died on May 6, 1898 in Nääs, he made his fortune in the hardware trade in Gothenburg before retiring from business in 1868 to acquire the estate of Nääs. There he founded in 1872 an industrial school for boys, then, with his nephew Otto Salomon, a department for training teachers in manual work in 1874, at the origin of the famous seminary that bears his name.
With his brother Yakub, he owned oil mills and cotton gins, several dozen houses in the new city and the Jewish mahalla; member of the board of a bank, elected to the municipal duma of Samarkand (1907); philanthropist (orphanages, enlargement of the Great Synagogue). His residence (built 1902-1916 by architect E. Nelle) houses today the Samarkand Regional Museum of History.
American Jewish historian, son of a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, who served as the founding president of Brandeis University (1948-1968).
American rabbi
Abramino Tilche presided over the mutual aid association « Ezrat Ahim » in Alexandria, which provided financial assistance to destitute members of the community (secretary: Zemah Amram, son of Rabbi Nathan Amram).
Russian poet, son of Salomon (Cholem) Abramovitch, born in Berditchev in 1859 and trained at the gymnasium of Jitomir, he was involved in a revolutionary movement and banished successively in the governorates of Arkhangelsk, Samara then Kazan. Graduated in Saint-Petersburg in 1887, where he practiced law from 1901, he published his first poems in « Voskhod » and « Nedielia » before collecting them in volume in 1889.
English soprano and composer born in 1760 and died in the first half of the 19th century, eldest of three sisters all singers, she was a student of Doctor Arne and made her debut at the Drury Lane Theater in London in « May Day » on October 28, 1775. She sang with her sister Theodosia at the opening of the Concerts of Ancient Music in 1776 and then at the Handel commemoration in Westminster Abbey in 1784, and published in 1787 a collection of Scottish songs harmonized in three parts.
Russian civil engineer born in Odessa on March 3, 1854, trained at the gymnasium of his native city and in mathematics at the university of Odessa, he obtained his diploma in civil engineering from the Polytechnikum of Zurich in 1876. Returning to Russia in 1879, he was appointed director of the State Railway in Kiev, where he designed and had built the city's sewer system as well as the tramway, then founded in 1881 the technical journal « Inzhener », of which he became editor-in-chief.
Russian physician of the nineteenth century, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg, he was made hereditary citizen of honor by the Russian government for his work in public health and charged, at the government's request, with establishing the curriculum of the Jewish school of Uman, in the province of Podolia. In 1849, he received the title of collegiate councilor and was elected the same year a member of the Odessa English Club, reserved for Russian nobility; he is the author of several medical works.
Famous hazan (cantor), nicknamed Pitzi, born in Austria around 1820 and died in Odessa in 1883, he was cantor in Tarnopol (1840-42), then in Lemberg (1842-60), before becoming chief cantor of the great synagogue of Odessa from 1860 to 1883. He composed a collection of hymns and religious songs for the sabbaths and festivals of the year, published in Vienna in 1873; his daughter, Abrastzova, was a popular Russian opera singer.
Journalist born in Prague in 1850 and died in Vöslau, near Vienna, in July 1893, he studied at the Lycée Bonaparte in Paris before devoting himself to journalism, collaborating notably with "Le Petit Journal", "La Vérité", "Le Rappel", "Le Siècle" and "L'Indépendance Belge", then becoming correspondent of "Le Temps" in Vienna. He represented "Le Siècle" during the Russo-Turkish war, was sent to Bosnia by the French government to study its economic situation, and notably published "Vienna under Francis Joseph" as well as a biography of General Hoche.
Achille-Edmond Halphen compiled the « Collection of laws, decrees, ordinances… concerning Israelites since the Revolution of 1789 » (Paris, Bureaux des Archives israélites, 1851), a reference source on the legal status of French Jews since the Revolution.
Hungarian historian born in Nagy-Károly on September 9, 1845, trained in Debrecen and Budapest, he began his career in journalism in 1869 with the "Századunk" then joined in 1870 the editorial board of the "Pesti Napló", and was elected corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1888 for his work on the economic life of the 16th and 17th centuries in Hungary. Active since 1894 in the Hungarian Jewish Literary Society, he notably wrote the fifth and sixth volumes of Szilágyi's "National History of Hungary", published in 1895-98, devoted respectively to the period following the Battle of Mohács (1526) and to the reigns of Leopold I and Joseph I.
Polish author born in Warsaw in 1868, he published in Warsaw in 1889-94 the « Liber Proverbiorum Polonicorum », which brings together forty thousand proverbs and remains the largest collection of its kind. He also made an important contribution to Polish and Jewish paremiological literature, notably in the journal « Wisła » in 1890, in the form of a work of nine hundred eighty-five pages.
French sculptor born in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in 1818 and died in Paris on April 29, 1881, trained as a modeler under Jacob Petit before studying sculpture in Paris and then in Switzerland and England. His bust of Béranger, modeled from memory because the poet had refused to pose, established his reputation; he exhibited at the Salon under the pseudonym « Adama » (1844 and 1848) and created busts of Rossini, George Sand and Lamartine. In 1850, he married Georgine Cornélie Coutellier, who had converted to Judaism, and who died in 1878; toward the end of his career, he devoted himself to photography.
Russian-Hebrew scholar and teacher born in Lithuania at the very beginning of the 19th century and died in Odessa on August 13, 1866, disciple of Rabbi Manasseh ben Porath, he first taught at Lippe Ettinger's in Brest-Litovsk, then settled in 1833 in Dubno, where he exercised great influence on the Maskilim while being persecuted by the Hasidim for his rationalism. He ended his life in Odessa in extreme poverty, dying of hunger; his papers were burned to disinfect his dwelling. Nicknamed the "Diogenes" of the Maskilim, he wrote a critical treatise on Esther against the views of Isaac Samuel Reggio.
German poet died in 1823, he belonged to the generation which, in the first quarter of the 19th century, took an active part in the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews. His contributions to the journal « Sulamith » testify to a real poetic talent, notably his odes devoted to Jewish soldiers fallen at the Battle of Waterloo and to the English abolitionist William Wilberforce.
German rabbi and pedagogue born in 1813 and died in Worms in 1856, brother of rabbi Samuel Adler, he studied at Bonn and Giessen and then was a tutor in Hungary from 1839. Elected rabbi of Worms in 1842, he immediately renounced this charge to found a private school for girls, and distinguished himself in 1845 as a radical reformer alongside Holdheim, Geiger, and Einhorn. Arrested during the revolutionary movement of 1848 and imprisoned in the Iron Tower of Mainz, he was acquitted; his health, too impaired for him to accept in 1854 the rabbinate of Temple Emanu-El in New York, caused his death the following winter.
Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution and founder of the American Jewish Historical Society, born in Van Buren (Arkansas) on September 13, 1863, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A. 1883, M.A. 1886) and then at Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D. 1887), before becoming assistant curator of oriental antiquities at the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. At the origin of the American Jewish Historical Society, born from an appeal he launched in 1892, he served as secretary and then president from 1898; he notably published, with Allan Ramsay, « Told in the Coffee House » (New York, 1898) and edited the « American Jewish Year Book » from 1899.
German-American architect and engineer born in Stadt-Lengsfeld on July 3, 1844 and died in Chicago on April 15, 1900, son of rabbi Liebman Adler, who emigrated to America with his family in 1854, he settled in Chicago in 1861 and enlisted in the artillery at the beginning of the American Civil War. President of the Western Association of Architects and the Illinois State Board of Examiners of Architects, he designed many buildings in Chicago — including the Sinaï, Sion, Anshé Ma'arabh and Isaiah synagogues, the Auditorium and the Stock Exchange — as well as in Saint-Louis and New Orleans; he was secretary of the United Hebrew Charities of Chicago from 1873 to 1877.
Danish banker and politician born May 16, 1826 in Copenhagen and died in that city on December 4, 1878, he became partner of a commission house in London in 1846, before returning to Copenhagen in 1850 to join the D. B. Adler & Company bank, which he directed toward transferring the financial center of Jutland from Hamburg to Copenhagen. A convinced free trader and co-founder of the Free Trade Society, he created in 1864 a fund for the widows and daughters of ruined merchants, sat in the Folkething from 1864 to 1869 and then in the Landsthing from 1869, and was municipal councillor of Copenhagen from 1858 to 1864 and again in 1869-72.
Lawyer and collector of Hebrew manuscripts born in London in 1861, son of the Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler, he traveled extensively in the Orient, undertaking from 1888 to 1898 three stays in Egypt and Palestine, then, in 1892 and 1894, from Spain to Morocco, before visiting Algeria and Tunisia in late 1894 and early 1895; these travels enabled him to assemble one of the greatest private collections of Hebrew manuscripts in the world. He was honorary secretary of the Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge and vice-president of the international conference in Berlin on the Russian Jewish question, in 1891.
German economist and author born in Posen on 28 May 1863, whose doctoral thesis in 1883 focused on the Prussian state socialist Rodbertus-Jagetzow, he taught sociology as extraordinary professor at the University of Basel before becoming professor of political economy at that of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Prolific writer in economic and social sciences, advocate of moderate social policy and resolute opponent of revolutionary socialism, he published notably « Karl Marx'sche Kritik » (1886), « Staat und Arbeitslosigkeit » (1894) and « Geschichte des Socialismus und Communismus » (1900), also devoting part of his work to the social ideas of ancient Hebrews.
Austrian physicist and mathematician born March 7, 1860 and died December 15, 1893 in Stecken, Bohemia. He studied at the gymnasium of Iglau, from which he graduated in 1877, then at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1882. Appointed privatdocent in 1885, he was promoted to extraordinary professor shortly before his death; his works, bearing almost exclusively on electricity and magnetism, appeared primarily in the "Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften" of Vienna between 1884 and 1893.
Austrian musicologist born in Eibenschütz, Moravia, on November 1, 1855 — his father, a physician, died in 1857 —, he studied music in Vienna under Bruckner and Desoff before obtaining a doctorate in law in 1878 then in philosophy in 1880. Appointed lecturer in musicology at the University of Vienna in 1883, he founded in 1884, with Friedrich Chrysander and Philipp Spitta, the 'Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft', then was called in 1885 as ordinary professor of history and theory of music at the German University of Prague, a position he later held in Vienna from 1898. Since 1894, he has directed the 'Denkmäler der Tonkunst für Österreich'.
German teacher and writer born in Frankfurt am Main in 1849, in the birthplace of Ludwig Börne, property of her father, one of the minor dignitaries of the Jewish community of the city, she graduated from the college for women in Wiesbaden in 1867 and taught for fifteen years at the school of the orphanage of Frankfurt. Devoted entirely to literature since 1882, she published notably the poetry collections "Beim Kuckuk" (1882) and "Vorreden und Bruchstücke" (1897), as well as an essay on the education of orphans, "Waisenerziehung" (1885).
Son of rabbi Samuel Adler, American physician and professor of clinical medicine at the New York Polyclinic Medical School, born in Alzey, Germany, in 1849 and emigrated to America in 1857, he was graduated from Columbia College in 1868 then studied medicine in Heidelberg, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, receiving his doctorate from Heidelberg in 1871. Visiting physician at the German Hospital in New York from 1875, he became professor of clinical pathology at the New York Polyclinic in 1892 then consulting physician of the Montefiore Home in 1898; one of his monographs, on cardiac syphilis, was translated into French and published in Paris in 1898.
Judeo-German actor born in Odessa on January 1, 1855, influenced by a Jewish troupe from Romania that came to Odessa in 1875, he resolved to devote himself to theater and made his debut in 1878 at the Kherson theater, immediately establishing himself as a skilled interpreter of Russian ghetto sentiments. When the Russian government prohibited Jewish plays in 1883, he emigrated to London, then settled in New York in February 1888, where he became one of the major actors of the Jewish stage.
Austrian jurist born in Prague on March 31, 1865, son of Moritz Adler, he studied at the universities of Prague and Vienna, was extraordinary professor of commercial law in Vienna from 1893 to 1898, then professor of civil law at the university of Czernowitz in 1900; he converted to Catholicism in 1898. He is the author of the « Oesterreichische Lagerhausrecht » (1892), a treatise on Austrian warehouse law, of « Realcontract und Vorvertrag » (1892) and of a study on company law, « Zur Entwicklungslehre und Dogmatik des Gesellschaftsrechts » (1895).
American rabbi born in Lengsfeld, near Eisenach, on 9 January 1812 and died in Chicago on 29 January 1892, trained in biblical and rabbinic literature by Isaac Hess and then at the talmudic college of Frankfurt, he emigrated to America in 1854 and became teacher-preacher of the Jewish congregation of Detroit, before being called in 1861 to the Kehillath Anshe Ma'arabh of Chicago, where he remained until his death. A modest and conservative man but open to measured reform of worship, he published in 1890 three volumes of sermons in German, a selection of which appeared in English translation in Philadelphia in 1893 under the title "Sabbath Hours".
English rabbi born on 27 July 1868, trained at the Jews' Free School, the Jews' College and University College London, where he obtained a degree from the University of London, he was appointed officiating minister of the synagogue of Hammersmith and West Kensington in 1890, then honorary chaplain of Wormwood Scrubs prison and senior master of Hebrew at the Jews' Free School in 1893. He is the author of « Elements of Hebrew Grammar » (1897, second edition 1899) and « Students' Hebrew Grammar » (1899).
Physician, journalist and leader of the Austrian labor movement, born in Prague on June 24, 1852, he abandoned his medical practice in Vienna, where contact with the misery of his patients had led him to study the social question, to devote himself entirely to socialism. He unified in 1890 the factions of Austrian workers into a strong party, working for universal suffrage; on March 9, 1897, the workers of Vienna voted for the first time and elected fourteen candidates, but Adler himself was defeated in his constituency by the antisemitic coalition. Editor-in-chief of the « Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung » since 1894, he also translated the « Peasants » of Stepniak.
holocaust victim (1879–1944)
Born in Amsterdam in 1892, Dutch Jewish engineer and writer, he played an early role in the Indische Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging and the founding of the Indonesian Communist Party. Returning to the Netherlands, he published from 1928 onward works on economics, including the influential Sowjet-Rusland in de practijk (1928). Deported, he was murdered at Auschwitz on March 6, 1944.
Polish Jew, physician of and professor of physiology at the University of Lemberg (1863–1942)
Hungarian theologian, rabbi and historian
Austrian entrepreneur (1801–1889)
Czech rabbi
German rabbi and historian (1879–1958)
American lawyer
rabbin autrichien
German rabbi
Older brother of Samuel Abraham. Rabbi in Reichenberg then Pilsen, teacher in Vienna. Specialist in messianic conceptions in Judaism and Christianity.
German rabbi
German rabbi
Hungarian journalist, editorial advisor
Austrian writer and revolutionary
American rabbi
American publisher born in Cincinnati to German Jewish immigrant parents; his father Julius Ochs was born in Fürth (Bavaria), son of merchant Lazarus Ochsenhorn. He purchased the New York Times in 1896 and gave it its motto « All the News That's Fit to Print », founding the Ochs-Sulzberger dynasty that has directed the newspaper until today (via his daughter Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger).
French lawyer and politician, Minister of Justice, president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. The Crémieux Decree of 1870 granted French citizenship to the Jews of Algeria.
Born in Liocourt in Lorraine, initially destined for the rabbinate, he became a philosopher under the patronage of Victor Cousin and was the first French Jew to pass the agrégation in philosophy. Professor at the Collège de France (chair of natural and international law, 1854–1881). Specialist in Jewish mysticism.
German political figure
Russian writer and ethnographer, Christian (1817-75), an enlightened author who did justice to Jews, he drew in his « Poyezdka v Ioujnouïou Rossiïou » (2 vol., Saint Petersburg, 1861-63) a faithful picture of Jewish life in southern Russia and defended Jews against the accusations of prejudiced opinion.
Chief of the Karaites of Crimea, died in 1824, he was royal treasurer of Selim Ghyreï Khan, the last Tatar sovereign of Crimea, which earned him, as it had his father Samuel before him (died in 1770), the title of « Ha-Neeman » (the faithful). When the khan fled his rebellious subjects to take refuge with Catherine II in Saint Petersburg, Aga followed him there, then led in 1795 a Karaite delegation to the empress to obtain exemption from the double taxation affecting Jews — a success obtained through the intervention of Count Zubov, who was later to participate in the assassination of Emperor Paul in 1801.
Physician and journalist born on March 31, 1836 in Jankovácz, Hungary, son of a Galician physician who emigrated, he was educated in Budapest and Vienna before traveling extensively in Europe, Asia and Africa. His first literary work, the novel « Antoinette », appeared in 1854; under the pseudonym « Porzó », he published from 1865 spirited feuilletons, directed « Nagyvilág » from 1870 to 1879, and founded in 1871 the satirical weekly « Borsszem Jankó », of which he remained editor-in-chief until 1900.
Grandson of Aharon "the Great" of Karlin, he led the Hasidic movement of Karlin from 1826; his long reign marks the apex of the diffusion of Karlin Hasidism in Lithuania and Volhynia. He is at the origin of the classic collection of Karlin Hasidism, Beit Aharon (1875), gathering his homilies and the teachings, ethical testaments, and letters of his ancestors.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Son of Elazar. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-3.
Rabbi, son-in-law of Chofetz Chaim (1863–1936)
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-3.
Sephardic Jew of Algerian origin whose family moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1840. Great notable of the Jewish community of Jaffa in the late 19th century, goldsmith and money-changer. He purchased land northeast of Jaffa and founded in 1887 the neighbourhood of Neveh Tzedek, nucleus of the future Tel-Aviv (Beit Chelouche villa, 1892).
Born in Raudnitz (Bohemia) in 1812, student at the yeshivot of Prague and Pozsony and one of the favorite disciples of Hatam Sofer. Rabbi in Sebes (1846) then in Balassagyarmat (1851) until his death. Intransigent figure of orthodoxy at the Hungarian Jewish Congress of 1868, he worked for the legal autonomy of Orthodox communities in Hungary.
Hebrew writer born near Pinsk, immigrated to Palestine in 1913; after serving in the Jewish Legion (World War I), he lived in the kibbutzim Maḥanayim and Kfar Giladi. He edited agricultural publications and worked from 1948 at the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture. Most of his work is devoted to the history of Jewish settlement.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5613 of the Hebrew era (1853). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 20-1.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5621 of the Hebrew era (1861). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 19-4.
Fourth leader of the Hasidic dynasty of Karlin-Stolin, known as the "Beit Aharon" after his work. His teachings, homilies and letters, as well as those of his ancestors, form the foundational book of Karlin Hasidism. The court, first located in Karlin (suburb of Pinsk), later settled in Stolin, hence the name "Stoliner".
Jewish intellectual and translator (1866–1950)
American rabbi
Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Cairo from 1896, member of the rabbinical court.
rabbi (6 juin 1802 – 23 juin 1872)
Rabbi Aharon Perlow, grandson of Shlomo Chaim, is the author of the siddour Seder Tefilot Yisrael Or ha-Yashar ("The Straight Light: order of the prayers of Israel").
Novelist of the Second Aliyah, brother of president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
rabbi
European Rabbi (1869-1931)
One of the most notorious antisemitic agitators in Germany, born on December 21, 1846 in Krien, Prussian Pomerania. A teacher and then school principal in Berlin from 1881, ruined by his debts, he joined the antisemitic movement and published pamphlets accusing Jews of betrayal of Germany—notably his « Judenflinten » of 1892, which led him into a defamation trial and a sentence of five months in prison, without harming his electoral popularity.
Lithuanian rabbi
French writer and journalist
Talmudic genius, chief rabbi of Posen, renowned for his penetrating glosses on the Talmud and the Shulchan Aruch. Father-in-law of the Chatam Sofer.
Israeli rabbi
Hungarian rabbi (1837–1922)
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5629 of the Hebrew era (1869). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-1.
Russian Panslavist leader, born October 7, 1823, died in Moscow February 8, 1886. Founder in Moscow of a circle of Slavophiles hostile to foreign elements in the Russian population — Germans, Poles, and especially Jews — he opposed from 1862 onward the admission of Jewish graduates into the civil service. The riots of 1881 in southern Russia brought him to the head of the reactionary movement following the death of Alexander II, and he supported the May Laws promulgated by General Ignatiev.
Italian banker and philanthropist, son of Samuel Alatri, born in Rome in 1833 and died in the same city on March 9, 1889. Long-time president of the Banca Romana, he resigned in 1881 when his reorganization proposals were rejected — a foresight confirmed by the establishment's bankruptcy in 1893. He devotes most of his energy to founding kindergartens for poor Jews and publishes, in 1888, a work on banking reform, « Sul Riordinamento delle Banche d'Emissione in Italia ».
Politician, community activist and Italian orator, born in Rome in 1805 and died in the same city on May 20, 1889. For more than sixty years, he leads the Jewish community of his native city and pursues his struggles for religious and political freedom; entering the community council at the age of twenty-three, he multiplies from 1840 to 1865 trips abroad to forge contacts with influential Jews in France and England. In 1870, at King Victor-Emmanuel's entry into Rome, he is part of the delegation that presents to the sovereign the result of the plebiscite in favor of the Kingdom of Italy, then sits in Parliament.
Rabbi born in Galgóc (Hungary), from the Bettelheim family of Pozsony (Pressburg). Correspondent on Jewish affairs for several periodicals, director of a network of Jewish schools, editor of a political weekly "Elöre" ("Forward"). Emigrated to the United States in 1867, he was rabbi in Philadelphia (and taught at Maimonides College), then in San Francisco from 1875, where he was notably engaged in penal reform.
German businessman
Tunisian politician
Brother of Louis, he distinguished himself as a musician and composer, « friend of painters and writers ». He represents the artistic branch of the family, in contrast to his brothers more oriented toward finance.
Born in Corfu in a Sephardic Jewish family, he moved to Marseille at age five and then to Geneva for his law studies. A committed Zionist, he directed the Revue juive in 1925. He published Solal (1930), then his masterpiece Belle du Seigneur, crowned by the Grand Prix du roman of the Académie française in 1968.
Theoretical physicist, author of the theory of relativity, Nobel laureate 1921. A German Jew exiled to the United States, he supported Zionism and was considered for the presidency of Israel (1952), which he declined. His scientific genius and ethical commitment embody the Jewish intellectual tradition.
Turkish-born rabbi, businessman, lawyer and social activist
American architect
Investment banker born in Marmoutier in Alsace. Animated by an ideal of universal peace, he launched in 1909 the 'Archives de la Planète', a vast collection of autochromes (color photographs on glass plates) and films shot in about sixty countries until 1931 (~72,000 autochromes). Ruined by the crisis of the 1930s, he died in Boulogne-Billancourt in 1940.
Hungarian painter
Moravian Hebrew scholar (1816-1908)
German merchant (1870–1942)
Novelist, playwright, critic and German actor, born in Breslau on July 9, 1862, under the pseudonym Conrad Alberti (his real name Conrad Sittenfeld). First an actor in Berlin, he then devoted himself entirely to literature and became one of the pioneers of naturalism in Germany, a movement that would culminate with Sudermann and Hauptmann. He notably published the novelistic cycle « Der Kampf ums Dasein » (1888-94) and the drama « Brot! » (1888).
Italian economist
Man of letters, painter and French poet converted to Christianity, born in Paris in 1811 and died around 1898. Brother of Alphonse Alkan — the difference in spelling between the two family names has never been explained —, he published several collections of memories and edifying narratives, including "La Légende des Âmes" (1879) and "Les Cannibales et Leur Temps", recounting a campaign in Oceania under the commander Marceau (1887).
French editor and scholar, born in Metz March 18, 1841, grandson of Gerson Lévy. After studying at the lycée of his native city, he entered in 1862 the École Normale Supérieure of Paris, which he left in 1865 to teach mathematics, then resumed in 1869 his father's publishing enterprise in Metz. Settled in Paris in 1872, he entered the following year the house of Germer-Baillière, of which he became head in 1883; he was made Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1895.
Engineer, politician and French author, born in Donnelay, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, in 1801, died in Paris in 1877. He took part in the political events of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the year he was elected to the National Assembly within the advanced party known as « la Montagne ». Appointed in 1845 professor of the arts of spinning and weaving at the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, a position he held until his death, he was elected in 1859 member of the Israeli Consistory of Paris, then in 1867 member of the Central Consistory in place of Salomon Munk.
French publisher and man of letters, born in 1817 and died in Metz on May 14, 1869, father of Parisian publisher Félix Alcan. Member of the Israelite consistory of Metz and judge at the commercial court, he contributes to « Archives israélites » and « Revue d'Austrasie » poems, sonatas and cantatas, including « Noéma » (1841), the biblical hymn « Ruth » dedicated to Carmoly (1843), and the cantata « Spartacus », performed in Metz in 1852 then in Damascus in 1860.
Born in Zamość in 1816, died in Saint Petersburg in 1893, he moved to Odessa around 1840, a center of the Haskalah. In 1860 he founded Ha-Melitz, the first Hebrew newspaper of the Russian Empire (weekly, then daily from 1886, transferred to Saint Petersburg in 1871), to which he added a Yiddish supplement, Kol Mevasser. He was a major figure in progressive Jewish press of his time; Leon Rabinowitz succeeded him as editor of Ha-Melitz in 1893.
Author and convert to the Greek Orthodox Church, born in 1820 in Nazarinetz, in the governorate of Podolia. Forcibly enlisted at ten years old by Nicolas I's press, who hoped thus to convert Jewish children, he remained long faithful to the faith of his fathers before converting, around 1845, and bringing more than five hundred Jewish cantonists to orthodoxy, earning him promotion to non-commissioned officer in 1848. Becoming disabled around 1855, he settled in Novgorod, where he wrote works on the Jews of Russia, refuting the accusation of ritual murder.
Italian archaeologist (1879–1944)
Dutch physician, professor of criminal anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and surgeon of the city's police and fire services, born in Amsterdam on April 1, 1858. He counts, with Professors Winkler and Jelgersma, among the founders of the Dutch school of anthropology, distinct from French and Italian currents, and publishes in 1898 a collection of essays on criminal anthropology. Writer of the Dutch realist school in full development since 1880, he also publishes works of fiction, including « Uit den Dood » (1890) and « Zuster Bertha » (1891).
Dutch physician and feminist
Jewish journalist and writer
Born in Baltimore, ordained at Hebrew Union College (1930), rabbi of Congregation Beth El in Norfolk and later, from 1934, of Temple Ahavath Sholom in Brooklyn. Prolific author: notes on the tractate Bava Metzia, sermons, essays and award-winning poetry. Military chaplain during World War II.
Born in Novogroudok, emigrated to the United States, Alexander Harkavy was one of the great lexicographers of Yiddish. His major work is the Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary (1925, enlarged in 1928), a reference tool still in use, which helped generations of Eastern European immigrants.
Emperor of Russia, born in Saint Petersburg on March 10, 1845, died in Livadia on November 1, 1894. He ascended to the throne on March 14, 1881, in the aftermath of the assassination of his father Alexander II, and immediately renounced the reforms of the « liberal tsar » for strict autocratic rule, under the influence of his former tutor Pobiedonostsev. His reign was marked by a policy of persecution of Jews, held responsible for revolutionary agitation, and by pogroms that broke out in more than one hundred sixty localities in southern Russia during the year 1881.
Dutch accountant and translator (1899–1943)
(1848-1917)
United States rabbi and orientalist (1842–1894)
Rabbi and Av Beth Din, disciple of Israel Salanter, author of Divrei Emes, close to Hibbat Zion.
German banker and patron (1839-1911)
Hungarian Jewish cartographer born in Újpest on November 5, 1899, who became an agent of Soviet military intelligence (the « Dora » network) during World War II.
German rabbi (1816-1869)
Austrian composer
politician (1886–1938)
Polish rabbi
Hungarian writer and professor of philosophy and aesthetics, born in Budapest on April 13, 1850. Admitted in 1878 as a docent at the faculty of philosophy at the University of Budapest, he became professor there in 1895; since 1892 he has also taught dramaturgy and aesthetics at the National Academy of Theater. Author notably of a work on Kant crowned by the Academy of Sciences (1889), he directed with József Bánóczi the collection "Filosofiai Irók Tára" and edited from 1882 to 1886 the pedagogical journal "Magyar Tanügy".
French organ builder and inventor, born in Paris on December 4, 1824, died in 1888. Trained in the factory founded by his father, Jacob Alexandre, at Ivry, near Paris, he received in 1844 a stake in the business. With his father, he pioneered the piano-organ, the piano-Liszt and the organ-melodium, called "Alexandre organ". The Alexandre house received in 1856 the honor medal of the Paris Exposition for its instruments, very popular; Édouard was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1860.
Political and community activist, born in London on May 14, 1852, died on January 31, 1901. For nine years (1884-92), he held the position of honorary secretary of the Jewish Board of Guardians in London; he has sat on the council of Jews' College since 1877 and on various community committees, including that of the Jewish Board of Guardians since 1879. Regarded as an authority on economic and social matters, he testified before parliamentary commissions on the « sweating system » and on emigration, and compiled the « Jewish Population Statistics ».
Australian politician, born in London on 30 November 1820, died in Sydney on 27 January 1874. Arrived in Sydney in 1834, he represented the Goulburn electorate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1863, and made a fortune through shrewd real estate investments. After his death, his widow founded a scholarship in his memory at the University of Sydney.
Metaphysicist and psychologist, born in Sydney, New South Wales, on July 6, 1859. Trained at Wesley College in Melbourne and at the University of Melbourne, he obtains in 1877 a Balliol scholarship in classical letters, then in 1881 first-class honours and becomes fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford. Author in 1889 of « Moral Order and Progress », an attempt to reconcile evolutionary ethics and Hegelian ethics, he resigns in 1890 to study experimental psychology under Münsterberg at Fribourg, before being appointed, in July 1893, to the chair of logic and philosophy at Owens College in Manchester.
Born in Schirhoffen in 1811, initially destined for the rabbinate and sent to study Talmud in Frankfurt, he joined Paris in 1837 with a letter from Heinrich Heine and entered literary and journalistic circles. A very prolific author (over 130 publications), he contributed to numerous newspapers (La Presse, Le Figaro, Le Temps…). His Village Stories (1847), prefaced by Heine, are a valuable testimony to the Judeo-Alsatian world.
Alexandre Bernheim, from an Alsatian Jewish family established in Besançon (merchant of colors and artists' supplies), opened his gallery in 1863. His twin sons Josse and Gaston Bernheim-Jeune made it, from the 1900s onwards, one of the great galleries of the 20th century (Bonnard, Vuillard, Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse). The house published art books, the journal Le Bulletin de la vie artistique (1919-1926, directed by Félix Fénéon) and annotated catalogues.
Emperor of Russia, born in Saint Petersburg on April 29, 1818, assassinated in the same city on March 13, 1881. He succeeded his father Nicholas I on March 2, 1855, before the end of the Crimean War, and immediately undertook vast reforms, the most important being the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. Aware of the excesses of his father's policy toward Jews, he suppressed the cantonists' school, opened high schools and universities to Jews, and by the laws of March 16, 1859 and November 27, 1861 granted certain categories the right to settle outside the Pale of Settlement.
Russian theatre director (1885–1950)
composer and pianist
Austrian psychiatrist and psychotherapist
German Jewish lawyer, president of the Zionist Federation of Germany (Zionist Association of Berlin), defender of Carl von Ossietzky, interned after the Reichstag fire then exiled to Paris and Marseille where he died in 1941.
Eldest son of Siegfried Beit, merchant from a Hamburg family of Jewish origin (the parents were baptized as Lutherans). Diamond magnate in Kimberley, associate of Cecil Rhodes in the formation of De Beers Consolidated Mines, then major figure in the exploitation of the Witwatersrand goldfields. Immense art collector and patron (the Beit Trust funded universities and infrastructure in Southern Africa and the United Kingdom). His brother Otto Beit continued the philanthropic work.
ophtalmologue allemand (1871–1940)
British banker and art collector (1842–1918)
German physician and writer
French general of Alsatian origin and Jewish faith
biblical scholar
Son of banker Joseph von Henikstein, from an ennobled Viennese Jewish family. Military engineer officer, he became a general (Feldmarschallleutnant) and chief of staff to Benedek during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Baptized Catholic in childhood.
Born in a Jewish family in Sommerfeld, he studied medicine in Berlin (1881) and became professor at the University of Berlin, chief physician at Krankenhaus Moabit and then at Virchow-Krankenhaus. Pioneer in the study of the somatosensory system (thermoreceptors, cutaneous sensitivity); the « Goldscheider test » bears his name.
American-German classical philologist (1862–1942)
Born in Carpentras in a Comtat Jewish family, he was a professor of chemistry (thesis 1859; Principles of Chemistry Founded on Modern Theories, 1865, 5th ed. 1890). Senator and then radical deputy, he is best known for having passed the law restoring divorce in France (Naquet Law, July 27, 1884). He later moved toward socialism and anarchism and was implicated in the Panama scandal.
German physician and painter (1863-1922), pioneer of laryngoscopy
German Jewish entrepreneur and art collector refugee from Nazis (1883-1941)
French rabbi
German mathematician
German architect
Younger son of chemist Ludwig Mond. Liberal Member of Parliament from 1906, minister (Public Works then Health) under Lloyd George. In 1926 he orchestrated the merger of four enterprises to create Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), whose first president he became. Active Zionist, president of the British Zionist Foundation, he founded the city of Tel Mond in Palestine and financially supported Weizmann and Jabotinsky.
film music composer, conductor and pianist
English dramatist of Rhenish Jewish origin, he produced the first English translations of Maurice Maeterlinck's work, introducing him to the English-speaking public. Successful author of the Edwardian stage, he received the OBE.
Born in 1873 into a family of Dutch Jewish jewelers, son of the diamond merchant Charles Van Cleef who emigrated from Amsterdam. After an apprenticeship in the Netherlands, he settled in Paris and founded in 1906, with his brother-in-law Charles Arpels, the house Van Cleef & Arpels. A large part of the family, of Jewish faith, had to go into exile from 1939–1940.
French architect
Portuguese mineralogist (1856–1941)
Author of the works « Derek Eṣ ha-Ḥayyim » (The Way of the Tree of Life), « 'En Yamin » (The Right Eye) and « Sha'ar Yehudah » (The Gate of Judah), all three published in Salonika in 1822.
Austrian writer (1869–1944)
German activist
Austrian writer and photojournalist
Active in Turkey in the early 19th century, he is the author of « Amar Yosef », a collection of notes on Maimonides, of Talmudic novellæ arranged in alphabetical order and a body of homilies, published in Salonique in 1831.
Rabbi of Semlin, in Croatia, died in October 1878. Activist for the restoration of Jews in Palestine, he is among the precursors of the modern Zionism of Theodor Herzl. His "Goral la-Adonaï" (Vienna, 1857) proposes the formation of a joint-stock company to persuade the Sultan to cede Palestine to the Jews as a tributary country. He returns to this theme in "Shema' Yisraël" (1861 or 1862) and "Shelom Yeroushalayim" (1840), and publishes in Vienna, in 1843, the "Minḥat Yehoudah", panegyric of Montefiore and Crémieux, saviors of the Jews of Damascus.
Judeo-Spanish translator and author of Hebrew manuals, active in Turkey in the 19th century. With his father David, he translates from Hebrew into Judeo-Spanish the « Shevet Yehoudah » of Salomon ibn Verga (Belgrade, 1859) ; he also writes a treatise on the laws of meals (Belgrade, 1859), a Hebrew grammar (Bucharest, 1860) and an arithmetic treatise (Belgrade, 1867).
French printer, bibliographer and author, born in Paris in 1809, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1889. First a typographer, he collaborates on various typographic and bibliographic journals before becoming secretary and proofreader to the Count of Clarac, curator of the Louvre's Antiques Museum. Prolific writer on the art and history of printing, he notably publishes « Les Graveurs de Portraits en France » (1879) and « Les Livres et Leurs Ennemis » (1883).
French pianist and composer, born in Paris on November 30, 1813, died in the same city on March 29, 1888. Admitted to the Paris Conservatory from his sixth year, he wins its first solfège prize at age seven, in 1820, giving his first public concert on violin on that occasion. He studies harmony under Victor Dourlen and obtains its first prize in 1826; appointed honorary professor at the Conservatory in 1828, a post he leaves in 1835, he receives in 1831 the first composition prize awarded by the Institute of France. Two years later, he goes to London, then settles in Paris as a piano teacher, composing in all seventy-two works.
French pianist and composer, born in Paris in 1826, brother of Charles Valentin Alkan. Entered the Conservatory at a very young age like him, where he studied under Adolphe Adam and Pierre Zimmerman, then was appointed professor of solfège there in 1850, a position he held for nearly fifty years; among his pupils were Bizet, Sarasate and Carvalho. In 1890, he won the second composition prize awarded by the Institut de France for his « Étude Fuguée sur Le Prophète ».
Italian rabbi of the early nineteenth century, whose responsa, the Toḳfo shel Yosef (The Force of Joseph), appear in two parts in Livorno, in 1823 and 1855. Mortara incorrectly gives his name in the form Almagia.
One of the patrons cited by Abraham Ankawa in the preface of his responsa, the « Kerem Ḥemed » (Livorno, 1869-71). Kaufmann holds him to be the grandson of Jacob ben Joseph Almaliḥ, whose period is fixed by an elegy he composed on the persecution of the Jewish community of Morocco in 1790 — persecution due, no doubt, to the disorder that followed the death of the sultan Moulay Sidi Mohammed.
Bibliophile and poet, born in Padua on March 25, 1801, died in Trieste on March 7, 1860, eldest son of the wealthy merchant Baruch Ḥayyim Almanzi. An passionate collector of Hebrew books and manuscripts from the age of twenty, he acquired the library of Ḥayyim Joseph David Azoulaï, one of the most important private collections of his time, consulted by Luzzatto, Steinschneider and Zunz. A refined translator into biblical Hebrew of Italian poets, he notably published « Higgayon be-Kinnor » (Vienna, 1839) and « Nezem Zahav » (Padua, 1858); after his death, S. D. Luzzatto edited a collection of his letters and poems, the « Yad Yosef » (Cracow and Trieste, 1889).
banker and art collector
French painter
Hebrew teacher and grammarian, he taught Hebrew for eighteen years at Zerkowo, in Prussian Poland, near the Russian frontier. His son Joseph, born in Zerkowo in 1805, Germanizes the family name and becomes known as Julius Fürst. Jacob Alsari wrote the « Doré Ma'alah », on angelology and accents, as well as a religious poem and notes on the Targoumim, all remaining unpublished.
Rabbi of Verbo, in Hungary, active in the first half of the nineteenth century. He writes the « Ḥiddoushé Yabets », novellae on the talmudic treatise Ḥoullin, published in Presbourg in 1837, extracted, as he specifies in the preface, from a larger series of novellae he composed on the entire Talmud.
Polish photographer and writer (1885-1941)
Second Novominsker Rebbe (1874–1932)
Ḥakam Bashi (Chief Rabbi) of Jerusalem, born in Safed on June 1, 1817, brought to Jerusalem in 1823. Appointed assistant judge to Ḥakam Bashi Abraham Ashkenazi in 1855, then Chief Dayan in 1869, he himself acceded to the position of Ḥakam Bashi in 1893, succeeding R. Paniel; Sultan Abdul-Hamid confirmed his appointment by a firman, and Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, visiting Jerusalem in 1898, also presented him with a medal. Polyglot — Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Italian, Greek — he published numerous collections of sermons, responsa and decisions, whose titles all play on the word "Ish," initials of his name.
Talmudist from a Spanish family established in Salonique in the early 19th century. He wrote « Ohole Yehoudah » (The Tents of Judah), published in Salonique in 1820, a collection of homilies on the Pentateuch and halakhic dissertations on the « Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah » of Maimonides and on the treatise Shevou'ot.
Spanish historian and archaeologist, specialist in the Jews of Spain and Portugal, born in 1818, died in Seville in 1878. Inspector general of public education in Spain, he published in Madrid in 1848 his « Estudios Históricos, Políticos, y Literarios sobre los Judíos de España », translated into French in Paris in 1861, then developed into a larger work in three volumes, the « Historia Social, Política, y Religiosa de los Judíos de España y Portugal » (Madrid, 1875-76). Having no knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish sources, he relies, for the literary part of his first work, on the uncritical notes of De Castro.
Translator and historical writer of the 19th century, active in Salonica. He translated from Hebrew into Judeo-Spanish the geographical work of Samson Bloch, the "Shebilé 'Olam" (Salonica, 1853–57, 1860), adding his own notes, and wrote a short history of Napoleon.
Rabbi of Salonica in the early nineteenth century. His sermons on the Pentateuch appear under the title Sefer Berit Abraham (The Covenant of Abraham), published in Salonica in 1802.
Ecclesiastical dignitary of Rome whose life touches the history of the Jews of the city in 1848. He distinguished himself by his eloquent sermons on tolerance towards the Jews, preached at Santa Maria in Trastevere during the agitation for the abolition of the Roman ghetto, and his influence contributed to the decree signed by Pius IX on April 17, 1848 ordering the removal of the walls and gates of the ghetto. According to an account reported by Berliner, Ambrosoli was present, a crucifix hidden under his cloak, the night the walls of the ghetto were torn down amidst the acclaim of the crowd.
French mathematician of Jewish descent (son of Sigismond Mannheim and Marianne Speyer), officer and professor at the École polytechnique, known for having devised the "Mannheim" slide rule and for his work in descriptive geometry.
Born in Trieste on December 26, 1872, died in Turin on July 12, 1949, son of Davide Adolfo Herlitzka and Marietta Lustig. Professor of Physiology at the University of Turin (from 1913), director of the physiology laboratory, member of the Accademia dei Lincei and the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino. Pioneer of experimental embryology and applied physiology (aviation, altitude). Israelite, he was driven from his chair by the racial laws of 1938 (decree 1390) and went into exile in Argentina, working at the Argentine Aviation Research Center until 1945.
Corresponding secretary of the Council of Jewish Women, born in Chicago on March 3, 1862. Engaged in numerous philanthropic movements, Jewish and general, she is notably vice-president of the Consumers' League since 1899 and president of the League for Religious Fellowship in 1897 and 1898. Secretary of the Congress of Jewish Women held at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, from which the Council of Jewish Women was born, she has remained its corresponding secretary since then, and represents this organization as delegate to the National Congress of Women in London in June 1899.
Rabbi of Sefrou, nineteenth century. Born in 5542 (1782), died in 5612 (1852) of the Hebrew era. Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-4.
Chief Rabbi of Petah Tikva (1892-1966)
rabbi, leader of the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish group "Neturei Karta"
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi-judge and codifier of the Elbaz family of Sefrou.
last chief-rabbi of Yemen's Jewish community (1871-1952)
American lawyer, born in Philadelphia in 1866, trained in the departments of letters and law at the University of Pennsylvania. Active in numerous Jewish institutions in Philadelphia — president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, director of the Hebrew Education Society, of the Jewish Chautauqua Society and of Gratz College —, he is also the prolific author of works on Jewish law, the principal of which, "The Jewish Law of Divorce according to Bible and Talmud," appeared in Philadelphia in 1896.
Commentator active in Palestine in the first half of the nineteenth century. He publishes « Ḳorban Pessaḥ » (The Offering of Passover), a commentary on the Haggada of Passover, published in Livorno in 1836.
Born Hannah Rabinsohn on December 28, 1893, in Codăești. De facto leader of the Romanian Communist Party in the postwar period, Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 1947 to July 1952—considered the first woman in the world to hold this post. Removed from power in 1952, died in Bucharest in 1960.
Writer, pamphleteer and Italian revolutionary leader, born in Ferrara in 1807, died in Genoa in 1874. In recognition of his patriotic zeal and literary talent, the National Society, founded in 1848, elects him secretary and then representative for Turin; in 1849, he is elected by a large majority to the Constituent Assembly of Rome, which sends him on a diplomatic mission to Venice. Expelled toward the end of 1849 from the Papal States and Lombardy, he settles in Genoa, where he dies, bequeathing to the municipal library his rich collection of books.
French man of letters, he is the author, with Jules François Christophe and an introduction by Paul Bourget, of the "Index to the Human Comedy of H. de Balzac" (1887), encyclopedia of Balzac's characters which remained a reference for Balzacian studies.
Historian of Italian literature and philologist, born in Pisa on February 20, 1835. Noticed young for his literary talent and liberal commitment, he joined Turin in 1855, officially to study law, in reality as a secret agent between the liberals of Tuscany and Piedmont and Count Cavour. Representative of Tuscany at the National Society, he is charged with pronouncing the discourse during the offering to Cavour of his bust sculpted by Vela. At the fall of the government of Leopold II of Tuscany, on April 27, 1859, he returned to Florence, before receiving, after the Treaty of Villafranca, the directorship of the liberal newspaper « La Nazione ».
Hungarian writer
Hungarian writer, poet and critic
Hungarian photographer
French writer
Born in Nancy in a Lorraine Jewish family, former member of the Council of State and Dreyfusard. Pioneer of free verse in France and theorist of poetics. In 1908 he published « Poèmes juifs », the first major assumed Jewish voice in French poetry, and participated in 1919 in the Peace Conference as a Jewish delegate.
Born in Marseille to a Sephardic Jewish merchant family whose paternal branch had been established in Livorno for over a century. From 1912 onward, he was one of four "pillars" of the Nouvelle Revue Française alongside Gide, Claudel, and Valéry. His major work, the Voyage du Condottière, was born from his travels in Italy. A declared opponent of Nazism, he had to flee Paris in 1940.
German ethnographer and geographer, born in 1835 in Brunswick, director of the journal « Globus » since 1890. He publishes in 1881 « Zur Volkskunde der Juden », with a map of the distribution of Jews in Central Europe — first scientific attempt, though marked by an anti-Jewish bias, to describe Jews as a race, as well as their customs and folklore. His two series of « Ethnographische Parallelen » (Stuttgart, 1878, 1889) bring together several Jewish usages with other traditions, while his « Flutsagen » (Brunswick, 1891) gather legends of the flood among primitive peoples.
Banker and philanthropist of Damascus, died in 1874, great benefactor of his coreligionists in Syria. After the repression of the Druze revolt of 1860, he distributed three thousand Turkish pounds to the poor of Damascus, without distinction of faith, and provided for a time from his own resources the needs of imperial troops stationed in the city; in recognition, Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz conferred upon him the Order of the Medjidié of the first class. His son Eleazar, established in Constantinople, followed his example.
Talmudist and Turkish author, surnamed Tshélébi, active in the early nineteenth century. He publishes Pitouḥé Ḥotam (Engraving of a Seal), Salonica, 1839, treating questions left unresolved in the Talmud and marked with the word teiḳou (let it remain thus!), as well as passages of the Pentateuch containing the conjunction "also."
Director of the London Jews' Free School, born April 29, 1819, died in London in 1898. Appointed master of Talmud Torah in 1840, then head of the entire school, he made it one of the best-maintained elementary establishments in the United Kingdom; placed under government inspection in 1853, the school receives praise from inspectors every year. That same year, he organizes teacher training, so that for more than a generation almost every Jewish teacher in the country owed his training to him. He held the position until 1897 and published notably « The Law of Sinai and Its Appointed Times » (1858).
Italian banker and philanthropist born in Modena into a Sephardic Jewish family, diplomat of the Republic of San Marino in Paris. During the Second World War, he organized in the Italian occupation zone of southern France the transfer of some 2,500 Jews away from Nice and devised in 1943 a plan to evacuate thousands of Jews to Palestine. Nicknamed "the pope of the Jews." He subsequently helped resolve the Finaly affair (1953).
Born in Collegara (Modena) on June 21, 1878, youngest of an ancient and wealthy Modenese Jewish family (name derived from the town of Formigine, attested since 1629). He founded his publishing house in 1908 (approximately 600 titles), created celebrated collections ("Profili", "I Classici del ridere"), the journal "L'Italia che scrive" (1918) and the biographical dictionary "Chi è?". Struck by the racial laws of 1938, he threw himself on November 29, 1938 from the Ghirlandina tower of the Modena Cathedral to denounce the infamy of these laws.
Italian naval officer born in Venice, one of the rare Jewish officers in the Italian navy. Member of the Zionist Commission from 1918, he was close to Chaïm Weizmann and represented Italy at the conferences of Versailles (1919) and San Remo (1920) in favor of the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration. Killed in 1920 near Khirbet el-Gazale during a Bedouin attack on the Damascus-Haifa train, while he was investigating the political situation in the Middle East for Italy.
Father of Piero Sraffa, professor of commercial law and dean of Bocconi University in Milan. Member of the same long-established Italian Jewish family settled in Pisa and then Turin.
Figure of the Risorgimento from the Jewish community of Modena, companion of Ciro Menotti and Giuseppe Mazzini within the Giovine Italia; his letters were published under the title "Lettere di un mazziniano modenese" and a biography was devoted to him by historian Eugenio Artom ("Un compagno di Menotti e di Mazzini," 1949).
Writer and poet born into a Florentine Jewish family, founder in 1896 of the literary journal 'Il Marzocco', a major figure in Florentine cultural life at the turn of the twentieth century.
Hungarian woman of letters, born in Veszprém in 1848, died in 1874, daughter of a teacher of Hód-Mezö-Vásárhely. Versed from a young age in Hungarian, French, and German literatures, she published from her adolescence her first novel, « Adventures of a Hungarian Family », in the magazine « Szegedi Hiradó ». In 1865, she published in « Magyar Izsráelita » a short story entitled « Prejudices », describing the condition of Jews in Hungary; her historical novel, « Ilonka és Elemér », appeared in 1868.
Hungarian writer, born November 30, 1857. After studies at the University of Budapest, he teaches at the city's lycée while establishing himself as a historian and literary critic. Among his works: "Berzsenyi Dániel" (1879), "Késmárk Tököly Imre, 1657-1705" (1882) and "Magyarország Története II. Mátyástól III. Ferdinand Haláláig" (1889), sixth volume of the "National History of Hungary" by Szilágyi published for the millennium of the Kingdom of Hungary. He also translates several works by Macaulay and Paul Janet into Hungarian and edits the works of poets Kölcsey and Kisfaludy. Angyal had himself baptized.
Russian civil engineer, born in Daghestan in 1853, trained in the household of his father, Rabbi Sharbat ben Nissim, president of the Daghestan community. A graduate of Moscow University, he holds the position of assistant director of the Rothschild Naphtha Company in the Caucasus. He publishes in Jerusalem in 1894 two pamphlets in Hebrew on the Jewish community of Daghestan, and in 1888 the ethnographic section of the Moscow Society of Natural Sciences publishes his study "Kavkazskié Yevrei", devoted to the life, customs, and history of the Jews of the Caucasus.
Talmudist, author and North African liturgical poet, born in Fès, Morocco, around the beginning of the 19th century, descendant of the Alnaqua family, died after 1860. Specialist in ritual slaughter law, he traveled through North Africa and Italy in search of manuscripts, and spent three years in Tlemcen, Algeria, where he founded a Talmudic academy. He published "Zekor le-Abraham," a versified exposition of dietary laws (Livorno, 1839), and "Zevaḥim Shelamim," intended for ritual slaughterers (Livorno, 1858), and also wrote an Arabic paraphrase of the Passover Haggada.
Translator active in Algeria in the 19th century. He translates from Spanish into Arabic a treatise on the laws that a Jewish woman must observe, under the title « Dat Yehoudit » (Law of the Jewess), published in Algiers in 1855.
German-Jewish educator (1879-1960) who founded a progressive school in Ulm and, fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, relocated it to England as Bunce Court School, which sheltered and educated hundreds of Jewish refugee children including many Kindertransport arrivals.
Cancer researcher; created a lineage of mice resistant to tumors.
Modernist Yiddish poetess, associated with Di Yunge and the introspectivists.
New Zealand garden and landscape designer
German Orthodox rabbi
German author, active in southern Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He wrote « Ueber den Commerz zwischen Seele und Körper » (translated from Hebrew), Frankfurt am Main, 1788; « Thanatologia, seu in Mortis Naturam », Göttingen, 1795; and « Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft », illustrated, Mainz, 1801.
Austrian banker and philanthropist
Yiddish playwright, lyricist and theatre director, author of more than fifty plays.
conductor, composer (1889-1945)
Grand Rabbi of Aleppo, died on March 13, 1858. His collection of responsa, the « Ohel Yesharim » (Tent of the Righteous), organized according to the four Ṭourim of Jacob ben Asher, is published in Livorno in 1843.
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1805, he founded with his brother Léopold in June 1842 the banking house A. J. Stern & Cie, 33 rue Laffitte in Paris, one of the ten great banking houses in Europe, networked with Stern Brothers of London. Nephew of Salomon de Rothschild, he made the Stern house one of the powerful Jewish banking dynasties of the nineteenth century.
Russian sculptor, born in Wilna in 1842. Gifted very young for wood carving, he went at twenty-one to Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts while working as a turner to support himself. In 1864, his carved wood « The Jewish Tailor » won him the first-class silver medal of the Academy; the following year, « The Miser Counting His Money », in ivory, brought him the grand silver medal and an imperial pension. In 1868, his statue « Ivan the Terrible » led to his appointment as academician by Alexander II, who purchased it for the Hermitage; he subsequently sculpted « Peter the Great » (1872) in Rome, before returning to Saint Petersburg in 1875.
American journalist
Dutch Jewish industrialist and art collector (1874–1951)
Russian pianist, composer and orchestra conductor.
Austrian actor
German physician, born in Jastrow, Western Prussia, on August 21, 1847. Educated at the Deutsch-Krone gymnasium and at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1870, he served as assistant surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) before establishing himself as a practitioner in Berlin; he received in 1896 the title of "Sanitätsrat". Apolant published numerous articles in Virchow's "Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie" and in the "Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift".
Judeo-German writer and printer from Philadelphia, born in Ponievieji, province of Kovno, in Russia, on August 28, 1855. In 1868, he went to Vilkomir to study under the direction of Moses Loeb Lilienblum ; involved in 1877 in the nihilist movement, he was arrested in Kiev, escaped to Czernowitz, Austria, and published his first book, « Ha-Nevel » (The Harp), a collection of Hebrew and Judeo-German poems, in 1882. Having emigrated to the United States in 1888, he joined the New York anarchist movement and became a prolific contributor to the Judeo-German press ; in 1895, he directed the short-lived weekly « Die Gegenwart ».
(1893–1944) physician, psychoanalist, Holocaust victim
Hungarian writer, born in Trencsén on May 13, 1858. Graduate of the University of Budapest, he was sent by the Secretary of State for Public Education to perfect his studies in Paris, then returned to Budapest in 1884, where he directed the « Gazette of Hungary » until 1887. He translated several works on economics from Hungarian into French and served as deputy to the Hungarian Diet until 1901. His German family name is Aufrecht.
Italian politician and author, born in Florence on July 27, 1840. Forced to interrupt his studies at the death of his father, he works as a printing compositor before enlisting in 1859 as a volunteer in the Piedmontese alpine chasseurs for the war of independence, then following Garibaldi to Sicily in 1860, where he is promoted lieutenant on the battlefield of Milazzo. He participates in the campaign against Austria in 1866, then turns to journalism, founding in Rome in 1870 the daily newspaper « La Libertà ». Elected deputy for Viterbe in 1880, then for Perugia, he also publishes several stories and novels.
Economist, author, and member of the Prussian Diet, born in Berlin on October 10, 1854. Doctor of the University of Berlin, he early embraced the cause of Prussian ultraconservatives, becoming the principal defender of bimetallism and protective tariffs — to the point of abandoning his religion for Christianity and occasionally employing antisemitic language. Editor of « Deutsche Wochenblatt », he published numerous works on monetary policy, including « Leitfaden der Währungspolitik » (1893), reprinted up to seventeen times. His wife Olga, daughter of Lina Morgenstern and a professor of elocution, also wrote several works, including « Sylvesternacht » (1893), reprinted in 1900.
Opera singer (tenor), born in Mitau, Russia, on 23 March 1865. Trained at the Riga gymnasium then at the Imperial Conservatory of Moscow under the direction of Tchaikovsky, he graduated in 1890. He sang at the Imperial Opera of Moscow, in Berlin, Milan, Naples, Turin, and at the Theatre Royal of Covent Garden, London, in 1894, where he has given numerous concerts since. He is also the author of a children's pantomime, "The Quartet", and a lied for tenor, "Die Erinnerung".
Merchant and philanthropist, died in Portsea in 1874. From a Sephardi family, he devoted the fortune amassed during his career to founding a theological college to train young Jews for religious ministry, established in Portsea, from which several Jewish officials emerged. A curious clause of his will gave preference, on admission, to candidates residing in Hampshire, the county where Portsea is located.
Founder and leading figure of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, based in Vilna; co-authored the influential pamphlet "On Agitation" (1893).
Professor of clinical dentistry at the University of Budapest, born in Budapest on February 8, 1851. Graduated in 1876 from his native city, he then practiced for several years at the German Hospital in London, before founding in 1881 a dental clinic in Budapest, integrated in 1890 into the general clinics under the name of « dental service ». Pioneer of scientific dentistry in Hungary, he published several works on the subject, including « A Fogak Gondozása » (1881) and « Diagnostic der Zahnkrankheiten » (1885). Arkovy had himself baptized.
Hungarian rabbi (1870–1941)
French rabbi, Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg for nearly sixty years
Bavarian deputy and lawyer, born in Bayreuth on February 23, 1812, died in the same city on January 31, 1864. Intended by his parents for commerce, he received a solid Jewish education and distinguished himself early in Bible and Talmud, but his taste for science led him to enter at seventeen the lycée. He later studied law in Munich and Erlangen, and became in 1848 royal lawyer in Naïla then in his native city. Elected by Hof and Münchberg to the Bavarian Diet, sole Jew of his constituency, he sat there until his death, reelected unopposed four times, and there defended his coreligionists against anti-Semitic accusations.
American rabbi
Born in Vienna in a modest Jewish family (Hungarian father, mother from a Jewish family of Prague), he is one of the great modernists of the twentieth century, at the origin of the emancipation of dissonance and twelve-tone composition (method of the twelve tones). He taught at the Prussian Academy of the Arts (1925–1933) and then, after his exile, at UCLA (1936–1944). Died in Los Angeles in 1951.
German writer (1887–1968)
Czech educator and translator
Hungarian rabbi
Polish rabbi, local government official, social activist
Dutch rabbi
Bookseller and philosopher, born 1st February 1886 in Ploiești (Romania). Doctor of philosophy — his thesis on Spinoza, defended in Berlin —, he settled in Paris in 1925 and ran a rare book shop there, specializing in philosophy and comparative religions, at 19 rue Gay-Lussac. Arrested on 23 September 1942 with his daughter Miryam, aged thirteen, he was interned at Drancy then deported on convoy no. 37 of 25 September 1942 to Auschwitz, where he died on 11 October 1942. His memory is carried by the historian Dominique Natanson on the site Mémoire Juive & Éducation.
German rabbi
German physician, born in Stettin, Pomerania, on March 12, 1864. Graduated in medicine in 1888 after studying in Berlin, Munich and Heidelberg, he established himself as a practitioner in Berlin in 1890, after a tour of Europe. Assistant physician at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin from 1891 to 1896, he specialized there in laryngology, and contributed to several medical journals, including the « Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift » (1892) and the « Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift » (1896).
French publicist, born in Paris on November 11, 1842, died in the same city on November 13, 1885. Former pupil of the École Normale, where he obtained a scholarship in 1865, he abandoned teaching for the "Journal des Débats" then the "Revue politique et littéraire", before becoming secretary of the "Revue des Deux Mondes". In 1876, minister Ernest Picard entrusted him with the direction of the "Journal Officiel", a post he resumed on October 14, 1877 after an interruption; decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1870, he resigned again in 1881 and returned to the "Journal des Débats" as art critic. In 1880, he was among the founders of the "Revue des Études Juives".
German historian, born February 5, 1861 in Rastenburg, died June 29, 1893. After studies in Berlin and then Königsberg, he obtained his doctorate in 1883 and became instructor at the Realgymnasium in Berlin, devoting himself in parallel to Jewish history. Entrusted by the Historical Commission to prepare a history of the Jews of Germany in the Middle Ages, he undertook the "Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland" (Berlin, 1893), summarizing chronologically the mentions of Jews in medieval German chronicles and documents; his death interrupted publication, completed by Saalfeld.
German physicist and socialist. Privatdozent at the University of Berlin, he took part in the socialist movement and was suspended from his position by Minister of Education Bosse in April 1899. Wealthy, he devoted considerable sums to his party in 1895, and had a resolution adopted in 1897 at the Hamburg socialist congress, ending the abstention of socialists from elections to the Prussian Diet. His scientific work, in both theoretical and experimental physics, focuses mainly on electricity, and appears notably in « Annalen der Physik und Chemie ».
Composer and theater director, born in New York on April 8, 1856. Trained at the Vienna Conservatory and then at the Paris Conservatory, where he deepened his study of French composers, he first became known in New York as a concert director at Madison Square Garden, before building a concert hall on Broadway, inaugurated on May 27, 1880 — where the summer « roof-garden » was born. He then founded the Casino, a Moorish theater devoted to operetta, inaugurated on October 22, 1882, the first permanent home of light opera in America; he composed more than one hundred fifty dances, marches and orchestral pieces.
German chemist, born on May 25, 1841 in Telgte, Westphalia, graduated from the University of Göttingen in 1864. Shortly thereafter he became assistant in the physics department of the University of Leiden, in Holland, and then, in 1867, director of the higher school in Breda, in Brabant, where he also taught natural sciences. Appointed in 1876 professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, he accepted in 1894 an equivalent position at the Royal Polytechnic School in Delft, which he has occupied since then. His works, of a technical nature, appear notably in Liebig's « Annalen der Chemie ».
German teacher and writer, born December 4, 1862 in Halver, in Prussian Westphalia. Trained at the Soest gymnasium and at the universities of Berlin and Bonn, and at the Münster Academy, where he obtained his doctorate in philosophy, he taught in England and Germany before holding, in 1902, the position of "Oberlehrer" at the progymnasium of Myslowitz, in Silesia. Contributor to several German journals, he published notably "Benjamin Disraeli's Leben und Dichterische Werke" (1895) and "Die Entwicklung der Höheren Knabenschulen in England" (1897), and translated in 1900 the "Age of Queen Elizabeth" of bishop Mandell Creighton.
German-Israeli rabbi and librarian
Philosopher, philologist
Publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961 (1891–1968)
Born in Le Havre on June 16, 1844, into a modest Jewish family (grandson of a rabbi), Arthur Meyer directed the fashionable and conservative daily Le Gaulois. A paradoxical figure — royalist, anti-Dreyfusard, converted to Catholicism — he was one of the most prominent personalities of the Parisian press under the Third Republic and left memoirs. He died in Paris on February 2, 1924.
German entrepreneur and poet (1864-1912)
Austrian novelist and physician
American politician
French rabbi
Patriot, diplomat, financier and Italian writer, born in Asti, in Piedmont, on December 31, 1829, died in Rome on January 24, 1900. Prevented from studying in Piedmont, then closed to Jews, he enrolled in law at Pisa in 1846, took part in 1848 in the revolution against Austria, and obtained his doctorate from Turin in 1853. Entering in 1855 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tuscany, he became Cavour's secretary, who defended his competence against attacks targeting his Jewish origin; after Cavour's death, in 1861, he pursued a diplomatic career, with a mission to Vienna in 1870, before being elected, on March 23, 1877, Italy's first Jewish senator.
French adventurer, born in Strasbourg in 1849, settled in Paris in 1871. Implicated in the distribution of bribes from the Panama Canal Company to politicians, he became a household name in France for more than four years. He fled in 1892, arrested in 1895 in London and extradited, then sentenced on June 27, 1896 by the assize court of the Seine to six years of hard labor, a sentence replaced on November 6 of the same year by eight years of imprisonment. In prison, he publishes his « Notebook of the 104 », revealing the names of parliamentarians he claims to have corrupted, provoking a trial in December 1897, which ends with the acquittal of the accused.
Born in Genoa in 1842 "da famiglia ebraica" (from a Jewish family), son of Raffaele Issel and Elisa Sonsino. Professor of mineralogy and then geology at the University of Genoa (chair from 1866, ordinarius from 1876). He first defined the Tyrrhenian stage (1914) and left a vast body of work on the geology, prehistory and malacology of Liguria. He married in 1873 Bettina Ascoli, daughter of linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli; his son Raffaele Issel was a professor of zoology in Genoa.
rabbi
Galician decisor, author of the Ketsot ha-Hochen, a major work of analysis of Jewish civil law. His work is a classic of Talmudic study.
Russian rabbi
Polish talmudist and halakhist, rabbi of Bielsk, author of Yefeh Einayim included in the Vilna Talmud edition.
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi
Polish rosh yeshiva and posek
Physician in Rome, died December 11, 1889. Trained in Talmud Torah and then in medicine at Rome University, he distinguished himself in 1867, during the cholera epidemic, through devotion that earned him a medal from Pope Pius IX. Active in the organization of the Jewish community in Rome, he was among the founders of « Società di Fratellanza », dedicated to the education of poor Jews. He collaborated, under the pseudonym « Emet le-Ya'aḳob », to the Hebrew newspaper « Ha-Maggid », translated a responsum of the grand rabbi I. M. Hazan and « The Book of the Polish Nation » by Mickiewicz; one of his sermons, delivered May 17, 1880, was printed.
German Talmudist, rabbi of Zempelburg at the beginning of the 19th century, also called Tobiah Schlochow. His "'Et Barzel" (Iron Pen), an explanation of legal halakhic themes, was published after his death in Berlin in 1832 by his son Gershon, rabbi of Prenzlau, who added to it his own "Nikrat ha-Tsour" (Fissure of the Rock), of the same halakhic character, as well as the funeral oration he pronounced over his father's tomb.
German actor, born in Dresden on July 15, 1820, died in Meran on April 24, 1885. Trained by Ludwig Tieck, he made his stage debut in 1838 in Hainichen, in Saxony, then performed in Wiesbaden in 1839, before joining the Hoftheater of Dresden, where he remained until 1844; he then performed in Hamburg in 1845, in Königsberg and Cassel in 1846, then in Potsdam in 1847. From 1848 to 1860, he played bon vivant roles at the Friedrich-Wilhelm Theater in Berlin, before directing, from 1866 to 1872, the Carl Theater in Vienna.
Hebraist and author, born in 1812 in Peisern, in the Grand Duchy of Posen, died in London on February 24, 1893. He goes to England in 1840, quickly masters English, and is elected in 1843 as funeral preacher of the Great Synagogue. He publishes in 1847 a new edition, with English translation, of « Sefer Ḥayyim » (The Book of Life), then, in 1859, « Mivḥar ha-Peninim » by Solomon ibn Gabirol, a collection of ethical aphorisms, also accompanied by an English translation. He resigns from his post in 1884, after more than forty years of service, having obtained from Sir George Grey several concessions allowing Jewish prisoners to practice their religion.
Composer and pianist, born in Groningen, Holland, on June 4, 1829, died in London on June 20, 1869, son of Simon Ascher, cantor of the Great Synagogue of London. Trained by Moscheles then, at the Leipzig Conservatory, by Mendelssohn, he went to Paris in 1849 and became pianist of Empress Eugénie; the Austrian emperor also made him his court pianist, and he was decorated by the former Queen Isabella of Spain. He composed, among other works, the mazurkas « La Perle du Nord » and « Dosia », the study « Les Gouttes d'Eau », and more than a hundred galops, nocturnes, and salon pieces; his song « Alice, Where Art Thou? » remains appreciated in concert.
Italian mathematician, born in Trieste on November 20, 1843, died in Pisa. Naturally drawn to Milan, he teaches mathematics there at the Reale Istituto Tecnico Superiore from 1874 to 1879, the year he becomes associate professor at Milan's polytechnic school and corresponding member of the Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. His work, principally on function theory and Fourier series, appears in Brioschi's "Annali di Matematica," Battaglini's "Giornale di Matematica," "Mathematische Annalen," and the proceedings of the Reale Accademia dei Lincei.
Italian philologist born on July 16, 1829 in Görz, Austria, orphaned of his father in early childhood. Passionate about comparative philology from an early age, he created a sensation at sixteen with a comparative study of Friulian and Wallachian published in Udine in 1846. He founded in 1854 the first linguistic journal in Italy, whose volumes published between 1854 and 1855 earned him the chair of comparative philology in Milan, where he wrote his "Corsi di Glottologia," crowned with the Bopp Prize of the Berlin Academy. His "Fonologia Comparata" (1870) and "Studii Critici" (1877) transformed Indo-European philology.
Talmudist, born in Semiatitch, Russia, around 1813, died in New York on May 6, 1888. Having arrived in the United States in 1852, he contributed to founding in New York the first Russian-American congregation, the Beth ha-Midrash ha-Gadol, of which he was elected rabbi eight years later, a position he held until his death, with the exception of brief business ventures to escape financial dependence on the rabbinate. He opposed vigorously, in 1886, an attempt by certain Reform rabbis to preach in Orthodox synagogues, publishing an open protest.
Scottish physician and surgeon, born in Edinburgh in 1817, died in Jamaica on November 26, 1858. Trained in his native city, licensed by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, he completed his training in Paris and Berlin before practicing for some time in London, where he collaborated actively in the Anglo-Jewish press. He emigrated to Jamaica in 1843, settling in Kingston, where he practiced until 1850, then in Falmouth, on the north coast of the island, where he rendered important services during a cholera epidemic and advocated for sanitary reform and mandatory vaccination.
Short-story writer and editor, founder of the bio-bibliographic institute Genazim.
Bulgarian historian and rabbi
Hasidic rabbi of Koretz, in Volhynia, then preacher (maggid) of Ostrów, in Russian Poland, active at the beginning of the nineteenth century, student of Baer of Meseritz, successor of the Baal Chem Tov. He is the author of the "Ma'ayan ha-Ḥokhmah" (Source of wisdom), Kabbalistic homilies on the Pentateuch and other biblical books, published in Koretz in 1817.
Physician, born February 16, 1837 in Glasgow, Scotland, died January 7, 1889 in London, first Jew of Scotland to enter the medical profession. He went to London in 1862, became physician to the Jewish Board of Guardians, then secretary of the Great Synagogue in 1866; he devoted his energy to the project of uniting London's synagogues, becoming in March 1871 the first secretary of the United Synagogue, a position he held until his death. Close to the Rothschilds, whose physician he was, he also accompanied Samuel Montagu to Palestine, America and Russia, and published « The Jewish Rite of Circumcision » (London, 1873).
German pedagogue and philosophical writer, born in Dresden on December 8, 1818, died in Leipzig on December 2, 1890. Trained at the Jewish school then at the gymnasium of his native city — one of the first Jews admitted to this establishment —, forced to interrupt his studies for lack of means, he learned the trade of sculptor and gilder, then went to London where he learned English and studied philosophy, philology and Hebrew. Returning to Germany, he obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Berlin and settled in Leipzig as a reputed English professor, appointed interpreter of the philosophy of Schopenhauer.
German physician, born April 13, 1865 in Leipzig, son of Doctor David Asher, long secretary of Chief Rabbi Nathan M. Adler in London. Graduated in medicine after studies in Leipzig from 1885 to 1890, he went in 1891 to Heidelberg as laboratory assistant, became in 1894 assistant at the Institute of Physiology in Bern, then privat-docent in 1895; he spent the summers of 1896 to 98 in the laboratory of physiologist Hering, before being appointed in 1901 professor of medicine at the university of Bern.
Botanist, born in Odessa on May 5, 1845, died on July 24, 1903. Honorary professor of botany at the University of Heidelberg, he writes in 1871 the Beiträge zur Kritik der Darwinischen Theorie and publishes numerous articles in the Botanische Zeitung and the Botanischer Jahresbericht.
Rabbi of Slonim then of Lublin, born around 1801, died in Lublin on 6 March 1852. He is the author of « Noda ba-She'arim » (Known at the Gates), responsa and novellæ on talmudic law, published by his brother Abraham Aryé (Warsaw, 1849), and of « Sha'aré Yeroushalayim » (Gates of Jerusalem), a commentary on the Talmud of Jerusalem and notes on the Babylonian Talmud and Isaac Alfasi, also published by his brother (Warsaw, 1866).
Russian communal activist and philanthropist, born in 1824, died in Grodno in 1894, son of Joshua Heschel Ashkenazi, rabbi of Lublin and descendant of Ḥakham Tsevi. Established in Grodno, where he becomes the dominant figure in communal affairs, he has a hospital built and then a home for the elderly, which earns him and his children hereditary honorary citizenship. In 1882, he is a delegate to the rabbinical congress in Saint Petersburg; in 1883, one of the rare official Jewish representatives at the coronation of Alexander III in Moscow; in 1884, president of the prison committee of the governorate of Grodno.
Rabbinic scholar, born in Poland in the early nineteenth century, subsequently established in Tunisia. He publishes in Metz, in 1845, under the title "Divré Ḥakhamim" (The Words of the Wise), a collection of eleven ancient manuscripts on subjects as varied as the calculation of the calendar, free will or the study of sciences, including a letter from Elijah of Italy written in 1438 from Palestine to his family in Ferrara; S. Munk writes the introduction. He also publishes the "Ta'am Zekénim" (The Taste of the Ancients), a collection of ancient manuscripts and prints on medieval Jewish literature and history, edited by R. Kirchheim (Frankfurt am Main, 1854).
Palestinian commentator and kabbalist, active in the early 19th century between Jerusalem and Padua, died in Safed. Sent as an emissary ("meshoullaḥ") from Palestine to collect funds for the poor of the land, he spent some time in Padua, Italy, where he became the master of Mordekhaï Samuel Ghirondi. According to this source, Ashkenazi was a prolific commentator on biblical and Talmudic subjects, but published nothing beyond a small commentary on the "Sefer Yetsira," to which he added many of his observations on the Bible and the Talmud.
Talmudist and Russian rabbi of the nineteenth century, died on February 10, 1867 in Lublin, where he served as rabbi since 1852, succeeding his father and then his cousin Baerush Ashkenazi. Tireless in his concern for the spiritual and material welfare of his community, his home open to the needy, he was also highly esteemed by his Christian fellow citizens and honored by the government with the title of honorary citizen. He left ten posthumous works, both haggadic and halakhic, later destroyed in a fire in Grodno; several of his responsa appear in the « Noda ba-She'arim » of Baerush Ashkenazi.
Turkish Talmudist, born in Smyrna, where he becomes grand rabbi and dies around 1812. He writes the « Maḥané Yehouda » (The Camp of Judah), discussions on the Ṭour and the Beth Yosef (Salonika, 1793), the « Yad Yehouda » (The Hand of Judah), notes on several talmudic treatises (Salonika, 1816), the « Guevoul Yehouda » (The Boundary of Judah), on the treatises Guittin, Ketoubot and Baba Ḳamma (Salonika, 1821), and the « Ḳehal Yehouda » (The Assembly of Judah), novellæ on the Choulḥan Aroukh (Salonika, 1825).
Talmudic author, active in the first half of the nineteenth century in Smyrna. He wrote the "Neḥmad le-Maré" (Pleasant to See), methodological rules on the treatises Berakhot and Zera'im of the Jerusalem Talmud, as well as decisions of ancient and recent authorities on the halakhot related to them, published in Salonika in 1832-46.
Official in the service of the Ottoman Empire, born in 1840, trained at the Camondo Institution. Appointed in 1869 by Sultan Aziz member of the council of state, which then counted only two Jews among forty members, he becomes, under Abdul-Hamid II, delegate of the Jews to the Ottoman parliament, then vice-prefect of Constantinople. In 1896, the Sultan appoints him again as state councillor, before his retirement in 1899 after thirty years of service; several times president of the central consistory of the Jews of Constantinople, he facilitated the collection of communal revenues.
Rabbi of Smyrna, where he died in 1830. He wrote the « Maré 'Enayim » (View for the Eyes), an index to the Talmud, Rashi, and the Tosafot (Salonique, 1816), the « Maré ha-Gadol » (The Great Vision), homilies on the Pentateuch (Salonique, 1829), the « Doresh Tov » (Who Seeks the Good), a continuation of the preceding work (Salonique, 1831), and the « Maré ha-Nogah » (The Vision of Radiance), observations on the works of Maimonides (Salonique, 1840).
Rabbi of Dobromil and Jaroslav, in Galicia, at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth. Disciple of R. Jacob Isaac of Lublin, died in 1815, he maintained learned correspondence with Jacob Meshoulam Orenstein, chief rabbi of Lemberg, died in 1839. He wrote the « Naḥalat Shim'on » (The Heritage of Simon), a series of Kabbalistic dissertations on the Pentateuch, published in 1815 and reissued in Lemberg in 1848.
Writer in French and Russian, born in Odessa on April 16, 1851. He studied medicine at the Academy of Saint Petersburg and then at Kiev University, but fragile health forced him to interrupt his studies. He subsequently published in « Nedyelya » and the « Novorossiski Telegraf » articles on the Jewish question, advocating agriculture as a means of subsistence, while directing the Jewish vocational school « Troud » in Odessa and then a farm-school in Fiodorovka. In 1887, he settled in Paris, where he contributed, under his own name or under the pseudonym « Michel Delines », to various publications on Russian literature.
Beni-Israel soldier, born near Bombay, India, around 1820. He entered the service of the eighth regiment of native infantry on March 5, 1839, participated in the pursuit of the rebel army of Tantia Topee in Gujarat in 1857-58, served in a campaign force against the Bheels of Niakara, in the district of Rewa Kanta, and had previously taken part in the campaign of Sind in 1842, including the march on Kandahar, as well as in Abyssinia. Appointed jemadar in 1856, he becomes subedar in 1858 and subedar-major in 1870; he receives the order of the British India with the title of bahadur in 1872, then that of sirdar bahadur in 1877.
German physician, born at Stallupönen, in East Prussia, 24 February 1865. Trained at the gymnasium then at the University of Königsberg, where he studied medicine and obtained his diploma in 1890, he became the same year assistant at the institute of pathology of his alma mater, then in 1893, lecturer at the faculty of medicine. He is the author of several essays on clinical and anatomopathological subjects, notably on Bothriocephalus anemia and the prognostic importance of megablasts in anemic blood.
German physician, born September 8, 1866 in Stallupönen, in East Prussia. Trained at the Kneiphof gymnasium and at the University of Königsberg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1892, he joined the same year the university hospital as junior assistant, became first assistant in 1894, a position he held until 1899, the year he retired to devote himself to his growing private practice; he was appointed lecturer at the university in 1897. He contributed to several medical journals on the examination of patients for accident insurance and clinical diagnosis.
Russian painter, born in Drissa on January 28, 1856, died on December 21, 1902 in Moscow. He entered the Academy of Saint Petersburg in 1870 as an external student, then enrolled as a regular student in 1874, the year he received a silver medal for a sketch; he obtained another silver medal for a drawing in 1875, then in 1877, the first silver medal for a sketch and the second gold medal for a study, "Abraham Driving Out Hagar and His Son Ishmael". In 1879, he received a silver medal for a sketch, "The Publican and the Pharisee", and the first gold medal for a study, "The Adulteress", which earned him a four-year travel grant.
Polish historian, born in 1867 in Zawichwost, in the governorate of Radom, in Russian Poland. He studied at the universities of Warsaw and Göttingen, where he obtained his doctorate in philosophy, then was appointed lecturer in 1897 and professor extraordinary of universal history at the University of Lviv in 1902. Among his works are "Die Letzte Polnische Königswahl" (Göttingen), "Studja Historyczno-Krytyczne" (Cracow, 2nd ed., 1897), "Dzialalnosc Ministra Lubeckiego" (1897) and "Ministerjum Wielhorskiego" (1898), devoted mainly to Polish history of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Dutch jurist, born in Amsterdam on April 28, 1838, son of Carel Daniel Asser (1813-85) and nephew, through his mother, of Dutch Minister of Justice Godefroi. He studied law at the Athens of Amsterdam and received in 1857 the gold medal awarded by the University of Leiden for a memoir on the economic conception of value; he obtained his doctorate in 1860, after defending a thesis on the administration of external relations according to Dutch public law. The same year, the government appointed him a member of the international commission charged with negotiating the abolition of tolls on the Rhine, a subject to which he devoted two pamphlets published in « De Gids » in 1861.
German woman of letters, born in Hamburg February 22, 1821, died March 25, 1880 in Florence, Italy. Daughter of Dr. David Assing and Rosa Maria Assing, sister of Varnhagen von Ense, she settled in Berlin after her parents' death to live with her uncle Varnhagen, where she frequented many notable personalities of the time, including Alexander von Humboldt and Bettina von Arnim. In 1861, she settled in Florence, where she spent the rest of her life; there she married a lieutenant of the Italian army, cavalier Grimelli, from whom she divorced in 1875, and founded a public school where instruction in German was mandatory.
Italian physician and medical author, born in Verona on June 21, 1802, died in Venice on December 2, 1877. His father dies while he is still a child, and it is an uncle who takes charge of his education; he attends the academy of his native city then the universities of Padua and Pavia, completing his training in Milan. Graduated as doctor of medicine in 1825, he returns to practice in Verona until 1831, the year he establishes himself in Venice; there he builds a large clientele and becomes one of the principal surgeons of northern Italy. During the cholera epidemic of 1835, he opens an auxiliary hospital at Saint Thomas and becomes chief surgeon of the municipal hospital in 1840.
French sculptor, painter and writer, born in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, in 1839. Still a child, he leaves his native city to try his luck in Paris; in 1859, he founds with Valéry Vernier the « Quart d'Heure Gazette des Gens à Demi-Sérieux », while devoting himself zealously to the study of art. In 1874, he is entrusted with reproducing the famous statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, kept in a monastery in Toledo, and succeeds in bringing out of Spain the first sculpturally exact copy of Alonzo Cano's masterpiece; exhibited in 1875 at the Paris Fine Arts Exhibition, it has since inspired numerous copies.
Literary critic, son of David Atlas, born on March 5, 1851 in Beisegola, in the Kovno region, in Russia. In 1884, he arrived in Warsaw and became one of the principal contributors to the yearbook "Ha-Assif", then published by N. Sokolow; in 1888, he edited the yearbook "Ha-Kérem", of which only one issue appeared. He subsequently gathered literary essays published in "Ha-Tsefira" under the title "What is Progressive and What is Retrograde" (Warsaw, 1898), before contributing again in 1900 to Sokolow's "Sefer ha-Chana". A professional accountant, he settled in 1895 in Bialystok, in the Grodno region.
Talmudist, active in Aleppo in the 19th century. He is the author of several works published in Livorno (1821-31): the « Échèt Ḥayil » (Woman of Virtue), explanation of Proverbs xxxi; the « Vayiḳra Yits'haḳ » (And Isaac Called), annotations on the Pentateuch in three parts, the last two of which are entitled « Dorech Tov » and « 'Éḳev 'Anava »; the « Mecharèt Moché », novellæ on Maimonides' Yad ha-Ḥazaka; the « Rov Dagan », with its appendix « Ot le-Tova »; as well as the « Tania we-Chayar » and the « Péné ha-Mayim », two volumes of annotations on the Pentateuch.
Attilio Giacomo Muggia, born in Venice in 1861 and died in Bologna in 1936, was an Italian engineer and architect, pioneer of reinforced concrete calculation in Italy (concessionaire for central Italy of the Hennebique system, founder in 1908 of the Società anonima per costruzioni cementizie). Professor at the Royal School of Engineering in Bologna, he was entrusted with rebuilding the great synagogue of Bologna (Art Nouveau façade, completed in 1928). He is buried in the Jewish section of the monumental cemetery of the Certosa of Bologna.
Author and poet, born August 4, 1862 in Munich, Germany, grandson of rabbi Hirsch Aub of Munich. When his father, lawyer Max Aub, is recalled to Munich from the small town of Uffenheim, in Franconia, Ludwig enters his native city's gymnasium. From childhood, he manifests a love of books that leads him to work for various booksellers in Vienna and Leipzig, until he himself becomes a rare book dealer, giving him a thorough knowledge of modern German literature. A serious eye condition unfortunately forces him to abandon his business and hampers his literary career.
Hungarian violinist, son of a modest house painter, born in Veszprém, Hungary, on June 7, 1845. First trained by Ridley Kolene at the Budapest conservatory, he then goes to the Vienna conservatory, where he studies with Dont (1857-58), then completes his training with Joachim in Berlin. He is orchestra conductor in Düsseldorf from 1863 to 1865, then in Hamburg from 1866 to 1868, before succeeding Wieniawski as professor of violin at the Saint-Pétersbourg conservatory. Appointed soloist of the imperial theaters in 1873, with the title of « soloist of the tsar's court », he then conducts the concerts of the singers of the imperial court (1880-81).
German writer, born in the Black Forest village of Nordstetten, Germany, on February 28, 1812, died in Cannes, France, on February 8, 1882. Intended by his father for a rabbinical career, he was sent, at age twelve, to the talmudic school of Hechingen and then to Karlsruhe to complete his education. He nevertheless abandoned his talmudic studies to devote himself to secular subjects, prepared for university at the Obergymnasium of Stuttgart, then studied law at Tübingen (1832); under the influence of David Friedrich Strauss, author of « Leben Jesu », he then changed the course of his studies.
Rabbi of Lenczyca, in Russia, and author, active in the first half of the 19th century. Contemporary and friend of R. Akiba Eger of Posen and R. Salomon Posner of Warsaw, he wrote "Divré Michpat" (Words of Judgment), a halakhic work published in Krotoschin in 1835, with additions by his sons Menaḥem and Isaac.
Polish rabbi, active in the first half of the nineteenth century, first rabbi of Dobria, near Kalisz, then of Plock, before succeeding his father, Ḥayyim Auerbach, as rabbi of Lenczyca, in the Warsaw Governorate. He wrote the "Divré Ḥayyim" (Words of Life), a pilpulistic dissertation on the Shulḥan Arukh and other rabbinic codes (Breslau, 1852); his work also includes a pilpulistic treatise by his father, the "Mayim Ḥayyim" (Living Waters), with additions and notes by his brother Eliezer.
German preacher, educator and author, born in Inowraclaw, Prussia, on March 21, 1791, died in Dessau on July 5, 1853, son of Levin Isaac Auerbach, rabbi of Inowraclaw, and brother of Baruch Auerbach, founder of the Jewish orphanage in Berlin. He belongs to that small group of young Berlin Jews who, in the first quarter of the 19th century, paved the way for reforms in Judaism; trained in the Bible and Talmud by his father then in Lissa, he went to Berlin, where he was appointed preacher at the Jacobson temple, alongside Kley, Günsburg and Zunz, before teaching at the Jewish girls' school in Berlin.
Educator and author, born in Emmendingen, Baden, on November 14, 1810, died on October 31, 1887. He received his first training in Carlsruhe, where, in the autumn of 1827, he met his cousin — and future brother-in-law — Berthold Auerbach, the famous novelist, with whom a close and lasting friendship was formed. Forced by financial difficulties to abandon his studies at the University of Heidelberg, he was helped by Berthold; called to Wiesbaden as a religious teacher, he became one of Abraham Geiger's enthusiastic disciples. Called to Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1842, he devoted nearly forty years there to religious education, notably at the gymnasium after 1848.
Talmudist and Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jews of Jerusalem, born on February 10, 1815 in Dobria, near Kalisz, in Russian Poland, died on May 8, 1878 in Jerusalem. Rabbi in Kalisz, he settles in Jerusalem in 1860, driven by his love for the Holy Land, where he organizes the congregation and the yeshiva Ohel Ya'aqov, then becomes Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jews; he also establishes an independent shehitah council for the Ashkenazi Jews, against the opposition of the « hakham bachi » David Hazan and his Sephardic congregation, which had held control of it until then.
American newspaper dealer (1828-1886)
German bacteriologist of Jewish origin, born in Bamberg, doctor of medicine from Strasbourg (1888). He worked under Robert Koch at the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Berlin. In 1906, with dermatologist Albert Neisser, he developed a complement fixation test for the diagnosis of syphilis — the "Wassermann reaction," the first serological screening test for the disease. He subsequently directed the department of experimental therapy of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (Berlin-Dahlem, 1913).
Austrian writer
Author of geography, active in Budapest, Hungary, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He is the author of « Béér ha-Louḥot » (Explanation of the Tables), consisting of five biblical maps copied from a Latin source and abundantly annotated, representing the dispersal of humanity after the Flood, the migrations of Hebrew tribes in the desert, their encampments, the Mediterranean and the plan for the partition of Palestine, and finally Palestine according to Jewish and non-Jewish sources; the work was published in Vienna in 1818.
Son of the latter, born in Goltsch-Jenikau, in Bohemia, in 1803, died in the same city in 1868. He translated into German the Yoṣerot, liturgical pieces read on the Sabbath, published by M. I. Landau in Prague in 1836.
Renowned criminologist, born in Lübeck on May 23, 1809, died in that same city on July 20, 1892. In his reference work, "Das Deutsche Gaunertum" (Leipzig, 1858-62), he devotes a chapter to Jews in which he expresses unfavorable views on their morality, siding, in the long struggle of the Jews of Lübeck for their emancipation, with their adversaries; he maintained that the nomadic character and commercial taste of the Jew had prevented him from accomplishing anything tangible, even in sciences where he showed talent. His articles appear in the "Neue Lübeckische Blätter" in 1841 and in the "Volksbote" in 1850; they are refuted by Gabriel Riesser.
French writer, born in Chaumont-en-Vexin, in the department of Oise, on December 31, 1828, died in Bougival on July 1, 1876, brother of Paul Avenel. He devoted the bulk of his life to the study of the French Revolution; he published in 1865 his first book, « Anacharsis Clootz, the Orator of Mankind », before plunging with renewed energy into historical research. Several years of continuous study resulted in the publication of « Revolutionary Mondays » (Paris, 1875); he died before completing the second series, in which the biography of Pache was to occupy an important place.
French writer, born in Paris on March 7, 1853, adoptive son of Paul Avenel. He began his career by directing « L'Événement », a Parisian political daily, as well as several departmental newspapers; in 1888, he took over the direction of the « Annuaire de la presse française », founded by Émile Mermet in 1880, which he improved in many respects, notably by adding a political column. He is the author of « Chansons et chansonniers » (Paris, 1889), a history of song through the ages, as well as of « L'Amérique latine » (Paris, 1890), equipped with an introduction on the present state and prospects of French trade in America.
French writer, born in Chaumont-en-Vexin, in the department of Oise, on October 9, 1823. After brief studies in medicine at the University of Paris, he abandoned them in 1850 to devote himself exclusively to literature, debuting as a journalist before becoming in turn poet, novelist and dramatic author. Among his more than fifty plays are « Les Chasseurs de pigeons », farce-comedy premiered at the Folies-Dramatiques in 1860, « La Paysanne des Abruzzes », drama written with H. de Charlieu and premiered at the Beaumarchais Theater in 1861, and « L'Homme à la fourchette », one-act comedy of 1874.
Hungarian-Israeli writer, first poet laureate of the city of Tel-Aviv.
Engineer and community activist, died in London on February 9, 1895, eldest son of Count Salomon Henry d'Avigdor and Rachel, second daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. Trained at University College London, he was apprenticed to engineer Hawkshaw, then went in 1862 to Hull, then to Rangoon, Burma, for his professional work; he supervised the construction of railways in Syria and Transylvania, as well as water pipelines in Vienna. His interest in Palestine, as a leader of the Lovers of Zion, led him to undertake railway work in Syria and to found the Tyrian Construction Company.
Banker, he was in February 1854 the first Jew elected by his Catholic fellow citizens to the lower chamber of the Piedmontese Parliament; his election was first annulled because he was also Prussian consul in Nice, then validated after his reelection by a large majority and his resignation from this consular post. Born in Nice, he died in Paris in February 1856 and was buried in Nice, according to his own wish.
Daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon and Isabel Goldsmid, born on September 19, 1816, she married in June 1840 Count Solomon Henry d'Avigdor, son of a member of the Grand Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon, and settled with him in London. She invested herself in the Jewish community institutions of the city — president of the ladies' committee of the House for Deaf and Dumb Jews, honorary secretary of the West End Charity, member of several other committees —, and her action was at the origin of the schools of Bayswater and of that same house. She died on November 5, 1896.
Sephardic Jew born in Vidin (Bulgaria). Founder in 1909 of the Socialist Workers Federation of Salonika, which brought together over 12,000 workers of all nationalities. He edited the Judeo-Spanish newspaper "La Solidaridad Ovradera" (1910-1911) and participated in the founding of the Socialist Workers Party of Greece (1918).
American Rabbi
Canadian rabbi
Yemenite Rabbi, member of the Yemenite Rabbinical court established in Jerusalem in 1908.
Ukrainian rabbi
Born in Będzin in 1838, son-in-law of the rebbe of Kotsk, he became one of the greatest decisors (poskim) of the late 19th century. From 1883 he was rabbi and av beit din of Sochaczew, founding the Sochatchov dynasty. His son Shmuel, author of the Shem Mishmuel, succeeded him.
Israeli rabbi
French rabbi
Israeli politician
Last Chief Rabbi of Kovno, author of the responsa Devar Avraham; died in the Kovno ghetto.
American rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
Israeli politician
Chief Rabbi of Baghdad on several occasions, student of Abdallah Somekh.
Belarusian-American Haredi rabbi
Born in Aleppo, he was a halakhist, kabbalist and publicist. He composed nearly fifty works (16 printed), many devoted to segulot (spiritual remedies), amulets, dream interpretation and esoteric practices, compiled from manuscripts he collected during travels in Europe (Italian libraries). Several of his books were printed in Livorno. He died and was buried in Bushehr, in Persia.
Leader of Yemenite Jews in Eretz Israël, founder of the Association of Yemenites (colonization, education, encouragement of aliyah). Delegate to the founding congress of the Histadrout (1920), elected to the first Knesset (Mapaï, 1949). He published numerous articles and two books: Golat Teiman (1931) and Shavei Teiman (1932).
Son of Rabbi Mordekhai of Chernobyl, he settled in Trisk (Turiysk) after his marriage and became maggid there, founding the Hasidic dynasty of Trisk, a branch of Chernobyl. In 1887, two years before his death, he agreed to print his book Magen Avraham, a collection of his discourses on the Torah, which was soon regarded as a foundational work of the Trisk-Chernobyl court.
After directing the yeshiva of Slonim according to Lithuanian study, he was influenced by Noah of Lachowicze and Moses of Kobrin and founded the Hasidic court of Slonim. His work Yesod ha-Avodah is one of the rare Hasidic books built not on Torah portions but as a systematic treatise on the foundations of 'avodah. In 1873 he sent a group of his Hasidim to settle in Tiberias, which ensured the dynasty's survival after the Shoah.
Son of Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (founder of the Ruzhin dynasty), he took the direction of the Sadigura court after his father's death (1850) and that of his elder brother Sholom Yosef. Regarded as one of the most influential rebbes of his time, he maintained the sumptuous court inherited from his father and attracted masses of Hasidim. He encouraged the settlement of Jews in the Holy Land, presided over the Kolel Volhynie and completed the financing of the Tiferet Yisrael synagogue ("Nissan Bek") in the Old City of Jerusalem (completed in 1872).
Bibliographer and historian, he worked from 1925 at the National and University Hebrew Library of Jerusalem. Specialist in Hebrew printing and the history of Jewish settlement in the Holy Land, he rediscovered many rare Hebrew books printed in the Orient. He is the reference author on the emissaries (shelouhim) of the Holy Land.
Polish rabbi
Last rosh yeshiva of Telshe in Lithuania, murdered during the Shoah.
Rosh yeshiva, director of the Novardok network (Beis Yosef), son-in-law of the Alter of Novardok; emigrated to the USA.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Romanian writer
Lithuanian rabbi
Belarusian rabbi
Third Sadigura Rebbe (1884-1961)
Born December 15, 1891 in Amdur (Grodno district), died May 22, 1980 in Buenos Aires. He devoted his entire life to Yiddish literature and press, publishing in numerous newspapers and magazines. After the Shoah he presided in Paris (1948–1952) the union of survivor writers, then was vice-president of the Union of Yiddish Writers of Buenos Aires.
Yiddishist pedagogue and essayist, theorist of « integral Jewishness ».
French physician, born in Odessa on 25 October 1825 and died in Paris on 25 August 1876, son of Israël Aksenfeld, he studied medicine in Paris and was received as doctor by the Sorbonne. Distinguished for his action during the cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1854, he became in 1853 lecturer at the Sorbonne then, in 1857, full member, before being appointed chief physician at the Beaujon Hospital, a position he held until 1871, when the cerebral illness that was to carry him off struck him. He is the author of several works, including a « Treatise on Neuroses » and, with Jules Béclard, a « Report on the Progress of Medicine in France » published in 1867.
Interpreter of the French army during the campaign in Algeria against Abd-el-Kader, he dies in 1846. Wounded several times in the expeditions at Oran, where he captures one of Abd-el-Kader's lieutenants, he distinguished himself by his bravery at the battle against Bou-Maza by killing five Arabs at a critical moment in the fighting, before succumbing the following year to the wounds he had received there.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Hakam of Amsterdam, died in 1823, son and successor of hakam David Cohen d'Azevedo, he is the author of a sermon pronounced on August 3, 1809 in the congregation of Talmud Torah of Amsterdam and published the same year.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5597 of the Hebrew era (1837). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 102-1.
Chief of the Karaites of Crimea in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and president of the Karaite council of Kozlov-Eupatoria, probably born around 1785, he became famous not through his writings but through his action in favor of the political and social rights of the Karaites in Russia. A man of fortune, he accompanied Abraham Firkovitch to Jerusalem in 1830, and went to Saint Petersburg in 1827 with Joseph Salomon to obtain from the Russian government an exemption from military service for the Karaites — a mission that succeeded. In 1829, he corresponded with Jost on the history of the Karaites and encouraged Firkovitch to gather the materials for it.
Artist and journalist, born in Neuschloss, Bohemia, July 2, 1840, and died in Vienna April 29, 1890, she directed the royal school of artistic embroidery and published on this subject two works, including « Muster Stilvoller Handarbeiten für Schule und Haus », in two volumes. She collaborated with numerous daily newspapers, including « Neue Freie Presse », and gave numerous lectures on arts and crafts, largely published.
Austrian jurist and journalist, born in Pastelberg on March 17, 1846, he studied at the University of Vienna, practiced as a lawyer with a talent that led to his being appointed chief stenographer of the Reichsrat, then entered in 1872 "Neue Freie Presse" as parliamentary editor before becoming editor-in-chief on May 1, 1879. His domestic policy articles were appreciated far beyond Austria.
German playwright and novelist, born in Ragnit, East Prussia, on August 8, 1810, he studied medicine in Königsberg and practiced as a physician there from 1837, before abandoning that career after ten years to devote himself entirely to literature. His output, interrupted by the events of 1848, resumed thereafter with dramas and historical novels, including « Sybilla von Kleve » (1865) and « Napoleon I. Letzte Liebe » (1868), among an abundant body of work published since Berlin.
Neo-Hebrew poet born on February 1, 1823 in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, in Hungary, and died in Budapest on November 9, 1891, he descended from Jair Ḥayyim Bacharach and studied the Talmud in his native city then in Nikolsburg and Eisenstadt, while opening himself, under the influence of the Haskalah, to the profane sciences. Settled in Budapest in 1874, he became treasurer of the Jewish community two years later, a position he held until his death. A prolific poet from childhood, he is chiefly known for his Hebrew work, which includes translations of Philippson and Lessing and collections such as « Zemirot ha-'Areẓ » (1868) and « Melek Ebyon » (1881).
Hungarian violinist and opera composer, born in Zsámbokrét, Hungary, on January 23, 1841, he began violin studies with Böhm at the Vienna Conservatory in 1851, graduating in 1857, before holding the position of orchestral conductor in Vienna and then leaving for Paris. Returning to Vienna, he played viola in the Helmesberger Quartet for twelve years, then became professor at the Conservatory. Among his compositions are the comic opera "Muzzedin" (Vienna, 1883) and the operetta "Der Fuchsmajor" (Prague, 1889), the most remarked of his works.
German physician and forensic medical author, born in the province of Posen, in Prussia, on December 26, 1834, trained at the universities of Vienna, Prague and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1861. He practiced as a physician in Naugard, in Pomerania, became prison physician of this city in 1866, then chief physician of Plötzensee prison, near Berlin, in 1872, before being elected to the health council in 1879. Having observed, in the exercise of his prison duties, the link between alcohol and criminality, he devoted numerous writings to the prevention of alcoholism, including « Der Alkoholismus » (Berlin, 1878) and « Die Trunksucht und Ihre Abwehr » (Vienna, 1890).
Author who lived in Berlin in the early nineteenth century, he wrote the « Naḥale Debash » (Streams of Honey), published in Berlin in 1832, a collection of extracts from various Hebrew works dealing mainly with philosophy and ethics.
Cantor, musician and German composer, born in Russia on December 26, 1834 and died in Göteborg, Sweden, on March 7, 1894, he renounced the rabbinate desired by his father to devote himself to synagogal chanting, first officiating in West Prussia before being called at the age of twenty-three, in 1857, to Göteborg. After fifteen years of research on traditional Jewish melodies, he published in 1871 the « Ba'al Tefillah, oder der Practische Vorbeter », an almost complete collection of these melodies reissued, enlarged, in 1883.
Russian mathematician and engraver, born in Seiny, in the government of Suwałki, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and died in Jerusalem in 1897, he made significant discoveries in mathematics and mechanics, reported notably by the « Königsberger Zeitung » in 1859, including a method of gearing between two equal toothed wheels. His engravings were rewarded at the Königsberg exhibition of 1858, and the German press as well as the Russian-Jewish periodicals « Razsvyet » and « Ha-Karmel » praised his talent. In the second half of the 1860s, he settled in Jerusalem, from where he corresponded for years with « Ha-Maggid » and other Hebrew newspapers.
American author of Jewish origin, born in Herxheim, Germany, on January 29, 1830, and died in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 2, 1901, he emigrated to America at seventeen and settled in Charleston, where he worked as a compositor for the "Southern Christian Advocate" from 1848. Having become professor at Wofford College in Spartanburg in 1852, he obtained a medical doctorate in 1861 and served as a surgeon during the Civil War; in 1888, the Methodist Church publishing house published his work "Jewish Ceremonials".
Biblical and Rabbinical commentator, died in Wilna in 1807, he was the brother of Éliahou ben Salomon, the Gaon of Wilna, and distinguished himself like him by the simplicity and clarity of his commentaries. Beyond the Bible and the Talmud, he studied mathematics and geography; his commentary on the Pentateuch — whose manuscript was burned some years before — followed a dual method, first the literal sense in the manner of Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Nahmanide, then a philosophical and sometimes mystical reading. He also left a commentary on the Talmud and the Shoulhan Aroukh.
Specialist in the Masorah and editor of the Hebrew Bible, born in Mosbach, Baden, on 18 September 1825, and died in Biebrich-on-the-Rhine in March 1897, he began his Masoretic studies as early as 1844 and became one of the finest connoisseurs of this discipline, never holding a university position — only that of professor of Hebrew in Biebrich. With Franz Delitzsch, he undertook a new Masoretic edition of the Hebrew Old Testament, published in Leipzig from 1869 to 1895, the last two volumes having been established by him alone after Delitzsch's death in 1890.
German pedagogue, born in Nakel, in the province of Posen, on November 7, 1828, trained at the gymnases of Konitz and Breslau and then at the University of Berlin, where Leopold von Ranke took an interest in him, he left in 1856 for Vienna before being recalled three years later to Berlin, to the seminary of Jewish teachers. In 1868, the Jewish community of Frankfurt-am-Main called him to direct its « Philanthropin » school for boys and girls, a position he held for thirty-one years with recognized devotion from all; he was also a member of the central committee of the Universal Israelite Alliance in Paris.
German physician, professor of pediatric pathology at the University of Berlin, born on May 22, 1843 in Ratibor, in Prussian Silesia, he was graduated from the University of Berlin in 1866 and subsequently practiced in Berlin then in Seehausen, near Magdeburg, from 1868. Having become privat-docent in 1881 then associate professor in 1892, he devoted himself to childhood diseases: he founded, with the help of Virchow, in 1890, the Kaiser und Kaiserin Friedrich children's hospital in Berlin, and directed since 1880 the journal « Archiv für Kinderheilkunde ».
German physician born in Ratibor, Prussia, on May 24, 1848, privatdocent of ear, nose and throat diseases at the university of Berlin then honorary professor, he studied medicine there and obtained his doctorate in 1870, the year he served as a military physician during the Franco-Prussian war. After the war, he specialized in ear, nose and throat diseases, to which he devoted himself entirely from 1880 onward, became docent of otology, rhinology and laryngology in Berlin four years later, then honorary professor in 1897; he published numerous scientific works in this field.
Spanish Christian, he was the author of a Hebrew grammar intended for school instruction, « Gramatica de la Lengua Hebraica, Escrita en Castellano », published in Madrid in 1818.
Hungarian deputy and publicist, born in Debrecen on July 22, 1862, he studied law at the University of Budapest and then settled in his native city, where his journalistic activity, eloquence, and legal knowledge made him influential in the city's public affairs and in the Jewish community. Having become one of the leaders of the liberal ecclesiastical reform movement born in Debrecen, nicknamed "the Calvinist Rome," he was elected to Parliament in 1901 on the list of Kossuth's liberal party, despite being Jewish in a Protestant city; a reputed criminal lawyer, he sat on the law commission of the Hungarian Parliament.
Teacher at the Rabbinical College of Jitomir, where he died on June 18, 1882, father of Nicolaï Bakst, he wrote the « Sefer ha-Ḥinnuḳ », a Hebrew method for beginners adapted to Russian Jewish schools, published in Jitomir in 1868, and owned for many years a Hebrew printing press in the same city.
Russian physiologist, born in 1843, he studied at the University of Saint Petersburg, where he obtained in 1862 the degree of bachelor of natural sciences, then was sent abroad for three years by the Ministry of Public Instruction to prepare himself for a chair of physiology. Upon his return, he taught as a privatdocent at Saint Petersburg, gave lectures to female medical students until 1881, and was appointed in 1886 member of the scientific committee of the Ministry of Public Instruction. He published numerous works on physiology and translated foreign works into Russian, including the geography lessons of Karl Ritter (1864).
Son of Isaac and brother of Nicolaï Bakst, died on October 8, 1895, he was an interpreter (dragoman) at the Asian department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became known as a translator into Russian of scientific works by Helmholtz, Schleiden, Claude Bernard and Draper. He notably published a Russian translation of Emanuel Hecht's « Israel's Geschichte » (Saint Petersburg, 1866, 2nd ed. 1881) and the last volume of Graetz's « Geschichte der Juden » (Saint Petersburg, 1884).
Hungarian philologist, born in 1864 in Baja, Hungary, he studied philosophy in Budapest, where he obtained a chair at the gymnasium, and devoted his work to philology and general phonetics, collected for publication by the Royal Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Among his works are « The Elements of Phonetics » (Budapest, 1886), « Classification and Characteristics of Hungarian Dialects » (Budapest, 1891) and a crowned essay, « Ungarische Phonetik und Formenlehre » (Budapest, 1895).
English author and journalist, born in London and trained at University College, where she obtained scholarships in Hebrew and German, she devoted herself to hygiene, notably infant hygiene, giving several years of lectures for the National Health Society and founding the monthly magazine « Baby, the Mother's Magazine », followed by « Womanhood ». She published an important series of works, from a « Hebrew Grammar with Exercises » written with her brother in 1881 to « Children's Ailments » in 1898, passing through « The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice » (1885) and « Personal Hygiene » (1894).
Danish engraver, born in Vejle, in Jutland, on March 22, 1822, and died in Copenhagen on March 21, 1885, he initially intended to pursue painting before turning to a new reproduction technique, the chemitype, which took him to Leipzig in 1846 then to Paris in 1848, where he perfected his art of engraving. He obtained the gold medal of third class at the Paris exposition of 1861 and was made knight of the Dannebrog in 1862; settled in London from 1870 to 1883, he was elected member of the Academy of Copenhagen in 1877 before being recalled there in 1883 as professor of young engravers.
Danish physician, born in Copenhagen on 21 October 1802 and died in that city on 24 March 1866, raised by his uncle after the premature death of his parents, he studied at the University of Copenhagen, where he succeeded in his medical examination in 1826, then participated in 1829 in the founding of the society of physicians « Philiatrien ». Sent by royal order to study Asiatic cholera abroad from 1831 to 1832, he received his doctorate in 1836 and became in 1853, during the cholera epidemic in Copenhagen, chief physician of the cholera hospital and member of the health council, with the title of professor.
Romanian patriot, born in Bucharest on January 29, 1809 and died in Jerusalem on May 2, 1844, from a family in the service of the Phanariote princes, he became fatherless at age twelve and educated himself through his father's library, learning several languages including Hebrew. Treasurer of the salt stores of the Danube, he saved important stocks in 1829 during the war against Turkey, which earned him from Nicholas I of Russia the Order of Saint Anne ; becoming in 1836 cashier of the Bucharest police, he served ten years without remuneration before embracing in 1848 the cause of the Revolution, whose leaders he saved by proclaiming it before the scheduled time.
German publicist, born in Unruhstadt, Germany, on May 17, 1820, and died at Saint-Gratien, near Paris, on February 12, 1893, he studied philosophy and history in Berlin and Paris before becoming consul of Prussia and Brunswick in Paris in 1851, then of the North German Confederation in 1867. In 1870, he was sent to the German army headquarters at Versailles at the head of the press service, then attached as political adviser to Manteuffel; he became German consul in Messina in 1874, then consul general in Genoa from 1881 to 1888. He is the author of several historical works and edited the journals and correspondence of Friedrich Hebbel.
Hungarian jurist and economist, born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1854, he studied law in Vienna and Budapest and became an authority on monetary questions. His works « Die Vorgeschichte und Finanziellen Folgen der Nordamerikanischen Valuta-Frage » (Budapest, 1890) and « Die Börsen-Steuer » (Budapest, 1895) were crowned by the Royal Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
French deputy and physician, born in Strasbourg on September 25, 1825, bachelier in 1843 and doctor of medicine in 1847, he settled in Metz in 1858 and advocated for compulsory education and the abolition of capital punishment. Elected representative of Moselle to the National Assembly in February 1871, he resigned after the vote to cede Alsace-Lorraine, then resumed his seat after the insurrection of March 18, 1871; reelected to Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1876 and then to Saint-Denis in 1877, he was defeated in 1881 and appointed assistant librarian at the Museum of Natural History. Remaining Jewish by conviction, he unsuccessfully sought exemption from Saturday for Jewish apprentices.
German rabbi, born in Angenrod, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on November 5, 1834, and died in Königsberg on October 26, 1896, trained at the University of Giessen and the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, he received his doctorate and ordination in 1861 and was called in 1865 to Königsberg, heading the reformed community, where he remained until his death. He distinguished himself by his dedication to Russian Jews flowing into Königsberg after 1882, founding numerous philanthropic and educational works, and was one of the founders of the Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeindebund and the Deutscher Rabbiner-Verein, which he chaired several times.
Rabbi and German Talmudic author, born in Wiesenbronn, Bavaria, on May 1, 1835, son of Rabbi Seligman Baer Bamberger, from whom he received his first Talmudic instruction, he passed his rabbinical examination in Würzburg in 1860 and subsequently held several rabbinical positions, in Sulzburg, in Switzerland then in Alsace, before establishing himself in Sennheim in 1887. He wrote lexicographical notes on various Talmudic treatises under the title « Limmud 'Aruk »—on Shabbat (Fürth, 1868), Berakhot (1872), and Meguila (Berlin, 1897), the latter including responsa from his father—, and translated his father's manual on the Shechita, the « More la-Zobeḥim » (1894).
Talmudist of the old school and leader of the Orthodox party in Germany, born in Wiesenbronn, near Kitzingen, in Bavaria, on November 6, 1807, and died in Würzburg on October 13, 1878, he was sent at age fifteen to the yeshiva of Fürth, where he obtained his rabbinic diploma after five years of study, without, however, making a profession of Torah: he first kept a shop in his native city, marrying in 1829 the daughter of Rabbi Seckel Wormser of Fulda, before his affairs, neglected in favor of study, declined. In 1836, the Bavarian government delegated him as an Orthodox representative to an assembly of Jewish notables, where his energy triumphed in his views.
Scholar and philanthropist, born in 1823 in Minsk, Russia, where he died on March 10, 1888, he received solid biblical and talmudic training and gave every day, during the last thirty years of his life, a lecture on a chapter of the Bible in his private synagogue. He devoted himself to tracing the origin of Jewish religious customs in the two Talmuds and the Midrachim, leaving in manuscript a work on this subject, the « Meḳor Minhagim », and helped many Hebrew scholars publish their works, including Kalman Schulman, who dedicated a volume of his « Toledot Ḥakhme Yisrael » to him (Wilna, 1883).
Austrian writer and art critic, born on October 6, 1864, he began writing for the press at a young age — feuilletons, humorous sketches, sports chronicles — before publishing an abundant body of work mixing guides, comedies, operettas, and novels, including « Rosl » (1888), « Der Letzte Bombardier » (1889), the novel « Angiolina » (1896) and the operettas « Die Hochzeitsreise » and « Die Sphynx » (1900); he also directed the publications « Unsere Kunst » (1889) and « Wiener Künstler-Dekameron » (1891).
German-American actor, born in Cassel, in Germany, in 1840, he made his debut at eighteen at the court theatre of Neustrelitz, playing mainly Shakespeare in German, before leaving Germany in 1863 for the United States, where he became known especially in the role of Shylock. He performed in London from 1868 — at the Lyceum in « Narciss » by Brachvogel, then in « The Rightful Heir » and « Othello » —, played Hamlet at the Princess Theater in 1873, then devoted himself mainly to tours in the United States, where he acquired a ranch, still appearing in 1901 in a shortened version of « The Merchant of Venice ».
English boxer, born in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and died after 1865, he fought from 1853 to 1865 a series of prize-ring matches that remained famous, including a seventy-five round draw against Jerry Duggan in 1853, two defeats against George Sims, then victories over Hopkinson in 1862 and over the Australian Jackson in 1863, before ending his career in 1865 with a defeat against John Smith, known as the « Brighton Doctor ».
German rabbi and scholar, born in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, Hungary, on August 9, 1855, son of Bernhard Baneth, he studied Talmud under his father and then in Pressburg, entered in 1873 the rabbinical seminary of Berlin, pursued philosophy and Oriental languages at the University of Berlin from 1878 onwards, and obtained in July 1881 his doctorate from Leipzig with distinction "summa cum laude", followed shortly after by the rabbinical diploma awarded by Dr. Israel Hildesheimer. Rabbi of Krotoschin from January 1882 to April 1895, he then became, in December of the same year, professor of Talmudic studies at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums in Berlin, a position he held in 1901.
Hungarian rabbi, born in 1815 in Szécsény and died on October 21, 1871, youngest son of Ezekiel Baneth from whom he inherited a taste for Talmudic studies, he attended the courses of R. Moses Sofer in Pressburg, married on September 3, 1840 Golde, daughter of merchant David Stössl of Liptó-Szent-Miklós, where he established himself and devoted himself to the study of the Talmud. His reputation earned him many students; in 1868, he accepted without remuneration the position of rabbi of the orthodox congregation of Liptó-Szent-Miklós, and left at his death a manuscript of notes on the entire Talmud.
Head of the wealthy merchant family of Aden (firm « Menahem Messa », suppliers to the British army), president of the Jewish community of Aden (1926–1937), member of the Royal Victorian Order (1911). He supported Yemenite Jewish refugees in transit to the Land of Israel and financed institutions in Jerusalem; he founded a synagogue and an asylum in Crater, and some twenty buildings in Sheikh Othman.
Russian lawyer, born in Luknik, in the governorate of Kovno, in 1840, and died in Saint-Maurice, Switzerland, on July 29, 1891, he entered in 1860 the University of Saint Petersburg and then, in 1864, the service of the Ministry of Justice, where he distinguished himself by untangling the confused accounts of the Black Sea division for ten years. Admitted in 1866 to plead before the Court of Appeal of the Senate in Saint Petersburg, he held from 1868 onwards the post of secretary general of the Senate — the highest position a Jew could reach, according to Count Pahlen — was admitted to the bar in 1870 and devoted himself tirelessly to the cause of his coreligionists.
Rabbi of Toultchyn, in Russia, born in Satanov in the first half of the nineteenth century, he is the author of « Sippourim Nifla'im », narratives translated into Hebrew verse (Odessa, 1870), of « Roch Millin », a Hebrew-Judeo-German dictionary (Jitomir, 1872), and of « Tebousat Abshalom », a tragedy in verse accompanied by a selection of tales, legends and epigrams (Odessa, 1868).
Hungarian scholar, born in Szentgál, in the comitat of Veszprém, on July 4, 1849, trained at the universities of Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, Göttingen and Leipzig then in Paris and London, he became in 1878 privatdozent of philosophy at Budapest, in 1879 member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and in 1892 member of the royal council of instruction. Professor at the Jewish theological seminary of Budapest from 1877 to 1893 then director of the city's normal school from 1887, he also worked, with Professor Bacher, to save the congregation and schools of the Sabbatarians of Transylvania converted to Judaism in 1868.
One of the Beni Israël of Bombay, high-ranking non-commissioned officer (subedar-major) in the British Indian army, died on 14 February 1878 and buried with military honors on special order, he held the rank of sirdar bahadur of the twelfth regiment of native infantry and had distinguished himself during the Sepoy Rebellion.
Austrian author and pedagogue, born in Neu-Raussnitz, Moravia, on May 15, 1841, trained in her native region and then in Vienna, where she settled and founded a girls' secondary school; she undertook in 1882 a recital tour in Germany. She published a series of novels between 1880 and 1893, as well as patriotic songs (1882) and a biography of Emperor Francis Joseph I (1889).
Romanian author and physician, born in Brody, in Galicia, in 1815, and died in Bucharest on 31 March 1863, married against his will at sixteen and then ruined by bad speculation, he emigrated to Germany to study medicine and was received as doctor in Berlin in 1841. He settled in Bucharest in November 1841, became quarantine physician in Calarași in 1843, then chief physician of the Dolj district from 1847 to 1851. From his studies, he published in 1839 an essay on Polish Hasidism, became the chronicler of the life of Jews in the Romanian principalities, then devoted himself to creating a Romanian scientific terminology, publishing in 1850 his first work of popular science.
Russian lawyer and censor of Hebrew books, born in Doubno in 1835, graduate of the rabbinical school of Jitomir in 1859 and then of the University of Kiev in 1869, he was appointed in 1871 by the governor general of Kiev as censor of Hebrew books and adviser for Jewish affairs, and published articles on the Jewish question in several periodicals.
Romanian painter
Russian writer and teacher, born in Tourisk, in the province of Volhynia, in 1828, and died in Odessa in 1897(?), presumed descendant of Samuel b. David, author of the « TaZ », he received from his father, himself author of the « Ṭa'ame Torah » (Wilna, 1822), his first instruction in Hebrew grammar, Bible, and Talmud. He was a teacher at the Russo-Hebrew school of Khotin, in Bessarabia, from 1851, then at the Talmud Torah of Odessa from 1857 to 1882, and was charged in 1871, until his death, with the censorship of Hebrew books. He is the author of several studies on the Hebrew and Aramaic language, including the « Ḥiḳre Leshon Arami » (Odessa, 1865).
Honorary canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, abbé and orientalist, born in 1810 in Auriol, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, and died in 1896 near Marseille, member of the Asiatic Society of Paris from 1835, he first taught Arabic in Marseille before becoming in 1842 professor of Hebrew at the faculty of theology of the Sorbonne, a position he held until the suppression of the faculty in 1885. Using his knowledge of Arabic in service of Hebrew studies, he published a long series of works, including « Le Livre de Ruth » (1854), « Les Samaritains de Naplouse » (1855) and the Psalms translated by Japhet b. Éli the Karaite (1861).
Austrian actress, born in Kassa, Hungary, on March 2, 1862, sent to Vienna to learn accounting, she actually devoted herself to theatre and made her debut at fifteen in Frankfurt in the role of Adrienne Lecouvreur, thanks to the interest of Laroche and Sonnenthal, before studying for two years under Barnay. In 1880, she joined the Thalia Theater in Hamburg then the Hoftheater in Berlin, and performed successfully in Moscow, Riga, Hanover, Dresden, Leipzig, Budapest, New York (1892) and Saint Petersburg, where she faced without suffering comparison with Sarah Bernhardt by playing the same roles as her.
"King of the Diamond," English promoter and speculator, born in London on July 5, 1852 and died by suicide by jumping from the liner "Scot" on June 14, 1897, trained at the Jews' Free School in Spitalfields, he joined his brother in 1873 at the diamond mines of Kimberley, South Africa, where he adopted the name "Barnato." Having become a diamond merchant as early as 1874, he enriched himself through concessions acquired in 1876 and opened a banking house in London in 1880. Elected to the Cape Assembly for Kimberley in 1888 and reelected in 1894, he reached a peak of popularity in 1895 before stock market setbacks precipitated his fall.
German actor, born in Budapest on February 12, 1842, son of the secretary of the Jewish congregation of the city, he was meant for building but convinced his father to send him to study theater in Vienna under Sonnenthal. After difficult debuts in 1860 in Trautenau, Bohemia, and a quarrel with his father, he reconciled with him and was invited in 1863 by Heinrich Laube to join the Burgtheater in Vienna, an invitation he declined. He subsequently performed in Riga (1865), Leipzig (1867) and Frankfurt am Main from 1870 onward, where he organized in July 1871 the Weimar theatrical congress, at the origin of the union of German stage artists.
English composer born in Bedford on July 1, 1802 and died in Cheltenham on April 17, 1890, he made his debut as a singer at the Lyceum in 1813 before devoting himself to composition. He achieved his first success with the operetta « Before Breakfast » in 1825, became musical director of the Olympic Theater in 1832, then had the operas « Fair Rosamond » performed in 1837 and « Farinelli » in 1838. Settled in Cheltenham from 1841, he taught singing there until his death.
English musician, born in London on October 16, 1837, nephew of John Barnett, he was a piano student of Dr Wylde and received the royal scholarship of the Royal Academy of Music in 1850 and then in 1852, before debuting as a pianist at the concerts of the New Philharmonic in 1853. He studied three years at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1856, under Moscheles, Plaidy and Hauptmann, played at the Gewandhaus in 1860, then established himself in England as a teacher, concert pianist and composer, obtaining in 1883 a chair at the Royal College of Music. Among his works are the oratorio « The Raising of Lazarus » (1876) and several cantatas, including « The Ancient Mariner » (1867).
English author, born in Liverpool in 1871, trained at Liverpool High School then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself particularly in Greek, winning four epigram and Greek ode medals as well as the Craven scholarship in 1894. He published a brief history of Greek theater in 1900 and translated Koch's « Roman History »; he was then employed in the Oriental Department of the British Museum.
Surgeon and professor of surgery at Budapest University, born in Gyöngyös on November 23, 1845 and trained in Budapest, son of the secretary of the Jewish community of his native city, he was medical assistant in various hospitals in Budapest from 1870, then at the Jewish hospital in the city from 1871 to 1873, of which he became chief surgeon in 1874. He is the author of a work on surgical pathology and therapeutics (Budapest, 1871) and numerous articles in Hungarian and Viennese medical journals.
German professor of exegesis, philosophy of religion, and Semitic languages, born in Flehingen, Baden, in 1851, he studied Oriental studies in Leipzig under Fleischer and in Strasbourg under Nöldeke, before becoming in 1874 professor at the Berlin rabbinical seminary and in 1880 professor of Semitic languages at the University of Berlin. He notably published studies on Job (1876), Isaiah (1885), and Hebrew lexicography (1893), as well as his major work, "Die Nominalbildung in den Semitischen Sprachen" (1889-91, 2nd ed. 1894), which for the first time traced the development of Semitic nominal forms.
First Rebbi of Sert Viznitz
Author of Torah Temimah, commentary linking Written Torah and Oral Law.
German rabbi
Czech rabbi
Polish military rabbi (1897-1940)
Rabbinical scholar (1883-1969)
President (« Baumeister ») of the Jewish community of Frankfurt-am-Main in the early nineteenth century, father of Ludwig Börne, whose grandfather was a financial agent of the Elector of Cologne. Described by his contemporaries as a man of common sense and courtier, sometimes orthodox, sometimes modern, he is elected representative of the Frankfurt community to the Congress of Vienna in October 1814, entrusted with a memorandum on the rights of the Jews of Frankfurt. He refuses a substantial donation that the community offers him in recognition of his services.
American physician born in Schwersenz, Prussia, on 29 July 1840, he emigrated to the United States and obtained his medical degree in 1862, then served three years in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Established in New York in 1881, he became a pioneer of appendicitis surgery and a recognized specialist in hydrotherapy.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5619 of the Hebrew era (1859). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-2.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5571 of the Hebrew era (1811). Son of Yosef, himself son of Daniel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-3.
Russian composer and pianist born in Odessa in 1851, died in that same city in 1900. Destined by his father for a commercial career, he turned very early to music and went to study in Vienna, Paris and Leipzig, where he surprised his masters with his talent. His numerous compositions, including "On the Sea", "Souvenirs" and "Lullaby", were published by the Breitkopf & Härtel house of Leipzig.
Italian lawyer and biblical exegete, born in Gradisca, near Trieste, in Austria, in 1828. After studying law at the University of Padua, he established himself as a lawyer in Trieste, where he successfully conducted several criminal trials. A recognized Hebraicist and archaeologist, he published in particular an annotated translation of the Lamentations, "I Treni di Geremia" (Trieste, 1867), and "Un Errore di Trenta Secoli" (Trieste, 1868). He was secretary of the Jewish community of Trieste.
Italian deputy born in Trieste, Austria, on July 5, 1860, son of the orientalist and archaeologist Giuseppe Barzilai, he studies law at the University of Bologna. Condemned for treason against Austria in 1878, he is acquitted on appeal in Graz after a year in prison, then begins in 1882 his career as a lawyer, notably in criminal cases. He becomes in 1890 deputy for Rome, sitting on the republican far left.
Hungarian painter born in Budapest in 1873. After a year devoted to studies in metallurgy, he went to Munich, where he became a student of Simon Hollósy, then returned to Budapest before leaving for Paris, where he studied for three years under Bonnat, Dousset and Jean-Paul Laurens. Back in Budapest, he directs the artistic section of « Magyar Genius » and devotes himself notably to poster art and decorative watercolor painting.
Hungarian painter born in Budapest on April 9, 1859, he devoted himself to painting after studying engineering, first becoming a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then, in Budapest, a student of T. Paczka in 1885 and of painter L. Horovitz in 1888. He specializes in genre painting and portraiture.
Austrian writer and politician born in Prague, Bohemia, in 1813. After teaching at the progressive primary school of Presbourg, he joined Vienna during the troubles of the 1848 revolution and founded the "Reichstagblatt" there, which he continued at Kremsier until the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in 1849. Returning to Vienna in 1855, he directed the "Oesterreichische Zeitung", then devoted himself to economic journalism until 1875, before representing the "Neue Freie Presse" in Paris, where he defended republican policy until his retirement in 1883.
Austrian physician born in Prague on September 9, 1837, known as the personal physician of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, whom he accompanied until his death in 1867. Trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, he was until 1865 assistant to several professors at the University of Vienna, before being appointed chief surgeon of the military hospital in Puebla, Mexico. Ennobled by Emperor Francis Joseph for his role with Maximilian, he became in 1870 lecturer in experimental pathology at the University of Vienna.
Professor of philosophy at the university of Rennes, born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1863, and son of Raphaël Basch. Established in France from childhood, he studied at the Sorbonne then was appointed professor at the university of Nancy in 1885, then at that of Rennes in 1887. Leader of the Dreyfusards in Rennes, he suffered violent antisemitic hostility but steadfastly defended principles of legal and social justice; he notably published 'L'Esthétique de Kant' in Paris in 1896.
Italian composer and musicographer born in Livorno December 29, 1818, died in Florence in November 1885. First a physician in Florence, he later devoted himself entirely to music and composed notably the operas « Romilda ed Ezzelino » (1840) and « Enrico Howard » (1847). Founder of the « Beethoven Matinées » in 1859, at the origin of the Società del Quartetto, then of the Concerti Popolari di Musica Classica in 1863, he is also the author of works on Verdi (1859) and on the history of music (1866).
Italian poet and composer born in Padua 5 June 1851. Trained in Milan, he was one of the favorite pupils of Antonio Bazzini, director of the Milan Conservatoire. His romances for piano or orchestra, greatly appreciated, were published by the houses Lucca and Ricordi in Milan; he was then living in Venice.
Missionary in Jassy, Romania, born around 1840 in the province of Mohilev, Russia. In 1869, he went to Constantinople, where English missionaries converted him to Christianity. He is the author of a work entitled « The Modern Hebrew, and the Hebrew Christian » (London, 1882), which opens with an autobiography and notably deals with Jewish religion and rites. In September 1881, he also published a German journal, « Eintracht », pleading the cause of Jews against anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.
Hungarian composer born in Budapest on February 23, 1860. Trained at the National Conservatory and the Academy of Music in his native city, he had Robert Volkmann as his composition teacher, who encouraged his talent. He composed numerous operettas successfully performed at the Volkstheater in Budapest, as well as songs and instrumental pieces; his trio for harp, violin and cello established his reputation in Germany, and he had an overture performed at the Budapest Philharmonic Concert in 1901.
Christian theologian, philosopher, and historian born September 6, 1809, in Eisenberg, in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, died April 13, 1882, in Rixdorf, near Berlin. In 1842, he publishes in the "Deutsche Jahrbücher" an article on the Jewish question, taken up and developed the following year under the title "Die Judenfrage" (Brunswick, 1843), where he contests Judaism any part in the progress of civilization and opposes the political emancipation of Jews. He reprises this thesis in 1863 in "Das Judenthum in der Fremde".
Austrian humorist born in Raab-Sziget, Hungary, on 15 October 1853. Educated at home until 1873, the year he went to Vienna to study medicine, he began writing for comic newspapers and soon abandoned medicine for journalism. In 1879, he became drama editor of « Wiener Extrablatt » and, noticed by director Jauner of the Theater an der Wien, became a librettist; he notably wrote, with Hugo Wittmann, the libretti for several Millöcker operettas.
Chaplain of the Tuileries, in Paris, born in 1829 in Budapest, Hungary, died in 1898. After an adventurous youth, he converts to Catholicism in Paris under the influence of Carmelite friar Augustin — whose real name was Hermann Cohen — and enters the Carmelite order, which he later leaves. A renowned preacher, he publishes in 1866 "Le Judaïsme Comme Preuve du Christianisme" and becomes bishop, then, in 1867, confessor to Empress Eugénie; on November 17, 1869, he delivers the inaugural address for the Suez Canal.
Austrian physician born in Vienna on 25 February 1844, specialist in vaccination. Trained in his native city, he obtained his doctorate in 1870 and became physician at the Wieden hospital, a position he left in 1872 to establish a private practice. Member of the municipal council of the Margarethen district from 1882 to 1885, secretary of the Medizinische Doctoren-Collegium since 1883, he specializes in vaccination, founds an animal vaccine institute and expounds his experience in a work published in Stuttgart in 1890.
Hungarian jurist born in Budapest on September 21, 1853, where he studied, brother of Isidor Baumgarten. From 1876 to 1892, he practices law in Budapest while directing the technical journal « Büntetö Jog Tára ». In 1892, he becomes judge of the Budapest commercial and exchange court and president of the appellate council, exerting considerable influence on the development of the judiciary; in 1898, he is appointed judge to the Supreme Court of Budapest.
Austrian author and community activist born in Kremsier on January 15, 1828. After a youth spent in several yeshivas, he moves to Vienna in 1848, where he leads a commercial life while attending university courses. Elected to the municipal council of Sechshaus in 1861 — one of the first Jews in Austria to hold such a position —, he becomes gabbaï of the Vienna temple in 1870 and sits from 1872 onward on the council of the Jewish community of the city, where he works notably on the founding of the Bet ha-Midrash of Vienna and the Israelitische Allianz.
Hungarian jurist born on March 27, 1850 in Budapest, where he completes his studies. After a stay abroad, he is admitted to the bar in 1882 and becomes in 1885 lecturer in criminal law at the University of Budapest. Entered into the service of the State, he is appointed judge of the Budapest court in 1886, then prosecutor in 1896, a position he holds until 1898, when he is appointed head of division at the royal Ministry of Justice; he actively participates in the organization of the International Congress of Criminal Procedure held in Budapest in 1899.
Born in Ekaterinoslav, leader of the women's labor movement, Mapai deputy during the first five Knessets (1949-1965), first woman member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense commission. Figure of Israeli labor feminism.
Austrian journalist, musician and revolutionary born in Manchester, England, in 1803 (or 1805), died in Vienna on 23 November 1848. After studying law in Heidelberg, Göttingen and Berlin, he turns to radical socialist ideas, then to painting and music in Düsseldorf, where he remains until 1838, when he is appointed professor of music theory at the University of The Hague. In 1841, he performs in Vienna as an interpreter of his own compositions; in the spring of 1848, he leads the Viennese radicals and directs the revolutionary journal « Der Radikale », before being tried for treason and executed.
Austrian economist born in Plany, Bohemia, on February 28, 1806, died in Vienna on March 4, 1873. Trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, he entered state service in 1831, became in 1835 professor of geography and history at the Vienna Polytechnic School, then in 1848 counselor at the Ministry of Commerce. He was charged with missions to Germany and Belgium in 1849 and led the ministry during the revolutionary period, before being replaced by Baron Bruck. He published numerous works on economic statistics, including « Die Organisation des Gewerbewesens » (Vienna, 1851) and « Die Volkswirthschaft » (Vienna, 1853).
German physician and medical author born in Filehne, in the province of Posen, in Prussia, on May 6, 1862. Doctor of Medicine from the University of Berlin in 1889, he was assistant physician at the Litten'schen Poliklinik in Berlin from 1889 to 1892, before establishing a private practice in that city in 1893. He published several medical essays, notably on cholera (1892, 1893) and on the application of Röntgen's process in medicine (1896).
Austrian poet born on May 1, 1817 in Baja, Hungary, died on April 10, 1879 in Währing, near Vienna. Of Jewish origin but raised in the Protestant religion, he abandoned in 1833 his medical studies in Vienna to enroll at the University of Leipzig, where he published in 1838 his first collections, followed by « Stille Lieder » (1840) and the tragedy « Saul » (1841). His most accomplished work, the epic « Yankó, der Ungarische Rosshirt » (1842), provides a faithful picture of Hungary; settled in Vienna in 1843, he published in Berlin in 1844 a complete collection of his poems.
Hungarian singer born in 1868 in Budapest, where he attended business schools. Trained by Abrányi Kornél at the National Academy of Music, where he also studied piano with Sándor Nikolics and composition with H. Gobbi, he destined himself for lyric singing and left, against his father's wishes, to perfect himself in Paris, where he obtained a scholarship and two prizes at the Conservatory. Returning to Budapest in 1892, he debuted under the direction of Count Géza Zichy in Thomas's "Hamlet" with such success that he was immediately engaged at the opera, where he remained one of Hungary's most prominent lyric artists by 1902.
Hungarian financier born in 1838 in Bács-Madaras. His parents settled in Budapest while he was still a child, and it was there that he completed his commercial education. In 1864, he became commercial director of the J. J. Cohen bank, then, in 1870, chief director of the Hungarian Eskomptebank; when Koloman von Széll became president of the Hungarian cabinet in 1899, Beck was elevated to the presidency of the bank. He received in 1894 the Order of the Iron Crown and was ennobled with the title « De Madaras ».
Romanian editor and school director, born in Pápa, in Hungary. He directs the bimonthly review « Revista Israelita » and is the author of a pedagogical work in Romanian, « Vocabular Analytici Ebraico-Romanisc » (3 vol., Bucharest, 1882). In 1902, he is school director in Bucharest and devotes much of his time to improving the political and social conditions of the Jews of Romania.
President of the Hungarian Hypothekenbank, born in 1840 in Bács-Madaras, younger brother of Miksa Beck. Trained in Pest, he obtained in 1867 a position at the Anglo-Hungarian Bank, then was elected in 1871 general manager of the Hungarian Hypothekenbank, a position he held until 1899, the year he became its president; he contributed greatly to the prosperity of the establishment. He received in 1893 the order of the Iron Crown of the third class and was ennobled in 1895 under the title "De Madaras".
French legal scholar born in Aix, Provence, in 1804, died in that city on February 4, 1882. Trained in law at the University of Aix, he began his law practice in 1825 and became dean of the bar in 1847. After the revolution of 1848, he was appointed mayor of Aix and general councillor of Bouches-du-Rhône, before devoting himself to writing. Between 1856 and 1867, he published a series of treatises on commercial law in eighteen volumes; he is also the author of the "Traité du Dol et de la Fraude en Matière Civile et Commerciale" (1852) and research on the Jews of France, Italy, and Spain (1859).
French magistrate born in Aix-les-Bains on 20 February 1817, died in Paris on 5 June 1899. Graduate of the University of Paris, he entered public life in 1840 as deputy to the tribunal of Aix, then rose through the ranks of the magistracy until becoming, in 1862, prosecutor-general in Bastia, Corsica, then, in 1864, advocate-general at the Court of Cassation, and finally, in 1877, president of the Chamber of Requests. Passionate about Judaism, he represented in 1867 the Jewish community of Marseille at the central consistory of France, of which he became vice-president in 1872, a position he held until his death.
English community activist born in 1835, died in London on January 23, 1900. Involved in the management of several Jewish institutions in London, he was one of the founders of the Central Synagogue, whose gabbaï he became in 1877. He served on the committee of the Jews' Free School as well as those of the Jews' College, the Jewish Middle-Class School for Girls and the Jewish Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge.
English community activist born in 1819, died on October 31, 1872. A member of the United Synagogue council and of several committees of charitable and educational institutions, he served the community as chairman of the United Synagogue building committee and treasurer of the Jews' College, notably during the building of the Central Synagogue of London. He is at the origin of the project to acquire a new Jewish cemetery in Willesden.
English community activist born in 1821, died in Carshalton on September 9, 1898. Associated throughout his life with the principal community institutions of London, he was one of the first members of the Board of Guardians and president of its investigation committee, as well as a founder of the Central Synagogue and life member of the United Synagogue council. Vice-president and generous benefactor of the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum, he also sat on the committees of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Association for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge, and was a justice of the peace for the county of Surrey as well as for that of London.
Professor of oriental languages at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, born in Amsterdam in the early nineteenth century. Devoted very early to the study of Hebrew literature, notably rabbinic, he is the author of « Abne Ḥefez », a rabbinic and Chaldean chrestomathy in three parts, accompanied by grammatical, historical and theological notes, a glossary and a lexicon of abbreviations, published in Louvain in 1841.
Austrian historian and pedagogue born in Prossnitz, Moravia, February 27, 1831. Trained in the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Prague, and Vienna, he taught history in Czernowitz, Prague, and Vienna, before becoming in 1857 associate professor of Austrian history at the Academy of Law in Grosswardein, Hungary. Transferred in 1868 to the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, he entered the Ministry of Public Instruction as counselor and was elected deputy in 1873, a mandate he held without interruption; upon the fall of the Taaffe ministry in 1893, his Jewish origins excluded him from the position of Secretary of State for Instruction intended for him.
Austrian colonel born in 1833 in Prossnitz, Moravia, died on October 2, 1888 in Laibach, Carniola. Graduated from a cadet school with the rank of lieutenant, he became professor at the military academy of Weisskirchen, Moravia, then held a similar post at the military school of Cracow. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he distinguished himself in the defense of the frontier fortress of Olmütz, preventing its surrender to the Prussians who arrived at night; he was one of the first Jews in the Austrian army to reach the rank of colonel.
Religious teacher and author in Munich, he compiled in 1826, under the direction of Abraham Bing, rabbi of Wurtzbourg, and with the approval of the bet din of Fürth, a catechism in German, "Lehrbuch der Mosaischen Religion" (Munich, 1826), abbreviated as "Hauptlehren der Mosaischen Religion", intended for Jewish schools and published at the expense of the Bavarian government by order of King Louis I. The work, attacked in 1827 in an anonymous pamphlet for its conservative tendencies, places Hebrew citations from the Bible, the Talmud and Maimonides alongside the German text; Beer also published a "Siddur Tefillot" with German translation, Munich, 1827.
German philanthropist and community activist, died in Berlin on June 22 (or 24), 1854. Wife of banker Jacob Herz Beer and daughter of Liebmann Meyer Wolf, she distinguished herself by her charity, notably within the Society for Aid to Wounded Soldiers placed under the patronage of Princess Wilhelm of Prussia; in recognition, she received from the king the Order of Queen Louise, becoming the first Jewish woman thus distinguished. Her salon on the Thiergartenstrasse in Berlin was among the most brilliant of its time. She was the mother of poet Michael Beer and composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.
German mathematician born in Trier on July 31, 1825, died in Bonn on November 18, 1863. Educated at the technical school and gymnasium of his native city, he went in 1845 to Bonn to study mathematics and science under Plücker, whose assistant he became. In 1848, he won a prize for his essay on the optical axes of biaxial crystals and obtained his doctorate. He published in 1854 "Einleitung in die Höhere Optik", which earned him wide reputation, and became in 1855 professor of mathematics in Bonn.
Austrian medical writer born in Brünn, Moravia, on April 24, 1859. Trained in the secondary schools of his native city and then at the University of Vienna, where he received his degree in 1885, he practiced for several years as a physician at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, specializing in neuropathy. His research was published in various Viennese medical journals as well as in London and New York, and he directed the « Wiener Medicinische Presse ».
Composer, son of Michael Beer and nephew of Giacomo Meyerbeer, born in 1833 in Paris, where he still resided in 1902. His first compositions, two comic operas in one act, were performed before a private audience in 1859 and 1861, followed by the opera « La Fille d'Egypte », premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique on April 23, 1862, then « Elisabeth de Hongrie », given in March 1871 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. He also set to music Psalm 137, a major work premiered in Paris on January 23, 1868.
Italian rabbi born in Pesaro, died in Rome on May 6, 1835, where he had served as rabbi since 1825. On December 18, 1829, he was received for forty minutes by Pope Leo XII to plead on behalf of his community — the first time in the history of the Jews of Rome that one of their representatives was admitted in person before the pontiff.
English journalist, daughter of Sassoon D. Sassoon. Privately educated, she has directed and edited since October 1893 the « Sunday Times », of which she is owner. Member of the Institute of Journalists and the Institute of Women Journalists, she has also composed and published pieces for piano and instruments. She married Frederick Arthur Beer, editor-in-chief of the « Observer » in London.
Austrian mezzo-soprano born November 23, 1862 in Cracow, Galicia. After her father's bankruptcy, she had to earn her living and perfected herself, under the impetus of her patroness Princess Sapieha, in singing and stage performance, first at the school of Marie Luise Düstmann in Vienna and then with Mme Viardot-Garcia in Paris. She made her debut in the role of Elsa in « Lohengrin » at the Royal Opera of Berlin on March 25, 1882, before joining the Imperial Opera of Vienna on May 1, 1888.
French physician and historian born in Metz on April 24, 1802 (or, according to some sources, April 23, 1803), died in Paris on May 31, 1888. After serving as a military physician during the Spanish War, he obtained his doctorate upon his return to France in 1828 and founded in 1830 in Metz a weekly journal, "L'Indicateur de l'Est", interrupted in 1832. Settled in Paris in 1850, he devoted himself to literary and archaeological work, participated in the edition of Napoleon I's correspondence, and became librarian of the Louvre in 1869, then of the National Library in 1874.
Russian-Hebrew writer born in Wilna on August 5, 1820, died in Kherson on November 14, 1900, last representative of the maskilim, that circle of pioneers of Jewish culture in Wilna gathered around Elie of Wilna and the spirit of the Enlightenment of Moïse Mendelssohn, with Guenzburg, Lebensohn, Benjacob and Fuenn, to revive biblical Hebrew and spread secular knowledge. Early into philological research, he was appointed in 1848 instructor of Talmud at the Wilna Rabbinical School, a position he held until 1856, the year he retired to Kherson. He published notably « 'Ez-Yehoudah » (Wilna, 1848) and « Tosephet Milluim », commentary of the Targum of the Pentateuch (Wilna, 1898).
Chief rabbi of Baghdad around 1843, author of two Hebrew works: 'Shir Ḥadash,' commentary on the Song of Songs, printed in Calcutta in 1843, and 'Na'awah Tehillah,' commentary on the Psalms, published in Jerusalem in 1845.
Rabbi and author who lived in Salonika in the early 19th century. He is the author of a Hebrew work, « Torat Mosheh » (Salonika, 1802), a collection of responsa.
German physician born in Neu-Stettin, Pomerania, on June 12, 1803, died in Berlin on May 30, 1889. Initially destined for commerce, he became an employee in Königsberg in 1819, before abandoning that position in 1821 to prepare university studies; he entered the University of Königsberg in 1823 and settled as a physician in Berlin in 1829. There he became medical examiner for the police, then, in 1876, chief physician of the « Sittenpolizei ». Behrend directed several medical journals and published numerous works on syphilis, skin diseases and public hygiene.
Dermatologist, medical writer, and professor of medicine at the University of Berlin, born in Neu-Stettin, Prussia, on January 10, 1847. Trained at the gymnasium of his native city then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1870, he served as assistant physician during the Franco-German War before settling as a physician in Berlin in 1872, specializing in dermatology and syphilography. Admitted in 1882 as privatdocent to the Faculty of Medicine in Berlin, he became full professor in 1897 and chief physician of the municipal clinic for venereal diseases in 1891.
Physician and community leader born in Liverpool in 1828, died in London on 28 November 1893. Trained at University College Hospital in London and then in Manchester, he became licenced of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1859, first practised in Liverpool as honorary physician of the local dispensary, then in London, where he published numerous medical articles, including a series on the cholera epidemic published in the « Lancet » in 1852. He rendered his greatest service to the Jewish community of London at the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum in Norwood, which he chaired from 1871.
German jurist born in Berlin on September 13, 1833. Becoming Gerichtsassessor in 1859, he opts for an academic career and becomes privat-docent at the University of Berlin in 1864, publishing the following year « Magdeburger Fragen », a critical study of Prussian legal manuscripts dated approximately 1386 to 1402. He publishes in 1868 a collection of decisions of the « Magdeburger Schöffenstuhl », becomes associate professor of law at Berlin in 1870, then professor at the University of Greifswald in 1873. His critical edition of the « Lex Salica » (Berlin, 1874) experiences a revised edition at Weimar in 1897, and he undertakes in 1880 the publication of his « Lehrbuch des Handelsrechts ».
Russian teacher and editor born in Friedrichstadt, in Courland, on September 26, 1830, died in Saint-Petersburg on April 27, 1893. Established in Mitau in 1854, he opens in 1861 a private school for Jewish boys, then founds in 1864, at the invitation of the Jewish community of Saint-Petersburg, the first Jewish school in the city, which he directs until his death. From 1869 to 1882, he also teaches Jewish religion at the Kolomenskaya college for young women, and founds in 1879 the Russian-Hebrew weekly « Russki Yevrei », which he directs until 1884.
Russian teacher and physician, born in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, died in Vilna on March 9, 1897. Graduate of the Rabbinical School of Vilna, he was principal teacher there for seventeen years until the establishment was closed by government order, then undertook medical studies at the Academy of Medicine in Saint Petersburg. Becoming military physician, he contributed articles on the Jewish question to « Yevreiskaya Biblioteka » and « Razsvyet ».
Hakham and Karaite hazan born in Odessa around 1820. Well educated by his father, an excellent Hebrew scholar, he devoted himself to teaching his coreligionists and founded numerous schools in Odessa and in Crimea. He published in Russian, in Odessa in 1862, a work on Tchoufout-Kalé, the main center of Karaism in Crimea, in which he attempts to demonstrate the great antiquity of the Karaite sect, tracing the settlement of the Karaites in Crimea back to the time of Cambyses.
Austrian physician and philanthropist born in Lemberg on April 7, 1807, died in that city on October 12, 1880. Having entered the University of Vienna, he obtained his medical diploma in 1835 and first practiced as a physician to a noble family near Kolomea, in Galicia, before settling in Kolomea itself in 1845. Sympathetic to the liberal movement, he was banished to Zolkiev for having welcomed exiles from Russian Poland, then resumed his practice in Lemberg, where he became head of military hospitals during the cholera epidemic of 1855. Recognized for his generosity toward the poor, he was made honorary citizen of Lemberg in 1876 and elected to the municipal council in 1877.
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian physician, internist, university professor and politician
American dramatist born in San Francisco in 1858, of English parents. Trained at Lincoln College in San Francisco after a childhood spent in Vancouver under the tutelage of a Catholic priest, he presented his first play, «Jim Black», in San Francisco in 1872, then became in 1878 stage manager of the Baldwin Theater in that city. Settled in New York in 1880, he achieved his first major success as an author in 1884 with «May Blossom», then joined in 1885 the Lyceum Theater alongside Daniel Frohman, where he wrote, in collaboration with Henry C. de Mille, several successful plays.
Russian editor and scholar born in Odessa around 1835, he devoted himself principally to the study of the genealogy of ancient Jewish families of Russia, including his own, publishing on this subject the 'Meguillat Youhassin' and the 'Yalqout Michpahot' in Odessa from 1892 onwards. In 1865, he edits the periodical ''Ale Hadas', then, from 1871 and again from 1886, two other journals devoted to halakha and talmudic exegesis, and publishes in 1898 a collection of letters, 'Shelomé Emouné Israël'.
English woman of letters and educator born in London around 1820, died in that city in 1885. Granddaughter of Isaac Mendes Belisario, she directed for many years, with her sisters, a school for girls where many members of the Sephardic community were educated. She compiled a "Hebrew-English Vocabulary" for a selection of daily prayers in 1848, and wrote "Sabbath Evenings at Home" (London, 1856), a work in dialogue form on the spirit and precepts of Judaism.
Russian political economist born in Odessa in 1865. As a student, he joined the Jewish nationalists of Odessa and taught at the free Sabbath school of Löw and Sussman. Graduated from university in 1889, he refused a professorship chair that required his conversion to Christianity, and is invited shortly after to teach political economy and the history of Roman law at the University of Sofia, in Bulgaria, where he publishes, in Bulgarian, his « History of Roman Law » (1895) and his « Political Economy » (1896). He is actively engaged in the Zionist movement, publishes in 1897 an appeal to Judaism, and sits from 1899 among the Russian representatives of the great Zionist Action Committee.
Polyglot writer and Greek philologist born in Corfu on October 31, 1862. He edited in 1877 a Hebrew-Greek vocabulary for the book of Genesis, then studied at the University of Athens before moving to Italy, where he became principal of the Jewish schools of Livorno. In 1890, he resigned from this post, stayed in Paris and contributed to the « Revue des Études Juives »; witness to the anti-Jewish riots in Corfu, he reported on them for the Alliance israélite universelle. He translated into Greek the « History of the Jews » by Théodore Reinach (Athens, 1895) and represented the Greek government in 1899 at the twelfth Congress of Orientalists.
American financier born in Alzey, Germany, in 1816, died in New York on November 24, 1890. Trained in Frankfurt-am-Main and employed for several years in the banking offices of Rothschild, he settles in New York in 1837 as American representative of his former employers. Consul General of Austria in New York from 1844 to 1850, he resigns in disapproval of the treatment inflicted on Hungary, then is appointed in 1853 chargé d'affaires of the United States at The Hague, where he is resident minister from 1855 to 1858. In 1860, he becomes president of the national Democratic committee until 1872, and was delegate from New York to the Democratic national conventions until 1884.
Jurist born in Hamburg in 1843, died in that city on March 19, 1888. Trained at the Johanneum and the gymnasium of his native city, he studied law at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg and Göttingen, then practiced as a lawyer in Hamburg alongside Dr. Banks from 1864, taking over the direction of the firm at his death. Elected in 1887 deputy to the Bürgerschaft of Hamburg, he remained a member until his death, while participating in several Jewish charitable institutions.
Diplomat and intermediary between Abd el-Kader and the French government, died in Algiers in September 1839. The French governors of Algeria Clauzel and Valée also made use of his services.
American screenwriter
Dutch physician
Polish rabbi
Israeli educator
Storyteller of Odessa of traditional Jewish life, member of the Hovevei Zion.
Writer and editor, founder of the Tushiyah publishing house in Warsaw.
Chief rabbi of Serres, in European Turkey, for sixteen years, from 1825 to 1841; born in 1788, died in 1841. He is the author of a collection of responsa, « Tiferet Adam » (The Beauty of Man), published in Salonike in 1861.
Israeli Zionist activist, teacher, historian and politician
Elijah Benamozegh is an Italian rabbi born in Livorno in 1822 and died in the same city in 1900, son of a couple originally from Fès, in Morocco, orphaned at the age of four. After a brief commercial career, he devoted himself to philosophy and theology, became rabbi and professor of theology at the rabbinical seminary of his native city, and defended Jewish tradition, particularly Kabbalah, in numerous apologetic and scholarly works.
Franz Ferdinand Benary is a German orientalist born in Cassel on March 22, 1805 and died in Berlin on February 7, 1880. After studying theology and philology at Bonn and then at Halle, where Gesenius guides him toward oriental languages, he becomes privat-docent of oriental languages at the University of Berlin from 1829 to 1831 — a period when he publishes the ancient Indian poem « Nalodaya » in 1830 —, then assistant professor of theology, and publishes in 1835 his treatise « De Hebræorum Leviratu ».
Karl Albert Agathon Benary is a German philologist born in Cassel in 1807 and died in 1860, brother of Franz Ferdinand Benary. Trained in Göttingen and Halle, where he studied classical philology (1824-27), he taught in a gymnasium in Berlin and then became, from 1833 until his death, professor at the Cölnische Realgymnasium in Berlin while teaching courses at the university; he was one of the first linguists to apply the methods of comparative grammar to Latin and Greek.
Baron L. Benas is an English community notable born in Liverpool in 1844, a leading figure of the Old Hebrew Congregation of Liverpool, of which he is one of the administrators. During the Russian emigration of 1882, he contributes to founding the local section of the Russo-Jewish Committee, tasked with organizing the transit of Russian emigrants to the United States via England; president of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, he notably presents there, in 1900, a study on the history of the Jewish community of Liverpool.
Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann is a German painter born in Berlin on 3 December 1811 and died in Düsseldorf on 27 December 1889, son of a Berlin banker in contact with intellectual circles of the capital. Trained under W. Schadow in Berlin and then in Düsseldorf, where he became a member of the « Düsseldorf school », he gained attention as early as 1828 with a portrait of his grandmother, then achieved recognition in 1832 with « The Jews Weeping in Exile in Babylon », before receiving from the Crown Prince of Prussia the commission for « Jeremiah at the Fall of Jerusalem ».
Rudolf Christian Eugen Bendemann is a German painter born in Dresden on November 11, 1851 and died in May 1884 in Pegli, near Genoa, in Italy. Trained at the Academy of Düsseldorf under the direction of his father, painter Eduard Bendemann, he lived in Munich from 1877 to 1879, made several stays in Egypt, and executed in 1876, according to the plans of his father and with Röber and Wilhelm Beckmann, the murals of the Cornelius room at the National Gallery of Berlin.
Alfred Philipp Bender is a rabbi born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1863, trained by his father the Reverend Philipp Bender, rabbi of the Dublin congregation, then at St John's College, Cambridge. Appointed in 1891 rabbi of the Hebrew congregation of the Cape, South Africa, where he still resides in 1901, he is also professor of Hebrew at South African College and publishes in the « Jewish Quarterly Review » works on Jewish funeral customs.
Menahem Manus Bendetsohn is a Russian Hebraist pedagogue and writer born in Grodno in 1817 and died in the same city on March 20, 1888. Trained in the Talmud then sent to Breslau, he publishes in 1847 a Polish tale adapted from the German, returns to Russia in 1853 and teaches for more than twenty years in the government school for Jewish children in Grodno, while running a private school; among his students are the Hebrew poet Konstantin Shapiro and the jurist D. Slonimski of Wilna. He is notably the author of 'Eben Boḥan' (Wilna, 1856) and 'Alluf Ne'urim' (Wilna, 1879).
Otto Julius Emanuel Bendix is a Danish oboist and pianist born on July 26, 1845 in Copenhagen, brother of Frits Bendix. Trained on oboe by Christian Schliemann and a student of Gade and Rée, he was engaged in 1868 as oboist of the Royal Orchestra, a position he held until 1880, while perfecting himself on piano under Theodore Kullak in Berlin and Liszt in Weimar (1872-74); he left Copenhagen in 1880 for Boston, where he held a prominent position as professor and virtuoso.
Victor Emanuel Bendix is a virtuoso violinist, pianist and Danish composer born on May 17, 1851 in Copenhagen, brother of Frits Bendix. Student at the Copenhagen Conservatory from 1867 to 1869, where he studied piano under August Winding and composition under Niels W. Gade, he directed from 1872 to 1876 the concerts of the choral society founded by Axel Liebmann, then became choir master of the Royal Opera and assistant to Gade; his symphony in C, « Fyaeldstigning », is published in 1891.
Salvatore de Benedetti is an Italian scholar born on April 18, 1818 in Novara, in Piedmont, and died on August 4, 1891 in Pisa. Trained at the college of Vercelli, the only Piedmontese establishment then open to Jews to prepare for the rabbinate, he teaches, pursues a career as an engaged journalist — notably in the Mazzinian movement from 1848 onwards — then becomes in 1862 professor of Hebrew at the University of Pisa, a position he held until his death. He publishes in particular a translation of the poems of Juda ha-Lévi, the « Canzoniere Sacro di Giuda Levita » (1871), and « Vita e Morte di Mosè » (1879), a collection of legends about the great Hebrew lawgiver.
Sir Julius Benedict was a composer, conductor and music professor born in Stuttgart on November 27, 1804 and died in London on June 5, 1885. A student of Hummel in Weimar and then of Weber in Dresden from 1821, he conducted in Vienna and then in Naples before settling in London in 1835, where he became conductor at the Lyceum in 1836 and then at Drury Lane in 1838; he was knighted in 1871. His opera « The Lily of Killarney » (1862), adapted from Boucicault's play « Colleen Bawn », remains his most popular work.
Coenraad Benedictus is a mohel and surgeon active in Surinam, in Dutch Guiana, around 1830. Almost nothing is known of his life, except that he published in Paramaribo, probably in 1830, a treatise describing the circumcision operation, accompanied by questions and answers intended for the examination of candidates for the office of mohel — a work today extremely rare.
Edmund Benedikt is an Austrian jurist born in Döbling, near Vienna, on October 6, 1851. After studying law at the University of Vienna, he becomes the editor of the journal « Juristische Blätter » and publishes, in addition to his editorial work, several legal works between 1885 and 1893.
Moritz Benedikt is a German journalist, editor and editor-in-chief of the « Neue Freie Presse » in Vienna, born in Gnatschitz, Moravia, on May 27, 1849. He joined the newspaper's editorial board in 1872, became editor of the economic section in 1879, then editor-in-chief in 1880.
Moriz Benedikt is an Austrian neurologist born in Eisenstadt, Hungary, on July 6, 1835. Trained at the University of Vienna under Hyrtl, Brücke, Skoda, Oppolzer, Arlt and Rokitansky, he obtained there in 1859 his doctorate in medicine and surgery and immediately enlisted as a volunteer in the Austrian army; having become privat-docent, he again volunteered during the war of 1866, then received in 1868 the chair of neurology at the University of Vienna. Pioneer of modern criminology founded on anthropology and psychology, he notably publishes Electrotherapie (Vienna, 1868).
Rudolf Benedikt is an Austrian chemist born in Döbling on July 12, 1852 and died in Vienna on February 6, 1896. Trained at the Polytechnicum of Vienna, he became assistant in technical chemistry there in 1872, held a similar position in analytical chemistry from 1876, then was appointed full professor in 1890; his main work, « Die Künstlichen Farbstoffe », appeared in 1883.
Theodor Benfey is a German Sanskritist and comparative philologist born in Nörten, Hanover, on January 28, 1809, converted to Christianity in 1848 and died on June 26, 1881, son of a Jewish merchant versed in the Talmud. Educated in classical philology at Göttingen, where he obtained his doctorate in 1828, he then turned to Sanskrit, taught at Heidelberg from 1832 and, from 1834, returned to Göttingen, where he devoted himself to Sanskrit and comparative linguistics; his « Griechisches Wurzellexikon » (1839-42) received the Volney Prize.
Arthur Benham is a dramatic author born in 1875 and died of phthisis in Brighton, England, on September 8, 1895, barely out of his twentieth year. Promising author of two plays, « The County » and « The Awakening », performed respectively at the Terry's Theater and the Garrick, he was assisted in his work by his sister, the actress Estelle Burney, who was also his nurse during his long illness.
Born in Ancona in 1806, died in Florence in 1887, reputed to be an excellent Hebraist. He published several Italian translations of classical and biblical Hebrew texts, contributing to 19th-century Italian Jewish culture. He was the father of musician Federico Consolo.
Abraham Benisch is a journalist and theologian born in Drosau, Bohemia, in 1811, and died in Hornsey Rise, near London, on 31 July 1878. Inspired, from his studies in Prague around 1836, by the idea of restoring Jewish independence in the Holy Land, he settles in London in 1841 and devotes himself to Jewish journalism, directing the « Jewish Chronicle » from 1854 to 1869 then from 1875 until his death; he also contributes, in 1871, to the founding of the Anglo-Jewish Association.
American entrepreneur
Rabbi born in Asti, he held rabbinical positions in Italy before becoming haham of the Sephardic community in London in 1866, where he was very active in education. He published a collection of sermons (1873) and wrote odes and prayers in Hebrew as well as poems in Italian.
Benjamin ben Meïr is a Polish talmudist and preacher active in Brody, Galicia, in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is the author of 'Imre Binyamin', a homiletical commentary on the first three books of the Pentateuch, published in Tarnopol in 1814.
British novelist and statesman
Born in Warsaw to a Hasidic family, became a freethinker and pioneer in popularizing scientific socialism in Yiddish. Associate editor of the Forward, Di Arbeter Tsaytung and the journal Di Tsukunft, co-founder of the Workmen's Circle. Prolific author of pamphlets and translations, often polemical against traditional religion.
Born Benjamin Wechsler on November 14, 1898 in Iași, known in Romania as a symbolist poet under the name Fundoianu, he settled in Paris in 1923 and wrote in French under the pseudonym Fondane. Close to the thought of Léon Chestov, he developed an existential philosophy. Naturalized French in 1938, denounced as a Jew, he was arrested by the Gestapo and murdered in a gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau on October 2/3, 1944.
Born in New York into a Portuguese Jewish family (father Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto, physician immigrant from the Netherlands; mother Rachel Seixas). Appointed American consul in Bucharest by President Grant (1870), he worked vigorously for the emancipation of Romanian Jews, founding schools, cultural societies and Romanian B'nai B'rith, and denouncing Romanian antisemitism, preparing the ground for the Treaty of Berlin (1878).
German Orthodox rabbi
German rabbi
Romanian Jewish traveller and historian
Benjamin II (his real name Joseph Israel) is a Romanian traveler born in Folticheni, in Moldavia, in 1818, and died in London on May 3, 1864. Taking Benjamin of Tudela as his model, he sets off at the end of 1844 in search of the Ten Lost Tribes, traveling until 1851 through the Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Babylonia, Persia, India and Afghanistan, then publishes an account of this journey under the title "Five Years in the Orient" (1856); he undertakes in 1859 a second journey, this time to America, from which he produces "Drei Jahre in Amerika" (1863), and dies poor in London.
French rabbi
Teacher, Talmud researcher (1879–1944)
Rabbi of Avignon, founder of the monthly journal La Famille de Jacob. Prolific author: collection of poems An Angel of Heaven on Earth, works of civic instruction (Rights and Duties of Man, 14 editions), Religious and Moral Elevations, a literal and interlinear translation of the Psalms preceded by a grammar, and a translation of Abravanel's Rosh Amanah (Avignon, 1884).
Benjamin 'Ozer b. Meïr is a Polish Talmudist who died in Zolkiev on 25 May 1810, rabbi in Clementow then head of the yeshiva of Zolkiev. His collection of Talmudic novellæ, « Eben Ozer », published by his grandson in Zolkiev in 1792, covers a large part of the Talmud, of Alfasi, of the « Yad » of Maimonides and of the commentary of Asher b. Jehiel; his novellæ on the Shulhan Aruch, also published under this title, were taken up in later Russian editions, notably those of 1820 and 1884.
Born in Zbarazh in Galicia, he left his town around 1845 because of the scandal caused by his satirical verses and became an itinerant singer in Jewish households and cafés in Botoșani, Iași, Galați. His « mini-sung melodramas », following in the tradition of Berl Broder, anticipated Yiddish theater; his themes are nature, poverty and wealth, light against darkness.
David Benjamin is a community notable born in London in 1815 and died in the same city on June 25, 1893. Emigrated to Australia in 1835, he contributes to founding a synagogue in Tasmania before joining his brother Solomon in Melbourne, founder of the Jewish community of the city, and joining the prosperous Benjamin Bros firm; returned to England in 1854, he devotes himself to the London community, notably as treasurer of the Bayswater synagogue from 1865 to 1871 then as churchwarden from 1871 to 1875.
Judah Philip Benjamin was an American statesman and lawyer born in Saint-Croix, the West Indies, in 1811, and died in Paris on May 6, 1884, son of English Jews who settled in Saint-Croix shortly before his birth and then in Wilmington, North Carolina. After three years at Yale and law studies in New Orleans, he was admitted to the Louisiana bar on December 16, 1832, published in 1834 with Thomas Slidell the first repertory of Louisiana jurisprudence, then acquired a sugar plantation; engaged in politics, he served in the Louisiana constitutional conventions of 1844-45 and 1852, and became in 1849 presidential elector for that state.
Michael Henry Benjamin is a South African politician born in London in 1822 and died on June 11, 1879. He left for the Cape Colony around 1849, resided ten years in Graaff-Reinet before settling in Port Elizabeth, which he represented in the Cape Legislative Assembly from 1864; co-founder of the Standard Bank of British South Africa, he returned to England around 1869 and engaged in several community institutions, including the United Synagogue, the Anglo-Jewish Association, and the Board of Deputies.
Moses Benjamin is a Beni Israeli military officer born in 1830 and died in Bombay in December 1897, son of a subedar. Enlisted as a common soldier in the Twelfth Native Infantry of Bombay, he participated in the siege of Kotah, the action of Burnass, and the Battle of Meanee (1843), watched over the families of European officers during the revolt of 1857, then rose through the ranks to commissioned officer in 1861, subedar in 1865, subedar-major in 1878, and sirdar-bahadur in 1881; retired after more than thirty-two years of service, he became treasurer of the Beni Israeli synagogue in Bombay.
Samuel Benjamin is a French soldier enlisted in 1837 in the Carlist expedition against Madrid, known for his bravery and devotion to his lieutenant, Boulan de Brie. Mortally wounded, the latter was carried by Benjamin from the battlefield and then from the hospital where he had been abandoned after the precipitous departure of the Carlists from Huesca, and died in his arms; Benjamin, a scrupulously observant Jew, kept the laws of his religion as much as military life permitted.
Sir Benjamin Benjamin is a businessman and community notable born in London in 1836, arrived in Australia at the age of nine. Melbourne city councilman from 1870 and alderman in 1881, very engaged in the life of the Hebrew congregation of Melbourne and its philanthropic works, he is elected mayor of Melbourne in October 1887, reelected unanimously, then knighted in May 1889 in recognition of his municipal services.
William Benjamin, known as « Bill Bainge », is an English pugilist born in Northleach, Gloucestershire, in 1826. He first faced Tom Sayers, champion of England from 1857 to 1860, on 5 January 1858 on the Isle of Grain, Kent, and lost in three rounds; a second fight on 5 April 1858 in Ashford saw him last eleven rounds before being counted out, then on 29 July 1861 he beat Dick James of Aberdare in two rounds.
Louis Benloew is a French philologist born in Erfurt on November 15, 1818 and died in Dijon in February 1900. Trained at the universities of Berlin, Leipzig, and Göttingen, he settled in France in 1841, taught modern languages in Nantes and then in Bourges, became librarian at the Sorbonne, earned a doctorate in letters in 1847, became professor of ancient literature at the University of Dijon in 1849 and then dean of its faculty, before being retired in 1882; a Knight of the Legion of Honor, he published numerous works on comparative linguistics, including "Les Sémites à Ilion" (1863) and "La Grèce Avant les Grecs" (1877).
Henry Bennett is a sergeant of the British army born in England in 1863 and killed in combat during the war against the Afridis, in November 1897; he was the grandson of Solomon Bennett, the engraver who translated the Hebrew Bible into English in 1841. Enlisted in 1882 in the Dorsetshire regiment, he serves in Egypt during events related to Arabi Pacha, where his knowledge of Arabic was deemed valuable, before being sent to India and killed during Warren's retreat.
German sculptor
German rabbi
Jewish politician from Bukovina
Don Judah Benoliel was consul of Morocco and Austria in Gibraltar, president of the Jewish community of the city and its chamber of commerce; he died in 1839. He distinguished himself by his services to the Jewish community of Tangier: after the demolition of its synagogues, ordered by the governor following a quarrel, he obtained from Sultan Moulay Abd al-Rahman, who held him in high regard, permission to rebuild them—a gesture commemorated since by a special prayer on the Day of Atonement in Tangier. He also enjoyed the confidence of Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti, future Pope Pius IX, who entrusted him with substantial sums on his return from Chile to Italy.
Joseph Benoliel is a Portuguese translator established in Lisbon, author of the short work « Porat Yosef », which brings together Spanish translations of the Pirké Avot, the Passover Haggadah, the Song of Songs, the books of Ruth and Esther, Lamentations, and some Hafṭarot, published in Lisbon in 1887.
Simon Bensheim is a member of the Oberrat (Upper House) grand-ducal of Baden, born in Mannheim on October 14, 1823 and died in the same city on October 26, 1898. Highly committed to community and philanthropic affairs, he was elected unanimously as a member and then president of the synagogue council, and the Grand Duke recognized his role as a community leader by conferring upon him the order of the Lion of Zähringen of the second class.
Born in Turin, philologist trained at the University of Turin, specialist in Romance and general linguistics, editor of the Archivio Glottologico Italiano. Forced into exile by fascist racial laws (1938), he taught at the University of Tucumán (Argentina) before returning as professor in Turin (1947–1961). He was a member of the council of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and left pioneering studies on Judeo-Italian.
rabbi, author and Jewish orator (1851–1914)
Born in Žasliai (Vilna governorate). Studied Semitic languages in London and at Jews' College, then worked on Genizah fragments at JTS and was fellow at Dropsie College in Philadelphia. Learned editor of Judeo-Arabic texts.
Israeli rabbi
Benedix Benzion is a Russian physician converted to Christianity and missionary to the Jews, born in 1839 in the government of Kiev. Baptized in Berlin in 1863 after several years in Romania, awarded doctorate in medicine from Würzburg in 1867, he became medical missionary for the British Society for the Conversion of the Jews, sent to Romania in 1874 then to Odessa in 1876, where he practiced for ten years before moving to Constantinople in 1886. He is the author, among other works, of « Oraḥ Ẓedaḳah » (Odessa, 1876) and a Judeo-German translation published under the title « Tiferet Yisra'el » (Odessa, 1883-86).
Jonah Borisovitch Berchin is a Russian historian born in Kritchev, in the government of Mogilev, in 1865, and died in Moscow in August 1889. Educated until fourteen years of age in a strictly Orthodox education with his uncle, he then studied at the Gorigoretzk School of Agriculture, then in Minsk and at the Polytechnicum of Riga, before becoming paralyzed in 1888 and dying shortly after in Moscow, where he had been sent to recover. His research on the history of Russian Jews, published notably in the journals « Voskhod » and « Kievskaya Starina » between 1883 and 1887, makes him a valuable contributor to this field of study.
Micah Joseph Berdyczewski is a Hebrew writer born in 1865, son of the rabbi of Bershad in Podolia, who represents to some extent the Nietzschean spirit within the Hebrew literature of his time. Trained in Talmud then at the Volozhin yeshiva, whose clandestine study of modern literature diverted him from conservatism to make him a freethinker, he now resides in Charlottenburg, near Berlin, where he devotes himself to an abundant and influential work among young Hebrew nationalists, including the novels "Mahanaïm" and "Mibayit u-Miḥuẓ," both published in Warsaw in 1900, and a philosophical work in German published in Berne in 1897.
French rabbi
Dutch rabbi
German publisher born in Hamburg in 1824 and died on 24 June 1899, head of the family publishing and book trade « Gebrüder Berendson ». Highly engaged in Jewish community affairs, he held several honorary positions within the Hamburg Reformed Congregation, and was also a prominent Freemason, holding high responsibilities in this fraternity.
Gottlieb Michael Berendt is a German geologist born in Berlin on January 4, 1836. Trained in mining sciences, he publishes in 1863 the first geological map of the March of Brandenburg, settles in Königsberg where he becomes extraordinary professor in 1872, then professor at the University of Berlin in 1875, distinguishing himself through his work on the geology of the North German plain and being among the first to recognize glacial theory; he also publishes, in 1870, a work refuting Darwinism.
Bernhard Berenson is an art critic and historian born in Vilna, Russia, on June 26, 1865. Trained in the United States, a Harvard graduate in 1887, he devoted himself in Italy to the study of Italian art, where he became a recognized authority on attribution according to Morelli's method, collaborating with the « Nation » of New York and various French and German journals; he published notably « Lorenzo Lotto » (1895), « Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance » (1897) and « The Study and Criticism of Italian Art » (1901).
Issachar Baer b. Samuel Berenstein is a Dutch rabbi born in Leeuwarden, Holland, in 1808, and died in The Hague on December 13, 1893, son of Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam Samuel b. Berish Berenstein. Dayyan of that city upon his father's death in 1838, he held the office for ten years before becoming in 1848 Chief Rabbi of The Hague, a post he occupied for forty-five years, contributing to the creation of an orphanage, a Jewish hospital, and a society for Jewish history and literature; decorated with the order of the Golden Lion, he died at the age of eighty-five, mourned by the entire population of the Dutch capital.
Joseph Bergel is a Neo-Hebrew writer of the first part of the nineteenth century, private tutor in Prossnitz, in Moravia. He publishes in 1826 and 1827, in the yearbook « Bikkuré ha-'Ittim », articles and poems, notably « Hash'arat ha-Nefesh » (On the Immortality of the Soul) and the poem « 'Al Ḳeber Abi » (On My Father's Grave); he also translated from French into Hebrew several maxims of Confucius.
Yom-Ṭob Bergel is a merchant and community notable of Gibraltar, born in 1812 and died in Gibraltar on October 14, 1894. One of the richest and most respected merchants of the Jewish community of the city, he presided over its Hebrew Community for thirty years, reorganized the relief fund for the poor and, as administrator of the Jewish property of Gibraltar, increased its patrimony for the benefit of the needy; founding member of the health council and the stock exchange committee, he actively involved himself in the relief fund during the cholera epidemic of 1865.
Émile de Berger is an ophthalmologist and Austrian medical author born in Vienna on 1 August 1855, trained at the University of Vienna. Lecturer in Graz from 1882 to 1887 then professor of ophthalmology in Paris from 1890 to 1896, he invented in 1882 an ophthalmoscope with Rekoss disks and received the Montyon Prize in 1888 and the Rémusat Prize in 1892 for his research; in 1894 he presided over the ophthalmological congress in Paris.
Ernst Berger is an Austrian painter, brother of the ophthalmologist Baron Émile Berger, born in Vienna on January 3, 1857, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of his native city from 1874 onward, then student of Professor Eisenmenger and painter Hans Makart. Under the direction of the latter, he paints canvases exhibited at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna in 1882, before settling in Munich the same year; his painting « Traum vom Jungbrunnen » (1886) wins the silver medal at the Melbourne Exhibition, and he also publishes, from 1893 onward, works on the history of painting technique.
Oscar Berger is a German electrotherapist and medical author born in Münsterberg, Silesia, November 24, 1844, and died in Ober-Salzbrunn, Silesia, July 19, 1885. Doctor of medicine in 1867, he practiced from 1869 in Breslau, specializing in electrotherapy, became privat-docent in 1873 — the first at that university to teach nervous diseases — and then in 1877 chief physician and medical inspector of the Breslau hospice; he devoted himself notably to the study of neuralgias and, with Heidenheim, of hypnotism, co-directing the « Neurologisches Centralblatt ».
Philippe Bergèr, Christian professor of Hebrew and member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, was born in Beaucourt, in the Haut-Rhin, in September 1846, brother of Samuel Bergèr. A graduate of the University of Strasbourg, he settled in Paris as professor of Hebrew at the Faculty of Protestant Theology and assistant librarian of the Institut de France, then succeeded his master and friend Renan to the chair of Hebrew at the Collège de France, devoting himself to Semitic epigraphy and collaborating on the "Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum"; among his writings are "L'Écriture des Inscriptions Sémitiques" (1880) and "Essai sur la Signification Historique des Noms des Patriarches Hébreux" (1887).
Samuel Bergèr is a French professor of Protestant theology, secretary and librarian of the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Paris, born in Beaucourt, in the Upper Rhine, on 2 May 1843, brother of Philippe Bergèr. Trained at the Sorbonne and then at the Faculty of Theology in Strasbourg, he publishes notably « La Bible au XVIe Siècle » (1879), « La Bible Française au Moyen Âge » (1884) and « Histoire de la Vulgate » (1893).
Michael Bergson is a musician born in Warsaw in 1818 and died in London on 9 March 1898, from an eminent Jewish family of Warsaw with which he always maintained ties. A student of Chopin in his youth, he became professor and then director of the Geneva Conservatory of Music, before spending the last twenty-five years of his life in London; a pianist heir to the Chopinesque tradition, he composed two operas, « Louisa de Montfort » and « Salvator Rosa », numerous songs as well as pieces for piano such as the « Twelve Great Etudes » and the « School of Mechanism ».
Jonas Bergtheil is a pioneer of Natal, in South Africa, born in England around 1815 and died in 1902. Emigrated around 1844, he settled as a farmer among the Boers, who treated him with religious tolerance, then sat on the Legislative Council from 1855 for eleven years; in 1847, he successfully pleaded in Germany for emigration to the Cape, from which he brought back forty families who founded the colony of « New Germany ». Returning to England in 1866, he became a major landowner at the Cape and warden of Bayswater synagogue.
Lajos Berkovits is a Hungarian violinist born in Budapest in 1874, graduate of the National Academy of Music where he studied with Jenő Hubay and David Popper. Having departed for Paris in 1895, he enters as first violin in the famous Lamoureux orchestra, with which he tours in England, before receiving in 1896 an engagement in the royal orchestra of the Budapest Opera House, of which he remains a member, as well as of the Grünfeld quartet.
Josef Berkowicz is an officer of the Polish army, son of Colonel Berek (Berko), who took part in the Battle of Kock in 1809, where his father was killed. Leaving military service in 1815, he becomes forest ranger of the state forests of Troki, then in 1826, chief forest ranger of the Bielsk district, before serving during the Polish insurrection of 1830 under the orders of General Rozycki; subsequently settling in England, he writes there the novel "Stanislaus, or the Polish Lancer in the Suite of Napoleon from the Island of Elba", published by his family in 1846, after his death.
Benzion Judah ben Eliahou Berkowitz is a Russian Hebraist born July 23, 1803 and died in Wilna on May 11, 1879, author of several works devoted to the study of Targum Onkelos, including "'Oteh Or" (Wilna, 1843), "Leḥem we-Simlah" in two volumes (1850-55) and "Abné Ẓion" (1877); his contributions to the study of Targum were recognized by specialists such as Berliner. He also collaborated with the Hebrew periodicals "Pirḥé Ẓafon", "Ha-Karmel", "Oṣar Ḥokhmah" and "Ha-Maggid".
Henry Berkowitz is a Russian-English educator born in Warsaw in 1816 and died in Gravesend on April 5, 1891. Arriving in London in 1841, he attracted the attention of Chief Rabbi Adler, who welcomed him into his home, before opening a school in Gravesend which acquired, thanks to his zeal, an established reputation; highly esteemed in non-Jewish circles in the town, he was elected mayor of Gravesend in 1887.
Ukrainian Jewish folk singer, the most famous of the 'Broder singers' (Broder-zinger), itinerant Yiddish performers of the 19th century, a precursor tradition to Yiddish theater.
Anton Berlijn is a conductor and composer born in Amsterdam on May 21, 1817 and died in the same city on January 16, 1870, author of nine operas, seven ballets, an oratorio, a symphony, a cantata and a mass. A skilled contrapuntist whose popularity remained chiefly Dutch, he was long conductor at the Royal Theatre of Amsterdam and received numerous foreign distinctions, including the Order of Merit of the King of Holland in 1860 and the gold medal of the King of the Belgians in 1845.
Leo Berlin is a Russian lawyer, son of Moses Berlin, born in Vitebsk on November 22, 1854. Trained in Saint Petersburg then in law at Berne University (graduated in 1878), he obtained in 1881 the doctorate in criminal law from Moscow University. Engaged to Dr. Amalie Hering, daughter of physiologist Ewald Hering, to whom Russian authorities at first refused, because of her Catholic faith, permission to marry a Jew — she had to convert to Protestantism, and intervention by the poet Turgenev was required —, he directed in Saint Petersburg the cabinet Berlin Brothers while residing in Brussels.
Moses Berlin is a scholar, community notable and Russian official born in Chklov, Russia, in 1821, and died in Saint Petersburg on March 25, 1888. Trained in philosophy and philology at Königsberg and Bonn, he returns to Russia in 1849, becomes in 1853 advisor for Jewish affairs to the governor general of White Russia, then settles in 1856 in Saint Petersburg as advisor for foreign religions, participating in the drafting of laws concerning Jews. Author, among others, of a study in ethnography on the Jews of Russia (1861), he was part of Jewish delegations received by Tsars Alexander II in 1868 and Alexander III in 1881.
Naḥman ben Simḥah Berlin is an anti-reformist polemicist writer active in Lissa, Germany, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, whose literary activity was entirely devoted to the defense of orthodoxy against attempts to reform Judaism. He notably publishes « 'En Mishpaṭ » against the editors of « Ha-Meassef » (Berlin, 1796), « Keter Torah » (Dyhernfurth, 1810) and, in 1819 alone, three successive works — « Kaddur Ḳaṭan », « 'Et le-Dabber » and « Simḥah ».
Naphtali Ẓebi Judah Berlin is the head of the yeshiva of Volozhin, in Russia, born in Mir, in the governorate of Minsk, in 1817, and died in Warsaw 10 August 1893. Married in 1831 to the daughter of Isaac b. Ḥayyim, head of the yeshiva, he became its sole director after the death of his brother-in-law Eliezer Isaac in 1854, continuing an education founded on logical reasoning rather than pilpul, according to the principles of Elijah of Vilna; the number of students then grew from one hundred to more than four hundred. Confronted by the Maskilim, who obtained in 1879 the closure of the yeshiva by the government, he had it reopened in 1881 through great effort.
Rudolf Berlin is a German ophthalmologist born on May 2, 1833 in Friedland, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and died in Rostock on September 12, 1897. Doctor of medicine in 1858, he established himself in 1861 as a specialist in ophthalmology in Stuttgart, became privat-docent of physiological optics in 1870 then professor of comparative ophthalmology in 1875, before being appointed in 1889 professor of ophthalmology at the University of Rostock, where a new ophthalmological hospital was inaugurated under his direction in 1897. A pioneer of the comparative approach in ophthalmology, he founded in 1882, with Eversbusch, the « Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Augenheilkunde ».
Samuel Berlin is a German jurist born in Bamberg on October 11, 1807, and died in Fürth on December 21, 1896, son of Löb Berlin of Bamberg, later « Landesrabbiner » in Cassel. Trained at the University of Munich, where he earned his doctorate in law in 1834, he became the first Jewish lawyer in the Kingdom of Bavaria, practiced from 1848 in Gerolzhofen — where he befriended the young lawyer Freiherr von Lutz, a future minister — and chaired the « Gemeindecollegium » of Ansbach from 1860 to 1869.
Emil Berliner is an American inventor born in Hanover, Germany, on May 20, 1851, graduated in 1865 from the Samson Schule in Wolfenbüttel. Emigrated to America in 1870, settled in Washington since 1882, he invented the loose-contact microphone known as the "Berliner", now universally used in telephony, as well as the gramophone; member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and regular contributor to scientific journals since 1879, he married in 1881 Cora Adler, of Washington.
Jekuthiel Berman is a Russo-Hebraist novelist born in 1825 and died in Moscow around 1889. Employed for more than thirty years by the Jewish railroad magnate Samuel Poliakov, he lived in Tver in the 1870s and then in Moscow, before a paralytic stroke in 1887 ended his activity. His first novel, « Shenot Ra'inou Ra'ah », on the fate of child-recruits (cantonists) under the reign of Nicholas I, appeared in « Ha-Meliṣ » in 1860; followed by « Pesel Mikah » (1884) and « Hashodedim be-Ẓaharayim », published in « Ha-Shaḥar » in 1877. A convinced purist of modern Hebrew, he refused any foreign word in the language of the Bible.
Moriz Bermann is an Austrian writer born in Vienna on March 16, 1823 and died in the same city on June 12, 1895, from a family of publishers. After his father's death, he devoted himself to collecting autographs and built one of the finest biographical libraries in Europe, before undertaking in 1851 an « Oesterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon » in twenty volumes that never progressed beyond the letter A. Becoming in 1856 editor of the « Wiener Courier », he proved to be a prolific writer published under various pseudonyms, including « Dunkle Geschichten » (1868) and « Maria Theresa und der Schwarze Papst » (1870).
Ralph Bernal is a politician and art collector of Judeo-Spanish descent, died in 1854, son of Caribbean merchant Jacob Israel Bernal. Graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1806 and 1809, then a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn in 1810, he sat for thirty-four years (1818–52) in the House of Commons, representing London, Rochester and then Weymouth, faithful to the Whigs and supporting, although raised in Christianity, laws abolishing civil disabilities of Jews. Reputed collector of porcelain and ancient silverware, his collection was sold in 1855, one year after his death.
American art historian (1865-1959)
Polish rabbi, politician, and diplomat (1874–1938)
American rabbi
Russian-born American Orthodox rabbi and scholar (1885-1940)
Lithuanian lawyer, judge, journalist and politician (1859–1929)
Born in Offenbach am Main on August 13, 1863, son of Rabbi Samuel Dessau and younger brother of historian-epigrapher Hermann Dessau. Graduate of Strasbourg (1886) under August Kundt. Assistant at the University of Padua (1889) then Bologna (1891), where he collaborated with Augusto Righi on electromagnetic waves and wireless telegraphy; professor of experimental physics at the University of Perugia from 1904 to 1935. Naturalized Italian, he was one of the principal animators of Italian Zionism and co-founder of the journal "L'Idea sionista." Husband of the artist Emma Goitein (Emma Dessau Goitein) and father of geologist Gabor Dessau.
Hungarian rabbi and church writer (1872-?)
Jacob Bernays is a German philologist born in Hamburg on September 18, 1824 and died in Bonn on May 26, 1881, eldest son of hakham Isaac Bernays. Sent to study in Bonn in 1844, he obtains his degree in 1848 after winning a prize for a treatise on Lucretius, published in 1852, then becomes privat-docent the following year. Associated from 1853 with the founding of the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau, he teaches there from its opening, August 10, 1854, Greek, Latin and the history of Hebrew poetry, contributing several scholarly studies, including "Die Chronik des Sulpicius Severus" (Berlin, 1861).
Julius D. Bernd is an American merchant and philanthropist born in 1830 and died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 30, 1892. A prosperous businessman and member of the chamber of commerce, he invested in several philanthropic works, including the Gusky orphanage, the Humane Society, and the Rodef Sholem congregation, and bequeathed by will substantial sums to various charitable works, including the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, to which he left the remainder of his fortune equally divided with the city of Pittsburgh, on condition that the latter create an alcove bearing his name in the Carnegie library.
Maximilian Bern was a German writer born in Kherson, in southern Russia, on November 18, 1849, where his father practiced medicine. After his death and the ruin of his fortune, which forced him to abandon his university studies in Vienna, he became in 1873 a tutor in a riding school before turning to literature; the success of his first novel, « Auf Schwankem Grunde », allowed him to travel in Germany, then he settled in Paris in 1886, married the following year Austrian actress Olga Wohlbrück, and settled in Berlin in 1888.
Olga Bern, née Wohlbrück, is an Austrian writer born in Vienna 5 July 1865, wife of Maximilian Bern. An actress under her maiden name, she married the German writer Bern in 1887 while performing at the Odéon in Paris, then abandoned the stage for literature in 1888; she published notably "Aus Drei Ländern" (1890) and the drama "Das Recht auf Glück" (1893).
Austrian gynecologist (1882-1942)
Austrian writer
German rabbi
Martin Bernhardt is a German neurologist and medical author born in Potsdam on April 10, 1844, trained at the University of Berlin under Virchow and Traube. Graduated doctor of medicine in 1867, he became assistant to Leyden in Königsberg then physician at the Charité in Berlin under Westphal, before the Franco-German War interrupted his clinical work — he received a medal for bravery at the front —; returning in 1872, he became privatdocent and then, ten years later, associate professor of neuropathology at the University of Berlin, and has directed since 1885 the "Centralblatt für die Medizinischen Wissenschaften".
Abram C. Bernheim is an American lawyer born in New York on February 1, 1866 and died in that city on July 24, 1895, trained at Columbia College and the university of Berlin. Lecturer on the political history of the State of New York at Columbia, tenured in 1894, he was also one of the founders and treasurer of the University Settlement Society, secretary of the Tenement House Building Company for the improvement of poor housing, and author of several articles on sociological and political subjects.
Ernst Bernheim is a German historian born in Hamburg on February 19, 1850, trained at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and Göttingen. Doctor of Strasbourg in 1874 with a thesis on the Concordat of Worms, he became privatdozent at Göttingen in 1875, then assistant professor of history at Greifswald in 1883; converted to Christianity upon his marriage in 1885, he published his « Lehrbuch der Historischen Methode » (Leipzig, 1889), the same year he was promoted to ordinary professor, and participated from 1882 onwards in the monumental edition of « Deutsche Reichstagsacten unter Ruprecht ».
Hippolyte Bernheim is a French physician and neurologist born in Mulhouse, in Alsace, doctor of medicine from the University of Strasbourg in 1867, where he became the same year lecturer and city physician. When Strasbourg passed to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, in 1871, he settled in Nancy as clinical professor, and became, from around 1880 on, one of the leading figures in the study of hypnotism, to which he devoted several works, including « De la Suggestion et de son Application à la Thérapeutique » (Paris, 1887).
Leopold Bernard Bernstamm is a Russian sculptor born in Riga on April 20, 1859, trained from adolescence in Professor Jensen's studio and at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. Author, from 1883 onward, of busts of Russian personalities that established his reputation, he stayed in Rome in 1884 and then settled in Paris in 1885, where he became famous for his sculptured portraits of great Frenchmen—Renan, Sardou, Flaubert, Halévy, Coppée, Déroulède, Zola—and exhibited every year at the Salon of the Champs-Élysées from 1887 onward; he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1891.
Leopold Bernstein-Sinaieff, called Sinaieff, is a Russian-French sculptor born in Vilna on November 22, 1868, settled in Paris from the age of fourteen, where he became a student of Dalou and exhibited his first bust at the Salon of the Champs-Élysées in 1890. He subsequently created numerous busts of prominent figures, including his masterpiece, "Ezra Mourning", a plaster statue acquired by the State in 1892 and reproduced in marble in 1897; exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1900, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1901.
Bernard Bernstein is an actor born in Warsaw in 1861, who made his debut in the chorus of the Polish opera in the city before playing, in 1882, the comic role of grandmother Jachné in Goldfaden's « Die Zauberin ». After the prohibition of Yiddish theater in Russia on 14 September 1883, he performed in Galicia and then Romania, before being hired in 1892 by Pool's Theater in New York, where he achieved great success in the role of Shamaï in Jacob Gordin's « Jewish King Lear ».
Eduard Bernstein is a socialist leader, editor, and author born in Berlin in 1850, first a bank employee before turning to socialist ideas. He joined the Social Democratic Party in 1872, directed from 1878 the party organ in Switzerland then « Der Sozialdemokrat » in Zurich, whose publication followed him to London in 1888 after his expulsion, until the repeal of Bismarck's anti-socialist laws in 1890. His most resounding work, « Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie » (Stuttgart, 1899), breaks after more than twenty years of orthodox Marxism with several positions of Marx, arousing vigorous controversy in Europe.
Elsa Bernstein, under the pseudonym of Ernst Rosmer, is a German dramatist born in Vienna, daughter of Heinrich Porges, the friend of Richard Wagner, trained in Munich and briefly an actress before an eye ailment forces her to devote herself to dramatic writing. Shortly after her marriage to Max Bernstein in 1892, she writes her first play, « Wir Drei », which provokes discussion, then several others including « Die Mutter Maria » (1894) and the dramatic tale « Die Königskinder » (1895), unanimously admired.
Hermann Bernstein is a Russian-American writer born September 20, 1876 in Shirwindt, Russia; at age seven, his family settled in Mogilev, on the Dnieper, where he attended the free Jewish school, then emigrated to America in 1893 and established himself in Chicago. Settled in New York where he devoted himself to writing from 1897, he published notably a Russian translation of Gorky's « Foma Gordeyev » (New York, 1901) and a collection of ghetto short stories, « In the Gates of Israel » (New York, 1902).
Hirsch Bernstein is a Russian-American editor and publicist born in Vladislavov, in the government of Souvalki, on March 25, 1846. Emigrated to the United States in 1870 and settled in New York, he there founds the same year « The Post », the first Yiddish periodical of America, as well as « Ha-Ṣofeh be'Ereṣ ha-Ḥadashah », the first Neo-Hebrew newspaper of the country, published every week for five years; regular contributor to « Ha-Maggid », « Ha-Lebanon » and « Ha-Karmel », he was, after Ch. G. Vidaver, one of the first regular American correspondents of European Hebrew periodicals.
Hugo Karl Bernstein, also said Karl Hugo, is a Hungarian dramatist born in Budapest in 1808 and died in Milan in 1877. After studies in medicine interrupted for lack of means, he served as a military surgeon in Warsaw during the Polish insurrection of 1830, before practicing homeopathy in Budapest; called to Paris by Hahnemann in 1839, he found his taste for theatre again, published several plays in Hamburg in 1840, then returned to Budapest in 1844, where he notably published « Bankier und Baron ». Subsequently arrested in Berlin for lèse-majesté, he was released for reasons of insanity.
Ignacy Bernstein is a Polish bibliophile and paremiologist born in Vinnitza, Podolia, January 30, 1836, son of banker Samson Bernstein, trained by the scholar Moses Landau. Married in 1856 to Eliza, daughter of Meïr Edler von Mises of Lemberg, he settled with his parents in Warsaw in 1858, where he founded in 1881 a library of Jewish books attached to the Great Synagogue; he published in 1888-89 his « Jüdische Sprichwörter », a collection of Judeo-German proverbs, then in 1900 an illustrated catalogue of his library, rich in approximately forty-eight hundred works on proverbs and folklore.
Ignati Abramovitch Bernstein is a Russian railway engineer born in Kremenetz, in Volhynia, in 1846, and killed on July 5, 1900 aboard the steamer "Odessa", between Harbin and Khabarovsk. Trained at the Institute of Engineers in Saint Petersburg, he was received, still a student, by the tsar as a delegate of Jewish families claiming the restoration of their right of residence outside the Pale of Settlement, a request that was granted; appointed in 1896 as first engineer in Vladivostok and then, the following year, director of the fifth district of the Chinese Eastern Railway, he was killed by Chinese Boxers who attacked his ship, along with twelve other passengers.
Israel Bernstein is a Hebrew-fluent Russian publicist born around the middle of the nineteenth century in Vélij, in the government of Vitebsk, trained in pharmacy in Moscow and practicing as a druggist near Bobruisk. In « Ha-Shaḥar », he publishes several critical articles against the melamdim, the rabbis and community leaders (kahal), advocates the cause of Haskalah, and, in an article written in late 1880, denounces the illegal means employed by rabbis and wealthy Jews to exempt their sons from military service; in a letter published in Warsaw in 1886, he admits that the persecutions of previous years had ruined his progressive hopes.
Joseph « Joe » Bernstein is an American boxer born in November 1877 in New York, who made his ring debut in 1894 with five victories and established himself the following year as a recognized featherweight ; over seven years, he fought nearly eighty bouts, winning forty-four, drawing twenty-six, and losing seven, notably defeating Jack Connors, James Larkins, William O'Donnell, and Solly Smith.
Julius Bernstein is a German physiologist and medical author born in Berlin on 8 December 1839, son of Aaron Bernstein (1822-84). Awarded doctorate in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1862, he became privatdozent at the Faculty of Medicine in Heidelberg in 1865, assistant professor of physiology in 1869, then, two years later, professor of physiology at the University of Halle, a position he still held in 1902; one of the most prominent physiologists of his time, he has directed since 1888 the « Untersuchungen aus dem Physiologischen Institut in Halle ».
Karl Ilyich Bernstein is a Russian jurist, professor of Roman law, born in Odessa on January 13, 1842 and died in Berlin in 1894. Educated in Dresden, Halle, Heidelberg and Berlin, he obtained his doctorate in law from the University of Berlin in 1864, but, prevented by his religion from teaching in Russia, devoted himself to Russian law in Odessa then in Saint Petersburg; settled in Berlin after his marriage in 1872, he taught Roman law there as a privat-docent for eight years (1878-86), then as a full professor in 1887, the year he renounced his Russian nationality. He participated, from 1881, in the Berlin committee for aid to Jewish exiles from Russia.
Max Bernstein, under the pseudonym Silas Marner, is a German writer born May 13, 1854 in Fürth, Bavaria, a lawyer in Munich, whose literary activity is devoted especially to theater; among his comedies are 'Heart-Lady' and 'Knight Bluebeard', and among his dramas 'Dagmar' and 'Ruth'. His wife is the writer Elsa Bernstein.
Naphtali Herz Bernstein is an author active in Russia in the first half of the nineteenth century, a businessman who devoted his leisure time to biblical study without ever publishing anything during his lifetime. His defence of the Talmud, « Eder Ḥakamim » (Odessa, 1868), written in London in response to McCaul's attacks against the Talmud and rabbinical Judaism and dedicated to the chief rabbi of England Solomon Herschel, appeared only after his death, published by his son and edited by S. I. Abramowitsch.
Nathan Ossipovitch Bernstein is a Russian physiologist born in Brody, Galicia, in 1836, and died in Odessa on February 9, 1891, grandson of the chief rabbi of Posen Salomon Eger. Settled in Odessa with his parents in 1849, he graduated from the gymnasium in 1853 and studied medicine at Moscow University (1853–58), where he received a gold medal in 1857. Medical adviser to Odessa's municipal hospital from 1861 and co-editor of the periodical « Sion » until its suppression in 1862, he became in 1865 instructor of anatomy and physiology at the new University of Novorossia in Odessa.
Émile Berr is a French journalist born in Lunéville on June 6, 1855, trained at the lycées of Vanves and Louis-le-Grand. After a commercial career from 1875 to 1886, he devoted himself entirely to journalism from 1886 onwards, working for « Petite République Française » then « Petit Parisien », before joining « Figaro » in July 1888, where he remained attached; foreign correspondent, he notably interviewed Stambuloff in Sofia in 1891, directed from 1894 the auxiliary service of the newspaper, and received the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1900.
George Berr is a French actor and playwright born in Paris on July 31, 1867, brother of Émile Berr. Student of Got at the Conservatory from the age of sixteen, he won first prize in comedy in 1886 and entered the Comédie-Française, of which he became a member in 1892; he excelled there in a wide repertoire, comic and lyrical alike, and succeeded Worms in 1901 as professor of elocution at the Conservatory. Under the pseudonym « Colias », an anagram of his mother's name, Ascoli, he also authored several comedies, including « Moins Cinq » (1901) and, with Gavault, « L'Inconnue » (1902).
Sergei Aleksandrovich Bershadski is a Russian historian and jurist born in Berdiansk on 30 March 1850 and died in Saint Petersburg in 1896, graduate of the Kertch gymnasium in 1868 and of the University of Odessa in 1872, before teaching in Saint Petersburg from 1878 to 1883 and becoming there assistant professor in 1885. Starting from declared hostility toward Jews, inherited from his family's Cossack traditions, he undertakes by way of challenge a study of the subject which results, to his colleagues' surprise, in works favorable to Jews, including « Litovskie Yevrei » (1883) and a collection of documents on their settlement in Lithuania between 1388 and 1569.
Russian political figure
Hungarian theologian, rabbi and lecturer
German dermatologist (1891-1956)
Joseph Vassilievitch Bertensohn is a Russian court physician born in Nikolaïev, in the government of Kherson, in 1835, a graduate of the gymnasium of Odessa in 1849 and of the University of Dorpat in 1857, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine. Physician at the municipal hospital of Vitebsk in 1859, he studied abroad under Virchow, Traube, Skoda and Helmholtz in 1861, joined in 1862 the Ministry of the Interior then the health council of Saint Petersburg, and saw the cholera asylum he directed transformed in 1867 into the first municipal hospital; he founded in 1875 a free dispensary and accompanied surgeon Pirogov on the front during the Franco-Prussian War.
Lev Bernardovitch Bertensohn is a Russian physician born in Odessa on August 10, 1850, son of Bernard and nephew of Joseph Bertensohn, graduated from the Larine gymnasium in Saint Petersburg in 1867 and from the Academy of Medicine of the same city in 1872. He teaches from 1876 to 1887 at the Rojdestvenskaïa hospital, before being appointed in 1887 president of the commission for the improvement of mineral springs in the Caucasus; he publishes in 1873 his main work on balneology and, in 1883, an article on Turgenev, whom he treated in his final years.
Vasili Alekseyevich Bertensohn is a Russian agronomist born in Odessa 12 September 1860, of hereditary nobility, graduate of the Odessa technical school in 1879 and of the Moscow Agricultural Academy in 1884. Attached from 1885 to 1894 to the Department of State Domains in Odessa, he studied sericulture in western Europe in 1889, became in 1893 agricultural expert for southern Russia, and in 1900, chief expert for Podolia and Volhynia; engaged in Jewish causes, he organized the farm of the Hebrew orphanage of Odessa and traveled in 1893, invited by the Baron de Hirsch, to discuss in Paris and London the Jewish colonies of Argentina.
Slovak-born Hungarian writer (1860–1903)
Ernest Bertheau is an Orientalist and biblical scholar born on November 23, 1812 in Hamburg and died on May 17, 1888 in Göttingen, where he became full professor in 1843, teaching Oriental languages, biblical exegesis, and Hebrew archaeology and history. He published notably « Die Sieben Gruppen Mosaischer Gesetze » (Göttingen, 1840) and several biblical commentaries in the « Kurzgefasstes Exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament », including those on Judges and Ruth (Leipsic, 1845) and on Chronicles (Leipsic, 1854).
Born in Cologne into a Jewish family, Ph.D. from Leipzig (1897), he joined the American Museum of Natural History (1898) on the suggestion of Franz Boas, then the Field Museum in Chicago. He led several expeditions to China and formed one of the first great collections of Chinese material culture in the United States. He published over 200 works (ethnology, languages, archaeology), including his monograph on jade.
Moravian rabbi
Sir Walter Besant is an English writer and novelist born in Portsmouth on 14 August 1836 and died in London on 11 June 1901, who helped aid Russian and Polish Jews flowing into the East End of London. The « Palace of Delight » imagined in his novel « All Sorts and Conditions of Men » (1882) inspired the People's Palace, built in the heart of a neighborhood with a large Jewish population; secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund from 1868 to 1885, he co-wrote with orientalist E. H. Palmer a « History of Jerusalem » (1871) and published in 1893 the novel « The Rebel Queen », whose heroine and several secondary characters are Jewish.
David de Beth-Hillel is a Beni-Israël, author of a work of « Voyages » (Madras, 1832), the first book published by a Jew in India, in which he describes his peregrinations through the country.
Rabbi of Fez, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 24-1.
Bezalel b. Joseph (Yosel) is a Talmudist and Russian rabbi of Orlo, in the Grodno governorate, active in the early nineteenth century, author of a collection of responsa published in 1807 in Bialystok.
Bezalel b. Moïse ha-Cohen is a talmudist born in Wilna on January 14, 1820, where he dies on April 13, 1878. Already an accomplished talmudist at eighteen, he becomes in 1840 assistant ecclesiastic of Wilna — a position he holds until his death and which, from 1860 to 1878, makes him the true spiritual leader of the community — answering religious questions from afar; his most extensive work, « Reshit Bikkurim » (Wilna, 1869), brings together responsa and talmudic treatises, and his openness to secular sciences, rare among his peers, distinguished him.
Russian rabbi (1820–1878)
Alois Biach is an Austrian physician and medical author born in Lettowitz, Moravia, on 1 May 1849, trained at the gymnasium of Brünn and at the University of Vienna. Earned his doctorate in medicine in 1873, he settled in Vienna, where he sat on the health council, became a privatdocent of internal medicine in 1883 and held the secretariat of the society of physicians of Lower Austria; he published notably "Die Neueren Antipyretica" (Vienna, 1889) and numerous medical essays between 1878 and 1890.
Rudolf Bial is a violinist, orchestra conductor, composer and impresario born in Habelschwerdt, Silesia, on August 26, 1834, and died in New York on November 13, 1881. After beginnings as a violinist in Breslau and a tour in Australia and Africa with his brother Karl, a pianist, he settled in Berlin as an orchestra conductor, notably at the Wallner theater from 1864 onward and then at the Kroll Opera, before becoming an impresario in New York; a prolific composer of operettas, farces and orchestral pieces, several of his works achieved great success.
Gustav Wilhelm Hugo Bickell is a Christian Hebraist and professor at the University of Vienna, born on July 7, 1838 in Cassel. After studying Semitic languages in Marburg, he renounces Protestantism for the Catholic Church and becomes in 1867 professor of Christian archaeology and Semitic languages in Innsbruck, then, in 1892, in Vienna; he publishes numerous Hebrew works, including his "Grundriss der Hebräischen Grammatik" (Leipzig, 1869-70) and his metrical translation of the Book of Job (1894).
Oskar Bie is a German archaeologist, professor at the Technische Hochschule of Charlottenburg, near Berlin, born in Breslau on February 9, 1864, also editor-in-chief of « Neue Deutsche Rundschau » and converted to Christianity. He is the author, among others, of « Die Musen in der Antiken Kunst » (1886), « Zwischen den Künsten » (1895) and « Das Klavier » (1898).
Henry Biegeleisen is a Polish critic and writer born in 1855 in Galicia, doctor of philology from Leipzig in 1882, now director of the Hebrew school of Lemberg. He notably publishes « Pan Tadeusz Mickiewicz », a study of literary aesthetics (Warsaw, 1884), and « Julius Slomatzky », in two volumes (Lemberg, 1895), as well as numerous articles in Polish journals.
Julius Bien is an American lithographer, son of Emanuel M. Bien, hazan and lithographer, born in Naumburg, near Cassel, in Hesse-Nassau, on September 27, 1826. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cassel and at the Städel Institute in Frankfurt under Professor Oppenheim, he founded in 1850 a lithography house in New York, recognized for its atlases and scientific maps, awarded in several exhibitions including Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1878, 1900); president of the National Lithographers' Association from 1886 to 1896, he also presided over the B'nai B'rith order (1854-57 and 1868-1900).
Lev Moïsseïevitch Bienstok was a Russian writer, educator and community notable born on April 6, 1836 in Loukatchi, in the government of Volhynia, and died on October 22, 1894 in Jaffa, Palestine. Trained at the Hebrew theological seminary of Jitomir, he served as rabbi of Jitomir from 1859 to 1862, became in 1867 editor of the official newspaper of Volhynia and advisor on Jewish affairs to the governor until 1882, before settling in Saint Petersburg in 1880 and returning to Jitomir after the pogroms; appointed in 1892 representative in Jaffa of a Jewish farmers' relief society, he was also one of the first contributors to the periodicals "Razsvyet" and "Sion".
Albert Bing is an Austrian physician born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, on September 20, 1844, graduate in medicine and then surgery from the University of Vienna. Member of the staff of the Vienna General Hospital from 1871, he becomes assistant to the otologists Politzer and Gruber, then privat-docent of otology in Vienna, and has directed since 1878 oto-rhino-laryngology consultations at the hospital of the sisters of charity of Gumpendorf; author of more than twenty-four monographs, including "Vorlesungen über Ohrenheilkunde" (Vienna, 1890).
Meyer Hermann Bing was a Danish art publisher and industrialist born in Copenhagen on June 4, 1807, and died in the same city on September 15, 1883. After taking over his father's bookshop-stationery business with his younger brother, he set up on his own in 1846 as an art publisher and founded, with engraver W. Terslev, a lithography workshop as well as, with his brother and Frederick Gröndahl, a porcelain factory almost as renowned as the Royal Danish Manufactory; municipal councilor of Copenhagen from 1858 to 1871, he presided in 1856 over the first congress of Scandinavian booksellers and directed until his death the two free Jewish schools of the city.
Sephardic from Bulgaria, leader of the Bulgarian Zionist movement and the revisionist movement, member of the illegal Committee for the Rescue of the Jews of Bulgaria during the Second World War. He emigrated to Israel, sat in the Knesset (Herut/Gahal, 1955–1965) and was a historian of Bulgarian Jewry (including « Vidni evrei v Bulgariya », Distinguished Jews in Bulgaria).
Felix Victor Birch-Hirschfeld is a German pathologist and medical author born in Kluvensiek, near Rendsburg, in Holstein, on May 2, 1842, and died in Leipsic on November 19, 1899. Trained in Kiel and Leipsic, he became in 1869 assistant physician in Saxon asylums, served as a surgeon during the Franco-German War in 1870, then prosector at the municipal hospital in Dresden in 1871 and chief physician in 1882; in 1885, at forty-three, he succeeded Cohnheim in the chair of pathology at the University of Leipsic. He was the author, among others, of the « Lehrbuch der Pathologischen Anatomie » (Leipsic, 1877).
Johanna Bischitz of Heves, née Fischer, is a Hungarian philanthropist born in Tata in 1827 and died in Budapest on March 28, 1898, daughter of a porcelain manufacturer and wife of David Bischitz. Founder and president of the Association of Jewish Women and the Jewish Popular Kitchen of Budapest, she also directed, at the instigation of Baron Maurice de Hirsch who chose her in 1867 to administer a relief bureau endowed with a substantial annual sum, the distribution of considerable aid to the poor throughout her presidency; her philanthropic works earned her to be decorated twice by Emperor Franz Joseph and greeted by King Leopold of Belgium.
Raphaël Jonathan Bischoffsheim is a Belgian financier and philanthropist born in Mainz in 1808 and died in Brussels on February 6, 1883. Having left for Belgium at a young age, he opened banks there in Antwerp and Brussels, participated in the founding of the Union of Credit in 1848, and saved the National Bank from imminent failure in 1841, which earned him the cross of the order of Leopold; member of the communal council of Brussels and senator for twenty years, he founded numerous philanthropic institutions, and received in 1859 his naturalization in recognition of exceptional services.
Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck is a Prussian statesman born in Schönhausen on April 1, 1815 and died in Friedrichsruh on July 30, 1898, chancellor of the North German Confederation then of the German Empire from 1870 to his resignation, March 20, 1890. Initially opposed, as a conservative junker, to the emancipation of the Jews at the Prussian Diet of 1847, he subsequently accepted that resulting from the revolution of 1848 and had voted in 1869 the law abolishing all civil restrictions based on religion, declaring himself also, from 1868, opposed to anti-Jewish persecutions in Romania.
Ḳalman Kohn Bistritz is a Hungarian neo-Hebrew poet active in the early nineteenth century, author of the Purim drama « Goral ha-Ṣaddiḳim » (Vienna, 1821). Related to Meïr Kohn Bistritz, he is considered a good epigrammatist.
Meïr Kohn Bistritz is a Hungarian neo-Hebrew poet and author born in Vág-Bistritz, Hungary, in 1820, and died in Vienna on September 7, 1892, where he published most of his work. He published in 1858 his annotated translation of the didactic poem « Tabnit ha-Bayit » by Mordekhaï b. Meïr Ḳalman, then in 1863 a new edition of the « 'Arukh ha-Ḳaṣer »; his most important work, « Bi'our Ṭiṭ ha-Yawen » (Presburg, 1888), is a violent attack against the radical criticism of Osias H. Schorr on the Talmud.
Isaac b. Salomon Blaser was a Russian rabbi and educator born in Wilna around 1840, considered the best disciple of Israel Lipkin and the most faithful interpreter of his moral teachings. Rabbi of Saint Petersburg from around 1864 for sixteen years, he later settled in Kovno, where he led the Peroushim (students devoted to study) and the Moussar moral movement founded by his master; he was the author of « Peri Yiṣḥaḳ », responsa and rabbinic research (Wilna, 1881).
Fritz Blau is an Austrian chemist born in Vienna on April 5, 1865, graduate doctor of philosophy in 1886 and then privat-docent of chemistry at the University of Vienna in 1890. He publishes several essays in the "Monatshefte für Chemie der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften" and the "Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft" of Berlin.
Heinrich Blau is a German journalist and playwright born in Neu-Stettin, Pomerania, on September 21, 1858. Left for London in 1878, where he becomes editor-in-chief of the "Londoner Journal", he pursues a dual career as a journalist in English and German, and as a dramatic author, notably writing the dramatic poem "Gautama", the librettos for the opera "Das Erbe Judas" and the oratorio "Samuel", as well as several dramas; he makes a brief stay in the United States in 1893.
Ludwig Blau is a Hungarian scholar and publicist born on April 29, 1861 in Putnok, trained in several yeshivot and then at the rabbinical school of Budapest, where he obtained his doctorate in 1887 and his rabbinical diploma in 1888. Professor of Bible, Hebrew, Aramaic and Talmud at that same school since 1889, he has edited since 1891 the « Magyar Zsidó Szemle » and publishes numerous works on talmudic Judaism, the Massorah and the biblical canon, including « Das Altjüdische Zauberwesen » (Strasbourg, 1898).
David Blaustein is an educator born on May 5, 1866 in Lida, near Vilna, Russia. Trained in the ḥeder and yeshiva of his native city, he studies Hebrew and rabbinic literature in Prussia under Israel Lipkin, then Jewish history and philosophy under Feilchenfeld before emigrating to the United States in 1886 and settling in Boston; rabbi in Providence from 1892 to 1896, he becomes in 1896 lecturer in Semitic languages at Brown University and then in 1898 director of the Educational Alliance in New York, and travels in 1900 to study the condition of the Jews of Romania.
Ozer Blaustein is a Russian teacher and writer, in Russian and Judeo-German, born in Dünaburg in 1840 and died in Warsaw on April 27, 1899. His Russian grammar was recommended by the Ministry of Public Instruction for Jewish schools, and he translated into Russian the prayer book and the Maḥzor; he also published several novels in Judeo-German, including « Der Armer Gvir » (Wilna, 1893) and « Der Baal Tove » (Wilna, 1895).
Gerson von Bleichröder is a German banker born on December 22, 1822 and died in Berlin on February 19, 1893. He entered the bank founded by his father at sixteen years of age, took over its direction at his father's death in 1855, and made it a house of worldwide reputation, enjoying the full confidence of Prince Bismarck; financial adviser at Versailles during the Franco-Prussian war, he received the Iron Cross for his services in peace negotiations, then in 1872, hereditary nobility for his financial services to Romania. Consul General of Great Britain in Berlin for nearly a quarter of a century, he left a fortune of several tens of millions of marks.
David S. Bles is a community notable of Manchester born in The Hague, Holland, in 1834, and died in Vienna on October 14, 1899. Senior partner of the firm S. D. Bles & Sons, merchants of Manchester, from which he retired in 1897 to devote himself to philanthropy, he was a municipal magistrate for thirteen years from 1886, vice-consul of the Netherlands, and received in 1897 the Order of Orange-Nassau from the Queen of Holland; president of Manchester's Jewish Board of Guardians, he also founded a Hebrew studies scholarship at Victoria University.
Blin d'Elbœuf is a French manufacturer who introduced to France woolen cloth for women, soon considered the best in Europe and rewarded at the Vienna Exposition of 1870; in presenting a sample of his fabric to President Carnot, he declared seeing in it the revenge of French industry against foreign competition.
Ferdinand Blind-Cohen is a German student, stepson of radical Karl Blind whose name he had taken, who attempted the life of Prince Bismarck on May 7, 1866 before committing suicide in prison the following day. In a letter, he claimed to have acted alone, designated Bismarck as the worst enemy of German freedom, and hoped that his sacrifice would serve Germany as Orsini's attack on Napoleon III had, according to him, contributed to the liberation of Italy; he was buried at his stepfather's expense.
Moritz Bloch, called Ballagi, is a Christian theologian and Hungarian lexicographer born on March 18, 1815 in Inócz, Hungary, and died on September 1, 1891 in Budapest, son of a farmer. Trained in the Talmud then in classical humanities, he could not obtain a degree and left for Paris in 1839, before returning to support the cause of the emancipation of Jews in Hungary; he published in 1840-41 an annotated Hungarian translation of the Pentateuch and became, from September 1840, a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He subsequently studied theology at Tübingen and was baptized on May 11, 1843, before accepting in 1844 a position at the Protestant college of Szarvas.
André Bloch is a French musician, son of a rabbi of Wissembourg, in Alsace, where he was born in 1873. A composer from the age of seven, he entered the Paris Conservatoire and won first prizes there in solfège in 1884, piano in 1889, harmony in 1890, then in 1893 the Prix de Rome unanimously; trained by Massenet and André Gedalge, he notably composed the 'Poëme Nomade' to words by J. Richepin, and also cultivated, as an amateur, astronomy alongside his friend Camille Flammarion.
Elisa Bloch is a French sculptor born in Breslau on 25 January 1848, trained in Paris where her family settles. She exhibits for the first time at the Salon in 1878 and subsequently presents several remarkable works, including « L'Âge d'or » (Salon of 1885), « Le tribun Virginius jurant de venger sa fille Virginie » (Salon of 1889) and « Moïse », honorable mention at the Salon of 1896 and reproduced in bronze at the Exposition of 1900; she is also the author of busts of personalities, including Jules Oppert and Zadoc Kahn.
Émile Bloch is a German otologist born in Emmendingen, Baden, on 11 December 1847, graduate in medicine from Freiburg-im-Breisgau in 1871 after studies in Heidelberg, Würzburg and Vienna. Established as a physician in Freiburg, he specialized in 1886 in laryngology and rhinology under Hack then in otology under Thiry, whose assistant he became and, upon his death in 1892, his successor as chief physician and privatdocent; appointed assistant professor of otology in 1894, he saw the clinic for this specialty open in 1899 under his direction.
Gustave Bloch is a French historian and archaeologist born in Fegersheim, Alsace, on 21 July 1848. A graduate of the École normale supérieure, he taught rhetoric at the lycée in Besançon and then Greek and Roman archaeology at the University of Lyon, after a stay in the French schools of Rome and Athens, before directing courses in ancient history at the École normale supérieure; he notably published « Les Origines du Sénat Romain » (1883) and « La Gaule Celtique et Romaine », the first volume of « Histoire de France » directed by Lavisse (1900).
Heinrich Bloch is an Austrian philologist born on 4 February 1854 in Herman-Mestec, Bohemia, son of Moses Bloch, president of the Jewish theological seminary of Budapest. Graduate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1878, he was appointed in 1881 professor of history and classical philology at the Jewish theological seminary of Budapest, where he has been active since; author of «Die Quellen des Flavius Josephus in Seiner Archaeologie» (Leipzig, 1879), he also contributes to numerous European journals and periodicals.
Hermann (Ḥayyim) Bloch is a German writer born in Breslau on April 26, 1826 and died on November 19, 1896, grandson of Chief Rabbi Abraham Tiktin and nephew of Chief Rabbi Solomon Tiktin, from whom he received his halakhic training. At twenty-seven, he publishes the first part of his « Mebo ha-Talmud », a learned attempt at a new theory of the development of Halakha, then, between 1887 and 1893, the four parts of his « Hirhuré Torah »; he also published a reconstruction of the plan of Herod's Temple (1883) and a collection of one hundred seven Oriental proverbs, « Omri Inshi » (1884). A merchant in Rawitsch then in Breslau, he spent his final years as a resident scholar in Breslau.
Josef Bloch is a virtuoso violinist and composer born in Budapest on 5 January 1862, trained at the National Academy of Music and, at sixteen, assistant professor at the National Conservatory, before studying seven years at the Paris Conservatory. Returning to Budapest, he joined the Hubay-Popper string quartet until its dissolution in 1892, became professor at the National Conservatory and National Academy of Music in 1889, and has devoted himself exclusively to the latter since 1899; he has composed pieces for violin and two orchestral suites.
Josef Samuel Bloch is an Austrian rabbi and deputy born in Dukla, Galicia, on November 20, 1850, trained in Talmud from childhood under Rabbi Josef Saul Nathanson of Lvov. Rabbi in Rendsburg, Kobylin, Brüx, and Floridsdorf, he became known for publicly accusing Professor Rohling of perjury in the Tisza-Eszlár trial, forcing him to recant, and founded in 1883 the "Oesterreichische Wochenschrift" to defend the political rights of Jews; elected deputy for Kolomea in 1884, reelected in 1885 and again in 1891, he then left his rabbinical post and pursued the authors of a new ritual murder accusation in court in 1893.
Julienne Bloch is a French educator and writer who died on November 12, 1868, eldest daughter of Simon Bloch, founder of the journal "L'Univers Israélite". Equipped with a teaching license at age sixteen, she directed around age twenty-five the institution for young girls in Lyon, founded in 1857, then taught in her sister's establishment in Passy; she published in her father's journal, from June 1854 to August 1861, a series of articles under the title "Lettres Parisiennes".
Louis, or Leo, Bloch is a Swiss academic born in 1864, privatdozent of archaeology and mythology at the University of Zurich since 1896. He published notably « Der Kult und die Mysterien von Eleusis » (Hamburg, 1896) and « Römische Altertumskunde » (Leipzig, 1898), a comprehensive manual on the political institutions and private life of the Romans.
Ludwig Bloch is a German dramatist born in Berlin on December 6, 1859, son of theatrical publisher Eduard Bloch. Having entered his father's business in 1875, he subsequently traveled to Great Britain, France, and the United States before resuming his activities there in 1883; he is the author of several comedies and farces, including « Dekorirt » and, under the pseudonym R. Elbe, « Am Stammtisch ».
Maurice Bloch is a French educator and writer born in Colmar, Alsace, on August 5, 1853, son of Joseph Bloch, director of the Jewish communal school of the city. Successful in the agrégation in letters in 1881, he taught at the École Monge then directed, from 1883, the École Bischoffsheim; laureate of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, he gave numerous lectures for the Society for Jewish Studies and published works for young readers, including « The Mothers of Great Men » and « Women of Alsace ».
Moïse Löb Bloch is the rector of the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest, born in Ronsperg, Bohemia, on 15 February 1815, descended from a lineage of renowned Talmudists. Trained by his uncle Wolf Löw for seven years (1827-34), he became rabbi in Wotitz in 1841, in Hermanmiestec in 1852 then in Leipnik in 1856, before being called in 1877 as professor and rector to the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest; he published numerous works on Mosaic-Talmudic law, including « Sha'are Torat ha-Teḳanot » (Vienna and Krakow, 1879-1902) and an edition of unpublished responsa of Meïr of Rothenburg (Berlin, 1891).
Philip Bloch is a rabbi and author born in Prussia on May 30, 1841, trained at the University of Breslau then, under Frankel, Graetz and Jacob Bernays, at the Jewish theological seminary, where he obtained his doctorate in 1864 and his rabbinic title in 1867. He founded in 1869 a Jewish communal school in Munich then became in 1871 rabbi of the Israelitische Brüdergemeinde of Posen, devoting himself first to religious philosophy then to the history of the Jews of Poland; he published notably « Die Generalprivilegien der Polnischen Judenschaft » (1892) and a biography of his teacher Heinrich Graetz (1898).
Rosine Bloch is a French mezzo-soprano born in Paris in 1844, daughter of a merchant. Trained at the Conservatoire, where she received first prizes in singing and opera in 1865, she made her brilliant debut at the Paris Opera in the role of Azucena in "Il Trovatore", created in 1867 that of Chloris in Duprato's "La Fiancée de Corinthe" then, in 1873, that of Claribel in Diaz's "La Coupe du Roi de Thulé", and triumphed in 1880 in the role of Amneris in "Aida"; she remained a member of the Paris Opera for fifteen years.
Salomon ben Ephraïm Blogg, or Bloch, is a German author from Neuwägen, in Hanover, died on 11 February 1858 after about forty-five years of literary activity. Hebrew teacher, he founded in 1827 the Telgener printing press in Hanover, renowned for the scientific precision of its productions, and published several works on Hebrew language and literature, including a Hebrew grammar (1825) and a « Geschichte der Hebräischen Sprache und Literatur » (1826); his « Binyan Shelomoh » (1831) deals with the Talmud and Hebrew from a historical perspective.
Fanny Bloomfield-Zeisler is an American pianist, sister of Maurice Bloomfield, born in Bielitz, in Austrian Silesia, on July 16, 1866; her parents settle in Chicago in 1868, where she receives her first piano training before studying in Vienna under Leschetizky. Returning to the United States, she gives numerous recitals from 1883 to 1893, then triumphs on an extended European tour until 1895, gives more than fifty concerts in America during the 1895-96 season, tours the Pacific states in 1897, and returns to Great Britain and France in 1898.
Maurice Bloomfield is a professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, born in Bielitz, in Austrian Silesia, on February 23, 1855, who emigrated to America in 1867. Trained in Chicago, Yale, Berlin, and Leipzig, he received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1879 and an honorary doctorate from Princeton in 1896; considered the leading living authority on the Atharva-Veda, he notably published the « Kauçika-Sutra » (New Haven, 1890) and a photographic edition of the Paippalada recension of the Atharva-Veda in three volumes (Baltimore, 1901).
Karl Blosz is a German painter born in Mannheim on 24 November 1860, trained at the school of fine arts of Karlsruhe from 1880 to 1883 then student of K. Hoff and Von Lindenschmid at the Academy of Munich from 1883 to 1887; active in Munich since then, one of his paintings, 'Vor dem Dîner', is preserved in the gallery of Dresden.
Henri Georges Stephan Adolphe Opper de Blowitz is the special correspondent of the "Times" of London in Paris, born in Blowitz, Bohemia, on December 28, 1825, and died in Paris on January 18, 1903. Left for France at sixteen, professor of German then political journalist, he reveals in 1869 the affair of Ismail Pasha's special train, renders service in 1871 to the government of Thiers during the repression of the Commune in Marseille, becomes correspondent of the "Times" the same year then special correspondent in Paris in 1874; he becomes famous in 1875 by obtaining the text of the Treaty of Berlin before its signature, and interviews many celebrities, including Bismarck and Pope Leo XIII.
rabbi (1813–1882)
Ephraïm Israel Blücher is an Austrian rabbi and author born on October 2, 1813 in Glocksdorf, Moravia, and died in Budapest on April 6, 1882. Hebrew tutor at the University of Lemberg then rabbi at Osviecin and Kosten, he founded in Vienna a short-lived real gymnasium before settling in Neuhäusel then Budapest; he published an Aramaic grammar, « Marpeh Lashon Arami », preceded by a Hebrew translation by Fürst (Vienna, 1839), the Book of Ruth with translation and commentary (Lemberg, 1843), and « Die Synagogenfrage für Deutsche Israeliten » (Vienna, 1860).
Abraham Blum is a French commander born in 1823 and died in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1894. Wounded in the shoulder during the Crimean War in 1854, decorated with the order of the Medjidie by the sultan and then with the Legion of Honor on his return, he left again in 1859 to fight Austria in Italy, is again wounded at Solferino and promoted captain on the battlefield; retired as battalion commander in 1870, he became adjutant-major of the National Guard of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, then received in 1875 an assignment in the territorial army.
Ernest Blum is a French dramatist born in Paris on August 15, 1836, son of an actor, who produced his first play at eighteen, "Femme Qui Mord", at the Variétés. A prolific author of vaudevilles, fairy tales and operettas for the great Parisian theatres — Ambigu, Châtelet, Renaissance, Vaudeville —, he collaborated notably with Clairville, Crémieux and Ponson du Terrail for "Rocambole" (1864), and also published a "Biographie Complète d'Henri Rochefort" (Brussels, 1868); he was for a long time editor at "Charivari" and collaborated on "Rappel" from its founding, in 1869.
Isaac August Blum is a French mathematician born in Paris in 1831 and died in that city on 5 January 1877. Trained at the École Polytechnique, he becomes a naval lieutenant before devoting himself to teaching; engaged in the events of 1848, he collaborates on the « Journal des Travailleurs » and becomes vice-president of the Luxembourg commission, which earns him a brief arrest for libel. He subsequently publishes several works on mathematics, including a « Cours Complet de Mathématiques » in two volumes (Paris, 1843-45), founds in 1844 the « Bulletin Polytechnique », then in 1855 the journal « La Science ».
Julius Blum, called Blum Pasha, is an Austro-Egyptian financier born in Budapest in 1843. Director of the Austro-Egyptian Bank of Alexandria from 1869, he became in 1877 secretary of state at the Egyptian Ministry of Finance then pasha and minister of Finance, a position he held until 1890, when he took the direction of the Austrian Credit-Anstalt in Vienna; he received numerous decorations, including the commandery of the French Legion of Honor.
Leopold Blumenberg is an American soldier born in the province of Brandenburg, in Prussia, on September 28, 1827, and died in Baltimore on August 12, 1876, twenty-first of a family of twenty-two children. After serving in the Prussian army during the Danish War of 1848, he emigrates in 1854 to Baltimore; at the attack on Fort Sumter, he organizes the fifth Maryland Infantry Regiment, which he commands as colonel at Antietam, where he is seriously wounded; appointed military provost of the third district of Maryland from 1863 to 1865, he subsequently receives the honorary rank of brigadier general of volunteers.
Marc A. Blumenberg is an American music critic and editor born in Baltimore on May 21, 1851, educated in the city's public schools then at Loyola College. Music critic of the « Baltimore American » then of the « Sun », he settled in New York in 1879 and shortly after founded the « Musical Courier », one of the most influential musical weeklies, with offices in Germany, France, England and Italy.
Aron Wolff Blumenfeld is a German composer born in Kurnik, in the province of Posen, on 29 February 1828. Settled in Berlin in 1846, where he studied with Rungenhagen before establishing himself as teacher and composer, he notably wrote the opera "Künstlerleben" and a cantata premiered in 1851, as well as numerous pieces for piano and a musical anthology in ninety-six volumes, "Blumenlese".
Berish Blumenfeld is a Galician Hebrew scholar active in the first half of the nineteenth century, one of the fortunate scholars who contributed to the dissemination of knowledge and neo-Hebrew literature in Poland. He publishes a German translation of the Book of Job accompanied by a Hebrew commentary (Vienna, 1826), corresponds with S. D. Luzzatto on the dating of Job and with Isaac Beer Levinsohn, and was the intimate friend of Simson Bloch ha-Lévi, who dedicated to him his Hebrew translation of Manassé ben Israël's « Vindiciae Judaeorum ».
Feitel (Fadeï) Blumenfeld is a Russian rabbi born in 1826 and died in Kherson on December 4, 1896. A graduate of the rabbinical college of Zhitomir, he served for nearly forty years as rabbi in Kherson and in the Jewish agricultural colonies of the region, introducing several useful reforms there, and was summoned several times by the government to the conferences of rabbis in Saint Petersburg; he contributed extensively to the Russian-Jewish periodicals « Russki Yevreï » and « Razsvyet ».
Hermann Fadeïevitch Blumenfeld is a Russian jurist, son of Feitel, born in Kherson on September 2, 1861. Graduated in 1883 from the university of Novorossia in Odessa, where he receives a gold medal for his dissertation on forms of land property in ancient Russia (Odessa, 1883), he publishes in 1888 a study on Tartar land property in Crimea and contributes extensively to the Russo-Jewish periodicals « Voskhod » and « Yevreïskoïe Obozrenie » on the economic activity of Jews in southern Russia.
Ignatz (Isaac) Blumenfeld is an Austrian publisher and merchant born on March 25, 1812 in Brody, Galicia, and died on October 2, 1890 in Geneva. A well-to-do traveler passionate about Hebrew literature, he met in 1834 S. D. Luzzatto and J. S. Reggio in Italy, lived in Odessa between 1840 and 1850, then in Vienna until 1885, before retiring to Switzerland; he rendered great service to the science of Judaism by publishing four volumes of « Oṣar Neḥmad » (Vienna, 1856-63), a collection of learned letters to which Rapoport, Luzzatto, and Geiger contributed.
J. C. Blumenfeld is a Polish man of letters and revolutionary born around 1810 and died before 1840, one of the leaders of a group of young Poles engaged in the 1831 insurrection. Refugee in London after the failure of the uprising, he published there a fantastic work, « Ecce Homo im Process mit dem König und dem Priester » (1835), of which an English edition appeared in London in 1839, denouncing the project of kings and priests to enslave humanity, including a pact between Rome and the Church to debase Israel.
Heinrich Blumenthal is a German industrialist and philanthropist born in Darmstadt, Hesse, on March 12, 1824, and died in the same city on March 27, 1901. Trained in mechanics in Vienna, Nuremberg and Paris, he founds on his return to Darmstadt a factory of agricultural machines that becomes one of the most important in southern Germany, supports Hessian troops during the Franco-Prussian war, and uses his influence with the Grand Duke of Hesse to oppose the antisemitic movement in the state; municipal councillor for twenty-five years and president of the Jewish community of Darmstadt for over twenty years, he witnesses one of the main arteries of the city bearing his name.
Joseph Blumenthal is an American community notable born in Munich on December 1, 1834 and died in New York on March 2, 1901. Emigrated to the United States in 1839, he settled in California in 1854 and then in New York, where he engaged in military, political and community affairs; member of the famous « Committee of Seventy » which overthrew the Tweed Ring, he sat in the New York Assembly in 1873-74 and 1888-91, and presided from its founding in 1886 until his death over the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Mark Blumenthal is an American physician born on July 11, 1831 in Altenstadt, Bavaria, who emigrated to the United States with his parents in August 1839. A graduate in medicine from Columbia University in 1852, he practices at Blackwell's Island hospital and then as resident physician at Mount Sinai Hospital from 1855 to 1859, before presiding from 1862 to 1894 over the Institution for the advanced instruction of the deaf and dumb, which he endows with a method of lipreading then new to the United States; surgeon-major during the Civil War, he also presides over the Jewish Chautauqua in 1901-02.
Nissen Blumenthal is a Russian ḥazan born in Jassy, Romania, in 1805, and died in Odessa on 9 February 1902. Trained for the rabbinate but endowed with an exceptional voice, he emigrated to Russia, became cantor in Berditchev then in Yekaterinoslav, and was appointed in 1841 chief cantor of the Brody congregation of Odessa, a post he held for fifty-five years until old age forced him to retire; paralyzed during the last six years of his life, he bequeathed his fortune to the choir of the temple he had made famous, and contributed greatly to introducing methodical singing in Russian synagogues.
Oskar Blumenthal is a German writer and playwright born in Berlin March 13, 1852, doctor of philosophy from Leipzig in 1872. Founder in 1873 of « Neuen Monatshefte für Dichtkunst und Kritik », he became in 1875 theater critic for « Berliner Tageblatt » until 1887, then director of the Lessing Theater until 1898 and, from 1894 to 1895, of the Berliner Theater, before devoting himself exclusively to writing; successful author of comedies, including « Im Weissen Rössl » (1898, with G. Kadelburg), he also distinguished himself as a critic with a witty style.
Eduard Boas is a German writer and traveler born in Landsberg-an-der-Warthe on January 1, 1815 and died in the same city in June 1853. Destined for commerce and sent to travel through Southern Europe to train in international trade methods, he drew rather from this journey the material for his writings; his first work, "Deutsche Dichter", appeared in 1837, followed by "Sprüche und Lieder eines Indischen Brahmanen" (1842) and, in 1844, by the novel "Pepita" and "In Skandinavien"; he finally published "Schiller und Goethe im Xenienkampf" in 1852.
Imar Boas is a German physician and medical author born in Exin, in the province of Posen, on March 28, 1858, graduated in medicine from the universities of Berlin, Halle and Leipzig in 1880. Established in Berlin in 1882, he specializes in diseases of the digestive system and opens the first dispensary in Germany devoted to this specialty; he publishes « Diagnostik und Therapie der Magen-Krankheiten » (Leipsic, 1890) and « Diagnostik und Therapie der Darmkrankheiten » (Leipsic, 1899), and has directed since 1895 the « Archiv für Verdauungs-Krankheiten ».
American Jewish historian and talmudist (1899–1968)
Abraham b. Moïse Bocara is the rabbi of the community of Livornese Jews in Tunis, where he dies in 1879. He is the author of « Ben Abraham », a work on difficult matters of religious law, published in Livorno in 1882 by his relative Jacob Bocara; several of his other writings survive in manuscript.
Alfred Bock is a German novelist born in Giessen, in Hesse-Darmstadt, on October 14, 1859, trained at the gymnasium and university of his native city, which he never left after traveling to Denmark, Italy, Turkey and Greece. He notably published "Gedichte" (Dresden, 1889), "Wo die Strassen Enger Werden" (Berlin, 1898) and "Der Flurschütz" (1901), as well as several dramas, including "Die Alte Jungfer".
M. H. Bock is a German educator born in Magdeburg in 1784 and died in travel in Leipzig on April 10, 1816, one of the best Jewish pedagogues in Germany of his time; the private school he founded in Berlin in 1807, open to Jewish and Christian students, enjoyed great reputation and was continued after his death by I. M. Jost. He notably published a Hebrew primer (1812), a catechism of the Israelite religion (1814), and, with David Fränkel, the five books of Moses in Mendelssohn's translation (1815).
Herman Bodek was a Galician Hebraist born in Brody on September 27, 1820 and died in Leipzig on August 19, 1880, son-in-law of S. L. Rapoport and from a respected family. Established in Leipzig as a Hebrew translator for the courts and businessman, he collaborated in the periodical press of several countries and published « Eleh Dibré ha-Berit » (Leipzig, 1880), a catechism of the symbols and objects of Freemasonry intended for Jewish Freemasons of East and West reading only Hebrew; he was himself a member of the Apollo lodge in Leipzig.
Jacob Bodek of Lemberg is a Galician Hebraist who died in Lemberg in 1856, author of a pamphlet in two parts (Lemberg, 1837; Ofen, 1839) criticizing the works of Rapoport, Luzzatto and Reggio, then, with his brother-in-law A. M. Mohr, of a periodical titled "Jerusalem" (Zolkiev 1844, Lemberg 1845, Prague 1845). He republished with notes the chronicles of Abraham Trebitsch, "Ḳorot ha-'Ittim", covering the period from 1741 to 1801, as well as their continuation until 1850 (Lemberg, 1851), and wrote a biography of his friend Ẓebi Hirsch Chajes of Zolkiev.
Julius Bodenstein is a German landscape painter born in Berlin on 4 August 1847, trained at the Berlin Academy under Schütze and Hermann Schnee, then, from 1873, student of Ad. Lier in Munich. He is distinguished by his nature views, notably his « Twenty-five Views of the High Alps » (1879), and exhibited « The Island of Sylt » in Munich in 1883.
Frederike Bognar is a German actress born in Gotha February 16, 1840, daughter of a singer, initially destined for a musical career before turning to theatre. She made her debut in Zurich in 1856, joined the Stadttheater in Hamburg then, in 1858, the Burgtheater in Vienna, where she remained until 1870, before a long touring as a star, a stint at the German Landestheater in Prague, then, in 1892, at the German Volkstheater in Vienna; she notably played Gretchen, Ophelia and Marguerite in 'The Lady of the Camellias,' then, later, Medea and Mary Stuart.
Grigori Isaakovitch Bogrov is a Russian writer born on 13 March 1825 in Poltava and died on 10 May 1885 in Derevki, in the government of Minsk. Devoted exclusively to the Talmud until his marriage at seventeen, he then taught himself Russian, German and French; separated from his wife, he published his first autobiographical novel, « Zapiski Yevreya », in « Otetchestvennyïa Zapiski » (1871-73) then as a volume in 1874. Settled in Saint Petersburg, he converted in his later years to Greek Orthodoxy and remarried, while publishing numerous other narratives, including « Yevreiski Manuskript » (Saint Petersburg, 1876).
Israël b. Joseph Böhmer is a neo-Hebraist and Russian lexicographer born around 1820 and died in Sloutsk, in the Minsk government, on April 4, 1860, son of Rabbi Joseph Böhmer (1796-1864), rabbi of Sloutsk for thirty-five years. A great traveler, versed in several European languages, he publishes "Kitbé Israël Böhmer", a treatise on the Essenes (Warsaw, 1849), "Ḳeṣad Ma'arikin", a contribution to Talmudic lexicography (Berlin, 1855), edits with G. Polak the "Eṣba' Elohim" (Königsberg, 1857) and, with E. L. Silberman, an annotated edition of Samuel Shullam's Hebrew translation of Josephus's "Contra Apionem" (Lyck, 1858).
Leone Bolaffio is an Italian jurist born in Padua on July 5, 1848, trained at the talmudic college, where S. D. Luzzatto was his master, then at the University of Padua. Lawyer in Venice for fifteen years while teaching at the Istituto Tecnico, he subsequently becomes professor of law at the universities of Parma then Bologna, member of the Royal Commission for the reform of the Commercial Code, and founds in 1876 the legal review « Temi Veneta », which he has directed since; pioneer of the introduction of Gabelsberger shorthand in Italian schools, he is the author of « Commento al Codice di Commercio » (2nd ed., 1899).
Luigi Filippo Bolaffio is an Italian journalist and publisher born in Venice in 1846 and died in Milan in 1901. Founder in Genoa of the literary review « La Favilla », he returns to Venice in 1866 and then settles in Milan in 1880, where he directs the political newspaper « L'Italia » before founding the « Gazzetta Nazionale »; after several duels and the death of one of his sons, he withdraws from politics and founds the Milanese publishing house Casa Editrice Verri, while writing, with his wife Sulamith Jolles, sixteen volumes of travel guides. He also publishes « Il 14 Giugno 1859 » (Venice, 1867) and the novel « Augusta » (Milan, 1888).
David Bonan is the rabbi of the Livorno community of Tunis, where he dies in 1850. His family financed after his death the publication of his works, including the collections of responsa « Nishal David » and « Ohel David » (Livorno, 1857) and the commentary « Mo'ed David » on the « 'Abodat ha-Ḳodesh » of Salomon Adret (Jerusalem, 1887); in collaboration with Juda Lévy of Gibraltar, he had also written « Dai Hashab », responsa on the custom imposing women to cover their hair, and « Dai Heshib », commentary on the Sanhédrin treatise (Livorno, 1846).
Fortunato de S. Bonaventura is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon active in the early nineteenth century, author of an attempt at a history of the literature of Jewish authors in Portugal, « Memoria Sobre o Começo, Progresso e Decadencia da Litteratura Hebraica entre os Portuguezes Catholicos Romanos », appeared in the ninth volume of the Academy's memoirs, but of limited value.
Jonas Bondi is an American rabbi born in Dresde, Saxony, on July 9, 1804, and died in New York on March 11, 1874. Trained at the university of Prague, he presided over the synagogue of his native city before coming to America in 1859 as rabbi-preacher of the congregation of Norfolk Street, New York, a position he left after a year to become proprietor and editor of the Jewish newspaper « The Hebrew Leader »; his daughter Selma married Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati.
Mordecai (Marcus) Bondi is a German author active in Dresden in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, coauthor with his brother Simon Bondi of the "Or Ester," a Hebrew dictionary of Latin words used in the Talmud, the Targoumim, and the Midrashim; several of his essays appeared in the periodical "Jedidja."
Philip (Jacob Koppel) Bondi is an Austrian rabbi born in Jinoschitz, Bohemia, on February 26, 1830. Entered the Prague gymnasium in 1844, he studied the Talmud under Raphaël Schulhof and Salomon J. Rapoport, obtained his doctorate from the University of Prague in 1857 and his rabbinical diploma, teaches in Budweis then, from 1859 to 1868, in Kassejovic, and holds the rabbinate of Brandeis from 1868 to 1876; activist of the Bohemian movement, he becomes a preacher in the vernacular language in Prague, then teacher and rabbi, and publishes in 1886 five Bohemian sermons under the title "Ḳol Ya'aḳob."
Simon Bondi is a lexicographer of the Talmud established in Dresden, where he dies on December 20, 1816. With his brother Mordecai, he wrote the « Or Ester », a Hebrew dictionary of Latin words from the Talmud, the Targumim and the Midrashim (Dessau, 1812), as well as a similar work on Greek words that remained unpublished; his brother published his biography in the periodical « Jedidja ».
Marc Borchard is a German physician and author born in Mecklenburg in 1808 and died in Paris on June 21, 1872. Holder of a medical degree from Halle, he settled in France as a hospital physician and medical examiner in Bordeaux, where he engaged in several societies for public utility, before spending his final years in Paris; he published notably « L'Hygiène Publique chez les Juifs, son Importance et sa Signification dans l'Histoire Générale de la Civilisation » (Paris, 1865) and « Intolérance et Persécutions Religieuses » (1868).
Bruno Borchardt is a physicist and German author born in Bromberg on November 17, 1859, doctor of philosophy from Berlin, forced to resign from his teaching position because of his socialist convictions; he then turns to scientific journalism, popularizing physics and chemistry in the daily press, and publishes in particular « Wahrscheinlichkeitslehre » (1889) and « Grundriss der Physik » (1892, 2nd ed. 1900).
Felix Borchardt is a German painter born in Berlin on March 7, 1857, trained at the Academy of Berlin and under Max Michael, who traveled extensively in Italy, France, Holland and Spain, where he stayed five years, before settling in Dresden; a reputed portraitist, he is best known for "Die These", a vast canvas depicting Neapolitan monks in theological controversy.
Karl Wilhelm Borchardt is a German mathematician born on February 22, 1817 in Berlin and died in the same city on June 27, 1880. Trained in Königsberg from 1839 to 1843 under the influence of Jacobi, then in Paris under Liouville, he becomes a Privatdozent at the University of Berlin in 1848, member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin in 1856, and succeeds Crelle as head of the « Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik »; his complete works were published by the Academy of Berlin in 1888.
Lithuanian Jewish sculptor, court sculptor of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria where he founded the Royal Academy of Arts. Zionist after his meeting with Herzl, he founded in 1906 in Jerusalem the Bezalel School of Art, of which he is considered the father of Israeli art. He also published literary texts, including a utopian novel.
Moses Boris is a French colonel born in the department of Meurthe in 1808 and died in Paris on June 13, 1884. Entered at twenty-six years old to the Military School of Saint-Cyr, he distinguished himself in the repression of the Paris riots of June 1848, became colonel in 1861 after serving in the Crimean and Italian wars, then officer of the Legion of Honor, and is placed on retirement in 1868, having remained attached to Jewish matters.
Gustav Jacob Born is a German histologist and medical author born in Kempen, in the province of Posen, on April 22, 1851, trained at the universities of Breslau, Bonn, Strasbourg and Berlin, graduated physician from Breslau in 1876. That same year, he became assistant prosector and privat-docent in Breslau, prosector in 1877, assistant professor in 1886, then professor of histology and comparative anatomy in 1898, the year he received the Prussian order of the Red Eagle; author of some fifty scientific essays, his most important work remains « Ueber Verwachsungs-Versuche mit Amphibienlarven » (Leipsic, 1897).
Arthur Bornstein is a German author born in Breslau on March 23, 1867, trained in Breslau, Berlin, and Bern, certified by the Berlin state examination in 1888; by profession a dental surgeon, he also devoted himself to literature, publishing a collection of short stories, « Klippen » (Berlin, 1894), the drama « Der Theaterarzt », then in 1900 « Vergnügte Geschichten », as well as numerous tales, humorous sketches, and poems.
Paul Bornstein is a German author born in Berlin on April 8, 1868, doctor of philosophy from the university of his native city. His first published work, the « Memoiren des Cagliostro » (Berlin, 1892), is followed in 1896 by the novel « Aus Dämmerung und Nacht » and the founding, the same year, of the « Monatsschrift für Neuere Litteratur und Kunst », which he edits until 1898; in 1899 appear his critical study « Die Dichter des Todes in der Modernen Litteratur » and his « Gesammelte Essays ». He also directs, from 1898, the encyclopedic enterprise « Am Ende des Jahrhunderts », devoted to German achievements of the nineteenth century, of which twenty-three volumes have appeared to date.
Samuel Hyman Borofsky was born in Wolkovyshki, in the government of Souvalki, in Russian Poland, in April 1865, educated at the Jews' Free School in Manchester after his arrival in England in 1874, before settling in Boston in 1879. Justice of the Peace since 1891 and notary since 1894, Boston city councilman in 1898 and then elected in 1900 to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he drafted the law requiring ice merchants to sell in small quantities to the poor, and presented in 1901 a bill exempting Sabbath observers from any penalty for Sunday work; he also founded in 1899 the Helping Hand Temporary Home for Destitute Jewish Children.
Isidor Borowski is a soldier under Bolívar then general in the service of Persia, born in Warsaw in 1803 and killed at the siege of Hérat in 1837, a Polish Jew raised in the United States. After serving under Bolívar then Méhémet Ali in Egypt, where he taught mathematics and English in 1829, he is found in 1831 in Bushehr, Persia, where the British minister recommends him to Prince Abbas Mirza; he distinguishes himself militarily there, taking Kotchan then Sarakhs, and supports after the death of Abbas, in 1833, the accession to the throne of his son Mohammed Mirza, before joining the Russian faction and being shot at the siege of Hérat; his widow, a Georgian captive, received a pension from Shah Mohammed.
Belarusian rabbi
rabbi
Wolf Boskovitz is the first rabbi of the congregation of Budapest, died in 1818. Reputed Talmudist, he settled in 1793 as rabbi in Pest, where the Jewish community had been renting a prayer room since 1787, but the vigorous opposition of Moses Münz, rabbi of Buda, forced him to leave Budapest in 1796; having left and then returned to Hungary, he served in Bonyhád from 1809 until his death. His works, including « Seder Mishnah », « Ma'amar Esther » and notes on the Talmud published in the Vienna edition of 1830, all appeared after his death.
Yom-Ṭob Lipman ha-Cohen Boslanski, called R. Lipélé Mirer, was a Russian rabbi born in 1824 and died in Mir, in the government of Grodno, on December 26, 1892. Rabbi in Khaslavitch in his youth, he led the Jewish community of Mir for the last eighteen years of his life, where he was recognized as one of the greatest rabbinic authorities in Russia; one of the first Ḥovevé Tsion, he attempted in 1889 to organize a society for the purchase of land to found a colony in Palestine and traveled to Paris to seek the aid of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. He is the author of a collection of responsa, "Malboushé Yom-Ṭob" (Vilna, 1881).
Jacob Brafmann is a Jew converted to Christianity, born in Russia and died in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, appointed professor of Hebrew at the Minsk seminary and entrusted by the Holy Synod with promoting Christianity among the Jews. Beginning as a publicist in 1866, he conducted a campaign of defamation against his former coreligionists, claiming in a series of articles (Wilna, 1869) the existence in each city of western Russia of a Jewish confraternity aiming to exploit non-Jews, then published "Kniga Ḳahala" (Wilna, 1869), claiming to reproduce documents from the Minsk kahal dated 1794 to 1803, which independent critics demonstrated to be forgeries.
Otto Brahm, born Abrahamsohn, is a German drama critic and theater director born in Hamburg on February 5, 1856, trained in philosophy, German philology and art history at Berlin, Heidelberg and Strasbourg, a student of Wilhelm Scherer. Author of biographies of Gottfried Keller (1883), Heinrich von Kleist (1884) and Schiller (1888-92), he founded with others the Freie Bühne to promote naturalistic theater and Ibsen, then directed the Deutsches Theater, where he mounted the works of Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, Sudermann and Halbe; Hauptmann's 'Die Weber' was performed there over one hundred times.
Ruben Brainin is a Hebrew publicist and biographer born in Russia in the second half of the nineteenth century, residing in Berlin. Contributor to several Hebrew periodicals, he published in 1895 a periodical, "Mi-Mizraḥ u-Mi-Ma'arab," of which only four issues appeared, a biographical sketch of Peretz Smolenskin (Warsaw, 1896), a translation of M. Lazarus's essay on Jeremiah (Warsaw, 1897), and some one hundred biographical notices of modern Jewish scholars and writers, including Theodor Herzl, Israel Zangwill, and Max Nordau.
Simon Brainin is a Russian physician born in Riga, Livonia, on July 15, 1854, trained at the universities of Dorpat and Berlin, physician of the Jewish community of Riga and one of the leaders of its kahal, the last independent kahal in Russia, until its abolition. Member in 1885 of the government commission tasked with examining the rights of the Jews of Riga, delegate in 1892 to the rabbinical conference in Saint Petersburg, he emigrated in 1895 to New York, where he still practices medicine; he is the author of "Oraḥ la-Ḥayyim", a work of popular medicine in Hebrew (Wilna, 1883), and a medical guide published in Riga in 1885.
Leo Bramson is a Russian jurist and writer born in Kovno on April 17, 1869, graduated in law from Moscow University. Active in several Jewish educational and charitable societies in Saint Petersburg, member of the school census from 1895 to 1900 and delegate to the Pan-Russian Exposition of 1896, he notably published "V Yuzhnykh Yevreiskikh Koloniakh" (Saint Petersburg, 1894), numerous articles in "Voskhod" between 1891 and 1900, and co-edited in 1892 a bibliographic repertory of Russian literature on Jews covering the years 1708 to 1889.
Baruch Juda ha-Lévi Brandeis is a rabbi and Bohemian author active in Prague, as dayyan, in the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, son of Bezaleel Brandeis, rabbi of Jung-Bunzlau, whose work "Ṣedah-Baruk" he published. He himself wrote "Leshon Ḥakamim" (Prague, 1815), a work in two parts devoted to the rules of reading the Torah, the Kaddish and funeral observances, left incomplete and of ambiguous style.
Frederic Brandeis is a musician born in Vienna on 5 July 1832 and died in New York on 14 May 1899, trained in piano and composition at the University of Vienna. After the 1848 revolution ruined his father, the family emigrates to America; a recognized pianist, he tours with violinist William Vincent Wallace in 1849, settles in New York, becomes organist of St John the Evangelist Church in 1860 and then, after its fire in 1872, of St James until 1886; also organist of the Shaaray Tefila synagogue from 1879 to 1892, he composed a total of one hundred and four works.
Carl Eduard Cohen Brandes, known as Eduard Brandes, is a Danish writer and politician born in Copenhagen on 21 October 1847, brother of Georg Brandes. After studying oriental and comparative philology, he devoted himself to dramatic art and then to politics, being elected in 1880 to the Folketing by the democrats of Rudkjøbing; he published that same year « Dansk Skuespilkünst » and then, in 1881, « Fremmed Skuespilkünst », wrote numerous psychological plays performed on the Danish stage, as well as the novel « En Politiker » (1889), and co-directed until December 1883 the democratic newspaper « Morgenbladet ».
Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes is a Danish economist born in Copenhagen on February 1, 1844, and died in the same city on August 6, 1892, brother of critic Georg Brandes and writer Eduard Brandes. First a banker, he soon devoted himself to economic journalism, contributing to « Politiken » and « Tilskueren » then directing « Börstidningen »; he published in 1885 a two-part work on social questions, « Samfundsspörgsmaal », whose second part, devoted to the theory of value, stands out for its originality.
Georg Morris Cohen Brandes is a Danish writer and critic born in Copenhagen on February 4, 1842, graduated in 1859. Laureate of the university's gold medal for his essay on the idea of fate in Antiquity (1863), he stays in Paris in 1866-67 and then in Germany in 1868, and takes part, from 1865, in the philosophical and religious controversies of his time, of which he becomes the spokesman in his pamphlet "Dualism in Modern Philosophy" (1866). Doctor of philosophy in 1870 with a thesis on Taine, he travels abroad until 1871, meeting Taine, Mill and Renan, before returning to Denmark as a mature thinker and literary revolutionary.
Ludvig Israel Brandes is a Danish physician born in Copenhagen on October 26, 1821 and died in the same city on September 17, 1894. Entered the University of Copenhagen in 1839, graduated in medicine in 1845, he became assistant surgeon during the Sleswick-Holstein insurrection in 1848, obtained his doctorate in 1850, then head of service in 1863 and professor in 1869; an active philanthropist, he founded in 1859 a home for incurables in Copenhagen and published his manual of internal medicine in four volumes (1859-66).
Marthe Brandès, whose real name is Marthe-Joséphine Brunschwig, is a French actress born in Paris on January 31, 1862, trained at the Conservatory under Gustave Worms. Engaged in 1884 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, where « Diane de Lys » revealed her to the Parisian public, she debuted at the Comédie-Française on September 27, 1887 in « Francillon » by Dumas fils, excels equally well in classical and modern repertoire, returns to the Vaudeville in 1890 before returning permanently to the Théâtre-Français on November 17, 1892, and becomes a member in 1896, privileged interpreter of Dumas fils and Paul Hervieu.
Jacob Émile Édouard Brandon is a French genre painter born in Paris on July 3, 1831, student of Picot, Montfort and Corot, admitted to the École des beaux-arts on April 5, 1849. He exhibited regularly at the Salon between 1861 and 1870, notably "The Canonization of Saint Bridget" (1861), "The Last Mass of Saint Bridget" (1863) and "The Sermon of Daïan Cardozo at the Synagogue of Amsterdam" (1867); two of his canvases are preserved in the Lille museum, characterized by their fidelity to nature and their powerful coloring.
Mordecai David Brandstädter is a Galician novelist born on February 14, 1844 in Brzesko, married at fourteen and settled with his in-laws in Tarnów, where he entered business at age twenty. His true literary career began in 1869, during a stay in Vienna where he met Peretz Smolenskin, who encouraged him to write short stories for his monthly "Ha-Shaḥar"; among his best-known tales, describing the life of Galician Jews with humor and critical sense, are "Mordecai Kisovitz" and "Reshit Madon," collected with others in his "Ḳol Sippouré" in two volumes (Cracow, 1890-91).
Salomon Brann is a German rabbi born in Rawitsch on November 3, 1814, trained at the yeshiva of Lissa and then at the University of Berlin; elected in 1839 to the rabbinical council of his native city, he was a pioneer there of preaching in German, before becoming rabbi of Schneidemühl from 1853 onwards. Assiduous contributor to German scientific journals, his notes on the Talmud Yerushalmi appear in the Krotoschin edition of 1866.
Moritz Brasch was a German philosopher and man of letters born in Zempelburg, in West Prussia, on August 18, 1843, and died in Leipzig on September 14, 1895. Educated at the universities of Berlin, Greifswald and Jena, he directed in Leipzig the "Konversations-Lexikon" of Brockhaus (1874-79); a recognized philosophical essayist, he published numerous works, including "Die Klassiker der Philosophie" in three volumes (1883-86) and an edition of the metaphysical and aesthetic works of Moses Mendelssohn (1880).
Alexandre Braudo is a Russian author born in 1864, reviewer for Russian history journals at Saint Petersburg University from 1889 to 1892, translator of historical sources such as the « Tragoedia Moscovitica » (1606) by Grevenbruch and the « Relation Curieuse » (1689) by Neuville, and author, in 1896, of reviews in « Voskhod » of Bershadski's works on the history of the Jews. Secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Instruction among the Jews of Russia, he directed his activity toward elementary education, and now sits on the advisory board of the Jewish Colonization Association.
Josef Braun is an Austrian journalist, dramatist and librettist born in Budapest on May 5, 1840. He abandoned in 1860 his medical studies in Vienna for journalism, collaborated with several Viennese newspapers then founded, in 1871, the satirical review « Bombe », which he sold in 1881 to create « Wiener Caricaturen »; he wrote numerous operetta librettos, including « Flotte Bursche » (1861, music by Suppé), « Die Keusche Diana » (1864, Millöcker's first opera) and « Carneval in Rom » (1877, music by Johann Strauss).
Solomon Braun is a French artillery lieutenant born in Paris in 1868 and died in Togbao, Sudan, in 1899. Son of a poor peddler who, noticing his gifts, made great sacrifices to give him a good education, he succeeded in the entrance examination to the École polytechnique, from which he graduated as artillery lieutenant; in 1897, he obtained permission from the Minister of War to join the perilous Lake Chad exploration expedition led by Commander Bretonnet, an expedition surprised by the Touaregs and entirely massacred.
Michel Bréal was a French philologist born of French parents in Landau, in the Rhine Palatinate, on March 26, 1832. Trained at the École normale and in Berlin under Albrecht Weber and Franz Bopp, founder of comparative grammar, he returned to France in 1859, succeeded Ernest Renan at the Imperial Library, and was elected in 1866 to the chair of comparative grammar at the Collège de France; member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts in 1875, he was inspector general of higher education from 1879 to 1888. Translator of Bopp's comparative grammar (Paris, 1867-78), he is above all the author of the "Essai de sémantique" (Paris, 1897), which founded this discipline.
Adolphe Brecher is an Austrian physician born in Prossnitz, in Moravia, in 1831, and died in Olmütz on 13 April 1894, son of physician Gédéon Brecher. Trained at the University of Prague, first in Jewish studies then in medicine, he settles in Olmütz in 1859 and practices there until his death; a brilliant mind and poet full of humor, he publishes several collections of humorous poems, including 'In müssigen Stunden' (Berlin, 1890) and 'Im Schaukelstuhle' (Berlin, 1891), a poetic translation of the Psalms (Vienna, 1862), and completes the unfinished work of his father on biblical proper nouns (Frankfurt, 1877).
Eliezer b. Moses Bregman is a Russian financier and philanthropist born in Indoura (Amdour), government of Grodno, in 1826, and died in Teplitz, Bohemia, on 3 September 1896. A prominent businessman in Grodno, where he settled young, he is known throughout Russia as a farmer of the Korobka (tax on meat) in several major cities of the empire; the government rewarded his enterprises and charitable works with a gold medal and the title of hereditary honorary citizen, and he devoted more than one hundred thousand rubles to charitable institutions.
Édouard Breier is an Austrian writer born in Varasdin, in Croatia, on 3 November 1811, and died in Zaiwitz, near Znaïm, in Moravia, on 3 June 1886. His first novel, "Der Fluch des Rabbi," published in 1840 and written in eleven days during a leave while he was an artilleryman, immediately made him known and decided him to become a journalist and novelist; he directs the "Prager Zeitung" until its suppression in 1848, then settles in Vienna, where he becomes a popular novelist of Jewish and Austrian subjects, such as "Die Sendung des Rabbi," "Die Sabbathianer" and "Wien und Rom."
Max Breitenstein is an Austrian writer and translator born in Iglau, Moravia, on November 10, 1855. Educated at the gymnasium of his native city then at the University of Vienna, he turned to journalism in 1876 and founded the weekly « Alma Mater », which he directed until 1881; he compiled several reference works for Austrian universities, including the « Kommersbuch der Wiener Studenten » (1880, 3rd ed. 1890), published essays and translations from English, and directed the « Wiener Correspondenz » and the « Allgemeine Juristen-Zeitung ».
Marcus Heymann Breslau is an author and journalist born in Breslau, Germany, and died in London on 14 May 1864. Left for London at a young age, where he teaches Hebrew and serves a synagogue, he contributes to the « Hebrew Review » of Dr. M. J. Raphall, then directs for several years the « Jewish Chronicle », becoming its sole owner and editor at the death of his partner, before selling it shortly after; he takes part in almost all movements of the Anglo-Jewish press, publishes a Hebrew grammar and dictionary, and translates from German devotional exercises for women.
Hermann Breslauer is an Austrian neuropathist born in Duschnik, Bohemia, on November 10, 1835. Trained at the gymnasium of Pilsen then at the university of Vienna, he obtained his doctorate in medicine there in 1860 and established himself as a physician the same year; assistant to Professor Leidersdorf from 1861 to 1872, he founded then, with Dr. Fries, a private hospital for mental and nervous diseases in Inzersdorf, near Vienna.
Max Breslauer is a German chemist born in Trebnitz, in Prussian Silesia, on June 19, 1856, graduated in philosophy from the universities of Leipzig, Heidelberg and Breslau. Appointed in 1880 judicial and police chemist in Lissa, in Prussia, then in 1882 head of the experimental bureau of the health council of Brandenburg-on-the-Havel, he is called four years later to Berlin for the same function. Author of numerous essays in German professional journals, he notably publishes methods for analyzing drinking water (1884), air (1885), milk (1886) and breast milk (1892).
Heinrich Bresnitz is an Austrian author and journalist born in Czernowitz, Bucovina, in 1844. He founded in Vienna in 1867 the periodical 'Der Osten', then in 1869 the political newspaper 'Der Patriot'; owner and editor-in-chief of the 'Morgen-Post' from 1879 to 1886, he was also the author of political pamphlets, including 'Die Verfassungspartei und das Ministerium Hohenwart' and 'Betrachtungen über den Ausgleich', and traveled to Bulgaria in 1893.
Harry Bresslau is a German historian born in Dannenberg, in Hanover, on 22 March 1848. He studied history at Göttingen from 1866 to 1869, taught in Berlin as a privatdozent, became assistant professor in 1877, then, in 1890, professor at the University of Strasbourg; corresponding member of the Munich Academy in 1887, he joined in 1888 the editorial committee of the « Monumenta Germaniae Historica ». He notably established that the account according to which Charlemagne would have brought Rabbi Kalonymus of Lucca as chief rabbi of all the Jews was a fabrication, and that the charter granted by Henry IV to the Jews of Speyer was apocryphal.
Mendel ben Hayyim Juda Bresslau is a bookseller of Breslau who died in 1829, collaborator of the periodical « Ha-Méassef » and author of an allegorical ethical dialogue, « Yaldout ou-Vaharout » (Breslau, 1786); he also wrote « Guelilot Erets Israël », a geography of Palestine accompanied by two maps (Breslau, 1819), and « Réchit ha-Kériah », an alphabet and Hebrew grammar following the phonetic method (Breslau, 1834).
Ludwig Brieger is a German physician and medical writer born in Glatz, in Prussian Silesia, on July 26, 1849. Graduated in medicine from the University of Strasbourg in 1875, he practiced in Berlin from 1878, where he became privatdozent in 1881, full professor in 1887, opened a private dispensary in 1890 and became senior physician of the university hospital for contagious diseases in 1891, then holder of the chair of pathology in 1897. Recognized author of numerous essays on pharmacology and bacteriology, he notably signed a three-volume work on ptomaines (Berlin, 1885-86), demonstrating that bacteria develop their virulence through a specific toxic product.
John Bright is an English statesman and orator born in Greenbank on November 16, 1811 and died in Rochdale on March 27, 1889; the idea that his mother, Martha Jacobs, would have been Jewish is erroneous, such biblical names not being rare in English peasantry. He became on several occasions a resolute advocate of the political emancipation of the Jews of England, delivering on May 14, 1849 a vigorous speech in favor of their right to sit in Parliament, taking the same position again in 1851 during the Salomons affair, and giving, in his speech of April 15, 1853 on the Jewish Disabilities Bill, the most vigorous expression of his principles of religious equality.
Azriel Brill is a rabbi and Hungarian author of the first half of the nineteenth century, dayyan in Pest. He wrote « Hadrat Kodech », containing the Mishnaic treatises Rosh ha-Shanah and Yoma with commentary and German translation, a collection of prescriptions and prayers for the Ten Days of Repentance, an essay on the Temple ritual for Yom Kippur, and a Hebrew calendar extending to the year 6000 (Ofen, 1827).
Joseph Brill, known as « Ayov », was a Russian Hebrew educator and writer born in Gorki, near Mogilev, on the Dnepr, in 1839. Trained at the yeshivot of Shklov and Vitebsk, he settled in Minsk, where he opened a school for Jewish boys and remained active as a teacher and writer, publishing early on in « Ha-Maggid », « Ha-Meliz » and « Ha-Karmel » articles in remarkable Hebrew style and fine humor. He notably published a translation of the drama by Richard Cumberland, « Ich Yehoudi » (Vilna, 1884), satirical texts in « Otsar ha-Sifrout » (Kraków, 1890 and 1892), and caricatures of contemporary Hebrew writers in « Ha-Chahar » (Vienna, 1879).
Josef B. Brociner is president of the Union of Hebrew communities of Romania, born in Jassy in October 1846. He co-founds the Unimea Israelita, settles in 1867 as a merchant in Galatz, and becomes in 1873 president of the local committee of the Universal Israelite Alliance; he represents Romania, in 1876, at the Paris conference of the Alliance chaired by Adolphe Crémieux for the defense of Oriental Jews. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, he directs the ambulance committee, then goes in 1878 to Budapest, Vienna and Berlin to rally the support of Jewish communities to the Romanian cause at the Berlin Congress; he was also president of the Jewish community of Galatz.
Abraham b. Chalom Broda is a Russian rabbinic author born in Wilna in the early nineteenth century and died in that city after 1860, son of R. Chalom b. Aaron, who died in 1805 while still young and leading the community. R. Abraham is the author of two works: « Bet Wa'ad », a collection of rules concerning sitting or standing during various religious services, with an appendix on weights and measures (Wilna, 1832), and « Bayit ha-Gadol », a commentary on the Pirké Rabbi Éliézer published with the text (Wilna, 1838); he indicates at the end of the latter that he also drafted a commentary on the Mekhilta, which remained unpublished for lack of means.
Benjamin b. Aaron Broda is a Lithuanian rabbi and talmudist who died on September 1, 1818 in Grodno, the most renowned of the five sons of the talmudist Aaron Broda, rabbi of Kalvarien, and direct descendant of the famous Abraham b. Saül Broda. Thanks to his wealth and family connections, he obtained in 1791 the rabbinate of Grodno, a succession which provokes a sharp communal dispute throughout his tenure, and which leads at his death to leave the position of chief rabbi permanently vacant. His son Hayyim Broda is the author of « Torah Or ve-Dérekh ha-Hayyim » (Grodno, 1823), a detailed commentary on the sixty chapters of the « Yoré Déah » of Caro.
Adolph Brodsky is a Russian violinist born in Taganrog on 21 March 1851; he performs in concert from the age of nine in Odessa. Trained by professor Helmesberger in Vienna, he is appointed in 1875 professor at the Moscow Conservatory, directs in 1879 the symphonic concerts of Kiev, and has taught since 1882 at the Leipzig Conservatory; in 1891, he leaves for the United States on tour, before becoming, on his return, principal professor at the Royal College of Music in Manchester and conductor of the Hallé concerts, succeeding in 1895 Sir Charles Hallé as director of the college.
Sándor Bródy is a Hungarian writer and journalist born in Erlau in 1863, who devoted himself entirely to literature after his studies; editor of the « Erdélyi Hiradó » from 1888 to 1890, he subsequently contributed to the « Magyar Hirlap » and has been producing since 1882 an abundant output of articles, serials, stories and novels for major Hungarian literary publications, where he depicts the dark side of life in the manner of the French realist school. Translated into German as into several other languages, he achieved wide popular success, and in 1901 adapted his novel « Hófehérke » into a theater piece, performed with considerable success at the National Theater of Budapest.
Sigmund Bródy was a Hungarian journalist and member of the Upper House of Parliament, born on November 15, 1840 in Miskolcz. He began his career in journalism early, publishing his first editorial in 1859 and directing from 1860 the "Pesti Hölgydivatlap"; after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, he became associate editor of the "Pesti Napló," the most brilliant period of his career. In 1872, he briefly held a position at the Ministry of the Interior, then purchased the "Neues Pester Journal" the following year, bringing it to unprecedented circulation; he was appointed in 1896 a life member of the Upper House.
Robert Browning is an English poet born in Clerkenwell, London, in 1812, and died in Venice December 12, 1889. His somewhat Jewish appearance and his sympathy for the Jews long led to a belief in Jewish ancestry, since disproved by his genealogy; his interest likely stems from the position his father obtained at the Bank of England through the Rothschilds, with whom the poet remained connected his entire life. Several of his poems deal with Jewish subjects, notably 'Rabbi Ben Ezra' and 'Jochanan Hakkadosh.' In 1881, he signed the memorial calling on the lord mayor to protest against persecutions of Russian Jews, and joined in 1887 the council of the Anglo-Jewish exhibition.
Isaac Broydé is a Russian orientalist born in Porozowo, government of Grodno, on February 23, 1867. He left in 1883 for Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne, obtained his diploma from the School of Oriental Languages in 1892 and from the School of Higher Studies in 1894; secretary of Joseph Derenbourg from 1890 to 1895, he continued the publication of Saadia's works and became librarian of the Universal Israelite Alliance, a position he left in 1900 for London and then New York. He translated into Hebrew the « Reflections on the Soul » by Bahya ibn Pakuda (Paris, 1894).
Abraham Jacob Bruck is a Russian educator, author of works in Hebrew and Russian, born in the district of Rossienny in 1820 and died in Yekaterinoslav in 1893. Trained at the yeshiva of Volozhin, he learned on his own Hebrew grammar as well as Russian, German, French and English; for a long time professor of Hebrew at the state school for Jewish boys in Kherson, he then founded a private school for Jewish girls, subsidized by the state, which earned him an official medal. Assiduous collaborator of Russian and Hebrew Jewish press, he translated into Hebrew, under the title « Hatan Damim » (Lemberg, 1878), a French novel by L. Z—ski depicting the life of Jews in Russia.
Jacob Bruck is a Hungarian physician and author born in Pápa on October 20, 1845 and died in Budapest in 1901, brother of Abraham Jacob Bruck. Graduated in medicine from the University of Budapest in 1870, he practiced in that city from 1874 and became, the following year, consulting physician at the Erzsébet saltwater baths, a position he held until his death; judge at the National Exhibition of 1885 and then member of the Millenary Exhibition committee of 1896, he was also national health counselor. His works, chiefly on women's diseases and hydrotherapy, appeared in medical journals « Gyógyászat », « Fürdöi Lapok » and « Pester Medicinische Presse », of which he was for a time editor.
Julius Bruck is a German dentist and medical author born in Breslau on October 6, 1840 and died in that city on April 20, 1902. Trained in dental medicine at the universities of Breslau, Berlin, Bonn, and Paris, graduated as a dentist in Berlin in 1858 and earned his medical doctorate in Breslau in 1866, he became in 1859 the assistant to his father, the dentist Jonas Bruck, whom he succeeded in his practice; admitted in 1871 as privatdozent to the medical faculty of Breslau, he received the honorary title of professor in 1891. He authored several works on gum and dental pulp diseases, as well as on congenital facial and jaw malformations.
Lajos Bruck is a Hungarian painter born in Pápa, in the county of Veszprém, in November 1846. Destined for commerce by his father, he turned early to drawing and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna; in 1871, thanks to a government scholarship, he left to study the Italian masters, spending two years in Venice before going to Rome and Naples, a journey from which came the painting that made him known in 1873, «The Rialto in Venice». Settled in Paris in 1874, he exhibited at the Salon from 1876 and then achieved great success in 1877 with «The Departure for the City», becoming a regular painter of Hungarian popular life before settling in London.
Max Bruck is a Hungarian painter born in Budapest in 1863, brother of Lajos Bruck. Graduated from the schools of his native city, where he already showed a taste for drawing, he continued his studies at the National Academy of Drawing, devoting himself to wood carving; in 1880, he accompanied his brother to Paris, where he remained for several years, then spent three years in Munich. Back in Budapest, he entered Benczúr's art school and became professor at the Academy of Painting; among his best-known paintings are « Zwei Liebespaare » and « Bis wir alt werden », preserved in the imperial castles of Vienna and Budapest.
Henrietta Bruckman is the founder of the first Jewish women's lodge in America, born in Bohemia in April 1810 and died in New York in April 1888. Wife of Dr. Philip Bruckman, she came with him to the United States around 1842 and settled in New York, where the couple greatly helped immigrants from Bohemia; she conceived the idea of organizing a women's lodge and spoke about it to several ladies of the Emanu-El congregation. An informal meeting was held at her home in 1846, resulting, on April 21 of that same year, in the founding of the "Unabhängiger Orden Treuer Schwestern" (Independent Order of True Sisters), a secret benevolent society.
Ignaz Brüll is an Austrian composer born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on November 7, 1846; his family settled in Vienna in 1848, where he became a student of Epstein, Rufinatscha and Dessoff. In 1861, Epstein successfully performed a piano concerto composed by his young student, then appointed in 1872 professor at the Horak institute in Vienna. His second opera, « Das Goldene Kreuz » (Berlin, 1875), achieved immense success, Emperor Wilhelm I himself congratulating the composer; followed « Bianca » (Dresden, 1879) and « Gringoire » (Munich, 1892). Brüll remains a renowned pianist, intimate friend of Brahms.
Jakob Brüll is an Austrian Talmudist and author born in Neu-Raussnitz, Moravia, on November 16, 1812, and died in Kojetein on November 29, 1889. Trained in the yeshivot of Bonyhád, Pressburg and Budapest, he was elected rabbi of Kojetein in 1843, a position he held until his death; among his students were his two sons, Nehemia and Adolf Brüll, as well as David Kaufmann. He wrote "Forschungen über Targumim und Midraschim" (1852), "Die Mnemonik des Talmud" (1864) and "Mebo ha-Michna" (2 vol., 1876, 1885), and published "Ben Zekounim" a week before his death.
Nehemia Brüll is a rabbi and scholar born on March 16, 1843 in Neu-Raussnitz, in Moravia, and died on February 5, 1891 in Frankfurt-am-Main, son of the Talmudist Jakob Brüll. Trained in the Talmud by his father and then at the University of Vienna, where he frequented the beit ha-midrash directed by I. H. Weiss, M. Friedmann and Adolf Jellinek, he becomes a resolute reformer, disciple of Geiger; rabbi of Bisenz, a reformed community of Moravia, he leaves this post in 1870 for the rabbinate of Frankfurt, which he occupies until his death despite growing opposition. His research embraces almost all branches of Jewish science, collected in the ten volumes of his « Jahrbücher » (Frankfurt, 1874-90).
Arnold William Brunner is an American architect, son of William Brunner and Isabelle Solomon, born in New York on September 25, 1857. Trained in Manchester and then in New York, graduate of the special course in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is among the founders of the Architectural League of New York in 1881; he designed notably the new Post Office and the Courthouse of Cleveland, as well as Temple Beth-El, the synagogues Shearith Israel and Shaaray Tefila, the Educational Alliance and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Temple Mishkan Israel of New Haven and the Frank Memorial Synagogue of Philadelphia.
Sebastian Brunner is an Austrian Catholic theologian, editor and anti-Jewish writer, born on December 10, 1814 in Vienna and died on November 26, 1893 in Währing. Ordained priest in 1838, he is employed by Metternich between 1843 and 1848; he founded in 1848 the « Wiener Katholische Kirchenzeitung », which he directed until 1865, becoming famous for his attacks against Jews. In 1860, editor Ignaz Kuranda of the « Ostdeutsche Post » took the defense of Jews, denouncing his attacks as mere repetitions of accusations from Eisenmenger and Pfefferkorn; prosecuted for defamation, Kuranda is acquitted and Brunner severely reprimanded by the judge for conduct unworthy of a priest.
historien de l'art, écrivain et éditeur allemand (1888-1968)
German author (1881–1956)
Born Bruno Schlesinger in Berlin in 1876, he adopted the stage name « Walter » on the advice of colleagues (Mahler helped him choose it). Close to Gustav Mahler, he conducted the premieres of the Ninth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. He emigrated after 1933 and died in California in 1962. Besides his career as a conductor, he published several books on music and an autobiography.
Léon Lévy Brunswick is a French dramatist born in Paris on April 20, 1805 and died in Le Havre on April 29, 1859, a privileged collaborator of Ad. de Leuven, with whom he writes, as well as with Dumersan and Dupeuty de Beauplan, numerous vaudevilles and comic operas. Among his works are "Gothon du Passage Delorme" (1831), a parody of "Marion Delorme" by Victor Hugo, "Le Postillon de Longjumeau" (1837) and "Le Brasseur de Preston" (1838), both set to music by Adolphe Adam, as well as "Le Roi des Halles" (1853) and "Dans les vignes" (1856).
Juda Löb ben David Brutzkus is a Russian writer born in 1870 in Polangen, governorate of Courland. Trained at the gymnasium and the University of Moscow, from which his family was expelled in 1892, he received his medical degree in 1894; he participated in the Russian-Jewish bibliographic repertory "Sistematitcheski Oukazatel Literatoury o Yevreyakh," collaborated from 1895 with the periodical "Voskhod," of which he became assistant editor in 1899.
Salomon Buber is a Galician scholar and editor of Hebrew texts, born in Lemberg on February 2, 1827, son of Isaiah Abraham Buber. Married young, he enters business and becomes commercial councillor then auditor of the Austro-Hungarian bank and the Galician savings bank, while long directing the community of Lemberg. Passionate about midrashic literature, he publishes in 1868 a learned edition of the « Pesikta de-Rab Kahana », praised for its new method; followed, by the same method, other midrashic editions, including the « Midrash Tanhouma » (Vilna, 1885) and the « Midrash Tehillim » (Vilna, 1891).
Charles Adolphus Buchheim is a professor of German language and literature at King's College London, born in Moravia in 1828 and died in London on June 4, 1900. A graduate of the University of Vienna, settled in Paris then, after 1852, in London, he became professor at King's College in 1863 and examiner of German for the universities of London, Oxford and Cambridge, having also served as German tutor to the children of the Prince of Wales, future Edward VII. Translator of novels by Dickens, he published « Deutsche Lyrik » (1875) and Heine's « Lieder und Gedichte » (1897); Oxford University awarded him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1898.
P. Buchholz is a German rabbi born on October 2, 1837 and died in Emden, in Hanover, on September 20, 1892. Rabbi of Märkisch-Friedland from 1863 to 1867, then of Stargard in Pomerania, he became in 1875 Chief Rabbi of Frisia, a position he held with distinction until his death; a good Talmudist, also versed in modern philosophy, he published a work on the legal and moral relations of the family according to Jewish law (Breslau, 1867) as well as several historical articles in German Jewish periodicals.
Alexander Büchler was born in Fülek, Hungary, in 1869, son of rabbi talmudist Phinehas Büchler of Moór. Trained at the gymnasium of Székesfehérvár then at the university and seminary of Budapest, he obtained his doctorate in 1893, was ordained rabbi in 1895 and called to Keszthely in 1897. His works focus on the history of Jews in Hungary, published in « Magyar Zsidó Szemle » and « Oesterreichische Wochenschrift », as well as in Hungarian and Hebrew works, including « Niederlassungen der Juden in Europa im XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert » (Budapest, 1893) and a « History of the Jews of Budapest » (1901).
Abraham Cohen Bucuresteanu is a Romanian publicist born in Bucharest in 1840 and died in that city on January 24, 1877. Passionate about theater from his youth, he finally devoted himself to commerce on the advice of his family, but composed, between 1860 and 1874, satirical poems, epigrams and love songs much appreciated by the public. His tumultuous life, marked by love and jealousy, led him prematurely to the grave; he published himself only « Urdubelea şi Norocul » (Bucharest, 1873) and « Buchetul, culegere de anecdote » (Bucharest, 1874), and founded the Society of Sion, which would become the Great Lodge of Sion, Romanian section of the American B'nai B'rith.
Max Büdinger is an Austrian historian born on April 1, 1828 in Cassel, Germany, and died in Vienna on February 23, 1902. He studied history at Marburg, Bonn and Berlin from 1847 to 1851, became privat-docent at Marburg in 1857 but, with no prospect of a chair because of his Jewish faith, left for Vienna, then was called in 1861 to the University of Zurich as professor of history; from 1872 until his death, he held the chair of history at the University of Vienna, and entered the Vienna Academy of Sciences in 1887. Author of numerous works, including 'Oesterreichische Geschichte bis zum Ausgang des 13. Jahrhunderts' (Leipzig, 1858), he converted to Protestantism.
Hugo Bürger, known under the pen name Lubliner, is a German dramatist born in Breslau on April 22, 1846. Arriving in Berlin at age twelve, he had his first one-act comedy performed at seventeen, « Nur nicht romantisch » (1865); after managing a textile business, the great success of his comedy « Der Frauenadvokat » (1873) led him to devote himself entirely to theater. Between 1876 and 1891, he wrote about fifteen comedies and dramas, including « Die Florentiner » (1876) and « Gabriele » (1878), and published a four-volume edition of his theater (Berlin, 1881-82).
Isidor Bush is a man of letters, publicist and vintner born in Prague on January 15, 1822 and died in Saint Louis, Missouri on August 5, 1898, great-great-grandson of Israël Hönig, first Jew ennobled in Austria. He edited for six years (1842-47) the « Kalender und Jahrbuch für Israeliten » of Vienna, bringing together Jewish authors of all tendencies; liberal in politics, he had to flee to New York after the failure of the 1848 revolution, where he founded in 1849 « Israel's Herold », the first Jewish weekly newspaper in the United States. Settled in Saint Louis, he became in 1857 president of the People's Savings Bank and served in 1861 as aide-de-camp to General Frémont.
William Bertrand Busnach is a French dramatist born in Paris on March 7, 1832, nephew of composer Fromental Halévy; his father, an Algerian Jew who became a naturalized Italian under the Deys, chief interpreter of the French army, settled in Paris in 1835. First employed at customs, William then devoted himself to theater, where he enjoyed numerous successes, notably his adaptations of celebrated novels to the stage: "L'Assommoir" (1881) and "Nana" (1882), after Émile Zola, count among his greatest triumphs. He is also the author of novels, including "La Fille de M. Lecoq" (1886) and "Cyprienne Guérard" (1895).
Lämmlein Buttenwieser is a German Talmudist and linguist born in Wassertrüdingen, Bavaria, on January 16, 1825, and died in New York on September 23, 1901, from a family of German rabbis. Trained at the gymnasium of Aschaffenburg and at the universities of Würzburg and Prague, he obtained his rabbinical diploma from several masters; he emigrated to America in 1854 and, little attracted to the rabbinical ministry, became a language professor, teaching in Cincinnati and then, in 1867, in Philadelphia. Established as a private tutor in New York in 1873, he was appointed the same year professor of languages in the public schools, a position he held until his resignation in 1886.
Émile Byk is an Austrian lawyer and deputy born on January 14, 1845 in Janow, near Trembowla, in Galicia. Elected in 1885 president of the charity committee of the Cultusrath of Lemberg, he also became president of the community; municipal councillor and president of the Shomer Israël Society in 1890, he was elected in 1891 to represent Brody and Zloczow in the Reichsrath, a mandate renewed at each subsequent election. Member of several Reichsrath commissions, he delivered a speech in 1893 on the establishment of a Jewish theological seminary, and defended in 1898 the publicity of the sessions of an investigative commission.
German rabbi
Abraham Cahan is a novelist and labor union leader of Russian-American origin born in Podberejie, government of Wilna, on July 7, 1860. His Orthodox family settles in Wilna in 1866; attracted to secular learning, he studies Russian clandestinely, enters the Institute for Teachers of Wilna, from which he graduates in 1881, then, forced to flee Russia after a search related to his revolutionary activities, arrives in New York in June 1882. A pioneer of the New York Yiddish socialist movement, he publishes in 1895 his first short story and, in 1896, his first novel, « Yekl », which attracts the attention of critics on both sides of the Atlantic.
Albert Cahen is a French composer born in Paris on January 8, 1846, student of César Franck for composition and of Mme Szarvady for piano. He became known through « Jean le Précurseur », a biblical poem (1874), « Le Bois », comic opera (1880), « Endymion », mythological poem (1883), « La Belle au bois dormant », fairy operetta (1886), « Le Vénitien », four-act opera (1890), « Fleur des neiges », ballet (1891), and « La Femme de Claude », three-act lyric drama (1896).
Coralie Cahen is a French philanthropist born in Nancy in 1832 and died in Paris 12 March 1899, wife of Mayer Cahen, chief physician of the North Company. Having lost her husband and only daughter before 1870, she devoted herself to relieving the unfortunate, founding in 1866 the Maison israélite de refuge pour l'enfance at Romainville. During the 1870 war, she served as senior nurse at Metz then at Vendôme, and undertook three trips to Germany to aid French soldiers in captivity. M. de Freycinet decorated her in 1889, and the "Refuge" which she directed until her death was transferred to Neuilly, where it was inaugurated on 4 June 1883.
Isidore Cahen is a French scholar and journalist born in Paris in 1826 and died in that city on March 6, 1902. Graduate of the Charlemagne College, he entered the Normal School in philosophy, where he counted among his classmates Edmond About and Hippolyte Taine; third in the exit examination in 1849, he obtained the agrégation in philosophy, but lost his position at the Napoleon-Vendée lyceum following a clerical cabal. He then devoted himself to journalism, contributing to the "Journal des débats" and then the "Temps"; upon the death of his father Samuel Cahen, he took over the direction of the "Archives israélites" until his death, while teaching from 1859 to 1878 at the Paris Jewish Seminary.
Arnold Cahn is a German physician born in Worms on April 11, 1858. After gymnasium, he studies medicine at the University of Strasbourg, from which he graduates in 1881; assistant at the university hospital from 1882 to 1885, he becomes privat-docent that same year and then assistant professor in 1895. Cahn has published numerous articles in medical journals, his specialty being the physiology of digestion.
David Léon Cahun is a French orientalist and writer born on June 23, 1841 in Haguenau, Alsace, and died in Paris on March 30, 1900. Originally destined for a military career, he devotes himself to geographical and historical studies; he publishes travel accounts from Egypt as early as 1863, explores Egypt and Nubia in 1864, and then, having returned to France in 1866, becomes a political journalist. Volunteer enlisted in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, he subsequently devotes himself to Turkish and Tatar studies, enters the Bibliothèque Mazarine in 1875, and publishes a series of historical novels, including « Les Aventures du capitaine Magon » (1875) and « La Bannière bleue » (1876), on the Crusades.
German woman of letters and activist for women's voting rights, born in Arolsen in 1832 and died in Cassel in 1887. She directed a boarding school for poor girls in Cassel and was one of the founding members of the Allgemeine Deutsche Frauenverein. Besides works on domestic economy and etiquette, she wrote several novels and collections of poems.
Belgian politician
French Impressionist painter born in the Danish West Indies, a paternal figure of the movement. He influenced Cézanne and Gauguin.
Born in Colmar, nephew and son-in-law of the physician Germain Sée. Deputy then Councillor of State, he filed in 1878 the bill which, enacted on 21 December 1880 (« Camille Sée law »), established public secondary education for young girls in France, with the creation of girls' secondary schools and colleges.
Born in a bourgeois Jewish family of Ivrea (father Salvador Benedetto, mother Elvira Sacerdoti, from Modena), he founded in 1896 "Ing. C. Olivetti & Co." and launched in 1908-1909 the first Italian production of typewriters, seeking to make his firm one of the most advanced in Europe, both socially and technically.
Hebrew poet who lived in Warsaw in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is the author of an elegy on the death of Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, published in Warsaw in 1826, as well as Toledot Mosheh, a dramatic poem in two acts on the life of Moses, published with other poems in 1829; he also composed an ode for the dedication of a house of prayer and study in 1840.
German physician and medical author, born in Regensburg in 1807 and died in Erlangen in 1850. He studied in Vienna and then in Würzburg under Schönlein, where he obtained his doctorate in 1831, before going to Paris to study Asiatic cholera. He then practiced in Brussels until 1838, then was called in 1843 to the chair of pathology at the University of Erlangen, where he founded in 1841 the Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Gesammten Medicin, continued after his death by Professor Virchow.
German mathematician, born in Saint Petersburg in 1845. He entered the University of Zurich in 1862, then studied in Berlin until 1867, where he received his doctorate; admitted as privat-docent at the University of Halle in 1869, he became assistant professor there in 1872 and full professor a few years later. He is the creator of set theory and the theory of transfinite numbers, expounded notably in his Grundlagen einer Allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre, published in Leipzig in 1883.
American lawyer and politician, born in New York in 1854, grandson of Agil Hanau, cantor of the synagogue of Dukes Place in London. Member of the New York State Assembly in 1887 then State Senator from 1888 to 1898, he presided over the Senate in 1893-94 and was elected in 1901 president of the borough of Manhattan. He notably defended the Freedom of Worship Bill, guaranteeing equal religious rights to all inmates of prisons and houses of correction.
German historian of mathematics, born in Mannheim in 1829, from a family that came from Portugal via Holland. He studied at Heidelberg from 1848 and then at Göttingen, obtained his doctorate at Heidelberg in 1851, and became a privat-docent there in 1853, assistant professor in 1863, and honorary professor in 1877. His major work, the Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, published in three volumes from 1880 to 1898, traces the development of mathematics through the time of Lagrange.
French publicist and historian, born in Marseille in 1802 and died in Paris in 1872. Among his numerous historical works, he wrote a history of the Jews, the Philosophical History of the Jews from the Decline of the Maccabees to Our Times, published in Paris in 1833, of which only the first of three planned volumes, covering the period from the decline of the Maccabees to the sixth century, was published.
Jewish traveler born in Salonica. On the occasion of a business trip to Yemen in 1874, he studied the situation of Jews in the region and published in Judeo-Spanish an account of his journey, Zikron Teman ó el Viage en el Yémen, in Constantinople in 1875. He traveled through the interior of Arabia, taking particular interest in the community of Sanaa, and intervened with the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Chief Rabbi of Constantinople to have a rabbi sent there.
French poet, born in Marseille in 1826 and died in 1891. A prolific author, he published between 1852 and 1887 numerous collections of poems and theatrical pieces in verse, notably « Premières Lueurs », in 1852, and a « Théâtre d'Enfants » intended for young actors, in 1878.
Physician and French municipal counselor, member of the Academy of Nîmes and son of David Carcassonne; died in Marseille in 1894. He is the author notably of Questions on Various Branches of Medical Sciences, in Paris in 1842, of a report on the work of the councils of hygiene and public health of Nîmes, in 1866, and of a notice on Philippe Boileau de Castelnau, in 1882.
Consul of Tunis and Algeria in Gibraltar around 1805, descendant of a Judeo-Portuguese family. Delegate of General Fox, governor of Gibraltar, he concluded on November 5, 1805 a treaty with Sidi Mahomet, bey of Oran, for the supply of the garrison of Gibraltar, and managed to save three English sailors imprisoned in Oran and sentenced to death. In 1824, he was made a knight of the Legion of Honor by Louis XVIII of France, and presided for many years over the Hebrew community and the chamber of commerce of Gibraltar.
Dutch Talmudist and important community leader, born in Amsterdam in 1808 and died in that city in 1890. Trained from an early age at the bet ha-midrash 'Eẓ Ḥayyim and with Rabbi Berenstein in The Hague, he received his diploma of « Morenou » in 1839 and was, that same year, appointed member of the rabbinical court of the Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam, then in 1852 president of that court and preacher of the synagogue. He directed the intermediate classes of 'Eẓ Ḥayyim for nearly half a century, founded the Ḥebrah 'Abodat ha-Ḳodesh, and retired from his duties in 1888 after being decorated by the King of the Netherlands with the order of the Lion.
Austrian actor
American producer (1867-1939)
Born in Livorno in 1877 in a Jewish family, he was a lecturer in Sanskrit and later taught paleography at the University of Bologna. He devoted himself especially to the study of Hebrew texts, printed and manuscript, cataloged the Hebrew manuscripts of the library of Talmud Torà in Livorno and those of the Ambrosiana in Milan. As a Jew, he was dismissed from teaching in the middle of the academic year 1938-39 by fascist racial laws. A street in Livorno bears his name.
Italian philosopher and poet from a Jewish family in Gorizia (Ashkenazi descent). He took his own life at age 23 shortly after completing his dissertation La persuasione e la rettorica, a radical critique of existence opposing "persuasion" (self-possession) to "rhetoric." His father directed the local branch of Assicurazioni Generali.
Italian Jewish intellectual and politician, founder of the antifascist movement 'Giustizia e Libertà', assassinated in France in 1937 with his brother Nello Rosselli by agents of the Cagoule on orders of the Mussolini regime.
Rabbi and German historian, born in 1844 near Posen, son of the exegete and preacher Joseph Ḥayyim Caro, rabbi of Wloclawek. After studies in Bromberg, at the Jewish theological seminary and at the University of Breslau, then a doctorate from Heidelberg, he was a preacher in Lodz then in Mewe, before becoming rabbi in Dirschau from 1870, in Erfurt from 1879, in Pilsen from 1881, then chief rabbi of Lviv from 1891. He published notably a Geschichte der Juden in Lemberg bis zur Theilung Polens, in Krakow, in 1894.
Lecturer in history at the University of Zurich, born in 1867 in Glogau, Prussia. After studies at several German universities crowned by a doctorate in Strasbourg in 1891, and a stay in Italy, notably in Genoa, he became privatdocent at Zurich in 1896. His work concerns the history of Northern Italy in the Middle Ages, particularly the Republic of Genoa, notably in Genua und die Mächte am Mittelmeer, published from 1895 onwards.
German historian, born in Gnesen, in the province of Posen, in 1836, son of Joseph Ḥayyim Caro. After studies in Berlin and Leipsic, he gained attention for his work Das Interregnum Polens im Jahr 1586, published in Gotha in 1861, then took up the continuation of Röppel's history of Poland, to which he contributed from 1863; appointed privat-docent in Jena in 1863, then assistant professor, he was called in 1869 to a chair of history at the University of Breslau, where he has been professor since 1882. His reputation rests principally on his research in Polish history.
Italian political economist, born in 1820 in Bologna. First deputy elected to the Italian Parliament by the city of Ferrara, he subsequently divided his time between Bologna and Rome, where he contributed to Popolo Romano, and illuminated the social and moral conditions of unified Italy by the information he gathered in all branches of the administration. His only work directly linked to Jewish interests was Alcune Parole Sugli Israeliti in Occasione di un Decreto Pontifico d'Interdizione, published in Florence in 1847.
German artist (1881-1942)
French engineer, born in Talence, Gironde, in 1820. Graduated at the head of his class from the École polytechnique and the École des ponts et chaussées, he served as an engineer on the Midi railway, where he notably constructed the Bouzanne viaduct, then directed the canalization of the Ebro in Spain, where he established an irrigation system allowing the cultivation of vast previously barren lands, before directing the works of Roman railways in Italy and building the line from Pamplona to Zaragoza. Founder of the Alliance israélite universelle, he was for many years a member of its steering committee.
German physician
Australian community worker, born in 1814 and died in South Melbourne in 1886. One of the oldest settlers of Victoria, he arrived in Melbourne in 1838 after a two-year stay in Sydney, presided over the Hebrew congregation of Melbourne and was administrator of the Bourke Street synagogue, as well as the first Jewish member of the municipal council and the first Jewish magistrate of the colony; he held for seventeen years the position of meat market inspector.
Biochemist born in Warsaw into an intellectual Polish Jewish family (father Jakub Funk, dermatologist). He coined the term « vitamin » in 1912 following his work at the Lister Institute in London on beriberi. PhD from the University of Bern (1904); died in Albany (New York State) in 1967.
Orientalist and biblical scholar German of Jewish origin, born in Dessau in 1814 and died in 1892; raised in the Jewish faith, he converted to Christianity in 1838, then was called in 1847 to the University of Christiania, where he remained until his death. His most lasting work is his Grammatica Arabica, published from 1844 onwards and became the reference Arabic grammar, to which are added several biblical commentaries, including those on Obadiah in 1842, on Micah in 1851 and on Isaiah in 1867, as well as a Norwegian translation of the Psalter in 1851 and the direction of the new Norwegian translation of the Bible in 1891.
Journalist and chess columnist, born in 1850 in Konitz, in western Prussia, where his father was a rabbi. Left for England in 1879, he began as chess editor of the Bradford Observer-Budget, organized the Yorkshire County Chess Club and organized the Blackburne-Günsberg match in 1887 and then the international tournament of chess masters in 1888 in Bradford. He left England in 1889 for Havana, then became in 1890 chess editor of the New York newspapers The Sun and Staats-Zeitung, contributed to creating the Staats-Zeitung and Rice trophies, and organized the first cable chess match between the clubs of Manhattan and Great Britain.
German physician, born in 1859 in Schwerin-on-the-Warta, in the province of Posen. Trained at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1883, he established himself the same year as a physician in Berlin, was assistant to Baginsky until 1890, then opened a children's hospital; he contributed to numerous medical journals and published notably, in Berlin in 1901, his study on the examination of mentally deficient schoolchildren.
Converted to Christianity and missionary to the Jews, born in 1821 in Gross-Glogau, Silesia, and died in 1892 near Berlin. After directing royalist newspapers in Erfurt from 1849 and having himself baptized in 1855, he was appointed in 1867 missionary of the London Society for the Propagation of Christianity among Jews and assigned to the Christuskirche in Berlin, while combating antisemitism in several writings published between 1880 and 1885.
Hazzan of the Judeo-Portuguese community of Hamburg, born in Amsterdam in 1808 and died in Hamburg in 1893. Elected hazzan in 1827, a post he held until his death, he was also its spiritual leader, authorized to celebrate marriages, and also worked as a teacher and translator, being appointed in 1843 sworn interpreter of the city of Hamburg; his sudden death left the community without a spiritual leader until 1894, marriages then being celebrated by the rabbi of the German community.
Italian scholar, born in Leghorn, Tuscany, in 1836 and died in 1901. Trained at the rabbinical college of Leghorn, he taught Hebrew and Italian in the city's Jewish schools from 1857 to 1863, then was secretary of the Jewish community of Pisa, before occupying from 1876 until his death the chair of Hebrew at the Istituto di Studi Superiori in Florence. He published numerous works in biblical exegesis and history between 1866 and 1899, among which a commented translation of Ecclesiastes, a study on the Song of Songs, and a history of the Israelites according to biblical sources.
Italian Christian legal scholar, born in Milan in 1801 and died near Lugano in 1869. Though not particularly favorable to Jews, he protested vigorously against the laws that oppressed them in Italy, demonstrating in a work published in Milan in 1899, Ricerche Economiche sulle Interdizioni Imposte dalla Legge Civile agli Israeliti, that their outlawing harmed society as a whole.
Moroccan educator and writer, born in Tetuan in 1851. Trained in Paris by the Alliance israélite universelle, he was entrusted at eighteen years old with founding schools in the East — in Volo in 1869, in Smyrna in 1873, then in Tunis from 1878 onwards —, where he notably organized official Judaism under the French protectorate. Since 1893, he has sat in Buenos Aires on the committee of the colonization fund of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, and published in Paris in 1889 an Essay on the History of the Israelites of Tunisia.
English historian specializing in Jewish history (England, Italy, Marranos, Renaissance). Reader in post-biblical Jewish studies at Merton College (Oxford) from 1938/1939 to 1964, then editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Judaica from 1965 until his death. Author of more than 600 books and articles.
Born Cécile Kahn into a bourgeois republican Jewish family (Alsatian industrialist father who opted for France in 1870). President of the French Union for Women's Suffrage (UFSF) from 1924 to 1946 and editor of the feminist journal La Française. On June 4, 1936, she became Under-Secretary of State for National Education in Léon Blum's Popular Front government, one of the first three women members of a French government.
French philanthropist
Mathematician, first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics from a Canadian university.
German-British endocrinologist and physiologist
Yiddish poetess known for her poems on desire and death.
French author, born in Épinal in 1811 and died in 1858. After studying law, he entered government service, where he held numerous posts, the last being prefect and inspector general of prisons in Grenoble; he is the author of two works, Du Gouvernement d'Alger, in Paris in 1834, and Des Sociétés de Bienfaisance Mutuelle, in Grenoble in 1836.
French journalist, born in Épinal in 1817 and died in Paris in 1883. After having traveled extensively in Algeria and the Orient, he was attached in 1839 to the penitentiary administration of the Ministry of the Interior, then briefly exercised in 1848 the function of commissioner of the republic in the department of Saône-et-Loire. He published numerous writings between 1841 and 1883, including Projet d'un établissement pénitencier à Paris in 1841, Ce que sont les Juifs en France in 1843 and Les Juifs, leurs histoire, leurs mœurs in 1846, and translated several German works into French.
Son of Rabbi Shelomo Bohbot (Kabbalist rabbi of Rabat who ascended to the Holy Land in 1889), Chabbétaï Bohbot was Chief Rabbi of Syria and Lebanon from 1924. He is the author of several works: Méghed Tsion, Hibat Tsion, Yalkout Tsion, Érets héfets, Kouppah chél b'ssamim.
Son of Chacham Moshe Tajir, Rosh Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinical court) in Jerusalem. At age 30 he took a position as rav in Turkestan, which became that of Chief Rabbi, a post he held for eighteen years; he married Miriam Pinchasov (Pinchasov/Mamon family of Bukhara). Returning to Jerusalem in 1914, he subsequently became Chief Rabbi of Beirut and then rav in Damascus.
rabbi of Valozhyn, Moscow, and Jerusalem (1832–1912)
Descendant of the Spira family of Munkács, he became president of the rabbinic court of Munkács in 1903, then Chief Rabbi of the city and surrounding communities. Author of over twenty works on halakha, Torah and Hasidism, including his masterwork in six volumes, the 'Minchas Elazar'. He was a fierce opponent of secular Zionism.
Polish rabbi
Talmudist and specialist in Targum combining rabbinic erudition and modern textual criticism.
Ottoman rabbi (1834–1904)
American Orthodox rabbi (1857–1935)
Rebbe who rebuilt the court of Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak after the Shoah (Shikun Vizhnitz quarter). His teachings were published under the title Imrei Chaïm.
American rabbi
Belarusian rabbi
Grandson of the preceding, born in Essaouira and active in Casablanca, venerated as a saint.
« Reb Chaim Telzer », rosh yeshiva of Telz, architect of the Telzer Derech method of study.
Polish mathematician, writer and journalist
Russian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Russian-American rabbi and scholar (1870–1949)
Rabbi author of the sefer « Beer Chaim », printed in Vilna in 1887 (scan available on HebrewBooks.org, ref. no. 47), as well as the sefer « Divrei Chaim ». Few precise biographical data survive.
Hungarian Rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Rosh yeshiva
Polish activist
rabbi (1864-1948)
20th century Hasidic Rebbe born in Romania, died in the USA
Philosopher and essayist, theorist of Yiddishism and Jewish diasporism.
American rabbi and writer (1881–1973)
Rabbi, printer and publisher born in Baghdad and settled in Algiers. He founded a Hebrew press and distributed abundant popular literature in Judeo-Arabic — translations, tales, works of morality and halakha — intended for the Jews of Algeria.
Music critic and antisemitic Anglo-German writer, born in 1855 in Portsmouth, England, son of Admiral W. C. Chamberlain. Trained in France, Switzerland, and Austria, where he became a private lecturer in philosophy at the University of Vienna, he became known through his works on Richard Wagner and then through his major work, Die Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts, published in Munich in 1899 (fourth edition in 1902), which presents history as a conflict between Aryans and Semites and denounces in all things the intellectual, moral, and religious qualities of Jews, while denying, despite his admiration for Jesus, the Jewish origin of the latter.
French figurative sculptor (1888-1968)
Ukrainian rabbi
Hasidic rabbi (1836-1904)
Fourth Sochatchover Rebbe
rabbi
English educator and community worker, born in 1845. Trained at the Jews' College in London, he became assistant master there and was then appointed director of the Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum, before holding for many years the directorship of the Great Ealing proprietary school; he was also for a time officiating minister of the Western Synagogue of Haymarket, honorary secretary of the Jews' College council, and one of the founders of the public library of Ealing.
Convert to Judaism, born in 1834 and died at Roxborough Castle, Ireland, in 1882. Only daughter of William Meredyth, first Lord Athlumney, she married in 1856 James Molyneux, third Earl of Charlemont; raised in the Christian faith, she became a faithful attendant at synagogue services, seeking counsel from rabbis, frequenting the synagogue near Belfast where she resided as well as those of Bayswater and Central in London. A woman of varied talents, an excellent linguist and good musician, she possessed a remarkable gift for recitation, which she put to the service of charitable works.
German mathematician
British businessman
Merchant born in Strasbourg, co-founder (May 17, 1860) and first treasurer/secretary of the Alliance israélite universelle. Sent to Palestine by the AIU in 1868, he obtained from the Ottomans land near Jaffa and founded in 1870 the agricultural school of Mikvé Israël, the first modern Jewish agricultural colony in the Holy Land. He died at Mikvé Israël in 1882 and is buried there.
Franco-German photographer
American Jewish poet, major figure of objectivism, son of Sarah Yetta (Wolvovsky) and Nathan Reznikoff, who had fled the pogroms of the Russian Empire. His work is strongly traversed by Jewish identity and history (Holocaust, 1975; The Lionhearted, a novel on the Jews of medieval England, 1944). He married Zionist Marie Syrkin.
Doctor of law (1866), agrégé (1867), professor at the law faculties of Nancy and then Paris (1872), of which he became dean in 1906. Elected to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (1893), he was its perpetual secretary from 1918. His works on commercial and maritime law were authoritative.
Geneticist, founder of mutagenesis; discovered the mutagenic effect of mustard gas.
German-American trans actress
German politician
Physician and psychotherapist, author of pioneering work in sexology on bisexuality.
Neo-Hebrew poet and Russian translator, born in Vilna in 1848, later settled in Odessa. His first collection of Hebrew songs, Nite'e Na'amanim, was published in Warsaw in 1869, followed by several other poetic collections in Odessa and Saint Petersburg until 1877, then a partially autobiographical journal in verse, Sefer ha-Yomi, in 1881, and a last Hebrew collection in Warsaw in 1896. He also contributed Yiddish songs to the Volksblatt of Saint Petersburg, published a collection in that language in Cracow in 1888, participated in the Russian translation of Graetz's History of the Jews published in Moscow in 1880, and had a volume of Russian poetry published in 1888.
Russian physician, born in 1832 and died in Odessa in 1902. Settled in that city in 1869, he practiced there for more than thirty years, became in 1870 a member of the Odessa Medical Society and corresponding member of that of Kherson, and distinguished himself through several literary works, notably letters on physiology published in the Russki Vyestnik from 1858 onwards, as well as Russian translations of Professor Lebert's Introduction to Medical Science and Virchow's Cellular Pathology.
Rabbi born in Aleppo, founded a yeshiva; emigrated to Buenos Aires where he prohibited conversions (« Dibber Chaoul »).
President of the rabbinical court of Fès for 50 years, kabbalist; author of Asher li-Shlomo.
French stage actor (1805-1896)
English Christian biblical critic, Oriel Professor of biblical exegesis at Oxford, born in London in 1841. Long the almost sole representative of higher criticism in England, he provided with Professor Driver the variant readings of the Queen's Printers' Bible in 1881, devoted several studies to the book of Isaiah between 1869 and 1898, two versions of the Psalms in 1884 and 1889, and treated the origin of the Psalter in his Bampton Lectures of 1891. He also published Founders of Old Testament Criticism in 1893 and, after a trip to the United States in 1897, lectures on the religious life of postexilic Judaism, before directing the Encyclopedia Biblica.
Founder of Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism and author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch ha-Rav. He developed intellectual Hasidic thought (Chabad).
Hungarian deputy, grandson of Aaron Chorin, born in Arad in 1842. After studying law in Arad, Budapest, and Vienna, he practiced in his native city, became vice-president of the bar, then was elected in 1870 deputy for Arad to the Hungarian Parliament, where he sat for twenty-one years — the law on exchange of 1876 is entirely his work, and his bill for the reform of criminal procedure, inspired by English law, was adopted in 1896. Director from 1881 of the Salgótarján coal company, he often defended his coreligionists in Parliament and represented the city of Szatmár from 1895 to 1901, which made him an honorary citizen in 1902.
Russian traveler, born in Minsk in 1835 and died in Odessa in 1880. Intended by his parents for viticulture, he abandoned this career to explore the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and several countries of Asia for eight years, studying everywhere the life and customs of the inhabitants, particularly the Jews; returning in 1875 without succeeding in publishing his studies, he resumed his life as an explorer and returned, five years later, sick and destitute to Odessa, where he died shortly after. His works on the Caucasus, published as early as 1869 and 1870, attracted the attention of Minister Loris-Melikov, and his manuscripts were edited by A. Harkavy under the title Sefer ha-Massa'ot, in Saint Petersburg, in 1884.
English rabbi and author, born in Krakow in 1844 and trained at the rabbinical seminary and University of Breslau. After his ordination, he was first rabbi of the congregation of Belfast, Ireland, from 1870 to 1880, then again from 1892 to 1897; in between, from 1880 to 1892, he was housemaster and professor of Hebrew at Harrow School, before leaving this position to return to Belfast, and became from 1897 onwards lecturer at Montefiore College in Ramsgate. He published notably Lel Shimmurim, a collection of satirical poems, in Breslau in 1864, a Hebrew translation of the Songs of Mirza Schaffy in 1868, Modern Judaism in 1876, and Humor and Irony of the Hebrew Bible in 1883.
American heavyweight boxer, born in San Francisco in 1868. He made his ring debut in 1884, where he was beaten by J. J. Corbett in one round, then faced most of the great pugilists of his time, beating or drawing with Dan Creedon, 'Kid' McCoy, James Jeffries, T. Sharkey and Steve O'Donnell; he fought over fifty bouts, losing only seven.
German actor, born in 1837 and died in Meiningen in 1890, stage manager of the famous Meiningen troupe, founded by Duke George of Meiningen. Trained in Paris then in Berlin in 1856 under Görner, he played leading roles in several German cities before joining the Meiningen in 1866, becoming their stage manager in 1870 then director, revolutionizing German theatre staging by individualizing the play of extras despite the hostility of conservative circles. He directed the troupe from 1874 until his death, whose tour to London in 1881 also revealed its limits.
Soldier and police officer Beni-Israel, born in 1822 and died in Poona in 1867. Enlisted in the third regiment of light native infantry of Bombay, he served in the Punjab army in 1848-49, was among those who took Multan and fought the Gujarat battle in 1849, obtained the Punjab medal with two bars and was promoted subedar in 1853, then appointed native commander of the police of Ahmednuggur in 1855. During the Sepoy Rebellion, he fought the rebel Bhils and received the Order of Merit third class, before being appointed sub-inspector of police in Poona in 1863, where he died in office, held in such high esteem that he had been made president of the municipality.
Jurist, academic and collector of Italian Jewish art (Florence, 1873-1956). Professor of administrative law at the Cesare Alfieri Institute in Florence from 1910, then at the universities of Cagliari (1920-1927), Modena and Turin (from 1932).
Hebrew writer of fiction and literary critic, born in Minsk in 1862. Trained at the rabbinical school of Volozhin, he published his first Hebrew text at fourteen in Ha-Maggid, translated in 1884 Leon Pinsker's Autoemancipation from German, and published several works of fiction, including Asefat Sippurim and Mi-Shuḳ ha-Ḥayyim in 1885 and Yonah Fotah in 1888, as well as critical essays on Russian Hebrew literature, notably on the life of Levanda in 1897 and on the poet « living and dead » in 1900.
Poet, dramatist and Austrian actor, born in 1842 in Lemberg. After abandoning studies in medicine and then a commercial career, he made his debut as an actor in 1860 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, later performed in Graz, Linz and at the Hoftheater in Berlin, then committed for five years to the municipal theater in Leipsic; he became stage director of the Court Theater in Weimar until 1872, then of the Landestheater in Prague, director of the Residenztheater in Berlin in 1876, and finally, from 1879 onwards, superintendent of the combined municipal theaters of Frankfurt am Main. In addition to two collections of poems, in 1868 and 1885, he published several plays, including Simson und Delila in 1869 and Shelley, a tragedy, in 1874.
German chemist
Developmental psychologist, pioneering study of child language through 18 years of journals.
American attorney and social worker
English Jewish scholar and theologian
French military surgeon, born in Nancy on May 11, 1812 and died in Paris on September 18, 1872. Entered military medical service in 1832, he became surgeon in 1834 and directed the clinic of the Hôtel des Invalides under Baron Larrey, before being made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1849 for his devotion during the cholera outbreak in Oran. Made an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1859 for his services during the Italian campaign, at Magenta and Solferino, he lost his sight in 1863 and retired.
Italian painter, born in Ferrara in 1811, died in Venice on January 26, 1856. Trained in the style of the Venetian landscapist Canaletto, he exhibited in 1840 in Venice The Facade of Ferrara Cathedral, which was hailed by the public, and received in 1841 a silver medal from his native city; in 1849 he was among the first Jews elected to the municipal council of Ferrara. Settled in Venice in 1850, he was among the first to practice artistic photography.
Jewish child of Rome, born in 1854, abducted in 1864 while delivering a pair of shoes to a priest and forcibly taken to the Casa dei Neofiti to be baptized, despite the protests of his father and the Jewish community. Pope Pius IX had him baptized on September 29, 1864 in the Chapel of Saint Stanislaus, under the name of Stanislas Maria Michael Joseph Pius Eugenio. He was returned to his mother only in 1870, at the fall of papal government, after seven years of detention.
Austrian physician, born in Spalato, Dalmatia, on January 19, 1839. Educated at the gymnasium of his native city and then at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1872, he practiced there as a specialist in speech disorders and opened a private dispensary for stammerers in 1882. He is the author of several works on the pathology of language, including Pathologie und Therapie der Sprachanomalien (Vienna, 1886) and Uebungsbuch für Stotternde (Vienna, 1891).
Rabbi and writer, died in Tunis around 1835, at an advanced age. He is the author of two Hebrew works annotating the Talmud: Ereẓ Yehudah (Land of Judah), published in Livorno in 1797, and Admat Yehudah (Soil of Judah), published in the same city in 1828.
Rabbi and Tunisian writer, born and died in Tunis, where he dies in 1864. His Hebrew works, printed in Livorno at the expense of the Tunisian Jewish family Chemama, include the Mishmerot Kehunnah, Talmudic novellas published in 1862, the Shulḥano shel Abraham, commentary on the Shulḥan 'Aruk, and the Miẓwot Kehunnah and Ḥasde Kehunnah, both published in 1865.
Pioneer of Krugersdorp, in the colony of the Transvaal, born around 1860. Emigrated to South Africa in 1881, he bonds with the Boers whose language he learns, then, on the way to Johannesburg in 1887, pitches his tent on the site that becomes the city of Krugersdorp, thus becoming its first English settler. Although unconnected to the 1895 conspiracy against Boer government, he is imprisoned for indiscreet remarks, and later obtains, as president of the Krugersdorp congregation, two pieces of land from President Kruger for the Jewish community.
French writer, born in Marseille on December 31, 1831, died in Paris on February 17, 1896, brother of composer Jules Cohen. Appointed auditor to the Council of State on May 28, 1855, he holds this position until 1865, the year he publishes his Studies on Taxes and Budgets of the Principal States of Europe. He is also the author of theatrical works, including La Flamboyante in 1884 and Le Duc Jean in 1893.
English lawyer and Queen's Counsel, born in London on November 18, 1830. After studying at the gymnasium in Frankfurt-on-the-Main and then at University College London, he was admitted to Magdalen College Cambridge, where he was elected in 1852 president of the Cambridge Union Debating Society; however, he could not obtain his degree until after the repeal of the Test Act in 1871. He represented England's interests in the famous Alabama arbitration in Geneva in 1872, was elected Member of Parliament for Southwark in 1880, and succeeded Sir Moses Montefiore as president of the Board of Deputies, a position he left in 1894.
English politician and philanthropist, born in London in 1844, son of Louis Cohen, founder of the Louis Cohen & Sons firm. Engaged in numerous Jewish and general charitable works, he presided over the Jewish Board of Guardians from 1887 to June 1900, before being elected « moderate » councillor to the London County Council in 1888, then Member of Parliament for East Islington in 1892, a seat he held for a long time.
Australian statesman, born in London in 1822, died in March 1877. Having arrived in Australia where he entered his father's business, he settled in the colony of Victoria in 1846, acquires a house of auctioneers in Melbourne which he directs until 1868, while being for twenty years treasurer of Melbourne Hospital and for seven years president of the Hebrew congregation of the city. Elected deputy for East Melbourne in 1861, he becomes mayor of Melbourne in 1872.
English painter, trained at the Slade School and the Royal Academy in London, as well as in Paris under Constant and Laurens. She exhibits for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1891, with a portrait medallion of doctor B. W. Richardson, then at the Paris Salon from 1894 onwards; among her paintings shown at the Royal Academy are Tired Out in 1892 and Qualifying for the Coach Club in 1899. An illustrator, she also collaborates with magazines such as The Strand Magazine and The Studio.
German mineralogist, born in Aakjær, near Horsens, in Jutland, October 12, 1842. Trained at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, he is assistant at the mineralogical institute from 1867 to 1869, then privat-docent from 1871, before undertaking a geological and mineralogical study trip to South Africa, where he visits the diamond mines of the Vaal River and the Lydenburg district. Appointed assistant professor of petrography in Strasbourg in 1878, he later becomes professor in Greifswald, and publishes numerous scientific works as well as more than a hundred articles.
French composer and numismatist, born in Amsterdam in 1805, died in Bry-sur-Marne on May 17, 1880. His parents settled in France in 1811; trained in harmony under Reicha and in singing under Lois and Pellegrini, he stayed in Rome in 1832 and 1838, then established himself in Paris in 1839, where he taught and performed in concert. Director of the Conservatory of Lille, he subsequently became curator of the Cabinet of Medals of the National Library and published works on numismatics, while composing, notably Marguerite and Faust in Paris in 1847 and The Monk in London in 1851.
Judge at the Supreme Court of New South Wales, born in Port Macquarie in December 1840. After starting as a clerk in 1856 then in business in Bathurst, he studies law in London from 1868 and is admitted to the bar in 1871. Back in the country, he is elected for West Maitland in 1874 and reelected in 1877, holds the positions of colonial treasurer and then minister of justice, before withdrawing from politics in 1885 and being appointed judge at the supreme court in 1896, the first Jew to hold such a position in New South Wales.
Mauritian journalist, died May 31, 1879 in Curepipe. He devoted nearly twenty years to the press, founding and directing the Mercantile Record and Commercial Gazette of Mauritius, and worked actively for the interests of the colony.
American laryngologist, born in New York on February 28, 1838. Educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia, Jefferson Medical College, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1860, he served as assistant surgeon during the Civil War and in the United States Navy from 1861 to 1864, before establishing himself as a physician in Philadelphia in 1866, specializing in diseases of the throat and lungs. Appointed in 1867 lecturer at Jefferson Medical College, he became honorary professor of laryngology in 1883 and published numerous medical works on diseases of the throat and larynx.
American hazzan, probably born in the Barbary States, died in Philadelphia in September 1811. After living in London in his youth, he is found in Quebec and then in New Orleans in 1777; he serves the Sephardic synagogue Shearith Israel in Montreal from 1778 to 1782, then is elected minister of the Sephardic synagogue in New York that same year, where he remains until 1784, when he accepts the position of hazzan of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation in Philadelphia. He marries Rebekah Luria, from a family that had lost several of its members in the Spanish Inquisition.
American lawyer and judge, born in Plymouth, England, on November 29, 1841, from a long-established family in Cornwall. A prominent lawyer in western Pennsylvania, he presides over the executive committee of the Republican Party in Allegheny County, sits in 1884 on Pennsylvania's presidential electoral college, and is appointed in 1901 judge of the orphans' court of Allegheny County. He is also engaged in several local and national Jewish organizations.
French composer, born in Marseille on November 2, 1830, died in Paris in January 1901. Trained at the Paris Conservatory under Zimmerman, Marmontel, Benoist and Halévy from 1847 to 1854, where he won several first prizes, he became professor of the singing class in 1870 and then director of the choirs of the Paris Opera in 1877. Author of abundant works for piano and orchestra, he also composed several comic operas for the theater, including Maître Claude in 1861, José Maria in 1866 and Déa in 1870.
American sculptor and painter, born in Philadelphia on March 18, 1859. Trained in the art schools of Philadelphia and New York under J. Liberty Tadd, John J. Boyle and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, she went to Paris in 1887 to study under Mercié after four years of travel. Among her works of Jewish inspiration are the group Rabbi Ben Ezra and the heroic figure The Israelite, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1896, as well as portrait busts of Mayer Sulzberger and Lucien Moss.
French musician, born in Paris on 12 February 1829, died in 1884. Trained at the Paris Conservatory under Leborne, he won the Prix de Rome in 1851 and shortly thereafter became violinist at the Italian Theater in Paris. He composed several operettas as well as a work entitled Ecole du musicien.
Journalist and defender of the Jews of Tangier, born in Mogador in 1844, died in Tangier on November 9, 1888. Settled in England in his youth and later established in Tangier, he became the protector of the Jews of Morocco, tirelessly denouncing violations of their rights, and for this purpose founded a newspaper in French, the Réveil du Maroc. Representative of the board of delegates of American Hebrew congregations and correspondent of the Anglo-Jewish Association, he undertook several perilous missions to the court of the sultan on behalf of his coreligionists.
Dutch physician and medical author, born on October 6, 1817 in Meppel, in the province of Drenthe, died on November 22, 1889 in Groningen. Graduated from medical school at the University of Groningen in 1840, where he settled as a practitioner, he became in 1858 head of the provincial statistical bureau and then, in 1865, head of the sanitary inspection of the Netherlands; King William III appointed him in 1876 delegate to the Brussels hygiene conference. For fifty years a member of the committee of the Jewish community of Groningen, he directed from 1844 to 1877 several medical and scientific journals.
English financier and politician, born in London in 1832, died on June 26, 1887, son of Louis Cohen, founder of the house Louis Cohen & Sons. Trustee of the London Stock Exchange from 1870 and then head of the family firm in 1882, he retired from business in 1885 to sit in the House of Commons as deputy for North Paddington. Honorary secretary of the committee for poor Jews created in 1859, he became its president in 1878 and led it for twenty-eight years, played a driving role in the federation of synagogues that gave rise to the United Synagogue in 1870, and launched in 1881 the first English relief fund for persecuted Jews in Russia.
Lord-mayor of Liverpool in 1899, born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1846, son of Samuel Cohen, member of Parliament for Morpeth in the New South Wales Parliament. Trained in London, he settled in Liverpool in 1864, where he took over the Lewis house, then entered public life in 1895 by being elected to the city council for the Breckfield ward. President of the insanitary properties commission in 1897, he was unanimously chosen as lord-mayor of Liverpool in 1899.
Grand Rabbi of Serrès, in European Turkey, from 1862 onwards, a position he held for twenty years before dying at an advanced age in Jerusalem. He was summoned to Constantinople by Fu'ad Pacha, Grand Vizier of Sultan Abdülaziz, to sit on the jury charged with judging Jacob Avigdor, Grand Rabbi of Turkey.
Dutch military officer, born on November 27, 1877 in Goes, in the province of Zeeland. Enlisted in April 1894 in the second hussars regiment, he resigned in May 1896 and enlisted for six years in the Dutch East Indies army, embarking on June 27 of the same year for the East Indies, where he joined a cavalry regiment in Sumatra. He distinguished himself on September 8, 1897 in the attack on the Achinese camp of Batoe Menek, then, promoted to corporal, was made a Knight of the Military Order of William in 1900 for his bravery in the capture of Tjot Kala on November 14, 1899, where he saved a wounded non-commissioned officer under fire.
Bulgarian journalist, born in Choumen, Bulgaria, in 1864. He published in 1897 in Philippopolis a Brief History of the Israelites, summarizing in French the work of Theodore Reinach, then founded in 1899 in the same city the newspaper Tcheweschki-Prava, the first Jewish periodical in the Bulgarian language of the Principality, waged active war against antisemitism until its suppression by the Bulgarian government after six months of existence.
Russian journalist, born in 1863, died in Yekaterinoslav on January 27, 1893. His account of the ghetto, In a Forsaken Town, first appeared in Vestnik Evropy in November 1892 and then as a volume in Moscow in 1895; he also contributed to various periodicals in southern Russia, notably Krym and Krymski Vestnik.
American physician, born in Philadelphia in September 1857. Graduated from Central High School in 1872, he studies medicine from 1880 under his brother J. da Silva Solis Cohen and then at Jefferson Medical College, where he obtains his doctorate in 1883; he becomes professor of clinical medicine at Philadelphia Polyclinic in 1887 and professor of clinical medicine at Jefferson Medical College in 1889. Founder of the Jewish Publication Society of America and of the editorial committee of the American Hebrew, he is the author notably of Therapeutics of Tuberculosis (Philadelphia, 1890) and presides over the Philadelphia County Medical Society in 1898.
French Talmudist, died in May 1806 in Metz, his native city, at an advanced age, son of a member of the city's rabbinical college. Assistant rabbi to Aryeh Löb b. Asher Günzburg, he succeeded him as assistant at his death in 1785 then became chief rabbi in 1793, while greeting with joy, despite his attachment to the old school, the success of the French Revolution in 1792. He is the author of the Halakah Berurah, casuistic essays on halakhic and aggadic passages of the Talmud, published in Metz in 1793 by his son David Cohen, rabbi of Verdun.
American philologist, born in Paris on May 29, 1851. Bachelor of Letters from the University of Paris in 1868, he obtained his law degree in 1873 and his diploma as archivist-paleographer in 1874, after having served in the French army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Settled in New York in 1875, correspondent of La République Française of Gambetta from 1876 to 1884, he taught French at Columbia from 1882 then at Harvard from 1884 to 1891, before becoming professor of Romance languages at Columbia University in 1891 ; made knight of the Crown of Italy in 1897 and of the French Legion of Honor in 1900.
German physician, born March 30, 1827 in Breslau, died in that city on June 16, 1864. Awarded his doctorate in medicine on August 20, 1855, he established himself that same year as a physician in Breslau, where he was an assistant at the university hospital under Frerichs from 1854 to 1861 and a private lecturer at the university from 1856, before becoming in 1861 head physician of the Allerheiligen hospital. He is the author of Klinik der Embolischen Gefässkrankheiten (Breslau, 1862), which was awarded the Montyon Prize by the Paris Academy of Sciences.
German physicist, born in Neustrelitz on 28 September 1854. Trained at the university of Strasbourg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1878, he was assistant at the physics institute from 1881 to 1884, the year he was admitted as privat-docent then appointed assistant professor. He is the author of Elektrische Ströme (Leipzig, 1897) and Das Elektromagnetische Feld (Leipzig, 1900).
German jurist, born September 19, 1845, in Breslau. Honorary professor of German civil and commercial law at the University of Heidelberg in 1888, he collaborates on the Handbuch des Handels-, See- und Wechselrechts by Endemann (1881-85) and founds in 1877 the Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, which he directs. Professor at the University of Zurich, he is the author of numerous works of comparative law, including Die Justizverweigerung im Altdeutschen Rechte (Karlsruhe, 1876).
German economist, born September 12, 1840, in Marienwerder, West Prussia. Trained at the Universities of Berlin and Jena, he became privatdozent in Heidelberg in 1869, then professor at the Polytechnikum in Riga the same year, before holding from 1875 to 1884 the chair of economics at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, then joining the University of Göttingen. There he published in 1885 the first volume of his major work, the System der Nationalökonomie, praised by economists Wagner and Schmoller, and became in 1894 a member of the Göttingen Society of Sciences.
German ophthalmologist, born in Breslau on June 4, 1838. Educated at Heidelberg and then at Breslau, where he obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1860 and his doctorate in medicine in Berlin in 1863, he was assistant to Förster from 1863 to 1866 and then established himself as an ophthalmologist in Breslau, becoming privatdocent in 1868 and assistant professor in 1874. Pioneer of school eye hygiene, he published in 1867 a study on the eyes of ten thousand schoolchildren and, among nearly two hundred fifty works, his major work, the Lehrbuch der Hygiene des Auges, in Vienna in 1892.
French statesman, born in Paris on March 11, 1849, second son of Albert Cohn. Bachelor of letters in 1866, he embraces the bar before turning toward politics: private secretary to Jules Simon, then minister of public instruction, in 1870, he becomes editor-in-chief of the Republican Correspondence then chief of staff of Jules Simon in 1876, a position he holds until the dismissal of the Republican ministry by President Mac-Mahon on May 16, 1877. Appointed prefect of Loir-et-Cher in December 1877, then of Somme, Haute-Garonne and Loire, he becomes general paymaster of the Ardennes in 1896.
German historian, born in Breslau on May 22, 1834, died in Göttingen on January 13, 1871, from a family of merchants. Physically handicapped since childhood, he enters the University of Breslau in 1851 then that of Berlin in 1853, before obtaining his doctorate in Breslau in 1856; converted to Christianity, he becomes privatdozent at the University of Göttingen in 1857, where he teaches until his death. He is the author of several historical works, including Der 30jährige Krieg (Halle, 1861) and Geschichte Kaiser Heinrich II. (Halle, 1867).
Austrian writer (pseudonym Conimor), born in Kreuzburg, in Silesia, on January 8, 1844. First employed as a merchant, he devoted himself to writing after the success of his early plays and settled in Vienna in 1875 as an author; among his works are the drama Der Improvisator (1874), Vor der Ehe (1876) and the novel Wie Gefällt Ihnen Meine Frau (1886). He also contributed extensively to the press.
German writer, born in Breslau on February 21, 1839, died in Bad Nauheim on August 6, 1893. Destined for commerce, he took over his father's trading house in Breslau, but went bankrupt in 1880 and devoted himself thereafter to literature in Berlin. His first play, « Der Vereins-Held », was performed in Breslau in 1861; he subsequently wrote numerous comedies and novels, published until his death.
German physiologist, born in Schneideemühl, in the province of Posen, on April 23, 1862. Trained at the Kneiphöfsche Gymnasium and then at the University of Königsberg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1886, he became the same year assistant at the laboratory of medical chemistry and pharmacology, then privat-docent in 1892 and professor in 1898. Since 1893, he has directed the chemistry section of the Jahresberichte für Physiologie of Hermann.
German political economist, born in Bromberg in 1862, died in Berlin on July 30, 1900. Trained at the Joachimsthal-Gymnasium then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in philosophy, he turned to economics and journalism, collaborating from around 1889 in various Berlin newspapers, then directed toward the end of his life the Oekonomist. His work, Die Finanzen des Deutschen Reiches seit Seiner Begründung (Berlin, 1899), crowned several years of work.
German rabbi, born in Zülz, in Prussian Silesia, on 24 March 1822, died in Breslau on 22 September 1902, grandson of rabbi Meshoullam Salomon Cohn of Fürth. After a brief stay at the Presbourg yeshiva and studies in Oriental languages and philosophy at Breslau, he is called as rabbi to Oppeln in 1847, then to Maastricht, to Schwerin, and finally to Berlin in 1876, before retiring to Breslau in 1894. He marries the eldest daughter of chief rabbi Ettlinger of Altona and teaches homiletics at the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of Berlin from 1878 to 1894.
Physician and medical author, German, born in Breslau on December 26, 1866. Trained at the Elisabeth gymnasium of his native city and at the universities of Breslau and Freiburg, he is assistant at the university clinic of neuropathology of Wernicke from September 1891 to January 1893, then assistant to Mendel in Berlin. He is the author of several works on neurology, including Infantile Hemiplegie mit Intentionstremor (1895) and Leitfaden der Electrodiagnostik und Electrotherapie für Praktiker und Studirende (1899).
German writer, born in Pyritz, in Pomerania, on August 3, 1809, died in Berlin on January 20, 1868. Established in Breslau in his youth, he became a doctor but became better known as editor of the Norddeutsche Zeitschrift für das Theater and the Erinnerungsblätter. He published two novels, Phantasmagorien (Berlin and Züllichau, 1837) and Die Hospitalitäten (Berlin, 1838), as well as a history of the Prussian State in two volumes (1840) and a biography of Frederick William III (1840-41).
German pathologist, born in Demmin, in Pomerania, on July 20, 1839, died in Leipzig on August 15, 1884. Trained at the universities of Würzburg, Marburg, Greifswald and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1861, he became in 1864 assistant at the pathological institute of Berlin under Virchow, then published in 1867 his foundational essay Ueber Entzündung und Eiterung, which established that the emigration of white blood cells is at the origin of pus. Professor of pathological anatomy in Kiel in 1868 then in Breslau in 1872, he finally occupies, from 1876, the chair of pathology in Leipzig until his death; he was also the first to use tissue freezing for microscopic examination.
German physician, born in Labes, Pomerania, on December 2, 1867. Educated at the gymnasium of Stettin and at the universities of Berlin, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Tübingen and Würzburg, where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1891, he settled the same year as a physician in Berlin, practicing as an assistant physician at the private Boas hospital until 1899, then in private practice, specializing in digestive tract diseases. He directed the annual reports of the Archiv für Verdauungs-Krankheiten.
German gynecologist, born in Gnesen, in the province of Posen, on August 1, 1841, died in Charlottenburg, near Berlin, on July 25, 1894. Trained at the gymnasium of his native city and then at the universities of Berlin, Prague and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1864, he practiced as a physician in Berlin from 1866, became privatdozent at the university in 1868, then specialized in gynecology and settled in 1877 in Heidelberg. He is the author of several works, including a Lehrbuch der Geburtshilfe and a Grundriss der Gynäkologie.
Bishop of Natal and English biblical scholar, born in St Austell, Cornwall, on January 24, 1814, died on January 20, 1883. Trained at Cambridge, he became bishop of Natal in 1853, where he learned Zulu, wrote its grammar and translated Genesis, Exodus and Samuel. Questions from his Zulu interpreters about inconsistencies in the biblical narrative led him to publish as early as 1862 his Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined, which questioned the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch; deposed for heresy by the bishop of the Cape in 1863, he nonetheless remained bishop of Natal until his death, completing the work in 1879.
Anglo-American actress, born in London around 1865. On stage from the age of five as a rope dancer, she then performs with her sisters Marie and Lizzie Collins in music halls, before becoming famous in 1890 with the song Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, created at the Tivoli Music Hall in London and immensely popular. In 1892, she is engaged by Charles Frohman to perform in America.
French musician, born in Bordeaux on July 23, 1838. Trained at the Paris Conservatory, he abandoned his position as first violin at the Opera to found in 1874 the Artistic Association of Châtelet Concerts, called Concerts Colonne, which made known the works of Berlioz — including The Damnation of Faust, whose hundredth performance took place in 1898 — as well as those of younger French composers such as Massenet and Lalo. Conductor of the official concerts of the 1878 Exposition, he directed the Opera orchestra from 1891 and the Old Paris concerts at the 1900 Exposition; he is an officer of the Legion of Honor.
Italian jurist and economist, born in Modena on 25 June 1868, died in that town on 6 December 1901. Doctor of law in 1889 after further studies in Padua and London, he becomes lecturer at the University of Modena, instructor of finance in 1892 and assistant professor in 1898; he dies on the very day of his appointment to a full chair. A specialist in the economic effects of taxation, he is called in 1901 as scientific advisor by minister Wollemborg for his fiscal reform, and founds the same year L'Idea Sionista, of which he remains the editor until his death.
German Jewish historian, teacher and art collector (1869-1940)
Professor and author of Roman law, born in Breslau on September 16, 1848 under the name of Cohn, which he changed to Conrat in 1882 upon converting to Christianity. Trained at the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine gymnasium in Breslau until 1867 and then at the universities of Breslau, Heidelberg and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1870, he was referendary in Breslau from 1870 to 1872, private lecturer in Roman law in Heidelberg in 1873, professor in Zurich in 1874, then in Amsterdam from 1878. Initially a specialist in ancient Roman law, he later devoted himself to Roman law of the Middle Ages, publishing notably Das Florentiner Rechtsbuch in 1882.
Italian Hebraist, born in Ancona in 1806, died in Florence in 1887. Trained in Talmud Torah in his native city by Rabbi David A. Vivanti, he subsequently studied Italian and Latin despite opposition from his teachers, then became secretary of the Jewish community of Ancona, then Florence. A passionate translator of Hebrew texts into Italian, he notably published I Doveri de' Cuori (Prato, 1847), the Volgarizzamento del Libro di Job (Florence, 1874) and Il Salterio, a commented translation of the Psalms (Florence, 1885); his son, the composer and virtuoso Federico Consolo, continued his work.
Lyric poet and photographer of Saint Petersburg, patron of the Odessa Committee.
Romanian political figure
Greek industrialist, born in Zante in 1865, president of the Jewish community of Athens. Trained in Paris, where he obtained a doctorate in science and a diploma of engineer from the Superior School of Telegraphy, he first works for the Edison Company in Paris then for the Enterprises Company of Athens, where he builds in 1887 the first electric lighting establishment in the city, contributing to the spread of electricity and telephony in Greece. He also founds a commission and banking house that became within less than thirteen years one of the foremost in Athens, and the Greek government appoints him in 1900 secretary of the commission charged with the Athenian pavilion at the Paris Exposition.
Palestinian scholar of Sephardic and Ashkenazi parentage, born in Amsterdam in 1810, died in Jerusalem on August 6, 1890. Student of R. Abraham Susan, he emigrated in 1830 to Safed, Palestine, where he married, before settling in Jerusalem and studying at the Sephardic yeshiva. Passionate about rare rabbinic manuscripts, he published several with his own annotations, including the Bet Natan (Vienna, 1854), the Ḥamishshah Qonterisim (Vienna, 1864), the Teshubot ha-Geonim (Vienna, 1871) and the Alfasi Zuta, with his own commentary (Jerusalem, 1885); he received from the Emperor of Austria the gold medal for arts and sciences.
Italian statesman and writer, born in Milan on January 3, 1815, died in Lesa, in the province of Novara, on October 4, 1888. Great friend of the Jews of Italy and declared opponent of antisemitism, whom he judged its supporters « mad », he expressed his sympathy for them on several occasions, notably in his work Gli Ebrei Come Patrioti, where he praises the great services they rendered to the emancipation and progress of Italy.
Talmudic scholar and Hebrew grammarian of Berlin, died in Stettin, Prussia, on March 21, 1832. His Hebrew grammar in the form of a catechism, the Maslul, published for the first time in Hamburg in 1788, served for a long time as a manual in Jewish schools and went through numerous reprints, notably in Wilna. He also published the Qeriat ha-Torah, a treatise on biblical variants cited in the Talmud (Berlin, 1814), accompanied by an article on the language of the Mishna, drawn from the Ha-Meassef journal of 1786.
Italian rabbi, born in 1819, died in 1897. He succeeds Abraham Baruch Piperno as rabbi of Leghorn in 1864. Among his numerous works are an annotated Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah (1869), a complete Sephardic Maḥzor translated into Italian (1892), the Zohar in square Hebrew characters with punctuation (Leghorn, 1888), the story collection Miqweh Yisrael (1851) and a Hebrew-Italian dictionary composed with rabbis Funaro and Cabib (1853). A Freemason, he attained the thirty-third degree.
English composer and conductor of Sephardic origin, born in Naples on February 4, 1810, died in Brighton on April 29, 1884. Trained by his father Pasquale Costa, his grandfather Tritto Costa and Zingarelli, he went to England in 1829, directed from 1831 at Her Majesty's Theatre, and became a British citizen in 1839; he subsequently directed the concerts of the Philharmonic Society in 1846, the Royal Italian Opera in 1847, the Sacred Harmonic Society in 1849 and the Handel festivals in 1857. Knighted at Windsor on April 14, 1868, he composed numerous operas and oratorios, including Malek Adhel (1837), Don Carlos (1844) and the oratorio Naaman (1864).
Austrian writer, traveler and diplomat, born in Vienna on October 12, 1859. After studying law in Vienna and military service with the hussars, he obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1883, traveled in Syria and Egypt to learn Arabic, then entered diplomacy in 1884 as attaché in Athens, before posts in Buenos Aires, Constantinople (1887), then Rio de Janeiro in 1891 and Japan. Fervent Catholic but full of reverence for Judaism, he published in 1901 Das Wesen des Antisemitismus, where he presents Zionism as both product and remedy of antisemitism, and announces a future universal religion he calls "Henochism".
English merchant, volunteer officer and alderman, born in Chatham in 1832, died in Buxton on October 22, 1899. Member of the Honorable Artillery Company, he joined in 1863 the Third London Rifles with three companies raised from his own workers, becomes lieutenant-colonel, and retires in 1880 with royal permission to retain his rank; elected sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1883 then alderman of the Cordwainer ward in 1885, a post he leaves in 1892, he also sits on the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association and, conservative in politics, unsuccessfully presents himself at Whitechapel in 1885 alongside Sir Samuel Montagu.
English conductor and composer, born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 29 January 1852, brought to England at the age of four; a child prodigy, he composed an operetta at eight years old and studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from fourteen years under Reinecke, Moscheles and Hauptmann. He conducted the Covent Garden promenade concerts in 1880, the Philharmonic Society concerts from 1888 to 1892, the Melbourne Centennial Exposition in 1888-89, and then the concerts of Manchester, Liverpool and Bradford from 1896. Among his works are the oratorio Ruth, written for the Worcester festival in 1887, and the opera Signa, premiered in Milan in 1893.
American attorney and jurist, son of Bennett and Bertha Cowen, born in Houston, Texas, on December 12, 1861. After studies in public schools in Texas and California and seven years in Germany, he earned his LL.B. from Northwestern University upon his return to Chicago in June 1881 and was admitted to the bar on January 4, 1883. Appointed master in chancery of the superior court of Cook County in May 1896, he was proposed as judge of that court on the Democratic slate in 1900; long engaged in B'nai B'rith, of which he chaired district no. 6 in 1893, he chaired in 1885 the commemorative services for Sir Moses Montefiore at the Chicago Opera.
English journalist and politician (born Cohen), born in 1865 in Hull. After years in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where his father E. Cohen served as hazzan, he settled in London in 1888 and collaborated on the journal Ariel directed by Israel Zangwill, before founding the reviews Commerce and Finance. Distinguished in 1899 by the cross of commander of the order of Takovo for services rendered to Serbian commerce, he failed in October 1900 as a Liberal candidate in Coventry; he married in 1897 the novelist Hélène Gingold, granddaughter of the cantor and composer Sulzer.
Painter, born in 1846, died in August 1895, brother of composer Frédéric H. Cowen. A member of the Royal Society of British Artists, he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy; he died at sea in 1895 while returning from Hobart, Tasmania, where he had practiced his art for several years.
Jewish community editor and activist, born in New York in 1853, educated in public schools. He was among the founders and editor of The American Hebrew, involved in the creation of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, devoted himself to welcoming Russian Jewish immigrants in 1881-82, and compiled Jewish religious statistics for the 1890 census; he was appointed in 1902 supervisor of the City Record, an important position in New York's municipal administration.
German poet and literary historian, son of Michael Creizenach, born on April 17, 1818 in Mainz, died on December 6, 1877 in Frankfurt-am-Main. Trained in Classical Antiquity at Giessen, Göttingen and Heidelberg, then tutor in Paris at the Rothschilds', he became upon his return, in 1842, teacher at the Philanthropin in Frankfurt and one of the founders of the Reformverein of the city, before converting to Christianity in 1854. Professor of history and literature at the Frankfurt gymnasium from 1863, he published collections of poems, including Gedichte (1848), and edited the correspondence of Goethe with Marianne von Willemer.
French cavalry officer, born in Paris on January 20, 1857, died in Porto Novo, in North Africa, in November 1892. In 1892, after La Libre Parole published a series of anti-Semitic articles on the French army, Captain Crémieu-Foa challenges the chief editor Édouard Drumont to a duel and wounds him slightly; the duel that follows between his second Armand Mayer and the marquis de Morès costs Mayer his life. Minister of War Freycinet then sends him to organize Sudanese spahis in Dahomey, where he distinguishes himself by his bravery in Colonel Dodds's expedition before the capture of Abomey, and dies in Porto Novo from the effects of a wound and tropical fever.
French socialist and writer, born in Nîmes on June 22, 1836, died in Marseille on December 1, 1871. A lawyer in Aix from 1856, where his generosity toward impoverished clients earned him the nickname of « lawyer of the poor », he was admitted to the Marseille bar in 1862 and conducted a campaign against Napoleon III, joining the International Association of Workers founded in London in 1864. Arrested after an insurrection in 1870, he was released by the revolution of September 4 and became prosecutor in Marseille; at the Commune, he chaired the provisional administration of the Bouches-du-Rhône, and was arrested and tried by court-martial.
French dramatist, born in Paris November 10, 1828, died in that city in 1892, of the same family as Isaac Adolphe Crémieux. After studies at Lycée Bourbon and then at the school of law in Paris, he participated actively in the February 1848 revolution as a lieutenant of the mobile guard, before rallying after the coup d'État of 1851 to the administration of the new regime, which rewarded him in 1852 with a position of clerk at the ministry of state. Adapting with his brother Émile the Fiesco of Schiller for the French stage, he embarked on a prolific career as a dramatist, collaborating with numerous authors and writing libretti for Léo Delibes, Hervé and Offenbach.
Italian writer
Italian poet of Jewish origin born in the ghetto of Rome in 1868, regarded as the greatest author in Judeo-Romanesque dialect (nicknamed the « Gioachino Belli » of Roman Jewry). His sonnets paint, with affectionate irony, Roman Jews at the passage from ghetto to emancipation (after 1870). First scholar to study the Judeo-Romanesque language, he translated medieval and 16th-century texts as well as Dante and Boccaccio. Died in 1935, before the racial laws of 1938.
Romanian rabbi, teacher and journalist, born around 1850 in Eskee Sara, in Eastern Rumelia; he took refuge in Romania after the Russo-Turkish war of 1878. He was the first in the East to found a Judeo-Spanish newspaper in Latin characters, El Luzero de la Paciencia, which he directed in Turnu Severin for two years (1886-87).
Turkish rabbinic author, who lived in Smyrna in the first half of the 19th century, son of Joshua Abraham Crespin, grand rabbi of Smyrna. He is the author of the Mesheq Beti (The Steward of my House), talmudic novellæ in two volumes, published in Salonica in 1833.
Teacher and polemicist, active in England around 1838. He gives Hebrew lessons to a few students of the university of Cambridge while the regius professors of Hebrew are durably absent there; opposed to the emancipation of the Jews, which he fears favourable to their conversion, he publishes in 1829 two works on the subject, The Fifth Empire and The Last Generation, both edited in Cambridge.
Romanian author, born in Jassy on April 25, 1868. After his baccalaureate in 1889, he entered the University of Jassy to study philosophy, then went to Paris to study medicine; he published in April 1885 his first story, of a socialist character, in the Drepturile Omului, became a contributor to numerous Romanian political and literary journals, published in 1891 his first poem in the Revista Noua of Bucharest, and gathered most of his poems in 1898 in a collection titled Lacrime.
President of the Supreme Court of Hungary, born in Csongrad on May 3, 1826, died on March 18, 1899. He organizes in 1848 an infantry battalion during the Hungarian War of Independence, then maintains a law practice in Arad under the absolutist regime, before being called to the Ministry of Justice where he codifies judicial law in 1869 and leads the modern codification of Hungarian criminal law. Decorated with the Order of Saint Stephen in 1878, he has presided over the Supreme Court since 1879.
Hungarian opera singer, born around 1840. Noticed in the choruses of the Hungarian National Theater of Budapest, she trained under professor Proch and made her debut in 1858 in the role of Fides in Meyerbeer's Le Prophète, at the Court Opera of Vienna, where her mezzo-soprano enchanted the public; she belongs to the troupe of the Imperial Theater of Vienna until 1873. Wife of the famous prestidigitator Hermann, she becomes a singing teacher at the Vienna Conservatory when her voice declines.
Hungarian actress born in Duna-Adony on May 17, 1862, she established herself as a popular actress at the National Theater of Budapest, where she performs ingénue roles from 1879 to 1898, after following the city's dramatic school from the age of thirteen. Several Hungarian dramatists of her time, notably Gregor Csiky, write roles for her ; since 1899, she performs at the Vigszinhaz of Budapest.
Neo-Hebrew poet of the early nineteenth century established in Lutsk, Volhynia, Baruch Czatzkes belongs to the « Bikkure ha-Ittim » school, which Germanizes Hebrew poetry. His poem « Ha-Bitahon », translated from the Russian of Kheraskov and published in this periodical, is considered the first example of a Slavic Jew Germanizing the translation of Slavic poetry into Hebrew. He also contributes sixteen proverbs to the same volume and a song of praise published in the first edition of « Te'udah be-Yisrael » by I. B. Lewinsohn.
Polish lawyer, writer and journalist born on June 20, 1801 and died in London on January 31, 1867, Jan Czynski, son of parents converted to Catholicism before his birth, became a zealous defender of Jews. Lawyer in Lublin, he participated in the Polish revolution of 1830 then settled in Paris in 1832, where he collaborated on the Polish National Committee alongside Prince Adam Czartoryski and Lafayette, before settling in London. He published notably « Le Réveil d'Israël » (Paris, 1847), « Le Fils de la Juive » (1848) and « Israël en Pologne » (1861), and directed the journal « La Pologne ».
Head of the translation bureau at the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs, born in Salonique in 1845 into a modest family, Da'ud Effendi Molko grew up in Constantinople where he received his elementary education at the Camondo institution. Entered the ministry's service at eighteen, he became chief translator during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz and kept this position under Abdülhamid II; he was decorated with the grand cordon of the order of the Nichan-i-Osmanieh, the Nichan-i-Medjidieh, the Nichan-i-Imtiaz, the Persian order of the Sun and Lion, and made commander of the Legion of Honor.
Russian preacher known as the Maggid of Sloutsk, Ẓebi Hirsch Dainow was born in Sloutsk, in the province of Minsk, in 1832, and died in London on March 6, 1877. An orator of extraordinary talent, he became one of the voices of Russian Haskalah, advocating secular knowledge, industry and progress, before arousing the suspicion of conservative circles. In 1874, he definitively left Russia for London, where he preached at a congregation of Russian and Polish Jews and taught the Haggada at En Jacob synagogue; he is the author of a sermon published in Odessa in 1869, the "Kebod ha-Melek", in honor of Tsar Alexander II.
Historian and jurist born in New York in 1816 and died in 1899, Charles P. Daly, of Catholic parents, was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas of New York in 1844, a position he held for forty-two years, twenty-seven of them as chief judge, until his retirement in 1886. Keenly interested in Jewish affairs, he denounced antisemitism and delivered speeches at Jewish gatherings, notably in 1872 for the fiftieth anniversary of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York; this speech, developed in 1893, was published under the title « Settlement of the Jews in North America ».
Julia Myra Hess, born in Kilburn (London) to a Jewish family (paternal grandfather from Alsace, Spitalfields textile family of Orthodox tradition), studied at the Royal Academy of Music. During the Second World War, she organized nearly 2,000 free lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, maintaining the morale of Londoners under the Blitz, which earned her the title of Dame Commander (DBE) in 1941.
French musician born in Paris on February 26, 1835 and died in the same city on June 9, 1896, Adolphe-Léopold Danhauser studied at the Paris Conservatory under Bazin, Halévy and Reber, where he won the first prize for harmony in 1857, the first prize for fugue in 1859 and the second prize for Rome in 1862. Chief inspector of singing instruction in Paris schools from 1875, then professor of solfège at the Conservatory, he notably composed the lyric drama « Le Proscrit », presented in Auteuil in 1866, and published several manuals, including the « Théorie de la Musique » (1878).
Born of poor and pious Jewish parents in Vilna, he studied in Breslau (with the support of Abraham Geiger) then became professor of Oriental languages at the University of Saint Petersburg (1855) after converting to Christianity. Renowned Semiticist, he published on the Sabeans, Syriac inscriptions and the Mesha stele, and defended Jews against accusations of ritual murder.
Russian decisionist died in Grodno on April 30, 1807, where he exercised for forty years the function of dayyan and where he was nicknamed « the saint », « the pious » and « the modest », Daniel ben Jacob of Grodno is the author of the « Ḥamude Daniel », devoted to the laws of food preparation and published in Grodno in 1810; his opinions are frequently cited in the « Pitḥe Teshubah » of Ẓebi Hirsch Eisenstadt on the Yoreh De'ah of the Shulḥan Arukh.
The youngest of the Tsharni (Charney) siblings from Dukor. Began in poetry in 1907, central figure in Yiddish literary circles in Moscow (1918-1924), then contributor to the newspaper Der Tog until his death. Author of several volumes of memoirs.
Born in Paris, son of librettist Ludovic Halévy and grandson/descendant of the Halévy family (composer Fromental Halévy is a great-uncle). Schoolmate of Marcel Proust at the Lycée Condorcet. He collaborated on Charles Péguy's Cahiers de la Quinzaine (1898–1914) and directed the "Cahiers verts" at Grasset (1921–1937). Author of biographies and historical essays (Nietzsche, Péguy, Michelet, Proudhon, Vauban). Elected to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (1949).
Polish Jewish writer and pedagogue, figure of the Haskalah in Poland. He founded and directed the weekly Jewish newspaper in Polish Jutrzenka (« Ayyelet ha-Shaḥar », Warsaw 1861–1863), advocating for the diffusion of culture, civic responsibility of Jews and defense against antisemitism. He undertook a translation of the Bible into Polish. After the January 1863 insurrection, the newspaper was closed and Neufeld exiled to Siberia.
19th-century German grammarian
Rabbi, poet and biblical commentator, rabbi of Florence.
Orthodox Rabbi (1883-1979)
Born in Mannheim in a German Jewish family, he opened his gallery in Paris in 1907 (28 rue Vignon) and became the principal dealer and publisher of Picasso, Braque, Derain and Juan Gris — the « four musketeers » of cubism. Exiled to Switzerland during the First World War, he wrote Der Weg zum Kubismus (« The Rise of Cubism »), published in 1920, a foundational text of cubism theory (distinction between analytical and synthetic cubism).
Dutch community animator in The Hague, died in 1899, D. Polak Daniels presided over the local Jewish community for more than forty years while simultaneously serving during the same period on the municipal council; his funeral brought together the highest authorities of the Netherlands.
Talmudist established in Jerusalem in the first half of the nineteenth century, Berakah ben Yom-Tob Danon is the author of the « Bad Ḳodesh », a collection of sermons and glosses on the « Yad » of Maimonides, published in Salonika in 1846 with a work by his father on the same subject, the « Kebod Yom-Ṭob ».
Chief Rabbi of Sarajevo, in Bosnia, and rabbinic author of the first half of the nineteenth century, Meïr Benjamin Menahem Danon writes « Be'er ba-Sadeh », a supercommentary on Rashi's commentary to the Pentateuch and on his own supercommentator Elijah Mizraḥi, published in Jerusalem in 1846.
Author and rabbi of Smyrna in the first half of the 19th century, Yom-Tob Danon went to Jerusalem in 1821, where he succeeded Joseph Ḥazan as Chief Rabbi, and wrote the « Kebod Yom-Ṭob », a commentary on the « Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah » of Maimonides, published in Salonique in 1846.
Italian journalist (1876–1965)
French philologist, brother of James Darmesteter, born in Château-Salins on January 5, 1846 and died in Paris on November 16, 1888, Arsène Darmesteter obtains his license in 1864 and becomes, in 1867, the student of Romanist Gaston Paris. In 1869, the Ministry of Public Instruction sends him to study the French glosses of Rachi's manuscripts at Oxford, Cambridge and the British Museum; the first results appear in the journal « Romania » in 1872, the year he is appointed repetitor of Romance languages at the École des Hautes Études, and he completes his great work, the « Treatise on Compound Words », published in 1874.
Major modernist Yiddish prose writer, revealed after 1905. His novel Nokh Alemen (1913) was hailed as a masterpiece depicting the decline of Jewish bourgeoisie in the shtetls. He lived in Berlin and later joined the USSR; arrested in 1949, he was executed on August 12, 1952 during the 'Night of the Murdered Poets', then rehabilitated posthumously in 1955.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 19th century. Born in 5626 (1866), died in 5680 (1920) of the Hebrew era. Son of Messod, himself son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
German teacher
Polish rabbi, founder of Agudat Israël
Rabbi of Demnate, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew calendar (1834). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Georgian writer
Tunisian rabbi
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Died in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Rabbi of Rabat who emigrated to Jerusalem, founder of the Maghrebi community (Edah HaMaaravit).
German educator and Hebraist
Lithuanian rabbi
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Died in 5617 of the Hebrew era (1857). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-1.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 26-2.
Rabbi from the Cohen-Scali dynasty of Debdou, who became grand rabbi of Oran.
Rabbi, writer
Yiddish worker and anarchist poet, died of tuberculosis at 26.
rabbin américain
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-2.
Rabbi, community leader, liturgical poet (paytan) and linguist of Essaouira (Mogador). One of the great architects of the canon of baqashot (supplication chants) in Morocco. He was one of the creators of the anthology "Shir Yedidot," assembled with David Iflah (great connoisseur of Andalusian music) and the hazzan Haïm Afriat.
From a family of rabbis from Salonika who came from Spain via Florence in the early seventeenth century, he became a journalist and one of the founders of Salonika Zionism, first Jewish delegate of Greece to the World Zionist Congress (11th Congress, Vienna, 1913). He emigrated to Palestine in 1933; the Florentin quarter of Tel-Aviv bears his name.
Ottoman journalist in Judeo-Spanish, editor and director of El Tiempo, the main Ladino periodical of the Ottoman Empire (published from 1872 to 1930, circulation up to 10,000 copies). A vector of modernity and secularism in the Judeo-Turkish community, he fought against fanaticism and defended controversial positions (anti-Zionist, Ottomanist). He retired to France around 1930.
Russian Hebraist
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5597 of the Hebrew era (1837). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-1.
Austrian orientalist (1846–1912)
Austrian historian
Yiddish prose writer, cofounder of the Di Yunge group in New York.
Russian-German sociologist
Tunisian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5623 of the Hebrew era (1863). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-4.
Son of Hillel Noah Maggid-Steinschneider. Secretary to S. J. Fuenn, he assisted him with « Ha-Otzar » (1884–1903) and « Keneset Yisrael » (biographical dictionary of Jewish authors and scholars). He worked notably on a history of the Günzburg family and on the history of Jewish music.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5618 of the Hebrew era (1858). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 27-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5632 of the Hebrew era (1872). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-2.
Rabbi of Algiers in the nineteenth century, reserved toward assimilation into French culture by the Jews of Algeria. Prolific author of responsa, derashot (sermons) and commentaries gathered in several collections.
19th century rabbi (1827–1903)
Rabbinic author of Tunis, Talmudic novellae (Tsemah David, Livorno 1828).
rabbin, théologien et philosophe (1866–1924)
American rabbi
Pioneer Yiddish dramatist and writer (born in Mogilev, Russian Empire), author of plays on urban Jewish working-class life; initially destined for the rabbinate, with advanced Talmudic studies from childhood. Established figure in Yiddish literature, confirmed by Wikipedia.
composer and cellist
Lithuanian Jewish writer and translator, born and died in Vilna. He translated into Hebrew works by Friedrich Schiller (William Tell, 1878; Don Carlos, 1879), the Deborah of S. H. Mosenthal (1880) and the manual of Jewish history and literature by David Cassel (1886).
Belarusian Haredi rabbi
Labor Zionist leader and Histadrut secretary-general (1930-1946), signatory of Israel's declaration of independence, first Minister of Transportation then Minister of Education of Israel.
cantor, Jewish liturgical music
Born into a Jewish family from Uzlian (Russian Empire, present-day Belarus), son of Abraham Sarnoff and Leah Privin; childhood spent at heder studying Torah before emigration to New York in 1900. Major figure in American telecommunications, he directed the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) from 1919 until his retirement in 1970. His writings and speeches were collected in volume form.
Poet of the pioneering idylls of the Second Aliyah, Israel Prize 1954.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Died in 5653 of the Hebrew era (1893). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 26-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Died in 5658 of the Hebrew Era (1898). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 25-3.
Danish rabbi and academic (1853-1932)
German painter
Chief Rabbi of Saint Petersburg, talmudic scholar from an illustrious rabbinic lineage.
Slovak rabbi
Son of Rebbe Mordechai of Tchernobyl, he was the most famous of the brothers and founded a sumptuous Hasidic court at Talnoye. It is said that he sat on a silver throne bearing the inscription "David King of Israel lives forever," which resulted in his temporary arrest by Russian authorities. He left several Hasidic works.
Dutch mathematician born in Amsterdam on September 23, 1900 into a Jewish family (parents Abraham van Dantzig and Bertha de Kadt, both Jewish). Known in topology for the construction of the solenoid; professor at Delft (1938) and then Amsterdam (1946). After the war he devoted himself to probability and was consulted by the Delta committee after the 1953 flood. Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy (1949).
Hebrew poet and novelist from Vienna, assassinated at Auschwitz.
British rabbi
Famous rabbi born in Essaouira; he taught in Marrakech then in Rabat. He subsequently settled in Portugal, where he founded a yeshiva and was rabbi of Shaar Hashamayim in Ponta Delgada (first synagogue built in Portugal after the Inquisition), leading the community of Moroccans of the Azores, and ended in Lisbon. Author of a collection of responsa.
French musician born in Nancy on July 4, 1844 and died in Paris on June 3, 1886, Ernest David completed his musical training under Fétis and published numerous works, including « Music among the Jews » (1873), a « History of Musical Notation Since Its Origins » (1882) and, in the year of his death, « The Life and Works of J. S. Bach, His Students and His Contemporaries ».
Violinist and pedagogue born in Hamburg on January 19, 1810 and died suddenly on July 19, 1873 near Kloster, in Switzerland, Ferdinand David began as a virtuoso at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig in 1825. Member of the orchestra of the Königsstädtisches Theater in Berlin in 1827-1828, where he met Mendelssohn, he became first violin of the quartet of Baron von Liphardt in Dorpat, whose daughter he married, and then, when Mendelssohn conducted the concerts of the Gewandhaus in 1835, his concert master, a position he held until his death, especially after the founding of the Conservatory in 1843. He edited the bulk of the classical violin repertoire and trained Joachim and Wilhelmj.
Austrian journalist and writer born in Weisskirchen, Moravia, on February 6, 1859, orphaned of his father at age seven, Jacob Julius David entered the University of Vienna in 1878 to study philology and managed, after years of hardship, to pass his doctorate only in 1890, thereafter devoting himself entirely to literature. Poet, short-story writer, playwright and novelist, he published notably « Das Blut », « Gedichte » and « Probleme » (Dresden, 1892), the drama « Hagar's Sohn », performed at the Landestheater in Vienna on January 20, 1891, and « Am Wege Sterben » (Vienna, 1900); since 1891, he has contributed to the « Montags-Revue ».
First Tolner Rebbe
French musician born in Paris on November 12, 1836 and died in the same city on October 3, 1895, Samuel David studied at the Conservatory under Bazin and Halévy, received in 1858 the Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata « Jephté », then another prize the following year; appointed professor at Collège Sainte-Barbe in 1861 and musical director of the synagogues of Paris in 1872, he composed several operas and operettas performed in Paris, including « La Peau de l'Ours » (1858), « Mademoiselle Sylvia » (1868) and « Un Caprice de Ninon » (1871), as well as the ode-symphony « Le Triomphe de la Paix » (1878), his most popular work, and a treatise, « L'Art de Jouer en Mesure » (1862).
Russian physician born in Goldingen, in Courland, in 1803 and died in Moscow in 1870, Julius Davidov, graduated from the university of Dorpat in 1833, practiced in his native city until 1838 then in Moscow, where he became chief physician of the Nicholas orphanage; converted to Christianity shortly before this move, he was the father of mathematician August Davidov (1823-1885) and cellist Carl Davidov (1838-1889).
Russian Hebraist born in Vilna in 1855 and died in Odessa on January 1, 1898, Juda Löb Davidovich, after years spent working and studying in the West then his service in the Russian army, fails in turn as an assistant surgeon and as a singer before settling around 1885 in Odessa as a private tutor, where he remains until his death. A prolific journalist, he turns toward Hebrew literature under the influence of Ahad Ha'am and translates into Hebrew the essay by Herbert Spencer on education, published under the title « Ha-Ḥinnuk » by the Aḥiasaf house (Warsaw, 1894).
English Orientalist born in London in 1811 and died suddenly of cholera on 19 July 1832, Arthur Lumley Davids devoted himself from his earliest years to mechanics, music and experimental philosophy, undertook at age fifteen an "Encyclopaedia Biblica" and became competent in Turkish and other foreign languages; prevented by his Jewish status from practising law after entering a solicitor's office, he dedicated himself to the cause of civil emancipation of Jews through articles in the London "Times". His scholarly reputation rests on his "Grammar of the Turkish Language", dedicated to Sultan Mahmoud II.
German journalist born in Danzig, Prussia, on December 19, 1835 and died in Berlin on February 6, 1897, Georg Davidsohn, initially destined for commerce, went to Berlin in 1856 as an economic chronicler, joined the editorial staff of the "Berliner Börsen-Zeitung" in 1860, where he also distinguished himself as a music critic, then founded the "Berliner Börsen-Courier" in 1868, which he directed until his death, including after its conversion to a joint-stock company in 1884. An intimate of Richard Wagner, he was his first defender in the Berlin press, founder of Berlin's first Wagnerverein and ardent advocate for Bayreuth performances.
Russian publicist and translator born in Kopyl, in the Governorate of Minsk, in 1855, Leon Davidsohn, trained from childhood in the Talmud and Hebrew, writes Hebrew verses from the age of nine, studies at the yeshiva of Mir and then Karelitz under his uncle Isaac Jehiel, is ordained rabbi at fifteen before settling in Minsk to study Russian, then in Warsaw, where he obtains his doctorate in medicine in 1888. Won over to Hebrew literature after advocating in « Ha-Ḳol » for the founding of a school of Jewish science, he translates into Russian and then into Polish works by Abramovitch and practices medicine in Prużana while continuing to write for the Hebrew press.
German journalist born in Danzig on April 26, 1853, younger brother of Georg Davidsohn, Robert Davidsohn joined the editorial staff of the « Berliner Börsen-Courier », where his satirical critiques of actors and singers earned him a falling-out with Lilli Lehmann who pushed him to leave Berlin; having gone to Italy to gather historical material, he forged a reputation as a historian with « Vom Nordkap bis Tunis » (1884), « Philipp II. August von Frankreich und Ingeborg » (1888) and especially « Geschichte der Stadt Florenz » (1896), an edition covering the 13th and 14th centuries of which appeared in 1900.
Professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at New College Edinburgh, born in Kirkhill, Scotland, in 1831 and died in Edinburgh on January 26, 1902, Andrew B. Davidson, graduate of Aberdeen University in 1849, entered New College in 1852, became Hebrew tutor there in 1858 and was appointed professor after the publication, in 1862, of his first work on Job. Author of an "Elementary Hebrew Grammar" and a "Hebrew Syntax" (1894), he sat in 1871 on the revision committee of the Old Testament and published in 1884 a commentary on Job in the "Cambridge Bible Series", as well as in 1882 a commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.
English orientalist of Jewish birth who died in 1871, Benjamin Davidson worked for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among Jews and directed from its founding in 1847 the college for training missionaries; author of an "Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon" and manuals of Syriac and Chaldean, he also collaborated on the "Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance", and left as major posthumous work a "Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures" (London, 1876).
English technical author and pedagogue born in Hull in 1828 and died in London on March 9, 1878, Ellis A. Davidson studied at the School of Design and the School of Art at South Kensington before becoming one of the first drawing teachers sent to the provinces by the Science and Art Department; appointed in 1866 principal drawing master of the City Middle Class School, he resigned to devote himself to pioneering technical teaching works. He published notably « Orthographics and Isometrical Projection » (1868), « Houses and What They Are Made Of » (1869), « Our Food » (1870) and « Gothic Stonework » (1874).
Philosopher and lecturer born to Presbyterian parents in Deer, near Aberdeen, Scotland, on October 25, 1840 and died in Montreal on September 14, 1900, Thomas Davidson, a graduate of the University of Aberdeen in 1860, taught and traveled in England, Scotland and America, mastering seven ancient and modern languages. Founder of the Fabian Society in London, he became especially known at the Educational Alliance in New York for his sociology lectures aimed at young Jews, whom he wished to unite in a "Breadwinners' College", a project interrupted by his premature death. He left "Fragments of Parmenides" (1869) and "The Parthenon Frieze and Other Essays" (1882).
German Zionist writer and publicist, born in Dresden, died in Tel-Aviv. Co-founder and co-editor of the journal Ost und West (Berlin, 1901–1923) and of the journal Palästina. Practical Zionist, he advocated immediate colonization of 'Greater Palestine' (to Cyprus and El-Arich) and published maps and statistics on world Jewish life. He emigrated to Palestine in 1932.
Philanthropist born in London in 1811 and died on January 6, 1870, Alfred Davis, who started as a simple merchant before founding his own firm, one of the most important in England in the import trade for Birmingham and Sheffield commerce, devoted himself to the communal cause as treasurer of the Jews' Free School for twenty-five years, taking upon himself the cost of the teaching staff's pedagogical equipment and bequeathing at his death 30,000 pounds to the institution; he also generously supported the Jews' College.
Archaeologist born in Cheltenham in 1843 and died in London on July 14, 1900, eldest son of John Davis of Derby, Frederick Davis, trained at the schools of Derby and Belper then engaged in engineering as partner of the Phoenix Foundry and Engineering Works, devoted himself to archaeology as member of the council of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Silchester excavation committee; he wrote a history of the discoveries of the Roman-British city of Silchester and a work on the etymology of place-names in Derbyshire, and was preparing at his death a work on « Misnomers ».
English dramatist and journalist born around 1848, James Davis (known as Owen Hall) obtained his law degree from University College London in 1869, practiced as a solicitor (1874-86) before turning to journalism, edited the society weekly « The Bat » (1885-87) then held an assistant editorial position with Galignani's « Messenger » in Paris (1888-90), and unsuccessfully ran for election in 1890 in the Conservative interest in Dundalk. He is the author of several successful comic operas, including « A Gaiety Girl », « An Artist's Model », « The Geisha », « A Greek Slave » and « Florodora », and has directed since 1899 the weekly « The Phœnix ».
English painter born in London, Miriam Isabel Davis undertook, after a visit to the galleries of Venice, Florence, and Rome, systematic artistic training at the Bloomsbury School of Art; she exhibited from 1882 at the Society of Lady Artists, hung "New Music" in 1887 at the Royal Academy, participated in the Paris Salon in 1889, and then sent works to major galleries — "White and Gold" (1890), "Pure Emblems of Pleasure" (1891), "Simplicity" (1892). From 1895 onwards, she devoted herself to portraiture and exhibited at the Society of Women Painters, of which she was one of the founders.
English educator and author born in London in 1830, trained at the Jews' Free School where he becomes master of talmud-torah then director of the Gates of Hope School of Sephardic Jews, Myer David Davis directed from 1873 to 1875 the « Jewish World » before devoting himself, alongside private lessons, to unpublished archives of the history of Jews in England before their expulsion of 1290; his collection of extracts of Latin and Hebrew documents is published by the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 under the title « Shetaroth: Hebrew Deeds of English Jews » (London, 1888).
Traveler and archaeologist born in 1812 and died in Florence on January 6, 1882, Nathan Davis spent long years in North Africa, converted to Christianity from his youth; he edits in 1852 the « Hebrew Christian Magazine » and becomes a non-conformist pastor, then conducts from 1856 to 1858, for the British Museum, excavations in Carthage and Utica, where he unearths Roman mosaics and Phoenician inscriptions. He publishes notably « Tunis » (Malta, 1841), « A Voice from North Africa » (1844), « Evenings in My Tent » (1854) and « Carthage and Her Remains » (1861).
Actor born in Warsaw on May 15, 1818 and died in Dresden on February 1, 1872, Bogumil Dawison made his debut at the Warsaw Theatrical School in 1835, appeared in 1837 at the Polish Theatre, then made his German debut in 1841 before spending five years in Lemberg, then, from 1846, in Breslau, Brieg and Stettin. In 1849, engaged in Vienna by Heinrich Laube, he became the greatest character actor of the German stage, before moving to Dresden, Munich and Berlin; acclaimed in Paris in 1859 for his declamation in « Don Carlos », he triumphed in Germany in 1864 and then in the United States in 1866, before his reason deteriorated upon his return.
Turkish rabbi established in Aleppo, in Asiatic Turkey, in the first half of the 19th century, Abraham ben Isaïe Dayan wrote the « Shir Ḥadash », Arabic glossary of the Psalms (Livorno, 1841), the « Zikron ha-Nefesh », moral discourses arranged in alphabetical order (1842), and a work in two parts, the « Holekh Tamim » and the « Po'el Ṣedeḳ », collection of responsa (1850), to which he added at the end a history of Aleppo, which he calls Aram Ṣobah, from its conquest by David to his time.
Yiddish poetess and philosopher, figure of the Lwów avant-garde.
Antisemitic clerical agitator born in Vienna in 1846 and died in that city on March 21, 1901, Franz Deckert published in 1893 a pamphlet intended to substantiate the accusation of ritual murder around the Simon of Trent affair, then pushed the convert Paulus Meyer to recount an alleged ritual murder witnessed in 1875 in Ostrów, in Russia; the ensuing libel trial costs him, on September 15, 1893, a fine of 400 florins. He continues his anti-Jewish preaching, publishes in 1894 a confiscated parody of the "Our Father", sees his diatribes challenged in the Reichsrath in 1895, and receives in 1899 the gold Salvator medal from the city of Vienna.
President of chamber at the Supreme Court of Budapest, born in 1839 in Aszód, Sigmund Decsey studied law in Budapest, where he founded with Desider Szilágyi — future minister of Justice and president of Parliament — a mutual aid society for lawyers, before entering state service as clerk of the Court of Cassation in 1870, then being promoted judge of the Royal Court (« Tafel »), judge of the Curia in 1886 and president of chamber in 1895; his department handled matters of exchange, commerce and banking.
American author born June 27, 1867 in New Orleans, daughter of Rabbi Max Del Banco who died shortly after her birth, Miriam Del Banco grew up in Saint Louis and studied at the Normal School of Cape Girardeau before joining her mother in Chicago, where she obtained in 1885 a position in public education and became, from 1889, assistant principal of the Von Humboldt School. Assiduous contributor to Jewish and general press, author of numerous poems, she also translated "Die Jüdischen Frauen" by Kayserling, published in Chicago in 1881, and "Ludwig Börne" by Alberti, published in "Menorah" in 1888-89.
Russian Talmudist and rabbi of Deliatitz, active in the early nineteenth century, Elijah ben Abraham Deliatitz wrote the « Shene Eliyahu », notes on the commentaries of the Gaon of Vilna to the Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, and the « Ben Abraham », annotated concordance of parallel passages from the Avot (Vilna, 1833), to which is added the « Ma'aneh Eliyahu », commentary on the last mishnayot of Uktzin and Kilayim.
Russian rabbi and mathematician, Nissan Deliatitz is the author of « Ḳeneh Ḥokmah », a manual of algebra in five parts (Vilna, 1829); Benjacob calls him the son of Abraham Deliatitz, while Fürst makes him the son of Elijah b. Abraham Deliatitz.
Christian Hebraist born in Leipzig on 23 February 1813 and died in that city on 4 March 1890, Franz Delitzsch, professor in Rostock (1846), Erlangen (1850) and again in Leipzig from 1867, developed as a progressive critic of the Old Testament while remaining attached to post-biblical Hebrew literature. He published his « Zur Geschichte der Jüdischen Poesie » (Leipzig, 1836), an edition with Steinschneider of the « 'Eṣ Ḥayyim » of Aaron ben Élie (1841), and commentaries on Genesis (1852), Job (1864), Isaiah (1866) and the Psalms (1867); he collaborated from 1871 with Baer on a revised edition of the Masoretic text.
French dramatist born in Neuilly-sur-Seine on May 30, 1870, trained at the École Monge and then associated with his father's colonial trade before turning to theater under the pseudonym "Trebla," Albert Delvaille signed numerous plays, including "Le Harem de Pontarlier" (1896), "Voyez Terrasse" (1897), "Elle" (1898), and "Nostalgia" (1901), the latter banned by the authorities, as well as a collection of dialogues, "L'Amour en Fantaisies" (1898), and collaborated with several periodicals.
Lawyer, scholar and American author born on February 3, 1833 in Zirke, in the province of Posen, Lewis Naphtali Dembitz began in 1853 the practice of law at the Kentucky bar in Louisville; delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860, deputy prosecutor of the city from 1884 to 1888, he drafted in 1888 the first Australian ballot law adopted in the United States. Author of « Kentucky Jurisprudence » (1890), attached to Orthodox Judaism, he sat in 1878 on the commission of the Hebrew Union College and presided in 1898 an Orthodox convention; he also published « Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home » (1898) and revised Exodus and Leviticus for the Jewish Publication Society.
Rabbi and Galician historian born in Cracow on June 29, 1820 and died in that city on November 20, 1892, Ḥayyim Nathan Dembitzer, fatherless from 1833, receives rabbinical ordination from Salomon Kluger, Hirsch Chajes and Berish Meisels, becomes dayyan of Cracow in 1856 then rosh bet din, and connects in 1874, during a trip to Germany, with Zunz and other scholars. Author of halakhic responsa — « Maginne Ereṣ Yisraël » (Lemberg, 1852), « Liwyat Ḥen » (Cracow, 1882) —, he leaves above all his major historical work, « Kelilat Yofi », biographies of the rabbis of Lemberg and other Polish communities, published in two parts, in 1888 and then in 1893.
Russian physician born in Poniewież, in the governorate of Kovno, in 1846, Isaac Dembo is graduated in medicine from Saint Petersburg University in 1870, engages in the medical service of the army during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, travels in Germany and France in 1881-82, and receives in 1888 the title of private counselor. Devoted to the scientific study of Jewish ritual slaughter, he concludes that the Jewish procedure causes less suffering than other methods, and publishes his results in Leipzig in 1894 and then, in Hebrew translation, under the title « Ha-Sheḥiṭah weha-Bediḳah » (Warsaw, 1896).
Prince of San-Donato, Russian jurist and philanthropist born in 1839 and died in 1885, from a noble family whose genealogy goes back to 1672, Pavel Pavlovitch Demidov, after studying law in Saint Petersburg then holding positions at the embassies of Paris and Vienna, is mayor of Kiev from 1871 to 1876 and follows the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) as a Red Cross agent rather than as a military officer. In 1883, two years before his untimely death, he publishes "The Jewish Question in Russia", a well-received study on the history, political and social status and rights of Jews, from which he draws a plea for equality of rights and the development of their education.
German jurist born in Mainz on March 3, 1829, brother of Friedrich Dernburg, Heinrich Dernburg, graduate of Berlin in 1851, became privatdozent in Heidelberg the same year, professor in Zurich in 1855, in Halle in 1862 — sitting in the Prussian House of Lords from 1866 to 1873 — then professor of Roman and Prussian law in Berlin in 1873. He founded in 1851 the « Kritische Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Rechtswissenschaft » and published « Das Pfandrecht » (Leipzig, 1860-64) and his « Pandekten » (1884-87); his entire family converted to Christianity.
Hungarian rabbi and author born in Neutra, Hungary, in 1805 and died on June 1, 1878, student of R. Moses Sofer (Schreiber) in Pressburg, Gabriel L. Dessauer serves forty years as rabbi in Balatonkeresztúr, on Lake Balaton, where he dies. He publishes « Das Buch Hiob » (Pressburg, 1838), the « Yad Gabriel », novellæ on the ritual slaughter of the Shulḥan Aroukh (1838), the « Ha-Ariel », commentary on the Talmudic sayings of R. bar bar Ḥana (Budapest, 1859), the « Shire Zimrah », in appendix to Hartwig Wessely's « Shire-Tif'eret », and the « Homiletische Skizzen » (Ofen, 1862).
German actor known by the stage name Dessoir, born in Posen on December 15, 1810 and died on December 30, 1874 in Berlin, Leopold Dessauer made his debut in 1825 in his native city, joined the Stadttheater in Leipzig in 1834, then that of Breslau in 1836 after a divorce, before moving to Berlin in 1847, where he performed until 1872, with an appearance in London in 1853. Regarded by many as an artist superior to his great rival Dawison, he notably embodied Othello, premiered in Berlin on October 6, 1849, as well as Lear, Shylock and Hamlet; his life was darkened by his conjugal misfortunes, his second wife, married in 1844, descending into madness after the death of their child.
German conductor and composer born on January 14, 1835 in Leipzig and died on October 28, 1891 in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Felix Otto Dessoff studies at the Leipzig Conservatory (1851-54) then conducts opera orchestras in Germany before being appointed in 1860, at twenty-five, conductor of the orchestra of the Imperial Opera of Vienna and director of the philharmonic concerts, then professor at the Vienna Conservatory; kapellmeister at court in Karlsruhe from 1875 to 1881, he subsequently becomes first kapellmeister of the Stadttheater in Frankfurt. One of the greatest conductors of his time, he contributes to establishing the Vienna Philharmonic Society on solid footing.
German diplomat born in Hanover on July 24, 1807 and died in that city on March 17, 1856, Johann Hermann Detmold established himself as a lawyer in Hanover in 1830, was elected in 1838 to the Hanoverian Diet as a conservative, then, in 1848, to the Frankfurt Parliament, where he became secretary of Justice and then of the Interior of the ephemeral German government; sent again to Frankfurt as representative of the King of Hanover until 1851, he devoted his final years to Hanover and the arts. He publishes « Anleitung zur Kunstkennerschaft » (Hanover, 1833) and « Thaten und Meinungen des Herrn Piepmeyer » (Frankfurt, 1849), a satirical pamphlet on the politics of the Frankfurt Parliament.
Austrian educator and translator of the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century, Samuel Detmold collaborates on the German translation of the Bible published by the Meassefim (Breslau, 1822-27), translating Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Chronicles, and publishes a Hebrew primer, the "Moreh Derekh" (Vienna, 1815).
Hungarian merchant and financier born in Arad on November 17, 1852, trained in Budapest and Berlin, Alexander Deutsch de Hatvan directed the house Ignatz Deutsch & Sons and rendered great services to Hungarian sugar industry by founding sugar beet refineries at Nagysurány, Hatvan, and Garamvölgye; in recognition, his family was ennobled in 1879.
French financier died on April 18, 1889, at the head of the house A. Deutsch & Fils of Paris, one of the most prominent financiers of the city, whose firm plays a driving role in the organization of the mineral lighting industry ; decorated with the Legion of Honour for his industrial action, Alexander Deutsch actively engaged in Jewish affairs and generously supported Parisian charitable institutions.
Hungarian journalist and economist born in Budapest on October 21, 1848, trained in Budapest and Paris, Anton Deutsch has collaborated since 1870 in the « Pester Lloyd », where he signs economic articles, and published notably « Fünfundzwanzig Jahre Ungarischer Volkswirtschaft und Finanzen » and a history of Hungarian fairs, « Magyar Vásárok Története ».
German novelist born in Nàmestovo, a small Hungarian village, on February 23, 1846, daughter of a rabbi of German culture, Caroline Deutsch begins to write verses from her earliest age, obtains in 1870 her teaching diploma and a permanent position at the "Jüdische Presse" in Berlin, then marries in 1875 while continuing to write under her maiden name. Her novels, located mostly in Hungary, describe the life of Hungarian peasants and small merchants; among them, "Ueber Klippen" (Dresden, 1894), "Aus Drang und Not" (Prague, 1897) and "In Letzter Stunde" (Leipzig, 1897).
Hungarian rabbi and Talmudist born around 1760 and died in 1830 in Nové Mesto (Waag-Neustadtl), Hungary, David b. Menahem Mandel Deutsch first served in Szerdahely then, after 1810, in Waag-Neustadtl, where his nobility of character, his proverbial charity and his wit in preaching make him famous throughout Hungary. He is the author of « Ohel Dawid » (Vienna, 1819-25), Talmudic novellas in two volumes, a second « Ohel Dawid » on Shavuot and Yevamot (Pressburg, 1836), and halakhic discussions published in Prague in 1861 and in Vienna in 1829.
Orientalist born in Neisse, Silesia, on October 28, 1829 and died in Alexandria, Egypt, on May 12, 1873, Emanuel Oscar Menahem Deutsch, trained by his uncle David Deutsch and then at the University of Berlin, joined the British Museum in London, where he publishes scholarly articles on the Targum and the Samaritan Pentateuch. His most influential essay, devoted to the Talmud, appears in the « Quarterly Review » of October 1867: the most discussed article ever published in England on a literary subject, translated into several languages, it revives interest in the Talmud in Christian circles, a project for a more ambitious work that his failing health prevents him from completing.
Hungarian pedagogue born in Trencsén-Bán on 12 June 1819 and died in Budapest on 18 December 1889, Heinrich Deutsch taught in elementary schools in Lovasberény and Kecskemét before being called in 1859 to the talmud-torah school in Budapest; appointed in 1868 director of the college of Israelite teachers and then in 1876 professor of Bible and Talmud at the newly founded rabbinical seminary, he was the first in Hungary to give a course on the Talmud in Hungarian language. He published a Hebrew grammar (1859) and, under the pseudonym « David Nieto Redivivus », an « Beleuchtung der Dogmentheorie Leopold Löw » (Leipzig, 1871).
Hebraist and teacher of the deaf and dumb born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, on March 20, 1813 and died in Vienna on May 1, 1899, collector of Hebrew books, Joël Deutsch entered in 1844 as a teacher at the Austrian institute for the deaf and dumb founded in Nikolsburg, became its director when it moved to Vienna in 1852, a position he held until his retirement in 1888; decorated in 1859 and titled "Kaiserlicher Rath" in 1869, he trained students who would become teachers in New York, London and Budapest. He published notably "Religionslehre für Israel. Taubstumme" and "Biblische Geschichte für Israel. Taubstumme" (Vienna, 1863).
Hebraist and Austrian revolutionary died in Constantinople on March 24, 1877, Simon Deutsch devoted himself early to Hebrew studies in Vienna, where he catalogued with A. Kraft the Hebrew manuscripts of the Imperial Library, before joining the 1848 revolution and fleeing to France after its failure. In Paris, he pursued a career in business thanks to the help of Mme Strauss, a friend of Börne; after the fall of the Commune, denounced as a communist, he was imprisoned at the Orangerie of Versailles and escaped death only through the intervention of the Austrian ambassador; he died in Constantinople on business but was buried in Paris.
Hungarian writer, journalist
Hebraist and Russian novelist born in Vilna in 1808 and died in that city on January 24, 1893, Isaac Mayer Dick received the usual Talmudic education from his father, a hazzan, secretly learned German from a Catholic priest then Russian and Polish, and became tutor of Hebrew and German in Vilna before teaching, from 1841, at the government school for Jewish boys. He describes the visit of Moses Montefiore to Vilna in 1846 in 'Ha-Oreaḥ' (Königsberg, 1860), and publishes three Hebrew works, including 'Maḥazeh Mul Maḥazeh' (Warsaw, 1861) and 'Siprono' (Vilna, 1868), before writing for Romm's publisher numerous Yiddish short stories that will make his reputation.
German artist and engraving professor born in 1817 and died on June 23, 1854, Leopold Dick studied at the Royal Academy of Munich and became known for his lithographic illustrations of the Old Testament after Raphael ; appointed in 1848 professor of engraving at the royal industrial school in Kaiserslautern, in the Palatinate, he teaches there with great success, praised by the jury in its annual reports.
English novelist born February 7, 1812 in Portsea and died June 9, 1870 at Gad's Hill, near Rochester, in Kent, Charles Dickens interests the Jewish world through two novels with contrasting attitudes: « Oliver Twist » (January 1837–March 1839), where the character of Fagin, thief and coward, becomes the accepted type of Jew in fiction even though his name comes from a Christian friend of the author's youth, and « Our Mutual Friend » (May 1864–November 1865), where the Jew Riah embodies instead an almost implausible goodness — two portraits which betray, one as well as the other, a real misunderstanding of Jews.
Yiddish novelist born in Zagare, Russia, in 1859, one of the most popular of the second half of the 19th century, Jacob Dienesohn began to write in 1877 with "Ha-Ne'ehabim weha-Ne'imim", then published numerous widely read novels, including "Eben Negef" (Stone of Stumbling), which depicts the conflict between old and young generations, between Haskalah and Hasidism, avoiding any violent expression and merely describing the sufferings of the Maskilim. He is also the author of a "Welt-Geschichte" in Yiddish and contributes, in Hebrew, to "Ha-Shaḥar", where his articles earn him the praise of Smolenskin.
German theologian and orientalist born in Illingen, in Württemberg, on April 25, 1823 and died in Berlin on July 4, 1894, August Dillmann succeeds Hengstenberg in Berlin in 1869 after cataloguing the Ethiopian manuscripts of the British Museum (1847-48) and preparing an edition of the Ethiopian Old Testament (1853-71); he translates from Ethiopian the Book of Enoch (1853), the Book of Jubilees (1859) and the Ascension of Isaiah (1877), and directs, in the "Exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament", the commentaries on Job, Genesis and other biblical books. His courses in Old Testament theology appear after his death, in 1895.
Russian jurist born in Ponevej in February 1843, graduate of Moscow University in 1867, Marc Lvovitch Dillon rose through the ranks of the Senate secretariat from 1868 to 1874, then held various judicial positions in the circuit courts of Perm, Simbirsk, and Kazan from 1874 to 1896, made a Knight of the Order of Anne in 1883 and State Counselor in 1893; his religion barring him from advancement, he resigned from the judiciary, but an exception made in his favor in 1896 allowed him to practice as a lawyer in Saint Petersburg, where an attack of paralysis, occurring in 1898 in the middle of a hearing at the Supreme Court, forced him to retire to Germany and then to Montreux.
Russian sculptor born in Saint Petersburg in 1859, Maria Lvovna Dillon entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg in 1875, from which she graduated in 1888 with a gold medal for her statue « Andromède », before staying in Paris and then Italy. Among her works exhibited since 1888 are « Nyega », acquired by Grand Duke Sergei, « Golovka », acquired by Grand Duke Alexis, and the bacchante « Lily », purchased by Emperor Nicholas II; she also won first prize in a competition among twenty-eight sculptors for a project commemorating the 200th anniversary of the founding of Saint Petersburg.
Italian deputy and journalist born in Turin in 1824 and died in that city on July 16, 1879, son of humble parents who became a teacher at a young age. Giacomo Dina founded the newspaper "L'Opinione" in 1848, whose wise direction, exercised for thirty years, earned him great political influence; elected deputy for Imola and Bologna by the progressive-monarchist party in 1867, then for Città di Castello in 1871 and 1874.
Russian rabbi born in Grodno on December 10, 1818 and died in Jerusalem on January 22, 1898, Joshua Löb Diskin served successively in Łomża, Meseritz, Minsk, Kovno, Sklow and finally Brest-Litovsk, from which his surname of « Der Brisker Rov »; recognized rabbinical authority, compared to Akiva Eiger, he shrank from no decision he deemed just — to the point of being forced to leave Kovno, and then, in 1877, Brest-Litovsk after a judgment unfavourable to the civil authorities. Settled in Jerusalem, he forbade in 1889, the sabbatical year, the cultivation of land in Palestine, founded an orphanage and the yeshiva Ohel Moshe, and struggled tirelessly against reformers and English missionaries.
English statesman born in London on December 21, 1804 and died on April 19, 1881, son of Isaac D'Israeli, from a wealthy Sephardic family of Venice, Benjamin Disraeli was baptized in 1817 after his grandfather's death; registered at Lincoln's Inn in 1824, he achieved fame with the satirical novel « Vivian Grey », travels in the East—including Jerusalem, which nourished his novel « Tancred »—, failed elections in High Wycombe (1834) and Taunton (1835), before publishing, between 1831 and 1839, « The Wondrous Tale of Alroy », the only one of his novels devoted to a Jewish subject, and « Letters from Runnymede » (1836). Member of Parliament for Maidstone in 1837, his first speech in the Commons is a fiasco.
Austrian surgeon born in Fulneck, Moravia, on May 15, 1815 and died in Vienna on July 28, 1898, Leopold Ritter von Dittel, graduated in medicine from Vienna in 1840, became privat-docent there in 1856, chief surgeon in 1861 and assistant professor in 1865; founder in 1864 of the institute of surgical anatomy of the university, he refused in 1880 the chair of Dumreicher. Eminent urologist converted to Catholicism, he published in 1894 a report on eight hundred operations for lithiasis, invented the electric lamp of the cystoscope, and signed «Ueber Klumpfuss» (1851) and «Der Kathederismus» (1864).
Soldier Beni-Israel born near Bombay around 1830, Abraham Samuel Divekar enlists on March 1, 1851 in the nineteenth regiment of native infantry, promoted jemadar on January 1, 1872 then subadar on September 10, 1878; present at the battles of Multan, Gujarat and Punjab, decorated with a medal and two clasps, he also participates in the Afghan war (1878-80), where he loses his right arm at the battle of Deh Khoja on August 16, 1880, and receives another medal for his bravery.
Soviet Jewish composer (Ukrainian Jewish musicians), the most famous of the Pokrass brothers, authors of film music and famous Soviet songs (« March of the Soviet Tankists »). The surname is spelled « Pokrass » on Wikipedia — an orthographic variant close to the surname of the lineage (Pokras), to be noted with caution due to this transcription discrepancy.
Hebraist and Russian exegete born in Pinsk on October 17, 1843 and died in New York on January 14, 1900, Abraham Baer Dobsewitch wrote from age thirteen a commentary on the Song of Songs, settled in 1861 in Ekaterinoslav as a Hebrew professor, then in 1874 in Kiev as tutor of Brodski's sons, before emigrating to the United States in 1891. His major work, the « Ha-Meṣaref » (Odessa, 1870), gathers rationalist interpretations of the aggada; he then publishes « Be-Ḥada Maḥeta » (Cracow, 1888) and « Lo Dubbim we-lo Ya'ar » (Berditchev, 1890), critiques directed against Shatzkes and Weissberg, and continues his literary activity in the United States.
Anglo-American actress and singer born in London in 1852 and died in New York on January 23, 1889, Selina Dolaro studied at the Paris Conservatory under Auber and made her debut on January 20, 1870 in « Chilpéric » at the Lyceum Theatre in London; noted for her voice, she sang the premiere of « Carmen » in English, directed the Haymarket Theatre where she mounted « Trial by Jury » by Gilbert and Sullivan, left in 1877 to the United States with Colonel Mapleson's company, then performed in 1879 at the Folly Theatre in New York before joining Mrs Fiske's troupe. She also wrote two plays, a novel and an autobiography, « My Loves ».
Hebrew poet, Russian, born in Białystok on April 3, 1856, Menahem Mendel Dolitzki leaves his native city in 1880 for Moscow, where he teaches, then emigrates in 1892 to the United States. His first major satirical poem, published separately in Vienna in 1879, is followed by the novel « Betoḵ Leva'im » (Saint Petersburg, 1884) and especially « Mi-Bayit umi-Ḥuṣ » (Vilna, 1891), considered his masterpiece for its description of the persecution of Jews in Romania; his poems are collected for the first time in America in « Ḳol Shire Menaḥem » (New York, 1895) and « Shire Menaḥem » (1899), while he also writes in Yiddish and directs, from December 1897 to September 1898, the review « Die Zeit » in New York.
Austrian chemist born in Vsetín, in Moravia, on December 8, 1848, Édouard Donath is assistant at Zinck's chemical institute in Berlin in 1869, then at the higher technical school of Brünn in 1870, agricultural chemist at the Vienna testing station in 1874 and associate at the Bergakademie of Leoben in 1875, before becoming professor at the technical school of Brünn; he embraced the Christian faith in 1876. He published notably « Monographie der Alkohol-Gährung » (Brünn, 1874) and « Die Prüfung der Schmiermaterialien » (Leoben, 1879).
Italian novelist born in Lugo, in Romagna, on September 21, 1826, persecuted by Austrian authorities for his participation in the revolution of 1848, Cesare Donati left Finale in 1849 for Tuscany, completed his law degree in Pisa in 1852, then turned to journalism after his father's death to support his family. Appointed to the Ministry of Education in 1859, he became director of the museums and art galleries of Florence then department head; he published several collections of short stories, including « Rivoluzione in Miniatura » (1876), considered his best work, « Bozzetti Romani » (Rome, 1884) and « Storie Bizzarre » (1888).
Italian lawyer born in Padua on September 4, 1842 and died in Terni on June 11, 1901, Marco Donati left university before the end of his studies to fight under Garibaldi, then completed his law degree and opened a practice in Padua, where he became one of the most reputed lawyers; he sat for several years in the Italian Chamber, first representing Belluno then Conegliano, for a time presided over the Jewish community of Padua, and published a short work on the art of advocacy as well as a funeral oration for King Humbert I.
Born in Livorno on 26.2.1854, died in Vercelli on 13.10.1934. Graduate « Maskil » from the Rabbinic College of Livorno (1883) then « Chakham ha-shalem » from the Central Rabbinic Institute of Rome (1893). Rabbi of Naples (1889-1893), Modena (1894-1926) then Vercelli (1926-1934).
Hungarian opera singer
Yiddish novelist of Chicago, chronicler of the Pale of Settlement.
American rabbi and writer
Polish rabbi
Polish rabbi
Lithuanian politician
Third Sochatchover Rebbe (1876-1942)
religious leader
Yiddish poet of the Kiev group; killed in the Night of the Murdered Poets.
Founder of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in the United States; disciple of Slabodka.
American educator and rabbi born in New York on June 27, 1861, graduate of Columbia College in 1882, then doctor from the University of Heidelberg in 1884 after studies at the seminary of Breslau, where he receives his rabbinical diploma in 1885, Bernard Drachman serves at the congregation Oheb Sholom of Newark (1885-87), then Beth Israel Bikkur Cholim of New York (1887-89), and finally Zichron Ephraim. He helps Sabato Morais found the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1886, becomes its dean in 1889 until the founding of the new seminary in 1902, where he teaches Bible; he also translates from German Samson Raphael Hirsch's « Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel » (New York, 1899).
Rabbi and German author from the vast Treves family, rabbi of Sulzbourg, in Baden, for several decades and died in 1880, Menahem ben Abraham Dreifus is the author of a code of individual duties of the Israelite, the « Oraḥ Mesharim » (Mulhouse, 1858; 2nd ed., Mainz, 1878), preceded by a Hebrew eulogy composed by his brother-in-law Raphaël Wormser, rabbi of Soultz, in Alsace.
Dentist and community leader born in Bamberg, Bavaria, in 1824 and died in Manchester on October 21, 1897, Leopold Dreschfeld, who fought during the 1848 revolution, settles in Manchester where he becomes one of the leading dental practitioners; co-founder of the Victoria Dental Hospital, he presides over the Odontological Society in 1888 and writes a treatise on dentistry among the Ancients. Founder of the Park Place synagogue, connected from its beginnings to the reformed movement and for more than thirty years member of the council of Jewish guardians of Manchester, he is also among the founders of several social institutions, including the Schiller-Anstalt and the Liedertafel.
French physician born in Strasbourg on February 3, 1849 and died on May 5, 1903, trained in his native city and then at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, where he became an intern in 1873 and then a tenure holder in 1878, Louis Lucien Dreyfus-Brisac directed the clinic for children's diseases from 1879 onwards and became a physician at Lariboisière Hospital in 1894; member of the Superior Council of Public Assistance from its creation in 1888, he worked for the adoption in 1893 of the law on free medical assistance, and published notably a « Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus » (1894). Knight of the Legion of Honor since 1893.
French journalist and dramatist born in Paris on June 21, 1847, Abraham Dreyfus made his debut in 1870 with two poetic fantasies, then multiplied successful comedies — "Un Monsieur en Habit Noir" (1872), "Mariages Riches" (1876), "Battez Philidor" (1882), "Une Rupture" (1885) — partly collected in "Jouons la Comédie" (1887); contributor to numerous newspapers, he signs in the "Revue Littéraire et Politique", under the pseudonym "Monsieur Yosse", chronicles on the city and theater, and placed his pen at the service of his coreligionists during antisemitic agitation and the Dreyfus affair, notably in "L'Aurore".
French politician and deputy born in Paris on May 5, 1849, editor at « Siècle », Ferdinand Dreyfus was elected Republican deputy for Rambouillet in March 1880, reelected in August 1881, but lost his seat in 1885 and failed again in 1889; he is the author of the « Manuel Populaire du Conseiller Municipal » (Paris, 1884).
French politician born in Paris on August 19, 1851, Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus left his studies to serve as a volunteer during the Franco-Prussian War, directed in 1873 « L'Avenir de la Sarthe » — earning him five months in prison for opposition to MacMahon —, became head of the bureau at the under-secretariat of finances in 1879, then publisher of « La Lanterne » and municipal councilor of Gros-Caillou in 1882, before founding two years later « Le Matin »; he was elected deputy of the Seine in 1885, reelected in 1889 against a Boulangist, and sat on the far left. He published « The Evolution of Worlds and Societies » (1888) and « The Necessary War » (1890), and cofounded « The Great Encyclopedia ».
Swiss teacher and editor born in Endingen, in the canton of Aargau, in 1812 and died in Zurich on May 30, 1877, Markus G. Dreyfus, trained at the talmudic school and at the Karlsruhe seminary and then at the University of Basel, became in 1835 master of the Endingen parish Hebrew school, a position he held, with interruptions, until 1870, before teaching religion in Zurich, where he died. Grandson of R. Abraham Ris and pioneer of religious reform with his friend M. Bernheim, he worked tirelessly for the emancipation of Swiss Jews, notably in « Zur Würdigung des Judenthums Unter Seinen Nichtbekennern » (Winterthur, 1860; 2nd ed. with preface by M. Kayserling, 1862).
Rabbi of Mulhouse, in Alsace, died in June 1870, Samuel Dreyfus counts among the first students enrolled in the Rabbinical School of Metz; excellent Hebraist and preacher, ambitioning unsuccessfully to become chief rabbi, he publishes several works, contributes to « L'Univers Israélite » and founds the monthly « Le Lien », which does not meet with success and ceases shortly thereafter.
English Christian Hebraist born in Southampton on October 2, 1846, Regius Professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, since 1883, member of the committee for the revision of the Old Testament (1876-84), Samuel Rolles Driver established himself, along with Cheyne and Robertson Smith, as one of the great architects of biblical criticism in England, first through linguistics with his « Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew » (1874). Defending a moderate position, he published the « Variorum Bible » (with Cheyne, 1876), « Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel » (1890) and his « Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament » (1891), a standard reference in English.
Talmudic scholar and preacher of Stanisławów (originally from Ostrog, according to Ghirondi), died in Safed in the early nineteenth century, Israël Naḥman Drohobiczer, student of Israël Ba'al Shem Tov, is rabbi and head of yeshiva in several German cities before undertaking a long journey to have his works printed, staying several years in Livorno then settling in Palestine, where he dies. He leaves in particular the « Ḥemdat Yisrael », commentary on Ecclesiastes and two treatises by Élie ha-Lévi (1820), as well as the « Peḳuddat ha-Melek », novellæ on Maimonides and funeral laments, in two volumes.
American lawyer and president of Gratz College, born in Philadelphia on March 9, 1821 and died in that city on July 8, 1905, Moses Aaron Dropsie, admitted to the bar in 1851, involved himself in public affairs, opposing slavery, and played a major role in the development of Philadelphia's railroads. Engaged for decades in Jewish charitable and educational works, president of Maimonides College (1867-73), of the Philadelphia branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle since 1883 and of Gratz College since its founding in 1893, he retired from the bar in 1885 and published a translation of Mackeldey's « Handbook of Roman Law » (1883).
Musician born in Russian Poland on December 31, 1861, Michael Drucker studied violin from age five under his father, entered the Kiev Conservatory in 1875, became concert director in Kiev in 1877 then conductor of operetta theater, before completing his training in Warsaw; after tours in Sweden, Norway, France and Germany, he became concert director at the Opera in Lemberg in 1880, a position he held for thirteen years, before settling in Vienna as a virtuoso and music teacher.
French antisemitic author and former deputy of Algeria, born in Paris on 3 May 1844, Édouard Drumont, of non-Jewish descent contrary to what has sometimes been claimed, launches into journalism after a youth marked by the early death of his father. In 1886, leaving « Liberté », owned by a Jew, he publishes « La France Juive », founding work of the antisemitic movement in France, which knows more than a hundred editions; he founds in 1892 « La Libre Parole », is sentenced to three months in prison for his articles on the Panama affair, fails in Amiens in 1893, then, carried by the Dreyfus affair, is elected deputy for Algiers in 1898, before failing to be reelected in 1902.
Russian-Jewish historian born in Mstislavl, in the governorate of Mogilev, in 1860, graduated from district school in 1877, Simon Doubnov settled in 1880 in Saint Petersburg, where he became a collaborator of « Russki Yevrei » and then, from 1882, of « Voskhod », whose critical section he directed from 1883; his first notable articles dealt with Sabbatai Tsevi and the Frankists. Author of a monograph based on unpublished sources, the « History of Hasidism » (1888-93), he undertook in 1891 to arouse among Russian Jews an interest in their own history, publishing articles collected in a volume in Saint Petersburg (1891).
Hungarian historian of Jewish literature, born in Bratislava in 1810 and died in Vienna on August 3, 1891. Trained in Talmud at the yeshiva of Moses Sofer in Bratislava and then at that of Würzburg, he stayed in numerous cities of Europe — Munich, Tübingen, Hanover, Hamburg, Paris, Leipzig, Oxford, then London for twenty years — to consult Hebrew manuscripts. His work, devoted to exegesis, Haggada, grammar, Masora and the history of literature, complements that of Zunz, Rapoport and Krochmal.
Russian jurist born in Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper in 1836 in a poor Jewish family, died in Saint Petersburg in 1887. Graduate of the School of Agriculture of Gorigoretzk in 1855 then of the Faculty of Law of Saint Petersburg in 1862, he was barred from a professorial chair by a law prohibiting Jews from teaching law, and served in the Ministries of Education and then Justice, becoming first secretary of the third department of the Senate. Editor then owner of « Sudebnyi Vestnik », he published numerous works on jurisprudence concerning the condition of Jews in Russia.
Hebraist and editor, born in Karlsruhe in 1817, died on December 21, 1889. Settled in Paris in 1845 as a language teacher, he founded there a Hebrew publishing house that his son continued after his death, publishing a Hebrew primer, an almanac and a small work entitled « Joseph et ses frères ». His two most notable works are a French translation of the German Mahzor and another of the daily prayer book, carried out with L. Wogue, whose edition of the Pentateuch he also published.
born:1815-11-14|died:1890-07-21|; Duschak, M. (Moritz), 1815-1890; Duschak, M. (Moritz), rabbi, 1815-1890; דושק, מרדכי, 1815-1890; Duschak, M.
Austrian jurist born in Prague on January 18, 1843, died in the same city on January 11, 1901. After studying law at the University of Vienna from 1867 onward, he obtained his doctorate in 1871, returned to Prague where he was admitted to the bar in 1878 then withdrew from professional life in 1899. From 1890 onward, he co-directed with Wenzel Ritter von Belsky and Carl Baretta the « Oesterreichisches Rechts-Lexikon », published in Prague and translated into Czech, while also taking part in the life of the Jewish community and in the city's political life.
Austrian writer born in Strasnitz, Moravia, on May 6, 1860. After studying Romance and Germanic philology at the universities of Vienna and Paris, he became in 1892 professor at the Ober-Realschule of the seventh arrondissement of Vienna, where he published numerous monographs on French and German philology between 1887 and 1902.
Hungarian writer born in Pressburg on October 25, 1822, died in Budapest on November 20, 1881, cousin of Leopold Dukes. After studying law and philosophy at the University of Vienna, he collaborated with the « Presburger Zeitung » until 1855, then became correspondent of the « Pester Lloyd », translating into German the Hungarian poems of Alexandre Petöfi and Josef Eötvös as well as the tragedy « Bank Ban » by Katona, and publishing « Aus Ungarn » and various tales gathered under the title « Deutsch-Ungarisches ».
American merchant and community figure, born in Dessau, Germany, in 1813, died in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1888. Settled in Baltimore then, from 1840 onwards, in Galveston, where he made his career until 1861 before retiring from business, he presided from 1866 to 1880 over the Union Marine and Fire Insurance Company of Galveston and welcomed at his home, in 1856, the first Jewish religious services in the city. His will endowed the maintenance of two Hebrew cemeteries and made bequests to the B'nai Israel congregation and the Protestant orphanage of Galveston.
American military officer born in Alzey, Germany, on October 9, 1807, died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1883. He served as quartermaster general of the militia of Louisiana during the war of independence of Texas in 1836, then in the American army — wounded during the campaign in Florida against Osceola — and as quartermaster general with the rank of colonel during the Mexican War. In 1848, he joined California and founded in San Francisco the first Jewish congregation on the Pacific coast.
German jurist and writer, born in Berlin on January 26, 1812, died in Arnsdorf, in the Riesengebirge, on July 7, 1884. Trained at the universities of Berlin and Bonn, he became a privatdozent of natural and criminal law at the University of Breslau in 1849, then associate professor in 1854, and published notably « Die Gestirne und die Weltgeschichte » (1846) as well as biographies of Walter Scott and Lord Byron; he converted to Christianity.
German physician born in Jauer, Prussian Silesia, on November 27, 1836. Trained at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, where he received his diploma in 1859, he became privat-docent in 1869, professor at the University of Göttingen in 1874, then director of the university hospital in 1877; a specialist in malassimilation and nutritional disorders, he was one of the world's leading experts in this field and published notably « Die Medizin im Alten Testament » (1901).
Économiste et journaliste. - Rabbin. - Député à la diète de Pozsony, Bratislava (en 1870).
Russian preacher born in Zamość, in the province of Lublin in Poland, died in Slonim in 1827. Disciple of Elijah of Vilna, he was renowned for his homiletic talent as well as for his Hebrew and Talmudic learning, and published notably a Hebrew grammar for beginners (1793), a collection of twenty-four sermons (1802), and commentaries on the Ṭohorot of Maimonides (1816-1817).
Author and editor born in Swislocz, Russia, in 1805, died in Berlin on November 20, 1858, son of a Rabbinic scholar. He published his first work, notes on « Me'irat 'Enayim », in 1839, then, in 1844, extracts from his work on difficult passages of the Haggada; he then spent several years in England, where he was one of the first scholars to study the manuscripts of the Oppenheim collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, before publishing in London, with Leopold Dukes, « Ginze Oxford » (1851) and settling in Berlin in 1852.
Russian grammarian and commentator born in Vilna in January 1821, died in Warsaw in December 1892. Trained in the Talmud and then at the yeshiva of Volozhin, he lived about thirty years in Rossein, where he revealed the talent of the poet Judah Löb Gordon, before staying in Tels (1867), Mohilev, Königsberg, then Brest and Kovno, and finally settling in Warsaw. He published notably "Shoshannim" (Königsberg, 1860), "Ha-Mesillot" (Vilna, 1875), and "Ha-Tirosh" (Warsaw, 1891), and was considered one of the principal defenders of orthodoxy in modern Hebrew literature.
American rabbi
Italian composer, pianist and pedagogue, born in Alexandria (Egypt) and died in Florence. From a Sephardic family originating in Livorno. Piano professor at the Florence Conservatory from 1890, founder of the musical journal La Nuova Musica and the concert venue « Circolo del Valle » (1893). His son Giacomo, a musicologist, was forced to flee Italy for Brazil after the racial laws of 1938.
German deputy born in Worms on January 14, 1808, died in Mannheim on February 9, 1879. First Jew appointed by the authorities to serve as a juror, in Mainz in 1847, he there established, despite the opposition of the Orthodox, synagogue services in German. Active in politics, he was one of the leaders of the Democratic party in 1848, elected mayor the following year, then sent in 1850 as a deputy to the Upper Chamber of Hesse — a rare distinction for a Jew at the time — before the success of the reactionary party in 1853 forced him to retire.
Holocaust victim, mother of Anne Frank
Psychoanalyst, theorist of the self and depression; imprisoned by the Nazis for resistance.
Neurologist and psychiatrist, pioneer in the psychotherapeutic use of hypnosis.
Hungarian violinist
traditional Algerian singer
Austro-American psychoanalyst born into a Jewish family from Kolomyia. He fled Nazi Austria in 1937-38 and settled in New York. A prolific theorist, he published approximately 25 books and 273 articles on child development, psychic masochism, pathological gambling and self-sabotaging behaviors.
Austrian composer
Austrian historian
German mathematician
Edoardo Arbib (1840–1906), from the Arbib family that moved from Tripoli to Livorno and then to Italy, fought in Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, was appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy, directed the Gazzetta del Popolo of Florence and founded the daily La Libertà; he was also a historian and author of fiction.
Moroccan Kabbalist and professor of Oriental and modern languages of the early 19th century, born in Morocco, established in Amsterdam then in England. A fervent believer in the existence of the Ten Lost Tribes somewhere in Western Asia, he published notably « Yad Mosheh » (Amsterdam, 1809), an account of the Sambatyon river, « Ma'aseh Nissim » (London, 1834), and « An Historical Account of the Ten Tribes... » (London, 1836); he stayed in Edinburgh in 1829, where his peculiarities were evoked in « Blackwood's Magazine ».
German classical philologist and historian of religions
Austrian politician
American rabbi
Second son of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling. Secretary of State for India from 1917 to 1922 (Montagu-Chelmsford reforms / Government of India Act 1919). The only Jew in the cabinet during the debates on the Balfour Declaration, he opposed it in a memorandum ("The Anti-Semitism of the Present Government", 1917) for fear of accusations of dual loyalty.
Hungarian footballer
Italian rabbi born in Brody, Galicia, in 1818, died in Rome on December 27, 1899. Attracted by the reputation of Samuel David Luzzatto, he studied at the Istituto Rabbinico of Padua and received his rabbinic diploma on May 10, 1845, then was rabbi in Modena, in Casale in Piedmont from 1861, before being called in 1882 to head the Talmud Torah of Rome and then chief rabbi of the Italian capital; it was under his impetus that the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano reopened in 1887. He notably translated Hosea, Micah, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah for the Italian Bible directed by Luzzatto, before retiring in 1894.
Hungarian educator and writer born in Szilágy-Nagyfalu in 1825, died in Budapest on December 27, 1894. After teaching in several cities, he settled in Budapest in 1867 to devote himself to literary work, publishing under various pseudonyms a Hungarian grammar as well as several works, including « Jüdische Charakterbilder » (1866) and « Der Geist des Talmud » (1888), and directing the journals « Jüdische Volksschule » and « Das Traditionelle Judenthum ».
Russian educator and rabbi born in Mitau, Courland, on September 20, 1837. Teaching Hebrew and religion in Friedrichstadt from 1858, he studied in Berlin under Michael Sachs from 1861 and obtained his doctorate from Halle in 1868, then taught at the Religionsschule of Berlin until 1870, became rabbi of Neudenberg, East Prussia, before returning to Berlin and being placed in 1876 at the head of the Jewish school in Riga, a position he held for about twenty years. He notably published sermons in Saint Petersburg in 1883.
Biblical critic born in Volodovka, near Brest-Litovsk, in Russia, on January 15, 1848. Trained at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, where he became assistant librarian of Oriental books at the Royal Library, he emigrated in 1878 to the United States and settled in New York, devoting from 1898 onward most of his time to his commentary on the Hebrew Bible, « Miḳra ki-Peshuṭo »: the first volume, on the Pentateuch, appeared in Berlin in 1899, the second, « Dibre Soferim », in 1900, and the third, « Dibre Nebuah », devoted to the Prophets, in 1901.
Composer, pianist, and German music critic, born in Vienna on October 5, 1822, died on December 20, 1899. After early positions in Bucharest and Jassy and a post as court pianist to George V of Hanover, he lived from 1855 to 1862 in Wiesbaden, England, and then Frankfurt am Main, before settling in Berlin as a piano professor at the Stern Conservatory and music critic; he received the title of professor in 1875. Author of numerous works on music, he converted to Christianity in the latter part of his life.
Polish philologist born in Lublin in 1818, died in Paris in 1861, one of the great Talmudists of his time and master of Oriental and modern languages. Most of his work remained unpublished; only his research in Hebrew philology appeared, posthumously, under the title « Ḥeker Millim u-Sefat Ḳodesh » (Paris, 1868).
Austrian rabbi born in Muttersdorf, Bohemia, in 1816, died in Brünn on November 15, 1882. After studies in Budapest and Prague, he was rabbi and preacher in Kuttenplan and Dürrmaul from 1843, then rabbi in Böhmisch-Leipa from 1852 to 1860, before settling in Prague for the book trade and directing there, with Brünn, the periodical « Das Abendland »; called in 1867 as professor of religion in Brünn, he remained there until his death. He notably published a « Geschichte der Israeliten » in two volumes (Brünn, 1869).
German pianist born in Berlin on April 15, 1857, trained on piano with Reinecke and in composition with Paul at the Leipzig Conservatory. Professor at the musical institute in Kharkov until 1880, then at the Royal Leipzig Conservatory until 1883, he subsequently obtained a chair at the Cologne Conservatory, became in 1893 director of the Liederkranz of Cologne and then in 1896 first professor of piano at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. He distinguished himself by brilliant technique and great delicacy of playing.
Hungarian pianist born in Budapest on May 8, 1872, trained first by her cousin Albert Eibenschütz then, from 1878 to 1885, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Hans Schmitt. After a remarkable debut in Vienna, she undertook annual tours throughout Europe from adolescence, performing notably before the Queen of Denmark, the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia and the Emperor of Austria; trained thereafter by Clara Schumann from 1885 to 1890, she resumed her tours with great success in London.
Violinist, orchestra conductor and composer, born in Düsseldorf on June 13, 1824, died in Boston on January 18, 1893. Trained notably under Reitz and Mendelssohn then at the Brussels Conservatory, where he obtained the first prize in violin and composition, he conducted an opera troupe in Geneva before settling, in 1857, in New York then in Boston, where he became musical director of the Museum ; he there composed the operetta « The Doctor of Alcantara », still performed in America, and founded the Boston Conservatory of Music.
French publicist and Hellenist born in Nancy on March 22, 1804, died in Paris on April 9, 1882. Converted to Catholicism in his adolescence, he became a disciple of Auguste Comte after leaving the lycée Henri-IV in 1822, before embracing Saint-Simonian doctrines. He traveled to Greece in 1832 and published upon his return, in 1836, « Les Deux Mondes »; a defender of Greek as a universal language, he published « Les Trois Grands Peuples Méditerranéens et le Christianisme » (1864) and was one of the founders, in 1881, of the Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies.
Physician born on 10 January 1862 in Grodno, Russia, doctor from the University of Berlin in 1884. Established in New York, he was resident physician at the German Hospital in 1885 then, after a stay in Berlin as assistant to Ewald in 1887, specialized in the pathology of digestion, teaching diseases of the stomach at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School from 1888 onwards and tenured professor in 1899. Inventor of several medical instruments, he ranks among the most prolific authors on this field.
Born in Cincinnati on 18 November 1842 and trained in New York, where he obtained a master's degree from Union College of Schenectady. Representative of New York to the forty-sixth Congress, he was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York in 1892, receiving the largest number of votes ever obtained by a candidate of that party for that position, then commissioner and treasurer of the dock service from 1895 to 1898, and director of Mt. Sinai Hospital from 1876 to 1878.
Austrian rabbi born 11 February 1825 in Boskowitz, Moravia. Trained in Talmud under rabbi Abraham Placzek and in Oriental languages at the University of Prague, where he also attended the courses of S. L. Rapoport, he became rabbi of Eiwanowitz in 1856 and then, in 1892, of the newly organized community of Wischau, serving both since then. He is the author of "Beiträge zur Rabbinischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde" (4 parts, Vienna, 1872-90) and "Dibre Yehuda ha-Aḥaronim" (1900).
Austrian educator and philosophical writer born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on January 20, 1823, died in Troppau, Silesia, on December 21, 1902. Trained in philosophy and Oriental languages in Prague, he was appointed in 1853 professor of religion at the Piarist gymnasium and director of the communal school of Nikolsburg, then founded in 1862 a relief society for invalid teachers, at the origin of the Association of Hebrew Teachers of Moravia-Silesia, which he chaired until 1898. Author of "Vorlesungen über die Jüdischen Philosophen des Mittelalters" (3 vol., Vienna, 1870-1883), he retired to Troppau in June 1893.
Austrian writer born in Vienna on January 7, 1873. Trained at the universities of Berlin, Vienna, and Leipzig, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1894, he settled in Vienna in 1899, directing the « Wissenschaftliche Volksbibliothek » and publishing several philosophical works, including « Der Psychophysische Parallelismus » (1894), « Psychologie im Umriss » (1895), and a « Wörterbuch der Philosophischen Begriffe und Ausdrücke » (Berlin, 1900).
Austrian colonel born in Piesling, Moravia, in 1832. Entered the Austrian army at fifteen, he took part in the campaigns of 1848, 1849, 1859 and 1866, received several decorations including the Order of Leopold and the Order of the Iron Crown, as well as two medals for meritorious military service, before retiring in 1896. He was a fervent Zionist.
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Son of David. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-4.
Lithuanian rabbi
English children's writer
publicist
Rabbi and preacher native to Tunis, where he died in 1812. Two of his works were published long after his death: « Mishkenot ha-Ro'im » (Livorno, 1860), a collection of responsa relating to the history of the Jewish community of Tunis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and « Ḥayyim wa-Ḥesed » (1865), twenty-two funeral orations pronounced for rabbis of Tunis.
rabbi (1817-1890)
Dutch botanist and conservationist (1861–1914)
Greek architect
Native of Constantinople, the most prolific author of original novels in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), with dozens of novels and novellas (romansos). Founder and director in 1908 of the satirical periodical « El Jugueton » (איל ג'וגיטון), one of the most enduring of the Ladino press (1908-1931). He published in 1926 a picaresque autobiography, « Komo Nasio Elia R. Karmona ». His work is preserved notably in the Sephardic Studies Collection of the University of Washington.
Born in Turin, trained at the Italian Rabbinical College of Florence (semikha 1912). Rabbi of the communities of Turin, Tripoli (1920–1923), Alexandria and Florence (1926–1934), then director of the Rabbinical College of Rome. Settled in Palestine in 1939, he was a major biblical scholar; his commentary on the Hebrew Bible enjoyed wide circulation in Israel. Elected to the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1945. Buried in Jerusalem, where a street bears his name.
Born in Haifa, educator and politician, involved in the founding of the World Federation of Sephardic Communities (Vienna, 1925).
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5592 of the Hebrew calendar (1832). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5604 of the Hebrew era (1844). Son of Reuben. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5606 of the Hebrew era (1846). Son of Shimon. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Son of Haim II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-4.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Born in 5630 of the Hebrew calendar (1870). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5573 of the Hebrew era (1813). Son of Yehonatan II. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 21-3.
French rabbi
Chief Rabbi of Saïda in Algeria, renowned for his knowledge of sacred texts. He gave Hebrew lessons in Algiers, was a much-revered rabbi, and died in Jerusalem after emigrating there.
advisor to the King of Hawaii
chief Rabbi of Athens during the Holocaust
Eldest son of David Joseph Ezra, he had the Magen David synagogue of Calcutta built in 1884 in honor of his father and was himself sheriff of Calcutta; an inscription in the synagogue describes him as « the father of the Jewish community ».
German historian
British consul general in Machhad, Persia, and explorer, died in London on May 31, 1897. In 1871, he conceived the bold project of reaching Europe from China by land through all of Asia, crossing the Gobi Desert by an unprecedented route and then Siberia into Russia. Subsequently entering the service of the Indian government, sent to Yunnan and then to Ladakh, he crossed in 1885 the entire Pamir range to the approaches of Herat, which earned him a C.I.E., delimited in 1889-90 the border between Siam and the Shan States of Burma, and was appointed in 1891 consul general in Machhad.
Russian rabbi born in Kovno in 1850, died in Volkovysk, in the Government of Grodno, on November 20, 1898. Rabbi first in Pumpian then in Mariampol, he became, like his father, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement in Russia, and Samuel Mohilever obtained for him the rabbinate of Volkovysk. He is the author of « Darke Hora'ah » (Wilna, 1884), devoted in part to Talmudic weights, measures and coins, as well as a biography of his father, « Toledot Mordekai », published in his « Shebil ha-Zahab » (Warsaw, 1897).
Russian rabbi born in Shaykshok, in the Governorate of Grodno, in February 1817, died in Bausk, in Courland, on 11 December 1889. A merchant in Kovno, he withdrew from business on the advice of his master Kalischer to devote himself to rabbinic studies, became rabbi of Zezmer in 1852 and then, around 1861, of Bausk, where he officiated until his death. A fervent supporter of the Zionist movement, he authorized the settlers of Palestine to cultivate their fields during the year of fallow, provoking a controversy with the rabbis of Palestine; only one of his twenty-four works, « Terumat Yad » (Wilna, 1875), was published during his lifetime.
Polish lawyer
Italian rabbi
French rabbi
Honorary Chief Rabbi of Belgium (1866-1979), Deputy to the Chief Rabbi of Paris (1857), One of the founders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (1860)
Father of modern Hebrew. A Lithuanian linguist who emigrated to Jerusalem, he devoted his life to the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language. His monumental dictionary (17 volumes) and his struggle for Hebrew in schools turned this dead language into a living national tongue.
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.
Yiddish poet and short-story writer born in Poland, member of the In Zikh group.
Rabbi of Constantinople in the first half of the nineteenth century, contemporary of Ḥiyya Pontremoli, author of « Mishnat de-Rabbi Eli'ezer », a collection of one hundred thirty-four responsa on civil law of the Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ (Salonika, 1853).
Austrian Galician Rabbi, of the town of Czernowitz and of province of Bukovina
Lithuanian rabbi
Romanian rabbi
Son of Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz, he founded the Hasidic court of Dzikov, a faithful continuation of Ropshitz Hasidism, which perpetuated itself over several generations (Dzikov-Tarnów, then Tsanz-Dzikov).
Jewish liturgist (1817–1887)
rabbi
German rabbi
Israeli educator (1879-1946)
American-Lithuanian rabbi
Yiddish fabulist from Bessarabia, pedagogue, author of the collection « Mesholim ».
American-Lithuanian rabbi
Writer and editor, first editor of the literary journal Ktuvim.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Son of Habib II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-3.
Rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva of Mir (Poland then Jerusalem); called « Reb Leizer Yudel ».
Skulener Rebbe
Writer and apologist, author of Shalom al Yisrael on Hasidism.
Elder son of Count Salomon Henri d'Avigdor and grandson of Isaac Samuel d'Avigdor. Railway engineer (Syria, Transylvania), he was also an editor (of the Examiner and Yachting Gazette) and wrote hunting tales under the pseudonym "Wanderer". Active in the Hovevei Zion movement.
Son of the Maggid of Mogielnica and great-grandson of the Maggid of Kozhnitz, he became one of the great Hasidic rebbes of Poland in the 19th century, founder of the Grodzisk dynasty. His teachings were collected after his death. He is an ancestor of the rebbe of Piaseczno (Kalonymus Kalman Shapira).
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5629 of the Hebrew era (1869). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5601 of the Hebrew era (1841). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 23-2.
Poetess of Russian origin writing in Hebrew, one of the mothers of Hebrew poetry.
Born Rosine Boumendil in Blida into a modest Jewish family, she settled in Paris in 1919 and published under the pseudonym « Elissa Rhaïs » a series of bestselling novels about the Orient (Saâda, 1919; Le Café chantant, 1920; Les Juifs ou la fille d'Eléazar, 1921; La Fille des pachas, 1922, etc.). Her career was built on an Oriental persona fabricated by her publisher.
Born in Baghdad, Chief Rabbi of Hebron (1858-1899), student of Somekh and Ben Ich Haï.
Israeli politician
Chief Rabbi of Lodz for 35 years, major figure of Polish Judaism.
Lithuanian rabbi
Labor Zionist leader, signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, member of the executive of the Jewish Agency where he headed the immigration department during the Second World War, and founder of the Israel Museum.
Latvian rabbi
Lithuanian-Belarusian rabbi
Son of Yosef Leib Bloch; cofounder and first rosh yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland.
rabbi
Nuclear chemist, world expert in isotope separation and polonium.
Hungarian rabbi
Russian physician and hebraist born in Toulchyn, in the government of Podolia, died in Saint-Petersburg on January 31, 1822. He composed a hymn in Hebrew and in French dedicated to Tsar Alexander I (Munich, 1811) and drafted in German a manual of Jewish history accompanied by a geographical overview of Palestine for use in Jewish schools, later translated into Russian by Z. Minor (Moscow, 1880).
Russian physician and anthropologist born in Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper in 1869, medical graduate of Moscow university in 1893. Commissioned by the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences, Anthropology and Ethnography to study the physical anthropology of the inhabitants of Russian Poland, he published notably in 1896 a study on the Poles of the Vistula, then, in 1903, "Yevrei", the most extensive work ever devoted to the anthropology of a Jewish population.
Austrian architect
Indian statesman born in London January 24, 1823, died in Savoy June 20, 1887, son of S. H. Ellis, treasurer of the Great Synagogue of London. After studying at the University of London and then Haileybury College, he entered the administration of the Bombay Presidency, where he sat on the council from 1862 before being promoted to the council of the Viceroy; returning to England in 1875, he was made K.C.S.I. and member of the India Council until his retirement in 1885, while holding various positions in London Jewish institutions.
Minister of Finance of the Grand Duchy of Baden, born March 11, 1827 in Karlsruhe. Trained in law at Heidelberg and Bonn, he entered banking in Berlin in 1856 and then practiced law in Durlach from 1859 onward; appointed assessor in Mannheim in 1864 despite anti-Jewish prejudices, he became in 1866 referendary to Finance Minister Mathy, whose functions he assumed upon his death in 1868. He conducted Baden's financial policy during the Franco-German War, received the title of Minister of Finance in 1888 and retired in 1893 for reasons of health.
Born into a Baghdadi Jewish family active in trade in the Middle East and India. Employee of the Sassoon company, he went to Hong Kong in 1880, opened his own brokerage firm, invested in real estate and hospitality and financed numerous educational and charitable institutions.
Honorary Grand Rabbi of Mogador, in Morocco, born in Rabat in 1809, died in London on January 9, 1886. Settled in Mogador at seventeen, he was elected grand rabbi of the community in 1840 and also engaged in commerce from 1881; honorary vice-consul of Austria, he was decorated in 1873 with the Order of Francis Joseph. Author of the "Toḳpo shel Yosef", a treatise on Jewish law, he introduced at Gibraltar the "Importa Nacional", an annual tax on Jewish commerce for the benefit of the poor.
Italian writer
second wife and cousin of Albert Einstein
American architect
German Jewish journalist, activist and children's author, first woman elected to leadership positions in major German Jewish organizations, deported to Theresienstadt.
Austrian writer
Polish teacher born in 1817, died in Warsaw on July 10, 1886. Trained at the rabbinical seminary in Warsaw, he devoted himself to the education of Jewish children and published numerous school manuals adopted by the city's schools; he was the first to compose in Polish a catechism of the Jewish religion and a prayer book, and served as secretary of the curator of public schools in Warsaw and administrators of the reformed synagogue.
American physician
German archaeologist
Master of Mussar (school of Kelm); rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim in London; author of Lev Eliyahu.
Minister of worship and author born in Elburg, Holland, in 1835, died in Hull, England, in 1880. Trained in the Netherlands, he settled in England around 1867, then from 1871 directed the Hebrew school of Hull, where he also served as minister of worship until his resignation for health reasons in 1877. He published annotated translations of biblical books, including Proverbs (1871), the Book of Job (1872) and the Minor Prophets (1873-80).
American rabbi born in Eydtkuhnen, in Germany, in 1867, trained at the Jews' College in London (1880-90) and graduated from the University of London in 1885. Settled in Toronto in 1890, where he was first minister of the Holy Blossom synagogue, he continued his university studies there until 1893, practiced in Sacramento the same year and, from 1894 onwards, as rabbi of the Beth Elohim congregation of Charleston, while studying medicine in South Carolina from 1896. He published « The Sabbath-School Companion » (1895-96), reprinted under the title « Judaism: an Exposition » (Charleston, 1896).
Austrian jurist (1873-1930)
German teacher
(1857-1938)
World chess champion for 27 years (1894-1921), grandson of a rabbi and son of a synagogue cantor. Doctor of mathematics (he gives his name to the « Lasker-Noether rings »), he taught mathematics and published works on chess, mathematics and philosophy.
Austrian archaeologist
Banker and merchant born in Calcutta on 14 November 1837 into a Venetian Jewish family of Portuguese Sephardic origin. Settled in Hong Kong in 1862, he chaired the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (1876-1877) and sat on the Legislative Council. Famous for his philanthropy: donation of 25,000 $ in 1889 for a girls' school renamed Belilios Public School in 1893; he bequeathed 250,000 £ for a Jewish college in Calcutta. Died in London on 11 November 1905.
Romanian-born Jewish physician known for his controversial unconventional cancer treatment methods in New York.
Historian trained at the University of Warsaw (doctorate 1927), he founded and directed the clandestine group « Oyneg Shabbos » that documented life and extermination in the Warsaw ghetto. The documents (approximately 6,000 items) were buried in caches; two were recovered after the war. Discovered in his cache, he was assassinated with his family in March 1944. The Ringelblum archives are inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register (1999).
American rabbi
Austrian-American musicologist, curator of the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Jewish emigrant from Vienna following the Anschluss.
Secretary and solicitor of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, born in Portsmouth on May 14, 1832, died in London on June 19, 1898. Admitted as a solicitor in 1853, he published in 1881 a pamphlet on fraudulent electoral practices and was elected secretary of the Board of Deputies in January 1869, a post with which he remained identified for thirty years; he was also involved for nearly twenty years in the Jewish Board of Guardians, sat on the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association and on the committee of the Maccabæans' Club, and actively campaigned within the Liberal Party.
Italian general
German engraver and photographer born in Frankfurt-am-Main on 18 October 1815, died in that same city on 6 September 1875. Trained as an apprentice engraver and lithographer, he left Frankfurt in 1833 for Hersfeld, Darmstadt and Bonn, where he notably engraved a portrait of Pope Pius IX, before turning to nascent photography and opening one of Frankfurt's first studios. His reputation was established with « Der Dom zu Mainz und Seine Denkmäler », a collection of thirty-six original photographs cited by Lübke; he was also among the first to compose artistic photographic groups and to use photography for the study of natural sciences.
Austrian surgeon
German physician
German musician
Romanian prose writer, translator, journalist and theatre and music critic
American rabbi
Hungarian Jewish violinist, founding member of the Budapest String Quartet. Emigrated to Jerusalem, he founded there the Conservatory of Music of Palestine and participated in the rescue of Jewish musicians from Central Europe as well as in the founding of the Symphony Orchestra of Palestine. Buried in the Mount of Olives cemetery.
Austrian-Jewish economist and sociologist born to a Jewish merchant family in Plzeň, Bohemia; purged from his post in 1933 for being Jewish, he became first dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science ("University in Exile") at the New School in New York.
Jewish Austrian-Hungarian art historian suicide (1874–1944)
Hannoverian rabbi who fled Germany in 1938 and became a rabbi in Pottstown, PA
Austrian anatomist born into a Jewish family in Győr (Hungary). Professor of descriptive and topographical anatomy at the University of Vienna from 1888, holder of Vienna's first chair of anatomy. Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1898). Several anatomical structures bear his name (Zuckerkandl's body, fascia, tubercle).
French rabbi
Born in Paris on August 29, 1826, student of François-Édouard Picot and Abel de Pujol. Grand Prix de Rome for painting in 1854 (subject: « Abraham washing the feet of the angels »), resident of the Villa Medici. Medal of first class at the Salon (1878), Legion of Honor (1867). Of Jewish origin (Wikipedia classifies him among « French Jewish painters »).
Franco-German photographer
Italian woman of letters, teacher and literary critic (sister of composer Felice Boghen). Author of « Studi letterari » and other critical works, she contributed to the press linked to the emerging feminist movement as well as to organs of the Italian Jewish community, and maintained ties with Giosuè Carducci.
American poet, author of the sonnet "The New Colossus" engraved on the Statue of Liberty. She defended Jewish refugees fleeing the Russian pogroms.
Emma Lyon (1788-1870), daughter of Reverend Solomon Lyon of Cambridge, is the author of «Miscellaneous Poems» (1812), one of the very first collections of poetry published by a Jewish woman in English — she is considered the first published Anglo-Jewish poetess. She married Abraham Henry (1789-1840), merchant, in 1816, and was the mother of ten children, including Michael Henry, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Chronicle, and grandmother of Lucy Henry, author for youth. Her family illustrates an early anchorage in letters within the Anglo-Jewish community.
From a Jewish family of the high Parisian bourgeoisie (related to Bergson and Proust), he was a pacifist intellectual. Author of pamphlets such as "Death of Bourgeois Thought" (1929), he directed the weekly Marianne, wrote speeches for Pétain in 1940, then hid during the Occupation.
Member of the Sephardic Jewish Carasso family of Salonika, lawyer, he was a leading figure of the Young Turks and deputy to the Ottoman parliament. He was part of the delegation that notified Sultan Abdülhamid II of his deposition in 1909.
Active Talmudist, seemingly in Prague in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, author of "Emunat Yisrael", a treatise of morality and dogmatics based on Maimonides, Judah ha-Levi and Naḥmanide (Prague, 1832).
Hungarian physician and surgeon born in Marosvásárhely, Hungary, in 1852, trained in Budapest and Leipzig. Appointed surgical assistant at the university hospital of Klausenburg in 1880, privatdocent in obstetrics in 1881, director of the Landesspital in 1887, then assistant professor at the university of Klausenburg in 1893, he collaborated with several Austrian and Hungarian medical journals.
Hungarian sculptor born in 1815, died in Budapest on June 29, 1902. Destined for the rabbinate, he abandoned his Talmudic studies for Vienna, where he learned woodcarving before entering the Academy of Fine Arts. Having passed through Munich, Paris and then London, where his busts of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert earned him the attention of Prince Paul Esterházy, he sold his group "Amazons Fighting" to the latter. In 1847, he settled in Rome, where he produced his most accomplished works, including "Eve Awakening to Life", gold medal at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873; returning to Hungary in 1866, he there realized the monument to Széchenyi, inaugurated in 1880.
Austrian scholar active in Vienna in the first half of the 19th century, author of prayers for the cemetery (« Emunah Lishene 'Afar », 1828), extracts from the Pentateuch translated into German (« Ḳorot Yisrael », 1837) and prayers for particular occasions (1843). He also edited, with an index, the « Sefer ha-Ḥinnuk » of Aaron ha-Lévi on the six hundred and thirteen commandments (1827).
Austrian chess player born in 1851 in Hotzenplotz, in Austrian Silesia, died on 19 October 1897 in Vienna. He won first prize in the Leipzig tournament in 1879, ranked fourth in London in 1883, seventh in the Frankfurt-am-Main tournament in 1887 — where he defeated Alapin, Gunsberg and Zuckertort — and won first prize in the tournament organized by Baron Rothschild in 1896.
French playwright born in Paris on June 17, 1811, died in that same city on January 26, 1899. After beginnings as a law clerk, painter and journalist, he made his debut as a playwright in 1831 and became, alone or in collaboration with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Grangé and many others, the author of more than two hundred eighty plays, including « Don César de Bazan » (1844) and his greatest success, « The Two Orphans » (1875). He also adapted « Mercadet » by Balzac (1851) and briefly directed the Théâtre Historique the same year.
French deputy born in Nancy on January 2, 1801, died in Brussels on May 19, 1863. Long attached to the Jewish school of Strasbourg, of which he became director, he compiled with Hirth a "General Dictionary of Universal Geography" (4 vol., Strasbourg, 1839-41), prefaced by Cuvier, then published "The Path of Israel" (1843). Elected representative of the Lower Rhine in 1849 despite anti-Jewish riots in Alsace, he sat with the Montagne, resisted the coup d'état and was exiled for life in 1852; he retired to Brussels, where he lived as a teacher until his death.
Russian Talmudist died in Białystok in 1867, author of numerous commentaries compiled from earlier works, notably those of Samuel Jafé Ashkenazi, enriched with his own novellæ: on the Midrash Rabba of the five Meguillot (Wilna and Grodno, 1829-34), on the Seder 'Olam (1845), on the Midrash Samuel (Stettin, 1860), on the Midrash Rabba of the Pentateuch, "Mibḥar Mi-Peninim" (Warsaw, 1870), and novellæ on the Haggada of the Talmud (Wilna, 1883).
German rabbi born in Hamburg on October 8, 1814, died in Fulda on December 31, 1876. Educated at the Johanneum of Hamburg, at the talmudic courses of Hakham Isaac Bernays and then at the University of Würzburg, he obtained his doctorate at Erlangen and continued his talmudic studies in Hildesheim and Cassel. He founded a Jewish secondary school in Altona which he directed until his appointment in 1855 as rabbi of Fulda, while also directing from 1845 the orthodox weekly « Der Treue Zionswächter » and collaborating with the « Jüdische Presse » of Berlin until his death.
Born Enoch Henryk Glicensztajn in Turek (Poland), son of a tombstone cutter, he studied at Munich Academy. Twice winner of the Prix de Rome (1894, 1897), he settled in Rome, took Italian nationality, and Italianized his first name to Enrico. He exhibited in Rome, Venice, and at the Venice Biennale (1926); refusing to join the Fascist Party, he left Italy and settled in the United States in 1928. Direct carver (wood, bronze), his works are held at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, the Israel Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, etc.
Physician and Argentine politician, born in Riga (Russian Empire) in a Jewish family (father a synagogue dignitary), immigrated to Argentina in 1891. National deputy on several occasions, leading figure of the Argentine Socialist Party and editor of the newspaper La Vanguardia.
Joseph Eötvös was a Hungarian statesman, born in Buda on September 13, 1813 and died in Budapest on February 2, 1871. He worked towards the emancipation of the Jews of Hungary, whom he defended as early as 1840 before the Diet then, having become Minister of Worship and Public Instruction in 1867, achieved it in December of the same year. He convened in 1868 a congress of Hungarian Jews which, failing to agree on a single communal constitution, split into three currents: orthodox, conservative and statu quo ante.
Son of Joseph Eliakim, himself rabbi and notable of the Judeo-Arabophone community of Tiberias. Ephraïm became Haham and one of the dayanim of the city, charged with the interests of community members, and taught Bible and Talmud. He married the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Tiberias. Late in life he converted to Christianity (which is why his entry appears on a messianic website). Died on 30 August 1930.
German rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American Hebrew poet, author of epics inspired by Native American legends.
Norwegian surgeon
Russian Talmudist born in Vitebsk in 1850, died in Frankfurt-am-Main on October 24, 1884, descendant of the Maharal of Prague, R. Yom-Ṭov Lipman Heller and R. Moses Kremer of Vilna. His "Toledot Anshe Shem" (Warsaw, 1875), an attempt at biographies and genealogies of these ancestors, was not very convincing on the scientific level. He also published "Migdal Dawid" (Mainz, 1873), "Yad Dawid Tebele" (Lvov, 1880) and "Ḳohelet Dawid ha-Efrati", on Ecclesiastes (Berlin, 1884), and edited with Israel Hildesheimer the rabbinical journal "Etz Ḥayyim" (Lvov, 1881), while collaborating with R. Israel Lipkin (Salanter) on the journal "Tebunah".
German Jewish ethnologist born in Berlin, trained in Leipzig, pioneer of ethnography of Eastern Jewish communities in Mandatory Palestine in the 1920s-1930s. His work focuses on the material culture of Jews of Yemen and Kurdistan. Died in Petah Tikva in 1942.
French composer born in Paris on May 25, 1863, trained at the Conservatoire where he won the first Grand Prize of Rome in 1888, the year he composed « Saint Julien l'Hospitalier » in Rome, which immediately ranked him among prominent composers. Cantor at the Israelite temple on rue des Cordelières, he produced notably « Velleda » (Colonne Concerts, 1889), « La Chasse Fantastique » (1893), « Kermaria » (Opéra-Comique, January 1897), « Le Juif Polonais », after Erckmann-Chatrian, and « Bar-Kokeba ».
French composer born in Wissembourg, Alsace, in 1830, died in Brussels in 1895, son of Rabbi Israël Süsskind Erlanger and brother of Michel Erlanger. Graduate of the Paris Conservatory and cofounder of the Society of Authors and Dramatic Composers, he wrote from 1859 to 1861 several operettas for the Bouffes-Parisiens before devoting himself, once withdrawn from secular music to business, exclusively to sacred music — a collection of which was published in Paris in 1891, four others posthumously in Brussels in 1903. He was one of the founders of the Alliance israélite universelle and chaired its Belgian committee until his death.
French community activist born in Wissembourg, Alsace, in 1828, died in Paris on 27 September 1892. Sent young to Alexandria, he became aware there of the condition of Oriental Jews, then visited Palestine and engaged in colonization; active member of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, he assisted Charles Netter in creating the agricultural school of Jaffa and succeeded Albert Cohn at the head of the Rothschild philanthropic works. Principal architect of the Rothschild colonies in Palestine for Jews fleeing the persecutions of 1882 and 1891 in Russia, he was sent to Berlin to organize aid for Russian emigrants.
Born in Berlin in 1863, educated in philosophy, he settled in Rome, became an Italian citizen and entered the State Archives of Rome in 1891. He then directed the State Archives of Parma (1927–1930) then Bologna (1930–1934). He published numerous studies on the Jewish communities of Rome and Italy and wrote entries for the Treccani Encyclopedia. Deported on 16 October 1943, he died at Auschwitz.
French rabbi
American politician
Hungarian-Canadian rabbi, linguist and scholar (1899–1983)
French rabbi
Born in London to Mayer Moses Nathan (a Briton of German origin) and Sara Levi (from Pesaro), both Jewish, he grew up in a family close to exiles of the Risorgimento, including Giuseppe Mazzini. Settled in Rome, he was its mayor from 1907 to 1913 — the first Jew to hold that office — a declared secularist in opposition to the Vatican and a modernizer of the city.
Hungarian politician
Hungarian pediatrician
(1878-1944) classical pianist, music pedagogue
Hungarian journalist
German rabbi
German philosopher
German philosopher
Member of the Flersheim family, established in Frankfurt since the seventeenth century (first in the Judengasse, then in the Westend). With his brother Martin he runs the Flersheim-Hess house. Major collector of German painting of the nineteenth–twentieth centuries, he is despoiled and then deported and murdered at Bergen-Belsen in 1944.
German actor
German historian
Historian of Greek and Roman religions, born in Posen, professor at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin (1925). Founder in 1913 of an Institute for comparative study of religions; author of several works (Familienfeste der Griechen und Römer, 1901; Geburt, Hochzeit und Tod, 1911; Die Religion der Griechen, 1914; Die Götter der Griechen, 1926). He also contributed to Jewish history (studies on antisemitism in ancient Greece and Rome).
Giorgio Errera was an Italian chemist, born on 26 October 1860 in Venice. Trained at the universities of Padua and Turin, where he obtained his doctorate in chemistry in 1882, he became assistant to the professor of chemistry before being appointed in 1892 professor of chemistry at the University of Messina. He published numerous essays in scientific journals as well as the work « Lezioni di Polarimetria » (Turin, 1891).
Léo-Abram Errera was a Belgian botanist, born in Laeken on September 4, 1858 and died in Brussels on August 1, 1905. Trained at the universities of Brussels, Strasbourg, Bonn and Würzburg, he became professor of botany at the University of Brussels in 1890 and directed the city's Botanical Institute. He is notably the author of « The Russian Jews: Extermination or Emancipation? » (Brussels, 1893), prefaced by Mommsen and translated into English under the title « The Russian Jews » (London, 1894).
Paul-Joseph Errera was a Belgian jurist, born in Laeken on July 23, 1860 and trained at the university of Brussels, where he became professor of law. Counsel of the Independent State of Congo and of the Jewish Colonization Association, he also chaired the local committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He published notably « Les Masuirs » (Brussels, 1891) and « Esquisse du Cours de Droit Constitutionnel Comparé » (1896 and 1899).
Italian poet
Elia Esra was a philanthropist, born in Calcutta on February 20, 1830, son of David Joseph Esra, and died in March 1886. One of the richest merchants in India, nicknamed "the Rothschild of India", he reportedly distributed ten thousand francs a month to the poor and had a large synagogue, "Magen Dawid", built in Calcutta in memory of his father. His will provided for the construction in Jerusalem of an important Talmudic school.
Yiddish novelist and short-story writer, elder sister of I. B. and I. J. Singer.
First sabra poet, singer of the landscapes of Eretz Israel.
Regarded as the founder of modern Yiddish theatre (« mother of Yiddish theatre »), mother of Ida Kamińska. Around 1924 she began her memoirs, published serially posthumously in the Warsaw newspaper Moment (1926) under the title Derner un blumen: der veg fun mayn lebn.
Yiddish poetess born in Belarus, active in Canada and the United States.
Italian banker and businessman of Jewish origin
Born in Gorizia on August 23, 1826, son of Samuel Vita Lolli and cousin (and disciple) of Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Trained at the Rabbinical College of Padua, he succeeded in 1865 to Shadal's chair at the Rabbinical College. Elected Chief Rabbi of Padua in 1869, he became lecturer (1877) and then professor (1886) of Hebrew and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the University of Padua; member of the Oriental Academy of Florence.
German politician
German orientalist
Born in Berlin on July 6, 1888 in a non-practicing Jewish family (his father was a banker at the Berlin Stock Exchange), converted to Christianity in his adolescence. In 1916 he exchanged correspondence with philosopher Franz Rosenzweig on Judaism and Christianity, which became a classic of interreligious dialogue ("Judaism Despite Christianity"). Emigrated to the United States, he taught at Harvard and then at Dartmouth College.
American rabbi
Born in Paris, grandson through his mother of Parisian hazzan Lovy, he was professor of rhetoric then inspector general of Public Instruction and taught for twenty years Greco-Latin literature at the Paris Israelite Seminary. He was one of the six founders of the Universal Israelite Alliance and remained attached to the faith of his fathers. His poetry, of Romantic inspiration, sings of family, love and the humble.
Austrian ethnologist
Italian Jewish philosopher of science, founder and editor of the international review "Scientia".
Born in Ancona on July 13, 1811, died in Milan on March 1, 1875. Italian literary critic, journalist, and translator, he directed the "Biblioteca rara" (Daelli) and the "Biblioteca classica economica" (Sonzogno). Author of "Profili letterari" (1870), "I precursori del Goldoni" (1872), "Nuovi profili letterari" (4 vol., 1875); he edited the Divina Commedia illustrated by Gustave Doré (1868).
Albert Eulenburg was a German neuropathologist and electrotherapist, born on August 10, 1840 in Berlin, son of the physician Moritz Michael Eulenburg. Doctor in 1861, he became in 1874 professor at the University of Greifswald before settling in Berlin in 1882 to open a private hospital devoted to nervous diseases; he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Berlin in 1890. He directed the voluminous « Realencyklopädie der Gesammten Heilkunde », published from 1880.
Samuel Evans, called 'Young Dutch Sam,' was an English pugilist born in London January 30, 1801 and died of tuberculosis November 4, 1843. He made his ring debut July 5, 1825 by beating Ned Stockman, then followed victories: Harry Jones the same year, Jack Martin in 1828, Ned Neale in 1829 then again in 1831, and finally Tom Gaynor in 1834.
Born Makhlouf Évariste Lévi in a North African Jewish family from Constantine, he became one of the founders of French Islamic studies and the first director of the Institute of Islamic Studies in Algiers. A specialist in al-Andalus, he refounded the historiography of medieval Muslim Spain. Professor in Algiers, excluded by the Vichy statutes on Jews (1940), reinstated after 1942, he ended his career in Paris.
Ferdinand Christophe Ewald was an English clergyman, born near Bamberg, in Bavaria, in 1802, and died at Norwood, London, on August 9, 1874. Entering in 1829 into the service of the London Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Jews, he was sent in 1831 to Tunis, where he worked among the Jews of North Africa until 1842, before joining Jerusalem as chaplain until 1849. He contributed in 1853 to the founding in London of the Wanderers' Home, a refuge for Jews seeking conversion and destitute proselytes.
Georg Heinrich August Ewald was a German biblicist, born in Göttingen on 16 November 1803 and died in the same city on 4 May 1875. Professor at Göttingen from 1827, he was dismissed in 1837 for protesting, with the "Seven of Göttingen", against the violation of the constitution by the king, then taught at Tübingen from 1838 before returning to Göttingen from 1848 to 1867. A great specialist of the Old Testament, he published notably his "Kritische Grammatik der Hebräischen Sprache" in 1827 and his monumental "Geschichte des Volkes Israel" between 1843 and 1848.
Leopold Ewer was a German physician born on January 4, 1849 in Anklam, Pomerania. He studied from 1868 to 1873 at the University of Berlin, where he earned his doctorate, and after serving as an auxiliary surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War, began practicing in Berlin in 1874 as a specialist in massage therapy and orthopedics. He published several works on these disciplines, including a "Kursus der Massage" in 1891.
Joseph Ezekiel, Indian Hebraist, was one of the leaders of the Beni-Israël community of Bombay, where he was born in 1834. Teaching from 1856 at the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution, of which he became director, he was appointed in 1871 examiner of Hebrew at the University of Bombay, then member of that university in 1879 and justice of the peace in 1890. He translated the Jewish liturgy into Marathi and notably published a « Hebrew Primer » reissued in 1881.
Moses Jacob Ezekiel, American sculptor, was born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 28, 1844 ; former Confederate soldier trained at the Virginia Military Institute, he turned to art and studied sculpture in Berlin under Rudolph Siemering. Subsequently settled in Rome, he created in 1874 the statue « Religious Liberty », commissioned by B'nai B'rith and inaugurated in 1876 at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, as well as the statues of great artists adorning the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. He was ennobled by the German emperor.
Member of the Jewish Gabbai family of Baghdad, he was appointed ṣarrāf bāshī (chief banker) to the governor and exercised considerable influence. Following the return to favor of the Armenian faction, he was exiled, and he and his brother were executed following slanders. The Gabbai family had many branches in Baghdad and India.
Jacob Ezekiel was born in Philadelphia on June 28, 1812 and died on May 16, 1899. Established in Richmond, Virginia, he obtained in 1845 the repeal of an ordinance severely penalizing the violation of Sunday laws, then had adopted in 1849 an amendment placing observers of the Jewish Sabbath on an equal footing with those who rest on the first day. Settled in Cincinnati in 1869, he became in 1876 secretary of the council of the Hebrew Union College, a position he held until 1896.
Latvian politician and physician of Jewish origin (1861-1917)
Born in Aleppo in 1860, in an Anzarut family settled in that city for, according to community sources, nearly four centuries. As a child, he is taken to Manchester where the family founds a company for shipping Ottoman cotton to English mills; as a young man, he returns to Beirut and marries a daughter of the Farhi banking family of Damascus (14 children). In 1895, he has the 'Ohel Yaakov' synagogue built in Aley (in honor of his father Jacob), the main source of income for the Bikkour Holim mutual aid society and a major philanthropic center for the community until the Magen-Abraham synagogue of 1926.
rabbin (1881–1970)
Chief Rabbi of Baghdad (1923-1926) and printer, opened a modern Hebrew press.
Iraqi politician
Rabbi, scholar, bookseller, editor and writer
German rabbi
Eduard Falk was a German publicist, graduate of the University of Berlin in 1858, died in Paris on July 7, 1863, crushed by an omnibus. Entered state service as assessor, he pursued concurrently a career as journalist, writing for the "Magdeburger Zeitung" and publishing several political pamphlets, including "Die Verfassung England's" in 1862. He was in Paris preparing a work on European political law when he died.
Max Falk was a Hungarian statesman and journalist, born in Budapest on October 7, 1828. He was the first translator into German of the poet Petöfi (1843), participated in the student legion during the March 1848 revolution, then pursued a career in the Hungarian press, notably at « Pesti Napló » and, from 1867, as editor-in-chief of « Pester Lloyd ». Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1863 and of the Chamber of Deputies since 1869, he was decorated by the emperor Francis Joseph with the Cross of Commander of the Order of Saint Stephen.
Ferdinand Falkson was a German physician and publicist, born in Königsberg on August 20, 1820 and died in the same city on August 31, 1900. A medical graduate in 1843, he was appointed in 1844 as physician to the poor of the Jewish community of Königsberg, a position he retained until his death; engaged in 1845 to a Christian woman, he had to marry in England in 1846, for lack of authorization in his country, and the resulting legal matter was only settled in his favor in 1849.
Russian politician 1859-1937
Dutch soprano and pianist
Romanian American activist
Born into a prosperous Jewish family of Königsberg; in 1831 her father, merchant David Markus, abandoned his Jewish patronym for the name Lewald, and Fanny converted to Protestantism. She lived by her pen, an author of bestselling novels and pleas for the emancipation of women.
écrivain juif de langue allemande
Isaac Farḥi, dayyan and almoner of Jerusalem, was born in Safed and died in Jerusalem on May 11, 1853. Around 1840, he was sent to Europe by the rabbinate of Jerusalem to collect donations for the poor. He is the author of several collections of moral essays and sermons, including "Marpe la-'Eẓem" (Ortakeui, 1830), "Matoḳ mi-Debash" (Jerusalem, 1842), "Mine Metiḳah" (Livorno, 1848), "Ẓuf Debash" (1849) and "Ma'aseh Abot", commentary on Pirḳe Abot (Livorno, 1864).
Joseph Shabbethai Farḥi, talmudist and cabalist, was born in Jerusalem around 1802 and died in Livorno, Italy, in 1882. Settled in Livorno around 1842, where he believed, as a convinced cabalist, in torments of the grave after death, he published several collections there, including 'Oseh Fele' (1845) and 'Toḳpo shel Yosef' (1846), and edited in 1864 the 'Ma'aseh Abot' of his namesake Isaac Farḥi as well as, in 1879, the 'Ma'agal Ṭob' of Joseph Concio.
Anglo-Jewish novelist born in London in 1833 and died in the same city on July 23, 1903, educated in private schools. He emigrated to New Zealand, where he became director and part-owner of the colony's first daily newspaper, before turning to fiction: his first novel, "Grif" (1870), attracted the attention of Dickens. Several of his works, including "Solomon Isaacs" (1877), treat Jewish subjects and characters with sympathy.
Hungarian journalist born in Szilágy Somlyó on August 1, 1842, trained at the gymnasium of Kolozsvár and in law at Budapest. He collaborated with several Hungarian reviews, wrote patriotic poems and translated European authors. Editor of « Magyar Zsidó », he played a decisive role in the official recognition of the Orthodox party as a distinct communal organization.
Hungarian mathematician and physicist born in Puszta Sárosd on 28 March 1847, trained at the Györ gymnasium then in law and philosophy in Budapest. After teaching in Székesfehérvár, he becomes privatdocent of mathematics in Budapest in 1881, then professor of physics in Klausenburg in 1888. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elects him corresponding member on 6 May 1898.
Lord Mayor of London (1896-97), second son of Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips, born in 1840. Trained at University College School then in Berlin and Paris, he entered his father's business before holding several municipal positions: sheriff of London and Middlesex (1884-85), then alderman of the Farringdon Within ward from 1888, before becoming lord mayor in 1896. He raises nearly a million pounds for relief of victims of famine in India, and notably presides over the Jewish Orphanage and the Society of Relief to Blind Jews.
Hungarian jurist born in Kecskemé in 1842. Doctor of law in 1870, he becomes a few years later privat-docent at the University of Budapest, then professor of criminal law in 1886, a position he still holds. He founded the university seminar of criminal law and became, in 1894, corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Italian jurist
Born in Ancona in 1841, son of Beniamino Consolo, died in Florence in 1906. Student of Fétis in Brussels and Liszt for composition, he was a virtuoso violinist before devoting himself, in Florence, to the study of Hebrew cantillation. His masterwork seeks to demonstrate the correspondence between synagogal melodies and the massoretic accents (te'amim) of the biblical text.
Argentine entrepreneur and director
Industrialist (founder of Robinetterie Riunite in Milan), naval officer nicknamed « il Comandante », he participated in the founding of Confindustria. President of the Milan Jewish Community (1931-1941) and of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, he founded in 1938 the superior Jewish school welcoming students excluded by racial laws.
Italian mathematician born in Livorno into a Jewish Sephardic family of Portuguese descent; first to establish the classification of algebraic surfaces in birational geometry. Professor in Bologna then Rome, author of numerous works on mathematics and philosophy of science. Removed from his chair in 1938 by fascist racial laws. Brother-in-law of mathematician Guido Castelnuovo; his brother Paolo Enriques was a zoologist-geneticist.
German rabbi and author born in Schlichtingsheim, Silesia, on 18 June 1827, trained in Rawitsch then in Dresden under W. Landau and Zacharias Fränkel, before studying in Berlin and Halle, where he obtained his doctorate in philosophy in 1857. Rabbi in Kulm, West Prussia, from 1859, he was called in 1876 to Schwerin, where he held the position of Landesrabbiner of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and directed a training seminary for Sunday school teachers. He publishes notably the « Anleitung zum Religionsunterricht » (1881).
Russian financier and philanthropist born in Yurburg, near Kovno, in 1821, died in Königsberg, in Prussia, on May 21, 1893. Settled in Königsberg from 1866 onwards, he organized, during the persecutions of 1881 in Russia, a relief committee for Jewish emigrants passing through the city, and participated that same year in the conference of the Alliance Israélite Universelle held in Berlin. He was subsequently designated by the Jews of Lithuania to represent them at the conference of Jewish notables convened by Alexander III in Saint Petersburg.
Russian scholar born in Damachev, near Brest-Litovsk, on December 6, 1821, died in the same city on January 20, 1903. After long years of Talmudic study, he worked as a foreman for a merchant in Brest, where contact with Christian traders gave him access to languages and secular sciences; he subsequently founded his own business and became, for many years, the parnas of the Jewish community. He published notably « 'Ir Tehillah » (1886), a history of the Jewish community of Brest-Litovsk written with Abraham Marcus Finkelstein.
Merchant and German author who died on July 7, 1900 in London, where he had resided for many years. He devoted part of his literary activity to translating English classics into German, including Tennyson's « In Memoriam » and excerpts from Ruskin. In 1884, he published in English « Shakespeare and Montaigne », in which he endeavored to show that modifications made to later editions of « Hamlet » targeted theses from Montaigne's « Essays ».
Hungarian journalist born in Kecskemét on November 19, 1854, trained in law at Berlin and Leipzig, where he founded the critical review 'Deutsche Reichslaterne.' He settled in Budapest in 1884 and directed, with Josef Hevesi then alone from 1891, the monthly 'Magyar Szalon'; he published notably 'Az Esküdtszéki Intèzményröl' (1884) and 'A Magyar Nemzet Gazdasàgi Törtènete' (1887).
Author and journalist born in Hungary in 1861. He left for England in 1881 and joined the editorial staff of the society journal « Life », of which he became owner and editor-in-chief in 1903; he sat in 1900 on the Hungarian Royal Commission for the Paris Exposition. He notably publishes « Hungary and Its People » and « The Puszta », and translates several novels by Jókai.
Hungarian actor and theatre director born in Spácza in 1849. He makes his debut in 1867 at the Josefstädter Theater in Vienna, before being engaged in 1872 by Heinrich Laube at the Stadttheater in Vienna, then entering in 1874 the Deutsches Theater in Budapest. In 1876, he directs the summer theatre of the Stadtwäldchen; his most striking creation is the role of the pastor in Anzengruber's 'Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld'.
Romanian artist born in Botuschany on June 21, 1871, trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under Delaunay, Bonnat, and Gérôme. He became known as a portraitist, painting notably Zadoc Kahn and Prince Kalimaki, and as a decorator: for the Paris Exposition of 1900, he created four panels for the Palace of Woman.
Polish author born in Warsaw in 1868, he published from 1886 onwards works advocating the assimilation of Jews. Secretary of the Baron de Hirsch Fund in Kraków (1891-94), he founded the journal 'Ognisko' and attended the University of Berlin in 1895, from which he had to withdraw after being accused of promoting the 'Greater Poland' project; he then founded the democratic journal 'Dziennik Krakowski' in Kraków before settling in Lviv as a journalist. He is the author of the drama 'Sady Boze' (Warsaw, 1890) and of several novels, including 'Ananke' (1897).
German dramatist born in Munich on May 22, 1802, and died in Vienna on March 26, 1882, one of the most prolific authors of farces and comedies in Germany. Apprentice saddler then shoemaker, he returns to school where, at sixteen, he composes a tragedy performed at the Volkstheater in Munich; after a stay in commerce in Pappenheim until 1821, he devotes himself to literature and publishes in 1835 his « Höllenlieder ». In 1850, he becomes dramatist at the Theater an der Wien, a post he holds for four years.
Hungarian physician born in Lovasberény on March 23, 1861, trained in medicine at the University of Budapest, where he becomes privatdocent of urogenital diseases in 1889. His work on these diseases, "Die Klinik der Blasenkrankheiten," appears in 1890 (German translation in 1894); he sits on the editorial committee of a Berlin journal and contributes to founding in Budapest the society Teleia, devoted to combating prostitution and the diseases attached to it.
Composer, pianist and editor of early music, born in Venice and died in Florence. He taught theory at the Istituto Reale Luigi Cherubini in Florence from 1910 and was the pianist of the Trio Fiorentino. Friend and collaborator of Busoni, he published editions of Italian Baroque composers. Member of the Italian Jewish musical community, he was affected by the racial laws of 1938 and reduced to giving clandestine private lessons.
Lawyer from Ferrara, Felice Ravenna founded in 1901 in Ferrara the Federazione Sionistica Italiana, which he chaired and directed for about twenty years. He hosted Theodor Herzl at his home in 1904 during the latter's visit to Italy. He belonged to a family of three generations of lawyers with degrees from the University of Ferrara: his grandfather Salomone (1804-1895) and his father Leone (1837-1920). His archives (held at CDEC) document his work for the Zionist Federation and the Union of Italian Israelite Communities.
Born Froim-Zelig Aderca in a Jewish family (the merchant Avram Adercu and Debora Perlmutter), in Puiești. Member of the modernist circle Sburătorul, he wrote psychological novels, science fiction and essays, and published numerous articles against antisemitism. Persecuted under fascist regimes, he was librarian of the Jewish community of Bucharest during the Shoah.
German-American academic, professor of political and social ethics.
German Jewish physicist (1856-1933), died by suicide
holocaust victim, b. 1898-08-15
German pedagogue
German rabbi
German mathematician (1868-1942)
German Romantic composer, grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, author of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He revived the work of Bach.
Born in Algiers in 1871, he was one of the first operators of the Lumière brothers, sent to project and film in the United States (1896) and then around the world (funeral of Queen Victoria, coronation of Edward VII…). He published his memoirs, Tours de manivelle, in 1933.
German rabbi
Austrian author of Hungarian culture (1869-1945)
German rabbi
Born in Buenos Aires into a Jewish family (father Hermann Weil, wealthy grain merchant; mother Rosa, also Jewish). Doctor of political science (dissertation on socialization), he financed in 1923, thanks to a grant from his father, the foundation of the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt — cradle of the Frankfurt School — and collaborated with Friedrich Pollock.
Austrian economist born in Horitz, Bohemia, on February 22, 1830, educated in commerce in Vienna before devoting himself to historical and economic studies. He published notably "Die Arbeiter und die Gesellschaft" (1874), "Entwicklungsgeschichte des Eigenthums" in six volumes (1883-1903), "Währungsstudien mit Besonderer Rücksicht auf Oesterreich-Ungarn" (1890) and "Kritik des Sozialismus" (1893).
French actress born in Lyon in 1829, died in Eaux-Bonnes on June 19, 1854. Trained by her sister Rachel, she made her debut at fourteen at the Odéon in the role of Chimène in the « Cid », before joining the Comédie-Française, where she was noted as Iphise in Voltaire's « Oreste » and as Junie in « Britannicus »; in 1850, she performed opposite Rachel in « Angelo ». Her health did not permit her to continue these successes.
French actress, elder sister of Elisa-Rachel Félix (Rachel), born near Frankfurt-am-Main on 2 February 1819, died on 12 January 1877. After her debut as a singer in the cafés of Lyon and Paris, she turned to theater and entered the Comédie-Française, where she played Célimène in « Le Misanthrope » (1849) then, on 29 October 1852, Elmire in « Tartuffe ». She accompanied Rachel until her last moments and transmitted to the Grand Rabbi of France, Isidor, her sister's wish to die in the faith of her fathers.
Hungarian painter born in Kecskemét on April 28, 1867, son of Rabbi J. H. Fischmann. First noticed as a caricaturist, he studied law at the University of Budapest before abandoning it after two years to devote himself to art, training in Budapest, Weimar and Paris. His works, including « Prattling » and « The Old Man », are awarded prizes in Paris and Budapest.
Head of the stenography bureau of the Hungarian Parliament, born in Zala-Egerszeg in 1837, trained in Székesfehérvár then in Budapest. He adapted the stenographic system of Stolze to the Hungarian language and became the founder of Hungarian stenography, publishing in 1863 his first manual, "A Gyorsirás Kimeritö Tankönyve"; he organized the stenography bureau at the reopening of Parliament and created Hungary's first stenography classes. Commissioned by the Budapest Savings Bank to write its history, he published in 1890 "A Pesti Hazai Takarékpénztar 50 Eves Története".
Russian author born in Jitomir in 1859, died in Saint Petersburg in 1895. After studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg, he taught at the Jewish school in the city until his health forced him to resign. His first texts appeared shortly after 1880 in the "Russki Yevrei"; he then became known for his sketches of Russian Jewish life published in the "Voskhod" (1890, 1892) and, during a stay in Odessa in 1892-94, participated in the work of the historico-ethnographic commission, notably compiling materials for a history of the Jewish community of London (1894).
Austro-Czech industrialist
compositeur, artiste lyrique et professeur de chant, musicographe
German bacteriologist, founder of this discipline (1828-1898)
Born in Breslau to a Jewish family (patronym of origin Lassal), son of a silk merchant. Hegelian philosopher and polemicist, he founded in 1863 in Leipzig the General Association of German Workers (ADAV), the first independent German workers' party. Author of works on philosophy and law.
German rabbi and author (1839-1921)
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian banker, economist (1858–1936)
Spanish orientalist, professor at the University of Madrid and member of the Academia de la Historia, son-in-law of the historian José Amador de los Ríos. His interest in the history and literature of the Jews resulted in several works: « De la Escultura y la Pintura en los Pueblos de Raza Semitica » (1871), « Instituciones Juridicas del Pueblo de Ysrael » (Madrid, 1881), « Ordenamiento Formado por los Procuradores de las Aljamas Hebreas » (Madrid, 1886), and a study on Jewish messianism in the Iberian peninsula devoted to David Reubeni and Salomon Molcho.
Italian musicologist and composer of Jewish origin, trained at the Liceo musicale « Padre Martini » in Bologna. Specialist in medieval music, he gave in 1935 the first modern edition of the Laudario di Cortona in « La lauda e i primordi della melodia italiana » (two volumes, historical apparatus, facsimiles and transcriptions). Professor at the universities of Florence and then Rome, he was sidelined by the racial laws of 1938, stayed in Brussels and New York, and died in Florence in 1940. He was brother-in-law of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Jewish teacher and reformer of Livorno, died in 1830. Admirer of the first Napoleon, under whom he held office, he believed that the age of universal brotherhood had arrived and that Jews should consequently simplify their worship; he expounded these ideas in 1810 in his « Progetto Filosofico di una Completa Riforma del Culto », of which only the first of two intended volumes was printed. Denounced as dangerous, the work was forbidden and copies of the first volume, confiscated on July 14, 1814, were bought back by the community and burned.
Austrian jurist and author born in Vienna on August 26, 1845, trained at the gymnasium and then at the university of the city. Appointed judge to the Landesgericht in 1868, he resigned in 1870 and practiced as a lawyer in Vienna from 1875; he was elected in 1894 secretary of the Museum für Oesterreichische Volkskunde. After traveling to the polar seas, Africa, Palestine, Greece, and Italy, he published accounts of them, and notably signs the dramas « Abarbanel » and « Die Letzten Tage von Carthago ».
Hungarian ophthalmologist born in Szobotiszt on August 18, 1844, doctor of medicine from the University of Vienna in 1872. Assistant at the ophthalmological clinic of the University of Klausenburg in 1873 and then privatdocent the following year, he practiced in Vienna from 1875 to 1882, the year when the government sent him to combat a trachoma epidemic in Theresienstadt. He became health inspector in Budapest in 1886, privatdocent of the university there in 1891, then associate professor in 1895, and published several studies on trachoma between 1884 and 1899.
French painter born in Paris on 30 August 1826 and died in the same city on 7 February 1895. First a history painter, he turns to small genre scenes in the style of Meissonier, although a pupil of Paul Delaroche, and receives the cross of the Legion of Honour in 1870. His painting « L'Arrivée à l'Auberge » entered the collections of the Luxembourg Museum in Paris as early as 1863, and « La Joueuse de Luth » those of the Stettin Museum; his wife, née Jeanne Samson, his student, has been exhibiting at the Salon since 1878.
Mathematician, linguist and editor born in Wirballen, in Russia, in 1816, died in London on 22 July 1872. Emigrated to London in 1839, he first taught in a Jewish school while publishing his first works, including the calendar « Mo'ed Mo'adim » (1846) and the Hebrew annual « Ha-Asif » (1847-49); he then edited several ancient Hebrew texts, notably the « Sefer Yuḥasin ha-Shalem » of Abraham Zacuto (1857), and also became known as an actuary in Edinburgh, publishing in 1849 a work on anti-logarithms and translating in 1857 Napier's « Canon of Logarithms ».
German physician and poet born in Breslau on 10 November 1828 and died in the same city on 31 July 1874, doctorate in medicine in 1850, the year he settled as a physician in Breslau; he became in 1854 privat-docent of the history and geography of medicine and of epidemiology at the university. Author of several medical works, including « De Furoribus Epidemicis » (1858), he also published literary works, such as « Dichter und Aerzte » (1863) and the one-act play « Bei Saarbrücken » (1870), which was a great success on the German stage.
Russian-American chess player born on 28 April 1871 in Vladislavovo, in the government of Suwałki, in Russian Poland, emigrated to the United States in 1887. During a tournament held in New York in November 1895, he won twenty-three games for two losses and one draw, then became in 1901 champion of the State of New York; he is considered the most skilled Jewish blindfold player, capable of conducting twelve simultaneous games.
Italian Assyrologist born in Correggio in 1847, died in Florence in 1872. While studying law at the University of Bologna, he devoted himself to languages, particularly Assyrian, on which he taught at the Istituto di Studi Superiori in Florence; he founded with Paolo Mantegazza the Archivio di Etnologia e di Antropologia and was among the founders of the Italian Oriental Society. He authored « Brahuî: Saggio di Etnologia Linguistica » (Florence, 1870).
Italian patriot and parliamentarian born in Rivarolo Fuori, in the province of Mantua, in 1815, died on December 17, 1886. He joined the secret organization Giovane Italia in 1834, met Mazzini in London in 1844, then fought at the barricades of Milan in 1848 before raising a regiment of Mantuan Bersaglieri that fought at Novara and then Rome; tried before an Austrian military tribunal in Mantua and sentenced to eighteen years in prison, he was released by the amnesty of 1856. Confidant of Garibaldi, he managed the funds for the Sicilian expedition provided by Cavour, sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 1860, and was appointed senator on June 7, 1886, without ever having time to take his seat.
Italian jurist born in Florence in 1830, admitted to the bar in 1856 after studying law in Pisa, where he was for some time the associate of Mari. Professor of political economy and statistics at the Istituto Tecnico of Florence, he received in 1900 the rabbinic title of « maskil » and published in particular a biography of Adriano Mari (1888) and « Le Università Israelitiche e la Libertà di Coscienza » (1898).
Rabbi and historian active in New York in the mid-19th century, assistant to Dr. Raphall at the Shearith Israel congregation; he is believed to have died in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the century. In 1859, he presented before the New York Historical Society « Chronological Notes on the History of the Jews in America », arguing that the first Jews had enjoyed full freedom under the Dutch administration of New Amsterdam, against the thesis of George Bancroft attributing this primacy to Roger Williams in Rhode Island; the study appeared in the « Historical Magazine » in 1860.
Hungarian rabbi
Austrian rabbi and author born in Budikau, in Bohemia, on January 12, 1821, doctor of philosophy from the University of Prague in 1850, rabbi of several small communities in the Eger district between 1854 and 1863. He prepared new editions of the rabbinical lexicon of Buxtorf (1873) and the Chaldean grammar of Wiener (1882), published notably "Kochbuch der Kalliope" (Leipzig, 1896) and directed the illustrated monthly journal "Bikkure ha-'Ittim" (Leipzig, 1863).
Austrian writer and politician born in Alt-Ofen, Hungary, on December 8, 1816, died in Emmersdorf, near Klagenfurt, on March 23, 1893. Physician at Vienna's hospital, he was one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement of 1848, commanding the Vienna student legion, before sitting in the Constituent Assembly; arrested after the dissolution of the Diet of Kremsier in 1849, he was acquitted after nine months in detention. He subsequently published « Lösung der Ungarischen Frage » (1861), arguing for the division of the empire into Austria and Hungary, and « Oesterreich und die Bürgschaften Seines Bestandes » (1869), in favor of an autonomous constitution for Austria.
Austrian pianist and composer, uncle of Robert Fischhof, born on April 4, 1804 in Butschowitz, Moravia, died in Vienna on June 28, 1857. Trained from 1813 at the Brünn lyceum then, in Vienna, in philosophy and medicine, he received piano lessons from Anton Halm and conductor Ignatz Ritter von Seyfried; the sudden death of his father in 1827 led him to devote himself entirely to art, and he became in 1833 professor at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, where he distinguished himself by his interpretations of Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin. He is also the author of « Versuch einer Geschichte des Klavierbaus » (1853).
Austrian musician born in Vienna on October 31, 1857. A child prodigy already performing in public at seven, he studied at the Vienna Conservatory under Anton Door for piano and under Fuchs, Krenn and Bruckner for composition, before taking lessons from Franz Liszt; he performed throughout Europe and became in 1884 professor at the Vienna Conservatory, performing his own compositions in Paris and Berlin.
Austrian author established in Lemberg, died in 1873. He published notably the collection of Hebrew poems « Eshkol 'Anabim » (Lemberg, 1827), a critique of the philological and archaeological works of Rapoport, Luzzatto and Reggio (1837-39), the biblical drama in two acts « Mappalat Sisera » (1841), a commentary on Job entitled « Safah le-Ne'emanim » (1854), and the biblical drama in five acts « Ḳesher Shebnah » (1870).
American physician and anthropologist born on August 16, 1872 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, in Russia, emigrated to the United States in 1889; graduate of New York University in 1897, he practices at Beth Israel Hospital in New York and as examining physician for United Hebrew Charities. Specialist in the anthropology and pathology of Jews, he is the author of « Comparative Pathology of the Jews » (1890) and « Physical Anthropology of the Jews » (1902-03).
Rabbi
Yiddish playwright and novelist (Ganovim), performed in Europe and America.
German physician born in Lyck, East Prussia, on June 4, 1860, trained in Berlin and Heidelberg, doctor of medicine of Berlin in 1883, the year he established himself there as a specialist physician in ear and nose diseases. Professor of voice physiology and singing theory at the Royal Superior School of Music, he published several works on laryngology between 1890 and 1902, including « Die Laryngoskopie und Rhinoskopie » (Berlin, 1890) and « Die Nasen-, Rachen- und Kehlkopfkrankheiten » (Leipzig, 1894).
Austrian architect born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on March 29, 1841, trained at the Polytechnic School and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Van der Nüll, Storck, Roesner and Friedrich von Schmidt. For his participation in the construction of the new Vienna city hall, he receives from the emperor the golden cross of merit and honorary citizenship of the city; he then devotes himself especially to synagogues and tombs, including those of Salomon Sulzer and Adolf Jellinek at the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. Member of the council of the Jewish community of Vienna since 1879, he also counts among the founders of a society devoted to the preservation of the artistic and historical heritage of Judaism.
Austrian physician born in Vienna on 5 August 1846, died in the same city on 22 October 1891, doctorate in medicine from Vienna in 1870. Prosector at the Institute of Anatomy in Vienna under Rokitansky, then privatdozent of physiology from 1873, he became assistant professor in 1880 and corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna in 1887; inventor of several physiological instruments, he published numerous essays between 1868 and 1885, and translated in 1887 Maxwell's work « Matter and Motion ».
American merchant, mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, born in Riverside, Ohio, on June 8, 1872. Member of the staff of Governor McKinley, later President of the United States, as well as of Governors Bushnell and Nash, he was designated in the spring of 1900 as the Republican candidate for mayor of Cincinnati, where he was elected on April 2 — an election noted because the candidates of the two main parties were both Jewish — and then re-elected with a greatly increased majority on April 6, 1903.
German merchant born in Rausnitz, Moravia, died in that same town on 17 December 1839, collaborator of « Bikkure ha-'Ittim » and translator into Hebrew of several writings of Philo, including « Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit » (« Ha-Yoresh Dibre Elohim », Prague, 1830) and « De Vita Moysis » (« Ḥayye Mosheh », 1838). He also compiled a list of Jewish scholars, « Reshimat Anshe Mofet » (Prague, 1838), deemed unreliable. His father, Abraham Flesch, born on 22 January 1755 and died on 24 January 1828, was rabbi in Rausnitz.
American physician and pathologist born in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 25, 1863, doctor of medicine from the University of Louisville, subsequently trained at Johns Hopkins, Strasbourg, and Prague. Former assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins and professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania since 1903, he has just been appointed head of the Rockefeller Institute of Preventive Medicine in New York; he served in 1900 on the medical commission of Johns Hopkins sent to the Philippines, then in 1901 on the National Plague Commission.
Russian physician and scholar born around 1850, died in 1885 in Kishinev, where he had settled a few years earlier, known for his writings in Russian on the Jewish question. From the age of twenty, he published in 1870 in the "Novorosiski Telegraf" an article on the Jews of Kiev, reprinted in 1872 and 1880; his two major works are "Yevreï i ikh Uchenie ob Inovyertzakh" (Saint Petersburg, 1874) and "Yevreiski Vopros pred Sudom Istorii" (1882).
Born in Livorno in 1895, only daughter of a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family (the Aghib), raised between Tuscany and Paris. She left an autobiographical account ("La nostra vita con Ezio e ricordi di guerra") published by Firenze University Press.
philanthrope, femme d'affaires et érudite juive
American politician (1866-1948)
Italian pathologist born in Sabbionetta on 26 January 1848, trained at the Milan lycée and in medicine at Pavia, with advanced courses at Turin and Heidelberg. Student of Rizzozero in pathological anatomy, he became successively privatdozent in 1876, assistant professor in 1878, then professor at Modena in 1881, and professor of pathological anatomy and bacteriology at Turin in 1884; volunteer in 1868 in Garibaldi's campaign in southern Tyrol, he was elected member of the Accademia di Medicina in 1886, of the Lincei in Rome in 1892, and president of the Università Popolare of Turin in 1900.
Hungarian philanthropist died in Budapest on May 31, 1874. Shortly before his death, he sent anonymously to the Jewish community of Budapest a donation intended for the founding of an orphanage, which he denies being the author of until his will, asking that the establishment bear the name of his parents, reveals it; his considerable fortune is divided among humanitarian works without distinction of faith, with a fund reserved for the studies of gifted orphans and a substantial sum devoted to an institute for deaf-mutes serving Hungary and Transylvania. An eccentric figure, he was unmarried, taciturn, stingy and solitary.
Hungarian jurist born in Nagy Mihály on January 27, 1862, trained in law at Budapest, admitted to the bar in 1886, and appointed district judge in Budapest in 1890 ; in 1895, he entered the Ministry of Justice as a legal expert. His principal works, « Die Motivirung des Ungarischen Civil-Gerichts-Verfahrens » and « Handbuch des Civil-Gerichts-Verfahrens », appeared in Budapest in 1894-97.
Austrian author born in Prague on 28 June 1805, died on 23 August 1890 in Karolinenthal, a suburb of Prague, where he directed a school. He is the author of « Alterthümer der Prager Josefstadt » (Prague, 1855; 3rd ed., 1870).
Austrian writer and poetess born in Agram on September 21, 1846, died in Vienna on October 19, 1889. Settled in Vienna in 1867, she there founded the Society of Women Writers and Artists, of which she was treasurer, and published several works, including the drama « Catarina Cornaro » (1875), the three-volume novel « Der Zauberring des Herzens » (1880) and the epic poem « Manoli » (1883).
Critic, journalist and Italian dramatist born in Trieste on October 5, 1828, died in Milan in 1895, baptized as a child and trained in Padua. Exiled to Trieste in 1848 for having written the drama « La Duchessa di Praslin », he then settled in Venice and Milan, where he founded « Il Vero Operaio » and « Il Pungolo »; exiled again to Trieste in 1859, he went to Switzerland then Turin, before founding « Il Corriere della Venezia » in 1866 and « La Nuova Roma » in 1870.
French politician born in Paris on 18 December 1834, died in Moulins on 8 April 1881. Elected Deputy for Allier on 1 June 1863, favorable to the Empire, he resigned in 1868 and then failed against the Republican candidate in Montluçon in 1876.
French politician and author born in Paris on February 19, 1836, died in Asnières on August 27, 1884. Elected deputy of Basses-Pyrénées on June 6, 1869, he serves in the Éclaireurs de la Seine during the Franco-Prussian War, fails in the municipal elections of Paris in 1872 then in the legislative elections of 1877 in Pau, and publishes « La Conversation » and « Brûlons le Grand Livre » (Paris, 1878); under the pseudonym « Olivier de Jalin », he collaborates with Alexandre Dumas on the comedy « La Comtesse Romani », created successfully at the Gymnase in 1876.
Yiddish poetess and short-story writer, pioneer of the Yiddish sonnet.
Italian jurist and historian born in Florence on July 10, 1840, trained at the Marseille lycée then in law at Pisa, admitted to the bar in 1863 before settling in Florence. Drama critic for « La Nazione » and « Nuova Antologia », translator of Aristophanes, he becomes in 1874 professor of modern history at the Istituto di Scienze Sociali, member of the Consiglio Comunale from 1872 onwards and from 1886 of the city council, and presides over the Jewish community of Florence from 1870 to 1899, the year in which he also takes the presidency of the Florence commission of the Collegio Rabbinico Italiano. He publishes notably « Storia d'Italia dal 1789 al 1799 » (2nd ed., Milan, 1903).
Italian deputy born in Florence in 1847, trained in law at Pisa. With deputy Sidney Sonnino, he undertook a journey to Sicily to study the social, political, and economic conditions of the island, whose observations appeared in two volumes; in 1878, again with Sonnino, he founded the weekly "Rassegna Settimanale", which later became the daily "La Rassegna" in Rome. Governor of the East African colony of Eritrea at the end of the 19th century, he took an interest in Parliament especially in naval affairs.
rabbi and musicologist, Anglo-Australian
Turkish rabbinic author born in 1833 in Constantinople, died in the same city in 1903. He publishes two works in Hebrew: the « Yismaḥ Leb » (2 vol., Salonica, 1867-83), a collection of responsa and sermons, and the « Maṭṭeh Leḥem » (Constantinople, 1902), gathering the decisions rendered during his twenty-five years as president of the rabbinic tribunal; he also edits the « Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer » of his master Éliézer of Toledo (2 vol., Salonica and Smyrna, 1853).
Austrian actress born in Bösing, near Pressburg, on 11 October 1852. She made her debut in 1871 at the Viktoria Theater in Berlin, joined in 1872 the Stadttheater in Vienna then, in 1875, the Burgtheater, before returning there in 1876; from 1882 to 1899, she performed successively in Hamburg, Riga, Vienna, Stuttgart and Frankfurt-on-the-Main, then travelled in 1900 and 1901 to Moscow, Saint Petersburg and New York, where she performed again in 1903.
American lawyer, member of the House of Representatives, born in Peoria, Illinois, on February 23, 1852, educated in public schools, at Washington University in Saint-Louis and then at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1871. He has been practicing law in Saint-Louis since then and publishes a work on bankruptcy law; defeated Republican candidate at the 50th Congress, he is reelected at the 51st.
British author and novelist born Julia Davis in Dublin on July 30, 1864, trained by Madame Paul Lafargue, daughter of Karl Marx. Under the pseudonym « Frank Danby », she published in 1887 her first novel, « Doctor Phillips: A Maida Vale Idyll », which caused a sensation with its realistic treatment, followed by « Babes in Bohemia » (London, 1889) and « Pigs in Clover » (1903); under her own name, she published in 1900 a treatise on color printing, « Eighteenth Century Color-Plates », then in 1902 « The Life and Works of John Raphael Smith ».
German physician born on 10 March 1848 in Frankfurt an der Oder, trained at the gymnasium of his native city and then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1870. Assistant to Kussmaul, Traube and Von Leyden in Berlin, he settled there and became lecturer at the university in 1877; nephew of Traube, who died in 1876, he published in 1878 the third volume of his « Gesammelte Beiträge zur Pathologie und Physiologie » and received the title of professor in 1884. Specialist in pulmonary and cardiac diseases, he published numerous works between 1873 and 1898, including the first exposition of the theory of the micrococcus of pneumonia.
Austrian physician born in Vienna on November 9, 1857, doctor of medicine in 1880, entered the Austrian military medical corps. Surgeon of the Teutonic Knights, he took part in the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885-86, left the army in 1890 to become lecturer in surgery at the University of Vienna, then chief surgeon of the Karolinen Kinderspital in Vienna from 1893 and editor-in-chief of « Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift » in 1896.
Russian scholar active in Warsaw in the first half of the nineteenth century, who traveled in Germany and England. He publishes the « Teru'at Melek », on patriotism and the duty of loyalty, with a German translation (Breslau, 1833), the « Neṣaḥ we-Hod », on the immortality and perpetual peace of the soul according to the prophets and philosophers, with an English translation (London, 1836), and an elegy in Hebrew and English on the death of Baron Nathan Rothschild, the « Ebel Kabed » (1836); Samuel Ghirondi, who met him in Italy, highly praises his learning and piety.
German physician born in Breslau on 5 May 1844, trained in medicine in Berlin, Vienna and Breslau, doctor of medicine in 1866. He participated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 then, as an assistant surgeon, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, before establishing himself as a physician, obstetrician and gynecologist in his native city in 1872. Privatdocent at the University of Breslau in 1873 then honorary professor in 1893, he became involved in municipal politics and was elected municipal councillor of Breslau in 1903.
German writer born in Leipzig on January 24, 1868, trained at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin as well as in England, doctorate in philosophy in 1889. Author of most of the literary articles in the fourteenth edition of Brockhaus's Konversations-Lexikon, he became secretary of the German National Museum in Nuremberg in 1892, then, from 1893 onward, lecturer at the Higher Technical School of Stuttgart, before teaching in Munich. His work on Rome, awarded a prize in 1886, was published in 1891 under the title « Rom, die Ewige Stadt der Weltgeschichte, und die Deutschen »; he also published numerous critical editions, notably of Shakespeare and Schiller.
German physician born on May 23, 1806 in Berlin, died in the same city on July 6, 1872, graduated from Berlin University in 1830, the year he established himself there as a physician specializing in water cure. Called in 1840 to Ebersdorf, in the principality of Reuss, as chief physician of the hydrotherapeutic hospital, he later establishes himself in Magdeburg, where he practices until 1848, then directs Berlin's hydrotherapeutic institution until his retirement in 1867; he edits from 1856 to 1857 a Berlin journal devoted to hydrotherapy and publishes several works between 1839 and 1850.
Austrian physician and chemist born in Cracow on May 22, 1868, trained at the gymnasium of Graz then in medicine in Prague, Freiburg-im-Breisgau and Vienna, where he obtains his diploma in 1892. After working at the zoological stations of Trieste, Strasbourg and Cambridge, he teaches physiological chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Vienna, and publishes notably a work in Wiesbaden in 1896 and another, « Arzneimittelsynthese », in Berlin in 1901.
German theologian born in Prague on September 30, 1801, died in Breslau on February 13, 1875, founder of the school of historical Judaism, which combines freedom of inquiry and authority of tradition. Educated in Talmud at the yeshiva of Bezalel Ronsperg, he left in 1825 for Budapest, where he obtained his university degree in 1831, became rabbi of the district of Leitmeritz then chief rabbi of Dresden in 1836, a position he held until 1854, when he took the direction of the Breslau seminary, which he directed until his death. In 1843, he declined an invitation to the chief rabbinate of Berlin, vacant since 1800.
German Deputy born in Obbach, in Bavaria, on 8 June 1827, died in Nuremberg on 18 July 1889. Engaged in political agitation in 1848 in Würzburg, he practiced law in Nuremberg from 1861, was elected to the Bavarian Diet in 1869, which he never left, and sat in the German Reichstag (1874-78) ; a resolute supporter of German unity after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, he became a leading liberal and campaigned for the rights of his co-religionists, obtaining in 1880 the repeal of taxes imposed on Jews in several regions of Bavaria.
German physicist born in Brunswick on June 29, 1801, died in Dresden on January 14, 1869, trained at the gymnasiums of Wolfenbüttel and Brunswick then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1823. Privat-docent in Berlin (1826-27), he became assistant professor of physics, geography and mathematics at the University of Breslau (1827-50) and full professor in 1850, and published several works between 1823 and 1869, including 'Die Lehre von der Cohäsion' (1835) and 'Krystallisation und Amorphie' (1852).
Consul of the United States in Berne, Switzerland, born on July 1, 1851 in Lübeck, Germany, educated in the public schools of his native city and instructed in Hebrew by the local rabbi. He entered commerce in Hamburg at fifteen, emigrated to the United States in 1871 and settled in Boston as a merchant, taking an active part in public life, notably in Jewish circles; appointed Consul of the United States in Berne in 1898, he still held this position in 1903.
German teacher and writer, son of Rabbi Moses Frankfurter, born in Herdorf on March 15, 1801, died August 13, 1867. Becoming in 1822 teacher at the Israelitische Volksschule of Nordstetten, in Württemberg, he counts among his pupils Berthold Auerbach, with whom he remained linked in friendship until his death; Auerbach pays him tribute in his tale « Der Lauterbacher », one of the « Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten », for which Frankfurter provided him with much of the material.
German preacher, brother of Bernhard Frankfurter, born in Oberdorf on February 13, 1810, died on April 13, 1866, doctor of philosophy from the universities of Heidelberg and Tübingen in 1833. Substitute rabbi in Lehrensteinfels then rabbi in Braunsbach, in Württemberg, he became in 1840 preacher of the Hamburg temple, involved himself in education and was elected in 1848 to the Hamburg Parliament; close to Radical Reform, he published with Berthold Auerbach the "Gallerie der Ausgezeichneten Israeliten Aller Jahrhunderte" (1838) and the pamphlet "Stillstand und Fortschritt" (1841).
Austrian librarian and archaeologist, born in Presbourg (Hungary) on November 9, 1856. He studied in Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1883, then in Berlin, before entering in 1884 the library of the University of Vienna, where he became scriptor. He published numerous works in philology, archaeology, and bibliography, notably a guide to Carnuntum with W. Kubitschek (1891).
Austrian rabbi, born in Ungarisch-Brod, Moravia, on January 21, 1847. Trained at Leipnik and then at Eisenstadt, where he teaches Hebrew at Hildesheimer's rabbinical school, he later studies at the universities of Breslau and Jena and obtains in 1877 his doctorate from Jena and his rabbinical diploma from Breslau. That same year, he becomes rabbi in Kremsier, a position he still holds in 1903. He publishes notably an ethics of Juda Hallevi (1885) and a history of the Jews of Kremsier in three volumes (1896).
Austrian neuropathologist, born in Vienna on June 12, 1862, son of Ludwig August Frankl. Trained at the Schottengymnasium and then at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1886, he becomes head of the neuropathic dispensary of the first medical hospital, then privat-docent of neuropathy in 1891 and assistant professor in 1898. He publishes numerous works on tetanus, Meniere's vertigo and nerve diseases of the bladder.
Austrian jurist, born in Prague on October 4, 1855. Educated at the universities of Prague, Göttingen and Leipzig, he became privatdozent in 1883 then professor of law in Prague in 1891, specializing in mining law and bankruptcy law. He published several works between 1883 and 1896 and co-directed the « Juristische Vierteljahrsschrift ».
German rabbi, born in Ungarisch-Brod, Moravia, in January 1848, died in Johannisbad on August 22, 1887. Trained at the yeshiva of Presbourg then at the seminary of Breslau, where he received his doctorate in 1870, he became in 1875 secretary of the Wiener Israelitische Allianz then, in 1877, succeeded Abraham Geiger at the rabbinate of Berlin, where he collaborated with Grätz on the « Monatsschrift ». He is the author of studies on the Septuagint and the Peshitta, karaite works and collections of piyyutim and sermons.
Merchant established in Jamaica, born in Manchester (England) in 1811, died in Kingston on April 26, 1888. Arriving on the island around 1837, he becomes magistrate and consul of Denmark, founds the Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1851 and works for the union of Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities. Long president of the National Hebrew Schools, he contributes in 1864 to the creation of the Kingston Sailors' Home.
American mathematician, editor, and essayist, born in Eger, Hungary, on January 18, 1853. A graduate of Columbian University in Washington in 1869, he worked in civil engineering before becoming in 1877 fellow of Johns Hopkins University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1880 and taught mathematics until 1895. He then directed the editorial office of the "Baltimore News" and contributed to several scientific and literary journals.
English journalist and philanthropist, born in Portsmouth in 1809, died on August 3, 1877. Retired from business, he settles in London and founds « The Voice of Jacob », the first organ of the Anglo-Jewish community, to oppose the reform movement of 1842. Representative of the Manchester community to the board of deputies, founder of the Anglo-Jewish Association, he works for Jewish education and bequeaths at his death the bulk of his fortune to educational works, at the origin of the Franklin Fund.
Austrian writer and sociologist, one of the pioneers of totalitarianism theory. Former Comintern agent turned critic of communism. Author of a reference account on the Spanish Civil War, « The Spanish Cockpit ».
philologue allemand
Austrian writer
German philosopher, born in Bojanowo, in the province of Posen, on April 17, 1813, died in Berlin on January 13, 1879. Raised by his uncle in Neisse, he converted to Christianity in 1833, then studied theology and then philosophy in Berlin, where he became close to Schopenhauer and settled in 1848. A disciple of the latter, he became his literary executor and published numerous works on his philosophy as well as several editions of his works.
American soldier, born in Marienthal, in Bavarian Palatinate, in 1836, emigrated to the United States in 1851. Settled in Mississippi, he enlisted in company A of the sixteenth regiment of Mississippi volunteers at the beginning of the Civil War and accompanied General Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. He distinguished himself on May 12, 1864 at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House and lived in 1903 in Conway, in Arkansas, where he commanded the local camp of Confederate veterans.
Grandson/descendant of the Mocatta & Goldsmid banking house, from which he retired in 1874 to devote himself to philanthropy and Jewish scholarship. Author of The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition (London, 1877); promoter of the Society of Hebrew Literature, president of the Jewish Historical Society of England in 1900.
Born into a Jewish family in Czernowitz (now in Ukraine), trained in Vienna, he emigrated to the United States in 1926. Theorist of the 'Endless House', scenographer (director of sets at Juilliard School 1933–1957), he designed the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls (1959–1965).
rabbi (1850–1927)
American Jewish pediatrician from Cincinnati, founder of one of the first children's clinics in the United States, known for the description of "Forchheimer spots" in measles.
Bibliographer, born in Riga on May 1, 1867. He went to Paris in 1886 then to the United States in the fall of 1889, before entering in March 1897 the New York Public Library as sub-librarian, where he took charge of the Hebraica and Judaica department, boasting 15,000 volumes. His classification system, comprising nearly 500 subdivisions, was the first to systematically organize Jewish literature in a library.
American lawyer and soldier, born in Bavaria in 1848, died in Camden, Arkansas, on August 22, 1899. Trained at the Louisiana State Military Academy, he enlisted in the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War and served in Company F of the Twelfth Louisiana Infantry Regiment, taking command of his company at Franklin, Tennessee, after the death of all officers. Admitted to the bar before coming of age, he practises law in Camden, where he later becomes receiver of the local land office.
German librarian and historian, born on August 5, 1871 in Filehne, in the province of Posen, son of Israel Meyer Freimann and grandson, through his mother, of the grand rabbi of Altona Jacob Ettlinger. He entered the University of Berlin in 1893, where he obtained his doctorate in 1896, before taking in 1897 the direction of the Hebrew department of the municipal library of Frankfurt-on-the-Main and, in 1900, the co-direction of « Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie ».
Russian Hebraist and teacher, born in Radom, in Russian Poland, on September 18, 1853, student in Talmudic literature of the chief rabbi of Radom Samuel Mohilever. Teacher at the Talmud Torah of Radom since its founding in 1882, he translates into Hebrew the drama of Lessing "Miss Sarah Sampson" (1887) and, from Polish, the "Esterka" of Kozlovski (1889), and collaborates with the journal "Ha-Ẓefirah".
German jurist born in Breslau on August 23, 1872, son of philosopher Jacob Freudenthal. Educated at the universities of Breslau, Berlin, Halle and Tübingen, he becomes a member of his native city's court in 1898 and lecturer the following year, before being appointed professor of law in 1903 at the Akademie für Sozial- und Handelswissenschaften in Frankfurt am Main. He is the author of criminal law works published in Breslau in 1896, 1899 and 1901.
German philosopher born on June 20, 1839 in Bodenfelde, in the Prussian province of Hanover. Trained at the universities of Breslau and Göttingen as well as at the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary, he taught philosophy at Breslau University from 1875, becoming professor in 1888. Sent by the Academy of Sciences of Prussia to study English philosophy in England and then, in 1898, the life of Spinoza in the Netherlands, he published notably « Die Lebensgeschichte Spinoza's » in Leipzig in 1899.
American jurist born in New York on January 30, 1864, trained at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg (doctorate in law) then at Columbia (doctorate in philosophy). Lecturer in administrative law at Columbia in 1892-93, he taught law at the university of Chicago from 1894 to 1902 before becoming professor of law there in 1903. He is the author of « The Legal Nature of Corporations » (1897).
German gynecologist born in Krappitz, in Silesia, on August 26, 1833. Trained at the university of Breslau where he obtained his doctorate in 1855, he becomes there a privat-docent in 1857 then assistant professor in 1874, before being appointed in 1879 professor and director of the university clinic of obstetrics and gynecology in Strasbourg. Author of numerous works, he publishes notably "Die Gynäkologische Klinik" in Strasbourg in 1891.
Psychoanalyst and physician, pioneer of psychoanalytic treatment of psychotic patients.
Austrian Hebrew scholar born in Cracow on December 19, 1876. Author of numerous contributions to Hebrew periodicals and others, he publishes in particular a study on Joseph Caro (1895), a history of Hebrew typography in Cracow (1900) and a history of the Schorr family (1901).
German statesman born in Mürkisch-Friedland, West Prussia, on January 27, 1813, died in Berlin on June 2, 1895. Doctor of law from the University of Berlin (1836), he entered the Prussian Ministry of Justice in 1854, became a member of the Upper House of Prussia in 1872, then Minister of Justice of the Empire in 1876 and of Prussia in 1879. Ennobled in 1888, he retired from office in 1889.
Prussian statesman born in Breslau on September 15, 1827, died on his estate at Giesmannsdorf on March 7, 1890. Converted to Protestantism, he studied law in Breslau, Heidelberg, and Berlin before entering politics: deputy to the Prussian Landtag in 1857, he sat in the Reichstag from 1867 onward and in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies in 1870. Appointed Minister of Agriculture in 1874, he took responsibility for Domains and Forests in 1879 before retiring to his estate in 1881.
Austrian journalist and historian born in Rostschin, Moravia, on January 18, 1851, educated in Prague, Berlin and Vienna where he obtained a doctorate. Professor at the Handelsakademie of Vienna from 1874, he becomes in 1883 founder and editor of « Die Deutsche Wochenschrift » then, in 1886, editor-in-chief of « Die Deutsche Zeitung », while sitting on the Vienna city council from 1891. He is notably the author of « Der Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in Deutschland » (2 vol., 1896).
Russian philanthropist born in Dünaburg, government of Vitebsk, on 8 January 1826, died in Saint Petersburg on 21 November 1899. Supplier to the Russian army for more than thirty years and honorary citizen of Saint Petersburg, he founds an orphanage equipped with a school of trades as well as a hospice for elderly Jews in Jerusalem. His name remains attached to the Bibliotheca Friedlandiana, rich in fourteen thousand works, which he donates in 1890 to the Asian Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Austrian painter born in Vienna on December 10, 1856, daughter and student of Friedrich Friedländer. She devotes herself to still life and scenes of interiors of churches and homes. Her painting "Orientalische Gegenstände," presented at the twentieth annual exhibition of the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, is acquired by the Emperor of Austria.
Member of the Upper House of Prussia, born in Kolmar, in Posen, on February 19, 1826. He directs a book business in Wollstein from 1846 to 1857, then settles in Bromberg as a banker. Member of the Prussian Upper House from 1874 to 1881, he proposes an amendment to the law on the withdrawal of members from Jewish communities in Prussia. He has resided since 1882 at the Villa Breitenstein, near Ermatingen, in Switzerland.
Genre painter born on 10 January 1825 in Kohljanowitz, Bohemia. Trained at the Vienna Academy then under professor Waldmüller, he travels to Italy in 1850 and to Düsseldorf in 1852 before devoting himself, from 1854 onwards, to genre painting drawn from military life and Viennese life, as well as scenes from popular Swabian life. Member of the Vienna Academy since 1866, he receives the Order of Francis Joseph in 1865 and is ennobled under the name « Von Mahlheim ».
German numismatist born in Berlin on June 25, 1813, died in that city on April 4, 1884. Trained at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, he travels to Italy in 1838-39 before obtaining in 1840 a position at the royal cabinet of ancient coins in Berlin, of which he becomes director of the numismatic section of the museum in 1868; he is elected member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin in 1872. Author of numerous works on numismatics, he notably publishes « Das Königliche Münzkabinet » in 1877.
German philologist born in Königsberg on July 16, 1824, trained at the universities of Königsberg and Leipzig from 1841 to 1845. Privat-docent in classical philology at Königsberg in 1847, associate professor in 1856 and full professor in 1858, he retired in 1892 to Strasbourg as professor emeritus. His major work on Roman customs under the Empire (3 vol., 1862-71) was translated into French by Ch. Vogel (1865-74); he also edited Martial (1886) and Juvenal (1895).
Journalist born June 18, 1829 in Pless, in Prussian Silesia, died April 20, 1872 in Nice. After studies in law in Berlin, Breslau and Heidelberg, he became assessor at the court in Breslau, where he published in 1857 a work on copyright law, and began in 1856 his journalistic career at the « Presse » in Vienna. In September 1864, he founded the « Neue Freie Presse », of which he remained editor-in-chief until his death.
Austrian theologian born in 1842 in Bur Szentgyörgy, Hungary, residing in Vienna. Trained at the university of Prague where he followed the Talmudic lectures of the grand rabbi Rapoport, he became in 1875 secretary of the Israelitische Allianz of Vienna and undertook in 1881-82 journeys to Brody to assist Russian Jewish exiles, before becoming secretary of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and founding fifty schools in Galicia. He is the author of works such as «Zur Entstehung des Christenthums» (1894) and «Geschichte der Jüdischen Apologetik» (1903).
Preacher and physician born in Brilon, Westphalia, on October 23, 1825, died in Chicago on August 22, 1860. Trained at Bonn and Heidelberg (doctorate in 1844), he became in 1847 associate preacher of Dr. Holdheim at the reformed congregation of Berlin, then professor at the seminary of Jewish teachers in Münster. He subsequently studied medicine, emigrated to America in 1855, and became in 1860 teacher then preacher of the Anshe Maarab congregation in Chicago.
Shohet born in Stavisk, Poland, on 22 March 1822, died in New York on 17 May 1876. Having become shohet of his native town at the age of seventeen, he settled in Bernkastel-on-the-Moselle, in Germany, where he became rabbi and shohet in 1844, before joining New York as shohet of one of the city's largest slaughterhouses, a position he held until his death. In 1874, he published a defense of sheḥitah, « Ṭub Ṭa'am », soon translated into English, French and German.
Author and pedagogue born in 1865 in Suwałki, in Russian Poland. Trained in Boskovice, in Moravia, he settled in Warsaw where he became one of the promoters of Zionism and founded a Zionist society with rabbi Samuel Mohilever, before leaving for America in 1892, where he directed the journal « Ha-'Ibri ». He is the author of numerous school manuals and works, notably « Allufe Yisrael », biographies of Talmudists.
Austrian scholar born in Kraszna, in the district of Kassa, in Hungary, on July 10, 1831. First attracted to Hasidism and Kabbalah at the yeshiva of Ungvár, he turned toward critical study of the Bible under the influence of Mendelssohn's "Bi'ur", then entered the University of Vienna in 1858. Chosen in 1864 as a teacher of the Bible and Midrash at the newly founded bet ha-midrash of Vienna, he also became professor at the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt and published numerous critical editions of Midrashim, including the Mekhilta (1870) and the Pesikta Rabbati (1880), as well as the journal "Bet Talmud" with Isaac Hirsch Weiss between 1881 and 1886.
German poet and writer born in Frankfurt-am-Main on October 26, 1845. Trained at the universities of Heidelberg and Zurich (doctorate in 1870), he resided in Vienna until 1886, when he moved to Berlin. He published numerous collections of poems as well as the drama « Don Juan's Letztes Liebesabenteuer » (1891) and several novels, including « Zwei Ehen » (1880), translated into Italian.
Hungarian jurist and penologist born in Grosswardein October 10, 1843, trained at the local Academy of Law then at Budapest University. He became known for his conduct in the famous trial of Tiszaeszlár, and published several legal works, including one on Hungarian mining (Budapest, 1866) and another on popular juries (1876), rewarded with the grand prize of the Academy.
Hungarian cantor born in Hrabócz, in Hungary, on March 7, 1823, died in Budapest on August 29, 1891. He held several positions in small congregations until 1848, the year he enlisted in the Hungarian army, then joined the choir of Salomon Sulzer in Vienna before being elected, in 1850, cantor, teacher, and secretary of the Fünfhaus congregation. Becoming chief cantor of the Jewish community of Budapest, he received in 1875 the golden cross of Emperor Francis Joseph, founded in 1882 a union of Israeli officiants, and taught singing from 1877 at the rabbinical seminary of Budapest.
German philanthropist born in Berlin in the mid-nineteenth century, related to the family of Moses Mendelssohn. Shocked by the persecution of Russian Jews in 1882-90, he went to the land of Midian in 1890 and decided to found a colony there; twenty-four emigrants left Cairo in mid-November 1891 under his leadership, but the enterprise, undermined by internal dissensions, was abandoned after two months. He recounts this attempt in « Das Land Madian », published in Berlin in 1891.
German actor born in Budapest on April 25, 1842, pupil of Dawison. He made his debut in Breslau on October 18, 1863, without success, before joining in 1864 the Königliche Schauspielhaus of Berlin, where he remained until 1871, then the Stadttheater of Vienna from 1872 to 1876 under the direction of Laube. He participated in 1883 in the founding of the Deutsche Theater of Berlin, undertook in 1888 a tour in Germany and Austria, and retired from the stage in 1892.
Czech attorney, poet and translator (1857–1938)
German theologian
German chemist
German poet, Shakespeare scholar and translator (1820-1898)
Born in Worms in 1839 in an old Rhineland Jewish family, son of Jewish physician Abraham Gernsheim. Child prodigy, he became a composer, conductor and pianist; he taught and conducted in Cologne, Rotterdam then in Berlin, where he led a master class in composition at the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts. He left over one hundred works (symphonies, chamber music, cantatas, lieder), some with Jewish subject matter; his work was banned under Nazism because of his Jewish origins.
German-Jewish composer, famous for the score of the film Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel, 1930), whose song "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" sung by Marlene Dietrich. Son of operetta composer Victor Hollaender (1866–1940); his uncles were Gustav Hollaender (1855–1915), director of the Stern'sches Konservatorium in Berlin, and Felix Hollaender (1867–1931), novelist and dramatic critic. Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933 because of his Jewish descent, he had a career in Hollywood (4 Oscar nominations).
Born in Munich to a Jewish family (born Jolson), converted to Protestantism in 1819. Professor of law at Erlangen, Würzburg, and Berlin. Built a philosophy of law founded on Lutheran theology and provided the ideological basis for conservative Prussian monarchy. Prussian deputy.
German economist
Born into a Jewish family in Győr, son of physician Ignác Riesz. One of the founders of functional analysis (Riesz representation theorem, Lp spaces). Professor in Szeged and then Budapest.
Hungarian educator born in Körmend on 1 May 1852. After a study trip on the organization of asylums for the mentally ill, he founded at Rákospalota, near Budapest, the model institution « Munka » for the education of children with disabilities, later transferred to Ofen and then taken over by the state in 1898. His brother Anton Frim is the founder of an institute for the deaf supported by the city of Budapest.
Russian Hebraist born in Łódź in 1863, residing in Warsaw. He began very early in Hebrew poetry and prose, became assistant editor of Ha-Yom in Saint Petersburg (1886-87) and then editor of the weekly Ha-Dor. Among his works are the narrative Be-Yom ha-Kippurim (Warsaw, 1881), his translation of Bernstein under the title Yedi'ot ha-Ṭeba' (1882-85) and Miktabim 'al Debar ha-Sifrut, criticism of contemporary Hebrew literature (Warsaw, 1895).
German Jewish lawyer and art collector (1876–1956)
German legal scholar
Austrian-born Jewish art historian who fled Nazi Germany for Britain, where he directed the Warburg Institute in London. His surname (Saxl) is a documented spelling variant of Saxel.
American theater director born in Sandusky, Ohio, around 1858. After beginning as a front-of-house agent for minstrel troupes and then as an exploiter of theatrical rights in New York, he conceived in 1895 the idea of a theatrical trust controlling theaters throughout the country, forming an association with Nixon and Zimmerman, Klaw and Erlanger, and Alfred Hayman. This syndicate, which began with thirty-seven theaters, imposed its dominance despite the revolt of Nat Goodwin in 1898; Frohman owned or leased five theaters in New York and three in London.
American theatre director, brother of Charles Frohman, born in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1853. Leaving for New York in 1866, he debuts as an office boy at the « New York Tribune » before turning to theatre; he directs the Madison Square Theater (1879-85), then leases the Lyceum, whose troupe distinguishes itself notably in « The Wife » and « The Charity Ball ». After the death of Augustin Daly, he becomes director of Daly's Theater.
Russian writer and poet born in 1860 in the Jewish agricultural colony of Bobrovy-Kout, province of Kherson. His first poem appeared in 1880 in « Razsvyet » ; settled in Saint Petersburg in 1881, he published in several Russian periodicals and brought out his first collection, « Stikhotvoreniya », in 1885, followed by « Dumy i Poesii » in 1887. His Yiddish poems were gathered in 1886 under the title « Lieder und Gedanken », and a three-volume collection of his poems appeared in Saint Petersburg in 1897, translated into Hebrew in Warsaw in 1898 ; he was living (1903) in Saint Petersburg, where he collaborated with the weekly « Budushchnost ».
Italian physiologist born May 26, 1841 in Casale Monferrato, in Piedmont, died September 6, 1898 in Turin. Doctor of medicine from the University of Turin (1862), he subsequently trained in Paris under Hiffelsheim before returning to assist Moleschott in Turin. Appointed professor of physiology at the University of Palermo in 1881 and then of materia medica and pharmacology in Pisa in 1888, a position he held until his death, he became after Moleschott's death in 1893 the editor of the « Untersuchungen zur Naturlehre des Menschen und der Thiere », then in 1897 of the « Trattato di Farmacoterapia ».
Austrian journalist born in Leipnik, near Biała, in Galicia, on September 25, 1849. Active throughout his life as a feuilletonist and dramatic critic, he contributes successively to several Viennese newspapers, including "Die Vorstadt Zeitung" and "Das Wiener Tagblatt", and writes for the stage, with Bauer and Zell, several plays, including "Die Kopirschule", reprinted in Vienna in 1890.
Russian physician, son of Samuel Fuenn, born in Wilna in 1848, died in that city on August 12, 1901. Trained at the rabbinical seminary of his native city and then at the medical faculty of Saint Petersburg, he settled in Wilna where he cared for the poor and worked for Jewish agriculture, serving for three years as administrator of an aid society for Jewish settlers in Palestine and Syria. In 1898, he was one of three former elders elected to lead the Jewish community of Wilna, and bequeathed most of his fortune to charitable works and Jewish settlement in Palestine.
German jurist born in Mainz on 23 December 1859, trained at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Giessen where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1881. Admitted to the bar in 1884, he practices in Mainz from that same year and publishes numerous legal works, notably on Jewish criminality (1885), social reform in Germany (1887) and rental law (1900).
German writer born in Frankfurt am Main on July 15, 1862. Trained in philology and German philosophy at the universities of Berlin, Leipzig and Heidelberg (doctorate in 1883), he settled in 1884 in Munich, where he became close to Paul Heyse, then in Berlin from 1888 onwards. A prolific author, he published comedies, social dramas and dramatic fables, including « Der Talisman » (1893), which was highly successful, as well as translations of Molière (1892) and Rostand (1898).
German physician born in Braunsberg on April 15, 1844, died in Berlin on May 25, 1898. Trained in Königsberg, holder of a doctorate in medicine from Berlin in 1867, he became a practicing physician in Memel in 1869 after assistant posts in Schöneberg and Danzig, served as a military physician during the Franco-Prussian War and returned to Memel in 1871, where he founded a small hospital and became known for discovering the first cases of leprosy in East Prussia. In 1884, he settled in Berlin, where he became a « physician of the people » in the noblest sense of the term.
German rabbi, born in Mannheim on November 14, 1826, died in the same city on September 5, 1899. Trained at the University of Heidelberg, he became rabbi in Endingen in 1854, in Merchingen in 1857, then district rabbi in Bayreuth in 1858. Called in 1873 as rabbi to Mainz, he returned already in June of the same year to his native city, where he served for twenty years at the Klaussynagogue. Specialist in Hebrew lexicography, he publishes « Das Peinliche Rechtsverfahren im Jüdischen Alterthum » (Heidelberg, 1870) and the « Glossarium Græco-Hebræum » (Strasbourg, 1890).
German physician born in Leipzig on May 27, 1840, son of the orientalist Julius Fürst. Doctor of Medicine from Leipzig (1864), he specialized in pediatrics and directed from 1865 to 1886 the children's clinic of the university of his city, became privat-docent in 1871 and founded in 1878 a laboratory for animal lymph, before settling in Berlin where he still practiced in 1903. A prolific author on pediatrics and hygiene, he published notably « Das Kind und Seine Pflege » (1897) and, in 1879, a collection of tales, « Märchendichtungen ».
German legal scholar of the first half of the 19th century, brother of Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal, converted to Christianity. Author of numerous works on Roman and commercial law, including an encyclopedia of German law (Berlin, 1826-27), a manual of Prussian civil and criminal procedure (Königsberg, 1827-28) and a « Corpus Juris Academicum » (Berlin, 1829).
French philanthropist born in Paris in 1821, died in Rocquencourt in 1896. Wife of Charles Heine, cousin of the poet, she inherited his fortune and devoted it to numerous charitable works, including an ambulance service in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, a dispensary for children in a Jewish neighborhood and constant support for the Pasteur Institute. In 1896, she founded a hospital for one hundred children and received the Legion of Honor.
Rabbi (1848–1883)
Hungarian Talmudist born in Vágújhely, dayyan for fifteen years before being appointed rabbi and av bet din of Rohonc, where he remained until his death (1850). He devoted his life to study and his yeshiva; the Chatam Sofer (Moshe Sofer) gave approbations (haskamot) to his works.
Bulgarian chief rabbi
Hamburg jurist with a degree from Heidelberg, initially refused the practice of law due to lack of civil rights as a Jew. Became the principal advocate for the emancipation of German Jews. Vice-president of the Frankfurt Parliament (Paulskirche) in 1848; first Jew appointed judge in Germany (1860). Founder of the journal Der Jude (Altona, 1832-1833).
Russian pianist born in Saint Petersburg on February 7, 1878, student of the City Conservatory under the direction of Anton Rubinstein. On the latter's advice, he left in 1894 to study in Vienna with Leschetizky, then perfected himself in composition with Navratil. He made a first tour of the United States during the winter of 1900-01, then a second in 1902, after performing concerts in London, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Born and raised in Petah Tikva, he was an Orientalist in the Arab Affairs department of the Jewish Agency during the British Mandate. At independence (1949) he became director general of the Ministry of Minorities in Tel-Aviv.
Austrian physician born in Pardubice, Bohemia, on 28 September 1855, doctorate in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1879. Assistant at the General Hospital of Vienna from that same year, then assistant to Professor Stricker in experimental pathology from 1882, he became Privatdozent in 1886 and associate professor in 1890. Inventor of several medical instruments including a tonometer to measure blood pressure, he published numerous works in Viennese medical journals between 1883 and 1902.
Galician rabbinical scholar born around 1845, died in Vienna after 1880. He is the author of a biography of the tanna Akiba, « Toledot Rabbi 'Aḳibah » (Lemberg, 1871), of the German work « Mohamed nach Talmud und Midrash » (Berlin, 1875; Vienna, 1877-80), as well as Hebrew biographies of the Königswarter family (Vienna, 1877), Jonathan Eybeschütz and Salomon Munk (Lyck, 1879) and Adolph Jellinek (Brody, 1880).
Considered the greatest Bukharan Jewish singer and musician. Trained by his older brothers, he sang in synagogue from age nine and learned the classical shashmaqam style as well as several instruments (including the doira). He worked in the 1920s with his brother Mikhael, also a great Central Asian singer.
American rabbi
Belarusian writer
American rabbi
German philologist born in Frankfurt-am-Main on May 21, 1829, died in that city on August 29, 1870, son of Solomon Michael Geiger, older brother of Abraham Geiger. Trained in Hebrew from childhood and then in classical philology at Marburg, Heidelberg and Bonn, he established himself in Frankfurt in 1851 and published his first work in 1865, before undertaking from 1852 his major work, « Ursprung und Entwickelung der Menschlichen Sprache und Vernunft » (Stuttgart, 1868), which was the first to apply the theory of evolution to language. He dies before completing it; his brother Alfred Geiger publishes the second volume in 1872.
Russian painter born in Shklov on December 10, 1862. Trained at the drawing school of Odessa, he entered in 1878 the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg, where he won two silver medals (1881-83) then a gold medal in 1885 for « Saint Irene caring for Saint Sebastian ». Graduated in 1887, the year he obtained the title of artist of the first class for a painting on Ivan the Terrible, he exhibited in 1889 at the Academy « The Oath of Jewish Conscripts », purchased by the institution.
Danish literary critic, born Georg Morris Cohen Brandes into a non-observant Jewish family, whose 1871 Copenhagen lectures on the "Modern Breakthrough" (published as Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature) reshaped Scandinavian and European literary criticism and influenced figures like Ibsen.
German philosopher
Hungarian politician, Marxist philosopher and literary critic
Son of Abraham (Adolf) Wertheim, founder in 1875 in Stralsund of a modest textile and manufactured goods business. With his brother Hugo then alone, Georg developed the family business into Germany's largest department store chain, including the immense flagship store at Leipziger Platz in Berlin. The Jewish Wertheim family was despoiled (« aryanized ») by the Nazi regime after 1933 and forced to surrender its shares.
American writer
Hungarian mathematician
Born Louis-Georges Rothschild into an Alsatian Jewish family that remained French after 1870, he was Clemenceau's close collaborator and then chief of staff. Deputy for the Gironde, Minister of Posts (1934-1936), Colonies (1938-1940) and Interior (1940), fierce opponent of Munich and the armistice. He was assassinated by sixteen bullets from the militiaman Mansuy in the Fontainebleau forest on 7 July 1944.
Georges Wormser (1888–1978), agrégé of letters, banker and politician, was chief of staff to Georges Clemenceau then his biographer. His work "La République de Clemenceau" (PUF, 1961) is a reference.
Renowned physician, member of the Central Jewish Consistory of France, uncle and father-in-law of Camille Sée. Professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, author of medical works and clinical studies.
Hungarian dramatist born in Hévizgyörk on October 18, 1856, trained in law at Kassa and Budapest. His first play, « Turi Borcsa », was performed in 1883 at the Budapest People's Theater, where he became staff playwright, then appointed theater secretary in 1886, a position he held only briefly. His works, devoted chiefly to Hungarian popular life, include notably « Az Eladó Leány » and « A Vadonban », both crowned by the Academy of Sciences of Hungary.
Galician-American Jewish writer, journalist and playwright in Hebrew and Yiddish, founder of the Tageblat (first Yiddish newspaper of Galicia) in Lviv, emigrated to the United States in 1912.
Grandson of Mordekhai Yosef Leiner (Izbica), first « rebbe of Radzyn ». Torah scholar, chemist and linguist, he undertook to restore the tekhelet (blue thread of the tsitsit): after a visit to the zoological station in Naples, he identified the hilazon with the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and launched a dye works. Prolific author on halakha and Hasidic thought.
Nicknamed the "Jewish Caruso," born in Podolia (region of Haisyn, present-day Ukraine) of a cantor father. After Odessa and eight years in Vilna, he became in 1907 cantor of the great synagogue on Tłomackie Street in Warsaw. A tenor with a spectacular range, he made the first phonographic recordings of Jewish liturgical music as early as 1903 and sang as far as Carnegie Hall. He perished with his family in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.
German banker
Journalist, writer and American poet born in Philadelphia on October 18, 1862, employee of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad from 1880 to 1890, where he contributed to ending the railroad strikes of 1887. Editor-in-chief of the "Chicago Israelite" in 1890, he returned to Philadelphia in 1891 to direct "The Jewish Exponent", while contributing to various newspapers including "The American Musician" (1885-90) and "Music and Drama" of New York (1896-1903). He publishes a collection of poems, "Some Verses" (Philadelphia, 1893).
German physician born in Hamm, Westphalia, on July 19, 1866, trained at the universities of Munich, Rostock, Leipzig and Bonn, where he obtains his doctorate in medicine in 1890. Surgeon in the German merchant marine for three years, he then perfects his skills in Berlin and Paris before settling in Berlin in 1894 as a specialist in throat diseases, notably publishing on stammering (1893) and feminine gymnastics (1896, 1897).
Rabbi and American journalist born in Wilna, Russia, in 1844, died in New York on June 17, 1897. Educated at the rabbinical seminary of his native city and at the University of Saint Petersburg, he converted to Greek Orthodoxy before returning to Judaism, emigrating in 1869 to the United States, where he taught at the Sabbath school of Temple Emanu-El in New York until 1874, then served congregations in Atlanta and Chicago. He published in 1871 a Hebrew translation of "Excelsior" by Longfellow, in 1872 "Sketches of Jewish Life and History", and founded in 1878 in Chicago the weekly "The Advance".
Lithuanian pedagogue and Hebraist born in Wilna on 4 December 1827, died in that city on 6 December 1891. One of the first students of the rabbinical school of Wilna, he became special agent for Jewish affairs with governor-general Potapov, then succeeded the official rabbi Ephraïm Kahan and signed, on 4 November 1860, the prohibition against translating the Mishna into Judeo-German. Resigning in 1861, he reorganized and developed the Talmud Torah of Wilna, to the point of having to build a new building in 1882, and founded there in 1890 a technical school; he also translated the Pentateuch into Russian with Levanda.
German writer born on July 31, 1855 in Ostrowo, Prussia, raised in Berlin where he studies philosophy and literature. Literary editor of "Kleine Journal" from 1879 and then of "National Zeitung" from 1883, he teaches dramatic art at the Berliner Theater from 1888 and then at the Stuttgart Hoftheater in 1894, and directs, from 1901, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte. Author of numerous dramas and comedies, including "Die Leute von Hohenselchow" (1884), he also publishes a critical study on Alphonse Daudet and an annotated edition of a medieval play (1886).
Surgeon, first woman surgeon in practice in Scotland.
American animal trainer
Polish rabbi born in Warsaw in 1815, died in that city on September 11, 1878. He directed a yeshiva for forty-two years and became in 1870 rabbi of Warsaw, succeeding R. Bär ben Isaac Meisels, a position which he occupied approximately four years before renouncing it, poorly accepted by the Hasidim. He completed his « Sifte Kohen » at eighteen, then drafted at twenty-three his « Tif'eret Ya'aḳob » on the Shoulhan Aroukh (Warsaw, 1842), much of the edition of which was destroyed by censorship; he publishes again, under the same title, novellae on Guittin (1858) and Houllin (1867).
lawyer and Hungarian singing teacher
Bene Israel soldier born in 1804, died in Dhulia, India, on October 14, 1869. Enlisted in the 25th Regiment of indigenous light infantry of Bombay, he participated in the campaign of Sind (1843-45), the Sepoy Rebellion, and the Abyssinian expedition (1867-68), rising to the rank of sirdar bahadur and receiving the first-class star of the order of the British India; a monument was erected to him after his death by the European officers of his regiment.
Italian Jewish diplomat and politician (born Giacobbe Isacco Malvano in Turin), Secretary-General of the Italian Foreign Ministry (notably 1896-1907, the longest tenure in Italian history), senator of the kingdom from 1896, then President of the State Council in 1913. From a Jewish family.
Eminent English barrister nicknamed "the Old Fox," from a Jewish family of German origin (Hamburg/Frankfurt) settled in Great Britain in the early nineteenth century; famous for his speeches in cases of libel and divorce.
Masoretic scholar and English Christian missionary born in Warsaw on 25 December 1831. Converted in 1846, he devoted himself after 1863 to the study of the Hebrew Bible, publishing editions of the Song of Songs (1857) and Ecclesiastes (1861), then masoretic studies including « Massoret ha-Massoret » by Elias Levita (1867). Member of the committee for the revision of the Old Testament from 1870, he published three volumes on the Massorah (1880-86) and then, in 1894, a new critical text of the Hebrew Bible, and wrote in 1871 the most detailed exposition in English on the Mesha stele.
Russian lawyer and author born in Minsk in 1866, graduated from the faculty of law of Saint Petersburg University in 1890. Secretary, from 1898 onward, of the Society for the Promotion of Instruction among the Jews of Russia, he directed from 1896 to 1900 the « Literary Review » of « Voskhod », where he published under the pseudonym « Ha-Ḳore » studies on Smolenskin, Gordon and Mapou, and published in 1901, with P. Marek, a collection of Judeo-German folk songs, « Yevreiskiya Narodnyya Pyesni » (Saint Petersburg).
Russian scholar, known under the pseudonym Ahad Ha'am, born in Skvira, gubernia of Kiev, on August 5, 1856, in a Hasidic family. Trained in the Talmud then, as a self-taught student, in Russian and German letters, he settled permanently in Odessa in 1886 after stays in Vienna (1882) and Berlin and Breslau (1883-84), and founded in 1889 the Zionist league Bené Moché, active for eight years, while directing in 1890 the review « Keweret » devoted to Zionism. Member from 1884 of the central committee of the Lovers of Zion under the presidency of Pinsker, he traveled to Palestine in 1891 then in 1893.
Italian historian
Spanish scholar born in Girona on November 16, 1839, official chronicler of his native city and member of several learned societies. He publishes « Los Judíos de Gerona » (Girona, 1870), « Escriptores Gerundenses » (1867) and its supplement (1875), as well as several articles on Hebrew epitaphs in the « Revista Historica » of Barcelona.
Austrian physician
Eldest son of a wealthy merchant of Padua. Hebrew poet and passionate collector, he assembled one of the most important private Hebrew libraries of the 19th century, enriched by the collection that had belonged to Hayim Yosef David Azoulay (Hida). His treasures were exploited by Luzzatto, Steinschneider and Zunz.
Born in Padua in 1855 to Mosè Da Zara and Carolina Trieste, from a wealthy Jewish family of the Veneto established in the Padua ghetto. Manager of Assicurazioni Generali (1880-1922), president of the Società veneta of secondary railways, administrator of numerous banks and industrial companies (Terni, etc.). Died in Padua in 1923.
Born in Mantua in 1840, he studied at the Rabbinical Institute of Padua, where he was one of the last students of Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal), and was ordained in 1868. Rabbi of Mantua (1868-1880), he was elected chief rabbi of Ferrara on November 3, 1880, a position he held until his death in 1915. He was also a historian of the Italian Jewish community and one of the first biographers of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal).
Graduate of medicine from the University of Padua, physician of repute nicknamed « the doctor of the poor » for having founded a free dispensary in Venice. President of the Jewish community of Venice from 1940, he took his own life on September 16, 1943, after burning the community registers to avoid handing to the German authorities the list of Venetian Jews.
Italian Jewish poet, playwright and journalist from Venice, active during the Risorgimento era.
Anti-Semitic writer born in Königsberg, Prussia, on January 16, 1834, died in Berlin on March 2, 1892. Already a reputed journalist, he published in 1873 in the « Gartenlaube » a series of articles so virulent about stock market speculation that the editorial board interrupted them, then, ruined by his own speculations, published in 1877 « Der Börsen- und Gründungsschwindel in Deutschland », in which he violently attacked Jews as responsible for all financial frauds, a work that marked the beginning of the German anti-Semitic movement.
German writer born in Wiesbaden December 15, 1829, who studied history and philosophy at Berlin University from 1853 to 1856 before directing that same year Westermann's « Illustrirte Deutsche Monatshefte » until 1878, a position he resumed in 1883. He made his literary debut with two plays, « Kriemhilden's Rache » (Hamburg, 1853) and « Penelope » (1854), then published numerous novels and stories, including « Bianca Candiano » (1859) and « Savonarola » (1883), before a selection of his works appeared in Leipzig in twelve volumes (1889-92).
Austrian traveler and Arabist born on March 15, 1855 in Deutsch-Rust, in Bohemia, trained in mathematics and geodesy in Prague as well as in Arabic as an autodidact. After a first trip to Vienna in 1877 then to Tunisia, Libya and Egypt between 1880 and 1882, he explores South Arabia in 1883, returns there in 1885-86 and 1887-88, reaching Marib, ancient Saba, then a fourth time in 1892, bringing back more than a thousand Himyarite and Sabaean inscriptions on his first trips, then approximately eight hundred more on a fourth expedition; the University of Greifswald bestows upon him an honorary doctorate in 1890.
Austrian jurist and statesman born in Pöstelberg, Bohemia, on March 19, 1831, died in Vienna on December 26, 1886. Trained in Zurich (1849) and in Vienna (1854), he became professor of law there in 1860 before entering in 1871 the Auersperg cabinet as minister of Justice; resigning in 1879, he was appointed attorney general to the Court of Cassation in Vienna, a position he held until his death, while sitting in the Chamber of Deputies from 1871 to 1879. Converted to Christianity, he was a recognized authority on Austrian law, author notably of a "Handbuch des Strafprozesses" (1883–1885).
Austrian writer born in Rackschitz, Moravia, on July 7, 1864, who began in literature at sixteen and taught at the School of Dramatic Art of Vienna. Editor of the « Fünfkirchner Zeitung » from 1882 to 1885 then of Budapest newspapers from 1884 to 1886, he publishes in 1886 an illustrated biographical edition of the works of painter Michael von Zichy and a biography of Munkácsy, before devoting himself to serial fiction and theater with works such as « Weihnachts-Zauber » (1888) and « Franz Joseph I. und Seine Zeit » (1898-99).
Physician born in Brakel, Westphalia, on June 18, 1812, died December 22, 1898 in Nice. Doctor of medicine from the University of Berlin (1835), he was the first to describe influenza in an essay rewarded by his faculty (Minden, 1837), then advanced his studies in Paris in 1836 before being appointed in 1838, on the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt and Arago, professor of physiology at the University of Brussels, a position he held until 1873 while long serving as physician to the King of the Belgians; naturalized Belgian in 1846, he was among the first to examine diseased tissues microscopically and discovered a parasite of the stickleback, Glugea microspora.
Dutch jurist and Minister of Justice born in Amsterdam on January 13, 1814, died in Würzburg on June 27, 1882. Judge at the provincial court of North Holland and, from 1848, member of the Second Chamber of the States General of the Netherlands until 1881, he prepared in 1860 a new code of judicial procedure and became, the same year, the first Jewish minister of the Netherlands by accepting the portfolio of Justice. President of the Israelite consistory, he gave speeches in the chamber in 1872 and 1876 to make the commercial treaty with Romania subordinate to the equality of Jews before the law.
Russian pianist and composer born in Wilna on 13 February 1870, child prodigy who toured Russia and Germany from the age of nine. He enters in 1882 the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, then tours the United States and studies in Paris until 1890, performing successfully in England from 1887 and returning to the United States in 1891, where he plays with the Thomas and New York Philharmonic orchestras as well as with the Kneisel quartet. He composed more than one hundred pieces.
German writer and journalist born in Kempen, Posnania, on January 6, 1843. After studying law in Breslau, he became editor of the "Posener Zeitung" then, in Vienna, one of the editors of the "Neue Freie Presse" since 1872. He is the author of "Entlegene Kulturen" (1877) and "Literarische Physiognomien" (1884), the first devoted notably to the history and literature of the Jews.
German opera singer born in Brunswick on June 8, 1847, trained at the Leipzig Conservatory (1865-69). After his debut at the Munich court theater, he performed between 1869 and 1883 in Mainz, Bremen, Neustrelitz, Strasbourg, Augsburg and Königsberg, where he directed the municipal theater for three years, before becoming in 1883 director of the Leipzig opera; the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha conferred upon him the title of court singer.
Sigismund Goldberger is an Austrian jurist born in Jägerndorf, in Austrian Silesia, on June 15, 1854. Trained at the gymnasium of Troppau then at the University of Vienna, he began practicing law in Vienna in 1887 and published several works on Austrian tax legislation and patent law, published between 1883 and 1899.
Jacob Semenovich Goldblatt is a Russian painter born in Suwalki in 1860. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg from 1878 to 1888, he won several prizes there, including the grand gold medal for The Last Moments of Socrates, and graduated as a first-class history painter. In 1902, he directed a private school of painting and sculpture in Saint Petersburg.
John Goldenberg is a Russian merchant born on the borders of Russia and Romania, died in 1895. He followed the army in Crimea as a canteen keeper before making a fortune in Burma, where he supervised important forestry operations on behalf of the king. Subsequently established for some time in Vienna and Wiesbaden, he bequeathed by will, drafted in England, the bulk of his fortune of 160,000 pounds to six charitable works and hospitals in London.
Samuel Löb Goldenberg is an Austrian Hebraist born in Bolechow, Galicia, in 1807, and died in Tarnopol on January 11, 1846. He founded and directed the Hebrew journal Kerem Ḥemed, whose first volume appeared in Vienna in 1833 with the participation of scholars such as Rapoport, Krochmal or Zunz. By his classical Hebrew and critical spirit, the journal marked a new stage in Hebrew literature and dealt a blow to the spread of Hasidism in Galicia.
Jacob Goldenthal is an Austrian orientalist born in Brody, Galicia, on April 16, 1815, and died in Vienna on December 28, 1868, educated at the University of Leipzig. Director of the Jewish school of Kichinev from 1843, he became in 1849 professor of rabbinics and oriental languages at the University of Vienna, a position he held until his death, while being elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Vienna. He edited several medieval Hebrew manuscripts, including translations of Averroes and Al-Ghazali, and published in 1854 a catalog of Hebrew manuscripts in the Imperial Library of Vienna.
Abraham Goldfaden is a Yiddish and Hebrew poet, considered the founder of modern Yiddish theater; born in Starokonstantinov, in Russia, on 12 July 1840, he graduated from the rabbinical school of Jitomir in 1866. After teaching several years in government schools, he goes to Jassy, in Romania, in 1876, his first play, performed on the very first organized Yiddish stage. He then founded a troupe that toured in Russia until the prohibition of Yiddish theaters in 1883, before settling in New York in 1887 and then splitting his life between Paris and New York. His dramas Shulamit and Bar Kochba remain his most popular works.
Henry Mayer Goldfogle is an American lawyer and politician born in New York on May 23, 1856, admitted to the bar in 1877. Judge of the Municipal Court of New York from 1888, he resigned in 1900 to resume his law practice, before being elected representative of the ninth district of New York to Congress in 1901, then reelected in 1903. In 1902, he intervened in Congress to obtain the lifting of restrictions imposed on American Jewish citizens traveling in Russia.
Bernard Goldman is an Austrian politician born in Warsaw on February 20, 1842 and died in Lemberg on March 23, 1901, son of a Hebrew printer. Arrested in a synagogue during the Polish uprising of 1863 and sentenced to deportation to Siberia, he escaped and settled in Lemberg in 1870. Elected deputy of Lemberg to the Landtag of Galicia in 1876, he devoted himself there to the welfare of the Galician Jewish community and received in 1894 the decoration of the order of Francis Joseph.
Edwin Ellen Goldmann is a German physician born in Burghersdorp, in the Cape Colony, on November 12, 1862, graduated in medicine in 1888 after studies in Breslau, Freiburg im Breisgau and London. He worked as an assistant at the university surgical hospital of Freiburg until 1898, becoming privatdocent in 1891 then assistant professor in 1895, before taking the medical direction of the hospital of the Evangelical Sisters of Freiburg.
Karl Goldmark is a Hungarian violinist and composer born in Keszthely on May 18, 1830, son of a synagogue cantor. Trained at the Vienna Conservatory and violinist at the Josefstädter Theater from 1850, he devoted himself to composition from 1852. His overture Sakuntala (1864) brought him initial recognition, but it is his opera The Queen of Sheba, premiered at the Vienna Opera House on March 10, 1875 and acclaimed in the great halls of Europe and America, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York on December 2, 1885, that durably established his reputation. His second opera, Merlin, premiered in Vienna on November 19, 1886.
Adolph Goldschmidt is a German art historian born in Hamburg on January 15, 1863. After a brief career in business, he devoted himself from 1885 onward to the history of art at the universities of Jena, Kiel and Leipzig, and defended in 1889 a thesis on the painting and sculpture of Lübeck until 1530. Having become a private docent at Berlin University in 1893, he published in 1902 a study on Saxon sculpture in the Romanesque-Gothic transition period and demonstrated, the same year, that the door of the Church of Saint-Ambroise in Milan is a monument of paleo-Christian art.
Henriette Goldschmidt, née Benas, is a German pioneer of women's emancipation, born in Krotoschin, Prussia, on November 23, 1825, and wife of rabbi A. M. Goldschmidt since 1855. Admitted in 1866 to the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein, she founded in Leipzig an association for family and popular education, at the origin of two public kindergartens and a teacher training institute according to the Fröbel method, which trained nearly a thousand young women. She is also, during this same period, the first non-teaching woman invited to speak before the association of teachers in Leipzig.
Hermann Goldschmidt is a German novelist and dramatist born in Frankfurt-am-Main on 18 July 1860. After studying law at Heidelberg, Leipzig and Marburg and then a post as magistrate obtained in 1888, he turns to literature and publishes in 1890 the social novel Ein Weg zum Frieden, followed by several plays performed on German stages, notably in Berlin, Vienna and Munich.
Hermann Goldschmidt is a German painter and astronomer born in Frankfurt am Main on June 17, 1802, and died in Fontainebleau on September 10, 1866. First a history painter established in Paris since 1836, he became passionate about astronomy in 1847 and discovered, with modest telescopes observed from his attic, fourteen small planets in nine years, the first of which, Lutetia, on November 15, 1852. His work earned him the Lalande Prize eight times from the Academy of Sciences, the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1857, and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1861.
Julius Goldschmidt is a German physician born in Mainz on February 12, 1843, doctor of medicine from the University of Giessen in 1866. Established as a practitioner in Madeira, where he founded an international hospital for sailors in Funchal, he specialized in pulmonary diseases and leprosy, and contributed in 1897 to the convening in Berlin of a congress dedicated to this disease. He settled in Paris in 1896, where he still practiced in 1903.
Lazarus Goldschmidt is a German writer born in Plungiany, in Russian Lithuania, on December 17, 1871, trained at the talmudic school of Slobodka near Kovno before entering the University of Berlin in 1890 to study oriental languages, particularly Ethiopian. He notably publishes a Hebrew translation of the Book of Enoch (Berlin, 1892) and a Bibliotheca Aethiopica cataloging Ethiopian printed works (Leipzig, 1893), then undertakes in 1896 an edition of the Babylonian Talmud accompanied by a German translation.
Meïr Aaron Goldschmidt is a Danish writer and political publicist born on October 26, 1819 in Vordingborg and died in Copenhagen on August 15, 1887. Barred from a medical career by Danish religious orthodoxy because of his Judaism, he founded in 1840 in Copenhagen the satirical and republican newspaper Corsaren, which brought him censorship and imprisonment, before devoting himself entirely to literature from 1862, where he established himself as a master of style.
Otto Goldschmidt is a German pianist and composer born in Hamburg on August 21, 1829, trained notably at the Leipzig Conservatory under Mendelssohn and then, in 1848, with Chopin in Paris. Accompanist of the cantatrice Jenny Lind from 1849, he married her in Boston on February 5, 1852. Vice-principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1863, he founded the Bach Choir of London in 1875 and composed notably the oratorio Ruth, performed at the Hereford festival in 1867.
Siegfried Goldschmidt is a German orientalist born in Cassel on October 29, 1844 and died in Strasbourg on January 31, 1884. Doctor of philosophy in 1867, he specialized in the study of Sama-Veda then of prakrit, a medieval language of India. After fighting as a volunteer at the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war, he became assistant professor then, on September 12, 1881, full professor at the university of Strasbourg, where bone tuberculosis carried him off after two and a half years of illness. His major work remains his edition of the prakrit poem attributed to Kâlidâsa, the Sêtubandhu.
Guido Goldschmiedt is an Austrian chemist born in Trieste on October 5, 1850, educated in Vienna and Heidelberg. Assistant then associate professor at the chemistry laboratory of the University of Vienna, he received the Lieben Prize from the Imperial Academy of Sciences on several occasions, before being called in 1892 as professor to the University of Prague, where he demonstrated the chemical constitution of papaverine and became in 1900 dean of the faculty of philosophy.
Milton Goldsmith is an American merchant and writer born in Philadelphia 22 May 1861. After studying three years in Zurich beginning in 1877, he subsequently published the novels Rabbi and Priest in 1891 and A Victim of Conscience in 1903, as well as several comic opera librettos, dramatic pieces, short stories, and poems.
Édouard Goldstein is a Russian musician born in Odessa in 1851 and died in Leipzig on August 8, 1887. An early pianist, he is sent in 1868 to the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studies under Moscheles and Reinecke, then directs the orchestra of the Berner Theater in Odessa from 1874, before settling in Saint Petersburg in 1876. In 1886, Anton Rubinstein, having become director again of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, appoints him music professor and conductor of the Philharmonic Society.
Joseph Goldstein is an Austrian cantor and composer born in Kecskemét, Hungary, on March 27, 1836, and died in Vienna on June 17, 1899. Son of a hazzan of Neutra, he succeeded him at the age of twelve before being appointed in 1857 first cantor of the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna, the largest synagogue in the city, a position he held until his death. He notably published a collection of liturgical songs, Shire Yeshurun, in 1865, and a requiem in 1892.
Michael Youlievitch Goldstein is a Russian chemist born in Odessa in 1853, graduate of the Medico-Surgical Academy of Saint-Petersburg. Doctor of philosophy in 1877, he became assistant in chemistry at the academy of medicine of Saint-Petersburg, obtained his master's degree in chemistry in 1880 then his doctorate in 1890, and taught as privat-docent of theoretical and physical chemistry at the University of Saint-Petersburg from 1891, until in 1901 political reasons forced him to cease his courses.
Theodor Goldstücker is a German Sanskritist born in Königsberg, Prussia, on January 18, 1821, and died in London on March 6, 1872. Doctor of philosophy from the University of Königsberg in 1840, he pursued his Sanskrit studies in Bonn and then Paris, before settling in England in 1850 to assist Professor Wilson in a new edition of his Sanskrit-English dictionary. Professor of Sanskrit at University College London from 1851 until his death, he founded in 1866 the Sanskrit Text Society and published in 1861 a monograph on the grammarian Panini.
Joseph Goldszmidt is a Polish jurist born in Hrubieszów, in the Governorate of Lublin, in 1846, and died in 1896, a graduate of the University of Warsaw. He publishes monographs on famous Polish Jews of the nineteenth century, a commentary on Talmudic law of divorce in 1870, as well as essays on marriage according to law and custom and on the final days of the Jews in Spain, while regularly contributing to the journal Izraelita.
Wilhelm Goldzieher is a Hungarian ophthalmologist born in Köpcsény, near Pressburg, on January 1, 1849, holder of a doctorate in medicine from Vienna on December 25, 1871. Established as an oculist in Budapest in 1874, he became there privatdozent in 1878 and professor in 1895. Author of several monographs, including Die Therapie der Augenkrankheiten (1881) and the first manual of ophthalmology written in Hungarian (1890), he was decorated in 1903 by the Emperor of Austria with the cross of officer of the Order of Francis Joseph.
Ignaz Goldziher is a Hungarian orientalist born in Stuhlweissenburg on June 22, 1850, doctor of philosophy from Leipzig in 1870. Privatdozent at Budapest University in 1872, he undertook in 1873 a study trip to Syria, Palestine and Egypt, where he attended lectures at the al-Azhar mosque in Cairo, and then in 1894 became the first Jew admitted to a chair at that university. He published notably Der Mythos bei den Hebräern (Leipzig, 1876) and received the great gold medal of the Stockholm orientalist congress in 1889.
Count Nicolas Golitsyne is a Russian writer of the second half of the 19th century, known for his Istoria Russkogo Zakonodatelstva o Yevreïakh ("History of Russian Legislation on Jews"), of which only the first volume, covering the period from Alexis Mikhailovich, in 1649, to 1825, was published. The work, with a distinctly antisemitic tendency, attributes interested motives to the Jews of Russia even in their attitude toward the Napoleonic invasion, and the author himself acknowledges that he cannot treat the question with impartiality.
Israel Gollancz is a British scholar born in London in 1864, graduate of Cambridge University in 1887. Elected reader in English at Cambridge in 1896, he became in 1902 the first secretary of the British Academy, whose creation owed much to his initiative, then in 1903 professor of English literature at King's College London and president of the Union of Jewish Literary Societies. He edited several medieval English texts, including The Pearl and the Exeter Book of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.
Hirsch Nissan Golomb is a Russian hebraist and musicographer born in Podzelve, in the government of Wilna, on December 15, 1853, trained at the yeshiva of Wilkomir and in music at Wilna. Proofreader at the Romm printing house in Wilna, he translated there into Yiddish the Hilkot De'ot of the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah in 1876, before publishing a series of pedagogical works on Jewish music, including the collection Ḳol Yehudah (1877) and a manual of singing and violin (1884).
Samuel Gompers is an American labor leader born in London on January 27, 1850, who emigrated to the United States in 1863 after having worked from age ten in factories and then as an apprentice cigarmaker. Founding member of the international cigarmakers' union, he became in 1881 a delegate to the first congress of the American Federation of Labor and in 1882 president of that federation, a position he held almost without interruption — except in 1894, when he was defeated by John McBride — while also sitting in 1901 on the National Civic Federation.
Lewis Gompertz is an English inventor who died on 2 December 1861, brother of mathematician Benjamin Gompertz. Devoting his life to the cause of animal protection, he expounds his ideas in 1824 in Moral Enquiries on the Situation of Men and Brutes, at the origin of the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which he becomes honorary secretary before leaving it in 1832 to found the Animals' Friend Society, which he directs until his withdrawal for health reasons in 1846. As an inventor, he is credited notably with the expandable chuck still used in workshops.
Austrian physician born in Vienna on October 6, 1861, graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1885. Assistant at the university hospital from 1885 to 1900, he subsequently established himself as a specialist in ear and nose diseases in Vienna, and was, from 1897, curator of the Baronin Hirsch Kaiser-Jubiläums-Wohlthätigkeit foundation. Author of numerous essays in medical journals, notably in the « Monatsschrift für Ohrenheilkunde » (1889) and the « Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift » (1896).
Julius, Ritter von Gomperz, is an Austrian merchant and statesman born in Brünn in 1824, brother of Theodor Gomperz. Member of the chamber of commerce of his city from 1859, of which he became president in 1872, he sat in the diet of Moravia from 1861 and then in the lower house in 1871 before entering the upper house the following year, where he is ennobled. Co-owner of a spinning mill in Brünn, he presided for many years over the Jewish community of the city.
Jewish rabbi (1878–1973)
Tobias Goodman is an English preacher and author who died after 1824, one of the first to preach in English in the Jewish community of London, serving as reader at the Denmark Court synagogue. He delivered a sermon there in 1817 on the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales, and another in 1820 on the death of King George III, before preaching regularly at the Rosemary Lane synagogue around 1824. Author of an English translation of Jedaiah Bedersi's Beḥinat ha-'Olam in 1806 and of a discourse delivered in Liverpool in 1819, The Faith of Israel, published in 1834.
Jacob Gordin is a Yiddish dramatist and reformer born on May 1, 1853 in Mirgorod, in the governorate of Poltava. Journalist and Russian-language writer from 1870, he founded in 1879 in Elisavetgrad the rationalist sect of the Bibleitzy, breaking with dogmatic Judaism, before emigrating to New York in 1890, where he became a Yiddish dramatist. Since his first play, Siberia, performed in 1891, he composed about sixty dramas and vaudevilles, of which the Yiddish King Lear and Mirele Efros count among his most significant works.
David ben Dob Baer Gordon is a Russian journalist born in Podmeretz, near Wilna, in 1826, and died in Lyck, Prussia, on May 21, 1886. Trained at the yeshiva of Wilna, he leaves Russia for England around 1850 and becomes in 1856 the assistant editor of the first Hebrew weekly, Ha-Maggid, founded by Eliezer Lipman Silberman, which he installs in Lyck in 1858 and whose direction he assumes upon Silberman's death in 1882. He goes to London in 1884 as a representative of the Zionists for the centenary of Moses Montefiore.
Leon Gordon (Yehouda Leib ben Asher) is a Russian Hebraist writer and poet born in Wilna on December 7, 1831 and died in Saint Petersburg on September 16, 1892. Graduated in 1853 from the rabbinical seminary of Wilna, he taught Hebrew in government schools before being called in 1872 as secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia in Saint Petersburg. Wrongly accused of having participated in the attempt on Alexander II, he was imprisoned on April 4, 1879 then exiled before being acquitted; he then co-edited the journal Ha-Meliz until 1888 and remains the principal Hebrew poet of his time.
Michel Gordon is a poet in the Judeo-German language and Hebraist writer born in Vilna on November 4, 1823 and died in Kiev on December 26, 1890. His first poem appears in 1846 in a collection published in memory of Mordecai Aaron Günzburg; he then becomes tutor with the Brodski in Shpola from 1868 then in Smiela until 1881, publishes in 1869 a history of Russia in Yiddish, and has published in Saint Petersburg in 1881 a Hebrew treatise on the duties of Jewish youth. His popular songs, long published anonymously, are gathered in Warsaw in 1889 under the title Yiddishe Lieder.
Samuel Gordon is an English novelist born in Buk, Germany, on September 10, 1871, who arrived in England with his parents in 1883. Appointed secretary of the Great Synagogue of London in 1894, he published several novels and collections of short stories devoted to Jewish life and character, including Daughters of Shem (1898), Sons of the Covenant (1900) and Strangers at the Gate (1902), as well as two works outside this category, In Years of Tradition (1897) and The New Galatea (1901).
Bernard Gorin, pseudonym of Isaac Goido, is a Yiddish journalist born in Lida, in the government of Wilna, in April 1868, author of two Hebrew short stories published in Warsaw in 1892. Settled in America around 1893, he became a regular contributor to the radical Yiddish press of New York, translated into Yiddish works by Zola, Hawthorne, Maupassant and Prévost, and wrote two dramas, including Baruch Spinoza in 1901.
James Gotendorf, born James Nathan, is a German-American merchant and man of letters born on February 9, 1811 in Eutin, in Holstein, and died in Hamburg on October 5, 1888. Established in New York in 1830 to conduct business, he became close around 1843 with Horace Greeley, on whose advice he changed his name, then with Margaret Fuller, future Countess Ossoli, for whom he inspired a passion. Having left and returned to New York in 1850, he then retired to Hamburg, where fifty of his letters received from Margaret Fuller were later published, in 1903.
American rabbi and historian (1859-1921)
Paul Eduard Gottheil is a German Protestant missionary born in Fraustadt on April 5, 1818 and died in Stuttgart in 1893, brother of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil. Converted to Christianity, he entered in 1848 the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews and served as pastor in Cannstadt and at the Diakonissenhaus in Stuttgart, where he distinguished himself as a missionary to the Jews. He notably published Der Messias, Israels Hoffnung in 1863 and a bilingual Hebrew-German text, Mischan Lechem, in 1871.
William S. Gottheil is an American physician born in Berlin on February 5, 1859, eldest son of rabbi Gustav Gottheil. Graduated from Cornell in 1879 and then doctor of medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1882, he became in 1890 professor of pathology at the New York College of Veterinary Surgeons and then in 1893 professor of dermatology at the New York School of Clinical Medicine. Author of a Manual of General Histology and, in 1897, of an illustrated work on skin diseases, he chaired the Eastern Medical Society in 1896 and the Manhattan Dermatological Society in 1899.
Abraham Gottlieb is a civil engineer and entrepreneur born in Tauss, Bohemia, on June 17, 1837, and died in Chicago on February 9, 1894. Graduate of the University of Prague in 1861, he emigrated to the United States in 1866 and settled in Chicago, where he became in 1868 chief engineer of the American Bridge Works, then in 1877 president of the Keystone Bridge Company in Pittsburgh. Returned to Chicago in 1884, he is appointed in 1890 chief engineer of the construction of the Chicago World's Fair, a position he leaves in 1891.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk is an American pianist born in New Orleans on May 8, 1829 and died in Rio de Janeiro on December 18, 1869. Trained in Paris from his adolescence, he composed there as a child pieces that remained famous such as Le Bananier and La Bamboula, then undertook in 1853 a grand tour across the United States, the Antilles and Spanish America. The first American pianist to achieve international renown, he drew his inspiration from Spanish, Cuban and Black popular music heard in his childhood, and received from Queen Isabella of Spain the order of Charles III.
Adolf Gottstein is a German physician born in Breslau on November 2, 1857, doctor of medicine in 1881. Assistant at Breslau hospital until 1883, he then settles in Berlin, where he practices and devotes himself to bacteriology and epidemiology, notably publishing Epidemiologische Studien über Diphtherie und Scharlach (Berlin, 1895) and Allgemeine Epidemiologie (Leipzig, 1897).
Jacob Gottstein is a German physician born in Lissa, Austria, on November 7, 1832, and died in Breslau on January 10, 1895, doctor of medicine from the university of Breslau in 1856. Specialized in diseases of the throat and ear, he abandoned his general practice in 1864, became privat-docent in 1872 and received the title of professor in 1890. He is the author of Die Krankheiten des Kehlkopfes und der Luftröhre, published in 1884 and reprinted until 1893.
Joël Emmanuel Goudsmit is a Dutch jurist born in Leiden on June 13, 1813 and died in that city on March 17, 1882, graduated in law in 1842. Appointed professor of Roman law at the University of Leiden in 1858, he publishes his reference work, the Pandect System, the first volume of which appeared in 1866 and the second in 1880, left unfinished. Active in Jewish affairs, he addressed in 1863 an open letter on the Jewish question.
English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion
Leo Graetz is a German physicist, son of the historian Heinrich Graetz, born in Breslau on September 26, 1856. Doctor of philosophy from the University of Breslau in 1879, he became privat-docent of physics in Munich in 1882 and professor in 1893. Author of numerous works on electricity and heat, he developed a method still in use to convert alternating current to direct current and published notably Die Elektricität und Ihre Anwendung (Stuttgart, 1883) and Das Licht und die Farben (Leipzig, 1900).
Jonas Grätzer is a German physician born in Tost, in Upper Silesia, on October 19, 1806, and died in Breslau on November 25, 1889, doctor of medicine from the University of Breslau in 1832. He then established himself as a practitioner in Breslau, where he practiced until his death, and published numerous works on the history of medicine and assistance to poor patients, several devoted to the history of Silesian demographic and medical statistics, between 1837 and 1889.
Born into an Italian-speaking Jewish family in Gorizia (then Austria-Hungary), self-taught, he published « Studii orientali e linguistici » from 1854 onwards. Appointed in 1860 professor at the Scientific and Literary Academy of Milan, he introduced comparative philology to Italy, coined the term « glottologia » and founded in 1873 the « Archivio glottologico italiano », which he directed until vol. XV. Pioneer of dialectology (substrate theory, Ladin languages).
Augusto Graziani is an Italian economist born in Modena on January 6, 1865, doctor of law in 1886. Privatdozent and then assistant professor of political economy at his native university, he became professor of financial sciences at the University of Siena in 1894 and then professor of political economy at the University of Naples in 1899, a position he still holds. Corresponding member of the Accademia dei Lincei, he publishes numerous essays on economics and public finances between 1887 and 1904.
Aaron Levy Green is an English rabbi born in London in August 1821 and died on 11 March 1883. Reader at the Great Synagogue from fourteen years old, then minister of worship in Bristol at seventeen, he publishes in 1850 a pamphlet against the Reverend Croly, opposing the admission of Jews to Parliament, before being elected in 1851 second reader of the Great Synagogue of London, then in 1855 first reader and preacher of the affiliated synagogue on Old Portland Street. Honorary secretary of Jews' College from 1852, he distinguished himself in 1881 among the first to alert public opinion to Russian persecutions.
Samuel Greenbaum is an American lawyer and magistrate born in London on January 23, 1854, who emigrated to the United States in childhood. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1872, studied law at Columbia Law School until 1875 before practicing alone until 1894, then in association with Daniel P. Hays, and resuming independent practice in May 1901. He was elected judge to the Supreme Court of the State of New York on January 1, 1902.
Joseph B. Greenhut is an American soldier born in Germany, enlisted as a private soldier in the 12th Infantry Regiment of Illinois in Chicago in April 1861. He serves in the campaigns of Kentucky and Tennessee under the orders of Grant, is seriously wounded in the right arm at Fort Donelson, then appointed captain in August 1862 and fights in Virginia, notably at Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain, as adjutant-general of the staff of Hecker. He resigns on February 24, 1864 to devote himself to commerce, and becomes one of the three commissioners of Illinois in charge of monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield.
Austrian soprano
German translator
Soviet mathematician of Jewish origin, one of the founders of the Leningrad school of real analysis. Author of a three-volume course in differential and integral calculus, which remained a classic textbook.
Abraham Avenirovich Griliches is a Russian engraver born in Wilna in 1852, graduate of the Wilna School of Drawing in 1869 and then of the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg in 1876, the year he was appointed engraver of the Imperial Mint. A renowned medallist, he notably engraved the medals commemorating the Borki railway disaster of 17 October 1888, and executed in onyx the portraits of several members of the Russian imperial family. Awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900, he held in 1903 the position of chief engraver of the Imperial Mint.
Avenir Girschevich Griliches is a Russian engraver born in Wilna in April 1822, father of Abraham Avenirovich Griliches. Self-taught in engraving after Talmudic studies in his youth, he was engaged in 1871 as an engraver at the Imperial Mint of St. Petersburg, where a portrait of Levensohn engraved on rock crystal earned him admission to the Academy of Fine Arts. Considered one of the best engravers in Russia, he notably created the state seals of emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II, and was decorated with the order of Saint-Stanislas.
Charles Gross is an American historian born in Troy, in the State of New York, on February 10, 1857, trained at Williams College then at the universities of Paris, Berlin and Göttingen, where he obtained his doctorate. Professor of History at Harvard since 1888, he publishes notably Gild Merchant (1890), Bibliography of British Municipal History (1897) and Sources and Literature of English History (1900), and gave in 1887 at the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition a lecture on the Exchequer of the Jews in England in the Middle Ages. He also translates into English Kayserling's Christopher Columbus (New York, 1893) and is vice-president of the American Jewish Historical Society.
Ferdinand Gross is an Austrian writer born in Vienna on April 8, 1849, and died in Kaltenleutgeben, near Vienna, on December 21, 1900. Entering the Extrablatt editorial staff in 1872, he won the first prize from the Berliner Literarisches Centralbureau in 1877 for a feuilleton, directed the feuilleton section of the Frankfurter Zeitung from 1879 onward, then returned to Vienna in 1881 to join the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung. He presided from 1898 to 1900 over the Concordia, association of Viennese journalists, while publishing numerous collections of short stories, comedies, and poems.
Jenny Gross is an Austrian actress born in Szántó, Hungary, trained by Cesarina Kupfer. She made her debut in 1878 at the Carltheater in Vienna, performed in 1880 at the Stadttheater then in 1885 at the court theater in Berlin, before joining in 1889 the Lessingtheater, where she was still engaged in 1903, notably playing Madame Sans-Gêne and several roles from the Shakespearean repertoire.
Julius Grosser is a German physician born in Freistadt, in Prussian Upper Silesia, on October 25, 1835, and died in Prenzlau, to the day, on October 25, 1901. Doctor of Medicine from the University of Berlin in 1859, he opened a practice in Prenzlau in 1861, served as a surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War, where he was decorated with the Iron Cross, and founded in 1880 the Deutsche Medizinal-Zeitung, which he directed until his death.
Rudolph Grossman is an American rabbi born in Vienna on July 24, 1867, educated at the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College. Assistant rabbi of Temple Beth-El in New York from 1889 to 1896, he has led Temple Rodef Sholom in the same city since that year. Corresponding secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1902, he was also grand chaplain of the grand lodge of freemasonry of New York between 1898 and 1900.
Ignácz Grossmann is a Hungarian physicist born at Gönc-Ruszka, in Abaúj county, on February 16, 1823, and died in Budapest on May 21, 1866. Trained in mathematics and pedagogy at the University of Prague, he teaches at Győrsziget between 1847 and 1851, then becomes in 1854 director of the girls' school of the Israeli community of Pest and, in 1857, professor at the school of commerce, before being appointed in 1862 engineer of the Pest-Losonc-Zólyom railway. Inventor of the mercury pneumatic pump, he publishes in 1857 in Leipzig a work on the geometric analysis of crystallography.
Ignaz Grossmann was an American rabbi born in Trencsén, Hungary, on July 30, 1825, and died on March 18, 1897 in New York, trained at the yeshiva of Presbourg. Rabbi in Koritschan, Moravia, from 1863, then in Varaždin, Croatia, from 1866, he was called in 1873 to Brooklyn, where he served at the Beth Elohim congregation and then at B'nai Abraham. He published notably Die Sprache der Wahrheit (1870) and, in 1892 in Cincinnati, a presentation of biblical commandments with their foundations and moral teachings.
Louis Grossmann is an American rabbi and author born in Vienna on 24 February 1863, trained at the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College, from a family of rabbis. Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Detroit from 1884 to 1898, he then succeeds Isaac M. Wise as head of the B'nai Yeshurun congregation in Cincinnati and as professor of theology at Hebrew Union College. He publishes notably Judaism and the Science of Religion (1889), Maimonides (1890) and a biography of Isaac M. Wise (1900).
Ludwig Grossmann is an Austrian mathematician and economist born in Leitomischl, in Bohemia, on March 14, 1854, doctor of philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1878, the year he founded and directed the Mathematisch-Physikalische Zeitschrift in Vienna. Discoverer of an analytical curve of the probable duration of human life, he also devoted himself to writing and distinguished himself as a declared opponent of antisemitism; resident in Vienna in 1903, he there directed the journal of political economy Controlle and published several works between 1886 and 1903.
American comedian, member of the Marx Brothers (1890–1977)
Judah Löb Grozovski, son of Isaiah Reuben, is a Russian Hebraist born in Pogosti, in the governorate of Minsk, in 1861, trained at the yeshiva of Volozhin then at the Institute of Hebrew Teachers of Wilna. Left to teach Hebrew in Palestine, he received in 1896 a position at the agricultural school of Jaffa before joining the colony of Mikvé Israël. He publishes a series of school textbooks, including Bet ha-Sefer li-Bene Yisrael (Jerusalem, 1891), a Hebrew course in three levels titled Bet Sefer 'Ibri, and a Hebrew-Russian-German dictionary, Millon (Warsaw, 1900).
Joseph Gruber is an Austrian physician born in Kosolup, Bohemia, on August 4, 1827, and died in Vienna on March 31, 1900, doctor of medicine from Vienna University in 1855. Established in Vienna in 1860 as a specialist in ear diseases, he became private-docent in 1863, assistant professor in 1870, then chief surgeon of the new university clinic of otorhinolaryngology in 1873 and full professor in 1893, a position he left in 1898. Author of nearly two hundred essays and works, including his Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde (1870, 2nd ed. 1888), he co-edited for many years the Monatsschrift für Ohrenheilkunde.
David Gruby is a French physician born in Neusatz (Ujvidék), Hungary, on October 10, 1810, and died in Paris on November 16, 1898. Diploma in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1834, he settles in London then, in 1839, in Paris, where he practices in private practice and distinguishes himself as a pioneer of microscopic research, giving widely attended public lectures on microscopy and experimental pathology. A reputed practitioner, he was the physician of Alexandre Dumas fils and Heinrich Heine.
Maurice Grün is a Russian painter born in Reval in 1870. Trained in Munich and Geneva, he went to Paris in 1890, where he became the student of Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant, before directing the School of Fine Arts in Bahia, Brazil. Returned to Europe in 1896, he resettled in Paris then established himself in London in 1898, where he has resided since, becoming notably known as a portraitist.
Alfred Grünfeld is an Austrian pianist born in Prague on 4 July 1852, trained in Prague and then at the Academy of Music in Berlin under Kullak. Established in Vienna in 1873, where he received the title of Kammervirtuose, he made numerous tours in Europe and the United States, was appointed pianist to the court of Emperor William I, and has taught since 1897 at the Vienna Conservatory.
Heinrich Grünfeld is an Austrian cellist born in Prague on 21 April 1855, brother of Alfred Grünfeld. Trained at the Prague Conservatory, he settled in Berlin in 1876, where he taught for several years at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst, and became known for organizing, with Xaver Scharwenka and Gustav Holländer notably, highly popular chamber music evenings. He was appointed cellist to the court of the King of Prussia.
Josef Grünfeld is an Austrian physician and author born in Gyönk, in Hungary, on November 19, 1840. Educated at the universities of Budapest from 1861 onward then Vienna, where he obtains his doctorate in medicine in 1867, he becomes privatdozent in Vienna in 1881 and head of division at the Vienna Poliklinik in 1885. First to use the endoscope, he publishes a Compendium der Augenheilkunde reprinted four times, and presides for more than eight years, which he helped to found, the Oesterreichisch-Israelitische Union.
Karl Samuel Grünhut is an Austrian jurist born in Saint George in Bur, Hungary, on August 3, 1844. Associate professor at the law faculty of the University of Vienna in 1872, he founded in 1873 a journal of private and public law and became in 1874 professor of commercial law, devoting himself especially to literature on bills of exchange, of which he published a treatise in two volumes in Leipzig in 1897. Lifetime member of the Austrian House of Lords since 1897, he was decorated with the star of the Order of Francis Joseph in 1902.
Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz, born Zerkowitz, is an Austrian woman of letters born in Tobitschau, Moravia, on February 17, 1852, educated by her physician father. Scholar of King Louis II of Bavaria at his theatrical school in Munich in 1874, she published the same year in Vienna her Zwanzig Gedichte von Kálmán Tóth, translated from Hungarian, before remarrying in 1877 to a Viennese merchant named Grünwald. She directed for some time the magazine La Mode in Vienna and published numerous novels and collections, including Die Lieder der Mormonin (1886) and Das Gretchen von Heute (1890), as well as songs against antisemitism.
Enrico Guastalla was an Italian soldier born in Guastalla in 1828 and died in Milan on September 28, 1903. Enlisted as a volunteer in 1848, he participated in the defense of Rome, then joined Mazzinian circles in London before returning in 1859 to rally Garibaldi at Como. Wounded in the leg at Volturno on October 1, 1860, captured at Aspromonte with Garibaldi's entire staff, he resumed fighting in 1866 at Como, Brescia, Lonato, Salò and Desenzano, retired from the army with the rank of commandant, and served in the Italian Parliament for Varese.
Karl Eduard Gueterbock is a German jurist born in Königsberg, in East Prussia, on April 18, 1830. Graduated in 1851 after studies in history then law in Königsberg, Bonn, Munich and Berlin, he was admitted to the bar in 1859, became a judge in his native city then privat-docent of Prussian law in 1861, before being elected assistant professor then, in 1868, full professor, the year he resigned from his position as judge. Converted to Christianity, he published notably a study on Henricus de Bracton and Roman law (1862, translated into English in 1866) and Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Carolina (Wurtzbourg, 1876).
Meyer Guggenheim is an American merchant and mining magnate born in Langenau, Switzerland, in 1828, who emigrated with his father to Philadelphia in 1847, where he began as a peddler before building, through the importation of Swiss embroideries and then mining and smelting operations, one of the world's largest metal processing enterprises. He transferred his business to New York in 1881 under the name of M. Guggenheim's Sons and built a smelter in Pueblo, Colorado in 1888, before his group entered in 1900 into the formation of the American Smelting and Refining Company.
Randolph Guggenheimer is an American lawyer born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on 20 July 1846. Established in New York in 1865, graduate of the law faculty of New York University in 1869, he specializes in corporate and real estate law, partners in 1882 with Isaac and Samuel Untermyer, then, with the arrival of Louis Marshall in 1893, directs the Guggenheimer, Untermyer & Marshall firm. Commissioner of municipal schools from 1887, he created there the New York evening secondary school system, before being elected in 1897 president of the municipal council of Greater New York, a position in which he served as interim mayor.
Gottschalk Eduard Guhrauer is a German philologist and writer born in Bojanowo, in Prussian Poland, in 1809, and died in Breslau on January 5, 1854. Trained in philology and philosophy in Breslau and Berlin, he taught at the Kölln gymnasium in Berlin from 1837, before becoming librarian of the University of Breslau and then, in 1842, privat-docent and, in 1843, professor, a position he held until his death. Author of a biography of Leibniz (Breslau, 1842) and a work on Joachim Jungius (Stuttgart, 1850), he edited the correspondence of Goethe with Knebel (Leipzig, 1851) and completed, in 1853, the biography of Lessing.
Italian Sephardic Jewish writer and lawyer, born in Ancona, the principal source and chronicler of Judeo-Livornese (Bagitto) literature and folklore, documenting the daily life of the Jews of Livorno and active in Zionism and Hebrew cultural revival.
Born in Venice in a Jewish family (his father was a mathematics professor). Professor at the Politecnico and then at the University of Turin for decades. Known for Fubini's theorem (multiple integrals) and the Fubini-Study metric. Fleeing Fascist racial laws in 1938, he went to Princeton and died in New York in 1943.
Author of the Storia della tipografia ebraica in Livorno (with introduction and catalogue of works and authors), published in Il Vessillo Israelitico (1911-1912) and released in Turin in 1912. This work remains a reference on the Hebrew printing of Livorno, a major center of Hebrew books distributed to the East.
German politician
Ludwig Gumplowicz was a Christian historian and jurist born in Kraków on March 9, 1838, trained at the universities of Kraków and Vienna, where he initially practiced law. Appointed docent in 1876, assistant professor in 1882, then professor in 1893 at the University of Graz, he notably published a work on Polish legislation regarding Jews, in which he distinguishes three periods of Polish history according to the changing balance among the crown, the nobility, and the clergy.
Isidor Gunsberg is a merchant and English chess master born in Budapest on 2 November 1854, settled in England from childhood, where he represents the country in numerous tournaments. In 1885, he wins first prize in the Hamburg masters tournament, defeating Blackburne and Tarrasch, then wins successive successes: first prize of the British Chess Association in 1885, shared with Burn in 1887, and won outright in Bradford and London in 1888. Editor of the chess column of the London Daily News, where he still resides in 1903.
David Günzburg, baron, is a Russian orientalist and community leader born in Kamenetz-Podolsk July 5, 1857, trained notably by Adolph Neubauer and Senior Sachs, then in Paris and Saint Petersburg, before studying Arabic poetry in Greifswald from 1879. He edits the Tarshish of Moïse ibn Ezra and publishes works on Arabic metrics in the memoirs of the Russian Archaeological Society in 1893 and of the Neo-Philological Society in 1892. A passionate patron of Jewish art, he publishes with Stassov Hebrew Ornament (Berlin, 1903) and owns one of Europe's largest private libraries.
Horace Günzburg, baron, is a Russian philanthropist born on February 8, 1833 in Zvenigorodka, in the government of Kiev. Founder in 1863 of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia, he became its president in 1878 upon the death of his father Joseph Günzburg, and devoted his fortune and energy to improving the legal, economic and moral status of his coreligionists, multiplying approaches to the Russian government. Expert consulted in 1870 by the commission on the Jewish question, president of the Jewish congress of Saint Petersburg in 1882, he has presided since 1893 over the central committee of the Jewish Agricultural Society and received the title of baron in 1871.
Ilya Yakovlevitch Günzburg, son of Meyer Jacob, is a Russian sculptor born in Grodno in May 1859. Spotted in 1870 by sculptor Antokolski, who took him to Saint Petersburg, he studied under him then under Ryepine and Semiradski, before graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg in 1886, where he won the small gold medal. Awarded at the Paris Exposition in 1889, he exhibited twelve works at the Paris Exposition of 1900, where he received a gold medal, and created numerous busts and portraits of Russian personalities, including Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky.
Joseph Yozel ben Gabriel Jacob Günzburg is a Russian financier and philanthropist born in 1812 and died in Paris on January 12, 1878. Enriched during the Crimean War, he founds a bank in Saint Petersburg and devotes himself to the welfare of the Jewish community, sitting in November 1861 on the rabbinical commission instituted by the Russian government, then founding in 1863 the Society for the Promotion of Culture Among Jews, which he presides over until his death. Ennobled by the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1870, he is created Baron in 1874, the same year in which the military service of Russian Jews is aligned with that of other faiths.
American rabbi
German archaeologist
Born in Pest in 1851 into a Jewish family of Budapest (parents Moritz Kadelburg and Johanna née Hasenfeld). First an actor, he abandoned the stage in 1894 to write; he became one of the most prolific and performed German-language playwrights at the turn of the twentieth century. Died in Berlin in 1925. His brother Heinrich (1856–1910) was also an actor.
editor and art collector
Chief rabbi of Prague
scientifique, historien, enseignant et patriote italien
Ludwig Güterbock is a German physician born in Berlin on October 23, 1814, doctor of medicine from Berlin University in 1837, and died in his native city on February 28, 1895, where he practices until his death. Contributor to several medical journals, he notably publishes, in Berlin, Schönlein's Klinische Vorträge in dem Charité-Krankenhause zu Berlin (Berlin, 1840, 3rd ed. 1844) and Dr. Schönlein als Arzt und Klinischer Lehrer (1842).
Paul Güterbock is a German surgeon born in Berlin on 2 June 1844 and died in that city on 17 October 1897, doctor of medicine from the universities of Würzburg and Berlin in 1865. He practised in Berlin from 1866, became privatdozent of surgery in 1873, assessor of the health council of Brandenburg in 1884, professor in 1894 then secret medical counsel in 1896, specializing in surgical diseases of the male genital organs. He published notably Die Neueren Methoden der Wundbehandlung (Berlin, 1876) and Die Englischen Krankenhäuser (1881).
David von Gutmann is a merchant and Austrian philanthropist born in Leipnik, Moravia, on December 24, 1834, brother of Wilhelm von Gutmann. President of the Israelitische Allianz of Vienna, he worked to aid his coreligionists persecuted in Russia in 1882, in Romania in 1900, then after the pogroms of Kichinev in 1903, and presided over the hospice for poor Jews as well as the Baron de Hirsch school funds for Galicia. He was made a knight of the order of the Iron Crown and ennobled in perpetuity in 1879.
Moïse Gutmann is a Bavarian rabbi born in Baiersdorf in 1805 and died in Redwitz on February 1, 1862, son of Yom-Tob Gutmann. Educated at the university of Erlangen, he is elected rabbi of the district of Redwitz, a post he holds for thirty-five years, and distinguishes himself as the first rabbi of Bavaria to unite academic training and solid talmudic learning in service of the cause of Reform, as evidenced by his contributions to Geiger's Zeitschrift für Jüdische Theologie. He publishes an annotated translation of the Apocrypha (Altona, 1841).
Wilhelm von Gutmann is an Austrian merchant and philanthropist born in Leipnik, Moravia, on 18 August 1825, and died in Vienna on 17 May 1895. After an initial commercial failure, he turned his attention to the coal deposits of Silesia and founded in 1853 with his brother David the house Gutmann Bros., which supplied coal to the large factories and railways of the empire; he leased mines to the Rothschilds in 1865 and built with Kuffner, in 1871, Austria's first sugar refinery. A generous philanthropist, he financed orphanages and hospitals in Vienna and Krems, and chaired from 1890 the Jewish community of Vienna.
Paul Guttmann was a German physician and medical author born in Ratibor, Upper Prussian Silesia, on September 9, 1833, and died in Berlin on May 24, 1893, doctorate in medicine in 1858. A practitioner in Berlin, privat-docent in 1867, then chief physician of the Moabit municipal hospital in 1879, he published with Albert Eulenburg Die Physiologie und Pathologie des Sympaticus (Berlin, 1873; crowned with the Astley-Cooper prize in London in 1879) and a manual of clinical examination methods (Berlin, 1884), and directed from 1885 to 1893 the Journal für Practische Aerzte.
Samuel Guttmann is a German gynecologist and medical author born in Ostrowo, Prussia, in 1839, and died in Berlin on December 22, 1893, doctorate in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1864. First settled in Drebkau in 1866 then in Berlin, where he specialized in gynecology, he collaborated with several medical journals and succeeded in 1885, upon the death of Paul Albrecht Boerner, to the editorship of the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift, while directing the Reichsmedizinal-Kalender.
Hermann Gutzmann is a German physician born in Bütow, Pomerania, on January 29, 1865, doctor of medicine from the University of Berlin in 1887. Specialist in speech disorders from 1889, he published notably Verhütung und Bekämpfung des Stotterns in der Schule (1889), Vorlesungen über die Störungen der Sprache (1893) and, with Th. S. Flatau, Die Bauchrednerkunst (1894), and Ueber das Stottern (1897), and has directed since 1891 the Monatsschrift für die Gesammte Sprachheilkunde.
Michael Joseph Guzikov is a Russian musician born in Shklov in 1806 and died in Brussels on October 21, 1837, from a family of talented musicians. A precocious virtuoso on several instruments, he performs on tour throughout Russia, plays before the emperor Nicholas and the empress in 1828, then, encouraged by Lamartine met in Odessa, departs for Europe: Vienna, where he is distinguished by the emperor and Prince Metternich, then Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Paris and finally Brussels, where he dies of nervous exhaustion. He is the inventor of the straw violin, on which he played with such skill that he aroused enthusiasm everywhere.
Hungarian rabbi (1850 - 1895)
Hungarian rabbi, scholar of religions
Born Leyvik Halpern near Ihumen (Igumen), he adopted the pen name "Leivick" (derived from his first name Leyvi) to avoid confusion with the poet Moyshe-Leyb Halpern. Bund activist, sentenced to hard labor and exile in Siberia, he escaped and emigrated to the United States in 1913. He became one of the greatest Yiddish poets, famous for his dramatic poem Der Goylem (The Golem, 1921).
Robert Haas is a German Lutheran pastor active in the first half of the nineteenth century in the duchy of Nassau, friend of Abraham Geiger and defender of the civil equality of Jews. He approves the rabbinical convention held in Wiesbaden in 1837 and addresses the same year a circular letter to « all Christians of Germany » to call for the creation of a faculty of Jewish science and a rabbinical seminary in a German university. He publishes the same year in Frankfurt Das Staatsbürgertum der Juden vom Standpunkt der Inneren Politik.
Solomon ben Jekuthiel Haas is a Moravian rabbi of the first half of the 19th century, successively dayyan in Holleschau then rabbi of Strassnitz, in Moravia. He is the author of Kerem Shelomoh, novellae on the four parts of the Shulḥan 'Arukh, published in Pressburg from 1840 onwards.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Yosef. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 32-4.
Auguste Hadamard is a French painter born in Metz in 1823 and died in Paris in 1886, a student of Paul Delaroche, settled in Paris where he paints and illustrates for the press. Among his most notable works are The Jewish Passover, The Education of Azor, and The Fairy of the Gulls.
Zélie Hadamard is a French actress born in Oran, in Algeria, in 1849, daughter of a military interpreter and professor of Arabic. Trained at the Conservatory of Paris, she made her debut at the Odéon, where she performed many roles of classical tragedy after engagements in Brussels and Rouen, before entering the Comédie-Française on September 13, 1887 in Andromaque, where she was still engaged in 1903.
Born in Alibag on the Konkan coast, civil servant in Bombay. He founded in 1853 the Bombay Bene Israel Benevolent Society and, in 1875 with his brothers, a school teaching Marathi and Hebrew. He left at his death a manuscript, The History of the Bene-Israel of India (written in 1897), the first history of the community written by one of its own, published in Tel-Aviv in 1937 at the initiative of Immanuel Olsvanger.
Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine is a bacteriologist born in Odessa in 1860, doctor of science from Odessa University in 1884. After research work in Odessa then in Geneva, where he teaches physiology under the direction of Professor Schiff, he joined Paris to work with Pasteur, where he devised a method of vaccination by attenuated virus against cholera. Sent to India by the British government in 1893, he extended his research to Bengal, Punjab and Assam, then discovered in 1896 an effective method of vaccination against plague, which considerably reduced mortality and earned him the title of Companion of the order of the Indian Empire.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5596 of the Hebrew era (1836). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 39-1.
Sephardic rabbi (d. 1931)
Tunisian rabbi
Described as the most celebrated rabbi of Algeria in the modern era, Chief Rabbi of Tlemcen (appointed in 1869). He enacted in 1874 a takana concerning civil marriages and defended the memory of Rabbi Yaacob Akrich in a pamphlet « Kebod Yaacob ». A decisionist, he left a collection of responsa and reissued a classical work by Rabbi Ephraïm Enkaoua.
Rabbi, 19th century. Born in 5596 of the Hebrew era (1836). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 38-4.
Tunisian rabbi
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Died in 5635 of the Hebrew era (1875). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 38-4.
Sage and teacher of Meknès, master of many dayanim; author of Nichmat Haïm.
Rabbi and teacher in Algiers at the beginning of the nineteenth century, cited in the family notice Albo/Albou by Joseph Toledano.
Member of the Picciotto family of Alep, active in the English Jewish community; biographical notice in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
Born in Manisa, trained at the yeshiva in Tiberias, then at the rabbinical seminary in Paris and the École des langues orientales at the Sorbonne. He succeeded Moses Halevi as Hakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire in 1909. Member of the Ottoman/Turkish delegation to post-war negotiations (Treaty of Lausanne), he received the title of effendi. Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Egypt from 1925 until his death in 1960; he became blind in his later years. Member of the Royal Academy of Arabic Language of Cairo.
Polish rabbi and historian (1820–1892)
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-4.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Zaadlo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-1.
Born in Obodivka (Podolia) in 1895, immigrated to Palestine in 1913 (member of Nahalal). Joined the editorial board of Ha-Poel ha-Tsair and then, in 1936, that of the daily newspaper Davar, of which he was editor-in-chief from 1953 to 1966. Recipient of the Sokolov Prize (1960). Died in Tel-Aviv in 1968.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5587 of the Hebrew era (1827). Son of Yitshak. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-2.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 38-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 38-1.
Israel Behor Haïm is a Serbian author born in Belgrade, who left his city in 1813 during the Dahi invasion to settle in Vienna, where he edited the Ladino translation of the Bible, daily prayers, and various school manuals. Returning around 1838 to Belgrade, he devoted himself to Judeo-Spanish literature; many of his tales and poems in Ladino were destroyed in 1866. He notably published a Ladino translation of the Sentences of Ben Sira (Vienna, 1818) and of the Ḥobot ha-Lebabot (Vienna, 1822).
Born in 1881 in the village of Narwa in Iraqi Kurdistan, he moved in adulthood to the city of Amadiya to lead its community. He translated biblical and traditional texts into the Judeo-Aramaic (neo-Aramaic) of the region and composed sermons, piyoutim and a commentary on the Zohar. He died on 29 Tammouz 5741 (1981).
Born in Baghdad, trained at the local rabbinical seminary, he led the rabbinical court then served as Chief Rabbi of Baghdad and president of the community several times between 1927 and 1971, navigating the massive emigration of the 1950s and the forced dissolution of the community. Anti-Zionist out of communal prudence, he was shepherd to a community reduced from 150,000 to a few thousand souls. Died in Baghdad in 1971.
Ignác Halász, called Fischer, is a Hungarian philologist born in Tés in 1855 and died in Budapest on April 9, 1901. Trained at the gymnasia of Veszprém and Székesfehérvár then at the university of Budapest, he taught in Székesfehérvár from 1877 to 1892 before being appointed in 1893 professor of Hungarian philology at the university of Kolozsvár. Between 1880 and 1890, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences sent him three times to the Lapps of Sweden and Norway, where he collected important material on popular poetry and comparative philology; he also publishes translations of Finnish tales and a Hungarian translation of Grimm's tales.
Heinrich, Ritter von Halban, born Blumenstock, was an Austrian statesman born in Kraków in 1846 and died in Gastein on August 13, 1902. After law studies in Kraków, he settled in Vienna before 1870 to devote himself to journalism; appointed to the press bureau by Potocki in 1870, he gained influence under the ministry of Count Taaffe from 1878, who made him court counselor in 1885 and ennobled him under the name Ritter von Halban. He reached the height of his power under the ministry of Count Badeni in 1895, before retiring from public life in 1898, after the latter's fall in 1897.
Joseph Halévy is a French orientalist born in Andrinople on December 15, 1827. Sent in 1868 by the Alliance Israélite Universelle to study the Falashas of Abyssinia, he is then charged with a mission to Yemen, from which he brings back 686 Sabaean inscriptions that he deciphers and interprets, reconstructing the rudiments of the Sabaean language and mythology. Professor of Ethiopic at the École des Hautes Études in Paris since 1879, he becomes known for his controversies on Sumerian and for his Biblical Researches, where he defends, against higher criticism, the unity and historical foundation of the accounts of Abraham.
Léon Halévy is a French writer and playwright, brother of Fromental Halévy, born in Paris on January 14, 1802 and died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 2, 1883. He teaches French literature at the École polytechnique from 1831 onward, then directs from 1837 the bureau of learned societies at the Ministry of Public Instruction until his retirement in 1853, when he devotes himself entirely to letters. Prolific poet, dramatist, and translator, he publishes in particular a Collection of Fables crowned by the Academy in 1844, Tragic Greece in 1846, and a Life of Fromental Halévy in 1862.
Leading figure of Italicized Tripolitan Judaism: advisor to the Tripoli committee of the Dante Alighieri (institution for the dissemination of Italian language and culture) in the early 20th century, alongside Mario Nunes-Vais. President of the Jewish community of Tripoli, he was assassinated at his home in Tripoli in summer 1963, at approximately 84 years of age, amid the anti-Jewish climate of 1960s Libya.
Rabbi of Tripoli, in North Africa, died around 1803. He is the author of the « Ḥayé Abraham », a treatise on the ritual laws of the Oraḥ Ḥayyim and the Yoré Dea (Livorno, 1826).
George Edward Halford is a soldier of the mounted infantry of the Imperial Volunteers of the City of London, born in 1878 and died at Karee, near Bloemfontein, on May 15, 1900, during the Transvaal War. Enlisted in the volunteers and then in the mounted infantry, he participated in the battles of Paardeberg, served in the escort of the Boer general Cronje to Modder River station, then participated in the great march on Bloemfontein, whose privations caused the fever that took his life.
Ely Halperine-Kaminsky is a Russian writer born in Vassilkov on April 9, 1858, settled in Paris since 1880 after his studies at the University of Odessa. Entrusted on several occasions with missions by the French ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce, he has directed since 1883 the Franco-Russian review Franco-Russe and translated into French numerous Russian writers, including Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy and Turgenev. Among his works are Pushkin and his correspondence (1887), The Grand Duke Constantine, poet (1892) and At Tolstoy's (1898).
Fernand Halphen is a French composer born in Paris on February 18, 1872, student of Massenet, Fauré, and André Gedalge. He obtained in 1895 the first accessit for fugue at the Conservatory and, in 1896, the second Grand Prize of Rome for his cantata Mélusine. His main works include an orchestral suite premiered in 1896, a symphony given in Monte-Carlo in 1897, a sonata for piano and violin in 1899, as well as Le Cor fleuri, lyric opera in one act after the play by Ephraïm Micaël.
Georges-Henri Halphen is a French officer and mathematician born in Rouen on October 30, 1844 and died in Versailles on May 21, 1889. Trained at the École polytechnique then at the École de Metz, he becomes lieutenant in 1866 and captain in 1870, distinguishing himself in the combat of Pont-Noyelles. Repetitor at the École polytechnique from 1873, he receives in 1880 the grand prize in mathematics from the Academy of Sciences, sees his work on the classification of curves crowned by the Academy of Berlin in 1881, and becomes member of the Academy of Sciences in 1886.
Joseph Haltern is one of the Meassefim, died in Berlin on September 5, 1818 (1817 according to Philippson), author of Esther, a Hebrew adaptation of Racine's drama of the same name.
C. H. Hamberger is a physician from Leipzig who died on March 2, 1847 at an advanced age. He translates into German the Dizionario Storico degli Autori Ebrei of G. B. de Rossi under the title Historisches Wörterbuch der Jüdischen Schriftsteller und Ihrer Werke (Leipzig, 1839), and publishes in 1826, under the pseudonym H. A. M. Berger, a Nordische Götterlehre re-edited under his own name in 1835 in Zittau under the title Nordische Mythologie.
Oscar Hammerstein is an American impresario born in Berlin on May 8, 1848, who emigrated to America in March 1863 and settled in New York, where he first worked in cigar manufacturing before becoming editor of the United States Tobacco Journal. Entering the theater in 1883 as director of the Thalia Theater, he builds and directs numerous New York halls, including the Manhattan Opera House, and composes several musical works, including The Kohinor (1894) and Sweet Marie (1901).
Agronomist and Zionist feminist, founder of agricultural schools for girls in Palestine.
Israeli writer
Emmanuel Hannaux is a French sculptor born in Metz in 1855, trained at the industrial school of Strasbourg and then, after returning to Metz at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, at the School of Modeling and Sculpture of Nancy, before entering in 1876 the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Rewarded at the Salon as early as 1889 for « The Woodcutter » and « The Flag », he obtains the first medal in 1894 for « Orpheus Dying », executes numerous busts of notable figures, including those of Ambroise Thomas and the Baroness de Hirsch, is made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1900, and receives the medal of honor at the 1903 Salon.
talmudiste israélien
rabbi (female)
(died 1935)
German physician
Born in Berlin, son of a wealthy Jewish banker, writer and musician. His first poems appeared in 1911 in the journals Pan, Der Sturm and Die Bücherei Maiandros, making him an early representative of Expressionism. Co-editor of the anthology Das neue Pathos (1913/14). Fell on the Russian front in 1915.
Austro-American jurist
German art historian (1871–1938)
Heinrich Harburger is a German jurist born in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on 2 October 1851, doctor of law from the University of Munich. Admitted to the bar, he became privatdocent in 1878, then assistant prosecutor at the Munich circuit court in 1885, chief judge in 1890, honorary professor at the University of Munich in 1896, prosecutor at the Munich court of appeals in 1897, and finally chief judge of that court in 1899, thus becoming the first Jew in Germany to serve as prosecutor before a court of appeals.
Maximilian Harden, born Witkowski, is a German publicist born in Berlin on October 20, 1861, converted to Christianity in childhood. Known for his political and social articles signed "Apostata", collected in a volume in Berlin in 1892, he founded the same year the journal Zukunft, which he still directs in 1903.
Albert Harkavy (Abraham Yakovlevitch) was a Russian orientalist and historian born in Novogroudok, in the Minsk region, on October 27, 1839, son of a wealthy merchant and Talmudist. Trained at the Rabbinical School of Wilna from 1858, he entered Saint Petersburg University in 1863, where he obtained his master's degree in history in 1868, then defended his doctorate in 1872 on the origins of the Semites. He became in 1877 librarian of the Imperial Library of Saint Petersburg, a position he still held in 1903.
Henry Harland, under the pseudonym of Sydney Luska, is an American writer born in Saint Petersburg in March 1861, trained at the College of the City of New York and at Harvard. Employed at the office of the surrogate of New York from 1883 to 1886, he then settles in London, where he directs the Yellow Book, and publishes several novels on Jewish subjects, including Mrs. Peixada, As It Was Written and The Yoke of the Thorah (1900).
Australian town planner (1883-1980)
Born in Manchester in a wealthy Jewish family (father a cotton merchant, prominent leader of the Orthodox and Liberal Jewish communities). Professor of political science at the London School of Economics (1926–1950), one of the most influential teachers of his time. Theorist of political pluralism and British socialism; president of the Labour Party (1945–1946).
David Harris is an English soldier and mine director born in London in 1852, arrived at the diamond mines of Kimberley around 1873, where he makes his fortune. Officer of the Diamond Fields Horse under Sir Charles Warren from 1878, he led the Kimberley Rifles in 1896 against an indigenous force at Poquana, and succeeded in 1897, upon the death of his cousin Barney Barnato, as Kimberley's representative to the Cape assembly. He participates in 1899 in the defense of Kimberley against the Boers, at the head of two thousand men, until the lifting of the siege by General French, and represents in 1903 the house Barnato Brothers.
Mark Harris is an English surveyor and soldier born March 15, 1869 and killed in combat in Betchuanaland on April 6, 1897, son of Ephraim Harris, director of the Jewish school in Manchester. Employed in 1896 on public works in Port Elizabeth, he subsequently joins the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Volunteer Rifles; his column leaves Port Elizabeth on February 24, 1897, engages battle at Kuruman on March 15, then fights a second engagement at Mamssepe on April 6, where Harris is killed.
Maurice Henry Harris is an American rabbi born on November 9, 1859 in London, educated in London and at Columbia College in New York, from which he graduated in 1887, and at the Emanu-El theological seminary in New York. Elected in 1883 rabbi of Temple Israel in Harlem, a position he still held in 1904, he published notably a biblical history in three volumes, The People of the Book, and collections of sermons.
Sir Augustus Glossop Harris is an English actor, dramatic author and theater director born in Paris in 1852 and died in Folkestone on June 22, 1896. Trained in Paris and Hanover, he made his stage debut in 1873 in Manchester before becoming stage manager for Colonel Mapleson at Covent Garden, then director of the Drury Lane Theatre in 1879. He revived grand opera in London from 1887, was appointed sheriff in 1891, and produced Hänsel und Gretel in 1894 in the United States, with Augustin Daly.
Daniel Harrwitz is a German chess master born in 1823 in Breslau and died on January 9, 1884 in Bolzano, in the Tyrol, trained by Anderssen. His career began in Paris in 1845; he then defeated Horwitz, Löwenthal and De Rivière, before losing in 1858 a match against Morphy while becoming one of the few players to have won three games against the latter. Constrained by his health to abandon competition in 1862, he published the same year in Berlin his Lehrbuch des Schachspiels, after having directed the British Chess Review in 1853.
art collector (1879-1932)
American religious and community leader, a powerful orator, a respected religious educator, and a prominent Conservative rabbi (1899-1981)
Hungarian-American magician (1874–1926)
Yiddish and Hebrew dramatist born in Galicia, performed at the Yiddish Art Theatre.
Russian-born American rabbi, kabbalist and philosopher
Emanuel B. Hart is a member of the American Congress born in New York on October 29, 1809 and died on August 29, 1897. A Jacksonian Democrat active from the turbulent election of 1832, he is elected alderman of the fifth ward of New York in 1845, presides over the general committee of Tammany Hall in 1849, then sits in Congress from 1851 onward. Appointed inspector of the port of New York under Buchanan, he is sent to Europe by the Treasury in 1860 to investigate customs fraud, becomes commissioner of immigration in 1869, then commissioner of taxes under Mayor Cooper in 1879. He long presides over Mount Sinai Hospital and the Home for the Aged and Infirm.
Ernest Abraham Hart is an English physician and editor born in London in 1836 and died in that city on January 7, 1898, trained at St George's Hospital, member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1856. Editor of the Lancet from 1858, he directs the British Medical Journal from 1866, while practicing as an ophthalmologic surgeon at St Mary's Hospital from 1864 and presiding, from 1871, over the parliamentary committee of the British Medical Association, from which he brings about several health reforms. Committed publicist for the emancipation of the Jews, he published The Mosaic Code in 1877 and received in 1893 an honorary doctorate from Durham University.
Henry John Hart is an Australian magistrate born in New York on May 7, 1820 and died in 1884, educated at Columbia College, left for Sydney in 1839 then settled in Melbourne in 1841. Commissioner of the supreme court in 1854, he is appointed territorial magistrate in 1857 and elected several times auditor of the Melbourne accounts. He served long on the board of directors of Melbourne Hospital, became interim consul of the United States in 1866 then vice-consul of Italy, and is among the royal commissioners of the International Exposition of Melbourne in 1881.
Sir Israel Hart is a former mayor of Leicester, born in 1835, president of the clothing company Hart and Levy. Elected to the Leicester municipal council in 1874, he acceded to the aldermanic council and the mayoralty in 1884, reelected mayor in 1885, 1886 and 1893, and became the city's first chief alderman in 1885. He provided Leicester with a public library and an ornamental fountain, and unsuccessfully ran for Central Hackney in 1900.
Solomon Alexander Hart is a painter and librarian of the Royal Academy of London, born in Plymouth in April 1806 and died in London on June 11, 1881. Entered as a student at the Royal Academy in 1823, he exhibits his first oil painting, Instruction, at the British Institution in 1828, is elected associate member in 1835 then academician in 1840, professor of painting from 1854 to 1863, and becomes librarian of the institution in 1864, after a stay in Italy undertaken in 1841. Among his Jewish works are Hannah, Mother of Samuel, and The Conference between Manasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell, acquired by F. D. Mocatta and later given to Jews' College.
Moritz Hartmann is an Austrian poet born in Příbram, Bohemia, in October 1821, and died in Oberdöbling, near Vienna, May 13, 1872. After studies in Prague and Vienna, he settled in Vienna in 1842, returned to Prague in 1847, participated in the 1848 revolution as a deputy to the Frankfurt Parliament, then, the Baden revolution having failed in 1849, was forced to flee Germany. War correspondent in Crimea in 1853 for the Kölnische Zeitung, expelled from Constantinople in 1854, he settled in Geneva in 1860, directed Freya in Stuttgart from 1862 then joined in 1868 the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna. His complete works appeared in ten volumes in Stuttgart from 1873.
Cécile Hartog is an English composer and pianist born in London, trained under C. K. Salaman then at the Royal Academy of Music in London, as well as with Cowen, Bargiel, Beringer and Klindworth. She publishes numerous melodies and pieces for piano and clarinet, including her first great success, Swinging, as well as a collection of songs for children, Barbara's Song Book, and signs an article on the poets of Provence in the Contemporary Review of October 1894.
Édouard de Hartog is a Dutch composer born in Amsterdam on August 15, 1826, trained under Bartelmann, Döhler, Dulcken and Hoch, then Elwart and Litolff. Settled in Paris in 1852 as a piano and composition teacher, he composed his first opera in 1853, Le Mariage de Don Lope, first performed only in 1868, and became especially known for his orchestral works composed in 1857 and 1859, as well as L'Amour et Son Hôte, performed in Brussels in 1873. He was decorated with the orders of Leopold and the Oak Crown.
Lévi de Hartog is a Dutch jurist born in Gorinchem on 6 November 1835, doctor of law from Leiden in 1859. Teaching general history and politics in Haarlem from 1865 and then in Utrecht in 1866, he became in 1877 professor of law at the University of Amsterdam and, in 1888, member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. He sits on the council of the theological seminary from 1887, of which he becomes president in 1898, presides over the Dutch section of the Alliance Israélite Universelle since 1885 and the Maatschappij tot Nut der Israëlieten since 1890.
Marion Hartog, née Moss, is an English writer born in Portsea October 22, 1821, fifth daughter of Joseph Moss. She published from 1838, with her sister Célia, a collection of poems, Early Efforts, then in 1840 three volumes of tales, The Romance of Jewish History. Married in 1845 to Alphonse Hartog, she kept a school for young children until 1884 and founded in 1855 the Jewish Sabbath Journal. Among her children is Numa Edward Hartog, senior wrangler of Cambridge.
Numa Edward Hartog is the first Jewish senior wrangler of Cambridge, born in London on 20 May 1846 and died on 19 June 1871. After obtaining in 1862 the Jews' commemorative scholarship at University College London, he enters Trinity College, Cambridge in 1865 with a minor scholarship, and ranks first senior wrangler in January 1869, but cannot obtain a fellowship because he is unable to subscribe to the religious test required. His testimony before a House of Lords commission contributed to the adoption in 1871 of the Universities Tests Act, which abolished this requirement.
Philip Joseph Hartog is an English chemist and pedagogue born in London on 2 March 1864, educated at Owens College, Manchester, and then at the universities of Paris and Heidelberg. He works under the direction of Berthelot at the Collège de France until 1889, the year he obtains a scholarship at Owens College, becomes lecturer in chemistry in 1891 and then in 1895, before being appointed member of the university council in 1901. He edits in 1900 a history of Owens College on the occasion of its jubilee.
Abraham Frans Karel Hartogh is a Dutch jurist and deputy born in Amsterdam on December 29, 1844 and died in The Hague on February 13, 1901, doctor of law from Leiden in 1869. Influential lawyer of the Liberal party in Amsterdam, he was elected in 1886 to the Second Chamber of the States General, a seat he held without interruption until his death, and secured the adoption on July 7, 1896 of a civil procedure law that he had proposed. He published notably in 1897 a commentary on this law with C. A. Cosman.
Anton Hartvigson is a Danish pianist born in Aarhus, in Jutland, on October 16, 1845, brother of Frits Hartvigson. Trained by Neupert and Tausig, he performs in Copenhagen before settling in London, where he teaches at the Royal Normal College for the Blind, then returns to Copenhagen, where he still resides in 1903 and gives lectures each year on the piano repertory. The King of Denmark confers upon him in 1900 the title of "royal professor."
Frits Hartvigson is a Danish pianist born in Grenå, in Jutland, on May 31, 1841, trained first by his mother and by Anton Rée, then, from 1859, by Hans von Bülow in Berlin. He makes his first public appearance in Copenhagen in 1860, distinguishes himself in 1878 in England in Liszt's Todtentanz under the direction of von Bülow, and settles in London in 1864, where he premiered Liszt's Concerto in E-flat major in 1872. After a stay in Russia from 1872 to 1875, he is made a knight of the order of the Dannebrog, and professor, from 1888, at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Son of Joseph Derenbourg, trained in Hebrew, Arabic, and Semitic languages. He held the chair of Islam and the religions of Arabia at the École des hautes études and directed the oriental collection of the Bibliothèque nationale. He collaborated with his father on Sabaean and Himyarite epigraphy.
German rabbi
Joseph ibn Ḥason is a Talmudist, author of the Sefer Bet ha-Melek, a commentary on Maimonides' Mishné Torah, accompanied by responsa on the three other parts of the Shulḥan Arukh and novellae on the Pentateuch, published in Salonika in 1804.
Simon Hassler is an American musician born in Bavaria on July 25, 1832 and died in Philadelphia on January 25, 1901, son of musician Henry Hassler, whose family emigrated to the United States in 1842. He began as a violinist in 1852, joined and then directed the orchestra founded by his father in Philadelphia, directed that of the Walnut Street Theater from 1865 to 1872, then those of the Chestnut Street Theater and the Chestnut Street Opera, and directed the orchestra of Philadelphia's centennial exposition in 1876.
Marcus Hast is a London cantor and composer born in Warsaw in 1840. Having gone to study music in Germany in 1864, he is appointed cantor of the principal orthodox synagogue in Breslau, before succeeding in 1871 Simon Ascher as chief cantor of the Great Synagogue in London. He publishes numerous synagogal pieces and compositions, including the oratorio Azariah, performed in Glasgow in 1883, The Death of Moses, performed at London's Queen's Hall in 1897, and The Fall of Jerusalem in 1901.
Ignaz Hatsek is a Hungarian cartographer and engraver born on April 7, 1828 in Olomouc. A honvéd artillery lieutenant in 1848 and 1849, he became in 1851 cartographer of Hungary's state topographic service, a position he held until his resignation in 1894, retiring thereafter to Budapest.
Carl Frankl Hauser is an American humorist and writer born December 27, 1847 in Jánosháza, Hungary. After early work at the Stadttheater in Vienna from 1872 and an engagement with the troupe of the Duke of Meiningen in Berlin in 1875, he emigrated to the United States in late 1875 and settled in New York, where he joined the journal Puck in 1876, becoming for a long time an associate editor. He founded in 1892 the humorous weekly Hallo, published in 1900 his memoirs, Twenty-Five Years in America, and has founded since 1897 the Bürger- und Bauern-Kalender.
Philipp Hauser is a Hungarian physician and medical author born in Nádasd, Hungary, on April 2, 1832, who began medical studies in 1852 in Vienna, Paris and Berne, where he obtained his doctorate in 1858. Physician in Tangier serving a large Jewish community, he took refuge in Gibraltar during the Spanish-Moroccan War and went to Tétouan after its capture by the Spanish in February 1860 to help the Jews afflicted by cholera. Settled in Seville in 1872 and in Madrid in 1883, one of the rare Jewish physicians in the Spanish capital, he published numerous works on epidemiology on infant mortality and cholera in Spain.
David Haussmann is a German physician born in Ratibor, in Silesia, on July 22, 1839, and died in Berlin on May 26, 1903, trained at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1866. Assistant surgeon during the war against Denmark in 1864 and the Austro-Prussian war in 1866, then surgeon-captain during the Franco-Prussian war, where he was wounded before Metz, he subsequently practiced gynecology in Berlin, where he was prosector at the university gynecological hospital from 1867 to 1870, and notably published Die Parasiten der Weiblichen Sexualorgane (Berlin, 1870).
Adolf Havas is a Hungarian dermatologist born in Szentgál, Hungary, on February 14, 1854, trained in Veszprém, Budapest and Vienna, Doctor of Medicine in 1880. Head of the Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases at the University Hospital of Budapest from 1883, he became privatdocent in 1884 and associate professor in 1902, and published numerous dermatological essays in Hungarian and German medical journals.
Armand-Lazare Hayem is a French writer born in Paris on July 24, 1845 and died in that city in 1889, son of Simon Hayem. Ardent defender of republican ideas then adherent of Proudhon's doctrines, he is elected general councillor of the canton of Montmorency in 1871, failing however in the elections of 1876 and 1881. He publishes notably Le Mariage (1872), Le Collier and L'Être social (1881), La Science, l'homme au XIXe siècle (1885), Le Don Juanisme (1886) and Vérités et apparences (1891).
Charles Hayem is a French collector and patron born in Paris in 1839 and died in that city on May 13, 1902, eldest son of Simon Hayem, married to the daughter of Adolphe Franck. His donation of forty-six paintings by the greatest French living artists, as well as numerous works of art, to the museum of the Luxembourg Palace earned him the title of « benefactor of French art ».
Georges Hayem is a French physician born in Paris on November 25, 1841, son of Simon Hayem, who obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1868 and became agrégé of the Faculty of Paris. Professor of therapeutics and materia medica at Saint-Antoine Hospital from 1879, he was elected a member of the Academy of Medicine in 1886, conducted important research on blood pathology, and specialized in stomach diseases. From 1873 to 1898 he directed the Revue des Sciences Médicales en France et à l'Étranger, and notably published, in 1889, Du Sang et de Ses Altérations Anatomiques.
19th-century Sephardic rabbi
Ḥayyim ben Salomon is a Judeo-Polish preacher born in Wilna and died in that city in December 1804 (perhaps 1794), at an advanced age. Son of R. Salomon ben Ḥayyim, who died in 1766, dayyan and preacher of Wilna, friend of Gaon Elijah of Wilna, he is appointed in 1757 itinerant preacher by Raphaël ha-Cohen, then rabbi of Minsk, before holding in turn, in his last years, the position of preacher of his father in Wilna. In 1796, he was one of two emissaries sent by the rabbis and notables of Wilna to fight against Hasidism.
Rabbi and Hasidic kabbalist, disciple of Israël Ba'al Shem Tov, died in Jerusalem in 1813, Ḥayyim ben Salomon of Mohilev served as rabbi in five cities, including Mohilev and Czernowitz, before settling in Jerusalem. He is the author of the "Siddure shel Shabbat" (Poryck, 1818), of the "Be'er Mayim Ḥayyim," novellae on the Pentateuch in two parts (Czernowitz, 1820 and 1849), of the "Sha'ar ha-Tefillah" (Sudilkov, 1837), and of the "Ereṣ ha-Ḥayyim," in two parts (Czernowitz, 1861).
Ḥayyim ben Tobiah is a Russian rabbi of the 18th and 19th centuries, disciple of Elijah of Vilna, settled in Safed. In a letter dated 1810, he exhorts the Jews of Russia to support the students of the Holy Land and mentions the house of study founded in Safed by the disciples of Elijah of Vilna.
Ḥayyim (Haïm) Benchimol, of Tangier, son of Abraham Benchimol — dragoman of the French consulate, the host of Eugène Delacroix in 1832 — and of Saada Sicsu, whom the painter depicted that year with their daughter Préciada. Husband of Donna Toledano (marriage in 1856). Interpreter and dragoman of the French legation like his father, protégé and, according to several sources, first Moroccan naturalized as French; Legion of Honor in 1884. Banker, he directed from 1881 onward the Tangier agency of the Transatlantic Bank, which became an independent bank in 1889, and numbered among the wealthiest men in the city as a landowner and representative of European firms. Founder in 1867 of Morocco's first Masonic lodge, purchaser in 1888 of the Réveil du Maroc — Tangier's first newspapers defending Jews and human rights, which earned him attacks from Édouard Drumont — he presided over the committee of the Alliance israélite universelle in Tangier and in 1890 took the lead of the community Junta. In 1904, after the death of his wife, he endowed Tangier with the Benchimol hospital, initially intended for free care of Jews of modest means then open to the entire city without distinction of religion or nationality; the establishment closed in 2002 and was demolished in the night of April 2-3, 2010. His dates remain disputed: the Encyclopaedia Judaica gives 1834-1915, other sources have him born in 1826 or 1834 and dying in Marseille on August 18, 1906.
Yemenite Jewish rabbi and author of a travel account
Ḥayyim Jacob ben Juda Löb Sloutzki is a Russian rabbinical scholar active in the first half of the nineteenth century, author of Niṭe'e Na'amanim, edition of the Midrash Konen accompanied by a double commentary (Wilna, 1836). According to Fürst, he also left several commentaries that remained unpublished, on the Midrash Yona, the Darke Eliyahou of Elie of Wilna, and a glossary of difficult terms from the Talmud and Midrashim.
Russian writer and rabbi (1843–1890)
German rabbi
Born in Aleppo, son of R. Shaul Ezra ha-Kohen Dweck (Grand Rabbi of Aleppo). He went up to the Land of Israel in 1890 with a group of rabbis from Aleppo, became one of the figures of the kabbalistic yeshiva Beit El in Jerusalem, and then directed the yeshiva Rehovot ha-Nahar (Bukharian quarter). He worked to disseminate the kavvanot (mystical intentions) of R. Shalom Sharabi (the Rashash). He lost his sight at the end of his life.
Emanuel Hecht is a German pedagogue born in 1821 in Nordheim, Bavaria, and died on February 25, 1862 in Hoppstädten, in Birkenfeld-Oldenbourg. Graduate in 1842 of the Royal Normal School of Würzbourg, he devoted himself to the teaching of Jewish youth before joining in 1845, at the invitation of David Einhorn, the Jewish communal school of Hoppstädten. He obtained in 1856 full recognition by the State of Jewish schools and teachers of Birkenfeld equal to Christian schools, was elected in 1858 a member of the provincial diet, and notably published a biblical history published in Fulda in 1842.
Ferdinand Heckscher is a German actor born in Berlin in 1806 and died in Sondershausen on 28 February 1891. Endowed with a fine bass voice, he begins as a singer before abandoning music in 1833 to devote himself entirely to the theater, after his stage debut at the Königstädtisches Theater in Berlin in 1825. He performs successively on many German stages, including the Hoftheater in Dresden alongside Emil Devrient, before directing until 1846 the theater of Sondershausen, retiring shortly after; he excels notably in the roles of Ingomar, Wallenstein and Fiesco.
Physicist, one of three women to obtain the habilitation in physics in Germany before 1939.
Philip Heidenheim is a German rabbi and pedagogue born in Bleicherode on June 14, 1814. Called as a teacher in Sondershausen in 1834, he succeeds I. Wolffson as director and preacher in 1837, then teaches from 1840 onward at the local Realschule. Furnished in 1845 with a rabbinical diploma, he becomes territorial rabbi of the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. In 1848, at the congress of German teachers in Eisenach, he has an amendment adopted replacing the word "Christian" with "moral and religious" in the charter; at Passover 1902, he celebrates the sixty-fifth anniversary of his inaugural sermon.
Ferdinand Heilbuth is a French painter born in Hamburg in 1826 and died on November 19, 1889 in Paris. He exhibited at annual salons from 1853 and distinguished himself notably as a portraitist, with works such as Le Mont de Piété, now in the Luxembourg Museum. He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1861 and Officer in 1881.
Angelo Heilprin is an American naturalist, geologist and traveler, son of Michael Heilprin, born on March 31, 1853 in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, taken by his father to the United States in 1856. Professor of paleontology of invertebrates and geology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from 1880, he conducted geological expeditions in Florida in 1886, in Bermuda in 1888 and in Mexico, where he climbed several volcanoes. In 1892, he directed the relief expedition to Peary in Greenland, and explored in 1902 the active crater of Mount Pelée after the eruption that destroyed Saint-Pierre in Martinique.
Louis Heilprin is an American encyclopedist, son of Michael Heilprin, born in Miskolcz, in Hungary, on July 2, 1851, emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1856. He collaborates on the second edition of the American Cyclopædia, of which his father was one of the associate editors, publishes in 1884 the Historical Reference Book, a reference work reprinted in 1899, and joins in 1902 the editorial staff of the New International Encyclopedia.
Michael Heilprin is a Polish-American scholar, author and philanthropist born in Piotrków, in Russian Poland, on February 23, 1823, and died in Summit, New Jersey, on May 10, 1888, son of Phinehas Mendel Heilprin. Married young, he emigrated to Hungary in 1843, where his writings in favor of freedom attracted attention during the turbulent years of 1848 and 1849 and earned him the acquaintance of Kossuth; after the failure of the revolution, he passed through Cracow and then France, before returning to Hungary in late 1850. He emigrated to the United States in 1856 on the advice of Kossuth, taught in Philadelphia, and became in 1858 a contributor to Ripley and Dana's New American Cyclopædia.
Phinehas Mendel Heilprin is a Polish Hebraist born in Lublin in November 1801 and died in Washington on January 30, 1863. A cloth and wool merchant in Piotrków, he reinstalled himself in 1842 in northern Hungary, which he left after the failure of the 1848 revolution in which his eldest son Michael had taken part, then emigrated to the United States in 1859. His principal work, Teshubot be-Anshe Awen (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1845), argues at length against German Jewish reformers on marriage and divorce; he also published Sekel Ṭob, a critique of Geiger's edition of the Ḳobeṣ Wikkouḥim (Frankfurt, 1846), and a critical methodology article published in Vienna in 1864.
Michael Heim is an Austrian jurist born on August 18, 1852 in Jakosič, Slavonia. After studying law in Vienna from 1871, he became deputy royal prosecutor in Essegg in 1883, district judge in Brod-on-the-Save in 1890, then, in 1898, attorney general, a rare distinction for a Jew in Austria; on August 24, 1903, he was appointed first president of the royal court of Mitrovica.
Gustav Heine, baron von Geldern, is an Austrian publicist born on June 18, 1812 in Düsseldorf and died on November 15, 1886 in Vienna, brother of Heinrich Heine. After agriculture, commerce and the Austrian army, he founded in 1847 in Vienna the Fremdenblatt, unofficial organ of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received in 1867 the order of the Iron Crown and was ennobled, then elevated in 1870 to the rank of baron under the name of his mother, Geldern.
Maximilian Heine is a German physician, younger brother of Heinrich Heine, born in Düsseldorf (1805 according to Embden, 1807 according to Strodtmann) and died in Berlin on November 6, 1879. Trained in Düsseldorf and Lüneburg and then at the universities of Berlin and Munich, he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1829 and immediately joined the Russian army as a surgeon, taking part in the Balkan campaign in 1830 and the suppression of the Polish uprising in 1832, before settling in Saint Petersburg. He founded the Medizinische Zeitung Russlands there, which he edited from 1844 to 1859, and notably published his memoirs of his brother, Erinnerungen an Heinrich Heine und Seine Familie (Berlin, 1868).
Sabine Heinefetter is a German opera soprano born on August 19, 1809 in Mainz and died insane on February 18, 1872 in Illenau, Baden. A traveling harpist noticed by a musician from Frankfurt, she studied from 1825 under Spohr in Cassel and then under Tadolini in Paris, sang from 1829 at the Italian Opera in Paris alongside Sontag and Malibran, engaged in 1835 at the court theater in Dresden and enjoyed considerable success in Berlin, Vienna and Milan, before performing one last time in Frankfurt in 1844 and marrying in 1853, in Marseille, a French merchant named Marquet.
German rabbi
Heinrich Heinemann is a German actor born in Bischofsburg, East Prussia, on September 15, 1842. Graduated from the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium in Berlin, he made his stage debut in Breslau in 1864, then performed successively in Königsberg from 1865, in Würzbourg from 1867, again in Breslau from 1869, in Vienna from 1872 and lastly in Breslau from 1874, before joining in 1878 the Court Theatre of Brunswick. A successful dramatic author, he also wrote more than thirty plays, including Der Schriftstellertag and Echo.
Romanian Rabbi (1877-1958)
Austrian physician and dermatologist
Czech architect
Hungarian rabbi
German historian, author of the monumental eleven-volume History of the Jews, the first great modern synthesis. He was a central figure of the science of Judaism.
Hungarian religious man
Major German poet and essayist of Jewish origin, author of the Book of Songs. His work combines romantic lyricism with critical irony.
German physicist of the 19th century
German classical philologist and high school teacher
Jewish merchant founder in 1878 of the Uhlfelder department store in Munich, philanthropist (soup kitchen during World War I, support for an orphanage) recognized as "Geheimer Kommerzienrat" in 1924.
Polish author
Moritz Heitler is an Austrian physician born in Korompa, Hungary, on March 21, 1847, doctor of medicine from the University of Vienna in 1871. Assistant at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna from 1871, he became privatdocent in 1876 and professor in 1898, and published numerous medical articles in Viennese journals between 1874 and 1901, as well as a literary essay, Ovids Verbannung (Vienna, 1898).
Anna Held is a French actress born on September 19, 1880 in Paris, trained in Fontainebleau. She made her debut in Miss Helyett at the Folies Manguy in Paris on September 19, 1895, distinguished herself notably in Jean Richepin's Mam'selle Napoléon and in The Little Duchess, with which she undertook a triumphant tour of the United States in 1903, and married in 1902 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., of Chicago.
Psychoanalyst, first to specialize in the psychology of women.
Isidor Heller is an Austrian writer born on May 5, 1816 in Jung-Bunzlau, Bohemia, and died in Arco, Tyrol, on December 19, 1879. Destined for the rabbinate, he enlisted in 1837 in the French Foreign Legion, then directed in Budapest the newspaper Der Ungar before joining in 1847 the editorial staff of Europa by Gustav Kühne in Leipzig. Editor of Morgenröthe in Budapest in 1848, he had to leave Hungary for his opposition to Kossuth, became private secretary to Baron Bruck in Constantinople after having to flee Berlin in 1852, returned to Vienna in 1855, founded Fortschritt in 1859 and participated in 1864 in the creation of Neues Fremdenblatt.
Jehiel ben Aaron Heller is a Russian rabbi born in Koïdanovo, in the governorate of Minsk, in 1814, and died in Plungė, in the governorate of Kovno, on November 14, 1861, a descendant of rabbi Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller. Rabbi in Glousk from 1836, in Volkovysk from 1843, then in Souvalki and finally in Plungė until his death, he distinguished himself as a preacher in pure German, and notably published 'Ammoudé Or, responsa on the Shulhan Arukh (Königsberg, 1856), and Or la-Yecharim, commentary on the Passover Haggadah (1857).
Joshua ben Aaron Heller is a Russian rabbi and preacher born in 1814 and died in Telšiai, in the province of Kovno, on June 2, 1880. Preacher in Grodno for several years, he became chief rabbi of Palanga, in Courland, then of Telšiai, and published notably Dibre Yehoshua', a homiletic and philosophical work in three parts (Vilna, 1856), Toledot Yehoshua', a commentary on the Pirké Avot (1866), and Ma'oz ha-Dat, an essay defending the Oral Law (1873).
Seligmann Heller is an Austrian poet and journalist born in Roudnice, Bohemia, on July 8, 1831, and died in Vienna on January 8, 1890. He teaches German in a commercial school in Prague from 1866, before settling in Vienna in 1873 as dramatic critic for the Deutsche Zeitung then professor of literary history. He notably publishes the epic poem Ahasverus about the Wandering Jew (Leipzig, 1866) and Die Letzten Hasmonäer (Prague, 1865); his translations of medieval Hebrew poems were edited after his death by D. Kaufmann under the title Die Echten Hebräischen Melodien (Trier, 1892).
Stephen Heller is a Hungarian pianist and composer born in Budapest on May 15, 1815 and died in Paris on January 14, 1888. Intended for law, he turned very young to music, studied in Vienna under Czerny then Halm, gave his first Vienna concerts in 1827 and undertook in 1829 a tour with his father through Hungary, Poland and Germany. Settled in Paris in 1838, he frequented the circle of Liszt, Chopin and Berlioz there and established himself as a concert artist and teacher; he went to London in 1849 then in 1862, considered the equal, or even superior, of Mendelssohn in knowledge of the instrument.
Ẓebi Hirsch Heller, called Herschele Ḥarif, is a Hungarian rabbi who died in Alt-Ofen on October 28, 1834. Rabbi of Bonyhád, he is called the same year to Alt-Ofen to succeed Moses Münz, but dies barely after his ministry has begun. He had as students Ẓebi Hirsch Chajes, rabbi of Zolkiew, S. J. Rapoport, chief rabbi of Prague, and Moses Taubers, rabbi of Sniatyn, and leaves Ḥiddushe Ṭib Giṭṭin, novellae published with the responsa of his son Menahem Heller (Zolkiew, 1844; 2nd ed., Przemyśl, 1876), as well as Tappuḥe Zahab (Oujhely, 1865).
Franz Heltay is a Hungarian deputy born in Szentes on March 15, 1861, trained in law and political economy in Budapest. Journalist at the Nemzet then at the Ellenőr, he directed from 1887 the Nemzet Gazdasági Szemle and the Vasúti és Közlekedési Közlöny, official organ of the Hungarian Ministry of Commerce, where he also sat on the statistics and tariffs commissions. Author notably of Az Ipartörvény Revíziója (Budapest, 1883), he was elected in 1896 deputy to the Hungarian Reichstag for the Oklánd constituency.
Journalist and writer, wife of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, completed his dictionary.
Félix Hément is a French pedagogue born in Avignon on January 22, 1827 and died in Nanterre on October 5, 1891, primary school inspector of the Seine department, retired in 1886 with the title of honorary inspector general of Public Instruction. Charged with the defense of Fort Vanves during the 1870 war, he subsequently multiplied popular science lectures throughout France, including a series given in the Aisne in 1883 that provoked controversy with the Bishop of Soissons. He notably published Simples Discours sur la Terre et sur l'Homme, crowned by the French Academy in 1875.
Michel Hemerdinger is a French jurist born in Colmar, Alsace, on May 1, 1809, and died in Paris on June 22, 1880. Bachelor of letters from Strasbourg in 1829, he entered the rabbinical school of Metz before turning to law in Paris in 1830, where he was admitted to the bar in 1833. Secretary of the Society of Lawyers in 1838, member of the Central Israelite Consistory in 1845, he became interim Prosecutor of the Republic in 1848, and finally served as justice of the peace in Paris from 1870 to 1879.
Ernest Hendlé is a high-ranking French official born in Paris on February 15, 1844 and died on February 7, 1900, son-in-law of Albert Cohn. Brilliant lawyer at the court of appeal, he becomes secretary to Jules Favre, whom he followed to Ferrières during negotiations with Bismarck in 1870, before provisionally administering the department of the North for the government of National Defense. Appointed prefect of Creuse on March 20, 1871, he resigned upon the return of reactionaries before becoming prefect of Yonne in 1876, then of Saône-et-Loire, where he skillfully managed the strikes of Montceau-les-Mines; he was made commander of the Legion of Honor in July 1886.
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg was a German biblical exegete born on October 20, 1802 in Fröndenberg, Westphalia, and died in Berlin on May 28, 1869, educated in theology and oriental languages at Bonn. A consistent defender of traditional Christian views against higher criticism, he published notably his Christologie des Alten Testaments (Berlin, 1829), commentaries on the Psalms (1847), the Song of Songs (1853) and Ecclesiastes (1859), where he abandoned, as he did from 1845, the thesis of Solomonic authorship of Qohelet, a commentary on Ezekiel (1867), and Die Juden und die Christliche Kirche (Berlin, 1857) on the relations between Judaism and Christianity.
Elise Henle is a German novelist and playwright born in Munich in 1830 and died in Frankfurt-am-Main on August 18, 1892, niece of the poet Henriette Ottenheimer. Married to industrialist Leopold Lévi of Esslingen, she first publishes anonymously tales in various periodicals before turning to the theater with the political comedy Der Zweite September, followed by the drama Percy and the libretto of the opera Murillo; her comedies Durch die Intendanz and Die Wiener in Stuttgart enjoy marked success on several German stages.
Friedrich Gustav Jacob Henle is a German anatomist born in Fürth, Bavaria, on July 19, 1809, and died in Göttingen on May 13, 1885, baptized with his parents in his native city. Trained in medicine in Bonn and then Heidelberg under Tiedemann, where he obtained his doctorate in 1832, he became assistant to Johannes Müller in Berlin then privatdozent in 1837 thanks to the support of Alexander von Humboldt, professor in Zurich, then in Heidelberg in 1844, where he succeeded Tiedemann in 1849, and finally in Göttingen from 1852 onwards. He is credited with important discoveries, notably Henle's loops in the kidney.
Sigmund von Henle is a Bavarian deputy born on June 30, 1821 and died in Munich on October 9, 1901, descendant of Löb Berlin, district rabbi of Bamberg from 1789 onwards. Esteemed by King Louis II of Bavaria, he sat from 1873 to 1881 in the Bavarian Diet as a representative of Munich, where he tirelessly defended the rights of his coreligionists. Having become almost blind after his sixtieth year, he then received the Order of Merit of the Crown of Bavaria, which ennobled him, and the title of Privy Councillor.
Eduard Heinrich Hénoch is a German physician born in Berlin on June 16, 1820, doctor of medicine in 1843, specialist in childhood diseases. Assistant at the university dispensary for children until 1850, he becomes privat-docent that year, assistant professor in 1858, then director in 1872 of the Charité pediatric hospital, a position he leaves in 1893 before retiring to Meran until 1898, then to Dresden. He publishes notably Klinik der Unterleibskrankheiten (Berlin, 1852) and Vorlesungen über Kinderkrankheiten (1881), translates into German a work by Budd on liver diseases (1846), and edits Canstatt's Handbuch (1854).
Brother of Ludwig. Director of the Paris branch of the Bank of Credit and Deposit of the Netherlands, he initiated with Edmond Joubert the merger resulting in January 1872 in the Bank of Paris and the Netherlands (Paribas), of which he was one of the seven first directors. Linked to the Bischoffsheim house.
Italian banker, economist, journalist and art collector, naturalized French
German Jewish entrepreneur and art collector (1851-1932)
French rabbi
French chemist, pharmacologist and professor of toxicology, mainly known for being the first to isolate fluorine
French historian, professor at the faculty of letters of Rennes (1893–1920), specialist in the economic and social history of France, particularly the 18th century. He was one of the founders of the Human Rights League, of which he was long a member of the central committee and vice-president. Lecture hall B7 of the University Rennes 2 bears his name.
Amos Henriques is an English physician born in Jamaica in 1812 and died on June 5, 1880. Having gone to study medicine in London in 1830, then in Paris in 1833, and in Italy in 1834, he practices in Athens and then in Constantinople, where he is charged with organizing the medical service of the Ottoman army, a mission interrupted by the Turkish defeat at Nezib in 1839, which leaves him a prisoner and then wandering without resources until Egypt. Returning to England in 1840, he then practices seven years in Jamaica before returning to practice in London, where he publishes in 1849 several pamphlets on cholera; he is decorated with the Ottoman order of the Medjidié.
David Quixano Henriques is an Anglo-Jewish reformer born on May 13, 1804 and died in London on March 6, 1870, son of Abraham Q. Henriques. Administrator of the City Bank and the Bank of Australasia, active from his youth at the Portuguese synagogue of which he was one of the managers, he counts among the principal founders of the West London Synagogue, of which he is treasurer from 1847 to 1862.
Jacob Quixano Henriques is an Antillean merchant born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, in 1811, and died in London on October 17, 1898, son of Abraham Q. Henriques and partner of his brother David in the Henriques Brothers house. Founder in Jamaica of a Jewish school for boys and girls, he settled in London shortly after 1840 and actively participated in the founding of the West London Synagogue, of which he was a warden in 1856 and from 1861 to 1864 and whose council he chaired from 1882. He withdrew from business in 1864 in favor of his son, and subsequently chaired the London Chartered Bank of Australia.
Robert Martin Henriques is a Danish musician, composer, and writer born in Copenhagen on December 14, 1858, trained in violoncello by Bendix and Neruda and then, from 1877 onward, in Dresden under Grützmacher and Kretschmer. He performs in concert in Berlin, Leipzig, Hanover, Dresden, and Paris, composes for violoncello, piano, and orchestra, including the overture Olaf Tryggvason performed in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Berlin, and publishes with Oscar Madsen several novels of local color, including Ved Højen Mast (1892) and Studentens Glade Liv (1893); he is also a music critic in Copenhagen.
American rabbi
Descendant of a Frankfurt Jewish family established in London in the early 19th century (grandson, through his mother, of Mayer Amschel Rothschild). Lawyer (Inner Temple, 1863), Conservative MP, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (1888–1892). Long active in the Jewish community as president of the Anglo-Jewish Association (1872–1886), fellow of the Royal Society. He subsequently converted to Christianity after the Christian marriage of his daughter.
politician and former Democratic Governor of Illinois
American rabbi
American politician
American diplomat
American rabbi
American rabbi
Polish rabbi
Michael Henry is an English journalist and mechanic born in Kennington, London, on February 19, 1830, and died in London on June 15, 1875. Employed in Paris from 1844, he founds in 1847 the General Benevolent Association, establishes himself in 1857 as a patent agent, assists Doctor Benisch at the Jewish Chronicle before becoming its editor-in-chief upon his departure in 1868, and devotes himself notably to the Jewish schools of Stepney. His essays were collected after his death under the title Life Thoughts (1875).
Polish Jewish sculptor, active in Kraków and Paris, died during the Shoah.
Georg Henschel is a German composer and baritone born on February 18, 1850 in Breslau, trained under Wandelt and Schäffer and, from 1867 onwards, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Wenzel and Moscheles. He settled in England in 1877, became conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1881 until 1884, settled permanently in London in 1885, where he founded the London Symphony Concerts, and taught singing from 1886 to 1888 at the Royal College of Music. Among his works are the oratorio Stabat Mater, premiered at the Birmingham festival in 1894, and the opera Nubia, premiered in Dresden in 1899.
Adolf Hepner is a German-American journalist born in Schmiegel, in the province of Posen, on November 24, 1846, trained at the rabbinical seminary of Breslau. Having become a socialist in 1868, he is accused of high treason but acquitted in 1872, then settled in Breslau. He emigrates to the United States in 1882 and settles in 1886 in Saint Louis, where he directs until 1897 the St. Louis Tageblatt then the Westliche Post, while also writing notably the one-act play Good Night, Schatz (1894).
London lawyer specializing in copyright law, editor of the Law Journal. Leading member of the English Hovevei Zion and founder of the English Zionist Federation (1899). He led the first Zionist pilgrimage to Palestine (1897) and settled in Palestine in 1929.
American political figure
From the Anglo-Jewish Samuel family (Samuel Montagu bank). Minister (Home Secretary), he was the first High Commissioner of mandate Palestine (1920-1925) and leader of the Liberal Party (1931-1935). President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (1931-1959), he popularized philosophy in several works: Practical Ethics (1935), Belief and Action (1937), Essays in Physics (1951), In Search of Reality (1957), and A Threefold Cord (1961).
American Marxist philosopher and sociologist of German origin
Austrian Jewish publisher and refugee from Nazis (1899-1971)
American rabbi
Móric Herczeghy is a Hungarian physician and author born in Budapest on August 19, 1815 and died in Vienna on December 23, 1884. He studied medicine in Budapest and Vienna, took part in the 1848 revolution in the latter city, then went to Paris and, in 1860, to Italy, where he became chief physician in Garibaldi's army. Returned to Hungary in 1865, he left again in 1868 for Constantinople, where he served as chief military physician for eight years. His political writings include Weder Deutsch noch Russisch, Sondern Oesterreichisch (Vienna, 1849) and Mein Tagebuch (1850).
Manó Herczel de Szentpéteri is a Hungarian physician born in Szeged on July 1, 1861, trained successively in Szeged, Novi Sad, Budapest, Vienna, Strasbourg and Paris. Doctor of medicine in 1884, he practiced for two years at Nothnagel's clinic in Vienna and then for five years as Czerny's assistant in Heidelberg, where he became privat-docent of surgery in 1889, before being appointed in 1892 head of the department at Szent István Hospital in Budapest, specialized in kidney diseases. In 1902, Emperor Francis Joseph I elevated him to Hungarian nobility under the name « Szentpéteri ».
American educator
New Zealand rabbi and philanthropist (1849–1930)
Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911
German businessman and father of Albert Einstein
German writer
Jewish German physician (1817–1884)
British rabbi
German-Jewish novelist and editor, a leading figure of the New Objectivity literary movement. Born in Pidvolochysk (Austro-Hungarian Empire) to a Jewish merchant family, he fled Germany in 1933, worked for the Amsterdam publisher Allert de Lange helping banned and exiled writers, then emigrated to New York in 1940.
German musician
German orientalist (1825-1875)
docteur en philosophie, rabbin et journaliste allemand (1882–1954)
German internist (1868-1944)
German rabbi
German rabbi
Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl, born in Elmshorn in 1885, doctorate at Göttingen in 1908 under David Hilbert whose successor he became in 1930. One of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century (group theory, general relativity, quantum mechanics, foundations of mathematics). He left Germany in 1933 and joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
Ludimar Hermann is a German physiologist born in Berlin on October 21, 1838, doctorate in medicine from Berlin in 1859. He practices in his native city and becomes in 1865 a privat-docent at the university, before being appointed in 1868 professor of physiology in Zurich and then, in 1884, in Königsberg. Author of a Lehrbuch der Physiologie (12th ed., Berlin, 1900) and a Handbuch der Physiologie in six volumes (Leipzig, 1879), he also founded in 1873 the Physiologische Jahresberichte.
German classical archaeologist (1898–1989)
Léon Herrmann is a French painter born in Paris on July 12, 1853, a student of the École des beaux-arts in Paris. He exhibited his first painting, A Bout d'Argument, at the Salon of 1875, followed in 1876 by La Bonne Histoire, and became from then on a regular exhibitor at the Salon. Among his works are Le Scandale du Jour (1877), Au Rendez-Vous (1887), Le Goûter (1889) and Au Cabaret (1896).
British jurist of Galician Jewish origin, holder of the Whewell Professorship of International Law at Cambridge (1938–1955) and later judge at the International Court of Justice (1955–1960). Founding figure in international human rights law; his parents, brothers and sisters were murdered by the Nazis in 1942. The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge bears his name.
Lord Farrer Herschell is an English politician and magistrate, Lord Chancellor of England, born in 1837 and died on March 1, 1899, son of the Reverend Ridley H. Herschell. Educated at University College London and the University of Bonn, graduated from the University of London in 1857, admitted to the bar in 1860, became Queen's Counsel in 1872, then Member of Parliament for Durham from 1874 to 1885, Solicitor General of Gladstone's government in 1880, before being made a baron and appointed Lord Chancellor in 1886. He died suddenly in Washington, United States, while serving on the commission charged with settling the Alaska boundary dispute.
Ridley Haim Herschell is a missionary to the Jews born in Strzelno, in Prussian Poland, on April 7, 1807, and died in Brighton on April 14, 1864, son of Jewish parents, trained at the University of Berlin in 1822 and baptized in England by the Bishop of London in 1830. He directs schools and a missionary work in Leigh (Essex) and Brampton (Suffolk) from 1835 to 1838, opens in that same year a non-denominational chapel in London, transferred in 1846 to the Trinity Chapel on Edgeware Road, and founds in 1845 the British Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Jews and the Evangelical Alliance.
Physicist and chemist, pioneer of quantum mechanics and molecular physics.
Joseph Herman Hertz is an American rabbi born in Rebrin, in the county of Zemplén, Hungary, on September 25, 1872, trained at the College of the City of New York, Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. On June 15, 1894, he becomes rabbi of the Adath Jeshurun congregation in Syracuse, a position he holds until August 11, 1898, when he takes over the direction of the Witwatersrand Old Hebrew Congregation in Johannesburg, South Africa. During the South African War, he is expelled from the Transvaal by the Boer government for protesting measures against Jews, before returning to resume his duties after the British occupation.
Joseph Hertzberg was a Russian author born in Moghilev, on the Dniester, in the early nineteenth century, and died in that city in 1870. Mastering German, French and English in addition to Russian, he collaborated with numerous Hebrew periodicals and translated into Hebrew several works, notably Mendelssohn's Morgenstunden, under the title Mo'ade Shaḥar (Leipzig, 1845), and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's The Harmony of Nature, under the title Sullam ha-Ṭeba' (Wilna, 1850), as well as excerpts from Kant's Kritik der Reinen Vernunft and Graetz's Geschichte der Juden, leaving at his death in manuscript a collection of poems titled Alummat Yosef.
Theodor Hertzka is an Austrian economist and journalist born on 13 July 1845 in Budapest, trained at the universities of Vienna and Budapest. Member of the editorial board of the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna from 1872, he founded in 1879 the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, which he directed until 1886, and was nicknamed the « Austrian Bellamy » for his anticipation novel Freiland, ein Soziales Zukunftsbild (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1890). He is also the author of several works of economics, including Das Wesen des Geldes (Leipzig, 1887), in which he advocates the introduction of the gold standard in Austria.
Estella Dorothea Salomea Hertzveld is a Dutch poetess born in The Hague on July 14, 1837 and died in Arnhem on November 4, 1881, granddaughter of Chief Rabbi H. J. Hertzveld of Zwolle. Under the influence of poet Wilhuys, she published in 1852 her first important poem, Elias in de Woestijn, in the Israëlietische Jaarboekje, then made many other biblical poems appear there, including God Redt (1856), written for the benefit of flood victims. Sincerely religious, she continued her poetic work until the eve of her death, having published in The Hague in October 1881 a collection dedicated to her children a few weeks before her death.
German artist
Cornelius Herz was a French electrician born in Besançon in 1848 and died in Bournemouth, England, on July 6, 1898, son of German immigrants. After studying medicine in Germany, he settled in Paris and served in the Army of the Loire during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870; he then emigrated to the United States, became naturalized and founded an electrical company in San Francisco, before returning to Paris in 1877 to develop electrical lighting business, which earned him appointment as Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1880. Implicated in the Panama Canal scandal, he fled to Italy then Germany before finding refuge in England.
Henri Herz is an Austrian pianist born in Vienna on 6 January 1806 and died in Paris on 5 January 1888. Trained first by his father in Coblence then by Hünten, he entered in 1816 the Paris Conservatory, where he obtained the first prize for piano, and underwent in 1820 the influence of the Paris concerts of Moscheles. In 1831, he accompanies violinist Lafont to Germany, gives in 1838 a series of concerts in England, Ireland and Scotland, then becomes professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory; in 1845, he undertakes a concert tour through the United States, Mexico, the Antilles, Peru and Chile, before returning to Paris in 1851, where he founds a piano manufactory.
Jacob Herz is a German physician born in Bayreuth on February 2, 1816 and died in Erlangen on September 27, 1871, doctor of medicine from the University of Erlangen in 1839. He established himself as a physician in Erlangen, became in 1841 assistant at the university's surgical clinic, then, despite the impossibility of being appointed privatdozent because of his religion, gave free lectures there; appointed prosector in 1847, he became in 1862 privatdozent with the title of professor, then assistant professor in 1863, and full professor in 1869. Very active as a surgeon during the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, he practiced again during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
Leo Herzberg-Fränkel is an Austrian writer born in Brody, Galicia, on September 19, 1827. After a one-year stay in Bessarabia at seventeen, he publishes Bilder aus Russland und Bessarabien and contributes to Wertheimer's Jahrbuch für Israeliten, then joins Vienna after the 1848 revolution, where he works for Saphir's Humorist then for the Oesterreichischer Lloyd, before becoming one of the editors of the Reichszeitung; in 1856, he is appointed head of the bureau of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Brody, a position he holds for forty years. Among his principal publications are Polnische Juden (1866), translated into French, Polish, Russian and Hebrew.
Sigmund Herzberg-Fränkel is an Austrian historian born in Brody, Galicia, on March 7, 1857, son of Leo Herzberg-Fränkel. He studied law at the University of Vienna from 1874, then history at Leipzig, Berlin, and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1880, before becoming in 1887 privat-docent of medieval history at the University of Vienna, then assistant professor in 1893 and professor of general history at the University of Czernowitz in 1895. Among his works are Die Aeltesten Land- und Gottesfrieden in Deutschland (1883) and Gesch. der Deutschen Reichskanzlei, 1246-1313 (1885).
Grigori Markovitch Herzenstein was a Russian physician born in Saint Petersburg in 1851 and died in that city in 1899. Graduate of the Medico-Surgical Academy of Saint Petersburg in 1874, he became associate professor of medical geography and statistics there from 1887; his principal work is his doctoral thesis, Sifilis v Rossii (Saint Petersburg, 1885), and he collaborated on the Medical Encyclopedia of Eilenburg and Afanassiev, directing its department of medical geography and statistics.
Solomon Markovitch Herzenstein is a Russian zoologist born in 1854 and died in 1894, graduate of natural sciences and mathematics from the University of Saint Petersburg. Appointed in 1880 curator of the zoological museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, he was tasked on three occasions, in 1880, 1884, and 1887, with studying the mollusks and fish of the Murman coast of the Kola peninsula, from which he produced a work that became classic, Materialy k Faunye Murmanskavo Berega i Byelavo Morya (Saint Petersburg, 1885), as well as other works published from 1888 onwards.
Albrecht Herzfeld is an Austrian actor born on June 7, 1840 in Vienna, son of Adolf Herzfeld. After training at the gymnasium of his native city and an apprenticeship in commerce, he abandoned, like his father, mercantile life for the theater, debuting in Linz in 1857 and taking part as a volunteer in the Austro-Italian war of 1859, before holding theatrical engagements in Brünn, Leipzig, at the Hoftheater in Mannheim, at the Stadttheater in Leipzig in 1877, at the Stadttheater in Vienna in 1878 and at the Hoftheater in Stuttgart in 1879. He left the stage in 1889, settled in Carinthia, then in Regensburg in 1900, where he devoted himself to dramatic writing.
Jacob Herzfeld is a German chemist born in Mülheim, near Cologne, on June 17, 1859, trained at the gymnasium and the higher technical school of Charlottenburg then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1886. In 1885, he became director of the dyeing department of the royal school of weaving and dyeing in Mülheim, took over the general management in 1892, then joined the publishing house Fischer's Technologischer Verlag in Berlin, where he founded the Electrochemische Zeitung, before settling in Cologne in 1895 and residing in Fürth, Bavaria, from 1900. Specialist in dyeing and weaving, he published several works on these techniques.
Siegmund Herzl is an Austrian merchant and novelist born in Vienna on May 26, 1830 and died in that city on February 9, 1889. He publishes notably Liederbuch eines Dorfpoeten (1853), Lieder eines Gefangenen (1874) and Prager Elegien (1880), and also translates the poems of Petőfi; he retires from business in 1885.
Jakob Herzog is an Austrian writer born in Misslitz, Moravia, on June 17, 1842, trained in Brünn, Vienna and Graz. Secretary of the Jewish community of Vienna for nearly two years, he directs from 1870 the Montags-Revue of Vienna, founded with Michael Klapp, and becomes known as a dramatic author with plays such as Fischer von Helgoland (German theater of Prague, 1888), Die Rose (Burgtheater of Vienna, 1891) and Kaufmann aus Tyrol (1893).
Moses Hess, called Moritz, is a Jewish socialist and nationalist born in Bonn on June 21, 1812 and died in Paris on April 6, 1875, buried in the Jewish cemetery of Cologne. Largely self-taught, he became very early an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, evolved from national liberalism toward democracy then social democracy alongside Marx and Engels, and exercised with Karl Grün an anarchist influence by spreading Proudhon's theories; the Damascus affair reawakened in him interest in the Jewish cause and the idea of the indestructibility of Jewish nationality, though he found little echo among his socialist comrades at the time. After the February Revolution of 1848, he withdrew to France.
Albert Hessberg is an American lawyer born in Albany, New York, on 13 December 1856. Trained in the office of Rufus W. Peckham, future judge of the United States Supreme Court, he became his partner in the firm Peckham, Rosendale & Hessberg, continued his association with Rosendale after Peckham's appointment to the bench, served as assistant city prosecutor from 1883 to 1886, then as commissioner charged with revising the city's laws and ordinances in 1887. Elected clerk-registrar of Albany in 1888, he was reelected in 1892 and served until 1896, holding moreover numerous civic offices in Albany.
Joseph Hevesi is a Hungarian novelist and journalist born March 15, 1857, trained at the lyceum of Kecskemét and at the University of Budapest, and regarded as one of the most prominent novelists in Hungary. Among his works are Ibolyák (1879), A Malom Alatt (1879), Névjegyek Janka Asztalára (1880), Vig Elbeszélések (1883) and Hamis Gyémántok (1886), translated into German as Falsche Diamanten (Zurich, 1890). He also directs several Hungarian periodicals, including Magyar Szalon from 1884, the weekly Magyar Geniusz from 1892 and the monthly review Otthon from 1894.
Ludwig Hevesi is a Hungarian journalist and writer born on December 20, 1843 in Heves, Hungary. After studying medicine and classical philology in Budapest and Vienna, he became a journalist and writer from 1865 onwards, collaborated from 1866 with the Pester Lloyd then with the Breslauer Zeitung, settled in 1875 in Vienna as editor of the arts department of the Wiener Fremdenblatt, and founded with some friends the Hungarian humorous magazine Borsszem Jankó. A prolific author in both German and Hungarian, he notably published Sie Sollen Ihn Nicht Haben (Leipzig, 1871), Budapest (1873) and numerous other tales and art criticism until the end of the century.
Heinrich Heydemann was a German archaeologist born in Greifswald on August 28, 1842, and died in Halle on October 10, 1889, trained in classical philology and archaeology at the universities of Tübingen, Bonn, Greifswald, and Berlin, where he received his diploma in 1865. After an essay on Greek vase painting published in 1866, he traveled to Italy and Greece, devoting himself thereafter to the study of ancient vases, became in 1869 a docent of archaeology at the University of Berlin, and in 1874 a professor at Halle. Among his works are Griechische Vasenbilder (Berlin, 1870), Die Vasensammlungen des Museo Nazionale zu Neapel (1872), Terrakotten aus dem Museo Nazionale zu Neapel (1882).
Salomon Heydenfeldt is an American jurist born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1816, and died in San Francisco on September 15, 1890. Departing for Alabama at twenty-one, he is admitted to the bar there and practices for several years in Tallapoosa County, before leaving this state because of his views on slavery to settle in San Francisco in 1850. From 1852 to 1857, he is associate justice of the California Supreme Court, elected by direct suffrage — a first for a Jew — and counts among the most esteemed magistrates of his time; democratic politician with southern sympathies, he supports Breckinridge against Lincoln.
Elias Heyman is a Swedish physician born in Göteborg in 1829 and died in 1889, trained at Lund and then at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He practices medicine in Göteborg from 1862 to 1878, contributes to the development of the « Göteborg system » of alcohol regulation and founds several hygienist institutions, before being appointed in 1878 professor of hygiene at the Karolinska Institutet; he directs in Stockholm the medical journal Hygeia and publishes notably on vital statistics (1877), sanitation (1877) and ventilation (1880), before dying suddenly while delivering a lecture on this subject.
Isaac H. Heymann is a Dutch cantor and composer born around 1834, son of Phinchas Heymann. After several tours in Hungary, he serves successively as cantor in Filehne, Graudenz and Gnesen before becoming in 1856 chief cantor in Amsterdam, a position he still holds in 1903. He publishes in 1898 the collection Shire Todah la-El, dedicated to Queen Wilhelmine on the day of her coronation; his son Karl Heymann is pianist and composer, and his three daughters, Louise, Sophia and Johanne, are also musicians.
Karl Heymann is a German pianist born in Filehne, Posen, on October 6, 1853, son of Isaac H. Heymann. Trained at the Cologne Conservatory under Hiller, Gernsheim and Breuning, then in Berlin under Friedrich Kiel, he becomes a renowned pianist before health problems force him to give up the concert stage; in 1872, he accompanies Wilhelmj on tour and then becomes musical director in Prague, before being appointed court pianist to the landgrave of Hesse and, from 1877 to 1880, professor of piano at Dr. Hoch's conservatory in Frankfurt-on-Main.
Paul Heymann is a German laryngologist born in Pankow, near Berlin, in 1849, trained in medicine at Berlin and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1874. After an advanced training internship at Heidelberg, Vienna, Prague, and Tübingen, he established himself in 1878 in Berlin, where he became privatdozent in 1894 and assistant professor in 1899. Author of numerous articles on laryngoscopy, tuberculosis, and diseases of the nose and throat, he also directs the Handbuch der Laryngologie und Rhinologie (Berlin, 1896-1900).
Isidor Hilberg is an Austrian philologist born on May 28, 1852 in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, then in Russia. Having moved to Vienna with his parents in 1856, he studied classical philology there under Vahlen, Gomperz, Hoffmann and Hartel, obtained his doctorate in 1874, perfected his studies in Italy in 1875, became a private lecturer in classical philology at the University of Vienna in 1877, assistant professor in Prague in 1879, then professor at the University of Czernowitz in 1882, of which he was rector in 1898. He notably published Die Gesetze der Wortstellung im Pentameter des Ovid (Leipzig, 1894).
Mathematician, first woman appointed in mathematics at the University of Berlin.
Israël Hildesheimer is a German rabbi, leader of Orthodox Judaism, born in Halberstadt on May 20, 1820 and died in Berlin on July 12, 1899, son of R. Löb Glée Hildesheimer. Trained at the Hasharat-Ẓewi school in Halberstadt and then, at seventeen, at the talmudic school of Rabbi Ettlinger in Altona, he returned in 1840 to Halberstadt, obtained his diploma at the Dom gymnasium and entered the University of Berlin, before continuing his studies in Halle under Gesenius and Roediger, where he obtained his doctorate in 1844. Back in Halberstadt, he married Henrietta Hirsch, then was called in 1851 to the rabbinate of Eisenstadt, in Hungary, where he founded a parish school and then a rabbinical school.
Hillel b. Zebi Hirsch Mileikovsky, known as Hillel Salauter, is a Russian rabbi born in Zaretché, a suburb of Vilna, in 1819, and died in Mstislavl, in the governorate of Moghilev, on June 1, 1899. Having become rabbi of Kreve, in the governorate of Vilna, at the age of twenty-five, he then served successively in Salaty, Ponyevej, Shklov, Khaslavitch, and finally in Mstislavl, where he is regarded as one of the most eminent rabbis in Russia; in 1894, he was chosen as a member of the rabbinical commission whose sessions he attended in Saint-Petersburg. He left a manuscript work that his grandson, Moses Mendel of Vilna, undertook to prepare for publication.
Hebrew poet from America, professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Hungarian rabbi
Genealogist and historian born in Vilna, descendant of R. Saul Wahl Katzenellenbogen. He owed the first part of his name (« Maggid ») to his grandfather Phinehas, maggid (preacher) of Vilna, the second (« Steinschneider ») to his profession as a stonemason. His major work, « Ir Vilna », assembles biographies of more than three hundred rabbis, preachers and notables of the city.
Ukrainian rabbi
rabbi and author
Polish writer
Édouard Hiller is a German philologist, nephew of Ferdinand Hiller, born in Frankfurt am Main on 14 April 1844 and died in Halle on 7 March 1891. Educated at the universities of Bonn and Göttingen, where he received his doctorate in 1865, he taught at the Kortegarn institute in Bonn until 1868, became privat-docent in Bonn in 1869, then professor of classical philology in Greifswald in 1874, before joining Halle. His principal works include Quæstiones Herodianæ (Bonn, 1866), Eratosthenis Carminum Reliquiæ (Leipzig, 1872) and Albii Tibulli Elegiæ (1885); he also edited Fritzsche's Theocritus and Bergk's Poetæ Lyrici Græci.
Ferdinand Hiller is a German composer and music writer born in Frankfurt am Main on October 24, 1811 and died in Cologne on May 10, 1885. Child prodigy trained by Hofmann, Aloys Schmitt and Vollweiler, he played a Mozart concerto in public at the age of ten and composed from age twelve, then accompanied his teacher Hummel to Vienna. In 1828, he settled in Paris, where he taught at Choron's Music Institution; returning to Germany, he directed in 1836 the concerts of the Cäcilien-Verein in Frankfurt, left in 1838 for Italy, where his opera Romilda premiered at the Scala in Milan in 1839, then triumphed in Leipzig with his oratorio Die Zerstörung Jerusalems.
Yiddish memoirist of Galicia, murdered at Belzec.
Croatian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Romanian rabbi
German journalist
rabbin
Father of Konstantin, described as a Hebrew-language poet, documented founding member of the Zhitomirsky Jewish family in Ukraine (Bakhmout, Mariupol).
Albert Hirsch is an Austrian playwright born in Vienna on June 29, 1841. First a schoolteacher, he turns to the stage, notably at the variety theater of the Josefstadt, before devoting himself to popular songs and theater, where he distinguishes himself in particular by plays on Jewish life, performed with success in Austria as abroad by a troupe he organizes himself. He writes more than two hundred popular plays and also composes the music for his works, widely inspired by Jewish melodies.
Alphonse Hirsch is a French painter born in Paris in 1843 and died in that city on July 15, 1884, student of Meissonier and Bonnat, first a draftsman and engraver before establishing himself notably as a colorist. A regular exhibitor at annual salons, he authored paintings such as La Corde au Cou, Le Premier-Né, and La Convalescente, as well as portraits, including those of Isidor, Grand Rabbi of France, in 1877, of Octave Feuillet in 1878, of Alfred Naquet in 1880, and of Ernest Daudet in 1881.
August Hirsch is a German physician and medical historian born in Danzig on October 4, 1817 and died in Berlin on January 28, 1894. After a few years in commerce, he undertook medical studies in Leipzig in 1839, completed them in Berlin in 1843, and established himself as a physician in Elbing and then Danzig, devoting himself to research in geographical pathology with a view to entering Anglo-Indian service; his results appeared in the Hamburger Medizinische Zeitschrift in 1848. His Handbuch der Historisch-Geographischen Pathologie (Erlangen, 1859) became a reference work for military physicians.
Baron Maurice de Hirsch is a German philanthropist born in Munich on December 9, 1831 and died near Érsekújvár, in Hungary, on April 21, 1896, eldest son of Joseph von Hirsch and grandson of Jacob von Hirsch, founders of the family fortune. Trained in Munich and Brussels, he received from his mother, born Caroline Wertheimer of Frankfurt, a solid Hebrew and religious education, and married in 1855 Clara, eldest daughter of Senator Raphaël Bischoffsheim, of the banking house Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt of Brussels. Having inherited a considerable fortune from his father and grandfather, further increased by his wife's dowry, he launched into railway enterprises in Austria.
Clara de Hirsch, Baroness de Hirsch-Gereuth, is the wife of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, born in Antwerp on 13 June 1833 and died in Paris on 1 April 1899, niece through her mother of the president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle Salomon H. Goldschmidt. An accomplished linguist, trained as her father's secretary, she married Baron de Hirsch in 1855 and lived successively in Munich, Brussels and Paris; at the death of their son Lucien in 1887, she never recovered from this grief and became, after her husband's death in 1896, the administrator of his immense fortune, which she had helped to direct toward philanthropy.
David Hirsch is a German teacher for the deaf-mute born in Müntz, in the Rhineland Palatinate, on May 23, 1813, and died in Rotterdam on February 2, 1895. Trained at institutes for the deaf-mute in Crefeld then Cologne, he was appointed at twenty-five director of a school for deaf-mutes in Aachen, then called in 1847 to Rotterdam as a private tutor, where he founded on May 23, 1853 the first Dutch school for oral teaching of the deaf-mute, which he directed until 1887. From this school came several teachers who disseminated his oral method throughout Europe; the Dutch government awarded him the order of the Lion of the Netherlands and France made him Officer of the Academy.
Fischl Hirsch is a Hebrew-specialized bookseller who died in Berlin on June 5, 1899. Settled around 1860 in Halberstadt, where he founded a Jewish printing and publishing enterprise before devoting himself entirely to the sale of Hebrew books and manuscripts, he quickly acquires vast knowledge of this literature and, despite near-total blindness, travels relentlessly to collect precious printed works and manuscripts that he resells to the major Hebrew libraries of Europe, notably the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, and the Rosenthal Library in Amsterdam. He settles around 1885 in Frankfurt am Main, then around 1891 in Berlin.
Franz Arnold Hirsch is an Austrian dramatist and writer born in Horitz, Bohemia, on June 15, 1815, and died in Vienna on November 24, 1896. After studying medicine at the University of Vienna, he practiced successfully as a homeopath until 1852, when he abandoned medicine for literature; married to Sophie Wehle, he traveled several years between Dresden, Florence, Rome, Paris and London before settling permanently in Paris in 1861. Under the pseudonym "Eginhard Quelle", he published numerous essays, short stories and novels, as well as theatrical pieces including Der Familien-Diplomat (1859), premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Gaston Hirsch is a French dramatic author born in Metz in 1830. Among his principal plays are La Marquise des Rues, to music by Hervé (1879), L'Affaire de Viroflay and Fanfreluche (1883), Fla-Fla (1886) and Benvenuto, to music by Diaz (1890), as well as Au-Delà du Rêve, to music by Massenet (1903). He is also the author of works such as Les Lagunes et le Tibre (1862), Téhéran (1862), Le Roman de Deux Femmes (1887) and Quelqu'un (1889).
Jenny Hirsch is a German writer and women's rights activist born on 25 November 1829 in Zerbst, Anhalt, and died on 9 March 1902 in Berlin. After the death of her parents, she taught in her native city and was called in 1860 to Berlin to collaborate on the women's magazine Der Bazar, a position she held until 1864 before devoting herself to an independent literary career; she participated in the first feminist congress in Leipzig, from which the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein was born, and joined the Lette-Verein, whose history she published in 1891. Among her works is a translation of John Stuart Mill, Die Hörigkeit der Frau (1892).
Joseph von Hirsch is a German banker, father of Maurice de Hirsch, born on July 2, 1805 in Würzburg and died on December 9, 1885 in Munich. After his studies, he entered the paternal bank and took its direction in 1841 upon the death of his father; principal architect of the construction of the Bavarian Ostbahn, member of the central committee for the promotion of forestry, he was also administrator of several charitable institutions and, during the cholera epidemic of 1854, contributed significantly to relieving the victims by creating hospitals and financing their operation.
Salomon Hirsch is an American merchant, diplomat and politician, son of Samson Hirsch and Ella Kuhn, born in Württemberg on 25 March 1839. Leaving for the United States at fifteen years of age, he settles in 1858 in Oregon, then in 1864 in Portland, where he directs a large commercial establishment. Elected in 1872 to the State legislative assembly, then State senator in 1874, reelected in 1878 and 1882, he presides over the State senate in 1880, before being appointed in 1889 by President Harrison as United States minister to Turkey, a position he holds until his resignation in 1892.
Samuel Hirsch is an American rabbi born in Thalfang, near Trier, in Rhenish Prussia, on June 8, 1815, and died in Chicago on May 14, 1889, trained at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig. Appointed in 1838 rabbi of the congregation of Dessau, he resigned in 1841 because of his advanced ideas, published in 1843 Die Messias-Lehre der Juden and Religionsphilosophie der Juden, the same year he was appointed chief rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by the King of Holland, a position he held until 1866; he actively participated in the rabbinical conferences of Brunswick (1844), Frankfurt-on-Main (1845), and Breslau (1846).
Siegfried Hirsch is a German historian born in Berlin on November 5, 1816 and died in Paris on September 11, 1860, cousin of Theodor Hirsch. He studies history at the universities of Berlin and Königsberg from 1833 to 1836, publishes in 1834 a prize-winning essay on Henry I, then in 1837, with Waitz, Die Echtheit der Chronik von Korvei; his first major work, De Vita et Scriptis Sigiberti, appeared in Berlin in 1841, the year following his appointment as privat-docent at the University of Berlin in 1842. Converted like Stahl, he actively interests himself in the purification of the Church and contributes regularly to the Kreuzzeitung. His major work, the Geschichte Heinrich II, remained unfinished at his death.
Theodor Hirsch is a German historian born on December 17, 1806 in Altschottland, near Danzig, and died on February 17, 1881. Trained in theology, history and geography in Berlin after converting to Christianity, he becomes professor at the Friedrich-Wilhelm gymnasium then, in 1833, holds a similar position in Danzig, where he teaches history for thirty-two years. Passionate about the history of his native city, he is entrusted in 1850 by the municipal council with the reorganization and supervision of the city's archives; his principal work, Danzigs Handels- und Gewerbegeschichte, appears in Leipzig in 1858.
Ernst Hirschberg is a German statistician born 8 March 1859 in Königsberg, in East Prussia. Trained in his native city, where he obtained his diploma in 1882, he is employed at the Statistical Bureau of the city of Berlin, of which he becomes assistant director in 1902 and director in 1903, while also directing the Statistical Bureau of the city of Charlottenburg; the title of professor is conferred upon him by the government. Among his works are Arbeiterversicherungszwang (Berlin, 1882), Trennung der Alters- und Invaliden-Versicherung (1889) and Die Soziale Lage der Arbeitenden Klassen in Berlin (1897).
Count of Oscarre born in 1838, Italian diplomat from the Trieste branch of the illustrious Jewish family Minerbi.
Isaac M. Hirschensohn is a talmudist and bibliophile of Jerusalem born in Pinsk, in the government of Minsk, Russia, in 1844. At the age of three, he accompanied his father, Jacob Mordekhaï Hirschensohn, to Jerusalem, where he received his Talmudic education. A passionate bibliophile, he built a precious Hebrew library and founded a printing establishment to publish rare manuscripts, including the work of Nissim bar Reuben on the Meguila treatise (Jerusalem, 1883), the Bet ha-Beḥirah by Menahem bar Salomon of Perpignan on the Yoma treatise (1884) and a collection of responsa in favor of agriculture during the year of Shmita (1887).
Hartwig Hirschfeld is an English orientalist born in Thorn, Prussia, trained in Posen and then at the universities of Berlin and Strasbourg, and finally in Paris under Derenbourg. In 1887, he edits the Kuzari of Juda ha-Lévi in Arabic and Hebrew and translates it into German; professor of biblical exegesis, Semitic languages, and philosophy at Montefiore College in Ramsgate, England, from 1889 to 1896, he subsequently becomes master of Semitic languages and sub-librarian at Jews' College in London, a post he still held in 1903. He publishes numerous articles on Arabic and Jewish subjects, as well as the New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Koran (1901).
Ludwik Maurycy Hirschfeld is a Polish anatomist born in Nadarzyn, in the Government of Warsaw, in 1816, and died in Warsaw in 1876. Trained in the Talmud in his childhood, he goes to Berlin at seventeen, where he makes his living as a violinist, then to Paris, where he becomes assistant caretaker at the Sorbonne's anatomical institute; noticed by Professor Orfila for his skill in anatomical preparation, he is enabled to study medicine and obtains his doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1853. Assistant at the anatomical institute until 1857, then at Rostan's clinic from 1857 to 1859, he is appointed in 1859 professor of descriptive anatomy at the medico-surgical academy of Warsaw.
Otto Hirschfeld is a German historian, epigrapher and archaeologist born on March 16, 1843 in Königsberg, Prussia. Trained in philology and history at the universities of Königsberg and Bonn, where he obtained his doctorate in 1863, he spent two years in Italy, obtained in 1869 the right to teach at Göttingen University, where he had himself baptized, then was called in 1872 to Prague University as professor of ancient history, and in 1875 to Vienna as professor of ancient history, archaeology and epigraphy. In 1885, he joined Berlin University as professor of ancient history, a position he still holds in 1903.
Robert Hirschfeld is an Austrian writer on music born on September 17, 1857 in Moravia, educated at the universities of Breslau and Vienna as well as at the Conservatory of the latter city, where he teaches from 1882 onward, obtains his doctorate in 1884 and subsequently becomes professor of musical aesthetics. He is the author of Joh. de Muris (1884) and Das Kritische Verfahren E. Hanslicks (3rd ed., 1885), a polemical pamphlet directed against Hanslick in defense of ancient a cappella music, whose promotion leads him to found the Renaissance Abende; he also prepares an edition of the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein and of Schubert's Vierjährige Posten (1897).
Joseph Oakland Hirschfelder is an American physician born in Oakland, California, on September 8, 1854, trained in San Francisco then at the universities of Würzburg, Berlin, Vienna and Leipzig, where he obtained his doctorate in 1876. Upon his return to America, he settles in San Francisco and develops there an important practice; he becomes in 1877 professor of materia medica at the University of the Pacific, then in 1881 professor of clinical medicine, before being elected in 1882 to the same chair at Cooper Medical College.
Salomon Hirschfelder is a German genre painter born on May 16, 1832 in Dettensee, near Horb on the Neckar, and died in Munich on May 10, 1903. Student of the Academy of Munich, where he settled in 1853, he is the author of genre paintings such as Scene from the 1871 Campaign, In Prison, Surprised, The Information Bureau, and The Fiancée's Letter.
Hermann Hirschfeldt is a German physician born in Neustettin on July 30, 1825 and died in Colberg on June 17, 1885, doctor of medicine from Greifswald in 1852. After two years of practice in Greifenberg, Pomerania, he settled in 1854 in Colberg, where he practiced until his death and received the title « Sanitätsrath » in 1879; it was partly through his efforts that Colberg became a renowned spa town, which led his fellow citizens to erect a monument to him in 1896. Deeply committed to the Jewish community of Colberg, he founded its Jewish spa hospital, of which he was chief physician for eleven years, and published notably Die Summe Unseres Wissens vom Sool- und Seebade Kolberg (Colberg, 1864).
Adolf Hirschl is a Hungarian painter born in Temesvár, Hungary, on January 31, 1860. Trained from 1874 to 1882 at the Vienna Academy, where he won a traveling fellowship from 1882 to 1884, he settled in Rome in 1893. Among his paintings are The Death of Saint Cecilia, Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps, The Vandals Attacking Rome, The Plague in Rome, Ahasuerus, and The Bridal Procession. Rewarded multiple times at Vienna art exhibitions, notably with the imperial prize in 1891 and the Grand Gold Medal of the State in 1898, he changed his name to Hiremy-Hirschl in 1899.
Hungarian ophthalmologist, born in Pressburg in 1823 and died in Budapest on November 11, 1891. Trained in Vienna and then established in Budapest after two years of practice in Paris, he acquired a reputation as an oculist there and published several works on the effects of alcohol and nicotine on vision. From 1860 until his death, he was the leading intellectual figure in Hungarian Jewish affairs, presiding over the Jewish community of Pest and the Budapest Jewish congress convened in 1868 by Baron Joseph Eötvös, whose close adviser he was.
Russian ophthalmologist born in Goldingen, Courland, in 1839. Trained at the University of Kharkov, he worked in the laboratories of Graefe, Helmholtz, Jäger, Knapp and Pagenstecher, before being appointed docent at the University of Kharkov in 1868, then professor in 1872.
French composer born in Saint-Mandé on April 30, 1873, student of André Gedalge and then, for two years, of Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire. He is the author of an oratorio, « Ahasuerus », crowned by the Institut de France at the Rossini Competition and performed at Conservatoire concerts in 1892, as well as several operas and ballets given at the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique and the Olympia Theatre between 1896 and 1899.
Danish industrialist and art collector born in Copenhagen on 7 February 1836, son of Abraham Marcus Hirschsprung, founder in 1826 of one of the largest tobacco factories in Denmark, of which he remained owner. His vast collection of paintings, pastels and watercolors was exhibited in Copenhagen in 1888, and he founded a bequest intended for Danish artists (Hirschsprung og Hustru's Kunstnerlegat).
Polish painter born in Łódź in 1866, trained at the Academy of Cracow from 1881 to 1885 and then in Munich (1885-89). He exhibits « Esther and Haman » in Paris, then, returning to Cracow in 1891, « The Silence of the Field », a Jewish cemetery. His subsequent works, awarded prizes in Berlin, Warsaw and Cracow (1894), lead him to his most celebrated work, « The Wandering Jew », acclaimed at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
German theologian born in Hauingen, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, on 23 June 1807, died in Heidelberg on 22 January 1875. Trained under Gesenius in Halle and Ewald in Göttingen, he taught in Heidelberg from 1830 to 1833 then at the University of Zurich, before returning there in 1861. He devoted his work to editing the prophetic and poetic books of the Old Testament, always seeking to determine the author and date of composition of each text.
Chief Rabbi (Hakham Bashi) of Aleppo from 1908 to 1926, then member of the council of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem.
German rabbi born in 1810 in Hürben, Bavaria, died in Frankfurt-am-Main on 8 December 1888. Teacher and preacher in Heddernheim then in Wiesbaden, then rabbi in Langenschwalbach and Ems, he exercised great influence on the Jewish affairs of the duchy of Nassau and founded in 1846 a seminary for teachers, subsidized by the government. He remained in his position until 1883, when he retired to Frankfurt.
Austrian writer born in Prague on November 27, 1815, died in Vienna on October 22, 1887. He devoted much of his life to gathering documents on the history of the Jews of Prague, material published by David Kaufmann in 1892 under the title « Die Familien Prags nach den Epitaphien des Alten Jüdischen Friedhofes in Prag ». He is also the author of the biographical notices in the « Gal 'Ed » of Koppelmann Lieben, published in 1856.
German philologist and archaeologist born on August 18, 1803 in Cassel, died around 1843. He studied philology and archaeology at the University of Marburg from 1821, continued his studies in Heidelberg, then taught and published various manuals of classical, French and English literature, including annotated editions of Pliny, Cicero and Isocrates published between 1834 and 1843.
Journalist and chess chronicler born in 1842 in Budapest. He settled in France around 1866, then in London in 1870, where he became one of the great analysts of chess and participated in the organization of international tournaments, including that of Hastings in 1895. From 1879 to 1888, he co-directed with Zukertort "The Chess Monthly", of which he became sole editor-in-chief upon the latter's death ; he was also one of the founders of the Pester Schachklub and the British Chess Association.
American editor and community activist born in Philadelphia on January 3, 1864, educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He was one of the founders and editor of « The Jewish Exponent » of Philadelphia, president of the Beth Israel congregation and its B'nai B'rith district, and secretary, for fifteen years, of the Association of Jewish Immigrants of Philadelphia.
Rector of the rabbinical seminary in Berlin, born in Verbó, in Hungary, on November 24, 1843. After studying philosophy, history, and Oriental languages in Vienna and Berlin, sanctioned by a doctorate in 1871, he became in 1873 instructor at the rabbinical seminary in Berlin founded by Israël Hildesheimer, whose succession he took as rector in 1899. He is the author of numerous works on the Pentateuch and the Mishnah, and directed several scientific journals of Judaism.
Converted Englishman to Christianity, he lived in London in the nineteenth century. He published in 1834 "Songs of Zion", a collection of English and German hymns translated into Hebrew, as well as an English grammar for Hebrews in 1840 and "The Controversy of Zion" in 1845. He also translated into Hebrew Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and McCaul's "Old Paths", and is said to have ultimately returned to Judaism.
Landowner and Hungarian writer born in Budapest on 19 August 1822. Destined for commerce, he took over the family factory in 1842 before retiring about thirty years later to his estate at Alag, where he devoted himself to economic questions ; under the pseudonym "Fidelius", he publishes in 1875 a work of political economy, then several novels, narratives and theatrical pieces in German between 1882 and 1895.
Polish scholar and writer born in Wistiniecz, government of Suwałki, in 1808, died in Paris on December 20, 1878. Trained in Königsberg, he was an interpreter at the court of Suwałki from 1833, then founded in 1835 the first printing and lithography establishment in the region. Denounced for his Polish sympathies by the Russian government, he escaped to Paris in 1843, where he pursued a fruitful literary career, notably publishing « History of the Jews in Poland » in 1846.
Associate professor of political economy and director of the department of political economy at Johns Hopkins University, born in Baltimore on July 23, 1871, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 1891 and his doctorate in 1894. Appointed instructor in 1895 and associate professor of finance in 1899, he was in 1897 secretary of the special mission sent by President McKinley to negotiate a monetary agreement with the countries of Europe, and in 1900 special commissioner charged with revising the fiscal system of Puerto Rico, of which he became treasurer until 1901.
German dentist born in Leobschütz on February 4, 1833, died in Halle on March 14, 1897. Graduated in medicine in 1856 after studies in Würzburg and Breslau, he practiced for nine years in South Africa before establishing himself in Halle in 1866 as a dentist, then was admitted as a privat-docent at the medical faculty of the university in 1873 and became professor in 1878 at the head of the new dental service. He published notably « Beiträge zur Zahnheilkunde » in 1881 and « Die Extraction der Zähne » in 1882.
Austrian historian of literature born in Slavaten, Moravia, on June 21, 1860, doctor of philosophy in 1888. Attached since 1891 to the library of the University of Vienna, he is the author of a biography of Ludwig Börne (1888), a yearbook of libraries in Austria-Hungary with Hans Bohatta (1890), and a lexicon of anonymous authors of German literature from 1501 to 1850, published from 1901.
French rabbi
Austrian actress born in Vienna in 1871, prize-winner at the Vienna Conservatory. She made her debut in 1889 at the Hoftheater in Carlsruhe in the role of Jane Eyre, joined in 1890 the Deutsche Volkstheater in Vienna, then, two years later, the Stadttheater in Hamburg; among her notable roles are Desdemona, Rutland, and Philippine Welser.
Austrian deputy born in Rzeszów, Austrian Galicia, on December 2, 1824, died on October 24, 1880. Doctor of law trained in Lemberg, he sat on the municipal and communal councils there and defended Dr. Florian Ziemiałkowski, accused of participating in the Polish revolution of 1863. Representing the city of Brody to the Galician Diet, he delivered a speech on October 8, 1868 in favor of the emancipation of Jews, settled in Vienna in 1872 and was elected to the Austrian Parliament in 1873.
Russian-Jewish financier (1833-1909)
Hungarian painter born in 1837 in Rozgony, near Kaschau. Trained by Roth until 1850, then for seven years at the Vienna Academy under Geiger, Meyer and Wurzinger, he stayed from 1860 onwards in Berlin, Dresden, Munich and then eight years in Paris, where he gained a reputation as a portraitist. In 1868, he went to Warsaw to familiarize himself with the life of Polish Jews, the subject of several of his paintings, and received a gold medal at the Berlin International Exhibition in 1891.
Yiddish dramatist born on the 7th of Adar 1844 in Stanislau, Galicia. After a traditional Jewish education and studies in German, he founded a Jewish theater in Bucharest in 1876 and thereafter devoted himself to the Jewish stage, introducing actresses to it for the first time. Having left for New York in 1884 with his own company, he wrote no fewer than 169 plays, often historical in nature, drawing subjects also from current events, such as the Kishinev massacre of 1903.
Chess player and author born in 1809 in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg, died in London in 1885. Student of Mendheim in Berlin, he was one of the "Pleiades," the seven leaders of the new Berlin school of chess between 1830 and 1840, before settling in England around 1845, where he competed in most tournaments until 1862. With J. Kling, he published Chess Studies in London in 1851 and then The Chess-Player, and his last work appeared in 1884.
Rabbi of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, died in that city on September 8, 1817. He had succeeded his father in the rabbinate of Frankfurt in 1805. He is the author of « Maḥaneh Lewi », halakhic novellæ published in Offenbach in 1801, and « Laḥme Todah », which complements this work, published in 1816; Carmoly claims to have seen in manuscript two other of his works, the « Ḥomer ha-Ḳodesh », a collection of responsa, and a biblical commentary entitled « Birkat ha-Torah ».
Croatian rabbi
American statistician born in Wilna, Russia, on April 27, 1860, educated at the gymnasium of Minsk and at the University of Saint Petersburg. Involved in nihilist propaganda, he was arrested in 1879, expelled from Saint Petersburg without trial, and then, after the assassination of Alexander II in 1881, banished to Siberia. Diploma from the Demidov School of Law in Yaroslavl in 1887, he left Russia in 1890 for the United States, obtained his doctorate from Columbia University in 1893, taught statistics at the University of Chicago, then practiced law in New York until 1900, when he entered the statistical service of the American government.
American financier born in Zeckendorf, in Bavaria, on 8 December 1832, died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on 8 February 1892. A commercial employee in Cincinnati and other cities after his arrival in the United States, he settled in Grand Rapids in 1852, where he became owner of a clothing store and then turned to the lumber trade, acquiring a significant share of the city. Vice-president of the City National Bank, he was elected mayor of Grand Rapids in 1872, re-elected in 1874, sat in the State legislature from 1871 to 1872, and represented Michigan's fifth district in the United States Congress.
American preacher born in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, in Hungary, on 18 September 1830, died in New York on 10 October 1884, descendant of the Jaffe family. He fought as a « Honvéd » officer during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, then studied at the Talmudic seminary in Paks until 1854, and at the University of Prague from 1857, where he obtained his doctorate in 1861 and became rabbi of the Neu-Synagoge. He left for America in 1866, became rabbi and preacher of the Ahawath Chesed congregation in New York, introduced there a moderate reformed ritual and founded a religious school attended by more than 400 children.
Czech Jewish gallery owner, emigrated to USA (1889-1961)
holocaust victim, b. 1879-01-02
German historian
Polish-Jewish mathematician, co-founder of the Lwów School of Mathematics, known for the Banach–Steinhaus theorem (uniform boundedness principle) and for discovering Stefan Banach.
German mathematician born on March 26, 1859 in Hildesheim, trained in Munich, Berlin and Leipzig. He became privatdozent at Göttingen in 1882, adjunct professor at the University of Königsberg in 1884, then professor at the Polytechnic of Zurich in 1892. He collaborated with several mathematical journals, notably « Mathematische Annalen » and « Acta Mathematica », and was elected the same year corresponding member of the Society of Sciences of Göttingen.
Russian economist and journalist born around 1864 in Gorki, in the Moghilev province. Son of a religion professor who intended him for the rabbinate, he turned toward modern studies and went around 1880 to Berlin then Vienna, where he studied languages and general philosophy. He was noticed from 1898 onward by his tableaux of Jewish life in Russia, notably in « Ha-Shiloaḥ », then published in 1900 his « Ha-Mamon », a vast exposition in Hebrew of the existing economic system, before becoming assistant editor of the « Volksblatt » in Warsaw in 1902 then of « Der Fraind » in Saint-Petersburg in 1903.
Russian scholar born in 1815, died in Wilna on October 21, 1852. Private tutor in Wilna for many years then teacher in a public school in Riga, he was then appointed by the government director of the rabbinical school of Wilna. With S. J. Fuenn, he founded the periodical « Pirḥe Ẓafon », devoted to Jewish history, literature and exegesis, the first issue of which appeared in 1841 and the second in 1844; he also published studies on the book of Job in Jost's « Ẓiyyon » in 1842.
Russian preacher from Krozh, in the government of Kovno, died in Vilna on October 25, 1820. Close to Elijah of Vilna, whose sons he tutored, he became "maggid", preacher of Vilna, a position he held for many years until the loss of his voice, before being replaced around 1811 by R. Ezekiel Feiwel of Dretchin. The work "Mo'ade ha-Shem", published in Vilna in 1802 on the Jewish calendar, is attributed to him, though on rather slender grounds.
Hebraist writer born in Wilna, died in Krakow in 1812. Still young, he went to Buczacz, Galicia, where he began his « Sefer ha-Berit », which he was able to complete thanks to the patronage of Nachman Reiss of Lemberg and published anonymously in Brünn, Moravia, in 1797. The work, an encyclopedic composition mixing natural sciences and philosophy on one hand, mysticism and theology on the other, met with considerable success as far as Egypt, Algeria and Morocco; after an unauthorized edition that appeared in Prague in 1799, Hurwitz gave a new edition in Zolkiev in 1807, republished without change in Wilna in 1811.
German Orientalist and explorer born on 25 February 1867 in Krotoschin, Prussia. Entered the University of Berlin in 1885, obtained his doctorate at Leipzig in 1889, and became in 1891 lecturer in Central Asian languages and Buddhism at the University of Berlin. In 1897, he undertook a voyage to Siberia to study the Tungusic languages, then joined in 1902 the Turfan expedition to eastern Turkestan. He published notably « Die Zeit des Kālidāsa » in 1889 and « Die Inschriften von Tsaghan Baišing » in 1894.
Beni-Israel physician died on March 20, 1897, son of Hacem Samuel, president of the Beni-Israel school in Bombay. After obtaining his license in medicine and surgery, he practiced in Bombay and directed from 1889 the Bohara sanatorium in that city; he is said to have contracted the plague, of which he died, while treating patients at the hospital opened within that same sanatorium. He served on the governing committee of the Beni-Israel school.
American lawyer born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 4, 1806, of English parents, died in New Orleans in 1875. Trained in Charleston and in New Orleans, where he went in 1828 with Judah P. Benjamin, his relative, he was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1830 and practiced law in that city. A convinced secessionist, he was elected lieutenant-governor of Louisiana in 1859 under the Democratic ticket, a position he held until 1864, and lost most of his fortune during the Civil War.
American rabbi
Yiddish poet of the Di Yunge group, author of the epic « Kentucky ».
Romanian rabbi
Jewish Spanish grammarian, active in the 11th and 12th centuries, probably in Barcelona. Pupil of the grammarian Levi ibn Tabban of Saragossa and contemporary of Judah ha-Levi and Moses ibn Ezra, who dedicated several poems to him, he was the first to establish the link between the grammatical and lexicographical forms of Hebrew and those of Arabic, in his work "Kitab al-Muwazanah".
German writer
Born in Odessa in 1899, major figure of Yiddish theater, director of troupes (including the Jewish State Theater of Poland). She translated and adapted dozens of plays into Yiddish, wrote two herself, and published her autobiography My Life, My Theatre (1973). Nominated for an Oscar for The Shop on Main Street (1965).
Yiddish poetess of Montreal, animator of Canadian literary circles.
Mathematician, pioneer of programming; co-designed the C-10 language for the UNIVAC I.
Russian dancer
German-Austrian salonnière (1824-1899)
Austrian rabbi born on 28 February 1825 in Lemberg and died in Czernowitz on 26 March 1892. Trained at the rabbinical seminary in Padua under S. D. Luzzatto and Della Torre (graduated in 1849), he subsequently taught in Lemberg before becoming district rabbi in Czernowitz in 1854, then Chief Rabbi of Bukovyna. He is the author of « Syrischer Wegweiser » (1851) and « Israelitische Moraltheologie » (1870), a German translation of an Italian work by Luzzatto.
Spanish banker (1827–1895)
Polish photographer
Russian statesman born in 1832, one of the principal architects of reactionary anti-Jewish legislation in the last quarter of the 19th century and author of the « May Laws ». After the assassination of Alexander II on March 13, 1881, he becomes minister of State Lands and then, in May of the same year, minister of the Interior, promoting anti-Jewish agitation that leads to riots, notably in southern Russia. On May 15, 1882, with the tsar's approval, he promulgates the May Laws restricting the rights of Jews.
Austrian-Jewish journalist and politician of Bohemian origin, founder of Die Grenzboten and long-serving president of the Jewish community of Vienna.
Austrian rabbi
Austro-Hungarian Rabbi
Croatian businessman
Russian physicist
Russian historian (1867–1941)
American rabbi and writer born on January 2, 1850 in Choinick, in the Minsk governorship (Russia), in a Hasidic family. Trained at the heder and then at the yeshiva of Vietka, he completed his studies in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Berlin, Breslau, London and Paris, before teaching in schools of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, notably in Tétouan (1877-1880). Emigrated to New York in 1880, he directed the congregations of Minneapolis (1880-1888) and then Philadelphia (1888-1900), before devoting himself entirely to literature from 1900.
Hungarian rabbi.
American rabbi born in 1814 in Kolin, in Bohemia, in a family of Talmudists, and died near Cincinnati (Ohio) on June 22, 1871. Trained at the school of Moses Sofer in Pressburg and at the rabbinical college of Padua under S. D. Luzzatto, he emigrated to the United States after being an unsuccessful candidate for the position of district rabbi of Cassel in 1850, and exercised successively in Syracuse, New Orleans and Cincinnati. Champion of orthodoxy, he was one of the promoters of the rabbinical conference of Cleveland in 1855.
German photographer
Jewish publisher born in Vilna. He founded a printing house in Saint Petersburg in 1880, then in 1890 the Brockhaus-Efron publishing house with German publisher F. Brockhaus. His house published the great Encyclopedic Dictionary (86 volumes) and, with the Society of Jewish Scientific Publications, the Yevreyskaïa Entsiklopediya (Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian, 16 vol., 1907-1913).
Born Iehiel-Leyb (Ilya) Faynzilberg in Odessa in 1897 in a Jewish family. With Evgueni Petrov, he co-wrote the satirical novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Golden Calf (1931), featuring the con man Ostap Bender, as well as the travel narrative America at One Storey. Died of tuberculosis in 1937.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5575 of the Hebrew era (1815). Son of Eliahu. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 103-4.
Austrian Hebrew poet born in Zloczow, Galicia, in 1856. After a Talmudic education, he led an itinerant life between Vienna, Constantinople, and Palestine alongside Laurence Oliphant, then England after 1888, before settling in the United States in 1892, where he lived notably in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He owes his reputation to his collections of Hebrew verses « Barḳai » (1877-99), whose most famous poem, « Ha-Tiḳwah », powerfully expresses Zionist hope and was adopted as the national anthem of the Zionists.
Hungarian rabbi, botanist (1854-1944)
Romanian rabbi
Born in Thessalonica in an old family of Sephardic rabbis, he studied in Jena, Berlin and Paris. Established in Geneva from 1904, he taught the history of European philosophy until his death. Close to Henri Bergson whose lectures he attended (1907–1914) and whose works he translated, he recorded their conversations.
Born in Łódź, he joined the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1923 and became head of the Hebrew section. Author of major studies in Jewish bibliography, ethnography, folklore, Yiddish philology and Zionism.
Israeli rabbi
Chief rabbi of Damascus, author of the collection of responsa Penei Yizhak in six volumes.
Russian Talmudist, born in Volozhin, in the Wilna district, and died in Ivenets, in the Minsk district, on 16 June 1849. A renowned Talmudist, he succeeded his father as head of the yeshiva of Volozhin, then was called in 1844 to Saint Petersburg as a member of the rabbinical commission tasked with studying the creation of seminaries and rabbinical schools. He is the author of the "Mille de-Abot", novellae on the Pirké Avot.
Bibliographer and poet of Vilna, author of the Otzar ha-Sefarim.
Rabbi in Tykocin and then in Suwałki, Poland, active in the first half of the 19th century. He is the author of the "Bet Yiẓḥaḳ", a ritual work in two parts (Sudzilkow, 1836), of the "Seder Zemanim" on prescriptions linked to certain dates (Warsaw, 1844), of a commentary on the Passover haggada annotated by his son Joseph (ibid., 1844), and of the "Magen we-Ẓinnah", a defense of the Kabbalah against the attacks of Judah of Modena in the "Ari Nohem".
French rabbi
Eminent scholar of Tunis, author of Oholei Yitzhak (novellae and halakha).
German Legal philosopher, Rabbi and anti-zionist (1883-1946)
Isaac Carasso, Sephardic physician born in Salonika (nephew of Emmanuel Carasso), launched yogurt production under the Danone brand in Barcelona in 1919. His son Daniel developed the company in France and then the United States, leading to the Danone Group.
Grandson of Abraham-Behor, celebrated for his collection of Impressionist paintings (Manet, Monet, Cézanne, Degas) bequeathed to the Louvre, and for his love of music.
Short-story writer and translator, son-in-law of Sholem Aleichem whose work he translated.
Austrian Talmudist and historian (1815 – 1905)
Jewish historian, translator and philosopher, professor at Gratz College then tenured professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (1922). Trained notably under Sabato Morais. His major work, 'A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy' (1916), is a reference.
Australian lawyer, politician and judge (1855-1948)
Born in Smarhon, of Lithuanian Jewish origin, initially trained in rabbinic studies, he turned to sculpture at nearly 40 years of age, studying in Vilna then Moscow. Regarded in the 1920s-30s as one of the great Russian sculptors; friend of Chagall. Deported to Kazakhstan.
Belarusian rabbi
Komarna Rebbi
Lviv rabbi, Talmudist
American Rabbi and newspaper editor (1806–1868)
French lexicographer and rabbi
Born Isak Löbl Pulvermacher on March 15, 1815 in Breslau into a Jewish family, trained at the Vienna Technical School, settled in London around 1850. Inventor of the « Pulvermacher hydro-electric chain », a voltaic cell for medical use sold by the thousands in Europe and the United States. Died in Hampstead (London) in 1884.
American rabbi
Yiddish short-story writer, author of « A Shtetl », master of naturalism.
Born in Algiers, son of David Raphaël Morali. Rabbi-dayan and dominant rabbinical authority of the first half of the 20th century in Algiers; founder of a Hebrew school and then of the Talmud Torah Etz-Haïm (1904). Investigator of the sources of the liturgy of Algerian Jews, author of elegies and piyyutim.
maggid (Jewish preacher)
Younger brother of Émile, also a Saint-Simonian from Bordeaux; together they directed the Crédit Mobilier and were among the first to deploy railway technology in France, applying the Saint-Simonian idea of mass financing of industry.
Yiddish prose writer connected to the Di Yunge group in New York.
Jewish teacher, journalist and philosopher (1831-1902)
rabbi, industrialist and French archivist, co-founder of the CDJC
rabbi
American political figure
French pedagogue and writer born March 10, 1828 in Niederhomburg, near Sarreguemines, in Lorraine. Trained at the normal school in Colmar (1844-47), he taught in several Jewish schools in Alsace then in Paris. He is the author of « Crime du Déicide et les Juifs » (1894), « De Dieu et l'Âme » (1894), and « La Foi Aveugle et les Curés » (1902), and contributed to the Archives Israélites.
Promoter of the Mersey tunnel, near Liverpool, born in Chatham (England) in 1812 and died in London on November 22, 1886. Established young in London, he ran a major military supplies firm then, in the midst of the American Civil War, made it the principal European supporter of the Southern states, notably through blockade-running. He subsequently acquired the rights of the promoters of the Mersey railway and successfully carried out the tunneling beneath the river, inaugurated under the patronage of the Prince of Wales.
American rabbi, professor and editor, born in New York on August 30, 1852. A graduate of the University of New York (bachelor's degree 1871, master's degree 1873, doctorate 1878) and of the University of Breslau, he taught Hebrew and German there from 1886 to 1895, then German literature at the higher seminary from 1895, while serving as rabbi of the B'nai Jeshurun congregation in Paterson (New Jersey) from 1896. He directed the « Jewish Messenger » from 1878 to 1903 and published notably « Moses Chaim Luzzatto » (1878) and « Stories from the Rabbis » (1894).
Australian statesman and jurist, born in Melbourne on August 6, 1855, educated at the University of Melbourne and admitted to the Victoria bar in 1880. Member of the Legislative Assembly from 1892 to 1901 then of the federal House of Representatives, he was Solicitor General in 1893, Attorney General in 1894 then again in 1900, before retiring from Parliament in 1901. Member of the Australian Federal Convention that drafted the Commonwealth Constitution in 1897, he became Queen's Counsel (Q.C.) in 1899.
American lawyer born in New York on 8 May 1841, admitted to the bar in 1862 and appointed judge of the Marine Court of New York in 1880. Very engaged in the municipal life of New York, he contributed to the creation of Seward Park and the Hebrew Institute playground, and was director then vice-president of the Real Estate Exchange from 1886 to 1890. A major figure in New York Jewish charitable works, he was among those who founded the Hebrew Free School Association (1864), the United Hebrew Charities (1873) and the Educational Alliance (1889), and presided over the Baron de Hirsch Fund from 1890; he was also linked to the « Jewish Messenger » from 1859 to 1884.
African traveler born in England in 1808, died after 1840. Departed in 1822 for Saint Helena, he joined in 1825 a British expedition to Natal Bay, where he spent seven years among the Zulus, met King Chaka and was wounded fighting at his side; as a reward, he was made chief of Natal and received a vast coastal and interior territory. Subsequently trading on the west coast, he protested in 1835 against French hindrances to his commerce and published in 1836 his « Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa », one of the first detailed accounts of the Zulu country.
English actress and singer, born in London on 26 June 1828 and died in that city on 21 April 1877. Trained by her father, actor and singer John Isaacs, she made her stage debut on 17 March 1835, took leading roles in the English opera season at Drury Lane in 1846, performed frequently alongside Sims Reeves, produced a series of operas at the Strand Theatre in 1852-55, and created the role of Leila in "Satanella" at Covent Garden in 1858; her soprano voice was renowned for its amplitude and sweetness.
American calendar expert born in 1825 in Raczek, Poland, trained under Judah Bacharach and Moses Leib of Kutno, emigrated to New York on June 30, 1847. Principal of the Talmud Torah of New York in 1886-87, he collaborated with the American Jewish press and the Jerusalem monthly "Torah me-Ẓiyyon", and compiled an "Artificial Perpetual Calendar" and a "Civil and Ecclesiastical Perpetual Calendar" (New York, 1891).
Rabbi and journalist born in Leeuwarden, Holland, on January 4, 1804, and died in New York on May 19, 1878. After directing the old Neweh Ẓedeḳ (now the Jewish hospital and orphanage of West Norwood, London), he left England in 1839 for the ministry of the B'nai Jeshurun congregation of New York, where his regular sermons in English were a novelty. In 1847, he became minister of the Shaaray Tefilla congregation, which he held until his death; he founded in 1857 the "Jewish Messenger", which he directed until the end of his life, and was at the origin of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, the Hebrew Free School Association and the United Hebrew Charities.
Former Lord Mayor of London, born in that city on August 15, 1830. He devoted a quarter of a century to the interests of the city, advocating for the improvement of housing for the poor and contributing to the reforms of the municipal finance commission; appointed president of the City lands commission in 1859, he also played a decisive role in the realization of Tower Bridge. Sheriff of London and Middlesex then ennobled in 1887, he was elected Lord Mayor in 1889 and subsequently published his « Memoirs of My Mayoralty ».
Israeli rabbi
banker, politician, president of the Jewish Community in Chernivtsi
Venetian Jew, born Isacco Pesaro (son of Israel Pesaro of Ferrara), adopted by David Maurogonato whose combined name he took. Jurist (Padua, 1838), he became Minister of Finance of the Republic of Saint Mark in 1849, then deputy of the Kingdom of Italy (1865-1890, eight legislatures) and finally senator (1890-1892). Died in Rome on April 5, 1892.
Born in Casale Monferrato in the local Jewish community, director of the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan. Author of works on numismatics and Hebrew inscriptions, editor of the Rivista di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti (1874). Entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.
Son of Shadal (Samuel David Luzzatto), he collected, organized, and published his father's work and correspondence — notably the Epistolario (Igrot Shadal) and the bibliography of his writings — ensuring the transmission of the legacy of Paduan Jewish scholarship.
Realist novelist, author of Be-Ein Mattarah, milestone of the Hebrew novel.
Born in Hegenheim (Alsace), republican official under Gambetta, he was appointed in 1885 head of General Security at the Ministry of the Interior. Dismissed for his Dreyfusard sympathies, he published Ma Justification (1895) then became editor-in-chief of L'Univers israélite (editorials signed B. M., 1896-1906). Co-founder and secretary of the Defense Committee against Antisemitism born from the Dreyfus affair.
Member of the Dayan rabbinical family of Aleppo, which claims Davidic ancestry (connected to a branch of the house of Josias Hassan ben Zakkaï, brother of the exilarch David, c. 917-940). Chief mohel of Aram Tsova and expert scribe, he was also a printer who published several religious books according to the Syrian rite. He is the author of the collection of responsa « Zeh Ketav Yadai » (Aleppo, 1872).
French rabbi
Bulgarian rabbi (1881–1978)
rabbi of the Jewish community in Jungbunzlau (1812-1883)
German Orthodox rabbi
American rabbi
Rabbi (1851-1929)
Czech rabbi
German rabbi
American physicist
German rabbi
Isidor Straus (Otterberg, 6 février 1845 – 15 avril 1912), aîné des trois fils, homme d'affaires et membre du Congrès américain, périt lors du naufrage du RMS Titanic avec son épouse Ida (Ida Blun Straus, 1849-1912). Refusant de monter dans un canot de sauvetage sans son mari, Ida aurait déclaré : « Nous avons vécu ensemble pendant tant d'années, où tu vas, je vais » ; elle céda son manteau à sa femme de chambre et le couple s'assit ensemble sur des transats du pont. Le corps d'Isidor fut retrouvé par le Mackay-Bennett, celui d'Ida ne le fut jamais.
Chief Rabbi of France, grandson through his mother of Hirsch Katzenellenbogen, chief rabbi of Upper Alsace; born in Lixheim, in Lorraine, on July 13, 1813, and died in Montmorency in 1888. Entered the rabbinical school of Metz at fourteen, he became rabbi of Phalsbourg in 1838 — where he refused the "more judaico" oath — then went to Paris in 1844 and was appointed chief rabbi of Paris in 1847, a post he held for twenty years before becoming chief rabbi of France in 1867. Conservative, opposed to the reformist party, he was the creator of rabbinical missions and dedicated himself to the integration of Algerian Judaism into that of France.
British rabbi
German rabbi
French rabbi
American encyclopedia editor and political activist (1859–1939)
Prolific American playwright of Yiddish theatre, author of more than a hundred plays.
German philologist born on December 14, 1807 in Hamburg and died in that city on August 19, 1888, trained in Bonn and Berlin (doctorate in 1830). Appointed registrar of Hamburg's municipal library in 1832, he became its secretary in 1851, conservator in 1873 and director in 1878, a position he held until his retirement in 1883. Engaged in Jewish affairs, he was among the first to advocate for the creation of rabbinical seminaries, and published from 1830 onwards works of classical philology as well as several editions of ancient and modern authors.
German rabbi and historian (1874–1943)
German lawyer and collector of Jewish art, persecuted by the Nazis, suicide (1878-1934)
American rabbi
zoologist (1882-1946)
Physician and German Jewish medical writer, born in Wittenburg (Mecklenburg-Schwerin) in 1804, died in Rostock on March 13, 1867. Doctor of Medicine in 1827, he practiced for forty years in Rostock. He published several medical works as well as a tract on the civil emancipation of Jews in Mecklenburg (1843).
Russian historian
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 79-3.
Renowned rabbi and teacher born in Rabat in the first half of the 19th century. Although wealthy, he was exempted from community taxes to devote himself entirely to the study of Torah, through the intervention of rabbi Yossef Elmaleh of Mogador. He was subsequently called as rabbi by the community of Gibraltar.
Writer and translator, collection of legends Kol Agadot Yisrael for youth.
Israeli rabbi
Polish journalist, shot in 1941
English rabbi
Italian rabbi
American writer and publisher (1870–1939)
Hasidic master famous for his sumptuous court, founder of the Sadigora dynasty. He advocated a « royal way » of divine service.
Lithuanian rabbi
Israeli newspaper editor (1850–1914)
Hebrew poet and scholar, rector of Tel-Aviv University.
American rabbi and Talmudist ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1915, specialist in medieval rabbinic literature, editor of the responsa of Rashi (Teshuvot Rashi, 1943).
American rabbi
Galician-born American rabbi and cantor (1879-1967), celebrated as the 'father of congregational singing' in synagogues, led a Brooklyn congregation for over 50 years, co-founder of the Cantors Institute of JTS, and composer of the standard melody for Shalom Aleichem.
American rabbi
Lithuanian-born Jewish actor and Broder singer (1848-1887), one of the founding performers recruited by Abraham Goldfaden for the first professional Yiddish theater troupe in Iași, Romania in 1876. Note: Wikipedia's article title uses the spelling 'Gradner'.
Grandson of the founder, he led the court of Vizhnitz and was one of its major figures; his writings were published under the title Ahavat Yisrael, an expression that remained attached to his memory.
Russian rabbi, active in Vinnitsa, in Podolia, in the 19th century. He is the author of « Sha'ar Mishpaṭ », novellae in two volumes on the Shulḥan 'Arukh, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ (Königsberg, 1860), and « Sha'ar De'ah », novellae on the laws of interest in Yoré Dé'a, published as an appendix to the former.
Russo-Polish rabbi, died in Kutno, in the Warsaw governorate, on 11 July 1893, at an advanced age. Trained at the yeshiva founded around 1835 in Kukhari by R. Solomon Posner, he held various minor rabbinates until 1860, when he became rabbi of Kutno — a position he constantly refused to leave despite more prestigious offers — and was regarded by many as the greatest Talmudic authority of Russian Poland. He is the author of the « Yeshu'ot Yisrael », on the Shulhan Arukh, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ (Warsaw, 1870), published by his son and successor R. Moses of Viskitke.
Polish posek (1821-1893)
Russian-Israeli educator (1869-1927)
French rabbi
American coroner
German rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5633 of the Hebrew era (1873). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-2.
German rabbi
Grandson and student of Joseph ben Hayyim Hazan. Appointed to the rabbinical court of Jerusalem in 1842, he then practiced in Rome, Corfu and Alexandria. He was one of the most influential Sephardic thinkers of the 19th century.
Born in Manchester into a family of Lithuanian Jewish origin. Brother-in-law and partner of Simon Marks, he co-directed the development of Marks & Spencer. After the death of his son Daniel (age 17), he endowed in 1934 the Daniel Sieff Research Institute in Rehovot, created by Chaim Weizmann, renamed Weizmann Institute of Science in 1949.
Yiddish novelist and poet, author of the novel « Di gas » (The Street).
Israeli politician
Founder of the Mussar movement, which places ethical work at the heart of study. His influence transformed the Lithuanian yeshivot.
Israeli politician
Tunisian rabbi, student of Abraham Hagège. First a dayan (rabbinical judge) in Tunis, he became Chief Rabbi of Tunisia from 1917 until his death in 1921. He ranks among the great decismakers of Tunisia in his time.
former Chief Rabbi of Rome, converted to Catholicism
American Arctic explorer born on July 1, 1859 in Kalamazoo (Michigan) and died on May 27, 1884, trained at the University of Ann Arbor. Sergeant in the Signal Corps of the American army, he volunteered in 1881 for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, under the command of General Greely, whom he accompanied as an astronomer (1881-84) and where he rendered important scientific services, notably in 1882 by exploring an overland route to Greenland. The youngest of the team, affectionately nicknamed "Benjamin", he died before the expedition's return; General Greely, knowing he was of Jewish faith, adapted the funeral service accordingly.
German physician born in Berlin in February 1848, doctor of medicine from Berlin in 1870. Settled in the capital, he became adjunct surgeon at the Israelite hospital in 1875 then chief surgeon in 1880, and received the honorary title of professor in 1894. A prolific author of more than a hundred medical essays and works, he notably published works on actinomycosis (1885) and nerve surgery (1894).
Rabbi of Alexandria, Egypt, from 1802 to 1827, the year of his death; son of Israel Israel, who had held the rabbinate from 1773 to 1784. Disciple of Jonathan Galante, he presided over an academy in Alexandria, the « Midrash Rab Yedidyah », and drafted several responsa — some of which were published in the works of Rabbi Abbahou — as well as annotations to the « Kissé Éliyahou » on the Shulḥan Arukh; his treatise on divorce, the « Mazkeret ha-Giṭṭin », remained manuscript.
German physician born in Stralsund on September 6, 1854, trained at the Universities of Leipzig, Kiel, and Berlin (doctorate in 1877). Entering in 1878 as an assistant at the pathology institute of his alma mater, he becomes first assistant in 1885—the year he also obtains his habilitation as privat-docent—then assistant professor in 1893. Author of numerous pathology essays, he publishes notably the "Practicum der Pathologischen Histologie" (Berlin, 1888, 2nd ed. 1898).
Dutch historian of medicine born in Groningen on March 27, 1822 and died in Amsterdam on January 16, 1883, doctor of medicine from his native city in 1845. Established as a physician in Amsterdam, he became in 1867 lecturer in the history of medicine and hygiene at the Athenaeum, then associate professor at the University of Amsterdam in 1877. Author of numerous works on the history of medicine in the Netherlands, he also translated German works into Dutch and directed from 1874 to 1876 the journal « Hygieia ».
Dutch genre painter born in Groningen on June 27, 1824. Intended by his mother for the rabbinate, he eventually obtained permission to devote himself to art, first studying in Groningen then, at twenty-two, in Amsterdam in the studio of Cornelis Kruseman, before going to Paris where he trained under Picot, Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche and came under the influence of Romanticism — evident, from the Millet exhibition in 1848, of his revolt against academicism. Returning to Amsterdam, after a first historical painting in 1855, he turned to peasant scenes then to the life of fishermen in coastal villages, painted with remarkable realism and chiaroscuro.
Founder of the Nadvorna Hasidic dynasty, disciple of Tsvi Hirsh of Zhidachov (and of R. Isaac of Radvill). He is credited with the work Sitrei Torah. The dynasty produced numerous branches (Kretchnif, Bnei Brak…).
Rabbi of Salé, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5621 of the Hebrew era (1861). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-4.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
Lithuanian rabbi
British-Australian soldier (1890–1940)
Hungarian politician
Hungarian physician (1889-1974)
Rabbi and poet of Mogador (Essaouira), he was the first to publish in Morocco a collection of Bakachot (liturgical poems). His compilation "Roni Vesimhi" (1900) served as a reference for the classical collection "Shir Yedidout".
First Square Rebbe
Founder of Bohush Hasidism
Soviet Yiddish poet trained in Kiev; shot during the Night of the Murdered Poets.
Rabbi and Political activist
Lithuanian rabbi
Romanian translator
Born on July 14, 1858 in Szczawnik, doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, he was rabbi of the Jewish community of Heřmanův Městec (Bohemia) from 1908 to 1938. Deported to Theresienstadt on December 5, 1942, he died there on October 19, 1943. He is documented as a victim of the Shoah in several memorial databases.
Turkish composer
Born in Zembin (governorate of Minsk), he began publishing as an adolescent then settled in Minsk in 1920 where he became editor of Yiddish literary journals (Shtern, Oktyabr). His epic poem « Minsker blotes » (1925) depicts the transformation of the shtetl by the Revolution. At the height of his fame, he is arrested and shot during the Stalinist purges in October 1937 with about a hundred other intellectuals of the republic.
Hungarian architect
Hungarian rabbi, poet (1884-1945)
Surinamese linguist
Hungarian rabbi
American film producer (1892–1978)
English actor born in London in 1836 and died in that city on 13 August 1885. Having left young for Australia, he adopted a theatrical career there, performed in Auckland and then in San Francisco (1856-1862), before returning to England around 1870; he performed at the Gaiety Theatre and then became stage manager at the Princess' and then at Drury Lane, where he played above all characters — or rather caricatures — of Jews in modern melodramas. His striking resemblance to Napoleon I caused him to be noticed in that role.
Graduate in law from Moscow University (1875), he was one of the first Jews admitted to the tsarist judiciary, investigating judge in the Samara region then judge at the Saratov court (1904). After leaving Soviet Russia (1921), he chaired the Union of Russian Jews in Germany and devoted himself to aid for Russian Jewish refugees. In 1925 he published his autobiography, translated into German in 1929 with a preface by Simon Dubnow.
Polish rabbi
Rabbi and Russian author, died in Karlin, in the government of Minsk, in 1855, grandson of Baruch of Shklov, mathematician and author, and one of the first and most renowned graduates of the yeshiva of Volozhin. Rabbi of Karlin for about thirty years, he was considered one of the greatest rabbinic authorities of his time; he is the author of the « Mishkenot Ya'aḳob » (Vilna, 1838), responsa on the four parts of the Shulhan Arukh, of the « Ḳohelet Ya'aḳob » (1857), novellae on the talmudic orders Zera'im and Mo'ed, and of another collection of responsa.
German Talmudist, great-grandson of Ẓebi Ashkenazi and student of Meshullam Eger, Jacob ben Jacob Moïse of Lissa was ab bet din in Kalisz then in Lissa, before returning to practice in Kalisz. He died in Stryj, in Galicia, in 1832. He left numerous Talmudic and halakhic commentaries on the Choulhan Aroukh, as well as a very popular abridgement of laws, the « Derek ha-Ḥayyim », widely adopted in prayer books.
Polish apologist (1824-1896)
Rabbi in Alt-Ofen in the early 19th century, son of Mordekhaï ben Abraham Benet. He is the author of the « Toledot Mordekhaï Benet » (Alt-Ofen, 1832), whose first part retraces the biography of his father and the second gathers various writings of his, including a sermon delivered for Shabbat Teshouva in 1826; the biography itself is written in pure and clear Hebrew.
Israeli rabbi
American Jewish entrepreneur, philanthropist and diplomat, founder of the American Oil Company (Amoco) and negotiator of the Blaustein-Ben-Gurion agreement.
Sole rabbi of the Livornese synagogue in Tunis and figure of the « grana » community (Livornese Jews). Veteran of Tunisian Zionism, he delivered a notable speech on Jewish revival in Palestine. His impressive funeral took place in January 1941 before the Great Synagogue of Tunis.
Maskil of Lviv. With his brother-in-law A. M. Mohr, he published the critical journal "Ha-Ro'eh u-Mevakker Sifrei Meḥabberei Zemannenu" (1838–39) and then the periodical "Yerushalayim" (1844–45); he contributed biblical commentaries and poetic translations to "Kokhevei Yiẓḥak".
Master ceramicist of Tunis (workshop in the Place des Potiers, from approximately 1880; tiles adorning Tunis, Sidi Bou Saïd, La Marsa). Concurrently a man of letters: from 1878 he pursued for more than thirty years a career as journalist and actor in the rise of Tunisian Judeo-Arab literature; legal representative to the Beth Din of Tunis and founding member of the Jewish Hospital of Tunis.
Poet, essayist and Hebrew literary critic, Israel Prize laureate 1957.
(1808–1887)
Born on August 20, 1896 in Lublin, emigrated to the United States in 1914. With A. Glanz-Leyeles and N. B. Minkoff, he founded in 1920 the introspectionist movement (In Zikh) and its journal. After 1938, his work turned towards elegy in the face of the destruction of Jewish life in Europe. Major figure in 20th-century American Yiddish poetry. Died in New York in 1971.
German rabbi
Rabbi
Hasidic master renowned for his powers of clairvoyance, he made Lublin a great center of Polish Hasidism. He trained many disciples who became rebbes.
Romanian rabbi
Dutch Jewish writer and journalist
American rabbi
Chief Rabbi of France, resistance fighter
לחיים 2
Jacob Lasry, wealthy merchant (cattle, grain), from a family that came from Morocco (via Gibraltar) after the recapture of Oran in the late 18th century, became under French conquest an important landowner and president of the Israelite Consistory of Oran. He maintained ties with Spanish-speaking Jews from Morocco and Gibraltar. His case has been the subject of academic studies (Archives Juives, Cairn).
German rabbi, lexicographer and orientalist (1819–1892)
Jewish-American historian (1888–1940)
Yiddish editor, poet and humorist born in Odessa, emigrated to the United States in 1893. He took over and long directed the satirical weekly Der Groyser Kundes (« The Grand Prankster »), which he transformed into an important literary and political journal attracting contributors such as Sholem-Aleikhem, Yehoash and Avrom Reyzen. He also published three poetry collections.
Russian rabbi (1859–1924)
former chief rabbi of HaYeshuv
Polish rabbi
Rabbi
Jurist and then writer. After publishing collections of verse (Das Ufer, 1913; Erschütterung, 1920), he turned to literature when Nazism ended his legal career in 1933. His major work, the short-story collection Der Gezeichnete (1936), depicts the piety and traditions of rural Jews in southern Germany. He fled to New York in 1940.
American rabbi
German publisher
Romanian Meschulach (1822–1885)
Rabbi
American banker and philanthropist.
German rabbi
Poet and short-story writer, biblical style in service of modern sensibility.
Dutch economist of Jewish origin, born in Amsterdam. Pioneer of the theory of long economic cycles (~40–60 years), which he described as early as 1913 under the pseudonym « J. Fedder », preceding Kondratiev. Chief statistician in the Dutch East Indies (1919–1933), professor at Utrecht and deputy in 1937. He committed suicide with his family during the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940.
Scholar of midrashic and talmudic literature, ordained at the Rabbiner-Seminar in Berlin. Emigrated to New York in 1903 for the Jewish Encyclopedia (260 articles), professor of Talmud at Hebrew Union College from 1911. President of the responsa committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he drafted opinions on modern questions. His critical edition and English translation of the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmaël is a monument of erudition.
German painter of landscapes and portraits born in Berlin on April 25, 1811 and died in the same city on October 20, 1882, Julius Jacob studied under Wach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf and then under Delaroche in Paris, before traveling in Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. He lived in London from 1844 to 1855, then stayed in Vienna where he painted the portraits of the princes Metternich, Schwarzenberg, Liechtenstein and Lobkowitz; his works « Steinfeld von Sorrent » and « Aus der Mark » were exhibited in Berlin in 1876, and he received gold medals from the academies of Paris, Lyon and Rouen.
American physician born on May 6, 1830 near Minden, in Westphalia, trained at the universities of Greifswald, Göttingen and Bonn, Abraham Jacobi was imprisoned in Berlin and Cologne for high treason, because of his revolutionary engagement, from 1851 to 1853, before emigrating to America and settling in New York, where he became one of the most prominent practitioners of the city. Professor of diseases of children at the New York Medical College then at Columbia University, he presided over the Academy of Medicine of New York (1885-89) and notably published « Diphtheria » (1876) and « Intestinal Diseases » (1880).
German philologist born in Tütz, in West Prussia, in 1815, and died in Berlin in 1864, Heinrich Otto Jacobi studied at the University of Berlin, received an honorary doctorate from that of Königsberg in 1854 for his knowledge of Greek, taught at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin from 1854 to 1858 then at that in Posen, where he was appointed professor in 1860 after converting to Protestantism. He is the compiler of the "Index Græcitatis" of the Meineke edition of the "Græcorum Comicorum Fragmenta" (Berlin, 1847).
German mathematician born on December 10, 1804 in Potsdam and died on February 18, 1851 in Berlin, brother of Moritz Hermann Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi became, after converting to Christianity in 1824, privat-docent in Berlin then in Königsberg, where he was appointed professor in 1829. With Abel, he made his major discoveries on elliptic functions, set forth notably in « Fundamenta Novæ Theoriæ Functionum Ellipticarum » (Königsberg, 1829); his complete works were published by the Academy of Berlin in eight volumes (1881-91).
German physicist born on September 21, 1801, in Potsdam, and died on March 10, 1874, in Saint Petersburg, Moritz Hermann Jacobi, first an architect in Königsberg, was appointed in 1835 professor of architecture at the University of Dorpat, then called to Saint Petersburg in 1837, where he became an extraordinary member of the Academy of Sciences of Russia in 1842 and a full member in 1847. His principal merit was the discovery of galvanoplasty in 1838, which he expounded in « Die Galvano-Plastik » (Saint Petersburg, 1840).
American rabbi of English Sephardic descent, born in Kingston, Jamaica, on September 24, 1834, and died in Philadelphia on July 14, 1884, George Jacobs emigrated to the United States in 1854, served the Beth Shalome congregation in Richmond, Virginia, and was elected to the rabbinate in 1857; in 1869, he succeeded Isaac Leeser as head of the Beth El Emeth congregation in Philadelphia. Founder of the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia, he contributed to the local Jewish press and participated in the revision of the Prayer-Book of Szold and Jastrow.
American rabbi born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 22, 1827, and died in New York on September 12, 1893, Henry S. Jacobs studied under the direction of Reverend N. Nathan in Kingston before joining the United States in 1854 as rabbi of the Beth Shalome congregation in Richmond, Virginia. He subsequently held the rabbinates of Charleston (1858-1862), New Orleans (1866-73) and New York (Sheʼerit Israël, 1873-74; B'nai Jeshurun, 1874-93), and received the honorary title of doctor of theology in 1900.
Judge at the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope, born in 1830 and died in London on June 15, 1883, Siméon Jacobs became a lawyer at the Inner Temple in November 1852, then emigrated to the Cape in 1860; appointed Attorney General of British Kaffraria in 1861, a position he held until 1866, he subsequently became Solicitor General of the Cape, served as Attorney General from 1874 to 1882, the year he was promoted to Puisne Judge and member of the Executive Council, before retiring and being made C.M.G. in November 1882.
German physician and hygienist born in Berlin on September 30, 1868, doctor of medicine from the universities of Berlin and Freiburg (1891), Paul Jacobsohn was from 1892 to 1894 assistant physician at the Jewish hospital in Berlin, then from 1894 to 1897 assistant at Martin Mendelsohn's dispensary, before founding and co-directing, from 1898 onwards, the « Deutsche Krankenpflege-Zeitung ». Specialist in nursing training, he founded in 1899 the Deutsche Krankenpflegerbund and published notably the « Handbuch der Krankenversorgung und Krankenpflege » (Berlin, 1898–1902).
German dramatist born on November 10, 1833 in Groß Strehlitz, Silesia, doctor of medicine from Berlin (1859) where he established himself as a physician, Eduard Jacobson wrote as early as 1856, still a student, the farce « Faust und Gretchen », then, alone or in collaboration, numerous vaudevilles that became classic pieces of German theaters, among which « Lady Beefsteak » (1860) and « Goldfuchs » (1890); he died in Berlin on January 29, 1897.
German physician born on October 27, 1826 in Königsberg, East Prussia, and died on December 10, 1890 in Berlin, doctor of medicine in 1847, Heinrich Jacobson established himself as a physician in Königsberg, where he became privatdozent and then, in 1872, assistant professor at the university, before being elected the same year chief physician of the Jewish hospital in Berlin, where he lived until his death. A great clinician, he published numerous essays on hemodynamics and experimental pathology, notably between 1860 and 1870.
German jurist and author in ecclesiastical law, born in Marienwerder on June 8, 1804, and died in Königsberg on March 19, 1868, Heinrich Friedrich Jacobson became a privat-docent there and then assistant professor in 1831 and professor of law in 1836, after his conversion to Christianity. An activist in the Free Evangelical Church, he published notably « Das Evangelische Kirchenrecht des Preussischen Staats » (Halle, 1864-66), his major work, as well as writings on mixed marriages (1838) and on the kneeling of Protestants in Bavaria (1844).
American surgeon born in Syracuse, New York State, on June 25, 1857, Nathan Jacobson, graduate of Syracuse University and trained at the University of Vienna, became professor of clinical surgery there, visiting physician at Saint Joseph's Hospital and consulting surgeon at Syracuse Hospital for women and children; he also served for many years on the board of the Jewish orphanage in western New York State and published numerous surgical articles.
German architect born in Stargard, in Pomerania, on September 17, 1839, Johann Eduard Jacobsthal studied at the academy of architecture in Berlin and then, after lengthy travels in Greece and Asia Minor, became professor there in 1874; in 1904 he was still teaching at the Berlin Technische Hochschule. He is credited with the construction of railway stations in Alsace-Lorraine — in Metz (1874-78) and Strasbourg (1877-84) — as well as the Alexanderplatz station of the Berlin urban railway, and published notably the « Grammatik der Ornamente » (1880).
German physician and politician born in Königsberg on May 1, 1805 and died in the same city on March 6, 1877, Johann Jacoby established himself as a physician from 1830 before entering politics with a pamphlet of 1833 defending the emancipation of Jews against Streckfuss, asserting that the edict of March 11, 1812 had only eased, without breaking, the constraints imposed on the Jews of Prussia. Figure of the liberal party, he published notably « Der Streit der Pädagogen und Aerzte » (1836) and « Vier Fragen, Beantwortet von einem Ostpreussen » (1841), on the eve of the meeting of the provincial parliament.
German engraver born on June 7, 1828 in Havelberg, Brandenburg, student of engraver Mandel in Berlin, where he established himself; Louis Jacoby stayed in Paris in 1855, in Spain in 1856, then in Italy, notably in Rome, from 1860 to 1863, the year he was appointed professor of engraving at the Vienna Academy; in 1882, he was called to Berlin as artistic adviser to the Imperial Printing Office. His first engraving, « Saint John » after Tiarini, appeared in 1850.
Native of Cairo and prosperous businessman, pioneer of education in Jewish schools in Egypt, he explored between 1909 and 1911 the synagogues of Fostat and the cemetery of Bassatine to gather remaining Geniza fragments after Schechter. He assembled a collection of approximately 7,000 fragments, intended to remain the patrimony of the Egyptian Jewish community.
Born in Paris, son of antique dealer Léon Helft; he opens a gallery on rue de Ponthieu with his father and brother Yvon, associated with that of his brother-in-law Paul Rosenberg (Rosenberg & Helft, London). The Paris gallery was plundered during the Second World War; he went into exile in Argentina then returned to France (honorary president of the Antique Dealers' Union). Recognized expert in silverware, he wrote precise catalogues documenting hallmarks, and left memoirs.
The most important Dutch dealer of old master paintings of the interwar period. He took over the family gallery in Amsterdam and internationalized it. Fleeing the Nazi invasion in May 1940, he died accidentally aboard the SS Bodegraven; his collection (over 1,200 paintings) was looted by the Nazis and has since been the subject of major restitutions to heirs.
French jurist and political figure
American rabbi
Doctor of Law, editor-in-chief of « La République » (organ of the Radical Party) from 1929, vice-president then secretary general of the Radical Party, close to its left wing (Pierre Cot, Mendès France). Volunteer enlisted in 1939, resistance fighter. After the war, pioneer of press analysis. Related by marriage to Alfred Dreyfus.
Franco-German composer of the 19th century
Ottoman military surgeon born in 1850 in Salonika and died in that city on August 25, 1903. Jacques Pasha, son of a physician, graduated from the Constantinople medical school in 1874 before becoming director of Salonika's central hospital, a position he held until his death, as well as medical inspector of the third army corps and inspector of public and private hygiene of the vilayet. He died of gangrene contracted while treating a soldier wounded in a skirmish with Macedonians, after presiding over the Biḳḳour Ḥolim of Salonika.
German bookseller.
French mathematician, he proved in 1896 (independently of Charles-Jean de La Vallée Poussin) the prime number theorem. His name remains attached to Hadamard matrices and several theorems of analysis. Engaged in the Dreyfusard camp (the wife of Dreyfus was the daughter of a cousin of his father), he lost two sons in the Great War and had to flee to the United States during the Second World War.
French rabbi
Austrian deputy born in Vienna on February 24, 1831 and died by suicide on January 25, 1894, doctor of law from Vienna (1856), Heinrich Jacques established himself as a lawyer in 1859 after directing a Viennese banking house, then was delegate of the first district of Vienna to the Reichsrat in 1879, where he joined the constitutional party and had a law adopted exempting the minimum subsistence from taxation. Administrator of several railroad companies and the Creditanstalt, he organized in 1870 a collection for the benefit of the wounded of the Franco-Prussian War and was decorated with the Prussian order of the Crown in 1872.
German physician born in Liegnitz on 10 September 1863, doctor of medicine from Breslau (1886), Josef Jadassohn was from 1887 to 1892 assistant physician at the dermatological hospital of Breslau University, then from 1892 to 1896 chief physician of the dermatology department at Allerheiligen hospital, before becoming in 1896 associate professor and director of the dermatological clinic at Berne University, then professor in 1904. He is the author of "Venerische Krankheiten" in the "Handbuch der Praktischen Medizin" by Ebstein-Schwalbe.
German composer and music pedagogue born in Breslau on August 13, 1831, trained on piano with Hesse and on violin with Lüstner before studying with Liszt in Weimar, Salomon Jadassohn established himself as a music teacher in Leipzig in 1852, directed the choral society Psalterion from 1866 onwards and the Euterpe concerts from 1867 to 1869, and taught harmony, composition and orchestration at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1871 onwards. His treatise « Harmonielehre » (1883) became authoritative, and he published numerous compositions.
(1818–1885)
rabbi
Jewish student in Krakow engaged in Jewish socialist organizations (in the orbit of Henryk Grossmann), he became one of the historians of the early Jewish workers' movement in Galicia. His pioneering studies document Galician Jewish social democracy of the 1890-1900s.
Bookseller and publisher, father of Julius, Sigmund and Albert; originator of the publishing house that would bear the name Bensheimer.
Jewish rabbi, biographer and historian (1866–1937)
Austrian architect
German Jewish theologian, philosopher of religion (1845-1919)
Turkish-German rabbi (1895–1945)
German journalist and author
Born in Fürth in a modest Jewish family of merchants, he became one of the most widely read and translated German novelists of the interwar period. Friend of Rainer Maria Rilke and Thomas Mann. His autobiographical essay "Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude" (1921) analyzes the tension between his German and Jewish identities. His books were publicly burned by the Nazis.
(1857–1940)
Polish biochemist, co-discoverer of the glycolysis pathway known as the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway. Head of the Institute of Medical Chemistry at the University of Lwów (1920–1941). Arrested by the NKVD in 1949, died at the Lubyanka.
American journalist born in Suwałki, Russian Poland, in 1835, and died in New York on 18 August 1897, Mordekhaï Jalomstein, versed in talmudic and neo-Hebrew literature, settled in New York in 1871 where he directed the first Hebrew periodical of the United States, the « Ha-Tsofeh be-Erets ha-Ḥadashah » of Hirsch Bernstein, and was a regular correspondent of the « Ha-Meliṣ » under the pseudonym « Yashan ». Long a principal collaborator of the « Jewish Gazette » Yiddish of New York, founded by his brother-in-law K. H. Sarasohn, he published in 1893 « Divre Yemé Artsot ha-Berit ».
Born in Aleppo into the Italian merchant family Picciotto, emigrated to London as a child. Journalist at the « Jewish Chronicle », he is the author of the first popular work on the history of Jews in England, « Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History ».
German physicist
Head of the family house from 1899; at its peak in 1913, Speyer & Co. was the third American investment bank. Philanthropist, he closed the New York firm himself in 1939 rather than allow his name to perpetuate.
British mathematician
German-American rabbi
Son of Solomon Loeb (co-founder of the Kuhn, Loeb & Co. bank), of German Jewish descent. Retired from business in 1901 for reasons of health, he devoted himself to classical scholarship and philanthropy. In 1911 he founded and endowed the Loeb Classical Library, a bilingual series of Greek and Latin classics.
Latvian Colombian businessman (1838-1921)
English actor born in Birmingham in 1839 and died in London on October 3, 1893, David James made his debut as a child in the ballet of the Princess' Theatre under the direction of Charles Kean, before joining in 1870 the direction of the Vaudeville Theatre with H. J. Montague and Thomas Thorne. His greatest success was the role of Perkyn Middlewick in Byron's "Our Boys", played more than thirteen hundred times in a row between 1875 and 1879 — a record for an English play; he later performed at the Haymarket (1881) then at the Criterion, in the company of Charles Wyndham (1886), and bequeathed his fortune to charitable works, mainly Jewish.
Hungarian-German Jewish academic and art collector and emigrant (1878-1957)
Russian chess player born on May 25, 1868 in Russian Poland, David Janowski did not take to the game seriously until 1886, the year he settled in Paris, a city where he was still residing in 1904. He represented France in international tournaments, notably winning first prize at Monte-Carlo (1901) and Hanover (1902), after several places of honor at Leipzig, Nuremberg, Budapest, Berlin, Vienna and London between 1894 and 1899; in 1902, he succeeded S. Rosenthal as chess editor of « Monde Illustré ».
Austrian actor born in Budapest on August 24, 1866, Josef Jarno took the stage despite commercial training, debuting in 1885 in Ischl, where he was subsequently engaged each summer; he played in Laibach from 1887 to 1890, in Berlin at the Residenztheater then at the Deutsches Theater from 1890 to 1899, before joining the troupe of the Josefstädter Theater in Vienna. He is also the author of several plays, including « Der Rabenvater », « Illusionen » and « Die Wahrsagerin ».
German economist and statistician born 13 September 1856 at Nakel, doctor of philosophy (1878) after studies at Breslau, Berlin, and Göttingen. Ignaz Jastrow became privatdozent of social economics at the University of Berlin in 1885. Author of numerous works on German economic and social history between 1878 and 1900, he also edited the "Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft" and the journal "Soziale Praxis".
American psychologist born on January 30, 1863 in Warsaw, Poland, Joseph Jastrow accompanied his father, Dr. Marcus Jastrow, to the United States in 1866 and was educated in Philadelphia. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1882, he received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1886 and still held in 1904 the chair of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, obtained in 1888; he directed the psychology section of the Columbian World's Fair in Chicago (1893) and presided over the American Psychological Association in 1900.
French physician and deputy born on May 5, 1839 in Paris, son of Léopold Javal, Émile Javal, doctor of medicine (1868), specialized in ophthalmology, became an authority on strabismus and was appointed in 1877 director of the ophthalmological laboratory of the Sorbonne. Elected to the Academy of Medicine in 1885, the same year he entered the Chamber of Deputies for Yonne, he opposed the Panama scandal, did not run again in 1889, and was struck by blindness in 1900. He is the author of « Manual of Strabismus » (1894).
French administrator born September 25, 1843 in Paris and died in the same city September 1, 1897, son of Léopold Javal. Ernest Léopold Javal was a lieutenant in the mobile guards during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), then sub-prefect of Boussac and Aubusson (1877), of Lunéville (1880) and of Guéret (1881), before becoming inspector of administrative services at the Ministry of the Interior (1883) and then director of the National Institution for the Deaf-Mute (1885); he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1888.
French politician born in Mulhouse on December 1, 1804 and died in Paris on March 28, 1872, Léopold Javal, son of a wealthy merchant, took part as a second lieutenant in the expedition to Algeria (1830) before devoting himself to financial affairs and contributing to the creation of the first Paris omnibuses. Elected in 1857 deputy for the Yonne, re-elected in 1863 and 1869, he sat on the left, opposed the Plebiscite and was sent to the National Assembly in 1871; he also represented the Jews of Alsace at the Central Consistory of Paris.
Bene Israel born around 1820 in Bombay, Samuel Isaac Jawlikar enlisted in 1840 in the Third Bombay Native Light Infantry and rose through the ranks to the grade of subahdar-major in 1869; he served during the Punjab campaign (1848–49), was present at the siege of Multan and at the Battle of Gujarat, then participated in the Abyssinian campaign of 1868, receiving several military medals. After his retirement from the army, he became treasurer of the synagogue of Thana.
Professor at the Sorbonne from 1936 to 1967, specialist in Hegel and Husserl, he was one of the principal introducers in France of Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Interned at Drancy then refugeed in the United States during the war, upon his return he led the Collège philosophique. Also a poet.
Jewish German feminist (1852–1899)
Portuguese musician
Rabbi of Byelsk, in the government of Grodno, born in 1820 and died on April 2, 1886, Aryeh Löb Jelin was one of the most consulted Russian rabbis on matters of halakha. Author of the « Qol Aryeh » and « Mitspé Aryeh », he is chiefly known for the « Yefé 'Enayim », a collection of parallel passages from the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Midrashim and other ancient rabbinical writings, accompanied by critical remarks and since integrated into editions of the Talmud printed by the Romm of Wilno.
Polish rabbi born in Yanov in 1806 and died in Cracow on 14 July 1876, Abraham Naphtali Hirz Jener, trained by his father and his brother Johanan, settled in Cracow in 1826 to conduct business, without success, before becoming dayyan then president of the bet din of the city. A reputed Talmudist whose decisions many rabbis followed, his responsa appeared in the « Birkat Abraham » (1874) and « Tselouta de-Abraham », completed with homilies (Lemberg, 1866).
first woman and first foreign student of the University of Cologne, Holocaust victim (1897–1944)
Hungarian actor
Dutch chief rabbi (1820–1888)
Polish halakhist (1846-1934)
Jerome David Kern (1885-1945), American composer of musical comedies (notably Show Boat), born in New York to a Jewish father who immigrated from Germany, Henry Kern, and an American Jewish mother of Bohemian origin, Fannie Kakeles.
Obstetrician, pioneer of maternal health; Bene Israel community of Bombay.
American rabbi
Jacob Jewell was the owner of the largest traveling circus in England. He died in September 1884, after having been tenant, under the authority of W. Holland, of the North Woolwich gardens for about fifteen years. He frequented English and continental fairs for more than sixty years.
Abraham Jonah ben Isaïe Jewnin was a Russian Talmudist from Paritz, in the government of Minsk, who died young in Grodno on June 12, 1848. He is the author of novellae on the works of Maimonides, part of which appeared in the edition of Sefer ha-Miṣvot entitled Maḥshebet Mosheh, in Wilna in 1866, and another part in the Warsaw edition of Yad ha-Ḥazaqah, in 1882.
Solomon Ballajce Jhiratkar was a Bene Israel soldier, enlisted in 1818 in the 14th regiment of indigenous infantry of Bombay. He was promoted jemidar in 1839, subahdar in 1843 then subahdar-major in 1856, before becoming sirdar bahadur. He participated in the siege of Mahadewghur in 1832, in the operations of Kolhapur in 1836 and in those conducted against the Waghers in Dwarka and in the hills of Burda in 1859-60, and received the first and second stars of the Order of British India.
Jewish Czech poet, translator and writer (1894-1943)
Czech writer of Jewish origin born in Bohemia in 1900. Doctor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Philology (University of Prague, 1928). He escaped deportation by feigning his death and living in hiding. After the war, he worked at the Jewish Museum in Prague and contributed to the history of the Jews of Bohemia. His novels "Život s hvězdou" (Life with a Star, 1949) and "Na střeše je Mendelssohn" (Mendelssohn on the Roof) are among the first Czech works on the Shoah.
Austrian rabbi
Czech rabbi
Joseph Joachim, Hungarian violinist, was born in Kittsee, near Bratislava, on June 28, 1831. After studies with Szervaczinski in Budapest, then with Joseph Böhm in Vienna and Ferdinand David in Leipzig, he pursued a brilliant career as a concert performer throughout Europe, performing notably in London and Paris. In 1868, he was appointed director of the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he founded his famous string quartet; he is also the author, among other compositions, of the Hungarian concerto in D minor.
Philip J. Joachimsen, jurist and American community leader, was born in Breslau in November 1817 and died in New York on 6 January 1890. Emigrated to New York in 1827, admitted to the bar in 1840, he organized and commanded during the Civil War the 59th Regiment of New York Volunteers, which earned him the rank of honorary brigadier general. Judge at the Marine Court of New York from 1870 to 1877, he was also the first president of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in 1859 and founded the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society in 1879.
Ferdinand J. Joachimsthal, German mathematician, was born on May 9, 1818 in Goldberg, Silesia, and died on April 5, 1861 in Breslau. Doctor of Berlin University in 1842, he taught there in a Realschule before becoming a privat-docent at the faculty of philosophy in 1846, then professor of mathematics in Halle in 1856 and in Breslau in 1858. He contributed to the Journal of Crelle as well as to the New Annals of Mathematics by Torquem.
Georg Joachimsthal, German physician, was born in Stargard, Pomerania, on May 8, 1863. Graduated in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1887, he became in 1890 assistant in orthopedic surgery at the university clinic, then privat-docent at the medical faculty in 1898. Laureate in 1897 of the Pourat Prize of the Institut de France, he is the author of Die Angeborenen Verbildungen der Oberen Extremitäten, published in Hamburg in 1900.
Waldemar Jochelson, Russian explorer and ethnologist, was born in Wilna on January 1, 1856. Engaged in the revolutionary movement, he had to leave Russia in 1880, was arrested upon his return in 1884 and imprisoned three years in the Peter and Paul Fortress, before being exiled ten years to Siberia, where he studied the language and traditions of the Yukaghir, Tungus and Yakut peoples. Member of the expedition of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (1894-97), then of the Jesup Expedition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, he published in 1900 in Saint Petersburg his reference work on the Yukaghir language and folklore.
French rabbi
German rabbi
David Joël, German rabbi and author, was born on January 12, 1815 in Inowrazlaw, in the province of Posen, and died on September 7, 1882 in Breslau; he was the brother of Manuel Joël. Ordained rabbi in 1842, he served in Schwersenz before being rabbi in Krotoschin from 1859 to 1879, then teaching at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau from 1880 onward. He is the author of Midrash ha-Zohar, a study of the religious philosophy of the Zohar published in Leipzig in 1849, as well as Der Aberglaube und die Stellung des Judenthums zu Demselben, the second part of which appeared after his death.
Karl Joël, German philosophical writer, was born on March 27, 1864 in Hirschberg, Silesia; he was the son of rabbi H. Joël of that city and the nephew of David and Manuel Joël. Doctor of philosophy in 1886, he was admitted as privatdozent at the faculty of philosophy in Basel in 1893, became assistant professor in 1897 and professor in 1902. He is the author of several philosophical and historical essays, as well as works such as Der Echte und der Xenophontische Sokrates, in two volumes (1893 and 1901), and Philosophenwege (1901).
Lewis Joël, British Consul General to Chile, was born in Dublin in 1824 and died in London on February 28, 1899. Appointed unpaid British vice-consul in Cobija in May 1861, he was interim Consul of France from September 1863 to June 1866, then interim chargé d'affaires in Caracas in 1867 and again in 1869, before holding for seven years the position of consul in Rosario. He was then consul in Brindisi, Georgia and Cadiz, then consul general for several departments of Colombia, and finally consul general to Chile, a post from which he retired with a pension in January 1894; he is the author of a Consul's Manual published in London in 1879.
Electrical engineer and industrialist (light bulb factory in Vienna), close advisor to Theodor Herzl. First president of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet, 1902-1907): he is at the origin of the blue pushka of the KKL, the « Golden Book » and the Fund's stamps. The KKL was founded on the basis of a memorandum he drafted and which was read at the 5th Zionist Congress (1901).
Born in Königsberg into a Jewish family (son of Nathan Rosenhain and Röschen Joseph), student of Carl Jacobi at Königsberg University. He introduced theta characteristics and the sixteen theta functions of two variables; his dissertation (supervised by Jacobi) dealt with periodic functions of two variables, and he edited Jacobi's lectures for publication.
American football player
Mayor of Adelaide (1855-58)
Swiss German psychologist, collaborator of C. G. Jung (1890-1973)
Zechariah Isaiah b. Mordekhai Jolles, rabbinic scholar, was born around 1814 in Lemberg and died in Minsk on May 14, 1852. He settled in Minsk in 1834, after his marriage to the daughter of Jacob Dokshitzer, and aligned himself with the Haskalah movement, notably supporting Lilienthal during his visit to Minsk in 1844. He published notably Dober Mesharim (Lemberg, 1831) on the Talmudic corrections of Mordecai Jaffe, as well as a collection of tales and responsa, Zeker Yeshayahu, published after his death by his son Süssman Jolles.
Heymann Jolowicz (Hayyim ben Abraham), German preacher and author, was born on August 23, 1816 in Santomischl, in Posen, and died in Königsberg on January 31, 1875. Trained at the University of Berlin, he worked as a preacher in Marienwerder, Kulm and then Köslin, belonging to the radical Reform party whose views he openly defended; retired in Königsberg, he gave there in 1864-1865 a series of lectures on the history of Judaism and founded a reformed congregation with Sunday services, of short duration. A prolific author from his student years, he notably published a history of the Jews of Königsberg (Posen, 1867).
Yiddish short-story writer, master of psychological prose.
Jonas ben Judah Gershon, rabbi and author, died in Vilna in 1808, where he served as dayan. Judging the text of the Tosefta corrupted, he prepared a critical edition accompanied by commentary, relying on citations of the Tosefta in the Talmuds of Babylon and Jerusalem as well as on the manuscript annotations of the Gaon of Vilna. Only the first part of his work, on the order Zera'im, was published, in Vilna in 1799; the commentary on the order Mo'ed remained in manuscript, preserved by his grandson Jonah Gerstein.
Benjamin Franklin Jonas, lawyer, soldier and American statesman, was born on 19 July 1834 in Williamstown, Kentucky. A graduate of the law faculty of the University of Louisiana in 1855, he fought on the Confederate side during the American Civil War in the artillery of Hood's corps, before sitting in the Louisiana legislature after 1865 and holding various elective offices, including that of State Senator and then Representative in Congress, where he chaired the Judicial Committee. United States Senator for Louisiana from 18 March 1879 to 3 March 1885, succeeding James B. Eustis, he was then appointed by President Cleveland as Inspector of the Port of New Orleans.
Emil Jonas (Jacob), German writer and publicist, was born on July 14, 1824 in Schwerin, Mecklenburg. Editor-in-chief of the Flensburger Zeitung from 1845, he settled in Copenhagen in 1847; a pamphlet on the political situation of Denmark attracted the attention of the crown prince, who, having become king under the name Frederick VII in 1848, called him to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the war of 1863-64, he settled in Berlin, where he devoted himself to translating Scandinavian works and publishing travel guides, as well as various historical and linguistic works.
Émile Jonas, French musician, was born in Paris on March 5, 1827. Entered the Conservatory in 1841, he obtained there the first prize in harmony in 1847 and the Grand Prix de Rome in 1848, before devoting himself mainly to the composition of comic operettas in the style of Offenbach, such as Le Duel de Benjamin (1855) or Javotte (1871), later given in London under the title Cinderella. Professor of solfège at the Conservatory from 1847 to 1866, he was also musical director of the Portuguese synagogue in Paris and published a Collection of Hebrew Songs (1854).
Aaron b. Tsevi Jonathanson, Russian Hebraist and poet, was born around 1815 and died in Kovno on July 27, 1868. Descendant of Jonathan Eybeschütz through his father, settled in Vilna, he exercised the profession of teacher there until around 1859, before settling in Yanova, near Kovno. He maintained a correspondence with Isaac Erter, and his student Judah Leib Gordon retained of him an affectionate memory and high esteem for his poetry; he is the author of the collection of poems and epigrams Kelei Shir (Vilna, 1864).
Alfred T. Jones, editor and community activist, was born in Boston on July 4, 1822 and died in Philadelphia on October 3, 1888. Settled in Philadelphia in 1842, he founded the Jewish Record there in 1875, a newspaper that appeared until 1886, and was secretary of the first Jewish Publication Society, founded in 1845. He also held numerous leadership positions in the charitable works and masonic lodges of the city, and was the first president of the Jewish Hospital Association and the Jewish Immigrants' Aid Society of Philadelphia.
Moroccan writer
Polish rabbi
rabbi
Josef Franz Hupka, born in Vienna on February 22, 1875, was professor of law at the University of Vienna from 1915 and dean of the law faculty in 1926-1927. In 1938, he was removed through forced retirement pursuant to the Nuremberg Laws, and his pension was withdrawn in 1939; he hid with his wife Hermine in Bilthoven (Netherlands) until spring 1944. Arrested and deported to Theresienstadt, he died there on April 23, 1944; his wife Hermine was murdered at Auschwitz in October 1944.
Hungarian rabbi
German-Moravian rabbi and translator (1812–1897)
holocaust victim, b. 1866-02-25
Rafael Joseffy, American piano virtuoso, was born in 1852 in Hunfalu, Hungary, and gave his first public concert in Budapest around the age of ten. In 1864, his father took him to study at the Leipzig Conservatory under Wenzel and Moscheles, then, in 1866, to the Berlin Conservatory, where Carl Tausig was his master for three years; he also spent two summers, in 1869-70, with Liszt at Weimar. Established in Vienna until 1879, he then left for the United States, where he made his New York debut at Chickering Hall, obtained American citizenship in 1900, and became head of the piano department at the National Conservatory of Music of New York.
Israeli painter born in Ukraine, one of the principal promoters of modern art in the Yishuv and the State of Israel. Co-founder of the group « Ofakim Hadashim » (New Horizons), he developed a style of « lyrical abstraction ». Winner of the Israel Prize for Painting in 1959; first Israeli artist to have a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1955).
German rabbi
Co-founder, with his brother Lyman, of the great New York department store Bloomingdale's (1872), a figure of the American Jewish bourgeoisie of German origin.
Joseph b. Jacob Isaac was rabbi in Yampol then in Zamość, in Russia; he died in 1807. He is the author of the Michnat Hakhamim, a work on various subjects including the Madda' of Maimonides (Lemberg, 1792), to which are annexed new works by his son Isaac, rabbi of Chelm, whose responsa on the laws of the sabbath and festivals, titled Otot le-Mo'adim, he also mentions.
Polish rabbi
Born in Kamenets (Ukraine), settled in Erets-Israël in 1906, he was in 1910 one of the founders of the first kvoutza, Degania Alef, cradle of the kibbutz movement. He recounts this founding in a book translated into a dozen languages.
British activist
Judge at the rabbinical court of Tetuan, author of five works (commentaries, homilies, responsa and piyyoutim), among which "Shufreih di-Yosef", printed in Alexandria in 1897.
Dayan of Meknès, author of a lexicon of Hebrew grammatical roots, Ketonet Yosef.
Yiddish worker and anarchist poet of the sweatshops.
Born in Tunis in 1888, died September 26, 1924. Trained at the yeshiva of rabbi Shlomo Dana and at the Alliance israélite universelle, he became a Hebrew teacher, secretary to the Chief Rabbi Moshé Sitruk then to the Tunisian Chief Rabbinate (1922). Co-founder in 1910 of Agoudat Tsion, the first legal Zionist organization in Tunis, he represented it at the 12th Zionist Congress (1921).
Coming to Erets-Israël as a child from Ukraine, he was an interpreter in the Turkish army during the First World War, then a Hebrew teacher and explorer of Transjordan and the Negev. From 1938 he taught at the teachers' seminary in Tel-Aviv. His major work is « Ha-Yadata et ha-Aretz? » (Do You Know the Land?), a six-volume description of the regions of Israel.
American rabbi
Romanian Jewish jurist, activist, communal leader (1846 – 1918)
German rabbi
Minister of Finance, Minister of Communications in Egypt
Russian Jewish physician, Hovevei Zion leader in Bialystok, whose personal library became the founding collection of what is now the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
Canadian political figure
Born in Mainz, settled in Paris, he was one of the great Jewish Orientalists of the 19th century. Specialist in Saadia Gaon, he undertook a complete edition of his works in Arabic and French, and worked on Semitic epigraphy. Member of the Institut de France.
Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar (1834–1905), from a Bene Israel family of Bombay, was trained in Hebrew and English by John Wilson. Director of the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution for forty years, examiner of Hebrew (1871) then fellow (1879) of Bombay University, he translated over twenty works of Hebrew liturgy (siddur, mahzor, piyyutim, selihot) into Marathi and wrote expositions on rabbinic literature and Jewish history.
Russian financier and philanthropist
Listed by the Jewish Virtual Library and the ANU museum among the most prominent Jewish personalities of Baghdad in the 18th–19th centuries (alongside Abdallah Somekh, Ezéchiel b. Reuben Manasseh, Eliezer Kadoorie, Menahem Daniel). A wealthy philanthropist, he contributed generously to communal institutions, notably educational and religious ones.
Polish author (1833–1911)
Entrepreneur and art collector of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, born in Mitau (Latvia), whose donation founded the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. Name borne under the anglicized orthographic variant "Hirshhorn" (without "c"), a common transcription variant of the patronym "Hirschhorn" among Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants.
Born in Sydney, died in Yonkers (New York). A renowned folklorist (English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, Indian Fairy Tales), he was also a historian of English Judaism and statistician. In 1900 he became editor-in-chief of the Jewish Encyclopedia, coordinating the contributions of some 600 collaborators.
German rabbi
Sage and kabbalist of Essaouira, prolific author for the people in Judeo-Arabic.
American rabbi
Playwright of the early Yiddish theatre, pillar of popular repertoire in New York.
French rabbi
German archaeologist and historian
American judge (1877–1971)
Hungarian rabbi
Owner of a Fleet Street printing house, he became in 1855 owner of the Daily Telegraph & Courier, which he transformed into London's first daily newspaper at a penny — pioneer of British popular journalism (circulation 27,000 by January 1856). His son Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham, greatly expanded the newspaper.
Sephardic Ottoman Jew born in Adrianople. General director of the Mikvé Israël agricultural school (Alliance Israélite Universelle) for more than fifteen years; adviser to the JCA in Palestine (1896); he arranged in 1898 the meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm II and Theodor Herzl at Mikvé Israël. Founder of B'nai B'rith District XI (1911) covering the Ottoman Empire and of the first Jewish secondary school in Turkey (1914).
German rabbi
Banker of Rhodes without children, he devoted his fortune to the poor of the community, particularly to needy children. The Joseph Notrica Foundation funded in the 1920s the « Notrica Foundation Community Building », given to the Jewish community of Rhodes and serving as a community center.
Polish-born Yiddish writer (1886 – 1954)
rabbi and author
German rabbi
Russian-British engineer
American journalist of Hungarian origin
Collaborator of Gambetta and then a Dreyfusard figure, he devoted a reference history in seven volumes to the Affair. He was also the principal architect of a French translation of the works of Flavius Josephus (7 vol., 1900–1932).
Yiddish poet, celebrated precursor of the Di Yunge group.
Austrian politician
Polish rabbi
Jewish geographer
American rabbi
Egyptian businessman
French aeronautical engineer
Joseph Tilche was, around 1900, president of the Menasce synagogue and director of the school attached to it in Alexandria; he managed the funds of the synagogue's offerings and, with Moses Aziz, raised £6,000 for the dowry association for poor young girls.
Austrian lawyer, writer and politician
Canadian rabbi
first Chief Rabbi of Geneva, professor of comparative philology, native of Alsace
rabbi, Old Testament commentator and Hebrew linguist (1842–1910)
German rabbi (1867–1942)
German Jewish bibliographer. From 1845 he was librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in London until 1869. There he catalogued in particular the Heimann J. Michael collection of Hamburg and provided bibliographic information to Zunz and Steinschneider.
David Joseph, German architect, was born on July 4, 1863 in Königsberg. Qualified as an architect in 1888, he settled in Berlin that same year, obtained a doctorate in philosophy at Heidelberg in 1894 and became private lecturer at the Humboldt Academy, before teaching archaeology and art history in Brussels, a position he left in 1898 to resume his profession as an architect in Berlin and direct the Internationale Revue für Kunst, Kunstgewerbe und Technik. A prolific author, he published notably Die Paläste des Homerischen Epos (Berlin, 1893) and a Geschichte der Baukunst vom Altertum bis zur Neuzeit in two volumes (Berlin, 1902).
Henry Samuel Joseph, English Jew converted to Christianity, was born in 1801 and died in Strasbourg on January 28, 1864. First preacher at the synagogue in Bedford, he converted, was ordained in 1839 in the Church of England, then became traveling secretary of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, before serving, from 1847 to 1856, as chaplain of Chester Castle. He is the author of Reasons for Embracing Christianity (1834) and Memoirs of Convicted Prisoners (Chester, 1853).
Morris Joseph, English rabbi, was born in London on May 28, 1848. Appointed rabbi of the North London synagogue in 1868, he joined in 1874 the Hebrew congregation of Liverpool, where he served as preacher until 1882, before becoming in 1893 principal minister of the West London synagogue upon the retirement of Professor Marks. He published a collection of sermons, The Ideal in Judaism (London, 1893), and a work of theological popularization, Judaism as Creed and Life (1903), defending a conservative position, midway between Reform and strict orthodoxy.
Samuel A. Joseph, pioneer and Australian politician, was born in London in 1824 and died in Sydney on September 25, 1898. Emigrated to New Zealand at eighteen, he acquired such mastery of the Māori language that he served as interpreter to Sir George Grey during his pacification expedition; settled in Sydney in 1855, where he went into partnership with Jacob Levi Montefiore, he sat successively in the lower and upper chambers of the legislative assembly, while presiding over the chamber of commerce and the City Bank.
American essayist, book critic, transcendentalist, and Zionist
Austrian-Swedish sculptor and painter (1886–1981)
Pedagogue and English community worker, born in London on November 22, 1804 and died on January 24, 1893. He was closely associated with the direction of several Jewish institutions, including the Jews' Free School and the Jews' Infant School, of which he was honorary secretary from its foundation in 1840, and received in 1877 a testimonial of recognition for his long services to Jewish education. Contributor to Jewish newspapers on ritual reform, he founded in 1874 the association for the modification of the liturgy of German Jews, and became in 1837, with the freedom of the City of London, the first Jew admitted to the Drapers' Company.
United States Navy chaplain
Lithuanian writer
Rabbi (c.1803–1878)
Polish rabbi and linguist
Hungarian politician
Hungarian publisher
Talmudic scholar and rabbinic judge in Tunis, member of the Tunisian rabbinate, nephew of Juda Cohen Tanugi. Prolific author of commentaries (Mekhilta, Sifre, SeMaG, minor treatises, hermeneutical rules).
American politician and jurist
South African rabbi
Reform rabbi (1877-1948)
Australian political figure
Storyteller of Bessarabia, Hebrew fables and tales for children and adults.
Industrialist, consul general, and American chess player, born December 27, 1851, in Cracow, emigrated to the United States at eleven years of age and naturalized by an act of Congress that authorized him to bear his current name. Manufacturer of wholesale coats from 1874 to 1893, he was subsequently appointed by President Cleveland as consul general of the United States in Vienna for more than four years. An active figure in American chess, he won the Ohio tournament in Cincinnati in 1872, defeated Showalter in 1889, and won the Congress of Western Chess in Chicago in 1903.
Madame Judith, born Julie Bernat, is a French actress born in Paris on January 30, 1827. She made her debut at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques in 1842, where her melodious voice earned her the nickname "the beautiful Jewess," then entered the Comédie-Française on November 30, 1846 in the role of Emma in "Fille d'Honneur" by Alexandre Duval; married in 1851 to Bernard-Derosne, she became a full member in 1852 and left the stage in 1866, devoting herself thereafter, with her husband, to translating English novels. She is a distant relative of the celebrated actress Rachel Félix.
French rabbi
French political figure
Polish poet
German Jewish fashion journalist and art collector (1866-1943)
Born in Paris into a wealthy and assimilated Jewish family, educated at the lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Sorbonne, he is best known for « La Trahison des clercs » (1927), in which he denounces intellectuals who betray truth and justice in favor of political and racial passions. He was also an opponent of Bergsonism (Belphégor, 1918).
French rabbi
Jewish publisher of Mannheim, member of the synagogue council and local politician. With his brothers Sigmund and Albert, he directed the publishing house Bensheimer, which became a reference publisher for legal and scientific literature in the German Empire (laws of Baden from 1880, large collection of German laws from 1908, approximately 128 volumes in 1927).
Hungarian rabbi (1832-1883)
Polish-American anthologist, diarist, encyclopedist, Jewish scholar, historian and philanthropist (1854–1956)
German art historian
German rabbi and theologian (1880-1950)
German ophthalmologist, university lecturer and medical historian (1843-1925)
personnalité politique américaine
German rabbi
Born in Constantinople in 1873 into an assimilated and prosperous Russian Jewish family, grandson of Alexandre Zederbaum. Social-democrat theorist, he became the principal leader of the Menshevik faction of the POSDR. Author of numerous political writings, including his memoirs (« Notes of a Social-Democrat »).
Austro-Hungarian chemist
Czech Jewish entrepreneur (1856-1932)
American businessman, philanthropist and NAACP member
Austrian pianist
New Zealand politician, writer and journalist (1835-1899)
Dutch rabbi
Convert to Christianity and anti-Jewish polemicist, born in Costinasti, in Romania, around 1860 under the name Aaron Briman. After studying rabbinics at the rabbinical seminary of Berlin while presenting himself as strictly orthodox, he converts, having failed to obtain a position as rabbi, first to Protestantism then, in Paderborn, to Catholicism, and published in 1883 « Der Judenspiegel », a compilation of one hundred laws taken from the Shulhan Arukh purporting to demonstrate the hostility of Jews toward Christianity. Having returned to Austria in 1884, he provided Rohling with antisemitic materials, before being convicted of fraud in 1885, then expelled, and settled in Paris to study medicine.
Galician scholar established in Brody in the first half of the 19th century. He translated from German into Hebrew Hufeland's "Macrobiotik," a treatise on the art of prolonging human life, under the title "Ruaḥ Ḥayyim" (Lemberg, 1831), as well as a work of natural history in four parts, "Limmude ha-Ṭeba'" (Czernowitz, 1836), and published moral studies elsewhere.
Hungarian journalist and writer, born December 2, 1864 in Nagy-Károly. Destined for teaching, he turned to journalism, becoming parliamentary columnist and serial writer for « Pesti Napló », then contributor to « Országos Hirlap » in 1897 and editor of the parliamentary section of « Budapesti Napló » in 1898; he was elected in 1902 member of the Petöfi Társaság in recognition of his literary work, which includes numerous novels, dramas and collections of short stories published between 1885 and 1900.
Teacher in Rechnitz, Hungary, in the first half of the 19th century. Weakened by illness after many years of teaching, he gathered his pedagogical experience in the « Otsar ha-Ḥayyim » (Prague, 1832), whose first and third parts, in German transcribed in Hebrew characters, set forth teaching methods and a school curriculum, while the second enumerates the six hundred thirteen commandments in Hebrew and German.
Yiddish poetess and writer, major figure of twentieth-century women's poetry.
Rabbi and Austrian orientalist, born in Lissa, in Posania, on May 6, 1818, and died in Prague on October 16, 1892. Trained in Berlin and then in Posen under Akiba Eger, he studied at the University of Halle, where he was one of the favorite students of Gesenius, before accepting in 1844 a teaching position in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Called shortly after to Prague as preacher of the Temple, where he succeeded Michael Sachs and remained until his retirement in 1890, he also became there, in 1850, lecturer in Semitic languages, then later assistant professor of Oriental languages.
Russian Hebrew scholar, born December 19, 1874 in Skomorochy, near Jitomir. He wrote or edited numerous works between 1896 and 1904—including a Hebrew biography of Moses Ḥayyim Louzzatto (Warsaw, 1899) and a critical edition of Genesis (Jitomir, 1904)—and regularly contributed to the Hebrew journals « Ha-Meliṣ », « Ha-Zeman » and « Ha-Shiloaḥ », directing the literary sections in « Ha-Dor ».
Jacob ben Abraham Kahana is a rabbinic author who died in Wilna in 1826, son of the rabbi of Brestowitz, government of Grodno, and son-in-law of R. Issachar of Wilna, brother of Elias of Wilna. Supported for long by his father-in-law, he was able to devote himself to the study of the Law and became one of the great talmudists of Wilna, then administrator of the charitable works of the city after the death of Issachar. He is the author of "Chittot", a commentary on the treatise Erouvin in three parts, published in Lemberg in 1863 by Raphaël Nathan Rabbinowicz.
Belgian pedagogue and writer, born on September 9, 1827 in Breisach, Baden, educated at the Progymnasium of his native city then at the polytechnic school and pedagogical seminary of Carlsruhe. After teaching in Germany and then at the Jewish school in Hegenheim, Alsace, he was called to Brussels as director of the Jewish school in 1855, then founded in October 1863 the Kahn International Institute, a commercial and living languages school still in operation; he published several works between 1877 and 1901, including a study that won a prize from the Academy of Sciences of Brussels.
German composer and pianist, born in Mannheim on 21 July 1865, student of Ernst Frank and Vincenz Lachner in Mannheim, Friedrich Kiel in Berlin and Joseph Rheinberger in Munich. After stays in Vienna and Berlin, he settled in 1890 in Leipzig, where he founded a women's choir the following year, before being appointed, in October 1898, professor of theory and composition at the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He composed a serenade for orchestra, three quartets and three trios with piano, a string quartet, two sonatas for violin and piano, as well as « Mahomets Gesang » for mixed chorus and orchestra.
Hazan and composer, born November 10, 1840 in Szobotist, Hungary, trained in Vienna where, from age ten, he sang in Salomon Sulzer's choir. Assistant cantor at Fünfhaus from 1859, then cantor of the Neues Synagogue in Prague from 1863 to 1866, he arrived in New York in June 1866 and was appointed, the following month, cantor of the Oheb Shalom congregation in Baltimore, a position he still held in 1904. Honorary member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he notably composed « Zimrat Yah » (1871-86, four volumes) with Samuel Welsh, Moritz Goldstein and J. L. Rice.
Austrian actress, born in Lemberg, where she made her debut in 1893 at the Scarbeck theater in a small role of « Mignon », in Polish, before being engaged at the Jewish theater of the city and then, in Bucharest, at the Imperial Theater for Romanian plays. In 1895, she left for New York to play the Yiddish repertoire at the Thalia Theater, where she achieved her greatest successes in the plays of Jacob Gordin.
German playwright and humorist, born in Breslau on February 23, 1820 and died in Berlin on August 21, 1872. Orphaned of his father at seven years old, forced to work early in commerce, he became connected in Paris, from October 1844 onwards, with a circle of poets and socialists including Heine, Herwegh and Karl Marx, before settling in Berlin in 1846. His farce « Einmal Hunderttausend Thaler », premiered on December 23, 1847, won a triumph that inaugurated a long dominance of the German comic stage; his famous « Couplets » were collected under the title « Berliner Leierkasten » (Berlin, 1857).
Rabbi and American author, born November 15, 1816 in Krotoschin and died May 11, 1886 in Newark, New Jersey; trained at the universities of Berlin, Breslau and Prague, he was forced to leave Germany for his overly liberal opinions and came to the United States in 1849. He held rabbinical positions in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Leavenworth, Detroit, Newark and Nashville, and translated into English several works, including the "Sefer Yeṣira" in 1877 and the Philosophy of the Jews by Salomon Munk in 1881. A prominent figure at the Cleveland rabbinical conference in 1855, he was also one of the editors of the ritual "Minhag America".
German novelist, born on September 7, 1814 in Lissa and died on March 3, 1882 in Paris. Left home at age twelve, successively peddler, merchant then tutor, he saved enough to study medicine then languages and letters at Heidelberg and Munich, and settled in Mainz in 1843 as editor of « Narrhalla ». Forced into exile after the revolution of 1848-49, he went to Paris then London in 1850, before settling in Paris from 1851 ; specialist in the humorous ballad, he notably published « Das Buch der Narrheit » (Mainz, 1845) and « Pariser Leben » (Mainz, 1881).
Hebrew scholar and biblical commentator, born in Treptow, Pomerania, on May 16, 1828, and died in Derbyshire, England, on August 24, 1885. Trained in Berlin, where he obtained his degrees in 1848, he went to England and was secretary to Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler from 1848 to 1853, before becoming tutor to the Rothschild family. He then devoted his leisure to a vast critical commentary on the Old Testament, the first volume of which appeared in 1855 and the last, on Leviticus, in 1872 — where he largely anticipated Wellhausen — without being able, his health declining, to complete the Pentateuch entirely.
German singer, born in Berlin on November 6, 1855, son of David Kalisch, founder of « Kladderadatsch ». Destined for architecture, he was drawn toward singing after impressing Pollini and Adelina Patti at a private evening; trained in Italy under Leoni and Lamperti, he made his debut in Varese in 1880 in « Lucia di Lammermoor », then sang on the royal stages of Munich, Berlin and Vienna in 1883 and in London alongside Lily Lehmann, whom he married. He subsequently spent six seasons in the United States, four of them at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, before reappearing in « Tristan » in Paris and Cologne in 1901.
German Talmudist, died on April 18, 1822 in Lissa, where he was a dayan and had directed the yeshiva for more than fifty years, training a large number of students. He is the author of "Ha-Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah" (Breslau, 1820), novellae on the laws of ḥazaḳah.
German composer, pianist and physicist, born October 8, 1845 in Thorn, in western Prussia, trained at the Jewish theological seminary in Breslau and at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1868. After a year as tutor in Amsterdam, he returned to Berlin to study physics and chemistry, became lecturer at the Bauakademie in Berlin in 1876, then at the Technische Hochschule of Charlottenburg, lecturer in 1894 and professor of physics in 1896; he edited the scientific writings of Goethe and translated into German Faraday's « Experimental Researches on Electricity ».
Danish convert to Protestantism, born November 27, 1802 in Stockholm and died in Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen, on February 3, 1886. Son of a rabbi who gave him his first instruction, he began legal studies in Copenhagen in 1818, converted to Protestantism in 1823, studied theology, obtained his doctorate in 1833, taught in Odense from 1827 to 1841, then became pastor in Gladsaxe and Herlev from 1844; author of numerous works on the history of Christian missions, including « Die Mission Unter den Juden » (1868), he directed from 1871 to 1880 the « Theologisk Tidsskrift ».
Hungarian rabbi and author, died in Kolín, Bohemia, in 1805, grandson of Meïr Eisenstadt, author of the "Panim Me'irot". Rabbi of Rechnitz then of Kolín, he wrote the "Or Ḥadash" in three parts — a commentary on the Pentateuch inserted into his grandfather's work, and novellae on Pesaḥim and Ḳiddushin (Frankfurt-on-Oder and Vienna, 1766-99) —, sermons, "Ḥawwot Ya'ir Ḥadash" (Prague, 1792), and responsa, "Ḥeḳer Halakah" (Vienna, 1838).
Historian of Yiddish literature and journalist.
Russian historian
Born in Sarajevo to "one of the oldest Sephardic families of Bosnia-Herzegovina." Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, specialist in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and Hispanic literature. He collected and studied the linguistic forms and Judeo-Spanish romances of Bosnia, Priština, and Skopje. Deported, he died in Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945.
Russo-Jewish philanthropist (1824–1904)
Russian physician, poet and Hebraist satirist, born in Levkiev, near Jitomir, in 1834, and died in Bern on March 30, 1901. Married at sixteen after a strictly religious education, he subsequently turned to secular learning in Wilna, among the maskilim, before becoming professor of Hebrew at the rabbinical seminary of Jitomir; in 1857, already the father of five children, he nevertheless entered the University of Kiev, obtained his doctorate in medicine there, and then practiced for fifteen years as assistant to Professor Mering in Kiev. A Hebrew writer renowned for his satirical verve, he published notably « Ḳinot mi-Sidduro Shel Bene Dan » (Vienna, 1878) on the condition of Russian Jews.
Russian scholar, born in Berditchev on May 5, 1866, trained at Israel Hildesheimer's rabbinical seminary in Berlin, then in Hamburg, Riga, at the University of Berlin, at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums and, from 1887 onwards, at the Sorbonne and the School of Political Science in Paris. Substitute rabbi in Frankfurt-on-Oder in 1893, he succeeded the same year S. I. Kämpf as rabbi of the Tempelgemeinde in Prague, then served in Esseg from 1897 to 1900, before settling in Vienna in 1901 as preacher and secretary of the Israelitische Allianz, which sent him in 1903 to investigate the Jewish massacres of Kishinev.
Hungarian botanist, born on April 25, 1843 in Lugos and died on July 12, 1896 in Klausenburg. A student in Vienna, he published from 1863 onwards a history of botany in Hungary, followed by other studies on the flora of Slavonia (1866), the Balkans (1877), and Romania (1879), which earned him his election to the Academy of Sciences of Budapest in 1880. Appointed professor of botany at the university of Klausenburg in 1872, he founded in 1877 the "Magyar Növénytani Lapok", which he directed until 1892.
Hungarian archaeologist and ethnographer, born in Budapest on August 2, 1829 and died in Vienna on January 8, 1904. Entered the University of Vienna at seventeen to study art, he traveled after 1850 in Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, then, established in Vienna in 1856, traversed Dalmatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Macedonia, thus becoming the ethnographer of the South Slavs. He published notably « Die Römischen Funde in Serbien » (Vienna, 1861) and « Römische Studien in Serbien » (Vienna, 1892).
French musician, born in Paris on February 28, 1857, student of Massenet and Duvernoy. He produced in 1895, in Lyon, the oratorio « Ruth », followed by the two-act opera « Gaitanne » (1898) and the one-act opera-comique « Maritorne », as well as several other compositions, including « Le Baptême du Printemps » and « La Syrinx ».
Russian journalist, born in Vilna in 1849, state rabbi of Libau, in Courland. Trained at the rabbinical schools of Vilna then Zhytomyr, he also studied medicine in Berlin without ever practicing it, and became known as a writer in Russian and Hebrew; settled in Saint Petersburg as a gymnasium professor, he became editor of the « Russki Yevrei » (1883-84), launched in February 1886 the « Ha-Yom », first Hebrew daily of Saint Petersburg, which he directed until its suspension in 1887, then was assistant editor of the « Ha-Meliṣ » in 1890 before becoming, around 1892, rabbi of Libau, a position he still held in 1904.
Russian Hebraist writer, born in Wilke on July 25, 1839 and died in Vienna on February 2, 1897, where he settled as a publicist after making a name for himself as a Hebrew author. He translated into Hebrew German works — including a novel by Hermann Reckendorf (Warsaw, 1865) and the third volume of Graetz's « History of the Jews » (1875) — wrote a biography of poet Abraham Mapou (Vienna, 1870) and various poems, and defended in the Hebrew press the work of Smolenskine, which earned him the hostile pamphlet « Kohen lelo-Elohim » (Warsaw, 1878).
Russian painter and draftsman, born in Sebastopol on July 19, 1872. Left for Paris, he entered in 1885 the School of Decorative Arts then, three years later, the École des beaux-arts, where he was a student of Bonnat; he exhibited at the Salon from 1890, obtained in 1901 his admission to the Society of French Artists with « Le Terrassier », and became known for landscapes, portraits — including those of the Prince of Soltikoff, Henri Brisson and Mme Réjane — as well as for his miniatures and his illustrations, notably for the works of Guy de Maupassant.
Russian teacher and Hebrew poet, born in Trishki, in the Kovno governorate, in 1826, and died in Riga on June 14, 1888, student of M. A. Guinzbourg. Recognized pedagogue — his school in Riga became a model for Jewish institutions in Russia — he was the soul of the progressive congregation of Riga, of which he remained secretary until his death, and obtained in 1864, through his intervention with Count Shuvalov, more liberal treatment of the Lithuanian Jews of Riga. Correspondent of the publicist Katkov, whom he persuaded to defend the Jews in the Russian press, he published notably « Ereẓ ha-Pela'ot », a poetic vision of one hundred twenty-four stanzas, in « Keneset Yisrael » in 1887.
Austrian dermatologist, born in Kaposvár, Hungary, on October 23, 1837, and died on March 6, 1902. Doctor of Medicine from Vienna in 1861, he became a lecturer there in 1866, associate professor in 1875, and then, in 1879, professor and head of the dermatological clinic, succeeding Hebra. Author of more than one hundred medical essays, notably on syphilis and lupus, he published among others « Pathologie und Therapie der Hautkrankheiten » (Vienna, 1879), translated into several languages, and received in 1899 the title of « Hofrath ».
Austrian poet and physician, born in Smíchov, near Prague, on March 21, 1821, and died in Pisa on June 7, 1879; trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1847. First a physician, he then turned to literature, publishing numerous works between 1844 and 1859, including « Geneda » (1846), which depicts ancient Jewish life in Prague; some of his lyric poems were set to music by Salomon Sulzer and Josef Dessauer.
Electrician and Austrian deputy, born in Semic, Bohemia, on February 14, 1837, trained at the technical institute in Prague. In state service from 1858 to 1896 — first in topographical surveys in Tyrol and Croatia until 1863, then in telegraphs — he devoted himself to the nascent electrotechnics, directing the « Zeitschrift für Elektrotechnik » from 1883 to 1896 and founding the Elektrotechnische Verein of Vienna; municipal councillor of Leopoldstadt from 1890 to 1896, he subsequently sat in the Reichsrat until the end of 1899.
Rabbi of Bohemia, who exercised successively in Gawartschew, Lask, Dasparschi, and Widowa before being called in 1801 to Náchod, where he remained until 1806. He is the author of « She'eltot ABiYaH », talmudic dissertations in twelve parts named after the precious stones of the high priest's breastplate, of which only two were published (Berlin, 1806), as well as « Ẓanif Ṭahor », a commentary on Ecclesiastes preserved in manuscript at the British Museum.
German soldier, born in Beuthen, Silesia, on February 21, 1848, and fell in battle at Le Bourget on October 30, 1870. Volunteer enlisted in 1866, he fought the Seven Weeks' War, then distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War to the point of receiving, on October 28, 1870, the Iron Cross second class; mortally wounded two days later while wresting the regimental flag from the enemy's hands, he nevertheless managed to return it to General Budrisky.
German businessman (1889–1982)
Austrian writer (1848-1904)
Austrian actor and writer
German physician
Sociologist born in Budapest in 1893 into a Jewish family (Hungarian father, German mother), classic figure in sociology and founder of the sociology of knowledge. Author of Ideology and Utopia (1929), he taught at Heidelberg and Frankfurt before emigrating to London (LSE) after 1933.
German philosopher and economist, founder of scientific socialism and author of Capital, descended from a family of rabbis. His thought transformed world political history.
Austrian photographer
Born in Frankfurt into a Jewish family established in the city since the 16th century. Astronomer and physicist, director of the Potsdam observatory. Engaged during the First World War, he produces on the Russian front (late 1915) the first exact solution of Einstein's field equations, communicated to Einstein in December 1915. Died in 1916.
Hungarian pedagogue, born on December 25, 1843 in Szeged, trained under the influence of Léopold Löw and holder of a doctorate from the University of Budapest in 1866. Sent in 1869 by the Minister of Education, Baron Joseph Eötvös, to study in Leipzig the methods of teacher training, he returned to Hungary in 1872 and established himself at the University of Budapest as a lecturer in pedagogy, ethics and psychology, while directing the gymnasium annexed to the normal school, from whence his lasting influence on Hungarian education; pedagogical advisor to the ministry of Worship and Public Education since 1903, he also translated into Hungarian several foreign works.
Romanian Jewish actress, born in Galați in 1861 and died in New York on March 31, 1904, first actress to appear on the Yiddish stage. She debuted in 1877 in Goldfaden's « Die Bobe mit'n Enikel », gained prominence in this author's dramas and operas in Bucharest, Jassy and Galați, then performed in Russia, in Odessa, in classical plays, as well as in Germany and Galicia. Leaving for New York in 1882, she performed at the Rumanian Opera-House then at the Oriental Theater, before founding in 1902, with other actors, the Grand Theater.
Ukrainian-born Romanian physician and Zionist (1830-1915)
Historian of literature and editor, son of Élie Karpeles, born on November 11, 1848 in Eiwanowitz, Moravia, trained at the University of Breslau and its Jewish theological seminary. After a career as a journalist in several German newspapers, he settled in Berlin in 1883 and became in 1890 editor of the "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums"; an animator of Jewish literary societies in Germany, he became best known for his work on Heinrich Heine, for which he published several editions of his works as well as biographical monographs, and for his "History of Jewish Literature" (1886).
American journalist
Austrian physician, born in Presbourg, Hungary, on 14 August 1842, doctor of medicine from Vienna in 1863. Long assistant to L. Politzer in Vienna, he succeeded him in 1881 as head of the first children's hospital, became lecturer in 1885 then assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Vienna in 1891; author of numerous medical essays, he notably published « Die Symptome der Rachitis » (Leipzig, 1886) and « Allgemeine Biologie » (1899).
German political figure
German-American wrestler and circus strongwoman
Austrian writer
Rabbi and author, born July 17, 1858 in Łódź, in Russian Poland. Educated at the yeshivot of Lublin and Wilna, he settled in Berlin in 1881, serving as preacher in Fürstenwalde from 1883 to 1886 then at the congregation Ohel Yiṣḥaḳ from 1886 to 1887, before devoting himself entirely to writing; co-founder of the Verein für Jüdische Geschichte und Literatur of Berlin, he also founded in 1894 the Verband der Literatur-Vereine of Hanover, of which he remained secretary, and published various works, including « Die Juden im Kaukasus » (1894) and « Die Juden in China » (1900).
German otorhinolaryngologist born in Loslau on 1 January 1848, doctor of medicine from the University of Berlin in 1872. Established as a specialist in Berlin from 1878 onwards, he became lecturer at the university in 1892 and notably published an «Atlas der Normalen und Pathologischen Anatomie des Ohres» (Berlin, 1890).
Russian physician, born in Bobruïsk in 1848. Trained at the rabbinical school of Jitomir and then at the Imperial Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Saint-Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1877, he took part in the war against Turkey, where he was twice decorated by the tsar, before being appointed ordinary physician of the Alexandrovski Hospital in Saint-Petersburg. Author of several studies on anatomy and history, including « ReMaḤ Ebarim » (1888), and a Hebrew novel, « Shirat ha-Zamir » (Warsaw, 1895), he collaborated under the pseudonym « Bukki ben Yogli » with numerous Russian and Hebrew periodicals.
Russian political economist, born in 1864. After studying law at Saint Petersburg University, he was tasked by the Ministry of State Properties, from 1887 to 1890, to investigate the economic life of peasants in the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, then, in 1894, the new settlers of Tomsk; his work on Siberian rural economy, published in several Russian journals between 1890 and 1894, earned him the gold medal of the Imperial Society of Geography.
Russian community activist, born in Grodno in the very early nineteenth century and died in Saint Petersburg on 19 April 1893. After solid talmudic training, he taught himself French and German, studied forestry applied to shipbuilding and was appointed by the government inspector of shipyards; a connoisseur of sculpture and painting, he possessed a collection of art as well as rare Hebrew books and manuscripts, and it was largely thanks to his efforts that the Saint Petersburg community obtained permission to establish a Jewish cemetery and to erect a synagogue.
Russian political economist, born in Odessa in 1847. Graduate of Kharkov University, he entered public service in 1870 and devoted his work to monetary questions and the state debt, notably in his « Statistika Gosoudarstvennykh Finansov Rossii v 1862-1884 » (Saint Petersburg, 1886). Professor of statistics at Saint Petersburg University since 1893, he sat for fifteen years on the board of the Land Bank and, in 1904, was part of the management of the Imperial Bank.
American rabbi
Austrian scholar, born in Kojetín, Moravia, on 7 June 1852, and died in Karlsbad, Bohemia, on 6 July 1899. Trained at the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau from 1867, he received his doctorate at Leipzig in 1874 and was ordained rabbi in 1877; he thereafter held, until his death, the chairs of history, philosophy of religion and homiletics at the new rabbinical school of Budapest. A prolific author, he published notably "Geschichte der Attributenlehre in der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophie des Mittelalters von Saadia bis Maimuni" (Gotha, 1877-78), his major work on Jewish and Arabic religious philosophy of the Middle Ages.
Hungarian painter, born on March 22, 1853 in Arad, initially destined for commerce before being able to devote himself to painting. Trained at the drawing school of Budapest in 1875 and then in Vienna from 1876, under the portraitist Aigner and professor Trenkwald, he specialized in genre painting, particularly the life of Polish Jews; his painting « Der Besuch des Rabbi » belonged to the Emperor Francis Joseph, and « Der Zweifler » won him the gold medal of the Vienna exhibition, among other international distinctions.
German jurist and diplomat, born in Oels, Silesia, on August 9, 1845, and died in Leipzig on February 13, 1898. Admitted to the bar in 1872, he became municipal judge in Berlin in 1875, then rose through the ranks of the Prussian administration — government councilor in 1880, privy councilor in 1885, assistant chief of the colonial department in 1890, chief of his department in 1894 — before being appointed in 1896 president of chamber at the Reichsgericht, the highest court of justice in Germany, in Leipzig. He published several legal works, including « Die Gesamten Reichsjustizgesetze » (Berlin, 1879-80).
German pedagogue and writer, born in Hanover on August 31, 1834 and died in that city on April 22, 1898, brother of Meyer Kayserling. Trained at the Talmudic school of Würzbourg and at the University of Berlin, he was, from 1861 onward, principal teacher and inspector of the M. M. David'sche Freischule, and taught for several years at the seminary for Jewish teachers in Hanover. He translated into German "Yewen Metsoula" by J. J. Benjamin (Hanover, 1863), an account of the Polish-Cossack war and the sufferings of the Jews of Poland during the period 1648-53, as well as the work by F. D. Mocatta on the Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition (1878).
Polish-American physical chemist of Jewish origin, pioneer of radioactivity and co-discoverer of protactinium, driven out of Germany by Nazi persecution in 1935.
Austrian scholar, born in Tarnów, Galicia, on 25 January 1834, and died in Rožnau, Moravia, on 5 August 1865, son of innkeeper Israël Mendel Keller. Passionate about spoken Hebrew from his youth, he began to compose poems in that language, then, ruined, settled with his wife and four children in Vienna, where he lived poorly from brokerage; in 1864, he published with great care the first volume of the Hebrew periodical « Bikkurim ». He died in Rožnau, where he had gone in 1865 on medical advice to treat an illness contracted the previous year. He left two narratives, published in Warsaw in 1880 under the title « Sippouré Naftali ».
Austrian scholar, born in Tarnów in 1859. After studying the Bible and Talmud until age eighteen, then attending the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau and the Bielitz gymnasium, he devoted himself to Germanic philology, particularly English, at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1884; having become lecturer in English philology at Vienna in 1890, while also teaching in a Realschule in the city, he was appointed in 1904 assistant professor of English language and literature at the University of Czernowitz. He notably published « Historical Outlines of English Syntax » (London, 1892) and a study on Shakespeare (Leipzig, 1900).
American athlete, born in New York on March 3, 1869, left for San Francisco at nine years old. Becoming a gymnast then professional roller skater, he set a record in 1887 in San Francisco by jumping over twenty-two chairs in one bound, and won the complete gymnastics competition of California five years in a row (1887-91), as well as the state wrestling championship in 1890. He then tried his hand at running, jumping and shot put, took over in October 1897 the direction of the new Manhattan Athletic Club in New York, then that of the gymnasium of the Educational Alliance, before becoming a professional tightrope walker.
German poetess, born in Opatów, in the province of Posen, on June 25, 1836, and died in Friederikenhof on February 23, 1904. Interested early in humanitarian matters, particularly hygiene, she campaigned for the establishment of morgues and crematoria and for the abolition of solitary confinement; struck by blindness a few years before her death, she lived on her estate in Friederikenhof, near Reichsthal, where she wrote collections of poems (including « Gedichte », Breslau, 1852), short stories, and several dramas, among which « Berenice » (1860) and « Antigonos » (1880).
Polish jurist and writer born in Kalisz on July 4, 1855. After studying law at the University of Warsaw, he wrote lyric verse and translated into Polish works by Heine, Richepin, Shelley, De Amicis, and Ibsen, as well as Byron's "Manfred"; he was drama critic of the "Przegląd Tygodniowy."
German writer, born in Breslau on March 5, 1863. He began in literature at age twenty-five with a collection of poems, « Buch der Liebe » (1888), followed by the tragedy « Warbeck » (1891) and then abundant dramatic and narrative production until the end of the century; he directed in 1904 the magazine « Grosse Modenwelt » and published « Mode und Haus ».
Polish economist and publicist, born in 1857 in Kalisz, law graduate from Warsaw University in 1882, where he was already practicing journalism during the period 1879-81. Editor-in-chief of the « Gazeta Handlowa », which he still directed in 1904, he was particularly interested in commerce as well as the condition and reform of Jews, and notably published « Bismarck », political sketch (1890), and « Money » (1897) ; he was also codirector of the « Encyklopedja Powszechna » and the « Encyklopedya Rolnicza ».
American sculptor, born in Baltimore October 6, 1850, trained at the City College of Baltimore and then at the academies of art in Munich and Berlin. Settled in Rome in 1880, where he held a studio for six years, he received a prize for his statue of Psyche, returned to the United States in 1887, lived in New York until 1893 then settled in Baltimore, where he taught modeling in 1904. He is notably responsible for the statue of General de Kalb in Annapolis and the tomb of President Chester A. Arthur in Albany.
Russian rabbi
Son of textile merchant Aboudi Zilkha, he founded Zilkha Bank in Baghdad in 1902, which he extended to Beirut, Damascus, Cairo, Alexandria, Geneva, Paris and New York. He emigrated to New York around 1941-1942 and died there in 1956. His sons (Ezra, Selim, Abdullah, Maurice) continued financial activities.
Russian woman of letters, born in White Russia in 1863, educated at the gymnasium for women in Moscow and in medicine at Saint Petersburg and in history and letters in Paris. Her novels and short stories, first published in several Russian journals, were collected in volumes under the titles « Siluety » (Moscow, 1894) and « Pod Gorou » (1900); they depict the life of small Russian landowning nobility and wealthy Jewish merchants, and raise the question of the cultivated Jew torn between his attachment to Russian culture and his loyalty to coreligionists deprived of their rights.
Beni-Israël soldier, bahadur subahdar in the Anglo-Indian army. Enlisted in the sixteenth regiment of indigenous infantry of Bengal, he was promoted jemidar on July 14, 1856, subahdar on January 1, 1858, then subahdar major on January 1, 1872, and decorated with the medal of the Indian mutiny (1857) and the star of the order of the British India.
Ottoman official, born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1832, and entered into the service of Egypt and then Turkey at the age of seventeen, where he held many administrative posts — sub-prefect of Beirut, Damascus (1866), Aleppo (1867) and then Cyprus (1874) — before becoming, in 1884, Grand Vizier, a position to which he was recalled in 1891. Governor of the vilayet of Aïdin, residing in Smyrna, in 1904, he was born in the Jewish faith but professed Islam from childhood.
Turkish rabbinic author, active in Constantinople in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1862, he published the « Meleket Shelomoh », where he claimed to demonstrate that Karaites are animals whom it is forbidden to instruct in the Law and permitted to kill; the Karaites having protested, the Grand Rabbi of Constantinople had all recovered copies burned. He is also the author of « Yaḥel Shelomoh » (Smyrna, 1870) and « Yeme Shelomoh » (Salonika, 1874).
Composer, born in Budapest on 1 January 1845, trained musically in Budapest, Vienna and Paris; he began composing at twelve years old. Author and producer of a series of grand spectacles given in the United States and England — including « America » at the Chicago Exposition in 1893, « Venice in London » in 1895 and « Paris in London » in 1902 — he resided in London in 1904, while his brothers Arnold and Bolossy directed theatrical companies in the United States, where they had built the Alhambra Palace in Philadelphia in 1876.
German scholar, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1804 and died in that city on September 6, 1889, where he was for some time chohet in the Orthodox congregation of Samson Raphael Hirsch. He subscribed to the protest of seventy-seven Orthodox rabbis against the rabbinical conference of Brunswick (1844), then, when Abraham Geiger became rabbi of Frankfurt, became a staunch supporter of Reform, leaving his post as chohet to live from a banking partnership. He notably published Azoulaï's 'Shem ha-Gedolim' (1847) and Geiger's 'Nachgelassene Schriften' (1877), and left a Hebrew collection preserved in the Horovitz synagogue in Frankfurt.
German physician, born in Filehne in 1830 and died in Berlin on July 12, 1896. Trained in Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1855, he completed his training in Vienna and Prague under Oppolzer, Skoda, Dittel, Schuh, and Hebra, then established himself as a physician in Berlin, where he was, in 1860, the first practitioner to use the laryngeal mirror for the exploration of the larynx and thoracic cavities; he sat on the health council of Berlin at the time of his death.
Austrian writer, born in Prague on November 7, 1848, trained in law and then German philology at the universities of Vienna and Prague, where he received his doctorate in 1870. Assistant editor of the « Tagesbote aus Böhmen » from 1868, he became in 1873 dramatic and art critic for « Bohemia » in Prague, where he settled, then lecturer in German literature at the technical college of Prague in 1885, before establishing himself in Charlottenburg, near Berlin, in 1901; he published numerous works of literary criticism as well as several dramas.
French publicist of Polish origin, born in Wilna on November 6, 1825 in a learned Jewish family. After leaving Wilna around 1840 to study in Heidelberg and then Königsberg (doctorate in 1846), he settled in Paris in 1849 as assistant librarian of the Legislative Body and contributor to the "Revue des Deux Mondes"; his writings hostile to Russia and Prussia brought him to Vienna in 1869 as court councillor, then elected him in 1870 to the Galician Landtag, where he pleaded the cause of France. He was residing in Vienna in 1904, one of the spokespersons of Polish thought in Western Europe, and notably published "Rome et la Renaissance, Jules II" (1898).
Russian pedagogue, born in Vilna on June 28, 1840, first a teacher in Berdiansk, Crimea, then in Odessa. He is the author of « 'Erekh Tefillah », a critical study of the history and language of prayers (Vilna, 1868), of « Talmud Torah », a religious and historical manual in Hebrew and Russian (Warsaw, 1884), of « Ha-Omen », a Hebrew primer (1889), and « Mesillat Yesharim », a Russian-Hebrew school manual (1898), as well as numerous articles in the Hebrew and Russian press.
Austrian journalist and writer, born in Prague in 1834 and died on February 25, 1888. Settled in Vienna in 1855, he devoted himself to journalism, directing the literary section of the « Ostdeutsche Post » of Kuranda in 1859-60, then correspondent in Italy and Spain for the « Neue Freie Presse » before founding, with Jacob Herzog, the « Montagsrevue », which he directed until his death. Author of stories, novels — including « Zweierlei Juden » (Vienna, 1870) — and comedies, he notably wrote « Rosenkranz und Güldenstern » (Vienna, 1885), performed throughout Germany after its premiere at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where it could only be presented under cover of anonymity.
German feminist
Pianist, born in Paris on June 27, 1866 to German parents. Trained at the Conservatory under Mmes Retz and Massart, where she obtained a medal at eleven years old, she made her debut the following year at the Popular Concerts, undertook in 1881 a successful tour in Northern Europe, performed in London from 1883 and made her debut in Germany in 1887; appointed officer of the Academy in 1894, she returned to triumph in England in 1898, with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Liszt.
German-American poet, born in Elmshorn, in Holstein, on 21 July 1841, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, on 31 December 1878. Gifted very early for poetry, she published from the age of fourteen in the Hamburg press, married in 1862 Rabbi L. Kleeberg and lived in Rhenish Prussia, where her 1865 poem on the abolition of the salt tax earned her wide renown. Emigrated to the United States in 1866, she lived until 1877 in Louisville, Kentucky, before settling in New Haven; her collection « Gedichte » appeared in 1877.
German medical author, born in Merseburg-on-the-Saale on 18 May 1829, educated in Leipzig, where he obtained his doctorate in 1851, and physician in Königsberg from 1859 to 1870, the year he turned to journalism and successively directed several newspapers. His numerous writings, principally medical and sociological, also include texts of liberal tendency published in New York under the pseudonym « Dr Nielk Floda ».
English dramatist, born in London on January 7, 1867, trained at the North London Collegiate School. He is the author of numerous plays, including 'A Mile a Minute', 'The District Attorney', the libretto of 'El Capitan', 'Heartsease', 'The Charlatan' and 'The Auctioneer'.
German mathematician, born in Düsseldorf on April 24, 1849, trained at the University of Bonn, where he obtained his doctorate in 1868. Lecturer at Göttingen in 1871, he was appointed professor of mathematics at Erlangen the following year, then in Munich in 1875, at Leipzig in 1880 and at Göttingen in 1886; he represented the German Empire at the Chicago exposition in 1893 and at the London conference on the international catalogue of scientific literature in 1898. Co-director, since 1875, of the « Mathematische Annalen », he published notably his « Lectures on the Icosahedron » (1884).
English music critic, born in Norwich on July 23, 1856. Trained in singing under Manuel Garcia from 1874 to 1877, he was appointed professor of singing at the Guildhall School of Music in London in 1888; music critic from 1876, he collaborated with « The Examiner » from 1879 then with « Sunday Times » from 1881, as well as with « Manchester Guardian » and « Scotsman ». Author of « Musical Notes » (London, 1886-89) and co-editor of Garcia's « Hints on Singing » (1894), he settled in New York in 1902.
Hungarian writer, born in Szeged on July 21, 1853, trained at the University of Budapest. Editor of the « Ungarische Lloyd » then drama and art critic of the « Neue Pester Journal », he settled in Vienna in 1883, where he contributed to major newspapers and directed in 1904 the « Schöne Blaue Donau »; he is the author of several operettas, including « Das Rendezvous in Monaco » (1883) and « Die Hexenpfeifer » (1900), as well as opera librettos, and converted to Christianity.
Hungarian rabbi, born August 2, 1850 in Zichyfalva and died July 24, 1895 in Alt-Ofen, trained in the Talmudic schools of Mayer Perls and Israël Hildesheimer and at the universities of Vienna and Tübingen. Rabbi in Szigetvár from age twenty-two and then, from 1887, in Alt-Ofen, he was one of the first to introduce preaching in Hungarian in the synagogue service, and undertook an annotated Hungarian translation of the Talmud, of which only the treatise Berakhot appeared (Budapest, 1885).
Hungarian poet and writer converted to Christianity, born in Miskolcz in 1810 and died in Berlin August 2, 1876, trained at the Budapest gymnasium and then at the universities of Vienna and Berlin, where he earned a doctorate in medicine before abandoning this practice to devote himself entirely to letters. His dramas achieved little success, but his influence as a critic was notable, particularly through his unfinished « History of Drama » in thirteen volumes (Leipzig, 1865-76); his complete works appeared in seven volumes under the title « Dramatische Werke » (1871-72), among which the tragedies « Maria von Medici » (1841) and « Strafford » (1862).
Hungarian sculptor, born January 7, 1847 in Göncz, son of a modest country schoolteacher. Apprentice grocer then clockmaker, he abandoned his trade in 1861 for art, settled in Budapest in the greatest destitution, studied under the sculptor Sandház, then moved to Berlin in 1863 and Rome, where he eventually established himself among modern sculptors; his group « Old Germans in the Roman Circus », exhibited in Berlin in 1878, caused a sensation and earned him a gold medal in Munich. He is also responsible for the busts of Marshals Manteuffel and Werder at the Ruhmeshalle in Berlin, as well as « Hagar and Ishmael » and the fountain group of the first national savings bank in Budapest.
Hungarian rabbi, born on July 7, 1842 in Miskolcz, educated in philosophy at the University of Prague while following courses in Jewish theology with the grand rabbi Salomon Rapoport. Doctor and ordained rabbi in 1863, he directed the community school of his native city before being called, in 1869, to the reformed congregation of Ungvár, then to Pápa in 1876 and, in 1880, as grand rabbi to Nagy-Becskerek, a position he still occupied in 1904; he translated into Hungarian, with notes, the "Guide for the Perplexed" by Maimonides (1878-91) and the "Beḥinat 'Olam" by Yedaya Penini (1901).
American rabbi, born on May 22, 1848 in Baracska, Hungary, trained in the Talmudic schools of his native country, at the Presbourg gymnasium and at the universities of Vienna, Berlin and Jena. Rabbi ordained by B. H. Auerbach of Halberstadt, he served in Libau, Courland, from 1880 to 1890, then emigrated to New York, where he was appointed rabbi of the Hungarian congregation Oheb Zedek, one of the most important on the East Side, a position he still held in 1904.
French physician, born in Durmenach, in the Haut-Rhin, on 30 May 1845, and died in Paris on 4 May 1902, son of the chief rabbi of Colmar. He translated with Émile Javal Helmholtz's « Manual of Physiological Optics », obtained his doctorate in 1873 with a prize-winning thesis on lighting and visual acuity, and directed the science page of « L'Opinion Nationale » from 1872 to 1876; he wrote notably on diabetes (1876) and circumcision (1888). Decorated in 1900 for his work on behalf of the poor, he presided for eighteen years over the Society for Talmudic Study, one of the spokespeople of Parisian ultra-orthodoxy.
Austrian archaeologist, born November 28, 1850 in Karánsebes, Hungary, trained in Jewish theology and then philosophy in Vienna and Prague. Sent by the Austrian government to Italy and Greece for archaeological research, particularly on ancient ceramics, he became professor of archaeology at the German University of Prague and member of the German Archaeological Institute; he published « Euphronius » (1886), « Die Griechischen Vasen, mit Meisterinschriften » (2nd ed., Vienna, 1887) and « Praxiteles » (1897).
German physician, born in Landsberg-an-der-Warthe on May 10, 1865, son of Wilhelm Klemperer, educated at the universities of Breslau, Halle and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1885. Assistant to Professor von Leyden from 1887 to 1896, lecturer at the Berlin Faculty of Medicine in 1889 then professor in 1895, he directed from 1899 onward the « Therapie der Gegenwart » and published notably a « Grundriss der Klinischen Diagnostik » (Berlin, 1890).
Austrian rabbi, born in 1815 in Prague and died in Tábor, Bohemia, on January 20, 1882, descended through his mother from Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller. Trained in Talmud at Pressburg under Moïse Sofer and in philosophy at the University of Prague, where he also attended courses by Salomon Juda Rapoport, he became rabbi of Tábor in 1844, a position he held until his death while introducing the reformed worship of the Prague Temple. A prolific author, he published notably a biography of Jonathan Eybeschütz, « Ḥayye Yehonatan » (1858), and a portrait of Löw ben Bezalel of Prague (1873), as well as a partial German translation of David Gans's « Tsemaḥ David ».
German economist and pedagogue, born in Steinbach, in the district of Meiningen, on 25 June 1869. After teaching for several years, he studied political economy, pedagogy and philosophy at the universities of Giessen, Zurich, Basel and Göttingen, became a teacher at the builders' school of Cassel after his doctorate, then directed, from 1901, the technical and commercial school of Harburg; he published numerous works on social economy and contributed to the "Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft."
American soldier, born in Hungary in 1833. Emigrated to the United States, he enlisted as a private soldier in the Seventy-ninth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War, rose through the ranks to brigadier general, and was promoted to honorary major general for his meritorious actions at Chickamauga; he participated in the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland and in Sherman's march to the sea — no other Jew reached such a high rank in the American army. After the war, he became a pension agent of the United States in Indianapolis.
Austrian actor, born in Vienna on April 21, 1849, trained by Emilie Dorr and debuting at the Elysiumtheater in Stettin in 1868. He subsequently performed in Budapest and Linz, at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg until 1877, then joined the famous Meininger troupe until 1881, with whom he toured Amsterdam and London, before performing successively in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Prague and again Berlin, as well as at the Irving Place Theater in New York; his principal roles included Franz Mohr, Shylock, Iago, Richard III and Mephistopheles.
German physician, born in Breslau on 2 December 1838, trained in medicine in Berlin and Breslau, where he obtained his doctorate in 1859, before furthering his studies in Vienna and Paris in 1860 and 1861. Established as a physician in Breslau in 1861, he founded a dermatology clinic there, became a lecturer in 1869 and professor of dermatology and syphilography in 1872, had to retire in 1878 for health reasons, and settled in Berlin, where he founded a new clinic in 1884; he received in 1897 the title of « Geheimer Medizinalrat ».
Dutch historian of Jews, born in Amsterdam on January 11, 1809 and died in Buitenrust, near Haarlem, on October 13, 1874. Trained in law, doctor in 1831, he long sat on the municipal council of his native city and in the provincial states of North Holland; his prize-winning work, « Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland » (Utrecht, 1843), the first history of Jews in the Netherlands, revealed many previously unknown sources.
American lawyer, born in Detroit on 22 May 1871, son of Kaufmann Kohler, graduate of the College of the City of New York (1890) and the Columbia Law School (1893). Assistant federal prosecutor for New York from 1894 to 1898, he was, although a Democrat, appointed special federal prosecutor by the Republican administration in 1898, then admitted to plead before the United States Supreme Court in 1902; he edited the work of Charles P. Daly on the settlement of Jews in North America (1893) and published « Rebecca Franks » (1894), while actively collaborating with the American Jewish Historical Society, of which he was secretary.
Archaeologist and Hebrew scholar of Russian origin, born in Odessa in 1838. After rabbinical training, he turned from age fourteen to medieval literature and then to history and archaeology, publishing notably on fossil animals (1866) and on the origins of Hasidism (1873-75); he edited the « Divan » of Abraham ibn Ezra (1894) and the autobiography of Jacob Emden, and was the first to contest Graetz's biblical text criticism to defend the Masorah, notably in « Masoret Seyag le-Miḳra » (1880).
Austrian jurist, born on December 24, 1847 in Pápa, Hungary, and died in Vienna on January 20, 1902. Trained in law at the University of Vienna, he entered state service in 1872 and was appointed, on September 7, 1894, counselor to the civil court of Vienna, a position he held until his death — the first Jew to become council secretary and then court counselor in Austria. He helped found the Israeli Union of Austria, Vienna's first Jewish political society, of which he was vice-president for fourteen years.
Russian writer, born in Vałożyn in 1816 and died in Wilna on November 17, 1871. He translated into Hebrew Fénelon's "Telemachus" under the title "Kebod Elohim" (Königsberg, 1851, then Wilna, 1853), wrote a biography of Aesop and translated his fables under the title "Ḥayye Asaf" (Warsaw, 1858), and composed a double commentary on the Yalḳuṭ (Wilna, 1864).
Poet of the Austrian ghetto, born on March 8, 1825 in Prague, where he studied philosophy and mathematics before entering his father's wool trade. His first short story, « Gabriel » (1852), translated into English, made his name known in England and America before he was even associated with his work in Germany; his ghetto tales, the most accurate of his works, were subsequently published in volumes, including « Prager Ghettobilder » (1884) and « Ein Deutscher Kaufmann », his major work (1894). A member of the administrative council of the Prague community for more than forty years, he continued to publish short stories even in his later years.
American merchant and silk manufacturer, born in Prague and died in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1898. Emigrated to America after the revolution of 1848-49, he brought with him his silk braid manufacturing machinery, first settled in New York then in Hartford, where by 1858 he had established a successful business; experimenting tirelessly with silk weaving, still unheard of in the United States, he wove in 1859 the first piece of silk produced by a loom in the country, and filed between 1865 and 1868 several patents that helped establish the silk industry in Paterson, New Jersey. Family misfortunes later darkened his fortune and the end of his life.
German jurist and economist, born in Danzig on March 21, 1863. Lecturer in commercial and technical law at the Technical Higher School of Charlottenburg, near Berlin, since 1902, he notably published « Der Ursprung der Stadtverfassung in Worms, Speyer und Mainz » (1890) and « Das Hansgrafenamt » (Berlin, 1893), and edited with Richard Schröder the first part of « Oberrheinische Stadtrechte ».
Founder of the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeindebund, born in Neuern, Bohemia, on April 4, 1818, and died on March 21, 1877. First a merchant with Samson D. Fleischl in Leipzig before establishing his own business, he was elected in 1868 president of the Jewish community and became, in 1874, the first Jew to sit on the municipal council; his attachment to Judaism led him to found in 1869 the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeindebund, which he chaired until his death.
German writer, born on November 10, 1848, in Mindszent, Hungary, brother of Alexandre Kohut. Trained at the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau, he obtained his doctorate at Jena in 1877 while pursuing a career as a journalist, becoming music and drama critic in Düsseldorf and then Dresden; expelled from Prussia on September 13, 1884, for his hostility to Bismarck, he lived in Dresden until his pardon in 1889. A prolific author of more than two hundred works — biographies of musicians, of Bismarck, translations of Petőfi — he published on Judaism « Moses Mendelssohn und Seine Familie » (1886) and a « Geschichte der Deutschen Juden » (1898).
Sirdar bahadur in the Anglo-Indian army, enlisted in the eighth regiment of native infantry on April 1, 1842, then transferred to the twenty-seventh. Appointed jemidar and native adjutant on January 1, 1853, promoted subahdar on November 6, 1858, then sirdar bahadur (Order of the British India, 1st class) on October 25, 1859, he became subahdar-major on January 24, 1876, and bahadur (2nd class) on January 1, 1877; present at the battles of Hyderabad and Kolhapur, he is said to have been the first to inform the officers of his regiment of the mutiny.
Hungarian merchant, journalist and chess master, born in Pressburg on April 6, 1837 and died in Vienna on April 30, 1889, as brilliant in business—he founded the Wiener Börse-Syndikatskasse in 1869 and a commission house in Paris in 1873—as at chess, where his aggressive style earned him first prize at the international tournament of Cambridge in 1860, a draw against Paulsen and a defeat of only one game against Anderssen in 1861, then first place at the Paris tournament of 1867, ahead of Winawer and Steinitz. He founded and directed the «Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung», where he signed his columns with the pseudonym «Ideka».
Austrian physician, born in Koritschan, Moravia, on December 10, 1867, trained in medicine in Vienna and Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1891. Instructor in medicine at the University of Vienna from 1895, he also practiced in the summer in Carlsbad, and published notably « Urätische Diathese » (Stuttgart, 1894) and « Lehrbuch der Diätetischen Therapie » (Vienna, 1899).
Poet and Austrian historian, born in Koritschan, Moravia, on September 15, 1817, trained in classical philology, history and philosophy at the University of Vienna. After a stay in Italy in 1847, he took part in the Viennese revolution of 1848 and, after the victory of Windischgrätz's imperial troops, fled to Germany, where he lived for twenty years between France and Italy before returning to Vienna in 1868; he directed the revolutionary journal « Der Radikale » in 1848 and published notably « Ludwig Kossuth und Clemens Metternich » (Leipzig, 1850) and the tragedy « Die Christin » (Vienna, 1875).
Yiddish writer born in Odessa in 1879. Initially close to Zionist circles, he joined the Bund then emigrated to the United States. He wrote essays under the pseudonym « Duke D'Abruzzi » in the radical press (Fraye Arbeter Shtime) and was a prolific translator (Chekhov, Brandes, Ibsen), close to the literary circle Di Yunge in New York.
Austrian writer, born in Münchengrätz, Bohemia, on May 15, 1822, and died in Vienna on November 23, 1886. Trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, tutor then employee of the Vienna Creditanstalt from 1857, he sat on the Vienna municipal council and was involved in education and aid to Jewish orphans. Creator of ghetto literature — he was nicknamed the Auerbach of the ghetto —, he depicted in tales that became classic the life and customs of the Jews of Bohemia, from « Geschichten aus dem Ghetto » (Leipzig, 1848) to « Verstreute Geschichten » (1883) ; his complete works appeared in eight volumes in Berlin in 1882-83.
German Protestant theologian, born in Reicheribach, Saxony, on November 15, 1846, doctor of philosophy from Leipzig in 1874 and doctor of theology from Erlangen in 1888. Professor of theology successively at Leipzig, Rostock, and, from 1900, at Bonn, he is the author of an important three-volume Hebrew grammar (1881–97) and numerous works on the religious history of Israel and the Old Testament, including « Bibel und Babel » (10th ed., 1903).
Hungarian mathematician, born on December 16, 1849 in Raab. Attracted to mathematics rather than to medicine which he had begun in Vienna, he studied physics under Helmholtz and mathematics under Königsberger in Heidelberg, where he defended his thesis in 1870, then attended the lectures of Kummer, Kronecker and Weierstrass in Berlin. Returning to Budapest in 1872, he became lecturer at the polytechnic school then professor in 1874; considered the first Hungarian mathematician of his time, he was dean from 1886 to 1890, rector from 1891 to 1893, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1889, the year he also received baptism.
German mathematician, born in Posen on October 15, 1837, trained in Berlin where he obtained his doctorate in 1860. Instructor at the Berlin Military Academy in 1861, assistant professor in Greifswald in 1864 then full professor in 1867, he succeeded O. Hesse in Heidelberg in 1869, before teaching at the Dresden Polytechnic School in 1875 then at the University of Vienna in 1877, and held in 1904 the chair of mathematics in Heidelberg, member of the academies of Berlin, Munich and Göttingen; he was also the biographer of Helmholtz (3 vol., 1902-3).
Austrian ophthalmologist, born in Bisenz, Moravia, on April 26, 1850, M.D. from Vienna in 1873, where he practiced as an oculist before becoming a docent in 1882 and assistant professor of ocular surgery in 1901 at his alma mater. He notably published "Praktische Anleitung zum Gebrauch des Augenspiegels" (Vienna, 1889) and "Die Anomalien der Refraction und Accommodation" (1895).
American writer
Member of a Jewish family from present-day Ukraine, he was a pedagogue and Yiddish scholar. He contributed regularly (1910-1912) to the journal of the Society for the Diffusion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia, with articles on the "Judeo-German dialect, its essence and significance," and co-wrote a Yiddish manual, "Di naye shul" ("The New School"), with Dmitri Hochberg.
American physician, born in New York on October 28, 1858, graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1881, supplemented by postgraduate training in Leipzig, Prague, and Vienna before establishing himself as a physician in his native city in 1883, where he was attached to Bellevue Hospital and became, in 1899, assistant professor of pediatrics at Bellevue Medical College. He was the first to describe the early sign of measles subsequently known as "Koplik's spots" and discovered the whooping cough bacillus; he also introduced the free distribution of pasteurized milk to the poor, and published "Diseases of Infancy and Childhood" (New York, 1902).
Author, with Simon Hock, of « Gal-Ed », illustrated collection of tombstone inscriptions (Grabsteininschriften) of the old Jewish cemetery in Prague, with biographical notices (Prague, 1856). Reference work for the prosopography of Prague rabbis and notables.
Hungarian physician and medical author, born December 20, 1828 in Nagykálló. Doctor of medicine from Budapest in 1851, he practiced for two years at the surgical clinic of Professor Schuh in Vienna before settling in his native city, became lecturer in neurology at Budapest University in 1865 and, the following year, full professor and director of the internal clinic. Decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown in 1881, ennobled in 1884 and member of the Chamber of Magnates in 1891, he published numerous medical essays, notably on pulmonary diseases, and converted to Christianity.
Hebrew scholar and Russian author of the 18th and 19th centuries, grandson of Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller. Rabbi for some time in Rendsbourg, he later lived in Chklov and, from 1802, in Grodno, before traveling through Europe towards the end of his life to finance the publication of his works, including the « Torat Mosheh » (Nowydwór, 1786), the « Zera' Ḳodesh » (Berlin, 1797), an annotated edition of the « Tishbi » by Elijah Levita (Grodno, 1805), the account of his travels « Iggeret Rishpe Ḳeshet » (Hanover, 1831), and an edition of the « Megillat Ebah » of his grandfather with German translation (Breslau, 1836).
German physician born in Posen in 1840, son of the Talmudist Samuel ben Naḥman Kornfeld and grandson of R. Akiba Eger. Trained in Breslau, Berlin and Vienna, he obtained his diploma in 1863, practiced as a hospital physician in Breslau until 1871 and became, from 1901 onwards, a court physician. He is the author, among other works, of the « Handbuch der Gerichtlichen Medicin » (1884) and « Die Entmündigung der Geisteskranken » (1901), an appendix to which shows that blood circulation was already known to the ancient Hebrews; in two articles from 1875, he examined from a hygienic perspective the effects of the generalization of Jewish ritual slaughter.
German rabbi and calendarist, born in Głogów, where he later served as rabbi, and died in Hamburg on August 9, 1826. He is the author of the « 'Ezrat ha-Sofer » (Amsterdam, 1796), a manual for scribes on the writing of the Book of Esther scroll, the « Ḥadre Ḳodesh » (Dyhernfurth, 1817), the « Dabar be-'Itto » (Breslau, 1817), a refutation of Lazarus Bendavid's calendar, and the « System der Zeitrechnung in Chronologischen Tabellen » (Berlin, 1825), a concordance of the Julian, Gregorian, Jewish and Islamic calendars, which served as the basis for Jahn's « Tafeln » (Leipzig, 1856) and was praised by Isidore Loeb (Paris, 1886).
Hungarian statistician, born on 20 April 1844 in Pest. Having moved from journalism to administration, he was appointed in 1867 editor of the economic service of « Pesti Napló », then, in 1870, director of the bureau of statistics in Budapest; elected member of the Royal Academy of Hungary in 1879 and ennobled in 1896 under the name « de Szántó », he published numerous works on international statistics and demographics, including a world census project (Paris, 1881), and proposed an international movement for the standardization of the 1900 census, adopted by the International Statistical Institute.
Physician and German deputy, born in Lissa, Posen, on October 5, 1803, and died in Berlin on March 27, 1872. Trained at the University of Königsberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1826, he practiced as a physician there from 1832 before entering politics: sent in 1848 as deputy for Königsberg to the Prussian National Assembly, where he was elected vice-president, he sat again, from 1861 until his death, in the Prussian lower chamber for the Progressive party; it was partly thanks to him that the « More Judaico » oath was abolished in 1869. Remaining a bachelor, he bequeathed his fortune to an orphanage in Königsberg.
Founder of the town of Nhill, in the colony of Victoria, Australia, died in that town on May 6, 1895. He founded most of the local institutions — hospital, institute of mechanics, agricultural and pastoral society, masonic lodge, fire brigade — and actively worked on water supply as well as the establishment of local courts and land administrations.
German poet, born in 1812 in Bromberg and died in that city on July 1, 1879. He went to study literature in Berlin, then philosophy and philology at the university, but returned soon to his native city for reasons of health and turned to numismatics; he published "Wallfahrt in Palästina" (1847), "Sagen des Morgenlandes" (1852) and "Titus oder die Zerstörung von Jerusalem" (1855).
German poet and writer, brother of Julius Kossarski, born in 1810 in Bromberg and died on November 3, 1873 in Berlin. After studying medicine in Berlin, he devoted himself entirely to German letters, collaborating with several periodicals and publishing poems and narratives, including "Nachklänge" (1834), "Dämmerungen, Novellen" (1840) and "Hier und Dort" (1855).
Hungarian painter, born in Nagykároly in 1853. Left home at fourteen, he went to Budapest where he became a merchant, then at twenty-two entered a drawing school from which he graduated in 1879; the following year, he went to Paris, student of Fleury, Laurens and Le Roux, before returning to settle in Budapest in 1882. Many of his paintings deal with Jewish subjects, including « The Jews in the Triumphal Procession of Titus », « Spinoza and his Judges » and « The Disputation of Tortosa »; he was commissioned by the government to paint the national hero John Hunyadi.
Russian physician, born in Vilna in 1837 and died in Kiev on September 22, 1896, graduate of Saint Vladimir University of Kiev in 1865. Municipal physician in Yalutorovsk and then in Nejine, he became in 1873 chief physician of the Nejine hospital before devoting himself entirely, from 1879, to science, settling definitively in Kiev in 1890. Knowing Hebrew and Arabic in addition to classical languages, he specialized in the history of medicine, publishing from 1865 « Spinoza and His Philosophy » and then his great « Ancient and Medieval Medicine » (3 vol., Kiev, 1879), whose first volume devotes a chapter to medicine among Jews.
Russian Hebrew critic, born in Wilna around 1837, known for his polemical campaign against numerous Hebrew maskilim, first conducted in « Ha-Karmel » and « Ha-Meliṣ » before turning against the editors of these newspapers. Later implicated in a bank embezzlement, he was exiled to Tomsk, Siberia, where he converted to Christianity and became a civil servant; he published his critiques in two collections, « Ḥeḳer Dabar » (Warsaw, 1865) and « Ẓeror Peraḥim » (Odessa, 1868), defending Lewinsohn, Slonimski, Mapou and Erter, and advocating for a Hebrew adapted to modern needs rather than a return to Judeo-German.
Polish writer and preacher, born in Warsaw in 1814 and died in that city in 1889. A graduate of Warsaw's rabbinical school, he taught there until its closure in 1862 while serving as preacher at the synagogue; in patriotic spirit, he delivered in 1852 the first sermon in Polish, which aroused the ire of some fanatics, and preached without remuneration until 1863, before living in Saratov from 1863 to 1868. His works in Polish include a commented translation of the Proverbs (1867) and a posthumous collection of his sermons, "Kazania" (Kraków, 1892).
Polish naturalist, born in Warsaw in 1841, son of Isaac Kramsztyk, trained at the Warsaw gymnasium then in medicine at the Medical-Surgical Academy and in physics and mathematics at the university, from which he graduated in 1866. Barred from public teaching because of his religion, he worked at the Polish Bank of Warsaw until its closure in 1886, while teaching in private schools and collaborating, from 1862, in Polish scientific dissemination journals; he notably published « Fizyka » (Warsaw, 1876) and directed the physics and astronomy department of the Great Illustrated Polish Encyclopedia.
Austrian jurist, born November 5, 1842, in Pistyn, Galicia. Trained at the Czernowitz gymnasium from 1853 to 1861, he studied law at the University of Prague, where he was graduated in 1868, completing his training at Göttingen and Leipzig in 1871; lecturer in Austrian civil law in Prague in 1872, he became assistant professor in 1876 and full professor in 1881, and was three times dean of the faculty of law — in 1883, 1891, and 1896. He published numerous legal works, including a « Lehrbuch des Oesterreichischen Privatrechtes » (1904).
Austrian general, born in 1822 in Pardubice, in Bohemia, son of a Jewish farmer; strictly trained in orthodoxy by his cousin Joseph Kisch, father of Heinrich and Alexander Kisch, he studied law in Prague before entering the army after his baptism, where he notably conducted the Orsini trial in Mantua in 1849. Vice-president of the imperial military court from 1869 to 1880, he became in April 1881 president of the Supreme Military Court, then in July of the same year governor general of Bohemia, before retiring to Vienna in 1896.
Austrian physician, born in Bodenbach, in Bohemia, on May 31, 1851, trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1882. Assistant at the physiological-chemical and then anatomo-pathological institutes of Prague, he became lecturer in internal pathology at Prague in 1888, then assistant at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus clinic in Vienna in 1890, assistant professor in Vienna in 1893 and, the following year, professor of pathology and medical therapeutics at Graz; he specialized in the study of alkaloids and the oxidation of sugar in the blood.
Austrian physician, born in Kolín, Bohemia, on December 22, 1824, and died in 1901. Trained at the University of Prague, specialized in neurology, he obtained his diploma in 1847 and practiced in Leipnik then in Vienna, publishing notably a « Compendium der Speziellen Pathologie und Therapie » (1874) and « Die Hygiene » (1878). His brother Bernard Kraus was one of the first collaborators of the « Allgemeine Wiener Medicinische Zeitung » (1856-1879).
Polish jurist and writer, born in Warsaw in 1843, graduated master in law and administration in 1866. He practiced law until 1872, then was appointed attorney general to the senatorial department of Warsaw in 1873; his first writings appeared in « Jutrzenka », and his work, mainly historical, includes « Historie Żydów w Polsce » (2 vol., Warsaw, 1865-66) as well as poems. Elected member of learned societies in Paris, Poznań and Cracow, he was decorated by the prince of Schaumburg-Lippe; his wife Jadwiga Krausharowa (born in Warsaw in 1858) was also a writer.
Austrian folklorist, born in Požega, Slavonia, on October 7, 1859, doctor in classical philology from the University of Vienna. First to study South Slavic folklore scientifically, he was commissioned by crown prince Rudolf to travel through Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, where he discovered an unsuspected wealth of Muslim and Slavic songs, and directed for eight years the monthly journal « Am Urquell ». A prolific author, including « Sagen und Märchen der Südslaven » (2 vol., 1883-84) and « Volksglaube und Religiöser Brauch der Südslaven » (1900), he was also secretary of the Israelitische Allianz of Vienna.
Galician philosopher and writer, born in Brody around 1823 and died in 1895, son of Nahman Krochmal. An admirer of Spinoza, whose philosophy he expounded in « Eben ha-Roshah » (Vienna, 1871), he published in Lemberg a critical examination of the Talmud of Jerusalem, « Yerushalayim ha-Benuyah » (1867), then launched into biblical criticism with « Ha-Ketab weha-Miktab » (1875), which provoked attacks from the orthodox, and into religious criticism with « 'Iyyun Tefillah » (1885), where he targeted both reformed and orthodox rabbis. A somewhat unsystematic thinker but an influential critic, he was one of the most eminent biblical exegetes in Hebrew of his time.
German physiologist, born in Liegnitz, in Prussian Silesia, on 27 January 1839, trained at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1863. Assistant to Traube from 1865, he became lecturer at the physiological institute of Leipzig in 1872 then assistant professor in 1875, before being called in 1878 to the University of Berne, where he became full professor in 1885, a position he still held in 1904. His research focused notably on the center of coordination of the cardiac ventricles; he directed from 1881 to 1885, with Senator, the « Centralblatt für die Medizinische Wissenschaft ».
Polish-Russian banker, brother of Stanisław Kronenberg, born in Warsaw in 1849. After studying law then agriculture at Bonn and Poppelsdorf, he directed the Saint Petersburg branch of the Warsaw Commercial Bank before resigning in 1887, due to his brother's illness, to resume management of the family railroad lines and bank ; he was made hereditary noble in the Russian Empire in 1893 for his commercial services and was also president of the Society for the Relief of Musical Artists and Composers and a composer under the pseudonym « Wiejesky ».
Polish-Russian financier, brother of Leopold Kronenberg, born in Warsaw in 1846 and died in that city in 1894. Trained in political economy and finance in Paris, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy, he fought during the Franco-Prussian war in the defense of Paris, leaving it as a lieutenant and holder of the Legion of Honour, then resumed upon his father's death the management of the family's commercial and railway interests, notably directing the Bank of Commerce in Warsaw and several railway lines; he published on economics and finance, as well as « Campagne, 1870-71 » and an account of his memories as an officer (Paris, 1871).
German rabbi, born in Dyhernfurth, Prussian Silesia, on 12 May 1845, trained at the Glatz gymnasium, at the yeshiva of R. Pollack in Weisskirchen, Moravia, then at the Jewish theological seminary and at the University of Breslau (doctorate in 1869). Rabbi and director of the seminary of Jewish teachers in Münster for three years, he became rabbi in Lengsfeld, Saxe-Weimar, in 1872, then in Erfurt from 1883 to 1885, before joining Hanover as assistant rabbi and director of the teachers' seminary, and was called in 1894 to the rabbinate of Stuttgart. He is the author of a "History of the Jews in Erfurt" (1885) and a "History of the Jews" (Frankfurt am Main, 1898).
Rabbi of Flatow (Złotów), active in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is the author of the "Tefillah we-Todah", hymns and prayers composed for the community of Glogau on the occasion of the lifting of the siege on April 24, 1814, translated into German by Mayer Neumark (Breslau, 1814), and of the "Yemin Mosheh", lessons and commentaries interspersed with Hebrew poems, accompanied by an elegy on the death of Abraham Tiktin, "Ebel Yaḥid" (1824).
Dutch Protestant biblical scholar, born in Haarlem on September 16, 1828, and died in Leiden on December 10, 1891. Trained in Leiden, where he became assistant professor in 1852 and then holder of the chair of theology in 1855, a position he held until his death, he was one of the leading figures in modern criticism of the Old Testament. His major work, a critical introduction to the Old Testament (1861-63), defended, following Graf, the idea that ritual law is late in Hebrew legislation; he also published a history of the religion of Israel (1869-1870) and a study on the prophets (1875), and directed, from 1885 until his death, a new translation of the Old Testament, completed in 1899.
Austrian journalist and deputy, born in Prague in 1818 and died on 26 January 1879. After abandoning medicine and law in Vienna, he became in turn teacher, actor then publicist in Pest, enthusiastically followed Louis Kossuth during the Hungarian War of Independence and was imprisoned for his participation in the revolt; released in 1850, he returned to Prague, where he founded a German political newspaper, sided with the Germans in their struggle against the Czechs, and received a mandate as deputy to the Reichstag, which he soon abandoned.
Austrian poet and novelist, born December 13, 1828 in Vienna and died December 30, 1876 in Meran, after studying philosophy and History at the University of Vienna. Briefly employed by the Nordbahn company, he then devoted himself to literature and became a recognized critic in Vienna; converted to Catholicism in 1857, he was appointed in 1864 professor of German language and literature at the Vienna School of Commerce, a position he had to leave for health reasons. He is the author of works on Friedrich Hebbel and Adalbert Stifter, as well as collections of poems and short stories.
Austrian physicist, born in Brünn, Moravia, on January 11, 1843, educated at the polytechnic school of that city and then at the University of Vienna. Entering state service in 1865, he was assistant at the Institute of Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism in 1867 and then at the Vienna Polytechnicum from 1868, before being appointed in 1870 professor of mathematics and physics at the Staats-Ober-Realschule of the seventh district of Vienna. He directed the review « Die Realschule » from 1872 to 1877, then « Zeitschrift für das Realschulwesen » from 1877 to 1889.
Russian jurist and publicist, born on July 7, 1847 near Sophiefka, in the district of Lutsk, trained at the rabbinical school of Jitomir then at the law faculty of the universities of Kiev and Odessa before settling in Saint Petersburg, where he was appointed assistant prosecutor in 1872. He published his first articles as early as 1866 and subsequently devoted himself to journalism and ethnography; in 1876 appeared his work "Das Leben Jesu, eine Sage", and he directed until 1880 the journal "Pravda", interrupted that same year by order of the governor general of Odessa.
Russian physician and pedagogue, born in Dubno in 1828 and died in Kiev on August 9, 1896, graduated with a gold medal from the classical gymnasium of Zhitomir in 1848 and from the medico-surgical academy of Saint Petersburg in 1856. Attached to the army during the Crimean War, he was subsequently physician at the military hospital in Lutsk then assigned to the hospital in Kiev in 1860, before conducting various scientific missions for the government from 1869 to 1876. An advocate, from the middle of the nineteenth century, of systematic instruction for the masses of Russian Jews, he notably wrote on the Russian translation of the Old Testament in 1871.
Austrian journalist, born on October 5, 1823 in Leipnik, in Moravia, and died in Vienna on December 5, 1898, trained in philosophy and law in Prague and Vienna. Having taken part in the agitation of 1848, he was the first author whose poems were printed without censorship ; hired in 1854 by Ignaz Kuranda for the « Ostdeutsche Post », he wrote for it until 1857, then founded with Ignaz Pisko the legal review « Gerichtshalle », which he directed for more than forty years, while sitting for ten years on the editorial board of the « Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung ».
Austrian writer, born in Kostel, near Nikolsburg in Moravia, on May 28, 1831, and died in Vienna on March 20, 1897, trained at the polytechnic institutes of Vienna and Prague. Originally a teacher, he subsequently devoted himself entirely to literature in Vienna and became known for stories drawn from the life of the Moravian ghetto, which placed him alongside Leopold Kompert among ghetto writers; he published notably "Aus dem Jüdischen Volksleben" (Hamburg, 1871) and memoirs about his friend Friedrich Hebbel (Vienna, 1878). A music critic, he first defended the Wagnerian cause before distancing himself from it, and also had plays performed such as "Don Perez" and "Korah" (1873).
Rabbi in Ofen and dayyan in Budapest, born in Alt-Ofen and died on February 2, 1837, descendant of Rabbi Löwe ben Bezalel and one of the pioneers of the Enlightenment movement in Hungary. He is the author of « Bet Rabbi » (Vienna, 1805), a biography of Juda ha-Nassi, « Ben Yoḥaï » (1815), a defense of the authenticity of the Zohar, and « Ha-Maẓref », a Hebrew epistolary manual published in two volumes (Prague, 1820; Vienna, 1857). His responsum published in « Nogah ha-Ẓedeḳ » (Dessau, 1818), in which he authorized the introduction of the organ into the synagogue, provoked a lively controversy.
Hungarian, authority in Turkish studies, born on September 20, 1861 in Sámson, trained at the gymnasium of Debreczin and at the University of Budapest where he studied linguistics. Thanks to a grant from the Jewish community of Budapest and the Hungarian Academy, he traveled through European Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt to study Turkish dialects, before being appointed in 1891 lecturer on Turkish language and literature at the University of Budapest and then director in 1893 of the Oriental School of Commerce. Corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1893 and of the Asiatic Society of Paris since 1889, he co-directed the journal Keleti Szemlé.
Russian community notable, born in Vilna in 1821 and died in Dembitza in 1893 on the way back from a foreign journey, trained in Talmud at the Volozhin yeshiva. Manager of the spirits monopoly of the Grodno government from 1851 and then that of Kiev from 1861, he played an active role in Jewish community institutions, presided over the Jewish hospital as well as the charitable works of the city of Kiev in 1882, and received the same year the title of hereditary honorable citizen of the empire. He published in 1891 a collection of articles on the History of the Jews of Kiev.
German politician
German actor, singer and director (1897-1944)
American psychologist
German journalist and writer
German composer
German jurist and statesman, born on May 9, 1809 in Carlsruhe and died in that city on January 26, 1890, trained in law at Heidelberg and Munich before being admitted to the bar of Baden in 1832. Lawyer in Rastatt, Bruchsal, then Carlsruhe from 1834, he successfully defended participants in the Baden revolution in 1849 and served as attorney general in 1859-87; in 1861, he became the first Jew elected deputy of Carlsruhe to the second chamber of the Landtag of Baden, where he participated in legislation on the emancipation of Jews in 1862, on judicial organization in 1864, and on education in 1867.
Preacher in Lissa in the mid-nineteenth century, author of « Ha-Emunah weha-Ḥaḳirah » (Breslau, 1847), a philosophical development of the thirteen articles of faith of Maimonides accompanied by an essay on the religious conditions of his time. He also published, in 1853 in Breslau, « Ha-Emunah weha-Biṭṭaḥon », devoted to the precepts founded on the Decalogue, translated into German by Fürstenthal.
German surgeon, born in Ueckermünde, Pomerania, on April 11, 1867, trained in Berlin, Kiel, Freiburg-in-Breisgau, Vienna and Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1891. After a trip in 1892, he established himself in Berlin as a specialist in diseases of the urinary tract and received the title of professor in 1902. Author of several medical works published between 1891 and 1903, he directed from 1904 the "Zeitschrift für Aerztliche Fortbildung".
German dramatist and theater director, born in Hamburg on March 8, 1838, trained musically at the Leipzig conservatory and then conductor in several German theaters before settling in Berlin in 1866 to direct Kroll's Opera-House, where he wrote his first farce. His greatest success, "Mein Leopold", premiered in 1873, placed him in the first rank of German dramatic literature and was performed as far as London and New York. Director of the Lobe Theater in Breslau from 1874 to 1878, then back in Berlin, he took the helm in 1883 of the Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtische Theater, renamed "Deutsche Theater", which he directed until 1894.
American pioneer, born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1802, and died in Galveston, Texas, on August 16, 1899. He was one of the founders of the reformed congregation of Charleston in 1825, then, having settled in New Orleans from 1831 onward, one of the founders of the first Jewish congregation of Louisiana; he went to Texas as early as 1831 and then in 1837 as supercargo of the steamship "Columbia", the first merchant ship to trade between the United States and Mexico. Leaving for California in 1849, he was one of the founders of the San Francisco synagogue, whose cornerstone he laid in 1856, and sat as a municipal councilman of that city.
Swedish dramatic tenor, born in Stockholm on 4 December 1838 and died in Christiania, Norway, on 7 March 1897, trained under Günther and Masset. He made his debut in 1866 at the Stora Teatern in Stockholm in Mozart's « Die Zauberflöte », was engaged in 1868 at the Opera of the Dresden court and from 1869 at the Imperial Opera in Vienna, where he remained until 1883. He subsequently performed on several stages in Holland and Germany, made a tour to the United States and Canada in 1888-1889 with Strakosch, then returned to his native country in 1889.
German Orientalist, born in Berlin on November 2, 1827, and died in Göttingen on December 22, 1891, trained in theology and Oriental languages at the universities of Berlin and Halle, where he obtained his habilitation in 1851. After teaching in Berlin schools from 1854 to 1866, he became in 1869 professor of Oriental languages at Göttingen, succeeding Heinrich Ewald. He devoted the bulk of his work to the critical reconstruction of the text of the Septuagint and edited biblical texts in Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Coptic, including his « Prophetae Chaldaice » (1872) and « Hagiographa Chaldaice » (1873).
Hungarian historian (1861-1936)
Hungarian writer
Hungarian rabbi
Yiddish short-story writer, known for his tales of pogroms, close to Di Yunge.
Hungarian deputy and financier, born in 1852. After being linked for several years to the Anglo-Hungarian Bank and the Ungarische Boden-Credit-Gesellschaft, he was elected in 1881 director general of the Hungarian Bank of Commerce, contributing greatly to the expansion of Hungarian commerce and credit abroad. Elected deputy of the district of Zsolna in 1893 then of the city of Miskolcz in 1896, he received in 1891 the order of the Crown of Iron and, in 1902, the title of « Hofrath ».
Russian journalist and editor, born in Rossienny in 1841 and died in Berlin on 21 July 1902. Settled in Saint Petersburg in 1862, he devoted himself to journalism after a year of teaching in Kovno, writing in several Russian journals before launching in 1871 the "Biblioteka", which became for ten years the organ of Russian-Jewish literature. In 1881, he founded the monthly "Voskhod", then in 1882 its weekly supplement, and worked eighteen years for the full citizenship of Russian Jews before his health forced him to leave the direction of the journal.
German gynecologist born in Warsaw on July 16, 1848, trained at the universities of Breslau, Würzburg, and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1870. Assistant surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), he was from 1872 to 1874 assistant at the gynecological hospital of the University of Breslau, where he became privat-docent in 1874, before settling in Berlin in 1876; there he received the title of professor in 1893 and assistant professor in 1902, and opened in 1892, with his brother Theodor, a private gynecological clinic.
Author of works on Jewish mysticism, born in 1808 in Kappel, near Buchau, in Württemberg, and died in the same city on February 3, 1841, son of the cantor Elias Landauer. Entered at eighteen to the yeshiva and lyceum of Carlsruhe, he later studied at the universities of Munich and Tübingen, returned to Munich in 1838 to copy Hebrew manuscripts from the Royal Library, passed the rabbinical examination in 1839 and was appointed in the following year rabbi of Braunsbach, a position he had to leave three months later for health reasons. He is the author of "Jehova und Elohim" (1836) and "Wesen und Form des Pentateuchs" (1838).
Romanian oculist, born in 1840 in Jassy and died in Florence on March 4, 1895, trained at the gymnasium of Ratibor then at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1865. After an internship with Graefe, he practiced in the United States, in New York and Philadelphia, before settling in Florence in 1894. He published notably works on varicose ophthalmia (1874), statistics on cataracts (1876) and etiology and prophylaxis of blindness (1878).
German rabbi, born in Meseritz, in Prussia, on May 1, 1810, and died in Hildesheim on May 20, 1870. Trained under his master Aaron Wolfsohn, rabbi of Hildesheim from 1826, then in Brunswick, he studied at the University of Berlin from 1834 to 1838, where he formed a friendship with Leopold Zunz, with whom he founded in 1840 the seminary for Jewish teachers. Director of the Nauensche institute from 1839 to 1846, he was appointed in 1846 "Landrabbiner" of Hildesheim, a post he held until his death; under his administration a synagogue was built in 1849 with an organ and a mixed choir, while he himself remained rigorous in the observance of ritual law.
German novelist, playwright and editor, born in Berlin on August 25, 1861, known under the pseudonym of Hans Land. He published his first novels "Der Neue Gott" and "Sünden" in 1891, then, in 1893, the play "Die Heilige Ehe" written with Holländer and the successful novel "Die Richterin," reissued the following year; followed notably by "Die Tugendhafte" (1895), "Um das Weib" (1896) and "Schlaagende Wetter" (1897). In 1898, he founded the weekly "Das Neue Jahrhundert," then still published the novels "Und Wem Sie Just Passieret" (1899) and "Liebesopfer" (1900).
German physician, born in Posen on August 21, 1848, descendant of Aryeh Löb, died a martyr in Posen in 1737, educated at the gymnasium of his native city and then at the universities of Vienna and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1873. Assistant surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), he subsequently practiced as a physician in Posen until 1901, before retiring to Charlottenburg near Berlin for health reasons; he served eighteen years as a municipal councilor of Posen, one year as council president, and four years as chief physician of the Jewish hospital. He is the author of the « Handbuch der Kriegschirurgischen Technik » (Tübingen, 1875), awarded the prize of the Empress Augusta.
German liturgist, born January 15, 1817, in Lissa, in Posen, and died in Berlin on March 23, 1887. He went up to Berlin to study Jewish theology, where he frequented Zunz and Abraham Geiger, renounced the rabbinate, and became a Hebraist bookseller thanks to the help of Moritz Veit; in 1845 appeared his essay on the origin of Hebrew prayers, followed in 1855 by an essay on the Haggadah of Passover. His principal work, "'Ammude ha'Abodah", a repertory of authors of Hebrew hymns, appeared in two volumes (1857-62); he also published, in 1884, a history of the rabbis of Berlin (1671-1871), and recorded the inscriptions of the city's ancient cemetery, closed in 1827.
German author and hydrotherapist, born in 1801 in Rödelheim, near Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and died before 1860. After a poor youth spent in traveling theatrical troops — he is said to have converted to Christianity in Vienna — he achieved success as a reciter and improviser in Munich in 1830, then toured England, France and Russia. He settled in 1842 in Paris as a hydrotherapist under the name of Langenschwarz-Rubini before returning to Germany in 1848; he is the author of « Arnoldo » (Vienna, 1829), of « Die Fahrt in's Innere » (1830) and of poems collected under the title « Der Hofnarr » (1832).
German ophthalmologist, born in Fürstenberg, Silesia, on July 25, 1839, trained in Paris and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1860. Privatdozent in Berlin the same year, he was assistant at Liebreich's ophthalmology hospital in Paris from 1863 to 1869, before becoming in 1872 assistant professor at the University of Strasbourg, then professor of ophthalmology from 1877. He published notably « Etudes sur les Affections Sympathiques de l'Œil » (Paris, 1869) and a contribution on lateral illumination published in Philadelphia in 1897.
English composer, born in London on August 9, 1858, trained in Boulogne, where he performed from age thirteen as a pianist, then, at fifteen, at the Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition and singing for three years. Returning to England, he became a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and composed from 1882 « Only a Song », followed by a comic opera, a choral work, and approximately one hundred fifty songs. He is also the author of the operas « The Light of Asia », « Kenilworth », « Moma », and « Messalina », the latter premiered at Monte-Carlo before being performed in London and New York.
German teacher and author, born in 1803 and died in Halberstadt on 3 March 1883. Appointed in 1823 teacher at the Jewish school of Halberstadt, where he later became professor, he published, besides several school textbooks, commemorative speeches (Halberstadt, 1841), a history of that school for its fiftieth anniversary (Nordhausen, 1847) and a commentary on the ten commandments entitled « Piḳḳude Adonai » (Leipzig, 1857).
German politician, born in Jarotschin, in Posnania, on October 14, 1829, and died in New York on January 5, 1884, educated at the universities of Breslau and Berlin. Elected in 1865 to the Prussian Landtag, where he sat on the left, he was one of the founders of the German National Liberal party in 1866 and represented Magdeburg then Frankfurt-am-Main in the Prussian National Assembly, as well as the Reichstag from its opening in 1867. Supporter of Bismarck until 1879, the year he refused his new fiscal policy and was defeated in the following elections, he retired from political life in the summer of 1883 and died during a trip to the United States, before being buried in Berlin on January 28, 1884.
American rabbi, born in Zirke, in the province of Posen, on 19 February 1838, trained by his father, rabbi of Zirke, then by the rabbis of Pinne and Rogasen, before completing his studies at the gymnasium of Gleiwitz and at the University of Giessen. Emigrated to the United States in 1858, he founded the congregation B'nai Abraham of Portsmouth, Ohio, then became in 1862 rabbi of the congregation Shaar Hashomayim in New York, in 1871 of Temple Israël in Brooklyn, and in 1876 of the congregation Ohabei Shalom in Boston, of which he is now rabbi emeritus. He directed from 1901 the « New Era Magazine », from which he resigned in 1903 after its purchase by Isidore Lewi.
German dermatologist and hygienist, born in Hamburg on January 11, 1849, trained at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen, Strasbourg and Würzburg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1873. Having become assistant at the physiological institute in Göttingen, then in 1875 at the pathological institute in Breslau until 1878, he subsequently established himself in Berlin as a dermatologist; private-docent in 1880, he opened four years later a private dermatology hospital and was one of the founders of the Berlin Dermatological Society in 1886. He introduced in 1883 the « Lassar bath-shower », which allowed the poor to wash for two hundred.
Danish conductor and dramatic composer, born in Copenhagen on April 13, 1830 and died in Weimar on January 15, 1904. Entered at twelve years old the Conservatoire of Brussels, where his family had settled in 1832, he won in 1849 the second government prize for composition then, in 1851, the Prix de Rome for his cantata « Baltasar »; after a stay in Rome until 1855, his opera « King Edgar », revised on the advice of Liszt under the title « Landgraf Ludwig's Brautfahrt », was successfully premiered in Weimar in May 1857. From 1861 to 1895 he was kapellmeister of the court of Weimar, composing notably the operas « Frauenlob » (1860) and « The Captive » (1865).
German philosophical writer, born in Alt-Strelitz, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on March 12, 1832, trained at the Gymnasium Carolinum in Neu-Strelitz then at the University of Berlin (1848-52). Teaching at the Friedrichsgymnasium from 1858 onwards and then at the Louisenstädtisches Real-Gymnasium from 1859 to 1897, he obtained his doctorate in Leipsic in 1861, converted to Christianity in 1853, and became privat-docent of philosophy in Berlin in 1877. He published notably a system of philosophy of law in 1881 and a work on the development of humanity's religious consciousness in 1883.
Hungarian scholar, born December 18, 1859 in Szergeny, trained in Pápa, Sopron and Budapest. Appointed in 1882 to the state meteorological institute, where he conducted research in climatology, zoology and geology, he is today a professor at a gymnasium in Budapest. He published notably a work on volcanism (Budapest, 1883), an award-winning study on master weavers, that is, spiders (1885), and another, also prizewinning, on flies (1894).
Hungarian portraitist, born on June 1, 1869 in Budapest. Gifted student of the Budapest Model Drawing School, he benefited for five years from a state scholarship which allowed him to study portrait in Munich under Liezen-Mayer then in Paris under Lefèvre. He attracted attention from 1891 with his painting « Erzählende Alte Frau » and became a sought-after portraitist, notably painting the family of the Prince of Bulgaria, Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen and King Francis-Joseph I.
Judeo-German dramatist, born in Jassy, Romania, in 1853. After studying the Talmud at the yeshiva of his native city, he devoted himself from the age of seventeen to modern languages, before the dispute between hassidim and mitnaggedim in 1876 gave him the opportunity to reveal his dramatic talent with two plays, « Der Fanaticismus » and « Der Dibbouk ». Settled in New York in 1884, he became one of the principal authors of American Yiddish theater, with more than a hundred plays to his credit, notably « Das Fünfte Gebot » and « Blümele ».
Austrian violinist, born in Prague on January 19, 1832 and died on March 17, 1875 in Gries, near Bozen, in the Tyrol. Noticed very young, he performed in Vienna from 1847, then visited London for the first time in 1851; he was then Concertmeister at the Weimar Academy of Music before becoming professor of violin at the Berlin Conservatory in 1855. In 1864, he conducted a concert tour in the Netherlands and southern Germany with Carlotta Patti, Jaell and Kellermann, before becoming professor of violin at the Moscow Conservatory and renouncing his duties in 1874 for reasons of health.
American naval officer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 22, 1859. Graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1881, he obtained a law degree from Columbia University in 1884; he was promoted first lieutenant in 1890 then captain in 1898, before becoming major of the United States Marine Corps. He is the author of « Naval Courts and Naval Law » and « Forms of Procedure for Naval Courts and Boards », both published in 1896, the latter revised and enlarged in 1902.
novelist
Theater director, born in Budapest on September 11, 1852. The poverty of his parents forced him to interrupt his studies at the Realschule at age twelve to enter a bank, but his passion for theater prevailed; sent to an uncle in Vienna where he continued his studies, he finally devoted himself to dramatic art and made his debut in 1871 in Schiller's "Kabale und Liebe" in Neusohl, Hungary. Engaged in 1873 at the Königstädtisches Theater in Berlin then in Elberfeld and Barmen, he became director of theaters in Amsterdam, Bremen and Lübeck, before taking in 1887 the general direction of the Residenztheater in Berlin, a position he still held in 1904.
American lawyer, born in New York on August 13th, 1844, graduate of the College of the City of New York in 1864, where he was the same year a member of the constitutional convention of the State. President of the board of administration of this same college, administrator of numerous railroad companies and vice-president of the Maurice Grau Opera Company, he was from 1895 to 1898 president of the Republican committee of the county; specialist in railroad, telegraph and maritime affairs, he participated notably in the turnaround of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
Galician writer, born January 25, 1826 in Drohobicz, where he pursued commercial activity while contributing to numerous periodicals. He is the author of the « Minḥat Kohen », in two volumes (Drohobicz, 1882), devoted to the proper names of the Old Testament and then to Jewish colonization of the Holy Land, as well as of « Ha-Nistarot weha-Niglot », on magic and sorcery in the Talmud and Midrash (Vienna, 1871).
Croatian publisher (1812-1881)
Son of Elly Kadoorie, he continues with his brother Horace the family enterprises in Hong Kong, directs China Light & Power (CLP), and co-founds in 1951 the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Loan Fund, which assisted more than 300,000 Chinese refugees.
English surgeon, born in 1828 and died in London on July 18, 1870, trained at University College London, where he obtained his medical degree in 1857, and admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1855. Appointed surgeon to the hospital for epilepsy and paralysis and then ophthalmic surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he directed the « Ophthalmic Review » from 1864 to 1867 and published notably on the diagnosis of surgical cancer (1855) and on the progress of ophthalmic surgery since the invention of the ophthalmoscope (1863).
English press proprietor, born in London in 1823 and died in that city on September 20, 1879, educated in Germany. Having inherited a fortune from his father, he founded in Saint-Ouen, in France, a printing ink factory which brought him another fortune, before selling the business and establishing a similar one in London. He became one of the principal owners of the « Daily Telegraph » of London, but never actively took part in the management of the newspaper.
Ukrainian businessman (1848–1904)
rabbi, educator and Judaic scholar
Austrian Rabbi (1867-1928)
Austrian rabbi
Austrian rabbi and writer (1837-1921)
Chief Rabbi of France
Born in Sélestat in 1858 to a modest Alsatian Jewish family, he developed alloys for electrical applications (founding of the Lazare Weiller Company, 1883), pioneer of submarine cables and a mechanical television system ("Lazare Weiller wheel"). He created an aviation prize that attracted the Wright brothers and wireless telegraphy companies; deputy for Charente (1914-1919) then senator for Bas-Rhin (1920-1928).
Grand Rabbi of France
French writer, born in Nîmes on June 14, 1865 and died in Paris on September 1, 1903, critic and journalist without religious conviction but claiming to be Jewish. Solicited by the family of Captain Dreyfus, he defended the officer's innocence in "Une Erreur Judiciaire : la Vérité sur l'Affaire Dreyfus" (1896) and "Comment on Condamne un Innocent" (1897), works which opened the way to a revision of the trial. A passionate defender of Zionism, he was a striking figure of the Zionist congress of 1898 before distancing himself from it; he is also the author of "L'Antisémitisme, son Histoire et ses Causes" (1892).
German Talmudist, born in Filehne in 1820 and died in Breslau on 16 April 1879, brother of Moritz Lazarus. After attending yeshivot and studying at the University of Berlin, he was elected rabbi of Prenzlau in 1849 and became in 1875 the successor of Frankel as president of the seminary of Breslau, a position he held until his death, combining classical Talmudic erudition with modern education. He is the author of « Die Ethik des Talmuds » (Breslau, 1877).
American merchant, born in New York on June 29, 1813 and died in that city on March 9, 1885, engaged in the sugar refining industry until 1865. Married in 1840 to Esther Nathan, he left at his death seven children, of whom two, Emma and Josephine, became known as authors. Member of the Shearith Israel congregation, he was also one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Club.
German rabbi (1810-1886)
German mathematician
Canadian political figure
German physician, born in Neusalz-on-the-Oder on April 6, 1847, trained at the gymnasium of Görlitz and then at the University of Breslau, where his medical studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, during which he served as assistant surgeon. He resumed them at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1872, then became the assistant of Traube; privat-docent in Berlin from 1875, he received the title of « Sanitätsrat » in 1896 and that of professor in 1901. One of the founders of the Society of Jewish Nurses, he published notably a manual of nursing care (Berlin, 1897) and a work on pneumatic therapy (Vienna, 1899).
German authoress, born February 3, 1849 in Berlin, from a German Christian family. Widow from a first marriage to doctor Max Remy, she converted to Judaism then married in 1895 professor Moritz Lazarus; she collaborated through numerous essays and novels, on history, art or dramatic criticism, to the columns of the « Vossische Zeitung » and other periodicals. Among her works are « Das Jüdische Weib » (1892), « Humanität im Judentum » (1894) and an autobiography, « Ich Suchte Dich » (1898).
German physician, born in Breslau on June 9, 1813 and died in Bex, in the canton of Vaud, on August 1, 1878. Trained in medicine in Berlin and Zurich, where he obtained his diploma in 1834, he established himself in 1838 as a physician in Bex, stayed in Paris during the winters of 1842-45, then settled there in 1846. Elected in 1853 professor of medicine at the University of Zurich, a position he held for six years before being called to that of Breslau, he retired in 1874 and spent his last four years in Nice, Vevey and Bex, leaving abundant work in pathology, including a « Handbuch der Praktischen Medicin » (Tübingen, 1855).
Professor and music theorist, born in Ludwigsbourg, in Württemberg, on December 12, 1822, and died in Stuttgart on December 8, 1884. Trained in Prague under Tomaschek, Weber, Tedesco and Proksch, he taught music in Munich before founding, with Faiszt, Brachmann, Laiblin, Stark and Speidel, the conservatory of Stuttgart (1856-57). Esteemed as a teacher, he published numerous works, including the « Grosse Klavierschule », written with Stark and translated into several languages, and received from the University of Tübingen the title of doctor of philosophy as well as that of professor of the king of Württemberg; among his piano students, Anna Mehlig was the most distinguished.
Hungarian pedagogue and writer, born on January 9, 1827 in Libochowitz, Bohemia. He studied from 1840 at the Teacher Training College and the University of Prague, taught in 1853 in Lundenburg, Moravia, then directed from 1854 the Jewish school of Tata, Hungary, before being called in 1857 to the Israelitische Musterschule and then directing the Jewish teacher training seminary in Budapest. Founder of the Jewish normal school and the national association of Jewish teachers, he was charged by the government in 1869 with translating Hungarian school textbooks into German; he notably published a manual for Jewish parents and teachers (1865).
Austrian dramatist, born in Prague on August 28, 1808 and died in Dresden on July 31, 1876. After a scanty education from a private tutor, he began studies in medicine then law, obtaining a doctorate, but, being Jewish, without prospect of academic career or taste for the practice of the bar, he devoted himself to dramatic writing. He made himself known by comedies full of humor and satire depicting with finesse the customs of his compatriots, among which "Häusliche Wirren", "Geistige Liebe" and "Die Kranken Doctoren", the latter written in collaboration with W. M. Gerle.
English editor, born in London on December 5, 1859, trained at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford. Associated on leaving college with Sir Leslie Stephen as assistant editor of the « Dictionary of National Biography » (1881-90), he later became co-editor and then sole editor-in-chief, completing this national undertaking in 1903, which earned him in 1900 an honorary doctorate from Victoria University. He notably edited a translation of « Huon of Bordeaux » (1883-85) and a facsimile of the first folio of Shakespeare (1902), and published separately two biographies that became references, « William Shakespeare » (1898) and « Queen Victoria » (1902).
Dutch Talmudist, born in Leiden in 1811 and died in Amsterdam on September 15, 1883. Established in this city in 1874, he was appointed rabbi of the bet ha-midrash and published several Talmudic works, including « Shoshannat Ya'aḳob » (Leiden, 1848), « Peri 'Eẓ Ḥayyim » (1852), « Debarim Aḥadim » (1853), « Naḥalat Ya'aḳob » (Rotterdam, 1857) and « Ḥeleḳ Ya'aḳob » (1858).
German philologist, born in Telgte, Westphalia, on December 25, 1831, trained at the Jewish school of his native city then at the seminary of Münster and at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, and Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in 1864. Privatdozent in 1866 then assistant professor at Heidelberg from 1870, he is today honorary professor of Sanskrit there; he presided in 1887 over the Zedaka Verein of Heidelberg. His philological works include a biography of August Schleicher (Leipsic, 1870), an edition of the « Lalita Vistara » (Halle, 1883), and a « History of Ancient India » (Berlin, 1879-90).
German jurist, born in Dresden on 2 February 1829 and died in that city on 25 February 1898, trained in Dresden then, from 1848, in law in Leipzig until 1851. Alongside Bernhard Beer, Zacharias Frankel and Wolf Landau, he fought for the expansion of the rights of Jews in Germany, for which Saxon legislation of 1868 owes much to him; lawyer from 1863, he was municipal councilor of Dresden from 1865 to 1883 and sat in the Landtag of Saxony from 1875 to 1880. He presided for several decades over the Jewish community of Dresden, whose history he wrote (Dresden, 1890).
French lawyer, born in Augsburg, Bavaria, on February 24, 1836, and died in Paris on December 27, 1892. Private secretary to the minister of Turkey in Naples from 1856 until the fall of the kingdom of Naples in 1860, he obtained his doctorate in law in 1861 and was admitted to the Paris bar. Appointed in 1870 secretary general of the Ministry of Justice by Adolphe Crémieux, member of the central consistory from 1873 and for twenty-four years of the central committee of the Alliance israélite universelle, he traveled in 1869 to Russia to study relief for famine victims, and was made a knight of the Legion of Honor in 1880.
German philologist, born in Königsberg, in East Prussia, on January 2, 1802, and died in that city on June 9, 1878. Trained at the gymnasium and university of Königsberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1823, he entered the Protestant Church the same year, held positions in Danzig, Marienwerder, and Königsberg, then became in 1831 a private lecturer and, in 1835, assistant professor at the University of Königsberg, before being elected in 1845 professor of ancient Greek philology, a chair he held until his death. Among his works are « De Aristarchi Studiis Homericis » (1833) and « Herodiani Scripta Tria Minora » (1848).
Lyric Yiddish poet.
Croatian rabbi
Austrian psychiatrist, born in Vienna on June 27, 1818 and died in that city on October 9, 1889, trained at the university of his native city, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1845. After several years in asylums in Italy, Germany, England, and France, he established himself as privatdozent in Vienna in 1856, became assistant professor of psychiatry in 1864, chief physician of the asylum service at the general hospital in 1872, and head of the regional asylum in 1875, positions he left in 1888. He was called in 1876 to Constantinople to examine the mental state of the deposed sultan Mourad, and consulted in 1886 on the mental health of Louis II of Bavaria.
One of California's first settlers, born around 1802 and died in San Francisco on 18 May 1848. Having left home around the age of fifteen, he presented himself as originally from Jamaica and arrived at Yerba Buena, future San Francisco, in 1840; when the American flag was raised there in July 1846, he became its vice-consul. Having become the richest man in San Francisco, he organized the first American public school and was alcalde and treasurer of the city. His estate, having no established legal heir, was valued in 1854 by governor Bigler at one and a half million dollars.
American educator, born in Manchester, England, on December 29, 1853, emigrated to New York in 1865, trained at the College of the City of New York (Master's degree, 1873) and then at Columbia College (Ph.D., 1878). Teaching in the public schools of New York from 1873, he became in 1896 supervisor of lectures for the city of New York, directed the Hebrew Technical Institute from 1884, presided in 1889 over the manual training section of the National Educational Association, and has presided since 1899 over the « Judæans ». He is the author of « The New Education » (New York, 1888) as well as numerous articles on education.
Professor of Arabic, born in Budapest in 1841 and died in Bonn on March 22, 1899, trained in Constantinople and at King's College, London. Interpreter of the British expeditionary corps during the Crimean War with the rank of colonel, he became in 1859 lecturer of Arabic, Turkish and modern Greek at King's College, then professor of Arabic and Muslim law, before directing the Government College of Lahore and founding the University of the Punjab, of which he was the first secretary general. In 1866, he conducted an expedition for the government of the Punjab in the then almost unknown region between Kashmir and Afghanistan, and organized an orientalist congress in London in 1891.
Serbian librarian (1898–1972)
Trained at the Rabbinical Institute of Padua (ordained in 1832), he was Chief Rabbi of Turin from 1833 until his death in 1857. He guided the Jews of Turin in demanding their civil rights and, after emancipation in the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848), published a project for the reorganization of worship. The government entrusted him on several occasions with drafting statutes concerning Jewish communities.
Italian author (1805-1871)
American chemist, born in San Francisco on February 18, 1863, trained at San Francisco College of Pharmacy, University of California, Johns Hopkins University, as well as in Zurich, Liège, Munich and Paris. Fellow at Johns Hopkins from 1887, professor of chemistry at the South Dakota School of Mines from 1890, then instructor at the University of California from 1891, he was finally assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1901. He is the author of a « Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Preparations » and numerous articles in American and foreign scientific journals.
German-born rabbi, scholar and theologian (1873–1956)
Austrian Jewish entrepreneur and art collector murdered in the Holocaust (1868-1940)
American factory superintendent
American rabbi
Austrian-American psychiatrist born Chaskel Leib Kanner to a Jewish family, founder of child psychiatry who first described infantile autism in 1943.
German Jewish merchant, a doctor of chemistry, and a soldier
American rabbi
German architect
Bookseller, bibliophile and publisher born Leo Samuele Olschki, from a family of typographers of Jewish descent originating in Prussia; founder in 1886 of the scholarly publishing house Leo S. Olschki (established in Venice then Florence in 1897), still active today.
American teacher
Born in 1899 in Kirchhain (Hesse) in a Jewish family, Leo Strauss is one of the major political philosophers of the twentieth century. Forced into exile by Nazism, he taught at the New School (New York) then at the University of Chicago. He developed a reading of premodern philosophers based on "esoteric writing" (reading between the lines) and a defense of classical political philosophy against historicism.
Hungarian-American physicist
composer
Synagogue musician, born in London in 1809 and died in that city on September 11, 1876, second son of the Reverend Simon Leo. A talented composer, he was the first, in 1838, to arrange Hebrew chants and melodies for multiple voices, gradually replacing the old style of the cantor and his bass; he also composed the music for the inaugural service of the New Synagogue and the reconsecration of the Western Synagogue in 1836. His father, hazzan of the Denmark Court synagogue in London, moved with his congregation to St Alban's Place in 1826, and was replaced around 1837 by his eldest son Ansell Leo, who left in 1846 to hold a similar position in New York.
French rabbi
militant et homme politique juif (1869–1941)
French philosopher specializing in epistemology and the history of philosophy. Professor at the Sorbonne for thirty years, he succeeded Lucien Lévy-Bruhl in the chair of the history of modern philosophy (1927) and co-founded the Revue de métaphysique et de morale in 1893. Forced to leave his position during the Occupation because of his Jewish origins, he took refuge in the Free Zone and died in 1944 in Aix-les-Bains.
Polish-Jewish lawyer and Bund activist (1885-1945) who, under the underground name 'Mikołaj', represented the Jewish underground on the Council to Aid Jews (Żegota) in occupied Warsaw, serving as its vice-chairman.
French writer and playwright born in Marseille, son of Jacob (Salomon) Gozlan, a Sephardic Jew born in Algiers and one of the founders of the first organized Jewish community in Marseille (1783). Journalist and prolific author, close to Balzac whose secretary he was; he succeeded him as president of the Society of Men of Letters. Famous notably for "Balzac in Slippers" (1856).
Yiddish playwright heir to Gordin, author of ghetto dramas on immigration.
French magistrate and resistor
Physician from Odessa, author of the manifesto Auto-Emancipation calling for a Jewish national home. He led the Lovers of Zion movement (Hibbat Tsion).
Sephardic Jewish writer born in Salonica, from a family of grain merchants established in the city for five generations. Author of the memoir "Farewell to Salonica: City at the Crossroads" (1946), which traces his childhood in the Jewish quarter of Ottoman Salonica before the First World War and the upheavals of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The book was rediscovered and republished by Paul Dry Books with biographical documents provided by his son Peter.
American physician and surgeon, born in South Carolina in 1813 and died at Santa Fe, New Mexico, on September 3, 1872, brother of Edwin de Leon, graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. He entered the American army as assistant surgeon in 1838, serving with distinction during the Seminole War and then the Mexican War, where he earned the nickname « fighting physician » at Chapultepec. Appointed major-surgeon in 1856, he resigned at the outbreak of the Civil War to serve the Confederacy, whose medical service he organized as first surgeon general.
American diplomat and journalist, born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1818 and died in 1891, brother of David Camden de Leon. A graduate of South Carolina College, he turned to journalism before founding « The Southern Press » in Washington; appointed consul general in Egypt, he protected under the American flag the Greeks expelled during the Crimean War. Upon hearing of the secession of his native state, he resigned, joined the Confederacy, and was sent to Europe on a confidential mission to obtain its recognition, a service he rendered without ever accepting remuneration, arriving in England in July 1862.
Lecturer, journalist, writer and American playwright, brother of Edwin de Leon, born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1839. He served in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865, then, after the war, directed the « Mobile Register » in 1877 and the Mobile newspapers « The Gossip » and « Gulf Citizen » from 1873. He is the author of several works, including « Creole and Puritan » (1889) and « Four Years in Rebel Capitals » (1893).
British political figure
Italian Jewish economist and politician, born in Padua; founded Italy's first rural credit cooperative bank in 1883 and was appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1914.
German judge and politician (1834-1876)
Anglo-German educator and activist
German anatomist and neuropathologist (1828-1897)
German classical philologist and librarian (1856-1915)
Born in Posen in 1832, of a Jewish father (Lutheran mother), he studied medicine in Berlin and then devoted himself to music; solo violin under Liszt in Weimar. Settled in New York in 1871, where he founded the Oratorio Society (1873) and the New York Symphony Society (1878) and conducted the first season of German opera at the Metropolitan (1884-85). His son Walter Damrosch (1862-1950) succeeded him at the head of these institutions.
Hungarian rabbi
German journalist and Esperantist
American rabbi
Born in Birmingham, British journalist and one of the first Zionists of England. Close to Theodor Herzl (who described him as « the most skillful of all my collaborators »), he was entrusted with political missions (El-Arish project, Uganda plan) and served as Herzl's official representative to the British government. In 1907, he acquired the Jewish Chronicle with friends to make it a Zionist organ and became its editor-in-chief until his death in 1931.
Born in Liegnitz in a wealthy Jewish family; one of the greatest German algebraists of his time, professor at the University of Berlin, co-editor of Crelle's journal. Works on elliptic functions, theory of equations, and algebraic number theory (Kronecker symbol, Kronecker delta). He converted to Christianity a year before his death.
Czech rabbi
German historian
German rabbi
German rabbi
Born in 1831 in Höchberg (Bavaria) into a Jewish family of cloth merchants, which he transformed into a banking house. He founded and directed the Frankfurter Zeitung in Frankfurt (established under this title in 1866), one of the great liberal German daily newspapers. He sat in the Reichstag (1871-1876 and 1878-1884) for the Deutsche Volkspartei and on the municipal council of Frankfurt. The newspaper remained a liberal organ until its closure ordered by Hitler in 1943.
German rabbi and writer (1810-1882)
German rabbi
Founder of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (science of Judaism) in Germany. His works on liturgy and homiletics laid the foundations of the historical study of Judaism.
French photographer
Italian writer
Grammarian and Hebrew teacher Russian, born in Dubno in 1815 and died in Jitomir in 1889. He entered in 1835 the model school of Bezaleel Stern in Odessa, where Simḥa Pinsker was his master of Hebrew grammar, then taught Hebrew in Dubno from 1838, in Radzivilov from 1841 to 1849, and finally, from 1851, at the rabbinical school of Jitomir, until its closure by the government in 1873. His reputation rests on his « Moreh ha-Lashon », whose first edition appeared in 1859; he also published an Aramaic grammar (Warsaw, 1875) and a translation of Luzzatto (Saint Petersburg, 1880).
Russian journalist born on January 1, 1849 in Berditchev, trained at the Jitomir gymnasium. Left to study law in Odessa in 1866, he turned to journalism, served ten years at the "Odesski Vestnik"—war correspondent during the 1877 Russo-Turkish War—founded in 1880 a Jewish theater in Odessa for which he wrote plays in Judeo-German, and published in Hebrew, among others, a sketch on the Khazars (Odessa, 1866) and "Yamim mi-Ḳedem" (1868). He further published in 1902 "Yevrei Novorossiskavo Kraya," a historical study of the Jews of southern Russia, and was residing in Odessa, converted to Christianity, at the time this notice was written.
German rabbi, born in Galicia in 1857, trained in Berlin under Hildesheimer. Rabbi in Winzenheim, Alsace, from 1884 to 1890, then preacher of the Federation of Synagogues in London, he has been chief rabbi of Altona since 1890. Author of « Anlage und Quellen des Bereschit Rabba » (Berlin, 1882), he devoted most of his written work to the defense of Orthodox Judaism.
French historian, born in Lisieux in 1842. In 1867, he went to study in Russia the organization of Slavic peoples, from which he drew "The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians" (Paris, 1882-89), he was appointed in 1881 professor at the Free School of Political Sciences, then member, in 1887, of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and represented from 1883 to 1891 the canton of Auberive on the general council of the Haute-Marne. He is best known to the Jewish world for "Israel among the Nations" (1893); he traveled in 1904 to the United States for a lecture tour.
Born into a Sephardic Jewish family of Moroccan origin. Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1932–1934), Minister of Transport (1934–1937) — he introduced the « Belisha beacons » (orange flashing globes at pedestrian crossings) — then Secretary of State for War (1937–1940). His grandfather Isaac Belisha presided over the Sephardic community of Manchester.
German physician and specialist in forensic medicine, born in Stargard, Prussian Pomerania, on 22 May 1851, graduate of the University of Berlin in 1875. Assistant at the institute of pharmacology of this university from 1877 to 1884, then physician at the Klinnsmann mental asylum from 1879 to 1886, he became privat-docent of pharmacology in 1881, was appointed in 1886 chief physician of the health service of Breslau and assistant professor at the university of that city in 1887. He is the author of numerous essays in medical journals as well as of the « Atlas der Gerichtlichen Medizin » (1884-92).
Polish painter, born in Warsaw in 1814 and died in that city in 1884, trained at the Warsaw lycée, at the Academy of Dresden from 1833 and in Munich, under Cornelius and Schnorr, in 1842. Devoted especially to the painting of scenes from Polish history, he traveled through Germany, France, Belgium and England in search of documentation. His forty portraits of kings of Poland, published in reproduction in Warsaw in 1860, earned him his election to the Academy of Sciences of Cracow; he was also an art critic.
German physician, born in Neisse on May 12, 1852, trained at the universities of Berlin, Bonn, and Strasbourg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1876. Assistant at the dermatological clinic in Breslau, he established himself in 1882 as privatdozent at the University of Leipzig, became assistant professor at the University of Bonn in 1892, head of the syphilography service at the Charité hospital in Berlin in 1896, then, in 1897, director of the newly founded dermatological and syphilographic dispensary of the University of Berlin. His "Lehrbuch der Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten" went through a tenth edition in 1890.
German soldier, born in Neustadt around 1850, serving in the dragoons of the Second Brandenburg during the Franco-Prussian War. On November 18, 1870, during a patrol between Sens and Villeneuve, while his comrades had scattered, he was surprised by six enemies; he held his ground, and upon the return of his companions, he charged and captured the captain of the francs-tireurs who had attacked him.
Poet, editor and publicist German, born in Rathenow, in Prussian Brandenburg, on December 7, 1802, and died in Berlin on December 2, 1867. Having gone to Berlin at a very young age, he became a regular contributor to the city's literary periodicals; noticed by the humorist Saphir, he founded with him in 1827 the Literarische Sonntags-Verein, and published a chronicle of Berlin society's friends (1842). He received the gold medal for arts and sciences from King Frederick William III, and was, devoted to the Jewish cause, one of the founders of the Jüdischer Kulturverein.
Russian Jewish writer
Russian writer, born in Minsk in 1835 and died in Saint-Petersburg in 1888, graduate of the rabbinical school of Wilna in 1854, then appointed teacher in the governmental school of his native city and adviser for Jewish affairs to the governor-general of Wilna. Prolific journalist and novelist in the Russian language, he published from 1860 in the « Razsvyet » and then in numerous periodicals, denounced in 1863 false witnesses in a ritual murder trial brought against Jews of Kovno, and published in 1876 his collection « Ocherki Proshlavo ». At first a supporter of assimilation, he came, after the pogroms of 1881, to support the Palestinian movement.
French physician, born in 1831, admitted in 1851 to the Agronomic Institute of Versailles before turning to medicine (doctorate, 1860). Physician of the Northern Railway Company from 1863, ambulance surgeon in 1870-71, decorated with the ribbon of the Legion of Honour in 1871, he was from 1871 to 1878 a member of the health council of Paris and from 1873 to 1889 chief physician of Rothschild Hospital. A philanthropist, he founded in 1848, with Eugène Manuel, the first evening school for Jewish apprentices, whose council he has presided over since 1879, and was one of the founders of the Universal Jewish Alliance.
Russian jurist, born in Kamenetz, in Podolia, in 1837, and died in Saint Petersburg on January 16, 1894. Settled in Saint Petersburg in 1863 to devote himself to law, he obtained his university diploma there in 1871 and became a lawyer before the appellate court in 1877; he collaborated on Jewish subjects to « Voskhod » and other journals, was one of the editors of « Sudebny Vestnik » and directed the criminology section of « Journal Grazhdanskavo i Ugolovnavo Prava ». His brother, Ossip Levenson, a lawyer before the appellate court of Moscow, who died in 1895, was a music critic for « Russkiya Vyedomosti ».
American lawyer and judge, born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, on January 31, 1845, graduated from the Free Academy of New York in 1864 and, in 1871, from the University of the City of New York. He practiced law in New York, notably as special counsel to the city in major expropriation proceedings, and has been, since January 1, 1899, a judge at the Supreme Court of the State of New York; he also served for several years as vice-president of the Aguilar Free Library and was associated with numerous Jewish charitable institutions in New York.
Swedish poet and critic, born in Gryt, in Ostrogothia, on July 17, 1862, trained at the university of Upsal (doctorate, 1882), where he became lecturer in 1889, before being appointed professor of literature at the University of Stockholm. Initially a realist — as in his collections "Småmynt" and "Konflikter, Nya Noveller" (1885) — he evolved toward an affirmed romanticism with "Lifvets Fiender" (1891) then "Legender och Visor", which earned him wide recognition, and "Nya Dikter", which placed him in the first rank of Swedish romantic poets; his novel "Magistrarne Österås" was also published in Germany.
English writer, born in Portsea in 1819 and died in Birmingham in 1873, daughter of Joseph and Amelia Moss. At eighteen, with her sister Marion, she published a collection of poems, « Early Efforts » (1838), followed by the « Romance of Jewish History » (1840), subscribed to notably by sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton and lord Palmerston, then « Tales of Jewish History » (1843). The two sisters, settled in London to teach there, also founded « The Sabbath Journal » (1855); subsequently married to Lewis Levetus of Birmingham, where she settled, Celia wrote her last work there, « The King's Physician » (1873), during the long illness that was to carry her away.
German rabbi
rabbin allemand
Russian rabbi of the first half of the nineteenth century. After being rabbi at Selichow and then at Pinsk, he was called to the rabbinate of Berditchev, where he wrote the "Ḳedushshat Lewi" (Berditchev, 1816), the first part of which offers a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch and the second miscellaneous writings. He also drafted a commentary on the "Sefer ha-Zekirut", a compilation of ethical writings by Raphael b. Zekharia Mendel based on biblical verses beginning with "Zakhor" (Wilna and Grodno, 1835).
American rabbi
Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi
Polish rabbi
Hasidic master famed for his compassion and love of Israel, nicknamed "the advocate of the Jewish people" before God. Author of the Kedushat Levi.
Italian jurist born in Padua on June 12, 1856, where he studied. Appointed assistant professor of international law in 1885 then titular in 1890 at the University of Padua, he is a corresponding member of several Italian academies as well as the Institute of International Law. He notably publishes « Le Colonie e la Conferenza di Berlino » (Turin, 1885) and « Realtà ed Utopie delle Pace » (Turin, 1899).
German rabbi, born in Worms on October 14, 1806 and died in Giessen on April 4, 1899, son of Samuel Wolf Levi, member of the Sanhedrin of Paris and rabbi of Mainz from 1807 until his death in 1813. Trained in the Talmud by several rabbis then by Michael Creizenach, he entered in 1824 the university of Würzburg, where he also attended the Talmudic courses of Abraham Bing, before joining the university of Giessen for his doctorate. Appointed in 1829 rabbi of Giessen in succession of A. A. Wolf, who had been called to Copenhagen, he remained there sixty-seven years, defending a moderate Reform in essays published from 1833 onward and in "Das Programm der Radicalen Reformgemeinde Giessens Beleuchtet" (Giessen, 1848).
Italian physiologist, born in Genoa on March 26, 1866, trained at the University of Modena, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1889. Repetitor then assistant professor of experimental physiology at the University of Modena from 1888, he took charge of the special physiology courses in 1893 then of histology, at the veterinary college of the same institution, in 1897; appointed in 1904 editor of « L'Idea Sionista », he was also vice-president of the Modena section of the Dante Alighieri Society. He published works on Jewish medical statistics presented notably at the International Medical Congress in Rome (1894) and the International Congress of Physiology in Turin (1901).
Poet and Italian patriot, born in Chieri in 1816 and died in Venice on October 18, 1898. Student of law in Parma from 1835 and then in Pisa, lawyer in Paris from 1839, member of the irredentist movement of Young Italy, he took part, settled in Venice, in the Lombard insurrection against Austria in 1848, withdrew to Turin in 1850, then was elected, after the unification of 1860, to the Italian assembly in Florence, where he sat as a liberal until his defeat in 1879. Prolific poet driven by his love of Italy and Judaism, he is the author of « Patria ed Affetti » (1849) and his major work, the drama « Il Profeta », devoted to Jeremiah.
Italian author, born November 21, 1861 in Padua, trained in that city and then in Florence and Hanover. Appointed in 1885 professor at the Royal Superior School for Young Women in Florence, she published numerous essays in the Italian press as well as several works, including the anthology "Ricorditi" (Florence, 1888), "Dai Nostri Poeti Viventi" (1891), and "Dante... di Giorno in Giorno" (1894), a collection of quotations from Dante.
American lawyer and community activist, born September 15, 1856 in Victoria, Texas, and died in New York on January 13, 1904. Returning to Texas in 1871, he entered the University of Virginia in 1872 to study law, winning in the same year the medals for debate and essay. In 1878, he campaigned in Texas for Gustav Sleicher, elected to Congress, before settling in New York in 1899; his main activity remained community-based, as president of B'nai B'rith from 1900. In 1887, he sent an open letter to American rabbis, « Tell Us: What Is Judaism? », and took part, shortly before his death, in the protest against the Kishinev massacre of 1903.
English political economist, born in Ancona, Italy, in 1821, and died in London on May 7, 1888. Having left for England, converted to Christianity, he was admitted to the English bar in 1859; he published in 1850 his "Commercial Law of the World" and was appointed in 1852 to the chair of commercial law at King's College, London. An active member of the Royal Statistical Society, he was at the origin of the 1858 laws standardizing the commercial laws of the United Kingdom and attended in 1887 the congress of European statisticians in Rome; he was made doctor of political and economic sciences by the University of Tübingen in 1861.
Italian philologist, born in Trieste on June 22, 1869, trained at the gymnasium of Trieste and at the universities of Pisa, Rome, where he obtained his doctorate in 1891, and Berlin. Professor of literature and then of classical philology in the gymnasiums of Benevento from 1891, Rome from 1893, Modena in 1896, and Parma since that same year, he became in 1895 lecturer in Greek literature at the University of Rome, then in 1896 at that of Bologna. He edited the "Peregrinus" of Lucian (Berlin, 1892) and three recently discovered odes by Bacchylides (Parma, 1899).
American pedagogue, born on 23 November 1857 in Sachsenhausen, in the Waldeck, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1887 and then trained at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Appointed in 1902 associate professor of Romance languages at the University of Michigan, he edited Molière's « L'Avare » (1900) and Manzoni's « I Promessi Sposi » (1901), and compiled, with V. E. François, a French reading manual (1896).
Italian physician born in Trieste on August 9, 1840 and died in Florence on March 10, 1886. Diploma from the University of Padua in 1862, he practiced at the general hospital in Venice and then founded in 1868 the maritime hospital for scrofulous children on the Lido in Venice, before becoming professor of pediatrics at the University of Florence in 1884. From 1873 to 1879, he directed « Giornale Veneto di Scienze Mediche ».
Australian merchant and politician born in Liverpool on January 20, 1830. Having gone to the gold mines of Victoria in 1853, settled in Melbourne in 1858, he is elected in 1860 to the Legislative Assembly for Maryborough — first Jew elected to the Victorian Parliament — then to the Legislative Council in 1892. He founded the « Melbourne Daily News » in 1885 and long presided over the Hebrew congregation of Melbourne.
Russian Hebraist and author of the 19th century, born in Hrubieszów, in the government of Warsaw. He publishes a double commentary on Job preceded by two poems (Lemberg, 1833), the epic poem "Dibre Purim" devoted to Ahasuerus and Esther (Zolkiev, 1834), then undertakes a Hebrew dictionary, the "Memalle", of which only the letter alef appears (Warsaw, 1839). This latter work is severely criticized by Benjacob in the "Pirḥe Ẓafon" (Wilna, 1844).
American Orientalist born in Szagarren on February 13, 1860, trained in Russia then at Columbia College in New York and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he is fellow in Oriental languages (1893-94) then in Semitic languages (1894-95). Instructor at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati since 1895, he notably publishes "A Grammar of the Aramaic Idiom Contained in the Babylonian Talmud" (1900) and "The Justification of Zionism" (1899).
German politician
Russian teacher and community activist born in Minsk on December 15, 1820, trained at the school of nobility in Molodetchno (1836-41) then professor in Wilna and Minsk before teaching at the rabbinical school of Jitomir (1853-57). Settled in Saint Petersburg in 1859, he was one of the first members of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia, of which he was secretary until 1872. Author of legal works translated from Hebrew sources, including « Moiseyevo Brachnoye Pravo » on Talmudic matrimonial law (Saint Petersburg, 1875).
Danish grammarian and linguist born in Randers in 1810, died in Copenhagen in 1883. Graduate of the Randers gymnasium, he worked as editor of a critical journal and translator of novels, and published notably the work of Danish grammar "Dansk Lyd og Kjönslære" (1844) as well as the narratives "Krigsfortællinger for Menigmand" and "Nogle Træk af Livet i Hamburg" (1848).
Galician Hebraist born in Brody in 1844. In 1865, he became co-editor, with Werber, of the Hebrew journal « 'Ibri Anoki », where he published a series of articles on the condition of Jews in Russia before Alexander II; he also translated into Hebrew, under the title « Medanim Ben Aḥim » (Brody, 1868), Schiller's play « Die Braut von Messina », before publishing in 1880 the didactic poem « Hitpatteḥut Tebel », dedicated to the evolution of religion and philosophy.
Lithuanian Talmudist and author born in Vilna on July 22, 1818, died in Paris on November 15, 1883. Trained under Elie Kalischer, he settles in Volozhin where he teaches Talmud, becomes rabbi of Praga, near Warsaw, in 1871, then settles in Paris — on his way to the Holy Land — where he becomes, at the request of Israel Salant, preacher of the Russian-Polish community. He publishes in Vilna « 'Aliyyot Eliyahu », biography of Elijah of Vilna (1856), and « Peleṭat Soferim », novellae and essays (1863).
Hebrew poet born in Minsk, Russia, in 1845, trained in Talmud from childhood before turning to the study of the Zohar and mystical literature. Settling in Kiev in 1868 as a tutor then treasurer for Lazar Brodski, he published his first collection, "Sifte Renanim" (Jitomir, 1871), then "Kishron ha-Ma'aseh" (1877), four poems of socialist tendency on the condition of Russian Jews, and translated in 1883 Disraeli's "Tancred" under the title "Nes la-Goyim."
American politician and publicist born in Charleston, South Carolina, on 10 November 1808, died in Philadelphia on 14 March 1860. Itinerant lawyer in several states before settling in Philadelphia in 1838, he directed the « Temperance Advocate », contributed in 1843 to the founding of the Native American Party and the « Sun » newspaper, then sat in Congress from 1845 to 1851, where he presided over the naval affairs committee.
German rabbi born in 1843 in Wongrowitz, in the province of Posen. Trained at the University of Berlin, he officiated briefly in Zurich and then, from 1872 onwards, in Nuremberg, before becoming, from 1884, preacher of the reformed community of Berlin. He published notably « Gott und Seele nach Jüdischer Lehre » (Zurich, 1871) and « Bar Kochba » (1892).
Danish author born in Copenhagen June 17, 1869, doctor from Copenhagen University in 1898. Recognized literary critic, he wrote two plays, « Antoinette » and « Sejr » (Copenhagen, 1895 and 1899), and published in 1894 a history of Danish literature, « Dansk Litteraturhistorie i Omrids », followed by essays such as « Ovid's Ungdomsdigtning » (1897).
Danish operatic soprano born in Copenhagen on January 8, 1839, died in the same city on March 22, 1899. She made her debut at the Royal Theatre of Copenhagen on December 20, 1860 in the role of Nannette in « Den Lille Rödhætte », became a « royal actress » in 1866 and was named, upon her retirement in 1879, a court singer.
Russian geologist born in 1861, graduate of the physico-mathematical faculty of Saint Petersburg University in 1883, responsible for the geological collection in 1886, then privatdozent in 1889 and professor in 1892 at the University of Yourief. Author of numerous articles on petrography and geology from his scientific expeditions in Russia, he publishes notably the « Petrographisches Lexicon » (1893-95).
German industrialist and writer born in Berlin in May 1842. After studies at the Köllnisches Gymnasium in Berlin, he founded in England, with his brothers, an aniline dye factory in Manchester, before returning to Berlin to study philosophy and to defend Judaism in several writings, including « Wissenschaftlicher Antisemitismus » (1896) and « Die Taufe » (1899).
Russian-American rabbi born in Kovno, Russia, on May 12, 1864, trained at the rabbinical schools of Kovno, Wilna and Byelostok, and received in 1888 his rabbinical diplomas from Isaac Elchanan Spector and Samuel Mohilever. Emigrated to the United States in 1891, he became officiating minister of six Russian congregations in Philadelphia, where he contributed to founding several community institutions, and held the vice-presidency of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America.
Danish pedagogue and author born in Copenhagen on April 22, 1803, died in the same city on March 23, 1891, graduate of Copenhagen University in 1823. Appointed tutor at the Jewish school of Copenhagen in 1824, he published several religious and educational works, including « Bibelske Fortællinger » (1827) and a bilingual Hebrew-Danish Jewish prayer book (1833), translated « Paul Clifford » by Bulwer Lytton, co-directed the periodical « Borgervennen » (1837-38), and received an honorary doctorate from Kiel University in 1837.
Danish physician born in Copenhagen on November 9, 1843, doctor of medicine from Copenhagen University in 1868. After serving as assistant physician in several Copenhagen hospitals, he was appointed in 1887 curator of the poor and became an active advocate for cremation, at whose initiative he founded in 1881 the first Danish cremation society, which he has presided over since then.
Russian painter born near Eydtkuhnen on August 18, 1860, died in Moscow on July 22, 1900. Entered the Moscow School of Art around 1875, he exhibited « The Plowed Field » in 1880 and experienced his most fruitful period from 1887-97, winning first prize at the 1892 Exhibition of art lovers for « Twilight »; he was elected in 1897 member of the Munich Secession and academician of the Academy of Fine Arts.
French sculptor born in Paris on May 4, 1864, student of Étienne Leroux, he exhibited for the first time in 1886 a portrait medallion. He subsequently produced a long series of works, including "Rêverie" (1887), "Eve" (1895), and "Sans Permis" (1898), as well as several busts of well-known personalities.
English novelist and poetess born in London on November 10, 1861, died in the same city on September 10, 1899. After studying in Brighton and two years at Girton College, Cambridge, she published the collection « Xantippe and Other Poems », the poem « The Minor Poet » (1882), the novel « Romance of a Shop » (1886) then « Reuben Sachs » (1888), which depicts unflattering aspects of English Jewish life; a final collection, « A London Plane Tree », appeared after her death.
Engineer, geologist, and French mineralogist born in Paris on August 17, 1844, son of Michel Lévy. Entered the École polytechnique in 1862, he became a mining engineer in 1867 and then chief engineer in 1883, and from 1887 onwards directed the preparation of the detailed geological map of France. He notably published "Les Minéraux des Roches" (1888) and "Structure et Classification des Roches Eruptives" (1899).
German physician born in Lauterbourg, Alsace, on March 5, 1864, trained at the universities of Strasbourg, Heidelberg and Paris, doctorate in medicine in 1887. Settled in Strasbourg, where he became privatdozent of hygiene in 1891 then associate professor in 1897, and published notably « Grundriss der Klinischen Bacteriologie » (Berlin, 1894) and « Bacteriologischer Leitfaden » (Strasbourg, 1897).
French engraver born in Toul on June 21, 1819, died in Paris in 1894, pupil of Geille. He exhibits for the first time at the Salon of 1844 and engraves notably portraits after Véronèse, Raphael, the Carracci and Rembrandt; his last plate, "The Fair Gardener", is fixed on his tomb in Montmartre cemetery.
French painter born in Nancy on September 23, 1840, pupil of the École des beaux-arts and of Picot, Cabanel and Fromentin. He exhibits for the first time at the Salon of 1865, then « Joash Saved from the Massacre » (1867), « Hebrew Captive Weeping over the Ruins of Jerusalem » (1869) and « Herodias » (1872); he also paints mural scenes for the church of Saint-Merri in Paris, exhibited in 1878, and receives a gold medal at the International Exposition of 1900.
French rabbi born on January 20, 1835 in Marmoutier, Alsace, trained at the rabbinical school of Metz. Rabbi in Verdun from February 1858, then in Lunéville in 1865 and grand rabbi of Upper Alsace in Colmar in 1869, he chose to remain French after the annexation of Alsace by Germany and received a new rabbinate in Vesoul, before becoming grand rabbi of Bordeaux in 1887. Knight of the Legion of Honor, he published numerous works, including "Défense du Judaïsme" (1867) and "Nathan le Sage" (Vesoul, 1881).
American merchant, son of Michael Levy and Rachel Phillips, born in Philadelphia in 1807, died in New York in 1883. The Peruvian government granted him honorary citizenship for services rendered to its navy; he commanded the USS "America" during the Mexican War and was appointed harbor master of Vera Cruz by General Winfield Scott at its surrender.
English economist born in 1838, trained at the City of London School and City of London College. Entering British civil service, he joins the Board of Education in 1862, where he becomes examiner of school accounts until his retirement in 1902, while founding and presiding over the Economic Circle of the National Liberal Club and directing the journals "The Individualist" and "Personal Rights".
American rabbi born in London on November 24, 1865, trained at Jews' College and University College London, then at the universities of Bristol and Pennsylvania. Rabbi of the Hebrew congregation of Bristol (1885-89), then of Bnai Israell in Sacramento (1889-1893), associate rabbi of Keneseth Israell in Philadelphia (1893-1901) and, since 1901, rabbi of Rodeph Shalom in Pittsburgh, he served as chaplain during the Spanish-American War in 1898 and published notably a translation of the treatise Rosh Hashanah of the Babylonian Talmud (Philadelphia, 1895).
Tunisian rabbinical author, originating from Gibraltar, son of Nathan Levy, died in Tunis in the mid-19th century. He publishes under his name the four-part work « Maḥane Lewiyyah », devoted notably to the commentary on the « Hilkot Semaḥot » of Meïr of Rothenburg and to the laws of Levitical purity, as well as, in collaboration with David Bonan, the responsa and studies on the tractate Sanhedrin « De Ḥesheb » (Livorno, 1857).
Poet and cantor of the synagogue in Berlin, died on January 25, 1853. He is the author of « Teḳufat ha-Shanah » (Berlin, 1842), poems on the four seasons in imitation of Thomson's « Seasons », whose preface includes « Na'al Yad », a translation of Schiller's « Handschuh », as well as several songs for holidays.
American photochemist born in Stenowitz, in Bohemia, on October 12, 1846, emigrated early to the United States and trained in Detroit and at the University of Michigan. He invented in 1875 the photochemical engraving process « Levytype », then in 1877 the « Levy line-screen » screen, « photo-mezzotint » in 1889 and « Levy acid blast » in 1896, rewarded by the Scott (1897) and Cresson (1899) medals of the Franklin Institute. Editor of the « Philadelphia Evening Herald » from 1887 to 1890, he also publishes « The Russian Jewish Refugees in America » (1895) and « Business, Money, and Credit » (1896).
German architect born March 14, 1852 in Landau. Returning from Italy, where he completed his studies, he is entrusted with the construction of the new synagogue of Kaiserslautern, then designs the church of Olsbrücke as well as the synagogues of Saint-Jean, Strasbourg and Kleinwälde, before becoming professor at the Baugewerkschule of Karlsruhe.
French engineer, member of the Institute, born in Ribeauvillé, in Alsace, on February 28, 1838. Graduate of the École polytechnique and the École des ponts et chaussées, engineer in 1863, he supervises part of the artillery during the Franco-German war (1870-71), becomes professor at the École centrale in 1875, member of the commission of France's geodetic leveling in 1879 and professor at the Collège de France in 1885. In 1888, he unsuccessfully experiments with a system of towing boats by aerial cable between Joinville-le-Pont and Saint-Maurice, and publishes « La Statistique Graphique et Ses Applications à l'Art des Constructions » (1874).
American inventor born in Detroit in 1857. After an apprenticeship with an architect, he became chief draftsman in the photogravure workshop of his brother Louis E. Levy in Baltimore, then accompanied him to Philadelphia, where he developed the halftone screen and the machinery of the halftone photogravure process now in general use.
French publisher born in Pfalzbourg on December 20, 1821, died in Paris on May 6, 1875. Established in Paris in 1836, he founded with his brothers Calman and Nathan one of the most important French publishing houses, publishing Dumas père and fils, George Sand, Balzac, Vigny, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, as well as Guizot, Renan and Michelet; after his death, the business was taken over by his brother Calman Lévy, born in Pfalzbourg on October 19, 1819 and died in Paris on June 18, 1891, then by the latter's three sons.
German Orientalist born in Altona on March 11, 1817, died in Breslau on February 22, 1872. Trained for the rabbinate, he taught for nearly thirty years at the Synagogen-Gemeinde in Breslau and received in 1865 the title of professor from the King of Prussia for his works, which made him one of the pioneers of Semitic paleography after Gesenius. He published notably the "Phönizische Studien" (Breslau, 1856 and 1857), a study on Don Joseph Nasi (Breslau, 1859) and the "Phönizisches Wörterbuch" (Breslau, 1864).
Danish physician born in Copenhagen on September 8, 1808, died in that city on December 30, 1865. Winner of the gold medal of the university of Copenhagen in 1830, doctor of medicine in 1833, he then traveled through Europe to specialize in obstetrics before becoming, after his conversion to baptism in 1838 under the name of Carl Edvard Marius, reader in 1840, assistant professor in 1841 then full professor in 1850 at the university of Copenhagen and accoucheur of the city.
French rabbi born in 1829 in Lauterbourg, Alsace, died in Bordeaux on November 29, 1886. Trained under Salomon Ulmann then at the rabbinical seminary of Metz, which he left in 1853 for the rabbinate of Lunéville, he became grand rabbi of Bordeaux in 1864, a position he held until his death. He publishes the pamphlet « Renan et la Synagogue » and leaves, published posthumously, « Moïse, Jésus, Mahomet ».
Danish musician and critic born in Copenhagen on October 14, 1858, trained at the University of Copenhagen and at the Polytechnic Institute until 1878, the year he devoted himself to music. Director of the academic choir (Studenter-Sangforeningen) from 1884 to 1896, he becomes in 1891 curator of the musical archives of the Royal Theatre of Copenhagen, translates into Danish the librettos of several operas, including « Don Juan » and « Othello », and gives reviews to the « Morgenbladet ».
Polish publisher born in Włocławek, in Russian Poland, in 1839, died in Wiesbaden on September 24, 1902. Son of modest Jewish parents, he acquired in 1862 the printing house of the Varsovian John Glücksberg, founded in 1865 the illustrated weekly « Kłosy », which became the most read in Poland, then acquired in 1871 the « Kółko Domowe » and launched in 1874 the collection « Biblioteka Najcelniejszych Utworów Literatury Europejskiej »; arrested in 1900 by Russian authorities, he was sentenced to three years of deportation to Odessa.
American physician born in Radnitz, Bohemia, on August 17, 1820, died in Albany, New York, on December 19, 1897, trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, doctor of medicine in 1846. He first practiced in Radnitz before emigrating to the United States and settling in Albany in 1849, where he joined the staff of the local hospital, presided over the Albany County Medical Society, and was among the forty-two founders of the city's Union League in 1863.
German dermatologist born in Sondershausen on April 25, 1820, died in Berlin on November 1, 1896, trained at the universities of Halle and Berlin, doctorate in medicine in 1845. Settled in Berlin as a specialist in otology then in dermatology and syphilography, he became privatdozent in 1862, head physician of the dermatology service at the Charité in 1865, associate professor in 1868, member of the imperial health service in 1880 and received in 1884 the title of "Geheimer Medicinalrat"; he published notably "Klinik der Krankheiten des Kehlkopfes" (Berlin, 1863).
Russian teacher and writer born in 1833 in Vyeshiuti, in the governorate of Kovno, trained in the Talmud at Zhagory under his uncle Simon Hurvitz. Graduate of the Mitau gymnasium in 1865, he remained there until 1874, when he became inspector of the Jewish school in Tukum, in Courland, while publishing from 1857 in « Ha-Maggid » and collaborating with « Ha-Meliẓ » and « Ha-Shaḥar ». He published notably « Ereẓ Russia u-Melo'ah », a geography of Russia (Wilna, 1868), and « Toledot Anshe Shem be-Yisrael », a collection of biographies of Jewish authors.
Australian politician
American merchant and philanthropist of Bavarian origin, co-founder of the Alaska Commercial Company. Born Löb Gerstle in 1824 at Ichenhausen, Bavaria, where his family had been established since at least 1538, he emigrated to the United States in the 1840s — accounts differ on the exact year — spent some years in Kentucky, then moved to California. After a brief attempt in gold mining, he partnered with Louis Sloss, another Bavarian, in a wholesale business in Sacramento; the two partners married two sisters, Hannah and Sarah Greenebaum, then settled around 1860 in San Francisco, where they engaged in brokerage, fur trading, tanning, and maritime transport. In 1868, following the U.S. purchase of Alaska, they founded with others the Alaska Commercial Company, which obtained a concession on fur seals, established trading posts, and supplied gold miners during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. Administrator of Congregation Emanu-El and the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum, treasurer of the University of California, he died in 1902. His son William Lewis Gerstle (1868–1947), patron and president of the San Francisco Art Association, should not be confused with him.
English merchant and philanthropist born in London in 1823, died in Liverpool on December 4, 1885. Established in Liverpool in 1840, he opened his own clothing business for boys in 1856, which he developed into one of the largest department stores in England, with branches in Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham; treasurer of the old Hebrew congregation of Liverpool, he financed charitable works extensively and bequeathed at his death nearly half a million pounds to hospitals and philanthropic institutions.
English author and community activist born in London in 1861, trained at King's College School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his degree in 1884 and was among the first recipients with distinction in the tripos of Semitic languages in 1886. Settled at Toynbee Hall, in Whitechapel, he devoted himself to social action among the Jews of the East End, published with E. J. Russel "The Jew in London" (London, 1900) and edited "The Targum on Isaiah i. 5, with Commentary" (1889).
English dramatist born in London in 1828, died in the same city on February 23, 1890. Lawyer from 1850 to 1875, he translates in 1871 « The Polish Jew » by Erckmann-Chatrian under the title « The Bells », mounted by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre on November 25, 1871, and subsequently writes « The Wandering Jew » (1873), « Give a Dog a Bad Name » (1873) and « The Foundlings » (1881), after having directed in 1868 the periodical « The Mask » with Alfred Thompson.
Pawnbroker and English philanthropist born in Birmingham in 1837, died in London on January 13, 1901. After being a steel pen seller and then a jeweler, he ventured into moneylending, an activity to which his name remains attached, and became the most sought-after lender of his time; he left nearly twenty million dollars, of which five million were intended for charity upon the death of his wife Ada Davis Lewis, sister of the composer Hope Temple.
American politician and philanthropist born in New York in 1831. Retired from business in 1862, he was elected in 1868 to the Board of Education of New York, then elected alderman in 1874 and served as president of the Board of Aldermen for two terms; one of the founders of Mount Sinai Hospital at its inception in 1852, he served on its board of directors until 1873, and founded in 1872 the School-Teachers' Life Assurance Society.
English lawyer born in London on April 21, 1833, trained at University College London. Placed in 1850 with his father James Graham Lewis (1804-1869), founder of the Lewis & Lewis firm, he was admitted to the bar in 1856 and became known by prosecuting the administrators of the Overend and Gurney bank after the panic of 1866, then in the Bravo affair in 1875 and before the Parnell commission against the "Times" of London; he was made knight in 1893 and baronet in 1902.
American merchant and philanthropist born in Hamburg on October 10, 1847, died in London on March 5, 1902. Sent to the United States in 1863 by his father, Hamburg merchant Samuel Lewisohn, he founded with his brother the house Lewisohn Brothers in January 1866, turned to the metals trade in 1868 and became, in 1879, a major holder of copper from Lake Superior; he financed extensively the Alliance colony in New Jersey, founded in 1882, as well as numerous New York philanthropic works.
Polish pianist born in Płock, Poland, in 1855, died in Paris in February 1889. Graduated with distinction from the Vienna Conservatory, he joined the Pasdeloup concert orchestra in Paris, obtained in 1882 a chair at the Warsaw Conservatory, gave in 1885 a concert at the court of Archduke Charles in Vienna, then performed in America before the Emperor of Brazil.
Danish chemist born in Copenhagen on July 5, 1817, died in the same city on January 1, 1863. Graduated in pharmacy in 1835, he subsequently studied chemistry at the polytechnic school and then in Berlin in 1839, before becoming assistant at the laboratory of J. B. Dumas in Paris; the Academy of Sciences tasked him in 1841 with studying the atmospheric conditions of the North and Baltic seas, then he was appointed in 1847 professor of chemistry in Bogota, New Granada, and received in 1859 the gold medal of honor from the King of Denmark.
Hebraist and rabbi of Peiskretscham, Upper Silesia, born December 6, 1805, died February 14, 1860. He leaves numerous manuscripts — sermons, Talmudic novellæ, Hebrew grammar — and publishes notably "Meḳore Minhagim" (Berlin, 1846), a critical essay on religious usages, and "Shete Derashot", a collection of sermons (Gleiwitz, 1856), as well as Talmudic biographies in the journals "Bikkurim" (1865) and "Jeschurun".
Yiddish poet of the Kiev group; shot during the Night of the Murdered Poets.
Russian physician died in Saint Petersburg in 1824, probably son of Jacob Liboschütz. Medical graduate from Dorpat in 1806, he settled in Saint Petersburg as a court physician, founded a hospital for sick children there, and published in 1811 several works on botany devoted to the flora of the environs of Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
Hungarian otolaryngologist born in 1848 in Szeged, trained in Budapest and Vienna, doctor of medicine in 1873. Returning to Budapest, he became there docent in diseases of the ear in 1883, the year he counted among the founders of the polyclinic of which he became director in 1891, and received in 1895 the knight's cross of the Order of Francis Joseph.
Violinist born in San Francisco on November 22, 1861, student of Beaujardin then of Wieniawski, whom he accompanied on tour in the United States before joining him in Brussels after a period of study in Paris under Lambert. Laureate of the national competition of Brussels, he toured Holland and then played with the orchestra of Theodor Thomas in New York, performed again in Europe and America, settled in Boston as a member of the Symphony Society, then directed the violin department of the National Conservatory in New York.
Polish mathematician and author born in Lublin in 1811, died in Warsaw on March 22, 1887, descendant of Moses Isserles. A trained Talmudist, versed in Latin, German, French, and Polish, he devoted himself to philosophy and mathematics, published in « Ha-Shaḥar » and in « Izraelita » articles on Jewish mathematicians, and polemicized with Slonimski in a series of works including « Yedi'ot ha-Shi'urim » (Warsaw, 1865) and « Ẓofnat Pa'neaḥ » (1874).
Bohemian talmudist who lived in Prague in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is the author of "Shesh ha-Ma'arakah", a commentary on the six orders of the Mishna published in five separate parts: "Derek Emunah" (Pressburg, 1840), "Dabar be-'Itto" (1841), "Ḥosen Rab" (1843), preceded by a sermon delivered in Prague in 1836, "Ma'yan ha-Yeshu'ah" (1846) and "Ḥokmat Adam" (Prague, 1852).
German physician born on December 7, 1845 in Breslau, where he completed his secondary studies before studying medicine in Berlin, Zurich and Breslau, where he obtained his degree in 1868. Assistant in the hospitals of Breslau and Halle until 1877, he became privat-docent in Breslau in 1876, adjunct professor in Jena in 1877, professor of medicine and head of clinic at the University of Berne in 1878, then has held a similar position at the University of Königsberg since 1888. He notably published « Die Störungen des Lungenkreislaufs, und Ihr Einfluss auf den Blutdruck » (Berlin, 1876).
Polish rabbi and author who lived at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, grandson of R. Kalman of Byelostok, rabbi and preacher in Prassnysz, in the government of Plotzk. He is the author of « Kanfe Nesharim », a commentary on the Pentateuch in several parts, published with the biblical text in Josefow in 1829 and reissued without the text in Wilna in 1894, as well as a commentary on the « Sefer ha-Tappuaḥ » which appeared in the Grodno edition of 1799.
Austrian chemist born in Vienna on December 3, 1836, trained at the universities of Vienna, Heidelberg (doctorate in 1856) and Paris. Privat-docent at the University of Vienna in 1861, he then taught as professor at Palermo (1863), Turin (1867) and Prague (1871), before holding since 1875 the chair of general and pharmacological chemistry at the University of Vienna, and sits at the Vienna Academy of Sciences.
Talmudist of the first half of the 19th century, probably originally from Austria, agent of the supporters of the Reformed Temple of Hamburg, in defense of which he published « Nogah ha-Ẓedeḳ » then « Or Nogah » (Dessau, 1818), an exposition of his views favorable to Reform. In 1819, he traveled through Austria to promote these ideas; according to Wolf and Graetz, he is said to have converted to Catholicism, though nothing confirms this.
Russian writer born in Vilna around 1840, prosecuted for his participation in revolutionary movements, refugees in the United States, where he took his own life in Syracuse, New York, on November 8, 1880. He directed « Ha-Emet », a Hebrew monthly with communist tendencies of which only the prospectus and two issues were published (Vienna, 1877), and was the first to organize socialist societies among the Jews of London.
German industrialist born in Märkisch Friedland on February 4, 1812, died in Berlin on January 15, 1901. Settled in Berlin with his family from 1825, he completed his studies and then worked in London before taking over his father's enterprise and making it the largest printed cotton factory in Germany, which earned him the presidency of the association of German merchants; he long chaired the Gesellschaft der Freunde and was treasurer of the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums at its foundation.
Russian writer born in Pilvischok, in the governorate of Suwałki, on 12 April 1820, died in Byelostok on 15 April 1895, son of a shoḥet. Trained in Talmud by his uncle Rabbi Élie Schick, he joined the Maskilim of Wilna in 1838, established himself around 1844 as a teacher in Byelostok, settled in Suwałki in 1867 before returning there. He published « Megillat Sefer », a collection of narratives, essays and fables (Johannisberg, 1854), « Ẓedeḳ u-Mishpaṭ », a Hebrew adaptation of a work by S. D. Luzzatto (Wilna, 1867), and « Ge Ḥizzayon » (Warsaw, 1889).
German historian born July 20, 1851 in Berlin. Initially destined for commerce, he works in a Berlin bank from 1869 then in England, in Manchester, in 1871, before returning to Germany to devote himself to ancient English constitutional history under Waitz and Pauli, at Göttingen. He notably publishes « Anglonormannische Geschichtsquellen » (Berlin, 1879) then his monumental edition of « Gesetze der Angelsachsen » (Berlin, 1898–1903), which earned him in 1899 an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University.
German painter born in Berlin on July 29, 1849. After a year of law at the University of Berlin, he turned to painting in Weimar in 1869, stayed in Paris in 1872 and then in Holland in 1876-77, before settling back in Berlin; his youthful works, exhibited in Paris in 1875, 1876 and 1877 and then in Munich in 1879, are of the darkest realism, before he turned to the naturalist school and Dutch genre painting, receiving the small medal of the exhibitions of Berlin and Munich.
German pianist born in Pless, Silesia, on April 12, 1851, educated at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin under Ehrlich and Kullak, then under Dachs in Vienna and Liszt in Weimar. Having gone to America in 1867, where he taught music in a seminary in Kentucky until 1871, he returned to Europe in 1874 to rejoin Liszt in Weimar, then settled in Chicago as a pianist, teacher and renowned composer, giving concert tours with Wilhelmj, Miss Cary and Miss Kellogg.
German folklorist born in Namslau, Silesia, on March 13, 1812, died in Saint-Hubert on August 3, 1890. Trained in philology at the universities of Breslau, Munich and Berlin, he became in 1849 professor of German language at the Royal Athenaeum in Liège, a position he left to retire in 1867. He translated the "Pentamerone" of Basile with an introduction by Jakob Grimm (Berlin, 1846), "Baarlam und Josaphat" by John of Damascus (Münster, 1847) and the "Otia Imperialia" of Gervais of Tilbury (Hanover, 1856), and published a collection of essays, "Zur Volkskunde" (Heilbronn, 1879).
German physician and pharmacologist born in Königsberg, in East Prussia, on February 14, 1839, younger brother of Richard Liebreich. Trained in chemistry and medicine at Tübingen, Königsberg, and Berlin, doctor of medicine in 1865, he became privatdozent of pharmacology in Berlin in 1868, professor and head of the pharmacological institute in 1872, and received in 1891 the title of « Geheime Medicinalrath ». He discovered in 1869 the narcotic effect of chloral hydrate and brought to light the therapeutic properties of lanolin (1885), erythrophyllin (1888), and cantharidin (1891), and has directed since 1887 « Therapeutische Monatshefte ».
English ophthalmologist born in Königsberg, in East Prussia, on June 30, 1830, brother of Oskar Liebreich, trained at the universities of Königsberg, Berlin and Halle, doctor of medicine in 1853. Assistant at the ophthalmological institute of the University of Berlin from 1854 to 1862, he then establishes himself as an ophthalmologist in Paris and settles in London in 1870, where he teaches at St Thomas Hospital; he improves upon the ophthalmoscope invented by Helmholtz and publishes in particular the « Atlas der Ophthalmoskopie » (Berlin, 1863).
German classical archaeologist and teacher
Sixth of ten children of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, and sister of Edwin Montagu. Founder of the Liberal Judaism movement in Great Britain and of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Author of eleven books, including Thoughts on Judaism (1902), Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (first liberal prayer book) and her autobiography The Faith of a Jewish Woman (1943).
Austrian artist born in Drohobycz, Galicia, in 1874. Apprentice to a sign manufacturer, then student of the academies of fine arts in Kraków and Munich, he settled in Berlin and illustrated books and newspapers, including "Jugend" and "Vorwärts"; his most characteristic work appears in the collection "Juda" (1900), which contains "Jesaia", "Passach" and "Sodom's Ruinen", followed by his illustration of Morris Rosenfeld's "Lieder des Ghetto" (1903) and the "Gedenkblatt des Fünften Zionisten-Kongresses" of Basle.
Russian scholar born in Keidany, in the government of Kovno, on October 22, 1843. Married at fifteen, he founded a yeshiva in Wilna in 1865, then published in 1868 in « Ha-Meliẓ » the article « Orḥot ha-Talmud », denouncing superstitions and demanding the reform of Judaism, which forced him to leave Wilkomir for Odessa in 1869. The pogroms of 1880-1881 turned him toward Zionism; he published in 1881 in « Razsvyet » an article advocating the establishment of Jews in Palestine, and became in 1883 secretary of the colonization committee of Odessa, alongside the president Leon Pinsker.
German mechanical engineer and aviation pioneer born May 23, 1848 in Anklam, died August 9, 1896 in Rhinow. Convinced that artificial flight must follow the principles of bird flight, he achieves in the summer of 1891, with the help of his brother G. Lilienthal, the first practical demonstration of human flight by means of curved wings designed for gliding, before meeting his death during an experiment in Rhinow; he is the author of « Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst » (Berlin, 1889).
Physician; known for her letters written in captivity, murdered at Auschwitz.
English merchant who died in London in 1818, engaged in trade with the Western Indies, who negotiated after the Treaty of Amiens the supply of merchandise worth 260,000 pounds to General Leclerc's French troops in the Indies; the draft drawn on Paris being refused, he never recovered this sum, dies in financial difficulties and his bequest to the Bevis Marks synagogue is never paid. His son Abraham Alexander Lindo publishes the pamphlet « A Word in Season » (London, 1839).
Dutch writer born in London on September 18, 1819, died in The Hague on March 9, 1879. He went to Holland in 1838 as a teacher of English in Arnhem and then at the Military School of Breda, studied Dutch literature at the University of Utrecht (doctorate in 1854) and became inspector of schools in southern Holland from 1865 until his death. A translator of Dickens, Thackeray, Fielding, Sterne and Scott, he wrote under the pseudonym « De Oude Heer Smits » several novels, including « Afdrukken van Indrukken » (1854) and « Typen » (1871), and published with Lodewyk Mulder the weekly « Nederlandsche Spectator ».
Russian-Yiddish humorist born in Vinnitsa on September 8, 1839, son of the Hasidic rabbi Joseph Linetzki. A runaway then student of the rabbinical school of Zhitomir (1862-63), he published his first poems in « Beizer Marshelik » (Odessa, 1868), contributed from 1866 to the Yiddish weekly « Ḳol Mebasser » and began in 1868 the publication of his novel « Das Polische Jüngel », one of the masterpieces of Yiddish humor. He founded in 1875 in Lviv, with Goldfaden, the weekly « Yisrolik », published « Pritshepe » and « Statek » in 1876-77, and published in 1888, in « Jüdische Volksbibliotek », « Worem Chrein », a sequel to his first novel.
German writer (1884-1958)
German rabbi
Dutch journalist born March 23, 1806 in Elberfeld, died October 19, 1869. He entered the Prussian army in 1824 and the Dutch army in 1830, departed for the Indies in 1834 and retired from service in 1841, before devoting himself to industrial enterprises and founding the "Bataviaasch Handelsblad", the oldest newspaper of the Dutch Indies; his perseverance led to the formation of a committee charged with studying the establishment of a railroad in Java.
Dutch journalist born in Amersfoort on December 17, 1821, died in The Hague on August 27, 1873. Settled in Amsterdam, he became editor of the "Handelsblad" in 1840, devoted himself to stenography in 1849, and founded in 1850 with lawyer D. Leon the weekly "De Gemeente Stem"; he then directed the "Indier" from 1856, then became in 1860 owner of the "'sGravenhaagsche Nieuwsbode", which he merged with the "Indier" in a "Dagblad van 'sGravenhage en Zuid-Holland".
Son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of the British branch. Elected to the House of Commons for the City of London from 1847, he became on 26 July 1858 the first observant Jew to sit in the British Parliament, taking his oath with head covered and substituting « so help me, Jehovah » for the Christian formula.
British banker and zoologist (1868-1937)
Yiddish poet and dramatist, cofounder of the Kiev group.
Austrian poet born in Jarosław, Galicia, on October 24, 1856, trained at the gymnasia of Tarnów and Vienna then at the universities of Leipzig and Strasbourg. Appointed in 1881 librarian of the Austrian Reichsrat and titled "Regierungsrath" in 1894, he publishes "Der Entfesselte Prometheus" (1876), "Renatus" (1878), "Das Buch der Freude" (1880) and "Totenfeier" (1887), translates in 1883 Mickiewicz's "Pan Tadeusz" and writes in 1886 the libretto for Goldmark's "Merlin."
American actress born in Chicago. She made her debut as an ingénue alongside Modjeska in 1888, created the leading role of « Incog » in 1891 then that of Julie Bon Bon in « The Girl from Paris » in 1898, performed for several seasons with her husband Louis Mann in various plays, temporarily retired from the stage in 1902-3 after an arm injury, and wrote herself the play « Pepi » (1898).
Dutch jurist born in London on April 27, 1802, died in Hilversum on July 7, 1871. Trained in Glückstadt, Hamburg and Amsterdam, he studied law at Leiden (1819-22) and established himself as a lawyer in Amsterdam in 1823, where he became a renowned advocate, before converting to Catholicism in May 1852, settling in The Hague and devoting himself entirely to religious study after 1862. He published notably "Geschiedenis van de Staatkunde der Voornaamste Mogendheden van Europa Sedert den Val van Napoleon" (Zutphen, 1834) and "Het Nieuwe Testament Vertaald" ('s-Hertogenbosch, 1859).
Hungarian rabbi
Austrian editor and bibliographer born on December 22, 1823 in Stanislawów, Galicia, died on August 26, 1900 in Vienna. Cantor and religious instructor at Eperies, Hungary, he later settles in Vienna, where he directs a Jewish publishing house, and himself drafts a bibliographic lexicon of contemporary Jewish literature (Vienna, 1881; 2nd ed. 1900).
French engineer born in Verdun on February 22, 1833, trained at the lycée of Metz then at the École centrale des arts et manufactures of Paris, graduated engineer in 1856. He participates in the defense of Paris as a volunteer captain of engineers during the Franco-Prussian War, founds in 1878 the house Édouard Lippmann & Compagnie, specializes in deep well drilling — including one of 718 meters at place Herbert, in Paris — and publishes notably a "Petit Traité de Sondage"; he receives honorable mentions at international exhibitions in Amsterdam in 1883 and in Paris in 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900.
Austrian chemist born in Prague on 23 September 1842, trained at the gymnasium of Vienna then at the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg (doctorate in 1864), with a postdoctoral stage in Paris. Privatdocent at the University of Vienna in 1868, he directs in 1872 the classes of Professor Linnemann at the superior technical school of Brünn, becomes in 1875 associate professor of chemistry at the University of Vienna and head of the third institute of chemistry, then professor of analytical chemistry at the Handelsakademie of Vienna in 1877, a position he leaves in 1881.
French physicist born in Hollerich, Luxembourg, in 1845, trained at the École normale then in Germany, doctor of sciences in Paris in 1875. He invents the capillary electrometer and discovers in 1891 the process of color photography, which he improves in 1892; he succeeds Briot as professor of physical mathematics at the Sorbonne in 1883, becomes professor of experimental physics in 1885, and enters in 1886 the Academy of Sciences, where he succeeds Dessain.
German rabbi born in Memmelsdorf, Bavaria, died in Kissingen on 26 May 1864. Trained in Talmud at Burgpreppach then at the yeshiva of Fürth and under the chief rabbi Hillel Sondheimer in Aschaffenburg, doctor of Würzburg University, he became preacher in Aurich then rabbi of the district in Kissingen. He edited several grammatical works of Abraham ibn Ezra with Hebrew commentary: « Sefer Ẓaḥot » (Fürth, 1827), « Sefer ha-Shem » (1834), « Safah Berurah » (1839) and « Sefat Yeter » (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1843).
French engineer born in Ville-d'Avray on 27 September 1847, bachelor of law in 1869. He serves in the artillery during the Siege of Paris in 1870, is appointed in 1874 director of the national arms factory of Saint-Étienne, a post he leaves in 1884 to retire to Bracquemont, near Dieppe, before being called in 1889 to the military art commission for the 1890 Exposition. He publishes « L'Art dans l'Armure et dans les Armes ».
German mathematician born on May 14, 1832 in Königsberg, East Prussia, died in Bonn on October 8, 1903. Doctor in 1853, he became privat-docent at the University of Bonn in 1857, professor of mathematics at the University of Breslau in 1862, then at Bonn in 1864. He notably published « Wissenschaft und Staat » (Bonn, 1874), « Die Bedeutung der Theoretischen Mechanik » (Berlin, 1876) and « Lehrbuch der Analysis » (Bonn, 1877-80).
American chess player born in Ungvár, Hungary, on July 4, 1863, emigrated to New York where he soon became known in chess circles. Victor in 1883 of a match against Philadelphia, champion of the New York chess club in 1885, he placed sixth at the masters' tournament of New York in 1889, won the United States championship in 1890 and again in 1892, and published his games in "Examples of Chess Master-Play" (New Barnet, 1893) before editing "The Rice Gambit" (New York, 1901).
French lawyer and senator born in Nyons, near Avignon, on August 2, 1818, died in Montpellier on February 6, 1891. Lawyer under the July Monarchy government then prosecutor of the Republic in Béziers, he is dismissed on December 10, 1848 and deported after the coup d'État of December 2, 1851; returned to Montpellier under Napoleon III, he is prefect of Hérault from the September 4 revolution until April 23, 1871, then elected deputy of Montpellier on February 20, 1876, re-elected on October 14, 1877. He had adopted in 1887 the measures establishing freedom of the press in France, before entering the Senate on January 5, 1888.
English author and community activist born in Schwerin-on-the-Warthe, in the Grand Duchy of Posania, in 1814, died in London on 13 January 1895. Emigrated to England in 1835, he settled in 1839 as a language teacher and jeweler in Bedford, where he published in 1851 « Jewish Perseverance, or The Jew at Home and Abroad », autobiography mingled with pious meditations, became administrator of the Harpur Charity of Bedford and actively campaigned for the emancipation of Jews.
German physician and anthropologist born in Berent, in West Prussia, on August 29, 1832, trained at the universities of Vienna and Berlin, doctor of medicine in 1856. He practices in Neidenburg until 1863, then in Danzig, before abandoning medicine in 1892 to become curator and librarian of the Society of Anthropology in Berlin; he publishes several medical and anthropological essays, including "Untersuchungen über die Sagittale Krümmung des Schädels" (1885) and "Die Prähistorischen Denkmäler der Provinz West-Preussen" (1887).
German physician born in Neidenburg on September 12, 1861, died in Hallstadt, Upper Austria, on September 21, 1891, son of Abraham Lissauer. Trained at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Leipzig, graduated in 1886, he settled in Breslau as assistant at the university's psychiatric hospital and clinic, a position he held until his death, and published several essays on pharmacology and neuropathology, including one in the "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift" (1890).
American politician and industrialist born in Gloversville, in the State of New York, on January 20, 1859. Harvard graduate in 1878, he joined his father's glove manufacturing business, which he succeeded in 1882, before being elected in 1896 as Republican representative of the 25th district of New York to the 55th Congress, a mandate he has held since as part of the appropriations committee.
Polish-German Talmudist who lived in the early nineteenth century. He is the author of "Iggeret Yissakar", a treatise on morals and religion in the form of a letter to his son (Budapest and Lemberg, 1826), and of "Da'at Yissakar", a commentary on Rashi on the Pentateuch and the five Scrolls (Budapest, 1827).
Russian rabbi born in Satanov, in the government of Podolia, in 1801, died in Zaslavl, in the government of Volhynia, on September 2, 1881, descendant of Rabbi Joshua Höschel of Cracow (1654–64), author of the « Sefer Toledot Aharon ». Versed in the Bible and Hebrew grammar as well as in rabbinical literature, he serves as rabbi of Zaslavl and publishes « 'Arugat ha-Bosem », a commentary on the Yoré Déa (Wilna, 1870), and « Shem Aryeh », a commentary on other parts of the Choulhan Aroukh (Wilna, 1873).
Erudite Talmudist and Lithuanian printer died in Wilna on 24 October 1812, highly regarded for his learning and help to Talmud students. He founds in 1799, in association with Tobiah b. Abraham Abele, the first Hebrew printing house in Wilna, whose first published work is the « Ma'amar ha-Teḥiyyah weha-Pedut » of Saadia Gaon.
Rabbi of Rozniatow and then of Styria, died in 1813. He is the author of « Ḳeẓot ha-Ḥoshen », a casuistic commentary in two volumes on the Ḥoshen Mishpat of the Shulḥan Arukh of Joseph Caro (from 1788), of « Abne Millu'im », a similar commentary on the Even ha-Ezer (Lemberg, 1815, and Zolkiev, 1825), and of « Sheb Shema'tata », Talmudic novellae (Lemberg, 1804); the first volume of « Abne Millu'im » includes an appendix in which he defends his earlier works against the attacks of Jacob of Lissa.
Rabbi of Byelostok, in Russia, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, author of the "Sha'agat Aryeh" (Byelostok, 1805), novellae on the tractate Makkot, where he frequently cites the "Ner Tamid" of his father (Grodno, 1789) and affirms in the preface to have written novellae on the entire Talmud.
Hasidic rabbi of the early movement, died on October 4, 1810. A simple 'melamed' in his youth, he never took the title of rabbi, being, unlike other tsaddikim of his time, the disciple of no great master; his only claim to notoriety was a visit paid to R. Israel Baal Shem Tov. Known by the name 'Shpoler Zeide', he led a simple and austere life, distributing in alms the money given to him by his many followers, and left no writings, but his name remains venerated among the Hasidim, particularly those of southern Russia.
Galician rabbi of the early nineteenth century, first serving in Podhajce then in Brody, contemporary of Éphraïm Zalman Margaliot, chief rabbi of Brody, whose « Bet Efrayim » cites one of his responsa. He is the author of the « Leb Arych » (Lemberg, 1820), a commentary on the tractate Ḥullin.
German mineral water businessman (1809–1880)
Austrian physician born in Roman, Romania, on 15 May 1857, trained at the gymnasium of Czernowitz then at the universities of Vienna and Paris, doctor of medicine in Vienna in 1883. Assistant at the General Hospital of Vienna in 1884, he settles in 1885 as a physician at the thermal station of Dorna, in Bucovina, where he practices in summer while residing in winter in Vienna, and receives in 1898 the title of « Kaiserlicher Rath »; he publishes numerous works on balneotherapy between 1880 and 1904, including « Das Bukowinaer Stahlbad Dorna » (Vienna, 1889).
Dutch rabbi (1884-1942)
American biologist born in Germany on April 7, 1859, trained at the universities of Berlin, Munich and Strasbourg, doctor of medicine in 1884. Assistant at the institute of physiology in Würzburg from 1886 to 1888 then in Strasbourg, he conducted biological research in Kiel in 1888 and in Naples in 1889 and 1890, before being called in 1892 to the University of Chicago as assistant professor of physiology, associate professor in 1895, full professor in 1899, then holding a similar chair at the University of California in 1902. He works on animal tropisms, heteromorphosis and artificial parthenogenesis, and publishes notably « Physiologische Morphologie » (Würzburg, 1890-1891).
American artist born in Cleveland, Ohio, on November 7, 1866. Apprentice lithographer then student of the evening schools of the Art Students' League of New York from 1885, of which he became vice-president in 1889, he went to Paris in 1890 to study under Gérôme, obtained an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1895 and then a third medal in 1897, and contributed from 1893 to the major American illustrated magazines; among his works are portraits of I. Zangwill (1898) and the painting « Temple of the Winds » (1896), awarded a silver medal at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1903.
American chemist born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 23, 1863, son of Solomon Loeb, trained at the New York College of Pharmacy and at the universities of Harvard, Berlin, Heidelberg and Leipzig. Private assistant to Professor Gibbs in Newport in 1888, he has been professor of chemistry at New York University since 1891 and has directed its chemistry laboratory since 1894; highly engaged in Jewish works, he presides over the Hebrew Technical Institute and the fund of Hebrew charitable works of New York, and directs the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Educational Alliance (1892-97).
Dutch film producer (1880-1953)
Manufacturer, philanthropist and German deputy, born in Heiligenstadt on November 27, 1837, died in Berlin on September 11, 1886, son of a poor schoolteacher. After early ventures in the wool trade, he founded in 1864 a sewing machine factory in Berlin and then a munitions factory for the Prussian army. Member of the Berlin city council from 1864 until his death, he served in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies from 1876 and in the Reichstag; after his death, antisemite Hermann Ahlwardt vainly accused him of having supplied defective weapons to the German army.
German writer and journalist, born 12 March 1836 at Ernsbach, in Württemberg, doctor of philosophy from the University of Tübingen in 1859. Founder of several magazines and newspapers in Germany, he became editor-in-chief of the Neue Freie Zeitung in 1873 and founded an association for international pacifist propaganda, before experiencing two prison sentences following press trials that led him to Brussels, London, and Paris. He returned to Berlin in 1888, after the amnesty proclaimed by Emperor Frederick III.
Austrian archaeologist born in Vienna on September 1, 1857, trained at the gymnasium and university of his native city, doctorate in 1882, became professor of archaeology at the University of Rome. He publishes notably « Untersuchungen zur Griechischen Künstlergeschichte » (1883), « Inschriften Griechischer Bildhauer » (1885), « Lysipp und Seine Stellung in der Griechischen Plastik » (1891) and « Die Naturwiedergabe in der Aeltesten Griechischen Kunst » (1900).
Astronomer born in Vienna, Austria, on April 15, 1833, from a Hungarian family, trained in his native city where he works at the observatory. Called in 1860 to the Observatory of Paris as assistant astronomer, he became titular astronomer in 1864, was naturalized French in 1865, entered the Bureau of Longitudes in 1872 then the Academy of Sciences in 1873, became deputy director that same year and director of the Observatory of Paris in 1896; he invented the equatorial refractor, which allowed him the best photographs of the Moon, and published with Puiseux, from 1896 onwards, the "Photographic Atlas of the Moon".
Italian physician, born in Gorizia in 1825 and died in Trieste in 1884, son of Samuel Vita Lolli; he studied medicine in Padua and Vienna. He interrupted his studies to join the volunteers of the Italian war of independence, participated in the defense of Vicenza and then of besieged Venice, where he contracted cholera, before establishing himself as a physician in Trieste and continuing his engagement for Italian independence. He is also the author of numerous writings on animal magnetism and psychology, published between 1850 and 1883.
Italian alienist and criminologist, born in Verona on November 18, 1835, descended on both parents from the tribe of Levi, his father descending from a lineage of rabbis and Hebraists. After studying Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Chinese, he turned to medicine, which he studied in Padua, Paris and Vienna, specializing early in the study of madness and its relation to genius. Military physician during the Austro-Italian war of 1859, he subsequently became professor of psychiatry at Pavia after a year of great poverty spent teaching and caring for patients free of charge.
Italian political economist, born in Mantua on March 2, 1857, educated at the high school of his native city and then at the universities of Bologna, Pavia, Rome, Berlin and London. He became professor of political economy at the University of Siena in 1881, then held a similar chair at the University of Padua from 1891 onwards. He is the author of several works on social economy, some of which were translated into French, German and English.
Italian mathematician, born in Mantua on May 19, 1862, trained at the Mantua lyceum and then at the University of Turin, where he became doctor of mathematics in 1884. The same year he was appointed demonstrator in Turin, then taught in 1886 at the military school before becoming assistant professor at the University of Genoa in 1887, where he has held since 1891 the chair of descriptive geometry. His work focuses on pure mathematics and their history; his work Il Passato ed il Presente delle Principali Teorie Geometriche was reprinted in a second edition in 1896.
American-Canadian film producer
Irish footballer, cricket player (1890-1943)
Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1856-1941)
Eldest son of deputy Léopold Javal, he specialized in ophthalmology to attempt to cure his sister's strabismus. In 1878 he opened a laboratory of ophthalmology at the Sorbonne which he directed until 1900. Pioneer in the study of eye movements during reading (saccades). Becoming blind at the end of his life, he continued to publish on reading.
American rabbi
German banker
Louis Sigismond Isaac Halphen (1880-1950) was a French historian specializing in the Middle Ages, professor at the Sorbonne, author of numerous reference works on the Carolingian period. He was the son of mathematician Georges-Henri Halphen.
American Reform rabbi and author (1893–1972)
Member of the Koenigswarter Jewish banking family, he was an economist and historian of law in France. He published notably "Essay on the Legislation of Ancient and Modern Peoples Relating to Children Born Out of Wedlock" (1842), "Historical Studies on the Development of Human Society" (1850), "History of Family Organization in France" (1851) and "Sources and Monuments of French Law Prior to the 15th Century" (1853).
German painter
Polish-German Jewish composer of synagogue music born in Wreschen, Grand Duchy of Posen; musical director at Berlin's New Synagogue whose liturgical melodies remain central to synagogue services worldwide.
1868-1941 rabbi and historian
Born in Zülz in Prussian Silesia into a Jewish family, doctor of the University of Berlin. He accompanied Sir Moses Montefiore on his missions to the Near East and Europe (1839–1874). Director of the Judith Theological College in Ramsgate (1868–1888) and first principal of Jews' College (1856). Executor of Montefiore's will.
Count, son of Meyer Joseph Cahen d'Anvers (founder of the Cahen d'Anvers bank) and Clara Bischoffsheim, he directed the family banking affairs. A great patron of the arts, he commissioned portraits from Renoir (including « Rose et Bleu », his daughters Alice and Elisabeth, 1881), Bonnat and Carolus-Duran, and acquired in 1895 the château de Champs-sur-Marne which he had restored.
Born in Paris to Jewish Alsatian parents. Minister of Finance (September 12, 1917 – January 20, 1920) in the second Clemenceau government, in charge of German reparations (« The Boche will pay! »). After his retirement, ruined by speculation, he was convicted in 1929 for issuing bad checks and died the following year.
Czech-born American writer, teacher and inventor
American poet, born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 11, 1864, holder of a master's degree from the University of Alabama and residing in 1904 in Dalton, Georgia. He publishes several collections of verses praised by the critics of his time, published in 1889, 1893, 1897, 1900 and 1903, including The Gates of Silence in 1903.
German historian, born in Berlin on 3 June 1863, doctor of the University of Berlin in 1888. Settled in Italy since 1889, he becomes in 1895 assistant archivist at the State archives of Rome, and publishes in German and Italian several works of history, published notably in 1889, 1890, 1892, 1893 and 1902.
Anglo-American journalist and writer, born in London on July 14, 1860, trained at King's College School and in Austria before devoting himself to journalism. Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe from 1888, then for the London Daily Chronicle from 1896 — the first Washington correspondent appointed by an English newspaper — he has directed since 1896 the American column of the National Review and publishes in 1901 the novel The Supreme Surrender.
Astronomer, born in Mako, Hungary, in 1841, and died in Steglitz, near Berlin, on 25 May 1900; he studies at the universities of Leipzig and Vienna, then obtains his doctorate in Budapest in 1867. Assistant at the Leipzig observatory, he is appointed in 1883 head of section at the Prussian geodetic institute in Berlin, with the title of professor, and publishes several works on astronomy and geodesy, including determinations of latitude in the Harz massif (1887-91).
Russian mathematician, author of works of scientific popularization. He published notably a theory of perspective (1858), a practical geometry (1860) and elementary geodesy (1861), as well as several arithmetic manuals until 1872.
Austrian actor, born in Prostějov, in Moravia, on February 6, 1856; after studying law at the University of Vienna, he takes the stage in 1878 and specializes in heroic roles. Engaged in 1895 at the Hofburgtheater in Vienna, of which he remains a member, he is also the author of a collection of poems, Leben und Lieben (Leipzig, 1890), and adapts in 1892 Grabbe's Herzog Theodor von Gothland.
German physician, born in Berlin on 11 March 1844, trained at the universities of Jena, Würzburg, Strasbourg and Breslau, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1872. Assistant at the institute of anatomy in Strasbourg until 1875, then at the dermatological hospital of the Charité in Berlin until 1876, he was admitted in 1878 to the faculty of medicine in Berne as lecturer in anatomy, before returning to Berlin to establish himself as a specialist in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. He published notably a Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde in 1884.
German physician, born in Munich on January 23, 1847, trained in his native city where he obtained his doctorate of medicine in 1870. Medical assistant in a Bavarian field hospital during the Franco-Prussian War, he subsequently practiced several years in the United States before settling permanently in Munich in 1875. He published numerous works on neurology and psychotherapy, notably on hypnotism, between 1886 and 1904.
German rabbi, born in Württemberg and died in Basel on May 25, 1876, friend of Berthold Auerbach and an assiduous reader of Schelling's philosophy. A fervent supporter of Reform in his youth, he becomes a zealous defender of orthodoxy in the second part of his life, after serving as rabbi in Gebenhausen and other communities in Württemberg. He publishes under the pseudonym « Juda Leon » several writings between 1841 and 1843, including a refutation of Ghillany's theses on human sacrifice among the ancient Hebrews.
Russian mathematician, born in Volodarka, in Russia, in the second quarter of the 19th century. He is the author of the Bikkure ha-Limmudiyyot, explanations of mathematical passages in the works of Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses Maimonides and Joseph Delmedigo, and published in 1863 in Warsaw a second annotated edition of the Shebile di-Reqia' of Elie ben Ḥayyim Kohen Höchheimer, on the rules of the calendar.
Austrian rabbi, born in Międzyrzecz, in the province of Posen, on February 1, 1821, and died in Lemberg on March 15, 1889. On the recommendation of Ludwig Philippson, he was elected preacher in Szent Miklós, Hungary, in 1845, where he was a pioneer of modern synagogal service, before leaving this post in 1857 for the rabbinate of Butschowitz, in Moravia, then being called as rabbi in Lemberg. An impressive preacher and tireless in community life, twice decorated by the Austrian emperor, he published a collection of poems, Jüdische Klänge, in Brünn in 1862.
Hebraist, died in Frankfurt-on-the-Main around 1850, proofreader at the publishing house of Isaac Lehrberger in Rödelheim. He publishes in 1838 the Book of Proverbs accompanied by a Hebrew commentary and a German translation, as well as the Book of Lamentations under the title Ḳol Bokim; in 1840 his Damascia on the persecution of the Jews of Damascus appears, followed in 1841 by an ode to Moses Montefiore, and in 1848 by an edition of the Pentateuch with the Targoum Onqelos and the commentary of Rashi.
German rabbi, born in Gailingen, Baden, on December 1, 1843, trained at the university of Würzburg from 1862 and then at the yeshiva of Rabbi Israël Hildesheimer in Eisenstadt, Hungary. District rabbi in his native city from 1872, he held the rabbinate of Mosbach, Baden, from 1887, and received in 1891 the order of the Lion of Zähringen. He published a history of the Jews of Lake Constance in 1879 and contributions to the history of Jews in Germany in 1895 and 1898.
German writer, born in Breslau on 20 February 1819 and died in Berlin on 6 January 1891, doctorate in philosophy in 1843. His first poems appeared as early as 1836, and his reputation was established in 1846 with Der Kindergarten, a collection of songs for children. In 1848, he founded with David Kalisch and Ernest Dohm the satirical journal Kladderadatsch, which he directed for thirty-seven years despite an expulsion from Prussia in 1849, and whose political poems from the 1860-80 period assured its fame.
Hungarian chess master, born in July 1810 in Budapest and died at St Leonard's-on-Sea, England, on 20 July 1876. Employed under the administration of Louis Kossuth, he was driven out of Austria-Hungary at the latter's fall, emigrated to America in 1849 and settled in England from 1851 onwards. He defeated Anderssen at the Manchester tournament in 1857, lost a match to Morphy in 1858, directed the chess column for several London newspapers, published the annotated games of Morphy in 1860 and edited the Chess Players' Magazine (1863-67).
Russian histologist, born in 1856, trained at the Academy of Medicine of Saint Petersburg and then at the universities of Kiev and Geneva. Assistant to Schiff in Geneva from 1881 to 1884, he became that same year assistant professor of histology in Lausanne, then full professor in 1890, and published numerous scientific works in French and German, notably two works published in Paris in 1901 and Berlin in 1904.
German teacher and writer, born on February 25, 1819 in Schmiegel and died in Posen on February 28, 1855, trained at the universities of Berlin and Breslau in philosophy, mathematics, and natural sciences, doctorate from Halle in 1841. First Jew appointed, in Prussia, director of a municipal technical school, in Posen, he published notably Die Physiologie des Freien Willens in Leipzig in 1843.
German rabbi, born on January 31, 1803 in Adelsdorf, near Erlangen, Bavaria, and died in Fürth on December 26, 1873, trained at Wolf Hamburger's talmudic seminary in Fürth then in philosophy and philology at the University of Munich. Rabbi of Uhlfeld from 1827 to 1830, he is elected district rabbi of Fürth but faces opposition from the orthodox party, which accuses him of teaching irreligious doctrines; ennobled by King Louis II of Bavaria in 1869, he extends his rabbinic authority to the young community of Nuremberg from 1857 to 1872.
Scholar and journalist of Russian-Polish origin, born in Grodno in 1832 and died in Warsaw on February 13, 1878, son of the rabbi of Grodno, trained in Talmud then in Russian, German, Polish and French. He publishes in 1855 his first work, Ha-Adam be-Ẓelem Elohim, in Königsberg, then collaborates from 1862 with the journal Jutrzenka founded by Daniel Neufeldt, where he defends the interests of his coreligionists and distinguishes himself through his public controversies. Ordained rabbi around 1868 by the rabbinical seminary of Vilno, he nevertheless never exercised a rabbinate.
German physiologist, born in Berlin on June 29, 1862, trained in his native city where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1885. Privatdozent of physiology in 1895 then assistant professor in 1900, he received in 1895 a prize from the Smithsonian Institution of Washington for his research on respiration and circulation with variations in pressure and oxygen content of the air.
German rabbi and author, born on August 24, 1814 in Hotzenplotz, Austrian Silesia, and died in Beuthen on November 20, 1864, trained in several yeshivot and then with Wolf Löw in Nagy Tapolcsány before completing his rabbinical education in Lemberg and Brody. Settled for a time as a merchant in Bielsko, he was appointed in 1846 district rabbi of Wadowice, with seat in Oświęcim, then elected in 1854 rabbi of Beuthen, a position he held until his death. He is the author of the Biḳḳoret ha-Talmud, a critical talmudic lexicon published in Vienna in 1863.
Russian writer, born in Balta in September 1878, trained in a Hasidic family and then at the Odessa School of Commerce and the Riga Polytechnic Institute, where he joined the Zionist movement in 1897. He goes to Palestine and describes Jewish agricultural colonies in a series of articles, then publishes on his return, in 1900, Palestina, devoted to the Holy Land and the condition of the Jews living there. Diploma engineer from Riga the same year, he continues his studies in Berlin and publishes in 1903 a pamphlet on the sixth Zionist congress.
German dramatist, born in Breslau on 22 April 1846, trained at the industrial school in Berlin then director of a cotton and wool mill before devoting himself entirely to theater. Prolific author under the pen name Hugo Bürger, he had numerous comedies and dramas staged on Germany's principal stages between 1865 and 1899, several of which were gathered in his Dramatische Werke, published in Berlin in 1881-82.
Polish writer, born in 1809 and died in Warsaw in 1868; after the Polish revolution of 1831, he settled in Brussels, where he published a study on the condition of Jews in Russia and Poland. He also published, in Polish, a defense of Polish Jews (Warsaw, 1858) and, in 1861 in Brussels, a work criticizing the ukases of Emperor Nicholas I concerning Poland, before being appointed, in 1862, librarian of Warsaw University.
German journalist and writer, born on February 18, 1868 in Johannisberg, in Prussia; after being employed in a second-hand bookshop in Venice, he devotes himself to journalism in Berlin, where he becomes one of the principal Jewish writers of his time. He notably publishes, in Berlin, essays on 19th-century literature in 1899, the dramas Multatuli and Der Imperator as well as the novel Gescheitert in 1901, and the drama Hannibal in 1902.
African explorer, born in London on September 22, 1851 and died at sea on November 20, 1876. After traveling to the United States in 1872 and Egypt in 1873, he organized an expedition to explore the Congo, left London in 1875 and reached Khartoum in January 1876, before accompanying Colonel Gordon to Lake Albert, which he traveled on the first steamship ever launched on its waters. Returning to Khartoum, he attempted the same year to cross Africa but fell ill and paralyzed; he died after three months of illness aboard a boat between Suakin and Suez, and was buried in Jeddah.
Philosopher and anthropologist from Paris, controversial theorist of 'primitive mentality'. Friend of Jean Jaurès (he contributed to the financing of L'Humanité) and connected by marriage to Alfred Dreyfus, whom he supported publicly among the first. Co-founder of the Institute of Ethnology of Paris (1925).
Hungarian journalist, born in Komárno in 1825 and died in Reichenau on August 29, 1885. From 1848 onward, he directed the Esti Lapok and the Magyar Világ in Budapest, defending the cause of conservatives, before settling in Vienna where he founded with Georg Apponyi and Paul Sennyei the journal Debatte, favorable to Austro-Hungarian dualism. Head of the Hungarian press bureau under the government of Gyula Andrássy, he then directed, on the mandate of Minister Beust, the Tagespresse, organ of the imperial court party during the war of 1870-71, and was made a Hungarian noble in recognition of his services.
Czech politician
German-born Jewish silversmith and metalworker regarded as a founder of modern Jewish ceremonial art, active at the Bezalel school in Jerusalem and later head of the Tobe Pascher Workshop at the Jewish Museum in New York.
German political figure
Mathematician from a Jewish family (son of Max Berwald, bookseller in East Prussia, and Friedericke Fischel). Professor at the German University of Prague, pioneer of Finsler geometry (the « Berwald spaces » bear his name); author of 54 articles. Deported by the Nazis to the Łódź Ghetto, where he and his wife Hedwig died in 1942.
Born in Berlin in 1863 into an established Jewish family, he became a leading Egyptologist, founder and director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo. He is best known for the discovery of the bust of Nefertiti at Amarna. Forced to leave his position in 1933 after the Nazi rise to power, he went into exile in Paris.
German historian
German Jewish theoretical physicist born in Nuremberg in 1884, he was the assistant, collaborator and coauthor of Albert Einstein in Zurich. Professor at RWTH Aachen from 1921, he was driven from his position in 1933 as "non-Aryan" and suspected communist, and died in exile in Dublin in 1939.
German poet, writer and publicist (1868-1900)
German rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Father of Alfred Mond, emigrated from Germany (Cassel) to England. Chemist and industrialist, he originated the Mond process (nickel extraction) and the Brunner Mond firm, the industrial foundation that would later become ICI. The family was of Jewish descent.
German rabbi
archéologue classique et collectionneur d'art juif tchèque-autrichien (1868-1943) assassiné durant la Shoah
Hungarian philosopher and journalist (1859–1930)
Director of Her Majesty's Theatre in London, born in Canada in 1811 and died in London on March 17, 1875, son of Canadian merchant Louis Levy. Attorney in London from 1832, he took over the direction of the theatre in 1841, which he transformed by engaging the greatest lyric artists and introducing in 1845 the famous « pas de quatre » of ballet. Ruined by competition from a rival theatre in 1847 and by Jenny Lind's departure in 1849, he nevertheless resumed the direction of Drury Lane in 1856 and published his memoirs in 1864, as well as two science fiction narratives, in 1862 and 1873.
Russian scholar and editor, born on December 9, 1854 in Kovno, Russia, left very young for Jerusalem, where he was still living in 1904. Having become blind, he founded with Doctor Koisewski an institution for the blind in Jerusalem and rendered important services to the exploration of the Holy Land through his guides to Palestine, his Palestinian annuals and his Jerusalem almanac, the first volume of which appeared in 1876 and the series in Hebrew and German from 1881 to 1903. Owner of a Hebrew printing press, he prepared in 1904 a new annotated edition of the Talmud of Jerusalem.
Italian statesman and economist, born in Venice on March 11, 1841, doctor of law from the University of Padua in 1863. Professor of economics at Padua from 1867, he became in 1869 secretary general of the ministry of Agriculture, then sat in Parliament as a deputy for more than thirty years, presiding several times over the budget commission. Minister of the Treasury twice between 1891 and 1898, he received in 1901 the first decoration of the order of Labor and in 1902 the grand cross of the Legion of Honor for the commercial treaty concluded with France.
English journalist and community activist, born in Portsea, England, on December 11, 1828, and died in London on February 14, 1904. After serving as secretary of the Jewish philanthropic institution of Portsmouth and then of the Jewish literary and scientific institution of London, he devotes himself to financial journalism and becomes correspondent for numerous London and provincial newspapers. In February 1873, he founds and directs the Jewish World, then serves as secretary of the school for Jewish orphans and the Jewish Emigration Society.
American journalist, born in London on 15 January 1810 and died in New York on 10 March 1858. After a brief commercial career in London, he emigrated to the United States in 1844 and founded in 1849 The Asmonean, the first American Jewish weekly, which he directed until his death while editing the New York Mercantile Journal. Isaac M. Wise and other Jewish writers contributed regularly to it, without the journal ever exceeding local fame.
English singer and musician, born in Dartford, Kent, on January 30, 1847, and died in London on January 16, 1886. Chorister at Rochester Cathedral from 1856, he became an employee at the Chatham shipyards when his voice broke, then studied in Milan in 1869 before returning to England in 1871, where he sang at Covent Garden in 1872. He made a reputation as an opera singer in America, then, returning to England, established himself in « The Golden Cross » at the Adelphi Theatre in 1878 and in the role of Rienzi at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1879, before triumphing in the title role of Massenet's Manon at Drury Lane.
Moroccan envoy to England in 1813, in the name of the emperor of Morocco Mulay Slimane (1794-1822), under whose reign the enslavement of Christians was abolished in Morocco. His son, Meïr Cohen Machim, went to England in the same capacity in 1827.
Hungarian merchant and philanthropist, born in Eisenstadt in 1833 and died in Budapest on 1 January 1895, trained in Budapest and at the Vienna Polytechnic School, he took part in the revolutionary movement of 1848. With his brother Eduard, he founds in Budapest in 1867 the first leather factory in Hungary, then in 1868 the first factory of stearic candles and soap. He bequeaths substantial sums to Jewish and non-Jewish charitable works, including 200,000 florins to found in Budapest a non-denominational convalescent home.
Austrian portrait and fashion photographer (1881-1963)
Russian genealogist and historian, descendant of the family of Saul Wahl, born in Wilno in 1829 and died in the same city on October 29, 1903, grandson of Rabbi Phinehas of Polotsk and Wilno, emissary of Elijah of Wilno in his struggle against the Hassidim. After his father's death becoming a lapidary, he joined the progressive circle of Wilno and published bibliographic articles in Hebrew newspapers, including a biography of David Oppenheim in 1882 and notes on the Jewish community of Lemberg in 1895. His major work, Ir Wilna, the first volume of which appeared in Wilno in 1900, brings together the biographies of more than three hundred rabbis and community leaders.
German Jewish physician, one of the most influential sexologists of the twentieth century. He opened in 1919 in Berlin the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, the world's first institute of sexology, and advocated for homosexual rights (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee). His works were targeted by Nazi book burnings in 1933.
German chemist and physicist, born in Berlin on 2 May 1802, died in that city on 4 April 1870. A graduate of the University of Berlin in 1827, he became a professor there in 1845 after studying in Stockholm with Berzelius and in Paris with Gay-Lussac and Thénard. He discovered in 1828 the « Magnus green salt » as well as several acids, and conducted research on the expansion of gases, electricity, and the transmission of heat.
Woman of letters and English philanthropist, born in Portsmouth on May 2, 1844, daughter of E. Emanuel and wife of Sir Philip Magnus. Active with the synagogue of Berkeley Street and treasurer of the Jewish Girls' Club, she published several works on Jewish history, including "About the Jews Since Bible Times" (London, 1881) and "Outlines of Jewish History," as well as the collection "Jewish Portraits" (1901).
English author and publisher, born in London in 1872, son of Sir Philip Magnus and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. Correspondent in Berlin for the London "Morning Post" in 1897-98, he subsequently directed the publishing house George Routledge & Sons and published notably "Aspects of the Jewish Question" (1902).
German botanist, born in Berlin on February 29, 1844, doctor from the University of Berlin in 1870. Privatdocent from 1875 and assistant professor of botany from 1880 in his native city, he participated in the expeditions of the Prussian commission for the exploration of the seas in 1871, 1872 and 1874, and published in particular « Morphologie der Sphacelaricen » (1873) and « Pilze des Kantons Graubündten » (1890).
Austrian archaeologist, born in Prague on 1 August 1871. After studying the history of art and archaeology at the universities of Prague and Vienna, he became privatdozent of archaeology at the German University of Prague in 1902, the year he published « Polyklet und Seine Schule ». He also gave lectures at the American School of Archaeology in Rome.
Austrian astronomer, born in Cziffer (Hungary) in 1857. Graduated from the University of Vienna in 1880, he collaborates on the work of T. Oppolzer from 1882 to 1886, then becomes in 1885 assistant to the Austrian imperial commission for the measurement of degrees. Devoted to chronology, he is privatdocent of ancient Oriental history at the University of Budapest and publishes numerous works, including « Biblische Chronologie und Zeitrechnung der Hebräer » (1887).
Hungarian Rabbi (1815-1869)
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5604 of the Hebrew era (1844). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5592 of the Hebrew calendar (1832). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 82-3.
Merchant, industrialist and Bavarian deputy, born in Oberdorf (Württemberg) on September 18, 1840, died in Munich on September 29, 1896. Associated with the A. Maison firm in Munich, he is appointed "Commerzienrat" in 1871, becomes member of the Upper Bavarian Chamber of Commerce in 1875, then consul of Denmark and Sweden-Norway. He represents Munich in the Chamber of Deputies from 1887 to 1896.
Born in Lviv in 1877, doctor from the University of Lwów (1904). Rector of the rabbinical seminary "Tachkemoni" (1920-1930), co-founder and then professor (from 1928) of the Institute of Jewish Studies in Warsaw. Historian of the Jews of Poland and Galicia. Director of the Judenrat archives in the Warsaw ghetto, where he died in late 1942 or early 1943.
Hungarian composer, born December 13, 1859 in Kaschau, in Hungary. Trained at the country's music academy as a student of Volkmann and Erkel, he teaches music in several institutions, notably at the Israelite seminary for teachers in Budapest. In 1894, he founded the Hungarian Women's Choir, then created in 1896 a music school.
Hungarian poet, born in Mako on November 17, 1871, died in Budapest on August 6, 1901, son of rabbi A. E. Fischer. Trained at the rabbinical seminary of Budapest, he made known several medieval Hebrew poets — Gabirol, Juda Ha-Lévi, Moses ibn Ezra, Al-Ḥarizi — through his translations, and published notably « Zsidó Költökböl » (1891) and « Enekek Eneke » (1892).
Ottoman rabbi
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5576 of the Hebrew era (1816). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Rabbi of Meknes, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5589 of the Hebrew era (1829). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5577 of the Hebrew era (1817). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 82-3.
German jurist, born in Santomischel (Posnania) on March 8, 1830, died in Berlin on April 1, 1898. Having become "Grundbuchrichter" at the Berlin tribunal, he publishes in 1857 his first legal work, then in 1861 and 1862, his foundational works on commercial law and bankruptcy. A reputed lawyer, he notably defended the historian Theodor Mommsen, acquitted in 1883, and involved himself in the Jewish communal life of Berlin.
Russian-born Lithuanian Zionist activist, journalist, and politician
Polish rabbi
Rabbi, preacher and Russian Hebraist, born in Volochisk (Volhynia) in 1809, died in Kiev on September 18, 1879. Rabbi in Wreschen (1838-1845) then in Kempen until 1860, he becomes that year chief rabbi of Bucharest, where conflicts with the community lead him to prison then exile, thanks to the intervention of Sir Moses Montefiore; he then serves in Lencziza, Kherson and Moghilef, before dying in Kiev on his way to Krementchoug. He is the author of numerous biblical and talmudic commentaries, including "Arẓot ha-Ḥayyim" (1837).
Beni-Israël soldier, born in Bombay around 1830. Enlisted in the 12th Regiment of Indigenous Infantry on 12 April 1851, he became subadar on 1 January 1865 and subadar-major on 15 February 1878. He received in 1879 the Order of the British Indian Empire of the second class, and then of the first class with the title of «Sirdar Bahadur», after having participated in the siege of Kotah and the action of Bunnas.
Yiddish poetess and pedagogue, formalist born in Ukraine, active in California.
Rabbi and Turkish rabbinic author, Chief Rabbi of Salonika, where he dies in 1832. He is the author of « Ohel Ya'aḳob », an alphabetical compendium of religious laws (Salonika, 1832), as well as « Be'er ha-Mayim », a collection of responsa published after his death (1836), and a commentary on the Shoulhan Aroukh, Yoreh De'ah, printed in Turkey in 1858.
Hungarian jurist and deputy, born in Nyirbator on January 6, 1839. Trained in law in Budapest and Vienna, he was elected in 1875 to the Hungarian Parliament as representative of his native city, a seat he has retained ever since, and became a member of the law commission in 1881. His parliamentary speeches, notably against capital punishment in 1878, for religious freedom in 1884 and against antisemites in 1885, attract wide attention.
Russian poet and author, born in Mlynov (Volhynia) in 1846, died in Vienna on March 24, 1902. Trained in Talmudism then won over by the Haskalah movement, he studies Oriental languages at the university of Saint Petersburg before becoming in 1873 assistant rabbi in Odessa, where he is the first to preach in Russian. Settled in Leipzig around 1880, he is the author of an abundant work in Hebrew, including his great biblical concordance work, the « Hekal ha-Ḳodesh ».
Hebraist, poet and Russian pedagogue, born in Zhagory (government of Kovno) in 1809, died in Saint Petersburg on September 12, 1889. Graduate in philology from Saint Petersburg University in 1844, first Jew in Russia to obtain this title, he is appointed in 1845, following the sudden departure of Lilienthal, to implement the program of education for the Jews of Russia, a function he holds until his retirement in 1857. He also translated the Bible into Russian, a translation first forbidden in the Empire.
Russian physician and Zionist, born in Zhagory (government of Kovno) in 1838, son of Ezekiel Mandelstamm, himself younger brother of Benjamin and Leon Mandelstamm. Graduated from the University of Kharkov in 1860, he studies ophthalmology in Berlin under Graefe from 1864, then settles in Kiev, where he directs from 1880 a private ophthalmological hospital. Figure of Russian Jewish life, he presides in 1881 and 1882 over a committee for emigration aid and actively participates in the Zionist movement.
Hungarian anatomist and pathologist, born in Budapest in December 1812, died in Paris on July 5, 1881, doctor of medicine from Vienna and Budapest (1836). Settled in Paris to study microscopy, he began teaching microscopic anatomy at the Collège de France in 1846, the same year he was made a knight of the Legion of Honor. A prolific author, he published numerous works on anatomy and pathology between 1836 and 1872, including his « Manuel d'Anatomie Générale » (1843), rewarded by the French Academy.
Austrian dramatist and journalist, born in Presbourg on May 13, 1840. He joined in Vienna the editorial staff of « Wanderer » in 1862, then that of the « Neue Freie Presse », before becoming in 1877 deputy editor of the « Fremdenblatt ». He notably published the pamphlet « Deutschland und der Augenblick » (Leipzig, 1861) and the German epic « Käthchen von Heilbronn » (Vienna, 1873), as well as a dramatic prologue for the Vienna « Kleist-Feier » of 1876.
French painter
Yiddish poet, cofounder and central figure of the Di Yunge group in New York.
Turkish rabbi, died in Hebron in the summer of 1899. Originally from Baghdad, where he is esteemed for his piety and knowledge of Kabbalah, he goes around 1856 to Jerusalem and then settles in Hebron, where he succeeds R. Moses Pereira as rabbi of the Sephardim. For fourteen years he refuses all remuneration, before being forced to accept it by poverty; he is said to have written eleven works which he refused to publish.
American actor, born in New York in 1865, son of Daniel and Caroline Mann. He went on tour from 1880, subsequently engaged by the famous Salvini (1881), Lewis Morrison (1882) and J. K. Emmett (1888), before turning to German comedy with roles created in « The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown » (1896), « The Girl from Paris » (1897) and « The Telephone Girl » (1898). In 1902, he held the leading role in « The Red Kloof », then joined the Weber and Fields company in New York until their separation in 1904.
Poet and Hebraist Russian painter, born in Rodzkowitz (governorate of Wilna) in 1859, died in the same city in 1886. Trained in Talmud and then in painting in Wilna, he entered in 1880 the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg, where he received in 1882 a silver medal from the Grand Duke Vladimir. He is counted among the greatest Hebrew poets of his time, notably with « Mas'at Nafshi » and an elegy on the death of Tsar Alexander II, and his writings are collected in two volumes under the title « Kol Kitbe Mordekai Ẓebi Manne ».
Hungarian painter, born in Budapest on February 27, 1854. Trained at the drawing schools of Budapest, Munich, Vienna and Rome, he is particularly known for his paintings "On Flowery Mead", "Procession at Anacapri", "Young Tramps" and "Italian Evening Landscape".
Writer and poetess, born in Prague on September 3, 1845. She emigrated with her parents to New York in 1866, where she married Professor Sigmund Mannheimer, and published poems and articles in German and English, including « The Harvest » (1897) and, in 1895, a translation of Nahida Remy's « Jüdische Weib » under the title « The Jewish Woman ». She also founded the Cincinnati Jewish Industrial School for Boys and invented the patented Pureairin fan.
American pedagogue, born in Kemel (Hesse-Nassau) on May 16, 1835. Trained at the Ems teacher seminary, he taught in Jewish schools in Germany before studying at the University of Paris from 1861, then emigrated to the United States in 1865, where he taught successively in Baltimore, New York, Saint-Louis and Rochester. In 1884, he became professor of exegesis and Aramaic as well as librarian at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and notably published a Hebrew grammar (New York, 1873) and a translation of Leroy-Beaulieu's « Antisemitism » (Cincinnati, 1897).
German Jewish philosopher (1826–1890)
Hebrew novelist and Russian writer, born near Kovno on January 10, 1808, died in Königsberg on October 9, 1867; he introduced the novel into Hebrew literature. Trained at heder and then Talmud, passionate about Kabbalah from a young age, he settled in the forties in Rossieny, where his encounter with scholar Senior Sachs nourished his taste for Hebrew history and literature. Teaching in Vilna and then in Kovno, he began his first novel « Ahabat Ẓiyyon » in 1831, before his health declined from 1860 and he died in Königsberg, where he had gone for treatment.
Born Marcel Bloch in Paris to Jewish parents, he founded before the war the Société des Avions Marcel Bloch. Arrested by Vichy then deported to Buchenwald as a political hostage, he refused to direct an aircraft factory for the occupier. After Liberation, he renamed his company Avions Marcel Dassault (after the code name of his brother Paul in the Resistance) and developed the Mirage, the Falcon, and later the Rafale.
Younger brother of Frigyes Riesz, also from the Jewish Riesz family of Győr. A renowned mathematician for his work on summation methods, potential theory, number theory, and Clifford algebras. He spent most of his career in Lund, Sweden.
Writer, essayist and playwright of French symbolism, born in Chaville in 1867. Scholar (studies on slang and the jargon of the Coquillards), translator of Stevenson and Defoe. Died prematurely in 1905.
Polish historian, medievalist and historian of methodology, professor at the University of Warsaw; of Jewish descent, he hid from the Germans because of his Jewish origins and was murdered at the Mittelbau-Dora camp in 1945. Editor of the Przegląd Historyczny (Historical Review) from 1918 to 1939.
Hungarian physician (1891-1945)
Born in Strasbourg in an Alsatian Jewish family, she studied in Berlin then in Paris in the studios of Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. Influenced by Mondrian, Van Doesburg, Léger and Malevitch, she developed rigorous geometric abstraction and joined the Abstraction-Création group in the 1930s. Her works are held in the Centre Pompidou, the MAMCS of Strasbourg (gift of 200 collages in 1980), the Museum of Grenoble, among others.
Italian Jewish insurance executive and philanthropist, born in Trieste to a Jewish merchant family; longtime president of Assicurazioni Generali, pioneer of life insurance studies in Italy, Dante scholar, founder of the Biblioteca Besso in Rome, member of the Accademia dei Lincei.
Sent in 1866 to reconstitute the Jewish community of Bologna, dissolved since 1593. Under his direction the reestablished community built a synagogue and cemetery. He left an "Autobiography of an Italian Rabbi" (reissued in 1986) and letters documenting 19th-century Italian Judaism.
Italian rabbi
Italian rabbi trained at the Collegio Foa in Verceil, son of Rabbi Felice Tedeschi. Rabbi in Nizza Monferrato, Saluzzo, Asti and then Chief Rabbi of Trieste (appointed by Cavour in 1858). A renowned preacher, translator of prayers into Italian.
Jewish historian and scholar
Swedish rabbi
American banker (1821-1904)
American rabbi
German rabbi
Danish rabbi
Born in Whitechapel into a family of Baghdadi Jews; he took over with his brother Samuel Samuel their father's import-export business (M. Samuel & Co.). Having entered the oil trade in 1892, he founded the Shell Transport and Trading Company in 1897, later merged with Royal Dutch. Lord Mayor of London in 1902-1903 (5th Jew to hold this post), he refused to invite the Romanian ambassador as a protest against the treatment of Romanian Jews. Created baron (1921) then viscount Bearsted (1925).
German jurist, born on October 15, 1809 in Rhena (Mecklenburg), died on October 7, 1881 in Manchester. Nicknamed the « Gabriel Riesser of Mecklenburg » for his commitment to his coreligionists, he is the first Jewish deputy to the Diet of Mecklenburg, of which he becomes vice-president, honorary citizen of Schwerin, where he presides for seventeen years over the municipal council as well as the Jewish community.
German astronomer, born November 17, 1860 in Magdeburg, trained in Strasbourg and Berlin (doctorate 1884). He participated in 1882, as an assistant, in the German expedition to South Carolina to observe the passage of Venus, studied in 1885 at the Russian observatory in Pulkovo, then directed from 1886, for two years, the national observatory in Santiago, Chile. Returning to Germany, he was appointed to the Royal Observatory in Berlin, where he conducted in 1891 the astronomical and geodetic expedition to the Hawaiian Islands, and became in 1903 one of the editors of « Geographisches Jahrbuch ».
Hungarian historian, born in Marczali on April 3, 1856, educated in Raab, Papa, Budapest, Berlin, and Paris. Professor at the gymnasium of his native city from 1878, he became a member of the Hungarian Academy in 1893 then professor of the history of Hungary at the University of Budapest shortly after. A prolific author, he published numerous works on Hungarian history, including a "Maria Theresia" (1891) and a study on the relations of Dalmatia published in French (Paris, 1898).
Moroccan rabbi and explorer
Figure of Tunisia's modernist Jewish intelligentsia; he founded the newspaper « La Justice » and led, from 1905 onward, the campaign to extend to Tunisian Jews the rights granted to Algerian Jews. Author of the pamphlet « L'Extension de la juridiction et de la nationalité françaises en Tunisie » (1905).
Greek officer
Austrian impresario, born June 28, 1821 in Brünn (Moravia), died May 14, 1897 in Pleasant Plains (New York). Pupil of Seyfried in Vienna, he settled in 1848 in New York, where he directed the orchestra of the Italian opera, then rented in 1854 the Academy of Music, whose seasons he directed until the building's fire in 1866. In 1858, he brought American singer Adelina Patti to America; his career as an impresario, marked by the American premiere of numerous operas, was celebrated by a golden jubilee on October 12, 1889.
Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, theorist of separation-individuation in childhood.
Mathematician, among the first women to earn a doctorate in Germany; victim of the Shoah.
Born in Venice into a wealthy Jewish family named Grassini (her father Amedeo, a lawyer and municipal councillor, developed the Lido). Art critic, journalist and writer, she ran an influential salon and promoted the Novecento artistic movement (1922). Wife of lawyer Cesare Sarfatti, she is best known under the name Margherita Sarfatti. Struck by the racial laws of 1938, she went into exile in South America before returning to Italy in 1947.
Born in Venice in a Jewish family (daughter of Amedeo Grassini and Emma Levi); she married Cesare Sarfatti, Jewish lawyer from Padua, whose name she took. Art critic (Avanti!, then animator of the Novecento Italiano movement), she was the biographer and mistress of Mussolini. She published about twenty books. Although converted to Catholicism, she fled Italy in 1938 after the racial laws.
Converted to Christianity, born in Suwałki (Poland) on 3 December 1820, died in London on 25 February 1881. Baptized in Liverpool in April 1838, he entered Trinity College Dublin in 1840, became vicar in Liverpool in 1844 then, from 1877 to 1881, at Little Linford (Buckinghamshire), and founded in 1847 a monthly Hebrew-Christian magazine, « The Star of Jacob ». Author of several works, including a « History of the Jews of Great Britain » (1857), he participated in the revision of the English version of the Old Testament.
Russian-Polish rabbi and author, born in Kalvariya (governorate of Suwałki) in 1842, died in New York on August 1, 1887, son of the rabbi of Wizhajny and descendant of Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller of Prague. After settling in Meretz in 1862 and then serving as rabbi of Druskeniki, he emigrated in 1884 to the United States and became rabbi of the congregation Anshe-Kalvariya in New York. He is the author of « Ma'oz ha-Talmud » (Warsaw, 1868), in defense of the Talmud, of « Ma'oz ha-Yam » (Wilna, 1870) and a collection of Talmudic legends, « Sippure Yeshurun » (Berlin, 1876).
American philologist, born in Meretz (government of Vilna, Russia) on October 15, 1866, son of Isaac Margolis, doctor of Columbia University in New York (1891). After a position as instructor and then adjunct professor of Hebrew and biblical exegesis at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (1892-1897), he became adjunct professor of Semitic languages at the University of California in 1897, associate professor in 1898, then directed interim the Semitic department from 1902.
(1892-1973)
Austrian artist
German entrepreneur (1862–1943)
Ukrainian-American anarchist
School physician in Hamburg; deported and murdered at Auschwitz.
Austrian painter
Czech-Jewish humanitarian activist and social worker
Physicist, pioneer of nuclear photographic emulsions for detecting particles.
Born in Venice on 31 May 1878, died in Bologna on 28 August 1946. Renowned neurophysiologist, he worked with Charles Scott Sherrington in Liverpool and obtained the chair of physiology at the University of Bologna in 1936. In 1938, born into a family of Jewish religion (« famiglia di religione ebraica »), he was struck from the University of Bologna and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei as a Jew in application of fascist racial laws; he had previously converted to Catholicism.
Italian composer
Florentine portrait photographer from a Livorno Jewish family, he documented Italian high society in the early 20th century; his portraits are held in Italian public collections (Gabinetto Fotografico, Uffizi).
Prolific Victorian and Edwardian art critic, editor-in-chief of the Magazine of Art (1887–1904) and of The Connoisseur. He published a history of Punch magazine, the first biography of John Everett Millais and a detailed inquiry into portraits of Shakespeare. Born in London, youngest of eight children of Adam Spielmann (1812–1869), banker from Schokken (Posen) and married to a sister of Samuel Montagu.
American naval officer, born 24 April 1848 in Saxony. Entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1864, he graduated in 1868, promoted to ensign in 1869 then lieutenant in 1872, and served on various naval stations before taking part in 1898, aboard the USS Scorpion, in the battles of Manzanillo during the Spanish-American War, where his conduct earned him promotion of two ranks. He was promoted commander in March 1899.
Yiddish and Polish playwright and director (alias Andrzej Marek).
American writer, born in New York on October 9, 1846, son of Elias Markens, linguist and orientalist. After being a merchant and then private secretary to railroad commissioner Albert Fink, he turns to journalism and publishes in 1888 "The Hebrews in America", the first work of its kind on the history of American Jews.
English artist, born in 1827 in Cardiff, where he trained and worked as a portraitist until his move to London in 1867; Royal Cambrian academician. He executes commissions for personalities such as the Prince of Wales, Lord Rothschild and Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler, while actively involving himself in Jewish schools and institutions as well as in the public library movement, contributing to the creation of the libraries of Cardiff and Ealing.
English journalist and politician, born on April 5, 1855 in London, fifth son of Reverend Professor D. W. Marks. After studies in London and Brussels, he tried his luck in the United States before returning to London in 1883, where he founded the "Financial News". Elected in 1889 as a councilman of the London County Council for Marylebone, he became in 1895 Member of Parliament for St. George's Tower Hamlets, a seat he held until 1900.
American merchant, born in Schenectady (New York) on March 18, 1858. He founded a company in Passaic (New Jersey) in 1877 before joining his father's wholesale clothing house, David Marks & Sons, and held several presidencies in the clothing trade in New York, as well as positions with the Educational Alliance and the National Civic Federation.
South African pioneer, born in Sheffield around 1850. Left for the Cape colony around 1868, he made his fortune in the diamond trade with his brothers, then left the diamond mines in 1884 for the Transvaal, where he became close to President Kruger, advanced funds to the government, and acquired farms that proved to contain significant coal deposits. His firm, Lewis & Marks, supplied coal for the Cape railways and held the monopoly on spirits manufacturing, with a distillery near Pretoria.
Polish politician
chief rabbi of Prague and Hamburg
Hungarian rabbi and historian
Belgian grand rabbi
German Orientalist, born in Dessau on 31 October 1798, died in Paris on 15 July 1843. After studying medicine in Berlin (1818-21), which he abandoned for philosophy and astronomy, he devoted himself to a work on foreign colonies in Abyssinia and Sennar, and settled in 1825 in Paris where Cuvier had him engaged, in 1829, in the edition of Pliny by Panckoucke, then, in 1830, as professor of German at the royal college in Dijon. Returned to Paris in 1838, he died there interned at the asylum of Doctor Pinel; he published « Storia dei Vandali » (1836) and a « Géographie Ancienne des Etats Barbaresques » (1842).
Austrian physician, born in Mielnica (Galicia) on February 19, 1865, doctorate from the University of Vienna (1887), then student and assistant at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He published in 1894 an essay on the theory of septic diseases, claimed in 1900 an antistreptostreptococcic serum against puerperal fever — still employed at the Pasteur Institute despite mixed results — then in 1903 an antidote against tuberculosis before the French Academy of Medicine. Zionist from the start, member of the Kadimah in Vienna, he sat at every Zionist Congress since the first, directed the French Zionist Federation and founded the Popular Jewish University of Paris.
Austrian architect, brother of Alexandre Marmorek, born in Skirta (Galicia) on April 9, 1863. Trained at the Vienna Polytechnic School and then in Paris, he established himself as an architect in Vienna in 1889 and notably designed the illuminated fountain for the 1890 Forestry Exhibition and the music hall for the 1892 Musical Exhibition. A Zionist like his brother, member of the Kadimah of Vienna, he has served on the Action Committee since the first Zionist Congress, participated in the 1902 El-Arish expedition, and proposed in 1901 at the Basel Congress the construction of a Zionist Congress House there.
American lawyer and community leader, born in Syracuse (New York) on December 14, 1856. Admitted to the Syracuse bar in 1878, he settled in New York in 1894 and distinguished himself in the profession, notably serving on the constitutional revision commission appointed by Governor Hill in 1890 and at the New York Constitutional Convention of 1894. Active Jewish leader, he presides over the executive committee of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and administers several New York institutions, including the Educational Alliance and the New York branch of the Universal Israelite Alliance.
Born Marta Löffler in Munich in 1891, daughter of Jewish textile merchant Leopold Löffler and Johanna née Reitlinger. Wife and collaborator of writer Lion Feuchtwanger, pillar of the circle of German exiles in Los Angeles. She left a memoir, Nur eine Frau. Jahre, Tage, Stunden (Munich/Vienna, 1983).
German rabbi
German rabbi
orientalist and a researcher of the Hebrew language and Islamic literature
Born on July 30, 1892 in Borne, son of a wealthy textile manufacturer (the Jewish industrial family Spanjaard of Borne), he pursued a career as conductor and composer in the Netherlands. Barred from the stage under Nazi occupation because of his Jewish origin, he was deported and died at Auschwitz (present in the database of Auschwitz detainees).
French pianist, born in Paris on July 28, 1859, trained from an early age by her father, a cellist at the Conservatory and the Opera. Entered in 1868 at the Conservatory in the class of Henri Herz, she wins the first prize there, then pursues a career as a concert performer across Europe and America as a soloist and accompanist to violinist Sarasate, performing some six hundred concerts in total. She composes several « Spanish Rhapsodies » and arranges for piano the Spanish dances of Sarasate.
Chief Rabbi of Bordeaux, born in Landau (Bavaria) in 1807, died in February 1864. A graduate of the Central Rabbinical School of Metz, he directs the Israelite Religious School of Nancy before being elected in June 1837 by the Bordeaux consistory to succeed Chief Rabbi Abraham Andrade; he introduces confirmation there in 1841 and founds several community institutions. Decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1852 by Prince-President Napoleon III, he is a renowned preacher whose several sermons were published, notably in 1853, 1862 and 1863.
French art critic, born in Nancy on August 28, 1859. Settled in Paris in 1878, he became art critic then literary critic at "Voltaire" from 1883 onward, secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts, then deputy inspector of museums from 1889; in 1886, a government mission sent him to study the teaching of industrial arts in Spain. He organized the centennial section of French art at the Universal Exposition of 1900, where he was made officer of the Legion of Honor, and published numerous works of art history, including "Henri Regnault" (1886) and a "History of the French Medal for the Last Hundred Years" (1890).
Chief rabbi of Bayonne, born in 1817 in Dürkheim (Bavaria), died in 1887, cousin of David Marx. Trained at the Central Rabbinical School of Metz, he directed the Israelite Religious School of Nancy before being appointed in 1843 rabbi of Saint-Esprit and Bayonne, then chief rabbi in 1846. He published several sermons, including one devoted to the mezuzah (1866) and another on the centenary of Sir Moses Montefiore (1884).
Pseudonym of the Austrian author Moritz Barach, born in Vienna on March 21, 1818, died in Salzburg in 1888. A journalist after leaving the University of Vienna in 1844, he founded several reviews, including "Das Wiener Feuilleton" and "Der Komet" (1853), and published numerous collections in dialect, novels, and comedies, including "Bilder, Lieder, und Geschichten" (Berlin, 1854), "Alt-Wien" (1885), and "Ein Neuer Decamerone" (1887).
Chief Rabbi (Hakham Bashi) of Cairo 1921–1925, brother of Refael Aharon ben Shimon.
Hebraist author and Russian bookseller, born in Radashkovichi, near Minsk, on 20 February 1829, died in Minsk on 19 November 1897, son of the Talmudist R. Abraham Maskileison. Awakened to neo-Hebrew letters by reading Luzzatto and Wessely, he began with the drama « Esther », praised by the poet A. B. Lebensohn, then published poems and articles, as well as a collection of letters, « Miktabim le-Lammed » (Wilna, 1870). He also gave a revised edition of Jehiel Heilprin's « Seder ha-Dorot » (Warsaw, 1878-82), correcting its chronology and expanding its biography.
Russian preacher, born in Slutsk (government of Minsk) on June 6, 1856. After rabbinical training at the yeshivah of Mir, he teaches and preaches in Pinsk, then in Yekaterinoslav from 1887 and in Odessa from 1891, where his oratorical talent draws the attention of Zionist leader M. L. Lilienblum, who encourages him to devote himself entirely to preaching. He went to England in 1894 then to the United States in 1895, where he became a leading Yiddish and Hebrew orator, preaching every Friday evening at the Educational Alliance in New York from 1898 and founding in 1902 the Yiddish daily "Yiddishe Welt".
Senator, author and Italian painter, born in Mantua in 1826. After studying law in Pavia, he took part in the Italian revolution of 1848, before exiling himself to Frankfurt then Paris and Switzerland, and sitting in Parliament in Milan (1860-67). Recognized painter, he also popularized Heine's work in Italy through an essay (1857) and translations, and chaired in 1878 the international art jury of the Paris Exposition.
Russian Hebrew scholar, born in Ujasin (government of Wilna) in 1850. Emigrated to England in the nineties, he settled in Manchester where he opened a printing press, and published several Hebrew translations, including « Shimshon ha-Gibbor », after Milton's « Samson Agonistes » (1895), and « Yehudah ha-Makkabi », after Longfellow's « Judas Maccabeus » (1900), as well as a florilège of Hebrew poets covering the years 1725 to 1903 (London, 1903).
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Son of Yitshak, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5566 (1806), died in 5651 (1891) of the Hebrew era. Son of Haim David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5620 of the Hebrew era (1860). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-2.
Rabbi, translator and educator
Hungarian rabbi, died around 1807. Thanks to the support of Aaron Chorin, disciple of his father, he became rabbi of Deutschkreuz, near Mattersdorf, and published a commentary on the Eben ha-'Ezer code, « Ḥen Ṭob » (Zolkiev, 1806), as well as novellæ on Isaac ben Reuben's « Sha'are Shebu'ot », « Sha'are Binah » (Vienna, 1792).
Russian Talmud scholar and maskil
Dutch politician
Bavarian financier and philanthropist
French politician
Chief Rabbi of Constantine then of Algiers, historian and onomastician of the Jews of North Africa.
French banker
Brothers of German origin (Frankfurt) established in Paris, bankers, they constituted at the end of the 19th century two of the most important art collections in France (17th-century Dutch painting: Rembrandt, Van Dyck, as well as Italian and Flemish primitives). Rodolphe's fortune came notably from the extraction of diamonds and gold in South Africa. Their collections were dispersed after their death (merchant Duveen).
French rabbi
From a Jewish family in Cairo, he began as a bank employee and became chief cashier of the Crédit Foncier d'Égypte, while running from 1890 one of the most important Egyptian antiquities galleries of his time, in his house in central Cairo. Supplier to major collectors and museums; his collection was dispersed in posthumous sales (1953).
Swedish writer and rabbi
Theater director, born in Agen on May 29, 1805, died in Hamburg on January 27, 1896, of French origin. He took the direction of a small hall in Hamburg in 1831, replaced after the great fire of 1842 by the Thalia-Theater, which he directed until his retirement in 1885, before resuming control in 1893 at the death of his son and successor Gustav. A fine judge of theatrical talent, he notably revealed Bogumil Dawison and Friederike Gossmann.
Italian colonial governor (1878-1941)
Austrian poet, novelist and satirist, born in Horitz (Bohemia) on November 22, 1849. After nominally legal but philosophically devoted studies, he publishes in 1871 a collection of sonnets, « Die Grosse Revolution », which nearly results in his being charged with treason, then devotes himself entirely to literature, settling in Berlin in 1876 where he has held since 1895 the dramatic chronicle of the « Berliner Tageblatt ».
Austrian ophthalmologist, born in Prague on April 13, 1840, died in Vienna on October 20, 1894, doctor of the University of Vienna (1861). Private lecturer in ophthalmology from 1864, he became professor at the University of Innsbruck in 1869, before returning to Vienna in 1877, where he was appointed assistant medical director of the ophthalmological clinic in 1890 and professor in 1894. A monument was erected in his honor at the University of Vienna in 1899.
German writer and journalist, born in Budapest November 13, 1824, died in Baden, near Vienna, July 2, 1889. Trained in Vienna then in Prague, where he published his first poems in 1843, he abandoned medicine and law for literature, settled in Leipzig in 1844, then, returning to Vienna in 1847, distinguished himself as a journalist during the 1848 revolution. His comedy 'Das Preislustspiel' won the second prize in 1851 at the Hofburg theatre competition; from 1855 to 1864, he was employed by the state railway company, before joining in 1865 the imperial library of the court, then the ministry of foreign affairs.
Croatian rabbi
German lawyer
Galician Jewish writer, educator and Zionist labor movement leader, director of Education and Culture during Jewish autonomy in western Ukraine (1918-19).
German-British mathematician and physicist, Nobel laureate in physics
Prague writer and journalist of German language
German rabbi, philologist and opinion journalist (1875–1939)
Polish-American businessman and aesthetician (born Faktorowicz), founder of the cosmetics company Max Factor & Company, pioneer of the modern cosmetics industry in the United States.
German rabbi
Danish Rabbi (1884-1947)
German historian
rabbi and folklorist (1871–1953)
German gynecologist-obstetrician
Austrian composer
Russian-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi (1895-1980)
Peruvian physician of German-Polish origin
American rabbi (1845-1927)
Member of the Lazard family, economist and sociologist, specialist in unemployment issues (he was one of the leaders of the International Association for the Fight Against Unemployment).
rabbin américain
German politician
German philologist and theologian
German writer
Russian linguist
German banker (1850-1940)
Dutch impresario (1872-1943)
Russian-American linguist specializing in Yiddish, he was in 1925 one of the cofounders (with Nochum Shtif, Elias Tcherikower, and Zalman Reisen) of YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute). He directed YIVO's research training division and trained a generation of scholars. His magnum opus is a history of the Yiddish language.
Romanian rabbi
American merchant and banker, born in Worms on September 23, 1823, died at Dobbs Ferry (New York) on July 22, 1897. Having emigrated to the United States in 1840, he founded a business in Shreveport (Louisiana) in 1845, became a partner in 1850 for trade between San Francisco, Portland, and New York, where he settled in 1856, then founded the bank May & King in 1869. Treasurer of Mount Sinai Hospital, first president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association which he helped to found, and long president of Temple Emanu-El, he received a testimonial from this congregation in 1888.
Member of the House of Representatives of the United States, born in Brooklyn (New York) on July 10, 1871, trained at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the law school of Columbia. He serves in the 56th Congress (1899-1901) and holds several positions within Jewish community organizations.
Rabbi in Berlin, born in Miskolcz (Hungary) on 29 April 1844, trained at the yeshivot of Eisenstadt and Pressburg and then at the university and theological seminary of Breslau (doctorate, Halle, 1869). Rabbi in Alsó-Kubin (1870-1873) then in Saaz, in Bohemia (1873-1881), he has held a chair in Berlin since 1881, where he also teaches at the Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums; founder of the German rabbinical society, he convenes in 1884 the first congress of German rabbis in Berlin and receives the title of professor in 1903.
French military surgeon
French rabbi and lexicographer
Belgian physician, born in Düsseldorf on July 10, 1816, died in Antwerp on March 1, 1899. Doctor in medicine from Bonn (1839), he settled in Antwerp in 1848, where he practiced until his death, actively involving himself in the public and medical life of the country as assistant surgeon of the Hussars of the Guard regiment and member of Belgian medical societies, to which he contributes numerous articles between 1866 and 1885.
French painter, born in Besançon on 4 October 1832, student of the École des Beaux-Arts and of Léon Cogniet in Paris. Left for America in 1857 and settled in New York, where he became associate of the National Academy of Design, he subsequently returned to Paris and received the Legion of Honor in 1869. Genre and portrait painter, he exhibited notably « Consolation » (1864), « Maud Müller » (1867) and « First Grief » (1885), as well as portraits of General Grant and General Sherman.
American caricaturist, born in Worms on July 18, 1868, son of a Jewish merchant from London, raised in Worms. Left for Mexico in 1885 and then for Texas, where he discovered his talent for drawing as a self-taught artist, he began his career as a caricaturist in Cincinnati and then in Chicago, and published notably « The Autobiography of a Monkey » (1898) and « Trip to Toyland » (1900). His caricatures on the Dreyfus affair, published in the English press, attract wide attention.
German rabbi, born in Dürkheim-on-the-Hardt on December 16, 1821, died in New York on August 28, 1867. After studying law in Munich, he emigrated to America during the 1848 revolution, taught in New York until 1851, then became rabbi in Charleston (South Carolina) until 1856, before returning to New York, where he briefly officiated in Albany and became in 1863 secretary of the Grand Lodge of the independent order B'nai B'rith, a position he held until his death. He translated into English several German works, including lectures by Geiger on Jewish history.
Rabbi and German jurist, born in Hechingen on January 3, 1807, died in the same city on August 1, 1875. Trained in the Talmud Torah locally, then in Mannheim (1823) and Würzburg (1826), where he studied under the great rabbi Abraham Bing, he became rabbi of Hechingen in 1830, a position he held until his death, and was the only rabbi in Germany also admitted to the bar, in 1849. His principal work, « Die Rechte der Israeliten, Athener und Römer », was published in Leipzig (1862-66) and Trier (1876).
Austrian physician, born in Bechtheim (Hesse-on-the-Rhine) on December 27, 1842, doctor of the universities of Heidelberg, Giessen and Tübingen (1865), then privat-docent in Vienna from 1869. Settled in Prague in 1870, he became assistant professor there in 1872, directed the institute of histology in 1880 and was appointed professor of histology in 1884; author of an « Histologisches Taschenbuch » (Prague, 1887), he was one of the first to introduce methylene blue in microscopy and to describe the chromaffin cells of the sympathetic nervous system.
Talmudic scholar of Smyrna, died in 1810. He authored the "Sefer Shorashe ha-Yam," a commentary on the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah in three volumes (Salonica, 1806-15), the "Darke ha-Yam," a collection of homilies and funeral orations (1813), the "Sefat ha-Yam," decisions and responsa (1818), and the "Pe'at ha-Yam," commentary on the tractate Beẓah (1832).
Palestinian rabbinic author, born in Jerusalem in 1833, son of Rabbi Raphaël Éliahou Medini. After receiving his rabbinical diploma in his native city, he sits on the rabbinical court of Constantinople, then becomes in 1866 chief rabbi of Kara-Sou-Bazar, in Crimea, before returning to Palestine in 1889 and settling in Hebron in 1891, where he has been serving since as interim chief rabbi. He is the author of the « Miktab le-Ḥizḳiyahu » (Smyrna, 1865) and especially the « Sede Ḥemed », a vast legal encyclopedia of which twelve volumes have been published since 1890.
German rabbi
Dutch teacher, rabbi and writer (1882-1943)
Famous Galician Torah scholar
former Chief Rabbi of Shanghai
Rabbi of numerous communities in pre-World War II Europe/one of the founders of the Telz Yeshiva
President:Jewish court/Koło/author of "Imrei Bina"
Israeli rabbi
Mashgiach of the Hebron Yeshiva and a leading mussar disseminator in the 20th century
Polish rabbi
Austrian Jewish theologian
Son of Rabbi Eliezer of Dzikov (himself son of Naftali Zvi of Ropshitz), he was appointed rav of Dzikov during his father's lifetime and then succeeded him as rebbe, developing the court substantially. He is the author of the corpus "Imrei Noam" (on the Torah, on the festivals, a collection of responsa and a commented Haggadah).
Son of Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna (Mordechai Leifer, who adopted the name Rosenbaum), he was the first rebbe of the Kretshnif dynasty, a branch of Nadvorna. He was the only one authorized by his father to distribute amulets (kameot). His sons were Eliezer Zev Rosenbaum (murdered in the Holocaust in 1944) and Issamar of Nadvorna.
Rabbi of Sefrou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5575 of the Hebrew era (1815). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-4.
Rabbi (1850–1933)
Meir Simcha HaCohen de Dvinsk (1843-1926), dit « Or Sameach », prit la tête de la communauté non hassidique de Dvinsk en 1887. Il est l'auteur de deux œuvres majeures : le commentaire « Or Sameach » sur le Michné Torah de Maïmonide et le « Meshekh Hokhmah » sur le Pentateuque. Pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, il refusa de quitter sa communauté, partageant selon les sources « la faim et la terreur » avec ceux qui restaient alors que la population juive de Dvinsk chuta de 56 000 à 11 000 personnes.
Rabbi of Dvinsk, author of Or Sameach and the commentary Meshekh Hokhma on the Torah.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Ostrowcier Rebbe
Founder of Buksvak hasidism
Russian Hebraist author, born in Sadi (government of Kovno) in 1848. He begins his literary career in 1861 with the weekly « Ha-Karmel » and publishes or edits more than a hundred works in Yiddish and Hebrew, including « Ha-Emunah we-Haśkalah » (Vilna, 1874), « Ṭefaḥ Megullah » (1886) and « Oẓar Ḥadash », collection of talmudic and midrashic anecdotes (Vilna, 1898).
Danish merchant, born in Copenhagen on June 22, 1816, died in the same city on September 19, 1884. Having entered the house Moses & Son G. Melchior founded by his grandfather, he ensures its direction alone before being joined in 1850 by his younger brother Moses Melchior, with whom he develops the enterprise and founds a branch in Melbourne. Alderman from 1851 to 1869, member of the maritime and commercial court from 1862 to 1883 and of the Landsthing from 1866 to 1874, he founds in 1861 the free trade society and in 1857 the Privatbanken, of which he becomes one of the directors; Hans Christian Andersen was often his guest.
Danish physician, born in Copenhagen August 2, 1811, died in the same city January 30, 1872, brother of Moritz G. and Moses Melchior. Graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1835, he specializes in ophthalmology after a study trip to Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Prague in 1836-37, then serves as military surgeon during the war against Germany (1848-50). Appointed professor in 1853 then privat-docent in ophthalmology at the University of Copenhagen in 1855, he was sent in 1856 by the king to study abroad the measures taken against Egyptian ophthalmia, and publishes several articles, including one in the « Annals of Ophthalmology » (1844).
Expressionist Yiddish poet, member of Di Khalyastre in Warsaw.
German writer (pseudonym of Martin Cohn), born in Berlin on April 15, 1831, died in Summerdale, near Chicago, on July 22, 1894. After studies in Berlin, he enlisted in 1848 in the Foreign Legion in Algeria where he was wounded, then led an adventurous life as a war correspondent and officer, notably in the Spanish army, before becoming in 1866 a collaborator of the Gartenlaube and then war correspondent for The Times of London during the Franco-Prussian conflict. Converted to Christianity in 1859, he is the author of an abundant theatrical body of work, including the comedy Heine's Junge Leiden (1872), performed more than two thousand times, and Der Neue Frühling (1877).
English author, born in 1874. He publishes notably « Life of Thackeray » (1899), « Thackeray's Stray Papers » (1902) and an introduction to Thackeray's work (1903-4), and collaborates with several English periodicals, including the « Fortnightly Review » and « The Bookman ».
Israeli rabbi
(1894~1895 - 1942~1943)
Galician author of compilations of stories about the tsaddiqim, including "Sefer Mifʻalot ha-Tsadikim" (stories of miracles from the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples to his own time) and "Seder ha-Dorot he-Chadash". Works reprinted several times.
Poet of the Hovevei Zion, moved from maskilism to Zionism, emigrated to the United States.
Rebbe in Buhusi, Romania
Romanian rabbi
Born in 1830 in Kosiv, son of R. Chaïm Hager of Kosiv and son-in-law of R. Israël Friedman of Ruzhyn. Appointed rebbe at age 24, he settled in Vyzhnytsia and there founded the Hasidic court of Vizhnitz. His Torah teachings were published under the title Tzemach Tzaddik. Died in 1884, buried in Vyzhnytsia.
Rabbi first active near Cracow, he emigrated to Germany in 1928 and became rabbi-dayyan in Frankfurt-am-Main. A renowned decisioner, he authored the collection of responsa « Menachem Meshiv ». The second part was printed in Frankfurt in 1938 but the edition, hindered by Nazi persecution, remained unfinished (copy without title page). He was deported and murdered at Auschwitz in 1942.
Son of the rebbe Mordechai Twersky of Chernobyl (himself son of the Meor Einayim), he founded the Hasidic branch/court of Makarov, a branch of the Chernobyl dynasty. His descendants perpetuated the Makarov court.
Polish Hasidic Rabbi
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5588 of the Hebrew era (1828). Son of Makhluf. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-2.
Yiddish poet and essayist connected to the Di Yunge group in New York.
Lithuanian Talmudist, born in Wilna, died in Minsk on December 23, 1816. Trained by Solomon of Vilkomir, he became head of the yeshiva of Minsk and wrote, while still young, a commentary on the tractate Ḳinnim, the "Ya'ir Ḳinno", praised by Elijah of Wilna; after the death of the latter, his students asked him to comment on his master's notes on the Shulhan Arukh, a work which he began but did not complete. He also left unpublished works on the Pentateuch and the Mishna.
Hasidic master known for his radical pursuit of truth and his severity, founder of the Kotzk dynasty. He spent his last twenty years in seclusion.
Third Rebbe of Chabad, prolific halakhic authority and thinker, author of responsa and Hasidic works. He defended the Jews of Russia against the tsarist power.
Israeli rabbi of Polish origin
Hasidic rabbi from Romania
rabbi
Iraqi businessman, landowner, philanthropist and politician (1846–1940)
Iranian rabbi
Born Rabinowitz in Pereyaslav (Ukraine), he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and emigrated to Palestine in 1924. Music educator, choral organizer and music critic for the daily newspaper Davar from 1925 until his death. He hebraized his name to "Ravina" in 1930 and founded the "Institute for the Dissemination of Music," publishing books, scores, and monographs.
German rabbi
American rabbi
German physician, born in Bunzlau (Silesia) on October 28, 1839, doctor of the universities of Breslau, Vienna and Berlin (1860). He directed from 1861 a private asylum near Berlin, served as surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), then became in 1873 privat-docent of psychiatry in Berlin and assistant professor in 1884; he sat in the German Reichstag from 1877 to 1881. Editor of the «Neurologisches Centralblatt», he published notably «Progressive Paralyse der Irren» (Berlin, 1880) and «Die Manie» (Vienna, 1881).
Bavarian actress, born July 31, 1833, died in Munich on November 12, 1891, renowned for her beauty and theatrical talent. Made baroness of Wallersee on May 19, 1859, she married on May 28 following Duke Louis-William, eldest son of Duke Maximilian-Joseph of Bavaria, who had renounced his rights of primogeniture in favor of his younger brother; their daughter Marie-Louise married Count Georg von Larisch.
Music editor and writer, born in Halle on August 6, 1834, died in Berlin on October 26, 1876. Entering in 1853 the Berlin publishing house Schlesinger then Bote & Bock, he founded in 1862 his own business, which he directed until 1868, and from 1870 directed the « Deutsche Musikerzeitung ». Known as initiator of the famous « Musikalisches Konversations-Lexikon », undertaken in 1870 and completed after his death under the direction of Dr. Reissmann in eleven volumes, he also publishes biographies of Nicolaï and Meyerbeer.
Called "the grandfather" of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature, born Sholem Yaakov Abramovitch. His satires depicted shtetl life.
Russian teacher and writer, born in Hodava (Russian Poland) in 1819, died in Warsaw in March 1897. Trained in Talmud in Tomaszów under the influence of Phinées-Mendel Heilprin, he was appointed in 1850 professor at the public Jewish school of Novograd-Volhynsk, then transferred in 1854 to the rabbinical school of Jitomir, where he remained until the establishment's closure by the government on July 1, 1873; he then settled in Koretz and then in Warsaw, collaborating from 1850 onward with the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums and publishing Dichtung und Wahrheit (Leipzig, 1862), a collection of scenes from Russian Jewish life.
German author, born in Jever September 10, 1817, died in Hamburg April 4, 1856. Entered in 1831 as an apprentice in a printing house in Brunswick, where he remained until 1839, he then devoted himself to literature in Hamburg, made a study visit to Paris thanks to the help of Salomon Heine, then returned to Hamburg in 1841 to resume his literary work. He published notably 'Blüthen' (Brunswick, 1839), 'Pariser Briefe' (1841), 'Wilde Blumen' (1842) and 'Ueberall Jesuiten' (1846), as well as comedies adapted from the French.
German physician, born in Posen on December 16, 1860, doctor of the universities of Leipzig and Berlin (1885). Settled in Berlin as an assistant at the first medical clinic then at the Charité hospital, he becomes a privatdocent in 1895 and professor in 1899, directing since 1894 the "Zeitschrift für Krankenpflege". He notably publishes "Das Opium" (Berlin, 1888) and "Der Comfort des Kranken" (1890).
German Hebraicist and writer of the 18th and 19th centuries, born in Hamburg, where he died at an advanced age in 1861, relative of Samson Raphael Hirsch. Private scholar in his native city, he translates into Hebrew the first book of Campe's "Discovery of America" (Altona, 1807), writes a poem for the installation of hakham Isaac Bernays in Hamburg (1822), and anonymously publishes the "Baḳḳashat ha-Lammedin" (1829) as well as a commentary on the Pentateuch, "Shushan 'Edut" (Stuttgart, 1840-42), and a work on the Hamburg synagogue (Copenhagen, 1842).
Polish physiologist and physician, born in Warsaw in 1855. Trained at the University of Warsaw, he received his doctorate from the University of Kharkov in 1884, worked from 1876 to 1887 in various European laboratories — in Berlin under Dubois-Reymond, in Erlangen under Rosenthal, in Paris under Charcot and Mars at the Collège de France — and then became in 1890 privatdozent of physiology at the University of Saint Petersburg.
Hebraist and German writer born in Hamburg and died in that city at an advanced age in 1861, relative of Samson Raphael Hirsch, Moses Mendelson lived as a private scholar in his native city; he translates into Hebrew the first book of « Die Entdeckung Amerika's » by Campe (Altona, 1807), composes a poem for the installation of Ḥakham Isaac Bernays (1822), and publishes anonymously his « Baḳḳashat ha-Lammedin » (1829), the « Shushan 'Edut », commentary on the Pentateuch (Stuttgart, 1840-42), and « Die Synagoge zu Hamburg » (Copenhagen, 1842).
French poet, dramatist and art critic, born in Bordeaux on 22 May 1841. Settled in Paris in 1859, he founded the « Revue Fantaisiste » in 1861 then the « Parnasse » in 1864, and has published since 1893 the yearbook « L'Art au Théâtre ». A refined stylist but inclined to the sensual, he is sentenced to one month in prison and 500 francs fine for his novel « Le Roman d'une Nuit » (1867), judged immoral; a prolific author in verses, novels and dramas — including « Gwendoline » (1886) and « Médée » (1898) —, he receives in 1894 the cross of the Legion of Honor.
Dutch philologist, born in Amsterdam on May 16, 1851, entered the Athenaeum of Amsterdam in 1867 to study classical philology, before a gymnastics accident worsened his deafness and forced him to abandon his regular studies. Becoming a private teacher of classical languages and then, since 1891, curator of manuscripts at the university library, he devoted himself to the study of Homer and published with Dr van Leeuwen the "Editio Batavorum" of the "Iliad" (Leiden, 1887-89) and the "Odyssey" (1890-92). Appointed honorary doctor of the University of Amsterdam in 1898, he also publishes his theater memoirs, "Tooneelherinneringen" (1900).
English politician, born in 1866, educated at Harrow School and University College, Oxford. Admitted to the bar of the Inner Temple in London in 1888, he failed in the elections of the Isle of Wight in 1892 and Plymouth in 1895, before being elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Plymouth in 1898, a seat he held until 1900.
Russian Hebraist economist, born in Moghilev-on-the-Dnieper in 1842, the first Hebrew author to address economic issues affecting the Jewish masses of Russia. Having left around 1862 for Germany, where he studied the labor movement under Lassalle, he published his first article in 1879, on the economic condition of Russian Jews, in « Ha-Meliẓ », then « Ba-Meh Niwwashea' » (Saint Petersburg, 1883) and « Meḳore ha-'Osher » (Odessa, 1898), advocating for mutual aid and cooperative organizations; he also founded charitable institutions in Odessa.
Anglo-American actress and writer, born June 15, 1835 in Milneburg (Louisiana), died in Paris August 10, 1868. Wife as of August 1856 of Alexander Isaacs Menken, whose Judaism she publicly embraced, she became known in her most famous role, that of Mazeppa, created in Albany on June 7, 1861 and then performed in London from 1864. She published two collections of poems, « Memoirs » (1856) and « Infelicia » (1868, dedicated to Charles Dickens), and frequented in both London and Paris the greatest writers of her time, including Dickens, Swinburne, Dumas and Victor Hugo.
German banker, born in 1812 in Baiersdorf, near Erlangen, died on June 4, 1885 in Munich. Initially intended for the rabbinate, he settles as a banker in Munich after a failure in Ansbach, and becomes a recognized patron of Jewish learning: he finances the publication in sixteen volumes of « Diḳduḳe Soferim » by Raphael Nathan Rabbinovicz and assembles one of the world's largest private Jewish libraries, today preserved at the municipal library of Frankfurt-on-Main.
Galician talmudist, died in Lemberg on 25 September 1809. Rabbi first in Żurawno, then called to Koretz to succeed his brother Isaac, he later serves in Bolechów and then in Lemberg; his talmudic expertise causes him to be sought out by the greatest scholars of his time, and he publishes « Pitḥe Niddah » (Lemberg, 1802), commentary on the laws of Niddah accompanied by an extract from his commentary on the Pentateuch.
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi in Tlemcen in the mid-19th century. He left Talmudic commentaries that his descendants published under the title « Avi Sha'ar Shalom ».
Rabbi of Tafilalet, active in the seventh century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5562 of the Hebrew era (1802). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Fes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5580 of the Hebrew era (1820). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Agourai, 19th century. Died in 5586 of the Hebrew era (1826). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Died in 5633 of the Hebrew era (1873). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-3.
Originally from Tangier, merchant and journalist; he collaborated with several French and Spanish newspapers as well as the editorial work of "España," the great Spanish encyclopedia.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5577 of the Hebrew calendar (1817). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi of Demnate, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5575 of the Hebrew era (1815). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 85-2.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5562 of the Hebrew era (1802). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-1.
German scholar, active in Hamburg in the first half of the 19th century. He compiled the catalog of the library of David Oppenheimer, "Ḳehillat Dawid" (translated into Latin, Hamburg, 1826; index added by Jacob Goldenthal, Leipzig, 1845), and published an edition of the "Cuzari" of Juda ha-Lévi (Hanover, 1836), based on the Venice editions of 1547 and 1594.
Austrian contralto, born in Theresienstadt (Bohemia) on August 31, 1853, educated at the Conservatory of Prague. Engaged in 1875 at the Stadttheater in Leipzig on invitation of Friedrich Hasse, she sang there with success under three successive directors, also performed in concert in Hamburg, Bremen and Leipzig, and married in 1881 Professor of Piano Ferdinand Metzler. Retired from the opera stage in 1887, she devoted herself to concert and then, from 1897, exclusively to teaching singing.
Romanian historian
German rabbi, historian (1829-1905)
Lerner, Meyer (1857–1930), rabbi
German legal scholar and notary
Member of the United States Congress, born in New Orleans on 19 October 1842. Enlisted in 1862 in the Confederate army, where he served until the end of the war, he then devoted himself to the sugar and cotton trade, became colonel of the Louisiana National Guard in 1879 and then, in 1881, brigadier general, and represented as a Democrat the first district of Louisiana in Congress from the fifty-second to the fifty-eighth, serving notably on the committees for naval affairs and the District of Columbia.
Danish tenor, born on October 29, 1839 in Sorø (Zealand). Entered in 1860 in the choir of the Royal Theatre of Copenhagen, he is called to arms during the war between Denmark and Germany in 1864, then studies in 1865 under Lamperti in Milan thanks to a concert, sings as soloist at the Folketheatret from 1866 to 1873, before devoting himself to teaching and publishing his singing method, « Theoretisk-Praktisk Sangskole » (Copenhagen, 1874). He opens in 1876 a singing school in Copenhagen and becomes in 1882 choir director of the Copenhagen synagogue, for which he compiles a collection of melodies (1892).
American writer, born in New York on February 19, 1867. Published young in several American journals, she married in 1887 Dr. Alfred Meyer and notably published the novel « Robert Annys, Poor Priest » (New York, 1901), after editing « Woman's Work » (1898). A recognized organizer, she played a decisive role in founding Barnard College, New York's first women's college, by bringing its promoters together and raising funds for its first year.
Danish journalist and author, born on August 6, 1813 in Copenhagen, died in the same city on August 4, 1880, son of very poor parents raised in a Jewish charitable institution. Apprentice wood turner then journalist, he founded in 1837 the weekly « Kallundborg Ugeblad », then, returning to Copenhagen in 1841, the humorous weekly « Friskytten » and the daily « Flyveposten »; after many vicissitudes, he ended his life as he had begun it, in a Jewish charitable institution. Among his writings are « Poetisk Nysepulver » (Copenhagen, 1826) and « Digte og Eventyr » (1842).
Danish physician, born in Copenhagen on November 1, 1852, doctor of his university (1880). After a study stay abroad in obstetrics, he became privatdozent in gynecology and then, in 1897, professor of obstetrics and pediatrics in the same university, while directing since 1890 the journal « Bibliothek for Læger ».
German psychiatrist, born in Bielefeld on December 27, 1827, died in Göttingen on February 8, 1900, doctor of Berlin (1852). Chief physician of Hamburg hospital from 1856, he became in 1866 professor of psychiatry and director of the Göttingen asylum, functions he retained until his death, and founded with Griesinger in 1867 the « Archiv für Psychiatrie »; several hospitals, including those of Hamburg and Göttingen, were built according to his plans.
German astronomer, born in Brunswick on February 15, 1853. After abandoning the book trade for astronomy, trained in Göttingen, Leipzig and Zurich, he became privat-docent in Zurich in 1876, joined the Geneva observatory in 1877, then settled in Vienna in 1883 and finally in Berlin, where from 1888 he directed the scientific outreach society « Urania » and its publication, « Himmel und Erde », which he edited from 1889.
German physician, born in Berlin on November 10, 1821, died in the same city on October 30, 1893, doctor of medicine (1844). Established in Berlin in 1845, specialist in nervous diseases and electrotherapy, he invented the "Meyersche Unterbrecher", an instrument for examining muscular and nervous reactions, and published the reference work "Die Electricität in Ihrer Anwendung auf Practische Medizin" (Berlin, 1854).
German woman of letters, born in Danzig on March 11, 1806, died in Berlin on February 8, 1874. After marrying the widower of her deceased sister, she devoted herself to charity and teaching while cultivating literary friendships, and published in 1853 her first novel, « Zwei Schwestern »; later settled in Vienna, she wrote there « Wider die Natur », then a novel on the life of the great actress Rachel (Vienna, 1859) and, lastly, « In Banden Frei » (Berlin, 1869).
German rabbi, born in Hanover on February 26, 1819, died in the same city on July 5, 1882, educated in Talmud and at the University of Bonn. Appointed in 1845 rabbi of the Hanover and Luneburg district in succession to Nathan Adler, he founded in 1847 a teachers' seminary and published a history of the charitable society of the Hanover synagogue (1862), after having edited in 1842 unpublished poems of Abraham ibn Ezra that he had discovered.
German chemist, born in Berlin on September 8, 1848, died in Heidelberg in 1897. Trained in Berlin and then in Heidelberg from 1865 onwards under Bunsen, whose private assistant he became, he was appointed associate professor at the polytechnic school of Stuttgart and then, in 1872, called to Zurich as successor to Wislicenus; in 1885, he joined the University of Göttingen, then in 1889 that of Heidelberg to succeed Bunsen himself. He discovered the thiophene group in 1882 and co-edited with Jacobson a manual of organic chemistry (Leipzig, 1891-95).
Romanian Rabbi
Hungarian deputy and journalist, born in Sátoraljaújhely in May 1851, trained in law and philosophy at Budapest University. Journalist from his studies, he founded in 1874 the « Egyetértés », organ of the independent opposition, failed as a candidate in Gyoma in 1878 and was elected deputy for Miskolcz in 1881; he brought before Parliament the Tisza-Eszlár affair through an interpellation to the Minister of Justice, and published notably a travel account to Italy, « Olasz Bolyongások » (1877).
Hungarian jurist and deputy, born in Sátoraljaújhely on January 17, 1836. A law student in Budapest, he advocates from his youth for the restoration of the Hungarian constitution and the emancipation of the Jews, founds in 1861 the National Judeo-Hungarian Society, then, despite a court martial prosecution for his nationalist writings, obtains in 1864 royal authorization to practice law in Budapest. Secretary in 1868 of the congress convened by Baron Eötvös to organize Jewish community affairs, he is elected in 1893 deputy of the Jewish district of Budapest, after having presided from 1892 the organization which obtained recognition of the Israelite cult in Hungary.
Hungarian jurist and author, born in Ácsád on February 5, 1860, first destined for the rabbinate before turning to law and being admitted to the Budapest bar, while remaining an active defender of the Jewish cause. Pillar of Hungarian defense in the Tisza-Eszlár affair in 1883, secretary of the Jewish chancellery, co-founder of the Hungarian Jewish Literary Society and co-editor, from 1891 to 1895, of the « Magyar Zsidó Szemle » with Ludwig Blau, he directs in 1904 the ḥevra ḳaddisha of Budapest, comprising ten thousand members.
Beni-Israel soldier, enlisted in the 19th regiment of native infantry on January 15, 1849, promoted jemadar on October 1, 1861 then subahdar on January 1, 1870. He fought in Punjab and Multan, as well as in central India, then served in Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, before retiring on March 6, 1881.
Lyric poet (Mikhal), one of the greatest of the Haskala, died at age 24.
Descendant of a lineage of Hasidic rabbis (his father was rabbi of Medjybij), he became one of the major voices of modern Hebrew literature. Journalist and Nietzschean thinker calling for a "transvaluation" of Judaism, he was also a great collector of Jewish legends and tales. He signed Bin-Gorion from 1914.
Born Goldwasser (Goldvasser) in Konin in 1821, he left Poland in 1837, lived in Paris and then in London where he anglicized his name to « Goldwater » and married Sarah Nathan (1850). Emigrated to the United States, he opened a store in Arizona that was taken over and developed by his sons (Goldwater's). Member and officer of Jewish congregations in California; grandfather of Senator Barry Goldwater.
German philologist (1834-1897)
orientalist, Bible translator, translator (1833-1910)
Hungarian rabbi
French Zionist
New Zealand chief justice (1873-1950)
Lithuanian lawyer
Prussian rabbi (1808-1864)
German laryngologist, born in Hamburg on November 16, 1848, died in the same city on January 7, 1897, doctor of medicine (1873). Assistant at the throat and ear dispensaries of the University of Vienna, he returned to practice in Hamburg in 1876 until his death, published « Gesang- und Registerbildung » (Hamburg, 1887) and in 1889 translated Mackenzie's « Hygiene of the Vocal Organs ».
German painter, born in Hamburg on March 23, 1823, died in Berlin on March 24, 1891. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden then in Paris and during a long stay in Rome and Venice, he produced his first work there, « Country Girl Writing » (1866), now in the Ravené Gallery in Berlin; returning to Berlin in 1870, he was appointed shortly after professor of painting at the Royal Academy, a position he held until his death.
American merchant and capitalist, born August 15, 1862, in Jefferson (Georgia). Graduated with honors from the University of Georgia, he made his fortune in the cloth trade in Athens with his brother Simon, played an important role in the economic development of the northeast of the state, served as lieutenant-colonel of the militia and aide-de-camp of Governor Candler, and has directed for several years the Sabbath school of the Jewish community of Athens.
French banker
After taking drawing classes at the Academy of Venice, he opened in 1870 the first Venetian lace renovation workshop near St. Mark's Square, then schools in Burano, Pellestrina and Chioggia employing nearly 3,000 lace workers. He designed polychrome laces (gold medal, Paris Universal Exposition 1878). The Jesurum house, which remained an emblematic name of Venice, was transferred in 1939 to the Levi Morenos family.
American physicist, born in Strelno (Prussia) on 19 December 1852, raised in San Francisco. Graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis (1873), he studied in Berlin then in Heidelberg until 1881, before resigning from the navy for Paris (1882); returning to the United States, he held the chairs of physics at Case School in Cleveland then at Clark University (1889), before being called to that of Chicago, which he still occupied in 1904. Famous for his measurement of the speed of light, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and laureate of the Rumford Medal.
English rabbi of the first half of the 19th century, author of « Netibot Emet », a defense of talmudic traditions against the attacks of the Reverend Alexander McCaul in « Old Paths ». Only the first part was published, in 1847, under the title « Paths of Truth », with an English translation by M. H. Breslau published the same year.
Hungarian rabbi
Russian-Soviet Yiddish baritone singer (Mikhail Iosifovich Epelbaum), named Honored Artist of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1937.
Yiddish and Hebrew poet (1823–1890)
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
French journalist and dramatist, born in Paris in 1836, died in the same city on October 22, 1892, son of Moïse Millaud. Entering « Figaro » in 1869, whose feuilleton style he created, he published there under the pseudonyms « Baron Grimm » and « La Bruyère » satirical poems collected in « Petite Némesis », and wrote for the stage several plays performed by Madame Judic, including « Mam'zelle Nitouche » (1883) and « Le Remords d'Anatole » (1885).
French lawyer and statesman, born in Tarascon on September 27, 1834, admitted to the Lyon bar in 1856. An opponent of the imperial regime who became prosecutor general of Lyon after its fall, he sat in the Assembly from 1871 on the benches of the Far Left and then in the Senate from 1880, holding the position of secretary for Public Works in 1886-1887 in the cabinets of Freycinet and then Goblet.
French journalist and banker, born in Bordeaux on August 27, 1813, died in Paris in 1871, son of a modest Jewish merchant. He founded in Paris in 1836 « Le Gamin de Paris », the first newspaper sold at theater doors, then « L'Audience » (1839) devoted to judicial news, and « La Liberté » (1845), favorable to Prince Louis-Napoléon. With Mirès, he founded « Le Journal des Chemins de Fer » and the Caisses des Actions Réunies, from which he withdrew in 1853 with a considerable fortune, before launching in 1863 « Le Petit Journal », a huge popular success.
American politician
Russian cantor, born in Bila Tserkva in April 1859, son of cantor Mordecai, descendant of Yom-Ṭob Lipmann Heller. Trained in singing by his father and then by Nisan Spivak, he obtained in Vienna a diploma of cantor under Robert Fuchs, served from 1888 successively in Kishinev, Kherson, Lemberg, Odessa and New York, before returning in 1892 to Odessa, where he served at the Brody synagogue; he published « Die Entwicklung der Synagogalen Liturgie » (Odessa, 1902).
German physician, born in Alexoten, near Kovno, on January 13, 1858, educated in Fribourg, Strasbourg and Königsberg (doctorate 1881). Assistant to the medical clinic in Königsberg in 1882 then privat-docent in 1885, he settles in Strasbourg in 1888 as associate professor (1891), before becoming in 1900 chief physician of the general hospital in Cologne; he publishes notably works on diabetes after pancreatic ablation (Leipzig, 1893).
Physician and psychoanalyst, founding member of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society (1919).
Australian singer, born in Melbourne in 1876, daughter of two singers. Trained in Europe under Mademoiselle de Garette and Madame Richard of the Grand Opéra de Paris, she sang at the operas of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, then at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, before performing «Rigoletto» at Covent Garden, London, in 1900.
French financier, born in Bordeaux on December 9, 1809, died in Marseille in 1871. Broker in 1848, he bought the "Journal des Chemins de Fer", founded the "Conseiller du Peuple" with Lamartine, and organized with Millaud the "Caisse des Chemins de Fer", of which he became sole director in 1853; he undertook important works in Marseille and obtained in 1860 the concession of Roman railways, but was condemned in 1861 and then in 1869 to imprisonment for his financial practices, before being rehabilitated by the Douai court in 1862.
Yiddish novelist born near Minsk, pioneer of popular women's fiction.
Yiddish poetess of Łódź, voice of folk tradition, died at Auschwitz.
American violinist of Russian origin
Composer born into a Jewish, musical family in Bialystok (then Russian Empire), renowned for Weimar-era Berlin cabaret and theatre songs; emigrated after 1933 to Britain, where he became a prolific film composer.
Virtuoso violinist and Jewish Hungarian composer born in Presbourg, trained at the Vienna Conservatory. He gave concerts throughout Europe, the Americas and Australia. Entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia; buried in the old Jewish cemetery of Vienna. His tour letters were published in volume form.
Russian Hebraist, born in May 1836, died in Wilna on July 23, 1887. Writer of Hebrew prose and poetry, he lived mainly from teaching Hebrew; a collection of his poems, « Kinnor Dawid », appeared in Wilna in 1863.
American-Russian rabbi
Rabbi-judge at the rabbinic court of Tunis, sitting under the authority of the rabbis Yéhoshoua Bessis and Nathan Borgel. Died in Tunis in 1893. No written work is attributed to him by the source.
Polish rabbi born in the 19th century
Italian orientalist, born in Cento in 1841, trained at the Istituto degli Studi Superiori in Florence. Compiler of several library catalogs, he publishes notably "Sara Copia Sullam" and "Di una Edizione del Sidur Tefilot".
Traveler, naturalist and Italian author, born in Florence on June 13, 1861, graduate of Pavia in 1883. Passionate from an early age about natural sciences and travel, he explores the Malay peninsula and brings back a rich collection offered to the museums of Genoa, Florence and Rome; he notably publishes « Un Viaggio all'Isola di Nias » (Milan and Treves, 1890).
American actor
American actor, born in Kaloraush (Bessarabia) on December 16, 1858, residing in New York. A renowned choir singer from his youth, he studied at the Bucharest Conservatory and then joined Abraham Goldfaden at the beginnings of Yiddish theater, of which he became the finest comedian, touring in Russia, Austria, Romania and England before going to the United States around 1886; he is also a recognized composer of music for the Yiddish stage.
Russian rabbi and Zionist, born in Hluboka (government of Wilna) on April 25, 1824, died in Bialystok on June 10, 1898. Rabbi successively of his native city, of Szaki, Suwałki, Radom then Bialystok from 1883, he declared himself in favor of the colonization of Palestine from 1875 onward, accompanied Jewish refugees to Lemberg in 1881, and founded in 1882 in Warsaw the first Hovevei Zion society. He obtained in Paris the support of Baron Edmond de Rothschild for the colony of Ekron, inspected the colonies in 1890 and then founded Rehovot, before attempting in vain in 1891 to convince Baron de Hirsch to choose Palestine rather than Argentina.
Born in Tangier in 1870, educator who developed the network of Alliance Israélite Universelle schools in Morocco before becoming a farmer in the Gharb. Figure of a Jewish notable in a colonial situation studied by historiography.
Nicknamed « the Angel of Salonica ». Doctor of medicine from the University of Pisa, he took over the family business in 1834 and became one of the city's greatest entrepreneurs: Allatini mill (1858), brick factory, tobacco, banking. He financed local Jewish education, including the school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.
French rabbi
Polish preacher, born in Kozienice, where he died in 1825. Son of Israel of Kozienice and, like him, a disciple of the Hasidic leader Elimelek of Lyzhensk, he published "Be'er Mosheh," homilies on the parashiyyot of the Pentateuch, and left two unpublished works, "Da'at Mosheh" and "Maṭṭeh Mosheh".
French rabbi and historian of Alsatian Judaism
Descendant of the Hariri family (son of Abraham ben Phinehas Hariri, who left six works in manuscript). Teacher possessing a large library of religious books, he wrote at least three works, including "Va-Yivḥar Moshe", published in Baghdad in 1930.
Russian preacher, known as the "Maggid of Kelmy", born in Slonim (Grodno Province) in 1828, died in Lida (Wilna Province) on November 9, 1899. Raised by his maternal grandfather after losing his father, he became the student of R. Israël Lipkin, who encouraged his oratorical talent; he preached successively in Kelmy (1850), Sagaren (1853), Osmiany (1858), Minsk (1860-1863), then Slonim and Grodno from 1881, before settling in Lida near his son. An itinerant preacher renowned for the fervor of his sermons and his denunciation of injustices, which earned him the hatred of the maskilim, he published a collection of sermons, "Toḳaḥat Ḥayyim" (Wilna, 1897).
Russian rabbi and author, born in Tourets (Minsk governorate), died in Minsk in 1889. Son-in-law of rabbi David Tébélé of Minsk, to whom he succeeds in the rabbinate of the city, he prepares with his brother-in-law R. Saül Ḥayyim the edition of the « Bet Dawid » and publishes himself « Mille di-Berakhot » and « Mille di-Neziḳin ».
Polish painter
Chief rabbi (Hahambasi) of Constantinople and of the Ottoman Empire from 1872 to 1908.
French rabbi
Rabbi of the community of Alexandria from 1871 until his death; author of Shemo Moshe (responsa).
French rabbi
French linguist, translator, historian and librarian
Chief rabbi of Pressburg, leader of Orthodoxy against the Reform movement, founder of one of the largest yeshivot in Europe. His maxim "the new is forbidden by the Torah" sums up his thought.
Italian Jewish teacher, author and Biblical commentator
Lithuanian rabbi from the beginning of the 19th century, born in Grodno, died in Białystok. Head of the yeshiva of Grodno, he became rabbi of Tykocin in 1813, then rabbi of Białystok in 1824, a position he held until his death. He publishes « Mar'ot ha-Ẓobe'ot » (Grodno, 1810), novellae on the laws of « agunah », and « Aguddat Ezob » (Białystok, 1824), homilies followed by funeral orations; his novellae on the Shulḥan Arukh (section Oraḥ Ḥayyim) were published by his son David (Warsaw, 1858), and his responsa in Vilna in 1886.
American rabbi, born in Kletchevo (Prussian Poland) on May 3, 1840, died in Louisville (Kentucky) on January 7, 1902. Trained in Talmud and then at the Breslau rabbinical seminary, he enlisted in 1859 in Garibaldi's army and then, in 1863, in the Polish insurrection, which resulted in his imprisonment by the Russians; released, he studied under Abraham Geiger in Frankfurt and adopted his reformist ideas. Rabbi in Montgomery (1870) and then in Mobile, Alabama, he joined Louisville in 1881, where he officiated until his death while also taking interest in the education of the blind, and notably published « The Religion of Moses » (Louisville, 1894).
American rabbi, born on December 8, 1847 in Santomischel (Posnania), trained in Santomischel, Gleiwitz and Breslau. Emigrated to America, he is rabbi successively in Quincy (1879), Milwaukee (1879-88), Chicago (1888-1900) and then New York, Ahawath Chesed congregation (1901). He publishes notably « The Pentateuch » (1881), « The Ethics of the Hebrew Scriptures » (1889) and the « Union Prayer-Book » (1892), as well as several collections of sermons.
President of the Bank of Bombay, second son of M. S. Moses, born in Bombay November 23, 1845. Related to the Sassoon family, he worked young in China for David Sassoon & Co., then returned in 1880 to Bombay as director of the local bank; he succeeded in 1894 his uncle Solomon D. Sassoon as administrator of the bank and member of the Bombay Port Trust, before being elected in 1897 president of the bank — first member of the Jewish community to hold this position — and appointed by Lord Sandhurst to the legislative council of the Bombay Presidency.
Portuguese Jewish economist
Croatian rabbi
German physician, born in Lissa on May 4, 1862, trained in Breslau, Freiburg, Jena, and Berlin (doctorate 1885). After advanced studies in Vienna, Budapest, London, Paris, and Nancy, he settled in 1887 as a neurologist in Berlin, visited the great medical institutions of Eastern Europe in 1894 then of North America in 1898, and published notably « Der Hypnotismus » (Berlin, 1889) and « Die Konträre Sexualempfindung » (1891).
Musician and composer, born in Pfungstadt in 1813, died in London on February 8, 1880. Musically trained in London from 1828, he entered the choir of the Great Synagogue and then became its director until his death, composing most of the music in use in German synagogues in England and the colonies; he also taught liturgical singing to students of the Jews' College.
Jurist, archaeologist, and historian, born November 30, 1817 in Garding (Schleswig-Holstein), died November 1, 1903 in Charlottenburg, near Berlin. Author of « Römische Geschichte », in which he extensively treats the place of Jews in the Roman Empire, he sits in the Prussian Landtag (1873-82) and then in the Reichstag (1881-84) as a member of the liberal party and combats antisemitism, notably in his pamphlet « Auch ein Wort über Unser Judentum » (1881) responding to Treitschke, and signs in 1880 the declaration of German notables condemning the « Judenhetze » as a « national disgrace »; he remains until his death an active member of the Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus, founded in 1891.
Danish painter of portraits and genre scenes, born in Copenhagen on June 3, 1812, died in the same city on April 29, 1894. Admitted to the school of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1824, twice awarded silver medals (1827 and 1832), he began painting in 1830, stayed in Munich from 1835, became a member of the Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1848 and received the title of professor in 1859; among his paintings are « To Börn ved et Vandløb » (1838) and « Episode af Troppernes Hjemkomst » (1850), preserved at Frederiksborg Castle.
rabbi, perhaps French
English numismatist and jurist, died in London on February 18, 1895, son of Samuel Moses whose name he adopted, Montagu. An expert in bankruptcy law, he became one of the greatest numismatists of his time, offered a substantial collection of coins to the British Museum, and published notably a « Catalogue of a Collection of Milled English Coins » (1890); he also compiled in 1887 the catalogue of coins for the Historical Anglo-Jewish Exhibition in London and served for long as honorary secretary of the Jews' College.
Banker and English Jewish community leader, born in Liverpool on December 21, 1832. Settled in London in 1847, he founded in 1853 the bank Samuel Montagu & Co. and played a central role in the London Jewish community: founder in 1870 of the Jewish Working Men's Club, co-founder with Lord Rothschild in 1875 of the first Jewish industrial school in Jerusalem, inspector of Jewish emigration in Brody (1882) then of American agricultural colonies (1884), founder in 1890 of the Federation of East End Synagogues, Liberal Member of Parliament for Whitechapel (1885–1900) and created a baronet by Gladstone in 1894.
Member of the Gluckstein family who emigrated from Germany to London. With his brother Isidore Gluckstein, Alfred Salmon and Joseph Lyons, he founded in 1887 the catering firm J. Lyons & Company. He conceived the idea of these popular tea rooms (good food at moderate prices) and took the presidency upon Lyons' death.
Anglo-American Jewish writer born in Manchester, settled in New York in 1890. Trained as a lawyer, he achieved success with the comic fictional duo Abe Potash and Morris Perlmutter — Jewish merchants in New York's clothing sector — developed in short story collections, plays and films in the early twentieth century.
German otologist, born in Randegg, near Constance, on July 15, 1831, died in Heidelberg on July 15, 1895, doctor of medicine (1856). Established in Heidelberg from 1859, associate professor in 1866, he devoted himself to otology from 1875, became associate professor in 1891, and founded the otological clinic in Heidelberg which he directed until his death; he co-founded with Knapp, in 1868, the « Archiv für Augen- und Ohrenheilkunde » and translated in 1863 Toynbee's work on ear diseases. He demonstrated the role of micro-organisms in labyrinthine damage during infectious diseases.
Writer and Zionist, first Hebrew speaker at Congress, co-founder of Tel-Aviv.
Karaite scholar, active in Krasnoï-Ostroh (Poland) in the 17th and 18th centuries, educated under Joseph ben Samuel, hazzan of Kalisz, and David ben Chalom ha-Zaḳen. He is best known for his « Dod Mordekai » (Vienna, 1830), reply to four questions posed in 1698 by Leiden theologian Jacob Trugland to David ben Chalom ha-Zaḳen on the origin and history of Karaism, the Karaite Bible and vowel points; he also wrote an elementary Hebrew grammar, « Kelalim Yafim ».
Satirist of the late Haskala, storyteller of Galician Jewish life in Ha-Shahar.
Russian rabbi
Hebrew poet born in Siedlce, author of poetry and prayer collections.
Lyric poet and painter, author of Mas'at Nafshi, died at age 27.
Historian and ethnographer of Libyan Jewry, judge in Benghazi; author of Higgid Mordecai.
Swiss rabbi
Son of the founder; his teachings form the corpus of Hasidic thought of the group. Author notably of Maamar Mordechai.
Born Mordechai Nemirovsky in Ukraine, leader of labor Zionism, secretary general of the Histadrout, Israeli ambassador/consul in Moscow (1949–1950), Minister of Labor then mayor of Tel Aviv (1959–1969). He left several writings, including a work on Ahdout haAvoda (1946) and a memoir of his mission to Moscow.
Born in Skala (Poland), he went to Palestine in 1920 and took the name Narkiss. Director of the Bezalel National Museum, historian of Jewish art, father of Bezalel Narkiss.
Israeli politician
rabbi (1824–1894)
American rabbi
Disciple of Simcha Bunim of Peshischa and then of Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, from whom he parted in 1839 to establish his court in Izbica. His thought, centered on inner freedom and divine will underlying all action, was collected by his grandson Gershon Henokh Leiner in the Mei ha-Shiloah. Among his disciples: Tzadok ha-Kohen of Lublin and Leibele Eiger.
Jewish spiritual and political leader in Latvia
Rabbi, decisioner and liturgical poet of Aleppo, author of « Maayan Ganim » and compiler of the Bakkashot.
Born in 1827, elected Chief Rabbi of Tangier around 1853 and served until his death in 1917. A major rabbinic authority consulted by many rabbis of Morocco and beyond, he presided over the beth-din and the yeshiva of Tangier, and reformed the « Maamad », the governing council of the community.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5565 of the Hebrew era (1805). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5639 of the Hebrew era (1879). Son of Yaakov, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Died in 5645 of the Hebrew era (1885). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 87-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5577 of the Hebrew era (1817). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 86-2.
German landscape painter, born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main on October 25, 1812, died in the same city on January 10, 1893, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He visits in 1834 the Bavarian Alps and Italy, and notably paints "Meerbusen von Villafranca bei Nizza" (1843, now at the Städel museum).
German woman of letters and social activist, born in Breslau on November 25, 1830. Married in 1854 to Theodor Morgenstern, she settled in Berlin, where she joined in 1859 the society for the promotion of Froebel kindergartens and published in 1860 « Das Paradies der Kindheit », the first German manual of the Froebel method. She founded in 1866 the society of public kitchens, which she still directed in 1904, as well as the Children's School Union in 1868, the Berliner Hausfrauenverein in 1873, and convened in 1896 in Berlin the first international women's congress.
Russian jurist and author, born in Berditchev on March 25, 1837. Trained at the rabbinical school of Jitomir, he obtained his diploma in 1861, entered after three years with the support of Pirogov at the University of Kiev in 1864, published legal articles from his studies, then in 1869 his thesis on Mosaic and Talmudic succession law. Settled the same year in Odessa, he established himself there as an authority on Russian Jewish law, directed the Jewish industrial school Tzud and published in 1889 a collection of articles on Russian Jewish life, including studies on the history of Jewish education in Russia.
Hungarian journalist
Rabbi
Hungarian rabbi (1842-1895)
German composer
Journalist and Jewish community leader born in Bavaria, executive secretary of B'nai B'rith, editor of the Menorah Monthly and founder of the Jewish Times.
Bulgarian Chief Rabbi (1853–1895)
Austrian rabbi
German psychologist
German opinion journalist (1837–1904)
Jewish bibliographer and orientalist from Moravia
German chemist
American naval engineer, born in Cincinnati (Ohio) on 8 June 1860, graduate of the College of the City of New York in 1877 and of the Naval Academy of Annapolis in 1881. Promoted assistant commissioned engineer in 1883, lieutenant in 1889 and lieutenant-commander in 1903, he holds in 1904 the position of chief engineer of the USS Alabama; he was commended in 1900 for his courageous conduct aboard the USS Yosemite, wrecked during a typhoon off Guam.
Entered in 1877 as an apprentice at the ancient bookstore Joseph Baer & Co. in Frankfurt, he became its manager (1890) and then co-owner (1901). A specialist in book history, bibliophilia and bibliography, he published several scholarly studies. Jewish, struck by professional prohibition in 1934, forced to wear the yellow star, he died in Frankfurt in 1944 from the effects of a bombing.
Austrian engraver and painter (1885-1915)
Austrian Jewish businessman and art collector (1854-1939)
Jewish labor activist
Riga-born American lawyer, politician and art collector (1869-1933)
American orientalist and librarian (1861–1921)
Yiddish socialist poet, « grandfather » of Yiddish worker literature.
American actor, born in Jamaica in 1845. Emigrated to the United States, he joined the federal army during the Civil War then took to the stage in 1865 alongside Lawrence Barrett in New Orleans, played Iago opposite Salvini's Othello and supported Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth and Charlotte Cushman, before successfully producing "Faust", in which he plays Mephistopheles. His wife is Florence Roberts and his daughter Rosabel is also an actress.
American lawyer, brother of Leopold Morse, born in Wachenheim (Rhine Bavaria) on May 19, 1846, emigrated to America in 1854. Graduate of Harvard College (1870) and then Harvard Law School (1872), he is admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1873, sits on the Boston school committee (1876-78) and then on the municipal council, of which he becomes president in 1883, and holds various political and charitable offices, including the presidency in 1904 of the Leopold Morse Home for Infirm Hebrews and Orphanage and the Purim Association.
Merchant and member of the American Congress, born in Wachenheim (Rhineland Bavaria) on August 15, 1831, died in Boston on December 15, 1892. Emigrated to the United States in 1849, he settled in Boston in 1851, where he built a major clothing business; elected five times to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in a Republican-majority district, delegate to Democratic conventions of 1872 and 1876, he founded the Boston Home for Infirm Hebrews and Orphanage in Mattapan, the first Jewish institution of this kind in New England, renamed after his death in his honor.
English journalist and dramatist, born in 1858, long drama critic of the « Referee » and other London newspapers. He published « Travellers' Tales » (1892) and « Man and Beast » (prefaced by I. Zangwill, 1893), had « Miss Impudence » performed at the Terry's Theatre in London in 1892, and signed the libretto of « San Toy », performed at Daly's in London and New York in 1899.
American playwright, born on October 10, 1865 in New York, trained in public schools and then at Normal College. Among her plays are « The Refugee's Daughter » (1886), « The Merchant », premiered at the Union Square Theater in New York in 1888, « A Bachelor's Romance » (1895), performed for eight years in the United States and then taken up in England by John Hare (1897), and « The Diplomat » (1902); she married Hermann Conheim of New York in August 1897.
American physician and journalist, born in Danzig on June 11, 1815, settled in Philadelphia in 1850, died in that city on December 13, 1893. Doctor of medicine from Berlin in 1840, he published in Konitz a history of medicine (1848-49), then emigrated after the revolutionary movement, and settled in Philadelphia, where he became in 1853 owner of « Philadelphia Demokrat », founded « Die Vereinigte Staaten Zeitung » (1855) and published « The Jewish Record » from 1875 onwards.
prominent Yugoslavian/Serbian Communist (1890–1957)
English artist, born in London on February 8, 1833, trained in painting in Paris and Antwerp, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor and New galleries in London. Active advocate of international arbitration and peace, president of the International Peace Association, he edits the letters of Felix Mendelssohn to his father and publishes « In Bohemia with Du Maurier » as well as « The Fragments of an Autobiography » (1904).
Rabbi, editor
English financier, born in Clifton in 1855, trained at Bristol Grammar School and settled in South Africa among the first settlers of Kimberley. He equipped at his own expense the Princess Christian Hospital near the Cape during the South African war, conducted in 1902 a British industrial commission to the United States to study American commercial prosperity and then, in 1903, a commission on American education; he is made C.M.G. in 1900.
German poet, born in Marieney (Saxony) on 3 July 1803, died in Oldenburg on 10 October 1867. After studies in law interrupted by his father's death, he became in 1831 judge in Kohren, then lawyer in Dresden after 1834, and accepted in 1844 the position of dramatic author at the court theatre of Oldenburg; struck by paralysis, he continued to write despite illness and published notably « Das Lied vom Ritter Wahn » (Leipzig, 1831), « Der Kongress von Verona » (Berlin, 1842) and « Herzog Bernhard » (Leipzig, 1855). His complete works appeared in Oldenburg in 1863, and a new edition, with biography, in Leipzig in 1880.
Austrian dramatist and poet, born in Cassel (Hesse-Nassau) January 14, 1821, died in Vienna February 17, 1877. Established in Vienna from 1841, he achieved his first great theatrical success with 'Cäcilia von Albano' (1849), which opened the doors of the Burgtheater to him, then with 'Deborah' (Budapest, 1849), which became famous in English under the title 'Leah, the Forsaken.' A prolific author of dramas, comedies and opera libretti — including 'Die Königin von Saba' for Carl Goldmark (Vienna, 1888) — he also published poems (Vienna, 1847) and saw his complete works gathered in six volumes in Stuttgart in 1878.
American politician
Russian-British rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Austrian theologian (1812–1849)
German-American biblical scholar, trained at the universities of Würzburg, Leipzig and Heidelberg (Ph.D. 1897). From 1897, professor of biblical exegesis at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Specialist in the Psalms and neo-Hebrew apocalyptic literature.
Russian public figure of Jewish origin
British-Romanian academic and rabbi
"Professor" Moyshe Hurwitz, prolific playwright of early Yiddish theatre.
British rabbi
American rabbi
German rabbi
Moroccan-born British-Jewish businessman and communal activist based in Manchester, regarded by some as the first Zionist activist of Moroccan Jewry; founded schools and Zionist organizations in Mogador and represented Moroccan Jewish communities at the Zionist Congress.
American rabbi and author (1828–1903)
British financier and philanthropist, defender of persecuted Jews around the world. He financed the first Jewish neighborhoods outside the walls of Jerusalem.
Swedish composer, conductor and music critic
American rabbi
German Rabbi
Polish politician and rabbi (1874–1941)
German theologian and rabbi
Russian-Hebraist author, born in Kovno in 1841. Settled with her parents in Suwałki, she pursues her Hebrew studies under the Hebraist Paradiesthal while training in German and French, and translates German novels into Hebrew; prevented by family difficulties from fully continuing this work, she publishes only one book, an elegant Hebrew translation of « Die Juden und die Kreuzfahrer » by Francolm, under the title « Ha-Yehudim be-Angliya » (Warsaw, 1869).
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-2.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5617 of the Hebrew era (1857). Son of Shmuel, himself son of Menashe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-2.
Rosh yeshiva at RIETS (Yeshiva University) for more than 45 years.
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5599 of the Hebrew era (1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-1.
Jewish religious figure
Born in Veprik (Russia) and trained as a physician (1913), he settled after the First World War in Italy where he was active in the Zionist movement and published Italian translations of works of Jewish interest (Buber, R. T. Herford, Klausner with Dante Lattes). He moved in 1924 to Petah Tikva and was one of the major voices of the labor movement in the Land of Israel, member of the editorial committee of the daily newspaper Davar; he gave his name to Beilinson Hospital.
Rabbi of Tanger, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 94-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 91-2.
Disciple of the tsaddikim Mordechaï and then Noaḥ of Lyakhovichi (Lechowitz), he became upon the latter's death the rebbe of the hasidim of Kobrin and the surrounding areas. Known for truthfulness, humility, and patience in suffering, he refused ascetic fasting and taught through brief maxims and examples. His court gave rise to the dynasty of Slonim.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5621 of the Hebrew era (1861). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 89-4.
Born in Bosnia, he became in the Land of Israel one of the great documenters of Sephardic and Eastern Judaism. His major work, Yehudei ha-Mizrah be-Eretz Yisrael (1928), gathers the biographies of several thousand rabbis, scholars and Sephardic notables linked to Eretz Israel. He also conducted pioneering work on the Me'am Lo'ez and Sephardic Hebrew poetry, notably through questionnaires sent to hundreds of personalities.
Târgu Lăpuș town Rabbi (Romania), one of the Teitelbaum family rabbi dynasty
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), nineteenth century. Died in 5589 of the Hebrew era (1829). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 92-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 96-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90-2.
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5655 of the Hebrew era (1895). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 90–2.
Chief decisor of Djerba (Ramach), author of the responsa Shoel ve-Nishal and Brit Kehouna.
Lithuanian rabbi
Rabbi of Agourai, nineteenth century. Died in 5655 of the Hebrew calendar (1895). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 90-3.
Lithuanian rabbi
Direct descendant of the Chernobyl dynasty, he was the rebbe of Makarov (Makarover) in Berdytchiv and Kiev. At his death in 1920, his sons Shmuel Abba (1872–1947, later rebbe of Makarov in Winnipeg) and Tzvi Aryeh succeeded him.
Sephardic Ottoman decisioner, author of the collection of responsa Maim Kedoshim, whose second volume was published in Izmir in 1852. Cited in the historiography of Sephardic halakha in Ottoman cities (Istanbul, Salonique, Izmir).
Rabbi and Talmudist from Belarus
Greek rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5592 of the Hebrew era (1832). Son of Yitshak. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5609 of the Hebrew era (1849). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 93–3.
author of "Nezer HaKodesh"
Mashgiach ruchani of the yeshiva of Lomza; author of Mussar works (Yesodei Hadaas).
Hungarian rabbi
researcher, journalist, essayist, ethnographer, and humanist of the interwar period
The Lomza Rov, talmudic scholar, later rosh yeshiva at RIETS (New York).
Hungarian rabbi and Talmudist (1856-1924)
Rabbi
Son of Chaim Soloveitchik, rosh yeshiva at the RIETS seminary of Yeshiva University.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Son of Haim. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 95-1.
chief Sephardic rabbi (1837–1917)
French rabbi
Israeli rabbi
German-born rabbi (1881–1976)
American genre painter, born in New York June 6, 1841, raised in Cincinnati where he began painting in childhood. Trained in Düsseldorf from 1863 then under Hébert in Paris, he returned to Cincinnati in 1866 before leaving again in 1874 for Europe, where he exhibited « The Return of the Prodigal Son » at the Paris Salon in 1879 — first painting by an American artist purchased by the French state for the Luxembourg Museum. He received the gold medal of the Paris Salon (1888), became a Knight of the Legion of Honor (1892), and associate of the National Academy of Design in New York (1895).
American philanthropist, born in Philadelphia on May 25, 1831, died in the same city on April 19, 1895, eldest son of Eliezer L. Moss. Having become a mechanic and then founder of the Wiler & Moss firm, he retired from business in 1878 and devoted the rest of his life to Jewish philanthropic works in Philadelphia, bequeathing the bulk of his fortune to the Jewish Hospital Association to establish the Lucien Moss Home for Incurables of the Jewish Faith.
American writer, born in Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia) on September 24, 1864. Prolific contributor to magazines since 1902, she published her Jewish novel « Julian Meldola » in « Lippincott's Magazine » (March 1903) as well as articles on Yiddish theater in the Philadelphia press, and contributed stories and essays to several American magazines, including « Atlantic Monthly » and « Scribner's Magazine ».
German physician, born on August 3, 1808 in Grätz (province of Posen), died in the same city on November 10, 1865. Municipal councillor then president of the Jewish community from a young age, he sided with the Polish insurgents during the 1848 revolution, contrary to most of his coreligionists, and was wounded, captured and imprisoned; he then peacefully practiced medicine in Grätz, where several charitable institutions, including Dr. M. Mosse Hospital, bear his name.
German publisher and philanthropist, son of Dr. Markus Moses, born on May 8, 1843 in Grätz (Posnania). He founded in Berlin an advertising agency that made a fortune, and published or financed numerous newspapers, including the "Berliner Tageblatt" (since 1870) and the "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums" (since 1890); his printing house, founded in 1872, became one of the largest in Germany. An active philanthropist, he created in 1892 then in 1895 funds for his employees, built a hospital in Grätz, founded an educational institution in Wilhelmsdorf and represented for ten years the Jewish community of Berlin.
German pianist and composer, born August 23, 1854 in Breslau. Trained in Dresden then Berlin, he gave concerts and undertook in 1873 a successful tour in Germany, Russia, and France; an arm injury kept him from the stage for a time, a period during which he composed some of his best works, before settling in Paris in 1897. His opera 'Bobadil', premiered at the Royal Opera in Berlin in 1892, was well received, and his piano works, marked by the influence of Chopin, enjoyed great success.
Karaite Egyptian Jewish lawyer, journalist, linguist, poet, essayist, scientific editor and translator
Described as the most eminent Karaite personality in Egypt at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Lawyer graduated from the Faculty of Law of Cairo (1886), appointed to head a magistracy chamber by Khedive Abbas Helmi (1901, title of Bey), legislative adviser to the Karaite community. Recognized poet in literary Arabic and pioneer of Hebrew-Arabic lexicography.
Yiddish poet and dramatist, founder of the Yung-yidish group in Łódź.
Born in Smorgon (today Smarhon, Belarus), he studied at the Volozhin yeshiva and became one of the great Yiddish modernists. He taught Yiddish literature in Vilna, settled in Minsk under the Soviet regime. Arrested during the Great Purges in 1937, he was executed the same year, then rehabilitated in 1956.
Modernist Yiddish poet, figure of the Di Yunge group in New York.
Hungarian rabbi
French novelist and dramatic critic, born in Paris on August 4, 1870, died in that city on December 1, 1902. Licensed in letters and law, he became dramatic critic for the "Revue d'Art Dramatique", the "Revue Blanche" then the "Écho de Paris", after having been assistant librarian at the University of Paris from 1890 to 1895. He published three novels on Parisian life — "Le Mauvais Desir" (1890), "La Carrière d'André Tourette" (1900), and "L'Associée" (1902) — as well as two critical essays and, with Pierre Veber, the play "Dix Ans Après" (Odéon, 1897).
German genre painter, born in Plesse (Silesia) on June 21, 1819, died in Munich in 1865. Trained at the Berlin Academy then, from 1838, at the Munich Academy under Cornelius, he worked from 1847 to 1852 with Kaulbach on the murals of the Neues Museum in Berlin, stayed in Rome from 1853, where he painted a « Mass at the Sistine Chapel » for Bishop Lichnowsky, and settled permanently in Munich in 1858 while continuing to winter in Rome.
Merchant, industrialist and American philanthropist, eldest son of Henry Muhr, born in Hürben (Bavaria) on April 19, 1845, died in Philadelphia on February 9, 1895. Vice-president of the Jewish hospital and administrator of several charitable organizations in Philadelphia, he actively supports Russian immigrants and the Alliance colony (New Jersey), and represents Pennsylvania in 1891 at the commission of the Chicago World's Fair; he bequeaths a large part of his fortune to Jewish causes, including a fund of perpetual scholarships for the best high school graduates of Philadelphia.
Dayyan of Mattersdorf (Hungary), born October 3, 1836 in Nádasd, trained in the yeshivah of his father Ḥayyim Müller; appointed dayyan of Mattersdorf in 1860. He publishes "Birkat ha-Miẓwot" (Vienna, 1871), "Shi'ure Miẓwot" (Presbourg, 1880), a collection of Talmudic haggadot in four parts (1876, 1882, 1888, 1901) and "Ma'gele Ẓedeḳ" (Paks, 1896).
German philologist, born on January 14, 1803 in Gross-Glogau, died in the same city on May 3, 1871, cousin of Salomon Munk. Trained in Breslau and Berlin (1822-1825), favored disciple of August Böckh, he taught at the Royal Wilhelmsschule in Breslau (1827-1848) and then at the gymnasium of Glogau, and received the title of professor in 1862 without ever obtaining a university chair due to his religion. He published notably « Die Metrik der Griechen und Römer » (Glogau, 1834) and a « Gesch. der Griechischen Literatur » (Berlin, 1849-50), faithful throughout his life to his Jewish faith.
German physiologist, born in Posen on February 3, 1839, brother of Emmanuel Munk, trained in Berlin and Göttingen (doctorate 1859). Established as a physician in Berlin in 1860, he became associate professor in 1869, professor of physiology at the veterinary school in 1876, member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1880 and honorary professor of the university in 1897; he is known for his research on the functions of the cerebral cortex, published notably in « Untersuchungen über das Wesen der Nervenerregung » (Leipzig, 1868).
German physiologist, born in Posen on May 20, 1852, died in Berlin on August 1, 1900, brother of Hermann Munk. Medical degree holder (1873), he settled in Berlin, became privat-docent of physiology in 1883, professor in 1895 and associate professor in 1899; specialist in nutrition, he directed from 1897 the "Zentralblatt für Physiologie" and published notably "Physiologie des Menschen und der Säugethiere" (Berlin, 1882).
French Orientalist, born in Gross-Glogau on May 14, 1803, died in Paris on February 5, 1867. Trained in the Talmud and then, from 1820, at the University of Berlin which he left without a diploma, Jews not being admitted to Prussian public positions, he settled in Paris in 1828. Appointed in 1838 keeper of Oriental manuscripts at the National Library, he devoted himself to the study of Maimonide and published, after losing his sight in 1850, the annotated Arabic edition of the "Moreh Nebukim" (1856, 1861, 1866); he also accompanied Montefiore and Crémieux to Egypt during the Damascus affair.
Hungarian philologist and ethnologist, born in Nagyvárad on March 12, 1860, from a famous rabbinical family. Trained in Hungarian linguistics under Budenz, Vámbéry and Simonyi, he undertook from 1880 linguistic expeditions, notably among the Votiaks and the Chuvashes from 1885, from which he drew several works awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, of which he became corresponding member in 1890; the same year, the Jewish community of Budapest appointed him inspector of religious instruction, and he has directed the review « Ethnographia » since 1893.
American psychologist, born in Danzig on June 1, 1863. Doctorate in philosophy from Leipzig (1885) and in medicine from Heidelberg (1887), he became assistant professor of psychology at the University of Freiburg in 1891 then, the following year, professor of psychology at Harvard; president of the American Psychological Association in 1898, he accompanied in 1902 Prince Henry of Prussia on his American tour, and notably published « Psychology and Life » (Boston, 1899) and « American Traits » (Boston, 1902).
Austrian writer, born on February 1, 1856 in Leipnik (Moravia), doctor of the University of Vienna (1877), who pursues his philosophical studies in Munich. He becomes in 1889 librarian of the Jewish community of Vienna, of which he is the director since 1900, and publishes numerous works of philosophy and biography between 1880 and 1904.
Austrian writer, brother of Bernhard Münz, born in Leipnik (Moravia) on May 7, 1859, doctor of the University of Vienna (1883). After living successively in Rome (1885-88) then in Milan, Venice and Florence (1889-91), he settled at the end of 1891 in Vienna, where he contributes to the « Neue Freie Presse » on Italian politics, and publishes notably « Aus dem Modernen Italien » (Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1889) and « Italienische Reminiscenzen und Profile » (Vienna, 1898).
Hungarian lawyer and journalist, born in Asszonyfa (county of Győr) on May 8, 1841, died in Budapest on April 30, 1902. After studying medicine then law, graduated from Budapest in 1866, he obtained special royal authorization to open a law practice in Győr in 1867, where he became highly reputed, before settling in Budapest in 1880 to devote himself to journalism: he founded the weekly "Magyar Háziasszony" and the daily "Nemzeti Ujság", and directed from 1887 to 1899 the "Képes Családi Lap".
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Died in 5577 of the Hebrew era (1817). Son of Davd. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-1.
Austrian Romance philologist, born in Split (Dalmatia) on 15 February 1835. First destined for medicine, he became lecturer in Italian at the University of Vienna in 1855, then associate professor of Romance philology in 1860 and, after his election to the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1866, full professor a few years later. Specialist in ancient Italian dialects, he published notably « Monumenti Antichi di Dialetti Italiani » (1864) and a Catalan version of « The Seven Sages » (1876); converted to Christianity, he sat in the Austrian House of Lords.
Rabbi of Agourai, 19th century. Mentioned in 5586 of the Hebrew era (1826). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 81-2.
English journalist, born in London in 1848, died in that same city on May 11, 1902. After beginnings in the clothing trade, he became in 1868 co-owner of the « Jewish Record », then joined the « Jewish Chronicle » alongside Michael Henry and Dr. Benisch, inheriting in part the journal's ownership upon the latter's death in 1878; de facto editor-in-chief, he raised the journal to the first rank of the Jewish press. Treasurer of the Jewish Workingmen's Club, which he helped found in 1872, he also sat on committees for the 1887 Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition.
American librarian, born in London on 18 February 1821, died in Cincinnati on 8 December 1899. Emigrated to New York in 1833 then settled in Cincinnati in 1837, he studied law first before becoming sub-librarian of the Cincinnati Law Library Association in 1860, then head librarian. After the library fire on 29 March 1884, he worked on its reconstruction, and at his death it numbered thirty thousand volumes, almost all selected by him.
English physician and toxicologist, born in 1871 in Birmingham, died on January 21, 1901 in Pará, Brazil. Qualified in medicine in 1897, he studied under Ziegler at Fribourg, Koch in Berlin and Ehrlich in Frankfurt, whose work on blood and its diseases he translated. Sent by the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool to study yellow fever in Brazil, he contracted the disease himself and died from it, a martyr to science.
Russian jurist, born in Korets (Volhynia) January 2, 1846, graduated from Jitomir gymnasium in 1867 then in law from Kiev University in 1871, subsequently settled in Saint Petersburg. After the anti-Jewish riots of 1881, he dedicated himself to the legal status of Russian Jews, publishing several monographs including « Roukovodstvo k Rousskomou Zakonodatelstvou o Yevreïakh » (2d ed., Saint Petersburg, 1899); his son Vladimir is professor of surgery at Tomsk University.
Yiddish poet and critic, cofounder of the introspectivist movement In Zikh.
Ukrainian rabbi
Galician philosopher of the Haskalah, author of the Moreh Nevukhei ha-Zeman (Guide for the Perplexed of the Time). He applied the philosophy of history to the study of Judaism.
rabbi
Polish rabbi
rabbi
Russian poet, born in Saint Petersburg on December 26, 1862, died in Yalta on December 31, 1886. Son of a Jewish father who converted to Orthodoxy and a noble poetess mother, he pursued a military career after the Saint Petersburg academy before being struck by tuberculosis in 1883; his death, hastened by the persecutions he suffered because of his Jewish origins, was followed in 1898 by the posthumous publication of his poems and essays in two volumes in Saint Petersburg.
Lithuanian rabbi
Ashkenazi rabbi of Jaffa (1852–1902)
Hebrew poet born in Złoczów (Galicia, now Zolochiv, Ukraine) on December 27, 1856, died in New York on October 8, 1909. He wrote the poem Tikvatenu (« Our Hope »), which became the lyrics of Hatikvah, the national anthem of Israel. Secretary to Christian Zionist Laurence Oliphant in Palestine, he ended his life in poverty in New York.
Head of the famous yeshiva of Volozhin, author of the Haamek Davar commentary on the Torah. He trained generations of Lithuanian scholars.
Rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Radin; reputed Talmudist close to the Mussar movement.
Beni-Israel soldier, born in Bombay before 1830. Enlisted in the 25th Regiment of Light Infantry indigenous to Bombay in 1848, he became jemadar in 1868, subahdar in 1873 then subahdar-major in 1879; he participated in numerous battles of the Indian Rebellion, including the sieges of Dhar and Jhansi and the taking of Gwalior, then in the Abyssinian campaign, before retiring in 1881.
Beni-Israel soldier, born in Bombay around 1810. Enlisted in the 10th regiment of indigenous infantry in 1832, he served in Aden from 1840 to 1844, participated in the South Maratha war in 1844 and 1845 and then in the Central India campaign, before taking part in the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-1868 and retiring in 1871.
Born in Marrakech, he emigrated as a teenager to Jerusalem where he studied at the Sephardic Talmud Torah. Appointed in 1909 Rishon le-Zion (chief Sephardic rabbi / Hakham Bashi of Jerusalem) following the removal of R. Eliyahou Moché Panigel, he served until 1911 and was one of the first signatories (1910) of the agreement of union between Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities.
Preacher and philanthropist, born in 1811, died in Grodno on October 25, 1879. A great Talmudist, he preferred to occupy the humble position of sexton in the Hebrah Shas synagogue and live in poverty, devoting his energy to the needy of all conditions to the point of becoming famous throughout Russian Jewry. He preached on Saturday afternoons simple moral truths, and his funeral was, it is said, the most impressive ever seen in Grodno.
founder and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress
Israeli politician
Yiddish dramatist and lexicographer, prolific author of radio plays.
Hungarian composer
Republican lawyer, law graduate of the Sorbonne (1855), secretary to Adolphe Crémieux. Member then vice-president of the Paris Municipal Council (1880–1887). One of the founders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle: general secretary (1863–1883), vice-president (1883–1898), then president from 1898. He structured the AIU's worldwide network of schools. He was also co-founder and president of the Jewish Colonization Association.
Hungarian writer born in Szent Miklós, in Liptau, on 16 March 1841, died in Baja on 25 July 1901. He studied in Baja and then in Berlin, where he was chosen as preacher in 1866, before being forced into retirement by repeated bouts of insanity and ending his life in seclusion in Baja. He published numerous works between 1860 and 1879, notably on Jewish exegesis and philosophy.
Austrian journalist born in Pohrlitz, Moravia, on December 25, 1834, educated in Vienna. He was stenographer to the Austrian Parliament and then parliamentary reporter for the « Presse », before joining the editorial board of the « Neue Freie Presse » at its founding. In 1871, he repurchased the « Presse », which he directed as editor-in-chief and owner until its repurchase by the Länderbank in 1877, the year he withdrew from public life.
Tunisian rabbi
Rabbi in Tunis, at the junction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of « U-Shebu'ato le-Yitzhak », published in Livorno in 1820, a work devoted to twenty types of oaths and their obligations.
Polish rabbi
Polish physician, brother of Henryk Natanson, born in 1821, died in Warsaw on June 6, 1896. Graduated from the University of Dorpat in 1847, he founded the same year the medical journal "Tygodnik Lekarski" and was, from 1871 until his death, president of the Jewish community of Warsaw, to which he devoted most of the city's public Jewish institutions, notably the great synagogue built in 1878.
French woman of letters (1900–1999)
French actress born in Tournon, in Seine-et-Marne, on September 3, 1816, died on November 17, 1885. She made her debut at the Folies Dramatiques in Paris in 1837, then performed at the Gymnase from 1838 until 1845, before a season in London and an appearance at the Palais-Royal. She entered the Comédie-Française in 1849, becoming a society member three years later, and retired from the stage in 1876.
Father of Shmuel Agmon, leading Hebrew writer. According to Geni, the surname Agmon was adopted (born Bistritzky), a common practice of Hebraicizing names.
German rabbi
Jerusalemite Jewish scholar
Chief Rabbi of Prague
rabbi, speaker, and scribe. One of the introducers of zionism. (1808–1883)
German-British rabbi
rabbi, educator, writer and prominent Zionist activist (1879–1935)
Austrian-German rabbi (1848–1924)
American lawyer
Author of « Judentaufen im neunzehnten Jahrhundert » (Berlin, 1906), a study of conversions of Jews to Christianity in the nineteenth century, and of « Judentum und Proselytismus » on proselytism in Jewish history. Jewish writer treating Jewish subjects under the name Samter.
German physician and author born around 1806 in Eutin, died in Hamburg on July 5, 1862, graduated in medicine at Kiel in 1830. After taking part in the campaign of Poland, he established himself as a physician in Hamburg and also devoted himself to Jewish learning: under the pseudonym « Essenna », he translated into German, from 1836, Joseph Salvador's work on the institutions of Moses and the Hebrew people, with an introduction by G. Riesser, then published under the same name a collection of thoughts in 1837.
American physiologist born into a Jewish family from Kishinev, emigrated after the pogroms via Palestine and then to the United States. Professor at the University of Chicago, considered the father of modern sleep research; co-discoverer of REM sleep in 1953. Author of the foundational work 'Sleep and Wakefulness'.
Journalist and Russo-Hebrew author born in Satanow, in Podolia, on April 15, 1832. After the death of his father in 1853, he went to Odessa where he collaborated with Jacob Israël Levinsohn in the copying and revision of the manuscripts of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, before going to Warsaw in 1875 for the publication of the complete work of the latter. He published his first article in 1864 in 'Ha-Maggid', then numerous texts in 'Ha-Melitz', as well as several works, including a biblical onomasticon published in Odessa in 1871 and a lexicon of foreign words in the Talmud and Midrash in 1880.
Polish professor of chemistry born in Warsaw in 1832, died in that city on September 14, 1884, trained at the University of Dorpat. Appointed in 1862 professor of chemistry at the Szkola Glowna academy in Warsaw, he taught there until the closure of the institution seven years later, while founding several industrial schools and charitable societies and bequeathing thirty thousand rubles to help authors.
Polish rabbi and author, born in Berzan in 1808, died in Lemberg on March 4, 1875, son of Aryeh Lébouch Nathanson, rabbi of Berzan. He studied Talmud in Lemberg with his brother-in-law R. Mordekhaï Zeev Ettinger, with whom he published several works between 1828 and 1839, then was elected rabbi of Lemberg in 1857, a position he held for eighteen years. Widely recognized as a rabbinic authority, he also published numerous responsa, notably the « Sho'el u-Meshiv », between 1865 and 1879.
(1878–1918)
French composer born in Dennenlohe, Bavaria, on March 15, 1817, died in Saint-Mandé, near Paris, on May 1, 1880. After being hazzan in Besançon and directing the choir of the Strasbourg synagogue, he was called in 1845 to officiate at the synagogue on rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth in Paris, where he became professor of liturgical music at the Séminaire israélite. He published several collections of liturgical chants between 1847 and 1877, including an essay on the life and work of Salomon de Rossi dedicated to Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
Cantor born in Treuchtlingen, Bavaria, in 1813, died in New York on March 4, 1902, from a family of cantors tracing unbroken descent to 1612. Having gone to America after 1848, he was elected cantor of the reformed congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, a position he held from 1850 to 1860, before becoming in 1865 officiating minister of the congregation Rodeph Shalom in Pittsburgh. He also prepared a rhymed German version of the Book of Proverbs.
Turkish rabbi born in Salonika in 1825, died in that same city in 1899. He exercised the rabbinate there, was for many years vice-president of the local committee of the Universal Israelite Alliance and corresponded with S. D. Luzzatto, S. L. Rapoport and L. Zunz, among others. He published, between 1861 and 1893, several works in Ladino and Hebrew, including a universal history intended for children, a biography of Dr. Albert Cohn and a collection of letters.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5632 of the Hebrew era (1872). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 98-3.
American rabbi
German rabbi
Moravian rabbi (1843–1891)
English actress born in London in 1868, trained in Wiesbaden, Germany. Returning to London in 1883, she studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music before entering, in 1887, the dramatic career, debuting in March 1888 at the Lyceum in « Pygmalion and Galatea ». She subsequently became one of the stars of the St James's Theatre then of Beerbohm Tree's company, before taking over in 1900 the direction of the Haymarket Theatre with « Nell Gwynn », which she subsequently performed on tour in the United States and Canada.
German dermatologist born at Schweidnitz on January 22, 1855, son of the physician Moritz Neisser. After studying medicine at Erlangen and Breslau, completed in 1877, he became the same year assistant physician at the dermatological clinic in Breslau, then privatdocent at Leipzig in 1880, before being appointed associate professor of dermatology and head of clinic at Breslau in 1882. He discovered in 1879 the bacillus of gonorrhea, which he named « gonococcus », thereby founding the local treatment now universally adopted, and also demonstrated the bacillus of leprosy and the tuberculous origin of lupus.
Mathematician in synthetic geometry; victim of the Shoah.
twentieth-century American rabbi, archaeologist and orientalist
Hungarian deputy born in Peczel in 1852, died in Budapest on 13 December 1904, having studied law in Vienna and Paris. Known until 1871 under the name of Neumann, he collaborated with the "Pester Lloyd" until 1887 before being elected in 1884 to the Hungarian Parliament by the Szilágy-Csehi constituency, where he sat on the committees for economics, communications, and finance. Author of numerous works published between 1877 and 1902, he was also editor-in-chief of the "Pesti Napló" from 1896 to 1901.
Son of rabbi Salomon Samama and Aziza Krief. Caid of the Jews of Tunis, regarded as the head of the richest and most respected Israeli family of the Regency; patron of Talmudic studies, he financed the printing of works in Livorno. His succession gave rise to a famous lawsuit.
Catholic archbishop of Manila, born in 1840 at Bergheim, near Colmar, in Alsace. Emigrated at fourteen with his brother Gabriel to New York, he went at sixteen to Puerto Rico where, struck by yellow fever, he converted to Catholicism and was baptized. Sent to study theology at the University of Salamanca then Rome, he subsequently worked in Puerto Rico and Spain before becoming archbishop of Manila around 1898.
French physician born in Strasbourg on September 20, 1855. Trained in the hospitals of Paris from 1876 to 1884, he obtained his doctorate in 1883, became associate professor at the faculty of medicine in 1889, was appointed physician of Tenon Hospital in 1894 then Trousseau Hospital in 1895, holder of the chair of experimental and comparative anatomy in 1897, and elected to the Academy of Medicine in 1904 succeeding his master Proust. Made knight of the Legion of Honor in 1892 for his services during the cholera epidemic, he also sat on the central committee of the Universal Israelite Alliance.
Sub-librarian of the Bodleian and reader of rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford, born in Bittse, Hungary, on March 11, 1831. Entrusted in 1864 with a mission to Saint Petersburg to examine Karaite manuscripts, he published "Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek" in 1866 and established his reputation with "The Geography of the Talmud" in 1868, the year Oxford University entrusted him with the catalogue of the Bodleian's Hebrew manuscripts, completed in 1886 after eighteen years of work. From 1884 he held the chair of reader of rabbinic Hebrew created at Oxford, which he kept for sixteen years until his resignation in 1900 due to eyesight, and now lives in Vienna.
English man of letters, secretary of Thomas Carlyle, born in Wurtzbourg, Bavaria, on May 21, 1806, died in London on March 23, 1867. Naturalized English on June 16, 1845, he studied at the University of Bonn from 1850 to 1853, having been introduced to Carlyle by Emerson in 1848 and becoming his « volunteer secretary » from 1849; returning permanently to England in 1853, he accompanied him in his work until the publication in 1865 of the final volumes of his life of Frederick the Great, dedicated to Neuberg. He had himself translated « On Heroes and Hero-Worship » into German in 1853.
German dramatist born in Düsseldorf on August 28, 1839, died in Frankfurt-am-Main on October 27, 1895. First a tutor at the Philanthropin in Frankfurt, he subsequently devoted himself entirely to literature; his first play, "Markgräfin von Pommeraye", was a success in Stuttgart in 1876, followed by "Laroche", a heroic drama inspired by the life of Ferdinand Lassalle, withdrawn for political reasons after its premiere in 1882.
Austrian physician born on December 8, 1868 in Vienna, where he studied medicine, obtaining his doctorate in 1893. After three years of hospital service, he became the assistant of Professor Benedikt and specialized in nervous diseases; his 1897 work on the history of experimental physiology of the brain earned him appointment as privat-docent in the history of medicine at the University of Vienna. He subsequently published several works between 1898 and 1901 and directed the « Medizinische Blätter » in 1902 and 1903.
Hungarian writer born in Budapest on 22 February 1845. After studies in Budapest and Vienna, he entered in 1870 the service of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, published from 1865 his first German translation, of a novel by Jókai, then was encouraged to translate the poems of Petöfi into German; he was elected member of the Petöfi Society in 1871 and of the Kisfaludy Society in 1882, received the gold cross of merit with crown in 1887 then the grand cross of the order of Nishan-i-Medjidie in 1890, and was ennobled in 1892 by Francis Joseph I under the name of Aszódi.
Russian rabbi born in Gerolzhofen, near Würzburg, in 1809, died in Saint Petersburg on August 22, 1875. After Talmudic studies in Fürth from 1822 and then theology from 1828 in Würzburg and Giessen, he was called in 1843 to succeed Lilienthal at the rabbinate of Riga, which he held for twenty years, winning the friendship of Prince Suvorov who helped him reform the schools of the district and develop colonization plans for Russian Jews. In 1856, he chaired a commission charged with submitting a memorandum on the improvement of their condition, before being called in 1863 to the rabbinate of Saint Petersburg.
Austrian theater director born in Vienna on August 18, 1838. He took to the stage in 1859 as a baritone, was a member of the Vienna Court Opera from 1862 to 1876, then lyric director in Leipzig, before organizing in 1882 an itinerant Wagnerian troupe and settling three years later in Prague at the head of the Deutsche Landestheater. His main contribution to the Austro-German stage was the first complete performance of Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung", given at the Stadttheater in Leipzig on April 28, 1878, as well as the Berlin premiere of "Cavalleria Rusticana".
Hungarian deputy born in Grosswardein on February 14, 1845. After studies in law at Berlin and Vienna, he received his diploma in Budapest in 1868, was appointed in 1887 privat-docent of commercial law at the University of Budapest and elected the same year to the Hungarian Parliament, where he distinguished himself by speeches on the monetary system. Associate professor from 1889, he was appointed in 1898 member of the law codification commission and received from Emperor Francis Joseph I the title of aulic counselor.
German violinist born in Lissa in 1819, died in Trieste in January 1841. Trained musically in Warsaw, where her father had lived for several years before being expelled for political reasons, she went to Milan in March 1838, where she performed successfully in public concert, then drew the admiration of critics during a tour of the major cities of northern Italy.
Austrian dermatologist born in Misslitz, Moravia, on March 2, 1832, trained at the University of Vienna where he obtained his doctorate in 1858. Privatdocent in 1861, associate professor in 1873, he was appointed in 1881 professor of dermatology and director of the syphilography clinic; he published notably a manual of skin diseases in 1868, reprinted in 1880, as well as other works in 1873, 1881, and 1887.
German physician and statistician born in Pyritz, in Pomerania, on October 22, 1819, trained in Berlin and in Halle where he obtained his doctorate in 1842. Practitioner in Berlin since 1845, he received in 1875 the title of « Sanitätsrat » and published several works, notably on the Berlin census of December 1861 and on Jewish emigration in 1880, devoting his statistical works to refuting certain claims by antisemitic authors.
Russian author born in Jozefów, in the governorate of Lublin, on February 12, 1843, died in Warsaw on March 11, 1898, issuing from a family distinguished both in secular and talmudic learning. He went to Lublin at eighteen and subsequently settled in Warsaw, where he collaborated on the newspaper "Ha-Tsefira" under the pseudonym of Berosh Homiyoth, as well as on Polish journals of Lublin and on "Izraelita". He also directed a Hebrew journal for youth and compiled manuals of Hebrew, Polish and German published in Warsaw in 1898.
Austrian economist born in Sankt Georgen on May 31, 1840. After his doctorate, he became privatdozent at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, then associate professor at the Hochschule für Bodenkultur, and published numerous works of political economy between 1880 and 1899, including lectures delivered before the Association of Vienna Merchants and the Society of Austrian Engineers and Architects.
Rabbi and German author born in Borek, Prussia, on September 23, 1823, died in Breslau on February 24, 1902. After a bookbinding apprenticeship abandoned for study, he held various positions in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg from 1841 to 1855, became rabbi of Arnswalde then of Kolberg in 1858, before obtaining in 1864 a doctorate from the University of Jena on the doctrine of immortality in the Talmud. He founded a Hebrew school recognized by the State in 1867, which he directed until his death.
German painter, portraitist and genre painter, born in Munich on September 5, 1829, died in Tutzing, on Lake Starnberg, on May 24, 1899. Trained by the engraver Peter Latz and at the Academy of Munich from 1847 and in the studio of portraitist Bernhard in 1850, he stayed in Paris in 1852 then in Vienna from 1854 to 1864, where he painted many portraits, before turning in 1860 to genre painting. Permanently settled in Tutzing in 1879, a town he contributed to making known, he received high distinctions from King Louis II of Bavaria and Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria.
Russian grammarian born in Neustadt-Sugind (Alexandrów) in 1821, died in Warsaw on September 16, 1886. After Talmudic studies at the Volozhin yeshiva, he taught Hebrew and modern languages in Rossieny then in Warsaw, where he published a Hebrew grammar according to the Ollendorff method in 1874 and a collection of pedagogical speeches for youth in 1882. He was the grandson of Benjamin-Benish Neustädter.
American jurist born in New York in 1853, admitted to the bar in 1874 after studies at Columbia Law School. Elected judge of the municipal court of New York in 1891, he served until 1895 before becoming judge of the Court of General Sessions of New York, a position he still held in 1904. Active in Jewish societies, he was one of the founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York.
English ironmonger and art collector born in London in 1851, died in that city in 1887. He revived the medieval art of the blacksmith and founded the « Old English » forge on Archer Street, at Haymarket, whose picturesque arrangement made it a fashionable place during the London season. Passionate about Anglo-Jewish history and archaeology, he assembled a unique collection of Jewish prints and pamphlets, displayed after his death; it was largely through his efforts that the project to demolish the old synagogue of Bevis Marks was abandoned.
American soldier, he entered the Civil War as captain of company B of the 31st New York Infantry Regiment and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His service ended a few days before the Battle of Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863, but he chose to remain on the front; mortally wounded, he died shortly after in Washington, where President Lincoln, having come to his bedside, brought him his appointment to the rank of brigadier general.
French economist and statistician born in Châlons-sur-Marne on 3 January 1848. Editor of the « Revue Contemporaine » in 1868–69, he founded in 1869 « Le Rentier », a financial newspaper which he still directed in 1904, and was crowned by the Paris Society of Statistics in 1889 and then by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1891. Author of works on economics published between 1868 and 1903, including « Colbert et Son Temps » and « Turgot et Ses Doctrines », he was a member of the Paris Jewish Consistory.
Dutch jurist born in Hoorn on January 24, 1813, died in Amsterdam on May 15, 1878. Doctor of law from Leiden in 1839, he became one of the most reputed lawyers in Amsterdam, was elected to the Second Chamber in 1851, sat again in 1864 for Haarlem, then was elected to the municipal council and provincial states in 1870. President of the Central Commission and the Standing Commission, he worked much for the Jews of Holland and published numerous articles on commercial law, signed "N.".
Dutch economist born in Amsterdam on March 6, 1844. Doctor of Law from Leiden in 1866, he established himself as a lawyer in Amsterdam and became in 1871 director of the Amsterdamsche Bank. Member of the Amsterdam municipal council since 1879, he sat in the States of North Holland from 1883 to 1899, when he was elected to the First Chamber of Parliament, and presided from 1898 to the Central Commission and the Standing Commission. He received in 1895 the decoration of the Lion of the Netherlands.
Russian politician
Jewish cantor and composer, born in Novaïa Mych. Cantor in Balti, Kishinev and then, from 1877, in Berditchev. A childhood injury having impaired his voice, he developed a new style of synagogue music based on the choir (solos, duets, long ensemble pieces) reducing the role of the soloist; renowned as a pedagogue, he trained many young cantors. He is among the great hazzanim of the « golden age » of Eastern European cantorial music.
Swedish singer born in Göteborg on March 12, 1819, died in Harzburg on August 27, 1879. Trained at the piano by Chopin in 1839 and in singing by Manuel Garcia in Paris, she made her debut at the Italian Opera in Paris in 1843 in the role of Adalgisa, then undertook from 1845 to 1848 a triumphant tour in Italy, Russia, Norway, Sweden and England, rivaling Jenny Lind in popularity in Leipzig and Berlin. Married in 1850 to violinist Siegfried Saloman, she became in 1859 professor of singing in Saint Petersburg and published in 1881 her vocal method.
Nissim Behar (1848-1931), son of Rabbi Eliezer Behar, was a Sephardic educator trained at the normal school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris (1869). Head of the Alliance school in Constantinople (1873-1882), he introduced there the direct method of Hebrew teaching (« Ivrit be-Ivrit »), which influenced Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. He then campaigned for the Alliance in Europe and the United States.
chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel (1874–1930)
Polish-Jewish Yiddish linguist, journalist and political leader, founder of Yiddish studies institutions and Sejm deputy for the Jewish Folkist party; murdered by the Nazis near Vilnius in 1941.
Linguist, philologist and Yiddish literary historian, cofounder of YIVO.
German Orientalist born March 2, 1836 in Harburg. Educated in Oriental languages at Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and Berlin, he became assistant professor of Semitic languages at Göttingen in 1864, obtained a chair at Kiel in 1868 then at the University of Strasbourg from its foundation in 1872, which he held without interruption. His research covered Persian, Arabic and Syriac as well as the Old Testament, as evidenced notably by his three grammars—new Syriac (1869), Mandean (1874) and Syriac (1880)—and his synthesis work "Die Semitischen Sprachen" (1887).
English soldier and adventurer, died in Graham's Town, Cape Colony, on April 26, 1846. Field commander during the Kafir War and captain of yeomanry, he commanded the mounted force sent against the Kafirs in 1846 when he was shot in the head in an ambush near the hills bordering Graham's Town; his body, found mutilated the next day, could only be recovered after the forced withdrawal of his men.
American orientalist born in 1809 in Memelsdorf, near Erlangen, in Bavaria, died in 1842. Brilliant Talmud student, trained successively at the rabbinical school of Pressburg under the direction of Rabbi Moïse Sofer, then at the universities of Würzburg and Munich (doctorate in 1834), he left in 1835 for New York, where he was appointed professor of Arabic and Hebrew at the university of the city. He undertook a Hebrew grammar of philosophical foundation, of which the first volume was published in 1838 and the second in 1841, as well as a Hebrew concordance left unfinished in 1842.
Eldest son of Zionist leader Herbert Bentwich. Attorney General of Mandatory Palestine (1920–1931), then professor of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1932). Prolific author on Zionism, Palestine, and law.
Austrian author and sculptor born in Lemberg, in Galicia, on April 18, 1864. After studies in law and sciences in Lemberg and Zurich and then medicine in Vienna, he settled in Berlin and began in literature with Polish works, including the drama « The King of Zion » (1887), before writing dramas in German and numerous sociological works on the Jewish question, such as « Versuch zur Lösung der Jüdischen Frage » (1887) and « Die Bilanz des Zionismus » (1903). His sculptures, exhibited in Paris in 1899 and then in Berlin in 1900, earned him recognition as an art critic in Vienna and Berlin.
Founder of the yeshiva of Slabodka (Knesses Yisrael), master of Mussar and formator of leaders.
Russian journalist born in 1849 in Kertch, where his father was a rabbi. After studying law in Saint Petersburg, he directed from 1873 to 1874 the daily « Novoïe Vremia », then bought in 1876 the small newspaper « Novosti », which he transformed into an organ of great political influence firmly defending Jews against antisemitic attacks. He translated into Russian Buckle's « History of Civilization in England » in 1874 and published several essays and plays; converted very young, he became a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Jamaican magistrate born in Montego Bay on December 12, 1820, died in Falmouth on January 31, 1889. Initially destined for medicine then reconverted to commerce, he engaged in Jamaican political life, founded in 1850 a newspaper that became the « County Union », then was elected in 1863 representative of the parish of Trelawny to the House of Assembly, appointed custos the following year, before becoming in 1885 principal resident magistrate of the parishes of Trelawny and Hanover, a position he retained until his death while serving as a consular agent of the United States and vice-consul of Spain, Norway and Sweden.
Editor and rabbi of Livorno, Italy, died around 1815, son of Isaac Joseph Nuñez-Vaes and student of Isaac Nuñez Belmonte, for whom David b. Raphaël Meldola composed the funeral elegy in 1815. Besides the second part of his father's "Siaḥ Yitzhak", he edited a double commentary on the Pentateuch by the Tosafists and Juda b. Eliézer under the title "Da'at Zekenim" (1783; reprinted in Ofen in 1831) as well as the "Sefer ha-Makria" of Isaiah of Trani the Elder, published in 1779.
Polish historian and community activist born in Warsaw in 1820, died in that city in 1895. Trained at the rabbinical seminary of Warsaw, he founded a school for Jewish boys, contributed around 1850 to the construction of a synagogue, and was appointed in 1867 member of the committee of charitable works of the Kingdom of Poland. A prolific author in Polish, his principal work, a history of the Jews in five volumes, appeared in 1888-90; he also contributed for a long time to the « Izraelita » of Warsaw.
American lawyer born in Albany, in the State of New York, son of Simon and Clara Nussbaum, emigrants from Neustadt-on-the-Saale, in Bavaria. After studying in the public schools of his native city and an apprenticeship in the Newcomb & Bailey law firm, he was appointed police judge of Albany in 1884, elected to the State Assembly in 1893 then to the State Senate, representing Albany County, in 1895. Long committed to Jewish charitable works, he was for fifteen years an administrator of the Jewish Home of Albany.
Hungarian art critic born on August 28, 1861 in Zala-Egerszeg, trained in Vienna and graduated as an architect in 1884. He then studied art history in Paris and Berlin, obtained a doctorate in Leipzig in 1891, then was tasked by the Hungarian government, from 1889, with researching works of the Italian Renaissance in Hungary, before becoming in 1891 assistant at the National Museum of Budapest and, in 1894, curator of the National Gallery of Painting. He discovered unknown works by painter Karl Brocky in passing and converted to Christianity.
American journalist born in Cincinnati on 20 October 1861, brother of Adolph S. Ochs. Reporter then general manager, from 1896, of the « Daily Times » of Chattanooga, he directed in 1900 the Paris edition of the « New York Times » during the Universal Exposition, which earned him the Legion of Honor, before taking in 1901 the direction of the « Philadelphia Times » bought back by his brother. Figure of Tennessee political life, he was elected mayor of Chattanooga in 1894, reelected in 1896, and represented his state at the National Democratic Convention of Chicago in 1892.
German conductor and composer born in Frankfurt am Main on April 19, 1858. After studies in medicine and chemistry at Darmstadt and Heidelberg, he devoted himself entirely to music at the Berlin Hochschule, where he founded and directed the Philharmonic Choral Society, which became in 1904 the most important in Berlin, notably thanks to the support of Von Bülow. A composer inclined toward humour, he wrote the libretto and music of the comic opera "Im Namen des Gesetzes", premiered in Hamburg in 1888, as well as operettas and collections of songs.
Hungarian rabbi
Austrian-born gynecologist and psychoanalyst
English traveler, writer, and politician born in the Cape in 1829, died in Twickenham, England, in 1888. After a life of adventures, from Walker's Free Corps in Nicaragua to legation secretary in Japan, he left his seat in Parliament in 1867 for occultism, before conceiving in 1879 the plan for a Jewish colony in Gilead, east of the Jordan, which he defended in "Land of Gilead" (1880) and attempted to bring about again in 1882 as an agent of the relief fund for Russian Jews, without obtaining the Sultan's agreement. Retired to Haifa, he devoted himself thereafter to mysticism, publishing "Sympneumata" (1885), marked by the influence of the Kabbalah.
Art critic born in Paris on 4 March 1850, died in Saint-Cloud on 19 September 1891, trained like his brother Paul by Chief Rabbi Zadoc Kahn. After serving in the Mobile National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, he entered the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts in 1871, was appointed secretary of the Bar Conference in 1879, and directed the cabinet of Commerce Minister Édouard Lockroy from 1888, contributing actively to the Paris Universal Exposition the following year. He notably published a « Treatise on the Administration of Fine Arts » in 1889.
French linguist, creator of the Ollendorff method for teaching modern languages, born in Rawicz, in Posen, in 1802, died in Paris on 3 April 1865. His method, founded on the principle that a foreign language is learned as a child learns its mother tongue, became known through the work of Captain Basil Hall published in London in 1836, then spread after his move to Paris around 1830, notably through his « Méthode Appliquée à l'Allemand », translated even into Gujarati. His « Méthode de l'Allemand à l'Usage des Français » (1833) was introduced, despite some resistance, into French schools.
Russian Hebraist born in Kokhanovo, government of Moghilev, on May 4, 1840, died in Yekaterinoslav on January 17, 1896, descendant of David Conforte, author of the "Seder ha-Dorot". Formed in Hasidic education and then in Kabbalah, he studied at the yeshiva of Navyazki in Kovno, joined in 1862 the circle of Maskilim in Friedrichstadt, Courland, where he learned to write Hebrew well, and changed his name, Levin, to Olschwang upon settling in Krementchoug in 1866. He contributed from 1860 to "Ha-Melitz" and other Hebrew periodicals, publishing notably two satirical sketches on Jewish life in Russia, in 1868 and in 1877.
Russian rabbi born in Plungian, Kovno Governorate, on August 30, 1825, died in Saint Petersburg on August 5, 1896, descendant of both Mordecai Jaffe, author of the « Levouchim », and Judah Löw ben Betzalel of Prague. Trained in Hebrew and Talmud under Israel Lipkin, he received his rabbinical diploma in 1845, was elected rabbi of Tauroggen the following year, then, after devoting himself to profane studies, became rabbi of Saint Petersburg in 1878 until his death. He was an active member of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia and of the Hibbat Sion movement.
German jurist born in Berlin on 1 April 1866, former privatdozent in Bern and then, in 1904, judge and professor of law at the University of Kiel. He published several legal works between 1888 and 1904, including « Die Erbrechtliche Stellung der Weiber in der Zeit der Volksrechte » (1888) and « Deutsches Theaterrecht » (1897).
Rabbi of Péczel, Hungary, died at twenty-eight years old before 1825. He is the author of "Har Ebel," ritual rules on visiting the sick and mourning, published in Lemberg in 1824, and of "Nichmat Hayyim," on the immortality of the soul, published in Dyhernfurth in 1829, both published by his relative Simon Oppenheim, dayan of Budapest.
Talmudist who lived in Dessau in the early nineteenth century. He is the author of « Divré Asher », a treatise on circumcision, published in Dessau in 1804.
Jurist, economist and German deputy, born in Frankfurt am Main on July 20, 1819 and died in Berlin on March 29, 1880. He studied law at Göttingen, Heidelberg and Berlin, taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1841 to 1845, then settled in Berlin where he took part in the agitation of 1848 and cofounded with Arnold Ruge the journal "Die Reform" before participating in the revolutionary movement in Baden in 1849. He later published numerous writings on law and political philosophy, including the "Deutsche Jahrbücher für Politik und Litteratur", published from 1862 to 1864.
German physician, born in Berlin on January 1, 1858. He studied medicine at the universities of Göttingen and Bonn, where he obtained his degree in 1881, then became an assistant at the Berlin Sanatorium, specialized in neurology, from 1883 to 1891. Admitted as a privat-docent at the faculty of medicine in 1886, he received the honorary title of professor in 1893 and has directed since 1891 a private dispensary and laboratory ; he retired from his university positions in 1902.
Dutch lawyer, born in Groningen March 3, 1849. Doctorate in law in 1872, he taught at the gymnasium of his native city before becoming, in 1873, secretary of the commune of Groningen. Elected professor of law at the university of Groningen in 1885, he was called in 1893 to the chair of public law at the university of Leiden. He has directed since 1872 the 'Provinciale Groninger Courant' and has twice been a member of commissions charged with preparing public laws.
German naturalist, born in Berlin on May 28, 1863. Graduate of the Royal French Gymnasium of Berlin in 1882, he studied natural sciences, notably zoology and geology, at Heidelberg and Berlin, where he defended a thesis on fossil butterflies. He then devoted numerous essays to the tertiary period, studying the geology of Italy, Austria, Hungary, southern France, the Balkans and Germany; in 1902, he was put in charge of the rich collections brought back from Egypt and the Libyan desert by Zittel, Schweinfurth and Blanckenheim.
English physician, born in London in December 1832 and died in that city on January 7, 1895. He enters as a student at London Hospital in 1850, then leaves in 1853 for the Crimea, where he is assigned to the medical service at Scutari under the direction of Florence Nightingale. Returning to England in November 1854, he takes charge of a large number of invalid soldiers before establishing a private practice, after serving as a surgeon on the ship « Kent », with which he made two crossings to Australia.
German painter of genre and portrait, born of Orthodox parents in Hanau in 1801 and died in Frankfurt am Main on February 26, 1882. He received his first painting lessons in Hanau then entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich at the age of seventeen, before staying in Paris then in Rome, where he frequented the circle of artists around Thorwaldsen, Niebuhr and Overbeck and studied the life of the ghetto. Settled in Frankfurt in 1825, he received in 1832, through the intervention of Goethe, the honorary title of professor of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar; his paintings of Jewish life and his portraits of prominent figures are among the significant works of German Jewish art.
English lawyer, born in London in 1824, died in that city on January 3, 1883 ; son of Simeon Oppenheim, secretary of the Great Synagogue. Having become secretary of the literary institution of the Jews of London, he studies law in parallel, is admitted as a student at Middle Temple on November 9, 1854 and called to the bar in 1858. A litigator specialized on the southeastern circuit of England, he is elected in 1869 to the Board of Deputies of London, where he sits on the committees of law and parliamentary affairs, and devotes special attention to laws on marriage concerning Jews.
German physician and writer, born in Berlin on March 30, 1864, son of Rabbi Julius Oppenheimer. After studying medicine at Freiburg and Berlin (1881-86) and obtaining his doctorate in 1885, he practiced from 1887 as a specialist in throat and nasal diseases before devoting himself entirely to political economy and sociology.
British Consul General in Frankfurt-am-Main, born in Nastätten, in the Duchy of Nassau, in 1836, died in Frankfurt on June 21, 1900. Emigrated to London where he becomes a merchant, he returns to settle in Frankfurt in 1871 and devotes himself to Jewish charitable works. Appointed British honorary consul in 1880, he is knighted by Queen Victoria in 1892, then receives the jubilee medal in 1897.
American political cartoonist, born in Madison, Ohio, on 2 January 1857. Arriving in New York in 1873, he devoted himself to art, collaborated with « Frank Leslie's Weekly » then, for eighteen years, with « Puck », before joining the « New York Journal » in 1899. His cartoons of the 1900 presidential campaign, collected in 1901 under the title « Willie and His Papa », earned him a leading place among American cartoonists.
German merchant and traveler, born in Hamburg December 5, 1832, died September 19, 1903, brother of Jules Oppert. Left for Hong Kong in 1851 then settled in Shanghai, he traveled through Korea in 1866 and 1868 before returning to establish himself as a merchant in Hamburg. From these travels he produced « A Forbidden Land » (London, 1879; German translation « Ein Verschlossenes Land », Leipzig, 1880) and « Ostasiatische Wanderungen » (Leipzig, 1898).
German Orientalist, born in Hamburg on July 30, 1836, brother of Jules and Ernst Jacob Oppert. Trained in Bonn, Leipzig, Berlin and Halle, he joins Oxford as sub-librarian in 1860 before holding from 1872 to 1893 the Sanskrit chair of the Presidency College of Madras, then becomes private docent of Dravidian languages in Berlin. He is the author of numerous works, including « Der Presbyter Johannes in Sage und Geschichte » (Berlin, 1864).
French Orientalist and Assyriologist, born in Hamburg on July 9, 1825, died in Paris on August 19, 1905. Doctor of Kiel in 1847, he participated in 1851 in the French scientific expedition to Mesopotamia, where he identified the site of ancient Babylon, before becoming in 1857 professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology at the School of Oriental Languages attached to the National Library. He publishes notably his « Grammaire Sanscrite » in 1859.
Russian novelist, born in Yampol, in the government of Podolia, in 1831. Established in Romania, he published his first novel in Hebrew there in 1870, « Bet Ya'aḳob o Dim'at 'Ashuḳim », then several novels in Judeo-German, including « Arba'ah Abot Neziḳin » and « Ḥezyon Yisrael ».
English rabbi, born in London in 1836, died in Cape Town on December 6, 1895. Teacher at the Jews' Free School in London, he became at eighteen years old official minister of the congregation of Portsea, then directed from 1860 to 1866 the National Hebrew schools of Birmingham, before being called for ten years to the Hebrew Congregation of Melbourne. Returning to London in 1875, he returned to Portsea in 1876 as principal of the Aria college, then took the head of the congregation of Cape Town in 1882, a position he held until 1895.
Galician rabbinical authority, died in Lemberg in 1839, son of the rabbi of that city Mordecai Zeeb Ornstein, too young at his death to succeed him. After being rabbi of Zolkiev, he is called in 1806 to the rabbinate of Lemberg, which he occupies for thirty-three years, until his death, with a severity that aims especially at the pioneers of the Jewish Enlightenment in Galicia. He is the author of the « Yeshu'ot Ya'aḳob », commentary on the Shulḥan 'Arukh and the Pentateuch.
Austrian rabbinical scholar, died in Lemberg on October 28, 1837, son of Jacob Meshullam Ornstein, rabbi of that city, who instructed him in Talmudic and rabbinical literature and several of whose responsa appear in his father's « Yeshu'ot Ya'aḳob ». Precocious and proud, he long refused any rabbinical appointment before accepting the rabbinate of Przemysl, the third city of Galicia, but died before taking office.
Austrian rabbi, born in Lemberg, where he died on March 21, 1888, son of Mordecai Zeeb Ornstein and grandson of Jacob Meshullam Ornstein, rabbis of the same city. He first held the rabbinate of Brest-Litovsk from 1855, before being removed by the authorities in 1874; rabbi of Rzeszow from 1874 to 1875, he then obtained that of Lemberg, which he kept until his death. A collection of his responsa, « Milḥamot », was published after his death in Lemberg in 1889.
Russian jurist and publicist, born in Yekaterinoslav in 1846, died in that same town on 5 September 1875. Entering the University of Kharkov in 1863 to study law, he writes there from the same year his first scholarly work, a study on the talmudic legend of Alexander the Great, published by the Society for the Propagation of Culture among the Jews of Russia. He obtains in 1868 his degree of bachelor of law, having pursued in parallel research on the Jewish question in Russia and works in Russian law.
Russian physician, born in Yekaterinoslav around 1851, younger brother of jurist Ilya Orshanski. Trained first in Bible and Talmud, he enrolled in 1869 at the medical faculty of Odessa, obtained his diploma in 1875, then specialized in neurology in Saint Petersburg before serving as surgeon in the Caucasian army during the Russo-Turkish War. Privat-docent at Kharkov University from 1883, he directed in 1904 the nervous diseases department of Odessa's municipal hospital.
Born in Stettin to German Jewish parents, Abraham and Berthe Hammerstein. Impresario who opened several theatres and opera houses in New York, he helped revive the popularity of opera in the United States. Grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
Grandson of Oscar Hammerstein I, one of the greatest lyricists-librettists of American musical theater (Show Boat, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The Sound of Music). Eight Tony Awards and two Oscars for Best Song.
Italian engineer
Austrian physician, born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, on July 27th, 1839. Graduate of the University of Vienna, he established himself there as a physician in 1862, became privatdocent in 1872, head of service at the general dispensary and physician at the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna, then assistant professor in 1885. Collaborator of the medical encyclopedias of Eulenburg and Nothnagel, he published notably on intestinal syphilis (1875, 1880) and cholera (1887).
Yiddish poet, precursor of the Kiev group, died fighting in the Red Army.
Italian physician, born in Montagnana in 1818, died in Padua on 1 May 1881. Graduate in medicine from Padua University in 1851, he devoted himself from 1854 onwards to the study of silkworm diseases, the subject of memoirs presented to the Academy of Padua and the Institute of Venice as well as two works published in 1876 and 1877. He is also the author of an account of the massacre of the Jews of Asolo in 1547, published in Casale-Monferrato in 1875.
Russian and Yiddish playwright (Bronx Express), figure of American Yiddish theatre.
French philanthropist and patron, born in Bordeaux on July 23, 1825. He devoted his fortune to numerous works: synagogues in Arcachon, rue Buffault in Paris — inaugurated on September 3, 1877 according to the Sephardic rite — and in Bruyères in the Vosges in 1903, statues in Nancy, Paris and Lausanne, scientific and artistic prizes including the one instituted in 1889 during the Universal Exposition. In 1903, he also offered to the State the château of Malmaison, former residence of the Empress Josephine.
Russian Revolutionary (1849–1926)
French painter and sculptor of Russian origin
American electrical engineer, born in Frankfurt am Main on June 12, 1869. Arriving with his parents in New York in 1884, he undertook in 1891 the study of electricity and graduated as an electrical engineer from Columbia University in 1894, where he also obtained the degree of master of arts in 1896. He is the author of the "Index to Current Electrical Literature" (1893) and a "Text-Book on Thermodynamics" (1894).
Russian economist and political sociologist, born in 1854, son of a Jewish teacher from Grodno. After studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg, he published as early as 1872 a chronology of Russian history, then in 1876 an annual legal almanac, and in 1889 in Paris his study on the organization of political parties in the United States. His work « La Femme, au Point de Vue du Droit Public » (Paris, 1892), crowned by the Faculty of Law, was translated into English in 1893, then developed into a three-volume sum, « Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties » (New York, 1902), prefaced by James Bryce.
Croatian banker
German poetess, born in Stuttgart on 10 September 1807, died in the same city in 1883. A fervent Jew concerned with combating anti-Jewish prejudices, she counts among her friends and correspondents Uhland, Rückert, Michael Beer and Gabriel Riesser. Her most important work, « Der Kettenschmied, ein Märchentraum », dedicated to Uhland, appears in Stuttgart in 1835; she also publishes collections of poems and narratives between 1832 and 1841.
German writer, born in Breslau on November 19, 1808, died in Blasewitz, near Dresden, on June 26, 1872. Converted to Catholicism in 1828, he led a life as an itinerant journalist between Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Mannheim, Leipzig and Paris before settling in Blasewitz after 1860, publishing novels, poems and historical writings. He undertook in 1866 in Dresden his great universal biographical dictionary, the "Moniteur des Dates", which he continued until his death and which Hugo Schramm-Macdonald completed in Leipzig in 1881, with over a million entries.
Austrian physician, born in Tarnow, Galicia, on May 7, 1818, died in Cracow on October 2, 1895. A graduate of Cracow University (doctor of medicine in 1843, doctor of surgery in 1850), he has taught the history of medicine since 1851, but only becomes a privatdocent in 1867 due to his Polish sympathies deemed hostile to Austria; promoted to associate professor shortly after, he serves until 1889. Chief physician of the Jewish hospital in Cracow, he edits the journal "Przeglad Lekarski" for many years and publishes numerous medical studies in Polish.
Czech sculptor of Jewish origin, pioneer of cubist sculpture alongside Picasso and Archipenko, born in Dvůr Králové.
Born on February 21, 1867 in Mannheim (Grand Duchy of Baden) in a German Jewish family. Emigrated to London and then to New York, he became in 1897 partner of the Kuhn, Loeb & Co. bank where he specialized in the reorganization of railroad companies. A great patron of the arts, he chaired the Metropolitan Opera (approx. 1910–1931). He published several collections of essays and speeches on art, economics and politics.
German politician
Austrian journalist and author (1897–1973)
Austrian philosopher, sociologist, economist and graphic designer
German physician
Born in Sohrau (now Żory) in a Jewish family, doctoral degree in physical chemistry from Breslau (1912), collaborator of Einstein. He developed the molecular beam method and, with Walther Gerlach, carried out the Stern-Gerlach experiment (1922) demonstrating spatial quantization. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics 1943 for the development of the molecular beam method and the discovery of the proton's magnetic moment.
German mathematician from a Jewish family of mathematicians, known for his work in functional analysis (Toeplitz matrices, Hellinger-Toeplitz theorem). Dismissed from his position in 1935 under Nazi laws, he emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939 where he was scientific adviser to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his death.
Austrian philosopher and psychologist
Italian author, born at Acqui on 7 November 1820, died on 5 October 1883 at Alessandria, where he had resided since 1848. A fervent patriot, correspondent of D'Azeglio, Bianchi-Giovini, Balbo and Gioberti, he devoted his fortune to improving the condition of the poor classes of Alessandria, making his philanthropic projects known through the press and his own writings, including « La Causa dei Poveri Deferta al Sesso Gentile » (1860) and « Della Povertà e della Beneficenza in Alessandria » (1868).
Italian philanthropist, born in Acqui on 5 November 1830, residing in Alessandria since 1848. Elected to the municipal council in 1882 and reelected several times, he sits on the council of the refuge for the indigent, founds asylums, directs the Bank of Italy, the savings bank and the local Jewish community, and presides over the national society of the Province of Alessandria. Made knight then commander of the Crown of Italy, he was created Count of Vallepiana by Humbert I on 22 February 1883.
Italian general, born in Sabbioneta, Lombardy, on December 26, 1838, died in Turin on November 2, 1904. Volunteer in the 1859 campaign, he took part in the campaigns of 1860 and 1861 — first Jew to join a general staff —, was promoted captain in 1863, then fought brigands in Basilicata in 1864 and received the Cross of Savoy during the 1866 campaign. Professor of military history at the Royal Military School of Modena and military attaché during the Franco-Prussian War, he became brigadier general in 1888, commander of the Turin division in 1895, Minister of War in 1902-3 and senator of the realm in 1902.
Italian rabbi, born in Acqui in 1820, died in Rome in 1890. He successively held the rabbinates of Turin, Moncalvo and then, from 1858, Acqui, before spending his last years in Rome. Renowned preacher and author of Hebrew poems, he also wrote plays such as « Matrimonio Misto » and, in his youth, the tragedy « Etelwige », performed in Acqui in 1852.
Italian philanthropist, born in Asti on November 3, 1829, died in Pisa on February 20, 1904. He rebuilds in 1889 the synagogue of Asti, organizes an exhibition of which he is president then promotes a second one in 1898; King Humbert I, who visits both exhibitions, confers on him on March 14, 1899 the hereditary title of count. In 1903, he offers Asti a statue of Humbert I and founds the Alfieri collection at the Palazzo Alfieri.
Italian physician, born in Asti on March 20, 1861. Trained in his native city then at the University of Turin (doctor of medicine in 1884), he has been since 1888 assistant professor of medicine and head of the forensic medicine department at the University of Siena. Author of nearly eighty studies, notably on forensic medicine, anthropology and criminology, he published among others « Anomalie del Campo Visivo Nei Precopatici e Nei Criminali » (Turin, 1891) and « Il Glicogeno dei Muscoli e del Fegato nel Cadavere » (Siena, 1901).
One of the leaders of Russian Zionism, born in 1863 in Dubrovna, in the governorate of Moghilev, who left for Moscow with his parents in 1871. Graduate engineer in 1889, settled in Yekaterinoslav since 1891, he was one of the founders of Bilou and of the societies Hovevei Sion and Bné Sion of Moscow, delegate to the conference of the Hovevei Sion of Drouskeniki in 1887, and co-founder in 1890 of the Odessa association for aid to Jewish settlers in Palestine. Having become one of Herzl's most fervent disciples, with whom he corresponded from 1896, he participated in all Zionist congresses except the sixth and was sent to Palestine in 1903 to purchase land, firmly opposing the Ugandan project.
Rabbi of Tunis, author of Mishkenot ha-Roïm, a collection of 1,499 responsa.
Israeli rabbi
Hungarian historian, keeper of the state archives, born in Veszprém on December 31, 1833. He took part in the Hungarian struggle for freedom of 1848 and then in the Italian war of independence of 1860, before devoting himself to history; he became deputy keeper of the archives in 1876, chief keeper in 1904, and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1892. His writings, notably against Romanian anti-Hungarian propaganda in Italy, include « La Questione Dacoromana e lo Stato Ungherese » (1894).
Yiddish prose writer close to Di Khalyastre; murdered at Auschwitz.
Polish rabbi
Russian rabbi, born and died in Brest-Litovsk, December 12, 1854, descendant of the Katzenellenbogen family established in this city for over three centuries. Rabbi of Pinsk-Karlin, he was chosen in 1837 as rabbi of Brest-Litovsk upon the death of his relative Aryeh Löb Katzenellenbogen, but entered office only in 1840; in 1852, during a great famine, he authorized Jews to eat peas and beans at Passover, a dispensation he justified in one of his responsa. He is the author of the « Meḳor Ḥayyim » (Sudzilkow, 1836), « Ketonet Passim » (Königsberg, 1840), and responsa, « Teshubot Maharim » (Warsaw, 1854), published the year of his death.
Austrian actor, born in Vienna on November 11, 1845. Intended by his father, a broker, for a commercial career, he preferred the theater, debuting as a chorister then singing comic operetta roles in Linz and Odessa, before obtaining in 1887 an engagement at the Residenztheater in Berlin, where he still held important character roles in 1904. His wife, Sophie Pagay, born Berg in Brünn on April 22, 1860, debuted as a child at the Stadttheater of Brünn, herself joined in 1887 the Residenztheater of Berlin, then the Lessingtheater until 1899, the year she entered the Königliche Hoftheater in roles of elderly women.
Austrian actress, born in Vienna, died in Berlin on 18 November 1892. She made her debut at fourteen in the role of Cupid in « Orpheus in der Unterwelt » at the Quaitheater in Vienna, and achieved success in operettas by Offenbach, Suppé, Millöcker and Strauss as well as in farces, before suddenly leaving the stage to retire to Berlin.
German physician and historian of medicine, born in Pollnow, in Pomerania, on May 29, 1851. Doctor of medicine from Berlin in 1875, he established himself as a practitioner there from 1876, obtained the venia legendi in 1891 and the title of professor in 1898, then became in 1902 associate professor of the history of medicine. Associate editor of the "Biographisches Lexikon" by Hirsch since 1885, he published notably "Die Chirurgie des H. v. Mondeville" (1892) and "Einführung in die Gesch. der Medizin" (1898).
Hungarian actor
Hungarian politician
Hungarian poet, born in Becse on April 15, 1866, trained by his father and his older brother Melchior Palágyi. He began writing at thirteen, his first poem appearing in 1879 in the « Magyar Népbarát », and won in 1890 the prize of the Petöfi society for a poem intended for the monument of the thirteen martyrs. Appointed professor at the state seminary for female teachers in Budapest, he publishes numerous collections and sees his tragedy « A Rabszolga » crowned by the Hungarian Academy in 1902.
Hungarian writer, born in Paks on 26 December 1859. Trained by his father and then at the lycées of Temesvar and Kassa, he entered in 1877 the Budapest School of Technology, where he published in 1880, still a student, a mathematical treatise accepted by the Academy of Sciences, before turning to philosophy. He edits the journals "Irodalmi Lapok" (1882), "Uj Nemzedék" (1887) and "Jelenkor" (1896), and notably publishes "Neue Theorie des Raumes und der Zeit" (Leipzig, 1901).
American journalist, born February 6, 1871 in Radoszkowice, in the government of Wilna, in Russia. Trained in the talmudic colleges of Minsk, Volozhin and Libau, he emigrated in 1889 to New York, where he directed « Der Volksadvokat », then settled in Philadelphia in 1891 for « Jüdische Presse » and, in 1892, for « Volkswächter ». Returning to New York, he has directed since 1893 the « Jüdisches Tageblatt » and « Jüdische Gazetten », which he made into the most widely circulated Jewish newspaper in the world.
Biblical scholar, born in 1805, died in Berditchev on February 27, 1886. Bible instructor at the rabbinic seminary of Jitomir until its closure, he devoted his life to study and published « Ḳera Miḳra » (Jitomir, 1874) on biblical Hebrew and various biblical subjects, as well as articles in several periodicals.
Austrian poetess born in Vienna on December 30, 1814, died in Baden, near Vienna, on July 5, 1894. Orphaned of her father very young and forced to earn her living, she first taught in Russian Poland and then became in 1843 lady's companion to Princess Marianne Schwarzenberg, until the latter's death in 1848, before traveling three years in Paris and Berlin and settling permanently in Vienna in 1852. Her collections of verses, including « Gedichte » (1841) and « Romancero » (1845), were much read at the end of the 19th century.
Bulgarian rabbi and author, born in Sarajevo, in Bosnia, died in 1824. Rabbi of Silistria, in Bulgaria, until his death, he led an ascetic life that earned him the nickname « the Holy One » (ha-Ḳadosh). He is the author of the « Pele Yo'eẓ », rules of morality in alphabetical order (Constantinople, 1824; Bucharest, 1860), of the « Elef ha-Magen » (Salonika, 1828), sermons on sections of the Pentateuch, and of the « Ḥesed la-Alafim » (1836), published by his son Juda Papo.
Representative of the Jews of Bavaria and architect of their emancipation, born and died in Munich, September 8, 1837. Liberal and progressive, he pleaded as early as February 24, 1805 in a letter for the civil emancipation of his coreligionists, presented in 1821 to the king, in the name of an assembly of Munich notables, a memorandum on the question, then submitted in 1827 to the Bavarian ministry a project for consistorial organization of the communities. For twenty-five years president of the Munich community, he owed it the building of a great synagogue and several charitable foundations.
Italian senator and deputy, born in Rovigo in 1839, died in Nervi, near Genoa, on April 15, 1898. After studying law, he enlisted in 1860 as a volunteer under Garibaldi and took part in the Sicilian expedition, then followed him to Aspromonte in 1862 and in the Tyrol in 1866. Elected deputy for Rovigo then for Chioggia, he subsequently devoted himself to journalism as editor of the « Diritto », practiced law in Rome, and was elected senator on January 29, 1889; he is the author of legal works published in Mantua (1871) and in Bologna (1881).
English harpist and composer, born in Teignmouth on February 28, 1810, died in Vienna on January 25, 1849, student of Dizi, Labarre, and Bochsa. After a tour in Germany in 1831 and then in Italy in 1834, he stayed in Vienna until 1838, then traveled the Orient between 1838 and 1842 to collect melodies, before settling permanently in Vienna in 1847, where he received the title of imperial chamber harpist. He left notably « A Harpist's Voyage in the Orient », op. 62, and concertos for harp and orchestra.
Austrian pharmacologist, born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, on March 21, 1849, graduate of the University of Vienna (doctor of medicine in 1872). Assistant at the university hospital, he becomes privat-docent of pharmacology in 1883 and publishes numerous essays, including « Kosmetik für Aerzte » (Vienna, 1890) and « Materia Medica » (1891), while collaborating on several medical encyclopedias and directing Scheff's « Handbuch der Zahnheilkunde ».
South African pioneer, linked with his brother Elias de Pass to the Cape colony from 1846. Their house, De Pass, Spence & Co., develops whale fishing, sealing, guano and fish, becomes the main shipowner of the port and, from 1849, the first concessionaire of the government guano islands, exploiting the Sandwich Harbor fisheries until 1886 and opening trade from Hondeklip Bay and Port Nolloth towards the interior. De Pass had previously traded in Namaqualand, shipping dried fish to Mauritius on his own vessels, and owned in Natal the large sugar refinery of Réunion.
Italian physician, born in Siena on December 14, 1867, trained at the Istituto di Studi Superiori in Florence, where he was attached in 1904 to the city's hygiene service. Author of numerous medical articles and pamphlets, he published in particular several studies on hygiene and medicine among the ancient Hebrews, including « Dermosifilopatia Biblica » (Milan, 1898) and « L'Allattamento, Saggio di Pediatria Biblica » (Bologna, 1898).
Austrian physicist born in Vienna to Jewish parents from Loštice (Moravia). Major contributions to statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics (Ehrenfest theorem, classification of phase transitions). Professor at Leiden, close friend of Einstein. He married mathematician Tatyana Afanassieva, with whom he wrote several works.
legal scholar
French rabbi
Born in Vienna to a family of landowners, a Zionist, Paul Joseph Diamant was a genealogist and historian of Austrian Jews. He founded the short-lived « Archiv für jüdische Familienforschung » (1912–1913), defended his thesis in Vienna (1929) on Jewish sigillography and heraldry, and devoted himself notably to the genealogy of Theodor Herzl (to whom he was related). He emigrated to Palestine after the Anschluss.
German entrepreneur
German art historian
German rabbi
Born in Ronchamp from a family partly Alsatian, son of Isidore Strauss, a Jewish cloth merchant. Senator for the Seine from 1897 to 1936, he served as Minister of Health, Welfare and Social Foresight (1922–1924), pioneer of mother and child protection, public health and social housing. He published numerous writings on these social issues.
First female rabbi in the United States
Czech painter active in Hamburg
Hungaro-Italian opera singer (1876–1924)
Born Pinchus Boruch in a poor Jewish family of innkeepers in the Chernigov governorate. Initially close to Bakunin, he turned to Marxism and co-founded in 1883, with Plekhanov, the group "Emancipation of Labour," the first Russian Marxist organization. Member of the editorial committee of Iskra (1900), he opposed Lenin at the Second Congress of the POSDR (1903) and became the principal ideologue of Menshevism, advocating for a mass workers' party and the self-activity of the proletariat.
Italian poet, born in Milan on January 4, 1822, died in Asolo, near Treviso, on December 30, 1893. A student of Luigi Carrer, she held a salon in Venice frequented by patriots and men of letters, and married twice, first to the Hebraist S. Gentilomo and then to Dr. Fortis. She published « Odi » (1842) and « Nuove Poesie » (1851), dedicated to Carrer, as well as verses on Hebrew subjects in the « Annuario » of Flaminio Servi (Corfu, 1873) and translations of medieval Hebrew poetry.
Lawyer and Italian deputy, born in Venice on February 24, 1858, prosecutor of the province of Como in 1904. Chosen in January 1894 to succeed Genala as deputy of Soresina, in the province of Cremona, he was reelected at the general elections of May 26, 1895 and again in December 1904.
Emperor of Brazil, born on 2 December 1825, died in Paris on 5 December 1891. He succeeded his father Pedro I and took personal control of government in July 1840, before spending his final years in exile after his deposition in 1889. An enlightened and erudite prince, he devoted his leisure to the study of Hebrew and published shortly before his death, for the centenary of the attachment of the Comtat Venaissin to the French Republic, three liturgical Hebraico-Provençal poems translated into French, under the title « Poésies Hébraïco-Provençales du Rituel Israélite Comtadin » (Avignon, 1891).
Polish author, born in Mariampol, in the government of Suwałki, in May 1831, died in Warsaw on 30 September 1896. Trained in the Bible, Talmud and sciences, he settled in Warsaw in 1855 and founded there in 1865 "Izraelita", a Polish weekly devoted to Jewish interests which he directed until his death, defending the Jewish cause against antisemitic attacks and publishing stories and translations; he also left in manuscript a history of the Jews in Polish, "Historya Żydów".
Russian author and translator, born in Stavropol, in the Caucasus, in 1871. Graduated in 1894 from the faculty of oriental languages of the University of Saint Petersburg, with a gold medal for his dissertation on Gnostic sects, he undertook thereafter a major scholarly work: the first complete Russian translation of the Mishna and Tosefta, published in Saint Petersburg between 1899 and 1904 under the title "Talmud, Michna i Tossefta", which sold more than four thousand copies. In 1904, he was working on the translation of the Mekhilta, Sifra, and Sifré, and taught the Jewish religion in German gymnasiums in Saint Petersburg.
English physician and medical writer, born in London on 22 May 1804, died in that city on 20 January 1853. Apothecary graduate in 1823 and honorary doctor of Erlangen in 1840, he became in 1826 lecturer in chemistry at the Royal College of Surgeons, established himself as a physician in London in 1832, then professor of materia medica at the Aldersgate Medical School, at London Hospital from 1839, and finally at the Pharmaceutical Society in 1843. A medal bearing his name exists today. He notably published « Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics » (1839-40) and « A Treatise on Food and Diet » (1843).
Born in Polonnoïe (Volhynia). Major figure of Yiddish modernism (Kiev group with Hofstein and Kvitko; expressionist anthology « Di Chaliastre », Warsaw 1922). Settled in the USSR in 1926, highly prolific. Member of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, executed on August 12, 1952 (« Night of the Murdered Poets »).
Born around 1842 in the Smolensk region. Founder, editor, and principal contributor of the Hebrew journal Ha-Shahar ("The Dawn"), published in Vienna from 1868 to 1884, a major literary platform of late Haskalah and nascent Jewish nationalism. Author of novels in Hebrew. Died in 1885.
Writer in Yiddish and Hebrew, born in Zamość, in the government of Lublin, on May 25, 1851, distinguished very young as a prodigy of Hebrew studies. After a period of Haskalah marked by criticism of Jewish mores, he published his first poems in « Ha-Shaḥar » (1876) and, with G. J. Lichtenfeld, « Sippurim be-Shir we-Shirim Shonim » (Warsaw, 1877), before a long silence broken in 1886 by new poems in « Ha-Asif ». Forced to abandon the bar of his native city, he became an employee of the Jewish community of Warsaw and devoted himself to literature, telling the story of the people in its own dialect; his complete works were published in Hebrew in Warsaw in 1899.
Hebraist and Austrian poet of the early nineteenth century, author of the 'Yesode ha-Lashon', a self-teaching manual of Hebrew in Judeo-German (Vienna, 1813; 2nd revised edition, 1832), as well as several Hebrew poems. Delitzsch counts him among the finest poets of the German school, contributors to the 'Bikkure ha-'Ittim'.
German historian, born in Danzig, Prussia, on November 4, 1848, doctorate in philosophy from Göttingen in 1871 after studies in Breslau and Heidelberg. University librarian in Königsberg (1872-1876), Greifswald (1876-83) then Halle (1883-1903), he then directed the Royal Library of Berlin; his works, devoted especially to the medieval history of East and West Prussia, include notably "Preussische Regesten bis zum Ausgang des 13. Jahrhunderts" (Königsberg, 1876) and "Prussia Scholastica" (Leipzig, 1896).
Librarian and Christian orientalist, born in Piacenza on October 27, 1827, educated at the Alberoni college in his native city from 1844 to 1849. Placed in 1860 at the head of the oriental collection of the National Library of Parma, of which he became chief librarian in 1876, he devoted himself from that date to rabbinical literature, notably publishing the commentary of Emmanuel ben Salomon of Rome on the Psalms (Parma, 1879-82), on Esther (1880) and on Lamentations (1881), as well as a vast repertory of Hebrew abbreviations (Parma, 1883).
Rosh yeshiva, founder of the yeshivot of Shklov and Kobrin, principal teacher of Moshe Feinstein.
Austrian writer
German rabbi
Russian-English architect
British politician
American rabbi
German historian
German rabbi and educator
Austro-Hungarian neuropathologist
Member of the Speyer Jewish banking dynasty of Frankfurt. Emigrated to the United States in 1837, he founded Philipp Speyer & Co. in New York in 1845 (later Speyer & Co.). First banker to place Union bonds in Europe during the Civil War.
Hungarian pianist, born in Budapest on September 2, 1863. Left for Paris at sixteen, he enters the Conservatory in the class of Mathias and wins in 1883 the first prize for piano, before perfecting himself under Saint-Saëns, Stephen Heller and Ritter. He performs in Paris, Brussels, London, Geneva and Barcelona, founds with Loeb and Berthelier concerts of chamber music at the Salle Erard, presides over the Art Society and composes notably a "Suite Fantastique" and a "Sérénade Humoristique" for orchestra.
French playwright, born in Paris on April 18, 1840. Initially destined for commerce, he abandoned it in 1869 for music, served as a volunteer in the Breton Legion during the Franco-Prussian War, directed the « Revue et Gazette Musicale » from 1872 to 1888, then devoted himself to journalism, and received the Legion of Honor in 1886. Author of seventy-five theatrical pieces, including « Boussigneul », performed in almost all European languages, and the military drama « Kléber », he also edited the unpublished dramatic works of George Sand.
French officer, born in 1825, died in Paris on July 23, 1848. Instructing lieutenant of artillery in the National Guard, he was charged with the defense of the Paris Town Hall during the 1848 revolution and mortally wounded on June 24, 1848 in a confrontation with insurgents; the Jews of France raised a monument to his memory.
French engineer, born in Paris on October 6, 1838, trained at the École polytechnique as an engineer of highways and bridges. Major of auxiliary engineers in the Army of the North during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), he leads in 1876 the movement for the lowering of level crossings around the periphery of Paris, then directs from 1881 to 1903 the service of irrigation and drainage at the Ministry of Agriculture, conducting missions in southern Algeria and California; he is in 1904 inspector general of highways and bridges of the first class and commander of the Legion of Honour.
American journalist, born in Philadelphia on November 9, 1828, graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1847. After studying and beginning his journalism career in Europe, he joined the "New York Times" upon his return, where he worked for more than thirty years, while publishing two works, "The Struggle" and "Burning Their Ships."
Jamaican statesman, born in 1811, died in Kingston, Jamaica, on December 29, 1886. An influential figure on the island, he held the presidency of the Privy Council and other high executive posts, and preserved by his calm the interests of the colony during the troubled period called the « Saturnalia of Blood ».
American journalist and writer, born in London on May 9, 1834, educated in Cleveland then in New York, where he studied law before becoming, from September 1854, associate editor of the « New York Home Journal » alongside Nathaniel Parker Willis; at the latter's death in January 1867, he became its editor-in-chief and sole owner. A prolific writer and great traveler, he was also special correspondent for several newspapers.
American jurist, born in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 17, 1807, died in Washington on January 14, 1884. Admitted to the bar in 1829, he established himself in Cheraw then, after a stint in the South Carolina legislature, moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he presided over the state convention in 1837 and sat in the legislature in 1844 and 1852, then in Congress in 1853-55. Later settled in Washington then in New Orleans during the Civil War, he returned to finish his life in Washington; he published in 1840 a "Digest of Decision of the Supreme Court of Alabama" and married Eugenia Levy of Charleston in 1836.
English journalist, born in London in 1815, died in Brighton in October 1854. Began as an actor at Covent Garden at fifteen, passed through Cambridge and Göttingen before turning, in London in 1841, to literature and journalism; his novel « Caleb Stukeley », published in « Blackwood's Magazine » and reissued in 1843, marks his debut, followed by a career as a feared literary critic at the « Times », where he notably attacked Dickens, Carlyle, and Mrs Stowe. In 1852 and 1854 two volumes of his literary essays appeared anonymously; having become secretary and then literary director of the Crystal Palace Society, he edited its « Guide » and « Portrait Gallery ».
Lord Mayor of London, born in London in 1811, died in that city on October 9, 1889, son of tailor Samuel Phillips. Married in 1833, he founds with his brother-in-law Henry Faudel the house Faudel, Phillips & Sons, becomes president of the Institution for poor blind Jews in 1850 and then works on the founding of the United Synagogue and sits for thirty years on the Board of Deputies. Elected municipal councilor in 1846, alderman in 1857, sheriff in 1859, he is elected lord mayor on September 29, 1865, raises 70,000 pounds for the cholera fund and receives the title of nobility from Queen Victoria for this, before retiring in 1888 in favor of his son Sir George Faudel-Phillips.
Adolf Pichler is an Austrian painter born in 1834 in Cziffer, in the county of Pressburg (Hungary). After studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, where he teaches drawing, he goes to Munich to study under Wilhelm von Kaulbach and Volz. He is the author of paintings on religious and historical subjects, including « Moses descending from Sinai discovers the people worshipping the golden calf » and « Spinoza polishing lenses ».
Aaron Pick is a biblical scholar born in Prague, where he converted to Christianity, before teaching Hebrew at the university; he lived in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. He publishes a literal translation from Hebrew of the twelve minor prophets (1833), then of Obadiah (1834), a treatise on Hebrew accents (1837) and « The Bible Student's Concordance » (1845).
Alois Pick is an Austrian physician, medical author, and playwright born on October 15, 1859 in Karolinenthal, near Prague. Graduating in medicine from Prague in 1883, he became privatdozent at the University of Vienna in 1890 then associate professor in 1904, while serving as chief physician at the First Imperial-Royal Army Hospital in Vienna. He authored numerous medical essays as well as two short farces, "Briefsteller für Liebende" and "Lord Beefsteak."
Arnold Pick is an Austrian psychiatrist born on July 20, 1851 in Gross-Meseritsch, Moravia, trained in Berlin and Vienna (doctor of medicine in 1875). He practiced as an assistant physician in the asylums of Wehnen and then Prague, became privat-docent at the University of Prague in 1878, directed the asylum of Dobrzan from 1880, before being elected professor of psychiatry in Prague in 1886.
Behrendt Pick is a German numismatist and archaeologist, born on December 21, 1861 in Posen. Trained at the University of Berlin (doctorate in 1884), where he specializes in epigraphy and numismatics on the advice of Theodor Mommsen, he becomes privat-docent in archaeology at Zurich in 1889, then director of the ducal cabinet of coins in Gotha in 1899 and lecturer in numismatics at Jena from 1896. His principal work, « Dacia und Moesia », first volume of « Die Antiken Münzen Nordgriechenlands », appears in Berlin in 1898.
Philipp Joseph Pick is an Austrian dermatologist born on October 14, 1834 in Neustadt, Bohemia. Doctor of medicine from Vienna in 1860, he established himself in Prague in 1868 as a privatdocent, then became professor of dermatology at the German university in the city in 1896. In 1869, he founded with Heinrich Auspitz the « Archiv für Dermatologie », which he remained sole editor of after his colleague's death in 1886, and he contributed in 1889 to the creation of the Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft, of which he was the first president.
Born in Turin in a wealthy Italian Jewish family (father Angelo Sraffa, mother Irma Tivoli; ancestors merchants in Pisa for several generations). Invited by Keynes, he settled in Cambridge in 1927. His work Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities (1960) founded the neo-Ricardian school; he also edited the Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo.
Born André Isaac in Châlons-sur-Marne into an Alsatian Jewish family (butcher father). Master of the absurd and the pun, he founded in 1938 the humorous weekly L'Os à moelle. During the war he hosted "Les Français parlent aux Français" on Radio Londres (1943). After the war, duo with Francis Blanche (Sar Rabindranath Duval, serial Signé Furax).
French gallery owner
Rebbe (1876–1941)
Lithuanian rabbi
German rabbi
Born near Grodno (Lithuania), immigrated to the United States at age 16. Founder of the Jewish Legion at the beginning of World War I, he served with the British Army in Palestine. In the 1920s–1930s, director of the Yiddish Teachers Seminary and, in 1932, editor of the pedagogical journal "Yidishe Dertsiung".
Hasidic rabbi who served in Pilica and Czestochowa, Poland (1848 - 1920)
French painter, lithographer and sculptor of Lithuanian origin (1890-1981)
Arthur Wing Pinero is an English dramatist, born in London on May 24, 1855, eldest son of John Daniel Pinero and descendant of a Sephardic family. First a clerk in a law office then an actor at the Royal Theatre of Edinburgh and at the Lyceum in London under the direction of Henry Irving, he turns to playwriting and achieves his first success with "Two Hundred a Year" (1877), then "The Money Spinners" (1880) and "The Magistrate", which establishes his reputation. Under the influence of Ibsen, he later writes "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray", then "Trelawny of the Wells" (1898), "The Gay Lord Quex" (1899), "Iris" (1901) and "Letty" (1903).
Jehiel Michael Pines was a Russian Talmudist and Hebraist, born on September 26, 1842 in Rojany, in the province of Grodno, son of Noah Pines and son-in-law of Shemaria Luria, rabbi of Moghilev. Delegated to London for the foundation of charitable institutions in Palestine, he was sent to Jerusalem in 1878 to organize them, settled there and worked for Jewish colonies despite an excommunication pronounced by Palestinian rabbis. He founded in 1864 the Orthodox journal "Ha-Lebanon" and published in 1872 and 1873 the two parts of "Yalde Ruḥi", then "'Abodat ha-Adamah" in 1891.
Notable of Tangier, community leader and journalist, having contributed to newspapers in Madrid (Moroccan Jewish archive).
Turkish rabbi
Herman Pinkhof is a Dutch physician born in Rotterdam on May 10, 1863, graduate of the university of Leiden in 1886. Established as a physician in Amsterdam, he collaborated from 1893 onward on the « Nederlandsch Tijdschrift van Geneeskunde », founded in 1895 the Society for the promotion of Jewish interests in the Netherlands, and chaired from 1898 onward the society combating neo-Malthusian principles. In 1890, he published « Abraham Kashlari: over Pestachtige Koortsen », and sat on the council of the theological seminary of Dr Dünner in Amsterdam.
Adolf Pinner is a German chemist born on August 31, 1842 in Wronke, in the province of Posen, trained at the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau and then at the University of Berlin, where he earned his doctorate in chemistry in 1867. He became a privatdocent there in 1871, assistant professor of chemistry in 1873, then professor of chemistry at the Berlin veterinary school in 1874, before being appointed in 1884 a member of the German patent office. Author of numerous scientific essays, he notably published "Repetitorium der Chemie," translated into English, Russian, and Japanese.
Lev Pinsker is a Russian physician born in 1821 in Tomashev, in the governorate of Piotrków, in Poland, son of Simḥa Pinsker, died in Odessa on 21 December 1891. Trained in medicine in Moscow, where he distinguished himself by his devotion during the cholera epidemic of 1848, he then practiced at the municipal hospital in Odessa. In 1881, he published anonymously « Autoemancipation », a plea for the acquisition of land by Jews, which prompted an international congress and the creation of a society to aid Jewish immigration to Palestine and Syria, which he chaired.
Simḥa Pinsker is a Hebrew scholar and Polish archaeologist, born in Tarnopol, Galicia, on 17 March 1801, and died in Odessa on 29 October 1864. Trained by his father Shebaḥ ha-Levi, he founded a public Jewish school in Odessa which he directed until 1840, before devoting himself to deciphering a singular system of punctuation discovered by Abraham Firkovitch on an ancient manuscript of the Latter Prophets. Honored by the Russian government with two gold medals and the title of « Honored Citizen », he retired to Vienna where he published his major work, « Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot » (1860), devoted to the history of Karaism.
Settimio Piperno is an Italian economist born in Rome in 1834, professor of statistics and political economy at the Technical Institute of Rome and director of the Cesi technical school, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Jewish community of Rome. He is the author of several works on economics and social law, including "Elementi di Scienza Economica" (Turin, 1878), "Il Riconoscimento Giuridico delle Società di Mutuo Soccorso" (Rome, 1882) and "La Nuova Scuola di Diritto Penale in Italia" (Rome, 1886).
Nikolaï Ivanovitch Pirogov is a Russian physician and pedagogue, born in 1810 and died in November 1881, professor at Dorpat University. His article "Voprosy K Jizni", published in 1856 in the "Morskoï Sbornik", led to his appointment as superintendent of the school district of Odessa (1856-1858) and then of Kiev (1858-1861), where he distinguished himself by a benevolent attitude toward Jews and keen interest in their educational problems.
German rabbi (1872-1936)
Abraham Marcus Pjurko is a Russian hebraist and pedagogue, born in Łomża on February 15, 1853, who devotes himself after his talmudic studies to modern Hebrew literature. He publishes notably the biblical poem "Bat Yiftaḥ" (Lyck, 1873), a Hebrew epistolary manual, "Sefer Miktabim ha-Shalem" (1882), and the collection of tales for youth "Niṭ'e Na'amanim" (1884), before founding in 1899 the weekly review "Gan Sha'ashu'im".
Baruch Jacob Placzek is an Austrian rabbi, born on 1 October 1835 in Weisskirchen, Moravia, son and successor of Abraham Placzek. He founded in 1858 a secondary school in Hamburg, assisted his father as rabbi from 1861, and held the title of « Landesrabbiner » of Moravia from 1884; he is also curator of the Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt in Vienna. Under the pseudonym Benno Planek, he notably published the collection « Gedichte » (1867) and the novel « Der Takif », and also signed several works on natural sciences.
Elias Plessner is a German rabbi, son of Salomon Plessner, born on February 19, 1841 in Berlin and died in Ostrowo on March 30, 1898. Doctor of the University of Tübingen in 1870, he becomes « Stiftsrabbiner » in Hanover in 1871, then rabbi of Rogasen in 1873 and finally of Ostrowo from 1885. He publishes the posthumous homiletical writings of his father (Frankfurt, 1884) as well as his own works in German and in Hebrew, including « She'elah u-Teshubah be-'Inyan Beḥirah » (Berlin, 1889) and « Hitmannut Kohen Gadol » (Berlin, 1895).
Julius Plotke is a German jurist and community activist, born on October 5, 1857 in Borek, in the province of Posen, and died in Frankfurt-on-Main on September 27, 1903. After his studies at Berlin University, he practices law in Bockenheim from 1885 to 1888, then associates in Frankfurt with justice counselor S. Fuld. Member of the council of the Frankfurt community and administrator of the Jewish Colonization Association, the Alliance Israélite Universelle and the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, he publishes various writings on the condition of Jews in Russia and Romania.
Mordekhaï Plungian is a Hebrew scholar and Russian author, born in 1814 in Plungian, in the government of Wilna, and died in Wilna on 28 November 1883, descendant of Mardochée Jaffé, author of the "Lebushim." First a reputed Talmudist then a self-taught scholar in several European languages, he became in 1867 instructor of Talmud at the rabbinical seminary of Wilna, closed in 1873, and ended his life as a proofreader at the Romm printing house, a post he held since 1869. He is the author of several Talmudic and exegetical works, including "Talpiyyot" (Wilna, 1849) and "Or Boḳer" (1868), three critical treatises on the Masorah.
David Podiebrad is an Austrian writer, born in 1816 and died on August 2, 1882, trained at the yeshiva of Prague and by private tutor. Passionate about the history of the Jews of Prague, where he held the secretariat of the ḥebra ḳaddisha for thirty years, he gathered numerous manuscripts and documents on this community, and had published, relying on them, the work of Benedict Foges, "Altertümer der Prager Josefstadt" (Prague, 1870).
Messola Pogorelsky is a Russian physician and writer, born in Bobruysk on March 7, 1862, graduated in medicine from Saint Vladimir University of Kyiv in 1890, the year he was also appointed government rabbi of Kherson, a position he held until 1893. A prolific author on medical and Jewish subjects, he notably published 'Circumcisio Ritualis Hebræorum' (Saint Petersburg, 1888), a study of Jewish names in the Bible and Talmud (1893) and works on biblical and talmudic occultism (1900).
Gabriel Jacob Polak is a talmudist and bibliographer, born June 3, 1803 and died May 14, 1869 in Amsterdam, where he directed a school. He published in Amsterdam several works: a Dutch-Hebrew almanac (1844), a Dutch-Hebrew dictionary (1845), a collection of Hebrew poems (1847), a collection of essays (1851), and an edition of Bedersi's work on Hebrew synonyms, « Ḥotem Toknit » (1865); his editions of rituals are renowned for their accuracy.
Henri Polak is a Dutch trade unionist and politician, born in Amsterdam on 22 February 1868, who became a diamond cutter after attending Halberstadt school. After stays in London where he becomes familiar with socialism, he participates in 1894 in the founding of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij, of which he becomes president in 1900, and founds in 1895 the union of diamond cutters (A.N.D.B.), which he directs by leading seven major strikes and obtaining notably the reduction of the working day from twelve to nine hours.
Herman Josef Polak is a Dutch philologist, born on September 1, 1844 in Leiden, holder of a doctorate from that university in 1869. He taught classical letters at the gymnasium in Leiden from 1866 to 1869, then history at the one in Rotterdam from 1873, before being appointed professor of Greek at the University of Groningen in 1894. Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, he published notably « Bloemlezing van Grieksche Dichters » (1875) and « Studiën » (1888), in addition to numerous essays in learned journals.
Jakob Eduard Polak is an Austrian physician, born in 1818 in Gross-Morzin, Bohemia, died on October 7, 1891, trained in Prague and Vienna. Engaged around 1851 as professor for the military school of Tehran, he gained the confidence of Shah Nasir ed-Din, published in Persian an anatomy treatise and a trilingual medical dictionary, and founded a state surgical clinic of sixty beds, before a serious illness in 1855 obliged him to cease his professional activity. Returned to Vienna around 1861, he published « Persien, das Land und Seine Bewohner » in Leipzig in 1865.
Adam Politzer is an Austrian otologist, born on October 1, 1835 in Alberti-Irsa, in Hungary, graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1859. He becomes there privat-docent in auricular surgery in 1861, adjunct professor in 1870, head of the clinic of auricular surgery in 1873, then full professor in 1895. He is the author of numerous essays and reference works, including the « Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde » (Stuttgart, 1878) and the « Atlas der Beleuchtungsbilder des Trommelfells » (1876).
A. M. Pollak, Knight von Rudin, is an Austrian industrialist and philanthropist, born in Wescheraditz, in Bohemia, in 1817, died in Vienna on June 1, 1884. He founded in 1836 a match factory in Prague, and expanded his business through branches in London (1846), New York (1847), and Sydney (1850), before trading with Japan from 1858 onward. His name remains attached to the Rudolphinum of Vienna, a foundation dedicated on December 19, 1868, where students of the Polytechnic School are housed and fed free of charge; he was ennobled with the title "von Rudin" in 1869.
Kaim Pollak is a Hungarian writer, born on October 6, 1835 in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, trained in the Talmud in his native city, in Pressburg and in Sátoraljaújhely. After attending the courses of Rapoport in Prague from 1858 onwards, he teaches in several Jewish schools in Hungary before being retained as municipal instructor in 1870, a position he holds until his retirement in 1902. A prolific writer, he notably publishes a Hebrew-Hungarian dictionary (Budapest, 1880), a Hungarian translation of Gabirol (1886) and a history of the people of Israel (1896), and directs in 1882 and 1883 the journal « Jeschurun », directed against Rohling.
Leopold Pollak is a genre painter and portraitist, born November 8, 1806 in Lodenitz, Bohemia, died in Rome on October 16, 1880. Trained under Bergler at the Prague Academy, then in Munich, he settled in Rome after 1833 and became a naturalized Italian citizen. Among his paintings, several engraved by Mandel and Straucher, are « Shepherdess with Lamb », « The Shepherd Boy » and « Zuleika », as well as a portrait of Riedel held at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
Moriz Pollak, knight von Borkenau, is an Austrian financier, born in Vienna on 24 December 1827 and died in the same city on 20 August 1904. After taking over his father's wholesale leather business, he was elected to Vienna's municipal council in 1857, chaired the executive committee of the Vienna Exposition in 1873, then directed the Niederösterreichische Escomptebank from 1885 to 1898. Active in the Jewish community, he was its president from 4 May 1884 to 27 December 1885, and received the cross of the Legion of Honor for his services at the Paris Exposition of 1878.
Adolph Pollitzer is a violinist, born in Budapest on 23 July 1832 and died in London on 14 November 1900. He left Budapest for Vienna in 1842, where he studied violin under Böhm and won first prize at the Vienna Conservatoire, then perfected his technique in Paris under Alard before settling in London in 1850. He became one of England's most renowned violinists and pedagogs, professor of violin at the London Academy of Music from its foundation in 1861, then became its director in 1870, succeeding Dr Wylde, a position he held until his death.
Amélie Pollonais is a French philanthropist, born in Marseille in 1835 and died in Cap-Ferrat on July 24, 1898, daughter of Joseph Jonas Cohen and wife of Désiré Pollonais. She published in 1868 her « Rêveries Maternelles », a system of child education, then « A Travers les Mansardes et les Écoles » (1886), the fruit of her visits to peasant families in the canton of Villefranche; she was decorated with the Red Cross for her devotion to the wounded of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1898, she founded a society in favor of prisoners and former detainees, and presided over the Society of Fine Arts of Nice.
Gaston Pollonais is a French journalist, born in Paris on May 31, 1865, son of Désiré Pollonais, mayor of Villefranche, and Amélie Pollonais. He began in journalism around 1890, contributed to "Voltaire", "Figaro" and "Gaulois", then succeeded Fernand Xau at the helm of "Soir" before returning to "Gaulois". Enthusiastic supporter of the nationalist camp during the Dreyfus affair, he converted to Catholicism in 1902, with the Marquis de Dion and François Coppée as his sponsors; he is also the author of several plays, including "The Day of Divorce" and "Eve".
Ḥiyya Pontremoli is a Turkish rabbinical author, son of Benjamin Pontremoli, who died in Smyrna in 1832. He is the author, among other works, of the "Ẓappiḥit bi-Debash", a collection of responsa on the Oraḥ Ḥayyim.
Josef Popper is an Austrian engineer and author, born on February 22, 1838 in Kolín, Bohemia. He was the first to conceive the idea of the transmission of electrical energy, which he presented as early as 1862 in a communication to the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, published only in 1882. He is also the author of numerous technical and philosophical essays, including « Das Recht zu Leben und die Pflicht zu Sterben » (1878) and « Fürst Bismarck und der Antisemitismus » (1886).
Siegfried Popper is an Austrian naval engineer, born in Prague in 1848, trained at the polytechnic schools of Prague and Karlsruhe. After two years spent in the workshop, he enters in 1869 the Austrian navy as assistant constructor, becomes director of naval construction in 1902 then general constructor with the rank of rear-admiral in 1904. He directed the construction of numerous Austrian warships, including the armored cruisers « Maria Theresia » and « Kaiser Karl VI. ».
William Popper is an American orientalist, born in Saint-Louis, Missouri, on October 29, 1874, graduated from Columbia College in 1896 and then from Columbia University (master's degree 1897, doctorate 1899). After postdoctoral studies in Berlin, Strasbourg and Paris from 1899, he travels in 1901-2 through Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia, before returning to New York in 1902. He is appointed in 1903 and then in 1904 instructor of the Gustav Gottheil course in Semitic languages at Columbia University, and publishes « The Censorship of Hebrew Books » (New York, 1899).
Wilma Popper is a Hungarian novelist, born in Győr on 11 May 1857, who began writing from a very young age. In addition to numerous essays in German journals, she publishes several collections of tales and short stories, including "Märchen und Geschichten" (Leipzig, 1891), "Altmodische Leute" (1894) and "Fünfe aus Einer Hülse" (Vienna, 1905).
George de Porto-Riche is a French poet and dramatist, born of Italian parents in Bordeaux in 1849. After renouncing a banking career and then a legal career to devote himself to writing, he publishes several collections of poetry, including "Bonheur Manqué" (1889), and achieves his first theatrical success with "Le Vertige" (1873) at the Odéon. After years of rejection, "La Chance de Françoise" (1883) at the Théâtre Libre marks a turning point that makes him a school leader, followed by "Amoureuse" (1891) and "Le Passé" (1897), revived at the Comédie-Française in 1902.
Benjamin Ossipovitch Portugalov is a Russian physician and author, born in Poltava in 1835 and died in Samara in 1896. Trained in medicine in Kharkov and Kiev, he served as a military surgeon then established himself in the government of Perm, where he was initially not permitted to practice and turned to writing before becoming a city physician in Krasnooufimsk, then district physician (1870-1880) in Kamychlov and Samara. An activist against alcoholism, he drew closer in his later years to the movement of the New Israel, and published notably "Voprosy Obchtchestvennoï Guiguieny" (1874) and "Yevreï Reformatory" (Saint Petersburg, 1882).
Carl Posner is a German physician and medical author, born in Berlin on December 16, 1854, son of Louis Posner, doctor of philosophy of Leipzig (1875) and doctor of medicine of Giessen (1880). Assistant at the institute of pathology in Giessen from 1878 to 1880, then with Fürstenheim in Berlin until 1886, he becomes privat-docent there in 1890 and professor in 1895. Editor since 1889 of « Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift » and since 1894 of Virchow's annual report, he is the author of « Diagnostik der Harnkrankheiten » (1893) and « Therapie der Harnkrankheiten » (1895).
Karl Ludwig von Posner is a Hungarian industrialist, born in 1822 and died in 1887 in Budapest. He founded in 1852 the largest printing, lithography and bookbinding establishment in Hungary, and represented his government as commissioner at the exhibitions in London (1871), Vienna (1878) and Trieste (1882). Charged in 1884 by the Minister of Education Trefort with introducing map reproduction in Hungary, he was ennobled by Francis Joseph I in 1873 and received the title of royal counselor in 1885; his work was continued by his son Alfred.
Ernst von Possart is a German actor and author, born in Berlin on May 11, 1841. After an apprenticeship in a Berlin publishing house, he debuts as a comedian in 1861 at the amateur theater Urania in Berlin, before joining the municipal theater of Breslau and then, from 1864 to 1887, the Royal Theatre of Munich, of which he becomes chief director in 1873 and director in 1878. After a five-year tour abroad, with visits to the United States in 1888 and 1890, he returns to the Royal Theatre of Munich in 1892 as general director, then becomes its superintendent in 1895, which leads him to be ennobled by the Bavarian crown.
Félix Possart is a German painter of landscapes and genre scenes, born in Berlin on March 7, 1837. Originally destined for a legal career, which he practiced for some years as « Amtsrichter », he finally devotes himself to painting, studying under Eschke and Gude and traveling several times to Southern Spain, beginning in 1882, as well as to the Black Forest, the Bavarian Alps, Switzerland and Italy. He notably paints views of the Alhambra in Granada and the Escorial.
Joseph Prag is an English community activist and Zionist, born in Liverpool in 1859, educated at Liverpool Institute and Queen's College Liverpool. Loyal to Chovevei Zion, of which he founded the English section, rather than to the Herzl movement, he publishes articles on the colonization of Palestine and sits on the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association, which he represents in 1901 at the international conference in Berlin on the Jews of Romania; he also plays an active role following the anti-Jewish disturbances in Limerick.
Jacob Prague is professor of Hebrew and rabbi in Liverpool, born in Danzig in 1816 and died in Liverpool in December 1881. Trained at the rabbinical school of Libau, he becomes rabbi of Shoenek, in Prussian Poland, before being called to the Old Hebrew Congregation of Liverpool, a position he holds until his death. He also teaches Hebrew at the Congregational School and holds the chair of Hebrew at Queen's College Liverpool for twelve years, while translating several Phoenician inscriptions found in Brazil as well as the inscription of the Moabite Stone.
Moses Alexandrovich Presse is a Russian engineer and technologist, born in 1861 and died in Sankt Blasien in 1901. A graduate of the Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology, he collaborated on the "Moskovski Journal Poutieï Soobchtchenii" and on the journals of the Saint Petersburg Society of Technologists; he dies while preparing a study on the role of Jews in the industries of western Russia, published in the "Voskhod" of 1901.
Alfred Pribram is an Austrian physician, born in Prague on May 11, 1841, graduate of medicine from his native city in 1861. After being assistant at the general hospital in Prague, he becomes privatdozent there in 1869, associate professor and chief physician of the dispensary in 1873, then professor of pathology and therapeutics and head of the first medical clinic in 1881. He is the author of numerous medical essays, including studies on relapsing fever (1868) and cholera (1869), and collaborates on Eulenburg's "Realencyclopädie der Gesammten Heilkunde."
Austrian chemist born in Prague on April 21, 1847, trained in Prague and Munich, where he obtains his doctorate in 1869, before a postdoctoral stay in Leipzig. Privat-docent in Prague from 1872 to 1874, he is appointed that year professor of chemistry at the new Gewerbeschule of Czernowitz, then professor of general and analytical chemistry at the University of Czernowitz from 1879, of which he is rector in 1891-1892. He also practices as official chemist of the courts of Bucovina and publishes numerous essays in specialized journals.
Traveler, artist and English journalist born in London around 1858, trained in London, Brussels and the École des beaux-arts in Paris. Correspondent of the Illustrated London News during the Betchuanaland expedition in 1884, he subsequently crossed Siberia and Mongolia alone to Peking in 1890-1891, followed the Greek army during the Greco-Turkish war, then traveled through Western Australia and the Klondike. He published notably « From the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea » (1892) and « The Land of Gold » (1895).
German botanist born in Wziesko, Upper Silesia, on November 30, 1823, and died in Berlin on October 6, 1894. Trained in Breslau, Leipzig, Berlin (doctorate in 1848) and Paris, he became privatdocent of botany in Berlin in 1851, then professor in Jena from 1864 onwards, where he founded an institute of plant physiology, before returning to Berlin in 1868. His works "Untersuchungen über das Chlorophyll" (1874) demonstrate sexuality in the simplest plant forms, and he founded the German Botanical Society in 1882, which he chaired until his death.
Russian Hebraist born in Keidani, in the Kovno province, on January 1, 1840, trained in Talmud in several yeshivas. After a stay in Vilna in 1858, he became Hebrew tutor in Kovno in 1863, where he frequented Abraham Mapu, then began a literary career with pseudonymous contributions to the newspaper Ha-Meliẓ. Settled in Saint-Petersburg in 1870 as an instructor at the orphanage founded by the Baroness Günzburg, he became in 1871 editor of the « Be-Arẓenu » section of the same newspaper, then established in that city.
Romanian writer and historian born in Botoshani on 6 June 1820 and died in Bucharest on 22 March 1901. First a musician, leader of a traveling Romani orchestra, he devotes himself after an incident at a celebration at the Neamtz monastery to the history of the Jews of Romania, spending five years traveling the country to visit cemeteries and study communal documents. He publishes in Judeo-German « Dibre ha-Yamim la-Arẓot Rumania » (Jassy, 1871) and « Ḳorot ha-Yehudim be-Rumania » (Lemberg, 1873), then a Romanian edition of both works in Bucharest in 1877.
Rabbi born in 1829 in Neustadt-Sherwint, Poland, and died on November 23, 1899 in Riga. Trained at the yeshiva of Georgenburg and at the rabbinical school of Wilna, he is called to the rabbinate of Mitau in 1859, where he vigorously opposes the judeo-Christian mission in Courland and works for the civil and political rights of Jews, notably as a member, from 1864, of the Saint Petersburg commission on the right of residence of Jewish workers. He is called to the rabbinate of Riga in 1893, where he serves until his retirement in 1898.
German antisemitic agitator born on October 9, 1860 in Rogau, near Breslau, doctor of law from Breslau University. From 1899, he became known for speeches of extreme violence calling for attacks on Jews, earning him the nickname 'Dreschgraf' (the whipping count); condemned on January 12, 1905 to six months in prison by a Berlin court, he subsequently challenged to a duel the judge who tried him, then the psychiatric expert who declared him mentally unstable, which resulted in additional sentences.
State Rabbi and Russian author born in Vilna in 1835 and died in Riga on April 26, 1893. Graduate of the rabbinical school of Vilna in 1859, he became in 1861 State Rabbi of Ponevej, in the Kovno governorate, a position he held until 1873, before holding the same office in Riga until his death. He published sermons in Russian (Riga, 1870), an edition of the Psalms with Russian translation and Hebrew commentary (Warsaw, 1871), as well as the collection of Hebrew poetry "Shire Ẓiyyon", and directed the monthly journal "Yevreiskiya Zapiski", published in Riga in 1881.
English lawyer born in Chatham on April 21, 1854 and died in Brighton on March 26, 1899, son of the beadle of the Central Synagogue of London. Admitted to the bar on June 13, 1877 after studies in London, he became a member of the council of the Anglo-Jewish Association in 1880 and specializes in maritime law, where he becomes Queen's Counsel in February 1892 and takes the lead of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division after the elevation of Sir W. Phillimore to the bench; in 1895, he runs unsuccessfully in the election in the constituency of Wilton, Wiltshire, as a Liberal candidate.
Originally from Marrakech, he studied in Salé and then worked in Constantine as a ritual slaughterer and judge in the rabbinical court. He left two printed works in Tunis: a treatise on ritual slaughter and a collection of sermons published after his death; both were reprinted in Jerusalem.
Sage of the Enkaoua / Ankava family, whose article recalls that the name derives from «al-Nqawa» under the influence of Arabic. In his laments (kinot), he signed in acrostic «Avraham Ankava» or «Avraham Elnkaoua». He is the author of the collection «Kol Tehina», of «Bina la'Itim» (containing the piyyut «Avi Tsour Podé» for the redemption of the firstborn) and of the collection of responsa «Kerem Hemer».
Moreh-tzedek in Safi. In one of his judgments he writes: "I reside in the city of Asfi, and I do not have the books at my disposal," which attests to his residence in the city. Signatory of another psak-din from the year 1849. Cited by Rabbi Yossef ben-Naïm (Malkhei-Rabbanan).
Founder of the Ouazana lineage ("Aït Ouazana"), born in Skoura near Ouarzazate in the early nineteenth century. Having reached the Land of Israel, he was sent to Morocco as a rabbinic emissary (shadar) to collect funds for the needy in Eretz Israel. His arrival in southern Morocco, through the Draa valley, is surrounded by legends: reputed to be "versed in miracles" and healer of barren women, he reportedly rode a living lion and made his entry into Ouarzazate escorted by wild beasts. He married a Jewish woman of the country, by whom he had his son David, and died shortly after; he is buried in Aït Bou-Dial and his hilloula takes place on 3 Tevet.
Son of Rabbi Avraham Ouazana, recognized from childhood as a worthy heir to his father. Upon the latter's death, he appeased the Jews of Ouarzazate who wished to repatriate the body of the saint, declaring: « Do not move my father's remains, I will take his place; he will be buried in Aït Bou-Dial and I in Ouarzazate. » He appears in the work by Yssachar Ben-Ami « The Saints of Morocco and Their Miracles ».
Born in Aleppo, he was judge at the rabbinical court there, then settled in Jerusalem (1912) where he founded the Magen David congregation and a Torah school. Before World War I he moved to New York, where he established the council of the Sephardic community and became rabbi and av beth din of the congregation of Aram Soba. He returned to Jerusalem in 1935 as head of the Sephardic court until his death.
One of the greatest decisors of modern Judaism, author of the Mishna Berura, the standard commentary on the Shulhan Arukh. His treatise Hafetz Hayyim on the ethics of speech (the prohibition of lashon hara) became a classic of rabbinic literature.
Born in Hungary in 1884, he emigrated to England and settled in Leeds. His wife Fanny and his son Elimelech Shimshon were murdered at Auschwitz. He published in Leeds in 1942 his work Sefer BeAchrit Hayomim ("At the End of Days"). He moved to Israel in January 1958 and died in Netanya in April 1959.
Rabbi originally from Tripoli (Libya), invited in 1846 to Malta to become the first rabbi of the island since the expulsion of 1492, the Maltese Jewish community being then quite numerous again.
Born in Marrakech, he became a shohet and rabbi-judge in Constantine where he founded a yeshiva. Author of a treatise on ritual slaughter and a collection of sermons, printed in Tunis in the early 20th century.
Born around the year 5600 (1840) in Rabat, son of Rabbi Elazar. He studied in his youth under the gaon Rabbi David ben Shimon (called Tzouf Devach); sixty renowned scholars attended this yeshiva, some of whom went up with him to the Land of Israel. Humble, a man of good deeds, a lover and pursuer of peace, he cosigned the approbation of the book "Karnei Reem" by Rabbi Raphaël Ankawa. He exhorted his sons to labor in the study of the Talmud and had as his son the great Rabbi David Tzabah, author of "Chochanim leDavid". Died on the 26th of Ellul 5691 (1931), he was mourned by the rabbis Yekoutiel Birdugo, Yossef ben-Attar and Massoud Charvit.
Born in Turkey in 1892, student of the sages of Bursa and Istanbul (including R. Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari). Founder in Jerusalem of the study center "Chevrat Ahavat Chaim," he was a figure in the Sephardic community and father-in-law of R. Ovadia Yosef.
Rabbi of Oran, appointed president (Av Beth Din) of the first rabbinical court of Oran established in 1835, alongside rabbis Jacob Sénanès and Farouz Karcenty as assessors.
Ukrainian hazzan (1813–1884)
Born in Salé on the 2nd of Tevet 5608 (1848), son of Rabbi Mordekhaï Enkaoua (a family originally from Toledo) and Beïda bat Rabbi Refael Bibas (a family of those exiled from Castile). A student of Rabbi Yissakhar Assaraf, he was appointed to the rabbinical court at the age of twenty-two and founded a yeshiva in Salé around 1900. In 1918, the French authorities established him as president of the supreme rabbinical court of appeal in Rabat and Grand Rabbi of Morocco, a position he accepted only after proposing in vain Rabbi Shlomo ibn Danan. In 1930 he received the Legion of Honor from the hands of the Resident General Lucien Saint. Nicknamed « Ner haMaarav » (the Lamp of the West) and « the Malakh Refael » (the Angel Raphael), he died on the 4th of Menahem-Av 5695 (1935) at eighty-eight years of age, and his funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people.
His ancestors came from Fès, where he was born; he subsequently settled in Safi as moreh-tzedek, then av beit-din. Hiloula on 10 Kislev. Signatory of an approbation of 1862 alongside the sages of Safi (Rabbi Avraham Azran, Rabbi Moché Raphaël Abicassis, Rabbi Yehouda Moyal, Rabbi Yehouda ben-Chlam Ohana, Rabbi Mimoun bar Yehouda Gabbaï, Rabbi Aharon ben Yaakov Nahmias). Rav Ch. Tzarfati praised his Torah, his wisdom, his holiness and his fear of Heaven. Deceased on 10 Kislev 5644 (1884), he was extensively praised in the funeral oration delivered by Rabbi Yehouda ben-Moyal, in Mogador. (The entry « Rabbi Massoud Rebbouh » from the same source appears to designate this same person.)
Born in 1831 in Rabat, kabbalist nicknamed « Hameloumad benissim » (rabbi reputed to be a miracle-worker). Disciple of Rabbi David Ben-Shim'on, he ascended to the Land of Israel in 1854 and became from the 1860s onward an emissary (shalia'h) of the Maghrebi community (« Eda Ma'aravit ») in Jerusalem.
Rabbi in Tunis in the second half of the 19th century, cited by Joseph Toledano (« A History of Families ») in the note devoted to the surname Boublil. No work is attributed to him by the source.
Studied at the yeshivot of Ponevezh and Slabodka in Lithuania, immigrated to Palestine in 1924. In 1928 he married Batya-Miriam, daughter of Rav Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook. After the death of Rav Kook (1935), he took charge of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva; he delivered weekly lectures there. The Raanan-Kook family preserved and published the writings of Rav Kook (cf. studies by E. Henkin, Hakirah).
Sage of Habban who composed a siddur (prayer book) founded on traditions specific to Habban, also incorporating the baladi and shami usages of Yemen. He did not live long enough to see the first printing: the work was completed by his sons and his son-in-law Avner Maatuf.
Counted among the great rabbis of Tunisia, son of Rabbi David Dana. He founded and directed the yeshiva « Ḥevrat ha-Talmud » in Tunis, in reaction to the decline of traditional education in the face of French cultural expansion. His Talmudic innovations were published posthumously by his student.
Talmudic scholar and judge at the Tunis rabbinate, nephew of Judah Cohen Tanugi. Author of several halakhic and exegetical works printed in Livorno and Pisa.
Born in Zliten (Libya) in 1885, he was appointed judge (dayan) to the rabbinical court of Tripoli (from 1933–1935 onward) and became the last great spiritual authority of Libya's Jewish community before its exodus. Upon his death in Tripoli, his daughter had trunks and crates of documents brought to Israel: the archives of the Tripoli beth-din and the manuscript collection (genizah/archive) of Rabbi Yissachar Hakmoun.
During the second half of the 19th century, he was the chief rabbi and spiritual guide of the Salé community. He notably trained Rabbi Refael Enkaoua, who was his disciple and son-in-law and succeeded him at the head of the community.
Principal hakham of Baghdad in the 19th century, authority on halakha and master Kabbalist. Prolific author of around sixty works, he is best known for the Ben Ish Hai, an exposition of the laws of daily life mingled with mystical insights, organized according to the parashiyot and intended for the general public. His decisions still carry authority among Sephardim.
Kabbalist born in Aleppo, son of Rabbi Mordechai Yedid HaLevi and disciple of Rabbi Avraham Ades. He went up to Eretz Israël in 1890 (Safed), then settled in Jerusalem in 1911 where he was appointed av beit din of the Aleppine community. He left manuscripts of signed responsa.
Rabbi born in Rabat in 1847, son of Moché, died in 1925.
Born in 1885 in Hara Sghira (Djerba), son of Rabbi Avraham Boukris, he studied under Rabbi David Cohen Gdisha alongside Rabbi Haïm Houri. From 1915 he served as judge and decisioner in the Hara Sghira quarter; in 1921 he became president of the rabbinical court and rabbi of Zarzis (southern Tunisia), after the emigration of his predecessor Rabbi Shalom Cohen. A street and a synagogue bearing his name are found in Yavné (Israel).
Talmudic scholar and antiquary born in Novo-Jagory, in the government of Kovno, in 1835, and died in Kiev on November 28, 1888. Established in Munich after leaving Russia, he discovers in the royal library the "Codex Hebraicus", manuscript of the Babylonian Talmud copied in 1342, and undertakes, financially supported by the Munich antiquary Abraham Merzbacher, a critical study that leads him for six years through the libraries of France, Italy, England and Russia. He draws from it his major work, the "Diḳduḳe Soferim", of which the first volume appears in 1868 and of which fifteen volumes are published before his death in 1888.
Russian-French author and translator born in Horodetz, near Kobrin, in the province of Grodno, on June 6, 1818, and died in London on May 27, 1893, son and grandson of rabbis of Horodetz. Trained in the Talmud in Grodno and Brest, then in classical languages and medicine in Breslau, he settled in Paris in 1854 to complete his medical studies and obtained his doctorate in 1865, without ever practicing seriously. His reputation rests on his translations of the Talmud, including the "Civil Legislation of the Talmud" in five volumes (Paris, 1873-80) and the "Criminal Legislation of the Talmud" (1876).
Publicist and neo-Hebrew Russian historian born in Taurogen, in the government of Kovno, on April 8, 1845, raised in Wilna where his father became rabbi of the Chnipichok suburb. Ordained rabbi after studies at the yeshiva of R. Jacob Barit, he collaborated from 1871 in the journal « Ha-Maggid », settled in Warsaw in 1874, then directed from 1877 to 1882 the editorial board of « Ha-Ẓefirah ». He devoted the essence of his reputation, from 1888 onwards, to the Hebrew translation of Graetz's « Geschichte der Juden », of which the first volume appeared in Warsaw in 1890 under the title « Dibre ha-Yamim li-Bene Yisrael ».
Austrian Hebraist and pedagogue born in Lemberg on January 23, 1826. After classical rabbinical training, he teaches from 1860 onwards at the Jewish school of Czernowitz, in Bukovina, then in 1867 the Jewish religion in the schools of Suchaw, in Moravia, before directing a Jewish school in Foltichani, in Romania; in 1869, he is called to Jassy as preacher of the Reformed temple and director of the Jewish orphanage, positions he held until his retirement in 1885. He publishes notably a Hebrew translation of poems by Schiller, "'Et ha-Zamir" (Czernowitz, 1862; Jassy, 1868), and a German adaptation of the Song of Songs, "Ha-Shulamit" (Jassy, 1888).
Russian Jewish writer and journalist born January 14, 1817 in Kobeliaki, in the governorate of Poltava, and died in Meran, in the Tyrol, October 16, 1869. Trained in Hebrew and European languages by his father, a state monopoly official on alcohol, he studied law then, in 1840, entered the medical school of Kharkov, his religion forbidding him a legal career. Settled in Odessa in 1845, he became a lawyer before the commercial court then notary in 1848. His translation of the Hebrew poem « Ha-Ḳerab » by Eichenbaum, published in 1847, aroused the admiration of Russian journals.
Russian physicist and journalist born in Brestovitz, in the Grodno governorate, on January 2, 1862, descendant of Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller through his father and of Meïr Eisenstadt through his mother. Trained at the yeshivot of Mir and then Volojine, he studies medicine at Königsberg from 1881 onward before turning to physics at the Sorbonne in Paris; he wins a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1890 for his inventions. Scientific contributor to « Ha-Meliẓ » from 1887 onward, he takes over its direction in 1890, then founds in 1904 the Yiddish daily « Der Tag ».
Russian rabbi born in Chat, near Kaidan, in 1818, and died in Niasvij, in the Minsk governorate, on March 18, 1887. Trained in Talmud by his father, he married at eighteen the daughter of a notable of Kletsk, where he became head of the yeshiva and then, in 1847, rabbi; he was called twenty years later to the rabbinate of Niasvij, which he held until his death. His reputation as a fair arbitrator earned him the trust of Christians and the esteem of Prince Radziwill, owner of the town.
Russian rabbi and author born in Kholm, in the province of Kovno, in 1857. Rabbi in Jevie in 1887, then called the same year to Alexoty, he is a delegate to the Zionist congress in Basel in 1897 and publishes his articles from « Ha-Meliẓ » under the title « Ha-Dat weha-Le'oumit » (Warsaw, 1900), the same year he becomes rabbi of Sopotkine; he publishes in Wilna in 1904 a catechism of the Talmud, « Oraḥ Yachar ».
Russian journalist and novelist born in Pereïaslav, in the government of Poltava, in 1859, known under the pseudonym of Sholem Aleikhem. State rabbi at twenty-one years of age, he then settles in Kiev, where he still resides in 1905, and publishes numerous short stories in Hebrew in « Ha-Asif » and « Ha-Ẓefirah » from 1889. He owes his fame chiefly to his works in Yiddish, notably « Stempenyou » and « Yossele Solovéi », published in the almanac « Volksbibliothek » in 1889, as well as to his collections of literary sketches and the satire « Shomer's Mishpat » (Berditchev, 1888).
Physician born in Kovno, Russia, on August 22, 1871, trained at the Universities of Zurich and Berne, where she obtained her doctorate, before pursuing bacteriological studies in Berlin under Professor Koch. In 1895, she went to Philadelphia as professor at the school of medicine for women, where she founded a bacteriology institute, while continuing each summer her research under Koch; she married in 1898 Doctor Walter Kempner of Berlin and presided, at the Breslau congress of 1904, over the section of hygiene and bacteriology.
Russian rabbi born in Pikeln, in the Kovno province, on June 11, 1845, trained in the Talmud by his father, rabbi successively at Chilel, Rogova and Vilkomir. Called in 1873 to the rabbinate of Ponévej, in the Kovno province, he becomes, after many years in this position, rabbi of Mir, in the Minsk province, then, in 1901, assistant to Samuel Salant, chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi communities of Jerusalem. He publishes notes on the "Yad" of Maimonides (Wilna, 1900) as well as in several talmudic journals.
Russian scholar and publicist born in Linkovo, near Ponévej, in the government of Kovno, on 23 February 1832, and died in Saint Petersburg on 16 January 1889. Educated in the sciences by his father, a local rabbi, he began in 1852 to publish scientific works in Hebrew, then founded a technical school for Jewish boys in Dünabourg. Settling in Saint Petersburg, he founded in 1879, with L. Behrmann, the weekly « Rousski Yevreï », then in 1885 the monthly « Yevreïskoïe Obozrenié », both of which ceased in 1886; he published in particular the treatise « Ha-Menouḥa weha-Tenoua » (Wilna, 1867) and several scientific volumes collected in Wilna in 1876.
Russian poet born in Kovno on October 13, 1846 and died in New York on March 9, 1900. Initiated into Hebrew grammar by Abraham Mapou at fourteen, he entered the rabbinical school of Wilna at eighteen, married in 1867 and settled in Telchi, where he lived twenty-two years in the friendship of Mordekhaï Nathansohn and Leon Gordon. He settled in Vilkomir in 1889 and then in New York in 1891, where he translated novels into Yiddish; his collection « Zemirot Yisrael » (Wilna, 1891) gathers the essence of his Hebrew poems.
Russian missionary to the Jews, born in Orheiu, Bessarabia, on September 23, 1837, and died in Kishinev on May 12, 1899. Raised in Hasidism then acquired to secular culture, he practiced law for a time before settling in Kishinev, where he published in 1878 a Hebrew article on the reform of the rabbinate, then founded in 1882 the sect Novy Israel, preaching discreetly a form of Christianity to the Jews of the city. The movement, widely discussed in the Russian press, interested for a time Professor Delitzsch of Leipzig, but his open conversion to Protestantism, sealed by his baptism in Berlin on March 24, 1885, alienated many of his followers.
Israeli political figure
French actress (1821-1858)
Yiddish poetess and short-story writer, born in Galicia, settled in Montreal.
American rabbi born in Neustadt-Schirwindt, Poland, on 5 August 1848. Trained in Talmud at Volojine and Eisiskes, he studied at the universities of Berlin, Königsberg and Greifswald, where he obtained a doctorate, then successively held several rabbinates in Poland before emigrating to the United States, where he served the congregation of Elmira and then that of Gates of Hope in New York, and officiated in 1905 at the People's Synagogue; he devoted himself particularly to assistance for Jewish prisoners.
Poet and Hungarian author born in Mór on June 29, 1862, son of grammarian Adolf Roder. Trained in classical and modern philology in Szombathely and Budapest, he began journalism in 1880 and received his doctorate in 1883 with a thesis on the history of Hungarian literary translation, before making a name for himself as translator of Tasso, Byron ("Lara", 1882), Petrarch (1884), Ariosto ("Orlando Furioso", 1893), and excerpts from Persian Firdousi (1896, 1898). He also published an anthology of Greek and Latin poetry (1885) and a history of Italian literature in two volumes (1896), and belonged to the Hungarian society Kisfaludy.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Born in 5570 (1810), died in 5677 (1917) of the Hebrew era. Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5563 of the Hebrew era (1803). Son of Shaul Yeshua. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-4.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Born in 5603 (1843), died in 5650 (1890) of the Hebrew era. Son of Haim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-2.
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Born in 5608 of the Hebrew era (1848). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-1.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5600 of the Hebrew era (1840). Son of Yedidia Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Born in 5608 of the Hebrew era (1848). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-1.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5617 of the Hebrew era (1857). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-2.
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Mentioned in 5587 of the Hebrew era (1827). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5581 of the Hebrew era (1821). Son of Nehemia Yehuda. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-2.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Born in 5592 (1832), died in 5592 (1832) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yaakov, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-2.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5599 of the Hebrew era (1839). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 107-2.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 106-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5603 of the Hebrew era (1843). Son of Eliahu. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-2.
Turkish rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5619 of the Hebrew era (1859). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 108-1.
Russian economist born in Odessa in 1853, member of the famous family of bankers of that name. Trained in economics and diplomacy in Paris and Bonn, he became personal secretary to Count Shuvalov in London (1876-79), while being a correspondent for the « Journal des Débats » then « Le Temps », before being appointed a member of the Superior Council of Trade of Russia. Author of works on public finances, including « The Housing of the Worker and the Poor » (1897) and « The Finances of Russia » (1899), he directed the annual review « The Financial Year » and the « Dictionary of Political Economy ».
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5608 of the Hebrew era (1848). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-1.
Rabbi and judge in Séfrou, died in 1891. Author, in collaboration with his friend Abraham Hlimi, of the work Va-Yuggad le-Abraham. His son Abner Jiani was also rabbi in Séfrou (19th-20th centuries) and spent many years in Tunis.
Prolific Sephardi rabbi, interim chief rabbi of Smyrna.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5651 of the Hebrew calendar (1891). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 105-1.
Turkish rabbi and writer, he lived and died in Smyrna in 1828. He is the author of a Hebrew work, « Har ha-Mor » (Salonika, 1835), a collection of sermons and dissertations on Maimonides.
médecin allemand (1870-1953)
German woman of letters, hostess of a famous Berlin literary salon. Her correspondence was the subject of a celebrated study by Hannah Arendt.
Austrian author born in Maryampol, Austrian Galicia, in December 1855, trained in Talmud by his father, a rabbi. Assiduous contributor to the Hebrew press, particularly « Ha-Ẓefirah », from 1872 onward, he published several translations and narratives: « Niddeḥe Yisrael », after a novel by Philippson on the Marranos of Spain (Warsaw, 1875), « Ḥoṭer mi-Geza' Yishai », after Disraeli's « David Alroy » (1880), and « Ha-Neḳamah » (1883), followed by several short stories in « Ha-Asif » between 1884 and 1888. By 1895, he had become a prosperous merchant in Zambrów.
Born in Cairo in the Jewish family Harari (son of Sir Victor Harari Pasha, high financier of the Kingdom of Egypt, and Emma Aghion). Collector and scholar of Islamic art — his name remains attached to the « Harari Hoard » of medieval metalwork — he contributed to the historiography of Persian art.
English financier born in Hesse-Cassel around 1830 and died in Liverpool in April 1887. Member of the Liverpool Stock Exchange, he became one of the world's greatest cotton speculators before going bankrupt, handling nearly ten million pounds in the year of his ruin. Greatly engaged in Liverpool's Jewish affairs, he showed great generosity and founded a scholarship at Liverpool University.
Hungarian psychiatrist born in Raab on January 3, 1870, doctor of medicine from the University of Budapest in 1894, where he became assistant at the psychiatric clinic before founding, in 1899, a laboratory of psychophysiology. He published numerous works in German on hysteria, memory and child psychology, notably between 1894 and 1904.
American physician born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 26, 1853, M.D. from the Medical College of Ohio in 1874, then trained in surgery at Würzburg, Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London (FRCS, 1877). Returning to Cincinnati, he is professor of anatomy at his former college from 1879 to 1902, then holder of the chair of surgery, and becomes in 1903 administrator of the University of Cincinnati. His work focuses notably on the surgery of the gallbladder, appendix, brain, kidneys and arteries.
Born in Meknès, dayan and Av Beth Din of Meknès, posek and paytan; author of a Kitsour Choulhan Aroukh.
German rabbi (1881-1932)
The Jewish Encyclopedia cites him in the list of rabbis who served in Corfu. The De Semo surname appears explicitly among the great Jewish families of Corfu. The family, of Corfiot rite, moved into the Italian orbit (Venetian Corfu, then migrations to Trieste); a Victor de Semo was director of the municipal hospital of Pisa.
Members of a Sephardi Jewish family established in Egypt. Raphaël Suarès was vice-president of the Egyptian Land Credit Company (1880-1909) and co-founded, with Sir Ernest Cassel, the National Bank of Egypt in 1898. The house Suarès Frères participated in financing major Egyptian public works and railways.
rabbi (1804–1893)
Rabbi-judge, poet and kabbalist of Sefrou, author of Halakhah le-Moshe and Eden Mikedem.
Writer and rabbi (1835–1888)
Son of Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim, he was a banker, politician (deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes) and above all a great scientific patron: he financed and had built the Nice Observatory, which he presented to the French state.
English soldier born in London in 1870 and died at Spion Kop, in Natal, on January 24, 1900, son of George C. Raphael, trained at Wellington College. Enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in 1889, he transferred to the regular army in 1891, within the South Lancashire Regiment, where he became lieutenant in 1893 then captain in 1898. Sent to South Africa in November 1899 at the beginning of the Anglo-Boer conflict, he was killed, at the head of about a hundred men and a machine gun, during Warren's engagement against the Boers at Spion Kop.
English banker and economist born in London in 1832 and died in Newmarket on May 11, 1899, son of Louis Raphael. Principal partner in the banking house R. Raphael & Sons, he testified before several royal commissions, including the Gold and Silver Commission of 1888, and distinguished himself by extensive philanthropy; in memory of his wife, who died in August 1897, he donated 20,000 pounds to Guy's Hospital to endow the "Henriette Raphael Ward." His son, Herbert H. Raphael, born in 1859, sat on the London County Council.
American lawyer and journalist born in 1845 in Fürth, Bavaria, where he is trained. Emigrated to the United States in 1866, he becomes a reporter for the « Freiheitsfreund » in Pittsburgh, then, the following year, editor-in-chief of a German daily in Wheeling while studying law; admitted to the bar in 1870, he settles in Cincinnati as assistant editor, then in Indianapolis in 1874 to practice law. He founds in 1881 the « Indiana Tribune », which he directs for nineteen years, before returning, since 1900, to the practice of law.
Austrian violinist born in Vienna on February 21, 1839, trained at the Vienna Conservatoire. Member of the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera from 1854 to 1861, he was then orchestral conductor in Rotterdam and then in Lübeck, Stettin and Prague until 1870, before teaching violin at the Berlin Hochschule from 1871, then, from 1877, at the Dresden Conservatoire, where he remained until his retirement in 1898 while being first violin of the Dresden Opera. He married in 1874 pianist Laura Kahrer. A renowned interpreter, he also contributed to the development of chamber music in Dresden.
Polish immigrant to Argentina (1900-1935)
German poet died in Breslau on April 12, 1836, author of the drama « Yosef we-Asenat » (1817), the epic poem « Ḥayye Shimshon » (1824) and the collection of poems and proverbs « Ṭal Yaldut » (1835).
French convert to Catholicism, brother of Marie-Théodore Ratisbonne, born in Strasbourg on May 1, 1812 and died in Jerusalem on May 6, 1884. After legal studies, he abjured the Jewish faith in Rome on January 20, 1842, under circumstances that provoked numerous writings, then entered the order of Notre-Dame-de-Sion after a novitiate with the Jesuits; he founded a monastery in Jerusalem and published notably "Élévations sur les Litanies de la Sainte Vierge" (1847).
French convert to Catholicism, born in Strasbourg on December 18, 1802 and died in Paris on January 10, 1884, son of the president of the Israelite consistory of Strasbourg. A lawyer until his conversion in 1826, he becomes a priest, professor at the Petit Séminaire, then vicar of Strasbourg Cathedral, and founds the order of Notre-Dame-de-Sion in thanksgiving for the conversion of his brother Alphonse-Marie. He publishes notably « Essai sur l'Éducation Morale » (Strasbourg, 1828), « Histoire de Saint-Bernard » (2 vol., 1841) and « Questions Juives » (1868).
Russian Talmudist born in Wilna around 1845, author of the « Mebo la-Seder 'Olam Rabbah », on the historical work of Joseph ben Ḥalafta (Wilna, 1894), a critical edition of the « Seder 'Olam Rabbah » (1897), and « Ahabat Ẓiyyon we-Yerushalayim », variants and supplements to the text of the Talmud of Jerusalem, of which only three volumes have appeared: on Berakhot (1901), on Shabbat (1902) and on 'Erouvin (1904).
Russian mathematician born in Shklov in 1857, author of articles on mathematics and astronomy in various journals. He published "Mishpaṭ Emet" (Saint Petersburg, 1884), a critique of the pamphlets of Lichtenfeld against the work of Slonimski, and edited a second edition of Slonimski's algebra treatise, "Yesode Ḥokmat ha-Shi'ur" (Wilna, 1888).
American mining engineer born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main on June 7, 1838 and died in New York on September 9, 1904, trained at Heidelberg and Fribourg. Entered the mining industry in 1861, he bought in 1863, for the account of French banker Reinach, a zinc mine in Rauheim, near Heidelberg, resold two years later for two million francs when it had only cost thirty thousand. Emigrated to the United States in 1879, he founded in 1881 in Butte, Montana, with his brothers-in-law Leonard and Adolph Lewisohn, the Montana Mining Company, later bought out by the Amalgamated Copper Trust, then developed, from 1888-91, copper mines in San Pedro, New Mexico.
Born in Bukhara in 1854, he became the chief rabbi of the Bukharan community of Jerusalem. He wrote a halakhic work, Likutei Dinim, in the vein of the Ben Ish Haï, published from 1900 in several volumes covering various sections of the Shulchan Arukh. He also participated in the publication of the Prophets (Neviim Rishonim and Aharonim) in Judeo-Tajik (Bukharan) with Rav Shimon Hakham. He is buried on the Mount of Olives.
German rabbi born in Breslau on August 19, 1846, trained at the Jewish theological seminary and at the university of his native city (doctorate in 1873). He successively held the rabbinates of Kempen (1874), Schmieheim (1876-93) and then Offenburg, in Baden, and published translations of Talmudic treatises: Megila (1883), Rosh Hashana (1886), Sanhedrin (1892) and Ketubot (1900).
Russian author born on August 14, 1845 in Odessa, whose first literary essays appeared in « Ha-Ḳol » before he became a regular contributor to the Hebrew press. In 1887, he published with Krankenfeld « Der Jüdische Wecker », then directed from 1892 to 1896 « Ha-Pardes » (Odessa). He is the author of « Peninim mi-Yam ha-Talmud » (Odessa, 1892), of the novel « 'Aseret Kesef » (1888) and of the essay on neo-Hebrew « Safah Berurah » (1890), as well as of the collection of Hebrew poems for children « Ha-Abib » (Warsaw, 1889).
Intellectual figure of 20th-century Algerian Judaism. Author of "Jewish Writings – Algerian Jews and Public Life" (Algiers, 1957, posthumous) and scholarly articles.
French statesman born in Paris on February 26, 1841 and died on January 28, 1903. Son of a merchant, he founded in 1862 the Astruc and Raynal firm in Bordeaux, where he befriended Gambetta, before becoming in 1874 municipal councilor of Bordeaux and then, in 1879, deputy. Appointed secretary general of the ministry of Public Works in 1880, he became its minister under Gambetta in 1881, a position he held again under Jules Ferry in 1883, then left in 1885. Reelected deputy in 1885, 1889 and 1893, he became in December 1893 minister of the Interior, then was elected senator for Gironde in January 1897.
American Senator born in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 11, 1850, trained at the University of Virginia (1866–70) and then admitted to the bar. Elected Democrat to the Maryland Assembly in 1878, he becomes a State Senator in 1886, the year he is also elected to Congress, where he serves three terms; he is elected Attorney General of Maryland in 1899 and distinguishes himself in 1901 as counsel for Admiral Schley before the federal inquiry commission. He is elected to the United States Senate on February 4, 1904, for a term beginning March 5, 1905.
Merchant and financier born in Oberelzbach, Bavaria, on September 23, 1822, and died in Baltimore on March 1, 1899. Emigrated to the United States in 1840, he settled in Baltimore where he made a flourishing commercial career, then became after the Civil War one of the great figures of the city's finance, sitting on the councils of several banks. Founder of the reformed congregation Har Sinaï, he brought David Einhorn in as rabbi in 1855, and also founded the Hebrew orphanage of Baltimore, whose first building he financed. Married in 1844 to Amalia Jacobson, he is the father of Senator Isidor Rayner, elected in 1904.
Jewish-Indian writer and educator (1889-1957)
Polish copper engraver born in Lask, in the government of Piotrków, in 1840, and died in Berlin on November 7, 1884. Trained in Breslau then at the school of fine arts of Warsaw, he completes his studies in Munich and Dresden after winning a prize in 1861, lives in Vienna from 1866 to 1873, then is appointed in 1876 member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Petersburg. Disappointed at not being able to obtain a chair due to his religion, he settles in Paris, where his engravings earn him a gold medal, before dying in Berlin from the consequences of an illness contracted in Paris.
German pedagogue born in Hamburg on 16 November 1815 and died on 13 January 1891, trained in Kiel where he writes two works on ethics and duty. Appointed teacher at the Freischule israélite of Hamburg in 1838, he becomes its director in 1848 and admits Christian students, who outnumber Jewish students from 1869 onwards; he establishes a scholarship for Christian and other non-Jewish students in memory of his only daughter, who died in infancy.
Danish editor and politician born in Aarhus, in Jutland, on 18 July 1813, and died in that city on 13 November 1868, son of Hartvig Philip Ree. After studying law, he became in 1838 editor-in-chief of the « Aalborg Stiftstidende » and publishes several reviews, including « Læsekabinettet » (1841-42) and « Almindelig Dansk Landbotidende » (1846). Member of the municipal council of Aalborg from 1844, he sits in the Folkething from 1850 to 1854, where he argues for the sale of the Danish Antilles to the United States, returns there in 1864, and is then elected to the Landsthing in 1866, a post from which illness forces him to resign the following year.
Merchant and Danish political publicist born in Aarhus, in Jutland, on June 1, 1817, and died in Copenhagen on September 3, 1874, son of Hartvig Philip Ree. He founded in 1842 a wholesale trading house in Randers, where he held various municipal offices (1849-53), before transferring his business to Copenhagen in 1857 and being elected to the Folkething in 1864. He publishes a political history of Norway in the « Dansk Maanedsskrift » and founded in 1866 the Kreditforeningen for Landejendomme i Östifterne, an agricultural credit society.
English actress born in London around 1870, from a theatrical family, her father having belonged to troupes that counted Toole and Irving among their members. She appeared on stage from the age of six in a pantomime at the Pavilion Theatre in Mile End, then performs in melodrama and as a comic singer, before achieving success with the song "What Do I Care!"; she holds a leading role in "All Aboard" (1895) and then in "Florodora" at the Lyric Theatre (1899) and also appears in "San Toy" at Daly's Theatre.
Chief Rabbi (Hakham Bashi) of Cairo 1891–1921; author of Touv Mitzrayim and Nehar Mitzrayim.
Rosh yeshiva of Kamenitz and then of Torah Vodaas and Beth Medrash Elyon, son-in-law of Baruch Ber Leibowitz.
Belarusian rabbi
Italian rabbi born in Ferrare in 1808 and died in that city on 23 September 1870, son of Zaccaria Reggio, chief rabbi of Ferrare, whom he succeeded upon his death after teaching from the age of twenty at the local Talmud Torah. He is the author of the « Grammatica Ragionata della Lingua Ebraica » and the « Elementi di Ortologia della Lingua Ebraica » (Livorno, 1844), as well as the manual « Sefat Leshon ha-Ḳodesh » (1860).
Biochemist, designed an early pregnancy test based on urinary histidine.
War correspondent journalist and French officer, author of military narratives (Russo-Japanese War, operations in Morocco).
Austrian opinion journalist (1847-1939)
Hungarian lawyer and deputy born in Baja on June 25, 1871, educated at the universities of Budapest, Berlin and Paris. Admitted to the bar in Baja, he was elected to the Hungarian Parliament by that city in 1901, defeating Justice Minister Plósz, then reelected in 1905.
Hungarian teacher and author born in Zsámbék in 1821 and died in Budapest on April 18, 1887. Educated by his father, a community notary, and at the yeshiva of Grosswardein and in Arad under the influence of Aaron Chorin, he went to Pest in 1842 to study philosophy and also devoted himself to letters. Teaching for forty years at the Jewish community school and at the institute for the blind, he was the first to translate the Bible into Hungarian for his students, collaborated on « Magyar Izraelita » and translated the prayer book and the Haggadah into Hungarian. He publishes in German « Beth-El » (2 vol., 1856; 2nd ed. 1868) and « Beth Lechem » (Budapest, 1871).
German writer born in Rokytnice, in Bohemia, on April 20, 1831, and died in that city on March 26, 1857, son of a shohet and hazzan of modest means. Trained at the gymnasiums of Reichenau and Prague, he went to Vienna in 1853 to devote himself to literature; his texts were collected and published in 1858 by his friend, Austrian poet Alfred Meissner, under the title "An der Grenze. Aus dem Nachlasse des Moritz Reich".
German industrialist and politician born in Bernburg on 3 May 1814 and died in Berlin on 26 January 1868. Entered his father's enterprise at fourteen years old, transferred from Magdeburg to Berlin, he made its activities prosper and purchased in 1846 the wool mill of Wuestegiersdorf, in Silesia. Elected to the Prussian Landtag in 1859 for the Reichenbach-Waldenburg constituency, he served there until his death, entered the first North German Reichstag in 1867 and sat on the Berlin municipal council from 1864, consistently defending popular rights during the « Conflict » between Bismarck and the Landtag.
German mezzo-soprano born in Munich on July 15, 1853 and died in Trieste on June 2, 1883, daughter of baritone August Kindermann. Trained at the piano by her mother then in singing by her father at the Munich Musikschule, she made her debut at the Munich Hoftheater before performing in Carlsruhe and then in Munich opera and operetta. Married in 1875 to actor Emanuel Reicher, from whom she divorced in 1881, she performed at Bayreuth in 1876, in Hamburg in 1877 and 1878, then in Vienna, Munich, Munich and Paris, before being called to Leipzig in 1880, where she became a recognized performer of Wagnerian heroines.
Austrian actor born on July 18, 1849 in Bochnia. After difficult beginnings in Tyrnau and a first unhappy marriage with soprano Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann, he experiences a new flourishing after his remarriage to Lina Harf, winning a first success in the role of Justinian in Sardou's "Theodora" at the Residenztheater in Berlin, then brilliantly confronting the great Italian tragedian Ernesto Rossi as Iago opposite his Othello. He devotes himself above all to modern drama, in particular to Ibsen characters, and stages the mystical play "G Ἁ A" by Goldschmidt, refused elsewhere in Europe.
Hebrew grammarian born in Wilna on October 5, 1827 and died in New York on April 3, 1903. Teaching Hebrew in Wilna after studies in Talmud and European languages, he emigrated around 1890 to New York, where he became a teacher in a Jewish school. His literary activity focused primarily on Hebrew grammar, notably "Ḥelḳat ha-Niḳḳud", on punctuation (Wilna, 1864), "Ḥelḳat ha-Pe'alim weha-Millot", on verbs and particles (1873), and "Ma'areket ha-Diḳduḳ", a grammar abridgment (1883), as well as translations of Krylov's fables (1860) and Lessing's (New York, 1902).
Galician poet born in Mościska in 1802 and died in 1859, initially marked by the school of the Me'assefim before detaching himself from it under the influence of Tobias Feder. Feared by fanatics for his biting wit, he opened in his native city a school for the study of the Bible and Hebrew that would train eminent Hebraists; a poet of great fineness writing in pure biblical Hebrew, he composed the dramas « Ha-Nidka'im », « Shoulamit », and « Yehoudit », which depict the life of Jews in Galicia, but, too poor to publish them, only distributed manuscript copies to his students.
Russian author and philosopher born on April 7, 1818 in Lagów, near Opatów, in Russian Poland, and died in Szczebrzeszyn on October 13, 1895. Trained in the Talmud under several rabbis of Opatów in an unmethodical way, he undertook alone, from age fifteen, a rigorous and logical study, then settled in Szczebrzeszyn where, at his father-in-law Joseph Maimon's, he discovered the « Guide for the Perplexed » by Maimonides and the « Kuzari » by Judah ha-Levi. A talented Hebrew poet, he maintained learned correspondence with Rapoport, Geiger, Jost, Luzzatto, and Sachs, and published « Tabnit ha-Bayit » (Zolkiev, 1843), « Pesher Dabar » (Warsaw, 1845), and « Toledot Rabbenu Zeraḥya » (Prague, 1853).
Russian rabbi, founder of the Orthodox Zionist movement « Mizrahi », born in Karlin, in the governorate of Minsk, on October 27, 1839. Trained at the yeshiva of Volozhin from 1855, he became rabbi of Hordok in 1859, then held the rabbinates of Choukian (1867) and Shventsian (1869), where he remained about sixteen years. He expounds in his « Ḥotem Toknit » (Mainz, 1880; Pressburg, 1881) a modernized logical method of Talmud study, proposed without success at the Saint Petersburg assembly of 1882, then founds a yeshiva according to its principles, closed by the authorities after four years. He becomes rabbi of Lida in 1885, a position he still holds in 1905.
Russian scholar and author born in Lida, where his father R. Isaac Jacob Reines was rabbi, in 1870, and died in that same town on 7 March 1891. He is the author of « Ruaḥ ha-Zeman », materials for the history of Jewish culture in Russia, as well as « Neẓaḥ Yisrael », on the perpetuity of the Jewish people and the colonization of Palestine (Kraków, 1890), « Aksanyut shel Torah », on the history of Russian yeshivas (1890), and « Dor wa-Ḥakamaw », twelve biographies of modern Jewish scholars (1890).
Member of the bet din of London, born in Vilkoviškis, Poland, in 1818, and died in London on May 17, 1893. Appointed rabbi of his native city at twenty-eight, a position he held for thirty years, he accepted in 1876 the position of preacher at the Talmud Torah in London and, noticed by Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler for his erudition, became member of the London bet din; « Reb Yankele » is said to have inspired the character of « Reb Shemuel » in « Children of the Ghetto » by Israel Zangwill.
French jurist born in Ichenhausen, Bavaria, on June 18, 1836, trained at the Collège Sainte-Anne in Augsburg and, after talmudic studies under Abraham Geiger in Breslau, in law at Munich and Heidelberg. A renowned pleader in Germany, he moved to Paris in 1866, where Napoleon III commissioned him to write a work on cooperative societies, published the same year and which earned him « great naturalization »; established as a lawyer in Paris in 1867, he became secretary to Jules Favre. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), he was sent on special mission to England and Austria, escaping Paris by balloon, an episode he recounts in « Une Mission Diplomatique en Octobre, 1870 » (Paris, 1899).
German physician, born in Berlin on May 26, 1849, son of Robert Remak. Trained in several German universities, he obtained his doctorate in 1870 and took part the same year in the Franco-Prussian War, before establishing himself as a neurologist in Berlin, where he became privat-docent in 1877 and professor in 1893; he published in particular a manual of electrodiagnosis (Vienna, 1895).
German physician born in Posen on 26 July 1815 and died in Kissingen on 29 August 1865. Trained in medicine at the University of Berlin, where he graduated in 1838 and settled, he became an assistant in the pathology department from 1843, obtained his venia legendi in 1847 — the first Jewish privatdocent in Prussia — then associate professor in 1859. His works, published notably in Müller's Archives between 1836 and 1862, deal especially with the structure of nerve tissue and the treatment of its diseases, including an essay on the methodical electrization of paralyzed muscles (Berlin, 1855).
Hungarian violinist born in Eged, Hungary, in 1830, and died in New York on May 15, 1898. Trained under Böhm at the Vienna Conservatory from 1842 to 1845, he was banished from Austria after the Hungarian revolution of 1848 and led five years as an itinerant musician in the United States, before returning to Europe in 1853, where he benefited from lessons with Liszt in Weimar. Solo violinist to Queen Victoria in 1854, amnestied in 1860, he became soloist of Emperor Francis Joseph, undertook a tour in 1865 of France, Germany, Belgium and Holland, stayed in Paris from 1871 to 1877, then undertook in 1886 a world tour taking him to Japan, China and Cochinchina.
Semitist and French thinker born in Tréguier on February 23, 1823 and died in Paris on October 2, 1892. Initially destined for the priesthood, he turns away from it in 1842 after studying German philosophy and Semitic philology, and establishes his reputation as an Orientalist with his « General History of Semitic Languages » (1855). A trip to Syria (1861) prepares his « Life of Jesus » (1863), which causes him to be removed from his chair of Hebrew at the Collège de France, where he is succeeded by S. Munk, before being restored to it in 1870; he continues there a history of the people of Israel in five volumes, translates Job (1859), the Song of Songs (1860) and Ecclesiastes (1882), and founds the « Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum ».
French lawyer, jurist, politician and Resistance member (1887-1976)
(1899–1977) classical pianist; piano teacher
Hungarian mathematician born in Nagykőrös on November 3, 1846, trained in Budapest, Vienna, Göttingen and Heidelberg. Professor of mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Kolozsvár from 1874 to 1886, he was called to the Technical School of Budapest, where he taught analytical mechanics from 1891; member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1878, he edited Bolyai's « Tentamen » (1897).
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Hebrew realist novelist (Ha-Dat ve-ha-Hayyim), Zionist publicist.
Trained in law in Baghdad and Constantinople, he served as judge in various Iraqi courts. From 1924, he represented several terms the Jews of Iraq in Parliament and supported the Zionist organization of Baghdad. Before 1936, he published an important work in Arabic on the Constitution of the Iraqi kingdom. In 1949, a military tribunal condemned him as a Zionist (released after four months).
First modern Hebrew biographer and critic, founded Mi-Mizrah u-mi-Ma'arav.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5600 of the Hebrew era (1840). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Son of Yehoshua II, himself son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-3.
Yiddish poet and critic, cofounder of the Di Yunge group in 1907.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5638 of the Hebrew era (1878). Son of Yehoshua III. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 104-4.
American lawyer
Protestant theologian born in Strasbourg on July 18, 1804 and died in that city on April 15, 1891. Trained in oriental languages by Gesenius at Halle and by Silvestre de Sacy in Paris, he became a professor in his native city in 1834, where he claimed to have first advanced in his courses on the Old Testament the hypothesis that the Priestly Code and the second Elohist form the most recent strata of the Pentateuch — a thesis later taken up by Graf and Wellhausen. He published a complete French translation of the Bible in sixteen volumes (1874-88) and a "Geschichte der Heiligen Schriften des Alten Testaments" (1881).
Israeli rabbi and writer
Rabbinic leader
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Hungarian deputy born in Eperies in 1860, trained at the universities of Budapest and Leipzig. Entered in 1880 the publishing house founded by his father in 1869, the Révai Brothers, he directs its journal « Regényvilág » from 1880 to 1885, contributes to the publication in 1885 of the « Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Words and Images » under the patronage of the heir apparent Rodolphe, and introduces to Hungary subscription-based marketing. An edition in one hundred volumes of the works of Mór Jókai, published by his house, wins the Grand Prize of the Paris Exposition of 1900, and Révai is elected in 1901 to the Hungarian Parliament.
German sculptor born March 26, 1853 in Oberlahnstein, in Prussia, and died in Berlin on October 2, 1900. After a commercial career that took him to San Francisco and then Hamburg, he retired to Berlin after his wife's death in 1882 to devote himself to scientific studies, then entered in 1886 the studio of sculptor Kruse before becoming in 1888 a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. His first work, a chimpanzee contemplating a human skull, exhibited in 1895, attracted attention for its originality, and his reputation became firmly established with the figure "Am Wege" (1896); he also occupied the treasury of the Deutsch-Israelitischer Gemeindebund for many years.
Italian economist (1862-1944)
Czech rabbi
German geneticist and embryologist (1878-1958)
American Jewish orientalist and Zionist
German political figure
English physician and friend of the Jews, born in Somersby in 1828 and died in London on November 21, 1896. Doctor of medicine in 1854, he was knighted in 1893; impelled by his origins and intellectual sympathy toward Jewish interests, he published in 1888 the historical novel « The Son of a Star », devoted to Bar Kokhba, and devoted his last work to the life of Maimonides, physician-rabbi whom he admired. Medical author, he especially defended the hygienic value of Jewish dietary laws, and was an assiduous lecturer to Jewish literary societies.
American educator born in New York on October 12, 1855, trained in New York public schools and then at Normal College. Director of public school no. 77 from 1884 to 1903, the year she becomes the first woman appointed superintendent of a school district in New York, she works for school reform, notably specialized instruction for deficient children. Highly engaged in the Jewish community, she is president of the Young Ladies' Charitable Union (1876-81), first female director of the Hebrew Free School Association (1885-1900), president of the Young Women's Association (1887-90) and director of the Educational Alliance since 1893.
Russian rabbi and commentator born on February 7, 1845, in Kobrin, in the governorate of Grodno. Successive rabbi of Izbalin (1868), Bobruysk (1876), Vilna (1881), Polotsk (1883), Vilkomir (1887), and then Sloutsk (1890-1900), where he founded a yeshiva in 1896, he published « Migdal Dawid » (Vilna, 1874), « Ḥanah Dawid » (1876), and « Teshouvot ha-Ridbaz » (1881), but above all his commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud (Piotrkow, 1899-1900). Having left for the United States in 1900 to finance this edition, he became in 1903 chief rabbi of the Russian-American congregations of Chicago, published « Nimmouké Ridbaz » (Chicago, 1904), and returned to the Holy Land in 1905.
Rabbi and German historian born in Dresden on July 4, 1870, trained in Dresden and at the universities of Breslau (doctorate in 1894) and Berlin. Rabbi in Potsdam from 1896 to 1902, he was subsequently called to the rabbinate of the Tempelgemeinde israélite of Hamburg. With H. Vogelstein, he wrote "Geschichte der Juden in Rom" (2 vol., Berlin, 1895-96), and also published the pamphlet "Hillel und Jesus" (Hamburg, 1904).
Nineteenth-century traveler died in Vienna around 1873. Wealthy merchant who had invested in Siam, he lost his entire fortune when the British government seized his property during the English war in that country, then traveled through Asia, Africa and much of Europe before settling in Vienna, where the financial aid of Adolf Jellinek enabled him to record an account of his travels, which remained unfinished at his death. The traveler and hebraist writer Wolf Schur revised and completed the text for publication under the title « Mas'ot Shelomoh » (Vienna, 1884).
American electrical engineer born in Randegg, Baden, on January 16, 1862, taken to America at the age of three. Trained in Baltimore and New York, he became a telegraph operator in 1876 and worked for the Edison company in New York, before returning to Baltimore in 1884 to develop his own inventions in electrical signaling and founding there in 1891 the Ries Electric Specialty Company; based in New York since 1896, he obtained approximately one hundred fifty patents for his inventions in telephony, telegraphy, and other electrical devices.
German novelist, lyric poet and dramatist born on August 4, 1817 in Zauditz, Silesia, and died on March 28, 1901 in Berlin. Graduated in medicine in 1840, he practiced in Gleiwitz before settling in Breslau in 1848 to devote himself also to literature; his first novel, « Breslau und Berlin », inspired Gutzkow's « Die Ritter vom Geiste » and made him known to Berthold Auerbach and other writers. Married in 1856 to Elvira Heymann, he abandoned medicine in 1862 for writing, publishing over half a century numerous novels, including « Rosenkreuzer und Illuminaten » (1861) and « Berliner Kinder » (1883), as well as works on the history of Berlin and the Hohenzollern.
Australian rabbi born in Edinburgh in 1823 and died in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1880, son of Myer Rintel, Hebraist and Talmudist. Reader at the Brighton synagogue, he went to Sydney in 1844, where he founded the Sydney Hebrew Academy and, in 1856, the United Jewish Friends' Benefit Society, before being elected in 1849 minister of the East Melbourne congregation; resigning in 1857, he served unpaid at the new Mikveh Israël synagogue in Melbourne, opened in 1860. He published two sermons, including one for Yom Kippur (Melbourne, 1859), among the first Jewish publications in the Australian colonies.
Italian politician
German rabbi born on March 13, 1825 in Ratibor, in Prussian Silesia, and died on July 9, 1890 in Johannisbad, in Bohemia. Doctorate in classical philology and history from Breslau (1849), he renounced an academic career, which required baptism, and became preacher at the Reform congregation in Berlin, assistant to Samuel Holdheim; his first sermons, published in 1856, place him among the most prominent Jewish preachers. His main work, "Geschichte der Jüdischen Reform" (Berlin, 1858-1902), traces in four parts the history of religious reform; despite a break with the congregation in 1858, he succeeded Holdheim upon his death in 1860.
German physician and author born in Berlin on October 4, 1862, son of Immanuel Heinrich Ritter. Medical graduate of the University of Berlin in 1887, he directs in 1905 the Institute for Invalid Children and the bacteriology laboratory of the city. In 1892, he announces his discovery of the bacillus of whooping cough, which he confirms in further publications in 1893 and 1896; he also devotes himself to diphtheria and serotherapy, notably in his 1893 work on the etiology and treatment of that disease, as well as to scrofula in children.
Russian writer born in Vitebsk in 1869, son of a police officer himself a Talmudist. Trained in the ḥeder and then at the Jewish state school of Vilija from 1881 and at the Institute of Jewish Teachers in Wilna from 1884, he received his diploma in 1889 and taught successively in the Jewish schools of Volojine, Molodetchno (1891), and Minsk (1895), before leaving state service in 1897 to teach in Saint Petersburg. He published stories in the "Voskhod" from 1895, a serial signed "Makar" in 1897, then in 1898 and 1900, novellas in "Rousskoïe Bogatstvo".
Lawyer, author, and American chess player born on February 22, 1850 in Wachenheim, in the Rhine Palatinate, taken to the United States at the age of six. Trained in Philadelphia and then in Paris (1866-1869), he becomes a music professor in New York before obtaining his law degree from Columbia in 1880; active in railroad affairs from 1884 to 1893, he founds in 1885 the magazine « Forum », then turns in 1893 to electricity, becoming in 1897 president of the Electric Storage Battery Company and founder of American electric automobile and boat industries. He discovers in 1895 a variant of the Kieseritzky Gambit that bears his name, the « Rice Gambit ».
American physician and editor born on May 27, 1857 in Philadelphia, graduated in medicine in New York in 1881. Resident physician at Mount Sinai Hospital (1881-1883) then at Montefiore Home (1885-1886), he abandoned medical practice in 1888 to devote himself to pedagogy, studied psychology in Jena and Leipzig, then examined approximately one hundred twenty-five thousand children in American schools; the results of his survey appeared in the "Forum" (1896-1897), a journal he has directed since May 1897. He notably published "The Public School System of the United States" (1893) and "The Rational Spelling-Book" (1898).
Irish politician
Son of Chief Rabbi Simon Debré; founding figure of modern French pediatrics and hospital-university reform, father of Prime Minister Michel Debré. Author of numerous medical works and memoirs.
Member of the Rolo family; presided over the Jewish community of Alexandria from 1934 to 1948.
Legal advisor to the heir apparent (future king) Fouad, then influential intermediary between the royal court and the British residence; for many years director of the National Bank of Egypt. Member of the Rolo family, Sephardic British nationals settled in Alexandria in the mid-nineteenth century.
French physician, Resistance fighter and deportee
Italian geographer (1884-1962)
German poet and author born in Rodenberg, in Hesse, on June 26, 1831. After law studies which he abandons for literature, he publishes his first poem, « Dornröschen », in Bremen in 1851, travels throughout Europe from 1855 to 1862, then settles in Berlin in 1859, where he still resides in 1905. Codirector of the « Salon für Litteratur, Kunst und Gesellschaft » from 1867 to 1874, he founds that same year the « Deutsche Rundschau » and receives in 1897 the title of professor ; a prolific author, he notably publishes « Die Grandidiers » (1879), devoted to the Franco-Prussian war.
German composer and orchestra conductor born in Berlin on April 7, 1851 and died in Boston on June 7, 1895, trained at the Hochschule of music of Berlin. Leader of choirs at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan from 1873 to 1880, where he founded in 1875 the Società del Quartetto Corale, he taught singing in Berlin from 1880 to 1887, then at the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin, before joining in 1892 the New England Conservatory in Boston. Erudite composer, he writes notably the opera « Vera », premiered at the Stadttheater of Hamburg in 1881.
Italian-Argentine Jewish philosopher and historian of ancient and modern philosophy, professor at the Universities of Turin and Bologna, dismissed from his chair and forced to emigrate to Argentina under the 1938 fascist racial laws, where he taught at Córdoba and Tucumán.
Banker and French writer born in Bordeaux in 1812 and died in Paris in 1898, son of Isaac Rodrigues-Henriques, head of a major banking house in Bordeaux. After his studies in Paris, he became a stockbroker at the Paris Stock Exchange in 1840, before retiring from business in 1855 to devote himself to writing; a prolific author, he published notably « Les Trois Filles de la Bible » (1865-67), « Histoire des Premiers Chrétiens : le Roi des Juifs » (1869) and his « Papiers de Famille » (1893), in which he recounts the family tradition of an origin going back to the Bar Kokhba uprising.
Dutch bibliographer born in Amsterdam in 1821 and died in that city in 1890. Employed by booksellers, he was passionate about bibliography and published in 1857 his « Catalogue de Livres Orientaux », then his best-known work, the « Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L. Rosenthal'schen Bibliothek » (2 vol., Amsterdam, 1875); curator of that collection after its bequest to the Amsterdam library by Baron Rosenthal, he collaborated in several Jewish journals and for several years directed the « Israelitische Letterbode ».
Catholic theologian and antisemitic author born in 1839 in Neuenkirchen, Prussia, professor successively in Münster, Milwaukee and Prague, where he remained canon until 1905. His work « Der Talmudjude » (Münster, 1871), a mere faulty abridgement of Eisenmenger's « Entdecktes Judenthum », became a reference text of antisemitic literature, widely taken up by the Catholic press and politically mobilized during the Tisza-Eszlár trial in 1883, where Franz Delitzsch publicly opposed it; accused of falsification by Josef S. Bloch, whom he sued for defamation before withdrawing his complaint, he later hailed Zionism as a solution to the Jewish question.
Belarusian writer
Russian thinker
Born in a Russian Jewish family, he grew up in Moscow then joined his family in Berlin after the revolution. In the 1930s he traveled through Poland, Ukraine, Romania and the Baltic countries to photograph Jewish communities, before emigrating to the United States. His book A Vanished World (1983) is one of the most detailed photographic documentations of East European Jewish culture before the Shoah.
Italian historian born in Trieste in 1808 and died in Venice on September 9, 1861. Orphaned early, he settled with his family in Venice in 1821, where he became a tutor, then published as early as 1828 Italian translations of Hammer-Purgstall's works. His first major original work appeared in three volumes from 1842 to 1844, and, having become professor of history in Venice in 1847, he undertook his history of Venice, of which the first volume appeared in 1853 and which he left at his death completed in manuscript up to 1789. An accomplished Hebraicist, he also translated into Italian numerous Talmudic legends.
Hungarian sculptor born in Lovasberény on February 1, 1861, initially destined for commerce then trained in a sculptor's workshop before obtaining a state scholarship to study for three years in Vienna under Professor Helmer, then, from 1882 onward, at Zumbusch's school. He won the Rome Prize in Berlin in 1885 with « Saint Sebastian » and « Olympic Victory », worked in Rome then Paris, before settling in Budapest in 1886. Among his notable works are the commemorative statue of the war of independence at Ofen, the mausoleum of General Klapka, and the statues of Louis Kossuth at Miskolc and of Nicolas Zrinyi at Budapest.
Hungarian dermatologist born in Halas on 1 April 1857, trained in Budapest. Assistant to Professor Kaposi in Vienna in 1881, then at Rukós Hospital in Budapest from 1882 to 1885, he founded the following year with associates a clinic for the poor, where he oversaw the section on syphilitic diseases, before traveling through Europe to study in major clinics; he became lecturer in 1889 and then physician at Budapest Municipal Hospital in 1893, and professor a few years later. His work concerns notably pityriasis rubra (1883), exfoliative dermatitis (1886) and lichen (1888).
German Jewish woman, grandmother of Margot and Anne Frank (1866–1942)
German mathematician born on 16 August 1842 in Brody, Galicia. Commercial employee in Breslau from 1858, he undertakes studies in chemistry from 1860 and then in mathematics and physics in 1862, obtains his doctorate from the University of Breslau in 1865, perfects himself in Berlin, and becomes privat-docent there in 1870, assistant professor in 1873 and full professor in 1876. He receives in 1897 the title of « Geheime Regierungsrat » and is elected rector of his university in 1903; he publishes numerous mathematical essays, including « Die Neuesten Untersuchungen in Betreff Unserer Anschauungen vom Raume » (Breslau, 1871).
Romanian violinist born in Jassy on October 24, 1863. Trained from the age of seven, he enters at ten years old the first violin class at the Vienna Conservatory under Karl Heissler, makes his debut in 1881 at a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Society and becomes concertmaster at the Hoftheater; the following year, he founds the famous Rosé Quartet, which performs throughout Austria and Germany. In 1888, after successful tours in Romania and Germany, he is appointed conductor of the Bayreuth festivals.
Woman of the world and English philanthropist born in London on July 27, 1851 and died at Dalmeny Park, in Scotland, on November 19, 1890, only daughter and heiress of Baron Meyer de Rothschild. Married in 1878 to the Earl of Rosebery, she remains faithful to Judaism, member of the Central Synagogue of London, and makes Lansdowne House a home of social liberalism; she devotes herself notably to the education of the deaf-mute and to the training of nurses, presides for Scotland over the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for nurses, and founds the Club for young Jewish working women of Whitechapel. She is buried in the Jewish cemetery of Willesden.
Russian rabbi and av beth din born in the first half of the nineteenth century in Horodok, near Pinsk, and died on January 12, 1885. Destined for commerce by his father, he devoted himself to study and became very early av beth din of his native town, a position he held until 1864; serving rabbi in Telz from 1864 to 1873, he was then called to the rabbinate of Slonim, where he remained until his death. He published two major works, « 'Edut bi-Yehosef », novellas on the Shulḥan Arukh, section Yoré Déa, and « Porat Yosef », sermons for the sabbath, both published in Wilna.
Polish banker and member of the State Council, born in Warsaw in 1804 and died in that city in 1865. He takes over his father's bank in 1846, then, in recognition of his services to the community, is elected in 1862 a member of the State Council of Warsaw; the following year, the Grand Duke Constantine charges him with studying the moral, industrial, and agricultural condition of the Jews of Alsace.
American physician born in Philadelphia on January 1, 1869, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1889. After an internship, he took courses in Berlin and Vienna in 1892 and became in 1893, during a cholera epidemic, health attaché to the American consulates in Hamburg and Antwerp. Returning to the United States, he was quarantine officer in San Francisco from 1895 to 1898, established in 1899 the health regulations for Cuba, then directed from 1900 the hygiene laboratory of the hospital service of the navy in Washington; in 1901, he became health expert at the Pan-American Congress in Mexico and professor of bacteriology in Washington.
American rabbi born in Wollstein, Germany, on 30 May 1865, trained in Hirschberg, Philadelphia, the University of Cincinnati (degree in 1888), the Hebrew Union College (rabbinic diploma, 1889) and Johns Hopkins (doctorate in 1900). Rabbi of Temple Israël in Omaha from 1889 to 1892, then of the Oheb Shalom congregation in Baltimore, he is vice-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1896-1897 and its corresponding secretary since 1903, while teaching rabbinic studies at Johns Hopkins since 1898. He published notably « Semitic Studies in Colleges » (1896) and « Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs » (Baltimore, 1903).
American journalist born in Philadelphia on September 16, 1858 and died in that city on March 4, 1892, contributor to the « Public Ledger » and other newspapers. He published in 1883 « The Jews of Philadelphia Prior to 1800 », one of the very first contributions to American Jewish history.
German physician born on January 4, 1851 in Krappitz, Silesia, where his father practiced medicine. Trained at the universities of Berlin and Breslau (doctorate in 1874), he interrupted his studies to serve as a volunteer during the Franco-Prussian War, then became assistant at the university hospital of Jena from 1874 to 1877, at the Allerheiligen hospital in Breslau from 1878 onward, chief of the medical department in 1887 — a position he left in 1893 — and associate professor in 1888; he retired to Berlin in 1896 to practice there. Author of numerous medical essays, he contributed to the major German medical encyclopedias of his time.
Austrian lawyer and community leader born in Prague on April 4, 1840, trained at the gymnasium and university of his native city (doctorate in law, 1863). Active in the administration of the Jewish community of Prague since 1873, he becomes its vice-president in 1885 and president in 1887, before presiding in 1897 over the Union of Jewish Congregations of Bohemia. In 1861, he engages, without personal success, in a struggle for Jews' access to the doctorate in canon law, a restriction lifted in Austria in 1870; first Austrian Jew appointed to the "Finanz-Procuratur" in 1863, he resigns in 1869 to devote himself to the bar, which he still practices in 1905.
Russian-American writer born in Pinsk, Russia, on October 17, 1838, descendant of the Jaffe family. Educated at the rabbinical seminary of Zhitomir, he became in 1872 chief rabbi of the Pinsk district, then in 1888 of the Nikolaïev district, where he also taught Jewish history and religion at the gymnasium; he emigrated to the United States in 1891 and settled in New York. He is the author of "Ge Ḥizzayon" in "Ha-Meliẓ" (1867-68), translator of a novel by O. Derry published in "Evreiskiya Zapiski" (1881), and author of the novel "Ḥatan Damim" (New York, 1892) and a biblical encyclopedia, "Oẓar ha-Shemot".
German physician born on September 17, 1856 in Schloppe, West Prussia, holder of a degree from the University of Berlin in 1880. Author of numerous essays on diseases of the larynx and throat, he summarizes the essentials of his practice in his manual « Die Krankheiten der Mundhöhle, des Rachens, und des Kehlkopfes » (Berlin, 1893; 2nd ed. 1899).
Hungarian deputy born in Kis-Czell on September 12, 1856, trained in Szombathely and Győr then in law in Budapest (doctorate in 1877, admitted to the bar in 1880). Recognized as an authority on maritime law even before his thesis, he sits on the board of directors of the Adria Shipping Company, then is elected in 1892 deputy of the Németújvár district to the Hungarian Parliament, where he actively participates in the development of economic laws and the report on trade treaties. In 1885, he kills in a duel Count Étienne Batthyányi; his wife is the daughter of Consul Don Teixeira de Mattos.
Austrian lawyer born on March 20, 1853 in Cracow, in Galicia, where he was trained, graduated from university in 1876 then passed the state examination in 1880. Lecturer in law from 1877, assistant professor in 1884 then full professor in 1893, he is also active in Jewish affairs, president of the Cracow community and of the Austrian branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He notably publishes a manual of criminal procedure (Cracow, 1883) and works on witchcraft trials in Poland (Warsaw, 1882).
Russian rabbi known as the « Tsaddik of Bouten », born in Autopol, in the governorate of Grodno, on 3 Iyar 1837. Trained under Isaac Hirsch, rabbi of Semiatytche, he married at fourteen, studied rabbinics in Pinsk from 1856, then devoted himself to Kabbalah and practical Hasidism under Plinichas Michael. Becoming in 1870 rabbi of Bouten, he acquired through his ascetic life a reputation as a tsaddik and miracle-worker that attracted crowds; he subsequently held the rabbinates of Korelitz (1887) and Oshmiany, then, since 1904, of Slonim. He published « Hadrat Mordekhaï » (Wilna, 1899), a collection of responsa, pilpulim and homilies.
American lawyer born in Albany, New York State, on June 23, 1842. Admitted to the bar in 1863, he became assistant district attorney of Albany County, then, in 1868, clerk of Albany for four years; partner of Rufus W. Peckham from 1881, he was elected attorney general of the State of New York in 1892 and appointed in 1899 commissioner of charities by governor Theodore Roosevelt. Deeply engaged in Jewish affairs, he presided for ten years over the appellate court of the Order B'nai B'rith and presided in 1888 in Philadelphia over the founding convention of the Jewish Publication Society of America.
Russian journalist and publisher born in Austria in 1839 and died in Minsk, Russia, in 1885, educated in law at the University of Kiev. Lawyer in Saint Petersburg, he collaborates with several Russian newspapers; deeply marked by the pogroms of southern Russia in 1881, he becomes a convinced Jewish nationalist and buys that same year the « Razsvyet », a Jewish periodical in Russian language which he co-directed with G. I. Bogrow, making it the organ of the national and Palestinian movement. Forced by financial difficulties to cease its publication in 1883, he settles in Minsk, where he resumes the practice of law.
Danish composer born in Copenhagen on 21 July 1849, initially destined for commerce before devoting himself to music with his father's consent. Trained at the Copenhagen Conservatory from 1872 to 1875, he obtains in 1881 a grant to travel abroad and receives in 1889 the title of professor. Author of numerous piano pieces and more than thirty collections of songs in Danish and German, he enjoys great success with the orchestral work « Henrik og Else » (Copenhagen, 1885) and publishes a manual of vocal singing, « Om Textsang » (1887).
Yiddish poet born in Boksza, in the governorate of Suwałki, in Russian Poland, on December 28, 1862. Tailor in New York and London then diamond merchant in Amsterdam, he settles in New York in 1886 and since then contributes to several Jewish newspapers, directing in 1905 the « New Yorker Morgenblatt »; delegate to the fourth Zionist congress in London in 1900, he gives public readings at Harvard (1898), Chicago (1900) and Wellesley and Radcliffe (1902). He publishes « Die Glocke » (New York, 1888), a collection of revolutionary poems which he will later buy back and destroy himself, then « Die Blumenkette » (1890) and « Das Lieder Buch » (1897).
American dramatist born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 26, 1855, trained in the public schools of Richmond and New York. Designated editor-in-chief at the launch of « Puck », he then turned to dramatic writing, producing numerous plays, operettas and adaptations, including « The Senator » (in collaboration); secretary of the National Art Theatre Society, he worked for the creation of an American national theatre, assisted by his wife Genie Holtzmeyer Johnson, and directed in 1905 the Century Theatre Company.
German mathematician born on June 10, 1816 in Königsberg, Prussia, and died in that city on May 14, 1887. Privatdocent at the University of Breslau from 1844 to 1848, then in Vienna from 1851, he became associate professor at Königsberg in 1857. His memoir on functions of two variables and four periods, inverses of ultra-elliptic integrals of the first kind, won in 1846 the grand prize in mathematics of the Paris Academy; he demonstrated there the existence of abelian functions defined by Jacobi, a major step in the passage from functions of one variable to those of two variables.
German pianist born in Mannheim on December 27, 1813 and died in Baden-Baden on March 21, 1894. His one-act piece "Der Besuch im Irrenhause", which premiered with success in Frankfurt am Main in 1834, is frequently revived, notably in Weimar under Hummel's direction; his second opera, "Liswenna", is less successful. Settled in London in 1837 and then in Paris, where he founded a piano school with J. B. Cramer, he retired from the lyric stage after his third opera, "Volage et Jaloux", premiered in Baden in 1863, to devote himself to instrumental music. His brother Eduard, pianist and pedagogue born in Mannheim in 1818 and died in Frankfurt in 1861, published a serenade for cello and piano.
German cantor born in Offenbach-sur-la-Glan, in the Rhineland Palatinate, on March 14, 1841, and died in Nuremberg on November 16, 1900. Trained by cantor Löwe in Strasbourg and then by Salomon Sulzer in Vienna, he becomes cantor and teacher in Kochem-sur-la-Moselle before being called in 1864 to a similar position in Speyer, where he studies music theory under Professor Wiss; he succeeds in 1881 Josef Singer as cantor of Nuremberg. He is the author of « Shire Ohel Ya'aḳob », synagogal songs, sets psalm 42 to music and composes various Hebrew songs and secular pieces.
Russian Hebraist born in the first quarter of the 19th century in Vilna, where he lived his entire life in comfort and died in 1896. He published "'Eẓaḥ we-Tushiyah", proposals for reforms in Judaism (Vilna, 1870), "Shelom Aḥim", on the cosmopolitanism of the Mosaic religion (Vilna, 1870), and "Dibre Shalom", a defense of the Kabbalah in three volumes (Vilna, 1880, 1882, 1883); suspected of sympathies for Christianity, he was kept at arm's length by Russian Orthodox Jews.
German physician born in Berlin on February 20, 1832, son of rabbi Elhanan Rosenstein and grandson of rabbi Rosenstein of Bonn. M.D. from the University of Berlin in 1854, he served as assistant at the general hospital in Danzig from 1856 to 1858, established himself as a physician in Berlin in 1858, obtained his venia legendi in 1864, then was appointed professor of medicine at Groningen in 1866 and at Leiden in 1873, a position he still held in 1905; he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 1898. He is the author of "Die Pathologie und Therapie der Nierenkrankheiten" (Berlin, 1863).
German writer born in Berlin on 14 October 1840, died in Stuttgart on 7 April 1897. After studying natural sciences in Berlin and Paris, he traveled in southern Europe, the United States, and Japan, before settling in Stuttgart in 1872, where he collaborated on « Ueber Land und Meer », then directed from 1889 to 1894 the journal « Vom Fels zum Meer ». A prolific author, he published numerous collections of short stories and novels translated into several European languages.
Polish physician born in 1808 in Tarnogrod, in the Lublin district, and died in 1889, son of a district physician in the service of the Polish army. Trained in medicine in Vienna, he was sent in 1831 to fight cholera in Hungary and Transylvania, obtained his doctorate in 1834, became in 1836 physician at the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, of which he was chief physician (1844-79), while also being physician to the students of the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry of Marymont (1849-62) and, from 1859 onward, professor of hygiene in the same establishment. He describes a form of typhus that appeared in 1847, later known as "relapsing fever".
German physician and author born in Neisse, Silesia, in 1812, and died in Breslau on March 29, 1875, holder of a medical degree from the university of Breslau. Converted to Catholicism in 1851, he worked to improve the Catholic press in Silesia and distinguished himself also as an author, beginning in 1862 with the edition of the poetic works of the Catholic mystic Angelus Silesius. Between 1869 and 1872, he published his « Convertitenbilder aus dem Neunzehnten Jahrhundert » (4 vol., Schaffhausen), a biographical collection, classified by country, of Jews and Protestants converted to Catholicism in the nineteenth century, a work reprinted several times.
German jurist born on September 6, 1853 in Würzburg. After studying at Würzburg, Heidelberg, and Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1878, he became a privat-docent at the University of Jena in 1880, then assistant professor in 1883 and full professor of public law and German legal history in 1896. He is the author of several works on law and German legal history, as well as various articles.
Exegete born around 1860 in Vladislavov (Neustadt-Schirwindt), in Poland. In 1869, he joins Manchester, in England, with his mother and sisters, where he receives his education, then returns to Vladislavov in 1878 to study Hebrew before turning to business. He is the author of « Sod Kedoshim », a commentary on the prophecies of Daniel, published in Manchester in 1895.
American author, editor, and librarian born on 6 October 1843 in Friedrichstadt, in Courland (Russia). After completing his studies in 1859, he emigrates to the United States in 1881 to found agricultural colonies for Russian Jewish immigrants, notably in Louisiana and South Dakota, then directs the immigration service at Ellis Island from 1894 before heading the Slavic department of the New York Public Library in 1898. He was also a figure in the Haskalah movement in Russia and founded in 1894 the "Ohole Shem" society, which he still chaired.
German physiologist born July 16, 1836 in Labischin, near Bromberg, in Posen, died in 1904. Graduated in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1859, he obtained the venia legendi there in 1862, became assistant professor in 1867 and then professor of physiology at the University of Erlangen in 1872. Author of numerous essays and works on physiology, including a treatise on electrotherapy, he also directed the « Biologisches Centralblatt ».
Polish physician born in Warsaw, son of David Rosenthal, trained in medicine in Berlin and Warsaw. He became in 1870 physician at the Jewish hospital in Warsaw, dedicating himself to gynecology, and obtained in 1894 the creation of a department dedicated to women's diseases, which he still directed. He notably published a translation of a medical work in 1872 and a medical handbook for women, the "Paradnik Lekarski dla Kobiet", in 1874.
Russian Jewish scholar born on 14 February 1844 in Suwalki, Russian Poland. Self-taught in Talmud from his earliest years, he settled in Warsaw in the nineteen-nineties to practise law, while conducting since 1866 a literary career in the Hebrew press, notably with an article on the Sefer Yeẓirah in "Keneset Yisrael" (1887) and essays in religious philosophy gathered under the title "Derek Emunah" (1894). Also a recognized chess player, he won first prize in the Druzgenik tournament in 1885.
American lawyer born September 17, 1828 in Liedolsheim, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany. Trained at Rastadt, Heidelberg and Freiburg, he emigrated to the United States in 1854 and settled in Chicago, where he was admitted to the bar in 1860 and specialized in succession and real estate law; he notably served as public administrator of Cook County (1859-84) and president of the Chicago Law Institute (1878-80). He was also one of the founders of Congregation Sinai and contributed to the library of the Hebrew Union College.
Russian financier, philanthropist and community activist born in Vilna on November 16, 1817, died in Locarno, Switzerland, on June 19, 1887. Son of an enlightened merchant close to the Haskalah movement, he entered the service of the Günzburg family before settling in Saint Petersburg around 1850, where he becomes one of the main bankers of the Russian capital while actively supporting the spread of secular knowledge among Russian Jews. He founded in 1863 the Ḥebrat Marbe Haskalah, of which he was the treasurer and guiding spirit until his death, and related its history in a work published in two volumes (1885 and 1890).
American painter and engraver born on November 23, 1833 in Turek, near Kalisz, in Russian Poland. Trained in Berlin then in Paris, he settles in the United States in 1849, studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and introduces chromolithography; he serves as official illustrator of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, then invents in 1872 a sand engraving process. He has engraved more than five hundred portraits, today preserved at the Smithsonian Institution, and illustrated works by Longfellow.
Austrian physician born in 1833 in Grosswardein, in Hungary, died in Vienna on December 30, 1889. A graduate in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1858, he became privatdocent in 1863 and then assistant professor of neurology in 1875. Author of approximately seventy essays and several works on nervous disorders, including a manual of electrotherapy published in 1873.
Chess master born in 1838 in Suwalki, Russian Poland, died in Paris on September 25th, 1902. Refugee in Paris in 1864 after the Polish insurrection, he devoted himself to chess and established himself in several international tournaments, notably in Baden in 1870 and in Vienna in 1873, before receiving the brilliancy prize of the London tournament of 1883 for a game against Steinitz. He founded in Paris the Chess Circle and published a work on the Paris tournament of 1900.
American painter born on 15 March 1848 in New Haven, Connecticut. Settled in San Francisco from 1855, he studied art there in 1864 before departing for Munich in 1865, where he trained under Piloty at the Royal Academy until 1876, when he returned to California. Rewarded with medals at exhibitions in Munich (1870 and 1883) and Philadelphia (1876), he is notably the author of « Morning Prayers in Bach's Family » (1870) and « Elaine » (1874).
Editor, author and Russo-American poet born in Byelostok, Russia, in April 1861. Educated in Jewish schools in Berlin, Cracow and several Russian cities, he directed a Hebrew school in Suwalki before emigrating to the United States in 1888, where he became co-editor of several New York Jewish newspapers until 1905 and directed the Hebrew journals « Ha-'Ibri » (from 1891 to 1898) and « Ḳadimah » (from 1898 to 1902). He is the author of « Masseket Ameriḳa » (1891), a satire written in the style of the Talmud, as well as several collections of poetry.
American mezzo-soprano born in Stuttgart on March 7, 1847. After debuts in Baltimore in 1864, she pursued a career as a prima donna from 1875, notably with the Abbott Company from 1880 to 1884 alongside her husband, conductor Jacob Rosewald, before settling in San Francisco, where for ten years she was the only known woman to direct the service of a synagogue, at Temple Emanu-El, then singing professor at Mills College from 1894 to 1902.
American engineer born in Bohemia on October 31, 1848, who emigrated to the United States at an early age with his family and settled in Cleveland. He joined the corps of engineers of the Union Pacific Railway in 1864, settled in Omaha in 1868 and became municipal engineer there in 1870, before directing « The Omaha Bee » from 1876. Named president of the electrical commission for underground sewers in Washington in 1891, he has again held the position of municipal engineer of Omaha since 1897.
American newspaper editor and publisher born in Bukovan, Bohemia, in 1841. Emigrated to the United States at thirteen after studying in Prague, he trained in telegraphy, served in the American military telegraph corps during the Civil War (1862-63), then settled in Omaha where he was elected to the Nebraska legislature in 1871, the year he also founded « The Omaha Bee », which he has directed since then. Member of the Republican National Committee from 1892 and the U.S. Monetary Commission in 1896, he was also the originator of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha in 1898 and died in 1906.
American editor and economist born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1871, son of Edward Rosewater. Graduate of Columbia University in New York (master's degree in 1892, doctorate in 1893), where he was an assistant in political science (1892-93), he entered journalism with "The Omaha Bee" in 1893 and became regent of the University of Nebraska in 1896. He notably published "Special Assessments: A Study in Municipal Finance" (1893) and contributed to the "New Encyclopædia Britannica" (1903).
German theologian born in Rosenberg, Silesia, on May 27, 1823, died in Breslau on December 31, 1894. Trained in the yeshivot of Kempen, Myslowitz and Prague before completing his studies in Berlin and Halle (doctorate in 1851), he became in 1866 professor of homiletics, exegetical literature and Midrash at the rabbinical seminary of Breslau, a position he held until his death. Author of several works, including a study on Samuel ben Meïr (1880) and an edition of the poems of Abraham ibn Ezra (1885-94), he also edited the sermons of Michael Sachs (1867).
German jurist born in Breslau on September 14, 1855. He became privat-docent at the Faculty of Law of Breslau in 1880, before joining the University of Freiburg as assistant professor and then full professor. Author of several works on public law and legal history, including a treatise on labor insurance (1892-93) and a study on Bismarck's political thought (1898).
Merchant and American community activist born in Wollstein, Prussia, on November 6, 1846, son of Henry and Zelda Rosnosky. Settled in Boston from an early age, he served on the municipal council in 1878 and then 1879, before becoming, in 1880 and from 1891 to 1894, the first Jew elected to the Massachusetts legislature ; he was also a delegate to national Democratic conventions and commissioner to the Universal Exposition. President of Temple Ohabei Shalom, the oldest Hebrew congregation in Boston, since 1882.
Swiss physician born in Basel on December 25, 1839, trained at the universities of Würzburg, Göttingen, Berlin and Basel, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1864. Privatdocent in Basel in 1866 then in Greifswald in 1868, he became assistant professor in Basel in 1872 and professor of pathology and pathological anatomy in 1874, a position he held until his resignation in 1898. He is notably the author of a work on Andreas Vesalius published in Berlin in 1892.
German cellist born in Tarnowitz, Upper Silesia, on October 25, 1853, died in Berlin on June 9, 1898. Trained under Wilhelm Müller and, from 1876 to 1878, under Robert Hausmann at the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, he published a cello method as well as a guide to the literature for this instrument. In 1890, he founded the Freie Musikalische Vereinigung in Berlin and directed its publication, the "Berliner Signale".
Austrian rhinologist born in Kluckno, Hungary, on October 10, 1848. Trained at the gymnasium of Eperies then at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1873, he settles there and becomes privatdozent in 1885. Inventor of several medical instruments for the larynx and nose, he is the author of « Die Chronische Rachenentzündung » (Vienna, 1883) and collaborated on two therapeutic and diagnostic lexicons.
Rabbi and German author born in Hamm, Westphalia, on 16 November 1816, died in Aachen on 28 January 1892. Preacher in his native city, he became rabbi in Aachen in 1850 then in Alzey, Hesse, in 1862, and sided with Reform Judaism. He published several works, including a prayer book for the Aachen community (1853) and a study on Spinoza (1877).
American economist born in McGregor, Iowa, on September 17, 1871. Trained at the University of Pennsylvania and then at the Wharton School (Ph.B. in 1890), he obtained his doctorate from the University of Halle in 1892 and rose through the ranks of the University of Pennsylvania to the chair of political science in 1904. Appointed in 1900 by President McKinley to the Porto Rico law revision commission, he subsequently chaired the insular code commission and became president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 1902 ; he published notably « The United States and Porto Rico » (1904).
rebetiko singer-songwriter and performer
Hungarian physician born in Lackenbach on March 15, 1815, died in Budapest on May 19, 1885. Educated in Nagy-Kanizsa, Szombathely, Pesth, and Vienna, he began practicing in Pesth in 1843, received the gold medal for arts and sciences in 1858 and the order of Francis Joseph in 1866; ennobled under the name « Muraközi », he published numerous medical works in Hungarian, including a Hungarian Jewish almanac from 1848. An advocate for the emancipation of Hungarian Jews, he founded several societies, presided over one from 1861, and reorganized in 1862 the Jewish hospital in Budapest.
Israeli journalist
Danish statistician and author born in Copenhagen on March 5, 1854. Diploma from the University of his native city in 1871, he became in 1874 secretary of a commerce commission, then from 1883 directed the statistical bureau of Copenhagen which he helped bring to the level of the best European institutions. He published notably, with H. Westergaard, statistical works (1886-90) and an award-winning work on the history of Copenhagen, supplemented in 1895 by a second volume; since 1902, he is « Generaltolddirektor ».
Russian pianist and composer born on November 16 (28), 1829 in the village of Wechwotynetz, in Bessarabia, died in Peterhof, near Saint-Petersburg, on November 20, 1894, brother of Nikolaï Rubinstein. Trained from the age of seven by Muscovite pianist Villoing, he gave his first public concert in Moscow in 1839, then toured Europe in 1841, where he met Chopin and Liszt, before being received at the Winter Palace by the Russian imperial family on his return in 1843. In 1844, he went to Berlin with his mother and brother to study composition under Dehn, on the advice of Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer.
Austrian deputy born in Czernowitz in 1805, died in Ischl on September 1, 1878. Member of the municipal council and vice-president of the chamber of commerce and industry of Czernowitz, which he represented in the Austrian Reichsrat from 1873 to 1878, he invested actively in philanthropic work and held numerous honorary positions within his community.
Russian pianist and composer born in Staro-Constantinov on February 8, 1847, died by suicide in Lucerne on September 15, 1884. Pupil of Hellmesberger, Dachs and Liszt, devoted friend and admirer of Wagner whose « Ring des Nibelungen » he transcribed for piano, he was appointed « Kammerpianist » by Grand Duchess Hélène of Russia in 1869 and gave in 1880 in Berlin a series of remarkable lectures on the « Wohltemperierte Klavier ». Author of compositions for piano and songs, he also published highly critical articles against Schumann and Brahms in the « Bayreuther Blätter ».
Russian pianist born in Moscow on June 2, 1835, died in Paris on March 23, 1881, brother of Anton Rubinstein. Brought to Berlin in 1844 to study piano under Kullak and composition under Dehn, he founded in 1859 the Musical Society of Moscow, which was the origin of the Moscow Conservatory created in 1864, which he directs until his death. He performed in England in 1861 and then in Paris in 1878, where he conducted four concerts of Russian music during the exposition held in the French capital.
Austrian psychologist born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, on September 20, 1847, daughter of an Austrian deputy. She entered the University of Prague in 1870, continued her studies in Leipzig, Vienna and Berne, where she obtained her doctorate in 1874, and subsequently published several works of philosophy and psychology in German, including psychologico-aesthetic essays (1878-84) and studies on individualistic pessimism (1894).
German jurist born in Berlin on July 8, 1834, died in that city in March 1895. Graduate of the University of Heidelberg in 1857, he was admitted to the bar in 1859, appointed judge in Berlin in 1861 then became privatdozent, and later professor, in that city in 1862. He participated in the drafting of the military code of the German empire and published several legal works, including a work on defamation in 1861.
German jurist
Austrian actor
French merchant and shipowner born in Paris on February 16, 1854. Turned toward colonial affairs and navigation from an early age, he went to Indochina in 1872 and became one of the pioneers of French influence in the region, presides over the "Franco-African Society", which established the first trading posts in Abyssinia, and founded the "Fluvial Messageries of Cochin-china". Administrator of the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire from 1900, he was made commander of the Legion of Honor that same year.
The first Jewish Lord Chief Justice of England (1913), he became viceroy and governor-general of India (1921–1926), then briefly secretary of state for foreign affairs (1931). Created marquess of Reading in 1926, he was the first British Jew elevated to the rank of marquess.
Russian teacher and Hebraist author born in the village of Zezemer, in the governorate of Wilna, on April 6, 1822, died in 1894. Trained in the Talmud in Wilna from the age of nine, he became in 1853, at the opening of the first public schools for Jewish children in the governorate of Wilna, a teacher in Ponevyezh alongside his friend Judah Löb Gordon. He is the author of several novels and translations into Hebrew, including an adaptation of « Robinson Crusoe » (Wilna, 1861) and a historical novel about Esther-Esterka, favorite of Polish king Casimir the Great (1883), as well as numerous articles in the Hebrew press.
English composer and singer born in Sheerness on December 24, 1812, died in London on December 7, 1900. After beginning on stage as a child, he studied singing under Bellini in Italy in 1825 and counterpoint under Donizetti, before settling in Rochester, New York State, in 1843 as a piano teacher, after having sung in Philadelphia in 1839. He then toured America and then Great Britain and Ireland giving concerts of his own compositions, of which there were hundreds of songs, before retiring to London as a wealthy pawnbroker.
German Protestant theologian born in Reinsberg, Saxony, on December 18, 1849, died in Zurich on March 2, 1905. He begins his academic career at the University of Leipzig in 1878, becomes assistant professor there in 1885, then receives in 1889 a call to Zurich as professor of Old Testament and Oriental languages. Author of several works on biblical exegesis, he also prepared new editions of Fürst's Hebrew and Chaldean dictionary (1876) and commentaries on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (1884).
Born Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport in 1863 in Chashniki (Vitebsk governorate), died in 1920. Yiddish/Russian author, he directed the Jewish Ethnographic Expedition in the Pale of Settlement (1912–1914), collecting thousands of photographs, tales, songs and objects. He is best known for his play The Dybbuk and for Di Shvue, the Bund anthem. His complete works comprise fifteen volumes.
Rabbi of Taza, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5576 of the Hebrew era (1816). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5597 of the Hebrew era (1837). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 101-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5570 of the Hebrew era (1810). Son of Israel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Died in 5633 of the Hebrew era (1873). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5584 of the Hebrew era (1824). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 100-1.
Rabbi and German archaeologist born March 15, 1801 in Königsberg, East Prussia, died in that same city on August 23, 1863. After university studies in Königsberg (doctorate in 1824) and positions as rabbi and teacher in Berlin and Vienna, he returned in 1835 to serve as rabbi in Königsberg, then became in 1847 private docent of Hebrew archaeology at the university of the city, where he is considered a pioneer in this field among Jews. He published numerous works on the poetry, music and archaeology of the Hebrews, including a comprehensive work in twelve parts, « Archäologie der Hebräer » (Königsberg, 1855-56).
German mathematician born in Königsberg, Prussia, on December 1, 1835, son of Joseph Lewin Saalschütz. He studied mathematics and physics at the university of his native city from 1854 to 1860, obtained his doctorate there in 1861, then taught mathematics, mechanics and engineering at the Royal School of Mechanics in Königsberg from 1861 to 1882, while also giving courses at the university, where he has been assistant professor since 1875. Long-time president of the Jewish orphanage in Königsberg, he is the author of several works, including « Der Belastete Stab » (Leipzig, 1880).
Italian-American rabbi
Bulgarian-Argentinian rabbi
Physician and one of the first psychoanalysts; introduced the concept of death drive.
Mayor of Woodbine, in New Jersey, born in Berdiansk, Russia, on February 25, 1860. After secondary studies and two years at the University of Odessa, he went to Zurich in 1882 to study agriculture and agricultural chemistry, returned to Russia in 1885 to continue his research in Odessa, then emigrated to the United States in 1888. Appointed chemist of the Colorado experimental station in 1889, he later became agricultural adviser to the Woodbine colony, whose mayor he was elected in 1903 while directing the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural and Industrial School.
Italian poet born in Fossano in 1820, died in that town on 27 November 1883. Passionate since his youth for the comparative study of Greek, Latin and Italian classics, he composed several dramas, including « Bianca Cappello », performed with success at the Alfieri Theatre in Turin in 1874, « Cola di Rienzo », « Catilina » and « Eglon », dramatic poem in five acts of biblical inspiration, as well as sonnets, odes and songs.
American physician, born in Baltimore on 2 January 1858, trained at Harvard College and at the universities of London, Berlin, Vienna, and Strasbourg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1882. Settled in New York in 1884, specialist in nervous diseases from 1888 onwards, he became in 1889 professor of neurology at the New York Polyclinic and was attached to the Montefiore and Mount Sinai hospitals; he is the author, among other works, of the "Lehrbuch der Nervenkrankheiten" (1897), also translated into English.
German physician born in Märkisch Friedland on July 26, 1803, died in Nordhausen on January 11, 1846. Graduated from the University of Königsberg in 1827, he established himself as a physician in Berlin, where he founded in 1832 a medical journal that changed its name several times, and published from 1835 onward a medical almanac and then, from 1837, a yearbook of medical progress. Appointed « Medizinalrath » by the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1841, he moved in 1843 to Nordhausen where he opened a publishing house; a prolific author, he published notably works on cholera (1831) and on Samuel Hahnemann (1834).
American educator born in Baltimore on 6 July 1849, trained at Columbia University and at Rostock, where he obtained his doctorate in 1867. Founder of the Collegiate Institute of New York and professor of secondary education at Teachers College at Columbia, he notably presided over the American Philological Association (1891), the association of colleges and secondary schools of the Middle States (1898) and the Association of Principals of Educational Establishments of the United States (1899), and served on the committee of entrance examinations to the university (1900-4).
German rabbi born in Glogau on September 3, 1808, died in Berlin on January 31, 1864. Doctor from Berlin University in 1836, he practices that same year as a preacher in Prague until 1844, then joins Berlin, where he remains until his death; his disagreements with his community on the question of religious reform, notably his refusal of the liturgical organ, lead him to withdraw from communal life to devote himself to study. He published a German translation of the Psalms (Berlin, 1835), a work on the religious poetry of Spanish Jews (1845) and research on languages and antiquity (1852-1854).
Russo-French hebraist scholar born in Kaïdany, in the province of Kovno, on June 17, 1816, died in Paris on November 18, 1892. Trained early in Hebrew and Talmud by his father, rabbi of Zhagory, he turned to the literature of the Haskalah, stayed in Brody around 1839 where he lived by teaching Hebrew, then, arrested without a passport at the Russian border while returning to his parents, spent five months in prison before being released thanks to Isaac Baer Levinsohn. Settled in Berlin in 1844 then called to Paris in 1856 as private librarian and tutor of Baron Joseph Günzburg, he deployed there an intense editorial activity in the field of Hebrew letters.
German dentist born in Wesenberg, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on September 22, 1849. Educated at the University of Breslau and at the Philadelphia Dental College, where he obtained his doctorate in dental surgery in 1872, he practiced in Vienna (1873) then in Paris (1874) before settling in Breslau, where he became a private lecturer in 1890 and professor in 1896. He published numerous essays in dental journals, including « Die Pflege der Zähne » (Stuttgart, 1887).
Lithuanian scholar and Talmudist died in Vilna on June 26, 1872. Versed in rabbinic literature, as evidenced by his casuistic commentary on the Haggada of Passover, « Yad ha-Ḥazaqah » (Vilna, 1835), and knowing several European languages, he served as interpreter in English when Sir Moses Montefiore was received in Vilna in 1846 by his father, Joseph Sackheim. His letters were published in several works, including Günzburg's « Debir » (1862).
Russian Talmudist and community activist died at an advanced age in Rosinoi, in the province of Grodno, on January 28, 1822, descendant at the sixth generation of Israël b. Shalom of this city, martyred on Rosh Hashanah in 1659. Wealthy merchant in his youth, he withdrew from business in mature age to devote himself to study and charity, and long exercised as dayan in Rosinoi, respected for his piety. His son Joseph was one of the most prominent Jews in Wilna at the time of Sir Moses Montefiore's visit in 1846.
Educator and Sephardic master born in Baghdad, founded a synagogue in Jerusalem.
Hungarian author born in Waitzen on September 8, 1869, trained in law in Budapest while devoting himself to novel writing. Lieutenant in a light infantry battalion in Bosnia from 1892 to 1894, he drew his subjects from military life and became one of the most popular authors of his genre, publishing notably « Katonáéknál » (1893), « De Profundis » (1894), « Kaszárnyatitkok » (1895) and « Regruták és Más Katonák » (1897). Contributor to « Budapesti Hirlap », he became in 1897 secretary of the journalistic society Otthon.
English woman of letters died on April 10, 1879, youngest daughter of S. K. Salaman and sister of the musician of the same name. Bedridden for part of her youth, she gathered scriptural extracts illustrating the precepts of Judaism, published under the title « Footsteps on the Way of Life » (2nd ed., London, 1874), and also wrote a collection of stories for children, « Aunt Annette's Stories to Ada ».
Pianist, composer and English polemicist born in London on March 3, 1814, died in that city on June 23, 1901. An early prodigy elected member of the Royal Academy of Music at the age of ten, he performed in Paris under the direction of Henri Herz before composing, in 1830, the ode for the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon; he stayed in Rome from 1845 to 1848, where he conducted the first performance of a Beethoven symphony, before founding the Musical Society of London on his return. Pioneer of the reformed movement in England, he also composed several psalms and anthems that remained in the repertoire of synagogues and the Anglican Church.
English journalist and dramatist born in London September 6, 1855, son of composer Charles Kensington Salaman. Author of the poetry collection 'Ivan's Love-Quest' (London, 1879) and lyricist for many of his father's songs, he also became known as a dramatist and librettist with comedies such as 'Deceivers Ever' (Strand Theatre, 1883) and 'A Modern Eve' (Haymarket Theatre), as well as theatre and art critic. He edited the published works of A. W. Pinero and published the successful work 'Woman—Through a Man's Eye-glass' (1892).
English inventor born in London in 1828, died in that city on November 23, 1900. Considered the true founder of the British sewing machine trade, he introduced into England the « Howe » machine from America, then established in Coventry the country's first bicycle factory, helping to make that city the center of the industry. With his son Alfred G. Salamon, a chemist, he acquired the English patents for saccharin and remained administrator of the Saccharin Corporation until his death.
Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi communities of Jerusalem born on January 2, 1816 in Byelostok, Russia. He left in 1840 for Jerusalem, where he arrived in 1841, visited as an emissary the communities of Lithuania and Poland from 1848 to 1851 and reorganized that of Wilna. In 1878, he succeeded Meïr Auerbach as chief rabbi of the Ashkenazim of Jerusalem, became blind after 1888 and took an assistant in 1900; an eminent Talmudist, he directed the central committee of the Ashkenazi ḥalouka in Palestine.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5587 of the Hebrew era (1827). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5562 of the Hebrew era (1802). Son of Yitshak b Yosef, himself son of Salem I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-2.
Chinese convert to Judaism, born in Hankow, China, of Chinese parents in 1853, under the name of Feba. Orphaned in 1861 during the Taiping Rebellion, he was taken in after his captivity among the rebels by a volunteer in the service of David Sassoon & Co in Shanghai, then sent to Bombay in 1862, where he was admitted into the Jewish faith under the name of Salem Shaloam David. Trained at the David Sassoon charitable institution, he entered in 1872 E. D. Sassoon & Co, served in their Shanghai house from 1874 to 1882 then in that of Bombay, where he distinguished himself as a community activist among Jews and Bnei Israël.
Hungarian psychiatrist born in Pest in 1849, trained in Pest, Vienna (doctorate in 1874) and Göttingen, where he was assistant to Max Leidesdorf. Privatdozent in 1879, chief physician of the Swetlin sanatorium in Vienna from 1880 to 1882, then of the state mental asylum in Budapest from 1884 onward, he converted to Christianity and sat in several learned societies of mental medicine. He notably published « Werth und Bedeutung der Reformbestrebungen in der Psychiatrie » (Stuttgart, 1877) and a manual of psychiatry (Budapest, 1890).
Born Bezalel Daiches in Vilna, son of Rabbi Israel Hayyim Daiches. Trained at the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary, doctor of philosophy from the University of Leipzig (thesis on David Hume). Rabbi of the Hebrew congregation of Edinburgh from 1919 until his death in 1945, a leading figure in the Scottish Jewish community.
Hebrew poet and Lithuanian teacher at the rabbinical seminary of Wilna, where he dies on March 14, 1868. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including "Shirim li-Shelomoh" (Wilna, 1842), adaptations of poems from other languages, "Ḳol Shelomoh" (1858) and "Shema' Shelomoh" (1866), as well as Hebrew discourses published in the "Ḳobeẓ Derushim" (1864), collection of addresses by teachers of the seminary edited at the expense of the Russian government.
Russian Hebraist converted to Christianity, born in Wilna, died in Vienna on June 5, 1883. Having left for America with the intention of entering a rabbinical seminary, he was diverted from Judaism in London by missionary agents, baptized, then entered in 1849 the college of the missionary society for four years of study, before being ordained a Presbyterian minister in Glasgow in 1859 and finally settling in Vienna in 1876. He translated into Hebrew several major literary works, including Milton's « Paradise Lost » (1871) and Shakespeare's « Othello » and « Romeo and Juliet » (1874 and 1878), as well as the New Testament, published after his death in Vienna in 1886.
Kabbalist born in Baghdad, disciple of Ben Ich Haï, died in Jerusalem.
Painter born of German parents on April 1, 1821 in Tondern, in Schleswig, died on July 5, 1902 in Stockholm. Trained in Copenhagen, where his family settled after his birth, he painted from his youth several portraits and scenes, including « The Violin Lesson » (1846), received in 1848 the Neuhauser prize for a portrait, then stayed in Paris, settled in Göteborg, lived in Algiers from 1860 to 1863 and finally settled in Stockholm in 1870, where he became professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1872. A recognized painter but also an archaeologist, he remained throughout his life a pious Jew.
Danish physician born in Tondern, in Schleswig-Holstein, on March 21, 1823, died in Copenhagen on March 20, 1885. Graduate of the University of Copenhagen in 1850, he practices at sea then at the Frederiks Hospital in Copenhagen, joins the Danish army as assistant surgeon in 1853, becomes surgeon in 1858, takes part in the war of 1864 and is appointed surgeon general of the Danish army in 1873, contributing greatly to the improvement of the army's hospital and ambulance services.
Danish violinist and composer born in Tondern, in Schleswig-Holstein, on October 2, 1816, died on July 22, 1899 on the island of Dalarö, in Sweden, brother of Geskel and Nota Saloman. Child prodigy giving his first public concert in Copenhagen at twelve years old, he obtains in 1838 a three-year scholarship, studies in Dessau then in Dresden under Lipinski in 1841, and publishes in Hamburg in 1842 several collections of romances. Returning to Copenhagen in 1843, he composes several operas, including « Diamantkorset » (1847), before marrying in Berlin the Swedish singer Henriette Nissen and settling, after her death, in Stockholm, where he composes several more operas.
Psychoanalyst, member of the Vienna and then Berlin societies; victim of the Shoah.
Born and raised in Baghdad, Salomon Twena settled in Calcutta in 1880 where he founded a Hebrew printing house that published more than 70 books, largely his own works, as well as Judeo-Arabic weeklies (Maggid Meisharim, 1889-1900; Shoshannah, 1901). A Kohen, he designed a printer's mark showing the raised hands of the priestly blessing. He also translated fiction into Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic.
From Tétouan, emigrated in 1790; became Chief Rabbi of Gibraltar.
Chief rabbi of Meknès, decisioner and poet; author of Em le-Mesorot.
Galician-born Jewish mathematician, known for the Bochner integral and work in analysis, probability and differential geometry; professor at Princeton.
German rabbi
German rabbi
German Orthodox rabbi
Rabbi and kabbalist (Saba Kadisha), chief rabbi of Damascus then of Safed.
German rabbi
Austrian archaeologist, historian and librarian (1856-1941)
German academic (1803–1880)
Rabbi and Talmudic scholar, he served as rabbi in Boskowitz (Boskovice, Moravia) from 1894 to 1915, then settled in Vienna. Vice-rabbi provincial and honorary citizen of Boskowitz. He devoted his work to the history of the Jews of Babylonia and the study of the Talmud.
Israeli architect
American historian
Born into a modest Alsatian Jewish family in Hattstatt (Haut-Rhin), he became one of the best-known foreign policy journalists of the interwar period, then Socialist deputy (Mulhouse, Paris, Castres from 1936) and leader of the SFIO. He was involved in welcoming refugees from the Reich to France (1939-1940).
Polish rabbi
German rabbi
Received his general and Jewish education in Prague and taught religion there. In 1906 he founded and directed the Jewish Museum of Prague, in the old cemetery. Published works on the history of Jews of Bohemia (David Oppenheim, Ezekiel Landau, Eleazar Fleckeles, the Prague Hebrew press, the expulsion of 1745 by Maria Theresa).
Lexicographer and poet, author of the biblical concordance Heikhal ha-Kodesh.
French rabbi
Archaeologist and philologist, curator of national museums (Museum of Saint-Germain-en-Laye), author of a comprehensive history of religions, Orpheus (1909).
German writer
Austrian pathologist and histologist (1834–1898)
French rabbi
Salomon Zalman ben Isaac, Polish rabbi died in Warsaw in 1838, first held the rabbinate of Mszczonów then of Praga, before being called to the rabbinate of Warsaw which he retained until his death. He maintained scholarly correspondence with Akiba Eger and Jacob de Lissa, and published the Ḥemdat Chelomoh (2 vol., Warsaw, 1816), a collection of responsa on the Choulḥan Aroukh and of talmudic novellae; other novellae, which remained in manuscript, were published after his death by his son and his son-in-law.
Abraham Salomon, English artist, born in London in May 1824 and died in Biarritz in 1862. Admitted at eighteen to the Royal Academy school, he exhibited regularly at its annual salon from 1843 until the year of his death; his painting « The Breakfast Table », exhibited in 1846, brought him recognition, followed by « Waiting for the Verdict » (1857) and its sequel « The Verdict » (1859).
Edward Solomon, English musician and composer, was born in London in 1856 and died there on 22 January 1895. Largely self-taught, gifted for melody and orchestration, he composed numerous comic operas in the vein of Gilbert and Sullivan, including « Billee Taylor » (1880), « Claude Duval » and « Love and Larceny » (1881), « The Nautch Girl » (1882), « Paul and Virginia » (1883), « Polly » (1884) and « Pocahontas » (1885). His brother Frederick Solomon, who sang in « Billee Taylor » in the provinces, himself composed « Captain Kidd », premiered in Liverpool on 10 September 1883.
German physician born in Schleswig, in Schleswig-Holstein, on April 5, 1837, son of Jacob Salomon. Trained at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Kiel (doctorate in 1861), he became in 1862 assistant at the municipal hospital in Altona, served as surgeon in the Prussian army from 1866 to 1870, then established himself as a physician in Hamburg before settling in Berlin in 1874. A prolific author, he published numerous works on internal medicine and the history of medicine, including a history of diabetes (Leipzig, 1871) and a manual of internal therapeutics (Berlin, 1885).
Philip S. Salomon, attorney general of Fiji, is born in Lee, Essex, on October 15, 1830, and dies in New South Wales on March 24, 1895. After Australia and New Zealand, he settles in Fiji in 1870 and takes the direction of the « Fiji Times », before turning to law: lawyer then counsel of the queen in 1889, he exercises intermittently the functions of attorney general from 1875 to 1895 and becomes the first « warden » of Levuka. He also wrote a memorandum, praised by the royal commission, in favor of the annexation of the Fijian archipelago.
American financier born in Mobile, Alabama, on October 9, 1852, great-great-grandson of Haym Salomon. Settled in New York in 1864, he entered in 1867 the service of Philip Speyer & Co, was transferred in 1870 to the Frankfurt-am-Main house, then became in 1873 one of the directors and in 1882 a partner of the firm Speyer & Co, which he left in 1899 to found in 1902 the bank William Salomon & Co. Very active in railway finance, he played a notable role in the reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad.
Australian statesman born in Birmingham in 1834. Admitted to the bar in January 1861, he emigrated to New South Wales, where he practiced successfully before the Supreme Court of Sydney and defended the fenian O'Farrel in 1868, author of an attack on the Duke of Edinburgh. Solicitor General from 1869 to 1870, briefly Chief Judge in 1886 before resigning, then Agent General of the colony in London until 1890, he was knighted in 1891 and became Agent General in London again from 1899 to 1902.
Danish bacteriologist born in Copenhagen on December 6, 1847, son of Martin Salomonsen. Graduated in medicine from Copenhagen in 1871, he became private docent in 1878, assistant professor in 1883 then professor of pathology in 1893, and was the first Danish physician to create a laboratory dedicated to the preparation of antidiphtheria serum. He had the Rigsdag adopt a law, promulgated on March 20, 1901, creating a State serotherapy institute, and became in 1891 a member of the Academy of Sciences.
Danish physician born in Copenhagen on March 9, 1814, died in that city on December 21, 1889, father of Carl Julius Salomonsen. Graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1838, he became assistant physician to the Royal Guard in 1842 then district physician in Copenhagen in 1844, where he worked for the reform of health statistics and contributed to the adoption, in 1850, of a law requiring doctors to file weekly reports. His work on epidemics in Copenhagen in the eighteenth century (Copenhagen, 1854) earned him the honorary title of Doctor of Medicine from his alma mater.
Italian Jewish mathematician born in Trieste to a Jewish family, founder of functional analysis in Italy, first president of the Unione Matematica Italiana (1922-1936), and namesake of the Pincherle derivative.
German ophthalmologist born in Marienburg, West Prussia, on April 14, 1841, died in Cologne on March 7, 1899. Trained at the universities of Breslau and Berlin (doctorate in 1864), he established himself as an ophthalmologist in Cologne in 1867 and published several important essays in the ophthalmology journals of Gräfe and Knapp, including « Die Bedeutung der Lichtsinnuntersuchung in der Praktischen Ophthalmologie » (1885), for which he received the Gräfe prize.
American rabbi born in Markstift, Bavaria, in 1846, trained by his father, at the Talmudic school of rabbi Lazarus Ottensoser in Hochstädt, at the public school in Fürth and at the University of Würzburg, before receiving his rabbinical degree from rabbi Seligman Baer Bamberger. Emigrated to the United States in 1867, he served as rabbi of the B'nai Zion congregation in Shreveport until 1871, then in Memphis, where he notably founded the city's united charitable works and the Hebrew young men's association, presided over the rabbinical association of the South and founded the journal 'The Jewish Spectator'.
German rabbi born in Derenburg, near Halberstadt, on January 1, 1807, died in Berlin on February 5, 1887. Rabbi and preacher in Liegnitz, Prussian Silesia, from 1837 to 1854, where he introduced preaching and confirmation in German, he lived subsequently in Berlin from 1869 until his death. Prolific author, he published several works on local history and Talmudic translation, including an annotated German translation of the treatise Baba Meẓi'a (Berlin, 1877-79) and of the six orders of the Mishna (1884-88), a project left incomplete.
German rabbi
Rabbi of Frankfurt, founder of German Neo-Orthodoxy and of the doctrine Torah im Derekh Eretz. Author of the Nineteen Letters on Judaism.
Born in Hamburg in a major Jewish family with commercial interests, S. Bing settled in Paris. He was a major promoter of Japanese art in the West and, in December 1895, opened the gallery « Maison de l'Art Nouveau » which gave its name to the movement. From 1888 to 1891 he gathered and published the monthly journal « Le Japon artistique ».
Rabbi, scholar, community leader (1852-1935)
Rabbinic judge in Algiers, from a family of notables long established in Algeria; a portrait of him is held in the Museum of Art and History of Judaism (MAHJ). He is the ancestor of a lineage of physicians (including Dr. Moïse Aboulker, the first Jew in Algeria to study medicine in Paris). No written works are attributed to him.
rabbin réformé germano-américain
Russian conductor and composer (1877–1947)
rabbi
English rabbi in the Netherlands (1869-1918)
Polish rabbi died in Posen on 25 November 1806, descendant of R. Joshua, author of the « Maguiné Shelomo », and related to the Heilprin family. Rabbi of Bilgoraj, near Zamość, at twenty-three years of age, then of Przeworsk and Tarnopol, where he was still residing in 1795, he succeeded his brother Joseph « ha-Ẓaddiq » as rabbi of Posen in 1801, a post he held until his death. He is the author of « Bet Shemuel Aharon », a collection of responsa and sermons on the weekly readings of the Pentateuch (Novidvor, 1806).
Rabbi and Hebraist (1841–1899)
German rabbi
Canadian businessman, philanthropist (1891-1971)
Italian scholar, exegete, and poet, professor at the rabbinical college of Padua, a figure of the science of Judaism. He defended a traditional approach against German rationalism.
Polish mathematician of Jewish origin, born and died in Warsaw (killed by a German bomb in September 1939). His work focused mainly on algebra and the history of mathematics; his bibliography contains over 200 titles. He founded the journal Wiadomości Matematyczne and co-launched a series of Polish mathematics textbooks in 1884. He was also a cofounder of the assimilationist Jewish party Zjednoczenie.
(1835-1883) Slovakian-German rabbi
German rabbi
German industrialist (1801-1881)
German rabbi
Born S. Rahamin Samuel Talkar in a Bene Israel Jewish family, he became a renowned painter and playwright before converting to Islam upon his marriage. A prominent figure in Indian art of the early twentieth century.
American film producer (1882–1974)
Born in Ivrea, qualified as a literature teacher in 1854, appointed rabbi of Turin in 1877. Author of a prayer ritual with Italian translation (Livorno, 1879), an elegy on Hillel Cantoni (Turin, 1857), a catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts (1880) and various sermons and essays.
Italian rabbi
German rabbi (1806-1860)
French rabbi
Writer, editor and scholar of Vilna (Rashif), figure of the Eastern Haskala.
20th-century historical-geographer (1886–1940)
Hungarian rabbi, historian (1841-1920)
Hungarian archaeologist
German physician
German orientalist and librarian of Jewish faith
Poet and biblical exegete, school commentary still used in Israel.
Hungarian rabbi
American rabbi
(1804-1878)
Israeli rabbi, pioneer of Zionism (1824-1898)
Polish rabbi
rabbi (1842-1919)
American Jewish judge and lawyer, counsel and chief speechwriter to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, credited with coining the term "New Deal".
American banker born to Jewish immigrants from Bavaria, co-founder of Goldman Sachs alongside his father-in-law Marcus Goldman.
American Jewish rabbi (1888-1959)
Indian community activist born in Alibag, near Bombay, in 1830, educated at the Robert Money School of Bombay. Entered government service in 1851, pensioned in 1878, he obtained for Bnei Israel soldiers equality of pay with Europeans, founded in 1853 the Bnei Israel benevolent society of Bombay then, in 1881, the Israelite secondary school of the Anglo-Jewish Association of London, which he chaired for twenty-four years. He opened in 1888 a prayer hall which earned him excommunication by the three Bnei Israel synagogues of Bombay, and published a history of this community.
English politician born on 31 August 1853, son of Horatio S. Samuel and Henrietta Montefiore. Trained at Eastbourne College and St John's College, Cambridge (degree in 1875), he failed to be elected in the Limehouse constituency in 1892 before being elected Conservative MP there in 1895.
English politician born in London in 1870, youngest son of Edwin L. Samuel and nephew of Sir Samuel Montagu. Trained at Balliol College Oxford, where he receives honors in history and his Master's degree in 1897, he runs unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate in South Oxfordshire in 1895 then in 1900, before being elected Liberal MP for the Cleveland constituency, in Yorkshire, in 1902.
English ḥazan born in London on March 9, 1833. Appointed officiating minister of the congregation of Bristol in 1860, he becomes principal ḥazan of the synagogue of Bayswater in 1864, teaches ḥazanout at Jews' College from 1888, and is appointed in 1892 by the London county council as Jewish chaplain of Colney Hatch asylum, a position he had already held on a voluntary basis; he was also for long honorary secretary of the home for deaf-mute Jews, to which he contributed to having the building erected and enlarged.
Attorney and secretary of the Council of Jewish Delegates of London, born in 1804, died in London on 10 November 1868. First active on the London Stock Exchange, he then turned to law and became honorary solicitor to several major charitable organizations; consulted as secretary of the Council of Delegates on many important matters, he accompanied Sir Moses Montefiore on his mission to Morocco. Member of the committee of the Great Synagogue and of almost all charitable institutions of the community, he contributed to founding the school for young Jewish children in London.
German pathologist born in Glogau on October 5, 1833, died in Königsberg, in East Prussia, on May 9, 1899. Trained in medicine in Berlin and Vienna (doctorate in 1855), he established himself as a physician in Königsberg in 1856, became privatdozent in 1864 then assistant professor in 1874, and published several works on general pathology, including a manual published in 1879, as well as, with A. Eulenburg, a manual of general therapeutics in 1899.
English financier and Lord Mayor of London born in London in 1853, son of Marcus Samuel and principal associate of the Samuel shipping house, Samuel & Co of Yokohama, charged in 1898 with placing the Japanese loan. Elected alderman of the Portsoken ward in 1891, he was knighted in May 1898, then created a baronet in 1903 at the end of his term as Lord Mayor of London; he is also lord of the manor of La Mote, at Maidstone, and justice of the peace in Kent county.
Australian statesman born in London on November 2, 1820, died in that city on August 29, 1900. Emigrated to New South Wales in 1832, he began his public career in 1846 as a magistrate, entered the Representative Assembly in 1856, joined the ministry in 1859 and held various offices, notably finance and posts, before being appointed in 1880 agent general of the colony in London; this post earned him the C.M.G. in 1874 for negotiating a postal service via San Francisco, then the K.C.M.G. in 1882. Pioneer of Australian federation, he was also delegate of the colony to the Colonial Conference in London in 1887.
Author and English community activist born in London on June 21, 1848, died in June 1884, trained at University College London. Honorary Secretary of the Board of Guardians from 1878, he traveled to the Orient in 1879 to investigate the condition of Jews in the Holy Land, which led to his book « Jewish Life in the East », while writing for the theater — libretto for « Piccolino » (1879), comedy « A Quiet Pipe » (1880). A broker in London and recognized financial authority, contributing to the « Examiner » and the « Times », his health collapsed under the weight of these multiple activities.
Born in Pitigliano into an observant Jewish family, student of Israël Costa and Elia Benamozegh at the Rabbinical College of Livorno (rabbinical diploma 1893, degree in liberal arts from Pisa). Upon Benamozegh's death in 1900, he became Chief Rabbi (rabbino maggiore) of Livorno. In 1916-1917 he founded and presided over the Italian Rabbinical Federation (first assembly in Bologna). Author of numerous essays on biblical criticism and Jewish philosophy.
Born in Rovigo to a father who came from Venice, ordained rabbi at the seminary of Padua (1837), he was vice-rabbi in Venice, then chief rabbi of Florence (1849–1853), of Casale Monferrato (1857–1859) and of Turin (1859–1877). Figure of the Venetian Risorgimento of 1848–49. In 1865 he launched in Turin the most notable attempt at liturgical reform in nineteenth-century Italian Judaism.
English merchant and politician born in Liverpool on November 22, 1820, died on May 10, 1905. After an apprenticeship in commerce in Liverpool (1835-41) and management of continental affairs for the engineers Sharp, Stewart & Co of Manchester (1842-45), he established railway workshops in Tours (1846-48), purchased the agricultural machinery factories of Banbury (1849), and erected blast furnaces in Middlesbrough (1854), to which were later added collieries and iron mines (1872-80). Member of Parliament for Banbury in 1859 and from 1865 to 1885, then for North Oxfordshire from 1885 to 1895, he chaired the Royal Commission on Technical Education from 1881, and distanced himself early from Judaism.
Austrian ghetto poet born in Stryi, Galicia, in 1846. From the age of seventeen, he published a first narrative in Hebrew, followed by a second and two collections of Hebrew poems drawn from ancient Jewish history, before turning to German, encouraged by the poet Moritz Rapoport. The first volume of his "Culturbilder", accounts of Jewish life in Galicia translated into several languages, was published in Leipzig in 1886, followed five years later by a second; he also published "Zwischen Licht und Finsterniss" (Vienna, 1889) and "Alt Lemberg" (1902), among other narratives in German and Hebrew.
rabbi in Arad, Romania
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian photographer, painter
Hungarian Jewish psychoanalyst born in Kisvárda on January 8, 1890, died in New York on May 14, 1972. Met Freud in 1915, was analyzed by Karl Abraham in Berlin, emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, and founded the psychoanalytic training center of Columbia University (1944). He coined the term « schizotype » (1956).
actor, opera singer (1859-1913)
Hungarian merchant and deputy born in 1860 in Hódmezővásárhely, trained at the commercial academies of Budapest and Dresden. Member of the municipal council and chamber of commerce and industry of Budapest, he is elected in 1901 to the Hungarian Parliament by the constituency of Lipótváros, in Budapest.
American lawyer and politician born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1842, died in New York on 3 January 1894. Graduated from City College and Columbia Law School in 1864, he became commissioner of federal deposit funds in 1870, president of the aldermanic council in 1885, presidential elector for the State of New York in 1880 and 1884, and commissioner of education from 1886, serving as president of its board in 1893. He was the first to propose Bryant Park as the site of the New York Public Library, and played an active role in American Judaism, notably as a leader of the B'nai B'rith and president of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites.
Egyptian publicist born in Cairo in April 1839. Trained in Egypt and Italy, he became in 1863 professor at the Polytechnic School and school inspector for the Egyptian government, introduced in 1870 modern Arab theater in Egypt, and founded in 1877 the « Journal d'Abou Naddara », where he predicted the English invasion of Egypt; exiled in 1878 for his opposition to the authorities, he settled in Paris and continued to publish his anti-English newspaper there as the organ of the Egyptian national party. He also founded in 1890 the monthly « Al-Tawaddoud » and in 1899 « Al-Mounsif », and received in 1900 from the Shah of Persia the title of « Poet of the Empire ».
Hungarian journalist born in Hungary in 1806 (according to some sources, 1801), died in Pesth on October 17, 1866. He directed several German newspapers in the city, including the "Pesther Tageblatt" (1839-45), to which his uncle, humorist Moritz G. Saphir, contributed, and which notably published Max Letteris' account of the legend of the death of Judah ha-Levi. He also edited the "Pesther Sonntagszeitung", of which no complete collection is known, as well as, with Count Majláth, the poetic almanac "Iris" (1840-41), which Majláth alone continued for five years afterward, with the collaboration of Ludwig August Frankl.
Nutritionist, chief dietitian of Hadassah hospitals in Mandate Palestine.
Born Henriette-Rosine Bernard in Paris in 1844, to a Dutch Jewish mother (Judith/Julie Bernard). The most famous tragedienne of her time (« the Divine »). She left a body of written work: her memoirs Ma Double Vie (1907), a drama (L'Aveu) and texts, plus activity as a painter and sculptor.
Yiddish poetess, translator and writer (sister of Abraham Reisen).
American clubwoman
American journalist born in Paiser, in Russian Poland, in 1835, died in New York on January 12, 1905. Destined for the rabbinate, he abandoned this project in 1866 to emigrate to the United States, where he founded in New York in 1874 the « Jewish Weekly » and the « Jewish Gazette », then in 1886 the « Jewish Daily News » — at a time when no Hebrew Jewish newspaper yet existed in the United States, Hebrew type itself being difficult to obtain. He founded in 1882 the Hebrew boarding house of New York and presided, after a trip to Palestine in 1901, over the fund-raising committee for poor Jews in Palestine as well as that for the victims of Kishinev.
Egyptian actress
Dutch physician and economist born in Amsterdam on January 31, 1813, died in that city on June 23, 1866. Graduated in medicine from Leiden in 1838, he established himself as a physician in Amsterdam, where he founded a society for the development of agriculture through the city's wastewater and prompted the creation of the first business school. After a trip to London in 1852, he founded a society for the construction of a palace of industrial exhibitions, inaugurated in 1864 in a quarter that has since become the heart of a new Amsterdam bearing his name, as well as a society of cheap bakeries and, in 1866, the Amstel Hotel.
Born in Baghdad, son of Hakham Heskel, trained in London, Vienna (Diplomatic Academy) and Constantinople (law), polyglot. Deputy for Baghdad to the Ottoman parliament, he became in 1920 Minister of Finance of Iraq's first government and drafted the bulk of the kingdom's early fiscal, customs, postal and pension laws. He obtained that petroleum royalties be paid in gold rather than sterling. Ennobled by George V in 1923, he is considered the "father of the Iraqi Parliament."
Rosh yeshiva and paytan of Tripoli, founder of the Talmud Torah Yagdil Torah.
Hungarian and Czech rabbi (1865–1940)
Dutch political figure
Rabbi of Djerba, Hebrew grammarian, author of Lehem ha-Bikkurim.
Austrian rabbi
Hebrew historian and writer, first secretary of the Hovevei Zion of Russia.
Australian colonial merchant, member of parliament, magistrate, pastoralist, and Jewish community leader (1820–1900)
Cape Colony politician (1817–1892)
Russian-born Jewish anarchist and longtime editor of the Yiddish anarchist newspaper Fraye Arbeter Shtime in New York.
Christian archaeologist and numismatist born in Lille on March 19, 1807, died in Paris on November 5, 1880. Initially a military man, he became curator of the Artillery Museum in Paris in 1842, then traveled to Palestine, where he paid particular attention to the Dead Sea and claimed, upon his return, to have discovered the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah. A prolific author on biblical archaeology, he published notably his « Recherches sur la Numismatique Judaïque » (1854), his « Histoire d'Hérode, roi des Juifs » (1867) and his « Numismatique de la Terre Sainte » (1873), a work of reference on the subject before that of Madden.
Renowned lawyer born in Sousse, active member of the Tunisian section of the World Jewish Congress. Zionist activist, he represented the Tunisian Zionist Federation at the Zionist congresses of 1951 and 1956, before emigrating to Israel in the early 1950s and settling in Tel-Aviv.
International chess grandmaster, born in Rostov-on-Don in a Jewish family, one of the world's best players between the wars, journalist and author of reputed chess works; he served in the French Resistance under the pseudonym "Lieutenant Cartier".
Electrical engineer born in Sugarre, Russia, in 1824, died in London in August 1890. Emigrated to England in 1851, he founded a company for the manufacture of scientific instruments, including scales for the Royal Mint, and presented in 1862 at the International Exhibition in London scales rewarded with a medal. He subsequently filed a series of patents — fire alarm button (1862), magnetic telegraph (1869), improved mechanical recorder (1870), electric billiard marker (1872), electromagnetic telephone and fire alarm bells (1881) — and was administrator of the Western Synagogue in London, supporter of Jewish charitable works in the city.
English archaeologist born in Shirehampton on September 25, 1846, fellow of Queen's College, Oxford in 1869 and tutor in 1870, then assistant professor of comparative philology at Oxford from 1876 to 1890. Author of numerous works in assyriology, he tackled the decipherment of Hittite inscriptions and devoted several works, including « Patriarchal Palestine » (1895) and « Early History of the Hebrews » (1897), to defending the authenticity of ancient biblical narratives based on the El-Amarna tablets. Forced to spend each winter in Egypt for health reasons, he was the first to exploit the treasures of the Cairo Genizah for the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
American rabbi born on May 4, 1862 in Bausk, in Courland, in Russia, descendant of Mordecai Jaffe, author of the « Lévouch ». Trained at the Libau gymnasium, at the University of Berlin and at the Berlin rabbinical seminary, he becomes on January 1, 1893 rabbi of the congregation Shearith Israel of Baltimore, presides over the Baltimore Zionist association since 1895, is honorary vice-president of the American Federation of Zionists and was twice a delegate to the Basel Zionist Congress. He published in 1889 in Frankfurt am Main a work on law and morality in Talmudic doctrine.
Novelist and Judeo-German Russian dramatist born in Niasvij, in the Minsk province, on December 18, 1849. An early storyteller, he began in Hebrew in "Ha-Meliẓ" before becoming theater director in Odessa, where his play "Der Rewizor" (1883), an adaptation of Gogol, was a great success. After the closure of Jewish theaters in Russia, he settled in New York in 1888, where he edited two Judeo-German weeklies and became a prolific Judeo-German novelist, taking Isaac Meïr Dick as his model before surpassing him; he defended himself in 1898 in a pamphlet against criticism of his alleged literary weaknesses.
Russian mathematician born in 1840 in Erswilken, near Tauroggen, in Lithuania, died in Cologne on May 8, 1898. Destined for the rabbinate, he chose to devote himself to secular sciences, studied in Odessa then, from 1868, in Berlin, before resuming his scientific studies in 1878 at Heidelberg, where he became a private lecturer in mathematics in 1883 and assistant professor in 1887. Faithful to Hebrew literature, he edited the « Mishnat ha-Middot » from a Munich manuscript (1880) and was an ardent Zionist, faithful to the Basel program; it was during a tour of Zionist lectures that he contracted in Cologne the pneumonia that claimed him.
Russian physician born in Grodno in 1853, died in Saint Petersburg on February 14, 1901. Trained at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Medicine (1871-76), he served as military surgeon during the Russo-Turkish War, then, after a long military career in Saint Petersburg and Odessa, became privat-docent of medicine at the Imperial Clinical Institute (1895), chief assistant in 1896 and professor in 1897. He completed the « Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Therapie », begun by professor Eichwald who, before his death, had entrusted its completion to his favorite student.
German Hebraist born on June 14, 1813 in Breslau, died on March 9, 1885. Established as a merchant in Posen in 1848, he withdrew from business in 1871 to prepare a vast Hebrew commentary on the Targoum Onqelos, published after his death by his son-in-law Joseph Perles under the title « Bi'ure Onḳelos » (Munich, 1888) and became one of the most important reference works on this targoum.
French community activist and writer born in Haguenau, Alsace, on October 24, 1841. Prevented by a voice ailment from pursuing a rabbinical career, he founded in 1863 the Ḥevra 'Am Segoula and entered public life in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, becoming secretary of Haguenau's municipal council. Historian of the Alsatian Jewish community, he published the "Histoire des Juifs de Haguenau" (1879-80) and then his major work, the "Histoire des Juifs d'Alsace" (1887). In 1883, Baron Edmond de Rothschild appointed him inspector of colonization in Palestine, a position he held until his retirement in 1899.
Austrian embryologist born in Urmény, in the comitat of Nyitra, in Hungary, on August 23, 1840, died in Schwanberg, in Styria, on August 18, 1902. Educated at the University of Vienna (doctorate in 1865), he became professor of embryology there in 1873. A striking work on the determination of sex (1898), in which he argued that the sex and abilities of the child depended on the mother's diet, forced him, under criticism, to resign from his chair in 1900. He also published a reference manual, the "Lehrbuch der Vergleichenden Embryologie der Wirbelthiere" (Vienna, 1874), and contributed to the creation of a department of embryology in Vienna.
Russian physician born in Brest-Litovsk in 1857. Medical graduate of the University of Warsaw in 1883, he went in 1885 to Palestine and settled in Jerusalem, then in Vienna for specialized study, before establishing himself as a practicing physician in Odessa. He is the author of the « Mishnat 'Olam Qaton », a treatise in two parts on anatomy and chemistry, corrected and annotated by Jehiel Michael Pines (Jerusalem, 1886).
Lithuanian Talmudist and Hebraist born in 1804, died in Kovno on September 20, 1866. Trained in Talmud under Jacob Meïr Yalovker while working in commerce in Vilna, where he devoted his spare time to rabbinical literature and the Haskalah, he became in 1852 teacher of Talmud at the rabbinical seminary of Vilna, a position he held until his death. He is the author of « 'Oz Melekh » (Vilna, 1857), a sermon composed for the coronation of Alexander II, and of « Kour la-Zahav », in two parts (1858 and 1866), commentaries on difficult aggadic passages from both Talmuds; he also contributed regularly to « Ha-Karmel ».
Russian Hebraist writer born in Pinsk in 1840. Self-taught in Hebrew grammar and archaeology from childhood, he was secretary of the Jewish community of Pinsk, then, after a period in Crimea in the service of a merchant, assistant editor of « Ha-Meliẓ » by Zederbaum; he followed the Russian army as a sutler during the Russo-Turkish War before settling in 1883 in Rostov-on-Don, where he opened a bookstore. He wrote notably « Boser Avot » (Odessa, 1877), a satirical poem on the neglect of Jewish children's education in Russia, and « 'Iyoun Sifrout » (Wilna, 1881), on the development of Jewish literature.
Lithuanian Talmudist and author of the 19th century, originating from Slonim, in the government of Grodno. He devoted himself particularly to midrashic and aggadic literature, publishing notably a commentary on the Midrash Michlé (Wilna-Grodno, 1833) and a commented edition of the Tanna debe Eliyahou (Grodno, 1834). He also edited the Genesis and Exodus parts of the Ohel Ya'akob of Jacob Dubno (Johannisberg, 1859).
Lithuanian rabbi and preacher, born in Vasilishok, in the governorate of Wilna, in 1809, died in Kobrin, in the governorate of Kovno, on September 2, 1876. Student of Benjamin, grand rabbi of Grodno, he served in several cities, including Diretchin, Lida, Novie Zhagory, and Kobrin, also serving as cantor at Rosh ha-Shana and at Yom Kippur; his sermons attracted large audiences. He is the author of a commentary on the Ein Ya'akob of Jacob Habib entitled En Eliyahou.
Austrian journalist, born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, on 30 May 1849, died in Berlin on 23 January 1899. Political editor from 1871 for the Deutsche Zeitung of Vienna, then Berlin correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse from 1874 to 1899, he also studied advanced mathematics at the University of Berlin from 1878 to 1880 and obtained a medical diploma there in 1894, without ever practising. Friend of Ludwig Bamberger and Eduard Lasker, he published notably Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis, der Arzt und Philosoph (Berlin, 1886).
Austrian stenographer, born February 25, 1848 in Ragendorf, Hungary. Appointed in 1874 professor of stenography at the Academy of Agriculture in Vienna, and in 1898 lecturer on the Gabelsberger system at the University of Vienna, he founded in 1883 the Centralverein für Gabelsberger'sche Geschäftsstenographie and received the title of professor from the Austrian emperor. He is the author of numerous works on stenography using the Gabelsberger system.
Hebraist and Russian poet, born in Lasezow, in the governorate of Lublin, around 1810, died after 1866. He lived successively in Josefov, Brody, Szebrszyn, and Warsaw and was one of the most renowned of the first maskilim of Russian Poland. He is the author, among others, of an epic poem on the life of the patriarch Jacob, Hatserot ha-Chir (Warsaw, 1840), and a biography of Prince Paskevitch, Devar Guevourot (ib., 1845).
Russian chess master, born of German parents in Saint Petersburg on May 4, 1850, died in the same city on December 12, 1904. Having become the best player in Russia, he faced Tchigorine for the first time in 1873 before conceding to him the Russian championship in 1880; he also won matches against Alapine, Chardin and Mitropolsky, and obtained sixth prize at the international tournament in Hastings, England, in 1895.
Hungarian philologist, born October 14, 1849 in Budapest. After studies at Raab, Budapest and Vienna, he was appointed professor at the gymnasium of Arad in 1874, then in 1878 professor of Latin and Greek at the rabbinical seminary of Budapest, a position he still held in 1905. He is the author, in Hungarian, of a Greek grammar and works on Greek antiquities and literature, and notably translated Philo's account of the embassy to Caligula.
Reader of rabbinics at Cambridge University, born in Alt-Ofen, Hungary, in 1820, died in Cambridge on March 11, 1890. Doctor of philosophy from the University of Jena and ordained rabbi, he took part in the uprising of 1848 in the war between Hungary and Austria, was wounded and captured, then escaped before his execution and went to England, where he worked notably as a minister in Manchester before settling in Cambridge in 1863. There he examined the Hebrew manuscripts of the university library, published their catalogue in 1876, was appointed teacher of Talmud in 1866, and received the title of M.A. in 1878.
French journalist, born in Saint-Mandé (Seine) on August 7, 1857. After studying at the Condorcet lycée and obtaining a law degree, he entered his father's printing business while contributing to various newspapers, notably L'Audience; in 1879 he became secretary general of the editorial board of Le Temps, for which he also founded the supplement Le Petit Temps. Made knight of the Legion of Honor in 1892, he was elected syndic of the Professional Association of French Republican Journalists in 1897.
German physician, born in Adelebsen, in Hanover, on 1 April 1856. Graduated in medicine from Göttingen in 1879, he received a prize for a treatise published in 1880 in Archiv für Experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmacie, then settled in Frankfurt am Main after an internship in Berlin. In 1899, he became editor of Die Aerztliche Praxis, in Wurzburg, and published in 1891 the Aerztliches Handbüchlein, reissued in 1896 and translated into Italian in 1897.
Austrian mathematician, born in Mährisch-Schönberg on 31 December 1831, son of very poor parents who had to earn his living from childhood. Graduated from the Vienna Polytechnic Institute in 1858, where he became assistant the following year, passed the state examination for geometry professor in 1866, then taught at the Marienbrunn forestry academy from 1870 and at the Vienna agriculture academy from 1875; in 1891 he represented Vienna in the Austrian Reichsrat. He notably published Darstellende Geometrie im Sinne der Neuen Geometrie (Vienna, 1870).
Hungarian mathematician, born in Tyrnau (Nagyszombat) on November 1, 1864, doctor of philosophy from the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin in 1887. He became privat-docent at the University of Berlin in 1889, assistant professor at the University of Bonn in 1897, then professor of mathematics at the University of Klausenburg from 1902. He is the author of Handbuch der Theorie der Linearen Differentialgleichungen (Leipsic, 1895-98) and Einführung in die Theorie der Differentialgleichungen (1900).
Austrian writer, born in Vienna in 1811, trained at the Schottengymnasium and then at the university of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1835. He published as early as 1828 a poem on Ludwig Devrient, staged in 1831 a drama on the marriage of the Austrian Crown Prince Ferdinand, then traveled to Moravia in 1833 and went to Dalmatia in 1837 as a physician; he then served as surgeon in the Hungarian army during 1848 and 1849, after which his trace is lost.
Austrian physician, born in Tinnye, Hungary, in 1839. Graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1864, he settled in the Austrian capital and received in 1874 the venia legendi in gynecology from his alma mater. In 1878, he founded the journal Wiener Medizinische Blätter, to which he contributed numerous articles.
(1835-1918)
Jewish German author (1896-1976)
Austrian physician, born in Prague on 22 September 1807, died in Interlaken, Switzerland, on 28 October 1870. Graduated in medicine from Vienna in 1837, he became in 1838 physician of the Jewish hospital in Töplitz, in Bohemia, where he practised until his death; he was also the instigator, in 1849, of the hospital for invalids of the kingdom of Saxony founded in this town, of which he was the chief physician.
Rabbi and Austrian scholar, born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on January 26, 1821. Rabbi in Gewitsch from 1846 to 1849, he was subsequently called as territorial rabbi in Teschen until 1852, then served successively in Bielitz, Prossnitz, Sechshaus (1869-94) and Leopoldstadt, where he was still serving in 1905. He is the author of Sansinim, homilies on the Pentateuch (Prague, 1859 and 1885), and of Studien zur Jüdisch-Arabischen Religionsphilosophie (Vienna, 1869).
Austrian physician, born in Neubidschow, Bohemia, on November 14, 1842. He received his degree in medicine from Vienna in 1865, and was appointed professor of ophthalmology successively in Innsbruck in 1877, in Graz in 1887, in Prague in 1892, and then in Vienna in 1896, where he was still living in 1905. He is the author of numerous works, notably on syphilitic affections of the eye published in the Wiener Medizinische Blätter in 1882.
Austrian teacher and journalist, born in Prossnitz, Moravia, on June 29, 1829, died in New York on May 3, 1897. After teaching in Vienna and then in Paris from 1854 to 1863, he emigrated to America in 1869, became director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, and founded the magazine Young Israel, then directed from 1875 the preparatory school of the Hebrew Union College; he was also the Hebrew teacher of Emma Lazarus.
Hasidic rabbi, resistance fighter
Austrian laryngologist, born in Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary, on April 10, 1835, died in Vienna on May 2, 1893. Graduated in medicine from Vienna in 1860, he obtained the venia legendi in 1866, became full professor in 1878, then assistant professor of laryngoscopy in 1880. He founded in 1860, with P. Markbreiter, the Wiener Medizinische Presse, which he directed until 1886.
English pedagogue, born in Russia in 1854. Having arrived in England around 1880, he taught Russian to army officers and was examiner of Bulgarian for the civil service, before becoming assistant master at Cheltenham College in 1894. He is the author of several Russian manuals, including The Russian Manual (London, 1888) and Russian Reader (1891).
Austrian politician and antisemitic agitator, born in Vienna on July 17, 1842. He entered the Austrian Diet in 1873 as a member of the Pan-German party, was sentenced in 1888 to four months in prison and loss of his title of nobility for forcibly occupying the offices of the Neues Wiener Tageblatt, then withdrew from public life in 1895 while remaining an avowed opponent of the Christian Social party. He notably published Zwölf Reden (Vienna, 1886) and embraced Protestantism in 1899.
Russian author, born in Tiktin in 1812, died in Suwałki on December 10, 1870. Leading a secluded life devoted to study, he published a natural history in three parts, Toledot ha-Arets (Warsaw, 1841), then an Aramaic-German rabbinical dictionary based on the Arouk of Nathan ben Yehiel, Ha-Mashbir (1858) ; his Sefer ha-Milluim appeared in Warsaw in 1869.
Hebrew scholar, critic and Galician community activist, born in Brody on May 22, 1814, died in that city on September 2, 1895. Trained under Isaac Erter, he was also influenced by Samuel David Luzzatto in criticism and scholarship, while opposing him on talmudic Judaism; around 1865, the death of his wife and only son, followed by the loss of a large part of his fortune, led him to live almost in seclusion. He founded, upon Erter's death, the Hebrew periodical He-Haloutz, in which he distinguished himself by a biting style and virulent criticisms of the Talmud.
Hebraist Galician writer, died in Lemberg on December 14, 1883. He founded in 1861 the Hebrew weekly Ha-'Et, of which only twenty-two issues appeared, and edited in 1855 in Lemberg the Behinat ha-'Olam and the Bakkachat ha-Memim by Yedaya Bedersi. He is also the author of the Har ha-Mor, a collection in three parts of narratives drawn from medieval Jewish history (Lemberg, 1855-75), and of the Mas'at Nefech, Hebrew translation of the Brahmanische Weisheit (1867).
German merchant, born in Münsterberg, Silesia, on March 22, 1835. Established as a wool and grain merchant in Münsterberg, he moved his business to Breslau in 1859, rented the city mill from 1864 to 1869 to manufacture oil there, then supplied the sixth Prussian army corps during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the third German corps during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, before retiring from business in 1890 to devote himself to agriculture.
Austrian oil discoverer, born in Galicia in the second decade of the 19th century, died after 1870. A merchant in Boryslaw, he succeeded in 1853 in producing oil from a local tar-like substance, which he sold to pharmacists in Drohobycz and Sambor; in 1854, the Austrian Northern Railway company purchased three hundred pounds for lighting. Ruined after the fire that destroyed his facilities in 1866 and outcompeted by the arrival of American oil in 1859, he died poor around fifty.
Hungarian jurist, born on 7 February 1847 in Ugra. Doctor of law in 1870, he was admitted to the Budapest bar in 1872 and was still sitting in 1905 on the municipal council; in 1893, Justice Minister Désidère Szilágyi charged him with drafting a bankruptcy law bill, and in 1896 he was made a knight of the Order of Francis Joseph. He is the author of a system of legal procedure rewarded by the Academy of Sciences of Budapest, as well as a history of the Hungarian chamber of commerce published in 1896.
Austrian Hebraist, born in Jezierzany, Galicia, on April 25, 1835, descended through his mother from Hakham Tsevi. Proofreader from 1870 at the printing house of Michael Wolf in Lemberg, he taught Hebrew in the schools of Baron de Hirsch, in Kolomea from 1889 onward then in Mikulince from 1897, where he was still teaching in 1905. Translator into Hebrew of Schiller's Räuber (Lemberg, 1871) and of the pseudo-Aristotelian Ethics (1877), he also revised Ben Ze'ev's Otsar ha-Chorachim (5 vol., 1880-82) and drew from it a Hebrew-German dictionary (1898) and German-Hebrew dictionary (1904).
Austrian pianist and composer, born in Prague on August 2, 1825, died in Berlin on March 15, 1898. Student of Kisch and Tedesco for piano and Tomaschek for theory, he made his debut in Dresden in 1842, then, encouraged by Chopin in Paris, undertook tours in France, London, Spain in 1851 and Russia in 1853, before devoting himself to composition; he settled in Dresden in 1870 and then in Berlin.
American rabbi, born in Russia February 14, 1865, taken to New York before the age of one. Rabbinic graduate of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judenthums in Berlin, he served in Helena and Kansas City before being elected in 1901 assistant rabbi of Temple Beth-El in New York, then senior rabbi upon the election of Dr. Kohler to the presidency of the Hebrew Union College. He received the title of doctor of theology from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1904.
Philologist and German writer, born in Hildesheim in 1814, died in Hanover on July 24, 1870. After studying philology in Göttingen, he campaigned from 1842 for the systematic training of Jewish teachers in the Kingdom of Hanover, which led to the opening of a seminary in Hanover on November 7, 1848; he then directed the Neue Hannoversche Anzeigen from 1863 until his death. He is the author of Talmudische Klänge, poems dedicated to district rabbi M. Landsberg (Hildesheim, 1856), and of several other collections, including Das Waterloo-Lied (Hanover, 1865).
American author, born in Outian, near Vilkomir, in Russia, on October 27, 1844. After studying Talmud then theology in Berlin (1868-70), he taught Hebrew in Constantinople then, from 1873, in Cairo and Port-Saïd, before traveling for five years (1874-1879) in Africa, India, China, and the South China Sea islands; subsequently settled in Vienna, he collaborated on Ha-Shahar by Smolenskin, then emigrated to America in 1887, residing in Chicago since 1897. He is the author of travel narratives, Mahazot ha-Hayyim (Vienna, 1884) and Mas'ot Shelomoh (1885), as well as several novels.
English physicist, born in Frankfurt am Main on 12 September 1851. Trained in Frankfurt, at Owens College Manchester, and at the University of Heidelberg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1873, he became interested very early in spectral analysis, directing in 1875 the expedition sent to Siam to observe a solar eclipse, then participating in a similar expedition to Egypt in 1882. Elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1893, he has been professor of physics at Owens College since 1885.
Consul General of Great Britain in Berlin, born in Breslau in 1831, died in that city on February 23, 1898. Entered the Bleichröder bank at sixteen, he became a partner twenty years later, then, from 1893 onward, at the death of Baron Gerson von Bleichröder, principal partner of the house; he also presided over the Berlin Stock Exchange council.
German anatomist and anthropologist, born in Quedlinburg on August 1, 1844. He received his medical degree in 1866, was a privatdocent in Halle in 1870 then in Fribourg-en-Brisgau in 1871, assistant professor in Leipzig in 1872, then professor of anatomy successively in Jena in 1873, in Königsberg in 1881 and in Strasbourg in 1883. He directed several scientific journals and notably published his Studien über Pithecanthropus Erectus (Leipzig, 1899) and Der Neander Schädel (1901).
Austrian theologian, born in July 1846 in Adász-Tevel, near Pápa, in Hungary, son of a rabbi who gave him his first talmudic instruction. After studies in philosophy in Vienna and a period at the Jewish theological seminary in Breslau from 1867, he was city rabbi and conference rabbi in Carlsruhe for eighteen years, before being called in 1893 to Vienna as rector of the new Jewish theological seminary, a position he still held in 1905. A prolific author of sermons and talmudic studies, he published notably his Sabbathpredigten from 1879.
Austrian chemist, born in Polna, Bohemia, on February 2, 1839, died in New York on September 24, 1895. Graduated in chemistry from the Prague Polytechnicum in 1861, he worked in breweries in Budapest before emigrating to the United States in 1868 and settling in New York, where he became editor of the newspaper Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer and founded in 1880 the Brewers' Academy of the United States. His eldest son, Max Schwarz, born in Budapest on July 29, 1863 and died in New York on February 7, 1901, succeeded him as head of the newspaper and academy.
Hungarian jurist, born in Budapest in 1858. Privatdozent in Roman law at Budapest in 1884, he was appointed assistant professor nine years later then professor the following year, member in 1895 of the commission charged with drafting the Hungarian civil code, and privy councillor in 1902, the year he converted to Christianity. He is the author of several studies in civil law published between 1881 and 1894.
German rabbi, born in Hürben, Bavaria, on March 15, 1830, died in Cologne on January 4, 1875, trained by his father, rabbi Joachim Schwarz. District rabbi in Bayreuth until 1856, when he was called to the rabbinate of Cologne, he was a keen supporter of the Alliance israélite universelle, of which he founded several local sections. He published in 1868 the Tikvat Enoch, comprising his own translation of Job and the commentaries on Isaiah of Trani, as well as a translation of a geography of Palestine.
English author, born in London in 1803, died in Venice in November 1866. Settled early in Italy, where he traveled extensively and mastered several languages, he took part in 1848 in the Italian revolution against Austria and fought before the fall of Venice, then enlisted with Garibaldi; in 1860, during the expedition of the Thousand, he vainly sought permission to leave for Rome, disguised as a monk, in order to abduct the young Mortara. The same year, a public quarrel with Lord Seymour, who had him flogged, brought him damages but also aftereffects that hastened his death; he bequeathed substantial sums to Jewish causes.
English teacher and Hebraist writer, born in 1828, died in London on April 30, 1892, son of rabbi Isaac Sebag. Educated at the orphans' school of the Portuguese congregation of London, he became a teacher at the Sha'are Tikwah School and served for a time as reader at the Bevis Marks synagogue after the death of the hazzan De Sola. He wrote in 1852 a Hebrew alphabet book that remained for a long time the main manual for teaching Hebrew to Jewish children in England.
German rabbi
Austrian balneologist, born in Polna on May 20, 1822. Graduated in medicine from Vienna in 1847, where he became privatdozent in 1854 and assistant professor in 1859, practicing each summer in Carlsbad from 1854 to 1884; he founded in 1856, with Oppolzer and Sigmund, the Verein für Quellenkunde in Oesterreich. He published notably a Compendium der Allgemeinen und Speciellen Heilquellenlehre (Vienna, 1857) and a work on diabetes (Berlin, 1875).
Russian educator, censor and community activist, born in Wilna, died at an advanced age after 1882, son of physician Isaac Markusewich. Graduate of a German university, he was for about fifteen years censor of Jewish books in Kiev, then charged by the Russian Ministry of Public Instruction with Jewish educational affairs in 1868, succeeding Léon Mandelstamm; subsequently established in Saint Petersburg, he was close there to scholars such as I. B. Lewinsohn and P. Smolenskin, received four Russian decorations, and retired to Vienna after thirty years of service.
German rabbi
German rabbi
rabbi
Austrian physician and Persianist, born in Nikolsburg on June 30, 1808, died in Vienna on September 15, 1892. He obtained his medical diploma in Vienna in 1830, became privatdozent there in 1833, professor in 1848, assistant professor in 1850, and then professor of the history of medicine in 1869, a position he left in 1878. He published notably an annotated translation of the oldest known Neo-Persian medical manuscript, De Re Medica Persarum (Vienna, 1832).
Austrian military surgeon, born in Nikolsburg on January 18, 1815, brother of Franz Romeo Seligmann. Graduated in medicine in Vienna in 1843, he was appointed assistant surgeon of the army the same year then surgeon in 1855, took part in the Italian wars of 1859 and 1866, was attached from 1868 to 1876 to the War Ministry in Vienna, became surgeon-major in 1871 and retired in 1876 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Hebrew poet, born in Samoczin, in the province of Posen, in 1815, died in that city on October 3, 1866. He published Ha-Aviv, an epic (Berlin, 1845); another epic, on the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as various essays, remained unpublished.
German physician
homme politique russe
Emigre journalist
Philanthropist, born in Danzig in 1814, died in Switzerland on 18 July 1877. Established in Bradford, Yorkshire, he became one of its most prominent citizens, was elected mayor in 1874, member and then vice-president of the chamber of commerce in 1871; he had the Ilkley convalescence home built in 1874, which was ceded to the municipality in 1876, and favored the creation of the local section of the Anglo-Jewish Association. At his death he bequeathed 35,000 £ to educational institutions in his adopted city.
English specialist in throat diseases, born in Danzig on December 8, 1849, nephew of Julius Semon. Trained in medicine at Heidelberg, Berlin, Vienna, Paris and at St Thomas Hospital in London, where he obtained his degree in 1873, he settled in the English capital in 1874 and directed from 1883 to 1897 the laryngology service at St Thomas; knighted by the Queen of England in 1897, he was appointed extraordinary physician to the King in 1901. He founded and directed the International Journal of Laryngology and Rhinology and presided over the Laryngological Society of London.
Physician by training (studies at the Sorbonne), he published his first short story in 1897 (« The Tailor: Scenes from Everyday Jewish Life ») and was encouraged by Maxim Gorky to describe Jewish life in Russia. Member of the Moscow literary circle Sreda; author of successful plays. Emigrated after 1920, died in Paris.
German clinician and medical author, born in Gnesen, in the province of Posen, on December 6, 1834, doctor of medicine from Berlin in 1857. Established as a physician in Berlin in 1858, he became privat-docent in 1868, assistant professor in 1875, head of the medical service of the Augusta hospital until 1888 and then of the Charité from 1881, whose third university medical clinic he directed from 1888; appointed professor in 1899, he was also, since 1872, one of the editors of the Centralblatt für die Medizinische Wissenschaft.
Russian painter
Italian rabbi, born in Pitigliano, Tuscany, on December 24, 1841, died in Casale-Monferrato on January 23, 1904. Trained in Padua, then at the rabbinical school and university of Florence, he served as rabbi in Monticelli in 1864, in Mondovi from 1868, then as chief rabbi of Casale-Monferrato in 1872, where he also directed Il Vessillo Israelitico. A prolific author, he notably published Statistica degli Israeliti Italiani (Vercelli, 1866), Israeliti d'Europa nella Libertà (Turin, 1872), and Dante e gli Ebrei (Casale, 1893).
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Rosh yeshiva of Slonim, refounded in Ramat Gan after the Shoah.
Israeli politician
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Died in 5660 of the Hebrew era (1900). Son of Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5652 of the Hebrew era (1892). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in the year 5609 of the Hebrew era (1849). Son of Hanania. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-1.
Rabbi
Celebrated Kabbalist rabbi of the Bohbot family, established in Jerusalem, reputed for his miracles (Toledano). His son Shemouel taught at the yeshiva of Kabbalists Bet El.
Russian rabbi
rabbi (1862–1944)
rabbi
Ukrainian rabbi
Rabbi Shalom Perlow, of the Koidanov dynasty, is the author of Divrei Shalom (1882), an anthology of the teachings of the rebbes of Koidanov augmented with genealogies, and of Mishmeret Shalom, a study of the halakhic sources of the minhagim (customs).
Professor of medieval Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1944–1973), considered one of the great scholars of Judaism of his generation. Author of 'The Last Trial' (study on the legends of the binding of Isaac, Me-Aggadot ha-Akedah) and of 'Hebrew Reborn'. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1983).
Chief Rabbi of the Yemenite community in Tel-Aviv (1925-1961), decisor and manuscript editor.
Polish-German rabbi and author, born in Memel, Prussia, on July 28, 1828, died in Czortków, Galicia, on January 9, 1887. Around 1845, he studied philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, and published from 1848 articles on ethics in various journals; ruined by a fire while he was a merchant, he trained at the Lemberg seminary before being installed as rabbi of Czortków in 1860. He is the author of Hakirat Rechit le-Yamim (Lyck, 1872), on chronology and the calendar, in polemic with H. S. Slonimski, and of Sefer Zikkaron (Eydtkuhnen, 1872), a dialogue on the oral law.
Polish merchant of fraudulent antiquities, born around 1830, who committed suicide in Rotterdam on March 11, 1884. Converted to Christianity then established in Palestine as an antiquarian, he sold in 1872 to the Prussian government Moabite pottery, revealed to be fakes; in 1883, he proposed to the British Museum leather bands bearing text close to Deuteronomy, presented as found by a Bedouin in a cave in Moab, but their falsehood was quickly demonstrated. He took his own life the following year in Rotterdam, without it ever being established that he was himself the forger.
Russian photographer and Hebrew poet, born in Grodno in 1841, died in Saint Petersburg on March 23, 1900. Trained in the yeshivot while secretly studying Hebrew like other maskilim, he left his native city for Saint Petersburg, where he entered the Academy of Fine Arts before turning to photography; he published an album of portraits of Russian writers and began in 1885 to write Hebrew verses, his first poem, Mé-Hezyonot Bat Ami, immediately earning him a place among the first Hebrew poets. Converted to Russian orthodoxy after separating from his Jewish wife, he remained nevertheless, deep down, attached to his people.
Hebraist author Russian, born in Karlin in 1825, died in Kiev on August 24, 1899, who lived by his pen in precarious material conditions and spent the last twenty years of his life in Kiev. His most important work, Ha-Mafteah (Warsaw, 1866-69), applies modern methods of investigation to the allegorical sayings of the Talmud and Midrash, arousing controversy among the orthodox; he is also known to the Judeo-German reading public for his satirical sketch Yüdisher Erev Pesach, often reprinted, and left an essay on the Book of Job as well as several manuscripts.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Saadia III, himself son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-3.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5631 of the Hebrew era (1871). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5567 of the Hebrew era (1807). Son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5606 of the Hebrew era (1846). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 112-1.
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Son of Yitshak. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 111-2.
Russian ethnographer, born in 1826, died in Riga on August 14, 1900. Trained at the University of Moscow, he became, after his conversion to Protestantism, professor of Russian in the district schools of Tula and then Yasnaya Polyana, founded by Count Leo Tolstoy, and devoted himself, despite his infirmity, to collecting songs and popular tales in numerous villages. His main work, on the family life and rites of Belarusians in songs (Saint Petersburg, 1890), was published under the aegis of the Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg.
Rabbi in Algiers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, author of a commentary book titled « Sefer Néoré Or », published in Algiers in 1893.
From an eminent rabbinical family of Baghdad and descendant of Sadqa Bekhor Hussein, he founded in 1867 the third Hebrew printing press in Baghdad. He translated into Judeo-Arabic parts of the Haggada of Pesach and the Siddur, and documented community life (including a 1892 list preserved at the National Library of Israel).
4th Rebbe of Zvihl
British rabbi
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Son of Yitshak. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 120-3.
Orthodox rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
American actor
Brother of Rahamim Joseph Jiani, rabbi in Séfrou in the nineteenth century. He left numerous scattered writings that his son Elisha collected and had edited in Jerusalem under the title Ramat Shemuel.
rabbi
Israeli philosopher born in Austria-Hungary (1883-1975)
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Born in Mogador in 1859, he studied and taught Torah there, then settled in Casablanca in 1931 where he taught at the yeshiva Keter Torah. Returning to Mogador, he sat on the rabbinical court of Abraham Ben Soussan. Author of several works of sermons, Talmudic commentaries, and responsa. Died on 17 Nisan 5719 (1959).
Hakham and Kabbalist of Baghdad, author of works on Jewish philosophy and mysticism.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew calendar (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-3.
Hungarian rabbi
Moroccan rabbi
Descendant of the Amshinov dynasty, he led the court of Otwock. During the Shoah he reached Lithuania and then, via transit visas, Japan (Kobe) and Shanghai with many refugees, before settling in the United States. He is renowned for his teaching on prayer and support for refugees.
Lithuanian rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
rabbi
Russian journalist, born in Yelisavetgrad in 1865. From the age of sixteen, he collaborated with periodicals in southern Russia, before being accused of revolutionarism in 1886 and deported to Sredné-Kolymsk, in the province of Iakoutsk, where he remained until 1892 and studied the life and languages of the Iakoutes. He is the author of a work on northeastern Siberia (Saint Petersburg, 1895), translated into French the following year, and was, from 1896 onwards, correspondent in London for the liberal Moscow daily Rousskiya Vedomosti.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5608 (1848), died in 5689 (1929) of the Hebrew era. Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-4.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Born in 5565 (1805), died in 5603 (1843) of the Hebrew era. Son of Rafael. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5627 of the Hebrew era (1867). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Died in 5660 of the Hebrew era (1900). Son of Shmuel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-4.
Rabbi, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, 19th century. Mentioned in 5630 of the Hebrew era (1870). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Marrakech, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5587 of the Hebrew era (1827). Son of Yaakov, himself son of Yekutiel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-2.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Died in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Rabbi of Salé, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5588 of the Hebrew era (1828). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5582 (1822), died in 5630 (1870) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 116-2.
Lithuanian kabbalist, author of Leshem Shevo Ve'Achlama, of the school of the Gaon of Vilna.
Av beth din and posek of Vilna, author of Heshek Shlomo and the responsa Binyan Shlomo.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Son of Makhluf. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-1.
Rosh yeshiva of the Ramailles in Vilna and then of Mesivta Torah Vodaath (Brooklyn) from 1935.
Rabbi of Tétouan, nineteenth century. Died in the year 5572 of the Hebrew era (1812). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Eldest son of Mullah Yousef Kohan-Sedgh, head of a religious Jewish family of Tehran. Polyglot (Persian, French, English, Hebrew), he contributed to founding the Otzar Ha-Torah cultural center and was its first president.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5652 of the Hebrew era (1892). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-3.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Ottoman rabbi
American rabbi
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
The « Meitcheter Illuy »; Talmudic prodigy, rosh yeshiva of RIETS at Yeshiva University (New York).
Polish rabbi
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 114-3.
Chief Rabbi of Russia (1889–1957)
Polish Rabbi, Rabbinical Judge, and Rosh Yeshiva
Rabbi of Demnate, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 119-1.
Rabbi of Meknes, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5587 of the Hebrew era (1827). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Born in 5618 (1858), died in 5637 (1877) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-4.
Orthodox rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
rabbi from Subcarpathian Ruthenia, then in Transylvania, in Hungary and Romania
Belarusian rabbi
Writer and agronomist, Zionist pioneer, childhood friend of Ben-Gurion.
Yiddish essayist and literary critic, critic for the daily « Der Tog ».
Russian rabbi
Russian rabbi
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5596 of the Hebrew era (1836). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 126-4.
German-Israeli physicist and historian of science, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Prize laureate (1968) for his work on the history of ancient and medieval physical concepts.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Died in 5632 of the Hebrew era (1872). Son of Menashe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-2.
Jewish Orthodox mystical thinker, philosopher, and individualist anarchist
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in the year 5650 of the Hebrew era (1890). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5570 of the Hebrew era (1810). Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-3.
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Died in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1879). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 121-3.
Bulgarian rabbi
Polish rabbi
Slovak rabbi
Rabbi of Sefrou, nineteenth century. Died in 5604 of the Hebrew era (1844). Son of Yehuda. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 121-1.
Rabbi and renowned mashpia of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Sent by the Rabbi RaShaB then active in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia) where he founded schools and yeshivot; imprisoned in Siberia for his Jewish activity, he reached the United States in 1938 and was the dean (rosh) of the central Lubavitch yeshiva of New York from 1940 until his death.
Israeli painter born in a village in Ukraine (Orthodox Jewish family). He studied in Odessa where he met Boris Schatz, founder of Bezalel, then at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem from 1914. Member of the first generation of artists of the Yishuv (with Nahum Gutman, Menahem Shemi…), he served in the Jewish Legion (1917-1919). Known for his "Jerusalem realism" landscapes and his botanical illustrations for Ephraim Hareuveni's "Floral Treasury of the Land of Israel".
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Son of Shlomo, himself son of Moshe I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 125-1.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5646 of the Hebrew era (1886). Son of Shaul II, himself son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5581 of the Hebrew era (1821). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 123-2.
Elder brother of Daniel Charney, born Shmuel Charney, he became the most important Yiddish literature critic of his time, under the pen name Niger. The third brother, Baruch Charney Vladeck, was a New York labor leader and journalist.
Chief Rabbi Ashkenazi of Jerusalem for nearly seventy years.
Rabbi of Rif, 19th century. Mentioned in 5578 of the Hebrew era (1818). Son of Shem Tov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 122-3.
rabbi
Merchant and Talmudist, founder in 1815 of the yeshiva of Mir, which he directed until his death.
Grandson of the founder, surnamed « der Foter » (the Father), he led the court of Slonim and left the work Divrei Shmuel.
British rabbi
rabbi
Born Sholem Nokhem Rabinovich in Pereïaslav (Ukraine), he adopted the Yiddish pseudonym Sholem Aleichem. Creator of Tevye the dairyman (source of "Fiddler on the Roof"), of Menakhem-Mendl and of Motl son of the cantor. Emigrated to the United States, he died in New York in 1916.
Russian rabbi
American rabbi
New Zealand politician, born in Posen, Prussia, in 1828, died in Auckland, New Zealand, on 25 June 1902. A merchant in London from 1847, he emigrated to Melbourne in 1859 then to New Zealand in 1861, where he was one of the first settlers of Oamaru; elected mayor of that town several times, he entered in 1875 the House of Representatives as deputy for Oamaru, was re-elected three times, then appointed in 1885 a life member of the Legislative Council.
Romanian rabbi
Hebrew-writing Russian author, born in Stary Bychow, died in Amsterdam around 1830. He edited the Zeker Rav of Mussafia (Chklov, 1797), furnished with an index of biblical words translated into Judeo-German and grammatical notes, as well as the Chir we-Hallel (Wilna, 1806), a hymn in Hebrew, Russian and German sung by the Jews of Wilna for the birthday of Grand Duchess Élisabeth Alexandrovna, on November 19, 1806.
American merchant and philanthropist, born in Prussia on May 31, 1839, brought as a child to the United States where his family settled in Newburgh, New York; he worked the land until age thirteen before entering the clothing business. Settled in Boston in 1859, he founded his business there, which later became A. Shuman & Co., a pioneer in the United States in wholesale children's clothing manufacturing. A figure in Boston institutions, he was vice president of the Boston merchants' association, president of the board of managers of the municipal hospital, and one of the founders of the Union Hebrew Benevolent Association of Boston.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5619 of the Hebrew era (1859). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 124-3.
Russian scholar, active in Shklov in the nineteenth century, author of the Otsar ha-Shemot, concordance of biblical proper names supplementing the general concordance published in Vilna in 1878, and of the Massoret ha-Keria (Warsaw, 1888), a masoretic and grammatical manual intended for the public reader of the Law.
French oculist, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1802, died in Paris on November 14, 1868. Graduate in medicine from Berlin in 1825, he perfected himself in Paris, where he opened in 1836 an ophthalmological clinic for free consultations and became one of the most reputed oculists in Paris; he published notably a Treatise on Ophthalmia, Cataract, and Amaurosis (1837) and an Ophthalmological Iconography (1852-56).
German painter, born in Mainz on January 8, 1843. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1859-62) under Julius Schrader, he obtained in 1863 a scholarship thanks to his painting Joseph Explains the Dreams of Pharaoh, which allowed him to spend two years in Rome after a year in Paris, where he painted a portrait exhibited at the 1865 Salon; in Rome (1866-68), he produced several historical paintings, including Don Carlos Taken Prisoner by Philip II, before returning to Germany in 1869 to devote himself to portraiture.
Algerian rabbi
Associated with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, he was linked to the Jewish Defence Committee created in 1936 to counter antisemitism and propaganda from Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. He centralized reports of antisemitic incidents and their handling by police. He is the author of the work « The Jews of Britain » (1938).
Hungarian rabbi and author, born in Nadas on January 23, 1815, died in Tyrnau on December 18, 1891. Educated at the yeshiva of Moïse Sofer, he opened his own yeshiva in his native city, was elected rabbi of Cziffer in 1845 then of Tyrnau in 1856, a position he held until his death, showing himself conservative but tolerant toward modern ideas — he sent his son to the Breslau seminary in 1860 despite strong opposition. He notably published Ot Berit (Pressburg, 1850), on the laws of circumcision, and Chevet Chimon (Vienna, 1884-88), in three parts.
Russian Hebraist, died in Warsaw on April 2, 1879, who devoted himself particularly to apocryphal literature, translating into Hebrew and Judeo-German, with commentaries and introductions, the Book of Tobit (Warsaw, 1839), the Book of Judith (1840), the Book of Baruch and the Prayers of Manasseh (1841), and the Books of the Maccabees (1843). He also published an elementary Hebrew course, Maagal Yachar (1843), and a Hebrew-German dictionary covering the entire vocabulary of the Bible and the Mishna, the Otsar ha-Chorachim ha-Kelali (1846-62).
American merchant, born in Eubigheim, Germany, on March 17, 1852. He emigrated to the United States at fifteen and founded in 1876 the firm Siegel, Hartsfield & Co, then ten years later the large store Siegel Cooper Company in Chicago, a branch of which opened in New York in 1896; in 1902, he bought back the Simpson Crawford Company in New York and the Schlesinger and Mayer Company in Chicago, settling that same year in New York, where he also presided over the 14th Street Store.
German lawyer, art dealer (1891-1978)
German rabbi
Born in Berlin in a Jewish family, theater critic from his adolescence. In 1905 he founded the journal Die Schaubühne, which he renamed Die Weltbühne in 1918 and directed until his death — one of the great organs of the independent intellectual left of the Weimar Republic. While not a Zionist, he fought assimilation and Jewish "camouflage".
English poet and writer
German rabbi
German Protestant theologian, born in Magdeburg on January 22, 1830, died in Jena on January 9, 1903. Professor of theology at the University of Jena from 1875 onward, he published notably Spinoza als Kritiker und Ausleger des Alten Testaments (Berlin, 1867), Philo von Alexandria (Jena, 1875), a reference work on the influence of Haggada on Philo, and, with Bernhard Stade, a Hebrew dictionary of the Old Testament (Leipzig, 1893); he also contributed to Nowack's commentary on Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
German rabbi
Danish poet and editor, born in Copenhagen on May 4, 1803, died in that city on November 28, 1884, brother of Oskar Siesby. He published his first collection of poems, Lyriske Forsøg, in 1826, then an opera, Robinson, in 1834, performed at the Royal Theatre; in 1847, he became co-editor of the periodical Flyveposten by Edward Meyer, which he later bought without success, publication ceasing in 1870.
Danish philologist, born in Ebeltoft, in Jutland, on July 19, 1833, brother of Gottlieb Siesby. A graduate of the University of Copenhagen in 1850, he taught Latin and Greek there from 1853, was appointed lecturer in classical philology in 1871 and then privatdocent in 1882 ; he published some studies in grammar and semasiology in philological journals.
American lawyer
German rabbi
German rabbi and Hebraist journalist, born in Königsberg, Prussia, on September 7, 1819, died in Lyck, Prussia, on March 15, 1882. Raised after his father's death (1823) by his mother's family in Krottingen, in Kovno Province, he later returned to Prussia to establish himself as a shoḥet and rabbi in Lyck, where he founded in 1856 Ha-Maggid, the first Hebrew-language weekly newspaper, and contributed in 1864 to the founding of the Mekitsé Nirdamim society. Regarded as the true father of Hebrew journalism, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig and notably published, in 1858, the translation of Josephus' Against Apion by Samuel Shullam.
German rabbi, born in Witzenhausen, Hesse-Nassau, on November 21, 1834, diploma from the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau in 1859 and doctor of the University of Berlin in 1860. He was successively rabbi in Lyck, East Prussia (1860-68), in Buttenhausen (1868-74), in Mühringen (1874-84), then in Wiesbaden from 1884; member of the assembly of Württemberg convened in 1869 to legislate on Jewish communities, he officiated in 1882 at the funeral of poet Berthold Auerbach. He is the author of numerous works, including Moses Mendelssohn (Esslingen, 1872) and Gabriel Riesser (Wiesbaden, 1886).
American philosophical writer, born in Kovno, Russia, on March 10, 1845. Ordained rabbi in 1864, he served from 1867 to 1868 as rabbi of Dershunisok, in the province of Kovno, before emigrating to the United States and settling in New York, where he published several philosophical works, including The Universe and Its Evolution (1891) and The Jewish Problem and Theology in General (1904).
Rabbi, poet and Judeo-Persian apologist from Mashhad, author of Hayat al-Ruh.
Slovakian-German rabbi
Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty (1898-1992)
French rabbi
rabbi
Disciple of Salanter, founder of the Talmud Torah of Kelm, pillar of the Mussar movement.
Samuel Simchowitz, Russian rabbinic writer, born in the early nineteenth century and died in Slutzk in March 1896. Endowed with solid rabbinic learning and versed in modern literature, he published numerous essays in the « Petersburger Herold » and refused in 1866 an invitation to the orthodox rabbinate of Vienna. He sat in 1894 at the great rabbinical synod of Saint Petersburg.
Simeon b. Judah, tanna of the fourth generation from Kefar 'Ikos, is chiefly known as a transmitter of the sentences of Simeon b. Yoḥaï. Two of his own exegetical sentences have come down to us, bearing on verses of Exodus and Deuteronomy, as well as a mention of a place in Galilee where there were stones reputed to be "leprous", coming from a house afflicted with leprosy.
Bohemian Talmudist active in Prague in the first half of the nineteenth century, known by the acronym LaSh. He is the author of a vast commentary on the six orders of the Mishna, "Shesh ha-Ma'arakah", each order bearing a distinct title.
Russian philosopher
Trilingual poet (Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew) of Odessa, linked to Hibbat Zion.
British rabbi
Member of the Israel Supreme Court and rabbinic scholar (1889–1953)
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5660 of the Hebrew era (1900). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 99-4.
Laurence Mark Simmons, English rabbi, born in London in 1852 and died in Manchester on April 5, 1900. Trained at the City of London School, he left in 1873 to pursue his studies at the rabbinical seminary of Breslau, then accepted in 1877 the position of minister officiating of the congregation of British Jews of Manchester, at the synagogue of Park Place. A diligent contributor to the « Jewish Quarterly Review », he reissued in 1893 the « Iggueret ha-Chemad » of Maimon ben Joseph.
Rabbi in Prague
American political figure
Austrian rabbi, scientist and writer (1860–1940)
Dutch politician
Dutch writer
French rabbi
man who delivered the Duchess of Berry to the authorities of the July Monarchy
Galician rabbi, deputy to the Polish Sejm (1922-1928), Chief Rabbi of Finland (from 1931) where he obtained visas for refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.
Hungarian rabbi
Hungarian Jewish poet and journalist, born Kohn Simon in Tass on 19 August 1882, died in Budapest on 27 January 1945. Journalist at Budapesti Napló then editor (from 1930) of the daily Az Est. His poems appeared in the journals A Hét, Nyugat and Új Idők; his first collection, Lamentációk (1909), made him known.
Born in Frauenberg (Lorraine), he founded in 1848 with his brothers Alexandre and Lazare the house Lazard Frères (first in New Orleans, then San Francisco, Paris, and New York), at the origin of the international banking dynasty Lazard.
Finnish conductor, composer, pianist and author (1897-1969)
Austrian rabbi
Rabbi
Russian politician
Gustav Simon, German surgeon, born in Darmstadt on May 30, 1824 and died in Heidelberg on August 28, 1876. Trained in Heidelberg and Giessen (doctor of medicine, 1848), he served as surgeon of the Hessian army from 1848 to 1861, before becoming, that same year, associate professor and then, six months later, professor of surgery at the University of Rostock. In 1867, he was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Heidelberg, a position he held until his death, distinguishing himself notably in vesical fistula surgery and kidney removal.
Joseph Simon, lawyer and American politician, born in Bechtheim, Hesse, on February 7, 1851, and accompanies his parents to Portland, Oregon, in 1857. Admitted to the bar in 1872, he pursues a long political career in Oregon — city councilman of Portland, chairman of the Republican state committee, state senator for Multnomah County — before being elected in 1898 to the United States Senate for a term ending March 3, 1903.
Lady Rachel Simon, English woman of letters, born in London on August 1, 1823 and died there on July 7, 1899, daughter of Simeon K. Salaman and Alice Cowen. Married on July 12, 1843 to John Simon, she keeps from the age of seventeen a journal, "Records and Reflections", of which she publishes in 1893 a selection covering fifty years, from 1840 to 1890, and also writes a work on the Psalms, "Beside the Still Waters". Her son Oswald John Simon, born in London in 1855, is also an author and community activist.
Moritz Alexander Simon, German banker and philanthropist, born in Hanover on 27 November 1837 and died there in 1905. After witnessing the misery of East European Jewish immigrants in New York, he opens in 1893 near Hanover the Israelitische Erziehungsanstalt at Ahlem, a school designed to train young Jews in agriculture and crafts; by 1905, the establishment had trained approximately 170 gardeners, craftsmen and teachers. Simon bequeathed 750,000 dollars to this institution.
Oskar Simon, German dermatologist, was born in Berlin on January 2, 1845 and died in Breslau on March 2, 1882. Trained in his native city (doctor of medicine, 1868), he did a postgraduate internship at the University of Vienna, then served as assistant surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War before establishing himself in Berlin as a privat-docent. In 1878, he was appointed professor of dermatology at the University of Breslau and chief physician of the Allerheiligen Hospital.
Sir John Simon, barrister (serjeant at law) and English politician, born in Jamaica 9 December 1818 and died in London 24 June 1897. Graduate of the University of London in 1841 and admitted to the bar in 1842, he is the first Jew to practice at the common law bar. Elected to Parliament in 1868 for the constituency of Dewsbury, he served there for twenty years without ever counting a single Jewish elector in his constituency, which nevertheless earned him the nickname of "Member for Judaism"; he retired in 1888 for reasons of health.
David Simons, Dutch jurist, born in The Hague on November 3, 1860. After studying law at Leiden (doctor of law, 1883), he establishes himself as a lawyer in Amsterdam, then becomes in 1897 professor of criminal law at the University of Utrecht. His doctoral thesis wins him the gold medal of the university in 1882; he also publishes a manual of criminal procedure (3rd ed., 1901) and a treatise on Dutch criminal law (1904), and has directed since July 1902 the « Weekblad van het Recht ».
David Jacob Simonsen, Danish rabbi and author, was born in Copenhagen on March 17, 1853. Trained at the Von Westenske Institut and the rabbinical seminary of Breslau (1874-1879), he became assistant to the chief rabbi Wolff in Copenhagen — the first rabbi born in Denmark of this community — and then succeeded him as chief rabbi of Denmark upon his death in 1891, before resigning in 1902, the year when King Christian IX conferred upon him the honorary title of professor. Member of the executive committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, he published in 1889 a study on the sculptures and inscriptions of Palmyra from the Jacobsen collection.
Joseph Levin Simonsen, Danish jurist, was born in Copenhagen on December 26, 1814 and died there on June 21, 1886. A graduate of the University of Copenhagen in 1837, he was admitted in 1851 to the bar of the superior court, where his profound knowledge of the most complex legal questions carried authority. Elected vice-president of the Society of Danish Jurists in 1859, he was from 1848 until his death the legal adviser to the Jewish community of Copenhagen.
Sigmund Simonyi, Hungarian linguist converted to Christianity, was born in Veszprém on January 1, 1853 and studied in Esztergom, Budapest, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. He became lecturer in 1877, associate professor in 1885 then full professor in 1889 at the University of Budapest, where he left a lasting mark on the teaching of Hungarian philology; the Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him corresponding member in 1879 and full member in 1893. A prolific author, he notably published « Antibarbarus » (1879) on foreign words in Hungarian and, with Balassa, a German-Hungarian dictionary (1899).
Martin Eduard von Simson, German jurist and statesman, born on November 10, 1810 in Königsberg and died in Berlin on May 22, 1899. Having become Christian from an early age, he taught Roman law in Königsberg before being elected in 1848 as deputy to the Frankfurt National Congress, of which he became president and in whose name he offered the German imperial crown to King Frederick William IV of Prussia. First president of the North German Congress in 1867, he offered the crown of Germany in 1870 to William I of Prussia, presided over the first German Reichstag, and became in 1879 the first president of the German Supreme Court in Leipzig.
Rabbi of the Orthodox Israelites of Karlsruhe
Edmund Singer, Hungarian violinist, born in Tata, Hungary, on October 14, 1831; student of Ellinger, Ridley Kohne and Joseph Böhm for violin, and of Preyer for composition, he studied from 1844 to 1846 at the Conservatoire de Paris. He undertook from 1851 to 1854 much-noted tours throughout Europe, then, on the recommendation of Liszt, became in 1854 concert master in Weimar, a position he held until 1861 before establishing himself as concert master and professor at the Conservatoire of Stuttgart.
Isidor Singer, Austrian economist, born in Budapest on January 16, 1857. After studies in mathematics, astronomy and then economics at the University of Vienna, he devoted himself to political economy, published in 1885 the results of his investigations into the working classes of northeastern Bohemia, then became professor of statistics in Vienna in 1891. After a three-year stay in the United States (1893-96), he founded with Heinrich Kanner the weekly "Die Zeit", which he transformed into a daily in 1902.
Josef Singer, Austrian cantor, was born in Galicia on October 15, 1842. Intended by his father, an itinerant hazzan, for a theatrical career, he instead pursued four years of studies at the Prague Conservatory before becoming a cantor in Beuthen, in Prussian Silesia; called to Nuremberg as Oberkantor in 1873, he succeeded in 1881 Salomon Sulzer as chief cantor of the Wiener Cultusgemeinde, a position he still held in 1905. A recognized specialist in synagogal music, he published notably "Die Tonarten des Traditionellen Synagogengesanges" (Vienna, 1886).
Maximilian Singer, botanist, zoologist and Austrian author, was born in Leipnik on February 6, 1857 and obtained his doctorate in Vienna in 1883. Author of articles on botany and zoology, he also writes for the theater: the dramas « Junius Brutus » (1879), « Der Friedensengel » (1891) and « Die Schuld der Väter » (1896), as well as several opera libretti, including « Esther » (1885), « José Galeano » (1891, music by Julius Stern) and « Der Schwur » (1892, music by Wilhelm Reich).
Paul Singer, social democrat and German deputy, born in Berlin on January 16, 1844. After a commercial career — he founds in 1869 a coat factory with his brother —, he engages in politics alongside Bebel and Liebknecht and becomes one of the recognized leaders of the social-democratic party; elected to the Reichstag in 1884 for the fourth constituency of Berlin, he distinguishes himself as a skilled orator and parliamentarian, while contributing 5,000 marks to support the families of socialists struck by expulsion — including himself, briefly, in 1886. Founder of a large shelter for the homeless in Berlin, he firmly defended its independence against the police.
Samuel Singer, philologist, was born in Vienna on July 12, 1860; educated at the gymnasium and then at the university of his native city (doctor of law, 1884; doctor of philosophy, 1885), he became a private lecturer at the University of Bern in 1891, associate professor in 1896, then professor of medieval German language and literature in 1905. He is notably the author of "Deutsche Volksbücher" (1888, with Bachmann) and of several studies on medieval German literature, including "Apollonius von Tyrus" (1895).
From a Sephardic family of Portuguese origin (branch passing through Jamaica before London). Founded in 1914 the Oxford and St George's Jewish Boys' Club, which became the Bernhard Baron Settlement of the East End. Magistrate in the children's court, he wrote several works on social action, youth and education.
Member of the great Ezra family, the dominant family of the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta. He was sheriff of Calcutta and administrator of the Reserve Bank of India, taking up the communal position of his father. The family, come from Baghdad (where it was also known by the names Khalif/Horesh) and arrived in Calcutta via Bombay as early as 1821, formed with the Sassoon and Kadoorie families the triangle of the great Baghdadi Jewish lineages of the Far East.
Son of German Jewish parents from Frankfurt, he directs the London branch Speyer Brothers of the family banking house and chairs the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (1906–1915), financing the extension of the Underground. Patron of the Proms (Queen's Hall, 1902–1914), friend of Elgar, Strauss and Debussy. Stripped of British nationality in 1921.
Born in London, son of Zadok Aaron Jessel, Jewish merchant. Barrister admitted in 1847, Solicitor General (1871–73) — first practicing Jew to hold high government office in England — then Master of the Rolls (1873–1883). First Jewish regular member of the Privy Council. His equity and commercial law rulings set precedent.
Elder brother of Marion Spielmann, ennobled in 1905. He organized the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition of 1887 and chaired the Jewish Historical Society of England (1902–04). At the height of Russian anti-Jewish persecutions, he edited "Darkest Russia", supplement to the Jewish Chronicle (1890–92).
Orthodox Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
Anglo-German textile merchant born in Bad Pyrmont in a family of traders. Settled in Leeds (1834) then Bradford (1838), first foreign merchant to export Bradford wool; founded the house Sir Jacob Behrens & Son. Knighted by Queen Victoria in 1882 for his role in Franco-British commercial relations. Prominent member of the Anglo-Jewish Association; he helped create the Bradford Chamber of Commerce and reorganize local educational institutions.
Son of Solomon Sebag and Sarah Montefiore, nephew and heir of Sir Moses Montefiore. Founder of the brokerage house Joseph Sebag & Company. President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1895 until his death (1903) and president of the Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of London (Bevis Marks synagogue) — lay leader of the Sephardim of Great Britain. He added by royal permission (1885) the name Montefiore to his own.
Born in London into a Jewish family, he went to Kimberley in 1875 as a diamond sorter, became director of the Griqualand West Diamond Company and then head of the Hermann Eckstein & Co. mining house. President of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines (1891), he played a major role in the financial and technical organization of the gold mines. Member of the Reform Committee, he was condemned to death after the Jameson Raid (1896), sentence commuted to a fine. Created baronet in 1912 and member of the first Parliament of the Union of South Africa (1910–1915).
Member of the Gluckstein family, Conservative Member of Parliament (1931–1945) and president of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue from 1944.
Born in Paddington (London), second son of the merchant Jonah Nathan (of German origin) and Miriam Jacob Nathan. An officer of the Royal Engineers, he was governor of Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Hong Kong (1904–1907) — where the Nathan Road artery in Kowloon bears his name — then of Queensland. The only Jewish governor of Hong Kong, he was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Willesden in London.
Judge at the Berlin Labour Court in 1929, dismissed by the Nazis in 1933, he fled to London and studied at the London School of Economics, where he became a professor, then professor of comparative law at the University of Oxford (fellow of Brasenose College) from 1964. Considered the father of labour law studies in Great Britain, member of the British Academy, he was knighted.
British industrialist, he joined Shell in 1901 and was one of the principal architects of its merger with the Royal Dutch, becoming effectively number two in the group; he played a key role in supplying fuel to the Allies during the First World War (knighted KBE in 1920). Treasurer, vice-president and then president of the United Synagogue, he founded in 1919 the Jewish War Memorial (Jewish Memorial Council) and co-founded in 1942 the Council of Christians and Jews.
Lazar Skreinka, Hungarian scholar of the mid-nineteenth century, devoted himself to teaching and became director of the Jewish school founded in Arad by Aaron Chorin, assisting him in his enterprise of disseminating secular knowledge. He is the author of an « Analytische Elementarlehre der Rabbinisch-Mosaischen Religion » (2nd ed., Arad, 1846) and « Beiträge zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der Jüdischen Dogmen und des Jüdischen Kultus » (Vienna, 1861), among several essays published in Jewish scientific reviews, including one on the gnostic principle in the Kabbalah (1846) and another on obscure passages in the book of Daniel (1855).
Damianus Skuteczky, Hungarian painter of genre and portraits, was born in Kis-Györ on February 9, 1850. Trained at the Akademie under Geiger, a state scholarship allowed him to settle in Venice, where he became known for his scenes of Venetian life, then attracted general attention with "Evil Tongues", exhibited in Vienna. He returned to Hungary in 1885 and henceforth divided his life between Budapest and Neusohl, also devoting himself to the history and theory of art, notably to Renaissance technique.
Charles Sloman, English composer and singer of comic songs, born around 1808 and died in London on July 21, 1870. He composed 'Sacred Strains and Hymns' (London, 1860) as well as several songs, among which 'Charming Sue', 'Daughter of Israel' and 'Maid of Judah'.
Ḥayyim Selig Slonimski, Russian author, scholar, and inventor, was born in Białystok on March 31, 1810, and died in Warsaw on May 15, 1904. First to teach popular science to Jews of Eastern Europe in Hebrew, he perfected in 1842 a calculating machine rewarded by the Demidoff Prize of 2,500 rubles from the Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg, then invented in 1853 a process for cladding iron with lead and in 1856 a quadruple electrochemical telegraphy device. In 1862, he founded in Warsaw "Ha-Tsefira", the first Hebrew organ devoted principally to the sciences, which he made reappear in Berlin in 1874 before his return to Warsaw.
Leonid Zinovievitch Slonimski, Russian publicist, was born in 1852, son of Ḥayyim Selig Slonimski. From the age of twenty, he collaborated with Russian journals through articles on sociology and law, and became in 1882 a permanent contributor to the « Vyestnik Yevropy »; he opposed fiscal policy favoring the enrichment of capitalists at the expense of farmers and workers, as well as the doctrines of Karl Marx. His writings span from 1879 to 1898, including a study on Marx's economic doctrine published that final year.
David Solomon Slouschz, Russian rabbi and preacher, born in Odessa on 11 September 1852. Trained from fourteen years of age at the yeshiva of Minsk and then at that of Volozhin, he was ordained rabbi at nineteen by Naphtali Hirsch Berlin, then appointed preacher in a synagogue in Odessa in 1879, before becoming rabbi of the Moldovanka congregation, in the same city. A political Zionist, he sat for nine years on the central committee of the Lovers of Zion, and published "Rechit David" (Warsaw, 1881), a collection of responsa and sermons.
Nahoum Slouschz, Russian man of letters and Hebraist, was born in Odessa in November 1872. Sent as an adolescent to Palestine by the Society of Lovers of Zion of Odessa to found a colony there, he returned without success, then became a fervent supporter of Herzl and participated in the second Zionist Congress in Basel. After studies in letters and philosophy in Geneva (1898) then in oriental languages in Paris, he obtained his doctorate there in 1903 with a thesis on « The Renaissance of Hebrew Literature », and became in 1904 lecturer in neo-Hebrew literature at the same university.
David Slucki, Hebrew scholar of Warsaw, died in that city between 1870 and 1880. Editor of the « Guemoul Atalia » of David Franco Mendes (Warsaw, 1860) and the « Agadat Arba Kossot » of Pappenheim (1863), to which he adds his own notes, he also edited the « Meguilat Antiochus » (1863) according to Filipowski's edition of 1851. His great work remains the « Ḥokhmat Yisraël », a collection in eight parts of Jewish religio-philosophical works provided with his critical notes and published in Warsaw and Leipzig.
Peter (Perets) ben Moses Smolenskin, Russian writer, born in Monastyrchtchina, in the government of Moghilev, on February 25, 1842, and died in Meran, Austria, on February 1, 1885. After a youth marked by the loss of his father and Talmudic studies in Chklov then in Lyubavitch, he settled in Moghilev then, in 1862, in Odessa, where he taught Hebrew while training in modern languages. Passing through Prague in 1867, where he published an elegy on the death of Rapoport, then through Vienna from 1868, he founded there with the help of Solomon Rubin the periodical 'Ha-Chaḥar', dedicated to the awakening of Jewish national feeling.
Isaac Snowman, English artist, born in London in 1874. Entering the Royal Academy School in 1890, where he obtained a medal and then a grant from the Institution of British Artists, he participated in 1897 in the Maccabean pilgrimage to Palestine, which inspired works such as "A Difficult Page of the Talmud" and "The Blessing of the Sabbath Lights." Among his paintings, "Children's Voices" (1901) attracts much attention, and "The Bride" (1904) becomes very popular.
Moses Soave, Italian Hebraist, was born in Venice on March 28, 1820 and died there on November 27, 1882. Tutor in Venetian Jewish families, he assembled a library rich in rare works and composed, besides numerous articles for Italian Jewish journals, biographies of Sara Copia Sullam, Amatus Lusitanus, Abraham de Balmes, Shabbethai Donnolo and Leon of Modena. He also edited the "Guida dei Medici" of Isacco Israelita, translated from an ancient Hebrew manuscript (Venice, 1861), and published "Dei Soncino, Celebri Tipografi Italiani" (Venice, 1878).
Joseph Friedrich Sobernheim, German physician and medical author, born in Königsberg in 1803 and died in Berlin on January 30, 1846. Established as a physician in Berlin, he publishes there numerous medical treatises, among which a manual of pharmacology (1836), a study on German thermal waters (1836), a treatise on the diagnosis of internal diseases (1837), a manual of practical toxicology with Fr. Simon (1838), and pharmacological tables (1843).
Ḥayyim ben Mordekhaï Éphraïm Fischl Sofer, Hungarian rabbi, born in Presbourg on September 29, 1821 and died in Pest on June 28, 1886. Trained in Presbourg and then in Ungvár in the yechivot of the Ḥatam Sofer and Meïr Ash, he taught from 1844 onwards in Mattersdorf, became rabbi in Gyömöre in 1852, then in Sajó Szt. Péter in 1859, before settling in Munkács in 1868 and finally being chosen in 1879 as rabbi of the orthodox congregation of Pest, where he officiated until his death. He is the author of the « Pelès Ḥayyim » (Presbourg, 1854) and several other works, including a commentary on the Mishna.
Nahoum ben Joseph Samuel Sokolow, Russian journalist, was born in Wyszogród, in the governorate of Płock, on January 10, 1859. A prodigy from the age of ten, destined for the rabbinate, he settled in Warsaw in 1880 and became, with Ḥayyim Selig Slonimski, associate editor of « Ha-Tsefira » in 1884 then co-editor in 1885, before becoming its sole editor and proprietor upon Slonimski's death. Founder of the yearbook « Ha-Assif » and its successor, « Sefer ha-Chana », published in Warsaw from 1899 to 1902, he is considered the first Hebrew-writing journalist of Russia.
Jewish martyr
Émile-Arthur Soldi, French engraver, sculptor and art writer, was born in Paris on May 27, 1846, son of David Soldi, professor of modern languages originally from Denmark. He obtained in 1869 the Grand Prize of Rome for medal engraving, executed in 1880 a model of one of the gates of Angkor Thom according to Delaporte's restoration plan, and created several medallion portraits (1876) as well as a bust of Guillaumet (1887). Knight of the Legion of Honour, he is also the author of archaeological works, including « L'Art Égyptien » (1876) and « Les Nouveaux Musées du Trocadéro » (1881).
Hungarian rabbi
Born in London in a Jewish family of the East End (son of Joel Joel, keeper of the King of Prussia tavern; his mother Kate Isaacs was sister of Barney Barnato). With his brothers Jack and Woolf, he joined his uncle Barney Barnato on the diamond fields of Kimberley and made his fortune. Upon Barnato's death (1897), he inherited the financial empire, became a director of De Beers and president of the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company.
Hungarian rabbi
Jewish merchant of the American Far West who became governor
American rabbi
American rabbi
Austrian scholar (1832–1900)
British painter born in London in a Jewish family, founding member of the New English Art Club, elected to the Royal Academy in 1906 and then president of the Royal Society of British Artists (1919). During World War I he developed military camouflage (observation posts disguised as trees, netting). His sister Lily Delissa Joseph was also a painter.
Galician scholar, pioneer of the science of Judaism and of the historical biography of the sages. He was chief rabbi of Prague.
French rabbi
American mathematician
Soviet classical philologist and Hellenist
Hungarian rabbi
Born into a Sephardic family of Charleston (nephew of hazzan Emanuel Nunes Carvalho), he was the first photographer to accompany John C. Frémont's expedition to the West (1853-1854). He kept a secret diary of the journey and published his account in 1860: Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West.
Prolific Galician maskil, specialist in folklore and Jewish philosophy.
German-American rabbi and author (1842–1915)
American rabbi
Lithuanian-Russian rabbi and writer
Ukrainian rabbi
Belarusian historian
Edward S. Solomon, American military officer and jurist, was born in Schleswig, in Schleswig-Holstein, on December 25, 1836. Emigrated to the United States, he settled in Chicago, where he was elected city councilman in 1860, then enlisted in the Illinois infantry at the outbreak of the Civil War, rising through the ranks to the rank of colonel and fighting at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Chattanooga, before being promoted to honorary brigadier general in 1865. Appointed in 1870 by President Grant governor of the territory of Washington, he resigned in 1874 to settle in San Francisco, where he still resided in 1905, after serving twice in the California legislature.
Michael Solomon, British merchant and politician, born in England in 1818 and died in Jamaica on May 5, 1892. Emigrated to Jamaica in childhood, he became the head of the Bravo Brothers house and spent most of his life on the island, serving on the Legislative Council and holding the office of custos of St Anne's; in 1887, Queen Victoria made him a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in recognition of his services to the colony.
Simeon Solomon, English painter, born in Bristol in 1834 and died in London on March 15, 1905, brother of Abraham Solomon. Revealing artistic talents early, he comes under the influence of D. G. Rossetti and pushes to the extreme the mystical and sensual tendencies of the Pre-Raphaelite school, publishing notably illustrations for the Song of Songs and photographs of ten drawings devoted to Jewish ceremonial. Sinking into degrading habits, he is for a time interned in a sanatorium and leads a wandering life until the end of his days.
Vabian L. Solomon, first minister of South Australia, born around 1849, son of Judah Moss Solomon. After early career in the Northern Territory, where he becomes mayor of the principal town, he returns to Adelaide as member for the territory in the House of Assembly, establishing himself as an authority on financial matters, then becomes leader of the opposition upon the resignation of Sir John Darna and, briefly, first minister upon the fall of the cabinet in December 1899. He also sits on the federal council that prepares the federation of the Australian colonies.
Abraham Solomonov, Russian author, was born in Minsk in 1778. A figure of Haskalah propaganda among the Jews of Russia, he assisted the government in its reforms affecting Jews, worked as official translator and served as mayor of his native city. After the dissolution in 1825 of the "Deputation of the Communities of Jews of Russia", of which he directed the chancery, he turned to law in Saint Petersburg and published, in his later years, a plea for the adoption of European civilization, "Mysl Izrailityanina".
Adolphus Simeon Solomons, American community worker, was born in New York on October 26, 1826. Engaged at a very young age in the National Guard, he was appointed in 1851 by Secretary of State Daniel Webster as dispatcher to Berlin, where the discovery of a Jewish hospital service in Frankfurt inspired him to found what would become Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Founder in 1859 of the publishing house Philp & Solomons in Washington, elected in 1871 representative of the District of Columbia to the House, he became in 1891 general agent of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and represented the United States in 1881, with Clara Barton, at the Red Cross congress in Geneva.
Joseph Baer Soloveitchik, Talmudist and Russian rabbi, born in Niasvij in 1820 and died on May 1, 1892. Trained in Volozhin, he succeeded R. Guerchon of Minsk at the head of the yeshiva of Minsk, before studying under R. Kluger in Brody then in Lemberg and returning to teach and serve as rabbi in Volozhin. Called to Slutsk in 1865, to Warsaw in 1876 and then to Brisk-Litovsk two years later, where he founded in 1890 a society for Jewish colonization of Palestine, he served in 1889 on the Saint Petersburg committee devoted to the condition of Russian Jews; he is the author of "Che'elot ou-Techouvot Beit ha-Lévi" (Vilna, 1865; Warsaw, 1874 and 1884).
Vladimir Sergueïevitch Soloviev, Russian publicist and friend of the Jews, was born in 1853 and died in 1900. In his article « Rossiya i Ievropa », he opposes the hostility of the Slavophile party toward the Jews, becomes involved in the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia, and takes an active part in the Historical and Ethnographic Society; it is reported that he prayed for the Jewish people even on his deathbed.
Abdallah Abraham Joseph Somekh, rabbi of Baghdad, was born there in 1813 and died there in 1889. Trained by the rabbis Jacob Joseph ha-Rofé and Moses Ḥayyim, he became the spiritual leader of the Baghdad community, known as far as India, where his influence with the Sassoon family contributed to the founding of about twenty yeshivot. A ritual work he left in manuscript was published after his death in Baghdad in 1900 under the title "Zivḥé Tsedeq"; riots broke out at his funeral, with Muslims opposing his burial near the tombs of their local saints.
Sigismund Sonnenfeld, Hungarian journalist, born in Vágújhely on 1 October 1847. Trained at the gymnases of Prague and Presbourg and then at the University of Budapest (doctorate, 1870), he entered the same year the editorial staff of « Pester Lloyd », where he remains until 1890, while teaching from 1877 to 1890 at the Budapest gymnasium. Settled in Paris in 1890 as director of the philanthropic institutions of Baron de Hirsch, he today directs the Jewish Colonization Association and publishes, among other works, a study on the poet Lenau (1882).
Adolf Ritter von Sonnenthal, Austrian actor, was born in Budapest on December 21, 1834, son of humble parents and apprenticed tailor until his adolescence. Gone to try his luck in Vienna, where a performance at the Hofburgtheater decided him to become an actor, he made his debut on October 30, 1851 in Temesvár, before experiencing a difficult then triumphant beginning at the Hofburgtheater in Vienna on May 18, 1856, which earned him a lifetime engagement. Appointed associate director in 1870 then director in 1884 of the Hofburgtheater, he saw in 1896 Vienna's municipal council, from antisemitism, refuse to grant him the freedom of the city for his fortieth anniversary on stage.
Sidney Sonnino, baron, Italian politician, born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1849, of a Jewish father emigrated from Livorno and a Protestant English mother. Educated in Florence in the circle of Pasquale Villari, Karl Hillebrand and Leopoldo Franchetti, he codirects with the latter an inquiry into the peasants of Sicily and Tuscany. Deputy since 1882, ardent supporter of the italo-German alliance and resolute opponent of the Depretis cabinet, he holds the portfolio of finance in the Crispi cabinet from 1893 to 1896 and remains, after the fall of Crispi, one of the prominent figures of parliamentary opposition.
Pathologist, identified solid cell nests of the thyroid; pioneer in Mandate Palestine.
Ugo Sorani, Italian jurist and deputy, born in Pitigliano on 4 May 1850. After studying law in Mondovi, Livorno and Pisa, where he graduated in 1872, he established himself as a lawyer in Florence, of which he was long secretary of the Jewish community, before being elected in 1900 deputy for Scansano, in the province of Grosseto, then re-elected in 1904. Sorani is the author of several legal works, including "Della Ricerca della Paternità" (1892) and "La Banca d'Italia" (1894).
Joseph Juda Löb Sossnitz, Talmudist, mathematician and Russian-American scientific author, is born in Birzhi, in the government of Kovno, on September 17, 1837. Teaching Hebrew in Riga from the age of nineteen, he trains in secular sciences, then joins in 1875 the editorial team of « Ha-Tsefira » in Berlin under H. S. Slonimski, before editing from 1888 the scientific and cabalistic sections of « Ha-Echkol » in Warsaw. Settled in New York in 1891, he founds a Talmud Torah there which he directs until 1897, then teaches Jewish ethics at the Educational Alliance from 1899 onwards; he also publishes, in Hebrew, « Ha-Chemech » (Warsaw, 1878) and « Der Ewige Kalender » (Riga, 1884).
Meyer Spanier, pedagogue and German writer, was born in Wunstorf, Hanover, on November 1, 1864, and studied philosophy and German philology at Heidelberg (doctorate, 1894). Teaching in Altona and Hamburg, he was called in 1900 to Münster, Westphalia, as director of the seminary for the training of Jewish teachers. He published notably « Thomas Murners Narrenbeschwörung » (Halle, 1894), « Vom Alten und Modernen Sturm und Drang » (Berlin, 1896), and « Künstlerischer Bilderschmuck für Schulen » (Leipzig, 1897).
Mordekhaï Spector, Russian Judeo-German writer, born in Ouman, in the governorate of Kiev, on May 5, 1859. Trained in the Hasidic spirit, he studies from 1874 to 1877 secular sciences under Colonel Winde, then, encouraged by Eliezer Zweifel met in 1878, publishes his first novel in Judeo-German in the "Volksblatt" of 1883; called the following year to Saint Petersburg as assistant editor of the same journal, he settles in 1887 in Warsaw, where he founds the "Hausfreund" and the "Familienfreund". There he publishes a collection of 2,056 Jewish proverbs and, in Hebrew, "Otot ou-Mofetim" (1887); his wife, married in 1886, is also a recognized Judeo-German novelist.
Isaac Elhanan Spektor, Russian rabbi and author, is born in Rosh, in the government of Grodno, in 1817, and dies in Kovno on March 6, 1896. Married at thirteen, trained by R. Elie Schick and then by Benjamin Diskin, from whom he receives ordination with R. Isaac Haber of Tiktin, he becomes in 1837 rabbi of the small town of Sabelin, then in 1839 of Baresa on the recommendation of R. Jacob of Karlin. In 1846, he is chosen as rabbi of Nieśwież, in the government of Minsk, before accepting in 1851 the rabbinate of Novogroudok, which he holds until 1864, the year he becomes rabbi of Kovno, a position he retains until his death.
Jacob Hirsch Sperling, Austrian religious teacher at the Jewish college and German gymnasium of Lemberg, born there in 1837 and died there in December 1899. Support of the Haskala in Galicia and talented Neo-Hebrew poet, he collaborated in several periodicals and founded the societies Ahava ve-Haskala and Chomer Yisraël in Lemberg. He published notably « Hatsalat Melekh » (Lemberg, 1854), poem on the failed attempt on the life of Emperor Francis Joseph, « Ḥamicha Ketarim » (1871), collection of five poems, and « Ḥokhmat Chelomoh » (1878), biography in verse of S. L. Rapoport.
Max Spicker, German musician, born in Königsberg on August 16, 1858. Trained at the Leipzig Conservatory, he traveled through Germany and Russia with violinist Miska Hauser in 1878, then successively directed the opera in Heidelberg, Cologne, Ghent, Aix-la-Chapelle, Potsdam and Hamburg, before becoming in 1883 conductor of the Beethoven Männerchor of New York, then, in 1889, with Anton Seidl, of the Brighton Beach symphony concerts. In 1891, he became musical director of Temple Emanu-El in New York, and published notably an « Anthology of Oratorio » (New York, 1890) and an « Anthology of Opera » (1895).
Frederick S. Spiegel, American jurist, born in Hovestadt, in Prussian Westphalia, on November 20, 1858. Emigrated to the United States in childhood and settled in Gadsden, Alabama, he graduated from the Southern Institute in 1877, studied law in Cincinnati, then became in 1881 head of the Ohio Bureau of Statistics, before sitting on the Cincinnati school board. Elected county solicitor in 1890, reelected in 1893, he became judge of the common pleas court in 1896 and again in 1901, and today holds, within the Bnai Brith, a seat on the order's supreme court.
Marion H. Spielmann, English author and art critic, is born in London on May 22, 1858. Art critic at the « Pall Mall Gazette » from 1883 to 1890, then at the « Daily Graphic » in 1890, he founds and directs the art section of « Black and White » in 1891, before becoming in 1898 editor-in-chief of the « Magazine of Art », a position he retains until the magazine's closure in 1905. He publishes notably « History of Punch » (1895), « Millais and His Works » (1898), « John Ruskin » (1900) and « British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day » (1901).
Joel Élie Spingarn, American pedagogue, born in New York on 17 May 1875. Graduated from Columbia in 1895, he pursued higher studies at Harvard and Columbia (doctorate, 1899), where he was appointed tutor the same year then associate professor of comparative literature. He is the author of « A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance » (New York, 1899; translated into Italian in 1904), « The New Hesperides » (1901) and « American Scholarship » (1901).
Jacob Samuel Speyer, Dutch philologist, born in Amsterdam on December 20, 1849. Trained in Amsterdam and in Leiden (doctorate, 1872), he teaches in Hoorn and then, from 1873 to 1888, at the gymnasium of Amsterdam, before being appointed in 1877 lecturer in Sanskrit and comparative philology at the University of Amsterdam, then, in 1888, professor of Latin in Groningen. He occupies this chair until 1903, the year he succeeds his former teacher H. Kern as professor of Sanskrit at the University of Leiden; he also directs the review « Museum » from 1893 to 1904.
American rabbi born in Csaba, Hungary, on October 14, 1848, trained at the University of Prague and holding the rabbinic diploma of Rabbi Judah Teweles. He officiated at the B'nai Sholom congregation in Chicago from 1870 to 1871, then at Emanu-El in Milwaukee from 1871 to 1878, before becoming, from 1878, rabbi of the B'nai El congregation in Saint-Louis. He contributed under the pseudonym "Ben Abi" to the "American Israelite" and "Die Deborah," and directed the "Jewish Tribune" before editing, in 1905, the "Jewish Voice" of Saint-Louis.
Hebrew and German teacher at the Jewish school of Prague in the first half of the 19th century. He is the author of « Alon Bakut » (Prague, 1826), written at the death of his grandfather Rabbi Eleazar Fleckeles, of « Zikron Eliezer » (1827), a biography of the latter, and of « Toledot Yiẓẓaḳ », a biography of his father Isaac Spitz; he also collaborated on « Bikkure ha-'Ittim » with sixteen scientific essays.
Austrian rabbi and champion of orthodoxy, died in Vienna, at an advanced age, on December 5, 1893. Son-in-law of the rabbi Moses Sofer, he directed for more than forty years the ultra-orthodox congregation of Vienna, whose synagogue was located in the Shiffgasse, and vigorously opposed the Reform, notably the measures introduced by the « Culturgemeinde » of Vienna in 1872. A collection of his sermons, funeral orations and talmudic novellae appeared under the title « Tikkun Shelomoh » (Vienna, 1892), published by his son-in-law Joseph Baer Kohen; he was buried in Pressburg.
French art collector and dealer, born in Presbourg in 1814 and died in Paris in 1890. Son of the official gravedigger of the community, he left without resources for Vienna and then launched into the art trade after reselling in Paris a painting he had bought for five guilders, which turned out to be an Albrecht Dürer. He thus assembled a considerable collection, sold for ten million francs three years after his death according to the provisions of his will.
Hungarian rabbi born in 1839 in Keszthely, where his father was already rabbi, died in 1896; he descended from Yom-Tob Lipmann Heller. Trained in Prague, he became rabbi in Esseg in 1856 and was recognized as an authority in religious matters, while several humanitarian societies were founded within his congregation under his impetus. He published sermons as well as numerous works on the history of civilization, among them « Die Jüdische Ehe » (1869) and « Das Blutgespenst auf seine wahre Quelle zurückgeführt » (1883).
Austrian physician born in Nikolsburg, Moravia, in 1813, died in Vienna in 1894. Professor of anatomy at the medical school of Constantinople, where he founded the anatomical museum, he became in 1844 head of the medical clinic then, after treating Sultan Abd al-Majid in 1845, his personal physician and in 1847 director of the academy of medicine of Constantinople. He subsequently represented the Porte at the court of Naples from 1857 to 1860, before ending his life between Paris and Italy.
Austrian mathematician born in Vienna on February 3, 1826, died in the same city on April 2, 1887. Graduate of the University of Vienna in 1850, he became a privat-docent at Vienna's polytechnic school in 1851, then professor of algebra at Vienna's Handelsschule from 1857 until 1887, while also teaching at the polytechnic school, where he was named associate professor of analytical mechanics in 1863 and professor in 1870; when the Handelsschule became the Handelsakademie, he was its first rector (1872-73).
German Protestant Hebraist and historian of Israel, born in Arnstadt on May 11, 1848. He became private lecturer at the University of Leipzig in 1873, then professor of theology in Giessen in 1875, and published notably a « Geschichte des Volkes Israel » proposing a critical reconstruction of the history of Israel in accordance with the theses of Graf and Wellhausen. He directed from 1881 the « Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ».
German economist born in Munich on June 2, 1812, died in Giessen on March 19, 1873. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by the philologist Döderlein in Erlangen, studied in Munich and Halle, then taught at the industrial school of Fürth before devoting himself, encouraged by Professor Hermann of Erlangen, to political economy, as docent and then associate professor at the University of Erlangen. Elected in 1848 representative to the Frankfurt Parliament, he received three years later a chair at the University of Giessen, which he held until his death.
Russian writer and journalist born in Nikopol, in the governorate of Iekaterinoslav, on 18 December 1850, son of the wealthy Lithuanian merchant Moses Stanislavski. Initially destined for a commercial career, he received in 1863-64 the teaching of Dobsewitch, then, guided by his master Ilya Orshanski, immersed himself in reading Buckle, Draper, Darwin and Mill and in the study of Latin and mathematics. He began his career as a journalist in « Peterburgskie Viedomosti » and « Den », then became in 1881, at Landau's invitation, assistant editor of « Voskhod », to which he notably gave biographies of Mendel Levin and Israel Samostz.
German jurist born in Nikolai, in Upper Silesia, on March 21, 1856. Trained at the universities of Breslau, Berlin and Leipzig, where he obtained his diploma in 1880, he established himself as a counselor at law in Berlin, specializing in civil law. He published a « Kommentar zum Allgemeinen Deutschen Handelsgesetzbuch » and a « Kommentar zur Allgemeinen Deutschen Wechselordnung », and was associate editor of the « Deutsche Juristenzeitung ».
American jurist born in New York on December 18, 1856. Graduate of Columbia Law School in 1877, the year he was admitted to the bar, he was elected in 1881 judge of the Fourth District Court of New York, a position he held until 1893, before being appointed in 1900 to a vacant position in the Supreme Court of the first judicial district of New York County. He took an active part in political life without affiliating with any party.
artist and journalist, of Hungarian origin
Austrian entrepreneur
Anatomist and physician, among the first Jewish women to practice surgery in the United States.
Chemist, her analyses of lead and thorium proved the existence of isotopes; killed at Treblinka.
Hungarian orientalist and archaeologist born in Budapest in 1862, trained in Vienna, Tübingen, Oxford and London. Appointed in 1888 registrar of the University of Punjab in Lahore and principal of the Oriental college, he later became principal of the Calcutta madrasa, a position he held until 1901, before being appointed in 1905 inspector of schools of the Punjab; he is best known for his archaeological explorations in Kashmir and Chinese Turkestan, the results of which appeared notably in his edition of the « Rajatarangini » (1892-1900).
American jurist born in Steele, Rhenish Prussia, on March 12, 1844, emigrated to the United States in 1854. Holder of an A.M. diploma from the University of Wisconsin in 1868, the year he was admitted to the bar, he pursued higher studies in Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin before settling in 1870 in Chicago. Elected in 1892 and reelected in 1898 judge of the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois, he was appointed in 1903 judge of the court of appeal of that State, of which he was, in 1905, the president.
German author born on December 3, 1853 in Königsberg. His family settled in Berlin in 1864; the death of his father prevented him from continuing his studies and he became a bookseller before turning to journalism: editor of the « Dresdener Zeitung » from 1881, then editor-in-chief of the « Litterarische Merkur » in Berlin from 1884, he directed the Berlin « Bazar » in 1905 and was drama critic for the « Berliner Zeitung ». He notably published « Illustrirte Kunstgeschichte » (1886) and edited the correspondence between Schiller and Goethe (1901).
Austrian statesman born in Vienna on June 11, 1846. Doctor of law from the University of Vienna, he practiced as a lawyer before being attached to the Ministry of Commerce, then served as Minister of Finance in the Taaffe cabinet from February 1891 to November 1893, before being appointed in 1894 president of the Supreme Court of the Austrian Empire, a position he still held in 1905. Converted to Christianity, he is the author of several legal works, including « Erwerb und Beruf » (1896) and « Zur Friedensbewegung » (1899).
Austrian physician born in Fünfkirchen, Hungary, on January 3, 1850. Doctor of medicine from the University of Vienna in 1875, he was appointed naval surgeon in 1876, a position he left in 1881, before establishing himself as a gynecologist in Franzensbad. He published literary works, including « Heimatsklänge » (Leipzig, 1882) and « Eigenes und Fremdes » (1888), and co-directed from 1886 the « Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Badezeitung ».
Hungarian historian born in Güssing, Hungary, on 16 December 1857. Doctor of philosophy from Graz in 1882 and doctor of law in 1894, he became privatdozent at the University of Vienna in 1895 and was appointed in 1901 professor of history at the German University of Prague. He devoted several essays to the history of the 14th and 16th centuries and published « Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland » (Vienna, 1897).
German Egyptologist born in Dessau on 12 November 1861. Trained in Oriental languages in Leipzig and Berlin, where he became privatdocent, he succeeded his master Georg Ebers in 1893 as professor of Egyptology at the University of Leipzig. Associate editor of the « Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde », he notably published a « Koptische Grammatik » (1894) and translated into German, under the title « Aegyptische Kunstgeschichte » (1889), G. Maspero's « Egyptian Archaeology ».
German financier born in Laupheim in 1835, died in Stuttgart on September 24, 1903. First a lawyer, he rose to the head of Württemberg finance as president of the Württembergische Vereinsbank and founded in 1871 the Württembergische Notenbank. Patron of the sciences and arts, intimate friend of Berthold Auerbach, he was made honorary citizen of Schiller's hometown in recognition of his role in founding the Schwäbischer Schillerverein and the Schiller Museum in Marbach.
Australian politician born in Neisse, Silesia, in 1827, died in Melbourne on May 6, 1893. Trained at the college of Brieg then established in London (1847-53), he went to Ballarat, Australia, where he founded in 1866 the Steinfeld & Levison company; first mayor of Ballarat East, he was one of the principal founders of the Ballarat orphanage and ardently defended the cause of imperial federation. Member of the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures from May 1885, he later became its president, before being elected in September 1892 to the legislative council of Victoria for the Wellington district.
German rabbi and scholar of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, holder of the rabbinate of Minden. Elected councilor at the convocation of the Westphalia consistory in 1807, he defended the Reform advocated by Israel Jacobson among the Jews of Westphalia and published "She'elot u-Teshubot Dibre Menaḥem" (Offenbach, 1804), a collection of ninety responsa, as well as "Dibre Iggeret" (Rödelheim, 1812), a work seeking to justify the innovations introduced by the Jewish consistory of Cassel.
German woman of letters born in Kobylin on April 16, 1852. Trained in Halle-sur-Saale, she married Siegfried Heinrich Steinitz in 1873 and published several novels, including « Des Volkes Tochter » (1878) and « Irrlicht » (1895), as well as translations of foreign novels, notably works by Bayard Taylor, Octave Feuillet, Boyesen and Bellamy.
German philologist and philosopher born in Gröbzig, Anhalt, on May 16, 1823, died in Berlin on March 14, 1899. A student of Wilhelm von Humboldt, he studied philology and philosophy in Berlin, where he became privat-docent in 1850 and assistant professor in 1863, while residing in Paris from 1852 to 1855 to study Chinese. In 1860, he founded with his brother-in-law Moritz Lazarus the « Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft », foundational to the psychology of peoples, and from 1883 directed the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeindebund.
German politician (1824–1898)
Hungarian rabbi born in Nagy-Kanizsa in 1826, died at the mental asylum in Ofen on June 16, 1888, son-in-law of rabbi Hirsch Bär Fassel. He served as rabbi in Lengyeltoti from 1851 to 1867, then was called to the rabbinate of Uj-Pest, a position he had to leave in 1884 due to his reformist demands deemed excessive. Scholar with varied interests, he founded the journal "Ha-Meḥaḳḳer" (1877-1879) and published on Jewish names (1864) and on funeral law (1874); seeking assimilation, he changed his name to Szterényi.
German poet and literary historian, born in Leipzig on June 14, 1835. Trained in philosophy and History in Leipzig and Jena, he resided from 1853 to 1865 in several cities before settling in Dresden, where he became in 1868 associate professor then professor of literary History and art at the polytechnic. A prolific author, he notably published collections of poems and short stories as well as works of literary History, including « Fünfzig Jahre Deutscher Dichtung » (1871) and « Geschichte der Weltlitteratur » (1887-88).
German historian born on November 22, 1846, in Göttingen, where his father was a professor of mathematics. Trained at the gymnasium of his native city, at Heidelberg, and at Berlin, he was assistant archivist in Karlsruhe from 1869 to 1870, then privatdocent of history at Göttingen, before being appointed in 1873 professor at the University of Berne, a position he held until 1887, when he accepted the chair of general history at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. He is the author of several historical works, including "Das Leben Mirabeaus" (1889).
English banker born in Frankfurt am Main, died in London on January 19, 1877, member of a family whose descendants founded banking houses in several European capitals. The King of Portugal conferred on him in 1869 the title of viscount in recognition of the role played by his house in the placement of Portuguese loans; he was a member of the Commission of Lieutenancy of the City of London and administrator of the Imperial Bank. He married a daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid and had as his successor his son Sydney de Stern, future baron Wandsworth.
Christian missionary born in Unterreichenbach, Hesse-Cassel, on April 11, 1820, died in London on May 13, 1885. Converted and baptized in London in 1840 after joining the Institution of Converted Jews, he was sent in 1844 on a mission to the Jews of Chaldea and Persia, then traveled for more than forty years through Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Abyssinia and England. In Abyssinia, where he converted many Falashas to Christianity, he was imprisoned by King Theodore (1863–67), then freed by an English force commanded by Sir Robert Napier.
English financier born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1815, died in London on October 20, 1887. With his brother David of Stern, he established himself in London in 1844 and founded the house Stern Brothers, one of the most reputed banks in the city, principally linked to Portuguese finances but also involved in the Danubian loan at 7% of 1864; the Portuguese government conferred on him in 1869 the title of baron, as it did his brother made viscount. He was administrator of the Imperial Bank, the Bank of Rumania, the London and San Francisco Bank and the East London Waterworks Company.
German musician born in Breslau on 8 August 1820, died in Berlin on 27 February 1883. Trained on the violin from childhood, he studied in Berlin after 1832, obtained a scholarship from King Frederick William IV, then perfected his skill in Dresden and Paris. Returning to Berlin in 1846, he founded the Stern Gesangverein the following year, whose performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" in October 1847 established its reputation, and created in 1850, with Kullak and Marx, the Stern Conservatorium, of which he became sole owner. He conducted the Berlin Symphony Orchestra from 1869 to 1871.
Merchant and American politician born in Ziegenhain, Hesse-Cassel, on February 22, 1847, who emigrated to America with his parents in 1853. Settled in New York in 1867, where he founded with his older brother Isaac the department store Stern Brothers and took an active part in New York political life within the Republican party, unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the borough of Manhattan in 1897. United States Commissioner at the Paris Exposition in 1890, he chaired in 1904 the executive committee of the New York State commission for the Saint-Louis Exposition, before becoming in 1905 administrator of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.
German psychologist born in Berlin on 29 April 1871, doctor of philosophy from his native city's university in 1893. Appointed privat-docent at the University of Breslau in 1897, he founded there a section of the German Society for Psychological Research and published several works, including « Die Analogie im Volkstümlichen Denken » (1893) and « Zur Psychologie der Aussage » (1902), as well as numerous articles in the « Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie ».
Hungarian Hebraicist born in Pressburg on November 9, 1811, died in Vienna on February 9, 1873. Trained by his father, a teacher at the Jewish primary school of Pressburg, he took charge of his classes at the age of fourteen when his father became blind, while composing his first works at night. Proofreader at the Schmid printing house in Vienna from 1833 and then director of the Judeo-German school of Eisenstadt, he published in 1840 his epic « Tif'ereth ha-Tishbi » under the pseudonym « M. I. Ernst » and founded in 1845 the journal « Kokebe Yiẓḥaḳ », twice subsidized by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna, which won him the gold medal « pro litteris et artibus ».
German mathematician born in Frankfurt am Main on June 29, 1807, died in Berne, Switzerland, on January 30, 1894. Initially destined for a rabbinical career, he studied philology in Heidelberg before turning to mathematics in Göttingen, where he became privat-docent in 1829, then assistant professor in 1848 and professor in 1859; he retired to Berne in 1887. He played an active part in the reform movement and published, besides several works on mathematics and philology, writings in favor of the Reform.
Hungarian physician born in Halas, Hungary, on September 16, 1839, doctor of medicine from the universities of Prague and Vienna in 1858. Assistant at the municipal hospital in Vienna, he was appointed Privatdozent in 1863 and then assistant professor of clinical propaedeutics at the University of Vienna in 1870, and published notably « Die Propädeutische Klinik als Selbstständiges Theoretisch-Medicinisches Forschungs Institut » (Vienna, 1870).
Writer, editor and American critic born in Philadelphia in 1838, died on May 2, 1904. First tempted by the violin, he devoted himself to literature, notably translating Heine as well as Auerbach's novels "Waldfried" (1873) and "Auf der Höhe" (1875), and published after a journey to the Far East, in 1887, an account of his travels in China and Japan. Editor-in-chief of "Penn Monthly" and editor of the "Industrial Review", he was one of the first members of the publication committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.
Austrian dramatist born in Vienna on May 5, 1837. After a brief experience in commerce, he turned toward literature, encouraged in 1861 by Friedrich Hebbel, and wrote notably the tragedies « Valentin » (1868), « Das Kronenhaus » (1872), « Calas » (1889), and « Schloss Arnheim » (1893).
German physician and philosophical writer born in Sandberg, Posen, on 11 August 1844, son of a rabbi. He attended from 1860 to 1865 the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau, later studied philosophy before turning to medicine (doctorate from Berlin, 1869), established himself as a practitioner in Bromberg in 1870, then in Berlin in 1873, where he devoted himself to literary works; an adherent of critical positivism, he published notably « Grundlegung der Ethik als Positiver Wissenschaft » (1897) and « Das Wesen des Mitleids » (1903).
American lawyer born in Philadelphia on July 23, 1839, died in New York on September 22, 1901. Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1859, he was admitted to the bar the following year and specialized in constitutional law and railroad law, notably advising the Interstate Commerce Commission, for which he drafted the foundational legislation. Secretary of the "Committee of Seventy" from 1870 to 1871, he contributed to overthrowing the Tweed ring and notably published "Representative Government" (1871) and "Development of Political and Constitutional History of the United States" (1882).
English artist born in London on March 8, 1863. Trained at the Julian Academy and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he emigrated to the United States in 1881, lived in Chicago until 1885, then settled in New York, where he illustrated numerous works, including Coppée's « Tales » (1891) and the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1894); his painting « The Bachelor » received the bronze medal at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
German humorist born in Hamburg on November 2, 1831. After a commercial career, he studied in Berlin from 1857 to 1860, then, returning to Hamburg in 1861, founded the satirical periodical « Die Wespen », which he transferred to Berlin in 1868 under the name « Berliner Wespen », becoming « Deutsche Wespen », which he still directed in 1905. Considered the greatest living satirist of Germany, he created in 1870 the character of war correspondent « Wippchen » and directed from 1885 to 1894 « Das Humoristische Deutschland ».
German writer born in Arolsen, in Waldeck, on February 22, 1801, died in Venice on August 23, 1849. Educated at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig, he became in 1828 a teacher in a Berlin gymnasium and curator of the Royal Library, positions he had to leave for reasons of health; after the death of his wife, he traveled extensively and converted to Christianity. He is the author of "Bilder des Orient" (1831-33), "Stimmen der Zeit in Liedern" (1834), "Das Dionysosfest" (1836), and "Bergesgrüsse" (1839).
American chemist born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on May 26, 1867, trained in the public schools of New York, at the Realgymnasium of Karlsruhe and at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. Returning to the United States, he joined the University of Chicago, where he was successively instructor, assistant professor, then associate professor of chemistry, and published numerous articles in American and German chemistry journals between 1892 and 1903.
Hungarian rabbi born in Neustadt-on-the-Waag, Hungary, on 12 April 1844. Trained at the gymnasium and Talmud Torah of Pressburg, then at the universities of Vienna (doctorate, 1869) and Breslau as well as at the Jewish theological seminary of Breslau, where he was ordained rabbi in 1872, he became that same year chief rabbi of Stein-am-Anger, in Hungary, before settling in Berlin, where he holds a rabbinate since 1890. He is the author of several works, including « Priester und Propheten » (1884) and « Die Ehre in der Bibel » (1897).
Hungarian physician born in Miskolcz on June 23, 1837, trained in Budapest and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1863. Appointed assistant physician at the Jewish hospital in Budapest in 1864, he became divisional chief in 1874, privat-docent in 1876 then associate professor in 1886, and published notably « Az Ideges Gyomorbántalmak » (Budapest, 1884), translated into German, as well as works on diseases of the spleen (1895) and peritoneum (1897).
German anatomist and surgeon born in Kirchhayn, Hesse, on February 22, 1810, died in Cassel on January 28, 1879. Doctor of medicine from the University of Marburg in 1832, he was appointed district surgeon in Cassel the following year, a position he left in 1840 to devote himself to his private practice, and received in 1867 the title of "Geheimer Sanitätsrath". He was the first surgeon to introduce ovariotomy in Germany, in 1837, and the first anatomist to employ the term "vasomotor nerves", in 1840; his work on the central organs of the nervous system, particularly the brain, earned him several prizes from the Institute of France.
German ophthalmologist born in Kassel on September 22, 1842, son of Benedikt Stilling. Trained at the universities of Marburg, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1865, Würzburg, Berlin and Paris, he established himself in 1867 as an ophthalmologist in his native city, then became in 1880 privat-docent of ophthalmology at the medical faculty of Strasbourg, where he was appointed associate professor in 1884. He is the author of numerous works, including « Ueber Farbensinn und Farbenblindheit » (1877) and « Grundzüge der Augenheilkunde » (1897).
Christian historian of the Jews, born in Königsberg, East Prussia, on June 28, 1831, died in Leipzig on May 19, 1887. Trained in philology, history and law in his native city, doctor of law in 1853, he became privat-docent at Königsberg in 1855, professor of German law the following year, then was called to Breslau in 1859 and to Leipzig in 1872. His work « Die Juden in Deutschland Während des Mittelalters » (Brunswick, 1866) was the first to treat the situation of Jews in medieval Germany from a strictly constitutional angle; although Christian, he sat on the committee charged by the Gemeindebund with gathering documentation on the history of Jews in Germany.
Protestant theologian, German politician and antisemitic agitator, born in Halberstadt on December 11, 1835. Trained at the universities of Halle and Berlin, he was appointed pastor in 1863, then court preacher at Berlin Cathedral from 1874 to 1890, a position he had to leave due to his political positions. He founded in 1878 the Christian Social party, which originated an antisemitic movement, denounced Judaism as a danger to Christianity and the German empire, and sat in the Prussian Diet from 1879 and then, from 1881 to 1893, in the Reichstag, which he rejoined in 1898.
Dutch physician born in Amsterdam on August 16, 1834, died on September 28, 1902, son of physician J. B. Stokvis. Trained at the Latin school and the Athenaeum of Amsterdam, then in Paris and Vienna, he established himself as a physician in his native city and received in 1867 a gold medal from the Academy of Brussels; appointed in 1874 professor of pathology and pharmacodynamics at the University of Amsterdam, he presided in 1883 over the international congress of colonial medicine held in that city, was elected in 1879 member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, of which he became vice-president in 1896, and received in 1884 an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh.
Austrian laryngologist born in Ofen, Hungary, on September 17, 1832, died in Vienna on September 13, 1899. Trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in medicine in 1858, he demonstrated that same year the possibility of introducing medicines into the larynx using the laryngoscope and invented various instruments for this purpose; he became privat-docent in Vienna in 1864, assistant professor in 1875, then professor of laryngology and head of the laryngological clinic in 1891.
Protestant theologian and German orientalist born in Berlin on May 6, 1848, associate professor of exegesis of the Old Testament and of Semitic languages at the University of Berlin since 1877. Principal German Christian authority on Talmudic and rabbinical literature, trained under Steinschneider, he became the defender of Jews against the resurgence of antisemitism, founded in 1883 the Institutum Judaicum and from 1885 directed the journal « Nathanael »; sent by the Prussian government to examine the biblical manuscripts of Saint Petersburg, he declared apocryphal the collection of antiquities of Firkovitch.
Hungarian actor and dramatic art professor born in Sebes, near Eperies, in Hungary, on December 3, 1845. After a brief commercial experience, he took the stage in Reichenberg in 1863, performed in Troppau then in Hanover, before being engaged in 1864 in Budapest; the same year, he left to study in Paris under the direction of Martel, then, invited by Laube in 1867, taught dramatic art at the municipal theaters of Leipzig then Vienna until 1879, the year he began a tour of dramatic readings across Europe. He spent the 1887-88 season in the United States before settling, after a brief stay in Munich in 1891, in Görlitz.
Pianist, singer and Austrian impresario born in Brünn in 1825, died in Paris on October 9, 1887. After public debuts from the age of eleven, he went to America at the time of the 1848 revolution, where he met Salvator Patti, married his daughter Amelia in 1850, sister of Adelina and Carlotta Patti, and became in 1859 director of the Italian opera in New York, where he organized the debuts of Adelina Patti on November 24, 1859. In 1870, he engaged Christine Nilsson for a concert tour in America, an enterprise crowned with success which he renewed in 1874 with Nilsson and Campanini; he also introduced Clara Louise Kellogg to the London public and composed the opera « Giovanni di Napoli ».
Talmudist and Russian writer born in Vilna on October 1st, 1817, died December 13th, 1885. Trained under Manasseh of Ilya and Isaac of Volozhin, he acquired knowledge of Russian, German, French, Latin, mathematics and philosophy, and made a fortune in business after an initial failure, which he devoted in large part to assembling a library that became a meeting place for scholars from across Europe. Correspondent of Zunz and Rapoport, president for many years of the Hebrew charitable works in Vilna, he published the « Liḳḳuṭe Shoshanim » (Berlin, 1889), a catalogue of his library.
Hungarian violinist born in Pressburg on March 28, 1835, trained by Hellmesberger and Joseph Böhm for violin, by Preyer and Nottebohm for composition. After his public debut in Vienna in June 1850 and several concert tours, he became in 1857 the partner of cellist Piatti, with whom he toured Germany and Sweden, then was appointed in 1859 conductor of the Frankfurt-on-Main opera orchestra. Settled in England from 1864, he was solo violinist of the court orchestra, conductor of the Philharmonic Society concerts in London and the Hallé concerts in Manchester, and taught violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London until his retirement in 1894.
Hungarian geographer and ethnologist born in Cece, Hungary, on May 15, 1853, trained in Fehérvár and Budapest, where he attended the military academy before being attached to the general staff of Marshal Ghyczy. His literary career began in 1878, and his intimate knowledge of the geography of the Balkans led him to be sent on several occasions in mission by the Hungarian government; he published in particular « Bosnien, Land und Leute » (1881) and « Bulgarische Grammatik » (1895), founded the « Revue de l'Orient » and the « Gazette de Hongrie », and held in 1905 a chair at the Oriental Academy of Commerce in Budapest.
French jurist and politician born in Gundershoffen, Lower Alsace, on October 14, 1834. Graduate of the Faculty of Law in Paris in 1874, he established himself the same year as a lawyer before the Court of Appeal of Paris, then held various administrative positions at the Ministry of the Interior before being appointed prefect of the Drôme in 1888; he resided for several years in Algeria, where he organized, as an officer of the Algerian militia, the supply of troops during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and drafted the proclamation of the French Republic published in Algiers on September 4, 1870. He was made an officer of the Legion of Honour on December 31, 1895.
British author born in Three Rivers, Canada, in 1807, died in Teddington, England, on September 2, 1887. Trained in Berlin and at the medical school of Montpellier, he visited England in 1832, served as assistant surgeon in the French army in Algiers, and left the Foreign Legion in 1834; banished from France in 1839 for alleged complicity in a revolutionary plot, he settled in London as an author, linguist, tutor, dramatist, and surgeon. He published « Men Who Have Made the German Empire » (1874) and « The Emperor William » (1887), and had a farce performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1868.
English rabbi born in Germany in 1848, trained at the Royal Gymnasium of Stuttgart and at the universities of Würzburg and Tübingen, where he obtained his doctorate in 1873. Ordained rabbi in 1870, he left immediately for England, where he was appointed rabbi of the Rowland Street synagogue in Bradford, a position he still held in 1905, while teaching German and Oriental languages at Bradford Technical College and Yorkshire College of Victoria University. He is the author of "Religion and Morals" and "Religiöse Philosophie des Abraham ibn Esra" (1875).
Cantor of the synagogue of Mihăileni, in Romania, born in Brody (Galicia) in 1809, died in September 1875. Trained in Hebrew literature under Erter and Krochmal, he notably published 'Za'ḳat Sheber' (Vienna, 1829), a lamentation on the death of Zalman Margulies, 'Ta'anit Yeshurun' (Zolkiew, 1835), an elegy on the death of Emperor Francis I of Austria, and 'Zeker 'Olam' (Lviv, 1849), a biography of his father.
German railroad entrepreneur born in Neidenburg, in East Prussia, on November 20, 1823, died in Berlin on June 1, 1884. After a commercial failure in London and a stay in America, he returned to London in 1849, settled in Berlin in 1855 as an insurance agent, and obtained in 1861 the concession to build the East Prussian railroads, before becoming an independent entrepreneur and building several lines in Germany, Hungary, and Romania, employing up to one hundred thousand people. Ruined by the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and then by a disastrous settlement with the Romanian government in 1872, he was declared bankrupt in 1875.
American lawyer and politician born in Germany on December 16, 1825, who emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1832 and settled in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. After studying law and admission to the bar, he founded in 1848 the "North American Farmer", published in Philadelphia, before establishing himself as a lawyer in that city in 1852; he was elected member of the thirty-eighth Congress for the tenth district of Pennsylvania, then of the thirty-ninth, serving until 1867.
German painter born in Berlin on March 6, 1876. Initially destined for a rabbinical career, he showed marked talent for drawing and painting, entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, where he studied for five years under professor Max Koner, then traveled in the south of France, Italy, Belgium, England, and Holland. Three of his drawings were purchased in 1901 by the Prussian government for the print collection of the Berlin museum; a practicing Jew and devoted Talmud student, he signed his works with his Hebrew name, « Chaim Aron ben David », and illustrated Adolf Friedmann's « Reisebilder aus Palästina » (Berlin, 1904).
Polish physician born in the early nineteenth century in Zbarasz, Galicia, where his father Aaron Polak was rabbi; died in Warsaw around 1876. Trained by his father until age fourteen then at the yeshiva of Brody, he left at seventeen to study in Warsaw, continued his medical studies at the Alexander University then, that university having been transferred out of Warsaw, at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1834; upon his return to Warsaw, he practiced there and was licensed as a doctor of midwifery in 1846. He published "Rofe ha-Yeladim" (Warsaw, 1847), a bilingual Hebrew-German work on children's diseases, reissued in Hebrew alone in 1876, as well as "Orḥot Ḥayyim" (1853), a hygiene guide.
Galician follower of the Haskalah and professor of philosophy at the rabbinical seminary of Jitomir, Russia, born near Brody, Galicia, in 1790, died in Jitomir on July 29, 1880. Student of Nachman Krochmal in his youth, he left Brody for Odessa, where he became private secretary and tutor in the house of Baron Joseph Yozel Günzburg, before settling in Kamenetz-Podolsk and being called to the rabbinical seminary of Jitomir at its opening, remaining there until its closure in 1873. Influenced by the Haskalah, he published in Zolkiev in 1829 a philosophical introduction to Maimonides' « Moreh Nebukhim ».
Karaite Hakham born in Lutsk in 1785, died in Eupatoria, in Crimea, before 1878. One of the most eminent Karaite scholars of the nineteenth century, he served as Hakham in Lutsk, succeeding his father, then in Eupatoria, and was the author of a Hebrew grammar, "Petaḥ Tiḳwah" (Eupatoria, 1857), as well as "Sefer Tetib Da'at" (1858), directed against rabbinic philosophy and Hasidic mysticism and seeking to explain biblical angelology.
American jurist born in the Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, on May 10, 1842. Trained in Germany and then emigrated to the United States, he was appointed in 1900 judge of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, a position from which he resigned in 1904, the year he was appointed judge of the federal court of the western district of the Indian territory.
Austrian cantor and composer born in Hohenems, Tyrol, on March 30, 1804, died in Vienna on January 17, 1890. Trained in liturgical singing under the cantors of Endingen and Karlsruhe and then under Salomon Eichberg, he was appointed cantor at Hohenems in 1820, where he modernized the ritual and introduced a choir, then chief cantor in Vienna in 1826, where he reorganized the liturgical service while preserving traditional melodies and harmonizing them according to modern practice. His « Shir Ẓiyyon » (2 vol., Vienna, 1840-65) established the models of musical service adopted since in most synagogues of the world; he was recognized as the regenerator of synagogal music.
Shohet (ritual slaughterer) in London in the first half of the nineteenth century, he composed a commentary on the Yoreh De'ah in four parts — Sifté Zahav, Adné Zahav, Leboushé Tebou'ah and Leboushé Serad. He also compiled an index to the latter title, the Be'er Yossef, supplemented by two supplements, the Hezkat ha-Bayit and the Matzévet Meïr Yossef, published in Königsberg in 1853.
American mechanical engineer born in Aachen on April 29, 1830, died in San Francisco on August 8, 1898. Emigrated to the United States in 1850, he joined California then Nevada, where he designed the tunnel intended to drain the Comstock lode: the Sutro Tunnel Company, formed in 1865, completed the work in 1879. Having become one of the richest men on the Pacific coast, he invests in real estate in San Francisco, is elected mayor in 1894 and leaves at his death a library of over 200,000 volumes, including 135 rare Hebrew manuscripts.
American lawyer born in Aix-la-Chapelle on 14 March 1845, emigrated as a young man to the United States with his parents. Graduate of Harvard in 1871 and then of the law faculty of Columbia College in 1874, he was admitted the same year to the New York bar. In 1887, he founded the Comstock Tunnel Company, which took over the shares of the Nevada Sutro Tunnel Company and saved it from ruin; recognized as an authority on tax law, he was New York tax commissioner from 1885 to 1898.
Hungarian landowner and member of the Upper House of Hungary, born in Csongrad in 1829, trained at the real school of Budapest. He first devoted himself to agriculture before taking part, as lieutenant and aide-de-camp of Colonel Bem, in the Hungarian struggle for freedom; returned to peace, he worked toward the founding of agricultural societies in the counties of Bekes and Torontal. Deputy to the Hungarian Parliament for the Török-Kanizsa constituency from 1875 to 1885, he was appointed the same year a life member of the Upper House by King Francis Joseph I.
Sylvain Lévi (1863-1935), holder of the chair of Sanskrit language and literature at the Collège de France (1894-1935) and director of studies at the EPHE, was one of the greatest Indologists of his time. He presided over the Alliance israélite universelle (1920-1935) and founded the Institute of Indian Civilization (1927). He sojourned in India, Nepal, and Japan.
Dutch actor and singer (1896–1985)
Russian jurist and publicist, born in Ponievej (government of Kovno) on October 27, 1858, descendant of the family of Joel Sirkes. Trained in law at the University of Saint-Petersburg, he practices there at the bar; associate editor of the Regesty i Nadpisi, documents on the history of Jews in Russia published in 1899, he later directs the Voskhod and publishes in 1900 a work on art, Plasticheskoïe Iskousstvo.
Hungarian writer born in Tura on August 27, 1857. After studying the Talmud and attending for a time the rabbinic seminary of Budapest, he writes for Hebrew periodicals under the pseudonym Ibri Anoki and translates into Hungarian the aggadic parts of the Sanhédrin treatise. He became known especially through his defense articles during the Tisza-Eszlár affair, before becoming in 1884 editor of the Jüdische Pester Zeitung, then director of the Budapest weekly Egyenlöség.
Austrian philologist born in Vienna on November 22, 1857, died in the same city on December 14, 1904, son of Simon Szanto. Trained at the University of Vienna, he became there a privat-docent in 1884, assistant professor in 1893, then professor of Greek history and archaeology in 1898; he is an authority on Greek epigraphy and notably published Das Griechische Bürgerrecht (1892).
Hungarian journalist born in Nagy-Kanizsa on 23 August 1819, died in Vienna on 17 January 1882, son of Rabbi Meïr Szanto. Trained at the yeshivot of Lakenbach and Gross-Jenikau then at the University of Prague under S. J. L. Rapoport, he settled in Vienna in 1845 and founded there, in 1849, a Jewish school of which he became director. In 1861, he founded with his brother-in-law Pick the weekly Die Neuzeit, of which he became sole editor; appointed Hebrew interpreter of the Vienna courts in 1864 then inspector of religious instruction in Vienna's Jewish schools in 1869, he also published the poem Der Juden Vaterland (Vienna, 1848).
Hungarian painter born in Török Szent Miklós in 1864. Trained at the technical school of Budapest, he devoted himself to art and stayed in Munich, Italy and then Paris, where the Academy of Fine Arts awarded him the first prize in 1895; returning to Budapest, he then ranked among the foremost painters of Hungary. His works, including Samson and Delilah and Esther, are held in the National Museum of Budapest, the Kunstverein of Dresden and in the private gallery of the Emperor Francis Joseph I.
Hungarian philologist born in 1854, died in Klausenburg on May 15, 1905. Trained in Budapest and Leipzig, he first teaches at the gymnasium in Budapest then at the Eötvös College, before being called in 1902 to the chair of Hungarian language and Finnish philology at the University of Klausenburg. He translates into Hungarian works by Plutarch, Thucydides, Curtius and Church, and publishes a Vogul dictionary as well as a Vocabularium Cseremissicum.
Hungarian ophthalmologist born in Budapest in 1848, doctor of medicine from Vienna in 1872. Established in Budapest in 1874, he becomes chief physician of the ophthalmology service of the Jewish hospital, privat-docent in 1883 and assistant professor in 1895; ennobled in 1902 by King Francis Joseph I, he then takes the name of Szilsárkány. Author of numerous works on the eye published between 1874 and 1901.
Third Alexander Rebbe
Rabbi and American scholar, born in Nemiskert (Hungary) on November 15, 1829, died in Berkeley Springs (West Virginia) on July 31, 1902; figure of the conservative movement of the Reformation, trained at the yeshiva of Pressburg. Arriving in the United States in 1859, he directed until his death the Oheb Shalom congregation of Baltimore, for which he composed the prayer book 'Abodat Yisrael, published as early as 1863 and then revised in 1871. Opposed to religious radicalism, he came to the aid of Russian refugees fleeing the May Laws and published in 1886 a Commentary on Job.
Hungarian writer born in Almás on November 10, 1855, trained in Baja, Budapest and Vienna. He began in 1874 as a journalist at the Fremdenblatt in Vienna, then joined the Morgenpost, before directing from 1887 to 1890 the Südungarische Zeitung of Temesvár; he subsequently directed the literary journal Uj Idök in Budapest. Author of novels and short stories widely read by young readers, he notably published Kulturképek (1889) and Atalakulások (1893).
Beni-Israël soldier, enlisted in the 4th regiment of riflemen on 1 April 1842. Promoted jemidar and native adjutant on 1 January 1857, subahdar on 1 January 1861, then subahdar-major and bahadur in 1878, he participated in the Bahawalpur expedition in 1846, the siege of Multan until its capitulation on 22 January 1849, then in the Persian campaign (1856-57) and, in 1858, in the forces of the Central Indian field.
Beni-Israëli soldier born in Ahmedabad in 1848, enlisted in the 3rd regiment of light indigenous infantry on September 16, 1864. Promoted jemidar in 1877, subahdar in 1879 then subahdar-major in 1890, he serves in the forces of Kathiawar from 1865 to 1868, takes part in the Afghan war (1879-80) then in the Burmese war (1886-88). He retires from service in 1893 to join the police of the State of Dhrangadhra, before being transferred in 1896 to the regiment of this principality.
Yiddish and Hebrew journalist born in Schirwindt, East Prussia, on March 1, 1848, trained in Kamenetz-Podolsk and the gymnasium of Kishinev, graduate of the Imperial University of Odessa. After a commercial career, he emigrates to New York in 1887 and devotes himself to journalism; translator into Yiddish of several works by Jules Verne (Kalt und Warm, London, 1895; Gesucht und Gefunden, New York, 1896), he popularizes science among Russian immigrants and publishes in 1905 a History of the Jews in America as well as an economic geography of the United States.
Austrian rabbi born in Presbourg on January 30, 1871, trained at the Presbourg rabbinical school and in philology and oriental history at the University of Berlin (doctorate 1895). Appointed in 1896 chief rabbi of Tyrol and Vorarlberg at Hohenems, he has been rabbi of Meran (Tyrol) since 1904. He is notably the author of Die Religionsphilosophie Josef Albo's (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1896) and a Geschichte der Juden in Tirol und Vorarlberg (1903–4).
German physician and chess master born in Breslau on March 5, 1862, trained in medicine in Berlin, Halle and Nuremberg, where he practises. One of the most titled chess players of his time, he won numerous tournaments between 1884 (Nuremberg) and 1905 (Ostende), played a draw match in 1893 against Tchigorine and published, in 1894, a collection of three hundred annotated games, Dreihundert Schachpartieen.
Polish pianist and composer born in Warsaw on November 4, 1841, died in Leipzig on July 17, 1871. Trained by his father and then, from the age of fourteen, by Liszt in Weimar, of whom he became the favorite student, he made his public debut in Berlin in 1858, settled in Vienna in 1862 and then married and settled in Berlin in 1865, where he opened a piano school. Regarded with Liszt and Rubinstein as one of the three greatest pianists of the 19th century, he conceived the plan to raise 300,000 thalers for the construction of the Bayreuth theater.
American naval officer born in Saint-Louis (Missouri) on November 20, 1847, entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1863 and graduated in 1867. Ensign in 1868, he rose through the ranks to the rank of captain in 1902; he took possession of Wake Island for the United States, commanded the garrison of Guam upon its cession by Spain on February 1, 1899, served in the Philippines then in China, where he commanded the Yorktown in 1900, before directing the naval arsenal of Pensacola from 1903 onward. Although of Jewish descent, he was raised in the Unitarian Church.
German composer born on January 21, 1812 in Glatz, died on July 26, 1894 in Prague. Trained in music by Wolf and Mosovius during his law studies in Breslau, he abandoned the bar to direct, from 1837, the orchestra of the Wilna theater, then that of Riga in 1840, before returning to Breslau in 1843 and finally settling in Prague, where he taught music and succeeded Léopold Zwonar as head of the Sophienakademie. A prolific composer of lieder, he also wrote two operettas, Schmolke und Bakel and Bramante.
Christian Hebraist English scholar born in London in 1840, trained at King's College London and then at St John's College Cambridge, of which he becomes master. Author of an edition of Ecclesiastes in 1874 and a scholarly edition of the Pirké Avot, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, in 1877, he discovers the Jewish source of the Didache in a work from 1886 and publishes in 1899, with Solomon Schechter, The Wisdom of Ben Sira; the fragments of the Cairo Genizah preserved in Cambridge bear, in his honor, the name of the Taylor-Schechter collection.
Rabbi and scholar active in the 17th and 18th centuries, first in Pinczów then in Płock. A prolific author, he notably published the Ya'alat Hen, sermons on the parachiot (Zolkiev, 1802), the Guet Mekoushar, a compendium of the laws of divorce according to Maimonides (Warsaw, 1812), and a long series of responsa and ritual commentaries extending to 1859, including the Simhat Yom Tov, commentary on the treatise Betsa (1841).
Translator, biblical commentator, and teacher Italian, born in Trieste 6 June 1821, died in the same city 17 June 1898. Professor of biblical exegesis at the Talmud Torah of his native city, where he also occasionally preaches on festival days, he publishes over nearly twenty years his commentary in several volumes, the "Ho'il Mosheh", covering the Former Prophets (Görlitz, 1870), the Book of Job (Padua, 1877), the Psalms (Livorno, 1880), the Pentateuch (1881), the Minor Prophets (Trieste, 1887), and Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles (Przemysl, 1889).
Austrian pianist born in Prague in 1817, died in Odessa on November 13, 1882, a student of Triebensee and Tomaschek. He undertook numerous concert tours, particularly in southern Russia, and settled in Odessa after residing for a time in Hamburg (1848) and then London (1856); renowned for his technique, he was nicknamed "the Hannibal of the octaves", and was appointed pianist to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg. He composed brilliant salon music — piano concerto, caprices, mazurkas, nocturnes, rhapsodies and waltzes.
Austrian Hasid died on July 17, 1841, first serving as rabbi in Przemyśl then, from 1809, in Sátoraljaújhely, where he founded a Hasidic community independent of the Galician leaders. Accused in 1822 of having provided amulets to imprisoned Jews to facilitate their escape, he defended himself by asserting that they served only as substitutes for the mezuza against demons; he enjoyed a great reputation, even receiving the homage of R. Moses Sofer. He is the author of Yismah Mosheh (1849), homilies on the Torah, of Tefillah le-Mosheh on the Psalms, and of Heshib Mosheh, a collection of responsa.
Hungarian sculptor born in Baja on May 12, 1872. Trained in Budapest and then at the Allgemeine Bildhauerschule in Vienna, where he won the Füger gold medal, and then in the workshop of Professor Zumbusch, where his work The Two Drinkers received first prize before winning a medal at the Universal Exposition in Antwerp. In 1900, he won first prize, among numerous competitors, for his monument to the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and subsequently worked on statues of the poet Vörösmarty for Budapest and of Kossuth for Kecskemét.
Hungarian actor born in Budapest on 3 April 1844. After studying medicine for a time in Vienna, he joined in 1862 a theatrical company in Laibach, before being a member, from 1874 to 1890, of the Meininger theatre, where he notably played Shylock, Iago and Gessler. He then performed at the Stadttheater in Hamburg, withdrew from the stage in 1899 and established himself there as a diction professor; he is also the author of a play, Wintersonnenwende, which met with great success.
Austrian theologian born in Brzesko, Galicia, on May 1, 1865, trained at the university and beth-hamidrash of Vienna and at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. He published articles in Hebrew periodicals from adolescence onwards, then the Dober Tov (Lemberg, 1882), novellas and commentaries on obscure Talmudic passages, followed by Pekouddat ha-Tsaddikim (Cracow, 1883) and Die Unsterblichkeitslehre… bei den Jüdischen Philosophen des Mittelalters (Leipzig, 1895).
Hungarian writer born in Nagy Bejom on April 11, 1836, died in Budapest on February 6, 1905, trained at Keszthely and in law at Budapest. Cofounder in 1861 of the society for the naturalization and emancipation of Hungarian Jews, he directed from 1862 to 1867 the Magyar Izraelita, organ of this society, then was elected deputy to the Diet in 1868, where he counts among the leaders of the radical party. Founder of the periodicals Magyar Ujság and Neues Politisches Volksblatt, he also worked for free instruction in Budapest's public schools.
Austrian playwright born in Prague on 13 November 1856, who made his debut in 1881 with the drama Die Schauspielerin. Prolific author of comedies, plays and tales published between 1884 and 1899 — among them Der Ring des Polykrates (1888) and Johann Strauss (1894) — he also directed the Prager Dichterbuch (1893) and held the position of playwright at the German national theatre of his native city.
Austrian author
Founder of political Zionism, author of The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat, 1896). A Viennese journalist marked by the Dreyfus affair, he organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel (1897) and laid the institutional foundations of the State of Israel, proclaimed 44 years after his death.
German philosopher
German rabbi born on December 28, 1849 in Schmalleningken, East Prussia, trained in philosophy and orientalism at the University of Breslau and in rabbinical matters at the Jewish theological seminary of the same city; doctor of the University of Königsberg in 1876. Second rabbi and teacher in Bromberg, he was called rabbi of Berent in 1885 then, since 1888, of Bojanowo (Posen); in 1890, he visited London, Oxford and Paris to examine midrashic manuscripts there. Author notably of Der Midrasch Bereschit Rabba (1893-95) and of Bereschit Rabba mit Kritischem Apparate und Kommentare (Berlin, 1903-1904).
French priest
Scholar and politician, professor of religious history, specialist in numismatics. He edited the works of Flavius Josephus, wrote a History of the Israelites (1884) and Jewish Coins (1887), and had the villa Kérylos built.
Judeo-German (Yiddish) actor born in Kyiv on May 30, 1866, left to seek work in New York in 1881, where he organized a Jewish troupe performing at Turn Hall. Settled in Chicago as a theater director, he settled permanently in New York in 1893 and became one of the main actors of Yiddish theater, directing the People's Theater. He performed the leading role in most of the plays there, often written by Latteiner, wrote several himself, and published a collection of witticisms (Theatre Journal, 1903-1905).
Lithuanian Talmudist born in Mir on October 13, 1823, died in Warsaw on March 30, 1899, second son of Samuel Tiktinski, founder of the yeshiva of Mir, died in 1835 leaving him without resources. Becoming a rabbi before twenty years old despite these difficult beginnings, he is invited in 1850 to give lectures at the yeshiva of Mir and receives full responsibility for it upon the death of Moses Abraham ben David in 1867. In 1898, as the yeshiva burns for the second time, he gathers despite illness the funds necessary for its reconstruction; his own works on the Talmud were destroyed in this fire.
Paleontologist, founder of paleoneurology, the study of fossil brains.
American rabbi
Dutch rabbi
Christian American orientalist born in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 23, 1836, trained at the University of Virginia and then in orientalism at the University of Berlin (1866-68). Professor of Hebrew at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, he became in 1880 professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at Harvard. Author of The Religion of Israel (1882) and Judaism and Christianity (1890), he edited in 1899 the Hebrew text and English translation of Ezekiel for the Polychrome Bible and published the same year a commentary on Proverbs.
Russian jurist born in Jitomir in 1839, died in the same city in 1895. Trained in law at the University of Saint Petersburg, he entered public service, where he distinguished himself through his compilations of memoranda on criminal cases and received the orders of Stanislas and Vladimir; he was later elected honorary justice of the peace of the Saint Petersburg district. Engaged in the life of the Jewish community of the city, he devoted much time in 1891 to the defense of the Jews of Starodub, victims of anti-Jewish riots.
German physician and medical author born in Ratibor, Prussian Silesia, on January 18, 1818, died in Berlin on April 11, 1876, elder brother of Moritz Traube. Trained in Breslau, Berlin (Doctor of Medicine, 1841) and Vienna, he established himself as a physician in Berlin in 1842 and conducted animal experiments from 1844 on the pulmonary effects of vagus nerve section, published in 1846 and 1847. Privatdocent and then assistant at the Charité from 1848, associate professor in 1857 and full professor in 1872, he became one of the principal German specialists in experimental pathology and one of the great clinicians of his time; a monument was erected in his memory at the Charité in 1878.
American publisher born in Camden (New Jersey) on December 19, 1858. In 1892, he was appointed, with Richard Maurice Bucke and Thomas B. Harned, literary executor of Walt Whitman, on whom he published several essays; he had founded the Contemporary Club of Philadelphia in 1886. He directed The Conservator from 1890 to 1905 and, since 1903, The Artsman, and published notably Cartoons of Homer Davenport (1900); he was also secretary of the International Walt Whitman Fellowship.
Austrian scholar born in Trebitsch, in Moravia, around 1760, died in Nikolsburg in the first half of the 19th century. A student of the yeshiva of Löb Fischels in Prague in 1775, he then settled in Nikolsburg as secretary of the Landesrabbiner. He is the author of Korot ha-Ittim, a history of European monarchs from 1741 to 1801 (Brünn, 1801, completed until 1830 by Jacob Bodek in 1841), a continuation of Amelander's She'erit Israël which ended in 1740, and, with Hirsch Menakker, of Roua'h Hayyim, an account of an exorcism (Nikolsburg, 1785 ; Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1794).
French rabbi born in Metz on December 28, 1822, died in Paris in 1890, trained in Marmoutier under his uncle Jacob Haguenauer and then in Merzig, Prussia, under the Talmudist Moses Lévy. After the rabbinical school in Metz, he is appointed rabbi of Besançon, a position he leaves soon for Paris, where he becomes secretary of the Committee of Israelite Charity and then assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Paris, before directing, from 1856, the Central Rabbinical School, transferred to Paris in 1859. He publishes a Hebrew-French dictionary with N. Sander (Paris, 1859) and a study of Hillel the Elder (1867).
Danish pedagogue born in Copenhagen on 23 January 1837, died in Vallekilde on 29 December 1893. Graduate of Copenhagen University in 1863, he taught at the Blaagaard seminary, took part in the war against Germany in 1864, then, having become a fervent disciple of Grundtvig in 1865, founded in 1866 in Vallekilde a higher school that became the first of its kind in Denmark, notably for having introduced Swedish gymnastics. Converted to Christianity, he died of exhaustion before completing his memoirs, of which only two volumes were published (Copenhagen, 1890, 1894).
Danish physician born in Copenhagen on June 14, 1831, died in the same city on May 17, 1898. Diploma from the University of Copenhagen in 1860, he published shortly after several clinical studies and became editor of the medical journal Ugeskrift for Læger, a position he held until 1874, the year he became resident physician of the clinical division of Copenhagen's municipal hospital, a function he retained until his death. Named professor by his alma mater in 1881, he chaired the medical section of the International Congress of Physicians held in Copenhagen in 1884, and sat on the revision committee of the Pharmacopea Danica in 1889.
Pedagogue, writer and Danish politician born in Copenhagen on May 10, 1845, trained at the Von Westenske Institut and in law at the University of Copenhagen. He devoted himself to pedagogy from 1864, a discipline in which he acquired international renown, publishing from 1876 onward his series Kultur-Historiske Personligheder and his first theoretical work, Pædagogikken som Videnskab; since 1879, he has published with P. Voss the journal Vor Ungdom. Elected to the Folkething of Copenhagen in 1884, he became a member of the city council in 1898.
Danish pharmacist born in Copenhagen in 1804, died in the same city in December 1888. A graduate of the College of Pharmacy of Copenhagen in 1826, he owned a pharmacy in Lyngby, in Zealand, from 1830 to 1856, published the Archiv for Pharmacy from 1844 to 1866, and participated in 1868 in the drafting of the Pharmacopea Danica, still in use in Denmark and Norway.
Austrian dramatist born in Vienna on June 16, 1845. First a sculptor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he turned to writing after the success of his farce Lachende Erben (1867) and won several prizes for his comedies and dramas, including Im XIX. Jahrhundert at the Hofburgtheater in 1868, Neue Verträge at the Munich Hoftheater in 1879, and Ottilie, awarded a prize in 1892 by the Literary Mediation Bureau competition in Hamburg. He is also the author of numerous poems, short stories and plays published between 1865 and 1900.
English churchman, biblical scholar and traveller in Palestine, born May 11, 1822 at Eglingham, Northumberland, ordained in 1845. He explored the northern Sahara then visited Palestine for the first time in 1858, returned there in 1863 and 1872, made a tour to Moab in 1873 and travelled in 1881 through Palestine, Lebanon, Mesopotamia and Armenia; resident canon of Durham since 1873, he declined in 1879 the Anglican bishopric of Jerusalem offered to him by Lord Beaconsfield. Among his works on the Holy Land are The Land of Israel (1865) and The Fauna and Flora of Palestine (1884).
Russian Hebrew writer and poet born in Wilna on January 18, 1856, settled in Grodno as a professor of Hebrew and Russian. His literary career began in 1873 with his first articles in Ha-Lebanon, then continued in most Hebrew periodicals; he published notably the Dor Tahapoukhot (Warsaw, 1881), devoted to the activities of Russian social democrats, while his other short stories, depicting Jewish life in Russia, as well as many of his poems, appeared in Ha-Shahar and other journals.
American Christian Orientalist born in Stonington (Connecticut) on June 8, 1830, died in Philadelphia on December 8, 1903. Sunday school missionary from 1858 and then secretary of the Sunday School Union for New England in 1865, he directs from 1875 the Sunday School Times; constrained to travel for reasons of health in 1881, he identifies the site of Kadesh-Barnéa in Egypt and Arabia, subject of a monograph from 1884. He also publishes The Blood Covenant (New York, 1885), which develops the thesis of sacrifice as blood alliance, and The Threshold Covenant (1896).
Hasidic thinker and halakhist, author of a profound work blending Kabbalah, philosophy, and religious psychology. He led the court of Izhbitza-Lublin.
French folklorist born in Paris on March 23, 1830, died in the same city on February 28, 1901. Privately educated, he devoted his life to the study of traces of the supernatural in traditional beliefs, publishing a remarkable series of articles on the evil eye (La Fascination) spanning the ten volumes of the folklore journal Mélusine and also addressing related subjects such as witchcraft and folk medicine — probably the most thorough study ever devoted to a single branch of folklore.
Russian educator and author, brother of Jacob Tugendhold, teacher at the rabbinical school of Wilna and censor of Jewish publications in that city. He is the author of Der Denunciant, a narrative of Jewish life in Poland inspired in part by his brother's drama, of a translation of Lebensohn's poem Kol Hamon Hoguèg titled Stimmen der Feiernden Menge (Warsaw, 1841), composed for the betrothal of the heir to the Russian throne, and of a eulogy of the Hebrew writer M. A. Günzberg.
Hungarian artist born in Székesfehérvár in 1870, trained in Budapest, Milan and Paris, where he was a student of J. P. Laurens and B. Constant. His first work, The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, attracted attention at the Budapest exhibition in 1896, while his engravings were particularly appreciated in London and Vienna; among his best-known works are Peasant Woman Reaping and The Island of Capri, preserved in the museum of historical art in Budapest.
Russian Hebraist born in Vilna, died in that same city on May 29, 1885 (or, according to Zeitlin, June 8, 1884), settled in Warsaw where he taught Hebrew and several modern languages. A talented poet, he leaves at his premature death most of his works unpublished; among those that were published are the Ha-Yovel, long poem for the centenary of Sir Moses Montefiore, as well as Guévéret ha-Heshbon and El ha-Icha, while several of his poems appeared in the Ha-Boker Or of Gottlober.
Austrian physician and poet born in Rzeszów, in Galicia, on March 25, 1816. Entering the University of Vienna in 1830 to study medicine (doctor in 1840), he collaborates with several periodicals and publishes his first work in 1835, Wiener Fresko-Skizzen, before his comedy Der Nachtwandler bei Tage is successfully performed at the Leopoldstädter Theater; introduced by Saphir in Der Humorist, his play Nur Eine Löst den Zauberspruch is performed as early as 1837 in Vienna and then in Germany. Established as a physician in his native city from 1841, he directs the Wiener Volksbühne in 1859.
Russian mathematician
British rabbi
French rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
Hungarian deputy and economist born in Budapest on February 18, 1850, died in the same city in 1897, son of Karl Ullmann (1809-1880), founder of the first Hungarian insurance company and vice-president of the Commerce Bank of Pest. Trained in Budapest and Vienna (doctor of law, 1872), admitted to the bar in 1873, he represented from 1884 to 1892 the constituency of Also-Arpás in the Hungarian Parliament. Author of numerous legal and economic essays, he published notably, between 1877 and 1888, works on shareholder law, forced settlements, and reform of Hungarian chambers of commerce.
Banker and American author born in New York on July 2, 1861. Member in 1900 of the New York brokerage house J. H. Sulzbacher, he is one of the founders of the Judæans and is passionate about the history of New York and its Jews, contributing to several newspapers; he publishes notably Frederick Struther's Romance (1889), Chaperoned (1894), A Landmark History of New York (1901) and New York's Historical Sites, Landmarks, Monuments, and Tablets (1902).
French history painter born in Blotzheim, Alsace, on May 24, 1829, died in Paris on February 24, 1884. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts under Drölling and Picot, he won the Prix de Rome in 1859; among his works are Sylla at Marius' (1866, Luxembourg Museum) and The Bell-Ringers of Nuremberg, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1872, the year he was decorated with the Legion of Honour medal after already having received medals at the Salons of 1859 and 1872.
Italian painter
Italian rabbi
Born in Genoa into a Jewish family originating from Piedmont, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946, he became its president in 1947 and signed the Constitution of the Italian Republic.
German art critic born in Coswig-on-the-Elbe on March 14, 1802, died in Berlin on May 17, 1868. Trained in drawing, mathematics, and architecture, he chose an artistic career and traveled in Italy thanks to a government grant, visiting Venice in 1844, Florence and Rome in 1845, before settling in Berlin in 1846; captain of the corps of artists protecting the museums during the revolution of 1848, he discovers in 1852, during a trip to France, Belgium, and Holland, Rubens' Sacrifice of Abraham. Little productive as a painter, he becomes a renowned art critic, author of Wesen der Malerei (1851) and Kritische Forschungen im Gebiete der Malerei (1868).
German physician and dermatologist born in Hamburg on September 8, 1850, trained at the universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Strasbourg (doctorate in medicine, 1875); seriously wounded during the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served as a common soldier. Assistant to Waldeyer in Strasbourg and then established in Hamburg, he turned in 1881 toward dermatology, opened a private clinic, and then founded in 1884 the famous hospital for skin diseases of Eimsbüttel, enlarged with a laboratory in 1887 that made it a center for dermatological research in Germany. He founded in 1882 the Monatshefte für Praktische Dermatologie and published the Allgemeine Therapie der Haut (1898).
Pioneer of Hebrew prose, precursor of stream of consciousness.
Australian politician
French dramatist born in Carpentras (Vaucluse) on December 17, 1853, one of the most prolific playwrights of his time — nearly two plays per year — and dramatic critic of L'Illustration in Paris. Among his numerous comedies and plays, often written in collaboration, are La Veuve Chapuzot (1879), Les Grippe-Sou (1885), Madame a Ses Brevets (1890), and Le Premier Mari de France (1893).
French general born in Carpentras (Vaucluse) on September 20, 1852, trained at the Polytechnic School and at the School of Applied Artillery and Engineering. After studies at the École supérieure de guerre from 1878 to 1880, he commands in 1884 a battery of artillery, becomes lieutenant-colonel in 1898 and colonel in 1902, the year he takes over the direction of the Military School of Artillery and Engineering. Chief of staff at the Ministry of War in 1904, the year he is made an officer of the Legion of Honor, he becomes brigadier general and commander-in-chief of the École supérieure de guerre in 1905.
German physiologist born in Breslau in July 1810, died in Bern on May 24, 1883. A graduate in medicine from Breslau in 1832, he received in 1835 the Grand Prize of the Institut de France for his Histiogenia Comparata, then became professor of physiology at the University of Bern in 1836, a position he held until his retirement in 1881. Author of important works on blood, muscular and nervous electricity, digestion and the physiology of the senses, he notably published the Repertorium für Anatomie und Physiologie from 1836 to 1843 and his Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (1844).
Hungarian traveler and orientalist born in Duna-Szerdahely, near Pressburg, on March 19, 1832. Attracted to Turkish culture, he goes to Constantinople in 1854 thanks to Baron Joseph Eötvös, becomes private secretary to Fuad Pasha, then returns to Budapest in 1861; disguised as a Sunni dervish under the name Rachid Effendi, he undertakes at the end of 1861 the first crossing ever made by a European from Tehran to Khiva (reached in June 1863), Bukhara, Samarkand and Herat. Returning to Europe in 1864, he becomes professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest, a position he holds until his retirement in 1905, and publishes numerous works, including his Reise in Mittelasien (1865).
Pioneer of lip-reading for the deaf-mute in England, born in Rotterdam on June 11, 1845, trained under Dr. Hirsch, who had introduced the German oral method to the Netherlands. Invited in 1866 to direct the London home for deaf-mute Jews, he successfully applied this method there and then published in 1871 his Plan for the Establishment of Day-Schools for the Deaf and Dumb, which gave rise to the first such day schools in England. Having become in 1870 director of the Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, founded by the Baroness Mayer de Rothschild, he trained the majority of English lip-reading teachers and was made "Officer of the Academy" in 1884.
Hebrew scholar and English librarian born in Gouda, Holland, in 1845, died in London in 1902. Appointed Hebrew librarian of the British Museum in 1873, he translated numerous Dutch, German and Hebrew works and published a catalogue of Hebrew books in the British Museum (London, 1894), supplementing that of Zedner, with an index to both volumes; a thematic catalogue of the Hebrew collection, which he had prepared, remained unpublished.
Christian Hebraist born on March 14, 1806 in Behndorf, Saxony, died in Berlin on April 19, 1882. Trained in Halle, Göttingen and Berlin, he became privatdozent in Berlin in 1830 and assistant professor in 1837; his major work, Die Religion des Alten Testaments, appeared in 1835, his lectures on the Old Testament being published only after his death by H. Preiss (1886). Defending the most advanced thesis on the origin of the Pentateuch — denying any role of Moses in its composition and holding Deuteronomy to be the oldest of its books — he incurred the opposition of Hengstenberg but exercised lasting influence, being regarded as a precursor of Graf, Kuenen and Wellhausen.
Hungarian publicist and deputy born in Sümegh in 1868, educated in Budapest where his eloquence made him a leader of student movements. He sparked a national movement against dueling, advocated for official recognition of the Jewish religion — achieved by the 1895 law —, founded in 1894 the first democratic club in Budapest, then launched in 1900 the political weekly Uj Század. Elected deputy for the sixth district of the capital in 1901, sole democratic representative in the Hungarian Parliament, he defeated Commerce Minister Hieronymi on January 26, 1905; he is also the author of several political essays published between 1890 and 1893.
Hungarian publicist born in Nagy-Boldogasszony on January 18, 1846, trained in Kis-Kőrös, Budapest and Vienna. After briefly teaching in a Jewish school in Kecskemét, he collaborated on several newspapers, notably the Politik of Prague, joined in 1867 the editorial staff of the Neuer Freier Lloyd, then directed from 1872 the Pester Lloyd, where his editorials signed with two asterisks attracted attention. In recognition of his services, Emperor Francis Joseph I awarded him the Order of the Iron Crown (3rd class) on July 9, 1904.
Hungarian rabbi and writer born on May 19, 1867 in Kecskemét. Trained at the rabbinical seminaries and universities of Budapest and Breslau (doctorate in 1890), he obtained his rabbinical diploma in Budapest in 1892 and served in Somogy-Csurgó until 1895, then in Lugos the same year, before joining Ujpest, near Budapest. A prolific author, he publishes notably Das Buch der Grade von Schemtob ibn Falaquera (Berlin, 1894) and a history of Hungarian-Hebrew philology (Budapest, 1898), and collaborates with numerous periodicals.
French philanthropist born in Livorno in 1825, died in Paris on February 5, 1889. Director of the Camondo Bank and president of the committee of the Universal Israelite Alliance in Constantinople, he settled in Paris after the Franco-German War and became the associate of Baron Maurice de Hirsch. In 1877, he traveled through Turkey and Bulgaria to aid victims of the Russo-Turkish War; in 1880, he pleaded with Charles Netter the cause of Moroccan Jews at the Madrid congress, and organized the emigration of Russian Jews to Brody. Elected to the central committee of the Alliance in 1883, he visited the colonies of Palestine; he died shortly after a trip to Vienna, having lost his son in 1882.
Russian jurist born in the first quarter of the 19th century, died in Moscow in 1900. Graduated in law from the University of Saint-Petersburg in 1866, he was one of the first secretaries of the court of that city, then sat in those of Voronej and Moscow. Prolific author of Russian legal collections, notably a systematic compilation of decisions of the Civil Court of Cassation for the period 1866-1875, he also translated into Russian, in 1885, the general Austrian civil code of 1811.
Dutch painter and engraver of vignettes born in The Hague on April 19, 1826, trained by his brother Samuel L. Verveer and by H. F. C. Ten Kate. In 1845, he goes to Brussels to engrave the vignettes of Eugène Sue's Wandering Jew, then illustrates in The Hague De Brillen van Onzen Tijd. Among his paintings are The First Pipe and Winter, preserved in the Museum of Rotterdam, as well as The Widow and The Shipwrecked from Seasickness, in the Stadtmuseum of The Hague; he was made a knight of the order of the Lion of Nassau and an officer of the order of Leopold.
Dutch landscape and genre painter born in The Hague on November 30, 1813, died in the same city on January 5, 1876, student of B. J. van den Hove. A great traveler, he remained fascinated all his life by the landscapes of his native country, of which he became a master of picturesque rendering. Among his paintings, Afternoon at Katwijk (Rotterdam museum) and Scheveningen (Amsterdam museum), the latter exhibited in Philadelphia in 1876 and awarded a silver medal; his works also received prizes in Brussels in 1842 and 1851, and were acquired by the museums of Ghent, The Hague and Hamburg.
Hungarian editor and Member of Parliament born in Arad on November 6, 1858, trained in philosophy, literature and languages in Budapest. A poet in his youth, he published two collections of verses in Budapest in 1880, then devoted himself to journalism from 1877, directing the Budapester Tagblatt and contributing to the Pester Lloyd, before becoming in 1894 editor-in-chief of the Pesti Napló and founding in 1896 the Budapesti Napló. Elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1899 for the Szász Sebes constituency, then in 1901 for the third arrondissement of the capital, he presides over the club of journalists in Budapest.
Sculptor and medallist born in Šiauliai (Lithuania) in a Jewish family, who emigrated to the United States in 1890. Author of the Lincoln cent, struck from 1909.
historien allemand
actress
Rabbi of Fez, 19th century. Born in 5657 (1897), died in 5610 (1850) of the Hebrew era. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 31-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5622 (1862), died in 5681 (1921) of the Hebrew era. Son of Abner Israel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 31-2.
French financier born in Paris on August 22, 1859, graduate of the faculty of law and admitted to the bar in 1882. He entered in 1885 the Bank of Public Funds and Industrial Securities, directed by his father, to whom he succeeds upon his death, and has directed since 1888, with his brother Charles, the Cote of the Stock Exchange and Banking, for which he writes numerous editorials; he is recognized as one of France's leading authorities on financial law.
Hasidic rabbi
German chemist
Austrian composer
Hungarian lawyer and deputy born in Gyöngyös on November 9, 1854, trained in Budapest where he became a lawyer in 1882. Noticed during his studies for his work in political economy, he became known in 1890 by successfully defending the editor of Zasztava, head of the radical wing of the Serbs of Hungary, in a trial for political murder; in gratitude, the Serbs of Neusatz elected him in 1892 to the Hungarian Parliament as a supporter of Kossuth, then he represented his native city, Gyöngyös, from 1899. Recognized authority in criminal law, he participated in drafting preliminary versions of the penal code.
Born in Padua on May 10, 1859, of Polish Jewish descent, he was professor of civil law at the University of Padua (1885-1918) then at that of Rome (1918-1926). Member of the Italian Senate from 1910, he also taught law to Prince Umberto of Savoy. In 1925, he delivered his sole political speech, pleading for freedom of conscience and the protection of religious minorities. A Jewish school in Rome bears his name.
Italian diplomat, Count of Carrobio (1867–after 1944)
Russian ethnographer and writer born in Ovroutch into the family of a Jewish schoolmaster. A revolutionary in exile, he became famous for his studies of the Chukchi of Siberia, conducted notably for the American Museum of Natural History. He also published fiction and poetry under the pseudonym "Tan", including texts evoking the Jewish world (Silhouettes of Gomel').
American rabbi born in Amsterdam on November 13, 1852, trained at the Jewish theological seminary of Amsterdam and doctor of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He serves successively in Philadelphia (1873-76), Washington (1876-77), Providence (1877-78), Houston (1878-86), then, since 1886, at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco; appointed in 1894 professor of Semitic languages and literature at the University of California, he also edits the journal Emanu-El, which he founds in 1895, after editing the Jewish South (1881-83) then the Sabbath Visitor (1883-86). He is the author of a work on the life and work of Moses Mendelssohn.
German composer born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, died in Venice on February 13, 1883. After difficult beginnings, he met Meyerbeer in 1839, who helped him have his operas performed in Paris, then settled in Zurich in 1849, where he published under a pseudonym the article Das Judenthum in der Musik, denouncing the music of Jewish composers such as Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer, a criticism he repeated in his Oper und Drama (1852). The republication of the article provoked several replies, including those of E. M. Oettinger and A. Truhart, both published in 1869. Despite these public positions, Wagner had many Jewish friends, including his preferred choir director, Hermann Levi.
German writer born March 28, 1829 in Sondershausen, died October 15, 1887. Educated in Oriental languages at Leipzig under Julius Fürst and H. L. Fleischer, he taught for a time in an English school, became correspondent for a commercial house in Lyon, then settled in Erfurt, where he founded a business school. Parallel to his pedagogical activity, he pursued learned studies in comparative paremiology, notably on the proverb in Hebraeo-Aramaic literature and in Shakespeare.
English physician born in Odessa in 1837, trained in Kiev, Prague and London (doctor of medicine, 1863), subsequently established in Manchester. Prolific author of medical works, including A Dictionary of Materia Medica and Therapeutics (London, 1868) and Electro-Therapeutics (1883), he was medical advisor to the Victoria Jewish Hospital and the Hulme Dispensary in Manchester, president of the parliamentary committee of the Medico-Ethical Association of Manchester (1890-95), and founder of the city's cremation society; a passionate chess player, he held the chess column of the Manchester Weekly Times.
Russian philosopher and author born in Odessa in 1830, died in Pisa on January 27, 1901, residing successively in Ancona, Naples, Florence, Livorno and Pisa. He translated Pushkin's poems into Italian (Odessa, 1855) and wrote several Italian tragedies on biblical subjects — Assalonne (1857), Sansone (1859), Jephthah (1862), Giobbe (1872) — before devoting himself to philosophy and, in his later years, to the study of spiritualism, notably publishing Psicografia (Naples, 1870) and, against Cesare Lombroso, Prove Incontestabili delle Pazzie d'un Pseudo-Alienista Appalesate (Livorno, 1887).
Hungarian politician born in Budapest on February 28, 1832, died in the same city on November 26, 1892, grandson of Israël Wahrmann. Entering his father's commercial enterprise in 1847, he directed it after his father's death and actively contributed to the development of Hungarian commerce and industry; elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1869, he became the first Jewish member of the Hungarian delegation, reelected six times until his death. Vice-president of the General Jewish Congress in 1868, president of the Budapest community and of the Chamber of Commerce, he worked tirelessly for the emancipation of his coreligionists and for the city's philanthropic institutions.
Beni-Israel soldier, enlisted in the 19th regiment of native infantry on September 25, 1838. Promoted to jemidar in 1853, subedar in 1858, and subedar-major in 1872, he was decorated in 1877 with the first and second classes of the Order of British India, with the titles of bahadur and sirdar-bahadur. He fought in the Afghanistan campaign of 1839, notably at the capture of Ghazni and the occupation of Kabul, in the Punjab campaign (siege of Multan, Battle of Gujarat) and that of Central India in 1858, before retiring from active service on December 23, 1878.
Born Vladimir (Markus-Wolf) Aronovitch Khavkin in Odessa into a Jewish family. Emigrated to Switzerland (1888) then to the Pasteur Institute in Paris. First microbiologist to develop and administer vaccines against cholera then bubonic plague, tested on a large scale in British India.
Talmudist, editor and Polish author born in Warsaw around 1835, fervent follower of Hasidism. He became known through his Chem ha-Guedolim he-Hadash (Warsaw, 1864), an alphabetical directory of authors and rabbis as well as titles of works modeled on Azoulaï, reissued in 1882 by his son Joseph Aryé Löb with an additional appendix. He also published the Mikdach Mélekh (Warsaw, 1890), an edition of the Psalms in five volumes, surrounded by haggadic and exegetical commentaries compiled by him.
German physician born in Filehne (Posen) on July 31, 1837, died in Berlin on April 14, 1881, trained at the University of Berlin (doctor of medicine, 1860). Specialist in chest and throat diseases, he co-directed from 1864 to 1868 the Allgemeine Medizinische Central-Zeitung, became privat-docent in Berlin in 1865, directed from 1868 until his death the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, and was appointed assistant professor in 1871 and attending physician at the Charité in 1877. Author of numerous works, including the Lehrbuch der Respiratorischen Therapie (Berlin, 1864).
Anglo-American archaeologist born in New York on March 30, 1856, trained at Columbia (1873), Heidelberg (doctorate, 1875), and Cambridge (1878). Appointed lecturer in classical archaeology at Cambridge in 1880, he directed the Fitzwilliam Museum from 1883 to 1889, then the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from 1889 to 1893, where he later became professor ; returning to England in 1895, he held the Slade Chair of Fine Arts at Cambridge until 1901. In Athens, he directed excavations at Plataea and Eretria, where he claimed to have uncovered the tomb of Aristotle. A prolific author, he published notably Essays on the Art of Phidias (1885) and The Argive Heraeum (1902).
French composer born in Strasbourg on 9 December 1837, trained by his father and then by Joseph Heyberger, and at the Paris Conservatory. Around 1860, for lack of means, he turned to dance music; his waltz Manolo charmed the Prince of Wales, future Edward VII, who requested its dedication, launching his fame in England and then in France. Appointed pianist to the Empress Eugénie in 1865, he organized the balls of the court of Napoleon III, enlisted as a volunteer during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), then resumed his career in Paris; his waltz Love and Spring, a best-seller, was purchased for 8,000 francs. In 1885, he triumphed in London and then in Berlin, with Fahrbach and Strauss.
English lawyer and professor of political economy born in London on March 17, 1819, died in the same city in June 1873, eldest son of Solomon Jacob Levy, who adopted the name Waley. Graduate of the University of London in 1839, he is admitted to the bar in 1842, the fourth Jew to do so, and becomes one of the most renowned conveyancers, member in 1867 of the royal commission on the transfer of real property. Professor of political economy at University College from 1853 to 1865, he was also president of the Jews' Orphan Asylum and first president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, but his greatest service to the community was, with Lionel Louis Cohen, the founding of the United Synagogue.
Merchant, musician and community activist born in London on 23 August 1827, died in that city on 30 December 1875, younger son of Solomon Jacob Levy. Trained at University College London, he entered the London Stock Exchange and became a member of its committee, while being for a long time honorary secretary of the Jews' Free School and, from 1843, official correspondent for England of the Boulogne Chamber of Commerce. A student of piano under Moscheles and Sterndale Bennett, of composition under Horsley and Molique, he published in 1848 his first musical work, L'Arpeggio, followed by numerous pieces, songs and liturgical hymns still sung in the West London synagogue.
radiologist and an opera singer
German sinologist (1893-1981)
Illustrator born in Prague in a German-speaking Jewish family, famous for the covers of Erich Kästner's books (Emil and the Detectives) and Lilliput magazine; emigrated to London then Canada after 1933 to escape Nazi persecution.
Banker and English peer born in London in 1845, son of the Viscount of Stern, senior partner of the Stern Brothers house of which he was a part before retiring from business. After several unsuccessful attempts (Mid-Surrey in 1880 and 1884, Tiverton in 1885, Ipswich in 1886), he was elected Member of Parliament in May 1891 for the constituency of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, which he represented until his elevation to the peerage on July 19, 1895; he was also a Portuguese viscount by hereditary right.
Swedish poetess and translator born in Karlskrona on February 24, 1821, died in Copenhagen on November 8, 1878. Leaving as a child with her parents for Hamburg, she remains there until her father's death in 1861, then settles in Berlin with her mother before moving to Copenhagen after her mother's death in 1878. Passionate about Swedish literature and Nordic mythology, she translated into German, in their original meter, the popular songs of the North: Schwedische Volkslieder der Vorzeit (1856), Dänische Volkslieder (1858), Schottische Volkslieder (1861), Zwei Lieder der Edden (1863), as well as Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish collections (1868); a volume of her poems appeared in 1873.
Russian writer born in Kherson in 1853, trained in engineering then in law at the University of Saint Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1879. Contributor from 1874 to the Petersburg daily Novosti, where he publishes humorous poems, he also writes for Russki Mir in 1878 and for the satirical weeklies Pchela and Strekoza. Co-founder and associate editor of the Russian-Jewish periodical Razsvyet (1879-81), he also collaborates with Voskhod and publishes a collection of poems, U Morya (Saint Petersburg, 1884).
Governor of California (1824-1887)
Beni-Israel soldier, died around 1850. Enlisted in the 3rd regiment of light native infantry on January 1, 1809, he fought at Puna, Rusood, Khur, Multan, Kittoor and Gujarat, rising to the highest rank open to a native soldier, that of sirdar bahadur, and received the first class of the order of the Star of India. He retired from the army in March 1846, after having long commanded the Beni-Israel regiment.
English hazzan and composer born in Sheritz, in Prussian Poland, in 1822, died in Brighton on August 24, 1882. Endowed as a child with a remarkable voice, he becomes hazzan in Konin and then in Novy-Dvor, where the introduction of choral singing provokes the opposition of the Hassidim, before serving in Lonisa and then in Vilna. In 1867, at the opening of the North London synagogue, he becomes its first officiating hazzan, a position he retains until his death; he publishes in London in 1878 a collection of liturgical compositions, the Sefer Shiré Mikdash, which brings him numerous disciples among the cantors of Europe and America.
Russian banker born in Warsaw in 1844, died in Saint Petersburg on 20 October 1901. Trained in Warsaw and then in Germany, he resumed his return from his father's bank in Saint Petersburg and became a prosperous financier, dedicating part of his fortune to industrial schools and the improvement of working conditions — the Museum of Arts and Industries, the Wawelberg and Rothwand Technical School, and working-class housing in Warsaw owe him much. Member, from 1880, of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia and, after 1891, of the Jewish Colonization Association, he also worked for the economic and social advancement of Poland.
Hungarian architect and philanthropist born in Nikolai, in Prussian Silesia, in 1828, died in Budapest on January 17, 1903. Trained in Berlin and then Vienna, where he becomes the assistant of architect Ludwig Förster, he settles in Budapest in 1856 to supervise the construction of the great synagogue; he designs most of the major buildings of the Hungarian capital between 1870 and 1890, including the famous Burg-Bazar, and receives in 1886 the Order of the Iron Crown, which results in his being ennobled. Forced to retire in 1890 due to blindness, he devotes himself to philanthropy, bequeathing substantial sums to the Institute for the Blind and to deserving teachers in Budapest, Jewish and Christian.
Austrian physician born in Schiltern, Lower Austria, February 8, 1845, trained at the Josefs-Akademie and the University of Vienna (Doctor of Medicine, 1869). Military surgeon until 1878, he became privat-docent and then assistant professor in 1885 and professor of anatomical pathology in 1894 at the University of Vienna, where he was elected in 1892 member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Author of over a hundred scientific articles, he published the Grundriss der Pathologischen Histologie (Leipzig and Vienna, 1892).
German pathologist born in Münsterberg, Silesia, on 19 March 1845, died in Frankfurt-am-Main on 5 August 1904, graduated in 1868 from the universities of Berlin, Vienna and Breslau. Assistant to Waldeyer then to Lebert (1870-1874) and Cohnheim, whom he followed to Leipzig in 1878, he became assistant professor of pathology there in 1879, then professor of anatomical pathology at the Senckenbergische Stiftung in Frankfurt in 1884, receiving the title of Geheimer Medizinal-Rat in 1899. Pioneer of bacterial staining techniques in microscopy, he published notably Nephritis (Leipzig, 1879) and Elastische Fasern (1898).
German physician born in Heidelberg on February 7, 1848, trained in Heidelberg, Berlin and Vienna (M.D., 1871). Privat-docent in special pathology at Heidelberg from 1872, assistant professor of syphilography in 1876, he was called in 1886 to the chair of pathology at Dorpat, a position he left for health reasons, before settling in Wiesbaden in 1893. It was in 1886 that he described, in the Dorpater Archiv für Klinische Medizin, the disease that would bear his name, Weil's leptospirosis; he also published several medical works, including the Handbuch und Atlas der Topographischen Percussion (Leipzig, 1877).
German orientalist born in Sulzbourg, Baden, on April 25, 1808, died in Freiburg im Breisgau on August 29, 1889. Intended for the rabbinate, he abandoned that path and entered the University of Heidelberg in 1828 to study Arabic under Umbreit, then studied in Paris under Silvestre de Sacy in 1830, followed the French expedition to Algeria, then went to Cairo, where he taught French until 1835. Back in Germany, he became librarian at Heidelberg in 1838 until 1861, the year he became professor. He published in Stuttgart in 1837, Die Poetische Literatur der Araber, then the first complete German translation of the Thousand and One Nights from the original text (1837-41).
Philologist born in Frankfurt am Main on August 26, 1818, trained in Bonn, Berlin and Leipzig, then in Paris, where he became doctor of letters in 1845. Professor of ancient literature at the university of Besançon, dean of the faculty in 1872, he was called to Paris in 1876 to teach at the École normale and direct the École pratique des hautes études, positions he left in 1891; elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1866, he became titular member in 1882 and received the Legion of Honor in 1887. Editor of Aeschylus, Euripides and Demosthenes, he published notably De l'Ordre des Mots dans les Langues Anciennes (Paris, 1844) and Etudes sur le Drame Antique (1897).
Austrian physician born in Altsattel, Bohemia, on March 19, 1844, trained in Prague and Vienna (doctorate in medicine, 1867). Assistant at the surgical hospital of the University of Vienna from 1871 to 1873 then at the German University of Prague from 1873 to 1879, he became privatdozent there in 1877 then assistant professor of surgery in 1879. He is the author of Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Genu Valgum (1879) and Untersuchungen über die Schilddrüse (1889), and contributed to Maschka's Handbuch der Gerichtlichen Medizin.
Austrian journalist born in Württemberg, died in Vienna on January 7, 1878, holder of a law doctorate from the University of Fribourg (1827). Correspondent in Paris of the Allgemeine Zeitung from 1830 to 1832, he then directed the Württembergische Zeitung of Stuttgart until 1848, then became associate editor of the Constitutionelle Zeitung in Berlin, before settling in Vienna in 1851 in the service of the Austrian government, from which he retired in 1873 with the title of Ministerial-Rath. Engaged in Jewish affairs, he was a member of the executive council of the Israelitische Allianz from its founding.
French physician born in Bischheim, Alsace, on August 24, 1842, trained at the lycée and the universities of Strasbourg and Paris. Established in the capital, he served as assistant surgeon at Lariboisière hospital during the siege of Paris (1870-71), became assistant physician at Rothschild hospital from 1871 to 1874, the year of his doctorate, then chief physician of that establishment in 1889 — the year he was appointed Officer of Academic Distinction — and received the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1894.
French rabbi born in Ensisheim, Alsace, on October 21, 1841, trained at the beth-hamidrash of Colmar and at the Séminaire israélite of France in Paris (rabbi, 1861). Appointed rabbi of Versailles in 1865, he was called to Paris in 1876 as assistant to the grand rabbi, then has officiated since 1882 at the Portuguese synagogue on rue Buffault. He is the author of La Femme Juive Selon la Bible et le Talmud (Paris; 2nd ed. 1881) and of Judah Maccabée Suivi de Rabbi Akiba (1888).
French mathematician born in Haguenau, Alsace, on May 24, 1851, educated at the lycées of Burg and Strasbourg, at the École polytechnique of Paris and at the military school of Fontainebleau. Artillery lieutenant, he resigned in 1877, became professor of mathematics at the Chaptal College in Paris in 1881, then its director in 1898; he published several works, including a Course in Analytical Geometry and a Summary of Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry in four volumes.
French rabbi born in Strasbourg on 19 July 1814, died in Paris on 6 January 1889, graduate of the École centrale rabbinique of Metz and the Sorbonne. Professor at Nancy, he became in 1846 the first Grand Rabbi of France in Algiers (1846-64), before retiring and then accepting, in 1876, the rabbinate of Toul; he then settled in Paris to devote himself to writing, publishing in particular Le Judaïsme, Ses Dogmes et Sa Mission (1866) and La Morale du Judaïsme (1875-77). His son Georges Weill, born in Algiers in 1865, became a historian, holder of the chair of history at the lycée Louis-le-Grand.
French industrialist and man of letters born in Schlettstadt (Alsace) on July 20, 1858, he devoted himself to electric metallurgy and had the French State adopt copper alloys enabling long-distance telephony, which earned him the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1883. Republican candidate narrowly defeated in the 1889 legislative elections in Charente, he published in 1902, after a diplomatic mission to the United States, « Les Grandes Idées d'un Grand Peuple », and became involved in the Dreyfus affair by attempting, with Scheurer-Kestner, to convince his uncle General Gonse to rehabilitate him.
American pianist born in Stuttgart on 22 April 1839, died in Baltimore on 28 December 1874, eldest daughter of the hazzan Moritz Eichberg. Trained by Mathilde Ries then, on the initiative of Rubinstein who made her known to Meyerbeer, at the Conservatory of Leipzig under the direction of Moscheles, she subsequently performed with Rubinstein in Baden and distinguished herself especially as an interpreter of Chopin. In 1859, she left to teach music in New York, then married Alexander Weiller, of Baltimore.
Russian writer born in Odessa around 1840, son of Isaiah Weinberg who had converted to Christianity, brother of writer Peter Weinberg and Judge Jacob Weinberg. Without training, he devotes himself to caricaturing the Jews, whose manners he knows only through his uncle Billizer, in three collections of scenes published in Saint Petersburg in 1870, then in 1880 and 1883, judged to be crudely humorous.
French musician and composer born in Nantes on May 5, 1844, son of a musician, trained at the École des beaux-arts of Paris under Alard and Vieuxtemps. Returned to his native city as a music teacher, he directed the Conservatory of Nantes from 1884 to 1894, then settled in Paris where he earned a reputation as a violinist, giving concerts in the main cities of France.
French painter born in Budapest on May 11, 1838, educated at the School of Fine Arts in Vienna then established in Paris from 1860, where he became a French citizen in 1871. Regular exhibitor at the Salon since his first submission in 1869 — a portrait of M. Marmontel —, he notably presented there « The Slave Fiancée » (1877), preserved in the Lisieux museum, and « Captives » (1896), preserved in the Angers museum.
German ophthalmologist born in Giessen in 1849, trained at the universities of Giessen (doctorate in medicine in 1874), Tübingen, and Vienna. Assistant at the ophthalmological institute of the University of Heidelberg from 1875 to 1877, where he obtained the venia legendi in 1876, he has practiced as a physician in Heidelberg and Mannheim since 1878, publishing several works on myopia and tuberculosis of the eye.
Hungarian chess player born July 21, 1857 in Szered, on the Waag, he studied mathematics and physics in Vienna, which he then taught, while participating in numerous international tournaments after learning the game at age twelve. He notably obtained first prize in New York in 1889 (tied with Tchigorine) and then in Vienna in 1890, and worked in 1905 at the bank of Baron Rothschild in Vienna.
Austrian mathematician born in Ridka, in Bohemia, on 3 February 1859, and died in Prague on 18 June 1904. Trained by his father and then, from 1881 to 1887, at the universities of Prague, Leipzig and Erlangen where he obtained his doctorate, he taught mathematics at the German Technical School in Prague, where he became professor in 1900 and dean of the engineering school from 1901 to 1902.
Judeo-Russian writer and educator born in Polonki, in the province of Minsk, in 1841, and died in Kiev in 1904. Trained in several ḥeder then at the yeshiva of Slonim, he connected in Minsk with the Hebrew scholars of his generation before settling in 1873 as a Hebrew teacher in Kiev, where several of his students would become recognized Hebrew writers; from 1879 onwards, he contributed to numerous Hebrew periodicals and published works of Talmudic and biblical exegesis as well as collections of letters from J. L. Gordon and other authors.
Russian physician and anthropologist born in Elisabethgrad, in southern Russia, on 16 December 1867, trained at the Polytechnicum in Karlsruhe from 1884 and then graduated with a degree in medicine from Heidelberg in 1890. He conducts anthropological research on the Jews of southern Russia, published in 1895, as well as on the Karaites of Crimea, and collaborates with several journals of ethnology and Jewish folklore, notably on proverbs and folk songs.
Austrian scholar born in Tarnów, Galicia, in 1830, destined for a rabbinical career and trained notably under Israel Rapoport. He founded in Lemberg in 1872 the periodical « Maggid Mishneh », devoted to Jewish history and Hebrew literature, then settled in Vienna where he directed from 1874 to 1876 the Judeo-German weekly « Wiener Jüdische Zeitung »; he is the author of a collection of Talmudic proverbs in verse « Mashal u-Meliẓah », published from 1860 onward, as well as several other works of poetry and rabbinical erudition.
Austrian scholar and publicist born in Zelynia, Galicia, on April 21, 1840, and died in Vienna on May 14, 1892. Trained for the rabbinate in his native city and at the yeshiva of Rzeszów, he turned in 1871 toward foreign languages and secular sciences, directed the Jewish school in Galați in Romania, then settled in Vienna where he founded in 1872 the Judeo-German periodical "Jüdische Freie Presse" and in 1889 the "Monatsschrift für die Litteratur und Wissenschaft des Judenthum"; he also published novels, essays, and in 1887 a work on the canonization of books of the Hebrew Bible.
Hungarian deputy born in Budapest in 1845, trained at the gymnasium then at the commerce academy of his native city. Member of the arbitration committee of the Budapest Stock Exchange from 1876, he contributes to the founding of the Budapest suburban railway in 1879 and develops, from 1883, several factories (canning, cartridge, textile) in Budapest and Berlin, as well as the Danubius shipyards; he has represented the Nagyajta district in the Hungarian Parliament since 1896 and received in 1903 the title of court councillor.
German biblical critic and Semitist born in Hameln on May 17, 1844, doctor of theology from Göttingen in 1870, where he became privat-docent the same year, then professor in Greifswald shortly after. Forced to resign from the faculty of theology in 1882 because of his views on the Bible, he taught Semitic studies in Halle and then in Marburg before being recalled to Göttingen in 1892; he is the author of major works on the composition of the Pentateuch, dating the Priestly Code after the exile, as well as studies on pre-Islamic Arabian paganism and on the history of Israel.
Austrian cantor born in Prague on September 12, 1835 and died in that city on August 5, 1901, from a family of ḥazzanim and cantor of the Meisel Synagogue in Prague from a young age, trained at the Prague Conservatory of Music. Called in 1865 to the Ahawath Chesed congregation in New York, he remained its cantor until 1880, contributing to the first three volumes of the liturgical collection « Zimrat Yah », before returning to Prague where he was involved in the charitable and educational works of Bnai Brith.
Austrian Hebraist born in Brody, in Galicia, in the early nineteenth century, and died in that city on 31 July 1876. Disciple of Isaac Erter and Nachman Krochmal, he founds a Hebrew weekly published in Brody from 1865 to 1890 under the titles « Ha-'Ibri » then « 'Ibri Anoki », and publishes notably explanatory notes on Ecclesiastes (Lemberg, 1862) as well as a biography of Albert Cohn of Paris (Brody, 1870).
Austrian Hebraist born in Brody on February 4, 1859 and died in that city on August 20, 1890, son of Baruch Werber. From the age of fifteen he writes and speaks Hebrew fluently, publishing in 1874 a story in « Ha-'Ibri », whose editor he becomes after his father's death in 1876 until his own death; struck in 1890 by an illness he knows to be fatal, he himself writes his obituary, which appeared in the last issue of the newspaper three days before his death.
Polish rabbi born in Telšiai (Kovno province) in 1837, trained in several ḥeder then by his father, official rabbi of the city. He received in 1856 rabbinic authorization from several masters, became rabbi of Veger then dayan and chief rabbi of Telšiai, before being called chief rabbi of all Finland in Helsingfors, then, in 1891, rabbi of the Maḥaziḳe Hadath congregation in London, where he remained until July 1901, when he settled in the Holy Land.
Russian Talmudic pedagogue born in Slonim (province of Grodno) in 1823 and died in Jerusalem on February 20, 1901, considered from childhood a prodigy of Talmudic erudition. Married at eleven, trained at the Volozhin yeshiva and then, from 1840, in Vilna under R. Israel Lipkin, he preferred teaching to exercising the rabbinate and directed the Slonim yeshiva from 1861 to 1900, before leaving to end his days in the Holy Land ; he is the author of several Talmudic works, including sermons published in 1872.
Austrian jurist and theologian born in Trebitsch, Moravia, on October 22, 1801, and died in Vienna on April 21, 1870. Sent at fourteen to Prague to prepare for the rabbinate, he received a doctorate in 1828 and a doctorate in law in 1833, taught religion from 1831 onward and was authorized in 1846 to teach Hebrew and rabbinic literature at the University of Prague; appointed privatdozent in law the year the jury system was introduced in Austria (1848), then associate professor in 1852 and full professor in 1861, he became the first Austrian Jew to hold such a position.
American painter born in Mühlen, Württemberg, in 1840, who went to the United States at fifteen before returning to Europe to study art; he lived in 1905 in Washington, where he specialized in landscape. Member of the Washington Artists Society, he received first prize there in 1891, exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York, and is represented at the Corcoran Gallery of Washington by a landscape entitled "Approaching Night".
American economist born in Philadelphia on 11 March 1874, trained in the public schools of his native city then at the University of Pennsylvania (degree in 1892, doctorate in 1897), before undertaking advanced studies in Halle, Berlin and Paris. Author of several articles on labor in railroads, he is interested in labor unionism and collaborates with the federal bureaus of labor and statistics of the United States.
French physician born in Paris on March 9, 1862, charged from 1886 to 1888 with public demonstrations of research at the faculty of pathological anatomy, then with a course in bacteriology at Professor Cornil's laboratory. Appointed physician of the Paris hospitals in 1895 and then charged with teaching at the faculty of medicine in 1904, he practiced in 1905 at Cochin Hospital and published numerous essays on infectious diseases, erysipelas, and affections of the heart, liver, and nervous system.
German rabbi born in Murowana-Goslin, in the province of Posen, in 1811, and died in Oppeln, Prussian Silesia, on 25 August 1895. Doctor of philosophy, he introduces in Posen a modern synagogue service with sermons in German, which provokes strong opposition led by Salomon Eger, before being called in 1845 as rabbi in Oppeln, where he served until his death; one of the most progressive rabbis of his time, he defended at the synods of Cassel (1844), Leipzig (1869) and Augsburg (1870) the revision of the prayer book, the use of the organ and other reforms of worship.
Belgian engraver born in Hoorstgen, in the Rhenish province, in 1815, and died in Brussels November 3, 1899. Trained from age thirteen in drawing and engraving by his uncle Baruch, he studied in Paris from 1835 then settled in 1839 in Brussels as a medal engraver, where his reputation extended abroad; he designed the first Belgian postage stamps, went to England in 1849 to organize their production, and lost his sight from overwork in 1872, then renouncing his art which he had transmitted to his brothers.
American philologist born in Białystok, in the government of Grodno in Russia, on July 27, 1862, trained in the gymnasia of Minsk and Warsaw and then at the University of Warsaw and the Berlin Polytechnic. Emigrated to the United States, where he first exercised various modest trades, he became professor at the University of Kansas and then, in 1905, assistant professor of Slavic languages at Harvard; a prolific author in philology, he notably published « The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century » (New York, 1899) and translated numerous Russian and Yiddish works.
Belgian engraver and sculptor born in Holland in 1823 and died in Brussels on January 24, 1891, resident of Boitsfort, of which he was elected mayor several times. Devoted to engraving and sculpture — several of his works adorn Belgian public squares — he is appointed engraver of the government in 1864 and then royal engraver, and also distinguished himself in musical circles as vice-president of the Brussels Conservatory.
German teacher born in Glogau on June 3rd, 1819 and died in Hanover on March 31st, 1880, director of the religious school of that city. He gave a German translation of the « Shebeṭ Yehudah » of Salomon ibn Verga (Hanover, 1855) and the « 'Emeḳ ha-Baka » of Joseph ha-Kohen (Leipzig, 1858), and published in 1862 a collection of data on the history of Jews in medieval Germany, in addition to numerous historical articles in the « Monatsschrift ».
Russian violinist and composer born in Lublin, Russian Poland, on July 10, 1835, and died in Moscow on April 1, 1880, brother of pianist Joseph Wieniawski. Child prodigy sent at eight years to study in Paris under Claval and Massart at the Conservatory, he won the first prize for violin at eleven years, then toured throughout Europe from 1850; appointed first violinist of the Tsar of Russia, he remained in Saint Petersburg until 1872, undertook a tour of the United States with Anton Rubinstein, then became in 1874 professor of violin at the Brussels Conservatory, where he succeeded Vieuxtemps, before a serious illness took him away in Moscow.
Russian pianist and composer born in Lublin, in Poland, on May 23, 1837, brother of violinist Henri Wieniawski. Trained at the Paris Conservatory, he returns to Russia in 1850 where he frequently accompanies his brother on tour, studies under Liszt in Weimar in 1856 then theory in Berlin, before settling in 1866 in Moscow as professor at the Conservatory of Music, then going to Warsaw where he frequently performs in concert.
Russian-American journalist born in Vilno in March 1865, trained in traditional Judaism and in part self-taught. After stays in Riga from 1878 to 1882 then in Kovno and Białystok, he emigrates in 1885 to the United States, settles in Chicago where he becomes editor-in-chief of the « Jewish Courier », then establishes himself in 1898 in New York, where he contributes to « Jüdisches Tageblatt » and, in 1905, to « Morgen Journal »; he is the author of a « History of the Jews » published in New York in 1901.
German poet and philologist born in Wevelingen, Prussia, on 24 October 1807, and died in Brussels on 16 January 1882, trained in Krefeld, Cologne, Bonn and Munich where he obtained his doctorate in 1830. Barred from an academic career for refusing baptism, he turned to journalism and published his first collection of poems in 1837; condemned to a year in prison after a radical article published during the 1848 revolution, he took refuge in France as a teacher of German, then retired to Brussels after the Franco-Prussian War. He is the author of « West-Oestliche Schwalben » (Mannheim, 1847) and « Le Mendiant pour la Pologne » (Paris, 1864).
American mathematician born in Hamburg, Germany, on November 13, 1876, who emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1885 and returned to Germany in 1893 to study astronomy and mathematics at the University of Berlin, where he obtained his doctorate in 1897. Calculator at the Bureau of Nautical Ephemerides in Washington from 1898, then adjunct professor at the University of California in 1902, he was on research assignment in Europe for the Carnegie Institution from 1903 to 1905, the year in which he published « Projective Differential Geometry of Curves and Ruled Surfaces » in Leipzig.
Russian official born in Tsarskoïe Selo, near Saint-Petersburg, on February 22, 1864, from an ancient Russian Jewish family of landowners for two centuries. After studying law at the universities of Dorpat and then Saint-Petersburg, he entered in 1887 the service of the Ministry of Public Instruction, conducted study missions in England and France, then joined in 1895 the Ministry of Finance as assistant financial agent of Russia in London before being appointed, in May 1904, Russian financial agent in Washington.
Born in 1836 in the Jewish quarter of Prague (Bohemia). First official world chess champion (1886–1894) and founder of the modern "positional" school. He disseminated his ideas through the specialized press, notably in his journal The International Chess Magazine and in his treatise The Modern Chess Instructor (1889). Naturalized British then American.
Hungarian linguist (1850–1913)
German banker and patron
Physician and social-democratic politician of Jewish Moravian origin, member of the National Council until 1934, forced into exile in 1938.
German philologist
German rabbi
German businessman (1848–1916)
Austrian architect
Austro-Hungarian photographer (1879–1943)
British artist
Archaeologist and numismatist
Bavarian financier and philanthropist born in Bayreuth on April 8, 1824 and died in Munich on December 26, 1903. Entering the Munich bank of his uncle J. W. Oberndörffer, whose daughter he marries, he is appointed consul general of Saxony and made a knight of the Order of the Crown of Bavaria in 1888; an authority on numismatics and patron of the arts and charitable works, he presides over the Jewish community of Munich in 1864 and 1865.
Russian chess player born in Warsaw in 1839, who emerged in Paris in 1867 by winning second prize in an impromptu tournament after observing games at the Café de la Régence. He confirmed this talent in 1878 (second prize of the international Paris tournament), in 1881 in Berlin (third-fourth prize ex æquo with Tchigorine), in 1882 in Vienna (first-second prize ex æquo with Steinitz) and especially in 1883 in Nuremberg, where he won first prize ahead of Blackburne; his career declined thereafter, with a sixth place in Dresden in 1892 and Budapest in 1896, then no prize in Monte-Carlo in 1901.
American philologist born in Cracow, Austria, on September 4, 1866, trained at the Cracow gymnasium then at Harvard (degree in 1889) and the University of Michigan (doctorate in 1892), with advanced studies in Berlin. Instructor of German at the University of Michigan, he became associate professor there in 1895 then full professor of German language and literature in 1902, and edited over the years several German classics, including Lessing's « Emilia Galotti » (1895) and Goethe's « Iphigenie » (1905).
Austrian Orientalist born in Horn on December 23, 1863, trained at the gymnasium of his native city then, from 1880 onwards, at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1886. He assisted Max Müller at Oxford in the edition of the Rig-Veda from 1888, became librarian of the Indian Institute there in 1895, before joining Prague as privat-docent of Indology in 1899 then professor of Sanskrit and Ethnology in 1902; he edited several Sanskrit texts and published in 1905 the first volume of his « Geschichte der Indischen Literatur ».
Austrian physician and hydrotherapist born in Josefstadt, Bohemia, on March 1, 1835, trained in Vienna and Prague (doctor of medicine in 1857). After service in the Austrian navy and setting up a practice in Vienna, he specialized in hydrotherapy, became privatdozent in 1865, co-founder of Vienna's general dispensary, then associate professor in 1881 and full professor in 1899; he founded in 1890 the journal « Blätter für Klinische Hydrotherapie », which he still edited, and published notably « Kaltenleutgeben und Meine Wasserheilanstalt » (Vienna, 1869).
Austrian railway magnate born in Prague in 1819 and died in Vöslau on June 11, 1883, son of modest parents who began as a commercial employee in Prague and then in Vienna before founding his own business there. Having become a forwarding agent then member of the executive board of the North Railway, of which he became president, he also sits, through his business ties with the Rothschild house, on the boards of directors of the Südbahn and the Creditanstalt; he long presided over the Jewish community of Vienna and sat in the House of Lords of Austria.
American journalist and publisher born in Albany on October 28, 1849, son of Isaac Mayer Wise. Trained notably at Farmers College and the University of Michigan, he served briefly in the American navy in 1863 and participated in 1872 in the first diamond prospecting expeditions in South Africa, where his concession became the future Kimberley district; he published « Die Deborah » from 1875 to 1890, owned the « Jewish Annual » from 1884 to 1892, and founded in 1885 the « Chicago Israelite », which he still directed while also serving as editor-in-chief of the « American Israelite » of Cincinnati.
American rabbi born in Budapest on 17 March 1862, son of Aaron Wise. Graduate of Columbia (bachelor's degree in 1892, doctorate in 1901) after rabbinical studies with several masters, he became in 1893 minister of the congregation B'nai Jeshurun of New York, then in 1900 rabbi of the congregation Beth Israel of Portland, Oregon. First honorary secretary of the American Federation of Zionists, delegate to the second Zionist Congress in Basel in 1898, he was appointed in 1903 commissioner for child labor for the State of Oregon and published in 1902 an edition of the original Arabic of an ethical treatise by Solomon ibn Gabirol.
Russian philanthropist born in Jagory, in the province of Kovno, on July 8, 1824, and died in Moscow on May 24, 1904. After interrupted studies at the yechiva of Volozhin, he settled in Yanichki and then, in 1858, in Moscow for the tea trade, while investing in the local Jewish community and devoting a growing fortune to charity, notably a gift intended to bear fruit for one hundred years for national purposes, given to the Alliance Israélite of Paris. Fervent Zionist and one of the first architects of the Choveve Tsion movement in Russia, he traveled as a delegate to the Holy Land and financed the Bet ha-Sefer school in Jaffa.
Austrian physician born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, on July 14, 1818, and died in Vienna on January 8, 1889, graduated from the University of Vienna in 1841. After ten years of practice in Győr, Hungary, he settled in Vienna in 1851 and directed the « Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift », to which he contributed numerous essays, and published in 1856 a work on the medical and humanitarian institutions of Vienna.
Hungarian electrician and physicist born in Hódmezővásárhely on January 16, 1860, trained at the University of Budapest and then in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Hanover. Appointed professor of physics at the Budapest polytechnic in 1892, he later became a member of the royal patent office and secretary of the secondary teachers' examination board, establishing himself as the principal Hungarian authority in electrotechnics through numerous works on electric currents.
French writer born in Paris December 4, 1863, son of rabbi Lazare Wogue, agrégé in letters of the École normale supérieure in 1885. After teaching in the lycées of Saint-Quentin and Reims, then in the lycées Michelet and Rollin in Paris, he became professor at Lycée Buffon, a position he still held in 1905; he notably published 'Le Poète Gresset' (1894) and 'Le Théâtre Comique aux Dix-Septième et Dix-Huitième Siècles' (1905), as well as annotated editions of Racine's 'Esther' and 'Athalie,' and collaborated with the 'Revue Bleue' and 'Temps.'
French rabbi born in Fontainebleau on July 22, 1817 and died in Paris on April 14, 1897, educated at the Lycée Charlemagne then at the École centrale rabbinique of Metz, where he obtained his rabbinical diploma in 1843. Assistant preacher in Paris then holder of the chair of Jewish theology at the Rabbinical School, transferred to Paris in 1859, he became its professor emeritus in 1894; director of the "Univers Israélite" from 1879 to 1895 and made knight of the Legion of Honor in 1885, he is chiefly known for his annotated translation of the Pentateuch and his history of biblical exegesis.
Hebraist woman of letters from Galicia, born in Lemberg in 1813 and died in that city in 1891. Initiated into Hebrew from childhood, she received advanced Hebrew education, maintained at age fourteen with her fiancé L. Rosanes of Brody a correspondence that Rapoport called an "echo of the Song of Songs", then, after his death, married Samson Wohllerner; her Hebrew letters, noted for their style, were published in "Kokebe Yiẓḥaḳ" and "Ha-Boḳer Or".
German rabbi
economist
rabbi (1811-1886)
Austrian publisher
American jurist born in Washington on January 11, 1869, trained at Johns Hopkins University (bachelor's degree in 1890) and then at George Washington University (law degrees in 1892 and 1893). Admitted to the bar in 1893, he completed his studies at the University of Berlin, became in 1895 financial secretary of the Hebrew charitable works of Washington, and was appointed in 1902 associate judge of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico.
American woman of letters born on June 15, 1865 in San Francisco, where her parents had emigrated from France and where she was educated. Author of short stories published in various American magazines, she signs several novels, including « Other Things Being Equal » (1892), « A Prodigal in Love » (1894), « The Joy of Life » (1896) and « Heirs of Yesterday » (1900), her novels with Jewish subject matter attracting particular attention.
South African merchant and Member of Parliament for the Cape born in Great Yarmouth in 1838 and died in London on March 18, 1899. Apprenticed in Manchester then a merchant in Montreal, he opened a business in Kimberley in 1860, connected with the principal actors in the diamond fields, and was elected in 1882 representative of Kimberley to the Parliament of the Cape, where his constituents presented him in recognition with a gold casket containing five hundred guineas.
Austrian historian and pedagogist born in Holleschau, Moravia, on July 16, 1823, and died in Vienna on October 29, 1892. Trained in Hebrew from childhood then intended for the rabbinate, he joins the University of Vienna in 1839, publishes his first article in 1845, and engages in the political struggles of 1848, which causes him to be temporarily driven from Vienna before devoting himself to religious education; religious instructor in Leopoldstadt in 1850, he founds in 1859 a library for youth, then in 1861 a society for aid to poor Jewish students in Vienna, and directs the inspection of Jewish religious schools in Vienna from 1884 to 1892.
English journalist and Anglo-Jewish historian born in London on January 20, 1857, who began his career at the "Jewish World" in 1874, where he was the principal editorialist until 1893, before becoming foreign affairs editor of the "Daily Graphic" in 1890, a position he still held in 1905. Historian of Anglo-Jewry, he suggested the creation of the Jewish Historical Society of England, of which he became the first president, edited in 1901 the volume devoted to the mission of Manasseh ben Israël to Cromwell, and published in 1885 a biography of Moses Montefiore; in 1905, he partnered with Israel Zangwill for the Jewish territorialist Organization.
Austrian composer born in Weisskirchen, Moravia, in February 1840, and died in Vienna on March 23, 1886, son of a wealthy businessman who intended him for commerce but who revealed very early a bent toward music. Trained in composition from age sixteen, then under A. B. Marx in Berlin and Otto Dessoff in Vienna, he composed notably the operetta « Die Schule der Liebe » (1868), performed thirty-four times in succession in Berlin under the title « Die Blaue Dame », and the three-act opera « Die Pilger » (Vienna, 1872).
Jurist, publicist and American philanthropist born in Hinzweiler, Bavaria, on October 28, 1836, emigrated to the United States in 1848. Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1861, he settled in Washington, where he was clerk of the District of Columbia from 1869 to 1878, then civil judge and, from 1881 onwards, consul general of the United States in Egypt; president of the B'nai B'rith order from 1903 to 1905, founder and president of the Hebrew orphanage in Atlanta, he is the author of « The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen » (Philadelphia, 1895).
American woman of letters born in Insterburg, in Prussia, on August 5, 1869, who emigrated to the United States at a young age with her parents and was educated in the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio. Author of numerous short stories published in the Jewish press and various American magazines, she saw in 1901 the Jewish Publication Society of America publish her collection "Idyls of the Gass", also translated into German.
German rabbi born in Darmstadt on April 29, 1801 and died in Copenhagen on December 3, 1891, trained from childhood by his father and then, from 1817, in Mainz and Würzburg. Doctor of Giessen in 1821, he was ordained rabbi and appointed in 1826 territorial rabbi of Oberhesse, before responding in 1828 to the call of the Copenhagen community, of which he became chief rabbi on May 16, 1829; he had a new synagogue built, dedicated on April 12, 1833, and received in 1854 the order of the Dannebrog. Considered the father of Danish homiletics, he published notably a commentary on the book of Habakkuk (1822) and a manual of religious instruction (1825).
Russian historian born in Saint Petersburg and died in Heidelberg in 1900, son of a bookseller, trained at the gymnasium of his native city and then at the University of Leipzig, where he devoted himself to the history of Poland and Lithuania. He published notably, between 1885 and 1895, several studies on the dignitaries and princes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and became corresponding member of the Academy of Cracow.
German surgeon born in Märkisch Friedland, West Prussia, on March 21, 1836, and died in Berlin on February 18, 1902, graduated from Berlin University in 1860, where he established himself as a surgeon. He participates in the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870, becomes privatdozent in 1868 and then assistant professor of surgery in 1884, directs from 1890 the newly founded university orthopedic clinic, and publishes in 1892 « Das Gesetz der Transformation der Knochen ».
German woman of letters born in Gleiwitz, Silesia, on April 2, 1850, daughter of Max Hirschfeld, publishing under the pseudonym Ulrich Frank. Trained in Breslau and Vienna, she settled in 1880 in Berlin, where she still lived in 1905. After an initial theatrical success in Breslau in 1876 and a relative failure in Berlin in 1878, she devoted herself to short stories and novels, publishing notably Das Wunderkind (1884) and Die Lene (1902).
German jurist and politician born on January 19, 1817 and died in Hamburg on October 12, 1895. A prominent figure in German political life, he sat in the Reichstag of North Germany before 1871 and then in the German Reichstag, and exercised for many years the functions of municipal councilor within the Jewish community, where he distinguished himself through his philanthropic works.
Austrian chemist
Austrian physician born in Praschnoaugezd, Bohemia, on December 8, 1816, trained in philosophy at the Prague gymnasium and in medicine at the University of Vienna. Assistant physician at the Vienna municipal hospital from 1843 to 1845, private practitioner in Prague from 1845 to 1849, he was appointed in 1849 director of the Vienna Jewish hospital, which he modernized with the support of Baron Anselm von Rothschild; he founded in 1872 a society for free care of tuberculosis patients, received in 1866 the Order of Francis Joseph and the title of imperial councilor in 1873, and saw his portrait hung in the committee room of the hospital for his eightieth birthday in 1896.
Hungarian deputy born in Újpest on 18 June 1864, trained at the gymnasium and technical school of Budapest, then initiated into the paternal tannery before a long journey through Germany, Egypt, Palestine and Turkey. Municipal councilor of Újpest, president of the national association of tanners and director of the industrial technological museum, he has represented Gödöllő in the Hungarian Parliament since 1896 — favorite residence of Francis Joseph I — and receives in 1904 from the king the rank of captain of reserve hussars as well as ennoblement.
German poet and essayist born in Odessa on October 20, 1820, and died in Dresden on August 13, 1865, trained in medicine and philosophy in Leipzig. He began with translations from Latin under the pseudonym of Carl Maier, traveled to Russia in 1843 to give lectures on German literature—refusing the chair offered to him on the condition that he convert—and then settled in Dresden in 1852; he published notably the Jewish almanac « Jeschurun » (1841) and several plays, including « Nur eine Seele », very popular, and « Die Osternacht », based on the blood accusation and less well received.
German playwright and journalist born in Hamburg on February 12, 1810 and died in Berlin on October 24, 1884, doctor of the University of Berlin in 1831. After adventures in Paris and a stint in Copenhagen as secretary to King Frederick VI, he produced his first play in Vienna in 1838, "Andrea", then became in 1849 instructor of oriental and modern languages at the University of Berlin and Berlin correspondent of the "Morning Chronicle" of London; in the Austrian diplomatic service from 1854 to 1858, he founded in 1868 a summer theater near Hamburg and published notably "Indiscretionen" (1883) and "Neue Indiscretionen" (1884), before dying in poverty.
Russian pedagogue and author born in Wilno in 1852, trained at the rabbinical school of his native city, where he obtained his diploma in 1872 and has taught in Jewish elementary schools since. He serves in 1905 as inspector of the Jewish seminary of Wilno and censor of Hebrew publications, and publishes several Russian-Jewish school manuals, including a method for studying Hebrew, "Mesillah Ḥadashah" (1888).
American chemist and inventor born in New York on September 26, 1846, trained in the city's public schools and at the College of the City of New York. He is credited with introducing hydrogen peroxide for bleaching ostrich feathers and as an antiseptic in 1876, as well as the discovery, in 1889, of the antiseptic properties of seawater decomposed by electrolysis — a process later used by American authorities against yellow fever in Havana in 1899.
American musician and novelist born in London in September 1803 and died in New York on March 14, 1882. Orchestra conductor in his native city, he emigrates in 1839 to New York, where he becomes orchestra conductor, music professor, and choirmaster, while publishing several short stories in "The Jewish Messenger". His sons all distinguished themselves, notably Solomon as a drawing professor for forty years, Benjamin E. as a dramatist and composer, Michael Angelo as a street caricaturist, and Philip as a physician and novelist.
English lawyer born in London in 1844 and died on March 12, 1892, trained at Neumegen school and at University College London. Associate in a solicitors' firm and then student of Murphy, counsel to the queen, he was admitted to the bar of Middle Temple in 1873, specialized in commercial and criminal matters then became the leading lawyer in bankruptcy matters, before being himself appointed queen's counsel on January 24, 1890; author of an initial work on legislation relating to food adulteration (1874), he also invested in the Jewish communal life of London.
English financier born in Frankfurt am Main on February 5, 1801 and died in Brighton on October 20, 1882, son of Benedict de Worms of Frankfurt. Brought to England at a young age and then established in Ceylon, where he contributed to the development of the colony, he became a generous benefactor of Jewish charities and a lifelong member of the council of the United Synagogue; created a baron of the Austrian Empire in 1871, he obtained in 1874, by letters patent of Queen Victoria, the right to bear this title in England.
French jurist born in Frisange, Luxembourg, on May 23, 1838, trained at the universities of Heidelberg and Paris (doctorate in law in 1864). Rewarded by the Institut de France in 1863 and again in 1867 for his work on the commercial history of the Hanseatic League, he became professor of law at the university of Rennes in 1867, a position he held until 1898 before returning to Paris, and represented France at the statistics congresses in Florence (1867), The Hague (1869), Saint Petersburg (1872), and Budapest (1876); a prolific author, he published numerous works on political economy and law between 1864 and 1895.
French actor born in Paris on 21 March 1837, graduate of the Conservatoire in 1857 with first prize in tragedy and second prize in comedy. Engaged at the Comédie-Française, where he made his debut in 1859, he achieved great success from 1862 in « Loi du Cœur », which earned him a contract at the Théâtre-Michel in Saint-Petersburg; returning to Paris in 1875, he reappeared at the Gymnase in « La Dame aux Camélias », rejoined the Comédie-Française in 1877 and retired from the stage in 1901.
French physician born in Paris on January 24, 1830 and died in that city on April 15, 1898, a graduate of the university of Strasbourg in 1852. Surgeon during the Crimean War, he is assistant physician at the Gros-Caillou hospital from 1858 to 1864 then surgeon at Rothschild hospital from 1865 to 1875, statistician of the Paris health bureau from 1870 to 1880, and becomes in 1875 chief physician of the Northern Railway.
English financier and farmer born in Frankfurt am Main in 1805 and died in London in 1867, grandson of Meyer Anselm of Rothschild and son of Benedict of Worms. In 1841, he purchases with his brother Gabriel a vast estate in Ceylon, known as « Rothschild Estate », which they develop until its sale in 1865; pioneers of the colonization of the island, the Worms brothers contribute greatly to its prosperity, and Maurice bequeaths by testament substantial sums to Jewish charitable works.
Auditor at the French Council of State, son of Émile Worms, born in Rennes on December 8, 1869, trained at the Lycée Charlemagne and at the École Normale Supérieure of Paris (Doctor of Law in 1891, Doctor of Letters and Doctor of Political and Economic Sciences in 1896). Lawyer at the Court of Appeal of Paris from 1891, lecturer in political economy at the University of Paris in 1895 and then associate professor at Caen from 1897 to 1902, he founded in 1893 the « International Review of Sociology » and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1905.
French lawyer, younger brother of Émile Worms, born in Luxembourg on November 16, 1853, trained in Paris and Rennes (doctorate in law in 1878). Prefectural councillor of Ille-et-Vilaine in 1880, he became the private secretary of Waldeck-Rousseau then chaired the prefectural council of Seine-et-Marne, before entering the judiciary as judge at the civil court of Reims in 1886; he was appointed vice-president of the court of Versailles by a decree of November 22, 1904.
French composer born in Paris on November 1, 1851, trained at the Paris Conservatoire under Bazin and Marmontel, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1875. Author of a large number of concert overtures, piano pieces, operettas and ballets, he also composed two operas, « Adèle de Ponthière » (Aix-la-Chapelle, 1887) and « Rivoli » (Paris, 1896).
Russian pedagogue and author born in Mitau on 12 September 1812 and died in that city on 16 August 1868. Married in 1834, ruined, he became a tutor and then, in 1840, attracted the attention of Max Lilienthal with a text addressed to Jewish settlers leaving Courland for Kherson, which earned him a teaching post at the Riga school, which he directed for a time; recalled to Mitau in 1848 as professor of religion and Hebrew interpreter to the government, he remained there until his death and published notably a history of the Jews of Livonia and Courland (Mitau, 1853) and a perpetual Jewish calendar (Dessau, 1854).
German Christian Hebraicist born in Hainewalde on July 22, 1839, devoted almost exclusively to rabbinic literature. After commentaries on Hosea (1868) and Joel (1872), he published in 1878 the most complete collection of parallel passages between the Talmud and the New Testament since Lightfoot and Schöttgen, translated into German the Midrash Rabbah and the Midrash of the Five Megillot in his « Bibliotheca Rabbinica », as well as aggadic portions of both Talmuds and the Midrash on the Psalms (1891), and compiled with Winter the best existing anthology of Jewish literature in the modern language.
American journalist born in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1819, and died in New York on September 14, 1876, trained at the University of Erlangen. Editor-in-chief of the « Bayreuth Tageblatt » during the revolutionary year of 1848, he was banished from Bavaria in 1849 for his liberal writings, became correspondent in Italy and then in France, and finally emigrated to America, where he successfully directed the Sunday supplement of the « New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung ».
Hungarian journalist and author born in 1817, a peddler in Pesth who became a chorister then journalist, who obtained in 1848, at the beginning of the March movement, permission to publish « Der Patriot », a newspaper close to Kossuth's party. Between 1850 and 1870, he is said to have committed numerous frauds against merchants and clergy in Hungary and Vienna, operating under various pseudonyms and the subject of arrest warrants; he is the author of « Lebensbilder aus Ungarn », mentioned in a history of Austria published in 1876.
Poet and playwright of the Hebrew renaissance, born in Slutsk.
rabbi, Israel
Grand rabbi of Warsaw
Jewish healer of the Atlas, figure studied by ethnographer Yoram Bilu.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5610 of the Hebrew era (1850). Son of Shlomo Shmuel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 19th century. Died in 5640 of the Hebrew era (1880). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Died in 5637 of the Hebrew era (1877). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-3.
Grand Rabbi and kabbalist of the Tafilalet, author of the Abir Yaakov, grandfather of Baba Salé.
Dayan and rosh yeshiva
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5618 of the Hebrew calendar (1858). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 64-1.
Orthodox communal rabbi, Talmudist, Halachist, rabbinical author and scholar
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5650 of the Hebrew era (1890). Son of Mordekhay, himself son of Yaakov, himself son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-1.
Rabbi
Iraqi rabbi
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 65-4.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-1.
Son of Rabbi Yisrael Yitzhak Kalish of Vorka (Warka), he founded around the mid-nineteenth century the hassidic court of Amshinov (Mszczonów), a branch of the Warka hasidism stemming from Peshischa. He settled there in 1849 and was followed by a great number of hassidim. At his death in 1878, his son Menachem Kalish succeeded him as second rebbe of Amshinov.
Rabbi of Fes, nineteenth century. Died in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-4.
The Ridvaz, commentator of the Talmud of Jerusalem, founder of a yeshiva in Safed.
Rebbe of Husiatyn, great-great-grandson of R. Israël of Ruzhin. Son-in-law and successor of R. Yisroel Friedman of Husiatyn, he emigrated with the family to the Land of Israel in 1937 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he was an ardent advocate of religious Zionism (Mizrahi movement). Many of his sermons delivered in Tel Aviv between 1937 and 1956 were collected in his sefer « Ohalei Yaakov ».
Community activist and polemicist Orthodox of Kovno, secretary and right hand of the great decisioner R. Yitzhak Elchanan Spektor. Leader of the Orthodox anti-reform and anti-Haskalah organization « ha-Lishka ha-Shehora » of Kovno. He left a major historiographical work, Zikhron Yaakov, history of the Jews of Russia and Poland (1760-1896), published posthumously by his son.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5586 of the Hebrew Era (1826). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-4.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5648 of the Hebrew era (1888). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-1.
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5584 of the Hebrew era (1824). Son of Abraham, himself son of Yaakov I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-4.
American rabbi
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5566 of the Hebrew era (1806). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 67-3.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5565 of the Hebrew era (1805). Son of Abraham. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 70-4.
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi and Kabbalist born in Baghdad, Sephardic spiritual leader in Jerusalem (Edah HaHaredith).
rabbi and Judaic scholar (1873-1959)
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Died in 5578 of the Hebrew era (1818). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-1.
Journalist and writer, co-founder of the literary journal Hedim.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Died in 5611 of the Hebrew era (1851). Son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 66-2.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 69-3.
Kabbalist
American rabbi
founder of Be'er Ya'akov, Israel
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Son of Yitshak, himself son of Messod. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 68-1.
Orthodox Jewish pioneer in America
Ottoman rabbi
Grand Rabbi of Skver (1899-1968)
Rabbi of Marrakech, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5641 of the Hebrew era (1881). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5600 of the Hebrew era (1840). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-3.
British rabbi
Av beth din of London and then of Jerusalem, author of Hazon Yehezkel on the Tosefta.
Israeli rabbi
Polish rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Polish rabbi
rabbi
Son of Rabbi Fayvl of Gritse, disciple of Yitzhak Kalisz of Vurke; founder of the Hasidic dynasty of Aleksander, one of the greatest courts of central Poland.
Rabbi of Novardok, author of the Arukh HaShulhan, complete codification of Jewish law.
Born in Babrouïsk in 1829, he studied for two years at the Volozhin yeshiva where he became close to the Netziv (whose sister he married). Rabbi of Novozybkov (1864) then of Novardok for 34 years (from 1883 onwards). He composed the Aruch ha-Shulhan, a systematic review of the four sections of the Shulhan Arukh tracing the origin of each law, considered one of the great codifications of halakha since Maimonides.
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi
Polish rabbi
Trained in traditional study then won over by the Haskalah, he participated from 1891 in the creation of a modernized heder and taught Hebrew in several Russian cities (Kharkiv, Vilna, Kazan) before emigrating in 1904. In Tel Aviv, he founded and directed the girls' school of Neve Tzedek (1918-1937) and was among the 66 founders of Tel Aviv. He published pedagogical articles (including an influential essay on kindergarten as an antechamber to school) and textbooks.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5599 of the Hebrew era (1839). Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-1.
Grandson of Ezekiel b. Joseph Gabbai, he was the first Jew to hold a position at the Ottoman Ministry of Public Instruction and a figure in the Jewish press in Constantinople.
rabbi and Zionist writer (1843-1913)
Yiddish essayist and memoirist, author of the autobiographical epic « Poyln ».
Yiddish poet and translator (Bible into Yiddish); born in Lithuania.
Rabbi of Fes, 19th century. Died in 5582 of the Hebrew era (1822). Son of Haim I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-1.
Rabbi and Kabbalist born in Baghdad, disciple of Ben Ich Haï, teacher in Jerusalem (Porat Yossef).
Av beth-din of Meknès then chief rabbi of Morocco in the twentieth century.
Rabbi of Taza, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Son of David. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
Odessa editor, co-founder of Sefer ha-Aggadah with Bialik.
French rabbi
Rabbi of Fez, nineteenth century. Died in 5574 of the Hebrew era (1814). Son of Matatiah I. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-2.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5578 (1818), died in 5657 (1897) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yosef. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
Rabbi of Sefrou, nineteenth century. Died in 5605 of the Hebrew era (1845). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-3.
rabbi
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Born in 5586 (1826), died in 5652 (1892) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yedidia. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-4.
Polish rabbi
Yiddish novelist, author of « Yidn fun a gants yor », died in the Shoah.
Rebbi in Poland/Galicia
Rabbi in Algeria, he played a role in the network of Etz Haïm yeshivot (alongside R. Isaac Morali) and served as minister-officiant of Temple Gouguenheim in Algiers. His son Marcel Loufrani, a physician, was an active member of the Éclaireurs israélites.
Rabbi born in Meknès, presented as "descendant of the illustrious Spanish family", who went up to Tiberias in the mid-nineteenth century.
Rebbe of Ger, author of the Sfat Emet, one of the great Hasidic commentaries on the Torah. He led one of the most important Hasidic courts in Poland.
Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and Kabbalist
Talmudist and dayyan of Tunis, author of Limmudei Adonaï (1787).
Kabbalist of Baghdad, disciple of Ben Ich Haï, renowned for his amulets and dream interpretation.
Great-grandson of Nehoraï Jarmon, whose grandfather's name he bore. Published "Shouva Israel" (1886), on repentance, and "Na'halote Avote" (poems, 1877).
Polish rabbi and politician
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Mentioned in 5609 of the Hebrew era (1849). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5585 of the Hebrew era (1825). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 50–2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Son of Mordekhay. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5580 of the Hebrew era (1820). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Rabbi of Fes, nineteenth century. Born in 5594 (1834), died in 5680 (1920) of the Hebrew era. Son of Matatiah. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5617 of the Hebrew era (1857). Son of Mordekhay, himself son of Rafael. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-3.
Born in Jerusalem in a Sephardic family of rabbis and scholars from Izmir, he was one of the first modern Hebrew writers of Sephardic-Eastern origin. Observing that Hebrew literature depicted only the Ashkenazi world, he undertook to describe the life, language and customs of Sephardic Jews of the Middle East, from « Lunah » to his great novels.
American rabbi
Rabbi of Sefrou, 19th century. Died in 5607 of the Hebrew era (1847). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Son of Menahem. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-1.
Poet and journalist, bard of Jerusalem, laureate of the Bialik Prize 1944.
Belarusian rabbi (1869–1941)
Rabbi of Ożarów since 1811, disciple of the Seer of Lublin, of Yehudi ha-Kadosh of Przysucha and of the Ohev Yisrael of Apta. Upon the death of Meïr d'Apta in 1827, his Hasidim took him as their rebbe; his followers numbered in the thousands. He settled in Opole toward the end of his life and died in 1837.
rabbi
Polish-born rabbi and halakhic authority (1861-1937) who became rabbi to Toronto's Polish Jewish community and authored the five-volume talmudic responsa collection Shivalim be-Ne'imim, founding figure of a multi-generation rabbinic dynasty.
Israeli politician
Ukrainian rabbi
Chief Rabbi of Bessarabia
Russian rabbi
Name
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5625 of the Hebrew era (1865). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-4.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 54-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Son of Yaish. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 52-4.
Rabbi of Fez, nineteenth century. Died in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Son of Matatiah. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 44-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5579 of the Hebrew era (1819). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 43-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Son of Yaakov. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 52-2.
Disciple of Uri of Strelisk (« ha-Saraf »), he founded in the 1820s a Hasidic court in eastern Galicia, at Stretyn, active until the Shoah. His descendants gave rise to the Stretyn-Zolkiew and Zidichov-Stretyn branches.
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Mentioned in 5606 of the Hebrew era (1846). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 53-2.
Maskilic poet, first to introduce socialist themes in Hebrew.
Yiddish critic and dramatist of the Kiev circle (Kultur-lige); died in deportation.
Hasidic rabbi (1808–1883)
Yiddish short-story writer and playwright, voice of immigrant women in New York.
(1888-1956)
Hungarian rabbi (1815–1871)
Hasidic rebbe, son of the "Yid Hakadosh" of Peshischa, defender of R. Simcha Bunim and ancestor of the lineage from which the Biala dynasty descended.
Second rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Aleksander, even more famous than his father the founder. His reputation for scholarship attracted tens of thousands of followers (approximately 40,000 people at his funeral in 1910). Author of « Yismach Yisrael », a foundational text of Aleksander ideology, written with his brother Shmuel Tsvi.
The Gadol of Minsk, posek and rosh yeshiva, author of the responsa Or Gadol.
Polish rabbi
One of the most eminent rabbis of Hungary before the Shoah. Rabbi and av beit din of Vác (Vietzen) from 1884 onwards. Counted, with the Maharshag and R. Mordekhaï Winkler (Levushei Mordechai), among the three great halakhic authorities of Hungary. He animated and supplied the rabbinical journal Tel Talpiyot published in Vác from 1892.
Hungarian rabbi
Grand Rabbi of Sanaa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, eminent scholar and reformer of Jewish education, he was at the origin of the Dor Deah ("Generation of Reason") movement in 1912. He raised his grandson Yosef Qafih.
One of the great rabbis of Yemen in the nineteenth century, he directed the central yeshiva of Sanaa and was a guide to the community of Kawkaban. He had as disciples Rabbi Shalom Alshich (future chief rabbi of the Yemenite Jews of Jerusalem) and Rabbi Abraham al-Naddaf. His halakhic and exegetical work is a reference in the Yemenite tradition.
Royal physician-moneyer, Chief Rabbi of Yemen (1932-1934), disciple of Yahya Qafih.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-2.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 19th century. Mentioned in 5600 of the Hebrew era (1840). Son of Shlomo. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 63-1.
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Mentioned in 5571 of the Hebrew era (1811). Son of Benyamin. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5599 of the Hebrew era (1839). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 62-4.
Chief Rabbi of Yemen, av beit din of Sanaa for nearly thirty years.
Israeli politician
Received the leadership of the dynasty as a child (around four years old) after the premature death of his father Asher II, hence his nickname « Yenuka » (the child) of Stolin. His lineage is among the most vibrant in Hasidism today (Israel, Brooklyn).
Descendant of the Dynów dynasty, he became Rebbe of Bluzhov in 1931. Bergen-Belsen survivor (where he held a famous Seder, source of the Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust), he rebuilt the dynasty in the United States and served on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Successor to his father as rebbe of the Hasidim of Zvolin (1888), he settled around 1891 in Modrzyc and founded the dynasty of Modzhitz there. Author of the homiletic collection « Divrei Yisrael » on the Torah, he was above all an immense composer of melodies: tradition reports that he composed a long nigun during the amputation of his leg without anesthesia (1913).
Rebbe of the Ger Hasidic dynasty (1895-1977)
Second rebbe of Husiatyn, son of the founder R. Mordechai Shraga Feivish Friedman. He led the court until 1912 then emigrated to Tel-Aviv in 1937, establishing there one of the first great Ruzhin-type courts in the Land of Israel (the record mentions this episode).
Romanian rabbi
Polish rabbi
Polish rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Mentioned in 5621 of the Hebrew era (1861). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Born in 5596 (1836), died in 5660 (1900) of the Hebrew era. Son of Shmuel, himself son of Menashe. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5599 of the Hebrew era (1839). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5563 of the Hebrew era (1803). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 73-3.
Israeli rabbi and politician (1893–1948)
Rabbi, 19th century. Mentioned in 5622 of the Hebrew era (1862). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-1.
Rabbi of Fez, nineteenth century. Died in 5584 of the Hebrew era (1824). Son of Messod, himself son of Nissim. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5609 of the Hebrew era (1849). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-4.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Died in 5630 of the Hebrew era (1870). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-4.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Died in 5580 of the Hebrew era (1820). Son of Yekutiel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5562 of the Hebrew era (1802). Son of Mordekhay. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 78-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Mentioned in 5586 of the Hebrew era (1826). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 77-3.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Mentioned in 5602 of the Hebrew era (1842). Son of Abraham. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 75-2.
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5584 of the Hebrew era (1824). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5561 of the Hebrew era (1801). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi of Tétouan, 19th century. Died in 5643 of the Hebrew era (1883). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 74-3.
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Mentioned in 5601 of the Hebrew era (1841). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 71-4.
Rabbi of Fès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5576 of the Hebrew era (1816). Son of Yehonatan II. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Mentioned in 5574 of the Hebrew era (1814). Son of Moshe. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
Rabbi of Rabat, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5574 of the Hebrew era (1814). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-3.
4th Alexander Rebbe
Rabbi of Marrakech, 19th century. Mentioned in 5564 of the Hebrew era (1804). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 72-2.
Rabbi of Tétouan, active in the 7th century of the Hebrew era (1840–1939). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 73-4.
Rabbi of Demnate, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-1.
« Itzele Peterburger », disciple of Salanter, chief rabbi of Saint Petersburg, figure of Mussar.
Hasidic rabbi
Great posek and rabbi of Kovno, major halakhic authority of the nineteenth century.
(1896-1977) Hasidic Kabbalist
rabbi
Son-in-law of the Alter of Slabodka, rosh yeshiva of Slabodka, refounded in Bnei Brak.
Romanian Jewish rabbi and translator (1837–1920)
Polish rabbi (1866–1939)
Polish Breslov rabbi
Eldest grandson of Rabbi Israël Friedman of Ruzhin, he established in Buhuşi (Bohush) a hassidic court in the Ruzhin style, which he directed until his death in 1896. His dynasty, which remained in Romania until 1951, was subsequently transferred to Israel (Tel-Aviv, then Bnei Brak).
Grandson of Rabbi Israël of Ruzhin, he established his court around 1887 in Boiany (Bukovina), founding the Hasidic dynasty of Boyan, a branch of Ruzhin-Sadigura. Nicknamed the « Pachad Yitzchok », he was the first rebbe of Boyan until World War I and died in Vienna in 1917; his four sons founded courts in Czernowitz, Leipzig, Lviv, and New York.
Russian rabbi
« Velvel », son of Reb Chaim; refounded the yeshiva of Brisk in Jerusalem, figure of mitnagdism.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Russian rabbi and Jewish historian (1847-1914)
Son of Rabbi Alexander Sender Safrin (founder of the Komarno dynasty) and nephew, who raised him, of Tsvi Hirsch of Zhydachiv. Av Beit Din of Komarno, he was one of the most prolific expositors of the Kabbalah of the Baal Shem Tov, leaving an abundant body of work on Jewish mysticism, the Mishna and halakha.
Kabbalist born in Baghdad, Haredi figure in Israel, renowned for his blessings and amulets.
Poet of the Third Aliyah, author of the epic poem Massada (1927).
One of the eight sons of Rabbi Mordechaï Twersky, the Maggid of Chernobyl. He founded the Hasidic dynasty of Skver in the city of Skvyra (present-day Ukraine) in the middle of the 19th century, a branch of the Chernobyl dynasty.
« Reb Itzele Ponevezher », founder and rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva of Ponevezh, author of Zecher Yitzchak.
Israeli politician
Polish rabbi (1845–1923)
Youngest son of Rebbe Mordechai Twersky, the Maggid of Tchernobyl, he founded the Hasidic court of Rachmastrivka, a branch of the Tchernobyl dynasty. He died on 4 Nissan 5655 (March 29, 1895) in Rachmastrivka. His lineage was reconstituted after the Shoah in Jerusalem and Boro Park.
Rabbi of Tétouan, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5595 of the Hebrew era (1835). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 56-2.
American rabbi
Rabbi of Salé, 19th century. Died in 5583 of the Hebrew era (1823). Son of Ayush. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-2.
Rabbi of Mogador (Essaouira), 19th century. Born in 5569 of the Hebrew era (1809). Son of Aharon. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-2.
Rabbi of Demnate, 19th century. Mentioned in 5594 of the Hebrew era (1834). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-2.
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5604 of the Hebrew era (1844). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-4.
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5581 of the Hebrew era (1821). Son of Maimon. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 61-3.
Rabbi of Debdou, nineteenth century. Mentioned in {year} of the Hebrew calendar (1801). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), p. 59-1.
Rabbi of Brisk, author of the responsa and commentaries Beis Halevi, ancestor of the Soloveitchik dynasty.
Son of Aharon Chelouche, born in Jaffa in 1870. Building entrepreneur and industrialist, he was one of the founders of Tel-Aviv. He left a noted memoir on Judeo-Arab coexistence and the history of Jaffa/Tel-Aviv.
American rabbi
Polish Hasidic rabbi
Born in Jerusalem in 1886, died in Tel-Aviv in 1961 and buried at Har HaMenuhot. Banker, he is among the builders of the Yishuv listed in David Tidhar's Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (vol. 1, p. 87). Of Georgian Jewish descent (surname ending in -chvili).
Hebrew-language writer born in Novi Mlyny (Ukraine, Russian Empire), founding figure of modern Hebrew literature and the Second Aliyah. Author of novels marked by desperate lucidity, he was assassinated near Jaffa during the May 1921 riots.
(1851-1921)
Rabbi, 19th century. Died in 5638 of the Hebrew era (1878). Son of Israel. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-3.
Rabbi of Meknes, 19th century. Mentioned in 5590 of the Hebrew era (1830). Son of Moshe. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-2.
Rabbi, nineteenth century. Mentioned in 5616 of the Hebrew era (1856). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-1.
Rabbi of Rabat, 19th century. Died in 5614 of the Hebrew era (1854). Son of Yaakov. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-1.
Son-in-law of Eliezer Gordon, rosh yeshiva of Telshe, developed its educational system and Mussar.
American rabbi
Rabbi of Meknès, 19th century. Mentioned in 5612 of the Hebrew era (1852). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 57-2.
Born in Munkács, disciple of the rebbe of Zhidachov, he founded around 1873 his own Hasidic court in Spinka (Szaplonca), where he attracted thousands of followers. He is known by the name of his work, Imrei Yosef.
1818-1885
Rabbi of Fès, nineteenth century. Born in 5603 (1843), died in 5662 (1902) of the Hebrew era. Son of Yehoshua II, himself son of Matatiah I. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 60-4.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
rabbi
Disciple of Salanter, founder of the yeshiva and network of Novardok of Mussar.
Israeli rabbi
Son of Samuele Colombo, born in Livorno on November 22, 1897, died in Milan on March 16, 1975. Trained at the Rabbinical College of Livorno from 1915 onwards, teacher and figure of Italian Jewish scholarship, linked to the Rassegna Mensile di Israel. He published posthumously the second part of his father's work « La coscienza di un popolo » and left family memoirs.
Author of « Séfer Tôldôt Ḥakhmé Tûnîs » (History of the Sages of Tunis), rich in biographical and bibliographical notices on the rabbis of Tunisia; written around 1909 and published for the first time in Israel in 1986.
Rabbi in Algiers, son of the dayan Abraham Dadoun. He wrote the preface to the moral work « Tokhakhot Moussar » by rabbi Yossef Azoubib, published in Livorno in 1870.
Tunisian rabbi (1861-1934)
Ukrainian-born British spy
Chief Rabbi and dayan of Constantine, author of ~130 works and translator into Judeo-Arabic.
American rabbi
Raised in the Jewish mahallé, he learned the modes of Persian music from his father, a cantor, from childhood. Nicknamed the « Nightingale of Iran », he was the only Jewish singer to achieve national recognition as an « ustad » (master) of classical Persian music, singing at the shah's palace and on radio from the 1940s to the 1960s. He later emigrated to Israel.
Born in Varniai (Kovno district), he studied at the yeshivot of Telz, Mir and Volozhin and received semikha from the Hafets Hayim at Radin. Emigrated to the United States in 1900, he was rabbi of Anshe Minsk in New York and then directed Bet Hamidrash Hagadol. Author of about fifteen religious works in Hebrew and collections of sermons in Yiddish.
Yiddish linguist and philologist, codirector of the Great Dictionary of the Yiddish language.
American politician born in Saint-Thomas, West Indies, in 1811, and died in New York on October 10, 1886. Established in Florida as a planter, he is elected delegate of this State to the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth Congresses under the name of Levy, then, becoming David Levy Yulee, delegate to Florida's first constitutional convention; United States senator for Florida from December 1845 to 1851 and then from 1855 until his resignation on January 21, 1861, he subsequently sits in the Confederate Congress, is imprisoned at Fort Pulaski in 1865, then presides after the war over the Atlantic and Gulf railroad of Florida.
Belarusian-American Yiddish-language poet and satirist
Russian physician born in Białystok, in the government of Grodno, on July 30, 1850. Admitted in 1869 to the military academy of medicine in Saint Petersburg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1874, he served as chief physician of a Cossack regiment during the Russian-Turkish War, which earned him a decoration from Alexander II; specializing in therapeutic massage, he returned to Saint Petersburg in 1881, published a treatise on the subject in 1882, settled in Berlin the same year as clinical assistant to Bergmann, and became in 1896 full professor of massage at the University of Berlin, a position he still held in 1905.
Russian Hebraist scholar and author born in Białystok, in the Grodno Governorate, in 1803, and died in that same city on November 14, 1869. Devoted to the study of the Haggada, he publishes numerous exegetical notes in the Hebrew press of his time as well as two works: "Mish'an Mayim" (Wilno, 1861), a guide to reading the aggadic passages of the Talmud and the Midrashim, and "Me Mikal" (1872), a critical commentary on difficult passages of Midrash Rabba.
Rabbi and scholar, founder of "positive-historical Judaism" which inspired the Masorti (Conservative) movement. He led the rabbinical seminary of Breslau.
Chief Rabbi of France, translator of the Bible
Syrian rabbi
American military officer and inventor born in Kórnik, Prussian Poland, on December 13, 1849, emigrated to the United States as a child in 1853. Volunteered in the army in 1864, served until the end of the Civil War in 1865, became artillery officer in 1866, taught military science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1872 to 1876, obtained his diploma from the Artillery School of Fort Monroe in 1880, was promoted captain in 1887 and retired from service in 1894; he notably invented a pneumatic cannon-torpedo with dynamite, a sword bayonet and a ranging system for coastal artillery.
American military officer born in New York on January 23, 1863. Enlisted as a private soldier in the regular army in 1885, he became sub-lieutenant of artillery in 1889, graduate of the Artillery School in 1894, then lieutenant in 1895; promoted to captain and quartermaster in 1898, he has been stationed in Washington as major-quartermaster since 1903.
Born in Białystok, went up to Eretz Israël in 1891. Hebrew journalist and writer: he collaborated from 1891 with Ḥabatselet, Hatsfira, Hamelits, was for a long time correspondent in Jerusalem for the Morgn-zhurnal (New York) and wrote under several pseudonyms (Hatsofe, Abi-Zvi, Ish-Yehudi…). Teacher (Jaffa, Ekron, Jerusalem) and co-founder of institutions, including the Mizrahi movement.
Israeli politician
Russian rabbi
Lexicographer and historian of Yiddish literature, author of the « Leksikon ».
1850 or 1851-1923
Israeli politician and statesman
Yiddish and Hebrew poet and novelist.
Lithuanian rabbi
Hebrew and Yiddish writer (pseud. of Aronsohn), author of Reb Abba.
Yiddish short-story writer and playwright, painter of the Lower East Side proletariat.
Founder of Esperanto, born in Białystok in December 1859, son and grandson of language teachers. After studies in medicine in Warsaw and Moscow, where he received his doctorate in 1884, he practiced as an ophthalmologist in Warsaw, Kherson and Grodno, before returning in 1897 to care for the poor Jews of Warsaw. Having first considered Yiddish as a universal language before abandoning it, he developed from 1878 a neutral language drawing on Romance and Germanic roots, which he finally published in 1887 under the pseudonym « Doktoro Esperanto ».
English novelist born in Bristol on July 25, 1869, brother of Israel Zangwill, educated at the Jews' Free School where he taught for a time before turning, with his brother, to printing and then literature. Under the pseudonym « Z. Z. », he published « A Drama in Dutch » (1895), followed by « The World and a Man » (1896), « The Beautiful Miss Brook » (1897) and « Cleo the Magnificent » (1899), then « One's Womenkind » (1903); he is also a high-level chess player.
Austrian playwright and journalist born in Vienna on January 28, 1845 and died in that city on January 31, 1892, son of manufacturer August Zappert. Entering in 1862 the commercial academy of Vienna to take over his father's business, he turned after his father's death to publishing, alone directed the Hügel house from 1869 to 1877, then devoted himself to the theater as artistic director in Presbourg and playwright at the Carltheater in Vienna ; he directed the journal "Wiener Leben" from 1879 and wrote numerous musical plays and revues for the Viennese stage.
Hungarian historian and archaeologist born in Alt-Ofen on December 7, 1806 and died in Vienna on November 23, 1859, trained at the Pest gymnasium and the University of Vienna. He abandoned medical studies after his conversion to Catholicism in 1829, then theology due to deafness that occurred shortly after, and devoted himself thereafter to the study of the Middle Ages; elected corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on July 28, 1851, he published several papers on Christian archaeology and medieval history.
Leading Zionist pioneer, active in organizing vintners and the wine industry (Carmel) in Palestine. He left memoirs published in Tel-Aviv in 1946, cited in research on early Zionist settlement.
Zecharia Gluska (born c. 1895 in the village of Nadir, North Yemen, died 1960) was a humanitarian activist dedicated to Yemenite Jews. He co-founded the youth organization Mizrah (1911) and the United Yemenite Organization of Palestine, served in the first Knesset (1949-1951) and worked for the immigration and settlement of Yemenites. His journal was published posthumously by his brother Yaakov Ben David Gluska.
Hungarian-American Rabbi, writer and book seller (1886–1957)
Erudite and rabbinical preacher of Austro-English origin born in Lemberg in 1827 and died in London in 1903, trained by Joseph Saul Nathansohn, chief rabbi of Lemberg. He published patriotic Hebrew poems there and directed several Hebrew periodicals, including « Meged Yeraḥim » (1855-57) and « Oẓar Ḥokmah » (1859-65), before settling in London in 1875, where he published his sermons under the title « Mussar Haskel » (1878) and devoted his final years to a biographical history of English rabbis, published in 1897.
Russian Hebrew-learning journalist born in Samoście, in the district of Lublin, in 1816, and died in Saint Petersburg in 1893, founder and editor of « Ha-Meliẓ » and other Russian and Yiddish periodicals. Son of poor parents, apprentice tailor, he educated himself in Hebrew letters and in Russian, Polish, and German languages, settled in 1840 in Odessa, a center of Haskalah, then obtained in 1860 permission to publish « Ha-Meliẓ », the first Hebrew periodical of Russia, before launching the first Yiddish newspaper, « Ḳol Mebasser », and founding in 1881 the Yiddish daily « Volksblatt »; his Yiddish journal revealed the talents of Linetzky, Abramovitch, Spector, and Cholem Aleichem.
rabbi
Austrian chemist born in Lomnitz, Moravia, on April 11, 1854, trained at the German gymnasium in Brno then at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in 1879. Privat-docent of chemistry at that same university from 1887, he becomes in 1892 associate professor of general and agricultural chemistry at the superior school of agriculture in Vienna, then professor in 1899, and notably publishes « Die Chemie in Gemeinverständlicher Darstellung » (Vienna, 1890).
American jurist born in Bielsko, Austria, on 11 April 1860, trained at the University of Vienna and then at Northwestern University in Chicago. Admitted to the Chicago bar, he is an assistant defense attorney in the anarchist trials of 1886 and 1887, then elected in 1893 chief assistant municipal prosecutor of Chicago, a position from which he resigned in 1894 for health reasons; active Democrat, he participates in the presidential campaigns of 1896 and 1900.
Austrian dermatologist born in Vierzighuben, near Zwittau in Moravia, on September 22, 1817, and died in Vienna on September 23, 1884, graduated from the University of Vienna in 1846. Assistant in the ophthalmological, surgical and dermatological hospitals of the university from 1846, then privat-docent, he became an authority on skin diseases and syphilis, assistant professor in 1861, full professor and chief physician of the syphilography service at the general hospital in 1869, a position he held until his resignation in 1883; ennobled by the Emperor, he published several standard works on syphilis, translated into several languages.
Russian scholar and philanthropist born in Kiev on October 10, 1823 and died in Dresden on January 11, 1888. Raised near the Hasidim in Chernobyl then turned toward secular sciences and Hebrew literature, he becomes a supplier to the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish war, earning him a decoration from Tsar Alexander II on August 1, 1879, before settling in 1883 in Dresden, where he assembles a library made available to talmudic students. In 1887, he travels to the Holy Land to celebrate Passover, visits Jerusalem and Hebron, and bequeaths fifty thousand francs to the agricultural colonies of Palestine.
Russian scholar and bibliographer born in Homel, in the province of Moghilev, around the middle of the nineteenth century. He devoted twenty years to the compilation of the « Ḳiryat Sefer », a bibliographic dictionary of modern Hebrew literature from Mendelssohn to 1890, drawing on the repertories of Benjacob and Fürst and on his research in the libraries of Wilno, Warsaw, Königsberg, Berlin, Geneva and Paris; he had previously published, in Saint Petersburg in 1882, an index of seventy-seven works on the Jewish calendar.
Israeli rabbi
Austro-Italian poet born in Trieste in 1808 and died in that city in 1885, trained at the rabbinical college of Padua where he was the favorite student of Samuel David Luzzatto. He published notably an elegy on the death of his master (Padua, 1865) as well as a collection of Hebrew poems and several essays; a complete edition bringing together his Hebrew writings, his hymns and his poems was published posthumously under the direction of Vittorio Castiglione in 1866.
Hungarian journalist and revolutionary born in Hungary around 1820. Editor-in-chief of "Der Ungar" in 1848, the year he also distinguishes himself as captain and adjutant of Schweichel in the honvéd army, he takes refuge after the failure of the revolution in Belgrade in 1849, enters the service of the French consul, translates in 1850 the works of Kossuth into German, then settles in London in 1853, where he becomes a member of the Royal Medical College and secretary of the German national association; he was still residing there in 1863.
Hungarian Hasidic Rebbe
rabbi of Jerusalem
Rabbi of Meknès, nineteenth century. Died in 5600 of the Hebrew era (1840). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 31-4.
Hungarian painter born in Budapest in 1861, trained at the national school of drawing and then at the Academy of Munich, before perfecting his education in Berlin, Paris and London. Specialized in portraiture, he received the gold medal of Munich in 1887; among his works are "Alone in the Woods", "Louis II on his Deathbed" and "Sunset over Lake Constance".
Pietist and English scholar born in Fürth, in Bavaria, in March 1831, and died in London on 10 January 1895, renowned for intense piety inherited from a zealous Hasidic father. Settled in England around 1850 for business, he devotes most of his time to the study of the Law and the Kabbalah, notably gematria and astronomical calculations, compiles a genealogical table of the chief rabbis of England, and counts among the founders of the Federation of Synagogues of London; he is said to have inspired the character of Karlkammer in Zangwill's « Children of the Ghetto ».
German woman of letters born in Hamburg on March 25, 1846, settled in England from a young age where she lived until 1887, then in Florence. She publishes biographies of Schopenhauer (1873), Maria Edgeworth (1883) and Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema (1902), translates in particular the tales of the Eddas and the « Épics of Kings » (1882), the comedies of Goldoni (1892) and the « Pentamerone » (1893), and gives a volume on the Hanseatic cities in the collection « The Story of the Nations » (1899).
German poet and rabbinic scholar born in Fürth, Bavaria, on May 7, 1829, and died in Cincinnati on December 17, 1893. Educated in poetry in Munich then in Vienna, where his tragedy "Kassandra" appeared in 1856, rabbi in Hungary in 1857, he settled in Frankfurt, where he connected in 1859 with Isaac Marcus Jost, then taught for thirteen years in London from 1860, directed the institute of Hebrew teachers of Münster from 1873, became professor of history at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1884, and rabbi of Ahabath Achim in that city from 1889 until his death.
Yiddish poet, theorist of « pure poetry » in the Di Yunge group.
French novelist born in Paris on April 2, 1840 and died in that city on September 29, 1902. It is only in his last years, when antisemitism had reached an acute degree in France, that he takes up the cause of the Jewish community, although several Jewish characters, linked to the financial world, already appear in his earlier novels, such as the Steiner of "Nana" or the bankers of "L'Argent". He publishes in 1896 in the "Figaro" a resounding article, "Pour les Juifs", denouncing the antisemitic campaign as "monstrous", then, after embracing the cause of Dreyfus, returns to the question in several later articles.
Polish scholar born in Łask in 1821 and died in Berlin in 1884, trained in rabbinical literature in his native country then, in Germany, under Joseph Shapiro and Jacob Ettinger, before studying at the universities of Würzburg and Berlin. Appointed in 1871 principal professor of the Bet ha-Midrash of Berlin, a position he holds until his death, he publishes several talmudic commentaries, including the « Debar Halakah » on the laws of Passover (Berlin, 1864) and the « Moreh Derek » on the treatise Mo'ed Qatan (1870).
Community activist in Melbourne, Australia, born in London in 1837 and died on October 23, 1899, arrived in Melbourne at thirteen, where he successively engaged in gold panning, auctioneering and the clothing trade before becoming a financier. Regarded as the leader of the Jewish community of Melbourne, he presides over its congregation and several charitable works, enters the Victorian Legislative Assembly in May 1877 as representative of East Melbourne, sits for twenty-one years, and presides over the charity commission.
opera singer
German chemist and industrialist born on 17 August 1871 in Uffenheim, Bavaria, trained in pharmacy and chemistry at the universities of Würzburg and Erlangen. While still a student, he successfully directed, at the request of the Württemberg government, a commission to combat an insect pest of the vineyard, then was appointed military pharmacist of the Bavarian disabled home; he notably published « Beitrag zur Direkten Beeinflussung der Pflanzen... » (Stuttgart, 1896) and a « Repertorium der Photochemie » (1901).
German librarian and author born on May 1, 1841, for a long time chief librarian of the University of Erlangen and specialist in art history. He notably published « Dürers Stellung zur Reformation » (1886), a « Michelangelo » (1888), a study on seventeenth-century Dutch painting (1892) and an « Albrecht Dürer » (1900), and co-directed with J. Merz the « Christliches Kunstblatt ».
Rabbi and German Talmudist born in Ungarisch-Brod, in Moravia, on April 24, 1836. Rabbi in Pleschen, in Prussia, he is appointed on April 1, 1898 lecturer on the Mora-Leipziger foundation in Breslau. He publishes notably "Die Erfurter Handschrift der Tosefta" (1876), an edition of the Tosefta according to the manuscripts of Erfurt and Vienna, as well as a collection of biblical sentences (1889) and a vocabulary and grammar relating to it (1890).
German scholar born in Breslau on October 9, 1818 and died in that city on December 17, 1891, trained in mathematics and astronomy. Associated in 1845 with Graetz to congratulate Zacharias Frankel on his conservative position, he joined the teaching team of the Breslau seminary when Frankel took its direction, teaching there mathematics and calendar; he publishes a work on the sabbatical cycle (Breslau, 1859, translated into English in 1866) and another on mathematics in the Talmud (1878). Strictly Orthodox and a bachelor, he fled Breslau to escape celebrations of his birthday and forbade by will any funeral oration.
Chess player and physician born in Lublin, Russian Poland, on September 7, 1842, and died in London on June 20, 1888, son of a pastor converted from Judaism. Graduated in medicine from Breslau in 1866, he served in the medical corps of the German army in 1866 then in 1870, while establishing himself as one of the best players in Germany after beating Anderssen in 1862 then in match in 1871. Settled in London in 1872, naturalized English, he won first prize in the international tournament in London in 1883 ahead of Steinitz and Blackburne, but collapsed after an exhausting tour against Steinitz in 1886 and died of apoplexy two years later.
« Badkhen » and Russian poet born in Vilno in 1845, who becomes locally known from age sixteen by setting his verses to music to sing at weddings, with fees reaching two hundred rubles. Since the publication of his « Shirim Ḥadashim » (Vilno, 1861), he composes more than six hundred songs, some of which he translates himself into Hebrew; leaving on tour to the United States in 1889, he settled in New York as a printer and publisher, where an edition of his songs with their music was published in 1891.
German physiologist born in Bonn on October 6, 1847, educated at the university of his native city (doctorate in medicine in 1868). Assistant at the institute of physiology of that university, he became privat-docent in 1871 then, a few years later, prosector and assistant professor of anatomy, before being appointed in 1881 professor of animal physiology at the superior school of agriculture in Berlin; he published numerous works on physiology, nutrition and respiration.
Galician writer in Hebrew and Yiddish born in Drohobycz around 1850. He directs the Yiddish weekly « Drohobyczer Zeitung », founded in 1883, and the periodical « Ẓiyyon », first devoted to Hebrew literature from 1885 to 1888 then becoming a scholarly journal, and publishes several works, including a historical novel about the Jews of Spain (Brody, 1867), a biography of the preacher Abraham Cohn of Lemberg (1869), and a Yiddish novel on Jewish life in Galicia, « Vom Ḥeder zur Werkstätte » (1884).
American journalist
rabbi
Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, Greece (1884-1945)
Lithuanian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Russian rabbi
German gynecologist born in Höngg, near Zurich, on June 30, 1848, trained at the University of Zurich (doctorate in medicine in 1871). Received in the same year the venia legendi from the University of Strasbourg, where he was already assistant at the gynecological institute, he was appointed professor of gynecology at Erlangen in 1876 then transferred to Leipzig in 1887; author of more than a hundred medical monographs, he published notably a "Lehrbuch der Operativen Geburtshülfe" (Stuttgart, 1881) and a treatise on symphyseotomy (1893).
Russian apologist and critical compiler born in Moghilev on April 15, 1815 and died in Glouchov on February 18, 1888, lecturer at the rabbinical seminary of Jitomir from 1853 until its closure in 1874. Great collector of rabbinical quotations, mediator between currents of Russian Judaism and resolute defender of both the Hasidim and the Karaites, he is best known for his four-volume apology of Hasidism, « Shalom 'al-Yisrael », in which he connects the movement of Besht to the thought of Maimonides, Bahya and Moïse Luzzatto, and compares the prejudices of which the Hasidim are victims to the oppression of the Jews by Christians.
Shoah, birth of Israel, global diaspora.
rabbi
American chancellor
Thinker of Labor Zionism, prophet of the "religion of labor" and the return to the land. Late in life, he settled as an agricultural worker in Galilee.
Moroccan rabbi
Rebbe of Belz, one of the great Galician Hasidic figures, whose escape from Europe during the Shoah was the subject of a rescue operation. He rebuilt his court in Israel.
American film producer
American rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
Jewish writer and resistance fighter of Lithuanian origin
American Jewish gymnast and coach (b. 1934), two-time Olympian and U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member who coached the American men's team to its first Olympic team medal in 1984; inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Considered one of the greatest Yiddish poets of the twentieth century and "the great poet of the Shoah". Member of the Yung-Vilne group, he was confined to the Vilna ghetto (1941–1945) where he wrote and participated in rescuing manuscripts and books threatened by the Nazis. A survivor, he founded and directed in Israel the literary journal Di Goldene Keyt.
Major Israeli novelist and playwright, author of Mr. Mani and The Lover. Together with Oz and Grossman, he was one of the pillars of Israeli fiction.
Polish-British rabbi
American politician
rabbi
Son of rabbi Solomon Dadia, grandson of Perez, he lived in the Dadès region in southern Morocco at an undetermined time; his tombstone was discovered by researcher Pierre Flamand.
Born in Bombay in a family of Baghdadi Jews (fathers Meyer and Isaac born in Rangoon, descendants of Jewish immigrants from Baghdad). Judge of the federal court of the southern district of New York (1979–1985), then legal advisor to the United States Department of State (1985–1990) and researcher at the Hoover Institution. Author of a reference work on constitutional powers in foreign affairs.
Chief rabbi, editor and secondary school teacher from Mulhouse
American jurist
2001 murder in Zürich, Switzerland
American rabbi
First Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Mandatory Palestine, mystical thinker of religious Zionism. He sought to reconcile tradition, modernity, and national renewal.
rabbi and philosopher
American chaplain (1915-2007)
Rebbe of Gur, head of one of the largest Hasidic courts in Poland, co-founder of the Agudat Israel party. He narrowly escaped the Shoah.
British rabbi
Born in 1912 in Itaituba (Pará), of Moroccan Sephardic origin (his maternal great-grandmother arrived in Amazonia in 1850). Primary education in Morocco (Alliance Israélite Universelle), then return to Belém and career as an artillery officer. He devoted a work to the first Israeli community in Brazil, that of Moroccan Jews in Amazonia.
Moroccan political activist
Rabbi of Tangier, 20th century. Mentioned in 5666 of the Hebrew era (1906). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 18–2.
American rabbi and psychiatrist
Russian-Ukrainian Jew who emigrated to the United States, settled in Dallas where he founded a clothing manufacturing business. On November 22, 1963, he filmed, from Dealey Plaza, the assassination of President Kennedy — the 26 seconds of the "Zapruder film" became one of the most studied documents of the twentieth century.
Born in Jerusalem, world authority in West-Semitic paleography (ancient Hebrew and Aramaic). Author of standard works and dozens of articles; she worked on the manuscripts of the Dead Sea, Aramaic documents and the amulet of Ketef Hinnom. Died in 2018.
American actor and musician
French pianist born in 1987, recipient of the Clara Haskil Competition (2009) and Victoire de la musique classique (instrumental soloist revelation). Modern figure bearing the patronym Laloum (non-patrimonial axis; cited for completeness).
Israeli poet, founder of the Ars Poetica movement.
Israeli poet and professor of Talmud, faith and creation.
Polish Jewish logician and mathematician of the Warsaw school, known for the Lindenbaum lemma and Lindenbaum–Tarski algebras. Doctor in 1928 (under W. Sierpiński), habilitated in 1934 at the University of Warsaw, he was Alfred Tarski's closest collaborator between the wars. He published on mathematical logic, set theory and cardinal arithmetic. He was murdered by the Nazis at Ponary, near Vilnius.
Argentine politician
Son of Camillo, an antifascist like his father, he transformed Olivetti into a worldwide model, combining productive growth, design (rationalism, Bauhaus) and concern for workers' welfare. He advanced a politico-social vision of « Communities » and engaged in publishing activities.
Israeli poet, nature, eroticism and memory of the Shoah.
Ukrainian thinker, the principal theorist of "cultural Zionism" advocating a spiritual renewal of Judaism. Born Asher Ginsberg, he opposed purely political Zionism.
Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor, whose work in Hebrew explores memory and lost childhood. Author of Badenheim 1939 and The Story of a Life.
Born Erik Brick in Kaunas (Lithuania) in 1936, Shoah survivor, emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1947. Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University (1974–1975), Attorney General of Israel (1975–1978), judge (1978–1995) then president (1995–2006) of the Israeli Supreme Court. Highly cited legal theorist, he taught notably at Yale and Reichman University.
Rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel (Baltimore) since 2001; member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Russian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli novelist and playwright, 1948 generation.
South African rabbi
Brother of Yonatan Razel, Israeli singer and composer exploring themes of Torah and Orthodox Judaism. Discography from 1999 to 2019: « Water From the Rock » (1999), « The Burning Bush » (2003), « Ha'Neshama Rotzah Yoteir » (2019), etc. The two brothers published a joint album in 1991 on Phonokol.
Israeli poet and translator of classical Greek, political verse.
Israeli philosopher
Born Aharon Rabinowitz, he Hebraicized his name to Yariv. Chief of Israeli military intelligence (AMAN) from 1964 to 1972, he played a central role in preparing for the Six-Day War, then served as the Prime Minister's antiterrorism advisor, member of Knesset (Maarah), minister of Transport and later Information. In 1977 he founded the Center for Strategic Studies at Tel-Aviv University (future INSS).
Israeli settled in the United Kingdom, former officer of artillery in the IDF. Political scientist at King's College London, specialist in the Israeli-Arab conflict. Author of several reference works and co-author/consultant of the documentary series 'The Fifty Years War'.
Modern-Orthodox rabbi and writer
Rosh yeshiva (Brisk Chicago) and Talmudic master at Yeshiva University, brother of Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
American-Israeli rabbi
Born in Tunis in a Sephardic Jewish family, emigrated to Paris at 18. With composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, he is the author of the librettos and lyrics of highly successful musical comedies worldwide: La Révolution française (1973), Les Misérables (1980), Miss Saigon (1989), Martin Guerre (1996).
French philosopher and writer, professor at École polytechnique and host of the program « Répliques » on France Culture. Elected to the Académie française in 2014. His essay « Le Juif imaginaire » (Seuil, 1980), translated into English as « The Imaginary Jew », addresses Jewish memory after the Holocaust; he has published some thirty essays including « La Défaite de la pensée » (Gallimard, 1987).
Born in 1939 to a Jewish family of Alsatian origin, republican and not particularly observant (his father, inspector of the Bank of France, was killed in action in June 1940). A physicist, he became one of the leaders of May 68 (alongside Sauvageot and Cohn-Bendit) heading the SNESup, then led the Gauche prolétarienne (Maoist group). He subsequently became inspector general of the Education Ministry.
French rabbi
Born in Casablanca in 1947 into a traditional and affluent Sephardic Jewish family, presented by his biographical note as the great-grandson of a renowned rabbi of Morocco (unnamed). Anthropologist by training, he was national delegate of the French Communist Party for culture and vice-president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional council in charge of culture.
French political figure
Alan Harvey Guth, born in 1947 in New Brunswick (New Jersey) into a Jewish family (parents Hyman and Elaine Guth). Professor of physics at MIT (Victor Weisskopf chair), he is the father of the theory of cosmic inflation (1979-1981), for which he received the 2014 Kavli Prize. He presented the theory to the general public in a book.
Born in Brooklyn in 1938, son of Harry and Belle (Simon) Lelchuk, he is an American novelist aware of his place in the Judeo-American literary tradition. Co-founder of Steerforth Press, he has taught at Brandeis, Amherst, and since 1985 at Dartmouth College. His early novels depict Jewish-American intellectual life.
American musician
Born in Brooklyn to Julius and Shirley Zweibel, a Jewish family. Original screenwriter for Saturday Night Live (1975-1980), winner of five Emmy Awards. Author of about ten books, including the novel « The Other Shulman » (Thurber Prize 2006 for American humor) and the memoir « Laugh Lines » (2020). Collaborated with Billy Crystal (700 Sundays) and Dave Barry (Lunatics).
Franco-Israeli-American Moroccan fashion designer
Community activist and publicist active in Tunis in the first half of the twentieth century, author of two biographical reference works on Tunisian Judaism.
Writer and translator born in Algiers on 8 April 1935, agrégé in Spanish, doctoral degree in literature, professor of Spanish literature at Rennes-II (1978–1995). Major translator of Hispanic authors (including most of Mario Vargas Llosa's work), founding member of ATLF, silver medallist of the French Academy (2012). His literary works depict the Algerian Judeo-Arab world.
Great paytan (liturgical cantor) of Moroccan Jewry, renowned for his teaching of the art of the hazzan. He notably recorded a complete Psalter (album in 10 records) and was one of the twelve founders of the Em Habanim synagogue (San Fernando Valley, California). He has an authority record at the BnF.
Born and raised in Thessalonika into a Sephardic Jewish family whose parents survived the Shoah, his ancestors having fled Spain after 1492. Became CEO of Pfizer, he published in 2022 "Moonshot", an account of the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, including a chapter relating the Sephardic history of his Salonica family.
German rabbi
American actor and composer
Born in 1920 in Tunis to an Arabic-speaking Tunisian Jewish family from the Hara quarter, son of a saddle maker. Writer and sociologist of colonization, he published The Statue of Salt (1953) then The Portrait of the Colonized, preceded by The Portrait of the Colonizer (1957, preface by Jean-Paul Sartre). He settled in Paris and developed concepts on Jewishness, racism, and decolonization.
American physician and virologist of Polish origin, creator of the oral vaccine against poliomyelitis. His vaccine enabled the eradication of the disease in many countries.
Born in Casablanca, arrived in Israel as a child, he grew up in the large housing complexes for immigrants in Jerusalem. Writer and art critic, he published in 1990 the Hebrew novel Aqud ("Bound"), acclaimed for its rich language and graphic portrayal of the childhood of North African Jews (Mizrahim) in 1970s Israel.
Author of « Les Juifs de Tunisie : histoire d'une émancipation entre 1857 et 1958 » (Éditions Glyphe, 2013), a study of a crucial century for the Tunisian Jewish community.
Argentine jurist
Writer, editor and Italian Jewish literary critic from Milan, from a Jewish family of Emilian origin. Co-founder of the literary journal Corrente (1938), forced into exile (Grenoble then Lugano) after the fascist racial laws of 1938. Founder of the antiquarian bookstore and then publishing house Il Polifilo (1941). Recipient of the Bagutta Prize 1970 for L'invenzione, author notably of Il Battello per Kew (translated The Trunk), a significant text on the Memory of Fascism and the Shoah in Italy.
Italian writer
American art dealer and racehorse owner
Alégrina Benchimol (born in 1885, death date unknown), from the Benchimol family of Tangier and Tétouan. Director of schools of the Alliance israélite universelle, she taught and directed, alongside her sisters, Alliance establishments in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. The Benchimol sisters count among those Alliance-trained teachers who carried the education of Jewish girls across the Mediterranean, in communities where it was far from assured. The precise dates and posts of her career remain, to this day, incompletely documented.
Israeli mathematician, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (headed the mathematics department 1994–1996), laureate of the Israel Prize 2018. His work concerns finite and infinite groups and expander graphs. He served as a member of the 14th Knesset. Author of prize-winning works (Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize 1992).
Austrian scholar and rabbi
Belarusian military figure
American army chaplain killed in action (1911-1943)
Rabbi (ordained at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary) and professor of Jewish thought at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, holder of a doctorate from the Hebrew University. Specialist in Abraham Joshua Heschel, phenomenology and Jewish mysticism; author of three books and numerous scholarly articles.
Rabbi and leading figure of American Reform Judaism during the 1970s and 1980s
Neurologist, pioneer in the study of post-traumatic stress; daughter of Alfred Adler.
Granddaughter of Abraham Zapruder. Author of « Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust » (Yale University Press, 2002), which received a National Jewish Book Award, and « Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film » (2016), a family history of the film and its afterlife.
Romanian-Swiss rabbi
Brazilian chess player
French Chief Rabbi
Born in Tripoli in 1958 into a family of Italian language and culture, he left Libya after the Six-Day War (1967). Trained at the Italian Rabbinical College in Rome under Elio Toaff (Maskil and Semikhà, thesis on the Moussar movement), he teaches Talmud in Milan then succeeded in 2005 Rav Giuseppe Laras as chief rabbi of Milan. Katz Foundation Prize 2019.
American rabbi
French swimmer and water polo player
Hungarian mathematician whose parents were both Jewish; his mother was the daughter of philosopher Bernhard Alexander. Prevented from entering university in 1939 by antisemitic laws, interned in a labor camp from which he escaped, he completed his doctorate in 1947. Author of more than 30 joint papers with Paul Erdős (model of the Erdős–Rényi random graph); he founded the Institute of Mathematics in Budapest that bears his name today (« Rényi entropy »).
American mathematician and logician of Polish origin
German rabbi (1915-2004)
Algerian singer
Israeli journalist and author
German-speaking Prague pianist and music teacher
American actress
Physician and resistance fighter of the Warsaw Ghetto; co-founder of Doctors of the World.
Israeli actor
Israeli novelist and actress born in Ukraine.
Israeli actress
hasidic author (1906–1994)
Israeli novelist, lyrical modernist prose.
Italian painter and sculptor of the School of Paris, famous for his portraits with elongated faces. He came from a Sephardic Jewish family of Livorno.
Born in Essaouira, trained at the École Normale Israélite Orientale under the direction of Emmanuel Levinas, he emigrated to Israel in 1970 and defended the first Israeli thesis on Levinas there. He writes in both Hebrew and French, locating the essential part of his novelistic work in Essaouira-Mogador whose history and Jewish life he reconstructs, and devotes himself to the philosophy and theologies of Judaism.
Israeli poet, novelist and essayist, translated into 50 languages.
Amir Peretz, born in 1952 in Boujad, emigrated to Israel with his family in 1956. Former mayor of Sderot and leader of the Histadrout trade union federation, he chaired the Israeli Labor Party and served as Minister of Defense (2006-2007) then Minister of Economy. He remains one of the major Israeli political figures from Moroccan Jewish immigration, driven by a commitment to social justice.
Israeli poetess of Iraqi origin, double Prime Minister Prize.
Born Werner Falk in Cologne in 1929 in a Jewish family, he fled Nazi Germany and settled in Palestine in 1938, where the family adopted the name Etzioni (a pseudonym Amitai used from his teenage writings at Ben Shemen). A leading Israeli-American sociologist, he founded the Communitarian Network and forged the modern notion of communitarianism. He studied under Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem and the Leibowitz brothers in Jerusalem.
Born "Naser (Nāṣer) Soluki" in Rasht, emigrated to Israel in 1950; doctorate in Iranian studies at Columbia University (1969). Co-founder of the Department of Iranian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1970), he was the leading authority on the history of the Jews of Iran and Judeo-Persian literature. He also founded the Persian service of the Voice of Israel (1958). He edited and compiled over two hundred articles, books and monographs.
Israeli writer born in Aleppo, Sephardic prose.
Computer scientist, Hebrew University professor and founder/CEO of Mobileye (sold to Intel for $15.3bn), recipient of the 2023 Israel Prize for lifetime achievement; born in Ramat Gan to a family of Iraqi Jewish origin.
Israeli chronicler and satirist, visual artist and novelist.
World-renowned Israeli novelist and essayist, author of A Tale of Love and Darkness. He was a moral figure of the peace camp.
Rabbi of Moroccan origin, spiritual director of the Toronto Torah Center (Moroccan Jewish archive).
rabbi
Uruguayan journalist and writer (1969-2015)
Israeli playwright and screenwriter, humanist comedies.
André Azoulay, born in 1941 in Essaouira (Mogador), is an advisor to the King of Morocco: economic advisor to Hassan II from 1991, then, since 1999, advisor to Mohammed VI. Trained as an economist, he pursued a long banking career, notably at the Paribas group, before entering the service of the Palace. Attached to Judeo-Moroccan identity, he founded and chairs the Essaouira-Mogador Association and the Festival of Atlantic Andalusias, which brings into dialogue Jewish, Muslim and Andalusian heritage. Long engaged in Judeo-Muslim dialogue and Euro-Mediterranean relations, he chaired the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Dialogue Between Cultures. His public life has given to Moroccan Jewish memory a face of coexistence and involvement in collective life.
Born in 1937 into an Austro-French Jewish family, he was one of the figures of the "new philosophers" and an activist of antitotalitarianism and human rights. He denounced the Soviet camps revealed by Solzhenitsyn and broke with Marxism.
French philosopher
Born in Constantine in a Jewish family of Algeria, stripped of French nationality in 1940 by Vichy, he joined the Free French in 1942. Agrégé in history, he teaches at the University of Tunis and later becomes professor at the University of Nice, specialist in colonial Algeria and the contemporary Maghreb/Middle East; he supervised numerous dissertations (including that of Gilbert Meynier).
French writer, author of The Last of the Just, Prix Goncourt 1959, an epic on the persecutions of the Jews through the centuries. Orphaned of deported parents.
Israeli fencer
Film screenwriter active from 1946 to 1974 (over 30 films), born in Algiers and died in Paris. Older brother of Georges Tabet. Among his screenplays: La Grande Vadrouille (1966), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1954).
American R&B and punk blues musician (1936–2019)
French rabbi
criminologist, novelist under the pseudonym Andreas Burnier
Uruguayan politician
American writer and publisher (1969–2012)
Jewish Italian-American electrical engineer born in Bergamo (Italy) in 1935, from an Italian Jewish family. Co-founder of Qualcomm in 1985 and inventor of the Viterbi algorithm (1967), widely used in digital telecommunications.
Chilean rabbi
Italian novelist and screenwriter
English tennis player
Writer, journalist and anthropologist born in Aguascalientes (Mexico) to Jewish Latvian parents. Author of « Idols Behind Altars » and « The Wind that Swept Mexico ».
German-British cellist, Auschwitz survivor and member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz; matriarch of a Jewish musical dynasty carried on by son Raphael Wallfisch and grandson Benjamin Wallfisch.
Brazilian historian, specialized in the Portuguese Inquisition
French biographer and essayist, twice awarded by the French Academy and laureate of the Goncourt Prize for Biography (1996). She has written about her ancestor James de Rothschild, about Astolphe de Custine, as well as literary studies on Balzac and Proust.
American artist and author
Belgian producer and philanthropist (1919-2021)
German Jewish teenager whose diary, kept in hiding in Amsterdam, became a universal testimony of the Shoah. She died in the Bergen-Belsen camp.
American actress
Born in Algiers in 1948 in a Jewish family with multiple Mediterranean origins (Algeria, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy). Historian and writer, she taught at NYU, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Freie Universität Berlin. Author of the first biography of Jean-Paul Sartre (1985), translated into sixteen languages.
American journalist
American politician
Russian journalist
Italian historian and economist (1904-1976)
Jewish historian, professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at Brandeis University and chief historian of the POLIN museum's educational program (Warsaw). Author of the three-volume reference synthesis 'The Jews in Poland and Russia' (2010–2012), which was awarded prizes (Pro Historia Polonorum Prize from the Polish Senate, Kulczycki Prize).
American politician
American businessman
Dutch economist and politician
Dutch psychiatrist and politician (1901–1983)
Israeli politician
Rabbi ("Rav") trained in Rome, licensed in philosophy, superior rabbinical title obtained in 2008. Officiant, teacher then director of the Rabbinical College of Rome until 2014, chief rabbi of Turin from 2014 to 2022, then in charge of the Bet Shalom synagogue in Rome. Co-author of volumes of introduction to Judaism and prolific author of essays on Jewish culture (several hundred published contributions, e.g. on the Morashà portal).
Israeli general and Prime Minister, born Ariel Scheinerman in Kfar Malal before being given the Hebraized surname Sharon around 1948.
Israeli historian
Painter, engraver, poet and singer from Austria from a family of emigrated Jews, he grew up in Vienna under the Nazi regime (survivor). Founding member of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism with Ernst Fuchs.
American science fiction novelist and short-story writer
Born in Riga in 1911 in a Jewish family of the Russian Empire, he was the most famous Soviet humorist and satirist of the twentieth century, a figure on the stage for nearly half a century. He founded the theater that would become the Satyricon. Winner of the Lenin Prize (1980) and People's Artist of the USSR (1968).
United States senator for Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011
American actor
Slovak rabbi
Born September 5, 1908, in Caraglio, a small town in Piedmont near Cuneo, into a wealthy Jewish family. Historian of Greco-Roman Antiquity, he taught at University College London and then at the University of Chicago and renewed the study of ancient historiography and Hellenistic Judaism.
American lawyer
American specialist in Judaism, seventh chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (2006-2020), formerly professor at Stanford University.
Austrian composer, inventor of dodecaphony, which revolutionized twentieth-century music. He returned to Judaism in the face of rising Nazism and emigrated to the United States.
American economist
Jewish scholar
Resistance fighter, French rabbi
American cartoonist, born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman to Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, author of the graphic novel "Maus" about his father's Holocaust survival, winner of a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
Polish-born American Jewish businessman and philanthropist who founded the Belco Petroleum Corporation and endowed institutions at Yeshiva University.
American rabbi and theologian
American rabbi and historian (1921–2006)
Hungarian novelist, memoirist and essayist
American rabbi
American writer
Polish-born American pianist, one of the greatest interpreters of Chopin in the twentieth century. His career spanned more than seventy years.
Chemist (PhD MIT, 1956), entrepreneur and philanthropist of Boston. He reconstructed the genealogy of the Jewish Obermayer family back to his ancestor Isaak Obermayer, born in the Kriegshaber suburb (Augsburg) and died in 1836, and founded in 2000 the Obermayer German Jewish History Awards.
American rabbi
British rabbi
Rosh yeshiva, Mir Brachfeld
American rabbi, translator and physicist
Rabbi (1912-2011)
Founder of Beth Hatalmud (Brooklyn); eminent disciple of the Mir and of Mussar.
Hebrew poet, cofounder of the Likrat group, Israel Prize 2010.
rabbi
Maggid shiur of the Mir (Jerusalem); one of the greatest Talmud classes in the world.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli novelist and essayist, kibbutz prose.
poet (1927-1969)
Born in New York in 1931 to Jewish parents of Eastern European origin (Galicia), graduate of Cooper Union (1951). First photorealist to enter the MoMA collection (1966) and first living woman artist to appear in the reference manual by H. W. Janson. Also author of several books on art and a memoir.
film producer and Israeli-American businessman
Israeli singer, bassist and composer, lead vocalist of the rock band Nikmat Hatraktor since 1988; born in Givatayim to a Sephardic Jewish family, his father from an Italian-Jewish line via Alexandria and Corfu, his mother from a Ladino-speaking family of Thessaloniki.
Israeli rabbi, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights since 2019, raised in an Orthodox household in Ashkelon. He was born to a Syrian Jewish mother and a Libyan Jewish father. He published « The Periphery Rebellion » (Pardes), a memoir and analysis of relations between Israel's center and its periphery.
American producer
Major Israeli filmmaker of the past five decades. First film The Band (Halahaka, 1978), a great success in Israel; acclaimed films including The Matchmaker, The Secrets, The Other Story. Prize for Culture for his lifetime achievement (2018).
Israeli general
American rabbi
Composer, arranger and Israeli singer born in 1948 in Tel-Aviv to Yemenite parents (mother from a family immigrated from Yemen in 1906, father cantor immigrated from Yemen in 1939). Author of more than 400 songs, he played a decisive role in the entry of "muzika mizrahit" into the Israeli mainstream and composed many of the successes of Zohar Argov. Laureate of the Israel Prize for Hebrew song.
Israeli economist and Labor Party politician, fifth president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1990-2006) and Knesset member (2006-2015); recipient of the 2020 Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement.
Israeli police officer (1916-1987)
American rabbi
Born in Rome, graduate of the Italian Rabbinical College (Maskil 1959, Semikha 1964). Rabbi of Venice from 1961 to 1972, then rabbi in Rome until 2002, where he was deputy to the Chief Rabbi and director of the Rabbinical Office of Rome.
Born on Rosh Hashana 5671 (1910) in Sana'a, died on 9 Elul 5758 (1998) in Kiryat Binyamin. He served as hazzan of the Alkhulani Synagogue in Sana'a from 1932 onwards, and after his alya, established the religious infrastructure of Kiryat Binyamin (synagogue, mikveh, Talmud-Torah). He advocated for Jewish religious education, performed circumcisions free of charge and helped impoverished families.
French rabbi
Israeli producer and impresario nicknamed "Pashanel," born in Tel-Aviv in 1926. In nearly 48 years of career he mounted hundreds of plays, musical comedies, films and broadcasts, and was associated with major companies (HaGashash HaHiver, Kaveret). Israeli Theater Prize for lifetime achievement (2002).
Israeli rabbi and rosh yeshiva
Born in Tunis, he emigrated young to France with other Tunisian Jews, married there, became attached to the Hasidic teaching of Breslev (encounter with Rabbi Israël Odesser), made aliyah and lived in Jerusalem where he founded his own community. Presented as drawing from direct inspiration rather than scholarly study; he developed the notion of « Atsmo » (the divine essence in all beings) and distinguished himself from Kabbalah in favor of a « simple » service of God. His teachings are disseminated by the Torat Avraham Haïm association.
Born in Damascus in 1943, he was chief rabbi of the Jews of Syria and Lebanon and the last acting chief rabbi of Syria (1976–1994) before the community's collapse. He emigrated to Israel, where he died on May 7, 2021.
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaath for more than 60 years, member of the Council of the Sages of the Torah.
Halakhic authority of Bnei Brak, a major figure in the reconstruction of Orthodox Judaism in the Land of Israel. His work Chazon Ish covers the entire field of Halakha.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli educator
Israeli politician
American writer (1923–1993)
American businessman (born 1960)
American rabbi
Fifth Sadigura Rebbe (1928–2013)
Rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva of Brisk in Jerusalem, grandson of the Brisker Rav.
Israeli filmmaker trained at Beit Zvi, she has directed several feature films. Her film « Seven Blessings » won the Ophir Awards for Best Film and Best Direction in 2023, and « Noodle » won Best Editing. She is also co-director of « Tel Aviv Stories » (Sipurei Tel Aviv).
Israeli politician
Israeli poet and author for youth, landscape architect.
American philosopher, screenwriter and novelist of Russian origin
Israeli writer
Lithuanian rabbi
Israeli poet born in Baghdad in 1948, arrived in Israel as a child during the emigration of the Jews of Iraq (1950). His twin brother Herzl Hakak is also a poet; both are figures in Hebrew literature of Iraqi origin. Balfour has published several collections of poetry.
Master of Flavius Josephus, who lived three years at his side, he led in the desert a life close to that of the Essenes: wearing no other garment than what grew on trees, subsisting only on spontaneous foods, and bathing frequently in cold water, day and night. Chajes brought his name, Banus, close to the « Bannaah » of the Talmud.
Born in East Berlin in 1949 to Jewish immigrant parents, she was a playwright and director before emigrating to Strasbourg in 1984, where she reconnects with Jewish life. She is considered the most significant German-language Jewish writer of post-Shoah generations. Laureate of the Kleist, Max-Frisch, and Jakob-Wassermann prizes.
American civic leader and philanthropist
American historian, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize (The Guns of August, 1963; Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1972). Born Wertheim into a New York Jewish family (granddaughter of diplomat Henry Morgenthau Sr.), she bears the name of her husband, Dr. Lester R. Tuchman, under which she published all her work.
American artist
Australian political figure
American biologist, college professor and eco-socialist
US-based rabbi
Israeli rabbi, kabbalist
Israeli rabbi
Assistant chief rabbi, Brooklyn Syrian Jewish community
Rosh yeshiva of Ponevezh, son of Dovid Povarsky, teaching at the yeshiva since 1953.
American rabbi
Pioneer of Israeli literary criticism, polemicist at Bar-Ilan.
Slovak rabbi
American rabbi
American Jewish physician and geneticist, co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the hepatitis B virus.
Rosh yeshiva of Telshe in Cleveland, rabbinic leader of American Judaism.
Argentine activist
Israeli rabbi (1940–2024)
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Rebbetzin (1932-2011)
American actress
actress
Granddaughter of Sholem Rabinovich through his daughter Lyalya (Kaufman), she is the author of the bestselling novel Up the Down Staircase (1964), adapted for theater and film. She worked extensively to transmit her grandfather's legacy.
American politician
spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem
American journalist
American rabbi
dentiste de l'armée des États-Unis, récipiendaire posthume de la Medal of Honor (1914-1944)
American actor
Sephardic rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
First Sephardic chief rabbi of the State of Israel, a decisor open to the challenges of modernity. He worked for the unity of the communities.
Sephardic Rabbi and Kabbalist
Born in Tétouan (Morocco), he became the first Sephardic communal rabbi of Madrid since 1492.
Born in 1930 in a Jewish family from Kiev. Physicist of worldwide reputation in laser physics, professor emeritus at Tel-Aviv University. Militant Refusnik from 1974 onwards (emigrated to Israel in 1977). Author of a study on the Jewish identity of Soviet Jews (with M. Verbit, 1984) and essays on science and Judaism: Creation Ex Nihilo, Law and Providence, Dalut ha-Kfira (« The Poverty of Secularism »).
Israelian rabbi and dayan
Born in Tel-Aviv, Ph.D. in clinical psychology (Michigan State University, 1970). Professor emeritus at the University of Haifa, specialist in the psychology of religion and new religious movements. Author, co-author, or editor of some twenty books and some 180 articles.
Orthodox American rabbi, professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966 and rabbi of Young Israel of Oceanside for 37 years. Author of about twenty works of Jewish popularization, several of which are bestsellers.
Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Author of several award-winning scholarly works on the Hebrew Bible and revelation.
banker and owner of the Edmond de Rothschild group
Austrian rabbi
Israeli statesman
Born December 2, 1950 in Constantine in a Jewish family of Algeria that left the country in 1962. Authoritative historian of colonial Algeria, the war of independence and the Jews of Algeria; author of the report (2021) on Franco-Algerian memory.
Israeli novelist and sculptor born in Ukraine.
Officer of the Israeli navy (Heil HaYam) with the rank of aluf, in service from 1947 to 1979. He commanded the Israeli navy during the Yom Kippur War (1973) and participated in the 1948 war, the Suez crisis, the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition.
Israeli writer and journalist born in Tel Aviv, literary editor of the daily Haaretz since 1988, author of three novels and translator of French literature into Hebrew; Jewish family originally from Turkey.
Rabbi of Djerba, specialist in Hebrew pronunciation (Sefat Emet).
Israeli historian
Danish rabbi
Son of the Brisker Rav, rosh yeshiva of the yeshiva of Brisk in Jerusalem.
American rabbi
Intellectual and leader of the Labor Zionist movement, one of the ideological fathers of the Yishuv. He founded the daily newspaper Davar.
American rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
British-South African rabbi (1916-1988)
American novelist and short-story writer, author of The Assistant and The Fixer. His work explores suffering and redemption in the Jewish experience.
American businessman and philanthropist
French rabbi
American historian born in New York, professor at the State University of New York (Stony Brook) and later Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York. Specialist in imperialism, free trade and British intellectual history.
French philosopher associated with the movement of the 'new philosophers' (1976-1977). His essay 'La Barbarie à visage humain' (1977) attacks totalitarian ideologies (fascism, Stalinism) and caused scandal upon its publication; his theses are close to those of André Glucksmann.
Argentine politician
Austrian-born French Jewish historian, leading scholar of medieval Jewish-Christian relations and history of the Jews in medieval France.
British writer
United States senator for Vermont since 2007
Brazilian actress
Austrian social worker and feminist, founder of the German Jewish women's movement. Under the name "Anna O.," she was a foundational case in psychoanalysis.
United States Navy admiral (1918-1979)
American model
Dutch collaborator during World War II
Rabbi
Yiddish poetess and songwriter, born in Vienna, active in New York.
Born in Jerusalem, son of Mordechai Narkiss. Professor of art history at the Hebrew University, expert in illuminated Latin and Hebrew manuscripts. He founded the Center for Jewish Art in 1979 and received the Israel Prize (1999).
Swiss rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Brazilian actress
American politician
Israeli general and politician
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
rabbi (1913-2002)
Israeli rabbi
Dutch rabbi
American rabbi
American Buddhist abbess
Dutch child psychologist
Yiddish short-story writer born in Galicia, singular voice of the postwar period.
American comedian (1956–2022)
American political figure
Russian Jewish journalist, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Retch (« The Word ») of the constitutional-democratic party (KD). Expelled from the USSR in 1922 by Lenin's decree along with about two hundred intellectuals opposed to the regime, he went to Berlin and then, in 1923, to Riga (Latvia). After Latvia's annexation to the USSR (1940), he was sentenced to seven years in the camp and died in the Gulag on August 30, 1941. Father of physicist Iouli Khariton.
Russian political figure (1946—2013)
Born in Tiraspol (Moldavian SSR), Ph.D. in linguistics (Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1985). Emigrated to the United States in 1993. Major figure in Esperanto, author of several reference manuals including "Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando."
Russian poet and novelist of Jewish origin, Nobel Prize 1958 for Doctor Zhivago, which he was forced to decline. His work was long banned in the USSR.
Soviet poet born in Sloviansk into a Jewish family, veteran of the Great Patriotic War. The only Russian poet to make the Shoah a central theme of his work; he addressed antisemitism and Jewish tradition, and translated Yiddish poetry into Russian. His first collection, Pamiat' (Memory, 1957), established his reputation immediately.
Rosh yeshiva of Ateres Yisrael (Jerusalem), member of the Moetzes of Degel HaTorah.
Yemen-born Israeli rabbanit, Israel Prize laureate for social welfare
Born in Sanaa in a religious Jewish family, arrived in Israel at age 10 during Operation "Flying Carpet". Holder of a master's degree in Hebrew and Semitic linguistics from the Hebrew University, she studied the language of Yemenite women. Her poetry blends Yemenite traditions, feminism and biblical intertextuality; she received the Prime Minister's Prize for Literature in 1990 and founded her own publishing house, Ha'Or Ha'Ganuz.
lawyer
American film producer and actor
British journalist
French woman of letters born in Tunis, author of numerous works, notably for young people, and collection director at École des loisirs.
German politician
Bruno Karsenti (born 1966), agrégé in philosophy (1990), director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. Specialist in social sciences (Mauss, Durkheim, Comte), a major part of his work focuses on Judaism, emancipation and citizenship: « Moses and the Idea of People » (Cerf, 2012), « The Jewish Question of the Moderns » (2017), « The Place of God » (2023), « The Paradoxes of Integration. Europe and the Jews » (2025).
American translator
American businessman (born 1964)
Born in 1914, son of Hollywood producer B. P. Schulberg and Adeline née Jaffe, in a Jewish family. Novelist ("What Makes Sammy Run?", 1941, on the rise of a young Jew from the Lower East Side; "The Harder They Fall", 1947) and screenwriter, he received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for "On the Waterfront" (1954).
Swiss actor
American gangster, co-founder of the crime syndicate
American physicist of German-Jewish descent, born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, who co-discovered the J/psi particle and won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Brazilian comedian (1962–2006)
rabbi (1918-2005)
American baseball player
Canadian political figure
American politician
Argentine writer
American journalist
American political figure
British rabbi
American writer
Chilean musician
Argentine politician
Italian lawyer, journalist and writer (1932–2023)
Born in 1902 in Ukraine, died in 1979 in Israel, he was the first feature film director of the Yishuv. He directed Oded Hanoded (« Oded the Wanderer », 1932/33), considered the first Hebrew feature film, produced in pre-State Palestine (producer Nathan Axelrod, based on the children's book by Tzvi Lieberman-Livne).
American rabbi
American rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
Yiddish author (1910–1982)
Israeli politician
Israeli Rabbi
Leading posek in Bnei Brak, author of Derech Emunah.
rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
chief of staff of the secretariat of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1993)
Rosh yeshiva, posek (1910–2012)
American rabbi, writer and translator
Yiddish dramatist born in Bialystok, active in Paris, author of « Homens mapole ».
Expressionist painter of the School of Paris, born in Belarus, famous for his tormented portraits and still lifes. He lived in hiding during the Occupation.
Israeli actor
Chinese rabbi
Chemist and statesman, leader of the Zionist movement and first president of the State of Israel. His work in chemistry contributed to the British war effort.
Israeli rabbi
French rabbi
American Orthodox rabbi
chief rabbi
Israeli-American actress and singer
British rabbi
British rabbi
Born in Tel-Aviv, Israeli racing driver based in Budapest. First Israeli to participate in a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend (free practice for the 2005 Hungarian GP as test driver for Minardi). Father of racing driver Roy Nissany.
Author of the essay « Constantine, City of Vertigo », devoted to the Jewish heritage of Constantine (music, traditions, synagogues, rabbis) and the departure of the community during the Algerian War (1954-1962). The Morial site (memory of Algerian Jews) publishes this text and attributes it to him.
American rabbi
Born in Baghdad in an Iraqi Jewish family of textile merchants, they emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1947 to escape persecution and settled north of London. In 1970 they founded the Saatchi & Saatchi agency. Charles is also a major art collector (Saatchi Gallery); Maurice, created Baron Saatchi, sat in the House of Lords.
American political figure
Hebraist and historian of Judaism, specialist in Kabbalistic studies
French rabbi
Born in Sousse in Tunisia in a Jewish family, he became one of the great French impresarios. His first client was Jacques Brel; he also represented Barbara, Sylvie Vartan, Henri Salvador, Joe Dassin, Salvatore Adamo, Julien Clerc, Enrico Macias. He published in 2011 a book of memories, « Une vie en coulisses » (Fayard).
American rabbi
Yiddish novelist and poetess, survivor of Łódź, major figure of the post-Shoah period.
Yiddish writer for children (Gershon Einbinder).
Wife of the Rebbe (1901–1988)
American writer
American politician
American actress and comedian
Born in Sfax in 1959 into a Tunisian Jewish family, arrived in France in 1964; studied mathematics and physics in Jerusalem before returning to Paris. Her first novel, « One Summer in Jerusalem » (1986), won the Méditerranée Prize.
Polish Yiddish novelist and playwright, a prolific author translated into many languages. His novels about Jesus aroused fierce controversy.
American chemist and biochemist
French high official
Dutch-Austrian dancer and theater maker (1905-2005)
American writer, author of about ten works including the autobiographical novel « Going Away » (1961). Son of Leo Sigal and Jennie Persily, Jewish labor organizers from Chicago. Co-screenwriter of the film « Frida » (2002). He devoted a book to his Jewish mother, « A Woman of Uncertain Character ».
Brazilian activist
Italian writer
Ukrainian-Brazilian writer, poet and journalist (1920–1977)
rabbi of Haguenau and president of the Morasha association (Strasbourg)
French anthropologist, founder of structural anthropology, author of Tristes Tropiques and the Mythologiques. A major intellectual figure of the twentieth century.
Australian actress
American actress
Born into a Mexican Jewish family; her grandparents emigrated from Lithuania and Bulgaria. Ph.D. in energy engineering (UNAM), she co-authored over 100 articles and two books on energy, environment and sustainable development, and contributed to the IPCC (co-laureate of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize). First woman and first person of Jewish descent to serve as President of Mexico.
Brazilian writer and poet
British politician
Tunisian rabbi residing in Djerba in 1902, author of two works in Hebrew: Sifte Renanot, a commentary on the Psalms published in Jerusalem in 1890, and Ḳunteris ha-Semikut, notes on various subjects.
Algerian-born teacher and writer
Canadian actor
American actor
rabbi
South African rabbi
American science fiction author (1923-1958)
Poetess and Israeli playwright, modernist generation.
Israeli poet
actress and singer
Israeli fencer
Israeli archaeologist born in Lwów in 1938, famous for his excavations in Jerusalem (notably the tunnels of the Western Wall). District archaeologist of Jerusalem within the Department of Antiquities. Doctor of the Hebrew University (1990, topography of Crusader Jerusalem). Author of reference atlases on Jerusalem.
Israeli politician
Israeli novelist born in Poland, cosmopolitan erudition.
Danish basketball player (1977-2015)
Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor, general music director of the Berlin State Opera, founder of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
Israeli historian, specialist in the history of Italian Jews, particularly of the Paduan Renaissance. Born in Milan in 1926 to an Italian Jewish family bearing the patronym Carpi (derived from the city of Carpi in Emilia), son of an artillery officer and revisionist Zionist activist. The family fled Italy during the German invasion of 1943; Daniel joined the Allied forces and emigrated to Palestine in 1945, settling in Sdei Eliyahu, and participated in Israel's War of Independence. Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1967) with a thesis on the Jews of Padua in the Renaissance, he taught at Tel Aviv University from 1962 to 1994, where he headed the Department of Jewish History and served as dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Author of numerous works on Italian Jewish communities of the Renaissance and editor of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's correspondence, he was honored by the Italian Republic for his research.
Born into a German-Polish Ashkenazi Jewish family that took refuge in France; his father Erich Cohn-Bendit was a Berlin lawyer (defender of Rote Hilfe), his mother Herta also a jurist. Figure of May '68, he was later a Green MEP. Author of several books.
French Liberal rabbi
French rabbi
American writer, famous under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket for the series « A Series of Unfortunate Events ». Also author of novels for adults under his real name. Reformed Jewish education.
Uruguayan actor and director of Jewish origin, Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlinale for 'El abrazo partido' (Lost Embrace).
Israeli politician
Croatian writer
American author, former associate professor of political science at Harvard. Known for two controversial books on the Shoah, notably « Hitler's Willing Executioners » (1996), designated by Time as one of the two most important books of 1996. Son of historian Erich Goldhagen.
American poet of Iraqi Jewish descent (his father fled Iraq in 1970). He published the collections « Manoleria » and « Tradition » (McSweeney's, 2015) and directs a writing center at the University of Iowa; recipient of a National Jewish Book Award.
French singer-songwriter and pianist
Polish-American architect born in Łódź to Holocaust-survivor parents, designer of the Jewish Museum Berlin and master plan for the World Trade Center site.
American Jewish writer, son of Robert Menaker. He was for a long time a literary editor (notably of fiction at the New Yorker) and author of novels and memoirs.
Born in Algiers in 1952 « in a Jewish family of Algeria » (Wikipedia), arrived in France in 1962. Recognized theater actor and director, former director of the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique. He is also an essayist and novelist.
Brazilian football player
acteur, notaire, comédien et musicien argentin
American entrepreneur
Born in Marrakech in a Jewish family of the medina, he settled in France. Mathematician by training who became psychoanalyst and philosopher, he is the author of some thirty works, notably "Lectures bibliques", "Perversion", "Racism, an identity hatred".
Daniel Timsit, born in Algiers on December 16, 1928 in an Algerian Jewish family (mother from Constantine, father from Algiers, grandfather rabbi of Constantine), died in Paris on August 2, 2002. Medical student and communist activist, then underground member of the FLN, he organized explosive laboratories (« Timsit network »). Having become a physician, he published from 1998 several accounts of his activism.
Founder in 1980 of Giuntina, Europe's leading Jewish-themed publishing house, based in Florence; son of Holocaust survivor and printer Schulim Vogelmann.
American actor
Born in 1938 into a Jewish family; her childhood was marked by flight from Nazism (refugee in Cannes in 1943, she narrowly escaped a Gestapo roundup). Researcher at the CNRS and lecturer at the University of Aix-Marseille, specialist in the sociology of the working class and urbanization. Member of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (1981–1996). Author of essays and novels.
Israeli-American equestrian jumper
Kabbalist
American musician
Turkish singer
French composer of Les Six, one of the most prolific of the twentieth century, marked by his Provençal Jewish roots. He composed Jewish liturgical works.
British historian
Serbian-Jewish novelist, short-story writer and translator of Sephardic-Jewish descent (Albahari surname), one of the most acclaimed post-Yugoslav writers; known for works such as "Bait" and "Mamac", the latter awarded Serbia's NIN Prize.
Israeli politician
Israeli historian (1925-2000)
Chief Rabbi of Oran, last Chief Rabbi of Algeria, father of Léon Ashkenazi.
Chief Rabbi of Turkey
Israeli poet born in Tel-Aviv, one of the leading figures of avant-garde poetry in Hebrew (contemporary of Nathan Zach and Yehuda Amichaï). He published about twenty collections, experimenting with the Hebrew language. His first book, Berazim arufei sfatayim (Faucets with Severed Lips, 1954), was initially panned by critics.
Israeli rabbi
Founding father and first Prime Minister of the State of Israel (1948-1953, 1955-1963). He proclaimed independence on 14 May 1948 and forged the institutions of the nascent state. A pragmatic visionary, he embodied the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty after 2,000 years of exile.
Rabbi of Meknès, 20th century. Mentioned in 5670 of the Hebrew era (1910). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 28-2.
Journalist and Zionist leader in Tunis, editor/publisher of the Hebrew monthly « Haïvri » (1937-1938).
Hazzan and major paytan of Judeo-Andalusian music, born near Marrakech, active in Casablanca.
American historian
Israeli rabbi
American journalist
American mathematician at Brandeis University known for contributions to homological algebra, commutative algebra and representation theory (Auslander-Buchsbaum theorem/formula); described by Brandeis colleagues as bringing 'deeply Jewish identification' to building the university's Mathematics Department.
Historian, he devoted his work to the history of the Jews of Morocco, seeking to refute the idea of continuous oppression and ghettoization. His collection of reference studies was published in Jerusalem.
Canadian filmmaker born into a Jewish family from Toronto, major figure in cinema (so-called "body horror"). Beyond his film work, he is the author of a novel, Consumed (2014).
Son of Salis Daiches, major literary critic, professor (notably at the University of Sussex). Author of A Critical History of English Literature and a memoir of his Jewish childhood in Edinburgh. Signatory of the autobiographical article « My Father, and His Father: Rabbi in Scotland » (Commentary).
Israeli politician
legal historian and exegete
Physicist at the University of Oxford (Centre for Quantum Computation, Clarendon Laboratory), often called the « father of quantum computing ». He formalized the quantum Turing machine (1985) and the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm (1992). FRS (2008), Isaac Newton Medal (2021). Author of works of philosophical popularization.
Born in 1967 in Paris into a North African Jewish family, he studied under Rav Moché Edery in France and Rav Arié Garbian in Israel. Rabbi of the kollel and the Torat Haïm association, he is the author of several books and lectures on Jewish thought and spirituality.
rabbi (1947-2023)
David Encaoua (b. 24 December 1941) is a French economist, professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and associate researcher at the Paris School of Economics (Centre d'Économie de la Sorbonne). A leading specialist in industrial economics, the economics of innovation and intellectual property, he held scientific responsibilities at the CNRS and worked with the OECD and the French Ministry of the Economy. Bearing the Encaoua name, he authored the essay 'Des passeurs de pensée juive d'origine hispano-maghrébine : la lignée Encaoua', which traces the family's ancestry — hence his attachment to this lineage on the platform.
French rabbi and resistance fighter
French writer born in Paris in 1974, from a Jewish family (Polish Jewish father, mother of Algerian origin). Bestselling author translated into more than forty languages; his novel « Charlotte » (2014), devoted to the Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon murdered at Auschwitz, won the Renaudot Prize. His brother Stéphane Foenkinos is a film director.
Canadian-American writer and conservative commentator, former speechwriter for President G. W. Bush, senior editor at The Atlantic. Born in Toronto to a Jewish family; son of journalist Barbara Frum. Author of several books.
Born in Sfax in 1919 in a family of Jewish merchants, baccalauréat at Lycée Lyautey in Casablanca, graduate of Saint-Cyr (1939-1940). Excluded from the army in 1941 by the Vichy Jewish statute, he resumed service at the Liberation. Captain during the Algerian War, he theorized counterinsurgency in two works that became classics.
Born in Tripoli in 1955, his family fled Libya for Rome in 1967. Jungian psychoanalyst and author, he became known by returning to Libya after Kadhafi's fall to attempt to restore the great synagogue of Tripoli, and was invited to Djerba for the inauguration of a Sefer Torah. Named by UNHCR « Ambassador for Peace » (2007).
producteur et artiste américain
South African documentary photographer renowned for his chronicle of South African society under apartheid. His Jewish identity is central to his work: the antisemitism he experienced made him sensitive to the humiliation suffered by Black people. Numerous exhibited books (including at the Jewish Museum of New York).
American-Israeli rabbi, 1931–2013
Expert in Andalusian music, he is one of the three artisans — with the poet David Elkaïm and the hazzan Haïm Afriat — of the shaping of « Shir Yedidot » (Shirei Yedidut), the classic anthology of baqashot (paraliturgical piyyutim sung on Shabbat, from midnight to dawn) of the Mogador school, standardized around 1921. The collection comprises some 560 piyyutim and became a reference work for Moroccan liturgy.
French essayist and teacher, he explores the myths of Judaism at the intersection of biblical criticism, rabbinic exegesis, Kabbalah, literature, theology and anthropology. He publishes in several journals (K., La Règle du Jeu) and is the author of essays on Jewish sacred matters.
Brother of Jon Kimche; co-author of several books on the Middle East (including The Secret Roads and Both Sides of the Hill). He also wrote on Israeli politics.
Argentinian lawyer and publisher (1912-1974)
American rabbi
Israeli politician
American rabbi and academic (1925-2008)
Singaporean politician
American Reform rabbi and chaplain of the United States Army, first Jewish chaplain to enter Dachau and to celebrate a religious service there after liberation in 1945.
Born in Tripoli, exiled to Italy after the 1967 pogrom. Professor of clinical psychology and psychology of religion at Roma Tre University, where he designed and directed for two decades a master's program in Holocaust Studies. Member of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) and the IPA; his work on the Jewish roots of Freud's thought is a reference.
Former senior Mossad official, he was the Israeli Prime Minister's coordinator for prisoners and missing persons and the personal representative of Benjamin Netanyahu in negotiations for the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange (2011). He was later sent as special envoy for the restoration of relations with Turkey.
Spanish engineer (1928–2007)
French rabbi
rabbi and rosh yeshiva (b. 1906, d. 1942)
Sephardic Jewish family from Aleppo (the father, a banker, lived there before leaving via Beirut then Milan). In the 1960s, Ezra, Joseph (Giuseppe) and David Nahmad began negotiating art; they constitute one of the most important private collections of modern and Impressionist art in the world (Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Rothko, ~300 Picasso), estimated at several billion dollars.
American film producer
Born in Sefrou, he was rabbi, judge and president of the rabbinical court in Sefrou, then in Fès and Marrakech. After independence, Jewish delegate to the Moroccan Parliament and inspector of Hebrew education in Alliance schools; vice-president of the Religious Council of Jerusalem. He collected and published extensive documentation on the history of the communities of Sefrou and Fès.
Russian violinist and violist
Mexican actor
Israeli sculptor and painter, creator of the Yad Vashem Yizkor (Tent of Remembrance) Gate and the bronze gates of the Knesset, killed in a motor-scooter accident on Mount Zion in 1966; an eponymous museum in his former Jerusalem studio preserves his work.
American rabbi
Jurist and talmudist, author of a reference work on the customs (minhagim) of Tunisian Jews, widely cited in contemporary rabbinic responses.
Israeli novelist, Jerusalem cycle.
Haganah officer who became a major general (aluf) of the IDF, then diplomat. Documented bearer of the patronym Shaltiel/Shealtiel, of which "Chaltiel" is an attested orthographic variant.
Rabbi born in Tehran, Chief Rabbi of the Nessah synagogue, son of Yedidia Shofet.
Historian at Yale University specializing in the history of European Jewry and the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), author of "The Transformation of German Jewry" and "The Berlin Haskalah and German Religious Thought."
American sports executive
Skverer Rebbe
Israeli rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American-Israeli Orthodox rabbi, pioneer of Jewish spirituality and meditation, student of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, director of the Yakar Center for Torah and Creativity and the Shevet Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation in Jerusalem.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi and military personnel (1903–1998)
American actress
Israeli footballer
Hungarian rabbi
Born in Sétif in 1940, French writer specializing in the history and popularization of mathematics, professor at Paris VIII University. He is known to the general public for his novel The Parrot's Theorem (1998), translated into about twenty languages.
Hungarian historian and interlinguist
British musician
far-right activist, co-founder of PragerU
Chilean journalist
American politician
American tennis player
Argentine tennis player
Brazilian actress
American basketball player
Agrégé in economic sciences, he served as Minister of Economy and Finance (1997-1999) and then as Director General of the IMF (2007-2011). Son of Gilbert Strauss-Kahn (legal counsel) and Jacqueline Fellus, of Tunisian origin; Jewish family.
American entrepreneur
Israeli rabbi and philosopher
Born in Livorno in 1948, professor of art history at the University of Florence (applied arts, goldsmithing). Founder (and director since 1981) of the Jewish Museum of Florence, she is an international authority on the history of Jewish art and has written numerous essays and books, particularly on goldsmithing and ketubot.
Engaged Yiddish poetess, called the « poetess of fire ».
Israeli diplomat (1953-2025)
American mathematician of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, professor at Columbia University. He solved Gauss's class number problem for imaginary quadratic fields (Cole Prize in number theory, 1987) and co-founded cryptography via braid groups.
Costa Rican female politician
Poet, translator and Israeli editor, return to metrics.
Israeli writer, editor and lecturer on Jewish thought, raised in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem, a fifth-generation descendant of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.
Swiss rabbi
Rosh yeshiva of Slabodka (Bnei Brak), co-president of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
Israeli rabbi
Born Dov Berl Stock in Brody, he hebraicized his name to Sadan. In 1952 he became director of Yiddish studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (professor in 1963, until 1970), one of Israel's most popular lecturers. Essayist, historian of literature, linguist, folklorist and translator from Yiddish to Hebrew; member of the Knesset (Alignment) 1965-1968.
Israeli rosh yeshiva (1921–2011)
Israeli politician
Lithuanian-born Israeli rabbi
Born October 24, 1945, died December 20, 2006. American Orthodox rabbi, Rosh yeshiva of the famous Telshe Yeshiva of Cleveland. His lessons (shiurim) on the Talmud, widely followed, were widely distributed (RebDovidBarkin.com, Kol HaLoshon).
American rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
One of the four roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood).
rabbi
Rosh yeshiva and educator; founder of the Yeshiva Moreshes Yehoshua in Lakewood.
Skvirsky Rebbe Borough Park (1922–2001)
American writer
Born December 22, 1948, Dutch conductor and pianist, trained at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and then at the Guildhall School in London; assistant to Bernard Haitink, Georg Solti, and Herbert von Karajan, principal conductor of the Nieuw Ensemble since 1982.
American actor and producer
American political figure
(1904-1993) pilote de course et homme d'affaires néerlandais
survivor of several German concentration camps during World War II
Dutch equestrian
Canadian-American businessman
Hungarian psychotherapist
Austrian jurist
French Holocaust survivor
German philosopher, student of Husserl, born Jewish and converted to Catholicism as a Carmelite. Deported and murdered at Auschwitz, she was canonized.
Edmond Amran El Maleh, born in 1917 in Safi and died in 2010 in Rabat, is one of the great Moroccan writers of French language. Former communist activist, he came late to writing — his first novel, "Parcours immobile," was published in 1980 — and made Moroccan Jewish memory and loyalty to Morocco the heart of his work. His name is now borne by a Moroccan literary prize; he embodies attachment to a plural homeland.
French philanthropist, "benefactor" of the Yishuv, who financed the first Jewish agricultural colonies in Palestine. His action was decisive for Zionist settlement.
German philosopher of Jewish origin, founder of phenomenology, teacher of Heidegger. He was expelled from the university by Nazi laws.
American mathematician
Israeli playwright and novelist, pillar of national theatre.
Major figure in the Soviet Jewry movement (refusniks). Organizer of the Leningrad hijacking scheme (1970) to flee the USSR; condemned to death, sentence commuted to 15 years in the camps, released in 1979 in an exchange and emigrated to Israel, where he directed the Russian-language daily Vesti. He kept diaries in prison that were smuggled out and published.
rabbi, French resistance fighter
Born in Paris, of a Sephardic Jewish father from Istanbul who became an American citizen (the name Roditi is said to refer to the island of Rhodes). Poet, essayist and above all trilingual translator (English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish…). Figure of modernism, he made Yaşar Kemal known in English.
son of the German physicist Albert Einstein
One of the founders of microbial genetics, long at Yale. Born in Cedarhurst (New York); his paternal grandfather Abraham Adelberg was a Russian Jewish immigrant, founder and first mayor of Cedarhurst; his maternal grandfather David Ehrlich was first cousin of Paul Ehrlich. In 1953 he discovered, with H. E. Umbarger, feedback inhibition. Author/co-author of reference manuals.
American politician
Hungarian-American nuclear physicist
American politician
recipient of the Purple Heart medal (1919-2008)
Israeli musicologist of Uruguayan origin, winner of the 2018 Israel Prize in musicology and member (2024) of the Israeli Academy of Sciences. Professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he long directed the Jewish Music Research Centre. Pioneer in the study of Sephardic and Judeo-Spanish music and Jewish music of Andalusia, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.
Peruvian politician
physicist (1902-1989)
Cofounder in 1946 of the Ford Models agency; born Eileen Ottensoser in a family of Jewish descent (the father, Nathaniel Ottensoser, anglicized the name for a time to « Otte » in the face of prevailing antisemitism).
Born in Jerusalem in 1944 (his father was born in Khorramshahr, Iran, and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1922). Fighter pilot, he shot down enemy aircraft during the Yom Kippur War (1973) and in Lebanon, and participated as escort in Operation Opera (destruction of the Iraqi Osirak reactor, 1981). He was commander of the Israeli Air Force from 1996 to 2000.
Demographer, author of a thesis at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1972) on the social and professional trends of Italian Jews (1870-1970) and works on the economic and social transformations of Italian Jews during the period of emancipation and on the consequences of persecutions.
Professor at Bar-Ilan University, recognized specialist in the peshat school in Northern France and notably in the commentary of Rashbam (Samuel ben Meïr). His book renewed the reading of Rashbam in his Jewish and Christian context. Considered one of the major recent contributors to the study of Jewish exegesis.
Orthodox Sefardi rabbi and kabbalist (1948–2011)
Israeli rabbi
Czechoslovakian-born English rabbi
American actress
Israeli politician (female)
Holocaust survivor and second wife to Otto Frank (1905–1998)
Israeli rabbi
Born in Fez (Morocco) in 1945, emigrated to Israel in 1967. Director for two decades of the Rashi Foundation, he chairs the "Alaluf Commission" for the fight against poverty. Recipient of the Israel Prize 2011 for his entire body of work and his contribution to society. Member of Knesset (Parliament) for Kulanu from 2015 to 2019.
Representative of the 3rd generation of the Gindi family, founding associate of Gindi Capital (commercial and residential real estate in New York). His family co-founded the Century 21 chain in 1961.
American rabbi
American businessman, Director of the United Bands Company
Born in Israel in 1937, mathematician known for his popular works on the history of mathematics. He taught at Loyola University Chicago and was editor of the « trigonometry » article in Encyclopædia Britannica. An asteroid (226861 Elimaor) bears his name.
Israeli songwriter and columnist (1948-2006)
Israeli politician
Son of rabbi Fradji Damri, he succeeded him as spiritual guide in El Hamma. Author of « Pérah Halebanon » (Djerba, 1941) and « Pérah Haguefen » (Jerusalem, 1968).
Rabbi and scholar from the community of Debdou (northeast Morocco), settled in Israel, author of several works on the history of Moroccan Jews: 'Ir ha-Cohanim / Debdou city of Cohanim' (2000), 'Bné Melakhim' (history of Hebrew printing and the book in Morocco, 1516 to the present), 'Yahas Debdou hadach', etc.
Rabbi of Tafilalet, 20th century. Died in 5689 of the Hebrew era (1929). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 22-1.
Israeli diplomat
Born in Roussé on the Danube in a Sephardic Ladino-speaking family (whose ancestors, expelled from Spain in 1492, are believed to have come from Cañete), he grew up between Ladino, Bulgarian, English, and then German, his language of writing. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature 1981 "for an authorship marked by a broad vision, a wealth of ideas and artistic power."
Israeli rabbi
Elias Suraqui (1893-1977) était un architecte réputé qui exerça à Casablanca avec son frère Joseph de 1923 à 1950. En 1947, il réalisa pour le Préventorium israélite de Casablanca un album de 78 photographies documentant le mellah (quartier juif) de la ville, montrant ruelles, cours et scènes de vie quotidienne dans un but probable de sensibilisation et de collecte de fonds.
Editor-in-chief (with Henri Maarek) of the Réveil juif, a revisionist Zionist French-language weekly founded in Sfax in 1924, one of the most important Zionist newspapers in North Africa, close to Jabotinsky's revisionism.
Soviet physicist
Survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Nobel Peace laureate (1986). His account Night became the emblematic testimony of the Shoah. Through his writings and his engagement, he made memory a universal moral and ethical imperative: "Forgetting is the real enemy."
Orthodox rabbi
rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Head of the Lithuanian yeshiva world in Israel, director of the Ponevezh yeshiva and founder of the Degel ha-Torah party. A dominant figure of non-Hasidic Orthodox Judaism.
Latvian rabbi
Fighter pilot, he commanded the Israeli air force from 2004 to 2008, then served as CEO of El Al (2010–2014). Son of a Hungarian Shoah survivor and a Jewish immigrant from Egypt.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Graduate of composition from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, he devoted his work to the transcription and preservation of Jewish liturgical chants from oral tradition (Italian, Piedmontese, Spanish rite). His musical manuscripts (44 folders) are preserved at IBIMUS, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome.
Italian rabbi
United States representative for the State of New York from 1989 to 2021
American political figure
Finnish actor and singer (1930–1992)
Geneticist, founder of genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
German lawyer
British actress
Israeli rabbi
Rabbi born in Algeria, rabbi of the Technion, founder of the yeshiva Or VeYeshoua in Haifa.
Maggid shiur, Mir yeshiva (1947–2008)
Israeli writer and rabbi
Israeli-Latvian mathematician
American political figure
Yiddish poet with pastoral lyricism, leading member of the Yung Vilne group.
American rabbi, environmentalist and founder of Shomrei Adamah
Wellesley and Yale Divinity School graduate and Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Columbia (1981). Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies and founder of the Bennett Center at Fairfield University (1994–2022). Specialist in liberal Judaism and Jewish female spirituality, she has authored several reference works.
pop music composer
American composer
American singer, third-place finalist on American Idol season 5 (2006). Son of Shaul Yamin, an Israeli of Iraqi Jewish descent, and an Ashkenazi Jewish American mother; his 2007 self-titled debut album reached No. 1 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart.
American rabbi
Dutch Orthodox Jewish leader (1923–2023)
psychologue austro-américain
German Expressionist poetess, one of the great lyrical voices of her time. Persecuted by the Nazis, she ended her life in Jerusalem.
Neurologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, among the last trained in Vienna before 1938.
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Austrian rabbi naturalized British
Listed among the authors in the bibliography of the Moreshet Yehudei Teiman foundation. He wrote « Lema'an Asher Yetzaveh » (למען אשר יצוה), a biographical portrait of Rav Avraham Tzadok, and is cited in scholarly works on the history of the Yemenite community and its settlement in Erets Israël.
Austrian musician
American rabbi
Italian politician
Born Imre József Pressburger in Miskolc (Hungary) in a Jewish family, Emeric Pressburger studied engineering in Prague and Stuttgart before working in Berlin, from which he was driven out in 1933 during the purge of Jewish employees. A refugee in Paris and then London, he partnered with Michael Powell to form the duo "The Archers" and wrote the screenplays for major films (Colonel Blimp, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus). He was also a novelist.
Israeli philosopher
French sociologist, one of the founders of modern sociology, son of a rabbi. Author of Suicide and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
French historian
French philosopher
Born in Tivoli into an Italian Jewish family, Segrè discovers the elements technetium and astatine then the antiproton, a discovery for which he receives the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics with Owen Chamberlain. Emigrated to the United States after the Italian racial laws of 1938, he participated in the Manhattan Project and became a professor at Berkeley.
Italian physicist
Younger brother of Enzo Sereni. Historian of agriculture and leader of the Italian Communist Party, he is the author of the « Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano », a reference work tracing two thousand years of the history of the Italian agrarian landscape.
Italian Jewish psychoanalyst, parapsychologist and journalist, born in Sestri Ponente to Jewish parents (father Cesare, a shipping executive from the Marches; mother Faustina Finzi, from a Florentine jewelry family). Co-founded the Italian Psychoanalytic Society in 1932 and served as its president (1963-1969); founded the Italian Society of Metapsychics (later the Italian Society of Parapsychology) in 1937. Emigrated to India in 1938 after Fascist racial laws, returning after the war. Honoured as Grande Ufficiale of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1982.
American activist
French rabbi
French-Lithuanian philosopher, one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. His work (Totality and Infinity, Otherwise than Being) places ethics and responsibility toward the other at the foundation of philosophy. His Talmudic Readings renew the dialogue between Western philosophy and Jewish thought.
French actress
German mathematician, founder of modern abstract algebra; her theorem linking symmetries and conservation laws is fundamental in physics. She emigrated to the United States fleeing Nazism.
(1914–1987) writer, journalist, cultural historian, literary translator
Austrian writer born in Vienna, died in Turin on November 30, 1902. A graduate of the University of Vienna and intimate friend of poet Friedrich Hebbel, he directed the monthly review « Der Salon » in Vienna in 1847, suspended after three issues by Austrian censorship. An activist for the popular cause in 1848, he was among the hostages demanded by Windischgrätz during the surrender of Vienna, escaped the authorities and went to Frankfurt then Paris, where he published a lithographed « Correspondance » before being imprisoned and expelled; taking refuge in London, he became correspondent for several continental newspapers and editor of the « Londoner Deutsche Zeitung ».
Born Gaston Ghrenassia (Ghenassia) in Constantine into a Sephardic Jewish family from Algeria of malouf musicians; his father Sylvain Ghrenassia (1914–2004) was a violinist. Forced to leave Algeria in 1961, he settles in France and becomes one of France's most popular singers, openly claiming his Judaism and his attachment to Israel.
Mexican historian
Born in Rome into an assimilated Jewish family (his father was physician to the King of Italy). Doctor of philosophy from the University of Rome, he emigrated to Palestine in 1927 and co-founded the kibbutz Givat Brenner. Intellectual and pacifist advocate of Judeo-Arab coexistence, he was parachuted into occupied Italy in 1944, captured and executed at Dachau.
Jewish historian born in Proszowice (Poland), Israeli citizen from 1957, died in Jerusalem. Specialist in the Middle Ages/early modern transition and cultural figures of Ashkenazi Jewry, he published numerous rabbinic texts from manuscripts, including the « true » commentary of Rashi on Moëd Katan (from the Escurial ms.) and a contribution on the family of R. Moses b. Yom-Tov « the Noble » of London (Tarbiz 40, 1971).
rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli biologist and politician, 4th President of Israel
American rabbi
scholar of Israeli Judaism
Israeli actor
Born in Oran (Algeria) in 1942 in a Moroccan Jewish family, arrived in Israel in 1948. Blind and amputated of one hand at age 10 following a grenade explosion. His first collection, Minha Marokait (1976), made him the founding father of Israeli Mizrahi poetry. First Mizrahi poet to win the Israel Prize (Literature and Poetry, 2015).
officier militaire israélien
German sociologist
Born in London in a Jewish family from Odessa, trained at St Bartholomew's, he participated as a military physician in the D-Day landings then became a psychoanalyst (qualified in 1954, training analysis with Hanna Segal). President of the British Psychoanalytical Society and vice-president of the IPA, major figure of the post-Kleinian tradition. Married to psychoanalyst Irma Brenman Pick.
American singer-songwriter (1949–2024)
television screenwriter, director and producer, American
French photographer, photojournalist
Born in 1958 in Montreuil to Jewish parents from Algeria who arrived in mainland France in 1952. A journalist and essayist, author of several bestselling essays on French history and identity, he founded a political movement and ran for the 2022 presidential election. His surname means 'olive tree' in Berber (azemmour).
Austrian-American cinematographer and photographer (1914-1976)
American writer
American scholar, Shoah survivor (Jewish ghetto of Czernowitz), professor at Harvard, specialist in the history of extermination. Father of Daniel Goldhagen.
Austrian photographer
American actress
German sculptor (1904-1996)
Swiss-born American composer, part of whose work draws on Jewish themes, such as Schelomo. He directed conservatories in the United States.
Ernest André Gellner, born in Paris to Jewish Austro-Czech parents from Bohemia, emigrated from Prague to England in 1939 to escape Nazism. Major thinker in the study of nationalism and the sociology of Islam, professor at the LSE and then at Cambridge. Author of an abundant body of work.
French rabbi
Hungarian-born Jewish architect (1902-1987) who settled in Britain and became a leading figure of British Modernism, designer of Trellick Tower and Balfron Tower in London.
Romanian Rabbi (1917-2004)
German chemist
German actor and director
German philosopher
Greek actor
Canadian Rabbi
Professor in the department of Jewish philosophy and Talmud at Tel-Aviv University, specialist in the Qumran scrolls, Second Temple literature, ancient calendars and astronomy, and digital reconstructions of fragments. She has published a book with Brill and numerous scholarly articles (Revue de Qumrân).
One of the most widely read contemporary Israeli novelists (translated into a dozen languages, over one million copies sold). Grandson of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, whose name he bears. He co-directs Israel's largest school of creative writing.
Dutch artistic gymnast
American actress (1928-2022)
Daughter of Iranian Jews who fled Mashhad, born and raised in New York. Author of the memoir "Concealed" (2020) on the life of Mashhadi Jews, a crypto-Jewish community forced to conceal itself under Muslim appearance. Also a painter and psychotherapist.
South African politician
Born in Istanbul in 1950, descendant of a Jewish family expelled from Spain in 1492 and settled in the Ottoman Empire. Lecturer at EPHE (chair of the history of modern Judaism, 2000–2018), founder of the Alberto-Benveniste Center (2002). French senator. One of the principal historians of the Sephardic and Ottoman world.
Haganah member
American religious figure
Microbiologist, pioneer of bacterial genetics; discovered bacteriophage lambda.
Leading Israeli writer, born in Ramat Gan to parents who survived the Shoah and came from Poland. Master of the very short story, translated into more than 40 languages; laureate of the Sapir Prize (2018) and a National Jewish Book Award. Teaches writing at Ben-Gurion University.
Slovak economist of Jewish origin, vice-minister of Foreign Trade in Prague. Accused in the antisemitic Slánský trial (1952) and sentenced to life imprisonment; rehabilitated in 1963. Emigrated to the United States after 1968, where he was a professor of economics and published several works, including an account of the Slánský trial.
American rabbi and philosopher (1924-2016)
Hungarian physicist
Israeli-French sociologist born in Fez in an Orthodox Sephardic Jewish family, professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of studies at EHESS (Paris). Specialist in the relationships between capitalism, emotions, gender and culture; her books are translated into 23 languages. EMET Prize (2018) and Legion of Honor.
Holocaust survivor
Born Eva Malek on October 28, 1924 in Satu Mare (Northern Transylvania), she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944, then transferred to Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated by British troops, sole survivor of her family with her younger sister. Settled in Canada, she devoted more than twenty-six years to education against hatred, giving more than 4,600 lectures before more than 1.5 million people, and was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2008 and then to the Order of Canada in 2021. She died on August 4, 2026 in Bracebridge (Ontario), at the age of 101.
Brazilian actress and dancer
American journalist born to Jewish parents who emigrated from the USSR (Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich, who arrived in the United States in 1979). Wall Street Journal correspondent in Russia, arrested by the FSB in March 2023 for 'espionage', convicted in 2024 and released in a prisoner exchange in August 2024.
Austrian woman rabbi
American rabbi
Russian investigative journalist
Israeli football player
Born in Calcutta to a Baghdadi family tracing back to 17th-century Baghdad. Trained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York, he returned in 1952 as the first Western-trained rabbi of the Calcutta community. In 1964 he settled in Philadelphia where he served for fifteen years at the historic Mikveh Israel synagogue. He devoted a landmark historical work to his community of origin.
Éducateur, traducteur, poète et journaliste de la communauté juive de Bagdad, né le 9 septembre 1903 et mort le 14 mai 1972, Ezra Haddad fut directeur de l'école juive « al-Wataniyya » à partir de 1924 pendant seize ans, puis surintendant de l'ensemble des écoles juives de Bagdad (1949). Il émigra en Israël en 1951, où il resta actif dans le mouvement ouvrier et l'absorption des immigrants irakiens jusqu'à sa mort.
American rabbi
Ezra and Khedouri Lawee, two brothers from a prosperous Jewish family of Baghdad, held the General Motors concession for part of the Middle East and had built in the 1930s a patrician residence ("Beit Lawee") in Baghdad. After the exodus of Jews from Iraq, they settled in Montreal, frequenting the Spanish-and-Portuguese synagogue. From 1964, their former Baghdad home was rented to France to serve as an embassy; their descendants are suing the French state for unpaid rent (case reported in 2025).
American actor
Born in Baghdad, son of Khedouri Zilkha. American financier and philanthropist, he founded the Khedouri Zilkha Fund at Princeton University for the study of the history of Jewish civilization in the Near East. He wrote (with Ken Emerson) the family narrative « From Baghdad to Boardrooms ».
Talmudic scholar
Born in 1938 in Pressburg (Bratislava), son of Rav Aharon Tauber, a Belz Hasid from Galicia. Shoah survivor, he became a prolific lecturer and author of books on Jewish thought (hashkafa) published in English in the United States, teaching throughout the world.
American Hasidic community leader (1912–2001)
Physicist, BSc (1970) and MSc (1973) from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), doctorate from MIT. Researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory since 1986 and research professor (radiology/oncology) at Stony Brook. Known for his work on microbeam X-ray radiotherapy and carbon beam therapy (Patent Award, Long Island Technology Hall of Fame 2008).
Australian poet, academic
Tunisian journalist, founder and editor of the weekly Le Réveil Juif in Sfax. Appointed in 1932 as the first commissioner (netsiv) of Betar in Tunisia (Jabotinsky's movement), he was, from 1939 onward, among the first to denounce antisemitism and Nazi crimes via Radio Tunis and « La Demi-Heure Hébraïque ». He was imprisoned several times for his positions.
British rabbi
Born in Osnabrück in 1904, Felix Nussbaum is a German Jewish painter. Refugee and then hidden in Belgium, he was deported and murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. His work, rediscovered after the war, is housed in the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück. His self-portrait holding his Jewish identity card is one of the most well-known images of Shoah art.
Spanish politician
Italian journalist
Born in Rome in 1945, raised in Trieste, from a Jewish family (father from Trieste, mother from Corfu; grandparents Adolf Aron Kostoris and Berta Goldstein, Jews from Brody). Graduated from Bocconi, then master's at MIT (1970), professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza, she has chaired ISAE and served on ANVUR. Author of approximately one hundred articles and twenty books on macroeconomics, labor, public finance, unemployment and pensions.
Italian comedian, singer, and dramatist
American rabbi
Bene Israel educator, she served as director of the Sir Elly Kadoorie School from 1955 to 1964. Polyglot (Sanskrit, Marathi, English, Hebrew), she subsequently taught Sanskrit at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She wrote an autobiographical memoir in Marathi and a scholarly article on a Bene Israel ritual.
French politician and resistance fighter
Italian physicist
Born in Paris into a family whose paternal ancestors were Lorraine Jews holding public office since the Revolution. Inspector of Finances, he joined the Resistance as early as 1940 and directed, under the collective pseudonym "Bossuet", the finances of the internal Resistance. He was director of the Caisse des dépôts from 1953 to 1967 and a figure in reflection on the State, business and the social sector (Jean Moulin Club).
Franco-Austrian physician
American politician
American politician
Franco-Swiss born in Fribourg on 2 July 1973, he was communications adviser to French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin then director of strategy for France's External Audiovisual Service (France 24, RFI, TV5 Monde). In 2013 he founded and directed i24NEWS, international news channel based in Israel (Altice group); he became its chairman (chairman) in early 2025.
American economist
Dutch director
anthropologist, polymath, poet (1909–1952)
German-American anthropologist, father of modern cultural anthropology, scourge of scientific racism. He trained an entire generation of American anthropologists.
German-language writer from Prague, author of The Trial and The Metamorphosis, a central figure of twentieth-century literature. His work was published largely posthumously.
German philosopher, author of The Star of Redemption, a major work of modern Jewish thought. He translated the Bible into German with Buber.
German actor
American rabbi
Alfred « Fred » Zinnemann was born in Rzeszów in 1907, son of Jewish parents, Oskar and Anna (née Feiwel) Zinnemann. Major Austrian-American filmmaker, he directed High Noon (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), A Man for All Seasons (1966), and Julia (1977), and won four Academy Awards. At age 85, he published his autobiography A Life in the Movies (1992).
French photographer born in 1959, known for his work documenting the Jewish diaspora ('Diaspora: Homelands in Exile', 2003) and the project 'This Place'.
German chemist, Nobel Prize 1918 for the synthesis of ammonia, which revolutionized agriculture. His contribution to combat gases remains highly controversial.
Born in Turin in 1941, died in 1980. Independent scholar of myths, Egyptology, the history of Mediterranean religions and philology; in dialogue with Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber and the work of Kafka. Major figure in Italian mythology and cultural criticism of the 20th century.
Cantor devoted to the preservation of Aleppo's liturgical tradition. Principal cantor of Magen David (67th Street) from 1945 to 1963, then of B'nai Yosef; instructor at the Cantorial Institute of Yeshiva University. Editor-in-chief of the pizmonim anthology « Shir Ushbaha Hallel VeZimrah » (the « Red Book », completed in 1964), cornerstone of the Sephardic Pizmonim Project.
Mexican author and activist
French fashion designer
Holocaust survivor, author (1923-2012)
Gad Elmaleh, born in 1971 in Casablanca into a Moroccan Jewish family, is a Franco-Moroccan comedian and actor. He established himself from the 1990s onwards as one of the most popular Francophone comedians, with shows such as "L'Autre, c'est moi", before an international career. His humor often draws from his Casablanca childhood and his Judeo-Moroccan identity, which he conveys through laughter.
Israeli Army general and rabbi
Israeli footballer
Italian psychologist
Israeli actress, producer and model
Performer, composer and anthropologist, founder of the female Sephardic/Mizrahi ensemble Divahn. She created with her sister Danielle the documentary podcast « The Nightingale of Iran » on her family's history, and the album « Monajat » in which she engages in musical dialogue with recordings of her grandfather.
American genealogist
Rabbi of Boro Park (New York), student of the Puppa yeshiva and of rabbi Yosef Greenwald of the Puppa Hasidic dynasty, from whom he received semikha. Author of the vast halakhic series Nitei Gavriel (more than 30 volumes), renowned for addressing cases poorly covered elsewhere and for comparing the customs (minhagim) of different Hasidic branches.
Soviet physician, he invented the apparatus (external fixator) and the bone distraction method that bear his name, enabling bone lengthening and reconstruction. His father Abram Ilizarov was a Mountain Jew from Qusar (Azerbaijan); the family settled there in 1928. His method revolutionized orthopedics worldwide.
Iraqi Jewish writer, she wrote the autobiographical novel "The Rooster Thief," which follows a young Jewish girl from Iraq, Amalia, who emigrated to the transit camp (ma'abara) of Hartuv and confronted with poverty; the work questions the dominant Ashkenazi narrative of the reception of Iraqi Jews in Israel.
American Orthodox Rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
rabbi
Israeli judoka
Venezuelan sculptor and printmaker (1912-1994)
American critic of works and films
Belgian lawyer
Soviet engineer of Jewish origin, creator of TRIZ (theory of inventive problem solving) from 1946 onward; first president of the TRIZ association. He published his first book, « How to Learn to Invent », in 1961, and wrote science fiction under the name Altov. Imprisoned in the Vorkuta Gulag (1950–1954) after a letter criticizing Stalin.
Austrian journalist and director
Born in Tehran in 1953, he is a known figure in the Judeo-Iranian community in exile in Los Angeles, activist and founder of the notoantisemitism.org website which documents antisemitism in Iran in Persian. His father Massood Haroonian directed before 1979 the dispute resolution committee of Tehran's central Jewish organization and chaired the council of the Kheyrkhah center (now Dr Sapir hospital).
American composer, author of Rhapsody in Blue and the opera Porgy and Bess, fusing jazz and classical music. Son of Russian Jewish immigrants.
Born and raised in the Sephardic Jewish community of Curaçao, he was an officer in the Dutch army and played a role in slowing the German advance in 1940. Arrested by the Nazis, he died of typhus at Dachau in 1945, and received posthumously the highest Dutch military distinction. The miniature park Madurodam in The Hague is named after him.
Dutch filmmaker born in Paris to a Dutch Jewish father and Norwegian mother. He is best known for two versions of The Vanishing — the original Dutch Spoorloos (1988) and the American version (1993).
Anglo-French-American literary critic, linguist, writer and philosopher
Mathematician born May 29, 1911 in a Hungarian Jewish family (leather trade), emigrated to Australia after the war. Professor at the University of Adelaide then at the University of New South Wales. Author of numerous works in combinatorics and graph theory (Erdős–Szekeres theorem, Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates, Szekeres snark).
Tunisian Jew, communist and nationalist activist, imprisoned in the 1950s for his anti-colonial commitment. Husband of feminist activist Gladys Adda and father of Serge Adda (1948–2004), who presided over TV5 Monde and Canal France International.
Historian born in Morocco, long editorial director of the Mémorial de la Shoah and editor of the Revue d'histoire de la Shoah. His work focuses on the Shoah, Zionism, and the history of Jews in Islamic lands.
Born in 1947 in Marrakech (Morocco), former mathematics teacher who became a self-taught historian of numeral systems. His major work, "Universal History of Numbers" (De One to Zero / The Universal History of Numbers, 1985 and 1994), translated into numerous languages, became an international bestseller; it was both celebrated by the public and criticized by some specialists.
Greek-French singer (1934–2013)
Actor, musician and screenwriter of French nationality and Algerian Jewish origin (Wikipedia disambiguation page), younger brother of André Tabet.
rabbi, resistant
Irish politician
British Jewish businessman, former chairman of Ratners Group, born in London to a Jewish family; his infamous 1991 speech about his own products coined the term "doing a Ratner".
Australian-American journalist and author
French producer and publisher
Argentine journalist and television presenter
German Jewish lawyer in international law, legal adviser and philosopher
British political activist
Founder of the scholarly study of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, professor at the Hebrew University. His works on Sabbatai Zevi are authoritative.
Israeli rabbi
rabbi
European Orthodox rabbi
Danish rabbi
American historian specializing in Victorian England, born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents who immigrated from Russia, author notably of « The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot ». Himmelfarb is her maiden name.
Israeli journalist and television presenter
British scholar (1924–2013)
Born and died in Rome, from an antifascist Italian Jewish family, she suffered as a teenager the persecutions of the Fascist squadre. Translator (from English, French and Hebrew), writer and essayist, she was one of the first women to study at the Italian Rabbinical College and became a figure in the transmission of Jewish tradition, leading study groups on Midrash for many years.
Israeli politician
British-Israeli-American film director
Born in Israel, she holds the Ransford Chair of Hebrew and Visual Studies, Comparative Literature and Middle East Studies at Columbia University. Author of three scholarly monographs. Daughter of Israeli statistician Yosef Hochberg.
German writer
writer, military officer and former Israeli hostage
From a Sephardic family from Aleppo with roots in Livorno, arrived in Haiti from 1896. Founder of the GB Group, he is presented as Haiti's first billionaire and de facto leader of the country's small Jewish community (he holds Haiti's only Sefer Torah) as well as honorary consul of Israel. He was subject to Canadian sanctions (2023) and appears in the Pandora Papers.
American actor
Tunisian writer
Born in 1946 in a prosperous Jewish family of Detroit (Herman and Henrietta Radner), founding member of Saturday Night Live (Emmy 1978), famous for her characters (Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna).
Israeli judoka
Researcher specializing in the history of the Jews of Bukhara (aliyah, settlement in the Land of Israel, customs, religious history), affiliated with Israeli academic circles (Bar-Ilan). Author of several works in Hebrew, including "Yahadut Bukhara, gdoleha u-manhigeha" (The Jewry of Bukhara, its great men and leaders, Jerusalem 1993), "Gdolei rabbanei Suria ve-ha-Levanon" (Jerusalem 1995) and "mi-Bukhara li-Yerushalayim" (From Bukhara to Jerusalem: the aliyah and settlement of the Jews of Bukhara in the Land of Israel 1868-1948, Jerusalem 1995); author of a study on rabbinical succession in Bukhara 1790-1930.
Israeli poet and translator, cofounder of Keshev editions.
Italian writer and poet
Member of the Italian Jewish family Liuzzi, career officer; he is the subject of an entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Treccani) and a file at the CDEC. (The family also included a general placed on absolute leave in 1939 because of the racial laws.)
Trieste Jewish writer and essayist, author of memoirs on Jewish life in Trieste, documented by CDEC (Centro di Documentazione Ebraica).
American gynecologist
Italian-Israeli theoretical physicist, known for the Racah algebra relating to angular momentum coupling; professor and later rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Eminent figure of the Pisa Jewish community, assassinated with eleven other people at his home on via Sant'Andrea by German soldiers on 1 August 1944, a few days before the liberation of the city. This episode is documented by Italian historiography of the Shoah (Carla Forti's work, « Il caso Pardo Roques »).
Israeli-Italian philologist and scholar of Judeo-Italian language and medieval Jewish-Italian philosophy, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; edited Moses of Salerno's 13th-century Hebrew-Italian philosophical glossary and wrote on Jewish Neoplatonism in the West. His death was marked by a memorial journal issue in his honor.
Mexican poet
Born in 1972 in Krasnaïa Sloboda (village of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan), Moscow real estate billionaire, co-founder of the Kievskaïa Plochtchad group. Elected vice-president of the World Jewish Congress in 2014; he supported the creation of a museum of the history of Mountain Jews in Krasnaïa Sloboda.
Fourth Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974), one of the founders of the state. Born in Kiev and raised in Milwaukee, she embodied Labor Zionism. Her leadership during the Yom Kippur War (1973) and her pragmatic diplomacy left their mark on the history of Israel.
Literary translator from Yiddish to English and literature professor at the University of Lethbridge. Daughter of Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb and physician Henry Morgentaler, she translated stories by I. L. Peretz and her mother's works. Recipient of the Canadian Jewish Book Award (2005) and the Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Prize of the MLA (2006).
Israeli association footballer
Ukrainian-American cellist
British politician
Italian-American jurist, dean of Yale Law School (1985-1994) and then federal judge on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, major figure in the "law and economics" movement. His mother is from an Italian Jewish family; his parents, active in the antifascist resistance, fled Italy for the United States in 1939.
rabbin canadien
Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor, author of nine monumental symphonies. Born Jewish, he conducted the Vienna Opera.
Australian immunologist of Ashkenazi Austrian Jewish origin (born Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal in Vienna), longtime director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, known for his foundational work on antibody formation and immune tolerance (more than 530 scientific articles).
British pharmacologist
soldier and treasurer of the underground Jewish Fighting Organization, fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943)
French singer-songwriter
Israeli football player
Franco-American art historian
American historian
American actress and singer
Hungarian horticulturist and politician
Hungarian water polo player
Hungarian writer
soldier (1902-1945)
Major Iranian industrialist, he obtained franchises for numerous American and European brands (General Electric, Volkswagen, Pepsi-Cola in 1955) and launched in October 1958 Iran's first private television. He founded more than 40 companies. He left Iran before the 1979 revolution and died in Los Angeles in 1990.
Iranian Jewish businessman (1909–1979)
Born Marguerite Msika around 1903, from a poor Jewish family in the Jewish quarter of Tunis (La Hara) and from a lineage of musicians (niece of singer Leila Sfez). She became a huge star of the music hall and Arabic theater in the 1920s, embodying the free woman. She died in February 1930, burned by a rejected admirer.
Israeli actress
Spanish-Italian journalist, writer, translator (1940–2022)
Israeli journalist, author of the definitive biography of Reuven Shiloah, founder of Mossad, based on private archives and interviews with his close relatives. Work prefaced/supported by Shimon Peres and Haim Herzog in its English edition.
Israeli linguist
American actress and singer
Israeli novelist, religious world of Jerusalem.
Israeli politician
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia in office, originally from Djerba.
Uruguayan composer
Rabbi of Sefrou, twentieth century. Died in 5661 of the Hebrew era (1901). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 39-2.
Israeli poet, journalist, and filmmaker, a voice of the generation of 1948. His poem "Bab el-Wad" remains emblematic of the War of Independence.
Born in the Mellah (Jewish quarter) of Marrakech, rabbi of French nationality. State doctorate holder in history (on medieval Jewish thought, the work of Rabbi Nissim of Marseille) and doctorate in clinical psychology (Paris-Descartes), he pursued concurrently a rabbinical career spanning more than sixty years and an academic career. He was appointed Grand Rabbi of the Consistory of France in 2019.
Born in Lyon in 1963 to Sephardic Jewish parents who had immigrated from Algeria (father André Korsia, originally from Oran; mother born in Tlemcen). Rabbi of Reims from 1988, general chaplain of the Armed Forces, chief rabbi of France since 2014, member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Author of several essays.
Hebrew poet in the USSR, died in Soviet camps for writing in Hebrew.
Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, spiritual guide of the community, based in Djerba.
Hungarian rabbi
chief rabbi of Egypt
Israeli novelist and rabbi born in Egypt.
Born in Essaouira, he became the great historian of Jewish culture in the Islamic world, particularly in Morocco. Author of around fifteen works and more than 150 articles (Jewish pedagogy, taqqanot and responsa, kabbalah), corresponding member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco. His work founded the scholarly study of a thousand (then two thousand) years of Jewish life in Morocco.
Rebbe
Israeli politician
High priest appointed by the legate Quirinius (6 AD), deposed by the procurator Valerius Gratus around 15. He remained highly influential thereafter: five of his sons (Eleazar, Jonathan, Theophilus, Ananus, Matthias) and his son-in-law Joseph Caiaphas succeeded one another as high priests. The family ("Bet Hanin") figures among the families of high priests criticized in the Talmud.
Israeli politician
Lily Hanbury is an English actress trained in London, where she still resides in 1903. She makes her debut in 1888 in a revival of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea at the Savoy Theatre, then performs on the greatest London stages in a very extensive repertoire, achieving her greatest successes in Shakespearean plays directed by Wilson Barrett and Beerbohm Tree, notably in the roles of Ophelia and Portia.
German-American political philosopher, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism and Eichmann in Jerusalem. Her thesis on the « banality of evil » sparked a vast debate.
Professor of communication and Jewish studies at Penn State University (Abington). Author of a work on landsmanshaftn and family circles of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe to New York.
Hungarian Jewish poet and paratrooper, sent by the British to rescue Jews from Hungary. Captured and executed, she became an Israeli national heroine.
Israeli novelist and journalist, 1948 generation.
Holocaust survivor born in Berlin on December 20, 1928 (died April 1, 2021). Child of Polish Jews — father from Łódź, mother from Przemyśl —, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on November 6, 1943 (prisoner number 161397), survivor of the death marches, of Buchenwald and Spaichingen, repatriated to Nice on July 14, 1945. Author of the testimony « Descelle mes lèvres : Zakhor (souviens-toi) » (2006).
American engineer, son of Albert Einstein
German actor
libraire de livres rares américain d'origine autrichienne (1907-1988)
Czech rabbi
American literary critic and professor
American sociologist born into a Jewish family of Newark, founder of ethnomethodology, author of Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967).
American film producer, choreographer, and talent agent
American rabbi and theologian
Born in Hackney (East London) to British Jewish parents of East European origin (three grandparents from Poland, one from Odessa). His father Hyman "Jack" Pinter was a ladies' tailor. One of the most influential playwrights in modern British theatre, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005.
American actor (1944-2014)
American inventor (1924-2013)
Businessman and hotelier
American actor
Historian of philosophy at Harvard, specialist of Philo, the Church Fathers, and Spinoza. The first holder of a chair in Jewish studies in the United States.
Raised in a Jewish family in the Riverdale neighborhood (Bronx). Senior writer and political analyst for CNN Politics, formerly at FiveThirtyEight. Representative of a generation of data journalists.
British rabbi
crime novelist, teacher
American pornographic actor
American rabbi
American politician (1930-1978)
Born at kibbutz Afikim in 1950, doctorate in philosophy and Jewish mysticism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1978). Regents Professor of history and director of Jewish studies at Arizona State University. Specialist in the articulation between philosophy and mysticism in premodern Judaism.
Israeli actress
Israeli rabbi
US rabbi and writer
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Born Frumstein in Harbin, emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, doctorate in 1954, he studied Assyriology at the Oriental Institute of Chicago under Benno Landsberger. In 1965 he founded and directed the first department of Assyriology at the Hebrew University. Specialist in Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions and biblical chronology, he was an authority for more than 50 years.
Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Yeshiva University (New York), specialist in Assyriology and Northwest Semitic languages (Ph.D. Columbia 1972). Author of more than thirty articles on Semitic lexicography. He wrote a lexical companion of Akkadian to Biblical Hebrew and co-authored the history of the Aleppo Codex.
American rabbi
Considered the national poet of Israel, a major figure in the revival of Hebrew. His poem "In the City of Slaughter" shook Jewish consciousness after Kishinev.
Founder of the analytical method of Talmud study known as "Brisk," chief rabbi of Brest-Litovsk. His approach revolutionized the Lithuanian yeshivot.
Canadian businesswoman
Argentine political figure
Israeli poet and visual artist, Bialik Prize.
German chemist
Mexican journalist
South African politician, 20th and early 21st century
Dutch painter
Dutch artistic gymnast
French writer, victim of the Shoah
Born in Oran (French Algeria) to Jewish parents — Jewish father born in Oran, German Jewish mother from Osnabrück. Co-founder in 1969 of the University Centre of Vincennes (University Paris VIII) where she created the first centre for feminist studies at a European university. Theorist of « feminine writing », she won the Médicis Prize as early as 1969 for her first narrative Dedans, and has published more than seventy books (theatre, theory, poetic fiction).
German resistance fighter against Nazism, executed
German architect
Polish jew (1933–1942)
Rosh yeshiva of the Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim (Rabbeinu Yisrael Meir HaKohen) in New York.
Born in Blida in French Algeria, doctor in medicine and biophysics. Professor of biophysics at the faculty of medicine of Paris VI and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He formulated in 1972 the principle of « complexity through noise », central to his theory of self-organization of the living, and pursued important philosophical and bioethical work.
French philosopher, Nobel Prize in Literature 1927, author of Creative Evolution and theorist of duration. He refused exemption from Vichy's anti-Jewish laws.
Born in Algiers in 1931, a physician by profession, also holder of a master's degree in history. He is the author of a standard study on the fate of Algerian Jews under Vichy, published posthumously and prefaced by Benjamin Stora.
French rabbi
American educator and Zionist leader, founder of the Hadassah organization and Youth Aliyah. She organized the rescue of thousands of Jewish children from Europe.
German rabbi
Brazilian actor and director (1933-2018)
German-American social worker (1907-1979)
American playwright and screenwriter, often in tandem with his wife Phoebe. His parents were Jewish immigrants (father from Grodno, mother from Skidzyel, now in Belarus). Founder, with Phoebe, of the Ephron writers' "dynasty".
German rabbi
American statesman and diplomat of German origin, Secretary of State, 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He shaped Cold War diplomacy.
Canadian physician born in Łódź, son of Jewish Bund activists, survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau. Emigrated to Canada in 1950, he became a central figure in the fight for reproductive rights; the Supreme Court of Canada invalidated the abortion law in 1988. Appointed to the Order of Canada in 2008.
Australian politician
reform rabbi from Brazil
Polish violinist
Polish poet of Jewish origin, among the prominent Polish authors of her generation. She published two pre-war collections and worked in the Warsaw ghetto on Emanuel Ringelblum's social aid and the clandestine Oyneg Shabbos archives. Author of the famous poem « Mały szmugler » (The Little Smuggler), written in the ghetto. Murdered at Treblinka.
Canadian political figure
German historian of modern age (1918–2005)
German-British physicist from "an ancient Jewish family" of Rexingen. PhD under Sommerfeld in Munich (1930); fleeing Nazi antisemitism, he passed through the USSR (Leningrad) then took refuge in England in 1935. Professor of theoretical physics at Liverpool, he left his name to the "Fröhlich polaron" and the "Fröhlich Hamiltonian" (superconductivity, solid-state physics).
Danish-Israeli journalist
American rabbi
composer and organist
Soviet-Israeli physicist ( 1931-2026)
American mathematician and statistician born July 1, 1923, son of Pauline and Max Chernoff, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. Doctorate in 1948 under Abraham Wald. Professor at Illinois, Stanford, MIT, and Harvard. He gave his name to the "Chernoff bound" and to "Chernoff faces" (graphic representation of multidimensional data). Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1980).
Born in Eberbach in Germany, emigrated to the United States at age 12 (refugee), he obtained a doctorate in economics from Columbia and spent thirty years at Tulane University. His research focuses on early industrialization in Central Europe.
Orthodox rabbi (1918–2005)
Neo-Kantian philosopher, founder of the Marburg school, author of Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism. A major thinker of liberal Judaism.
German mathematician, author of the geometric formulation of four-dimensional space-time that underlies special relativity. He was one of Einstein's teachers.
German rabbi
Young Polish Jew whose assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris on November 7, 1938 served as Nazi pretext for Kristallnacht.
American rabbi
Austrian-American mathematician
Biologist, pioneer of cell culture methods for protozoan parasites.
American philosopher and mathematician
German opera singer
Legal scholar
Doctor of Warsaw University (trained under historian Majer Bałaban), he was appointed in 1937 director of the archives of the Jewish community of Warsaw, a position he retained in the ghetto. There he kept a journal focused on religious life, later published under the title « Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto ». Having escaped the ghetto in January 1943, he emigrated to the United States in 1950 and pursued a career as a Yiddish journalist and author in Brooklyn.
Rosh yeshiva
Rosh Yeshiva of Ofakim (Israel)
German illustrator
Antiques dealer from a Jewish family of Hamadan; son of Dr. Benjamin Abolghassem Mahboubian (born in Hamadan in 1868, physician and archaeologist). He founded in 1961 the Mahboubian Gallery in New York, then in 1970 in London, bringing together family collections of pre- and post-Islamic Iranian art. He published a reference work on the subject.
Born in New York in 1951, Professor Emeritus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, holder of the Miriam Martha Hubert Chair of Jewish Thought. Specialist in prophecy, ethics and medieval Jewish political philosophy. Author of 11 books and more than 50 articles, and editor of medieval Jewish treatises preserved in manuscript.
American composer and lyricist
American politician
American geneticist and virologist born in Philadelphia to Jewish parents, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975 (shared with Renato Dulbecco and David Baltimore) for the discovery of reverse transcriptase, which transformed the understanding of RNA viruses.
American historian born in Brooklyn to a family of Jewish immigrants. Professor (Spelman College, Boston University), civil rights activist and pacifist, he is the author of over 20 books, including the bestseller A People's History of the United States (1980).
British rabbi
filmmaker, producer and film actor
Romanian engineer and historian (1922-2021)
Brazilian actress
Dutch writer
Israeli musician known for 'The Idan Raichel Project', a fusion of electronic music, traditional Hebrew texts and diverse musical influences. Born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family.
Austrian swimmer
Franco-Moroccan, kidnapped and killed by the gang of barbarians
(1901–1952) opera singer
Portuguese writer
Soviet writer and journalist, co-author of The Black Book on the extermination of the Jews of the USSR. He was a complex figure of Stalinist literary life.
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991, having previously been Chief Rabbi of Ireland and rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York. Knighted in 1981, he was the first British Chief Rabbi to sit in the House of Lords (Baron Jakobovits, 1988). He is the founder of modern Jewish medical ethics.
Hungarian educationist (1903–1970)
(1944–2026) jazz drummer
Born in Saint Petersburg in 1904 in an assimilated Jewish family, son of journalist Boris Khariton. A physicist, he became chief designer and scientific director of the Soviet nuclear weapons project.
American film director
Yiddish poetess and yiddishist born in the Warsaw ghetto, writes in Yiddish and English.
French novelist of Russian Jewish origin, author of Suite Française, rediscovered and published decades after her death. She was deported and murdered at Auschwitz.
Russian actress born in Moscow, active since 2013, notably revealed by the film T-34 (TEFI award for best actress, Golden Eagle nomination). Wikipedia explicitly describes her as Jewish (category « Russian people of Jewish descent »).
American psychiatrist, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford, pioneer of existential psychotherapy and group therapy. Author of reference works and novels. His Jewish parents emigrated from Belarus and ran a grocery store in Washington.
British political figure
Canadian businessman (1919–2001)
American Jewish businessman and philanthropist, known for funding real-estate and settlement projects in Jerusalem and for bingo-hall-fortune-funded charitable giving.
Inventor of the slow cooker
American electrical engineer and businessman.
Born in Petrovichi (RSFSR) to Russian Jewish parents, Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, son of a miller; named Isaac after his maternal grandfather. The family emigrated to the United States in 1923. One of the most prolific authors of the 20th century (science fiction and popular science).
Soviet writer from Odessa, author of Red Cavalry and the Odessa Tales. He was arrested and executed during the Stalinist purges.
Brazilian actor
Yiddish-language writer, Nobel Prize in Literature 1978, painter of the vanished Jewish world of Eastern Europe. An émigré to the United States, he pursued a prolific body of work there.
Syrian rabbi
British rabbi
Israeli statesman
Born into a Sephardic Jewish family of the Ottoman Empire, graduate of the University of Istanbul (classical letters), polyglot (French, German, Turkish, Ladino, Greek and classical Latin). Ordained rabbi at Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati, 1956), doctor in semitic studies from the Sorbonne, he teaches there Aramaic, Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew. Prolific author (biblical philological commentaries, studies of Ladino and Ottoman Turkish).
American rabbi
Polish Yiddish and Hebrew writer, one of the three classic authors of Yiddish literature. His Hasidic and neo-Romantic tales deeply marked Jewish culture.
Polish politician
Director of Hebrew studies in Algiers then Chief Rabbi of Dijon. Author of a manual of religious studies (1944), an introduction to the Bible, and « Le Judaïsme : doctrine et principes » (1951).
Head of Zionist activity in northern Tunisia and founder of the Zionist association of Cap Bon, he was delegate of Tunisia to the 1920 Zionist Congress. During the German occupation, he translated into Judeo-Arabic a Hebrew novel by Abraham Mapou and added a preface on the liberation of Nabeul by the Allies.
Israeli-American businessman
American rabbi
Born Sándor Schwartz in Sanislău. Settled in Palestine in 1933, professor at the Hebrew University, major specialist in the Zohar, Sabbatarianism and ethical and Kabbalistic literature. Bialik Prize (1972), Israel Prize (1979), Rothschild Prize (1982).
Lithuanian cyclist
Turkish rabbi
French entrepreneur, founder of the Partouche group
American rabbi
Shoah survivor born in Płock (Poland), founder and president of the American Society for Yad Vashem, Greater Boston Holocaust Survivor Center, activist in Holocaust education until his death at age 96.
Rabbi, 20th century. Mentioned in 5690 of the Hebrew calendar (1930). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 79-3.
Israeli philosopher
One of the three members of the steering committee of Hashomer (with Israel Shochat and Mendel Portugali). Central figure in the defense of the first Jewish settlements in Galilee. At his death in 1918, the kibbutz founded in 1916 by members of Hashomer is named Kfar Giladi in his honor.
Israeli Rabbi (1935-1997)
Yiddish novelist, elder brother of Isaac Bashevis Singer, author of The Brothers Ashkenazi and Yoshe Kalb. He was a major figure of the modern Yiddish novel.
Israeli Rebbe
Israeli poet born in Bulgaria, Israel Prize 2005.
Israeli rabbi
American philosopher
One of the founding fathers of modern documentary photography in Israel. He bequeathed his collection to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; the archives 'Israel Zafrir Photographer' comprise approximately 20,000 negatives, positives and slides documenting many Israeli artists from the mid and late 20th century.
British writer and publicist, author of Children of the Ghetto, who popularized the expression "melting pot." Leader of the Jewish territorialist movement.
Dramatist at the State Yiddish Theater of Romania, historian of Yiddish theater.
Founder-organizer of Israeli intelligence, he headed the Shin Bet and then the Mossad (including the operation to capture Eichmann). He left a written legacy, including an account of this operation that became a classic.
Hungarian theologian, chief rabbi, university lecturer (1922–2015)
Hungarian classical scholar and historian (1913–1984)
Classical violinist (1903-1920)
Israeli football player
Yiddish editor, critic and essayist, editor of « Yidishe Kultur ».
Born Emerich Tobiás in Czechoslovakia in 1923, Jewish. Engineer and inventor (notably a steerable cardiac catheter), he is best known as the author of works on consciousness and cosmology, including Stalking the Wild Pendulum (1977). Died in 1979.
Rabbi of the Naltchik community in the 1910s until his death in 1918. Minimal biographical information in the source; no written work is attributed to him.
Professor affiliated with the Department of Community Mental Health at the University of Haifa and member of the WHO expert panel on mental health. He directed and co-authored several reference works on psychiatric epidemiology in Israel (mental disorders, Arab populations, immigrants, Holocaust survivors).
Born in Czernowitz (Bukovina, then Austria-Hungary), son of a tailor, he became one of the greatest popular poets in Yiddish. He published his first collection « Shtern afn dakh » (Stars on the Roof) in Warsaw in 1929. His « Khumesh-lider » (called Itzik's Midrash, 1935) retells the Bible by transposing it into the East European shtetl.
Hungarian conductor and stage director
Canadian director
American writer
American investor and hedge fund manager, son of philanthropists Hermann and Ursula Merkin who endowed Yeshiva University chairs and Merkin Concert Hall. Note: his fund's exposure to the Madoff fraud led to a large civil restitution settlement (no criminal conviction), which tempers straightforward notability.
Israeli-American Reconstructionist rabbi
songwriter
American comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter (1928-2021)
Rabbi, theologian (1911-1986)
Born in Łódź (Poland) in a Jewish family emigrated to England. Doctorate in mathematics from Cambridge, he worked for the National Coal Board then became resident fellow of the Salk Institute (San Diego) in 1963. He conceived and presented the BBC documentary series The Ascent of Man (1973) and the eponymous book, one of the great works of twentieth-century science popularization.
Israeli mathematician born in Kherson, immigrated to Palestine in 1912. Doctorate from Göttingen (1929) under the direction of Emmy Noether; professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Co-laureate of the first Israel Prize in exact sciences (1953) for his work on noncommutative rings; the "Levitzki radical" bears his name.
Born in Morocco, he practiced in Meknès where he directed the Ozar HaTorah school, then founded some forty years ago the consistorial community of Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine) and made it prosper. Father of Joël Mergui, president of the Paris Consistory.
American rabbi
Born in 1934 in Philadelphia in a Jewish family. Professor emeritus of philosophy at San Francisco State University (nearly 50 years of teaching). Author of about twenty books on philosophy, religion and spirituality; he notably popularized the expression « new religious movements ».
American scholar of Judaism and Rabbinic literature (1932–2016)
American rabbi
Dutch rabbi (1914-1976)
German sociologist
French filmmaker born in 1953 in a Jewish family from Constantine, who left for Marseille in 1962. Director of documentaries on Jewish memory and artistic life in Algeria, including « Reinette l'Oranaise, le port des amours » (1992) and « Les Gardiennes de la mémoire » (2000).
British-Czech textile designer (1903–1986)
Agrégée in classical letters and doctorate holder in letters, specialist in the drawings of Franz Kafka (thesis in semiology, 1998). She devoted part of her work to Judeo-Algerian heritage, notably the collective work « D'un temps révolu – Voix juives d'Algérie ».
Retired senior lecturer in classical literature, literary and music critic, jazz critic at Jazz Magazine and jazz historian at the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail. Author of several works on musicology and a short story collection, « Dernières nouvelles du jazz ».
Born in Algiers on November 1, 1943 in a Jewish family, with his twin brother Bernard, he settled in Paris in 1956. Advisor to François Mitterrand and then first president of the EBRD, he is the author of more than 80 works, including Economic History of the Jewish People and Dictionary of Jewish Love.
French philosopher born in Algeria, founder of deconstruction, one of the most influential thinkers of his time. From a Jewish family of Algiers.
Jewish film producer and art collector born in Russia in 1909 who emigrated to Mexico, later dying in 1986; co-founder with his wife Natasha of the internationally renowned Gelman art collection now held by MoMA and other major museums.
Born in Alexandria into a Jewish family, settled in France in 1954. Psychiatrist then psychoanalyst (Freudian School, noticed by Lacan), co-founder of the Freudian Circle. President of the association for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Egyptian Jews. Author of numerous works, notably on Jewish memory in Egypt.
Belgian film scholar
French rabbi
French rabbi
Jadwiga Zak était une marchande d'art juive parisienne dont l'œuvre « Jeune femme au puits » (1886) de Renoir fut spoliée pendant l'Occupation par l'organisation d'achat du marché noir « Otto », avant de transiter par la Bavière. Récupéré après-guerre par l'État français, le tableau était déposé en prêt au musée Renoir de Cagnes-sur-Mer au moment de son vol en septembre 2026. Jadwiga Zak est morte à Auschwitz ; ses héritiers avaient adressé environ un an avant le vol une pétition au gouvernement français pour réclamer la restitution de ce tableau.
Brazilian architect, urban planner and politician (1937-2021)
American actress and singer
American rabbi and theologian (1925-1991)
Lecturer in Iranian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley (1970–2020), PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and Persian Literature (Berkeley, 1984). She has published on the history and culture of Jews of Iran, modern Persian literature and Iranian cinema (including « The Image of the Jew in Persian Literature »).
Major American actor (role of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather). Son of German Jewish immigrants; his father Arthur Caan (1909–1986), a butcher, notably sold kosher meat.
president of the World Bank
American actor
Czech statesman
Historian born in Warsaw to a Jewish father who survived the Shoah (from Krakow). Professor at the University of Ottawa, specialist in the Shoah in Poland and Judeo-Polish relations under the Occupation. Author of more than a dozen monographs; his "Hunt for the Jews" received the Yad Vashem International Book Prize 2014.
American writer
South African actress
Psychoanalyst, president of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society; reformulation of the ego ideal.
Dutch Holocaust survivor (1916–2003)
Polish pediatrician, writer, and educator, director of a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. He refused to be separated from his children and was deported with them to Treblinka.
American violinist of Lithuanian origin, considered one of the greatest of all time. A child prodigy, he left a lasting mark on the art of the violin.
British actor
Austrian writer
Born Jean Daniel Bensaïd in Blida, son of Jules Bensaïd. Resistant wounded during the Bizerte campaign. Editor-in-chief of L'Express (1955-1963) then founder and director of Nouvel Observateur (from 1964/1978). Author of numerous essays.
heroic French Air Force pilot during the Second World War, and a key subject in the non-fiction literary work Flight to Arras (Pilote de guerre) written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
French rabbi
Historian, HDR at the Group Societies, Religions, Secularities (GSRL, CNRS-EPHE-PSL). Specialist in the history of Jews in metropolitan France and Algeria from the interwar years to the 1950s. Author notably of "The Jews in the Paris suburbs from the 1920s to the 1950s" (CNRS Éditions, 1998) and "Plunder in all legality: the economic Aryanization of Jewish property in Algeria by the Vichy regime (1941-1942)" (Éd. MSH, 2023); numerous works on Jews native to the Constantinois under Vichy.
French rabbi
French rabbi
Swiss writer and literary theorist
Born in Oran in a Jewish family, he studied medicine in Paris then converted to Catholicism in 1958, entered the Benedictines (1961), was ordained priest (1967), and participated in the reconstruction of the monastery of Abou Gosh in Israel of which he became abbot (1999). In 2003, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem for Hebrew-speaking Catholics.
French journalist, essayist and press magnate
Born in the casbah of Constantine in a Berber Jewish family, he came to Paris in 1930 to study philosophy. He began painting in 1941; from 1945 he developed lyrical abstraction influenced by the CoBrA group. He became established in the 1950s as one of the major representatives of the « New School of Paris ». Died in Paris in 1960.
Born in Strasbourg on May 27, 1925, died in Paris on August 20, 1988, related to Raymond Aron. Agrégé in philosophy (1953), director of studies at EHESS, he founded the cultural history of food in France with The Eater of the 19th Century (1973) and shaped intellectual debate with The Moderns (1984).
Born in Oran, alumnus of the École Normale, doctoral thesis under the direction of Henri Cartan. He created correspondence analysis and founded the French school of data analysis, with applications in linguistics, sociology, history and archaeology.
Born in Castiglione (Algeria) into a Jewish family from Algeria that came to France in 1962. Actor and screenwriter, he formed with Agnès Jaoui a writing duo rewarded with several César Awards for best screenplay (Smoking/No Smoking, Un air de famille, On connaît la chanson, Le Goût des autres).
Born in Alexandria on December 24, 1902, into the aristocracy of the Jewish community of Egypt (son of Baron Félix de Menasce, head of the Jewish community of Alexandria). A polyglot, he became a leading Iranologist, specialist in Pahlavi texts and Zoroastrian literature, director of studies at EPHE (1949–1970). He devoted nearly twenty years to the Dēnkart.
French Resistance fighter, Companion of the Liberation
Israeli rabbi
Historian of modern Judaism, long-serving president of Brandeis University. He completed his secondary education in Essen (Germany). Author, coauthor, or editor of more than 30 books, including The Jew in the Modern World (with P. Mendes-Flohr) and a two-volume biography of Chaim Weizmann.
United States admiral (1939–1996)
Co-founder of Schottenstein Stores Corp., son of a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant. Major donor to Jewish institutions (Columbus Torah Academy, Aish HaTorah). He committed to financing the entire Schottenstein edition of the Babylonian Talmud (translation/commentary ArtScroll, 73 volumes), the first major Orthodox English Talmud since the Soncino edition; he saw only the first volumes published, the project being continued by his children.
American actor
Born Józef Nikodem Lewinkopf in 1933 in Poland, in a Jewish family. He survived the Shoah hidden by Polish villagers and emigrated to the United States in 1957. Author of the novels The Painted Bird (1965) and Being There (1971), twice president of the American chapter of the PEN Club. Died in 1991.
Dutch singer
American actress
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American rabbi
American television host, comedian, author and actress (1933-2014)
French comic book author and filmmaker (creator of the « Rabbin's Cat »), whose father André Sfar was a Sephardic Jew from Algeria; Sfar is a documented spelling variant of Safar. Confirmed via Wikipedia (« a Sephardic father from Algeria »).
Australian politician
American actor
American photographer (1911-2006)
Member of the Relief and Rescue Committee (Va'adat Ezra ve-Hatzala) of Budapest. In April 1944, he was entrusted by Adolf Eichmann with negotiating the « blood for goods » deal (Blut gegen Waren) supposed to exchange one million Jews for trucks and goods. His mission failed. With his wife Hansi Brand, he published an account of these events.
American sports executive
punk-rock singer
American journalist
American computer scientist
British rabbi and theologian
Hungarian-American mathematician, one of the most universal minds of the twentieth century, pioneer of computer science, game theory and quantum mechanics. He took part in the Manhattan Project.
French singer
white South African musician and anti-apartheid icon
American actor
Swiss Jew who arrived in England as a child. De facto editor of the weekly Tribune (1942), for 15 years editor of the Jewish Observer and Middle East Review and Middle East correspondent of the Evening Standard. Renowned analyst of Middle Eastern politics and author of several works, often co-signed with his brother David Kimche.
American film producer
American television host, comedian and satirist
American virologist, inventor of the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis. He refused to patent his discovery in order to make it accessible to all.
Born in 1959 in Tokyo in a German Jewish family that fled Nazism; great-great-grandson of Joseph Breuer and descendant of Samson Raphael Hirsch. Executive Director of the office of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks then of the United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) and NESTA. Created Baron Kestenbaum of Foxcote in 2011, he sits in the House of Lords.
American writer and rabbi (1942-2012)
Chilean politician
Argentine politician
Argentine talmud researcher
Born in Fès and established in France, doctorate in Hebrew studies (Paris 8, 1987), he directed the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at INALCO. Specialist in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic literature and the cultural heritage of Moroccan Jews, he notably edited the collective work « Présence juive au Maghreb. Hommage à Haïm Zafrani » (with Nicole S. Serfaty).
Lithuanian Jewish resistance leader (1913-1943), head of the Betar youth movement in Lithuania and deputy commander of the Vilna Ghetto's FPO underground partisan organization against the Germans.
British rabbi
Austrian rabbi (1901–1994)
From a Syrian Jewish family. With his brothers Stanley and Kenneth, he created music distribution in the 1970s (Caytronics), co-founded Salsoul Records then GoodTimes Entertainment, and developed New York real estate (Midtown Equities). Active supporter of Sephardic-Syrian institutions (synagogues and yeshivot in Deal, New Jersey; Shaare Zion congregation).
rabbi (1921–1990)
Notable of the Jewish community of Beirut, he supervised (with Ezra Benjamin) the construction in 1925 of the great synagogue Maghen Abraham, an emblematic building in the Jewish quarter of Wadi Abou Jamil (financed by Moise Abraham Sassoon).
Austrian archaeologist
A great figure of American modern Orthodoxy, philosopher and Talmudist, long a teacher at Yeshiva University. Author of Halakhic Man.
Researcher who worked on the life and work of Elissa Rhaïs; author of "Élissa or the Mystery of a Writing", devoted to the Algerian Jewish Boumendil family and the question of attribution of Elissa Rhaïs's novels.
Russian-American poet, Nobel Prize in Literature 1987, exiled from the Soviet Union after a trial for "parasitism." He became Poet Laureate of the United States.
Scholar specializing in Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Berber languages and poetry from Morocco and North Africa. Author of numerous works on Judeo-Arabic poetry, Moroccan piyyutim, and Judeo-Moroccan musical traditions (including a study of the work of paytan Rabbi David Bouzaglo).
Born in Marrakech in 1938, son of Yaacob. Lawyer at the Paris Court, former student of Yeshiva College Montefiore (Ramsgate). Founding President of the Association of Natives of Marrakech in France. Author of "Le Souffle vespéral" (1994) and "Regards sur l'Atlas" (1997).
Member of the Bene Israel community, prolific playwright and lyricist writing in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and Urdu (also knowing Hebrew and English). He signs the scenario, dialogue and songs of « Alam Ara » (1931), the very first talkie of Indian cinema.
Born in Tunis in 1944, from Sephardic Judaism, he served as Grand Rabbi of France for three consecutive terms (January 1988 – December 2008), spiritual guide of the largest Jewish community in Europe.
Decisor and head of the orthodox community of the old Yishuv in Jerusalem, opposed to secular Zionism. He led the Edah HaHaredit.
American businessman
Historian and literary critic, professor at the Hebrew University, author of studies on the Second Temple and on modern Hebrew literature. He was a candidate for the presidency of Israel in 1949.
American rabbi
Merchant, resistance fighter (partisan), then scholar, regarded as the principal Jewish intellectual of Greece after the Second World War. President of the Jewish Council of Ioannina (1945) and secretary of the community (1947). Pioneer of research on the language, culture, and traditions of Romaniote Jews and Judeo-Greek. He published "Yannióti ka Evraïka Tragoudia" (Jewish Songs of Ioannina, 1953, 16 hymns from manuscripts of 1853–1870) and "Ta Onomata ton Evraion sta Ioannina" (The Names of the Jews of Ioannina, 1955); he studied Judeo-Greek kinot and piyyutim (including elegies from Corfu dating to the thirteenth century).
Professor in the department of ancient Semitic languages at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialist in West-Semitic epigraphy and paleography (Aramaic, Phoenician, paleo-Hebrew). Elected to the Israeli Academy of Sciences in 1994. His dissertation (1970) concerned the development of Aramaic script.
Emeritus professor of medieval and modern Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialist in the social and intellectual history of Sephardic and Oriental Jews, particularly of the Ottoman Empire. Laureate of the Amado (2000) and Toledano (2011) prizes.
Austrian novelist and journalist, author of The Radetzky March, a nostalgic chronicler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He died in exile in Paris.
Polish partisan
American political activist (1901-1956)
Born in Berlin in 1923 to Jewish parents, he fled Nazi Germany in 1936. Professor of computer science at MIT, he created ELIZA in 1966, one of the first conversational agents. He later became a major critic of AI, expounding his thought in the work Computer Power and Human Reason (1976).
American psychiatrist
historien juif allemand, survivant de la Shoah
Professor emeritus of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. Specialist in medieval Hebrew poetry (piyyut) from Byzantine Palestine to the Ottoman period; author of numerous books and articles. Taught at Harvard, JTS, Penn and Yale.
governor of Hawaii
American-Israeli Talmudist (doctorate in Talmud from Bar-Ilan), co-founder of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Known for his commentary on the Haggada and for the Mishnah Yomit / Daf Shevui project.
Chief Minister of Gibraltar (1915-1997)
American rabbi
American congregational reform Rabbi and scholarly writer
French rabbi, religious programme producer
Hungarian rabbi
Rabbi and notary of Tangiers, long-time rabbinical teacher. After the establishment of the Tangiers Statute, he was appointed in 1924 as one of three judges on the city's rabbinical court, then succeeded Chief Rabbi Judah Benchimol as chief rabbi and president of Tangiers's rabbinical court.
American attorney and civic leader (1929-2026), former New York City Deputy Mayor, who as court-appointed Special Master designed the allocation of the $1.25 billion Swiss Banks Holocaust restitution settlement to survivors and heirs.
American rabbi
Yiddish poet and essayist, later figure of the introspectivists In Zikh.
Israeli computer scientist
Physiologist, discovered cryoprecipitation, a key treatment for hemophilia.
Israeli novelist and short-story writer.
American fashion designer (1921-2018)
Archaeologist, led excavations of the Canaanite site of Ai (Et-Tell).
Israeli sociologist, professor of medical sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Louis and Pearl Rose chair, 1991). Doctorate from Radcliffe/Harvard (1955), immigrated to Israel in 1949. Her work focuses on immigration, health and the medical profession. Israel Prize in social sciences (1965).
Born in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, from an Alsatian family settled in Morocco (family enterprise founded in Tangier in 1888 by his grandfather Benjamin Braunschvig). Vice-president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle from 1946 to 1976, then president from 1976 to 1985. In charge of Moroccan affairs, he greatly expanded the Alliance's school network in Morocco (from 12,000 to 32,000 students between 1945 and 1955). Died in Jerusalem.
American director
rabbi and liturgist; son of Henry and Lena Lipman Harlow
Painter born in 1903 in Monastir (Tunisia), trained at the Grande Chaumière Academy in Paris (1926), considered a leading figure of Tunisian painters of the School of Paris; landscapes of Tunisia (Tunis, La Goulette, Sfax, Sidi-Bou-Saïd) and Parisian scenes. Died in Paris in 1963.
Born in Béchar in 1907, journalist at Oran Matin from 1934 (political-social column under various pseudonyms). Poet, he published Tears and Smiles (1928), At the Rhythm of My Heart (1930) and Sloping Gardens (1938, Corymbe Prize). His talent was praised by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Emmanuel Roblès.
Second woman ordained as rabbi in the United Kingdom and first to lead a synagogue (South London Liberal Synagogue, 1977-1989), she taught for twenty years at Leo Baeck College. Made a life peer in 2004, she sits in the House of Lords. Author of several books, notably on end-of-life ethics and antisemitism.
American economist
German-British rabbi (1922-2001)
Norwegian concentration camp survivor
American dancer
Born around 1937 in a Jewish family of Łódź, as a child he knew the Łódź ghetto and then the camps of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen; his mother was murdered in the Holocaust, his father survived. Settled in East Berlin, he became one of the great German-language writers and a dissident. His novel Jakob der Lügner (1969) is a major work of Holocaust literature, adapted for film (the only East German production nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film).
German holocaust survivor
Professor of human geography at Tel-Aviv University, director of the Environmental Simulation Laboratory. Author of about a hundred articles and twenty scientific books on complexity, spatial cognition and cities.
Israeli politician
Director of a school for Mountain Jews in Naltchik in 1925. In 1923, he prepared and published in Naltchik a primer (alphabet book) in the language of the Mountain Jews (Judeo-Tat), in Hebrew characters. Grandfather of Svetlana Aronovna Danilova, founder of the Tovushi center.
American labor leader (1953-2021)
Chilean journalist
Austrian-American neuropsychologist and neurosurgeon known for holonomic brain theory research at Yale and Stanford; from the Pribram family of Bohemia/Prague documented as Jewish (relative Alfred Pribram was a notable Jewish economist).
American filmmaker
film set decorator
Rabbi of Djerba, author of Siftei Renanot, a commentary on the Psalms.
American singer, songwriter, novelist, columnist and politician
Dutch writer
Computer scientist, one of the first programmers; pioneer of numerical weather prediction.
German-Jewish architect born in Frankfurt an der Oder. He designed the country house of Albert Einstein in Caputh. Emigrated to the United States in 1941 to flee the Nazis (his mother, a brother and a sister were murdered in a camp near Riga), he developed with Walter Gropius the « Packaged House System / General Panel System ». Professor at the IIT then at USC.
Israeli golfer
Born in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) in 1929 in a Jewish family of Transylvania, he was deported in 1944 (his mother and sister perished at Auschwitz) and survived. Becoming a photojournalist, he devoted a major part of his work to photographing and documenting the ancient Jewish cemeteries and Jewish memory of Transylvania. He settled in Hungary in 1988 and died in Budapest in 2020.
Italian writer and teacher (1907–2000)
Brazilian musician
philosopher and writer
American financial executive
American journalist, radio and television host and actor (1933–2021)
Hungarian local politician, teacher and historian (1981-2025)
Hungarian mathematician of Jewish descent, professor at Szeged. Regarded as the founder of mathematical logic and theoretical computer science in Hungary; he notably established the decidability of certain classes of formulas in predicate calculus and founded the Szeged cybernetics laboratory. Member of the Hungarian Academy (1949), Kossuth Prize (1950).
Hungarian politician
British rabbi, former chief rabbi of the Movement for Reform Judaism in the United Kingdom
American social worker (1903-1997)
American political figure
Colombian historian and transgender rights activist
Former student of the École Normale Supérieure, Harvard graduate, attorney at the bars of Paris and New York. Influential essayist on major contemporary political and economic issues; his work Law without the State (1985) became a classic in reflection on law and comparative democracy France/America.
Born in Paris to a Jewish family of Alsatian origin with a strong scientific culture (his great-uncle was mathematician Jacques Hadamard, his father-in-law Paul Lévy, his uncle the pediatrician Robert Debré). First French Fields medalist (1950) for his theory of distributions, which revolutionized analysis. Professor at École polytechnique, he was also an anticolonial activist.
French writer born in Nice in 1962, of Jewish origin; first a radiologist physician, he became a novelist. Author of successful historical novels about European Jewish figures (Stefan Zweig, Eduard Einstein, Romain Gary), translated into numerous languages.
American author of literary non-fiction, staff writer at The New Yorker from 1981 to 2002, winner of two George Polk Awards and the Lannan Literary Award. His book Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His religion is listed as Jewish. Grandson of composer Ernst Toch.
Born in 1918 in Slavuta (Ukraine) in a Jewish family (his father worked for the railroad); he moved to Moscow in 1932 and became foreman at the First Watch Factory. He enlisted as a volunteer on June 22, 1941, and died in January 1942 during a counter-offensive: gravely wounded and encircled, he detonated a grenade. Posthumously made Hero of the Soviet Union; streets in Moscow and Slavuta bear his name.
Hebrew poetess, translator, and scholar, a central figure of Israeli literature. She founded the department of comparative literature at the Hebrew University.
American rabbi
British rabbi
Polish rabbi
Egyptian actor and singer (1918–1995)
American actor
German rabbi
German rabbi
Rabbi and thinker born in Oran, trained in kabbalah, major intellectual figure of French Judaism.
Physician born in Tangiers, first Moroccan admitted to the residency of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. First Moroccan of Jewish faith appointed minister after independence: minister of Posts and Telegraphs in the Bekkaï governments (1955–1956). Active in community life (League Against Tuberculosis).
French socialist statesman, the first Jewish president of the Council, leader of the Popular Front in 1936. Deported by the Nazis, he survived Buchenwald.
British political figure
American advocate of interfaith dialogue (1930–2009)
American physicist born in New York to Jewish parents who emigrated from Ukraine (Kiev, Odessa). Nobel Prize in Physics 1988 (with Schwartz and Steinberger) for the discovery of the muon neutrino (1962). Director of Fermilab and founder of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Author of the popular science book The God Particle (1993), at the origin of the nickname of the Higgs boson.
Born in Chicago in 1939 in a Yiddish-speaking Jewish household. Physician and biochemist by training, emeritus professor at the University of Chicago, he chaired the President's Council on Bioethics (2001–2005). He has devoted several books to a philosophical reading of biblical texts.
American rabbi
American conductor and composer, director of the New York Philharmonic, author of West Side Story. He was a world-renowned music educator.
Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and painter
American Jewish writer and political scientist (1934-2014), founder of Moment Magazine and of the Jewish anti-hunger organization MAZON, an influential voice in American Jewish public life.
American businessman
American academic, holder of the Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Chair of Judaic Civilization at Creighton, longtime contributor to Biblical Archaeology Review. Major figure in Septuagint studies (president of the IOSCS 1993–1999), author of over 200 articles and several monographs and edited volumes on Jewish biblical translation, Jewish history and culture.
American military officer
American actor and filmmaker
American economist of Polish Jewish origin (family fleeing Poland during the First World War). Law degree from the University of Warsaw (1938), he emigrated to the United States. Pioneer of mechanism design theory (concept of « incentive compatibility »); he shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics with Maskin and Myerson, one of the oldest laureates (90 years old).
Russian politician
Ukrainian-American businessman
Soviet Jewish filmmaker and screenwriter, co-founder with Grigori Kozintsev of the "Factory of the Eccentric Actor" (FEKS) collective and co-director of the "Maxim" trilogy; violently attacked by Soviet authorities during the postwar "anti-cosmopolitan" campaign.
Austrian priest (1912–1992)
British rabbi
American politician
Scholar and writer of Iraqi Jewish origin (Baghdad), professor of Hebrew literature at UCLA. He has notably studied the contribution of Iraqi Jews to Hebrew literature in Israel.
Soviet physicist
Russian theatre director (1950-2021)
Born in 1919 in Bogushevsk (Belarus). Squadron leader of night bombers during the German-Soviet War; in 1943, he made 24 propaganda flights from his plane over Paulus's encircled troops at Stalingrad. Retired as colonel in 1961. In Minsk, he requested a visa for Israel in 1971, which was refused; he lived for 16 years as a refusnik (appeals, demonstrations, memory of the Shoah at Minsk's "Iama") before emigrating in 1987. In Israel, he chaired the council of veterans of World War II; died in Jerusalem in 2007.
Soviet psychologist, founder of cultural-historical psychology, whose theory of development left a lasting mark on pedagogy. He died young of tuberculosis.
Rabbi of Salé, 20th century. Died in 5661 of the Hebrew era (1901). Son of Shlomo. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 80-3.
Israeli statesman, the third Prime Minister of Israel, in office during the Six-Day War. He worked to develop the country's water resources and agriculture.
American rabbi
Dutch rabbi
Yiddish poet from Vilno, member of the Yung Vilne group, died in Soviet exile.
American-Mexican singer
Romanian Israeli Jewish actress
Israeli author and journalist
Israeli political figure
Australian judge and Governor of Victoria
Canadian actress
American photographer
British Reform rabbi, journalist and broadcaster (1930–2016)
Cofounder of the Research Centre on Jews in English-Speaking Countries (University Paris-X) and author of several works on the history of ideas in 17th-century England, including 'Zion and Albion: Jews and Puritans Awaiting the Messiah' (Honoré Champion, 2006), on the relations between Jews and Calvinist Puritanism.
American academic
Austrian physicist, co-discoverer of nuclear fission, which she interpreted theoretically. A refugee from Nazism, she refused to take part in the making of the bomb.
American actor
fashion designer (1910-1997)
Venezuelan politician
Born in France to American parents of Ukrainian Jewish origin. Child prodigy, he conducted major orchestras (Cleveland, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh, Bavarian Radio, Munich, New York Philharmonic). In 1960, first American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival. His grandfather Isaac Maazel (1873–1925), born in Poltava, was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra.
American philanthropist
Talmudist and folklorist, author of The Legends of the Jews, a vast compilation of aggadot. He was a major figure of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
British historian and rabbi
British Jewish scholar (1920-2006)
Estonian-born American architect, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century (Kimbell Art Museum, Salk Institute), born to a Jewish family; his family adopted the surname Kahn after emigration to the United States.
Eldest son of a Jewish musical family (Jacques Tas and Frieda Herzberg), he was one of the first professional psychoanalysts in the Netherlands. Deported to Westerbork then Bergen-Belsen, he kept a journal there (April 25, 1944 – April 7, 1945) published after the war under the pseudonym "Loden Vogel". He subsequently specializes in trauma and shame.
Tunisian singer
American poet, Nobel laureate in Literature
Born in Tunis in 1936, director of studies at EHESS, historian of premodern the Maghreb and Mediterranean Islam, as well as of Jewish memory in Tunisia. Her work renewed social and anthropological history of the Maghreb and the Jewish communities of North Africa.
British painter and engraver (1922-2011)
Of Sephardic roots from the Middle East and Manchester, trained at Balliol College (Oxford). Author of works of historical popularization, including « Sunlight and Shadow: The Jewish Experience of Islam » (1999) and « The Sephardim: Their Glorious Tradition ». He devoted more than twenty years of research to tracing the Gubbay family (from Aleppo and Baghdad) and its connections with the Gubbays of Calcutta.
Born on April 5, 1921 in Bucharest (Romania), merchant. Took refuge in the Italian occupation zone in 1943; his family was threatened after the German invasion of September 1943. A young resister, Lucien was shot by the Germans at La Paute (Bourg-d'Oisans, Isère) on August 14, 1944. His father, Julien Natanson, a paper merchant in Paris, took his own life in the Romanche the following day, after witnessing his son's execution. Their memory is carried forward by Dominique Natanson (Jewish Memory & Education).
Son of Léon Halévy (brother of Fromental), thus nephew of the composer. Librettist of numerous French operas, including Bizet's Carmen and Jacques Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers.
Austrian philosopher, one of the most influential of the 20th century, author of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Of Jewish ancestry, he taught at Cambridge.
American journalist
American rapper
Hungarian sculptor
Author, politician and Moroccan real estate consultant, born into a Jewish family of Casablanca. First Jewish woman candidate in legislative elections in Morocco (2007, heading the Social Center Party). She published several works on Moroccan Jewish traditions.
Counted among the great sages of Djerba, he later settled as a rabbi in Tiberias, where he died at age 65 and was buried in the old cemetery. He is the author of the work « Ner Tamid », a commentary on the Gemara and the Shulchan Arukh.
Belgian translator
American entrepreneur (1928-2014)
American rabbi and writer
Yiddish poetess born in Galicia, widely read in America.
One of the four roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood); grandson of Aharon Kotler.
German-language actor, described by the German Wikipedia as « deutschsprachiger Schauspieler jüdischer Herkunft » (German-speaking actor of Jewish origin).
American actor and opera singer
Polish-Jewish jurist and diplomat who served as judge and later President of the International Court of Justice from 1967 to 1993; his family who remained in Poland were murdered in the Holocaust.
Israeli footballer
Uruguayan historian
French historian, co-founder of the Annales school, a resistance fighter shot by the Gestapo. Author of The Royal Touch and Strange Defeat.
pop-rock singer and guitarist (1947-1977)
French painter of Russian origin, one of the great masters of modern art, whose work is imbued with the imagery of the shtetl. Creator of famous stained glass windows and ceilings.
American rabbi
Rabbi of the Bonai Shalom congregation in Boulder (Colorado) since 2004, native of London. He writes Torah columns for My Jewish Learning and the American Jewish World Service, and was cited by the Forward among the most inspiring American rabbis of 2014.
philosopher, writer and French rabbi
Marcel Bénabou, born in 1939 in Meknès, is a writer and historian, professor of Roman history specializing in ancient North Africa. Member of the Oulipo since 1969, he is its « permanently provisional secretary ». His autobiographical and playful work — notably « Jacob, Ménahem et Mimoun: une épopée familiale » — brings into play his Moroccan Judaism and his city of Meknès, transmitting through letters a family memory.
Franco-Tunisian guitarist born in Sousse, pioneer of picking in France, died in the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and buried in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
French actor and mime
Brazilian musician
American rabbi, teacher and spiritual leader
Argentine Jewish jurist, law professor at the university, author of several legal works, founder and first president of an Argentine legal society, honorary president of the United Israel Appeal; assassinated in Buenos Aires in 1957.
Member of the ancient Zinati family, one of three priestly families (kohanim) present in Peki'in for millennia. For a long time the only Jewess in the village, she tended the ancient synagogue (« guardian of Jewish embers »); she lit a torch at the ceremony marking Israel's 70th anniversary in 2018. Daughter of Yosef and Saada Zinati.
Margarete Wedell, née Glogauer le 30 mars 1892 à Berlin, résidait au Hohenzollerndamm 111 dans le quartier de Wilmersdorf. Déportée le 25 janvier 1942 depuis la gare de marchandises de Berlin-Moabit vers Riga dans un convoi de 1 044 personnes, elle fut fusillée peu après son arrivée, le 30 janvier 1942. Un Stolperstein a été posé en sa mémoire le 24 mars 2014 devant son ancien domicile.
Marģers Vestermanis, born on September 18, 1925 in Riga in a German-speaking Latvian Jewish family, died on July 30, 2026 in Riga at the age of one hundred. Survivor of the Riga ghetto, the camps of Kaiserwald, Dondangen and Poperwahlen, he escaped during a death march in July 1944 and joined the resistance in the Latvian forests, being the only member of his family to survive the Shoah. Having become a historian, he founded in 1989 the museum « Jews in Latvia » (Ebreji Latvijā), the first institution dedicated to Jewish history in Latvia since the Second World War, of which he was director until 2008.
British actress
Psychoanalyst, theorist of the 'crypt' and the phantom with Nicolas Abraham.
Polish writer
German resistance fighter against Nazism
French Jewish historian and educator
Czech poet and literature historian (1936–2020)
American lyricist
Uruguayan mathematician
producteur de télévision américain (1915–1992)
Soviet Jewish mathematician, one of the great figures of the Soviet school of functional analysis. In the 1930s he created a functional analysis center at Odessa University. His career was hampered by antisemitic discrimination (loss of a position in 1952). Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1982, which he was not permitted to receive in person. He has an entry in the YIVO encyclopedia.
American painter of Latvian origin, a major figure of Abstract Expressionism and "color field painting." His large meditative canvases are world-renowned.
American rabbi, founder of the Jewish Broadcasting Service and the first Russian-language channel produced in the United States (RTN). He hosted the series of interviews L'Chayim and produced Jewish educational programs.
Canadian biologist, HIV specialist
American entrepreneur
Markovics Gyula, born January 22, 1926, in Sátoraljaújhely (northeast Hungary), died in early August 2026 in his one hundred first year; the regional press designated him as the last survivor of the Shoah from the Jewish communities of Sátoraljaújhely and Nyíregyháza. Deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau at eighteen years old in 1944, he survived the death marches before being liberated in January 1945. Returning to Hungary, he worked as a watchmaker-jeweler and then directed the watchmaking workshop of the VAGÉP company in Nyíregyháza until his retirement, remaining until his death a respected figure in the local Jewish community.
German textile artist, Bauhaus student
American rabbi
American physicist born into a Jewish family, specialist in plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion. He lent his name to the "Rosenbluth formula" (electron diffusion) and co-signed in 1953 the Metropolis algorithm, ranked among the ten most influential algorithms of the 20th century.
Canadian jurist
Hungarian pianist and music pedagogue
Hungarian writer
Austrian activist and zoologist
Philosopher of dialogue, author of I and Thou, and a great disseminator of Hasidic tales. He taught in Frankfurt and then at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
American lawyer
British playwright, theatre critic, scholar (1918-2002)
American businessman
American actor (1928–2017)
financial journalist
classical scholar
American lawyer, researcher, writer, and businessperson
American businessman (1934–2017)
American television news reporter (1921-2007)
Tunisian rabbi
medical researcher (1926–2018)
American screenwriter, presenter, film director, actor and voice actor
British businessman
Dutch businessman
Canadian contralto
Bulgarian Jewish musician born and died in Sofia. Composer and instrumentalist (violin, saxophone) of pop and jazz music, he recorded for the labels Balkanton, Melodiya and Orpheus Music. A Wikidata authority record is dedicated to him.
Israeli artist
American rabbi
Born in the Jewish quarter of Oran, pianist and composer of Andalusian, raï, Sephardic and Arabic music. Major figure in Judeo-Oranais music. He published a memoir, « A Memoir: From Oran to Marseille (1936–1990) ».
Active member of the Cairo Jewish community (secretary of the community tax from 1938 to 1942), he wrote for several newspapers from the 1930s onwards and directed the monthly journal Kadima. He published two seminal historical monographs on the Jewish past of Egypt, interweaving biblical motifs and Pharaonic history in a Zionist reading.
Indian activist (1901–1976)
Born in Benghazi, professor of political sociology and Middle Eastern studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he founds and directs the J.R. Elyachar Sephardic Heritage Study Centre. Author of a reference monograph on the Jews of Libya.
Born in Agadir in 1950, specialist in medieval Jewish philosophy (Maimonides, Averroes) and modern Judeo-German thought (Mendelssohn to Scholem), professor (Strasbourg, Basel, Heidelberg, lecturer in Geneva). Author of nearly fifty works, including about ten "Que sais-je?" volumes; recipient of the Gegner Prize 1995 from the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for his work on Maimonides.
Born in Sfax (Tunisia) in 1949, youngest of six children from a Tunisian Jewish family, he grew up in France then settled in Los Angeles in 1981. He founded BCBG Max Azria in 1989 and acquired the Hervé Léger house in 1998. Inducted into the CFDA in 1998, he died in Houston in 2019.
Romanian writer
American actor
Born in Paris in 1902, son-in-law of Théophile Bader (founder of the Galeries Lafayette) through his marriage to Paulette Bader (1926). Engaged early in the Resistance after the aryanization of the family business, he conceived with Henri Frenay and René Hardy the plan for railway sabotage known as the 'Plan Vert' prepared for the landings. Arrested on 12 June 1943 and deported (Buchenwald, Struthof). President of the Galeries Lafayette from 1945 to 1971.
German philosopher and sociologist, director of the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School). With Adorno, he developed critical theory.
Physician, writer, and co-founder of the Zionist movement alongside Herzl. A theorist of "muscular Judaism," he was a figure of the early Zionist congresses.
Dutch writer and cabaret artist (1909-1990)
American theologian
French rabbi
Author of popular works on Jewish history. His best-known book, « The Jewish People: 4000 Years of Survival », was written in collaboration with historian Cecil Roth and published by Massada Press in Tel-Aviv (1966), extensively illustrated (600 photographs and maps).
Israeli politician
Born in Casablanca in 1965 into a family of artists from Essaouira, he is presented as a torch-bearer and one of the last great performers of Moroccan Jewish song who remained in Morocco. Cousin of Roger Karoutchi.
lesbian and non-binary musician
Israeli poet, Bialik Prize and three Prime Minister's Prizes.
American rabbi
Hungarian rabbi and educationist (1908-1998)
American mathematician, physicist (1929-2011)
Originally from the Jewish community of Zakho ("Jerusalem of Kurdistan"), he is the author of a work on the Kabbalah that opens with a long study of the Zakho community, its legends, and a biography of his father. His book is cited as a reference historical source on Zakho in the scholarly study by Haya Gavish (Unwitting Zionists: The Jewish Community of Zakho).
Son of Victoria and Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim (Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Rishon le-Tzion 1955-1972), he was one of the most prolific researchers of Jewish studies. Pillar and then director (1964) of the Ben-Zvi Institute, pioneer in the use of Hebrew manuscripts for the study of Sephardic, Italian and Oriental Judaisms of the early modern period. Founder, with Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, of the journal Sefunot; he later directed the Institute Yad ha-Rav Nissim (from 1985), in memory of his father.
Israeli rabbi (1934–2009)
Israeli conductor
Israeli politician
Dutch rabbi
rabbi and politician (1932-1990)
Israeli rabbi
Israeli writer
Polish rabbi, initiator of the Daf Yomi, the worldwide cycle of daily Talmud study. He founded the great Hakhmé Lublin yeshiva.
Born in Ksar es-Souk (Errachidia) in Morocco, immigrated to Israel in 1957. Mayor of Yavné (1974-1987) then deputy (Likud, Kadima, Hatnua) and several times minister (Interior, Finance, Justice, Education, Transport, Housing). Candidate for the presidency of Israel in 2014.
Chief economist at the office of the Governor of the Bank of Israel, he founded in 1992 the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Jerusalem College of Technology. Author of several reference works on Jewish ethics of money and markets.
Israeli modernist poet from Tel-Aviv, Israel Prize 2000.
American rabbi
Rabbi Chabad-Lubavitch, rosh yeshiva at Kiryat Malachi and among the leaders of the Tomkhei Temimim yeshivot of Holon and Kfar Chabad. Emigrated to Israel in 1946, buried in Safed. His lectures were collected in the sefer 'Amrei Zvi', studies and novellae on the Babylonian Talmud and the Mishné Torah of Maimonides.
American diplomat
American actor
Rabbi born and raised in London, trained at the yeshiva of Gateshead then at the Mir of Jerusalem and the Bais Medrash Elyon of Monsey, engaged in education for nearly 40 years. Lecturer on hashkafa and personal development; author of works published by Feldheim.
Leader of the Irgun and then Prime Minister of Israel, signatory of the Camp David peace accords with Egypt. Nobel Peace Prize 1978.
Israeli philosopher and literary theorist, pacifist activist.
Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a peacemaker
Israeli politician
Russian educator and rabbi (1907-1995)
Seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, he turned the movement into a worldwide network of emissaries. A prolific thinker, he profoundly shaped contemporary Judaism.
Hasidic rebbe
American rabbi
Israeli politician
Fifth Sochatchover Rebbe (1934-1969)
Born and raised in Mezőkövesd (Hungary) in 1925, he studied philosophy and Semitic languages in Budapest, immigrated to Israel in 1947 and continued at the Hebrew University. Professor at Bar-Ilan from 1961 (full professor in 1970), dean then rector (1971-1974). His fields: Aramaic, Hebrew syntax, biblical and rabbinical and especially modern Hebrew.
Israeli director
Hungarian-American Jew, Albert B. and Bernice Cohen Professor of medieval Hebrew literature and Jewish bibliography at JTS. Librarian of JTS from 1964 to 1987, he directed the reconstruction of the library after the 1966 fire. Master of piyyut and liturgy, he published extensively on Ashkenazi liturgical poetry and Hebrew manuscripts.
Professor of Jewish history at the University of Haifa, doctoral degree holder from the Hebrew University (1984); former holder of the Klutznick chair at Creighton (1987-1992) and dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Haifa (2004-2010). Specialist in the Second Temple period, the Samaritans, and especially the Second Jewish Revolt.
American Hasidic rebbe
Polish photographer
Polish rabbi
Son of the Brisker Rav, rosh yeshiva of a yeshiva of Brisk in Jerusalem, last witness of pre-war Lithuania.
Born in Jerusalem to Yemenite Jewish parents, ordained rabbi, he was a Knesset deputy for the Shas party (1999–2021) and held several ministerial positions. Figure of the Yemenite community in Israel.
Financier known for leveraged deals; he first taught Hebrew and Talmud in Minneapolis. He published a memoir, « $950 Million in 40 Minutes ».
Grand Rebbe of the Tosh hasidic dynasty
Rabbi, 20th century. Died in 5687 of the Hebrew era (1927). Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 84-4.
French rabbi
Great Orthodox Jewish Rabbi of the 20th century
American mobster who built Las Vegas with Bugsy Siegel (1902–1983)
Cuban rabbi
Romanian rabbi
Born Michael Schwager in Linz, refugee from Nazism in 1938, major figure in Israeli cinema and television over five decades; co-founder and director of Castel Productions (1969-1988). Father of Oron and Aliza Shagrir his wife.
Dutch comedian
Israeli actor
mayor of Montreal, Quebec, (2012-2013)
Born in Sofia into a Sephardic Jewish family from Bulgaria, emigrated to Israel in 1948. Historian of Russia in the 18th–19th centuries, he founded in 1971 the Institute of Russian and East European Studies at Tel-Aviv University and holds the Samuel Rubin chair. Author of numerous works; recipient of the Israel Prize in 1993.
Professor of African Medicine
Professor of Hebrew literature at Tel-Aviv University, director of the Laura Schwarz-Kipp centre for Hebrew literature and culture. His work focuses on the formation of the canon in modern Hebrew poetry and on body, gender and nation in Hebrew literature.
Israeli politician
Orthodox Rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli actor and model
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
American Reform rabbi, civil rights activist, and human rights activist (1924-2006)
rabbi
German-American scholar
Romanian political scientist and journalist
German-born musician and professor of German literature
biblical scholar
Born in Płock in a rabbinical family, teacher of Jewish History and Literature in Warsaw. Active in the Warsaw Ghetto (clandestine schools for children), close to Janusz Korczak, he survived by passing as Christian after 1943. Settled in London around 1947, he was secretary of the British section of YIVO and contributed to the Jewish Chronicle.
Israeli novelist, poet and stage director.
Canadian entrepreneur and art collector
Israeli actress
Polish writer
Franco-Tunisian actor and comedian born in Tunis in a Tunisian Jewish family who emigrated to France. He writes and stages his one-man-shows, including « Albert » (1980), which takes as its theme the life of Tunisian Jews exiled in France. César for Best Supporting Actor in 1985 for « Trois hommes et un couffin ».
French statesman
Soviet rabbi
French rabbi
Rosh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, member of the Moetzes of Degel HaTorah.
American actress
American journalist
Swedish writer
Romanian writer
President of Agudath Israel of America
American actor
Professor of chemistry of Jewish origin from the mountains, he published the first Juhuri-Russian dictionary (Moscow, 1997, Quba dialect, ~9,000 entries), then an enlarged edition (Baku) comprising a Juhuri-Russian section (~14,000 words and phrases) and Russian-Juhuri (over 19,000 words). Also contributed to a modern Juhuri manual.
Russian writer
World chess champion (first time in 1948), « patriarch » of the Soviet school. His parents were Russian Jews — his father Moïsseï Botvinnik, dental prosthesist. He himself defined himself « Jewish by birth, Russian by culture, Soviet by education ». He himself annotated and published many of his games.
American actor
Jewish-Dutch journalist, writer, television producer and director (1920–2011)
American actor (1908-2002)
Canadian businessman
American rabbi
American rabbi
American aviator, one of the five founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force (1919-2004)
American politician
American military officer
Austrian Jewish secretary
Iraqi Jewish Author and poet
Israeli novelist and short story writer.
Israeli poet, feminine and Mizrahi voice.
(1913-1990) Jewish community leader
Israeli politician
Brazilian actress
Israeli writer
Jewish genealogist, columnist, Routes to Roots genealogy tours, head of Routes to Roots Foundation
Croatian rabbi
American sociologist
Born on June 21, 1929 in Paris, daughter of bookseller Aron Natanson and Fanny Neidmann. Baptized in 1939 and hidden in Catholic boarding schools during the Occupation, she was arrested on September 23, 1942, at thirteen years old, at the same time as her father. Interned at Drancy, she was deported on convoy no. 37 on September 25, 1942 and murdered upon her arrival at Auschwitz, around September 27, 1942. Her memory is preserved by historian Dominique Natanson (Mémoire Juive & Éducation).
Rabbi originally from Debdou, settled in Israel, author of the works 'Yismah Moshe' and 'Yesod ha-Binyan', according to the Jewish Moroccan Archive.
Rabbi and judge from Debdou, settled in Israel, author of the work « Morechet Moché » (Heritage of Moché).
American baseball player
Canadian musician
Born in Tétouan in 1959, emigrated to Israel as a young man. A prolific writer and poet, laureate of the Israeli Prime Minister's literature prize in 2009; one of the major Sephardic writers in Hebrew/Spanish, whose work explores Sephardic identity, exile, and memory (novel « Keys to Tetouan »).
French rabbi
Kabbalist and Talmudist, grandson of a great rabbi of Baghdad and one of the leaders of that community in 1904. He published in Jerusalem and Baghdad, between 1870 and 1900, several works including « Rab Pe'alim », « Ben Ish Ḥai », and « Ben Yehoyadah », and the Jews of India and the Far East submitted their ritual questions to him.
American culinary author, known for 'The Moosewood Cookbook' (1977), one of the best-selling cookbooks in the United States. Raised in an observant Conservative Jewish household in Rochester (NY), she traces her interest in vegetarian cooking to her education in respect for kashrut.
Canadian writer
American actress
Italian actor and singer
Egyptian actor and musician (1922–1981)
Canadian politician
Israeli actress
Israeli Paralympic basketball player and rower
Canadian writer, novelist, essayist and screenwriter (1931-2001)
Leader of the Jewish Combat Organization, he led the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. He died in the bunker on Mila Street.
Born in Baghdad (original name Murad), sent to Iraq in 1949 to organize clandestine aliyah; he coordinated with Shlomo Hillel Operation Ezra and Nehemiah which brought ~110,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel. Arrested then escaped, he later became a deputy and minister, and founded the Centre for the Heritage of Babylonian Judaism.
Israeli rabbi
Romanian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Poet, psychologist and Israeli visual artist, Bialik Prize.
American rabbi
Grand Rabbi of Vizhnitz (1922-2018)
rabbi (1921-2014)
French rabbi
Brother and assistant to Belzer Rebbi
French rabbi
Yemenite rabbi
rabbin israélien
Israeli footballer
American rabbi
American rabbi
Rabbi and researcher in Kabbalah and metaphysics, founder of the Ramhal Institute in Jerusalem (since 1990) and specialist in the life and work of Ramhal (R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto). He has published some thirty works, in Hebrew and in French, including « La Métaphysique de l'Unité chez le Ramhal », « Tikoun Olam », « Le Flambeau de la Cabale », « L'Essence de la Torah », « Le Roi du Monde ».
Son of Avraham Tabib; Hebrew writer whose work deals with the Yemenite community in Israel, notably the novels Ke-Esev ha-Sadeh (1948), Derekh shel Afar (stories, 1953) and Ke-Arar be-Aravah (1957).
Rabbi of Fès, 20th century. Died in 5661 of the Hebrew era (1901). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 88-2.
Canadian-American journalist (1931-2016)
American blogger, writer, artist, and supercentenarian (1914–2024)
Jewish architect born in Odessa, emigrated to New York in 1903 with his family (Polish/Estonian Jewish parents). He designed over 1,000 buildings, including the famous neo-Baroque hotels of Miami Beach in the 1950s-60s. Author of works on architecture and an autobiography.
American gangster and con artist in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry (1927-1990)
American entrepreneur
American composer
Canadian political figure
Swiss rabbi
Jewish historian
Greek physician, academic, and politician
Romanian rabbi
Born Edmund Hans Rosenkranz into a poor peasant Jewish family of Bukovina, he adopted the name Moses at eleven years old in protest against an teacher's antisemitism. German-language poet, he was a translator and ghostwriter for Queen Marie of Romania. Persecuted successively by the Antonescu regime, the Soviet gulag and the Ceaușescu regime, he settled in Germany in 1961. Author of poetry collections and memoirs (Fragment einer Autobiographie).
Professor of biblical commentary at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He edited texts from the Geonic period based on unique manuscripts (Firkovitch collection) and studied the Arabic translation of the Torah by Saadia Gaon.
Israeli politician
Hungarian rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli politician
rabbi and historian (1908–2010)
American rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli general and politician, Minister of Defense during the Six-Day War. His black eye patch became an emblematic image.
Israeli poet and essayist, figure of the Likrat group, Bialik Prize.
Born in Morocco, moved to Israel at age 5; rabbi of the local council of Shlomi and director of the beth-midrash Chaaré Uziel. Sees himself as a continuer of the teaching of Rav Ben-Zion Meir Haï Uziel, whose writings he edits. Researcher of Moroccan Jewish customs.
Romanian rabbi
The leading Orthodox halakhic authority in North America in the twentieth century, author of the responsa Igrot Moshe. His rulings settled countless questions of modernity.
American rabbi
Jewish orthodox writer and journalist (1936–2023)
concentration camps survivor, memoirist and poet in Ladino
Romanian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American musician
Rosh yeshiva of Slabodka (Bnei Brak), co-president of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
rabbi and anti-Zionist activist
Israeli statesman
Greek member of parliament and president of the Greek branch of the National Zionist Organization in 1919, he financed the purchase of land for a Jewish settlement project; the Israeli moshav Tzur Moshe bears his name.
American rabbi
Hungarian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Professor emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, former director of the Truman Institute. Author of numerous works on Syria, Assad and Israeli-Arab relations.
Israeli film director
Veteran jurist and legal commentator on Israeli radio (Kol Israel), where he hosted the program "Din u-Dvarim" for decades. Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University, laureate of the Sokolov Press Prize. He published several books on the rule of law, ethics and media, and defended human rights.
Born in Haifa into a family of Syrian Jews; his father was from Aleppo, his mother (settled in Manchester) of Aleppine origin. Renowned architect: Habitat 67 in Montreal, the new Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, Marina Bay Sands and Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore, the Crystal Bridges Museum, etc. He has also published several works on architecture.
Israeli economist
Israeli rabbi
Foreign minister and then second Prime Minister of Israel. A moderate diplomat, he often opposed Ben Gurion's hardline stance.
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
rabbi of Zurich
Chief rabbi of Alep in the twentieth century. With Rabbi Salim (Shlomo) Zafrani, he secured the burnt fragments of the Aleppo Codex after the 1947 riots, leading others to believe it had been entirely burned, then entrusted in 1957 the Keter to Mordechai Faham to smuggle it out of Syria to Israel.
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialist in Deuteronomy, social justice in ancient Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Recipient of the Israel Prize for Bible Study in 1994. He has published more than a dozen books and some 240 articles.
Descendant of the Ozharov dynasty, author of vast works: "Aish Das" (11 volumes) and "Be'er Moshe" (12 volumes on the Humash and the Tanakh).
Israeli rabbi
German rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi of the Reform movement
Israeli politician
Lelover Rebbi
Hassidic mashpiah in New York
Australian political figure
Israeli playwright, political theatre (Kastner, Pollard).
French poet and journalist
Born on December 28, 1905 in Warsaw. Humorist writer in Yiddish, he began in the satirical magazine Der takhshet and contributed to Sambatyon, Tararam, Der mashkhes; he published his own humorous magazine Der shtifer and directed the puppet theater Khad-gadye in Warsaw (1934-1935). After emigrating, he published several collections of humor in Buenos Aires then New York. Died in Brooklyn in 1967.
Yiddish prose writer (pseud. Ber Sarin) of the Yung Vilne group, murdered by the Nazis.
Born in Jerusalem, graduate in philosophy and kabbalah from the Hebrew University, member of kibbutz Ein Gev since 1956; former secretary of the Kibbutz Movement. Prolific author and editor on the history of pioneers, the Second Aliyah, and secular Judaism.
rabbi
American political figure
American rabbi
American rabbi
Rosh yeshiva of Torah Betziyon in Efrat, Israel
Orthodox Jewish Rabbi
French actress, writer and social personality
Iraqi Jew born under the name Naeim Khalaschi (in Hillah), from a family whose patronym "Khalaschi" ("refiners/purifiers" of gold) was given under the Ottomans. He emigrated to Israel and then to the United States and published an article "The Jews of Iraq" (1998) and an autobiographical and polemical book, "Ben-Gurion's Scandals".
American rabbi
Hasidic rabbi (1916–2009)
rabbi
PhD in Iranian Studies from UCLA, where she teaches Judeo-Persian literature and the history of Iranian Jews. In 2000 she founded the "House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts", a foundation dedicated to collecting and transcribing Persian texts written in Hebrew characters.
Jewish literary scholar, theologian, and editor
Israeli rabbi
Writer, journalist, and Zionist leader, president of the World Zionist Organization. He played a key diplomatic role in securing the Balfour Declaration.
concentration camp survivor and classmate of Anne Frank (born 1929)
Dutch violinist, member of the Amsterdam Duo with his wife pianist Alice Heksch. Student of Sal Snijder. Wikidata connects him to the « People of the Book », citing the Joods Biografisch Woordenboek (Jewish Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands).
Italian writer
Latvian rabbi
Israeli business executive
Israeli political figure
Israeli rabbi
chief rabbi of Lod, Israel
Israeli politician
Major Israeli poet and publicist, whose verse chronicles accompanied the struggles of the Yishuv. Author of the collection Stars Outside.
Italian physician
French rabbi, resistant and deportee
American violinist (1902–1992)
German rabbi
Israeli novelist and playwright, 1948 generation.
Co-owner of the R. H. Macy & Co. and Abraham & Straus department stores, pioneering philanthropist of milk pasteurization which reduced infant mortality, and supporter of the Zionist project.
Israeli biblical scholar and educator, who renewed the study of the Torah through her study sheets circulated worldwide. Sister of Yeshayahou Leibowitz.
Polish historian
Born in Florence in 1925, arrested in 1944 and deported to Auschwitz with 11 members of his family, of whom he was the sole survivor; liberated at Buchenwald. He became one of the principal Italian witnesses to the Shoah and recorded his family memory in the book « A 5405, il coraggio di vivere » (2003), named after his Auschwitz prisoner number.
Biblical scholar, philologist and American-Israeli author (born in 1972)
Latvian diplomat
American rabbi
American politician
American playwright and screenwriter
German poetess, Nobel Prize in Literature 1966, whose work is a lament for the Jewish people. She took refuge in Sweden in 1940.
Russian rabbi
Israeli actress and journalist
American businessman
Honorary professor at the Faculty of Medicine and member of the Romanian Academy, he presided over the FCER from 1995 to 2004 and forged the concept of « realsemitism » valorizing the role of Jews in Romanian development.
actor
Born September 23, 1958 in Casablanca into a Moroccan Jewish family originally from Essaouira. Writer and journalist, she dedicates her work to the heritage and identity of Moroccan Jews (birth of Israel, emigration, tensions between Zionism and Pan-Arabism). Her surname derives from the Oued El Ghriss, a watercourse in the Moroccan Sahara.
Danish physicist, Nobel Prize 1922, father of the atomic model and of quantum physics. Of Jewish mother, he helped save the Danish Jews in 1943.
actrice américaine
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, born in Leipzig in a family of Jewish origin from Russia (son of Hugo Pevsner and Anna née Perlmann), doctorate from the University of Leipzig (1924). Driven from the German university in 1933 (prohibition on Jews teaching), he emigrated to England. Author of the monumental series The Buildings of England (46 vol., 1951-1974) and director of the Pelican History of Art.
Physician in gynecological oncology; survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, directed Radiumhemmet.
American musician
Contemporary Israeli novelist, political fictions.
American rabbi
French rabbi
Israeli playwright, baroque language and royal myths at Habima.
Indian Jewish poet from the Bene Israel community, son of Moses Ezekiel Talkar, professor of botany at Wilson College in Bombay. The family originates from the coastal village of Tala (Konkan), hence the toponymic name Talkar that his father eventually abandoned. Nissim Ezekiel is considered a founding figure of Indian poetry in English.
Born in Baghdad in 1930 into a Jewish family whose surname Kazzaz designates a merchant of silk thread, he emigrated to Israel in 1946. He became a reference historian of Iraqi Judaism and notably contextualizes the Farhud (1941 pogrom) in its historical setting.
Born in Casablanca in 1946, he studied at the yeshiva of Sunderland (England) and then at Lakewood (United States) under Rav Aharon Kotler. Appointed Av Beth Din of Marseille in 1981, he becomes rosh beth din of Paris then of France, and rabbi of the Ohalé Yaacov synagogue (19th arr. of Paris). Central figure in French Judaism; the BnF devotes an author authority record to him.
Born in Baghdad, he managed the al-Rabita bookstore there and wrote for the Iraq Times before emigrating to Israel in 1951. Researcher at the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University, he has published a dozen books on the Jews of Iraq and the Middle East. Recipient of the National Jewish Book Award 1998 (Israel Studies) for Israel's Place in the Middle East.
Chilean actor
American rabbi
American political figure
American rabbi
American linguist, philosopher, and public intellectual, founder of generative grammar and one of the most cited scholars in history; from a Jewish family originating in Ukraine/Belarus (father William Chomsky was a noted Hebrew scholar).
Rabbi
Hungarian lecturer
Born in New York in a Jewish family, daughter of playwrights-screenwriters Phoebe (née Wolkind) and Henry Ephron. Eldest of four sisters all writers (Delia, Amy, Hallie). Screenwriter nominated for an Oscar for « Silkwood » (1983) and recipient of a BAFTA for Best Screenplay for « When Harry Met Sally » (1989); also essayist and novelist.
Physician born in Blida, long-time medical columnist for Le Nouvel Observateur. Author of essays on medicine and society.
American mathematician, founder of cybernetics, the science of control and communication. A child prodigy, he was a professor at MIT.
German tax advisor, functionary in Jewish organisations (1913-1998)
American journalist
American rabbi
American writer
British Masorti rabbi
American art collector (1907-1993)
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American economist born in Turkey, from an Iranian Jewish family, famous for predicting the global financial crisis of 2007-2008; his patronym Roubini is a documented variant of Rouben.
Brazilian actress
Professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute (Meyer W. Weisgal chair). Major contributions to the foundations of cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, pseudo-randomness and property testing. Laureate of the Knuth Prize (2017) and the Israel Prize in mathematics (2021). Author of several reference works.
French pianist, teacher and composer, excluded from the Paris Conservatory in 1941 as a Jew under the Occupation, First Grand Prix of Rome 1948.
Franco-Israeli activist
variety singer
British crystallographer (1924-2023)
Mathematician, over 300 articles in number theory and matrix theory.
Belgian woman politician
Olivier Wormser (1913–1985), from a Jewish family of Lorraine and Alsace, joined the Free French Forces in 1940. Ambassador of France to Moscow then to Germany, he was Governor of the Bank of France from 1969 to 1974 and an architect of the law of 3 January 1973 on the Bank of France.
Born in Tunis in a Tunisian Jewish family of industrialists (son of René Cacoub and Mireille Boccara), he obtained the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for architecture in 1953 and became architect-adviser to the Tunisian presidency. Chief architect of civil buildings and national palaces, he built numerous structures in Tunisia and France.
Italian journalist, writer, television presenter, and radio host
Israeli football player
Israeli footballer
Yemenite scholar, editor of a Tiklal (baladi prayer ritual) based on the Maharitz's Tiklal with the complete Etz Ḥayim commentary, according to the custom of the Yemenite Jewish community.
Israeli actor
Israeli politician
Holder of the Schulman Chair of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, professor of philosophy and cognitive sciences, vice-president for international affairs since 2017. He works on computability theory and philosophy of computer science. Son of filmmaker Micha Shagrir.
French art collector and industrialist of Tunisian origin
American politician
First Jewish member of an American federal cabinet (secretary of Commerce and Labor under Theodore Roosevelt, 1906-1909) and diplomat to the Ottoman Empire; member of the Straus Jewish merchant family (Macy's / Abraham & Straus).
Great Russian poet, a figure of Acmeism, persecuted for a poem targeting Stalin. He died in a transit camp of the Gulag.
German-born Jewish-American archivist and historian, born in Leipzig to Jewish parents; fled Nazi Germany in 1935 and founded the Bettmann Archive, the pioneering historical image resource that became one of the world's major photo archives.
Austrian football player
Israeli Rabbinical scholar (1913-1988)
Austro-American filmmaker and producer born into a Jewish family from Bukovina; over 35 feature films in fifty years of career. Published an autobiography.
German physiologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize 1931, pioneer in the study of cellular metabolism and cancer. The Warburg effect bears his name.
Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, a major halakhic authority of the twentieth century and founder of the Shas party. He worked to restore the pride of the Sephardic heritage.
Hungarian rabbi
Chief rabbi of France (1902-1986)
Born in Tlemcen in an Algerian Jewish family, critic and historian of French literature. Author of major works on literature and the sociology of the writer (« Morales du grand siècle », « Le Sacre de l'écrivain »).
German-language poet of Romanian origin, author of the “Todesfuge” (Death Fugue), among the greatest poems on the Holocaust. He lost his parents in the camps.
German physician and bacteriologist, Nobel Prize 1908, founder of chemotherapy and modern immunology. He discovered the first treatment for syphilis.
Hungarian mathematician
American politician
American economist
Rabbi for forty years in Florida, member of the Committee on Jewish Law of the Rabbinical Assembly. Author of several works, including 'The Lord Is My Shepherd, Why Do I Still Want?' (on mourning) and 'Wisdom Grows in My Garden'.
American Jewish actor and comedian, known for the sitcom "Mad About You" and the film "Diner".
rabbi, French resister
Romanian activist
Hungarian mathematician
American politician
American politician
American rabbi
Venezuelan political figure
Chilean filmmaker
American actress
Yiddish poet and fabulist, youngest member of the Yung Vilne group.
British rabbi
American rabbi
Born in Budapest on December 26, 1927 into an assimilated Jewish family (son of Zsigmond Kende and Margit Hajdu), he was a journalist at Szabad Nép until 1954, participated in the 1956 uprising and emigrated to France in 1957. Researcher at the CNRS, lecturer at EHESS and Paris-X, specialist in the Soviet bloc and the Jewish question in Hungary, he co-founded in 1989 the Institute for the History of the 1956 Revolution and was elected external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Canadian and Israeli actor and filmmaker
Hungarian-born American mathematician from a Jewish family, awarded the Abel Prize in 2005 for contributions to partial differential equations and computational mathematics.
American director
Peter Zvi Malkin, born in Żółkiewka (Poland) in 1927 in an observant Jewish family, was a Mossad agent. On 11 May 1960, member of the team led by Rafi Eitan, it was he who physically seized Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. He coauthored with Harry Stein the account of this operation, Eichmann in My Hands (1990).
American politician
American rabbi
American writer and translator
American actor
British businessman
American businessman (1902–1976)
Rabbin né en Pologne, ayant survécu trois ans caché dans les forêts lituaniennes après la perte de toute sa famille lors de la Shoah, avant d'émigrer aux États-Unis. Il servit la communauté du Grand Hartford pendant plus de quarante ans, notamment à la synagogue Emanuel de West Hartford, et fut le premier rabbin nommé chapelain du Sénat de l'État du Connecticut et chapelain de la police de Hartford. Il publia seize ouvrages, dont des mémoires sur la Shoah, et mourut le 18 juin 2026 à l'âge de 96 ans à West Hartford.
American novelist, author of Portnoy's Complaint and The Human Stain, one of the great writers of the American Jewish condition. Repeatedly tipped for the Nobel.
Dutch writer
French economist, Nobel Prize 2025
Born in Marseille, a leader in responsible finance (founder of Mirova) and writer. Of Algerian Jewish descent (his father left Algeria and concealed his past). Author of the novel 'Le Décret' (2025), which depicts, in 1871 during the Kabylie insurrection, a young Jew from Algiers defending citizenship granted by the Crémieux decree.
Rabbi graduated from the Séminaire israélite de France (1981), conducted university research at Inalco and the École pratique des hautes études. Author of an anthology work drawn from rabbinical literature on the question of bodily harm.
French statesman, president of the Council, architect of the end of the Indochina War. A moral figure of the left, he was of Sephardic Jewish origin.
French television host and filmmaker
From a Comtat Jewish family of Carpentras, he became one of the greatest French historians of ancient Greece (Le Chasseur noir, 1981). His parents, Lucien Vidal-Naquet and Marguerite Valabrègue, were deported and murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. He played a major role in the struggle against torture during the Algerian War and against negationism.
Israeli poet
Rebbe of the Ger Hasidic dynasty (1926–1996)
Polish rabbi
American Rabbi (1908-1995)
German rabbi
American rabbi
Polish rabbi of Hasidic ancestry (1912–1998)
Israeli religious Zionist rabbi and educator
Rabbi born in Taroudant, called Baba Pinhas, Zionist activist in Marrakech, venerated as a saint.
Israeli novelist and poet born in Poland.
Polish Jewish resistance fighter
American artist
Italian writer and chemist, survivor of Auschwitz, author of If This Is a Man, a major testimony on the Holocaust. His work probes the human condition after the camps.
Israeli scholar of comparative religion, Dean of Humanities at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, biographer of Joseph Karo, EMET Prize laureate (2005), co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion.
Israeli historian, professor (Elias Sourasky Chair) of the history of Latin America and Spain at Tel-Aviv University. Author or editor of more than fifty works and numerous articles, notably on Peronism and Jewish communities in Argentina.
American rabbi
One of the rabbis of Oran. He labored greatly for the aliyah of the Jews of his city to the Land of Israel, which caused him to be imprisoned in Oran. He himself went up to Israel and settled in Ofakim, where the author knew him personally. His sons and grandsons, including Rabbi Sharon Ifergan, continued the study of Torah; the latter preserves a document one meter by 70 cm where Rabbi Avraham relates the history of the martyrs of Oran.
Religious-Zionist rabbi, student of Rav Moshe Zvi Neria and later close to Rav Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook at the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva. He developed a method of studying the Tanakh and left a series of commentaries on the Former Prophets, housed notably by the Sefaria library.
Born in Rada'a in Yemen, son of rabbi and dayan Yahya (Yehiah) Basis (1896–1977). Came to Israel as a child (1950), he studied at Ponevezh under R. E. M. M. Shach. Community rabbi in Beit Dagan (1988–1993) then Chief Rabbi of Rosh HaAyin; member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate (2003–2008). His halakhic responsa, rooted in Yemenite tradition, have been collected.
Sage and kabbalist of Morocco, Chief Rabbi of Safi; hiloula on 2 Adar. He composed « Minha Beloula » (Casablanca, 1937), a collection of laws in Judeo-Arabic (Maghrebi), reissued in facsimile in 1997 with an approbation by Rabbi Chalom Messas, and « Minhat Moché » (Casablanca, 1944), containing kabbalistic texts, « yehi ratzon » and « lechem yihoud ». Died on 3 Adar II 5706 (1946) and buried in Safi; his descendants perpetuate his hiloula in the synagogue bearing his name in Ashkelon.
Orthodox rabbi, rosh yeshiva of the Maarava Machon Rubin secondary school (Matityahu, Israel) which he founded in 1984, and prolific composer of religious melodies (including 'Kol Ha'olam Kulo'). Son of Esther and Rabbi Moshe Chait, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Chofetz Chaim in Jerusalem. He founded several groups (The Rabbis' Sons, Kol Salonika) and published numerous recordings.
Rabbi born and raised in Iran, trained at the Rabbinical College of America and ordained (semikha). Active Torah teacher to the Persian Jewish community, he broadcasts lessons online (free, accessible in Iran and the United States) and a teaching podcast.
Rabbi of the Sephardic community of Lyon then of the moshav Bet Ouziel in Israel; founder of the bulletin « La Voix Sépharade ». A work, Les Dix Commandements, was published posthumously.
Rabbi of Djerba, printer and author; he wrote "Sefer Jerbah Yehudit" (1978), a work documenting the traditions, history and Jewish community of the island of Djerba. His family later settled in Jerusalem (his grandson is the artist Rafram Chaddad).
Dayan and moreh-tzedek in the city of Safi. He was the son-in-law of the holy gaon Rabbi Yehouda ben-Moyal, author of the book "Chevet Yehouda". His wife died on 4 Shevat 5701 (1941).
Rabbi and mohel of the Algerian Jewish community, known for an annual Hebrew calendar that he published (17th year of publication in 5704 / 1943-1944, financed by local commercial advertisements). This calendar brought together liturgical information, prayer texts, holidays, French/Hebrew translations and community notices — it became a document of memory of Algerian Jewishness.
Rabbi for some thirty years in Los Angeles, he is international director of the Sephardic Educational Center (Old City of Jerusalem). Columnist ("Sephardic Torah from the Holy Land", Jewish Journal), he specializes in the research, translation and teaching of the halakhic and philosophical writings of the great Sephardic rabbis (notably R. Ben-Zion Ouziel).
The most famous of the saints of the Nahmiash family (« Aït Nahmiash ») of Ouarzazate, venerated by the Jews of the region. Father of Rabbi Yossef Nahmiash who taught in Marrakech, he was of great stature and people rushed to kiss his hand. Even Muslims revered him and called him « Sidi Daoud Hmiash ». Died on 8 Eloul 5692 (1932), he is buried in Tazda, a suburb of Ouarzazate; his hilloula takes place on 8 Eloul.
Spiritual guide of the Syrian Jewish community of Flatbush (Yad Yosef Torah Center, Avenue J). Prolific author devoted to Sephardic and Aleppine heritage: his work « Aleppo: City of Scholars » (adaptation/expansion of LiKedoshim Asher Ba'aretz by Hakham David Laniado) presents the biography of some 600 rabbis of Aleppo and Damascus.
Rabbi of Mazagan (El Jadida), where he held an almost official position as rabbi of the city (maria d'atra) and served as mesader guittin (redactor of divorce documents) under French administration. In 1935, he pronounced the funeral oration of Rabbi Refael Enkaoua at the « Chaar Chamayim » synagogue in Mazagan and testified to the extreme humility of the deceased.
Rabbi in El Hamma, died in 1906. Author of a halakhic work titled « Roch Pina », published in Djerba in 1916.
Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community of New York, he directs the kollel/project Ohr Halacha, which publishes and distributes guides to daily halakha; he regularly writes halakhic columns (FAQ for holidays) in the Community Magazine of the Syrian Sephardic community.
Tanna of the third generation, grandson of a High Priest. He is credited with the thirteen hermeneutical rules (middot) that serve as introduction to the Sifra, a development of the seven rules of Hillel. His school produced the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, a halakhic midrash on Exodus. Counted by tradition among the ten martyrs.
Born on Rosh Hashanah 5650 (1890), he distinguished himself from childhood by his vivacity and his diligence in Torah, was admitted at age nine to the « Hevra Rachbi » and acquired early a reputation for his blessings and his prayers, hence his nickname « Baba Sali » (« the father who prays »). Married at fifteen, widowed, remarried, he had a son at twenty-seven, Rabbi Meïr (father of Rabbi Elazar of Beer-Sheva, assassinated); appointed young to head a yeshiva, he directed and financed the entire complex until 1933. He ascended several times toward the Land of Israel (1921, return in 1925; 1933; 1950), before settling there permanently in 1964, first in Yavneh then in Netivot. He passed away on 4 Shevat 5744 (January 8, 1984) and his tomb in Netivot is a pilgrimage site attracting thousands of faithful every year; numerous miracle tales are attributed to him.
Born in Gabès in 1915, he taught Torah in the yeshivot of Tunis (among his disciples, Rabbi Meïr Mazouz, founder of the Kissé Rahamim yeshiva). He died in Jerusalem in 1975. Author of several volumes of commentaries.
Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn. Head of School of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School, after being Chief Rabbi of Congregation Bnei Yitzhak. Semicha of the Sephardic Rabbinical College.
Head of the Jewish community of Gharian (Tripolitania) in 1880, he was its spiritual guide; he was also a poet and physician-surgeon. Some of his poems were collected in the works of the orientalist Nahum Slouschz.
Chief Rabbi (av bet din) of Paritchi then of Minsk, son-in-law of Rabbi Eliezer Rabinowitch. Imprisoned by the GPU under Soviet antireligious repression, he left Minsk and became rabbi of Leningrad in 1935, where he died around 1938.
Born in Zagoura (south Morocco) on 22 Tammuz 5680 [1920], son of Rav Shaoul Dahan. Orphaned of his father around five years of age, he was taken by his mother to Meknès where he studied twelve years at the yeshiva "Keter-Torah" under Rabbi Raphaël Baroukh Toledano, who raised him in his own home. Ordained dayan around age 24, he sat as judge in Meknès then in Aflou (Algeria). He immigrated to Israel in 1949, was confirmed rabbi of Beer-Sheva in 1951 by rabbis Ben-Zion Ouziel and Isaac Herzog, then elected chief rabbi of the city in 1959, a position he held until his death on 25 Ellul 5757 [1997]. Known for his humility, his hidden fasts, and his personal asceticism, he always refused to publish his writings during his lifetime.
Rabbi of the communities of Larache, Ksar el-Kbir and Arcila in northern Morocco, and vice-president of the rabbinical court of Casablanca. After his immigration to Israel, he was Chief Rabbi Sephardi of Petah Tikva and member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate.
Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish (Aleppine) community of Brooklyn, he founded in 1968 the Sephardic Institute and was long director of the Sephardic High School. Disciple of Rabbi Solomon D. Sassoon. Author of a vast Torah commentary combining traditional literary reading (pchat) and modern scholarship.
Teacher of Hebrew and Arabic for two decades at the school of the Alliance israélite, he was also hazan of the Hebrat Adi Ezer congregation in Damascus (of which his brother Jacob was the spiritual guide). Convinced of emigrating, he led the Ahi Ezer congregation of Damascene Jews in New York (synagogue on 71st Street). A biographical notice from the Rav-SIG (JewishGen) presents him as « a great leader ».
Born in Midelt in Tevet 5660 (1900), the very month of the death of Rabbi Yaakov Abouhatsira, to charitable parents (Rabbi Moshé and Hanna), whose house was a meeting place for sages. Pupil of the melamed Rabbi Avraham Attia, he studied especially under the sons of Rabbi Yaakov Abouhatsira, particularly Rabbi Massoud (father of Baba Sali and Baba Haki), and learned Kabbalah from Rabbi Yitzhak Abouhatsira. Ordained to the rabbinate at nineteen by Rabbi Massoud Abouhatsira, he married Esther and devoted himself day and night to study, leaving handwritten Kabbalistic glosses, notably on the "Otzrot Haïm". His hilloula is celebrated on 25 Iyar.
German Orthodox rabbi and lawyer who challenged Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher in court in Berlin in 1933, emigrated to the United States in 1939, and authored 'Lies in Nazi Antisemitic Literature' (New York, 1940). Died August 21, 1949.
Av beth din (president of the rabbinical court) of Fès, reputed gaon and decisor, author of several works on halakha and responsa. In 1918, Rabbi Refael Enkaoua, believing that the function of Grand Rabbi of Morocco was more properly his, went to consult him in Fès and proposed to share office and salary; after lengthy discussions, ibn Danan finally agreed with Enkaoua's view.
Born in the village of Beni-Mellal in Morocco, sent to study at Schneider Yeshiva in England before his bar mitzvah, he left Morocco in 1967 and settled in Brooklyn. There he founded and directed for some thirty years the Moroccan kehilla of Flatbush and co-opened the sefarim bookstore "Sisu". He passed away in 2021; his levaya and obituary are documented.
One of the great sages of Meknes, author of the work « Dvar Shmouel », printed in Casablanca in 1940.
Born in 5651 (1891) in Erfoud, in the Tafilalt, son of Rabbi Aharon, he was named Shmuel after the ancestor of the dynasty buried in Damascus, and his father designated him « Rabbi Shmuel » from childhood. Of rare piety and humility, he studied under Rabbi Massoud Asaraf, then at the family yeshiva under Rabbi David Abouhatsira and Rabbi Moshé Tourjeman; he knew almost by heart the six orders of the Mishna and mastered the Tanakh with its commentaries. Living in poverty and refusing any communal office to devote himself to study, he wrote numerous novellae (hiddoushim) all lost during the persecutions of « Ben-Kassem ». Died on 19 Iyar 5715 (1956), he is buried in Erfoud, where his tomb was restored at the initiative of Rabbi Yehiel Abouhatsira.
Originally from Meknès, he served as rabbi in Tiberias then directed a yeshiva in Bné Brak. He edited the writings of Rabbi Raphaël Berdugo, one of the great masters of Meknès.
Rabbi, director of the Center for Kohanim in the Old City of Jerusalem. He wrote an accessible synthesis on the use of DNA to trace the origin and dispersion of the Jewish people (« Cohenim gene »), published by Devora Publishing.
Descendant of the Ouazana lineage and elder brother of Rabbi Shaul, he served as rabbi of the village. Having gone up to Israel, he settled in Pardès Hanna and died on Rosh Hodesh Adar II 5757 (1997).
Counted among the great ancient rabbis of Yemen, he was rabbi of the synagogue « Torah and Prayer » in Tel-Aviv. His son Rabbi Shmuel Tzabari is author of works of halakhic interpretation and directs the Darkei Aish institutions in Bnei Brak.
Last Chief Rabbi of Aleppo, he led the community before emigration. He authored the Meir Tov, a commentary on the Tanakh (including a volume on the Tehillim, first volume published in 2002).
Sage and kabbalist of the Jewish community of Libya, numbered among the historical rabbis of Tripoli documented by the Center for the Heritage of Libyan Jewry (gallery "Rabbis of Libya").
Moroccan rabbi, whose detailed entry appears under the heading Haifa. He reports, in the name of his grandfather who visited Oujda on his way to the Land of Israel, the memory of old Jews "without ears", mutilated during the passage of Sultan Moulay el-Yazid. In 1921, learning of the intention to decorate Rabbi Refael Enkaoua, he sent him a laudatory letter in verse.
Born in Hamadan in April 1912, son of Davoud Kohan, Jewish merchant of the city. Editor-in-chief of the major newspaper Keyhan during the Second World War, founder of the magazine Kavian, prolific novelist and translator (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Flaubert). Exiled after the 1953 coup d'État.
Political journalist, editor-in-chief, founder of the weekly Kavian and prolific translator of Russian and European literature into Persian. Born in Hamadan in a Jewish family (father Davoud Kohan), he spent about fifty years in exile while continuing his literary activity.
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Hebrew College in Boston and rabbi. She is the author of several scholarly works on midrash and the Bible.
American actress, comedian
Pioneering Hebrew poetess, known simply as "Rahel," a beloved figure of the lyrical revival in the Land of Israel. Her poems were widely set to music.
actress
Biologist, partisan of the Vilna Ghetto and historian of the Shoah.
American science fiction author
Rabbi of Tétouan, 20th century. Died in 5680 of the Hebrew era (1920). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 107-4.
Israeli professional wrestler
Born in Venice in 1952, he received his semikhah from the Italian Rabbinic College in 1973 after studies at the Yeshivat Merkaz haRav and the Makhon Lifshitz in Israel. Sofer (scribe) and shohet, he was rabbi of Venice then of Trieste and worked to strengthen halakhic reference in the community. He died in Strasbourg in 1992.
Israeli economist, professor (Reichman University / IDC Herzliya), author of numerous academic works in finance and economics (oligopoly and futures markets, trade liberalization and domestic monopoly, quotas as options, fiscal asymmetry and futures markets).
French rabbi
Spanish basketball administrator (1926-1997)
Yiddish poetess, major voice after the Shoah.
Major Marxist theorist of the New Left, reader in political science at the London School of Economics from 1949 onwards. His book Parliamentary Socialism (1961), a critique of the Labour Party, then The State in Capitalist Society (1969) made their mark; he conducted with Nicos Poulantzas a celebrated debate on the theory of the State (New Left Review, 1969-1976). Father of David and Ed Miliband.
American scientist, Nobel laureate in medicine
Israeli footballer
Born in 1939, fighter pilot of the Israeli Air Force, captured during the War of Attrition and held three and a half years in an Egyptian prison. With three fellow detainees, he directs there the Hebrew translation of Tolkien's Hobbit (« the pilots' translation »), published in 1977 by Zmora Bitan and long held to be one of the best. After his release, he commanded Ramat David air base.
Poet, translator and Israeli linguist.
Israeli rabbi, author and publisher
Born in Tunis, died in Paris. Singer and composer of Arab-Andalusian music, major figure of Tunisian song, famous notably for his 'talils' (compliments and wishes addressed to guests at celebrations). His repertoire remains sung in Jewish communities of Tunisia, Israel and France.
Rabbi of Rotterdam
Beta Israel high priest
Tunisian rabbi
Polish jurist, creator of the concept of "genocide" and architect of the 1948 UN convention. He devoted his life to the criminalization of mass crimes.
Hungarian academic
French rabbi
American architect born in Rhodes in a Sephardic Jewish family. He was one of the leading figures of California's "mid-century modern" architecture, a pioneer in the use of steel and aluminum in housing.
Poetess, filmmaker and Israeli professor, experimental work.
Born in Sanaa, he is Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Ono and member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Doctor of law (Tel-Aviv University) and former teacher of Mishpat Ivri at Bar-Ilan, he is the principal disciple of Rav Yosef Qafih and, since 2000, the leading figure of the Yemenite movement following Maimonides' rulings. He chairs the Mekhon Mishnat ha-Rambam and the organization Halikhot Am Yisrael.
Grand rabbi of Djerba for about twenty years, he then led the Jewish community of Djerba in Paris for his last 17 years, founding there a talmud-torah and a small yeshiva « Torah we-Raḥamim ». Keeper of the traditions of Djerba, he left several works; he was buried in Jerusalem (Givat Shaul cemetery), his funeral bringing together in particular R. Ovadia Yosef and R. Meir Mazuz.
Rabbi signing under the name Moshe Tapiero, author of a text published on Harissa.com, "The Miracle and the Letter", a theological reflection on the significance of miracles (the Exodus) drawing on rabbinic sources (Maimonides, Ramban). The page provides neither dates nor precise geographical origin.
Son of Hakham Avraham Halioua, from Meknès (Morocco). He was Roch Yeshiva of the Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, having succeeded his father-in-law Rav Aharon Schechter; died in 2024 at age 66. His parents, Rav Avraham and Masuda Halioua, came from the Halioua and Toledano families of Morocco.
Israeli singer and rapper of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, born in Petah Tikva, known by the stage name Nechi Nech. Winner of an Acum Prize (best emerging artist, 2016) and an Acum Album of the Year award (2017); first Israeli rapper to have performed at Menora Hall (2022).
Australian-Israeli rabbi (1935–2024)
French philosopher and sociologist, liberal theorist of international relations and a leading editorialist. Author of The Opium of the Intellectuals.
Egyptian philosopher
Franco-American novelist and scholar, hidden survivor of the Shoah (family deported and murdered at Auschwitz), theorist of "surfiction".
Israeli football player
Israeli rabbi
American businesswoman
American basketball player
American basketball player
member of the Polish Jewish resistance
German woman rabbi
Jewish singer from Algeria and Judeo-Arabic culture, notable representative of houzi folklore
American physicist
Rabbi, French resistance fighter
French rabbi and Resistance fighter
Chief Rabbi of France
first Miss Iraq in history
Born in Ferrara on 17 March 1904, from an old Jewish family of the city. Opponent of fascism, he is interned at the Urbisaglia camp (1940-1941). After the Liberation he becomes commissioner then president of the Israelite Community of Ferrara. Renowned bibliophile, he assembles a remarkable collection (notably the three original editions of Ariosto's Orlando furioso and rare Hebrew/rare books) which was later acquired by the Library of the University of Bologna.
Italian lawyer
Israeli scholar specializing in Eastern Jewish communities (Iran, Afghanistan, the Far East) and Jerusalem institutions. Author of several documentary monographs published in Jerusalem.
American police chief
Born January 12, 1931 in Johannesburg. Assistant librarian at Rhodes University (Grahamstown), then chief librarian and professor of library science at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) from 1973, professor emeritus after 1991. Author of at least six books and more than 150 articles on bibliography. In 1999 he became library adviser to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
Israeli educator
Rabbi, scholar, religious leader (1933–2019)
Israeli politician
rabbi and Italian radiologist physician
Italian rabbi
Chief Rabbi of Rome since 2001 and director of the Italian Rabbinical College, also a radiologist physician. Descendant of three generations of rabbis, he is a recognized specialist of Toledot Yeshu, to which he devoted his book Il vangelo del Ghetto (Rome, Newton Compton, 1985) and several studies in La Rassegna Mensile di Israel.
French actor born in Paris in a modest family; his parents were Moroccan Jews of Spanish descent. Discovered in 1983 by Tchao Pantin (César for Best Supporting Actor), then César for Best Actor in 1989. Major figure in French cinema of the 1980s-1990s.
Born in Algeria in 1948, agrégé/graduate in Hebrew, he was a teacher of Sephardic civilization at INALCO and taught the history of North African Jews (Paris VIII) and of Jews in the contemporary era (Paris I–Sorbonne). Recognized specialist in the history of Algerian and French Jews, author of 4 books and over 150 articles.
American physicist, Nobel Prize 1965, one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics. Famous for his diagrams and his gift as a teacher.
Born in Craiova (Romania) in a Jewish family, trained in Vienna, violist. Fleeing Austria in 1939, he settled in Sydney. In 1945 he founded Musica Viva Australia, which became the world's largest chamber music organization. He also co-invented a model of durable zipper used for parachutes during the war.
American rabbi
American politician
American computer scientist, Turing Award laureate (1985) for contributions to the theory of algorithms, born to a Jewish family in Boston.
American politician
American aeronautical engineer
Australian businessman (1934–2009)
American rabbi and theologian (1924–2021)
American architect and graphic designer of Jewish descent, founder of the TED conference and coiner of the term 'information architecture'.
American politician
American economist
Born in 1909 in Bucharest to a Jewish family, he converted to Christianity in 1938 and became a Lutheran pastor. Imprisoned and tortured for fourteen years by the Romanian communist regime, he is the author of "Tortured for Christ" and "Christ on the Jewish Road".
Yiddish poetess, called « the poetess of Jerusalem ».
Italian neurobiologist
Israeli Yiddish poet (1925–2023)
American physicist and inventor
Robert Assaraf, born in 1936 in Rabat and died in 2018 in Israel, is a historian and businessman, former head of the ONA group. He founded in 1996 the International Center for Research on the Jews of Morocco and co-founded in 1999 the World Union of Moroccan Jewry. Author of several reference works, including "A Certain History of the Jews of Morocco," he placed historical knowledge at the service of Jewish memory in Morocco.
Born in Port-Lyautey (Kénitra, Morocco), he joined the surrealist movement in 1948 and founded in 1950–1951 the journal « L'Âge du cinéma » with Ado Kyrou. Film critic (Positif), specialist in slapstick, « nonsense » and animation cinema, he has authored numerous essays and monographs (surrealism, Tex Avery, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Alain Resnais, John Huston, Jerry Lewis).
photographer and war correspondent of Hungarian origin
American biochemist and pharmacologist
American rabbi and theologian
American historian
American journalist
Born in Vienna in 1919, sound engineer (RCA Victor, Columbia) then cameraman for CBS in New York; he emigrated to the United States in the early Second World War to flee Nazi persecution, which cost the lives of his parents. Grandson of the (Jewish) composer Ignaz Brüll, friend of Brahms. He is known for his thousands of candid photographs of Toscanini and for his series on Michelangelo's Pietà.
composer and pianist
Robert Liberles (1944–2012), professor of Jewish history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, specialist in the political, religious and social history of Jews in Germany. From a family of German Jews who fled to the United States in 1938.
American politician
American physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan Project and “father of the atomic bomb.” He was later cast aside during the McCarthyist witch hunt.
American neuroendocrinologist and Stanford professor, raised in an Orthodox Jewish household in Brooklyn to immigrants from the Soviet Union, known for his research on stress and popular science writing.
American diplomat
Austrian rabbi
American-Israeli mathematician
American political figure
American animal rights activist
Tunisian politician
French politician, senator for Hauts-de-Seine and former minister for relations with Parliament (2007-2009), vice-president of the Senate. From a Moroccan Jewish family originating from Essaouira (Mogador), which arrived in Morocco from Livorno (Italy) in the eighteenth century.
Born in Tunis in 1940 to a Jewish family, French mathematician specialist in numerical analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations, and fluid mechanics. Ph.D. (1967) under J.-L. Lions; professor at Paris-Sud then director of an institute at the University of Indiana. Author or coauthor of 12 books and over 400 articles, notably on the Navier-Stokes equations. Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014).
Author of "Le Calendrier Hébraïque", a reference work in French detailing the rules of the Jewish calendar based on Torah verses and Talmudic discussions, with astronomical exposition of the moments of the day and timetables for 312 cities in France and overseas territories.
French rabbi
Israeli military commander
Born Roland Isaac Bacri in Algiers (Bab El Oued) in a Jewish family of Algeria. Columnist at Le Canard enchaîné from 1956 to 1999, he signed under the pseudonym « Roro de Bab-el-Oued » texts in pataouète (the Judeo-Algerian pied-noir dialect). His brother Jean-Claude (Jean Claudric) was a conductor and composer for Enrico Macias.
German merchant, Holocaust survivor
Poet and novelist born in the Charâa quarter of Constantine, former contributor to Alger Républicain and close to writer Malek Haddad. His novel Berechit (Denoël, 1991) evokes the Jewish quarters of Constantine; he also published the poetry collection The Young Man–Silence (1963).
French writer of Lithuanian Jewish origin, aviator of the Free French, the only author to receive the Prix Goncourt twice. Author of Promise at Dawn.
American rabbi
Argentine actress, television personality and screenwriter (1974-2010)
Né en Suisse et monté en Israël à 19 ans, il fonda en 1987 Léava, organisation de séminaires destinés à faire découvrir le judaïsme au grand public francophone, ainsi que la yeshiva francophone Yechouot Yossef à Jérusalem. Pendant plusieurs décennies, il forma des milliers de disciples et joua un rôle central dans la diffusion de la Torah dans le monde juif francophone. Il est mort le 28 juin 2026 à l'hôpital Hadassah Ein Karem de Jérusalem, à l'âge de 66 ans.
Israeli journalist and academic
American rabbi
Israeli actress, screenwriter and director
Writer born in Israel to Egyptian Jewish parents. Journalist at Haaretz, professor of literature at the University of Haifa. Recipient of the Bernstein Prize (2009) for Kol Tsaadenu (« The Sound of Our Steps »), an autobiographical family novel.
American publicist
Professor of motor behavior and president of the Zinman College of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (Wingate Institute, Israel). Former basketball coach, he has published more than 150 scientific articles and several reference works in the psychology of sport, in English and Hebrew.
Poet and Israeli painter of Iraqi origin, translated into 45 languages.
Polish-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary, co-founder of the Spartacus League. She was assassinated in Berlin in January 1919.
Argentine human rights activist
British chemist and crystallographer whose diffraction images were decisive for the discovery of the structure of DNA. She came from a Jewish family in London.
Dutch microbiologist, columnist, and politician
Brazilian writer
Italian writer, journalist and poet (1931–2009)
Israeli racing driver, son of Chanoch Nissany; raced in Formula 2 and was a test/development driver in Formula 1 (Williams).
Born in Tehran into a Jewish family, she was an adolescent during the 1979 revolution and emigrated to the United States in 1985. First a poet writing in Persian, she achieved prominence in English with the memoir « Journey from the Land of No » (2004), an account of her Jewish childhood in revolutionary Iran. She was a television producer (60 Minutes) and Guggenheim fellow (2008).
Mathematician and logician, founder of recursion theory.
Czech political figure, victim of the Prague trials
United States senator for Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011
American computer scientist
Israeli novelist and short story writer, introspective prose.
British cryptoanalyst
Israeli holder of a doctorate in Talmud (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). She founded in 1989 a secular, egalitarian, and pluralistic beit midrash in Jerusalem, then in 1996 ALMA (Tel-Aviv), a center of Jewish culture for secular audiences. Member of Knesset (Yesh Atid, 2013–2015), her first speech interpreting a Talmudic text went viral. She is the author of literary rereadings of Talmudic narratives that highlight women's voices.
Canadian scholar
New Zealand politician and community volunteer (1923–2019)
British actress
German-American sex therapist, author and television producer
American actress
Rywka (Rywcia) Unglik, born in 1930, is listed as a victim of the Shoah in the central database of names of victims of the Shoah of Yad Vashem, as well as in the « Children of the Lodz Ghetto Research Project » of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which lists schoolchildren of the Łódź ghetto murdered during the war. The two databases agree on the surname and year of birth, but neither specifies the exact date or place of her death, nor the names of her parents.
Italian archaeologist
Born Sabine Chwast in Warsaw, she married Miron Zlatin (a Jew originally from Russia/Belarus). Member of the OSE, she organized in 1943 the Maison d'Izieu, a refuge for Jewish children, razzia'd by Klaus Barbie on April 6, 1944 (44 children and 7 adults deported, including her husband Miron, murdered). She published her memoirs in 1992.
Professor of mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Rutgers, one of the most prolific logicians in history (more than 1,100 articles). He developed classification theory (resolution of Morley's problem), the notion of proper forcing and PCF theory. Son of poet Uriel Shelach (Yonatan Ratosh).
Algerian singer born Simon Halali in Annaba (Bône) in 1920, to a Judeo-Berber mother. An emblematic figure of Arabo-Andalusian and Judeo-Maghrebi song in Paris, he survived the Occupation thanks to the rector of the Paris Mosque. He ran the cabaret Le Coq d'Or in Casablanca.
Iraqi musician
American historian of Galician origin, author of an eighteen-volume Social and Religious History of the Jews. He criticized the "lachrymose conception" of Jewish history.
Peruvian statesman
Sephardic jeweler nicknamed "Pearl King" for having introduced and popularized Tahitian black pearls in North America from the 1970s onward (founder of Assael International). From a Jewish family of diamond merchants; he made his fortune after the exclusive 1978 sale to Harry Winston, and financed in 1993 the Sephardic synagogue of Papeete.
General secretary of the Iranian American Jewish Federation (about 15 years) after having been its administrator for some thirty years; subsequently president then senior advisor of the Federation of Iranian Jews. He led advocacy efforts for the Judeo-Iranian community of Los Angeles (Iran, divestment issues).
American actor
American animation producer
Born Kamal Salah in Baghdad in 1926 in a secular Jewish merchant family, he joined an underground left-wing movement at age 15; condemned to death in absentia, he fled and arrived in Israel in 1949. Writing in Hebrew, he addresses the common fate of Jews and Arabs (novels Victoria, Refuge/חסות, A Handful of Fog). Winner of numerous prizes, he has presided since 2001 over the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). Died on April 1, 2024.
Hebrew poet, researcher and Mizrahi social activist.
Israeli businessman
Leading figure in the white Jewish (Paradesi) community of Cochin in the twentieth century. Son-in-law of Samuel Koder (longtime warden of the Paradesi synagogue), he assumed its direction, notably ensuring the maintenance of the minyan and the management of the historic synagogue of Mattancherry. The 'Hallegua House' on Synagogue Lane (Jew Town) is one of the emblematic houses of the community.
Gibraltarian historian and novelist of Sephardic Jewish descent, regular contributor to the Gibraltar Heritage Trust journal; author of works on Gibraltar's history and its Jewish community, as well as historical novels. MBE in 2007.
Member of the Cohen family of Asmara, the last Jewish family of Eritrea; in the early 2000s he was the youngest of his family and the sole guardian of the Asmara synagogue (founded in 1906 by Yemenite/Adeni Jews). His father was named Menahem. Widely documented by the Jewish press as the last guardian of this community.
American rabbi
American entrepreneur
American rabbi
Israeli journalist
Leading figure of the Paradesi Jewish community of Cochin, director of the Cochin Electric Company (electrification and public lighting of Cochin) and honorary consul of the Netherlands. He was the principal chronicler of the history of the Jews of Kerala in the 20th century, author of reference works on this community.
American political figure
American rabbi
Brazilian journalist
Samy Elmaghribi, born Salomon Amzallag in 1922 in Safi and died in 2008 in Canada, is one of the great Moroccan singers of the 20th century. Star of radio and stage from 1948-1956, oudist and performer of malhoun and gharnati music, he embodies musical "Moroccanness" at the moment of independence. Emigrated to Canada, he became there a hazzan (cantor) of a synagogue in Montreal — figure of a musical heritage shared between Jews and Muslims of Morocco.
rabbin et érudit juif hongrois (1913-1985)
Brazilian journalist and actress
Only son of Claire and Jack Diller, Jewish immigrants from Vienna (originally from Eastern Galicia) settled in San Francisco, where they ran a kosher restaurant "Diller's." With his wife Helen Diller (née Samuels, 1928–2015), he founded the Helen Diller Family Foundation, one of the largest donors to the University of California and many Jewish causes (more than 1 billion dollars donated).
French singer and composer born in Marrakech under the name Danielle Ebguy, known by the stage name Sapho. From a Moroccan Jewish family, she left Marrakech for Lyon with her family during her childhood; her work remains marked by these origins.
Israeli model and Miss Israel 1984
Zionist heroine, a leading member of the Nili spy network serving the British against the Ottomans. Captured and tortured, she took her own life.
Israeli novelist and playwright, religious themes.
Yiddish writer and actress, born in Radomsko, emigrated to Canada.
American actress
Israeli actress, musician and model
Hungarian musician
American sociologist and writer
American novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature 1976, author of Herzog and The Adventures of Augie March. A major figure of Jewish-American literature.
Swiss rabbi
American philosopher
Leading Talmudist, specialist of the Tosefta and of Jewish Hellenism, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His erudition was authoritative in both the academic and rabbinic worlds.
Chilean writer
American businessman and financier
Major Hebrew poet, trained as a physician, renowned for his idylls and his Hellenizing lyricism. With Bialik, he founded modern Hebrew poetry.
Anthropologist and feminist writer, born in the tight-knit Syrian Jewish community of Buenos Aires, doctoral degree in Ancient Near Eastern studies, founder of Sarah's Tent and creator of modern rituals (simhat bat, Rosh Hodesh); author of "Sarah the Priestess" and "Ancient Sisterhood."
Israeli short story writer and playwright born in Germany.
Secular Jewish intellectual and British Zionist leader born in Kursk, Russia; longtime head of the Jewish Agency's Research Department in London and editor of the Zionist Review, author of « The Enigma of Soviet Jewry ».
Finnish actress
Dutch Holocaust survivor (1922–2018)
Dutch historian, professor emerita of oral history and culture at the University of Amsterdam. Her thesis (1987) on poor Jews of Amsterdam renewed historiography of modernization and assimilation of humble Jews. She has published extensively on Jewish history, the Holocaust, and survival from genocides. She is listed in the Jewish Women's Archive.
Jewish German-speaking poet from Bukovina
Dutch journalist
American microbiologist of Ukrainian origin, Nobel Prize 1952, discoverer of streptomycin, the first effective antibiotic against tuberculosis. He coined the term “antibiotic.”
Ukrainian Jew engaged in the Soviet Red Army (1922-1942)
Israeli rabbi
Serge Berdugo, born in 1937 in Meknès, is a lawyer and one of the leading figures of the Moroccan Jewish community. Minister of Tourism from 1993 to 1995, he is secretary general of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco and roving ambassador for King Mohammed VI since 2006. He contributed to the creation of the Foundation for Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Heritage and the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Casablanca. His public life illustrates involvement in collective life and the preservation of a community's Memory.
Born in Bucharest, refugeed in France. Doctor of letters and attorney at the Paris Bar, he devoted his life to documenting the deportation of Jews from France and to tracking Nazi criminals. With his wife Beate, he played a decisive role in bringing Klaus Barbie and Maurice Papon to account. He established the nominal list of more than 80,000 deportees.
Artist and deported person, born April 6, 1921 in Warsaw. Arrested in Nice on August 24, 1943 for acts of resistance and forging false papers, he was deported from Drancy on December 17, 1943 to Auschwitz, where he was assigned to the Monowitz camp (Auschwitz III) under prisoner number 169922. Liberated at Dachau on April 29, 1945, he subsequently lived in Brussels and returned to France in 1979. A survivor, he testified through drawing and speech, and his works were submitted as evidence in the Nuremberg Trial proceedings. He died in 2010. His testimony is presented by Dominique Natanson (Mémoire Juive & Éducation).
Born in Sousse in 1949, critic at Cahiers du cinéma for over twenty years (editor-in-chief from 1981), then director of the Cinémathèque française (2003-2016). Author of several works on cinema; in 2022, he publishes « The Mistress's Son », an account of his childhood in Tunisia (Marcel-Pagnol Prize).
From the Ferrara Jewish family of Minerbi (son of Arturo Minerbi), hidden as a child in Rome during the Shoah, he served thirty-six years in Israeli diplomacy and was a historian of Vatican–Zionism relations.
Italian rabbi (1923-2009)
Economist and former Chilean politician
Sergueï Davidovitch Izgiyaev, born in 1922 near Derbent (Daghestan) and a Mountain Jew (Juhuro), member of the Union of Soviet Writers (1963). Author of nine poetry collections and five plays, translator and lyricist of more than thirty songs; he also wrote for Judeo-Tat theater and translated into Juhuri from Russian, Avar and Azeri. He is renowned for his love poetry in Judeo-Tat.
Distinguished Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego (dean of arts and humanities 2009–2014). Specialist in Chaucer, the history of English and literature. Laureate of the National Book Critics Circle Award (2009) and the Truman Capote Award (2010). His memoir evokes his Jewish education.
American investigative journalist (Pulitzer Prize 1970 for revealing the My Lai massacre). His parents were Yiddish-speaking Jews who immigrated in the 1920s from Lithuania and Poland; his father's original name, Hershowitz, was shortened to Hersh upon naturalization in 1930. Author of numerous investigative books on American power.
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Militant Zionist Philosopher (1924–1978)
American rabbi
Rabbi of Sefrou, 20th century. Died in 5682 of the Hebrew era (1922). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 113-2.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli editor and literary critic (1912–1978)
Israeli professor
Born in 1935 in Jalabe (northwest of Sanaa), he emigrated to Israel at age 18. Considered among the greatest Yemenite singers in Israel, he devoted his last years to documenting and transcribing the songs of Yemenite women (wedding songs, birth songs, grinding songs, laments) collected from his mother and sisters, a work of cultural heritage preservation.
American businesswoman born in 1954
German football player
Canadian tennis player
Rosh Yeshiva of Sefat Emet
Researcher who has published on changes in the social status of urban Jewish women in Iraq (journal Women in Judaism, University of Toronto); associated with the Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center of Or-Yehuda.
rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American comedian, writer and professor (1925–2017)
(1912-1943)
Israeli rabbi and author
Son of Rabbi Shalom Bodokh, he taught at the Bet-El yeshiva (Jerusalem). He edited the writings of Rabbi Eleazar Halevy Ben Toubo under the title « Pekoudat Elazar ».
American rabbi
Israeli politician
Israeli novelist and journalist.
Egyptian lawyer and politician (1920-2001)
Israeli rabbi
Israeli poet and writer born in Sderot, Sapir Prize.
Sephardi rabbi (1928–2023)
Born in Baghdad in 1930, immigrated to Israel in 1951 without knowing Hebrew, he became one of the great Israeli novelists of Iraqi origin and professor of Arabic literature at the University of Haifa (doctorate at the Sorbonne). His work explores the identity of Arab Jews and the Mizrahi condition.
Born near Demnate, dayan in Marrakech and Casablanca, then rabbi of Kfar Yona in Israel.
Israeli rabbi
rabbi and Jewish thinker (1949-2007)
Scholar born in 1956, head of the department of Semitic and Hebrew Studies at Saint Petersburg State University and researcher at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences; corresponding member of the Hebrew Palaeography Project of the Israeli Academy of Sciences. Author of approximately 80 publications on ancient Hebrew books.
Israeli statesman, Prime Minister and then president, architect of the Oslo Accords and Nobel Peace Prize 1994. He played a central role in the nuclear program and the defense industry.
Born in Tel-Aviv (Yad Eliyahu), trained in archaeology at Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University, he worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority as an archaeology officer in Judea-Samaria. Later becoming a journalist and media voice of the Israeli right, he is also an author of fiction. He has an authority record at the National Library of Israel.
American rabbi
Grand Rabbi of Morocco (1994–1998), successor of Chalom Messas as head of Moroccan rabbinate.
American rabbi
Yiddish poet with rural lyricism, founding member of the Yung Vilne group.
Israeli poet and translator, Sumerian and Akkadian literature.
Yiddish short-story writer, from the kibbutz to the Soviet Union.
Israeli actress
Israeli feminist, bisexual, and anarchist writer
Son of Rabbi Mordechaï, he became rebbe of Zvhil in 1901. Facing the Sovietization of his town, he emigrated in 1926 to Jerusalem with his grandson Mordechaï, rebuilding the Zvhil Hasidic court in the Land of Israel. Renowned for his humility (anav), his tomb on the Mount of Olives is a pilgrimage site.
Rabbi, 20th century. Died in 5661 of the Hebrew era (1901). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 118-4.
Son of Yitzhak Artzi, he is one of the most popular singers and singer-songwriters of Israel since the 1970s. His sister is writer Nava Semel.
Israeli educator and researcher born in Tunis, author of a study on the history of the Zionist movement in Tunisia (Yad Tabenkin, 1980).
Shlomo Ben-Ami, born in 1943 in Tangier, emigrated to Israel in 1955. Historian trained at Oxford and professor at Tel-Aviv University, he became Israel's Minister of Internal Security then of Foreign Affairs (1999-2001) and participated in the 2000 Camp David summit. Author of reference works on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he put knowledge to the service of the search for peace.
Rabbi of Meknès, twentieth century. Died in 5666 of the Hebrew era (1906). Son of Daniel. Recorded in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 117-1.
American-born rabbi (1931–2013)
Jewish musician (1925–1994)
Rabbi of Mazagan (El Jadida), twentieth century. Born in 5689 of the Hebrew era (1929). Son of Yosef. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 116-2.
Ph.D. from Yeshiva University (1952), specialist in medieval Jewish history. He translated and edited the Hebrew chronicles of the First and Second Crusades (Rhineland massacres) and published on Ashkenazi Jewish life from the 11th to the 18th century in English, Hebrew and German.
Israeli-born leader of the Lev Tahor sect
American rabbi
First chief rabbi of the IDF and then Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, a specialist in military Halakha. He sounded the shofar at the Western Wall in 1967.
American rabbi
Born 20 March 1928, died 19 March 2015. Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recognized specialist in the teaching of Hebrew as a language and in the history of the rebirth (tehiya) of the Hebrew language; buried at Har HaMenuhot. Author of several works on Hebrew education and the « pioneering teachers ».
Israeli politician
Nicknamed « Chich », born in Germany and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1933. Major general of the Israel Defense Forces (head of the Personnel Directorate, governor of East Jerusalem after 1967), then eighth mayor of Tel Aviv from 1974 to 1993 (four terms). He died in Tel Aviv in 2014.
Israeli politician
Israeli politician (Knesset), member of religious parties, bearing the Ashkenazi patronym Perlstein. Confirmed by the Wikipedia disambiguation page « Perlstein » (1902–1979, Israeli politician), although the full biographical details (party, term of office) are not developed on that page.
German rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli historian, professor emeritus of history at Tel-Aviv University, born in 1946 in a displaced persons camp near Linz to Polish Jewish parents who survived the Shoah. Known for his controversial essays on Jewish national historiography.
Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion (William Fondiller chair). Leading information theorist, winner of the Shannon Prize 2011, Rothschild Prize 2014 and IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal 2017; Fellow of the IEEE. Author of abundant scientific output in Shannon theory.
American mathematician
Master of Mussar, author of Alei Shour, mashgiach of Be'er Yaakov and later founder of Givat Shaul.
Decisor of Jerusalem, a leading authority on questions of Halakha and modern technology. He headed the Kol Torah yeshiva.
Rosh Hashochtim of Poland, Chief Rabbi of Hannover and Lower Saxony
Israeli politician
British rabbi
Yiddish poet, lyricist and resistance fighter, cofounder of the Yung Vilne group.
Born in Tel-Aviv to writer Nathan Agmon, Ph.D. from the Sorbonne (1949). Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, world authority on elliptic PDEs and spectral theory of Schrödinger operators. Laureate of the Israel Prize in Mathematics (1991) and the EMET Prize (2007).
Israeli rabbi
American rabbi
Prague philosopher, close to Franz Kafka and Martin Buber, who emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1920. First director of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, then first rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1935-1938). Figure in the binational movement Brit Shalom.
Co-founder and rosh yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia; disciple of Aharon Kotler.
Rabbi of the Mahané Yehuda market quarter in Jerusalem, dayan at Beth Din Halikhot Olam and president of the Mishkan Levi institution. Prolific author of several works on halakha, responsa and Jewish thought.
Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel
rabbi (1913–1979)
Polish rabbi
Born in Blida, Algeria in 1948. Professor of sociology of religion and politics at Nanterre, author of some thirty works on Jewish identity, political philosophy and monotheism. Founder of the AIU College of Jewish Studies and of the journal Pardès (1985).
Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbi
Hebrew-language writer, Nobel Prize in Literature 1966, whose work fuses Jewish tradition and modernity. He is one of the pillars of Hebrew prose.
American rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American businessman
Israeli rabbi
American rabbi
Israeli novelist and playwright, detective novels.
Israeli novelist and essayist born in Warsaw.
Canadian pornographic actress
American chemist
American Jewish pathologist and pediatrician (1903-1973), considered the father of modern chemotherapy for pioneering the use of anti-folate drugs against childhood leukemia; the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston is named for him.
American rabbi
American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, producer, director and actor
Austrian physician, founder of psychoanalysis, author of The Interpretation of Dreams. He had to flee Vienna in 1938 in the face of Nazism.
Brazilian media personality
Romanian politician
Born in 1907 in Łęczyce (Poland), interned from 1940 in the Łódź ghetto. He responded to the deportations of late 1941 with a long poem, « Lekh-Lekho », which opposed traditional Jewish past to tragic present, followed by a second poem on expulsion, « Friling 1942 ». He was the mentor of novelist Chava Rosenfarb in the ghetto. Deported to Auschwitz on August 28, 1944, and gassed. His two poems, recovered from the ruins of the ghetto, were published by the Jewish Historical Commission in 1946.
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Originally from Alexandria, he was elevated to the priesthood by Herod the Great around 23 BCE so that Herod's marriage to his daughter Mariamne (II) would not be judged a mésalliance. Three of his sons — Joazar, Eleazar, and Simeon — successively held the office of high priest (Joazar twice). The family is associated with the sect of the Boethusians, close to the Sadducees.
Dutch rabbi (1902-1945)
Russian historian of Judaism, theorist of Diaspora autonomism, author of a World History of the Jewish People. He was murdered in Riga by the Nazis.
French rabbi
American rabbi
Simon Lévy, born in 1934 in Fès and died in 2011 in Rabat, was a linguist and academic, professor in Rabat, long-time activist of the Moroccan Communist Party then of the PPS. Founder and general secretary of the Foundation for Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Heritage, he created in 1997 in Casablanca the Museum of Moroccan Judaism, the only Jewish museum in the Arab world. His entire work was devoted to the preservation of collective memory and to a plural Morocco.
British filmmaker (1970-2010)
British historian and author, descendant of the Judeo-British dynasty Sebag-Montefiore (related to Sir Moses Montefiore). He is the author of hugely successful historical works on Jerusalem, Russia and world history; « Jerusalem: The Biography » was #1 bestseller and received the Jewish Book of the Year Award.
Camp survivor and "Nazi hunter," he devoted his life to tracking down war criminals. He contributed to the capture of Adolf Eichmann.
the wife and collaborator of René Hirschler
French stateswoman, Auschwitz survivor, Minister of Health who secured passage of the law legalizing abortion. The first president of the European Parliament, she was interred in the Panthéon.
French philosopher born in Paris into a Jewish family of Alsatian origin. Agrégée in philosophy, trade union activist, worker by choice (1934-35), briefly engaged in the Spanish Civil War (1936) and with the Free French. Died at age 34 in England in 1943. Her major philosophical and mystical work appeared posthumously.
Israeli rabbi
Born in 1948 in a Berber Jewish family from Safi, mathematician by training then teacher. Imprisoned from 1972 to 1984 during the 'Years of Lead'. In 2005 he founded Transparency Morocco and in 2010 the Moroccan branch of the BDS movement. Self-identified atheist Jew and anti-Zionist, he distinguished Judaism from Zionism. Died in 2025.
Sion Nemni was a notable of the Jewish community of Tripoli: he collected substantial funds to house Jews without resources, and assumed the role of head of the Jewish community of Tripoli during the final years of its presence in Libya (around 1967). He left an unpublished memoir on his experience in Libya, exploited by scholarship (L. Tagliacozzo, Quest / CDEC Journal).
Born in Želva (Lithuania) to Jewish parents, Lazar and Bella Klug, emigrated to South Africa at age two. He developed crystallographic electron microscopy and elucidated the structure of nucleic acid-protein complexes (including tobacco mosaic virus), which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1982. Knighted by Elizabeth II in 1988; president of the Royal Society.
British writer and political analyst, former volunteer in the International Brigades in Spain, he became one of Margaret Thatcher's principal advisors after 1975. In 1974 he co-founded with Keith Joseph the Centre for Policy Studies, of which he was director, the think tank of Thatcherism. He also collaborated with the Israeli daily Haaretz.
From a distinguished Anglo-Jewish family, educated at Malvern College and Trinity College (Cambridge). Assistant undersecretary for Africa at the Colonial Office (1947, author of the "Cohen Report" advocating gradual devolution of power to Africans), then governor of Uganda (1952-1957) — a period marked by the Kabaka Crisis (1953). Subsequently British representative to the UN Trusteeship Council.
Born in Vienna into an assimilated Jewish family (father a lawyer, mother a pianist). Ph.D. from the University of Vienna (1933), he fled Nazism in 1936 and joined the Warburg Institute in London, which he directed from 1959 to 1976. Naturalized British (1947), knighted (1972), Order of Merit (1988).
Born in Vienna in a Jewish family (son of a physician), he fled antisemitism and went to Cambridge in 1937. With Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold, he developed in the 1940s the steady-state theory of the universe. Professor of mathematics at King's College London, he also worked on relativity and gravitational waves, and directed major British public scientific services.
Franco-British financier from the Jewish banking dynasty Goldschmidt of Frankfurt (name anglicized to Goldsmith by his father Frank). Founder of Cavenham Foods and financial raider, he founded in 1994 the Eurosceptic Referendum Party and sat in the European Parliament. Author of political essays critical of free trade.
Born in 1918 into a wealthy London Jewish family; his father Sir Samuel Joseph headed the Bovis construction company and was Lord Mayor of London (1942–43). Minister under Conservative governments, he was one of the chief architects of « Thatcherism » and co-founded the Centre for Policy Studies with Margaret Thatcher in 1974. Author of notable speeches and pamphlets (« Monetarism Is Not Enough », 1976).
British historian, professor at Columbia. Author and presenter of the series and books The Story of the Jews (2013-2017), which trace three millennia of Jewish history. The surname Schama comes from his father Arthur Schama, a Sephardic Jew from Smyrna (his mother being of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry).
One of the most popular media personalities in Israel, presenter of the Channel 2 news, columnist for Yediot Aharonot and Galei Tsahal. She is also an author: her Hebrew work "HaStatus HaYehudi" was an immediate bestseller, translated into English as "#Parasha: Weekly Insights from a Leading Israeli Journalist" (published by Koren).
Sephardic rabbi (1912–1994)
Romanian mathematician
Scholar and leader of Conservative Judaism, discoverer of the Cairo Genizah. He presided over the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.
rabbin britannique
Born in Tunis, doctorate in religious studies, research fellow at the CNRS, specialist in Jewish art and Judeo-Christian relations in medieval Spain as well as Judeo-Muslim relations in Tunisia. She directed the colloquium and work « Jews and Muslims in Tunisia. Fraternity and Ruptures » (Sorbonne, 1999; publ. 2003) and wrote « History of Judaism » (2008) and « History of the Bible of Moses Arragel ».
Co-founder in 1961, with his childhood friend Al Gindi, of the discount fashion department store Century 21 in Lower Manhattan (up to 13 stores before bankruptcy in 2020). Member of the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn, he served as president of Magen David Yeshiva and contributed to establishing the UJA in the Syrian community.
American politician
Israeli singer
American economist
British businessman, Baron Kalms
American actor
American filmmaker, photographer, screenwriter and producer
Israeli politician
British Jewish scholar, professor emeritus at Cambridge and founding director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit; leading authority on the Cairo Genizah and Jewish liturgy, OBE 2020.
World-renowned Austrian writer, author of The Royal Game and The World of Yesterday. Exiled by Nazism, he took his own life in Brazil.
Greek singer
British stylist, daughter of Linda and Paul McCartney
American communicant
American actor
Gay rabbi
Professor of Jewish Studies (Moe and Izetta Tonkon Chair) and humanities at Reed College. Author of reference works on Judeo-Muslim relations in the early Middle Ages and on the history of religious studies in the 20th century. « Between Muslim and Jew » (1995) received the American Academy of Religion's prize for excellence in historical studies.
American Orthodox rabbi, he led for a quarter century (1994–2020) the congregation Bnai Yeshurun of Teaneck (New Jersey) before making his aliyah to Modiin. Executive of the Rabbinical Council of America, he is the author of six works on religious subjects.
American political figure
American journalist
American film director. All four of his grandparents are Jews from Ukraine: his paternal grandfather Shmuel Spielberg was from Kamianets-Podilskyi, his grandmother Rebecca from Soudylkiv. Director of « Schindler's List » (1993), he founded the USC Shoah Foundation in 1994 to gather testimonies from Shoah survivors.
Doctor in International Relations (University of Pennsylvania, 1973), he is professor emeritus at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, holder of the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk Chair in Jewish Community Service. Specialist in American Jewish community affairs, antisemitism and political behavior, he has authored more than one hundred articles, essays and books.
High-energy physicist, expert in interactions of K mesons with nucleons.
American entrepreneur
American actress
United States representative for California since 2001
American Jewish philosopher and writer, director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, author of 'Evil in Modern Thought'.
American reform rabbi
American essayist and novelist
Hungarian dancer
French public figure
Australian political figure
Molecular biologist born in Germiston (South Africa) to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. Pioneer of molecular biology at Cambridge (genetic code, C. elegans worm), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002.
American actress
Professor of political and cultural sociology in Israel (College of Management in Rishon LeZion, Israel Academic College in Ramat-Gan), specialist in gender, family, the kibbutz, multiculturalism and feminism in Israel. Franco-Israeli academic, Ph.D. from EHESS and Paris-X Nanterre (1981), whose name Bijaoui is a plausible North African variant of Bedjai.
Israeli poet born in New York, translator and anthologist.
Israeli activist
Canadian multidisciplinary artist, born in Toronto to an Israeli Jewish father (from Kfar Saba, Polish Jewish family from Łódź, grandchildren of Holocaust survivors) and an Anishinaabe mother. Special jury prize at Sundance (Four Sheets to the Wind, 2007), role in the series Coroner, Broadway career (Rent). Her sisters Sarah and Jennifer Podemski are also actresses.
Hungarian politician
Filmmaker born in Iran and Iranian Jewish, who left Iran at age 6 after the 1979 revolution. Alumna of Brown (semiotics) and The New School. Her first feature documentary, « Be Like Others » (2008), on transgender people in Iran, was presented at Sundance 2008 and awarded (special Teddy Prize at the Berlinale), and nominated for an Emmy.
American actress
British judge
British actress
German philosopher and sociologist, a major figure of the Frankfurt School, co-author of Dialectic of Enlightenment. His critical thought shaped aesthetic theory.
Born in 1903 in Frankfurt, son of Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund, Jewish wine merchant, and a mother of Corsican/Genoese origin who was a singer; he adopted the maternal surname Adorno in the late 1930s. Central figure of the Frankfurt School (critical theory). Forced into exile by Nazism (Oxford then United States), he collaborated with Max Horkheimer at the Institute for Social Research.
American activist (1910–1986)
American politician
Born Tomasz Blatt in Izbica. At 16 he escaped from the Sobibór extermination camp during the uprising of Jewish prisoners in October 1943. After the war, a major witness to Sobibór (including at the trial of Karl Frenzel) and author of two books on the camp.
American philosopher of Jewish family background (born in Belgrade to a family that had fled Nazi Germany), University Professor at NYU, known for 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?' and works in philosophy of mind and ethics.
composer, conductor, pianist
Hungarian-born Swiss rabbi and businessman (1923–1980)
American serviceman
American writer
Gibraltarian historian of Sephardic Jewish descent, specialist in the local and military history of Gibraltar and the Jewish communities of Gibraltar, Malta and Minorca. Founder in 1993 of a history journal published by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust; MBE in 2001 for services to local history.
American sociologist and writer (1943-2022) from a Jewish family, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, founder/early president of Students for a Democratic Society, and prominent public intellectual and critic of both the American left and Israel's occupation.
American entrepreneur
American actress
American actor and filmmaker
American actor
American musician
film music composer and rock guitarist
Born September 28, 1923 in New York into a Yiddish-speaking Jewish household of Lower East Side immigrants. Poet and counterculture author, cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College (1944), he founded in 1958 the magazine Birth (which published Ginsberg, Di Prima, LeRoi Jones) and then, in 1964, the satirical group The Fugs with Ed Sanders. Died in New York in 2010.
Italian mathematician, co-founder of tensor calculus, which served as the basis for Einstein's general relativity. He was expelled from the university by the Fascist racial laws.
Italian anthropologist (1928-2017)
Israeli painter
Israeli poet in Hebrew and German languages, Israel Prize 2008.
Born in Rehovot in a religious Jewish family, her parents being Jews from Georgia who emigrated to Israel. Likud deputy from 2009 (then youngest member of the Knesset), vice-minister then minister, she was ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom (2020-2025). Lawyer (Bar-Ilan, Tel-Aviv), religious Zionist.
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Israeli diplomat, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993) and chief Israeli negotiator of the Oslo Accords. Member of the Knesset (1999–2001), co-founder of the Peres Center for Peace. He drew a book from his experience, published in 1998.
Professor of music at Bar-Ilan University (since 1973) and of ethnomusicology at the Rubin Academy (since 1975). Specialist in the oral and musical traditions of Yemenite Jews. His thesis (Columbia, 1982) concerns the role of music in Yemenite Jewish ritual; he contributed the entry « Jewish Music » to the New Grove Dictionary (2001).
Israeli director
Hebrew and Yiddish poet, a prophetic and nationalist voice, marked by the Shoah and Revisionist Zionism. One of the greatest Hebrew poets of the twentieth century.
Iranian rabbi
Born in Tel-Aviv, he was editor of the children's supplement of the newspaper Davar (Davar li-Yeladim) and holds a doctorate in children's literature (University of Toronto). He laid the foundations for the bibliography of Jewish children's literature in Hebrew and Yiddish, published numerous children's books and translated world children's literature into Hebrew. Recipient of the Lamdan Prize (1965) and the Ze'ev Prize (1976).
Born Uriel Heilperin in Warsaw, he Hebraized his name to Shelach, then adopted the literary pseudonym Yonatan Ratosh. A major Hebrew-language poet, he published his first poem in 1926 and founded in 1939 the « Canaanite » movement, rejecting both religion and classical Jewish nationalism.
Son of Max Weinreich, eminent linguist, he was professor of Yiddish at Columbia University. Author of reference works in contact linguistics and Yiddish lexicography, he died at forty.
Israeli translator
Israeli rabbi
Canadian journalist
French actress
American actress
Soviet writer and journalist, author of Life and Fate, an epic banned in the USSR. He was among the first to document the Shoah in the East.
American astronomer and physicist
American actress (1938–2019)
Italian actress (1938-2014)
Son of Jewish immigrants (father from Lubawa), he founded Victor Mishcon & Co in 1937 in Brixton, which became Mishcon de Reya after the 1988 merger — one of Britain's largest law firms. His firm represented Diana, Princess of Wales, in her divorce. Created life peer (Baron Mishcon) in 1978, he was Labour spokesman for home affairs in the House of Lords and, in 1992, the first practising solicitor appointed Honorary Queen's Counsel.
Born in 1960 in Kyiv to Jewish parents, Ukrainian oligarch, founder of the Interpipe industrial group and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. He supports notably Jewish causes and Judeo-Ukrainian dialogue (Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Prize 2014). He is not a patrimonial figure/author: his only notable publication is an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (2016).
Israeli politician
Austrian professor of neurology and psychiatry
Israeli rabbi
Mathematician born into a Jewish family of mathematicians; professor at Tel-Aviv University, laureate of the Israel Prize 2024. Known for his proof of the Dvoretzky theorem and the development of asymptotic geometric theory of normed spaces. Son of David Milman, of the Krein–Milman theorem.
Italian writer and journalist
Author of « The Oak of Rhodes: Saga of a Great Sephardic Family » (Paris, 1998), history of the Alhadeff family of Rhodes, with an Argentine edition titled « La Cita en Buenos Aires: Saga de una familia sefardí ».
Born in Chiaravalle on 11 November 1918, died in Rome on 5 August 2010. Of Jewish origin, he had to interrupt his studies in Bologna in 1938 because of Fascist racial laws and could only obtain his degree in letters after the war (ethnology thesis under R. Pettazzoni). Professor of ethnology in Bari (1968) then Rome (1972–1994), major figure in Italian religious anthropology.
Italian journalist
Virtuoso American pianist of Ukrainian origin, one of the greatest of the twentieth century. His interpretations of Rachmaninoff and Liszt are benchmarks.
Writer and Zionist leader, founder of Revisionist Zionism and of the Jewish Legion. Theorist of the “Iron Wall,” he inspired the Israeli right.
French philosopher, son of Russian Jewish immigrants, agrégé in philosophy (top of the 1926 competition). He taught in Toulouse then Lille, was stripped of his position under the Occupation, and held the chair of moral philosophy at the Sorbonne from 1951 to 1979. Author of a major moral and aesthetic work, he refused until his death to participate in any conference in Germany.
Soviet mathematician born to a wealthy Jewish family in Baku, known for Rokhlin's theorem and foundational work in ergodic theory; forced out of the Steklov Institute during the Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaign.
Russian politician
Russian television presenter
Born on January 20, 1978 in Vinnytsia in a Jewish family, he was mayor of Vinnytsia (2006–2014), speaker of the Rada, then Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2016 to 2019 — the first Jewish person to hold this position in Ukraine.
Born in 1978 in Kryvyï Rih in a Jewish family. Actor and producer before politics, he was elected president of Ukraine in 2019. His great-grandparents were killed during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, and his grandfather Semyon Zelensky served in the Red Army. He is a well-documented modern public figure, not a patrimonial author.
Israeli rabbi
Prewar lawyer in Germany, emigrated to the United States in 1935; Reform rabbi, long-time rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto (senior scholar from 1978). Author of about twenty works on theology, philosophy, and history; his best-known work is The Torah: A Modern Commentary (1981), the first complete non-orthodox commentary on the Torah in English for congregational use in North America.
German-born American Jewish economist who escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, served as US Secretary of the Treasury (1977-79) and later founding director of the Jewish Museum Berlin.
German philosopher and critic, author of The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. Fleeing the Nazis, he took his own life at Portbou.
Mathematician born into a Jewish family in Vienna, he fled to England in 1939 via the Kindertransport then emigrated to the United States in 1946. He is famous for the Feit-Thompson theorem (every finite group of odd order is solvable) and for his reference works in representation theory.
German theoretical physicist, of Jewish descent through his father Adolf Heitler. Co-author with Fritz London of valence bond theory (Heitler-London theory, 1927), the first application of quantum mechanics to chemical bonding, a foundational milestone of quantum chemistry. Dismissed from Göttingen University in 1933 due to his Jewish origin under Nazi laws, he emigrated with the aid of Max Born, first to Bristol then to Dublin (Institute for Advanced Studies) and finally to Zurich.
American rabbi
American psychologist of Austrian origin (1930-2018)
American documentary photographer and educator born to Romanian Jewish immigrants, known for photographing New York's Lower East Side and for being among the first Allied photographers to document the liberation of Dachau.
German industrialist and statesman, Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic. He was assassinated by antisemitic far-right nationalists.
American attorney and Republican U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from a family of Jewish immigrants from Germany, Poland and Russia; co-author of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit-control act.
American playwright, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner 1981 for My Sister in This House. Author of numerous plays and a stage adaptation of Anne Frank's Diary (1997).
American comedian
German Jewish resistance fighter against Nazism, died 1945 at Sachsenhausen camp
Avocat américain né le 14 décembre 1936 et décédé le 7 juillet 2026 à Bedford (New York), cofondateur en 1969 du cabinet Schulte Roth & Zabel, réputé en droit des successions et des familles. Il joua un rôle dans l'affaire Loving v. Virginia (1967) qui abolit les lois anti-mariages interraciaux aux États-Unis, et fut menacé par le Ku Klux Klan en 1964 lors d'actions pour l'inscription des électeurs noirs dans le Mississippi. Il présida pendant plus de vingt ans le conseil de Human Rights First et dota en 2016 une chaire de droits humains à la Harvard Law School ; le Jewish Museum de New York a salué son engagement envers la vie juive.
American director, screenwriter and producer
British actor
Jewish-American real estate developer born in Brooklyn to a family with a rabbi grandfather from Russia, who created Levittown, pioneering mass-produced suburban housing after World War II.
American rabbi
German rabbi
American director and producer
Born William Maks de Majo in Vienna in 1917, he founded a design agency in Belgrade in 1935 then emigrated to the United Kingdom. He is world-renowned as founder and first president (1963) of ICOGRADA. His Sephardi family from Belgrade was decimated during the Shoah: Willy de Majo deposited testimony cards at Yad Vashem about his relatives who were gassed (Maks Menahem de Majo, Josefine de Majo, 1941).
Born November 15, 1936, in Hamburg. His father, Dagobert Biermann, a Jewish dock worker and member of the anti-Nazi resistance, was deported and murdered at Auschwitz on February 22, 1943. Wolf Biermann became one of the major German-language singer-songwriters and poets; stripped of his East German citizenship in 1976 during a tour to the West, he remained in West Germany.
American rabbi
American actor, filmmaker, and clarinetist
rabbi, Israel
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Né Yaacov Gibstein en 1928 en Palestine mandataire, fils du rabbin et kabbaliste Yehoshua Gibstein, Yaacov Agam est mort le 21 juin 2026 à 98 ans et est considéré comme l'un des pères de l'art cinétique et optique. Parmi ses œuvres monumentales figurent « Double Métamorphose III » au Centre Pompidou, la Fontaine Monumentale de La Défense et une ménorah géante de dix mètres reconnue par le Guinness comme la plus grande du monde. Il a reçu le prix Israël 2026 des arts visuels lors d'une cérémonie au musée qui porte son nom à Rishon LeZion.
Born in Cairo, professor of computer science at Bar-Ilan University, where he directed the institute for documentary research and computational linguistics. Played a leading role in the Responsa Project (Bar-Ilan), one of the very first full-text systems in the world (Israel Prize 2007), and in the Friedberg Genizah Project. Described as « scion of a family of rabbis and scholars ».
Israeli soldier and politician
Born in Budapest into a family of rabbinical lineage (paternal grandfather Grand Rabbi of Budapest; descendant of the Hatam Sofer through his mother), immigrated to Israel in 1949. Professor of Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, laureate of the Israel Prize for Talmudic Studies (1997) and the EMET Prize (2006). He catalogued thousands of fragments of Talmudic manuscripts in libraries across Europe.
Rebbe of the Ger Hasidic dynasty
Ordained rabbi at RIETS (1979), he serves as Roch Yechiva (Mazer School of Talmudic Studies, Yeshiva University) and rabbi of Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield (NJ) since 1990. He studied under R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Nisson Alpert, Dovid Lifshitz, and Herschel Schachter. He is the author of « Ikvei Moshe », a series of Talmudic novellae (two volumes published, on the sixth chapter of Berakhot and on the tractate Sanhedrin).
Born in Tétouan to a Sephardic Jewish family, he was professor of Hebrew language at Ben-Gurion University (head of the Hebrew department from 1974 to 1992) and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language since 2004. He is a reference for the study of Haketía and Judeo-Spanish culture of North Africa.
Israeli writer
American rabbi
Lithuanian–Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Maggid of Novardok, renowned preacher in Israel.
Israeli diplomat
Talmudist and spiritual figure of Bnei Brak, author of the Kehilot Yaakov. Brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish, he was a guide for the yeshiva world.
French rabbi
Israeli politician
American rabbi
Israeli Zionist politician and Knesset member, a leader of the Mapam party, born in Poland.
Israeli novelist and playwright, modernist prose from Tel-Aviv.
Rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel (Baltimore).
American rebbe
rav of Montreal's Belz community
rabbi, Jewish decisor
Israeli author, PhD in Hebrew literature. Her novel « Aquarium » tells the story of two deaf sisters. Laureate of the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literature in 2015.
Author, in Hebrew, of a comprehensive work on the history of the Jews of Libya, translated into Italian.
American soccer player
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Israeli cultural personality of Judeo-Italian descent. After his service at Galei Zahal, he was keyboardist and lyricist for the rock band T-Slam. He writes the satirical column "Haramat Gaba" ("A Raised Eyebrow") in Israel Hayom, which became a bestselling book of the same name, and hosts cultural programs on television.
real estate entrepreneur
Yakoub (Yaacov) Bchiri, born November 12, 1912, was a major figure in Judeo-Tunisian music from Djerba: he animated weddings, celebrations and the pilgrimage to the Ghriba, notably through the songs of « Taâlila ». Died December 3, 2008. His recordings (Houmt Souk, June 2000) were published on CD by the International Archives of Popular Music / Museum of Ethnography Geneva (2001), with a bilingual French/English booklet.
Born November 4, 1905 in Voronezh in a Jewish family, died November 29, 1969 in Moscow. First division infantry commander to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (July 22, 1941). He commanded armies at Moscow, Stalingrad, in the Donbass, in Crimea and in the Baltic states; promoted to army general in 1962, he was the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Red Army. Buried at Novodevichye Cemetery.
Born Yasha Kazakov in 1947 in Moscow. At age nineteen, he forced his way into the Israeli consulate in Moscow and led a public campaign for the rights of Soviet Jews to emigrate. He emigrated to Israel (1969), fought in the Yom Kippur War, and then directed the Nativ service, playing a role in the mass exodus of Soviet Jews in the early 1990s.
Russian Orthodox rabbi (1913-1983)
Figure in the origins of Judeo-Tat literature (juhuri). He led the group that developed the Judeo-Tat alphabet based on Latin adopted at the 2nd pan-Soviet conference on cultural development among the Mountain Jews (Baku, April 1929) and compiled Judeo-Tat–Russian and Russian–Judeo-Tat dictionaries (~8,000 words). Author of plays and poems (the satirical comedy « The King, the Rabbi and the Rich Man », 1920; the poem « The Mountain Woman », 1928) and memoirs (« Oil and Victory », Baku, 1991; « The Great Destiny of a Small People », Moscow, 1995).
American actor (1939–2021)
Uzbek sculptor
rabbi
Founder and President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Rosh yeshiva, Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva
Israeli policy analyst
Israeli rabbi
Lithuanian rabbi
Rosh yeshiva
Rabbi of Fès, president of the rabbinical courts of Fès then Casablanca, grand rabbi of Morocco.
Iranian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Born in Sana'a, disciple of Rabbi Yiḥyeh Kapach (founder of Dor Deah). He was the only Jewish photographer in Yemen on the eve of the great emigration ("Magic Carpet"): virtually all photographs of the Yemenite community sent to Israel are by him. Died in Israel in the 1970s; an album, "Sana'a and Its Surroundings in Photographs by Yehiel Haibi", was published posthumously in 1985.
Major Israeli sculptor, member of the New Horizons group, first Israeli artist whose work was acquired by MoMA. Laureate of the Sandberg Prize (1981) and the Israel Prize for Sculpture (1986). He taught sculpture at the Technion and in Ein Hod.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli military officer and academic political scientist
Rabbi from Israel, rosh yeshiva, advocate and officer
Rabbi of Meknes, twentieth century. Born in 5662 of the Hebrew era (1902). Son of Yekutiel. Registered in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 55-4.
Israeli encyclopedist
Israeli novelist, psychological realism.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Considered the greatest modern Israeli poet, translated throughout the world. His poetry blends the everyday, love, war, and Jewish tradition.
Born in Tunis, kabbalist, rabbi of the Western Wall and director of the yeshiva Beit El.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Tel-Aviv University, editor-in-chief of the Maktoob series (translations of Arabic literature into Hebrew) at the Van Leer Institute. He works on bureaucracy, capitalism and ethnicity in Israel, and coined the term « Arab-Jews ». Co-founder of the Democratic Mizrahi Rainbow.
American rabbi and physicist
Israeli rabbi and politician (1924–2010)
Israeli rabbi
person associated with Hebrew manuscripts
Biblicist, professor at Bar-Ilan University (of which he was one of the founders), contributor to the biblical commentary Da'at Miqra. He received the distinction Yakir Yeroushalayim.
Chief Rabbi of Tehran and posek, directing schools and Iranian Jewish institutions.
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli educator
Born in Sana'a, emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1929, butcher in Tel-Aviv, he founded in 1942 the « Mif'al le-hasifat ginzei Teiman » (project for the uncovering of Yemenite manuscripts). Over six decades he assembled the largest private collection of Yemenite Jewish manuscripts (tens of thousands of documents and fragments, many extracted from bindings), now at the National Library of Israel. He published nine works based on these texts, with notably the collaboration of Prof. Yosef Tobi.
Israeli politician
Scholar at Bar-Ilan, specialist in Hebrew, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, he founded the scientific study of poetry, literature and liturgy of the Jews of Yemen. Recipient of the Israel Prize (1996), the Bialik Prizes (1965, 1979) and the Rav Kook Prize. Author of scholarly studies and editions (including « Borrowed Motifs in Hebrew Literature », Bar-Ilan University Press).
Israeli rabbi
Rosh yeshiva
Descendant of the Stretyn dynasty, born in Safed, ordained in Jerusalem (notably by A. I. Kook and Y. H. Sonnenfeld). Brother-in-law, disciple and friend of Yehuda Ashlag, whose commentary on the Zohar he completed (Ma'alot ha-Sullam, 1958). He also published a commentary on the Tikkunei ha-Zohar (1960) and a 14-volume edition of the complete works of Isaac Luria (1961–64).
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
American-British violinist and conductor, a child prodigy who became a committed humanist. He founded a music school and worked for reconciliation.
Israeli novelist born in Warsaw.
Israeli poet and writer born in 1935, raised at Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh. She published her first collection in 1962 and published a dozen volumes of poetry as well as children's books, biographies and prose, including the autobiographical narrative « All The Summer We Went Barefoot » and her 2003 novel about Zosha Poznanska (Red Orchestra), which won a prize in Israel. Long-time editor and translator at Sifriat Poalim.
Hungarian rabbi
Haredi rabbi and Rosh yeshiva
One of the roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood).
Israeli rabbi
Israeli scientist and philosopher, radical thinker of Halakha as the disinterested service of God. He was a leading critical voice in Israeli public life.
Born and raised in Tel-Aviv, enlisted in the Palmach at age 18. Major general in the IDF, head of the Southern Command (1965–1969), he led the Israeli offensive in the Sinai during the Six-Day War (1967). In civilian life, he was CEO of Koor Metals and then the Koor conglomerate. Last surviving senior Israeli commander of the 1967 war; died on October 3, 2024.
Israeli religious scholar
Bibliographer who devoted about twenty years to the « Otzar ha-Sefer ha-Ivri » (Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book), an inventory describing approximately 32,000 Hebrew books printed in the world from the beginning of printing until 1863 (computerized edition: 1468–1948). He also published a thesaurus of the books of the Gaon of Vilna and a siddur (Ezor Eliyahu). His work remains a standard reference.
Political scientist and Russian Jewish orientalist born in Moscow in 1959, specialist in the Middle East and Israel. President of the Congress of Russian Jews (2001–2004), founder-president of the Institute of the Middle East (Moscow). Author of numerous works and articles on Middle Eastern politics.
Hasidic Rabbi
Israeli soldier, member of the Knesset and archaeologist
Israeli historian born in Tel-Aviv in 1936, trained at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, teaching at the Kibbutzim College and at Sapir Academic College. He devoted his work to a critical re-reading of the history of Zionism and to challenging Ben-Gurion-centered historiography.
Israeli politician
Israeli rabbi
Contemporary Israeli novelist, thrillers and memory.
Israeli politician (1913-1970)
rabbi (1923-2017)
Holocaust survivor, oldest living man
Israeli rabbi
Rebbe (Grand Rabbi) of Skulen in Brooklyn, New York (1923-2019)
American rabbi
Rabbi and Kabbalists
2nd Rebbe of the Dushinsky Hasidic dynasty of Jerusalem, Israel
American-Israeli religious leader
One of the four roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (Lakewood).
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath and Mora d'Atra of Agoudath Israël of Madison (Brooklyn). His weekly Saturday evening class on the Neviim ("Motzaei Shabbos Navi") is broadcast in dozens of cities. Author of works on halakha and the Tanakh.
Israeli rabbi
Polish-born rabbi
Last dayan of Vilna, founder of the yeshiva Netzach Yisroel in Jerusalem.
Bohush Rebbe
Mayor of Bnei Brak
Rabbi of Fès, twentieth century. Died in 5661 of the Hebrew era (1901). Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 76-2.
Israeli rabbi
American Haredi rabbi
French rabbi
Dean of the yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, author of Pachad Yitzchak.
Son and successor of Yosef Meir Weiss, author of the Chakal Yitzchak. Assassinated at Auschwitz in 1944 with thirty-one members of his family.
Rosh yeshiva at the yeshiva of Mir, Jerusalem.
rabbi (1922-2021)
Rabbi (1929-2001)
Chief Rabbi (1926–2022)
Hungarian rabbi
Russian Rabbi
Yitzhak Nisimovitch Mavashev, born in 1905 in Samarkand and died in 1978 in Jerusalem, was a writer, linguist, philosopher and journalist who pioneered the study of the cultural heritage of Bukharan Jews (folklore, music, literature). He founded and directed Ha-Tehiya, the first Judeo-Bukharan newspaper in Israel, and left a work of folklore and memoirs published posthumously. The Itzhak Mavashev Foundation (created in 1985) and its Institute for the Study of Bukharan Jewish Heritage perpetuate his work.
Born Izo Hertzig in Siret (Romania) into a Hasidic family, he was one of the leaders of the HaNoar HaTzioni youth movement and of Zionist resistance in Romania during the Second World War, organizing the rescue of children and clandestine immigration. He made aliyah in 1946, became a lawyer and then a member of the Knesset (1984–1988). He was honored posthumously for having saved thousands of Jews from Transnistria.
Israeli Talmudist (1919–1997), professor at Bar-Ilan University, specialist in the history of halakha's development. Author of a reference monograph on R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanos and a collection of studies on the evolution of halakha.
Poet, writer and Israeli journalist.
Israeli politician
Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel (Rishon le-Tsion), originally from Baghdad, a respected decisor. He played a role in the unification of the chief rabbinate.
Israeli writer born in Ukraine, symbolist prose.
Israeli general and statesman, Prime Minister and architect of the Oslo Accords, Nobel Peace Prize 1994. He was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.
Leading figure of Yemenite Judaism in the Land of Israel, defender of Yemenite customs (baladi, fidelity to Rambam and Maharitz). Author of an abridged code of Yemenite law, the Shulchan Aruch HaMekutzar, to which is appended his « Klalei Maharitz ».
Commander of the FPO (United Partisan Organization) in the Vilna Ghetto, who surrendered himself to the Gestapo in 1943 to spare the ghetto from reprisal and died in custody shortly after.
Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel
Deputy commander of the Jewish Combat Organisation (ŻOB) and one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943; co-founder of the Lohamei HaGeta'ot kibbutz and the Ghetto Fighters' House.
Born Yohanan Kopelovich on April 16, 1952. Israeli chess player, composer, coach and arbiter, sole holder of international titles in five chess disciplines (international master, grandmaster of composition, international arbiter, FIDE master of solving, international judge). He has composed approximately 350 endgame studies.
Hungarian-born Israeli rabbi
One of the four mothers of Hebrew poetry, Israel Prize 1972.
Israeli religious Zionist rabbi
Chabad rabbi (1930-2021)
Israeli rabbi
Rebbe of Satmar, founder of the largest Hasidic community in America and a figure of religious anti-Zionism. Survivor of the Kasztner transport.
Last Chief Rabbi of Aleppo (from 1959); emigrated to New York, author of the biblical commentary « Meir Tov ».
French architect
Israeli politician
religious figure (1904-1969)
Israeli-American musician from the renowned Razel musical family of Nachlaot (Jerusalem). He became known in 2009 by setting to music the piyyut « Vehi Sheamda » for Yaakov Shwekey. His album « Bein HaZlilim » (2012) was certified gold. He studies at the Jerusalem Kollel of Rav Yitzchak Berkovits.
Israeli novelist and journalist
Israeli politician
Israeli politician
Rabbi of Fès, 20th century. Died in 5689 of the Hebrew era (1929). Son of Eliahu. Listed in Malkhei Rabbanan (Yosef Ben Naim, 1931), f. 61-3.
Israeli rabbi
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Givatayim
Jewish Hasidic religious leader and Holocaust survivor (1903–1984)
Ethiopian rabbi who immigrated to Israel
Chief Rabbi of Iran from 1994 to 2007, decision-maker and leader of the Jewish community.
Brother of the last Chief Rabbi of Syria and son of one of the last rabbis of Damascus, he now lives in Brooklyn where he serves the Syrian Jewish community of New York. In 2025, he led the first Jewish delegation to return to Syria after Assad's fall.
American historian, holder of the Salo W. Baron Chair of Jewish History, Culture, and Society at Columbia University. His work "Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory" (1982) contrasts collective memory—liturgical and transmitted—with modern critical historiography, a foundational distinction that inspires the name and approach of the Zakhor platform. He also shaped the study of the Marranos and the reading of Freud's "Moses."
Yemenite-Israeli halakhic authority, dayan of the Supreme Rabbinical Court and one of the principal leaders of the Yemenite community in Israel. He is the editor and translator of reference works of Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed, Commentary on the Mishnah, Mishneh Torah restored from Yemenite manuscripts) and of Saadia Gaon (Emounot ve-Deot), Bahya ibn Paquda, Juda Halevi, etc. Laureate of the Israel Prize.
Romanian rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli politician
Professor emeritus in Department of Hebrew Literature at University of Haifa
Israeli rabbi
Israeli rabbi
Israeli-Moroccan rabbi, descendant of Haïm Pinto, appointed grand rabbi of Morocco in 2019.
Russian political figure
Rabbi in Meknès, from a family originating in Demnate, he was an illustrious poet. One of his poems, « Avarekh et shem ha-El ha-gadol ve-ha-nora », was incorporated into the liturgy of the Havdala ceremony.
Doctor of philosophy, teaching Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University; specialist in the Jews of North Africa (Algeria, Morocco), first to systematically exploit the literature of responsa from Algerian rabbis as a historical source. Founder/director of the Gaï Yinassé institute for the heritage of Algerian Judaism.
Talmudic genius renowned for his encyclopedic erudition and conceptual method, rabbi of the Hasidim of Dvinsk. Author of the Tzafnat Paaneach.
Born in Jerusalem in 1932 into a Jewish family of Persian origin (the « Banai dynasty »), he grew up near the Mahané Yehuda market. Central figure of the Israeli scene, laureate of the Israel Prize for theater (1998). Famous for his Hebrew adaptations of songs by Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel and for his autobiographical solo shows.
Israeli politician and peace negotiator, architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords and creator of the Birthright Israel program.
Chief Rabbi of Iran and physician, current religious leader of the Jewish community.
Renowned Israeli singer born in Morocco, specializing in Oriental music (mizrahi).
Canadian singer
Israeli rabbi
American writer and activist, Jewish Renewal movement pioneer
American rabbi
Banker, politician (member of parliament, Likud among others) and Israeli diplomat, ambassador to the United States (1990–1993 and 1998–2000). Born in Danzig in a Jewish family, immigrant to Mandatory Palestine in 1938. Author of several books of diplomatic memoirs.
American rabbi
Israeli linguist
Born in Rabat in 1940 in a Zionist family (his father was a rabbi), he emigrated to Israel in 1948. Major figure of Israeli cinema and the "bourekas" genre, he acted in over 40 films and directed about fifteen. Recipient of three Ophir prizes (including one for his entire career). Died January 18, 2025.
Rabbi born in Algiers, recognized figure in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora of the renewal of North African Sephardic Judaism, decisioner (Morei Horaah) for the chief rabbinate of Jerusalem. His family, established in Tlemcen as far back as the era of Ibn Khaldoun then in Algiers, emigrated to France after the Algerian War before he settled in Jerusalem.
American rabbi
American linguist
former Governor-General of Australia (1919–2011)
Czech writer and film director
Israeli rabbi
American actor
Israeli politician
Dayan and president of the rabbinical court, buried in the rabbinical necropolis (Midrach) of Algiers; presented as one of the first rabbis of the Morali family in Algiers.
American rabbi
Israeli actor and comedian of Georgian Jewish origin, known for his role in the sitcom "Shemesh" (1997–2004). His family immigrated to Israel when he was nine months old. He became religiously observant in the 1990s and notably recorded a sung version of "Ana beKoach" (2021).
American rabbi
Israeli educator and writer
Born in Chemnitz in an East European Jewish family, trained in Prague under Alois Hába (from 1937), friend of Viktor Ullmann. He archived the synagogal chants of Prague and composed several works of Jewish inspiration. Died of tuberculosis at Theresienstadt in 1944.
Soviet Russian rabbi
Panamanian rabbi
Zohra al-Fassia, born around 1905 in Sefrou and died in 1994 in Israel, is a great diva of Judeo-Moroccan music, often presented as the first Moroccan woman to write, compose and sing publicly and to record for major record labels. Appreciated at court, she emigrated to Israel in 1962, where the modesty of her final years inspired a famous poem by Erez Biton. Her pioneering voice carries the memory of a heritage and the affirmation of a woman artist.
Hungarian politician
Georgian statesman, former prime minister
Hebrew poet born in Bender (Bessarabia) in a Jewish family, arrived as a child to Ein Harod (1924) where he lived until his death. One of the first members and poets of the Palmach: he wrote the Palmach Hymn (1941) and co-edited with Matti Megged the Book of the Palmach (Sefer HaPalmach, 1950-1953), a major anthology of the era.
American actress
Israeli rabbi
Israeli historian born in Tarnów (Poland) in 1920, graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Columbia University. He taught at Tel-Aviv, the Hebrew University, Ohio State and Columbia, was the first director of the Ben-Gurion Archives at Sde Boker and held a chair on the Jews of Salonika and Greece at Tel-Aviv University. His masterwork concerns the origins of Byzantine Karaism.
Israeli writer
American rabbi
Hungarian Orthodox Rabbi
Israeli rabbi, scholar, and educator who produced the first complete translation of the Babylonian Talmud into modern Hebrew (and into English, French, and Russian). His monumental work, completed in 2010 after 45 years of labor, made the Talmud accessible to millions of non-specialist readers.
American-Israeli clinical psychologist and ordained rabbi (Ner Israel Rabbinical College), turned Torah scholar, author of the five-volume 'What's Bothering Rashi?' series analyzing Rashi's Torah commentary, published by Feldheim and Gefen.
Rosh Yeshiva of Sha'ar Hatalmud (Lakewood/Cherry Hill, New Jersey), previously associated with Beth Hatalmud Rabbinical College; Talmudic scholar and posek in the American yeshiva world, author of a notable 2002 responsum permitting a 9/11 agunah to remarry.
Israeli archaeologist, professor at Bar-Ilan University, directs the excavations at Tel Eton (probable site of the biblical Eglon).
American stage and screen actor, nine-time Tony Award nominee, winner of the 2020 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Moulin Rouge!.
Israeli novelist and essayist, author of See Under: Love and To the End of the Land. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2017.
Rabbi and Professor of Rabbinics at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, author of works on rabbinic literature.
Israeli football player
American environmentalist
Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth (1991-2013), philosopher and prolific author. His works on interfaith dialogue, the dignity of difference, and morality in modern society made him one of the most widely heard Jewish voices in the Western world in the twenty-first century.
Rabbi (Congregation Zohar Yisrael) and doctor, specialist in the history of conversos (new-Christians of Jewish origin) and the Inquisition. Author of several works, including "Secret Jews" and "The Rise of the Inquisition," and of a thesis "Complex Identities: Christian and Jewish Attitudes Towards Conversos."
American actor
Alumnus of the Lycée Henri-IV, PhD in sociology of religions (EHESS, 2007, thesis on kabbalistic texts as a source of halakha), student of Charles Mopsik, holder of rabbinic semikha. He taught Talmud and Midrash (Yeshiva of Paris Students) and published several works on halakha and Kabbalah.
American Reform rabbi, among the earliest women ordained as rabbis in the US and a leading voice for women's ordination and egalitarianism in Judaism; longtime senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.
Yemenite Jew imprisoned by the Houthis since 2016 (accused of helping a Jewish family leave with an ancient Torah scroll), held in detention despite an acquittal. His case has become an international symbol relayed by the American Sephardi Federation and human rights bodies.
Soviet dissident imprisoned in the gulag for 9 years for teaching Hebrew and requesting to emigrate to Israel. Having become an Israeli politician and thinker of freedom, his struggle embodies Jewish resistance for dignity and freedom of conscience in the 21st century.
American film critic born to Jewish parents, longtime chief critic at Entertainment Weekly and later Variety (since 2016), author of the memoir 'Movie Freak: My Life Watching Movies.'
Orthodox author published by Feldheim Publishers; he notably wrote the biography « Rav Shmuel » devoted to the Rosh Yeshiva of Mir, HaRav Refael Shmuel Berenbaum, as well as other works of Torah literature.
Contemporary rabbi, who died shortly before the writing of this work, who spared no effort to find, even in remote places, manuscripts by Moroccan sages. He called upon experts to decipher and restore damaged writings, then financed their printing. With Professor Rabbi Moshe Amar, he directed the « Machon Orot » institutes and made available to the author some 140 works from his library.
Libyan-born Jewish journalist and diplomat, chairman of the Union of Libyan Jews, who helped facilitate contacts between Israeli and Libyan officials, including a 2017 meeting on Rhodes.
Rabbi of Tunisian origin (born in Tunis according to the tributes recorded), arrived in Marseille in the early 1960s, he became rabbi of the La Rose district in 1975. Highly reputed mohel (circumciser) and scholar, he is the author of the halakhic work « Lev Hanoun ». He died in Marseille in 2022 and was buried in Israel.
Rabbi and contemporary professor, master of the author, who worked tirelessly to locate and preserve the manuscripts of the sages of Morocco, including in isolated places. He directed the institute 'Machon Orot' (as well as the Bné Yissakhar institute) and helped save many damaged writings.
Israeli association footballer
American jurist, Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1993-2020). A pioneer of women's rights, she drew explicitly on the Jewish tradition of justice (tsedek) and repair of the world (tikkun olam). A cultural icon, she embodied the Jewish commitment to equality and civil rights.
Israeli-American computer scientist awarded the 2012 Turing Award, jointly with Silvio Micali, for foundational contributions to cryptography including probabilistic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs.
Historian and professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem specializing in the social history of East European Jewry, Lithuanian yeshivas, Jewish demography, migration and education; born in Atlanta, Georgia, to a Jewish family.
Contemporary Orthodox author and biographer of the Brisker rabbinic dynasty (notably Rav Chaim Soloveitchik), published by Feldheim Publishers.
Israeli footballer
Ordained rabbi and professor of Hebrew and Jewish studies at the University of Connecticut (since 2012), after teaching Hebrew literature at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (1993–2012). Holder of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2004), she is a specialist in medieval Jewish literature of martyrdom.
Researcher of the minhag (rite) of the Jews of Libya. He established and published "Kol ha-Shoneh Halakhot: sefer halakha yomit lefi minhag yehudei Luv" ("All those who study the laws: compendium of daily halakha according to the rite of the Jews of Libya"), published in 2018 (5778) by the Or Shalom Center (Bat Yam) in collaboration with the Har Bracha institute, and cataloged at the National Library of Israel. He also established a siddur for Yom ha-Atzmaout according to the Libyan rite and authored a synthesis article on the period of R. Eliyahou Bekhor Hazan in Tripoli.
Israeli art historian and curator, senior curator and deputy director at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, specialist in the history of Israeli art.
Foremost halakhic authority and spiritual leader of Lithuanian Jewry in Jerusalem. His halakhic rulings were authoritative for hundreds of thousands of the faithful.
American academic and leading scholar of Russian/Soviet Jewish history, author of 'A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union,' professor emeritus at the University of Michigan.
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