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Al-Fasi, Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen

(Encyclopedia)Al-Fasi, Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen äl-fäˈsē [key], 1013–1103, prominent Jewish Talmudic scholar of the very late Gaonic period, b. near Fès, N Africa. He headed the rabbinical school at Fès unt...

Ciechanover, Aaron

(Encyclopedia)Ciechanover, Aaron, 1947–, Israeli biochemist, M.D. Hebrew Univ.–Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, 1974; D.Sc. Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Haifa, 1982. He has been on the faculty ...

Septuagint

(Encyclopedia)Septuagint sĕpˈtyo͞oəjĭnt [key] [Lat.,=70], oldest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made by Hellenistic Jews, possibly from Alexandria, c.250 b.c. Legend, according to the fictional l...

Pococke, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Pococke, Edward pōˈkŏk [key], 1604–91, English Orientalist, b. Oxford. Ordained a priest in 1629, he resided at Aleppo in Syria as a chaplain, where he collected valuable manuscripts and studied ...

purification

(Encyclopedia)purification, in religion, the ceremonial removal of what the religion deems unclean. The usual agents of purification are water (as in baptism), bodily alteration (as in circumcision), and fire. The ...

Ben-Zvi, Yizhak

(Encyclopedia)Ben-Zvi, Yizhak yĭtshˈhäk bĕn-tsvē [key], 1884–1963, president of Israel (1952–63), b. Russia, originally named Issac Shimshelevitz. A Zionist, he fled Russia in 1905 because of his activitie...

Brookline

(Encyclopedia)Brookline bro͝okˈlīn [key], town (2020 pop. 63,191), Norfolk co., E Mass., a suburb adjacent to ...

Indo-Iranian

(Encyclopedia)Indo-Iranian, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by more than a billion people, chiefly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (see The Indo-Eu...

Whorf, Benjamin Lee

(Encyclopedia)Whorf, Benjamin Lee hwôrf [key], 1897–1941, American linguist and anthropologist, b. Winthrop, Mass. Although he was trained in chemical engineering and worked for an insurance company, Whorf made ...

Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich əlĭksyāˈ əlĭksänˈdrəvĭch shôkmətôfˈ [key], 1864–1920, Russian philologist and historian. Shakhmatov's many books on the history of the Russian langua...