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Anan ben David

(Encyclopedia)Anan ben David änänˈ [key], fl. 8th cent., Babylonian Jewish theologian, founder of the Ananites from whom the Karaites claim spiritual descent. He is said to have been a descendant of Bostanai ben...

Ben Yehudah, Eliezer

(Encyclopedia)Ben Yehudah, Eliezer ĕlĭĕˈzər bĕn yĕho͞oˈdă [key], 1858–1922, Jewish scholar and leader, b. Lithuania. He settled in Palestine as early as 1881, where he dedicated himself to the revival o...

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...

Jordaens, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Jordaens, Jacob or Jacques yäˈkôp yôrˈdäns, zhäk [key], 1593–1678, Flemish baroque painter, b. Antwerp. After the deaths of Rubens and Van Dyck, by whom he was influenced, he became the leadi...

Maerlant, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Maerlant, Jacob van yäˈkōp vän märˈlänt [key], c.1235–c.1300, Flemish poet, earliest important figure of Dutch literature. He wrote lyric poems and chivalric verse romances after the French a...

Dunash ben Labrat

(Encyclopedia)Dunash ben Labrat do͞oˈnäsh bĕn läˈbrät [key], 920–90, Hebrew grammarian and poet, b. Fès. He was also called Rabbi Adonim Halevy (ha-Levi). He wrote an exhaustive criticism of Menahem's Heb...

Riis, Jacob August

(Encyclopedia)Riis, Jacob August rēs [key], 1849–1914, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and social reformer, b. Denmark. He immigrated to the United States in 1870. In 1877 he became a police reporter f...

Jonson, Ben

(Encyclopedia)Jonson, Ben, 1572–1637, English dramatist and poet, b. Westminster, London. The high-spirited buoyancy of Jonson's plays and the brilliance of his language have earned him a reputation as one of the...

Ruisdael, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Ruisdael or Ruysdael, Jacob van both: yäˈkōp vän roisˈdäl [key], c.1628–1682, Dutch painter and etcher, the most celebrated of the Dutch landscape painters. He studied with his father Isack an...

Oost, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Oost, Jacob van yäˈkōp vän ōst [key], the elder, 1601–71, Flemish portrait and religious painter, b. Bruges. He spent most of his life in Bruges, with the exception of several years in Rome, wh...