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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...

Artevelde, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Artevelde, Jacob van yäˈkôp vän ärˈtəvĕldə [key], c.1290–1345, Flemish statesman, of a wealthy family of Ghent. In 1337 the Flemish cloth industry underwent a severe crisis. The pro-French ...

Manasseh ben Israel

(Encyclopedia)Manasseh ben Israel, 1604–57, Jewish scholar and communal leader, b. Portugal. Early in his life he settled in Amsterdam, where he became a rabbi and started (1627) the first Hebrew press there. He ...

Johanan ben Zakkai

(Encyclopedia)Johanan ben Zakkai jōhănˈən bĕn zăkˈāī [key], leader of the Pharisees of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70, afterward founder of the Jewish academy at Jamnia. He empha...

Gordin, Jacob Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Gordin, Jacob Mikhailovich yäˈkôb mĭkhīˈləvyĭch gôrˈdĭn [key], 1853–1909, American writer of Yiddish plays, b. Russia. He was for some years a teacher and a newspaper writer in St. Peters...

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...

Gershom ben Judah

(Encyclopedia)Gershom ben Judah grˈshəm bĕn jo͞oˈdə [key], c.965–c.1040?, rabbi, religious poet, and scholar. He was also called Me'or ha-Golah [light of the exile]. He lived his entire adult life in Mainz,...

Amram ben Scheschna

(Encyclopedia)Amram ben Scheschna gäˈōn [key], d. c.875, Hebrew scholar, head of the Jewish academy at Sura in Persia. He is chiefly known as the author of the Seder Rab Amram, a compilation of the order of pray...

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