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Garnier, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Garnier, Robert gärnyāˈ [key], 1534?–1590, French dramatic poet. He wrote mainly closet dramas in the classical manner of Seneca. Les Juives [the Jewish women] (1583), based on the Bible, is per...

Caesarea Palestinae

(Encyclopedia)Caesarea Palestinae pălĭstīˈnē, sĕzə–, sēzə– [key], city, NW ancient Palestine, c.20 mi (32 km) S of Mt. Carmel. It was taken (104 b.c.) by Alexander Jannaeus, leader of the Maccabees, an...

Zunser, Eliakum

(Encyclopedia)Zunser, Eliakum ĕlˈyōko͝om tso͝onˈzər [key], 1846–1913, Lithuanian folk poet and singer who wrote in Yiddish. The most popular Jewish folk singer of his time, he appeared at weddings all over...

Stephen, Saint, Christian martyr

(Encyclopedia)Stephen, Saint, d. a.d. 36?, first Christian martyr, stoned at Jerusalem. He was one of the seven deacons. Accused of blasphemy, he was brought before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. His speech defending ...

Rachel, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Rachel rāˈchəl [key], in the Bible, wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She is one of the four Jewish matriarchs. An alternate form is Rahel. ...

Roth, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Roth, Philip (Philip Milton Roth), 1933–2018, American author, one of the most important novelists of the 20th cent., b. Newark, N.J., B.A. Bucknell Univ., 1954, M.A. Univ. of Chicago, 1955. His wri...

Gallio

(Encyclopedia)Gallio (Junius Annaeus Gallio) gălˈēō [key], d. a.d. 65?, Roman proconsul in Achaea; brother of the philosopher Seneca. His name was originally Lucius Annaeus Novatus. The “Gallio Inscription,�...

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...

Yom Kippur

(Encyclopedia)Yom Kippur [Heb.,=day of atonement], in Judaism, the most sacred holy day, falling on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishri (usually late September or early October). It is a day of fasting and p...

Wolpe, Stefan

(Encyclopedia)Wolpe, Stefan shtĕfˈän vôlˈpə [key], 1902–72, German–American composer. Of Jewish ancestry, he went to live in Palestine in 1933, but settled in the United States in 1938. Wolpe wrote severa...