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Krochmal, Nachman

(Encyclopedia)Krochmal, Nachman näkhˈmän krôkhˈmäl [key], 1785–1840, Jewish secular historian and writer, b. Galicia. He was a leader in the movement of the Jewish enlightenment and a pioneer of modern Jewi...

Elijah ben Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Elijah ben Solomon, 1720–97, Jewish scholar, called the Gaon of Vilna, b. Lithuania. A leading Jewish scholar of his time, he opposed the spread of Hasidism in Lithuania and Poland because he feared...

Demetrius I, king of ancient Syria

(Encyclopedia)Demetrius I (Demetrius Soter) sōˈtər [key], c.187–150 b.c., king of ancient Syria (162–150 b.c.), son of Seleucus IV. He was sent as a hostage to Rome, where he remained during the reigns of hi...

Judas

(Encyclopedia)Judas, in the Bible. 1 See Jude, Saint. 2 Judas Maccabeus: see Maccabees. 3 See Judas Iscariot. 4 See Judah (1) (of which Judas is the Greek form). 5 In the Acts of the Apostles, owner of a house in D...

Rosenzweig, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Rosenzweig, Franz fränts rōˈzəntsvīkhˌ [key], 1886–1929, German-Jewish philosopher, b. Kassel. As a youth he was thoroughly trained in German philosophy and, after a near conversion to Christi...

Deutsch, Gotthard

(Encyclopedia)Deutsch, Gotthard doich [key], 1859–1921, Austrian Jewish scholar and historian. He studied at the rabbinical seminary at Breslau, Germany, and at the Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1881) after which he t...

Jacobs, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Jacobs, Joseph, 1854–1916, Jewish writer, historian, and folklorist, b. Australia. He lived in England until 1900, when he went to the United States to edit a revision of The Jewish Encyclopedia. He...

Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Associations

(Encyclopedia)Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Associations (YMHA, YWHA), organizations that promote health, social activities, recreation, acculturation of new Jewish Americans, and Jewish culture among Jews o...

Zionism

(Encyclopedia)Zionism, modern political movement for reconstituting a Jewish national state in Palestine. After World War II the Zionist movement intensified its activities. The sufferings of the European Jews at...

Hebrew language

(Encyclopedia)Hebrew language, member of the Canaanite group of the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). Hebrew was the language of t...