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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...

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...

Mwinyi, Ali Hassan

(Encyclopedia)Mwinyi, Ali Hassan, 1925–, Tanzanian political leader. Entering politics in 1963, Mwinyi held government positions in Zanzibar, then several Tanzanian government posts (1970–84), before he was ele...

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,...

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...

Nicholson, Ben

(Encyclopedia)Nicholson, Ben, 1894–1982, English painter; son of Sir William Nicholson. Nicholson's geometric abstractions of landscapes and still lifes are discreetly colored and lyrically expressed. In works su...

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 ...

Montazeri, Hossein Ali

(Encyclopedia)Montazeri, Hossein Ali, 1922–2009, Iranian Islamic scholar and political leader. A follower of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Montazeri objected to Khomeini's arrest and exile, and became involved in ...

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