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Akiba ben Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Akiba ben Joseph əkēˈbə [key], c.a.d. 50–c.a.d. 135, Jewish Palestinian religious leader, one of the founders of rabbinic Judaism. Although the facts of his life are obscured by legend, he is sa...

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...

Immanuel ben Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Immanuel ben Solomon, c.1265–c.1330, Hebrew-Italian poet and scholar, b. Rome. He wrote biblical criticism and, in both Hebrew and Italian, satiric verse and lively stories. His work represents a sy...

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...

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...

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 ...

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