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Blum, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Blum, Léon lāôNˈ blo͝om [key], 1872–1950, French Socialist leader and writer. Well established in literary circles, he entered politics during the Dreyfus Affair and rose to party leadership. I...

Judaism

(Encyclopedia)Judaism jo͞oˈdəĭzˌəm, jo͞oˈdē– [key], the religious beliefs and practices and the way of life of the Jews. The term itself was first used by Hellenized Jews to describe their religious prac...

Holocaust

(Encyclopedia)Holocaust hŏlˈəkôstˌ, hōˈlə– [key], name given to the period of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany. Romani (Gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabl...

Iconium

(Encyclopedia)Iconium īkōˈnēəm [key], ancient city of Asia Minor, the modern Konya, Turkey. In ancient days it was at various times in Phrygia, Lycaonia, Cappadocia, and the Roman province of Galatia. It was v...

D'Israeli, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)D'Israeli, Isaac, 1766–1848, English critic and historian, b. London; father of Benjamin Disraeli. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he produced his first poem at the age of 14. His best-known work...

Feuchtwanger, Lion

(Encyclopedia)Feuchtwanger, Lion lēˈōn foikhtˈväng-ər [key], 1884–1958, German novelist. A pacifist, socialist, and friend of both Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, he fled Germany for France in 1933; he was ...

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. ...

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...

Herodians

(Encyclopedia)Herodians hĕrōˈdēənz [key], Jewish political party of the early 1st cent. a.d., related to the dynasty of Herod. Some have supposed that they were largely Sadducees. In the New Testament the Hero...

Hartman, David

(Encyclopedia)Hartman, David, 1931–2013, Israeli rabbi and philosopher, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. The son of Hasidim who immigrated to the United States from Israel, he trained as a rabbi at Yeshiva Univ., New York City,...