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Bel and the Dragon

(Encyclopedia)Bel and the Dragon, customary name for chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel, a passage included in the Septuagint and the Apocrypha. It was written possibly in the 1st cent. b.c. as a response to Gentile ...

Hoffmann, Roald

(Encyclopedia)Hoffmann, Roald, 1937–, American chemist, b. Złoczów, Poland (now Zolochiv, Ukraine), Ph.D. Harvard, 1962. After receiving his degree and working with Robert Woodward at Harvard (1962–65), he be...

Isserles, Moses ben Israel

(Encyclopedia)Isserles, Moses ben Israel ĭsˈərlĕs [key], c.1525–1572, Polish rabbi, annotator, and philosopher, b. Kraków, known as Remah. He is best known for his glosses on the code of Jewish law of Joseph...

Handlin, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Handlin, Oscar, 1915–2011, American historian, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Brooklyn College (B.A., 1934). He received his Ph.D (1940) from Harvard and taught there from 1939 to 1984. Most of his work i...

Soloveitchik, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Soloveitchik, Joseph sŏˌləvāˈchĭk [key], 1903–93, Jewish Talmudist and philosopher. Born into a rabbinic family in Poland, he was educated according to his grandfather's analytical method of T...

Bassani, Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Bassani, Giorgio jôrˈjō bäsäˈnê [key], 1916–2000, Italian novelist. The recurrent background for his complex, analytic narratives about Jewish bourgeois life in Italy was the growth of fascis...

Acosta, Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, Uriel dä kōˈstä [key], c.1585–1640, Jewish rationalist, b. Oporto, Portugal. His original name was Gabriel da Costa, and his family had been converted to Roman Catholicism. When he reach...

Podhoretz, Norman

(Encyclopedia)Podhoretz, Norman pŏdhôrˈəts [key], 1930–, American editor and essayist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied Columbia (B.A., 1950), Cambridge. As editor in chief (1960–95) of Commentary, he turned the ...

Benacerraf, Baruj

(Encyclopedia)Benacerraf, Baruj bäˈro͞okh bĕnăsˈərəf [key], 1920–2011, American immunologist, b. Caracas, Venezuela, grad. Columbia (B.S., 1942), Medical College of Virginia (M.D., 1945). Raised in Paris,...

Walzer, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Walzer, Michael, 1935–, American political philosopher, b. New York City, attended Brandeis Univ. (B.A., 1956), Cambridge (1956–57), and Harvard (Ph.D., 1961). A prominent liberal thinker and prol...