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Letteris, Meir ha-Levi

(Encyclopedia)Letteris, Meir ha-Levi mīr hä-lāˈvē lĕtârˈĭs [key], 1800–1871, Austrian-Jewish poet. He wrote about 30 volumes of prose and poetry. The poem called “Yonah Homiyah” [the plaintive dove] ...

Jah

(Encyclopedia)Jah yä [key], generally considered an archaic form of the Hebrew ineffable name of God (Yahweh, Jahweh). It occurs in the Book of Exodus. ...

Bamah

(Encyclopedia)Bamah bāˈmə [key] [Heb.,=high place], term elsewhere translated in most English editions of the Bible, but in one passage in the Book of Ezekiel it is given in the original. The word is translated ...

Skokie

(Encyclopedia)Skokie skōˈkē [key], village (1990 pop. 59,432), Cook co., NE Ill., an industrial suburb adjacent to Chicago; inc. 1888. Its varied products include communications, computer, and electrical equipme...

bilingualism

(Encyclopedia)bilingualism, ability to use two languages. Fluency in a second language requires skills in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing, although in practice some of those skills are often...

Jephthah

(Encyclopedia)Jephthah jĕfˈthə [key], in the Book of Judges, a Hebrew raider, son of Gilead and a judge of Israel. He vowed if victorious over the Ammonites to sacrifice the first of his household to meet him on...

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...

Jahve

(Encyclopedia)Jahve, Jahveh, or Jahweh yäˈvā, –wā [key], modern reconstructions of the ancient Hebrew name of God (Yahweh), which is traditionally not pronounced. ...

Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, 1571–1631, English antiquarian. The Cottonian collection of books, manuscripts, coins, and antiquities became a part of the British Museum when it was founded in 1753. Cott...

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...