Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Agnon, S. Y.

(Encyclopedia)Agnon, S. Y. (Shmuel Yosef Agnon) shmo͞oˈĕl yōˈsəf ägnōnˈ; yōˈzəf [key], 1888–1970, Israeli writer, b. Buczacz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Buchach, Ukraine), as Samuel Josef Czaczkes....

Schindler, Oskar

(Encyclopedia)Schindler, Oskar, 1908–74, German industrialist who saved more than a thousand Jews during the Holocaust. A Catholic and a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) party, Schindler relocated (1939) t...

Philo

(Encyclopedia)Philo jo͞odēˈəs [key] [Lat.,=Philo the Jew], c.20 b.c.–c.a.d. 50, Alexandrian Jewish philosopher. His writings have had an enormous influence on both Jewish and Christian thought, and particular...

Goldschmidt, Meïr Aaron

(Encyclopedia)Goldschmidt, Meïr Aaron mīˈər äˈrôn gôlˈshmĭt [key], 1819–97, Danish novelist, dramatist, and journalist. In his critical weekly Corsaren, he first spared, then ridiculed Kierkegaard. Gold...

New Year's Day

(Encyclopedia)New Year's Day, among ancient peoples the first day of the year frequently corresponded to the vernal or autumnal equinox, or to the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated amo...

Sokolow, Nahum

(Encyclopedia)Sokolow, Nahum nāˈəm sōˈkəlō [key], 1859–1936, Jewish writer and Zionist leader, b. Poland. He served (1906–9) as general secretary of the Zionist Organization, editing its various publicat...

Rothenstein, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Rothenstein, Sir William rōˈthənstīn [key], 1872–1945, English painter and writer. He was well known for his portraits of famous people and for his pictures of Jewish subjects, including Jews Mo...

cantor

(Encyclopedia)cantor [Lat.,=singer], a singer or chanter, especially one who performs the solo chants of a church service. The office of cantor, at first an honorary one, originated in the Jewish synagogues, in whi...

Ramla

(Encyclopedia)Ramla or Ramleh both: rämˈlĕ [key] [Arab.,=sand], town (1994 pop. 57,300), central Israel, in a farming area. Ramla may be the biblical Ramathaim-zophim, but more probably it was founded (c.716) by...

Arendt, Hannah

(Encyclopedia)Arendt, Hannah hänˈä ärˈənt [key], 1906–75, German-American political theorist, b. Hanover, Germany, B.A. Königsberg, 1924, Ph.D. Heidelberg, 1928. In 1925 she met Martin Heidegger, who great...