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Kertész, Imre

(Encyclopedia)Kertész, Imre kĕrtĕshˈ [key], 1929–2016, Hungarian novelist, b. Budapest. Of Jewish descent, as a teenager Kertész spent two years in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, experien...

Casaubon, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Casaubon, Isaac flōräNsˈ ātyĕnˈ mārēkˈ [key], 1599–1671, who also was a classical scholar. See study by A. Grafton and J. Weinberg (2011). ...

Ruisdael, Jacob van

(Encyclopedia)Ruisdael or Ruysdael, Jacob van both: yäˈkōp vän roisˈdäl [key], c.1628–1682, Dutch painter and etcher, the most celebrated of the Dutch landscape painters. He studied with his father Isack an...

Wolf, Markus Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Wolf, Markus Johannes vôlf [key], 1923–2006, East German spymaster. A legendary cold-war espionage chief, he was called “the man without a face” because until 1978 there was no known photograp...

Qumran

(Encyclopedia)Qumran ko͞omränˈ [key], ancient village on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is famous for its caves, in some of which the Dead Sea Scrolls were...

Schnitzler, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Schnitzler, Arthur ärˈto͝or shnĭtsˈlər [key], 1862–1931, Austrian dramatist and novelist. The son of a prominent Jewish Viennese physician, he studied and practiced medicine until he attracted...

Schulz, Bruno

(Encyclopedia)Schulz, Bruno, 1892–1942, Polish short-story writer and artist. Unrecognized until after World War II, Schulz is now considered the finest modern Polish-language prose stylist and a significant visu...

Rothschild, Nathan Meyer

(Encyclopedia)Rothschild, Nathan Meyer, 1777–1836, British banker, b. Frankfurt, Germany; of the famous Rothschild family. He went to England in 1797, was naturalized in 1804, and opened a business house in Londo...

Sanders, Bernie

(Encyclopedia)Sanders, Bernie (Bernard Sanders), 1941–, American politician, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. The son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, he spent a year at Brooklyn...

Gnosticism

(Encyclopedia)Gnosticism nŏsˈtĭsĭzəm [key], dualistic religious and philosophical movement of the late Hellenistic and early Christian eras. The term designates a wide assortment of sects, numerous by the 2d c...