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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir mâr [key], c.1089–1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, p...

Gersonides

(Encyclopedia)Gersonides lēˈvī bĕn gûrˈshən [key], 1288–1344, Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, called also Ralbag, from the initials of his Hebrew name, b. Languedoc. He wrote scientific ...

Jude, epistle of the New Testament

(Encyclopedia)Jude, epistle of the New Testament, the next to last book of the Bible. The Jude who wrote it has been identified since ancient times with St. Jude the apostle, but most modern scholars deny the ident...

Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich

(Encyclopedia)Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich ləzärˈ mōĭsyāˈyəvich kəgənōˈvich [key], 1893–1991, Soviet Communist leader. A Jewish shoemaker and labor organizer, he joined the Communist party in 1911. A...