Documents for "Judaism: Biographies":

• Abarbanel, Isaac see Abravanel, Isaac.

• Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra see Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir.

• Abravanel, Isaac 1437-1508, Jewish theologian, biblical commentator, and financier, b. Lisbon. He served as treasurer to Alfonso V of Portugal but fled that country when he was implicated (1483) in a plot. He was...

• Abravanel, Judah c.1460-c.1523, Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet, son of Isaac Abravanel, b. Lisbon; he is also known as Leone Ebreo. He fled (1483) from Portugal to Spain with his father and, after the...

• Achai of Shabcha see Aha of Shabcha.

• Aha of Shabcha or Achai of Shabcha , c.680-c.762, Babylonian rabbi. He settled (c.752) in Palestine after being passed over for appointment as head of the rabbinic academy of Pumbedita for political reasons. His major work, Sheilthoth [questions], reflects both the Babylonian Talmud of his earlier years and the influence of the Palestinian Talmud, with which he became familiar at this later period. It is a collection of legal...

• Ahad Ha-am [Heb.,=One of the People], 1856-1927, Jewish thinker and Zionist leader, b. Ukraine. Originally named Asher Ginzberg, he adopted his pen name when he published his first and highly controversial...

• Akiba ben Joseph c.AD 50-c.AD 135, Jewish Palestinian religious leader, one of the founders of rabbinic Judaism. Although the facts of his life are obscured by legend, he is said to have been a poor and illiterate...

• Al-Fasi, Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen 1013-1103, prominent Jewish Talmudic scholar of the very late Gaonic period, b. near Fès, N Africa. He headed the rabbinical school at Fès until forced out at the age of 75 by political intrigues...

• Amram ben Scheschna or Amram Gaon , d. c.875, Hebrew scholar, head of the Jewish academy at Sura in Persia. He is chiefly known as the author of the Seder Rab Amram, a compilation of the order of prayers for the whole year and the liturgical laws governing the ceremonial observances of all the holidays. This book is the oldest surviving Jewish prayer book,...

• Anan ben David fl. 8th cent., Babylonian Jewish theologian, founder of the Ananites from whom the Karaites claim spiritual descent. He is said to have been a descendant of Bostanai ben Chaninai. Anan rejected the Talmudic tradition and in its place sought a return to Scripture as the sole source for God's Law. It is evident from those writings attributed to him that he made use of...

• Aquila Ponticus 2d cent., Jewish translator of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. The characteristic feature of Aquila's version was its extremely literal rendering of the Hebrew. No complete specimen...

• Aristobulus see Maccabees.

• Ashi, Rab c.352-c.424, Jewish scholar of Babylon. He was a judge, community administrator, and teacher of considerable influence both on contemporary Jewish society and on later scholars, who viewed him as...

• Asmoneans see Maccabees.

• Asser, Rab see Ashi, Rab.

• Baal-Shem-Tov c.1698-1760, Jewish founder of modern Hasidism , b. Ukraine. His life is the subject of many tales that circulated even before his death. Originally named Israel ben Eliezer, he is said to have been born of elderly, poor parents and to have been...

• Baeck, Leo 1873-1956, German rabbi and scholar. He studied at the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau and then at the liberal Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, also...

• Bar Cochba, Simon see Bar Kokba, Simon.

• Bar Kokba, Simon or Simon Bar Cochba [Heb.,=son of the star], d. AD 135, Hebrew hero and leader of a major revolt against Rome under Hadrian (132-135). He may have claimed to be a Messiah; the Talmud relates that Akiba ben Joseph...

• Ben Ezra see Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir.

• Berachya ben Natronai ha-Nakdan see Berekhiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan.

• Berekhiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan fl. 12th or 13th cent., French Jewish fabulist, biblical commentator, philosopher, grammarian, and translator. His first name also appears as Berachya. He is best known for his collection of...

• Berkovits, Eliezer 1908-92, rabbi, theologian, and educator, b. Romania. He served in the rabbinate in Berlin (1934-39), in Leeds, England (1940-46), in Sydney, Australia (1946-50), and in Boston (1950-58). In 1958...

• Bostanai ben Chaninai c.618-670, first Jewish exilarch (i.e., ruler of the Jewish exiles in Babylonia) under Arab rule. He is the subject of many legends. His name is also spelled Bustanai ben Haninai. Anan ben David is...

• Caro, Joseph ben Ephraim 1488-1575, eminent Jewish codifier of law, b. Toledo, Spain. He left Spain as a child when the Jews were expelled (1492) and finally settled in Safed, Palestine. His literary works rank among the...

• Delmedigo, Elijah ben Moses Abba c.1460-1497, Jewish philosopher and Talmudist, b. Crete, known also as Elijah Cretensis. He emigrated to Italy as a young man. He studied the Jewish, Islamic, Greek, and Latin classics, composing...

• Deutsch, Gotthard 1859-1921, Austrian Jewish scholar and historian. He studied at the rabbinical seminary at Breslau, Germany, and at the Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1881) after which he taught at Brünn in Moravia. In...

• Dubnow, Simon 1860-1941, Jewish historian and ideologist, b. Belorussia. Self-educated, he settled after extensive travels in St. Petersburg, where he taught Jewish history. He was one of the founders and...

• Duran   Durand , or Durante , Jewish family of scholars. Profiat Isaac ben Moshe ha-Levi Duran, 1350-1414, called Efodi, was born probably in Perpignan, France, but he moved to Catalonia. In 1391, when widespread massacres of Spanish Jews resulted in mass conversions, Duran was one of the...

• Durand family: see Duran.

• Durante family: see Duran.

• Ebreo, Leone see Abravanel, Judah.

• Einhorn, David 1809-79, Jewish theological writer and leader of the Reform movement in Judaism in the United States. Born in Bavaria, he studied philosophy at Munich and was influenced by the ideas of Friedrich...

• 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 that the creation...

• Fackenheim, Emil Ludwig 1916-2003, Canadian-Israeli rabbi and philosopher, b. Halle, Germany, grad. Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1939; Ph.D., Univ. of Toronto, 1945. Briefly interned at the...

• Frank, Jacob c.1726-1791, Polish Jewish sectarian and adventurer, b. Podolia as Jacob Ben Judah Leib. He founded the Frankists, a heretical Jewish sect that was an anti-Talmudic outgrowth of the mysticism of...

• Frankel, Zecharias 1801-75, Jewish theologian, b. Prague. Frankel believed that only through an appreciation of the historical development of the Jewish tradition could reforms be made to meet contemporary needs...

• Friedmann, Meir 1831-1908, Hungarian Jewish scholar. He made important contributions in the field of scientific criticism of rabbinical texts. Friedmann's editions of the Midrash are standard.

• Gamaliel of Jabneh fl. AD 100, Jewish scholar; grandson of the Gamaliel who, according to tradition, taught St. Paul the law. A Palestinian Tanna, he succeeded Johanan ben Zakkai as head of the academy at Jamnia. He centralized rabbinic authority and was recognized by the Romans as a leader of his people. He played a significant role in the formulation of two important innovations in Jewish ritual: the...

• Gaon of Vilna see Elijah ben Solomon.

• Gaster, Moses 1856-1939, Romanian Jewish scholar and writer, b. Bucharest. Expelled (1885) from Romania for championing the Jewish cause, he went to England and was lecturer at Oxford (1886-91), principal of...

• Geiger, Abraham 1810-74, German rabbi, Semitic scholar and Orientalist, theologian, and foremost exponent of the Reform movement in Judaism. When he received his doctorate (1833) from the Univ. of Bonn, he was...

• Gersonides or Levi ben Gershon , 1288-1344, Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, called also Ralbag, from the initials of his Hebrew name, b. Languedoc. He wrote scientific works and commentaries on Averroës and the...

• Ginsburg, Christian David 1831-1914, English Hebrew scholar, b. Warsaw. He was converted to Christianity in 1846 and settled in England. He translated (1857) the Song of Songs, with a critical commentary, but he is best...

• Gollancz, Sir Hermann 1852-1930, English rabbi and authority on Hebrew language and literature. He was professor of Hebrew (1902-24) at University College, London. In 1902 he edited an English version of the Bible for...

• Gottheil, Gustav 1827-1903, American Reform rabbi, b. Prussia. He served as assistant (1855-60) in the Berlin Reform Temple and as rabbi (1860-73) in Manchester, England. From 1873 until his retirement in 1899 he...

• Grätz, Heinrich 1817-91, German Jewish historian. He was the first modern historian to write, from a Jewish perspective, a comprehensive history of the Jewish people. His Geschichte der Juden (11 vol., 1853-75),...

• Graetz, Heinrich see Grätz, Heinrich.

• Hasmoneans see Maccabees.

• Herrera, Abraham Cohen de c.1570-1635, Jewish philosopher and kabbalist, also called Alonso Nunez de Herrera and Abraham Irira. Born possibly in Portugal of a Marrano family, his studies of Neoplatonism, as taught in the...

• Heschel, Abraham Joshua 1907-72, American Jewish philosopher and theologian, b. Warsaw, Poland. He succeeded Martin Buber as director of the Central Organization for Jewish Adult Education in Frankfurt and then taught in...

• Hillel fl. c.30 BC-AD 10, Jewish scholar, regarded as the forebear of the later patriarchs who led the Jews of Palestine until c.AD 400. The Jerusalem Talmud calls him the president of the Sanhedrin. He...

• Hirsch, Emil Gustav 1851-1923, American rabbi, b. Luxembourg. He was rabbi in Baltimore, Md., and Louisville, Ky., but is best known for his work as rabbi of the Sinai congregation of Chicago. In 1892 he became...

• Hirsch, Samson Raphael 1808-88, German rabbi and chief exponent of Neo-Orthodoxy. As rabbi in Frankfurt-am-Main, he advocated the organization of autonomous Orthodox congregations outside the state-recognized Jewish...

• Hyrcanus see Maccabees , Jewish family.

• Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir c.1089-1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, poems, and other works. Revered in...

• Isserles, Moses ben Israel 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 ben Ephraim Caro. Isserles became chief rabbi in Kraków, where he established a yeshiva. In 1553 he built the Remah Synagogue, which is still in use. Isserles was controversial, but wielded wide influence. He...

• Jastrow, Marcus 1829-1903, American rabbi and Talmudic scholar, b. Poland. He was a rabbi (1866-92) in Philadelphia, editor of the Talmud material of The Jewish Encyclopedia, and author of Dictionary of the Targumim,...

• Johanan ben Zakkai leader of the Pharisees of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, afterward founder of the Jewish academy at Jamnia. He emphasized the study of the Torah as the primary religious duty for which humankind was created. After AD 70 he taught that deeds of loving kindness might replace sacrifice in achieving...

• John Hyrcanus see Maccabees , Jewish family.

• Judah ha-Levi or Judah Halevy , c.1075-1141, Jewish rabbi, poet, and philosopher, b. Tudela, Spain. His poems—secular, religious, and nationalist—are filled with a serene and lofty spirit. In his great philosophic work Sefer ha-Kuzari he emphasized the superiority of religious truths, arrived at through intuition, over philosophical and speculative truths, arrived at through logic and reason. In this work he developed a...

• Judah ha-Nasi c.135-c.220, Palestinian Jewish communal leader ( tanna ). He occupied the office of patriarch ( nasi ) which was reestablished by the Romans after 135. Under his leadership, Palestinian Jewry rebuilt its economy, which had been devastated during the revolt against Rome (132-135). Tradition has...

• Judas of Galilee fl. AD 6, a leader of the Zealots, a radical revolutionary Jewish sect. He raised an insurrection against the taxation census of Cyrenius (AD 6) on the grounds that no one but God was Israel's...

• Kalisch, Isidor 1816-86, Jewish rabbi and author, b. Prussia. Forced to leave Germany because of his liberal political views, he emigrated to the United States in 1849 and served as rabbi in various American...

• Kaplan, Mordecai Menahem 1881-1983, American rabbi, educator, and philosopher, b. Lithuania, grad. College of the City of New York, 1900, M.A. Columbia Univ., 1902. He came to the United States when he was eight years...

• Karo, Joseph ben Ephraim see Caro, Joseph ben Ephraim.

• Kimhi or Kimchi , family of Jewish scholars and grammarians in Spain and France. Joseph ben Isaac Kimhi, c.1105-c.1170, besides writing a Bible commentary, making numerous translations, and writing poems of merit, introduced the long and short divisions of Hebrew vowels (increasing their number from 7...

• Kohler, Kaufmann 1843-1926, American rabbi, scholar, and leader in Reform Judaism, b. Bavaria. He emigrated to the United States in 1869 and served with congregations in Detroit and Chicago before becoming (1879)...

• Kook, Abraham Isaac 1864-1935, Jewish scholar and philosopher, b. Latvia. He settled (1904) in Palestine, where he became the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazi community in 1921. He attempted to show that Palestine and...

• Krauskopf, Joseph 1858-1923, American rabbi and humanitarian, b. Prussia. He went to the United States in 1872, enrolling (1875) in the first class of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, and receiving ordination...

• Krochmal, Nachman 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 Jewish scholarship. He applied his synthesis of...

• Loria, Isaac ben Solomon see Luria, Isaac ben Solomon.

• Luria, Isaac ben Solomon 1534-72, Jewish kabbalist, surnamed Ashkenazi, called Ari [lion] by his followers, b. Jerusalem. In his 20s he spent seven years in seclusion, intensely studying the kabbalah. He settled (c.1570) at Safed, Palestine, where he became the teacher and leader of a large circle of students who formed an important school of mysticism. Combining messianism with reinterpreted...

• Maccabees or Machabees , Jewish family of the 2d and 1st cent. BC that brought about a restoration of Jewish political and religious life. They are also called Hasmoneans or Asmoneans after their ancestor,...

• Machabees see Maccabees.

• Maimonides or Moses ben Maimon , 1135-1204, Jewish scholar, physician, and philosopher, the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, b. Córdoba, Spain, d. Cairo. He is sometimes called Rambam, from the initials of the...

• Manasseh ben Israel 1604-57, Jewish scholar and communal leader, b. Portugal. Early in his life he settled in Amsterdam, where he became a rabbi and started (1627) the first Hebrew press there. He is best known for...

• Moses Hebrew lawgiver, probably b. Egypt. The prototype of the prophets, he led his people in the 13th cent. BC out of bondage in Egypt to the edge of Canaan. The narrative in the Bible is the chief...

• Nahman of Bratslav 1772-1810, Jewish Hasidic leader, the great-grandson of the Baal-Shem-Tov. His messianic pretensions put him in conflict with other Hasidic (see Hasidism ) leaders. Nahman differed from other Hasidim by his consciousness of God's absence from the world, and his concern about sin. He told stories to convey the struggle against evil and for redemption...

• Nahmanides 1194-c.1270, Jewish scholar, exegete, and kabbalist, b. Spain. He wrote commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. A mystic, he rejected part of Maimonides' philosophy but recognized his...

• Onkelos 2d cent. AD, translator of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, his work later being given the title Targum Onkelos (see Targum ). A proselyte, he gained the respect of the leading Hebrew scholars of his...

• Rabbi Ben Ezra see Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir.

• Rambam see Maimonides.

• Rashi 1040-1105, Jewish exegete, grammarian, and legal authority, b. Troyes, France. The name he is known by is an acronym of Rabbi Solomon bar Isaac. He studied in Worms and Mainz, returning to Troyes...

• Remah see Isserles, Moses ben Israel.

• Roth, Cecil 1899-1970, Jewish historian and educator, b. London. He was educated at Oxford (Ph.D., 1924) and was reader in Jewish Studies there from 1939 to 1964. Thereafter he was visiting professor at...

• Saadia ben Joseph al-Fayumi 882-942, Jewish scholar, b. Egypt. He was known as Saadia Gaon. He was the head of the great Jewish Academy at Sura, Babylonia, which under his leadership became the highest seat of Jewish...

• Sabbatai Zevi 1626-76, Jewish mystic and pseudo-Messiah, founder of the Sabbatean sect, b. Smyrna. After a period of study of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solomon ), he became deeply influenced by its ideas of imminent national redemption. In 1648 he proclaimed himself the Messiah, named the year 1666 as the millennium, and gathered a host of followers. In...

• Salome Alexandra see Maccabees , Jewish family.

• Schechter, Solomon 1847-1915, Jewish scholar. Born in Romania, he was educated in Vienna and at the Univ. of Berlin. He went to England in 1882 and in 1890 he was made lecturer in Talmud at Cambridge; he became...

• Scholem, Gershom Gerhard 1897-1982, Jewish scholar, b. Berlin. He studied at the universities of Berlin, Jena, Berne, and Munich. Scholem received (1922) his doctorate for a dissertation on the earliest extant kabbalistic...

• Shabbatai Zvi see Sabbatai Zevi.

• Shammai c.50 BC-c.AD 30, Jewish sage known for his opposition to the liberal teachings of Hillel. He and his school interpreted the Law extremely rigorously, emphasizing deed rather than intent. The conflict between the schools of Shammai and Hillel continued long after their leaders' deaths,...

• Silver, Abba Hillel 1893-1963, American rabbi and Zionist leader, b. Lithuania. He was taken to the United States in 1902. Educated at the Univ. of Cincinnati (B.A., 1915) and Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, he...

• Silverman, Joseph 1860-1930, American rabbi, b. Cincinnati. He was a rabbi at Dallas, Tex. (1884-85), at Galveston (1885-88), and at the Temple Emanu-El, New York City (1888-1922). He was president (1900-1903) of...

• Sokolow, Nahum 1859-1936, Jewish writer and Zionist leader, b. Poland. He served (1906-9) as general secretary of the Zionist Organization, editing its various publications. With Chaim Weizmann he participated...

• Soloveitchik, Joseph 1903-93, Jewish Talmudist and philosopher. Born into a rabbinic family in Poland, he was educated according to his grandfather's analytical method of Talmud study and also earned a Ph.D. at the...

• Szold, Henrietta 1860-1945, American Zionist leader, editor, and translator, b. Baltimore. After graduating from high school in 1877 she taught (1878-92) in private schools, organizing some of the first night...

• Wiesel, Elie 1928-, American writer, writing in French, b. Sighet, Romania. At 16 he was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where his family perished. After the war, he studied at the Sorbonne. In the 1950s he was a correspondent for Israeli, American, and French newspapers. After living in...

• Wise, Isaac Mayer 1819-1900, American rabbi, founder of organized Reform Judaism in the United States, b. Bohemia, studied at the Univ. of Vienna. He settled in the United States in 1846. Wise was liberal in his...

• Wise, Stephen Samuel 1874-1949, American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader, b. Budapest, grad. College of the City of New York, 1891, Ph.D. Columbia, 1901. He served as a rabbi in New York City (1893-1900) and in...

• Zunz, Leopold 1794-1886, German Jewish scholar. His critical research on Judaism became one of the cornerstones of the "science of Judaism," the modern approach of studying Judaism and Jewry in the context of...