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ALCAN, MOŸSE – French publisher and litterateur born in 1817; died in Metz, May 14, 1869; father of the Parisian publisher Félix Alcan. He was a member of the Jewish consistory of Metz and one of the judges of the Tribunal of Commerce. Alcan...
ALCAÑIZ – A town in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain; situated sixty-three miles southeast of Saragossa. As early as the thirteenth century Jews were resident there. The grand master of the Order of Calatrava, to whom, in 1306, the...
ALCHEMY – The undeveloped chemistry of the Middle Ages, characterized by belief in the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of a panacea, etc. Traces of the connection of Jews with the science of Alchemy are very scanty...
ALCIMUS – Alcimus and the Maccabees. Leader of the antinational Hellenists in Jerusalem, under Demetrius I. Soter of Syria (Josephus, "Ant." xi. 9, § 7); born about 200 B.C.; died at Jerusalem 160. He was of priestly family (I Macc. vii....
ALCOHOLISM – The morbid condition resulting from the excessive or prolonged use of alcoholic beverages.Alcoholism and Nervous Disease. In chronic Alcoholism, or dipsomania, alcoholic liquors have been taken in excessive quantities for long...
ALCOLEA – City in the province of Jaen, Andalusia, the Jewish congregation of which, like many others of the country, enjoyed special privileges. According to the records of the congregation, a standing committee composed of twelve...
ALCONSTANTINI, ḤANOK BEN BAḤYA – See Enoch (Ḥanok) ben Baḥya, Alconstantini.
ALCONSTANTINI, ḤANOK BEN SOLOMON – See Enoch (Ḥanok) ben Solomon, Al-constantini.
ALCONSTANTINI, ISAAC BEN ABRAM ANCONA – See Isaac ben Abraham Ancona, Alconstantini.
AL-CORSONO, JACOB BEN ISAAC – See Corsono, Al-, Jacob ben Isaac.
ALDABI, MEIR IBN – Writer of the fourteenth century; son of Isaac Aldabi, "He-Ḥasid" (The Pious); grandson of Asher ben Jehiel, and a descendant of the exiles from Jerusalem. His name (erroneously spelled Albadi, Albalidi, Alrabi, and Altabi) is...
ALDEAS DE LOS JUDΊOS – The name given to the villages Aznalfarache, Aznalcazar, and especially Paterna, situated in the neighborhood of Seville, presented by Alfonso X. (The Wise) of Castile, while still infante after the conquest of Seville (1248),...
ALDROPHE, ALFRED-PHILIBERT – A French architect; born in Paris, February 7, 1834. He attended the National School of Design and was a favorite pupil of Bellangé. His first position was in the employ of the Eastern Railroad of France, but he also took an...
ALDUBI, ABRAHAM BEN ISMAIL – Talmudic scholar and author, who flourished in Spain in the first half of the fourteenth century. He was a pupil of Solomon ben Adret and the teacher of Jeroham ben Meshullam. He wrote many novellæ and responsa, which, however,...
ALDUS MANUTIUS – Italian publisher; born at Bassiano in 1449 or 1450; died at Venice, Feb. 6, 1515. Aldus studied the Latin classics at Rome under the direction of Caspar of Verona and Domizio Galderino, and afterward attended the lectures on...
ALEKSANDRIA – District, town, and village in the government of Kherson, Russia, on the Inguletz river. In 1897 the Jewish population was: district, 3,857; town, 4,794; village, 1,916. The town has two synagogues and two schools. H. R....
ALEKSANDROVSK – District and town in the government of Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on the left bank of the Dnieper, below the rapids. In 1897 the Jewish population of the town was 884, and of the district 5,316. The Jewish community has two...
ALEKSEI – Russian archpriest; convert to Judaism; born probably in Novgorod, 1425; died in Moscow, 1488. In the last quarter of the fifteenth century, when a schism arose in the Russian Orthodox Church and many new sects sprang up,...
ALEKSYEYEV, ALEKSANDER – Author and convert to the Greek Catholic Church; born in 1820, at Nazarinetz, government of Podolsk, Russia, of poor Jewish parents. At the age of ten he was impressed into military service by the press-gang (poimshchiki) of...
ALEMETH – 1. Son of Jehoadah, in the genealogy of Benjamin (I Chron. viii. 36). In I Chron. ix. 42 he is called the son of Jarah. 2. For Alemeth in I Chron. vi. 45 [A. V. 60] see Almon. G. B. L.
'ALENU – Original Form of the Prayer. The last prayer of the daily liturgy in most congregations, so called from its initial word, "'Alenu," which means "It is incumbent upon us,"or "It is our duty." It is one of the most sublime prayers...
'ALENU (V01p338001.jpg), MUSIC OF – The traditional melody to which the 'Alenu prayer is chanted, while of comparatively late origin, is of suitable breadth and dignity. It consists essentially of the opening phrase, several times repeated, with the addition of a...
ALEPH – The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. For its symbolic meaning, see Mishnah Shabbat, i. It was employed as a numeral to mark No. 1 of the shekel-boxes in the Temple (SheḲ. iii. 2). Aleph and Tav being the first and the last...
ALEPPO – Town of ancient and of modern Syria, and capital of a Turkish vilayet of the same name, between the Orontes and Euphrates rivers; situated on the banks of a little desert stream, Nahr-el-Haleb, seventy miles east of...
ALESSANDRIA – Early History. Fortified town, situated in a province of the same name, in northern Italy, and founded, in 1168, by citizens from Cremona, Milan, and Piacenza. The earliest mention of a Hebrew community in Alessandria occurs in...

ALCAN, MOŸSE – French publisher and litterateur born in 1817; died in Metz, May 14, 1869; father of the Parisian publisher Félix Alcan. He was a member of the Jewish consistory of Metz and one of the judges of the Tribunal of Commerce. Alcan...

ALCAÑIZ – A town in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain; situated sixty-three miles southeast of Saragossa. As early as the thirteenth century Jews were resident there. The grand master of the Order of Calatrava, to whom, in 1306, the...

ALCHEMY – The undeveloped chemistry of the Middle Ages, characterized by belief in the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of a panacea, etc. Traces of the connection of Jews with the science of Alchemy are very scanty...

ALCIMUS – Alcimus and the Maccabees. Leader of the antinational Hellenists in Jerusalem, under Demetrius I. Soter of Syria (Josephus, "Ant." xi. 9, § 7); born about 200 B.C.; died at Jerusalem 160. He was of priestly family (I Macc. vii....

ALCOHOLISM – The morbid condition resulting from the excessive or prolonged use of alcoholic beverages.Alcoholism and Nervous Disease. In chronic Alcoholism, or dipsomania, alcoholic liquors have been taken in excessive quantities for long...

ALCOLEA – City in the province of Jaen, Andalusia, the Jewish congregation of which, like many others of the country, enjoyed special privileges. According to the records of the congregation, a standing committee composed of twelve...

ALCONSTANTINI, ḤANOK BEN BAḤYA – See Enoch (Ḥanok) ben Baḥya, Alconstantini.

ALCONSTANTINI, ḤANOK BEN SOLOMON – See Enoch (Ḥanok) ben Solomon, Al-constantini.

ALCONSTANTINI, ISAAC BEN ABRAM ANCONA – See Isaac ben Abraham Ancona, Alconstantini.

AL-CORSONO, JACOB BEN ISAAC – See Corsono, Al-, Jacob ben Isaac.

ALDABI, MEIR IBN – Writer of the fourteenth century; son of Isaac Aldabi, "He-Ḥasid" (The Pious); grandson of Asher ben Jehiel, and a descendant of the exiles from Jerusalem. His name (erroneously spelled Albadi, Albalidi, Alrabi, and Altabi) is...

ALDEAS DE LOS JUDΊOS – The name given to the villages Aznalfarache, Aznalcazar, and especially Paterna, situated in the neighborhood of Seville, presented by Alfonso X. (The Wise) of Castile, while still infante after the conquest of Seville (1248),...

ALDROPHE, ALFRED-PHILIBERT – A French architect; born in Paris, February 7, 1834. He attended the National School of Design and was a favorite pupil of Bellangé. His first position was in the employ of the Eastern Railroad of France, but he also took an...

ALDUBI, ABRAHAM BEN ISMAIL – Talmudic scholar and author, who flourished in Spain in the first half of the fourteenth century. He was a pupil of Solomon ben Adret and the teacher of Jeroham ben Meshullam. He wrote many novellæ and responsa, which, however,...

ALDUS MANUTIUS – Italian publisher; born at Bassiano in 1449 or 1450; died at Venice, Feb. 6, 1515. Aldus studied the Latin classics at Rome under the direction of Caspar of Verona and Domizio Galderino, and afterward attended the lectures on...

ALEKSANDRIA – District, town, and village in the government of Kherson, Russia, on the Inguletz river. In 1897 the Jewish population was: district, 3,857; town, 4,794; village, 1,916. The town has two synagogues and two schools. H. R....

ALEKSANDROVSK – District and town in the government of Ekaterinoslav, Russia, on the left bank of the Dnieper, below the rapids. In 1897 the Jewish population of the town was 884, and of the district 5,316. The Jewish community has two...

ALEKSEI – Russian archpriest; convert to Judaism; born probably in Novgorod, 1425; died in Moscow, 1488. In the last quarter of the fifteenth century, when a schism arose in the Russian Orthodox Church and many new sects sprang up,...

ALEKSYEYEV, ALEKSANDER – Author and convert to the Greek Catholic Church; born in 1820, at Nazarinetz, government of Podolsk, Russia, of poor Jewish parents. At the age of ten he was impressed into military service by the press-gang (poimshchiki) of...

ALEMETH – 1. Son of Jehoadah, in the genealogy of Benjamin (I Chron. viii. 36). In I Chron. ix. 42 he is called the son of Jarah. 2. For Alemeth in I Chron. vi. 45 [A. V. 60] see Almon. G. B. L.

'ALENU – Original Form of the Prayer. The last prayer of the daily liturgy in most congregations, so called from its initial word, "'Alenu," which means "It is incumbent upon us,"or "It is our duty." It is one of the most sublime prayers...

'ALENU (V01p338001.jpg), MUSIC OF – The traditional melody to which the 'Alenu prayer is chanted, while of comparatively late origin, is of suitable breadth and dignity. It consists essentially of the opening phrase, several times repeated, with the addition of a...

ALEPH – The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. For its symbolic meaning, see Mishnah Shabbat, i. It was employed as a numeral to mark No. 1 of the shekel-boxes in the Temple (SheḲ. iii. 2). Aleph and Tav being the first and the last...

ALEPPO – Town of ancient and of modern Syria, and capital of a Turkish vilayet of the same name, between the Orontes and Euphrates rivers; situated on the banks of a little desert stream, Nahr-el-Haleb, seventy miles east of...

ALESSANDRIA – Early History. Fortified town, situated in a province of the same name, in northern Italy, and founded, in 1168, by citizens from Cremona, Milan, and Piacenza. The earliest mention of a Hebrew community in Alessandria occurs in...