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AMATUNI – Members of one of the most powerful of the old Armenian clans, whose habitation was along the slopes of Mount Ararat. Their villages and castles—of which ruins are still visible—faced Mount Ararat across the plain. They...
AMAZIAH – Biblical Data: 1. Priest at Beth-el in the reign of Jeroboam II. When the prophet Amos came to Beth-el, and there prophesied the death of Jeroboam and the captivity of Israel, Amaziah tried to expel him from the kingdom of...
AMAZIAH, KING OF JUDAH – Biblical Data: Son of Joash and father of Azariah (II Kings, xv. 1); came to the throne about 795 B.C. As soon as his kingdom was established he slew the murderers of his father (II Kings, xiv. 5), but contrary to custom...
AMBER – The Hebrew word Ḧashmal, rendered "amber" by the A. V., occurs only in Ezekiel (three times). Its meaning has puzzled commentators from Talmudic times to the present day. Ḥag. 13b gives the meaning as if it were a composite...
AMBERG – A town in the district of the Upper Palatinate and Regensburg (Ratisbon), Bavaria; inhabited by Jews from the thirteenth century. In 1298 the town authorities ordered that the rights of the Jews be respected; but in the same...
AMBRON, AMBRAN – An Italian family, prominent since 1492, at which period they emigrated from Spain ("Rev. Ét. Juives," ix. 70, 74). Of this family the following are known to have lived in Rome: Shem-Ṭob (1539); Zerahiah (1536); Judah ben...
AMBRON, SHABBETHAI – A philosophical writer; lived in Rome in the first half of the eighteenth century. His life-work was a book on the universe, with the somewhat ambitious title "Pancosmosophia." It was first mentioned in the Venice "Giornale de'...
AMBROSE – The Callinicum Riot. Church father and author; born about 340 at Treves; died 397 in Milan. This audacious prelate—who as bishop of Milan dared to say of his emperor, "The Emperor is in the Church, but not over the Church"—is...
AMBROSIUS, MOSES – One of the earliest Jewish settlers in New York, then called New Amsterdam. He was one of a party of twenty-three Jews who arrived in the New Netherlands in Sept., 1654, apparently having left Bahia, Brazil, upon its reconquest...
AMBROSOLI – An ecclesiastic dignitary of Rome, the events of whose life touched the history of the Jews of that city in 1848. He distinguished himself through his eloquent sermons on tolerance toward the Jews, and preached in Santa Maria di...
AMELANDER (AMLANDER), MENAHEM MANN BEN SOLOMON HA-LEVI – A Dutch writer of the eighteenth century. He must have died before 1767, since in the edition of the Pentateuch published in that year many of his annotations are quoted with the addition to his name of the Hebrew letters ("of...
AMEMAR – A compound word, of which the first element is the prenomen, the second a title often found among the Jewish sages in Babylonia, and meaning "master" (compare the dictionary 'Aruk under the word "Abaye"). There are two...
AMEMAR B. MAR YANUḲA (YANḲA) – A Babylonian teacher of the fifth and sixth amoraic generations, who, together with the exilarch (Resh Galuta) Huna Mar II. and Mesharsheya b. Pakod, first suffered martyrdom in the cause of Judaism on Babylonian soil—victims of...
AMEN – A word used at the conclusion of a prayer, or in other connections, to express affirmation, approval, or desire. It is derived from the Old Testament Hebrew, and is perhaps the most widely known word in human speech; being...
AMERICA – The name "America" is used in this article in its broadest signification, as applied to the entire western world; that is, North and South America and all the adjacent islands.The discovery of America by Columbus, and the...
AMERICA, THE DISCOVERY OF – A Jew Invents the Sea-Quadrant. Among the various discoveries of the fifteenth century, none is more intimately connected with the Jews and their history than the discovery of the New World. Indirectly and directly, the Jews...
AMERICA, JUDAISM IN – Judaism in America—by its logical and historical development of Judaism in its most recent sphere of activity—promises to react upon and in certain directions modify all existing phases of the faith. It varies essentially from...
AMERICAN HEBREW, THE – Origin and Management. A weekly journal, the first number of which was published in New York city, Nov. 21, 1879. It was founded chiefly through the efforts of F. de Sola Mendes, who, together with Philip Cowen, the publisher of...
AMERICAN ISRAELITE, THE – A weekly journal established in Cincinnati, O., in July, 1854, by Isaac Mayer Wise under the title of "The Israelite." It had two objects: (1) to propagate the principles of Reform Judaism; and (2) to keep the Israelites that...
AMERICAN JEWESS, THE – A monthly (afterward quarterly) magazine printed in Chicago and New York. There were nine volumes, the first appearing in April, 1895, the last in March, 1899. The object of the magazine was to offer to the American Jewess a...
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY – A society organized at New York city, June 7, 1892, at a meeting convened by Cyrus Adler, of Washington, D. C. About forty persons were in attendance; Oscar S. Straus was chosen president, and Cyrus Adler secretary.The objects...
AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY – A society formed for the dissemination of Jewish literature, and the first of its kind in the United States; founded at Philadelphia in 1845 by Isaac Leeser. The same year an auxiliary society was established at Richmond, Va....
AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY – An association founded in 1873 by a number of New York Jews: Leopold Bamberger, Benjamin I. Hart, Myer Stern, Edward Morrison, Arnold Tanzer, and Louis Lewengood, with William B. Hackenberg of Philadelphia and Simon Wolf of...
AMERICAN, SADIE – Corresponding secretary of the Council of Jewish Women; born at Chicago, March 3, 1862.Miss American has been connected with many philanthropic movements both in the general as well as in the Jewish community. She has been a...
AMETHYST – A variety of quartz of a clear purple or bluish violet color, much used as a precious stone. It is generally accepted that the Amethyst held the ninth place and was in the third row among the precious gems on the breast-plate of...

AMATUNI – Members of one of the most powerful of the old Armenian clans, whose habitation was along the slopes of Mount Ararat. Their villages and castles—of which ruins are still visible—faced Mount Ararat across the plain. They...

AMAZIAH – Biblical Data: 1. Priest at Beth-el in the reign of Jeroboam II. When the prophet Amos came to Beth-el, and there prophesied the death of Jeroboam and the captivity of Israel, Amaziah tried to expel him from the kingdom of...

AMAZIAH, KING OF JUDAH – Biblical Data: Son of Joash and father of Azariah (II Kings, xv. 1); came to the throne about 795 B.C. As soon as his kingdom was established he slew the murderers of his father (II Kings, xiv. 5), but contrary to custom...

AMBER – The Hebrew word Ḧashmal, rendered "amber" by the A. V., occurs only in Ezekiel (three times). Its meaning has puzzled commentators from Talmudic times to the present day. Ḥag. 13b gives the meaning as if it were a composite...

AMBERG – A town in the district of the Upper Palatinate and Regensburg (Ratisbon), Bavaria; inhabited by Jews from the thirteenth century. In 1298 the town authorities ordered that the rights of the Jews be respected; but in the same...

AMBRON, AMBRAN – An Italian family, prominent since 1492, at which period they emigrated from Spain ("Rev. Ét. Juives," ix. 70, 74). Of this family the following are known to have lived in Rome: Shem-Ṭob (1539); Zerahiah (1536); Judah ben...

AMBRON, SHABBETHAI – A philosophical writer; lived in Rome in the first half of the eighteenth century. His life-work was a book on the universe, with the somewhat ambitious title "Pancosmosophia." It was first mentioned in the Venice "Giornale de'...

AMBROSE – The Callinicum Riot. Church father and author; born about 340 at Treves; died 397 in Milan. This audacious prelate—who as bishop of Milan dared to say of his emperor, "The Emperor is in the Church, but not over the Church"—is...

AMBROSIUS, MOSES – One of the earliest Jewish settlers in New York, then called New Amsterdam. He was one of a party of twenty-three Jews who arrived in the New Netherlands in Sept., 1654, apparently having left Bahia, Brazil, upon its reconquest...

AMBROSOLI – An ecclesiastic dignitary of Rome, the events of whose life touched the history of the Jews of that city in 1848. He distinguished himself through his eloquent sermons on tolerance toward the Jews, and preached in Santa Maria di...

AMELANDER (AMLANDER), MENAHEM MANN BEN SOLOMON HA-LEVI – A Dutch writer of the eighteenth century. He must have died before 1767, since in the edition of the Pentateuch published in that year many of his annotations are quoted with the addition to his name of the Hebrew letters ("of...

AMEMAR – A compound word, of which the first element is the prenomen, the second a title often found among the Jewish sages in Babylonia, and meaning "master" (compare the dictionary 'Aruk under the word "Abaye"). There are two...

AMEMAR B. MAR YANUḲA (YANḲA) – A Babylonian teacher of the fifth and sixth amoraic generations, who, together with the exilarch (Resh Galuta) Huna Mar II. and Mesharsheya b. Pakod, first suffered martyrdom in the cause of Judaism on Babylonian soil—victims of...

AMEN – A word used at the conclusion of a prayer, or in other connections, to express affirmation, approval, or desire. It is derived from the Old Testament Hebrew, and is perhaps the most widely known word in human speech; being...

AMERICA – The name "America" is used in this article in its broadest signification, as applied to the entire western world; that is, North and South America and all the adjacent islands.The discovery of America by Columbus, and the...

AMERICA, THE DISCOVERY OF – A Jew Invents the Sea-Quadrant. Among the various discoveries of the fifteenth century, none is more intimately connected with the Jews and their history than the discovery of the New World. Indirectly and directly, the Jews...

AMERICA, JUDAISM IN – Judaism in America—by its logical and historical development of Judaism in its most recent sphere of activity—promises to react upon and in certain directions modify all existing phases of the faith. It varies essentially from...

AMERICAN HEBREW, THE – Origin and Management. A weekly journal, the first number of which was published in New York city, Nov. 21, 1879. It was founded chiefly through the efforts of F. de Sola Mendes, who, together with Philip Cowen, the publisher of...

AMERICAN ISRAELITE, THE – A weekly journal established in Cincinnati, O., in July, 1854, by Isaac Mayer Wise under the title of "The Israelite." It had two objects: (1) to propagate the principles of Reform Judaism; and (2) to keep the Israelites that...

AMERICAN JEWESS, THE – A monthly (afterward quarterly) magazine printed in Chicago and New York. There were nine volumes, the first appearing in April, 1895, the last in March, 1899. The object of the magazine was to offer to the American Jewess a...

AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY – A society organized at New York city, June 7, 1892, at a meeting convened by Cyrus Adler, of Washington, D. C. About forty persons were in attendance; Oscar S. Straus was chosen president, and Cyrus Adler secretary.The objects...

AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY – A society formed for the dissemination of Jewish literature, and the first of its kind in the United States; founded at Philadelphia in 1845 by Isaac Leeser. The same year an auxiliary society was established at Richmond, Va....

AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY – An association founded in 1873 by a number of New York Jews: Leopold Bamberger, Benjamin I. Hart, Myer Stern, Edward Morrison, Arnold Tanzer, and Louis Lewengood, with William B. Hackenberg of Philadelphia and Simon Wolf of...

AMERICAN, SADIE – Corresponding secretary of the Council of Jewish Women; born at Chicago, March 3, 1862.Miss American has been connected with many philanthropic movements both in the general as well as in the Jewish community. She has been a...

AMETHYST – A variety of quartz of a clear purple or bluish violet color, much used as a precious stone. It is generally accepted that the Amethyst held the ninth place and was in the third row among the precious gems on the breast-plate of...