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AUGSBURG – Capital of the districts of Swabia and Neuburg, Bavaria. According to tradition, it is one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. The first documentary mention of the city is in 1259; but individual Jews of Augsburg are...
AUGURY – Originally, prophesying by the flight of birds; but later the term was applied to all forms of foretelling (augur = avi-gur, οἰωνὸς, οἰωνισταί, etc.).Augury was first systematized by the Chaldeans. The Greeks were addicted to...
AUGUSTA – The capital of Richmond county, Georgia, received its first Jewish settlers about 1825, when a Mr. Florence arrived with his wife. About a year later, Isaac and Jacob Moise and Isaac Hendricks and his wife came there from...
AUGUSTI, FRIEDRICH ALBRECHT – German author; born at Frankfort-on-the-Oder in 1691; died at Eschberge May 13, 1782. He received the usual Jewish education of that time. According to a biography, printed anonymously during his lifetime and probably inspired...
AUGUSTINE – His Complex Character. The greatest and most important of the Latin church fathers; born Nov. 13, 354, at Tagaste, a town of Numidia; died at Hippo Aug. 28, 430. After a riotous youth as a heathen, he became first a devotee of...
AUGUSTINUS RICIUS – See Ricius.
AUGUSTOW – District town in the government of Suvalk, Russian Poland, on the River Netta and the Lake Biale. In 1887 the Jewish population was nearly 5,500—about half the total population.Bibliography: Entziklopedicheski Slovar, i., St....
AUGUSTUS – The first Roman emperor that bore the honorary title of "Augustus"; born Sept. 23, 63 B.C.; died at Nola, Campania, Aug. 19, 14 C.E. He was the son of Caius Octavius. In his attitude toward the Jews he continued the friendly...
AUGUSTUS II., THE STRONG – Assisted in Election by Jews. Elector of Saxony 1694-1733, and from 1697 king of Poland with the title Frederick Augustus I.; born at Dresden May 12, 1670; died at Warsaw Feb. 1, 1733. He confirmed the privileges of the Jews,...
AUGUSTUS III. – Elector of Saxony, and as such Frederick Augustus II., king of Poland; son of Augustus II., "the Strong"; born at Dresden Oct. 17, 1696; died there Oct. 5, 1763. Like his father, he was brought up in the Protestant religion, but...
AURANITIS – See Hauran.
AURUM CORONARIUM – A tax paid to the emperor by all the Roman provinces. Originally it was a voluntary contribution toward the golden crown to be offered to those to whom a "triumph" was given, and to the emperors (compare Cicero, "In Pisonem,"...
AUS OF ḲURAIẒA – A poet belonging to the Jewish tribe of Ḳuraiẓa in Medina. When this tribe was besieged by Mohammed, the wife of Aus saved her life by embracing Islam and summoned her husband to do likewise. He refused to follow her example,...
AUSPITZ, HEINRICH – Austrian dermatologist; born at Nikolsburg, Moravia, Sept. 2, 1835; died May 23, 1886, at Vienna, barely two years after succeeding Zeissl. Auspitz acquired his medical training at the University of Vienna, where he was a pupil...
AUSPITZ, JACOB – Geographical writer; lived at Budapest, Hungary, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He was the author of "Beër ha-Luḥot" (Explanation of the Tablets), consisting of five Biblical maps, copied from a Latin source,...
AUSPITZ, RUDOLF – Austrian member of parliament and leading manufacturer; born at Vienna July 7, 1837. He is a member of one of the oldest and most prominent Jewish families of Moravia, which settled in the city of Auspitz, whence it derived its...
AUSSEE – Town in Moravia, Austria. It had a Jewish community in the seventeenth century. In 1622 Emperor Ferdinand II. presented the town to Prince Karl of Lichtenstein, on condition that none but Catholics should be permitted to reside...
AUSTERLITZ – Jewish Community in Twelfth Century. Town in Moravia, Austria. Its Jewish congregation is one of the oldest in the province; according to some historians, dating from the beginning of the twelfth century. Records seem to point...
AUSTERLITZ – Name of a Jewish family. As is the case with all names derived from places, the surname "Austerlitz" does not necessarily signify that all the persons so named belong to one family. It denotes that an ancestor of the person came...
AUSTRALIA – The island-continent between the Indian and Pacific oceans. In more senses than one it has been a land of sunshine to the Jews. Nurtured and reared on British traditions, Australia has inherited the national characteristics of...
AUSTRIA – Empire in Europe now united with the kingdom of Hungary; its territorial extent has changed considerably during the past thousand years.From the Earliest Times to the Charter of Frederick II. (1238): Important Rabbis. The date...
AUTHENTICATION OF DOCUMENTS (Ḳiyyum, Asharta, Henpek) – Methods of Authentication. An official certificate of genuineness. This is either the result of actual litigation on the subject, in which case the decision of the court is the official authentication, or where the proper...
AUTHORITY, RABBINICAL – The power or right of deciding the Law, in dubious cases, or of interpreting, modifying, or amplifying, and occasionally of abrogating it, as vested in the Rabbis as its teachers and expounders.In Biblical times the Law was...
AUTO DA FÉ – Portuguese form of the Spanish "auto de fé" (in French, "acte de foi," from the Latin "actus fidei"), the solemn proclamation and subsequent execution of a judgment rendered by the Court of the Inquisition on "reos," or persons...
AUXERRE – Chief city of the department of Yonne, France. Since the eleventh century an important community of Jews existed here and was presided over by eminent rabbis. These rabbis, knownas "the sages of Auxerre," were in correspondence...

AUGSBURG – Capital of the districts of Swabia and Neuburg, Bavaria. According to tradition, it is one of the oldest Jewish communities in Germany. The first documentary mention of the city is in 1259; but individual Jews of Augsburg are...

AUGURY – Originally, prophesying by the flight of birds; but later the term was applied to all forms of foretelling (augur = avi-gur, οἰωνὸς, οἰωνισταί, etc.).Augury was first systematized by the Chaldeans. The Greeks were addicted to...

AUGUSTA – The capital of Richmond county, Georgia, received its first Jewish settlers about 1825, when a Mr. Florence arrived with his wife. About a year later, Isaac and Jacob Moise and Isaac Hendricks and his wife came there from...

AUGUSTI, FRIEDRICH ALBRECHT – German author; born at Frankfort-on-the-Oder in 1691; died at Eschberge May 13, 1782. He received the usual Jewish education of that time. According to a biography, printed anonymously during his lifetime and probably inspired...

AUGUSTINE – His Complex Character. The greatest and most important of the Latin church fathers; born Nov. 13, 354, at Tagaste, a town of Numidia; died at Hippo Aug. 28, 430. After a riotous youth as a heathen, he became first a devotee of...

AUGUSTINUS RICIUS – See Ricius.

AUGUSTOW – District town in the government of Suvalk, Russian Poland, on the River Netta and the Lake Biale. In 1887 the Jewish population was nearly 5,500—about half the total population.Bibliography: Entziklopedicheski Slovar, i., St....

AUGUSTUS – The first Roman emperor that bore the honorary title of "Augustus"; born Sept. 23, 63 B.C.; died at Nola, Campania, Aug. 19, 14 C.E. He was the son of Caius Octavius. In his attitude toward the Jews he continued the friendly...

AUGUSTUS II., THE STRONG – Assisted in Election by Jews. Elector of Saxony 1694-1733, and from 1697 king of Poland with the title Frederick Augustus I.; born at Dresden May 12, 1670; died at Warsaw Feb. 1, 1733. He confirmed the privileges of the Jews,...

AUGUSTUS III. – Elector of Saxony, and as such Frederick Augustus II., king of Poland; son of Augustus II., "the Strong"; born at Dresden Oct. 17, 1696; died there Oct. 5, 1763. Like his father, he was brought up in the Protestant religion, but...

AURANITIS – See Hauran.

AURUM CORONARIUM – A tax paid to the emperor by all the Roman provinces. Originally it was a voluntary contribution toward the golden crown to be offered to those to whom a "triumph" was given, and to the emperors (compare Cicero, "In Pisonem,"...

AUS OF ḲURAIẒA – A poet belonging to the Jewish tribe of Ḳuraiẓa in Medina. When this tribe was besieged by Mohammed, the wife of Aus saved her life by embracing Islam and summoned her husband to do likewise. He refused to follow her example,...

AUSPITZ, HEINRICH – Austrian dermatologist; born at Nikolsburg, Moravia, Sept. 2, 1835; died May 23, 1886, at Vienna, barely two years after succeeding Zeissl. Auspitz acquired his medical training at the University of Vienna, where he was a pupil...

AUSPITZ, JACOB – Geographical writer; lived at Budapest, Hungary, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He was the author of "Beër ha-Luḥot" (Explanation of the Tablets), consisting of five Biblical maps, copied from a Latin source,...

AUSPITZ, RUDOLF – Austrian member of parliament and leading manufacturer; born at Vienna July 7, 1837. He is a member of one of the oldest and most prominent Jewish families of Moravia, which settled in the city of Auspitz, whence it derived its...

AUSSEE – Town in Moravia, Austria. It had a Jewish community in the seventeenth century. In 1622 Emperor Ferdinand II. presented the town to Prince Karl of Lichtenstein, on condition that none but Catholics should be permitted to reside...

AUSTERLITZ – Jewish Community in Twelfth Century. Town in Moravia, Austria. Its Jewish congregation is one of the oldest in the province; according to some historians, dating from the beginning of the twelfth century. Records seem to point...

AUSTERLITZ – Name of a Jewish family. As is the case with all names derived from places, the surname "Austerlitz" does not necessarily signify that all the persons so named belong to one family. It denotes that an ancestor of the person came...

AUSTRALIA – The island-continent between the Indian and Pacific oceans. In more senses than one it has been a land of sunshine to the Jews. Nurtured and reared on British traditions, Australia has inherited the national characteristics of...

AUSTRIA – Empire in Europe now united with the kingdom of Hungary; its territorial extent has changed considerably during the past thousand years.From the Earliest Times to the Charter of Frederick II. (1238): Important Rabbis. The date...

AUTHENTICATION OF DOCUMENTS (Ḳiyyum, Asharta, Henpek) – Methods of Authentication. An official certificate of genuineness. This is either the result of actual litigation on the subject, in which case the decision of the court is the official authentication, or where the proper...

AUTHORITY, RABBINICAL – The power or right of deciding the Law, in dubious cases, or of interpreting, modifying, or amplifying, and occasionally of abrogating it, as vested in the Rabbis as its teachers and expounders.In Biblical times the Law was...

AUTO DA FÉ – Portuguese form of the Spanish "auto de fé" (in French, "acte de foi," from the Latin "actus fidei"), the solemn proclamation and subsequent execution of a judgment rendered by the Court of the Inquisition on "reos," or persons...

AUXERRE – Chief city of the department of Yonne, France. Since the eleventh century an important community of Jews existed here and was presided over by eminent rabbis. These rabbis, knownas "the sages of Auxerre," were in correspondence...