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POLONNOYE – Town in the district of Novograd, Volhynia, Russia. It was a fortified place in the middle of the seventeenth century, when about 12,000 Jews found there a refuge from the neighboring towns at the time of the Cossacks'...
POLOTSK (POLOTZK) – District town in the government of Vitebsk, Russia. The first mention of its Jewish community occurs in 1551, when, at the Polish Diet held at Wilna, Polotsk is expressly named in a list of towns whose Jews were to be exempt...
POLOTSK, PHINEHAS B. JUDAH – Polish commentator on the Bible; lived at Polotsk, Poland, in the eighteenth century. He wrote commentaries on four books of the Old Testament, as follows: "Shebeṭ mi-Yehudah" (Wilna, 1803), on Proverbs; "Derek ha-Melek"...
POLTAVA – Government of Little Russia, which came under Russian domination in 1764, and whose present organization was established in 1802. It has a Jewish population of 111,417, the total population being 2,780,427 (census of 1897). See...
POLYGAMY – The fact or condition of having more than one wife or husband at a time; usually, the practise of having a plurality of wives. While there is no evidence of a polyandrous state in primitive Jewish society, polygamy seems to have...
POLYGLOT BIBLE – See Bible Editions.
POMEGRANATE – A tree of the myrtle family. The pomegranate was carried into Egypt in very early historic times (comp. Num. xx. 5), and was also cultivated in Palestine, Assyria, and most of the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The spies...
POMIS, DE – An old Italian Jewish family which claimed descent from King David. According to a legend, reproduced by De Pomis in the introduction to his lexicon "Ẓemaḥ Dawid," the Pomeria family was one of the four families brought from...
POMPEY THE GREAT – Roman general who subjected Judea to Rome. In the year 65 B.C., during his victorious campaign through Asia Minor, he sent to Syria his legate Scaurus, who was soon obliged to interfere in the quarrels of the two brothers...
PONIEWICZ (PONEVYEZH) – District city in the government of Kovno, Russia. In 1780 CountNikolai Tyszkiewicz by cutting down a forest that lay between New and Old Poniewicz: helped materially in enlarging the city to its present size and in founding the...
PONTE, LORENZO DA (JEREMIAH CONEGLIANO) – Italian-American man of letters, composer, and teacher; born at Ceneda, Italy, 1749; died 1837. He belonged to a well-known Jewish family, which had produced the distinguished Italian-Turkish diplomatist Dr. Israel Conegliano....
PONTOISE – French town; capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise. It contained a Jewish community as early as the eleventh century. In 1179 (according to some authorities, in 1166 or 1171) the Jews of Pontoise were...
PONTREMOLI, BENJAMIN – Turkish rabbinical writer; lived at Smyrna at the end of the eighteenth century. He was the author of a work entitled "Shebeṭ Binyamin" (Salonica, 1824), on drawing up commercial papers. He had two sons, Ḥayyim Isaiah and...
PONTREMOLI, ESDRA – Italian rabbi, poet, and educationist; born at Ivrea 1818; died in 1888; son of Eliseo Pontremoli, rabbi of Nizza, where a street was named after him. In 1844 Esdra Pontremoli became professor of Hebrew in the Collegio Foa at...
PONTREMOLI, ḤIYYA – Turkish rabbinical author; died at Smyrna in 1832; son of Benjamin Pontremoli. Ḥiyya Pontremoli wrote, among other works, the "Ẓappiḥit bi-Debash," a collection of responsa on Oraḥ Ḥayyim.Bibliography: Hazan, Ha-Ma'alot...
POOR, RELIEF OF – See Charity.
POOR LAWS – See Charity.
POPES, THE – General Principles. The Roman Church does not claim any jurisdiction over persons who have not been baptized; therefore the relations of the popes, as the heads of the Church, to the Jews have been limited to rules regarding the...
POPPÆA SABINA – Mistress and, after 62 C.E., second wife of the emperor Nero; died 65. She had a certain predilection for Judaism, and is characterized by Josephus ("Ant." xx. 8, § 11; "Vita," § 3) as θεοσεβής ("religious"). Some Jews, such as...
POPPER, DAVID – Austrian violoncellist; born at Prague June 18, 1845; a pupil of Goltermann at the Conservatorium in that city. At the age of eighteen he made a tour through Germany, and was at once acknowledged to be one of the leading...
POPPER, JOSEF – Austrian engineer and author; born Feb. 22, 1838, at Kolin, Bohemia. Besides essays on machinery published in the "Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften," and in several technical journals, he has...
POPPER, SIEGFRIED – Austrian naval constructor; born at Prague 1848. Educated at the polytechnic high schools of Prague and Carlsruhe, he worked for two years in machine-shops and then entered (1869) the Austrian navy as assistant constructor. In...
POPPER, WILLIAM – American Orientalist; born at St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 29, 1874; educated at the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., the College of the City of New York, Columbia College (A.B. 1896), and Columbia University (A.M. 1897; Ph.D. 1899)....
POPPER, WILMA – Hungarian authoress; born at Raab, Hungary, May 11, 1857; educated in her native town. She commenced to write at an early age. Besides contributing numerous essays to the German periodicals, she has published the following...
POPPERS, JACOB BEN BENJAMIN COHEN – German rabbi; born at Prague in the middle of the seventeenth century; died at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1740. His father, who was a distinguished Talmudist, instructed him in rabbinical literature, in which he acquired great...

POLONNOYE – Town in the district of Novograd, Volhynia, Russia. It was a fortified place in the middle of the seventeenth century, when about 12,000 Jews found there a refuge from the neighboring towns at the time of the Cossacks'...

POLOTSK (POLOTZK) – District town in the government of Vitebsk, Russia. The first mention of its Jewish community occurs in 1551, when, at the Polish Diet held at Wilna, Polotsk is expressly named in a list of towns whose Jews were to be exempt...

POLOTSK, PHINEHAS B. JUDAH – Polish commentator on the Bible; lived at Polotsk, Poland, in the eighteenth century. He wrote commentaries on four books of the Old Testament, as follows: "Shebeṭ mi-Yehudah" (Wilna, 1803), on Proverbs; "Derek ha-Melek"...

POLTAVA – Government of Little Russia, which came under Russian domination in 1764, and whose present organization was established in 1802. It has a Jewish population of 111,417, the total population being 2,780,427 (census of 1897). See...

POLYGAMY – The fact or condition of having more than one wife or husband at a time; usually, the practise of having a plurality of wives. While there is no evidence of a polyandrous state in primitive Jewish society, polygamy seems to have...

POLYGLOT BIBLE – See Bible Editions.

POMEGRANATE – A tree of the myrtle family. The pomegranate was carried into Egypt in very early historic times (comp. Num. xx. 5), and was also cultivated in Palestine, Assyria, and most of the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The spies...

POMIS, DE – An old Italian Jewish family which claimed descent from King David. According to a legend, reproduced by De Pomis in the introduction to his lexicon "Ẓemaḥ Dawid," the Pomeria family was one of the four families brought from...

POMPEY THE GREAT – Roman general who subjected Judea to Rome. In the year 65 B.C., during his victorious campaign through Asia Minor, he sent to Syria his legate Scaurus, who was soon obliged to interfere in the quarrels of the two brothers...

PONIEWICZ (PONEVYEZH) – District city in the government of Kovno, Russia. In 1780 CountNikolai Tyszkiewicz by cutting down a forest that lay between New and Old Poniewicz: helped materially in enlarging the city to its present size and in founding the...

PONTE, LORENZO DA (JEREMIAH CONEGLIANO) – Italian-American man of letters, composer, and teacher; born at Ceneda, Italy, 1749; died 1837. He belonged to a well-known Jewish family, which had produced the distinguished Italian-Turkish diplomatist Dr. Israel Conegliano....

PONTOISE – French town; capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Oise. It contained a Jewish community as early as the eleventh century. In 1179 (according to some authorities, in 1166 or 1171) the Jews of Pontoise were...

PONTREMOLI, BENJAMIN – Turkish rabbinical writer; lived at Smyrna at the end of the eighteenth century. He was the author of a work entitled "Shebeṭ Binyamin" (Salonica, 1824), on drawing up commercial papers. He had two sons, Ḥayyim Isaiah and...

PONTREMOLI, ESDRA – Italian rabbi, poet, and educationist; born at Ivrea 1818; died in 1888; son of Eliseo Pontremoli, rabbi of Nizza, where a street was named after him. In 1844 Esdra Pontremoli became professor of Hebrew in the Collegio Foa at...

PONTREMOLI, ḤIYYA – Turkish rabbinical author; died at Smyrna in 1832; son of Benjamin Pontremoli. Ḥiyya Pontremoli wrote, among other works, the "Ẓappiḥit bi-Debash," a collection of responsa on Oraḥ Ḥayyim.Bibliography: Hazan, Ha-Ma'alot...

POOR, RELIEF OF – See Charity.

POOR LAWS – See Charity.

POPES, THE – General Principles. The Roman Church does not claim any jurisdiction over persons who have not been baptized; therefore the relations of the popes, as the heads of the Church, to the Jews have been limited to rules regarding the...

POPPÆA SABINA – Mistress and, after 62 C.E., second wife of the emperor Nero; died 65. She had a certain predilection for Judaism, and is characterized by Josephus ("Ant." xx. 8, § 11; "Vita," § 3) as θεοσεβής ("religious"). Some Jews, such as...

POPPER, DAVID – Austrian violoncellist; born at Prague June 18, 1845; a pupil of Goltermann at the Conservatorium in that city. At the age of eighteen he made a tour through Germany, and was at once acknowledged to be one of the leading...

POPPER, JOSEF – Austrian engineer and author; born Feb. 22, 1838, at Kolin, Bohemia. Besides essays on machinery published in the "Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften," and in several technical journals, he has...

POPPER, SIEGFRIED – Austrian naval constructor; born at Prague 1848. Educated at the polytechnic high schools of Prague and Carlsruhe, he worked for two years in machine-shops and then entered (1869) the Austrian navy as assistant constructor. In...

POPPER, WILLIAM – American Orientalist; born at St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 29, 1874; educated at the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., the College of the City of New York, Columbia College (A.B. 1896), and Columbia University (A.M. 1897; Ph.D. 1899)....

POPPER, WILMA – Hungarian authoress; born at Raab, Hungary, May 11, 1857; educated in her native town. She commenced to write at an early age. Besides contributing numerous essays to the German periodicals, she has published the following...

POPPERS, JACOB BEN BENJAMIN COHEN – German rabbi; born at Prague in the middle of the seventeenth century; died at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1740. His father, who was a distinguished Talmudist, instructed him in rabbinical literature, in which he acquired great...