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POSSART, ERNST VON – German actor and author; born at Berlin May 11, 1841. When seventeen years old he was apprenticed to the Schroeder'sche Buch- und Kunst-Handlung, a well-known publishing-house in Berlin, where he became acquainted with the actor...
POSSART, FELIX – German landscape and genre painter; born in Berlin March 7, 1837. He at first intended to pursue a juridical career, and held for some years an office as "Amtsrichter" in his native town; but at length his love for painting...
POSVELLER, ABRAHAM ABELE – See Abraham Abele ben Abraham Solomon.
POTCHI, MOSES – Karaite scholar; lived at Constantinople in the second half of the sixteenth century. He belonged to the Maruli family, the name of which was adopted by his son Joseph. Simḥah Luzki attributes to Potchi the unpublished work...
POTIPHAR – Name of an Egyptian officer. The form "Potiphar" is probably an abbreviation of "Potiphera"; the two are treated as identical in the Septuagint, and are rendered Πετρεφῆς or Πετεφῆς. "Poti-phera" is the Hebrew rendering of the...
POTOCKI (POTOTZKI), COUNT VALENTINE (ABRAHAM B. ABRAHAM) – Polish nobleman and convert to Judaism; burned at the stake at Wilna May 24, 1749. There are several versions of the remarkable story of this martyr, whose memory is still revered among the Jews of Russia as that of the Ger...
POTSDAM – City in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. It was the residence of the electors of Brandenburg; and here the Great Elector, Frederick William, ratified May 20, 1671, the agreement by which he permitted fifty families of the...
POTTERY – Biblical Data: There can be no doubt that the Israelites first learned the art of making pottery on Palestinian soil. The nomad in his continual wanderings can not use the breakable wares of the potter; and the proper vessels...
POULTRY – Biblical Data: The rearing of domestic fowl for various uses became a part of Palestinian husbandry only after the return from Babylon (see Cock; Hen); but from Isa. lx. 8 it appears that at the time when that passage was...
POVERTY – Condition or proportion of poor in a population. Although the riches of the Jews have passed into a proverb, all social observers are agreed that the Jews have a larger proportion of poor than any of the European nations among...
POWER OF ATTORNEY – See Attorney, Power of.
POZNANSKI, SAMUEL – Arabist, Hebrew bibliographer, and authority on modern Karaism; rabbi and preacher at the Polish synagogue in Warsaw; born at Lubranice, near Warsaw, Sept. 3, 1864. After graduating from the gymnasium of Warsaw, he continued his...
PRADO, MOSES – Christian convert to Judaism; lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, first at Marburg, Germany, and later at Salonica, Turkey. His Christian name was Conrad Victor, and he filled the position of professor of the...
PRÆFECTUS JUDÆORUM – See Mendel.
PRAG, JACOB – Professor of Hebrew and rabbi at Liverpool; born at Danzig 1816; died at Liverpool Dec., 1881. He studied at the rabbinical school at Libau and occupied his first position at the age of eighteen. He was afterward appointed rabbi...
PRAG, JOSEPH – English communal and Zionist worker; born at Liverpool in 1859; educated at the Liverpool Institute and at Queen's College, Liverpool. Prag has long been a leader in Zionist circles, but does not follow the Herzl movement,...
PRÄGER, MOSES – See Moses ben Menahem.
PRAGUE – Regulations of Ottocar. Capital of Bohemia; the first Bohemian city in which Jews settled. Reference to them is found as early as 906, when the Jew Ibrahim ibn Jacob mentioned them as frequenting the slave-market. Pethahiah of...
PRAT MAIMON – See Frat Maimon.
PRAYER – Biblical Data: From the earliest epochs recorded in the Bible profound distress or joyous exaltation found expression in prayer. However primitive the mode of worship, the individual is commonly depicted as petitioning or...
PRAYER-BOOKS – First Prayer-Book. The collection, in one book, of the year's prayers for week-days, Sabbaths, holy days, and fast-days is generally known as the "Seder Tefillot," or simply the "Siddur." The first compilation known of the...
PRAYER-MOTIVES – See Music, Synagogal.
PREACHING – See Homiletics.
PRECEDENCE – Classes and Ranks. Priority and preference given to individuals as a matter of established rule or etiquette. The superiority of the husband over his wife was recognized when God said to Eve, "He [Adam] shall rule over thee."...
PRECENTOR – See Ḥazzan.

POSSART, ERNST VON – German actor and author; born at Berlin May 11, 1841. When seventeen years old he was apprenticed to the Schroeder'sche Buch- und Kunst-Handlung, a well-known publishing-house in Berlin, where he became acquainted with the actor...

POSSART, FELIX – German landscape and genre painter; born in Berlin March 7, 1837. He at first intended to pursue a juridical career, and held for some years an office as "Amtsrichter" in his native town; but at length his love for painting...

POSVELLER, ABRAHAM ABELE – See Abraham Abele ben Abraham Solomon.

POTCHI, MOSES – Karaite scholar; lived at Constantinople in the second half of the sixteenth century. He belonged to the Maruli family, the name of which was adopted by his son Joseph. Simḥah Luzki attributes to Potchi the unpublished work...

POTIPHAR – Name of an Egyptian officer. The form "Potiphar" is probably an abbreviation of "Potiphera"; the two are treated as identical in the Septuagint, and are rendered Πετρεφῆς or Πετεφῆς. "Poti-phera" is the Hebrew rendering of the...

POTOCKI (POTOTZKI), COUNT VALENTINE (ABRAHAM B. ABRAHAM) – Polish nobleman and convert to Judaism; burned at the stake at Wilna May 24, 1749. There are several versions of the remarkable story of this martyr, whose memory is still revered among the Jews of Russia as that of the Ger...

POTSDAM – City in the Prussian province of Brandenburg. It was the residence of the electors of Brandenburg; and here the Great Elector, Frederick William, ratified May 20, 1671, the agreement by which he permitted fifty families of the...

POTTERY – Biblical Data: There can be no doubt that the Israelites first learned the art of making pottery on Palestinian soil. The nomad in his continual wanderings can not use the breakable wares of the potter; and the proper vessels...

POULTRY – Biblical Data: The rearing of domestic fowl for various uses became a part of Palestinian husbandry only after the return from Babylon (see Cock; Hen); but from Isa. lx. 8 it appears that at the time when that passage was...

POVERTY – Condition or proportion of poor in a population. Although the riches of the Jews have passed into a proverb, all social observers are agreed that the Jews have a larger proportion of poor than any of the European nations among...

POWER OF ATTORNEY – See Attorney, Power of.

POZNANSKI, SAMUEL – Arabist, Hebrew bibliographer, and authority on modern Karaism; rabbi and preacher at the Polish synagogue in Warsaw; born at Lubranice, near Warsaw, Sept. 3, 1864. After graduating from the gymnasium of Warsaw, he continued his...

PRADO, MOSES – Christian convert to Judaism; lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, first at Marburg, Germany, and later at Salonica, Turkey. His Christian name was Conrad Victor, and he filled the position of professor of the...

PRÆFECTUS JUDÆORUM – See Mendel.

PRAG, JACOB – Professor of Hebrew and rabbi at Liverpool; born at Danzig 1816; died at Liverpool Dec., 1881. He studied at the rabbinical school at Libau and occupied his first position at the age of eighteen. He was afterward appointed rabbi...

PRAG, JOSEPH – English communal and Zionist worker; born at Liverpool in 1859; educated at the Liverpool Institute and at Queen's College, Liverpool. Prag has long been a leader in Zionist circles, but does not follow the Herzl movement,...

PRÄGER, MOSES – See Moses ben Menahem.

PRAGUE – Regulations of Ottocar. Capital of Bohemia; the first Bohemian city in which Jews settled. Reference to them is found as early as 906, when the Jew Ibrahim ibn Jacob mentioned them as frequenting the slave-market. Pethahiah of...

PRAT MAIMON – See Frat Maimon.

PRAYER – Biblical Data: From the earliest epochs recorded in the Bible profound distress or joyous exaltation found expression in prayer. However primitive the mode of worship, the individual is commonly depicted as petitioning or...

PRAYER-BOOKS – First Prayer-Book. The collection, in one book, of the year's prayers for week-days, Sabbaths, holy days, and fast-days is generally known as the "Seder Tefillot," or simply the "Siddur." The first compilation known of the...

PRAYER-MOTIVES – See Music, Synagogal.

PREACHING – See Homiletics.

PRECEDENCE – Classes and Ranks. Priority and preference given to individuals as a matter of established rule or etiquette. The superiority of the husband over his wife was recognized when God said to Eve, "He [Adam] shall rule over thee."...

PRECENTOR – See Ḥazzan.