| VANCOUVER – See Canada. |
| VANITIES – See Idols. |
| VARNHAGEN, RAHEL – See Levin, Rahel. |
| VARUS, QUINTILIUS – Roman governor of Syria 6-4 B.C.; successor of Saturninus. He first became prominent in Jewish history when Herod the Great placed his own son Antipater on trial before the tribunal over which Varus presided, and which condemned... |
| VASHTI – Biblical Data: The first wife of Ahasuerus; her disobedience and subsequent punishment furnish the theme for the introduction to the story of Esther. The name is held to be that of an Elamite goddess.Bibliography: Wildeboer,... |
| VATICAN LIBRARY – Papal library; originally housed, with its archives, in the Lateran Palace, where it was enriched, in the course of time, by many rare manuscripts. Transferred to the Torre Chartularia on the Palatine, it was taken to Avignon;... |
| VATKE, JOHANN KARL WILHELM – Christian Hebraist; born March 14, 1806, at Behndorf, Saxony; died in Berlin April 19, 1882. After studying in Halle, Göttingen, and Berlin he became privat-docent in the University of Berlin in 1830, and assistant professor in... |
| VAV – See Waw. |
| VÁZSONYI, WILHELM – Hungarian publicist and deputy; born at Sümegh (Sümeg) 1868. He was educated at Budapest, where his remarkable eloquence made him the leader of all student movements during his university career. After he had completed his... |
| VECCHIO, DEL – Italian family, tracing its descent from the period of the destruction of the Second Temple. Some members of this family were called also ("the old ones"). Its most important members were the following:Abraham ben Shabbethai del... |
| VECINHO (VIZINO), JOSEPH – Portuguese court physician and scientist at the end of the fifteenth century. He was a pupil of Abraham Zacuto, under whom he studied mathematics and cosmography, on which latter subject he was regarded as an eminent authority... |
| VEGA, JOSEPH DE LA – See Penso, Joseph. |
| VEGA, JUDAH – Rabbi and author; flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vega was the first rabbi of the second synagogue of Amsterdam, Neweh Shalom, which was established in 1608. After a short time he resigned his office, and... |
| VEGETARIANISM – The theory according to which it is desirable to sustain the body with vegetables and fruits, and abstain from eating animal food or any product thereof. Rab said that Adam was prohibited from eating meat. "Dominion" in Gen. i.... |
| VEIGELSBERG, LEO – Hungarian publicist; born at Nagy-Boldogasszony Jan. 18, 1846; educated at Kis-Körös, Budapest, and Vienna. For a short time he taught in the Jewish public school in Kecskemet, where he wrote noteworthy political articles for... |
| VEIL – A cover for the face; a disguise. From the earliest times it has been a sign of chastity and decency in married women to cover their faces with veils in the presence of strangers. This custom is still in vogue in the Orient. The... |
| VEIT, JOHANNES – German painter; born in Berlin 1790; died at Rome 1854. He studied at Vienna and at Rome, where he especially took Vanucci for his model. Together with his brother Philipp Veit he joined the neo-German school, but distinguished... |
| VEIT, PHILIPP – German portrait- and genre-painter; born Feb. 13, 1793, in Berlin; died Dec. 18, 1877, at Mayence. His father died while he was a child; and his mother, who was a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, married Friedrich von Schlegel,... |
| VEITEL, EPHRAIM – See Heine, Heinrich. |
| VELLUM – Skins of animals constituted the ancient Oriental writing-material (Herodotus, v. 58; Strabo, xv. 1; Pauly-Wissowa, "Real-Encyc." ii. 944), and the Jews employed them as early as the Biblical period (Blau, "Das Althebräische... |