Glossary:
"R"

Ra

Evil eye.

Rabat Arab Summit

A meeting held in Rabat, Morocco in October 1974 at which Arab participants, except for Jordan, agreed to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian right of return.

Rabb

(Arabic, Lord) In Islam, a frequent title for God (Allah). From the same Semitic root as Hebrew rabbi.

Rabbanite

Adherent of rabbinic Jsudaism.

Rabbeinu

(Heb. Our Rabbi)

Rabbi

(Heb. my master; adj. rabbinic) An authorized teacher of the classical Jewish tradition (see oral law) after the fall of the second Temple in 70 CE. The role of the rabbi has changed considerably throughout the centuries. Traditionally, rabbis serve as the legal and spiritual guides of their congregations and communities. The title is conferred after considerable study of traditional Jewish sources. This conferral and its responsibilities is central to the chain of tradition in Judaism.

Rabbinical Judaism

A general term encompassing all movements of Judaism descended from Pharisaic Judaism; that is, all movements in existence today.

Rabin Plan

Rabin’s peace plan released in January 1989 that called for election of Palestinian delegates who would negotiate with Israel over the status of the territories and the suspension of the Intifada for six months. However, the plan failed due to internal Israeli differences in the status of Jerusalem Palestinians’ right to vote.

Race Violators

Anyone committing an act that is contrary to the anti-Semitic edicts of the Nuremberg Laws, or of other anti-Semitic or racial orders by the German government.

Rachamim

Mercy, compassion.

Racien hygiene

("Racial hygiene") This word relates to the eugenics side of the Holocaust which the Nazis used to give a "scientific" backbone to their final solution.

Radak

(c.1160-c. 1235) Acronym for “Rabbi David (ben Joseph) Kimhi;” grammarian, lexicographer, and Bible commentator; France.

Radom

A city in central Poland of about 100,000 population before World War II, approximately one-third Jewish. After Radom was seized by the German army on September 8, 1939 it was incorporated within the Generalgouvernement. The Generalgouvernement was a German administrative unit which was organized in occupied central and southern Poland but not directly incorporated into the German Reich. Anti-Jewish persecutions and abductions to forced labor preceded the establishment in March, 1941 of the Radom ghetto. Allotted rations in the ghetto were 100 grams (3.5 oz) of bread daily per person. Hundreds were shot attempting to smuggle food in from the outside. Eventually, most of the ghetto residents were deported to Treblinka extermination camp. A few hundred Jewish survivors returned after the war to settle in Radom, but soon left the city.

Rafi

A socialist political party founded in 1965 by David Ben-Gurion and members of Mapai as a result of a split in Mapai. Became part of the Labor Party in 1968.

Rainbow Operation

Following the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2004 Israel launched a military operation to remove the underground tunnels the Palestinians used to smuggle weapons from Egypt

Rakkah

Acronym for R'shimat HaKommunisti Hahadasha, New Communist List.

Ralbag

(1288-1344) Acronym for “Rabbi Levi ben Gershon;” also known as Gersonides; Bible commentator; scientist and philosopher; France.

Ramban

(1194-1270) Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, also known as Nachmanides.

Rasha

A wicked person.

Rashbam

(c. 1080-1174) Acronym for “Rabbi Samuel ben Meir;” grandson of Rashi; Bible and Talmud commentator; France.

Rashi

(1040-1105) Acronym for Rabbi Solomon (Sholomo) ben Isaac, a great medieval sage of Troyes, France. He is the author of fundamental commentaries on the Talmud, and one of the most beloved and influential commentaries on the Bible. Characterized by great lucidity and pedagogy, his comments emphasized the plain, straightforward sense of a text.

Rassenschande

(Ger. Race Treason) Product of Nuremburg Laws (this dealt w/intermarriages).

Rath, Ernst Vom

(1909-1938) Third secretary at the German Embassy in Paris who was assassinated on November 7, 1938 by Herschel Grynszpan (see Grynszpan, Herschel).

Rationalism

A general term for the perspective that holds that everything is actually or potentially understandable by human reason. See also agnosticism, atheism, mysticism.

Ratz

Citizen's Rights Party; now part of Meretz.

Raysheet tzmihat g'ulatanu

The beginning of the dawn of our redemption; the State of Israel as conceived by religious Zionism.

R'chilut

Gossip.

Reagan Plan

Ronald Reagan unveiled an initiative on September 1, 1982 that called for reconciliation, Israeli security needs, and Palestinian statehood aspirations.

Rebbe

The title of the spiritual leader of the Hasidim. See zaddik.

Rebbitzen

Rabbi's wife.

Rechabites

A dissenting movement in ancient Israel generally devoted to certain ascetic practices and a simple lifestyle (see Jeremiah 35.1-19).

Reconstructionist Judaism

Founded by Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1982), this represents a recent development in American Judaism, and attempts to focus on Judaism as a civilization and culture constantly adapting to insure survival in a natural social process. The central academic institution is the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in the Philadelphia suburbs. See also Reform and Conservative Judaism.

Red Magen David

This Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross is the Hebrew name of the six-pointed Jewish star.

Redactor

An editor, especially with reference to ancient books such as the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Redemption

A term from ancient economic vocabulary concerning the freeing by purchasing (manumission) of slaves, applied to the religious concept (especially in Christianity) of salvation from slavery to sin (being “redeemed”).

Redeployment

Modern lingo for withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces units.

Reform Judaism

Modern movement originating in 18th century Europe that attempts to see Judaism as a rational religion adaptable to modern needs and sensitivities. The ancient traditions and laws are historical relics that need have no binding power over modern Jews. The central academic institution of American Reform Judaism is the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and it is represented also by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Compare Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism. See Pittsburgh Platform, Geiger.

Reformation

Name given to the protestant Christian movements (and the period itself) in the 16th century in which Roman Catholicism was opposed in the interest of "reforming" Christianity to what was considered its earliest known form (found in the New Testament).

Regan Plan

Plan proposed by United States President Reagan in September 1982 to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. It stated that over a five year period the Palestinians should established a democracy government with free elections and that Israel should freeze all settlement activity and work out plans with Jordan to have a Palestinian entity.

Rehov Sumsum

Israel's version of Seseme Street.

Reich

(Ger. empire) Also meaning Federal or National.

Reichsfuhrer-SS

Reich Leader of the SS.  Throughout the history of the Third Reich, this position was occupied by Heinrich Himmler, who, for most of the period, was also Chief of the German Police.

Reichskommisar fur die Festingung des deutschen Volkstums

Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood.  This office was established by Hitler in 1939 in the context of the plan to reconstitute the demographic structure of German occupied Poland.  Persons of German origin settled in Poland and further east were to be settled in that part of Poland that was annexed to the Third Reich.  Jews and Poles resident in these areas were to be moved to eastern Poland, the area known as the Generalgouvernement.

Reichskommissariat fur das Ostland

The name for the German civil administration in the eastern occupied territories of the USSR.  There was a separate Reichskommissariat for the Ukraine.  The Reichskommissariat was subdivided into smaller administrative units.

Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)

The National Central Security Department formed in 1939 combining the existing Security Police (Gestapo and Kripo) and the SD. It was the central office of the Supreme Command of the SS and the National Ministry of the Interior.

Reichstag

The German Parliament. On February 27, 1933, a staged fire burned the Reichstag building. A month later, on March 23, 1933, the Reichstag approved the Enabling Act which gave Hitler unlimited dictatorial power. After that the Reichstag became a rubber stamp for Hitler's policies.

Reichszentrale fuer Juedische Auswanderung

Nazi central agency for Jewish emigration matters set up in the German Ministry of' Interior on Jan. 14, 1939.

Reinhard Operation

The code name for the plan to destroy the millions of Jews in the General Government, within the framework of the Final Solution. It began in October 1941, with the deportation of Jews from ghettos to extermination camps. The three extermination camps established under Operation Reinhard were Belzec, Sobibór, and Treblinka.

Rejectionist Front

Coalition of groups created in Baghdad in 1974. Its members are PFLP, PFLP-GC, PSF and PLF.

Relativism

The modern position that affirms that everything (except this statement!) is relative to the particularities of the given situation.

Renaissance

(Latin) Name usually given to the "rebirth" of classical knowledge that erupted in the 15th century and provided background for the protestant reformation and associated events in Europe.

Repentance

A term used especially in protestant Christianity to indicate the subjective state of sorrow and concern over sin, on the way to salvation.

Rescuers

Those who helped rescue Jews without regard to the personal consequences.

Resettlement

German euphemism for the deportation of prisoners to killing centers in Poland.

Resistance

The word commonly used to describe how Jews fought against the Nazis.

Responsa

Also called teshubot, from sheelot uteshubot (questions and answers); answers to questions on halaka and observances, given by Jewish scholars on topics addressed to them. They originated during the geonic period, and are still used as a means of modern updating and revising of halaka.

Resurrection

The idea that dead persons who have found favor with the deity will ultimately (in eschatological times) be raised from the dead, with restored bodily form.

Revelation

A general term for self-disclosure of the divine (God reveals to humans), which is often considered to be focused in the revealed scriptures. Also the name of a specific Christian biblical book, the “Apocalypse” (Greek, “uncovered”) or “Revelation” (Latin).

Revisionists

Zionist Party of maximalist political Zionists founded in 1925 and led by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Holocaust revisionists deny that the Holocaust ever happened.

Ribono shel Olam

(Heb. Master of the Universe) Reference to God.

Righteous of the Nations (Righteous Gentiles)

Term applied to those non-Jews who saved Jews from their Nazi persecutors at the risk of their own lives.

Rimonim

(Heb. pomegranates) Decorations on top of wooden rollers of Torah.

Ringelblum, Emanuel

(1900-1944) Famed historian and public leader, best known for his clandestine archive called the “Oneg Shabbat,“ hidden in milk cans in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Riots

Disturbances with heavy bloodshed, high death-toll, perpetrated by Arabs to sabotage Yishuv development, stop immigration & land purchases—1920, 1921, 1929, 1936-39.

Rishon Le-Zion

(Heb. First to Zion) Title given to the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, name of one of the first towns established in Israel by the Biluim.

Road Map for Peace

Peace plan first presented by the Bush administration in 2003 which called for the establishment of two states to be implemented in three stages.

Rockwell, George Lincoln

(1918-1967) an American neo-Nazi who achieved notoriety out of proportion to the minuscule number of his followers due to his flair for publicity. He founded the American Nazi Party in 1958. He and his "storm troopers" would appear in full Nazi regalia after informing the media in advance. In 1967, he was assassinated by one of his discontented followers.

Rofe

(Heb.) Physician, doctor, healer.

Rogers Plan

Peace plan proposed by US Secretary of State William Rogers on December 9, 1969. The plan called for an Israeli-Egyptian cease-fire agreement along the Suez Canal and an opening of negotiations between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan.

Rohm, Ernst

National Socialist leader of SA and early compatriot of Hitler. Rohm was dissatisfied with the "slow pace" the National Socialist were taking in seizing power. He advocated a "Second National Socialist Revolution". Hitler viewed this as a threat to his seizure of power via political maneuvering. Rohm among many others was murdered during the " Night of the Long Knives".

Roman Rule

(67 BCE-313 CE) The period after the Land of Israel was conquered by Roman general Pompey. Jews regained some autonomy at first, but after the Jewish revolt it was completely lost.

Rosh hamemshalah

Head of government; prime minister.

Rosh Hashanah

(Heb. head of the year) Jewish New Year celebration in the fall of the year, the month of Tishri. See also calendar.

Rosh Hodesh/Chodesh

(Heb. head of a lunar month) The New Moon Festival. See also calendar.

R.S.H.A.

(initials of Ger. Reichssicherheitshauptamt), the central security department of the German Reich, formed in 1939, and combining the security police and the S.D.

Ruach

(Heb.) Spirit, wind.

Ruach HaKodesh

(Heb.) Divine Spirit

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