“Maimonides ”

Vienna

VIENNA, capital of *Austria. Documentary evidence points to the first settlement of Jews in the 12th century. The first Jew known by name is *Shlom (Solomon), mintmaster and financial adviser to Duke Leopold V. The community possessed a synagogue at the time and Jews owned houses in the city. In 1196 Shlom and 15 other Jews were murdered by participants in the Third *Crusade. Under Leopold VI (1198–1230) a second synagogue was erected. Its existence is noted in 1204. In 1235 the Jew *Teka (Tecanus) is mentioned as living in Vienna; he acted as state banker for Austria, and had far-flung financial interests... read article

Aleppo

ALEPPO (Ar. Ḥalab; called by the Jews Aram-Ẓoba (Aram Ẓova)), second-largest city in Syria and the center of northern Syria. The Hebrew form of Aleppo (Ḥaleb) is, according to a legend quoted by the 12th-century traveler, *Pethahiah of Regensburg, derived from the tradition that Abraham pastured his sheep on the mountain of Aleppo and distributed their milk (ḥalav) to the poor on its slopes. According to Jewish tradition, mentioned by Rabbi Abraham Dayyan, the beginning of the community was in the era of Joab ben Ẓeruiah, the conqueror of the city in the time of King David, who also built the great synagogue... read article

Shetar

SHETAR (Heb. שְׁטָר), formal legal document, or deed, derived from the Akkadian šatāru, meaning writing.Early ExamplesThe term shetar is not found in the Bible, where the term sefer is used to denote a legal document, such as sefer keritut in Deuteronomy 24:1 for bill of divorce, or sefer ha-miknah in Jeremiah 32:11 for bill of sale. In tannaitic literature the terms iggeret, get, and shetar are commonly used to designate various types of legal documents. Subsequently, the word get acquired a more limited meaning, restricted to a document expressing legal separation such as divorce or manumission of a slave... read article

Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud is an extensive literary work consisting of both halakhah and aggadah... read article

Tractate Avot: Chapter 3

MISHNA A. Aqabia b. Mahalallel used to say: "Consider three things, and thou wilt not fall into transgression: know whence thou comest, whither thou art going, and before whom thou art about to give account and reckoning; know whence thou comest--from a fetid drop, and whither thou art going--to worm and maggot; and before whom thou art about to give account and reckoning: before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He." Tosephtha--Aboth of R. Nathan.  1"Said Aqabia b... read article

Virtual Jewish World: Salonika, Greece

Byzantine Period After the splitting up of the Roman empire in 395 C.E., Salonika became the second most important city – after Constantinople – in the Byzantine Empire . The Byzantine emperors in their efforts to "Christianize" their subjects were hostile to the Jewish communities in their territory and especially to the Jews of Salonika. Constantine the Great (306–37) and Theodosius II (408–50) enforced anti-Jewish laws... read article

Jewish Concepts: Slavery

The Hebrew term for slave, eved, is a direct derivation from the Hebrew verb la'avöd ("to work"), thus, the slave in Jewish law is really only a worker or servant. The eved differs from the hired worker (sakhir) in three respects: he receives no wages for his work; he is a member of his master's household; and, his master exercises patria potestas over him - for example, the master may choose a wife for the slave and retains ownership of her and he has proprietary rights in him... read article

Alchemy

ALCHEMY, ancient art that was the origin of chemistry. The Jewish association with alchemy dates from ancient times. Zosimos, a fifth-century Greek historian, states that the Jews acquired the secrets of the "sacred craft" of the Egyptians and the knowledge of the "power of gold" which derives from it by dishonest means, and they imparted the knowledge of alchemy to the rest of the world... read article

Judaism: Akedah

The story of the binding of Isaac referred to as the Akedah... read article

Issues in Jewish Ethics: A Torah Perspective on Incarceration as a Modality of Punishment and Rehabilitation

Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar is the Founder and Chairman of the Aleph Institute, a not-for-profit Jewish educational, advocacy and humanitarian organization that has grown to become the foremost agency serving the needs of Jews of all backgrounds in prison and their families... read article

Biography Wing

Biographies of Jews and others related to Jewish history... read article

Modern Jewish History: Great Rabbis of the Muslim Empire

In 657, when Ali ibn Abu Talib — the fourth Caliph to rule after the death of Mohammed — extended the Muslim conquest into Iraq, he was greeted wholeheartedly by the Jews there, then the most important of the world's Jewish communities. Ali saw the Jews of Iraq as a natural ally and granted them autonomy. This was the dawn of a new era of Jewish cultural creativity, one that lasted almost 600 years and was central in the development of Judaism. The Academies of Babylon Jewish life in Iraq (Babylon) focused on the yeshivot (religious academies)... read article

Leather Industry & Trade

Biblical and Talmudic Times The one Hebrew word רֹוע (or) covers skin, hide, and leather, so that it is difficult to establish whether references in the Bible are to skin or leather. The Bible frequently refers to garments made from skin (e.g., Gen. 3:21, 25:25). The prophet Zechariah wore a "hairy mantle" (13:14) and from the context it is obvious that he considered it a distinctive mark of the prophet. Elijah and Elisha probably wore a similar mantle (I Kings 19:13; II Kings 1:8)... read article

The History of Jews in China

A history of the Jewish community in China... read article

Damages

Assessment In Jewish law, once the tortfeasor's liability for the damage has been established and he is ordered to compensate for the loss, the measure of damages requires determination. This is done by assessing the market price of the damaged object prior to and subsequent to sustained damage (see BK 84b on injury suffered by an animal or person); the difference is the amount which the tortfeasor has to pay (BK 11a)... read article

Chicago

The history of the Jewish community in Chicago... read article

Apotropos

APOTROPOS ("Guardian"). The Concept The term apotropos (Heb. סֹופ ֹור ְט ֹופַא) for guardianship in Jewish law is derived from the Greek ἁπότροπος and means the "father" of minors or the "guardian" or "custodian" of another's affairs (see Maimonides to Mishnah, Bik... read article

Jerusalem Architectural History: The late Ottoman Period

“...Jerusalem with its marvelous panorama made a tremendous impression upon me. The streets were thronged with Jews, strolling in the moonlight.... [Jerusalem:] My first act will be to cleanse thee. All that is not holy I shall clear away and I shall erect homes for the workers outside the city. And whilst preserving as much as possible of the ancient style of building, I shall build a spacious new city around the Holy Places, airy and well-drained. The Old City with its Holy Places, I would enclose as in a box. All trade and commerce will be removed and only houses of worship and charitable institutions will remain within the walls... read article

Virtual Jewish World: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, located in the State of Pennsylvania, is the fifth largest city in the United States. The Jewish population in the greater Philadelphia region was estimated at 215,000 in 2009... read article

Virtual Jewish World: Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, the third largest metropolis in the United States is located in northeastern Illinois . In 2000, it had an estimated metropolitan population of 8,091,719, with its Jewish population estimated at 270,000 - the fifth largest Jewish community in America. In 1930, Chicago had the second largest American Jewish community - estimated at 350,000 Jews - and in 1959 it was the third largest, with 282,000 Jews... read article