1.
Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
2.
Old City (Jerusalem)
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The Old City is a 0.9 square kilometers walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem. Until 1860, when the Jewish neighborhood Mishkenot Shaananim was established, traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, the Old City is roughly divided into the Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter, Armenian Quarter, the Old Citys monumental defensive walls and city gates were built in the years 1535–1542 by the Turkish sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The current population of the Old City resides mostly in the Muslim and Christian quarters. As of 2007 the total population was 36,965, the breakdown of religious groups in 2006 was 27,500 Muslims,5,681 Christians, not including the 790 Armenians, and 3,089 Jews. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Old City was captured by Jordan, today, the Israeli government controls the entire area, which it considers part of its national capital. However, the Jerusalem Law of 1980, which effectively annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, was declared null, East Jerusalem is now regarded by the international community as part of occupied Palestinian territory. In 2010, Jerusalems oldest fragment of writing was found outside the Old Citys walls, according to the Bible, before King Davids conquest of Jerusalem in the 11th century BCE the city was home to the Jebusites. The Bible describes the city as heavily fortified with a city wall. The city ruled by King David, known as Ir David, or the City of David, was southeast of the Old City walls, outside the Dung Gate. His son King Solomon extended the city walls and then, in about 440 BCE, during the Persian period, Nehemiah returned from Babylon, in 41–44 CE, Agrippa, king of Judea, built a new city wall known as the Third Wall. Muslims occupied Jerusalem in the 7th Century under the second caliph and he granted its inhabitants an assurance treaty. Sophronius believed that Umar, a warrior who led an austere life, was a fulfillment of this prophecy. In the account by the Patriarch of Alexandria, Eutychius, it is said that Umar paid a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and sat in its courtyard. Eutychius adds that Umar also wrote a decree which he handed to the Patriarch, in which he prohibited Muslims gathering in prayer at the site. In 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the Western Christian army of the First Crusade and it remained in their hands until recaptured by the Arab Muslims, led by Saladin and he summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1219, the walls of the city were razed by Muazzim Sultan of Damascus, in 1229, by treaty with Egypt, in 1239 he began to rebuild the walls, but they were demolished again by Daud, the emir of Kerak. In 1243, Jerusalem came again under the control of the Christians, the Kharezmian Tatars took the city in 1244 and Sultan Malik al-Muattam razed the walls, rendering it again defenseless and dealing a heavy blow to the citys status
3.
Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
4.
Arab Legion
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The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century. The Legion was based in Zarqa and 80 percent of its men were the local Chechens and it was quickly expanded to 1,000 men recruiting Arabs who had served in the military of the Ottoman Empire. On 22 October 1923, the police were merged with the Reserve Mobile Force, still under Peake, the new force was named Al Jeish al Arabi but was always known officially in English as the Arab Legion. The Arab Legion was financed by Britain and commanded by British officers, the force was formed as a police force to keep order among the tribes of Transjordan and to guard the important Jerusalem–Amman road. On 1 April 1926, the Transjordan Frontier Force was formed from cadre drawn from the Arab Legion and it consisted of only 150 men and most of them were stationed along Transjordans roads. During this time the Arab Legion was reduced to 900 men and was stripped of its machine guns, artillery. During World War II, the Arab Legion took part in the British war effort against pro-Axis forces in the Mediterranean, by then the force had grown to 1,600 men. The Legion, part of Iraqforce, contributed significantly in the Anglo-Iraqi War and in the Syria-Lebanon campaign, the top three officers representing the Legion who participated in the Victory March were Major General Abdul Qadir Pasha el Jundi, O. B. E. Colonel Bahjat Bey Tabbara, and Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Sudqui Bey, the Arab Legion actively participated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. The regiments were organized into two brigades, 1st Brigade contained 1st and 3rd Regiments while 3rd brigade contained 2nd and 4th Regiments. There were also two batteries with four 25-pounders each. On 9 February 1948 the Transjordan Frontier Force was disbanded with members being absorbed back into the Arab Legion, although headed by Glubb, now a Lieutenant General, command in the field was by Brigadier Norman Lash. The Legion was initially withdrawn from Palestine to Transjordanian territory, under instruction from the United Nations, with the commencement of hostilities the Legion re-entered Palestine with 1st Brigade heading to Nablus and 2nd Brigade heading to Ramallah. This led to the spectacle of British officers leaving their units to return to Transjordan, only to sneak back across the border. Without exception all of the British officers returned to their units, one British MP called for Glubb Pasha to be imprisoned for serving in a foreign army without the Kings permission. Battle for Jerusalem and Siege of Jerusalem from 17 May to 18 July 1948, Attacking and capturing Gezer on 10 June 1948, Tarqumiya on 24 October 1948. By the end of the war in 1949, the Arab Legion consisted of over 10,000 men manning a 100-mile front, over twenty soldiers and policemen were killed. The Legion generally stayed out of the 1956 Suez Crisis, on 1 March 1956, the Legion was renamed as the Arab Army
5.
Six-Day War
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The Six-Day War, also known as the June War,1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10,1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Relations between Israel and its neighbours had never fully normalised following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the period leading up to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened. In reaction to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces along the Israeli border in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli losses, giving the Israelis air superiority. Simultaneously, the Israelis launched an offensive into the Gaza Strip and the Sinai. After some initial resistance, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the evacuation of the Sinai, Israeli forces rushed westward in pursuit of the Egyptians, inflicted heavy losses, and conquered the Sinai. Nasser induced Syria and Jordan to begin attacks on Israel by using the initially confused situation to claim that Egypt had defeated the Israeli air strike. Israeli counterattacks resulted in the seizure of East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank from the Jordanians, on June 11, a ceasefire was signed. Arab casualties were far heavier than those of Israel, fewer than a thousand Israelis had been killed compared to over 20,000 from the Arab forces. Israels military success was attributed to the element of surprise, an innovative and well-executed battle plan, Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israeli morale and international prestige was greatly increased by the outcome of the war, across the Arab world, Jewish minority communities were expelled, with refugees going to Israel or Europe. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt agreed to the stationing of a United Nations Emergency Force in the Sinai to ensure all parties would comply with the 1949 Armistice Agreements, in the following years there were numerous minor border clashes between Israel and its Arab neighbors, particularly Syria. In early November 1966, Syria signed a defense agreement with Egypt. Jordanian units that engaged the Israelis were quickly beaten back, King Hussein of Jordan criticized Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser for failing to come to Jordans aid, and hiding behind UNEF skirts. In May 1967, Nasser received false reports from the Soviet Union that Israel was massing on the Syrian border, the right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations. On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a defense pact, the following day, at Jordans invitation, the Iraqi army began deploying troops and armoured units in Jordan. They were later reinforced by an Egyptian contingent, on June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government by widening its cabinet, and on June 4 the decision was made to go to war. The next morning, Israel launched Operation Focus, a surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War. Before the war, Israeli pilots and ground crews had trained extensively in rapid refitting of aircraft returning from sorties and this has contributed to the Arab belief that the IAF was helped by foreign air forces
6.
Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn
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Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn, also called Israel Ruzhin, was a Hasidic rebbe in 19th-century Ukraine and Austria. Known as Der Heiliger Ruzhiner, he conducted his court with regal pomp, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, who was said to be jealous of the Rebbes wealth and influence, had the Rebbe imprisoned for nearly two years on an unsubstantiated murder charge. Friedman was the first and only Ruzhiner Rebbe, however, his sons and grandsons founded their own dynasties, collectively known as the House of Ruzhin. These dynasties, which many of the traditions of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, are Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn, Sadigura. The founders of the Vizhnitz, Skver, and Vasloi Hasidic dynasties were related to the Ruzhiner Rebbe through his daughters, Friedman was a direct descendant through the male line of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the main disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. He was the great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch, the grandson of Rabbi Avrohom HaMalach, and his maternal grandfather was Rabbi Nochum of Chernobyl, a close associate of the Baal Shem Tov. He was given the name Yisroel after the Baal Shem Tov and he had two older brothers, Avrohom and Dov Ber, and a younger sister, Chaya Ita. Claiming descent from the Royal line of King David, his father, while most Hasidic leaders dressed in white clothes, he wore fashionable woolen clothes sewn with buttons. He also lived in an house with a large garden. These elements would later be incorporated into Friedmans conduct as rebbe, Friedman was six years old when his father died and his brother Avrohom, aged 15, took over the leadership of their fathers Hasidim in Prohobisht. At age 7, Friedman was engaged to Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Moses Efrati of Berdichev, at age 13, he married and moved to Botoșani, Romania. Three years later, his brother Avrohom died without offspring and he performed Halizah and his leadership also promoted widespread acceptance of the Hasidic movement, allowing Hasidism to flourish in Ukraine and Volhynia without opposition for the next hundred years. The Ruzhiner Rebbe was a leader known for his aristocratic demeanor. His children, too, dressed like nobility and were attended by servants in livery, the Ruzhiner Rebbe was thought by his followers to constantly humble himself before God and afflicted his body with fasts and other afflictions. Allegedly, one night, after standing outdoors to sanctify the New Moon wearing his solid-gold boots studded with diamonds. They discovered that the extravagant boots had no sole, and thus, after that, people understood that the Rebbes style of living was meant solely for the sake of Heaven. The Rebbe related to the poor and downtrodden as to the famous rebbes and he also gained the respect of the Russian upper class. The Rebbes extravagant lifestyle and prestige aroused the envy of Tsar Nicholas I and the ire of the Jewish maskilim, the latter continually plotted to bring about the Rebbes downfall
7.
Ruzhin (Hasidic dynasty)
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Ruzhin is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Yisroel Friedman in the town of Ruzhyn, Ukraine, today an urban-type settlement in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Friedman was the first and only Ruzhiner Rebbe, however, his sons and grandsons founded their own dynasties which are collectively known as the House of Ruzhin. These dynasties, which many of the traditions of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, are Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn, Sadigura. The dynasties of Vizhnitz and Vasloi are related to the Ruzhiner Rebbe through his daughters, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman was a direct descendant through the male line of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, the main disciple of the Baal Shem Tov. Friedmans father, Rabbi Sholom Shachne of Prohobisht, died when he was six years old and he had an older brother, Avrohom, who became Rebbe of their fathers Hasidim upon their fathers death. When Rabbi Avrohom died without issue in 1812, Rabbi Yisroel became Rebbe first in Skvyra and then in Ruzhyn, where he attracted thousands of followers. The Rebbes extravagant lifestyle and prestige aroused the envy of Tsar Nicholas I and the ire of the Jewish maskilim, the latter continually plotted to bring about the Rebbes downfall. In 1838, at the height of an investigation of the murder of two Jewish informers, the Rebbe was accused of complicity in the murders and jailed by the Tsar. He was released after 22 months and put under surveillance, since the Tsar still believed he was fomenting opposition to the government. The Rebbe fled to Austria, which granted him citizenship and protection from extradition, the Rebbe re-established his court in Sadigura, Bukovina, Austria, where he built another palatial home and synagogue and drew thousands of followers from throughout Galicia, Russia and Romania. All the Jews in Sadigura became Ruzhiner Hasidim, the Rebbe spent his last decade in Sadigura, where he died at the age of 54 on 9 October 1850. His gravestone was destroyed during World War I and afterwards replaced by a white concrete slab. The Ruzhiner Rebbes eldest son, Rabbi Sholom Yosef Friedman, led his fathers Hasidim until his death less than a year later. The Ruzhiners second son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman then became the first Sadigura Rebbe, to this day, the Rebbes of the House of Ruzhin conduct their courts regally, claiming descent from the royal lineage of King David. Conducting their tish with calmness and self-discipline, treating mealtimes as a devotion similar to prayer. Ruzhiner Rebbes meditate during their meals, do not eat much meat, and liberally salt their food in remembrance of the salt offered with the Temple sacrifices
8.
Hasidic Judaism
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Hasidism, sometimes Hasidic Judaism, is a Jewish religious sect. It arose as a revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century. Today most affiliates reside in the United States, Israel, Israel Ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Current Hasidism is a sub-group within Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism, Hasidic thought draws heavily on Lurianic Kabbalah and to an extent is a popularization of it. Hasidim, the adherents of Hasidism, are organized in independent sects known as courts or dynasties, each headed by its own hereditary leader, a Rebbe. Reverence and submission to the Rebbe are key tenets, as he is considered an authority with whom the follower must bond to gain closeness to God. The various courts share basic convictions but operate apart and possess unique traits, there are several courts with many thousands of member households each, and dozens of smaller ones. The terms hasid and hasidut, meaning pietist and piety, have a history in Judaism. The Talmud and other old sources refer to the Pietists of Old who would contemplate an entire hour in preparation for prayer, the phrase denoted extremely devoted individuals who did not only observe the Law to its letter but performed good deeds even beyond it. Adam himself is honored with the title in tractate Eruvin 18b by Rabbi Meir, Adam was a great hasid, the title continued to be applied as an honorific for the exceptionally devout. In the 16th century, when Kabbalah spread, the title became associated with it. Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah wrote in his glossa on Isaac Lurias version of the Shulchan Aruch that one who wishes to tap the hidden wisdom, the movement founded by Israel Ben Eliezer in the 18th century adopted the term hasidim in the original connotation. But when the sect grew and developed specific attributes, from the 1770s and its common adherents, belonging to groups each headed by a spiritual leader, were henceforth known as Hasidim. Yet eventually, the sect gained such a mass following that the old connotation was sidelined. In popular discourse at least, Hasid came to someone who follows a religious teacher from the movement. It also entered Modern Hebrew as such, meaning adherent or disciple, one was not merely a hasid anymore, observed historian David Assaf, but a Hasid of someone or some dynasty in particular. Originally denoting an observant, moral person, in Hasidic literature Tzaddiq became synonymous with the often hereditary master heading a sect of followers, as noted by Joseph Dan, every attempt to present such a body of ideas has failed. The difficulty of separating the movements philosophy from that of its inspiration, Lurianic Kabbalah
9.
Yiddish
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Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized alphabet based on the Hebrew script, the earliest surviving references date from the 12th century and call the language לשון־אַשכּנז or טײַטש, a variant of tiutsch, the contemporary name for Middle High German. Colloquially, the language is sometimes called מאַמע־לשון, distinguishing it from לשון־קדש, the term Yiddish, short for Yiddish-Teitsch, did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature until the 18th century. In the late 19th and into the 20th century the language was commonly called Jewish, especially in non-Jewish contexts. Modern Yiddish has two major forms, Eastern Yiddish is far more common today. It includes Southeastern, Mideastern, and Northeastern dialects, Eastern Yiddish differs from Western both by its far greater size and by the extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin. Western Yiddish is divided into Southwestern, Midwestern, and Northwestern dialects, the term Yiddish is also used in the adjectival sense, synonymously with Jewish, to designate attributes of Ashkenazi culture. Prior to the Holocaust, there were over 10 million speakers of Yiddish, 85% of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, assimilation following World War II further decreased the use of Yiddish both among survivors and Yiddish-speakers from other countries. However, the number of speakers is increasing in global Hasidic communities, the established view is that, as with other Jewish languages, Jews speaking distinct languages learned new co-territorial vernaculars, which they then Judaized. Exactly what German base lies behind the earliest form of Yiddish is disputed, both Weinreich and Solomon Birnbaum developed this model further in the mid-1950s. In Weinreichs view, this Old Yiddish substrate later bifurcated into two versions of the language, Western and Eastern Yiddish. They retained the Semitic vocabulary needed for religious purposes and created a Judeo-German form of speech, recent linguistic research has finessed, contested, or challenged the Weinreich model, providing alternative approaches to the origins of Yiddish. Some theorists argue that the fusion occurred with a Bavarian dialect base, the two main candidates for the germinal matrix of Yiddish, the Rhineland and Bavaria, are not necessarily incompatible. There may have been developments in the two regions, seeding the Western and Eastern dialects of Modern Yiddish. Dovid Katz proposes that Yiddish emerged from contact between speakers of High German and Aramaic-speaking Jews from the Middle East, wexlers model has met with little academic support, and strong critical challenges, especially among historical linguists. Alternative theories recognize the extent of Yiddishs Germanic vocabulary. Ashkenaz was centered on the Rhineland and the Palatinate, in what is now the westernmost part of Germany and its geographic extent did not coincide with the German principalities of the time, and it included northern France. Ashkenaz bordered on the inhabited by another distinctive Jewish cultural group, the Sephardim or Spanish Jews
10.
Nissan Beck
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Nissan Beck, also spelled Nisan Bak was a leader of the Hasidic Jewish community of the Old Yishuv in Ottoman Palestine. He was the founder of two Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Kirya Neemana and a Yemenite neighborhood, and builder of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, Beck was born in Berdichev to a family of Sadigura Hasidim headed by Rabbi Israel Beck. The family immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1831, Israel Beck first owned a printing press in Safed and founded the first Hebrew press in Jerusalem. Nissan helped his father run the printing press, Israel Beck was also one of the developers of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. In the early 1840s, father and son established the first Hasidic community in Jerusalem, although Hasidim had arrived in Jerusalem by 1747, it was only in 1839 that Nissan Beck began plans for a Hasidic synagogue. Until then, they had prayed in small, private locations like his fathers home, in 1843, Nissan Beck traveled from Jerusalem to visit the Ruzhiner Rebbe in Sadigura. He informed him that Czar Nikolai I intended to buy a plot of land near the Western Wall with the intention of building a church, the Ruzhiner Rebbe, who was very involved in assisting the Yishuv, gave Beck the task to thwart the Czars attempt. Beck managed to buy the land from its Arab owners for an exorbitant sum mere days before the Czar ordered the Russian consul in Jerusalem to make the purchase for him. The Czar was forced to buy a different plot of land for a church, the synagogue project, with Beck as architect and contractor, was plagued by constant delays. Over ten years were spent raising funds and building took six years, the imposing, three-story synagogue was inaugurated on 19 August 1872. For the next 75 years, it served as the centre for the Hasidic community in the city and it was considered one of the most beautiful synagogues of Jerusalem, with a commanding view of the Temple Mount, ornate decorations, and beautiful silver objects donated by Hasidim. It was destroyed by the Arab Legion during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in 1875 Beck, together with Rabbi Shmuel Mordechai Warshavsky and under the auspices of Kollel Volhin, founded the Jewish neighborhood of Kirya Neemana, popularly known as Batei Nissan Bak. The neighborhood was intended for Hasidic Jews, but due to lack of financing. The remainder of the land was apportioned to several groups, Syrian, Iraqi. In the 1890s another neighborhood, Eshel Avraham, was erected next to Kirya Neemana for Georgian and Caucasian Jews and these neighborhoods were virtually abandoned during the 1929 Palestine riots and the homes taken over by Christians and Muslims. The remaining Jewish residents left with the Arab takeover of East Jerusalem after 1948, Beck died in 1889 and was buried in the Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery. Departure from the walls Assaf, David, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. עיר בראי תקופה, ירושלים החדשה בראשיתה, the House of Rizhin, Chassidus and the Rizhiner dynasty
11.
Synagogue
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A synagogue, also spelled synagog, is a Jewish house of prayer. Synagogues have a hall for prayer, and may also have smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall. Some have a room for Torah study, called the beith midrash beis medrash —בית מדרש. Synagogues are consecrated spaces used for the purpose of prayer, Tanakh reading, study and assembly, halakha holds that communal Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together, however, halakha considers certain prayers as communal prayers and therefore they may be recited only by a minyan. The synagogue does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, israelis use the Hebrew term beyt knesset. Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term shul in everyday speech, Sephardi Jews and Romaniote Jews generally use the term kal. Spanish Jews call the synagogue a sinagoga and Portuguese Jews call it an esnoga, persian Jews and some Karaite Jews also use the non-Hebrew term kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arab Jews use kenis. Reform and some Conservative Jews use the word temple, the Greek word synagogue is used in English, to cover the preceding possibilities. The all-day Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the kohen gadol as he offered the days sacrifices and prayed for his success. During the Babylonian captivity the Men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers, prior to that people prayed as they saw fit, with each individual praying in his or her own way, and there were no standard prayers that were recited. Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era and this contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians. A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near Jericho, more than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists. Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue, there is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes. Historically, synagogues were built in the architectural style of their time. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall, the styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with mudéjar plasterwork, the surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest and Prague are typical Gothic structures
12.
Israel Beck
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Israel Beck was a founding member of the Antwerpsche Diamantkring, the world’s largest and first-ever diamond bourse to be dedicated to rough diamonds trade. He was President of the Board from 1961 until his death in 1972, Israel Beck was born in 1891 in Sanok, southern Poland. He married Helena Blitz, with whom he has had three children, in 1907 he joined his future father in law, Louis Blitz, to become the third generation of family members in the diamond trade. By 1932 he opened a new factory with his brother. Israel Beck and his family fled Belgium during World War II, crossing France and finding shelter during the years of the war as refugees in Geneva. The diamond industry in Antwerp had to recover from the human losses that were suffered during the Second World War. After the War, Israel Beck returned to Antwerp and benevolently dedicated much of his time and attention to the rebuilding of Antwerp’s diamond trade, in 1957 Israel Beck became Vice-president of the Board of the Antwerpsche Diamantkring, and in 1961 he was elected President of the Board. Leopold Beck has been heading Beck Diamonds in Antwerp since 1972, World Diamond Congress, World Federation of Diamond Bourses
13.
Sadhora
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Sadhora is a settlement in Ukraine, now a microraion of Chernivtsi city, which is located 6 km from the city center. Previously, it was an independent town, during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Moldavia and Wallachia took measures to enhance the economic and monetary system in the principalities. Therefore, a mint was established in Sadagora by the adventurer baron Nicolaus Gartenberg, Gartenberg being a literal German translation of the Slavic Sadhóra, beginning in 1771, the coins that were minted at Sadhora displayed the coats of arms of both Moldavia and Wallachia on the same side. Sadhora was a town in the Duchy of Bukovina under the Austrian Empire until the end of World War I, Sadagóra had a significant Jewish community and it is important in the history of Hasidic Judaism. Before World War I, the Jewish population numbered over 5,000, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman, the Ruzhiner Rebbe, relocated his court to Sadagóra in 1842. In 1838 he had accused of complicity in the death of two Jews accused of being informers and was imprisoned for two years by the Russian authorities. On his release he fled to Kishinev, then to Iaşi and other places before settling in Sadagóra in 1842. The Ruzhiner Rebbe lived in Sadagóra for ten years, building a palatial home, tens of thousands of Hasidim frequented his court. When he died at the age of 54 on 9 October 1850 and his eldest son, Rabbi Sholom Yosef Friedman, remained in Sadagóra to continue leading the court his father had founded, but died ten months later. At this point, the son of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, assumed the mantle of leadership of the Sadigura Hasidim. After his death, his son, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman. The remaining Jews of Sadagóra were decimated by the Nazis during World War II, after the Anschluss of 1938, the Sadigura Rebbe procured a visa to Palestine, where he led his court in Tel Aviv until his death in 1961. Today, Sadigura Hasidism are centered in Bnei Brak, Israel, latitude,48. 3500°, Longitude,25. 9667°, Altitude,941 Leo Bruckenthal. Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina, Hugo Gold, Tel Aviv,1962, pp. 98–105
14.
Nicholas I of Russia
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Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
15.
Western Wall
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The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall. The Western Wall is considered due to its connection to the Temple Mount. Because of the status quo policy, the Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray, though it is not the holiest site in the Jewish faith, which lies behind it. The original, natural and irregular-shaped Temple Mount was gradually extended to allow for an ever-larger Temple compound to be built at its top, on top of this box-like structure Herod built a vast paved esplanade which surrounded the Temple. Of the four retaining walls, the one is considered to be closest to the former Temple. The term Wailing Wall is not used by Jews and increasingly many others who consider it derogatory, in a broader sense, Western Wall can refer to the entire 488 metre-long retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. The wall has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries, from the mid-19th century onwards, attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews, but none was successful. During this period outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the Eastern portion of Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan. This period ended on June 10,1967, when Israel gained control of the following the Six-Day War. Three days after establishing control over the Western Wall site the Moroccan Quarter was bulldozed by Israeli authorities to create space for what is now the Western Wall plaza. The earliest Jewish use of the Hebrew term ha-kotel ha-maaravi, the Western Wall, the name Wailing Wall, and descriptions such as wailing place, appeared regularly in English literature during the 19th century. The name Mur des Lamentations was used in French and Klagemauer in German and this term itself was a translation of the Arabic el-Mabka, or Place of Weeping, the traditional Arabic term for the wall. This description stemmed from the Jewish practice of coming to the site to mourn, at some time in the 19th century, the Arabs began referring to the wall as the al-Buraq Wall. This was based on the tradition that inside the wall was the place where Muhammad tethered his miraculous winged steed, al-Buraq. The tradition on which this is based only states that the Prophet, or the angel Jibrail, tethered the steed at the gate of the mosque, meaning, at the gate of the Temple Mount. Israeli archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov concluded that the Muslim association with Western Wall began in the nineteenth century in response to renewed Jewish identification with the site. The Western Wall commonly refers to a 187-foot exposed section of ancient wall situated on the flank of the Temple Mount
16.
Church (building)
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A church building, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly worship services. The term in its sense is most often used by Christians to refer to their religious buildings. In traditional Christian architecture, the church is arranged in the shape of a Christian cross. When viewed from plan view the longest part of a cross is represented by the aisle, towers or domes are often added with the intention of directing the eye of the viewer towards the heavens and inspiring church visitors. The earliest identified Christian church was a church founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, a cathedral is a church, usually Roman Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop. In standard Greek usage, the word ecclesia was retained to signify both a specific edifice of Christian worship, and the overall community of the faithful. This usage was retained in Latin and the languages derived from Latin, as well as in the Celtic languages. In the Germanic and some Slavic languages, the word kyriak-ós/-ē/-ón was adopted instead, in Old English the sequence of derivation started as cirice, then churche, and eventually church in its current pronunciation. German Kirche, Scottish kirk, Russian церковь, etc. are all similarly derived, according to the New Testament, the earliest Christians did not build church buildings. Instead, they gathered in homes or in Jewish worship places like the Second Temple or synagogues, the earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church, the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, in addition to being a place of worship, the cathedral or parish church was used by the community in other ways. It could serve as a place for guilds or a hall for banquets. Mystery plays were performed in cathedrals, and cathedrals might also be used for fairs. The church could be used as a place to thresh and store grain, a common architecture for churches is the shape of a cross. These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, another common feature is the spire, a tall tower on the west end of the church or over the crossing. The Latin word basilica was used to describe a Roman public building
17.
Monastery
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A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone. A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, a monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing such as a barn. In English usage, the monastery is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, convent tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics, historically, a convent denoted a house of friars, now more commonly called a friary. Various religions may apply these terms in specific ways. The earliest extant use of the term monastērion is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in On The Contemplative Life, in England the word monastery was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, however, some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St Georges Chapel, in most of this article, the term monastery is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain branches of Buddhism, there is a more specific definition of the term. Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara, viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple, in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat, in Burma, a monastery is called a kyaung. A Christian monastery may be an abbey, or a priory and it may be a community of men or of women. A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order, in Eastern Christianity, a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra. The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the life of an anchorite. In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram, jains use the Buddhist term vihara
18.
Yishuv
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The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv Ha-Ivri is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in the land of Israel prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The term is used in Hebrew even nowadays to denote the Pre-State Jewish residents in the Land of Israel. A distinction is drawn between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv, The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living there before the aliyah of 1882 by the Zionist movement. The Old Yishuv residents were religious Jews, living mainly in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, smaller communities were in Jaffa, Haifa, Pekiin, Acre, Nablus, Shfaram and until 1779 also in Gaza. In the final centuries before modern Zionism, a part of the Old Yishuv spent their time studying the Torah and lived off Maamodot. The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the southern Syrian provinces in the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. The Old Yishuv developed after a period of decline in Jewish communities of the Southern Levant during the early Middle Ages. The oldest group consisted of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jewish communities in Galilee, a second group was composed of Ashkenazi and Hassidic Jews who had emigrated from Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A third wave was constituted by Yishuv members who arrived in the late 19th century. Apart from the Old Yishuv centres in the four cities of Judaism, namely Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, smaller communities also existed in Jaffa, Haifa, Pekiin, Acre, Nablus. Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, Rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by the Hovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of the New Yishuv. The Ottoman government was not supportive of the new settlers from the First and Second Aliyah, the Yishuv relied on money from abroad to support their settlements. In 1908 the Zionist Organization founded the Palestine Office, under Arthur Ruppin, for acquisition, agricultural settlement and training. The first Hebrew high schools were opened in Palestine as well as the Technion, hashomer, a Zionist self-defence group, was created to protect the Jewish settlements. Labor organizations were created along with health and cultural services, all coordinated by the Jewish National Council. By 1914, the old Yishuv was a minority and the new Yishuv began to express itself, the Zionist movement tried to find work for the new immigrants who arrived in the Second Aliyah. However, most were middle class and were not physically fit or knowledgeable in agricultural work, the Jewish plantation owners had previously hired Arab workers who accepted low wages and were very familiar with agriculture. The leaders of the Zionist movement insisted that plantation owners only hire Jewish workers, the conquest of labor was a major Zionist goal
19.
Russian Compound
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The compound was built between 1860 and 1890, with the addition in 1903 of the Nikolai Pilgrims Hospice. The Russian Compound covers 68 dunams between Jaffa Road, Shivtei Israel Street, and the Street of the Prophets, after 1890 it was closed by a gated wall, thus the name compound, but it has long since been a freely accessible central-town district. The compounds construction from 1860-1864 was initiated by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society to serve the large volume of Russian pilgrims to the Holy City, designed by Russian architect Martin Ivanovich Eppinger, it included a mission, consulate, hospital, and hostels. The compound became a centre of government administration for the British Mandate, the womens hostel served as the Mandates central prison, and now serves as a museum for incarcerated members of the outlawed Zionist underground groups such as the Irgun and Lehi. The Israeli Administrator General Haim Kadmon purchased the Russian Compound in the 1960s, save for the Church of the Holy Trinity and another building. The complex was for years a centre of Jerusalems nightlife. The municipalitys headquarters at Safra Square are themselves located on the edge of the compound, soon after their conversion to Christianity, the people of Russia began performing pilgrimages to the Holy Land. By the 19th century, thousands of pilgrims flocked annually to the Ottoman-ruled Holy Land, the Russian Orthodox Church sent more pilgrims to the Holy Land than any other denomination. Some even made the pilgrimage from Russia on foot, the Russian Compound had begun to develop in the early 19th century with the opening of the first hospital for pilgrims outside of the Old City walls. It hosted a market where local peddlers could sell their wares and services to pilgrims, in 1847 the first Russian Ecclesiastical Mission was sent to Jerusalem, which, in 1857, was officially inaugurated with the recognition from the Sultan of Turkey. Its purpose was to offer Russian pilgrims spiritual supervision, provide assistance, in 1858, the entire area of the Compound was sold to the Russian Empire. The location was chosen because of its proximity to the Old City and it covers 68,000 m² between Jaffa Road, Shivtei Israel Street, and Street of the Prophets. Sometimes tents had to be erected to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims. Finally the Holy Trinity Cathedral was built in 1872 as the centrepiece of the Compound, all the building materials, as well as the furniture, were brought from Russia by a Russian shipping line established especially for that purpose, which also brought shiploads of pilgrims. The large courtyards contained stables, chicken coops, wells and a laundry and it was commissioned by Grand Duke Sergei, brother to Czar Alexander III, and then President of the Orthodox Palestine Society {Pravoslavnoje Palestinskoje Obshchestvo]. The splendid building was entirely out of hewn stone and was referred to as one of the most marvellous buildings in the city by the newspapers. All priests and the staff of the Mission were expelled from Palestine as enemy aliens. Turkish soldiers occupied the Russian Compound, with the rise of communist rule in the Soviet Union, the stream of Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem ceased almost entirely
20.
Avrohom Yaakov Friedman (first Sadigura rebbe)
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Avrohom Yaakov Friedman was the first Rebbe of the Sadigura Hasidic dynasty. He lived in the palatial home constructed by his father, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhyn and he maintained his fathers extravagant lifestyle while immersing himself in Torah study and mysticism. He was considered the greatest Rebbe of his era, attracting hundreds of thousands of Jews as well as prominent Christian leaders to his court. Avrohom Yaakov Friedman was born in the town of Ruzhyn, Ukraine to Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhyn, founder of the Ruzhiner dynasty and he was the second of six sons and had four sisters He married Miriam, the daughter of Rabbi Aharon of Karlin. In 1840 the Ruzhiner Rebbe was forced to flee Russia due to persecution by the Tsar and he moved his family to the town of Sadigura, Bukovina, in Austria. The Ruzhiner Rebbe lived in Sadigura for ten years, building a palatial home, when the Ruzhiner Rebbe died at the age of 54 on 9 October 1850, each of his sons moved to different towns to establish their own courts. His eldest son, Rabbi Sholom Yosef Friedman, remained in Sadigura to continue leading the court his father had founded, at this point, the Ruzhiner Rebbes second son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov, assumed the mantle of leadership, becoming known as the first Sadigura Rebbe. The Sadigura Rebbe maintained the extravagant lifestyle of his fathers court, with its lavish accouterments and showy dress and this combination of earthly royalty and spiritual depth attracted both Jews and Christians to his court. Hundreds of thousands of Jews sought his wisdom and counsel, in the 1870s he received a visit from Laurence Oliphant, who wanted to establish a fund to buy Palestine from the Ottoman Empire for the purpose of Jewish colonization. Oliphant believed that the Rebbe was the leader of world Jewry, the Rebbe demurred, saying that he was a Turkish citizen living on a Turkish passport. Theodor Herzl, the visionary of a Jewish state, visited the Rebbe in Sadigura and suggested that the Wonder Rebbe move to Palestine to serve as its spiritual leader. In his diary entry of June 16,1896, Herzl described his vision of the Jewish state as a destination for the world which will come to visit as it now visits. Sadigura. The Rebbe rejected Herzl and his ideas, the Sadigura Rebbe was widely known and respected for his wisdom, intellect, and witty speech. In 1856, the maskilim defamed him to the authorities, claiming he was in partnership with a Jewish forger taken into custody by police, the forger was in possession of a letter from the Rebbe blessing him in all his endeavors. The Rebbe was incarcerated for 15 months in a damp, cold cell with scanty food, upon his release, his brothers and Hasidim staged massive prayer sessions for him. One young Hasid, Mordechai Mishel of Linsk, offered to take on the Rebbes illness in return for a share in the World to Come, the Hasid fell ill that evening and died shortly after, while the Rebbes health improved and he lived for many more years. The Sadigura Rebbe encouraged and abetted Jews to settle in the Holy Land and he chaired the Kolel Vohlin and completed the fund-raising for the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, the Ruzhiner synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem initiated by and named after his father. The synagogue was completed in 1872 and he also purchased the privilege of lighting the main bonfire at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel on Lag BaOmer from the Sephardi guardians of Meron and Safed
21.
Sadigura (Hasidic dynasty)
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Sadigura is a Hasidic dynasty named for the city of Sadhora, Bukovina, which belonged to Austria. The dynasty began in 1850 with Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, a son of Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhyn, and was based in Sadigura until 1914. During the interwar period the dynasty was led by Rebbes in Vienna and Przemyśl, Poland, and on the eve of World War II was transplanted to Israel, where it thrives to this day. Sadigura is one of the branches of the Ruzhiner dynasty, together with Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn, as of 2013, Sadigura has several hundred members in Israel and Europe. Its members reside in Israel in Jerusalem, Ashdod, Modiin Ilit, Beitar Ilit, and Elad, the dynasty is centered on the current Sadigura Rebbes beis medrash in Bnei Brak, Israel. In the early 1840s, the Ruzhiner Rebbe fled Russia to escape persecution by the Tsar and he moved his family to Sadigura. The Ruzhiner Rebbe lived in Sadigura for ten years, he built a residence and an imposing synagogue. When the Ruzhiner Rebbe died at the age of 54 on 9 October 1850 and his eldest son, Rabbi Sholom Yosef Friedman, remained in Sadigura to continue leading the court his father had founded, but died ten months later. At this point, the Ruzhiner Rebbe’s second son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov, assumed the mantle of leadership in Sadigura, becoming known as the first Sadigura Rebbe. The Sadigura Rebbe maintained the grand lifestyle of his father’s court, with its lavish accouterments and showy dress, the combination of earthly royalty and spiritual depth attracted both Jews and Christians to his court. Hundreds of thousands of Jews sought his wisdom and counsel and he also entertained visits from prominent Christians, including princes, counts, and writers who published articles about him in newspapers in Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt, Prague, and other locales. The Sadigura Rebbe undertook the remainder of the fund-raising for the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, the synagogue was completed in 1872. He also purchased the privilege of lighting the main bonfire at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel on Lag BaOmer from the Sephardi guardians of Meron and Safed. The Sadigura Rebbe bequeathed this honor to his eldest son, Rabbi Yitzchok, the first Boyaner Rebbe, after his death, his two sons, Rabbi Yitzchok and Rabbi Yisrael, assumed joint leadership of their fathers Hasidim. The lots fell to Rabbi Yisrael to remain as the second Sadigura Rebbe, while Rabbi Yitzchok moved to the town of Boiany and established his court there. After Rabbi Yisraels death in 1907, each of his sons became Rebbes, making their courts, Rabbi Yisraels eldest son, the Kedushas Aharon, died in 1912 and was succeeded by his 16-year-old son, Rabbi Mordechai Sholom Yosef Friedman. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov fled to Vienna together with his brother, Rabbi Shlomo Chaim. Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov established his court in Vienna and led the Sadigura Hasidim from that city for the next 24 years
22.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
23.
Muslim
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A Muslim is someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts, Muslim is an Arabic word meaning one who submits. Most Muslims will accept anyone who has publicly pronounced Shahadah as a Muslim, the shahadah states, There is no god but the God and Muhammad is the last messenger of the God. The testimony authorized by God in the Quran that can found in Surah 3,18 states, There is no god except God, which in Arabic, is the exact testimony which God Himself utters, as well as the angels and those who possess knowledge utter. The word muslim is the active participle of the verb of which islām is a verbal noun, based on the triliteral S-L-M to be whole. A female adherent is a muslima, the plural form in Arabic is muslimūn or muslimīn, and its feminine equivalent is muslimāt. The Arabic form muslimun is the stem IV participle of the triliteral S-L-M, the ordinary word in English is Muslim. It is sometimes transliterated as Moslem, which is an older spelling, the word Mosalman is a common equivalent for Muslim used in Central Asia. Until at least the mid-1960s, many English-language writers used the term Mohammedans or Mahometans, although such terms were not necessarily intended to be pejorative, Muslims argue that the terms are offensive because they allegedly imply that Muslims worship Muhammad rather than God. Other obsolete terms include Muslimite and Muslimist, musulmán/Mosalmán is a synonym for Muslim and is modified from Arabic. In English it was sometimes spelled Mussulman and has become archaic in usage, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi said, A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God. Islam means making ones religion and faith Gods alone. The Quran states that men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values. Thus, in Surah 3,52 of the Quran, Jesus disciples tell him, We believe in God, and you be our witness that we are Muslims. In Muslim belief, before the Quran, God had given the Tawrat to Moses, the Zabur to David and the Injil to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets. The most populous Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, home to 12. 7% of the worlds Muslims, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt. About 20% of the worlds Muslims lives in the Middle East and North Africa, Sizable minorities are found in India, China, Russia, Ethiopia. The country with the highest proportion of self-described Muslims as a proportion of its population is Morocco
24.
Sheikh
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Sheikh —also transliterated Sheik, Shaik, Shayk, Shaykh, Shaikh, Cheikh, Shekh and Shaikh— is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates the ruler of a tribe, who inherited the title from his father, Sheikh is given to a royal male at birth, whereas the related title Sheikha is given to a royal female at birth. The word in Arabic stems from a triliteral root connected with age and aging, ش-ي-خ, the term literally means a man of vast power, and nobility, and it is used strictly for the royal families of the Middle East. While the title can be used religiously by Muslims to designate a learned person and it is notably used by Druze for their religious men, but also by Arab Christians for elder men of stature. Its usage and meaning is similar to the Latin senex meaning old, accordingly, the Arabic term for most legislative bodies termed Senate is majlis al-shuyūkh, literally meaning Council of Senators. One prominent example is Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani who initiated the Qadiriyya order which relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Islam, in the Arabian Peninsula, the title is used for royalty, such as kings, princes, and princesses. For example, it was the used in the West to refer to the leaders of Kuwaits ruling Al-Sabah dynasty. The same applies to all the Gulf countries, the term is used by almost every male and female member of all the Gulf royal houses. The term sheikh is known to have bestowed upon the families who battled with the Emir Fakhr al-Din in the historical Battle of Anjar. Note that the term is not used for the seven traditional Beiruti families, the other families that have this term did not rule any territory in previous ages. Instead, they were high-ranking employees or secretaries in the Ottoman Empire, or political allies of the rulers at that time, in the Maghreb, during the Almohad dynasty, the caliph was also counseled by a body of shaykhs. They represented all the different tribes under their rules, including Arabs, Andalusians, in the Muslim parts of the Horn of Africa, Sheikh is often used as a noble title. In Somali society, it is reserved as an honorific for senior Muslim leaders and clerics, in West Africa, sheikh is a common title for Muslim scholars and leaders. Among Islamic communities in Senegal, Niger and Gambia, among other areas, after the advent of Islam in South Asia, some high caste tribes also converted to Islam and adopted the title. The Muslims of the Middle East and Central Asia have historically traveled to South Asia as Sufis during the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire, in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, Sheikhs are respected by local Muslims. Religious preachers or teachers in Indonesia are usually referred to as Ustad or Kyiayi Historically, notable shaykha include the 10th-century Shaykhah Fakhr-un-Nisa Shuhdah and 18th-century scholar Al-Shaykha Fatima al-Fudayliyya. A daughter or wife or mother of a sheikh is also called a shaykhah, currently, the term shaykhah is commonly used for women of ruling families, in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf with the exception of Oman. Kashmiri Shaikh Khawaja Shaikh Punjabi Shaikh Qallu Qanungoh Shaikh Quraishi Shaikhs in South Asia Sindhi Shaikh Allamah The dictionary definition of sheik at Wiktionary
25.
Franz Joseph I of Austria
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Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and many others from 2 December 1848 until his death on 21 November 1916. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, in December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne at Olomouc as part of Ministerpräsident Felix zu Schwarzenbergs plan to end the Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary. This allowed Ferdinands nephew Franz Joseph to accede to the throne, largely considered to be a reactionary, Franz Joseph spent his early reign resisting constitutionalism in his domains. Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism during his entire reign and he concluded the Ausgleich of 1867, which granted greater autonomy to Hungary, hence transforming the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire under his dual monarchy. After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, the Bosnian crisis was a result of Franz Josephs annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin. On 28 June 1914, the assassination of his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungarys declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia and this activated a system of alliances which resulted in World War I. Franz Joseph died on 21 November 1916, after ruling his domains for almost 68 years and he was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles. His name in German was Franz Joseph I and I and his names in other languages were, Croatian and Bosnian, Franjo Josip I. Ukrainian, Фра́нц Йо́сиф I, Romanian, Francisc Iosif Slovene, serbian, Фрања Јосиф Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl, and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Franzl came to idolise his grandfather, der Gute Kaiser Franz, at the age of thirteen, Franzl started a career as a colonel in the Austrian army. From that point onward, his fashion was dictated by army style, Franz Joseph was soon joined by three younger brothers, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke Karl Ludwig, and Archduke Ludwig Viktor, and a sister, Maria Anna, who died at the age of four. Instead, Franz was sent to the front in Italy, joining Field Marshal Radetzky on campaign on 29 April, by all accounts he handled his first military experience calmly and with dignity. Around the same time, the Imperial Family was fleeing revolutionary Vienna for the setting of Innsbruck. Soon, the Archduke was called back from Italy, joining the rest of his family at Innsbruck by mid-June. It was at Innsbruck at this time that Franz Joseph first met his cousin Elisabeth, his bride, then a girl of ten. Following victory over the Italians at Custoza in late July, the court felt safe to return to Vienna, but within a few months Vienna again appeared unsafe, and in September the court left again, this time for Olomouc in Moravia. By now, Prince Alfred I of Windisch-Grätz, the military commander in Bohemia, was determined to see the young Archduke soon put on the throne. By the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father, at this time he first became known by his second as well as his first Christian name
26.
Firman
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A Firman or Ferman at the constitutional level was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state, namely the Ottoman Empire. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law, the word firman comes from Persian فرمان meaning decree or order. On a more level, a firman was, and may still be. Firmans may or may not be combined with various sorts of passports, in the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan derived his authority from his role as upholder of the Sharia, but the Sharia did not cover all aspects of Ottoman social and political life. Therefore, in order to regulate relations and status, duties and dress of aristocracy and subjects, firmans were gathered in codes called kanun. The kanun were a form of secular and administrative law considered to be an extension of religious law as a result of the rulers right to exercise legal judgement on behalf of the community. In this firman, Sultan Murad I recognises a decree created by his father Sultan Orhan and he gives the monks all they owned during his fathers reign, ordering that no one can oppress them or claim their land. They also make illegal demands for food supplies. One of the most important firmans governing relations between Muslims and Christians is a document kept at the Saint Catherines Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and this monastery is Greek Orthodox and constitutes the autonomous Sinai Orthodox Church. The firman bears the hand print of Muhammad, and requests the Muslims do not destroy the monastery for God-fearing men live there, firmans were issued in some Islamic empires and kingdoms in India such as the Mughal Empire and the State of Hyderabad. The term firman was used by the archeologist/novelist Elizabeth Peters for official permission from the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to carry on an excavation, a similar authority was cited by Austen Henry Layard for excavations at Nimrud which he mistakenly believed was Nineveh
27.
Suez Canal
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The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It was constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, after 10 years of construction, it was officially opened on November 17,1869. It extends from the terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km, including its northern and southern access channels, in 2012,17,225 vessels traversed the canal. The original canal was a waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass. It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it, in general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez, the canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag. In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km to speed the canals transit time, the expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities, the New Suez Canal, as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015. On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel and this side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal anytime of day and night. Ancient west–east canals were built to travel from the Nile River to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed under the reign of Necho II, the legendary Sesostris may have started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea. In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote, One of their kings tried to make a canal to it, so he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote,165. Later the Persian king Darius had the idea, and yet again Ptolemy II. This proved to be the canal made by the Persian king Darius I
28.
Temple Mount
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The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif, a hill located in the Old City of Jerusalem, is one of the most important religious sites in the world. It has been venerated as a site for thousands of years by Judaism, Christianity. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period, the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which regards it as the place where Gods divine presence is manifested more than in any other place. According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was here the world expanded into its present form. Several passages in the Hebrew Bible indicate that during the time when they were written, the Temple Mount was identified as Mount Zion. The Mount Zion mentioned in the parts of the Book of Isaiah, in the Book of Psalms. The name later migrated for a last time, this time to Jerusalems Western Hill, according to the Bible, both Jewish Temples stood at the Temple Mount, though archaeological evidence only exists for the Second Temple. However, the identification of Solomons Temple with the area of the Temple Mount is widespread, according to the Bible the site should function as the center of all national life—a governmental, judicial and religious center. During the Second Temple period it functioned also as an economic center, according to Jewish tradition and scripture, the First Temple was built by King Solomon the son of King David in 957 BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was constructed under the auspices of Zerubbabel in 516 BCE, in the 2nd century, the site was used for a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. It was redeveloped following the Arab conquest, Jewish tradition maintains it is here a Third and final Temple will also be built. The location is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place Jews turn towards during prayer and it was from the Holy of Holies that the High Priest communicated directly with God. The Temple was of importance in Jewish worship, in the Tanakh. In the New Testament it remains the site of events in the life of Jesus. It was to end, proof of a biblical prophecy fulfilled and of Christianitys victory over Judaism with the New Covenant. Among Sunni Muslims, the Mount is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam, revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the location of Muhammads journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. Muslims preferred to the esplanade as the heart for the Muslim quarter since it had abandoned by Christians
29.
Bema
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The bema, or bima, is an elevated platform used as an orators podium in ancient Athens. In Jewish synagogues, it is known as a bimah and is for Torah reading during services. In an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, a bema is the area around the aron kodesh. In antiquity it was made of stone, but in times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps. The Ancient Greek bema means both ‘platform’ and ‘step’, being derived from bainein, the original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas, the bimah in synagogues is also known as the almemar or almemor among some Ashkenazim. The post-Biblical Hebrew bima, ‘platform’ or ‘pulpit’, is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word for a raised platform, among the Sephardim, it is known as a tevah or migdal-etz. It is typically elevated by two or three steps, as was the bimah in the Temple, at the celebration of the Shavuot holiday when synagogues are decorated with flowers, many synagogues have special arches that they place over the bimah and adorn with floral displays. The importance of the bimah is to show that the reader is the most important at that moment in time, a raised bimah will typically have a railing. This was a requirement for safety in bimah more than 10 handbreadths high. A lower bimah will typically have a railing as a measure to prevent someone from inadvertently stepping off. The bimah became a fixture in synagogues from which a portion from the Torah. In Orthodox Judaism, the bimah is located in the center of the synagogue, in other branches of Judaism, the bimah and the Ark are joined together. The ceremonial use of a bema carried over from Judaism into early Christian church architecture and it was originally a raised platform with a lectern and seats for the clergy, from which lessons from the Scriptures were read and the sermon was delivered. In Western Christianity the bema developed over time into the chancel and it may be approached by one or several steps. The bema is composed of the altar, the soleas, Orthodox laity do not normally step up onto the bema except to receive Holy Communion. Ambo Templon Tribune Media related to Bimot at Wikimedia Commons
30.
Haganah
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Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in the British Mandate of Palestine, which became the core of the Israel Defense Forces. The evolution went step by step from Bar-Giora, to Hashomer, to Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organisations in the New Yishuv started with the Second Aliyah. The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founded in September 1907 and it consisted of a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did Bar-Giora have more than 100 members and it was converted to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization with narrow scope, and was created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During World War I, the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the Zion Mule Corps, after the Arab riots against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuvs leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the Jewish Brigade, at the beginning of the ensuing 1948-49 full-scale conventional war against regular Arab armies, the Haganah was reorganised to become the core of the new Israel Defense Forces. Believing that they could not rely on the British administration for protection from these gangs, in addition to guarding Jewish communities, the role of the Haganah was to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs. In the period between 1920–1929, the Haganah lacked a central authority or coordination. Haganah units were very localized and poorly armed, they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim, following the 1929 Palestine riots, the Haganahs role changed dramatically. It became a larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment, many Haganah fighters objected to the official policy of havlagah that Jewish political leaders had imposed on the militia. Fighters had been instructed to defend communities and not initiate counterattacks against Arab gangs or their communities. This policy appeared defeatist to many who believed that the best defense is a good offense, in 1931, the more militant elements of the Haganah splintered off and formed the Irgun Tsvai-Leumi, better known as Irgun. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Haganah worked to protect British interests and to quell Arab rebellion using the FOSH, at that time, the Haganah fielded 10,000 mobilized men along with 40,000 reservists. The battle experience gained during the training was useful in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, by 1939, the British had issued the White Paper, which severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, deeply angering the Zionist leadership. In reaction to the White Paper, the Haganah built up the Palmach as the Haganahs elite strike force, approximately 100,000 Jews were brought to Palestine in over one hundred ships during the final decade of what became known as Aliyah Bet. The Haganah also organized demonstrations against British immigration quotas, in 1940 the Haganah sabotaged the Patria, an ocean liner being used by the British to deport 1,800 Jews to Mauritius, with a bomb intended to cripple the ship
31.
Hurva Synagogue
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The Hurva Synagogue, also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid, is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The synagogue was founded in the early 18th century by followers of Judah heHasid, the plot lay in ruins for over 140 years and became known as the Ruin, or Hurva. In 1864, the Perushim rebuilt the synagogue, and although officially named the Beis Yaakov Synagogue and it became Jerusalems main Ashkenazic synagogue, until it too was deliberately destroyed by the Arab Legion after the withdrawal of Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. After Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, a number of plans were submitted for the design of a new building. After years of deliberation and indecision, an arch was erected instead at the site in 1977. The plan to rebuild the synagogue in its 19th-century style received approval by the Israeli Government in 2000, the Hurva Synagogue today stands off a plaza in the centre of Jerusalems Jewish Quarter. Excavations carried out at the site in July and August 2003 revealed evidence from four main settlement periods, First Temple, Second Temple, Byzantine, three bedrock-hewn mikvehs were uncovered there dating from the 1st century. The earliest tradition regarding the site is of a synagogue existing there at the time of the second-century sage Judah the Prince, by the 13th century, the area had become a courtyard, known as Der Ashkenaz, for the Ashkenazic community of Jerusalem. The Ramban Synagogue had been used jointly by both Ashkenazim and Sephardim until 1586, when the Ottoman authorities confiscated the building, thereafter, the Ashkenazim established a synagogue within their own, adjacent courtyard. In the winter of 1700, a group of around 500 Ashkenazim led by Judah heHasid arrived from Europe and they were mystics who were intent on advancing the arrival of the Messianic Era by settling in Jerusalem and leading ascetic lives. A few days after their arrival in the city, heHasid died, and without a leader, their messianic hopes dissipated and those who remained managed to build forty dwellings and a small synagogue in the Ashkenazic Compound. Soon after, they endeavoured to construct a synagogue. They found themselves having to bribe the Ottoman authorities in order to them to proceed with their building project. Unexpected costs relating to the construction, financial hardships and the burden of other taxes drained their funds. They became impoverished and were forced to take loans from local Arabs, pressure and threats from the creditors led to a meshulach being sent abroad to solicit funds for repayment of the loans. In late 1720, with the debts still outstanding, the Arab lenders lost patience and set the synagogue, the leaders of the community were imprisoned and shortly after, all the Ashkenazim were banished from the city. Over the course of time, shops were built in the courtyard and it thus became known as the Ruin of Rabbi Judah heHasid. Between 1808 and 1812 another group of ascetic Jews, known as Perushim and they were disciples of the Vilna Gaon and had settled in the city of Safed to the north
32.
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
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Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, sometimes called Solomon Mordecai Friedman, was the Boyaner Rebbe of New York for over 40 years. He also played a role in American Jewish leadership with positions on Agudath Israel of America, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, in 1957 he built the flagship Ruzhiner yeshiva, Tiferet Yisroel, at the top of Malkhei Yisrael Street in Jerusalem. Mordechai Shlomo Friedman was the youngest son of the founder and first Rebbe of the Boyaner dynasty and he was the grandson of the first Sadigura Rebbe, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, and great-grandson of the founder of the Ruzhin Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn. His mother was the daughter of Rabbi Yochanan Twersky, the Rachmastrivka Rebbe and he was named after his maternal great-grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl, and his fathers brother, Rabbi Shlomo of Sadigura. He had three brothers and a sister. At the age of 10 he was engaged to Chava Sara, daughter of Rabbi Israel Shalom Yosef Heschel and they were married eight years later. They had two sons, Yisroel and Yitzchok, and a daughter, Malka, at the beginning of World War I, the Russian army entered the town of Boiany and destroyed the Jewish neighborhood. The Boyaner Rebbe and his family fled to Vienna, where the Rebbe died in March 1917, after the war ended, each of his sons moved to a different country to establish their court. The eldest, Rabbi Menachem Nachum, became the Boyaner Rebbe of Chernowitz, the second son, Rabbi Yisroel, became the Boyaner Rebbe of Leipzig, Germany, and later, Tel Aviv. The third son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov, became the Boyaner Rebbe of Lemberg, the youngest son, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo, remained in Vienna with his mother until her death in 1922. At that point he entertained an offer to head the Hasidic community of Drohobych in Western Ukraine, the American group maintained a small kloiz where they gathered on the yahrtzeits of their rebbes. From time to time, this group would one of their own to visit the Boyaner Rebbe in Boiany. After World War I the president of this group, Mordechai Cohen, traveled to Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo in Vienna, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo acquiesced and embarked on an 11-month pilot trip beginning in December 1925, visiting several New York neighborhoods as well as Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. He was feted with a farewell gathering at the kloiz before his return to Europe. For the next year, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo weighed the pros and he consulted with his uncle, Rabbi Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov, and his eldest brother, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernowitz, who both encouraged him to make the move. He and his family arrived in New York in November 1927, on Hanukkah of that year, the Boyaner Hasidim called a meeting to raise money for the purchase of the building at 247 East Broadway as a kloiz. This building housed a beis medrash with accommodations for up to 175 worshippers, in keeping with Ruzhiner custom, the Rebbe spent most of his time in prayer and study in a separate room called the daven shtiebel. There was also a room, and apartments upstairs for the Rebbe
33.
Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)
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Boyan is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Boiany in Ukraine. The Hasidut is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, with communities in Beitar Ilit, Bnei Brak, London, Antwerp, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Boyan is one of the branches of the Ruzhiner dynasty, together with Bohush, Chortkov, Husiatyn, Sadigura, and Shtefanesht. The founder of the dynasty was Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman, known as the Pachad Yitzchok and he was the eldest son of Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman, the first Sadigura Rebbe, and the grandson of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn, founder of the Ruzhiner dynasty. Upon the death of his father in 1883, Rabbi Yitzchok, the lots fell to Rabbi Yisrael to remain as the second Sadigura Rebbe, while Rabbi Yitzchok moved to the neighboring town of Boiany and established his court there, becoming the first Boyaner Rebbe. Under the leadership of the Pachad Yitzchok, Boyaner Hasidut flourished, Boyaner communities were established throughout Eastern Europe – even one as far as Berlin – as well as in Tiberias, Safed, and Jerusalem. At the beginning of World War I, the town of Boyan was completely destroyed by invading armies, the Rebbe and his family escaped to Vienna, where the Rebbe died in 1917. After the war ended, three of his four sons moved to a different country to establish their court. His eldest son, Rabbi Menachem Nachum, became the Boyaner Rebbe in Czernowitz, Rabbi Menachem Nachums two sons, Rabbi Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai Shraga, succeeded him, they and their families were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Rabbi Menachem Nachums son-in-law, Rabbi Moshenu, became the Boyaner Rebbe in Kraków, the Pachad Yitzchoks second son, Rabbi Yisroel, became the Boyaner Rebbe in Leipzig, Germany, in 1939 he moved to Tel Aviv. He had two daughters, whose husbands did not succeed him, the Pachad Yitzchoks third son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov, became the Boyaner Rebbe in Lemberg, he was murdered by the Nazis in 1941. The Pachad Yitzchoks youngest son, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo, remained in Vienna with his mother until the death in 1922. He and his family arrived in New York in November 1927, over the next 40 years, the Boyaner Rebbe of New York succeeded in uniting the Ruzhin-Boyan survivors of the Holocaust and proved that Hasidut could be a viable lifestyle in America. Yeshiva students and secular Jewish boys alike were drawn to him in large numbers, and he made many baalei teshuvah. On his trip to Israel in 1953, the Boyaner Rebbe of New York laid the foundations for a new Ruzhiner Torah centre, also to be called Tiferes Yisroel, in the New City of Jerusalem. In 1957 the Ruzhiner yeshiva, called Mesivta Tiferes Yisroel, was inaugurated with the support of all of the Rebbes of the Ruzhiner dynasty. A large synagogue was built adjacent to it, also bearing the name Tiferes Yisroel, following Rabbi Mordechai Shlomos death on 2 March 1971, the Boyaner Hasidim were left leaderless. The Hasidim approached the Rebbes eldest son, Yisrael, to take over as Rebbe, the elder, Yigal, an aerospace engineer, was suggested and then rejected. The lot fell to the son, Nachum Dov, who then enrolled at the Ruzhiner yeshiva in Jerusalem to prepare himself for the task
34.
Rebbe
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Rebbe /ˈrɛbɛ/ or /ˈrɛbi/, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word rabbi, which means master, teacher, or mentor. Like the title rabbi it refers to teachers of Torah or leaders of Judaism, in common parlance of modern times, the term The Rebbe is often used specifically by Hasidim to refer to the leader of their Hasidic movement. The Yiddish term rebbe comes from the Hebrew word rabbi, meaning My Master and it was an honorific originally given to those who had Smicha in the Pharisaic and Talmudic era. Since vowels were not written at the time, it is impossible to know whether it was pronounced rah-bee or r-bee. The English word rabbi comes directly from this form, in Yiddish, the word became reb-eh —now commonly spelled rebbe (/ˈrɛbə/—or just reb. The word master רב rav literally means great one, the Sages of the Mishnah known as the Tannaim, from the 1st and 2nd centuries of the common era, were known by the title Rabbi. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the leader of Jewry in Mishnaic Times, was simply called Rabbi, as being the rabbi par excellence of his generation. The Sages of the Talmud known as the Amoraim, from the 3rd, 4th and early 5th centuries, those born in the Land of Israel, are called Rabbi, spiritual leader—The spiritual head of a Hasidic movement is called a rebbe. His followers would address him as The Rebbe or refer to him speaking to others as the Rebbe or my Rebbe. He is referred to by others as the Rebbe of a particular Hasidut, in Hebrew, a hasidic rebbe is often referred to as an AdMoR, which is an abbreviation for Adoneinu, Moreinu, veRabbenu. In the Litvishe world, when not referring to a hasidic rebbe, sephardic Jews can pronounce it as Ribbi. The Lubavitcher hasidim have a tradition that the Hebrew letters that make up the word rebbe are also an acronym for Rosh Bnei Yisroel, an ordinary communal rabbi, or rebbe in Yiddish, is sometimes distinct from a Rav, who is a more authoritative halakhic decider. A significant function of a Rav is to answer questions of halakha, the short form Reb is an honorific for Orthodox Jewish men, who are most likely to have profound knowledge of the Talmud and Torah, as opposed to Reconstructionist, Reform or Conservative Judaism. Originally, this title was added to the names of Jews at the time of the schism with the Karaite sect, as a sign of loyalty to the rabbinic tradition. Sometimes a hasid has a rebbe as his guide and an additional rav for rulings on issues of halakha. Sprouting Hasidim use the concept of a rebbe in the sense of rabbi. For example, I will ask my rebbe, rabbi Ploni, a hasidic rebbe is generally taken to mean a great leader of a Hasidic dynasty, also referred to as Grand Rabbi in English or an ADMOR, a Hebrew acronym for Adoneinu-Moreinu-veRabbeinu. Outside of Hasidic circles the term Grand Rabbi has been used to refer to a rabbi with a spiritual status
35.
Nachum Dov Brayer
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Nachum Dov Brayer is the Rebbe of the Boyan Hasidic dynasty. He is the grandson of the former Boyaner Rebbe of New York, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, on Hanukkah 1984, at the age of 25, he was crowned Boyaner Rebbe. The Rebbes father, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Brayer, was a Modern Orthodox academic researcher, student psychologist, and lecturer in Bible, education and his mother, Malka, was the only daughter of the Boyaner Rebbe of New York. He has a brother, Yigal Yisroel Avrohom, and a sister, Nechama Chaya, when the Boyaner Rebbe of New York died of a stroke on 2 March 1971, the Boyaner Hasidim were left leaderless. They asked the Rebbes eldest son, Yisroel, to become the next Rebbe, the Hasidim then asked the Rebbes daughter Malka and her husband, Rabbi Dr. Brayer, to offer one of their two young sons for the leadership. The eldest, Yigal, who was studying to be an engineer, was suggested. The lot fell to the son, Nachum Dov, who originally studied at Yeshiva Chasan Sofer in Brooklyn then enrolled at the Ruzhiner Yeshiva in Jerusalem to prepare himself for the task. Over the years, Brayer was subjected to pressure to accept the mantle of leadership, even though he preferred to join a kollel. Finally he agreed, and on Hanukkah 1984, at the age of 25, the Rebbe is the leader of more than 5,000 Boyaner Hasidim, making Boyan the largest of the Ruzhiner dynasties. The Rebbe serves as president of the Ruzhiner Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and has built new Boyaner yeshivas and kollels in Israel, Europe, in Israel, he encouraged the opening of Boyaner batei medrash in young communities such as Ramat Shlomo, Ramot, and Beitar Ilit. He does not comment on Israeli politics, being led by an American-born Rebbe, the Hasidut attracts many American students learning in nearby yeshivas. Over the years, these students have been invited to join the Rebbe, the Boyaner Rebbe traditionally lights the first bonfire at the annual Lag BaOmer celebration at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron, Israel. The first hadlakah is attended by hundreds of thousands of people each year, in 2001, Brayer married Shoshana Bluma Reizel Heschel, daughter of Meshulam Zusia Heschel and granddaughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel of Kopyczynce. They have five sons and four daughters, ruzhin Boyaner Rebbe at the hadlaka in Meron on Lag BaOmer
36.
Jerusalem Central Bus Station
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The Jerusalem Central Bus Station is the main bus depot in Jerusalem, Israel and one of the busiest bus stations in the country. Located on Jaffa Road near the entrance to the city, it serves Egged, Superbus, city buses and light rail trains pick up and discharge passengers across the street on Jaffa Road and on Zalman Shazar Boulevard, which can be accessed via an underground pedestrian passageway. The Central Bus Station opened in September 2001 on the site of the old Jerusalem Bus Station, the old station was a long, single-story building with an open-air bus depot behind it. Passengers embarked and disembarked at curbside on an outdoor platform, in the 1950s, the main bus station was located in the heart of downtown Jerusalem, behind the Pillar Building on Jaffa Road. Jerusalems new bus station was commissioned in order to accommodate the flow of bus traffic as well as to implement security protocols for screening incoming and outgoing passengers. During construction of the new bus station, operations were moved to a large, the new Central Bus Station has two levels of underground parking, three main levels, and five upper floors of office space. The first main level is a concourse and food court. The second main level serves as both a shopping concourse and the hall for incoming intercity bus passengers. Since the building is constructed on the side of a hill, besides retail stores, the concourse includes bakery outlets, a video game parlor, and free-standing gift sellers. The third main level serves as the hall, with 22 bus platforms. Passengers wait at numbered doors for the bus to pull into its slot in the parking lot. Large digital display boards post upcoming departure times, while most platforms accommodate more than one bus route, popular routes, such as Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, have their own designated platform and run more frequently. Passengers and their baggage are screened by security personnel every time they enter the Central Bus Station building and that is, departing passengers must go through security clearance when they enter the building from Jaffa Road and may then board buses without additional security checks. Passengers arriving in Jerusalem are dropped off in the garage on the side of the building. They may choose to out to the street—in which case they do not need to pass through security—or to go into the bus station building—in which case they must go through a security check. People wishing to visit only the shopping concourses must also clear security, in addition to building security, Egged has its own team of uniformed security personnel patrolling the indoor bus parking lots. In practice, however, the screening is poorly implemented, passengers and visitors can enter the building without passing through screening, the levels of nitrogen oxide and respirable particulates generated by exhaust were said to be in violation of Israels Clean Air Law. A station of the Jerusalem Light Rail system is behind the bus stops in front of the Central Bus Station building, there are future plans to extend the high-speed train line from the Central Bus Station to the Jerusalem Malha Train Station, the terminus of the current old railroad
37.
The Jerusalem Post
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The Jerusalem Post is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, publishing only English and French editions. It was founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post, in 2004, the paper was bought by Mirkaei Tikshoret, a diversified Israeli media firm controlled by investor Eli Azur. In April 2014, Eli Azur acquired the newspaper Maariv, formerly regarded as left-wing, the paper underwent a noticeable shift to the right in the late 1980s. From 2004, under then editor-in-chief David Horovitz, the took a more centrist position. In April 2016, Linde stepped down as editor-in-chief and was replaced by Yaakov Katz, an antecedent paper, The Palestine Bulletin was founded in January 1925 by Jacob Landau of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. It was owned by the Palestine Telegraphic Agency, which was in part of the JTA even though it was legally separate. On 1 November 1931, editorship of the Bulletin was taken over by American journalist Gershon Agronsky, in March 1932, a dispute arose between Landau and Agronsky, which Agronsky resolved to settle by establishing an independent newspaper. However, Landau and Agronsky instead came to an agreement to transform the Bulletin into a new jointly owned newspaper, accordingly, the Palestine Bulletin published its last issue on 30 November 1932 and the The Palestine Post Incorporating The Palestine Bulletin appeared the following day,1 December 1932. On 25 April 1933, the masthead was reduced to just The Palestine Post, according to one commentator, Zionist institutions considered the newspaper one of the most effective means of exerting influence on the British authorities. The building also contained other newspaper offices, the British press censor, the Jewish settlement police, three persons died in the bombing, a newspaper typesetter and two people who lived in a nearby block of flats. Dozens of others were injured and the press was destroyed. The morning paper came out in a format of two pages, printed up at a small print shop nearby. In 1950, two years after the State of Israel was declared, the paper was renamed The Jerusalem Post, the broadsheet newspaper is published from Sunday to Friday, with no edition appearing on Saturday and Jewish religious holidays. Regular opinion columnists write on subjects such as religion, foreign affairs, as of 2016 the managing editor is David Brinn. Some of the material is translated and included in the free Hebrew daily Israel Post, in January,2008, the paper announced a new partnership with The Wall Street Journal, including joint marketing and exclusive publication in Israel of The Wall Street Journal Europe. The Jerusalem Post also publishes a magazine titled IVRIT edited by Dr. Sarit Yalov. Its target audience is people learning Hebrew language and it is described as an easy-Hebrew publication and it uses the vowel notation system to make comprehension of the Hebrew alphabet abjad simpler. The Jerusalem Report edited by Ilan Evyatar, is a fortnightly print, until 1989, the paper supported the forerunners of the Labor Party
38.
Israel Hayom
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Israel Hayom is an Israeli national Hebrew language free daily newspaper, first published in 2007. It has the largest daily circulation in the country, Israel Hayom was launched on 30 July 2007 and competed directly with Israeli, another free daily. The same year, Maariv editor Dan Margalit left the newspaper to write for Israel Hayom, a weekend edition was launched in October 2009. In 2014, Israel Hayom bought Israeli media outlets Makor Rishon, in 2014, it was believed that Sheldon Adelson invested in total at least $50 million in Israel Hayom. The bill passed the first reading in the Knesset, but not subsequent ones, in 2016, Adelsons attorney announced that although it is commonly believed that he owns the newspaper, he does not, it is owned by a relative of his. The popular nickname of Israel Hayom is Bibiton, a combination of Benjamin Netanyahus nickname Bibi with the Hebrew word for newspaper, while in the Prime Ministers office, Ehud Olmert criticized Israel Hayom. Journalist Ben-Dror Yemini has described the paper as endless capital with a political agenda, in 2016, it formally endorsed Donald Trumps presidential campaign. In July 2010, Israel Hayom surpassed Yedioth Ahronoth in weekday exposure rate in the semi-annual Target Group Index survey with a rate of 35. 2% compared with Yedioths 34. 9%. After only a few months of publication of a weekend edition, it scored it 25. 7% of exposure compared with Yedioths 43. 7% rate. According to the TGI survey published in 2016, Israel Hayom has 39. 7% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 34. 9%, Israel Post 7. 2%, Globes 4. 6%, Maariv 3. 9%, baruch Ron – deputy editor, news director. Amir FInkelshtein – chief operating officer, riki Roob – chief financial officer. Staff List of free daily newspapers List of national newspapers List of newspapers in Israel Official website
39.
ArtScroll
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ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd. a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York. Its general editors are Rabbis Nosson Scherman and Meir Zlotowitz, in 1975, Zlotowitz, a graduate of Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, was director of a high-end graphics studio in New York. The firm, named ArtScroll Studios, produced brochures, invitations, awards, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, then principal of Yeshiva Karlin Stolin Boro Park, was recommended to Zlotowitz as someone who could write copy, and they collaborated on a few projects. In late 1975, a friend of Zlotowitz, Rabbi Meir Fogel, died in his sleep. As Purim was a few months away, he decided to write an English translation and commentary on the Book of Esther, the book was completed in honor of the shloshim and sold out its first edition of 20,000 copies within two months. The name ArtScroll was chosen for the company to emphasize the visual appeal of the books. The emphasis on design and layout can be understood as a strategy on the part of the publisher to achieve a range of cognitive as well as esthetic effects, ArtScroll publishes books on a variety of Jewish subjects. The best known is probably an annotated Hebrew-English siddur, other publications include works on Jewish Law, novels and factual works based on Jewish life or history, and cookbooks. Mesorah Publications received widespread acclaim in response to its ArtScroll line of prayerbooks, starting with The Complete ArtScroll Siddur and this work gained wide acceptance in the Orthodox Jewish community, and within a few years became a popular Hebrew-English siddur in the United States. In 1993 Mesorah Publications published The Chumash, The Stone Edition, Stone of American Greetings, Cleveland, Ohio. It has since become a widely available English-Hebrew Torah translation and commentary in the U. S. while many Conservative synagogues rely on the Siddur Sim Shalom or Or Hadash prayer books and Etz Hayim Humash, a small but growing number of North American Conservative Jewish congregations. The shift has occurred among more traditionally minded Conservative congregants. Since the advent of ArtScroll, a number of Jewish publishers have printed books and siddurim with similar typefaces and commentary, in 2003 ArtScroll published a cookbook by Susie Fishbein entitled Kosher By Design, Picture-perfect food for the holidays & every day. The cookbook contains both traditional recipes and updated versions of traditional recipes, all the recipes are kosher and the book puts an emphasis on its food photography. Since publication the book has sold over 400,000 copies from 2003 through 2010 and Fishbein has become a personality, earning the sobriquets of the Jewish Martha Stewart. Due to the makeup of the Jewish community in the USA, in more recent years, Artscroll has collaborated with Sephardic community leaders in an attempt to bridge this gap. Examples of this include a Sephardic Haggadah published by Artscroll, written by Sephardic Rabbi Eli Mansour, in translations and commentaries, ArtScroll accepts midrashic accounts in a historical fashion, and at times literally, and generally disregards textual criticism. Mesorah has a line of Mishnah translations and commentaries, and a line of Babylonian Talmud translations and commentaries, the set of Talmud was completed in late 2004, giving a 73 volume English edition of the entire Talmud
40.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
41.
Feldheim Publishers
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Feldheim Publishers is an American Orthodox Jewish publisher of Torah books and literature. Its extensive catalog of titles includes books on Jewish law, Torah, Talmud, Jewish lifestyle, Shabbat and Jewish holidays, Jewish history, biography and it is headquartered in New York, with publishing and sales divisions in Jerusalem, Israel. Feldheim Publishers was founded in 1939 by Philipp Feldheim, a Viennese Jew who escaped Nazi Austria that year and he made his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NYC where he was a founder of the Vienner Kehilla there. Later he moved to Washington Heights, New York near Congregation Khal Adath Jeshurun founded by Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer. Feldheim opened a bookshop on the Lower East Side, and witnessing customer demand for Jewish literature. Feldheim Publishers was the first to produce Torah books with professional graphics and it also pioneered the publication of biographies of modern-day Orthodox Jewish figures such as Rabbi Aryeh Levin and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Herman. From the beginning, the company, which markets under the slogan “Torah Literature of Quality”, the Feldheim library includes most of works of Samson Raphael Hirsch, including his collected writings and commentaries on the Chumash, siddur, Haggadah of Pesach, and Tehillim. Feldheim established an Israeli division on Beit Hadfus Street in Jerusalem in 1960, in February 2012 Feldheim’s Israeli division declared bankruptcy. The filing was not connected with Philipp Feldheim, Inc. the New York publishing division, Joseph Breuer, - rabbi and community leader in Germany and the US who wrote translations and commentaries on Biblical books. Pesach Eliyahu Falk - a posek known for his works concerning the Jewish laws of modesty, aharon Feldman, - an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva. Emanuel Feldman, - a editor, writer and spokesman for Orthodox Jewry, Samson Raphael Hirsch, - German rabbi and philosopher who influenced the development of Orthodox Judaism. Moshe Hubner - a Brooklyn-based rabbi, author, and high school teacher, Dovid Kaplan - an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, kiruv educator, author, and speaker. Yehuda Levi, - author of books on Science and Judaism. Yehoshua Neuwirth, - was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who wrote a work on the Shabbath. Nosson Dovid Rabinowich - an American scholar of classical and medieval Jewish history, nathan Sternfeld - childrens author of Adventures with Rebbe Mendel series. Yisroel Taplin - an American Talmud scholar and author of a work on Jewish Law, hanoch Teller, - orthodox Jewish rabbi and author of over 25 books of true, contemporary stories. Chaim Walder, - Israeli Haredi rabbi and author of literature for children, adolescents, and adults
42.
Dominique Lapierre
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Dominique Lapierre is a French author. Dominique Lapierre was born in Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime, France, at the age of thirteen, he travelled to America with his father who was a diplomat. He attended the Jesuit school in New Orleans and became a boy for the New Orleans Item. He developed interests in travelling, writing and cars, Lapierre renovated a 1927 Nash that his mother gave him and decided to travel across America during his summer holidays. To earn his way he painted mail boxes, later, he received a scholarship to study the Aztec civilization in Mexico. He hitch-hiked throughout America living an existence, wrote articles, washed windows in churches, gave lectures. One day a truck driver who picked him up on the road to Chicago stole his suitcase and he found the driver before the police did. The Chicago Tribune paid him $100 for his exclusive story and his twenty thousand miles of adventure beginning with just thirty dollars in his pocket led to his first book A Dollar for a Thousand Kilometers. It became one of the best sellers of postwar France and other European countries, when Lapierre was eighteen, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study economics at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He bought a 1937 Chrysler convertible for $30 and fell in love with a fashion editor and they were married in New York City Hall on his 21st birthday and drove to Mexico in the old Chrysler for their honeymoon. With only $300 in their pockets, they had just enough to buy gas, sandwiches, in Los Angeles, they won another $300 in a radio game show for Campbell Soup. The prize included a case of soup, which was their only food for three weeks, Lapierre sold the Chrysler for $400 in San Francisco and bought two tickets on the SS Presidential Cleveland for Japan. The honeymoon lasted for a year and they worked their way across Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon. When they returned to France, Lapierre wrote his second book, on his return to Paris after his honeymoon, he was conscripted into the French army. After one year in the regiment, he was transferred to the SHAPE headquarters to serve as an interpreter. One day in the cafeteria he met a young American corporal, Larry Collins, when Collins was discharged he was offered a job with Procter & Gamble. Two days before reporting to the new job, the United Press offered him a job as writer at their Paris office. Collins took the offer from United Press and was picked up by Newsweek to be their correspondent in the Middle East
43.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
44.
Pan Books
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Pan Books is a publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books began as an independent publisher, established in 1944 by Alan Bott, the Pan Books logo, showing the ancient Greek god Pan playing pan-pipes, was designed by Mervyn Peake. A few years after it was founded, Pan Books was bought out by a consortium of several publishing houses, including Macmillan, Collins, Heinemann and it became wholly owned by Macmillan in 1987. Pan specialised in publishing fiction and, along with Penguin Books, was one of the first popular publishers of this format in the UK. A large number of popular authors saw their works given paperback publication through Pan, including Ian Fleming, so too did Leslie Charteriss books about The Saint, Peter ODonnells Modesty Blaise, and novels by Georgette Heyer, Neville Shute, John Steinbeck, Josephine Tey and Arthur Upfield. Pan also published editions of works by classic authors such as Jane Austen. Another notable title was The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, during the 1950s and 1960s Pan Books editions were noted for their colourful covers, which have made many of them collectables, particularly the Fleming and Charteris novels. The Pan imprint continues to publish a broad list of fiction and non-fiction. Among its current authors are Ken Follett, David Baldacci, Jackie Collins, Sue Grafton, Scott Turow and Minette Walters
