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Mattityahu Strashun
Mattityahu Strashun ( he, מתתיהו שטראשון, also spelled Strassen; October 1, 1817 – December 13, 1885) was a Lithuanian Talmudist, Midrashic scholar, book collector, communal leader, and philanthropist. He amassed a significant private collection of books and rare manuscripts which formed the basis for the Strashun Library of Vilnius, which operated from 1892 to 1941. Early life and education Mattityahu Strashun was born to Samuel Strashun (1794–1872), a prominent Talmudist and merchant, and his wife Sara Strashun, in Vilnius, Vilna Governorate. Coming from a well-to-do family, Mattityahu, at the age of 13, married the eldest daughter of the wealthy Joseph Elijah Eliasberg. His father-in-law bought him a business dealing in silks, which his wife managed so he could dedicate himself to Torah study. Strashun was financially independent throughout his life. Strashun studied under Rabbi Menashe of Ilya, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon, and Rabbi Yitzhak of Volozhin (son of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urban area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 718,507 (as of 2020), while according to the Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there were 753,875 permanent inhabitants as of November 2022 in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined. Vilnius is situated in southeastern Lithuania and is the second-largest city in the Baltic states, but according to the Bank of Latvia is expected to become the largest before 2025. It is the seat of Lithuania's national government and the Vilnius District Municipality. Vilnius is known for the architecture in its Old Town, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The city was noted for its multicultural population already in the time of the Polish–Lithuanian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamagid
''Hamagid'' (; ), also known after 1893 as ''Hamagid LeIsrael'' (), was the first Hebrew language weekly newspaper. It featured mostly current events, feature articles, a section on Judaic studies, and, in its heyday, discussions of social issues. Published between 1856 to 1903, it first appeared in Lyck, East Prussia and targeted Russian Jews, but was soon redistributed all over Europe and the Jewish world. Although it only had a peak circulation of 1,800 copies, it's primarily remembered as beginning the modern day Hebrew language press. It is hard to estimate its true readership, as in its era one copy would pass through many hands. ''Hamagid'' carried global and Jewish news in Hebrew, either translated, or as original reporting. It was also the first newspaper to publish op-eds in Hebrew. The founder and first editor of ''Hamagid'' was Eliezer Lipman Zilbermann (1819 – 1882). He is credited with bringing the social issue of the ''agunot'' to the forefront of reader's mind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
YIVO
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word ''yidisher'' means both "Yiddish" and "Jewish.") Established in 1925 in Wilno in the Second Polish Republic (now Vilnius, Lithuania) as the ''Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut'' (Yiddish: , , Yiddish Scientific Institute, its English name became Institute for Jewish Research after its relocation to New York City, but it is still known mainly by its Yiddish acronym. YIVO is now a partner of the Center for Jewish History. Formerly, they had linguists whose main occupation was deciding on grammar rules and new words, and during this time they were seen in the secular world to serve as the recognized language regulator of the Yiddish language. However, YIVO no longer serves this purpose. Nevertheless, the YIVO system is still commonly taught in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Judaism, Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in Israel and the United States. Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Haredi Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion. Its members adhere closely both to Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement's own unique emphases – and the traditions of Eastern European Jews. Many of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hasidism. Hasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism () or Karaism (, sometimes spelt Karaitism (; ''Yahadut Qara'it''); also spelt Qaraite Judaism, Qaraism or Qaraitism) is a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the written Torah alone as its supreme authority in ''halakha'' (Jewish religious law) and theology. Karaites believe that all of the divine commandments which were handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without any additional Oral Law or explanation. Unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Oral Torah, codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, to be authoritative interpretations of the Torah, Karaite Jews do not believe that the written collections of the oral tradition in the Midrash or the Talmud are binding. When they read the Torah, Karaites strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious meaning (''peshat'') of the text; this is not necessarily the literal meaning of the text, instead, it is the meaning of the text that would have be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force. Conscription is controversial for a range of reasons, including conscientious objection to military engagements on religious or philosophical grounds; political objection, for example to service for a disliked government or unpopular war; sexism, in that historically men have been subject to the draft in the most cases; and ideological objection, for example, to a perceived vio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society For The Promotion Of Culture Among The Jews Of Russia
The Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia (Hebrew: ''Hevra Mefitsei Haskalah''; Russian: ''Obshchestva dlia Rasprostraneniia Prosveshcheniia Mezhdu Evreiami v Rossii'', or OPE; sometimes translated into English as "Society for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia") was an educational and civic association that promoted the acculturation of Russian Jews and their integration in the wider Russian society; founded in 1863, it remained active until 1926 or 1929.Horowitz, Brian. ''Empire Jews: Jewish Nationalism and Acculturation in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Russia''. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2009. . Chapter 7: "The Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia and the Evolution of the Petersburg Russian-Jewish Intelligentsia, 1893-1905", p. 116-138; here: p. 116. It was founded as a learned society in December 1863, in Saint Petersburg, at that time the capital city of the Russian Empire, by prominent R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chevra Kadisha
The term ''Chevra kadisha'' (Modern Hebrew: חֶבְרָה קַדִּישָׁא) gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition and are protected from desecration, willful or not, until burial. Two of the main requirements are the showing of proper respect for a corpse, and the ritual cleansing of the body and subsequent dressing for burial. It is usually referred to as a burial society in English. History Throughout Jewish history, each Jewish community throughout the world has established a Chevra Kadisha — a Holy Society — whose sole function is to ensure dignified treatment of the deceased in accordance with Jewish law, custom, and tradition. Men prepare the bodies of men, ladies prepare those of ladies. At the heart of the society's function is the ritual of '' tahara'', or purification. The body i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The YIVO Encyclopedia Of Jews In Eastern Europe
''The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe'' is a two-volume, English-language reference work on the history and culture of Eastern Europe Jewry in this region, prepared by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and published by Yale University Press in 2008. Print edition The encyclopedia, 2,400 pages in length, contains over 1,800 alphabetical entries written by 450 contributors, and features over 1,000 illustrations and 55 maps. Online edition The online version of the Encyclopedia was officially launched June 10, 2010. It's free to accesonline Awards and honors * Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries Outstanding Academic Title 2008 *Recipient of the 2009 Dartmouth Medal Honorable Mention by the American Library Association. *Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award in the Multi-volume Reference/Humanities & Social Sciences category, from the Association of American Publishers *Winner of the 2008 Judaica Reference Award, given by the Association of Jew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Europe and the Muslim world. It arose as a defined ideological worldview during the 1770s, and its last stage ended around 1881, with the rise of Jewish nationalism. The ''Haskalah'' pursued two complementary aims. It sought to preserve the Jews as a separate, unique collective, and it pursued a set of projects of cultural and moral renewal, including a revival of Hebrew for use in secular life, which resulted in an increase in Hebrew found in print. Concurrently, it strove for an optimal integration in surrounding societies. Practitioners promoted the study of exogenous culture, style, and vernacular, and the adoption of modern values. At the same time, economic production, and the taking up of new occupations was pursued. The ''Haskalah'' pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Joseph Fuenn
Samuel Joseph Fuenn (; 15 October 1818 – 11 January 1891), also known as Rashi Fuenn () and Rashif (), was a Lithuanian Hebrew writer, scholar, printer, and editor. He was a leading figure of the eastern European Haskalah, and an early member of Ḥovevei Zion. Biography Fuenn was born in Vilna, Russian Empire, the son of merchant and Torah scholar Yitsḥak Aizik Fuenn of Grodno. Though he received a traditional religious education until the age of 17, he also acquired an extensive general knowledge of German literature and other secular subjects, and became proficient in Russian, French, Latin, Polish, and English. He afterwards joined Vilna's circle of young ''maskilim''. In 1848 the government appointed him teacher of Hebrew and Jewish history in the newly founded rabbinical school of Vilna. Fuenn filled this position with great distinction till 1856, when he resigned. The government then appointed him superintendent of the Jewish public schools in the district of Vilna, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Wünsche
Karl August Wünsche (August 22, 1838, Hainewalde bei Zittau - November 15, 1912, Dresden) was a German Christian Hebraist. He devoted his attention almost exclusively to rabbinic literature. After completing his commentaries on the ''Book of Hosea'' (1868) and ''Book of Joel'' (1872), he wrote ''Neue Beiträge zur Erläuterung der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch'' (1878), the most complete collection of the parallel passages of the Talmud and the New Testament since the works of John Lightfoot and Johann Christian Schöttgen. In his ''Bibliotheca Rabbinica'' (Leipzig, 1880–85) he made a German translation of the whole of the ''Midrash Rabbah'' and the ''Midrash to the Five Megillot'', and he also translated haggadic portions of the Jerusalem Talmud (1880) and of the Babylonian Talmud (1886–89), as well as the ''Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Pesiḳta'' (1885) and the ''Midrash to the Psalms'' (1891). Smaller works of his are: *''Die Rätselweisheit bei den Hebräern'' (1883) *'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
