FLISFEDER, D. I. – Russian physician and scholar; born about 1850; died in 1885 at Kishinev, where he had settled a few years previously. Flisfeder was best known for his writings in Russian on the Jewish question. When only twenty years old he...
FLOGGING – See Fines and Forfeiture.
FLOOD, THE – Biblical Data (Gen. vi. 9-ix. 17): When God on account of man's wickedness resolved to destroy by a flood all mankind and all the animal world, only Noah and his family and two (or seven) pairs of every living species were...
FLORA – See Botany.
FLORENCE – Capital of Tuscany, Italy. Jews settled here probably before 1400. They were not needed in this flourishing commercial city, the scene of factional strife between the Guelfs and Ghibellines; there was an abundance of capital,...
FLORENTIN, ḤAYYIM SAMUEL – Rabbi of Salonica; lived in the seventeenth century. He was the author of a work entitled "Me'il Shemuel" (Salonica, 1725), containing forty-five responsa and ninety-one analecta on the Talmud. At the end are some notes by his...
FLORENTIN, ISAAC – See Florentin, Ḥayyim Samuel.
FLORENTIN, SAMUEL B. DAVID – Rabbi of Salonica in the eighteenth century. He was a nephew of Ḥayyim Samuel Florentin. He wrote: "Bet ha-Ro'eh," a collection of the ritual laws practised in daily life, with an index and notes on the Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah, Salonica,...
FLORENTIN, SOLOMON B. SAMUEL – Turkish Talmudist; lived at Salonica in the seventeenth century. He wrote "Doresh Mishpaṭ," a collection from the marginal notes of Solomon ibn Ḥassun, Solomon b. Isaac Levi, Daniel Estrumsa, Baruch Angel, and Samuel Florentin...
FLORIDA – The most southern of the United States of America, forming a peninsula washed on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by the Gulf of Mexico. Little is known of the early history of the Jews in Florida. In 1825 a plan...
FLORUS, GESSIUS – Last procurator of Judea (64-66). Florus was notorious for his cruelty and rapacity, and was so much detested by the Jews that in comparisonwith him Albinus was considered a just man. Florus, indeed, hastened the outbreak of the...
FLOUR – The finely ground substance of any cereal. The earliest and most simple way of crushing grain consisted in pounding it in a mortar, producing a coarse flour, or rather different grades of grits (comp. the preparation of the...
FLOWERS OF THE BIBLE – See Botany and Plants.
FLOWERS IN THE HOME AND THE SYNAGOGUE – As an agricultural people the Jews in their own land appreciated flowers as a means of natural decoration. The first crop offruits offered at the altar in Jerusalem on the Feast of Harvest (Ex. xxiii. 16) was crowned with the...
FLUTE – See Music and Musical Instruments.
FLY – A two-winged insect, especially the common house-fly (Musca domestica). It is referred to in Eccl. x. 1: "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor." Since a fly in food is offensive, its...
FOA – French family; migrated from Italy in the eighteenth century. One branch of the family has been authorized to assume the name of "Margfoy." Solomon Foa, the first member of the family to settle at Bordeaux, was the father of...
FOA, ELIEZER NAḤMAN – Italian rabbi and author; died in Reggio after 1641. He was a pupil of R. Moses Isserles, and possessed an extensive knowledge in Talmud and Cabala. He founded at Reggio a society under the title "Ḥebrat ha-'Alubim."...
FOA, ESTHER-EUGÉNIE – French authoress; born at Bordeaux 1795; died in Paris 1853. She was famous for her beauty. Under the nom de plume "Maria Fitz Clarence" she contributed to many Parisian periodicals. The following among her numerous novels may...
FOÀ, PIO – Italian pathologist; born at Sabbionetta Jan. 26, 1848. He attended the lyceum at Milan; studied medicine at Pavia, and took postgraduate courses at the universities of Turin and Heidelberg. As Rizzozero's pupil in pathologic...
FOCHS, ANTON – Hungarian philanthropist; died in Budapest May 31 1874. A few years before his death he sent an anonymous letter to the administration of the Jewish community in Budapest, donating 43,000 florins for the founding of an orphan...
FODOR, ARMIN – Hungarian jurist; born at Nagy Mihály Jan. 27, 1862; studied law at Budapest, was admitted to the bar in 1886, and was appointed district judge at Budapest in 1890. In 1895 he was called into the Ministry of Justice as legal...
FOGES, BARUCH BENEDICT – Austrian author; born at Prague June 28, 1805; died Aug. 23, 1890, in Karolinenthal, a suburb of Prague, where he was principal of a school. He is known as the author of "Alterthümer der Prager Josefstadt," Prague, 1855; 3d ed.,...
FOIA ISRAELITA – See Periodicals.
FOIX – Capital of the department of Ariège, France. In the Middle Ages there were Jews here as well as in other towns in the county of Foix, especially at Saverdun and Pamiers. The largest Jewish community in the district was at...