LANDSOFER (LANDSCHREIBER), JONAH BEN ELIJAH – Bohemian Talmudist; born in 1678; died at Prague Oct. 9, 1712. Landsofer made a special study of the Masorah and was well versed in the regulations concerning the writing of scrolls of the Law, whence his name "Landsofer." He...
LANGENSCHWARZ, MAXIMILIAN LEOPOLD – German author and hydropathist; born 1801 at Rödelheim, near Frankfort-on-the-Main; died before 1860. His parents being very poor, a few wealthy citizens sent him to the gymnasia of Darmstadt and Frankfort-on-the-Main. He joined...
LANGUEDOC – Ancient province of France corresponding to the present departments of Tarn, Aude, Gard, and Ardèche, with parts of Haute-Loire, Haute-Garonne, and Tarn-et-Garonne. It was divided into two parts: Higher Languedoc, having for its...
LANIADO – Sephardic family settled in Italy and the East; the best-known members are:Abraham ben Isaac Laniado: Oriental scholar of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; born in Aleppo; a contemporary of Joseph Caro, whose Talmudical...
LAODICEA – 1. Laodicea ad Lycum: Town in Phrygia on the River Lycus. Jews lived there, Antiochus the Great having transported 2,000 Jewish families from Babylonia to Phrygia (Josephus, "Ant." xii. 3, § 4). Flaccus ordered the confiscation...
LAPAPA, AARON B. ISAAC – Oriental rabbi and Talmudist; died 1674. He was at first rabbi at Manissa, Turkey, and at an advanced age was called to Smyrna as judge in civil affairs. In 1665, when the Shabbethai Ẓebi movement was at its height there, he was...
LAPIDARIA – Writings giving the qualities of precious and other stones, mostly composed in the Middle Ages. The rarest stones and minerals were in ancient times regarded as having special and often magical qualities. For those contained in...
LAPIDATION – See Capital Punishment.
LAPIDOTH (LAPPIDOTH) – The husband of Deborah (Judges iv. 4), whom the Rabbis identify with Barak (= "lightning"); known also as Michael (so D. Ḳimḥi, Budde, and Wellhausen). "Lapidoth" is an intensive plural (comp. "Naboth"), with probably a...
LAPWING – The rendering in the Authorized Version of the Hebrew "dukifat," enumerated among the unclean birds in Lev. xi. 19 and Deut. xiv. 18. The rendering of the Revised Version, "hoopoe," is, however, supported by the ancient versions...
LAQUEUR, LUDWIG L. – German ophthalmologist; born at Fürstenberg, Silesia, July 25, 1839. Studied at Paris and Berlin (M.D. 1860). In 1860 he became privat-docent at Berlin, and was assistant at Liebreich's ophthalmological hospital in Paris from...
LARA, COHEN DE – Spanish family, members of which settled in Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, and America.Aaron Cohen de Lara: Ḥazzan of the Spanish-Portuguese community of Amsterdam from 1729 to 1744; a relative of Abraham Cohen de Lara; Haham...
LARA, ISIDORE DE – English composer; born in London Aug. 9, 1858. He was educated at Boulogne, and made his first appearance as a pianist at the age of thirteen, continuing to play in many recitals. In his fifteenth year he went to Milan, and...
LARCENY – See Theft and Stolen Goods.
LARISSA – See Greece.
LA ROCHELLE – City and seaport of France; capital of the department of Charente-Inférieure; situated on the Atlantic coast. Its small Jewish community made itself conspicuous in the third decade of the thirteenth century by the exploits of...
L'ARRONGE, ADOLF – German dramatist and theatrical manager; born in Hamburg March 8, 1838; son of Eduard Theodor l'Arronge (Aaron). He received a musical training at the conservatorium at Leipsic, and officiated later as conductor of the orchestra...
LARTA – See Arta.
LAS LEYES, JACOB DE – Spanish compiler. He was commissioned by the son of Alfonso X. the Wise to compile an ethical work for the use of his pupil, the infante Don Alfonso Fernandez. He, accordingly, transcribed "Flores de Derecho," a painstaking...
LASCH, GERSHON – German teacher and author; born in 1803; died at Halberstadt March 3, 1883. In 1823 he was appointed instructor at the Jewish school in Halberstadt, where he later became professor. Besides several small school-books, Lasch...
LASHON HA-ḲODESH – See Hebrew Language.
LASK, ABRAHAM BEN JEHIEL MICHAEL HA-KOHEN – See Abraham b. Samuel Cohen of Lask.
LASKER, EDUARD – German politician; born at Jarotschin, Posen, Oct. 14, 1829; died in New York city Jan. 5, 1884; educated at the universities of Breslau and Berlin (LL.D. Leipsic, 1873; Hon. Ph.D. Freiburg, 1875). He took part, at Vienna, in...
LASKER, EMANUEL – Chess champion of the world; born Dec. 24, 1868, at Berlinchen, Germany; educated at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen, and Heidelberg, and took his degree of Ph.D. at the University of Erlangen. In 1882 he defeated several...
LASKER, RAPHAEL – American rabbi; born at Zirke, province of Posen, Feb. 19, 1838; educated by his father, who was rabbi of Zirke, by the rabbis Caro of Pinne, Feilchenfeld and Mendel, both of Rogasen, and later at the gymnasium of Gleiwitz and...