ALBA, JACOB DI – Italian rabbi; lived at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. He was rabbi in Florence, and author of homilies on the Pentateuch, entitled "Toledot Ya'aḲob" (Generations of Jacob), Venice,...
ALBAGAL, SOLOMON IBN – A Spanish farmer of taxes who lived in Villa-Real or Ciudad-Real, and held office during the reign of Maria de Molina (1300-10). He was the owner of a large fulling-mill, named "Batanejo," in Guadiana, which, when disposed of by...
ALBALAG, ISAAC – A philosopher of the second half of the thirteenth century, who, according to Steinschneider ("Hebr. Uebers." pp. 299-306), probably lived in northern Spain or southern France. Graetz, without good reason, makes him a native of...
ALBALIA – Name of one of the more ancient Jewish families in Spain. The tradition among its members was that they were descended from Baruch, the friend and companion of the prophet Jeremiah, or, according to more numerous and also more...
ALBANY, New York – Capital of the state of New York and of Albany county, situated on the west bank of the Hudson river. As early as 1661, when Albany was but a small trading post, a Jewish trader, named Asser Levy (or Levi), became the owner of...
ALBARGELONI, ABRAHAMBEN ḤIYYA – See Abraham bar Ḥiyya ha-Nasi.
ALBARGELONI, ISAAC BEN REUBEN – See Isaac ben Reuben.
ALBARGELONI, JUDAH BEN BARZILAI – See Judah ben Barzilai.
ALBAS, MOSES BEN MAIMON – Cabalist of the sixteenth century; lived in northwest Africa. He was the author of the cabalistic work "Hekal ha-ḳodesh" (The Holy Temple), which he began in 1575. It is a commentary on the prayer-book, compiled from the Zohar...
ALBAS, SAMUEL – Rabbi at Fez; born 1697; died 1749. He was well read in the Talmud and in rabbinical literature, and was highly esteemed by Ḥayyim ibn Atar and other of his contemporaries. He composed novellæ on the treatise 'Abodah Zarah of...
AL-BATALJUSI – See Bataljusi, Al-.
ALBELDA – A town of Old Castile, in the vicinity of Logroño, which was inhabited by Jews as early as the eleventh century. The Jewish congregation there was subject to the authority of the bishop of Calahorra, and by order of Alfonso X....
ALBELDA – A Bible commentator (died 1549) who took his name from the town of Albelda, whence it is thought he or his ancestors must have come. About the beginning of the sixteenth century he settled at Salonica, Turkey, where he resided...
ALBELDA, MOSES BEN JACOB – Preacher and philosopher, grandson of the preceding; flourished in Turkey in the sixteenth century. He was a distinguished preacher, first at Valona, Turkey, and afterward at Salonica. After ten years of service in the community...
ALBERTI, CONRAD – German novelist, dramatist, critic, and actor; born at Breslau, July 9, 1862. Having finished his education in his native city, he went to Berlin, where he became an actor. After a few years he returned to his studies and...
ALBERTUS MAGNUS – The most eminent German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages and the real founder of the scientific tendency within the order of Dominicans; born at Lauingen, Bavaria, 1193; died at Cologne on the Rhine in 1280. During...
ALBINUS – Roman procurator of Judea from 61 to 64 (Jos. "Ant." xx. 9, § 1). While on his way from Alexandria to his new post he was met by a delegation of Jews, who demanded the punishment of the high priest Ananias. Albinus sent him a...
ALBO, JOSEPH – Spanish preacher and theologian of the fifteenth century; known chiefly as the author of the work on the fundamentals of Judaism "'IḲḲarim" (Principles). Little is known of the details of his life. Monreal, a town in Aragon, is...
ALBY (ALBI) – Ancient cathedral town, capital of the department of Tarn, France, forty-two miles northeast of Toulouse. It gave its name to the famous Christian sect, the Albigenses, whose struggles against the Church of Rome were so fatal to...
ALCALÁ DE GUADAIRA – A town seven miles east of Seville, Spain. At one time it had a small Jewish community, whose synagogue was razed by order of Archdeacon Ferrand Martinez, in December, 1390. Its members soon after were put to the sword. M....
ALCALÁ DE HENARES – A walled town in New Castile, Spain, situated on the right bank of the Henares, about seventeen miles from Madrid; birthplace of Cervantes (1547). In the Middle Ages its Jewish community was under the jurisdiction of the...
ALCALÁ LA REAL – A town in Jaen, Spain, which sheltered a few Jews in the Middle Ages, and was the birthplace of Alfonso de Alcalá, so prominent in the preparation of the Polyglot Bible. M. K.
ALCAN, EUGÈNE – French litterateur, painter, and poet, who embraced Christianity; born in Paris in 1811; died about 1898. He was a brother of Alphonse Alkan; but the reason for the difference in the orthography of the family name has never been...
ALCAN, FÉLIX – French publisher and scholar; born at Metz, March 18, 1841; grandson of Gerson Lévy, author of "Orgue et Pioutim," and son of a well-known publisher at Metz. Having finished hisstudies at the lyceum of his native city, he...
ALCAN, MICHEL – French engineer, politician, and author; born at Donnelay, in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, 1801; died at Paris, 1877. During his youth his merits as a mechanical engineer were recognized by the Society of the...