CONSUMPTION (TUBERCULOSIS) – An infectious disease, due to the entrance of the tubercle bacillus into the body. The question of the relative infrequency of consumption among Jews has engaged much attention among physicians and anthropologists. It is well...
CONTEMPT OF COURT – Disrespectful demeanor before, or disobedience of, a public authority. Courts of justice must be treated with respect, and their orders must be obeyed; therefore they have in all countries the power to punish acts of disrespect,...
CONTRACT – Contract by Deed. In law a formal agreement recognized as constituting an obligation to do or not to do a particular thing. Both Bible (Prov. vi. 1-5; perhaps also Deut. xxiii. 23 and Ps. xv. 4) and Mishnah (B. M. iv. 2) attach...
CONTROS – See ḲonṬres.
CONTROVERSIAL LITERATURE – See Polemics and Polemical Literature.
CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY – Conversion is the Biblical term for the turning of the sinner from his evil ways to God ( ). "Sinners shall be converted unto thee" (Ps. li. 13; compare Isa. i. 27, and Jer. iii. 12, 14, 22, where the A. V. has "return"; Ecclus....
CONVERSION TO ISLAM – See Apostasy and Apostates from Judaism.
CONVERSION TO JUDAISM – See Proselyte and Proselytism.
CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY, MODERN – The number of post-Mendelssohnian Jews who abandoned their ancestral faith is very large. According to Heman in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc." (x. 114), the number of converts during the nineteenth century exceeded 100,000; Salmon,...
CONVICTS – See Crime.
COOKERY – Biblical Data: The preparation of the meal was in ancient times a very simple process. The principal articles of diet were bread and milk, to which were added, as supplementary dishes, fruits and vegetables (compare Baking and...
COOKING-UTENSILS – Among the ancient Hebrews cooking was naturally entrusted to the women of the household (compare I Sam. viii. 13), as was also the task of grinding the flour required for daily use, and that of preparing the bread. Even ladies...
COPENHAGEN – The capital of Denmark. Shortly after the opening of Denmark in 1657 to settlement by Jews, a number are known to have resorted to the capital. A few were there even earlier; for there is a record of a Jew having been baptized...
COPONIUS – First procurator of Judea, about 6 C.E. He was, like the procurators that succeeded him, of knightly rank, and "had the power of life and death" (Josephus, "B. J." ii. 8, § 1; "Ant." xviii. 1, § 1). During his administration...
COPPER – The first common metal to come into use, as it is easily obtained and readily worked. Burial-places in which utensils, weapons, etc., of iron are found are ascribed to a later period than are those containing copper or bronze...
COR – See Weights and Measures.
COR ASHAN – See Chor-Ashan and Ashan.
CORAL – A genus of polypus known to science as "coralligenous zoophytes"; also the hard structures secreted by these animals. The variety known as the red coral (Corallium rubrum) (Pliny, xxxii. 2, 11, and elsewhere) is found in the...
CORBEIL – City in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France. Jews were settled very early in Corbeil, occupying a special quarter, called the "Juderia." It is mentioned in Tosafot to Ket. 12b, Ḥul. 122b, and is probably referred to in a...
CORCOS – A family whose history can be traced back to the end of the thirteenth century, and members of which are still living in Gibraltar and Morocco. The name first appears in Spain; but it was only in the two centuries following the...
CORDOVA – A city in Andalusia, Spain. As early as the eighth century it included Jews among its inhabitants. They lived in a separate quarter or "Juderia," one of the gates of which was called "Bab al-Yahud," now the Almodovar gate. At...