LAMED – Twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; on its form see Alphabet. The meaning of the name is uncertain. The letter is a liquid, pronounced like the English "l"; it interchanges with the other liquid consonants and semivowels, and...
LAMED-WAW – The thirty-six hidden saints called among Russian Jews Lamed-waw-niks. The legend that there are in every generation thirty-six secret saints, through whose piety the world exists, is based upon the following passage in the...
LAMEGO – City in Portugal. Its Jewry was formerly situated in the Cruz da Pedra street, the present Rua Nova. Lamego was the meeting-place of many rich secret Jews or Neo-Christians, who were bitterly hated by the Christian population of...
LÄMEL, SIMON EDLER VON – Austrian merchant; born at Tuschkau near Pilsen, Bohemia, Aug. 28, 1766; died at Vienna April 18, 1845. Early bereft of his father, he quickly developed an inclination for mercantile pursuits, so that, when only twenty-one years...
LAMENTATIONS – Biblical Data: In the manuscripts and printed copies of the Old Testament the book is called, after its initial word, "Ekah"; in the Talmud and among the Rabbis, after its contents, "Ḳinot" (comp. especially B. B. 15a). The...
LÄMMLEIN – See Lemmlein, Asher.
LAMP OF JUDAISM – See Periodicals.
LAMP, PERPETUAL – In synagogues a perpetual light is maintained in a lamp which consists generally of a glass vessel containing a wick burning in olive-oil; this is held in an ornamental metal receptacle suspended from the ceiling in front of the...
LAMP, SABBATH – Special lamp or chandelier used in Jewish households on Sabbath eve. The lighting of a special lamp on Sabbath eve, regarded as a religious duty, is of early pharisaic origin (see Sabbath). The early tannaim speak of it as a...
LAMP, THE SEVEN-BRANCHED – See Candlestick; Menorah.
LAMPON – Enemy of the Jews; lived in the first century at Alexandria. During the reign of Caligula an outbreak against the Jews occurred at Alexandria in the year 38, which Flaccus, then governor of Egypt, made no attempt to check. Philo...
LAMPRONTI, ISAAC B. SAMUEL – Italian rabbi and physician; born Feb. 3, 1679, at Ferrara; died Nov. 16, 1756. His great-grandfather, Samuel Lampronti, emigrated from Constantinople to Ferrara in the sixteenth century. His father, a man of wealth, died when...
LANCASTER – Joseph Simon. Town founded in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1730; one of the six or seven cities in the United States containing pre-Revolutionary Jewish settlements. The earliest record of this interesting Jewish...
LÁNCZY, LEO – Hungarian deputy and financier; born in 1852. After having been connected for several years with the Anglo-Hungarian Bank and the Ungarische Boden-Credit-Gesellschaft, he was elected in 1881 director-general of the Hungarian...
LAND LAWS – See Agrarian Laws; Landlord and Tenant; Sabbatical Year.
LANDA-ON-THE-TAUBER – See Bischofsheim-on-the-Tauber.
LANDAU – A family name said to have been derived from the name of a city situated in western Germany.The name is found largely among Polish Jews, who probably were expelled from that city about the middle of the sixteenth century (see...
LANDAU, ADOLPH YEFIMOVICH – Russian journalist and publisher; born at Rossienny, Russia, 1841; died at Berlin July 21, 1902. In 1862 he moved to St. Petersburg, attended the lectures on law at the university, and after two years went to Kovno, where he...
LANDAU, LEOPOLD – German gynecologist; born at Warsaw July 16, 1848. He studied at the universities of Breslau, Würzburg, and Berlin, graduating from the last-named in 1870 (M.D.). He served through the Franco-Prussian war (1870-71) as assistant...
LANDAU, WOLF – German rabbi and author; born at Dresden March 1, 1811; died there Aug. 24, 1886; grandson of Chief Rabbi David Landau (known also as R. David Polak). After receiving his first Talmudic training from his father he continued his...
LANDAUER, M. H. – Writer on Jewish mysticism; born in 1808 at Kappel, near Buchau, Württemberg; died there Feb. 3, 1841. He was a son of the cantor Elias Landauer, and at the age of eighteen entered the yeshibah and lyceum in Carlsruhe; later he...
LANDAUER, SAMUEL – German Orientalist and librarian; born at Hürben, Bavaria, Feb. 22, 1846. He received his education at the yeshibah of Eisenstadt (Hungary), the gymnasium of Mayence, and the universities of Leipsic, Strasburg, and Munich (Ph.D....
LANDESBERG, MAX – Rumanian oculist; born in 1840 at Jassy; died at Florence March 4, 1895. He was educated at the gymnasium at Ratibor and at the University of Berlin (M.D. 1865). After a postgraduate course under Graefe, Landesberg went to...
LANDESMANN, HEINRICH – Austrian poet and philosophical writer; born at Nikolsburg Aug. 9, 1821; died at Brünn Dec. 4, 1902. From his earliest childhood he was very sickly; at the age of fifteen his sight and hearing were almost completely destroyed;...
LANDESRABBINER – Spiritual head of the Jewish communities of a country, province, or district; met with in several parts of Germany and Austria. The office is a result of the legal condition of the Jews in medieval times when the Jewish...