LEMUEL – A king mentioned in the superscription to Prov. xxxi., which is addressed to him by his mother. Various theories have been proposed in explanation of the superscription. Cheyne reads "Jerahmeel." Others (e.g., Wildeboer) join...
LENCHITZA – District town in the government of Kalisz, Russian Poland. On April 20, 1639, members of its Jewish community were accused of ritual murder, owing to the disappearance of a Christian child, aged one and one-half years, from the...
LENGFELD, FELIX – American chemist; born at San Francisco Feb. 18, 1863; educated at the San Francisco College of Pharmacy, the University of California, Johns Hopkins University, and at Zurich, Liége, Munich, and Paris. Lengfeld has been fellow...
LENTILS – Edible seeds first mentioned in the Old Testament in Gen. xxv. 29-34, where it is related that Jacob gave Esau "bread and pottage of lentils" for his birth-right. Lentils were also among the provisions brought by Barzillai to...
LEO – Court physician to Grand Duke Ivan III. Vassilivich of Russia; executed at Moscow April 22, 1490. With the arrival at Moscow of the grand duke's second wife, Sophia Palæologus, niece of Constantine, the last Byzantine emperor...
LEO III.; LEO IV – See Chazars.
LEO X. (GIOVANNI DE MEDICI) – Two hundred and twenty-fourth pope; born at Florence Dec. 11, 1475; elected March 11, 1513; died Dec. 1, 1521. His pontificate was very favorable for the Jews in general and for the Jews of Rome in particular. The latter saw in...
LEO HEBRÆUS (Abravanel, Judah) – Physician, philosopher, and poet; born in Lisbon in the second half of the fifteenth century, and died at Venice in 1535. He accompanied his father, Isaac Abravanel, when the latter went to Spain and afterward to Naples, and...
LEO, LEWIS – Synagogue musician; born in London in 1809; died there Sept. 11, 1876; second son of the Rev. Simon Leo. He was a musician and composer of much ability, and was the first to arrange the various Hebrew chants and melodies for...
LEON – Ancient Spanish kingdom, bounded by Old Castile, Portugal, and Galicia. The Saracens ruled here until driven out by the Spaniards, who founded a kingdom of their own, which in 1218 was incorporated with Castile. In this kingdom...
LEON (LEÃO) – Spanish-Portuguese family having branches in Italy, Holland, Germany, England, southern France, the Orient, the West Indies, especially Jamaica, and Surinam.1. Abraham Judah Leon: Assistant rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese...
LEON DE BAGNOLS – See Levi b. Gershon.
LEON, DAVID CAMDEN DE – American physician and surgeon; born in South Carolina in 1813; died at Sante Fé, N. M., Sept. 3, 1872; brother of Edwin de Leon. He was educated in South Carolina and at the University of Pennsylvania (M.D. 1836). Shortly after...
LEON, EDWIN DE – American diplomat and journalist; born at Columbia, S. C., 1818; died in 1891; brother of David Camden de Leon. His father, a physician, removed to Columbia, S. C., and was mayor of that city for several years. De Leon graduated...
LEON JOSEPH OF CARCASSONNE – Physician; lived toward the end of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth. He devoted himself to the translation from the Latin into Hebrew of medical works. Among his numerous translations three are still...
LEON, LEONTIN – See Judah ben Meïr ha-Kohen.
LEON HA-LEVI – Provençal Jew who wrote a Purim parody under the pseudonym Labi ha-Levi because he feared that the Orthodox Jews would condemn his work. The treatise, called "Megillat Setarim," on "Midrash ha-Nabi ha-Labi ha-Lewi" (Venice,...
LÉON LÉVY BRUNSWICH (LHÉRIE) – See Brunswich, Léon Lévy.
LEON, MESSER DAVID BEN MESSER – Italian rabbi; flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He studied at Naples in the school of his father, Messer Leon, author of "Libnat ha-Sappir," and received at the age of eighteen his rabbinical diploma from...
LEON (JUDAH ARYEH) OF MODENA – Italian scholar, rabbi, and poet; son of Isaac of Modena and Diana Rachel; born April 23, 1571, at Venice; died there March 24, 1648. He was a descendant of a prominent French family. His grandfather Mordecai became...
LEON, MOSES (BEN SHEM-ṬOB) DE – Cabalistic writer; author, or redactor, of the Zohar; born at Leon, Spain, about 1250; lived in Guadalajara, Valladolid, and Avila; died at Arevalo in 1305, while returning to his home. He was familiar with the philosophers of...
LEON, THOMAS COOPER DE – Lecturer, journalist, author, and playwright; brother of Edwin de Leon; born at Columbia, S. C., 1839. He served in the Confederate army from 1861 to 1865, and after the Civil war edited "The Mobile Register" (1877), and "The...
LEON DI LEONE – See Judah Leon di Leone.
LEONE EBREO – See Judah Leone b. Isaac Sommo.
LEONTE (JUDAH) BEN MOSES – Roman rabbi; died in 1216. In the name of the community of Rome he sent a halakic decision to Judah ben Kalonymus of Speyer for approval("Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ," ii. 75; comp. Buber's introduction, note 87). The Roman manuscript...