Judah Loew ben Bezalel, also known as Rabbi Loew, the Maharal of Prague, or simply the Maharal, was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia.
Mikulov is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,600 inhabitants. The historic centre of Mikulov is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
The Old New Synagogue, also called the Altneuschul, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Josefov, Prague, in the Czech Republic. The synagogue is Europe's oldest active synagogue. Completed in 1270, it is also the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
The history of the Jews in Prague, the capital of today's Czech Republic, relates to one of Europe's oldest recorded and most well-known Jewish communities, first mentioned by the Sephardi-Jewish traveller Ibrahim ibn Yaqub in 965 CE. Since then, the community has existed continuously, despite various pogroms and expulsions, the Holocaust, and subsequent antisemitic persecution by the Czech Communist regime in the 20th century.
The Nederlands-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap (NIK) is the umbrella organisation for most Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and is Orthodox in nature, while to be described as traditional in outlook. The expression Orthodox, is for the Dutch situation at least, of a later date than the existence of the congregations that make up the NIK and the NIK itself. The Rabbi of the NIK is Rabbi Dr. Raphael Evers. In total, the NIK has some 20 rabbis actively working in 18 congregations throughout the country, serving some 5,000 Jews.
David Feuerwerker was a French Jewish rabbi and professor of Jewish history who was effective in the resistance to German occupation the Second World War. He was completely unsuspected until six months before the war ended, when he fled to Switzerland and his wife and baby went underground in France. The French government cited him for his bravery with several awards. After the war, he and his wife re-established the Jewish community of Lyon. He settled in Paris, teaching at the Sorbonne. In 1966, he and his family, grown to six children, moved to Montreal, where he developed a department of Jewish studies at the University of Montreal.
Shangarai Chasset, also called Shaarei Chesed, was an Orthodox and later, Reform, Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. The congregation worshipped in the Sefardi rite.
The Union Libérale Israélite de France, commonly referred to as the rue Copernic synagogue, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris, France. Inaugurated on 1 December 1907, it is the oldest Reform synagogue in France.
Abraham Samuel Bacharach was a Rabbi, born about 1575; died in Gernsheim, Electorate of Mainz, May 26, 1615. He seems to have come from the city of Worms, but is first met with at Prague, where, in 1600, he married Eva, the granddaughter of the chief rabbi of Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel. He was rabbi in Turbin, Kolín (Bohemia), and in Pohrlitz (Moravia); and was subsequently called to the ministry of the very important congregation of Worms. One of the frequent riots against the Jews, instigated by the guilds, caused him to flee from the city. He died during exile, and was buried in Alsbach. Bacharach was respected for his learning and piety. He took a firm stand against the rabbis of Frankfurt, who arrogated to themselves preeminence over all the other rabbis of Germany. A few of his responsa were published by his grandson, Jair Ḥayyim, in the collected "Ḥut ha-Shani". Bacharach was the author of an essay on the Jewish calendar, a number of apologetic works against Christianity, liturgical poems, and casuistic treatises. Some of his works are still extant in manuscript.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the New Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.
Sopron was historically the capital of a district with the same name. It was home to a Jewish community, according to a document of 1526, which dated back from the 10th century and is one of the oldest in Hungary.
The Great Synagogue in Lyon is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 13 quai Tilsitt in the IIe arrondissement of Lyon, France. Designed by Abraham Hirsch in the Byzantine Revival style, the synagogue was built between 1863 and 1864 and renovated in 2014. The building was listed as a monument historique on 5 December 1984. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite.
The beginnings of the history of the Jews in Besançon go back to the Middle Ages, a period during which the Jews settled in the city attracted by its activity as a commercial place. The community was founded at the end of the 14th century and, due to its status as a free imperial city, Besançon remained one of the only territories in present-day France to tolerate Jews after their expulsion from the kingdom of France in 1394. The community was nevertheless expelled in turn from Besançon in the middle of the 15th century. The Jews made a tentative return to the city in the 18th century, but it was only after the French Revolution, which emancipated them, that their situation in the Franche-Comté capital stabilized. Although the Jewish community never exceeded 2,000 people except on the eve of the Second World War, it experienced great economic success during the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century, when the Lipmann family founded LIP, a brand of watchmaking which then became one of the economic engines of the region and remained associated with the name of the city.
The Synagogue de Nazareth, officially Synagogue de la rue Nazareth, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth, in the IIIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The synagogue is the oldest of the 'great' synagogues of Paris.
}} The Grand Synagogue of Paris, generally known as Synagogue de la Victoire or Grande Synagogue de la Victoire, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 44, Rue de la Victoire, in the IXe arrondissement of Paris, France.
Kehilat Gesher is a Liberal Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Rue Léon Cogniet, in the XVIIe arrondissement of Paris, France.
The Luxembourg Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, located on Avenue Monterey, in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
Coralie Cahen was a French philanthropist and sculptor.
The Rouen Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 55 rue des Bons-Enfants in Rouen, in the region of Normandy, France. The congregation is affiliated with the Israelite Central Consitory of France, and worships in the Sephardic rite.
