‘Jew’, used as a term of address, now tends to be aggressive but was not always so. In literature it occurs from time to time. especially in plays or books like The Merchant of Venice where a Jewish character is important to the plot....

A member of the *Israelite people. A Jew is defined by the *Orthodox as one born from a Jewish mother or who has formally converted to *Judaism (see *PROSELYTE). By virtue of maternal descent, an individual is obliged to observe the *halakhah...

JEWISH PEOPLE. This entry discusses the sociological dimension of Judaism, in particular "Israel" in the historical sense of ʿam Yisraʾel (the "people of Israel," the Israelites). The article seeks to describe...

Jewish conceptions of atonement consist of various strands reflecting the plurality of connotations of the Hebrew term kipper ("to make atonement"). Etymologically, the biblical term may mean (1) "covering up" (Ex. 25:17,...

For the Jewish religion, see Judaism. For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). A Jew (Hebrew: יְהוּדִי, Yehudi (sl.); יְהוּדִים, Yehudim (pl.); Ladino: ג׳ודיו, Djudio (sl.); ג׳ודיוס, Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: ייִד, Yid...

President Jacques Chirac honored nearly 2,800 French people who rescued Jews from the Nazis, in a ceremony at the Pantheon in central Paris on Thursday.Chirac paid tribute to members of a group, known as the "Righteous of France," who risked their own lives to help...

World War II was over, and Anna Kohen, then a small child, was walking with her mother in Vlora, Albania, when a Muslim woman ran toward them, crying and calling her mother by an unfamiliar name.The women hugged and cried. Later, her mother explained that...

Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have helped convince dozens of Iranian Jews to move to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran's tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of...

Members of the Reform Jewish movement filed a complaint with police Wednesday against a former Israeli chief rabbi who blamed the liberal Jewish movement for the Holocaust.The complaint accused Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu of defamation after he told an ultra-Orthodox radio station last week that the...