BOURGES – Capital of the department of Cher, France. From the beginning of the Middle Ages Jews dwelt in Bourges. It is recorded that in 568, and again in 624, attempts were made to convert them to Christianity ("Gallia Christiana," ii....
BOVO BUCH – See Baba Buch.
BOW – See Archer.
BOWL – See Drinking-Vessels.
BOX-TREE – Judging by Isa. lx. 13, the box-tree (A. V. "box") is a tree of the Lebanon, promised for the rebuilding of the Temple, together with the "fir-tree and pine." In Isa. xli. 19 there is a prophecy that the fir-tree, the pine, and...
BOZECCHI – Prominent Italian family, the members of which when settling at Rome called themselves after their native place, Buzecchio, in the province Forli. Traces of the family may be found as far back as the thirteenth century. A...
BOZRAH – Biblical Data: 1. According to Isa. xxxiv. 6, lxiii. 1; Amos i. 12; Jer. xlix. 13, 22, one of the principal cities, or perhaps the capital, of Edom. Gen. xxxvi. 33 (= I Chron. i. 44) states that the Edomite king Jobab, son of...
BOZZOLO, ḤAYYIM OBADIAH BEN JACOB OBADIAH DI – Talmudist and cabalist; lived at Salonica in the middle of the sixteenth century; probably a native of Bozzolo in Italy, wherefore Conforte ("Ḳore ha-Dorot," ed. Cassel, p. 39a) calls him "Di Bozzolo," while Nepi-Ghirondi...
BRACELETS – Gold Bracelet from Cyprus.(From the Cesnola collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)Ornaments in the form of rings for the arm, worn by the Hebrews, as well as by all ancient peoples. Besides serving as ornaments...
BRAFMANN, JACOB – Jewish convert to Christianity; born in Russia; died in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. After having tried many professions, among them photography, tuition, and commerce, he embraced Christianity. Supplied with his...
BRAGADINI – Family of printers at Venice. After the decline of the Bomberg printing-press a fierce rivalry grew up at Venice among the patrician families who wished to profit by printing Hebrew books. Among these, two distinguished...
BRAGANÇA – City of Portugal, in the province of Tras-os-Montes. In 1250 nineteen of the Jews living there were accused of usury. They increased to such an extent that a few years before their expulsion they paid 30,000 reis in taxes. Many...
BRAGIN – Village of Russia, in the government of Minsk, having a population (1898) of 4,520, including 2,248 Jews, of whom 256 were artisans and 31 laborers. The Jews maintain three charitable institutions and a Talmud Torah with 45...
BRAHAM, JOHN – English tenor singer; born in London 1774; died there Feb. 17, 1856. His parents dying in his childhood, he became a chorister at the Duke's Place Synagogue, till one of his former companions in the choir, named Leoni, adopted...
BRAHE, TYCHO – See Gans, David.
BRAHM, OTTO (Abrahamsohn) – German dramatic critic and manager; born in Hamburg Feb. 5, 1856. He studied philosophy, German philology, and the history of art, at Berlin, Heidelberg, and Strasburg, and was a pupil of Wilhelm Scherer, the historian of...
BRAILA – See Rumania.
BRAILOV – Town in the district of Vinitza, government of Podolia. The population at the census of 1897 was 8,972, including 3,924 Jews. Of the latter a few are engaged in agriculture, the pursuit of which was nearly closed to them by the...
BRAININ, RUBEN – Hebrew publicist and biographer; born in Russia in the last half of the nineteenth century; is now (1902) living in Berlin. At different times Brainin contributed to "Ha-Meliẓ," "Ha-Ẓefirah," "Ha-Maggid," and "Ha-Shiloaḥ." In...
BRAININ, SIMON – Russian physician; born at Riga, Livonia, July 15, 1854. He graduated from the gymnasium of his birthplace; studied medicine at the universities of Dorpat and Berlin; held the position of physician of the Jewish community of...
BRAMBLE – A prickly shrub. The word serves as a translation for two Hebrew terms and a Greek one, all of which, however, should receive other renderings.(1) "Aṭad" ( = the Assyrian "eṭidu") figures in the parable of Jotham. It is the last...
BRAMSON, LEO – Russian jurist and writer; born at Kovno April 17, 1869; graduated from the Moscow University as a "candidatus juris." He is a member of the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Society, secretary of the Jewish Colonization Association...
BRANDAM, FERNANDO ALVAREZ – Marano and physician at Lisbon in the seventeenth century; contemporary of Manuel Fernandez de Villa-Real, who characterizes him as "insigne y illustre ingenio." At the instance of his friend Isaac Fernando Cardoso, he wrote his...
BRANDEIS, BARUCH JUDAH (HA-LEVI) – Bohemian rabbi and author; lived in the second half of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century at Prague, where he was assistant rabbi (dayyan). He was the son of Bezaleel Brandeis, rabbi in Jung-Bunzlau,...
BRANDEIS, BEZALEEL BEN MOSES (HA-LEVI) – Bohemian rabbi and author; died about 1750 at Jung-Bunzlau, where he was district rabbi and director of a Talmudic academy. His father, who was styled "Ḥarif" by his contemporaries, was rabbi at Mayence, Germany. Bezaleel wrote...