Jews and Judaism

ADORAIM (Heb , ancient city of Judah, southwest of Hebron. It appears in the Bible only in the list of cities fortified by Solomon’s son, *Rehoboam (ii Chron. 11:9). Adoraim (Adoram) is also mentioned in the Book of Jubilees 38:8-9. In the Hellenistic period, when it was known as Adora, it was one of the […]

AFRICAN JEWISH CONGRESS The African Jewish Congress was founded in 1992 as a representative coordinating body for the Jewish communities in Sub-Saharan African countries. Its main aims are (a) to enable smaller Jewish communities to establish and maintain contact with larger Jewish communities, which in turn provide them with access to various facilities, and (b) […]

AGHLABIDS (known as Banu al-Aghlab), Arab Muslim dynasty that ruled Ifriqiyya (modern-day *Tunisia and eastern *Algeria) from 800 to 909. Its rulers were princes commonly referred to as amirs. It was subject to the *Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad but was in fact independent. The capital city was *Kairouan (al-Qayrawan) in Tunisia. During the ninth century […]

AGRIGENTO (Girgenti), town in Sicily. The Jewish community of Agrigento dates to classical antiquity, as attested by a tombstone found there, perhaps of the fifth century. In 598, during the pontificate of *Gregory the Great, a number of Jews were converted to Christianity. The community continued to exist throughout the period of Muslim domination and […]