ALLIANZ, ISRAELITISCHE, ZU WIEN
Jewish society in Vienna, originally intended to operate as a branch of the *Alli-ance Israelite Universelle in Paris, with similar aims. Since the Austrian authorities opposed affiliation with the Alliance, the Vienna Allianz was established as an independent society in 1873. Its first president was Joseph von *Wertheimer. Initially, it concentrated on assisting Jews in *Romania and *Siberia. It aided Jewish victims of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 and supported the Alliance in its efforts to obtain equal civil rights for the Jews in the Balkans. At the Congress of *Berlin in 1878 the Allianz took up the Balkan issue in cooperation with the special Jewish committee for liaison with the congress. With the outbreak of the pogroms in 1881-82, the Allianz participated in relief and migration activities. It organized and maintained a number of educational institutions in Galicia and Bu-kovina, later supported by the *Baron de Hirsch Fund. The Allianz combatted antisemitism, notably at the *Tisza-Eszlar (1883) and *Polna (1899) blood-libel trials. Relief and emigration projects were established in conjunction with the "Esra" Association of Berlin and the *Jewish Colonization Association (ica) to benefit Romanian and Russian Jewry between 1897 and 1905. During World War i, the society chiefly aided Jewish war victims; after the war it helped Jewish refugees and emigrants in transit through Vienna. The Allianz was liquidated in 1938 after the Anschluss.
ALLON, GEDALYA
(formerly Rogoznizki; 1901-1950), historian. Allon was born in Kobrin, Russia, and studied at the Slobodka yeshivah. In 1917 he returned to Kobrin, where he became active in the Zionist movement and established a religious Hebrew school, H evrona. After a year’s study in Berlin in 1924 he immigrated to Palestine. He was in 1931 one of the first graduates of the Hebrew University and then taught Talmud and Jewish history there. Allon clarified many problems in the development of halakhah and the evolution of the social history of the Jews. He argued that the period following the destruction of the Second Temple should not be viewed as the beginning of the Diaspora, but as a continuation of the period of autonomous existence in Palestine, retaining the basic elements of national independence (the lack of which is characteristic of the Diaspora). Allon’s work, combining an exhaustive acquaintance with source material and an acute critical sense, placed the history of Palestinian Jewry in the first centuries of the Common Era upon a new basis. His To-ledot ha-Yehudim be-Erez Yisrael bi-Tekufat ha-Mishnah ve-ha-Talmud ("History of the Jews in Palestine in the Period of the Mishnah and the Talmud," 2 vols., 1953-56) was published posthumously, as were Mehkarim be-Toledot Yisrael bi-Yemei Bayit Sheni u-vi-Tekufat ha-Mishnah ve-ha-Talmud (2 vols., 1957-58) and collected essays that had appeared in various scholarly journals.
ALLON (Paicovitch), YIGAL
(1918-1980), Israeli statesman and military commander; member of the Third to Ninth Knes-sets. Allon was born in Mesha, which later changed its name to *Kefar Tavor, in the Lower Galilee. His father, Reuven Yosef Paicovitch, a member of Hovevei Zion in Grodno, Russia, had settled in Eretz Israel in 1882. Allon received his elementary schooling in his native village and graduated in 1937 from the Kadoorie Agricultural High School. In that year he became one of the founders of Kibbutz *Ginnosar, where he was to reside for the rest of his life.
As a boy Allon joined the *Haganah, and in 1936, at the age of 18, became a member of the newly created special units (peluggot sadeh) under Yizhak *Sadeh, rapidly rising to officer rank. In 1941 Allon was among the founders of the *Palmah, and in this capacity he fought with the British forces in Syria and Lebanon in the years 1941-42. In 1943 he became the deputy commander of the Palmah, and after Sadeh became acting chief of staff of the Haganah in 1945, he replaced him as its commander. In this capacity he was responsible for planning the Palmah’s multifaceted training program, operations against Arab bands, and attacks on civilian and military installations of the British Administration during the last years of its presence in Palestine. He also played a major role in smuggling immigrants illegally into the country (Aliyah Bet), and establishing settlements in prohibited zones. During the *War of Independence Allon commanded in decisive battles for the liberation of the Upper Galilee and Safed in the north; Lydda, Ramleh, and the Jerusalem Corridor in the center of the country; and the Southern Coastal Plain and the Negev, including Beersheba and Eilat, in the south. He also commanded the forces that entered deep into Sinai, as far as El-Arish, but was ordered by David *Ben-Gurion, who was under American pressure, to withdraw. Ben-Gurion also blocked his plans to capture the West Bank from King Abdullah’s Arab Legion, even though Allon believed he could accomplish the mission within three weeks.
In 1950, following the dissolution of the Palmah on Ben-Gurion’s orders, Allon left active military service, but in the eyes of many remained a war hero whose military career had wrongfully been cut short. Allon then entered active politics, joining the leadership of the Kibbutz Hame’uh ad kibbutz movement, and *Mapam within the framework of his own movement. However, he objected to Mapam’s pro-Soviet leanings and supported the decision of his movement’s four mks in Mapam to break away from the combined parliamentary group in the summer of 1954. Allon then joined the leadership of the reinstated *Ahdut ha-Avodah-Po’alei Zion. In 1955 he was elected to the Third Knesset, and was to serve in all the Knessets until his death in February 1980. He resigned from the Fourth Knesset in October 1960 in order to pursue his studies at Oxford but was forced to cut short his stay in Great Britain because of early elections for the Fifth Knesset. Nevertheless, during his stay in Oxford, Allon met many of the leaders of the British Labour Party, several of whom became his personal friends.
From 1961 to 1968 Allon served as minister of labor, in which capacity he promoted the improvement of the state-run employment service and manpower training, initiated extensive road works, and introduced new legislation on labor relations, including laws regulating strikes and lockouts and the establishment of labor courts. During his term of office, social insurance was extended. During the crisis leading up to the 1967 *Six-Day War, when Prime Minister Levi *Eshkol was advised to appoint a minister of defense in order to soothe the public, Eshkol preferred Allon, but due to Allon’s absence abroad in the critical days, and pressure from other quarters, it was Moshe *Dayan, Allon’s long-time rival from the days of the Palmah, who was appointed. Eshkol compensated him by appointing him deputy prime minister and minister for immigrant absorption.
Allon had strongly supported the establishment of the Alignment between *Mapai and Ahdut ha-Avodah in 1965, and in 1968 supported the union of Mapai, Ah dut ha-Avodah, and *Rafi to form the *Israel Labor Party. Following the Six-Day War he developed a plan for a permanent settlement of the Palestinian problem, which came to be known as the "Allon Plan." The plan, which sought to maximize Israel’s security while minimizing the number of Palestinians who would remain under Israeli rule, proposed that most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip be handed over to Jordan, which would turn into a Jordanian-Palestinian state. Israel would remain in united Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley (except for a corridor connecting the Kingdom of Jordan with the West Bank around Jericho), the first mountain ridge west of the Jordan River, *Gush Etzyon, and the Latrun area. The Allon Plan was never adopted by the Government, but until 1977 most of the Jewish settlements in the territories were established within its parameters. Following the elections to the Seventh Knesset, held in 1969 under Golda *Meir’s leadership, Allon was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture, and he was given the same positions in the government that Meir formed after the election of the Eighth Knesset on December 31, 1973. After Meir’s resignation, following the publication of the Interim Report of the Agranat Commission on the outbreak of the *Yom Kippur War, Yitzhak *Rabin, who was elected by the Labor Party as its new chairman and its candidate for prime minister, appointed Allon deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, in which post he replaced Abba *Eban, who was not included in the new government. As foreign minister Allon was a member of the negotiating team that held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Henry *Kissinger on the Disengagement Agreements with Egypt and Syria in 1974, and the Interim Agreement with Egypt in 1975. In 1974 he also tried to promote his "Jericho Plan," under which Israel would hand over Jericho and an area around it to King Hussein of Jordan, as a first step towards implementing the Allon Plan, but the results of the Rabat Arab Summit Conference foiled his plans.
Serving under Yitzhak Rabin, who had been his subordinate in the Palmah and five years his junior, was not easy for Allon, but the relations between the two remained friendly. Following the 1977 election upset that brought *Menahem Begin to power, he remained a member of the Knesset, and was appointed chairman of the World Labor Zionist Organization. Among the issues that Allon promoted in the Knesset was the Mediterranean-Dead Sea canal for the generation of electricity. In the vote on the Camp David Accords with Egypt of September 1978, Allon abstained for ideological reasons. Allon also supported the creation of a united kibbutz movement, in order to better confront the economic difficulties that the kibbutzim faced following the 1977 elections.
In the books he wrote between 1948 and 1967 Allon developed a defense doctrine, which included the concept of "anticipatory initiative." He wrote "The Making of the Israeli Army," in M. Howard, Theory and Practice of War (1965), 335-7, and his books include Maarekhot Palmah ("Palmah Campaigns," 1966), Masakh shel Hol ("Curtain of Sand," 1968), Shield of David (1970), and My Fathers House (1976).
Even after his premature death, differences of opinion remained as to whether Yigal Allon had been deliberately denied his rightful place as leader of the Israel Labor Party, or whether he had lost something of his charisma and qualities of leadership after ending his military career. In the late 1970s British Labour Party leader Harold Wilson said of Allon that he would never assume the leadership of his party, since he was "incapable of going for the kill." Friends and foes alike, however, never denied his humanity and charm.
ALLONEI ABBA
(Heb
moshav shittufi in northern Israel, in western Lower Galilee. Affiliated with Ha-Oved ha-Z iyyoni movement, Allonei Abba was founded on May 23, 1948, during the War of Independence. Many of the settiers were survivors of the Holocaust from Czechoslovakia, Romania, Germany, and other countries. The economy was based mainly on farming: poultry, dairy cattle, field crops, and vineyards. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 200, increasing to 283 in 2002. The name refers to the natural Tabor oaks in the vicinity (allon, "oak") and also commemorates the *Haganah hero Abba Berdiczew who died during World War 11 after having been parachuted into Slovakia.
ALLONEI YIZHIAK
(Heb
youth village in central Israel. It was founded in 1948 within the confines of neighboring *Kefar Glickson, with which it continued to be closely linked. In 1949 it received its own land in the vicinity. Its establishment was aided by the *General Zionist and Progressive parties and by the *Hadassah Organization of America. Within the framework of *Youth Aliyah, Allonei Yizh ak trained immigrant children, principally in agriculture, and held courses for American high school students under the auspices of its American-Israel Secondary School Program. Subsequently it became a boarding school housing 75% of the village’s students and still absorbing immigrant youth with special ulpan courses to learn Hebrew. The village included various farm branches, where students worked one day a week. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 300, dropping to 223 from 20 different countries in 2002. The name ("oaks of Yizh ak") refers to the oak forest formerly in the vicinity and to the Zionist leader Yizhak *Gruenbaum.
ALLONIM
(Heb.
kibbutz in northern Israel,on the Tivon hills of western Lower Galilee. Allonim was founded in 1938 as a "tower and stockade" settlement during the Arab riots. The original settlers were graduates of the first *Youth Aliyah group from Germany. In 1968 it had over 500 inhabitants, including immigrants from various countries and Israeli-born. In 2002 the population was 547. The kibbutz economy was based on intensive mixed farming (field crops, dairy cattle, sheep, poultry). It was also home to the Algat Company, specializing in aluminum finishing processes for the aircraft, military, and other high-technology industries.
ALLOUCHE, FELIX NISSIM S’AIDOU
(1901-?), Tunisian editor. Born in Sfax, Allouche was editor of the local newspaper Depeche Sfaxienne, formed a Zionist club in 1919, and in 1929 became associated with Vladimir *Jabotinsky. In 1924 he founded the Jewish weekly, Le Reveil Juif, and in 1934 became editor of Tunis Soir, which took a militant Zionist line; he also helped to found the Zionist weekly, La Vie Juive. During World War ii, he joined the Resistance and later served as
Tunis correspondent for newspapers in Europe and America. Attacked bitterly by the Tunisian national press, he emigrated to Israel in 1956.
ALLUF
(Heb
honorary title conferred on scholars of the Babylonian academies who had the privilege of sitting in the first row. The word is of biblical origin: the tribal chiefs of Edom were called allufim (Gen. 35:15ft".). (1) In the Bible, this word has two principal meanings: (a) "friend, companion, intimate" (cf. Jer. 3:4; 13:21; Micah 7:5; Ps. 55:14; Prov. 2:17; 16:28; 17:9); (b) according to the current interpretation, "chieftain," but more probably (and this also applies to the Ugaritic alp) "clan" (which is also a meaning of alluf in Gen. 36:15-43; Ex. 15:15; I Chron. 1:51-54). (2) In the geonic period alluf was synonymous with the title of the *resh kallah which was already current in the Babylonian academies in the talmudic period. Originally the title was conferred on the seven heads of the *Kallah who served in Sura and Pumbedita, but from the ninth century onward it was also bestowed upon prominent scholars and personalities residing in other countries. (3) Based upon Psalms 55:14 the term allufi u-meyudda’i was used in classical-style Hebrew as an address in letters to a friend or teacher. Similarly, prominent members of the Jewish community councils were often referred to among Ashkenazim as allufim. (4) Rank in the Defense Forces of the State of Israel, equivalent to major general (see *Israel, Defense Forces).
AL-MADARI
(Al-Mudari, Al-Mundari, El-Modari), JUDAH HA-KOHEN BEN ELEAZAR (Eliezer?) HE-HI ASID (13th-14th century), talmudic scholar of Aleppo. Al-Madari compiled a commentary to the code of Isaac *Alfasi, part of which is no longer extant. Though he was commenting on Alfasi, he based his book on Rashi’s commentary and also cited Maimonides and other later scholars. It is probable that the novellae to the Talmud quoted in his name by various authorities are in reality quotations from his commentary on Alfasi and are not from separate compilations. His commentaries on tractates Yevamot, Ketubbot, Gittin, Kiddushin, Sanhedrin, and Avodah Zarah were printed in the 1962 edition of the Talmud published in Jerusalem (Pardess, El Hame-koroth). His commentaries to Pesahim and Megillah were seen by H .J.D. Azulai.
ALMAGIA, ROBERTO
(1884-1962), Italian geographer and historian of cartography. He was born in Florence and in 1911 became professor at the University of Padua, which he left in 1915 to become professor in Rome. His early interests lay in geology and oceanography, but he moved to the history of geographical science and finally to the history of cartography. His first published work was Studi geografici sopra le frane in Italia (2 vols., 1907 and 1910). His Cristoforo Colombo appeared in 1918, and in 1937, Gli italiani primi esploratori dell’America, in which he dealt in detail with the Italian contribution to the discovery of America. From 1920 he was co-editor of the Rivista Geografica Italiana, published by the Societa di Studi Geografici, of which he became president in 1955. In 1922 he published L "Italia" di G.A. Magini e la cartografia dell’Italia nei sec. xvi e xvii. He edited in 1929 Monumenta Italiae Cartographica, a volume of reproductions of early maps of Italy. During World War 11 he was granted refuge in the Vatican, where he prepared Monumenta cartografica Vaticana (4 vols., 1944-55). Il mondo attuale (3 vols., 1953-56) and L’Italia (2 vols., 1959) are his outstanding works on general and Italian geography. Al-magia achieved an international reputation and was the recipient of many honors. His interest in a Jewish homeland is shown in his La Questione della Palestina (1918), Una Escur-sione in Palestina (1925), and Palestina (1930).
ALMAGRO
Town in Castile, Spain, administrative center of the Order of *Calatrava. Jews probably settled there soon after the Christian reconquest (14th century). It was one of only four communities in the area of Ciudad Real that existed in the 14th and 15th centuries. The community developed during the 15th century, when cities in the crown domains offered little security to their Jewish population, but from the amount of tax paid it was a small one. During the 1460s it was able to construct a synagogue. There was also a sizeable *Converso group, and many Conversos from Ciudad Real took refuge there when they were attacked in 1449, 1469, and 1474. A number of the New Christians in Almagro were sentenced by the Inquisition in Ciudad Real and Toledo. The Jewish community was assessed to pay 800 maravedis in 1474 and 4,365 marave-dis in 1485 to finance the war against Granada, and survived until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. There is no information on the location of the Jewish quarter.
ALMAGOR
(Heb.
"No Fear"), moshav on the Corazim Plateau N. of Lake Kinneret. Almagor was founded in 1961 as a *Nah al outpost on the Israeli-Syrian border (until 1967). A number of its soldier-settlers fell in Syrian ambushes in the vicinity and a monument was erected here in their memory. Its economy was based on out-of-season crops, vineyards, sheep, and poultry as well as mango and olive orchards. The moshav also operated a rest house, pub, and sailing facilities on the lake. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 250, dropping to 207 in 2002.
ALMAGOR, GILA
(1939- ), first lady of Israeli stage and screen; also the author of several children’s books. Born in Petah Tikvah, Almagor wrote about her troubled childhood as the daughter of a widowed, mentally ill Holocaust survivor in her book, The Summer of Aviya, which was filmed in 1988. It starred Almagor herself in a role based on her mother. The prize-winning film was followed by another book, Under the Domim Tree, and another film adaptation starring Almagor. These two films are highlights in a career that began when she was 17 and appeared in the Habimah National Theater’s production of The Skin of Our Teeth. Her stage credits include Medea, The Crucible, and Three Sisters. She has appeared in over 35 films, including Sallah Shabbati (1964), The House on Chelouche Street (1973), Operation Thunderbolt (1977), Life According to Agfa (1992), and The Gospel According to God (2004). She was awarded the Israel Prize in 2004. Almagor is married to Ya’akov Agmon, the former director of Habimah.
ALMAN, SAMUEL
(1877-1947), composer of synagogue and secular music. Alman was born in Sobolevka, Podolia. From 1895 until 1903 he studied at the Odessa and Kishinev conservatories. While at Kishinev, he was strongly influenced by the cantor *Razumni. After the ^Kishinev pogrom (1903) Alman went to London where he attended the Royal College of Music, and wrote a biblical opera King Ahaz (performed in 1912). He served as choirmaster of various London synagogues (notably at Humpstead) and Jewish choral groups. Alman’s style was deeply rooted in the Southern Russian cantorial tradition, and he owed much to the choral technique of the meshore-rim ("choristers"), as heard in the compositions of N. Spivak. He solved the problem of modern harmonization by following (especially in his instrumental works) the impressionistic style of Debussy. Alman succeeded in preserving the melodic features and deep sentiments of the Eastern European Ashke-nazi chant, often creating a mystical atmosphere. Among his published works are Shirei Beit ha-Knesset, 2 vols. (1925, 1938), for cantor and choir; Psalm 15 (1915) for chorus and organ, and Psalm 133 (1934) for chorus and piano; "Mi addir" and "Sheva berakhot" (1930) for cantor and organ; Ethics of the Fathers (1928); many arrangements of Yiddish folk songs; and compositions for strings including the quartet suite Ebraica (1932). In addition, he edited Shirei Rozumni (1930) and the supplement to F.L. Cohen’s Voice of Prayer and Praise (1933).
ALMANSI
(Almanzi), Italian family, originally deriving from Almansa, near Murcia, Spain. About 1665 Abraham Almansi established himself in Scandiano in the duchy of Modena. The family continued to be associated with this little place until the 20th century. The synagogue there, long maintained in the house of Isaac Almansi, was rebuilt by his sons in 1740. Later the family became scattered throughout Italy. baruch H ayyim of Padua (d. 1837) was a noted bibliophile who purchased in 1812 a great part of the important library of H ayyim Joseph David *Azulai. His eldest son was Joseph *Almanzi (1801-1860) the poet and book collector. emilio (1869-1948) of Florence was a distinguished physicist and mathematician, noted for his contribution in the field of mechanics of the theory of elasticity. dante (d. 1948), a magistrate who was a Fascist party member and deputy chief of police (prefetto) was forced into retirement when the Italian racial laws came into operation in 1938. He was designated president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and made responsible for securing government authority in 1939 to found, together with Lelio Vittori Valobra, the vice president of the Italian Jewish Communities, Delasem (Delegazione Assistenza Ebrei). He presided over the Union of Italian Jewish Communities with exceptional dignity during the period of racial persecution.
AL-MANS UR AL-YAHUDl
(early ninth century), court musician of the Umayyad caliph al-H akam i, in Cordoba, Spain. A written record of this author’s contribution to music is reported in the book Naflt al- Ub of the historian and biographer al-Maqqari (1591-1632), who relied on other source material of the Andalusian historian ibn H ayyan (987-1076). Al-Maqqari refers to al-Mansur in the colorful story describing the arrival in Cordoba in 822 of a leading musician, Ziryab. The story relates that al-Mansur was sent by caliph al-Hakam to meet him in Kairouan and escort him to Cordoba. When the two musicians met, the news reached them of the sudden death of the caliph (822). Al-Mansur then succeeded in persuading Ziryab to offer his services to the new caliph, ‘Abd al-Rahman ii. Thus, al-Mansur helped bring about the splendid era of Arab music in Spain inaugurated by Ziryab. It is assumed that al-Mansur continued his musical activity together with Ziryab.
ALMANZI, JOSEPH
(1801-1860), Italian Hebrew author and poet. He was born in Padua and received his instruction in Jewish studies mainly from R. Israel *Conegliano, who remained his teacher for 20 years. He also acquired a knowledge of Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, Latin, Italian, French, and German. Almanzi never married and devoted his time (when not engaged in trade) to Hebrew literary works and the expansion of his library. This contained thousands of Hebrew books, among them rare and valuable prints and manuscripts, several coming from the collection of Hayyim Joseph David *Azulai. Almanzi’s collection became widely known among Jewish scholars and many of them turned to him for their literary research; he responded willingly and thereby became friendly with the greatest scholars of his generation, such as S.D. Luzzatto, Zunz, Fuerst, and Steinschneider. Toward the end of his life he moved from Padua to Trieste. Most of his poems, which bear the signature "Yoel," are sonnets of moral-didactic content. He also wrote: Me’il Kinah (a lament on the death of his teacher, R. Israel Conegliano (Reggio, 1824)); To-ledot R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto (first published in Kerem Hemed and several times thereafter as a preface to the books of R. Moses Hayyim *Luzzatto), a detailed and accurate biography of M. H. Luzzatto; Higgayon be-Khinnor, original and translated poems (Vienna, 1839); Kinnim va-Hegeh va-Hi on the death of Jacob Hay Vita Pardo, published in S.D. Luzzat-to’s work Avnei Zikkaron (Prague, 1841); and Nezem Zahav (97 sonnets, Padua, 1858; new edition, Tel Aviv, 1950). In addition Almanzi published poems in various periodicals; these included a translated fragment from Horace’s "On the Art of Poetry" (in Bikkurei ha-Ittim ha-Hadashim, Vienna, 1845). After his death, his heirs published a catalogue of books of Jewish interest found in his library; the catalogue was edited by S.D. *Luzzatto and entitled Yad Yosef (Padua, 1864). It lists also Almanzi’s published works. Almanzi’s manuscripts were described by S.D. Luzzatto in Steinschneider’s Hebraeische Bib-liographie, 4-6 (1861-68). In 1865 the British Museum bought Almanzi’s manuscript collection for a thousand pounds; the collection served as the foundation for the large Hebrew manuscript department of that institution.
ALMERIA
Spanish Mediterranean seaport. A Jewish community was formed in Almeria at the end of the tenth century by refugees from the neighboring settlement of Pechina. The community became one of the most prosperous and important in Andalusia. The Jewish quarter was near the harbor. With the fall of the Caliphate many Jews of Cordoba moved to Almeria. The Jews were engaged in maritime trade. Approximately 2000 Jews lived in Almeria at the time. In the 11th century, the vizier of Almeria, Ibn Abbas, published libelous tracts against *Samuel ha-Nagid, vizier to the king of Granada, and the Jews. His attitude led to war, in the course of which the king of Almeria was killed and Ibn Abbas executed on Samuel’s instructions. According to Abraham *Ibn Ezra’s historical elegy (Ahah Yarad, line 4), no Jews in Almeria survived the Almohade persecution of the mid-12^ century, but the community revived subsequently. Later, the *Black Death resulted in much suffering. The treaty of surrender on the Christian Reconquest of Almeria in 1489 afforded the Jews the same protection as the Moors. The conquerors found there some Conversos who had fled from Castile. After the edict of expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 a number of exiles sailed from Almeria for North Africa.
ALMOG, RUTH
(1936- ), Israeli writer. Almog was born in Petah Tikvah to an Orthodox family of German descent. "My parents emigrated from Germany in 1933. My mother insisted on it, she was a pessimist while my father was an idealist. As he could not find work as a physician, which was his profession, he decided to become a farmer, partly out of idealism. And so they bought beehives." Childhood memories, the atmosphere of the first Hebrew *moshavah, and the figure of the father are indeed recurring elements in Almog’s prose. Almog studied literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University and taught in schools as well as at Tel Aviv University, making her home in Tel Aviv and from 1967 serving on the editorial staff of the literary supplement of the newspaper Haaretz.
Almog is considered one of the seminal women-writers in contemporary Hebrew literature. Relationships within the family, love, passion and betrayal, romantic dreams, and disillusionment are some of the major concerns in her prose. Following a collection of stories entitled Hasdei ha-Laylah shel Margarita (1969), she published Be-Erez Gezerah ("The Exile," 1971), the story of a young woman’s journey to Germany in search of her family roots and her own identity. In her novel Mavet ba-Geshem (1982; "Death in the Rain," 1993), set against the Mediterranean landscapes of Israel and Greece, she depicts an intricate relationship between three men and two women. Shorshei Avir ("Roots of Light," 1987) is the story of Mira Gut-man, who desparately tries to disentangle her roots in an attempt to free herself from the coils of her family’s fate. Unlike some of the other women-figures in Almog’s stories, Mira, a modern Antigone, refuses to be passive and submissive. The death of her lover Jan during the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia prompts her to fight for the ideal of freedom. The collection of stories Nashim ("Women," 1986) depicts women coping with loneliness, physical handicaps, and haunting memories: In "Rachel Stern meets Fellini in Rome," Almog juxtaposes the longing for life and the painful awareness of immanent death; In "Henya Is No Longer Blue," she describes Henya’ s physical deterioration and her last moments of grace. The collection entitled Kol ha-Osher ha-Mufraz ha-Zeh (2003) depicts, amongst other things, Holocaust survivors and immigrants who are trying to build a new life in Israel. This is also the theme of Me’il Katon (1993), the story of the boy Shaul-Paul who grows up amidst old and sickly immigrants from Europe and Oriental Jews. Almog’s other works include the epistolary novel Be-Ahavah, Natalia (2005), various collections of stories, books for children, and two novels which she wrote together with Esther Ettinger (Meahev Mushlam, 1995, and Estelina Ahuvati, 2002). Almog was awarded the Brenner Prize (1989), the Agnon Prize (2001), and the Yad Vashem Prize for children’s literature for "My Journey with Alex"(1999).
Almog’s story "Shrinking" is included in Six Israeli Novellas (edited by G. Shaked, 1999); "Dora’s Secret" appeared in The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories (edited by G. Abramson, 1996); and "A Good Spot" is included in New Women’s Writing from Israel (edited by R. Domb, 1996).
ALMOG (Kopeliovitz), YEHUDA
(1896-1972), leading figure of the Third *Aliyah. Almog, who was born near Vilna, joined Joseph *Trumpeldor in organizing *He-Halutz. In 1919 he settled in Palestine, where he was a founder of *Gedud ha-Avodah. In 1923 he went to Soviet Russia as an emissary of He-H alutz and later to Persia and other countries. He was a founder of the kibbutz Ramat Rahel, near Jerusalem. From 1934 onward Almog devoted himself to the needs of the potash factory workers living in the difficult conditions of Sodom as well as to the settlement of the Dead Sea area and the development of *Masada as a national monument. His writings include Hlevel Sedom ("Sodom Region," 1945), and Hlevel Yam ha-Melah ("Dead Sea Region," 1956).
ALMOGI (Krelenboim), YOSEF AHARON
(1910-1991), Israeli politician and labor leader, member of the Third to Eighth Knessets. Almogi was born in Hrubieszow, Poland. In 1924 he joined the Dror youth movement and in 1928 started to prepare for his immigration to Erez Israel. For a number of years after arriving in Erez Israel in 1930, he worked as a laborer in orange groves and in construction. He was a member of the Kefar Sava Labor Council and joined the *Haganah. In 1936 he was sent to organize the *Hapoel defense units within the *Histadrut in the Tel Aviv area, and in 1937 he organized the Hapoel defense units within the Histadrut in Haifa. In 1940 he enlisted in the British Army; he was taken prisoner by the Germans in Greece, remaining in a prison camp until the end of the war and organizing the Jewish prisoners of war from Erez Israel. In the years 1947-51 Almogi was acting secretary of the Haifa Labor Council, and in 1948 organized a special labor brigade which took over the essential services of the city when the British evacuated it. In 1951-59 he served as secretary of the Council.
Almogi was elected to the Third Knesset in 1955 as a member of *Mapai. He served as secretary-general of Mapai in 1959-61 and as minister of housing and development in 1963-65. He was one of the members who broke away from Mapai in May 1965 together with David *Ben-Gurion to form *Rafi, and subsequently resigned from the government. Half a year after Rafi participated in the formation of the *Israel Labor Party in January 1968, he was appointed minister of labor. Almogi was reelected to the Eighth Knesset in 1973, but was not given a seat in the government, since he was elected mayor of Haifa, a position he held in 1974-75. In 1975-78 he served as president of the World Zionist Organization. His autobiography, Be-Ovi ha-Korah ("In the Thick of Things"), was published in 1980.
ALMOHADS
(Arab. Al-Muwahhhidun; "Those who Advocate the Unity of Allah"), Moroccan Berbers from Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains. Like their predecessors, the *Almoravids (al-Murabitun), who ruled major areas of the Maghreb and Muslim Spain, the Almohads comprised a confederation of local Berber tribes. The Almohads were influenced by puritanical notions of Islam to even a greater degree than the Al-moravids. They had been essentially inspired by the religious teachings of Ibn Tumart (d. 1130), whose doctrine was a melange of a strict conception of the unity of Allah, with a program of moral reform based on the Koran and the Sunnah: the traditional social and legal practice of the early Muslim community.
In 1121, Ibn Tumart proclaimed himself the mahdt, or spiritual-messianic leader, openly questioned the legitimacy of Almoravid rule, and waged a protracted war against them in the Maghreb. Ibn Tumart’s actions came in the aftermath of a series of military challenges posed to the Almoravids also by the Christians in Spain, who had previously carried out the early phases of their plan of "re-conquest" and de-Islamization.
Under Ibn Tumart’s successor, Abd al-Mu’min, the Almohads brought down the Almoravid state in 1147; they captured *Marrakesh and transformed it into their Maghrebi capital. On the other hand, Almoravid domains in Muslim Spain were left virtually intact until the caliph Abu Ya’qub Yusuf forced the surrender of Seville in 1172. The spread of Almohad rule over the rest of Islamic Spain soon followed. During the reign of Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-Mansur (1184-99) serious Arab rebellions devastated the eastern provinces of the empire, whereas in Spain the Christian threat remained constant. At the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), the Almo-hads were dealt a devastating defeat by a Christian coalition from Leon, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon. They retreated to their Maghrebi provinces, where soon afterwards the Muslim Hafsids seized power in Tunis, the Abd al-Wadids took Tlim-san (*Tlemcen), and Marrakesh, the Almohad capital, fell to the Marinids in 1269.
The decline and eventual fall of the Almohad state was attributed to three main reasons. First, it shared power with no group outside its own hierarchy placing the center of power solely in the hands of the founders and descendants. Secondly, the puritanical orientation of Ibn Tumart waned gradually among his many followers after his death. Under his successors, precedents had been set for the construction of costly and lavish "non-puritan" monuments. The famous Kutubiya mosque in Marrakesh and the older parts of the mosque of Taza attest to this policy. Neither did the movement for a return to traditional orthodox Islam survive; both the mystical movement of the Sufis and the philosophical school represented by Ibn Tufayl and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) flourished under the Almohad kings. Finally, the Almohads proved to be intolerant toward their Muslim opponents and the Maghrebi Jewish minority, thus alienating diverse segments of the population. In fact, in the pre-Almohad Maghreb the position of the Jews was apparently free of significant abuses. No factual complaints were registered prior to 1147 of excesses, coercion, or malice on the part of the authorities. After the ascendance of the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-Mansur, however, the Jews began to encounter humiliations; many were forced to convert to Islam and had to wear the qalansuwa, a cap of strange and ugly shape, reaching down to their ears. The Jews, who officially had been converted to Islam but were suspected of secretly practicing their own religion, were compelled to wear special, and rather ridiculous, clothes so that the Muslims easily identified them. At the same time, Jews were not the only victims of Almohad cruelty; the Muslim maliki school of Sunni Islam was banned in Almohad North Africa and its leading works were burned in the public squares.
ALMOLI (Almuli), SOLOMON BEN JACOB
(before 1485-after 1542), grammarian, physician, philosopher, and kabbalist.
Biography and Basic Works
Probably born in Spain, Almoli passed his early years in Salonika, but before 1515 settled in Constantinople, where he spent the rest of his life, serving as a dayyan and rabbi of one of the congregations there. Almoli devoted himself to the study of science and medicine, earning his livelihood from the latter, and serving, as it seems, as physician to the sultan. Few biographical details are known of his life except that it was marked by want and poverty. Having conceived the idea of compiling a general topic, he launched his undertaking enthusiastically, though fully aware that the work would take many years to complete and that large sums of money would be required for an adequate reference library. He was encouraged by the hope that others would take up his work in the event of his failing to complete it, but the scholars of Constantinople reacted disparagingly and rejected the plan. Almoli was also unsuccessful in his attempt to recruit a group of trainees for his work. He did, however, publish a small pamphlet of 24 pages under the title Meassef le-Khol ha-Mahanot (Constantinople, c. 1531), a prospectus of the proposed topic which was to be in three parts: (1) Mahaneh Yisrael, on what every Jew needs to know; (2) Mahaneh Leviyyah, on general knowledge; and (3) Mahaneh Shekhinah, on Hebrew, Aramaic, biblical exegesis, theology, Kabbalah, and the commandments of the Torah.
The fate of the project is unknown. Also included is his Shaar ha-Shem he-Hadash (Constantinople, 1533), which he describes as being "the first section of the large book which deals with all matters of faiths." In it he treats the existence of God, His attributes and essence, according to the Kabbalah and philosophy. He states that "wonderful secrets and explanations, hitherto unrevealed" (p. 13a) have been disclosed to him. With one exception, all Almoli’s other works are mere prolegomena to larger works which he contemplated. The exception is the Mefasher Helmin (Salonika, c. 1515) often republished under its Hebrew title Pitron Halomot ("Interpretation of Dreams") and translated into Yiddish (Amsterdam, 1694). In it he classifies dreams by categories and gives rules for their interpretation.
Other Publications
(1) Halikhot Sheva (Constantinople, c. 1520), according to Almoli, the introduction to a larger projected work on the science of Hebrew grammar. This is an original study, including rules for the pointing of the vowel e, under differing circumstances. The first part begins with general comments on the relationship between the sheva and the other vowels, which are significant guidelines for the history of the science of the Hebrew language. In the second part, the sheva is classified by categories. The third part deals with the different forms of the noun. Almoli cites various opinions as to the alternate pronunciations of the sheva na ("mobile") and gives his own analysis of it as a third type of vowel, having its place midway between the short vowels and the sheva nah ("quiescent"). A critical edition was published by H. Yallon. (2) Iggeret ha-Purim is mentioned in Halikhot Sheva and is probably a treatise on the Scroll of Esther. (3) Sha’ar ha-Yesod (Constantinople, 1536) deals with the roots of Hebrew words. This topic is not extant, except for the title page. (4) Almoli was also instrumental in the publication of books on language and vocalization by other authors. These are the Magen David (Constantinople, 1517) of *Elisha b. Abraham, in the writing of which Almoli participated, replying to Profiat *Duran’s and David *Ibn Yahya’s criticism of David *Kimhi; the Yesod Mora (Constantinople, 1530) and the Safah Berurah (Constantinople, 1530) of Abraham *Ibn Ezra; the Leshon Limmu-dim (Constantinople, 1526) of David ibn Yahya, together with the Shekel ha-Kodesh on prosody. For many years this last book was also thought to be the work of David Ibn Yahya, but H. Yallon has shown that it was written by Almoli, who included in it criticism of the Leshon Limmudim (critical edition by H. Yallon, 1965). Almoli also composed poems which were published in his own books and in those he edited.
ALMON or ALEMETH
(Heb
levitical city in the territory of Benjamin (Josh. 21:18; 1 Chron. 6:45). Alemeth appears in the genealogical lists of Benjamin beside *Anathoth and Azmaveth (1 Chron. 7:8; 8:36; 9:42) but it is missing in the list of Benjaminite cities in Joshua 18:21-28. Alemeth is identified with Khirbet Almit, 1 mi. (c. 2 km.) northeast of Anathoth. It was erroneously identified with Ailamon (Ai-jalon) on the Madaba Map which was based on a reference of Eusebius (Onom. 18:14). In the Crusader period Amieth (Alemeth) is mentioned with Aneth (Anathoth) and Fara-fonte (Ayn Fara).
ALMOND
(Heb.
,one of the "choice fruits of the land" sent by Jacob to the ruler of Egypt (Gen 43:11). The tree blooms in Israel in January or February, while other fruit trees are still bare. Moreover, the almond blossoms before it is covered with leaves. Thus it symbolizes (Jer. 1:11-12) the speedy fulfillment of the prophecy of doom. It may also signify old age and the imminence of death. It is used, allegorically, in this sense in Ecclesiastes (12:5) to describe the short cycle of human life. Although the tree blossoms early, the fruit only ripens late in the summer. *Ahikar accordingly advised his son: "Be not like the almond tree, for it blossoms before all the trees, and produces its fruit after them." The almond can be regarded as having two periods of ripening. It is edible together with its rind a few weeks after the tree blooms, while the fruit is still green. Its second ripening is three months later, when the outer rind has shriveled and the inside cover has become a hard shell. In its exposition of Jeremiah’s vision, the Talmud has the first ripening in mind: "Just as 21 days elapse from the time the almond sends forth its blossom until the fruit ripens, so 21 days passed from the time the city was breached until the Temple was destroyed" (tj Ta’an. 4:8, 68c), the 21 days being the period between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av. Beth-El was originally called *Luz (Gen. 28:19) which is the less common word for almond or almond tree in Hebrew, but loz is the regular Arabic word for almond. Several localities in modern Israel bear the Arabic name Al-Luz. Two strains of almond grow in Israel: one, the amygdalus communis var. dulcis, usually producing pink blossoms and sweet fruit; the second, the amygdalus communis var. amara producing white blossoms and bitter fruit. The latter strain grows wild in mountain groves. It is edible only with the rind when it is young (Tosef. Ma’as. 1:3). Roasting, however, destroys the poisonous alkaloid, and makes this almond edible even in its later stages (cf. H ul. 25b). The almond played a part in the modern history of Erez Israel. Grown extensively in the earlier part of the 20th century, it was attacked by the borer beetle and almost all the orchards were destroyed. In the 1960s, almond cultivation was revived especially in the Northern Negev and again became an important branch of agriculture.
Almond taught political science at Brooklyn College from 1939. During World War 11 he was head of the Enemy Information Section at the War Information Office (1942-44). After the war he was professor of political science at Princeton, Yale, and Stanford. He also taught at universities in England, Japan, Brazil, and the Ukraine. He was elected chairman of the Social Science Research Council’s Committee on Comparative Politics and, in 1966, president of the American Political Science Association. Almond’s Appeals of Communism (1954), an empirical study of the attractions and weaknesses of Communism, was significant for its treatment of the psycho-sociological background of political behavior. Almond’s major contribution in this field was the recognition of a cultural dimension in politics, and its application in the first nationwide study of political culture (G. Almond and S. Verba, The Civic Culture (1963)). The book examines the differences in the political cultures of five countries and looks at how these influence each nation’s stability and prospects for democracy.
Almond also developed the "functional approach" to comparative politics. Later he turned increasingly to problems concerned with the theory of political development as seen in "A Developmental Approach to Political Systems" (World Politics, 17 (1964-65), 183-214), and in G. Almond and G.B. Powell Jr., Comparative Politics: A Developmental Approach (1966).
Other books by Almond include Political Development: Essays in Heuristic Theory (1970); The American People and Foreign Policy (1977); Comparative Politics: System, Process, and Policy (1978); Sects in Political Science (1989); The Civic Culture Revisited (1992); Comparative Politics Today: A World View (1999); European Politics Today (1998, 2001); Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms around the World (2002); Discipline Divided: Schools & The Ventures in Political Science: Narratives & Reflections (2002).
ALMOND, GABRIEL ABRAHAM
(1911-2002), U.S. political scientist, credited with inventing modern comparative political science. Born in Rock Island, Illinois, Almond was the son of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. His father was a rabbi. A student at the University of Chicago, he went on to earn his doctorate in 1938; but his thesis, Plutocracy and Politics in New York City, was not published until 1998. The work contained psychoanalyses of several wealthy New Yorkers, including unflattering references to John D. Rockefeller, a principal benefactor of the university. Charles Merriam, chair of the political science department, refused to recommend the thesis northern Moabite plain (the Mishor) between Dibon-Gad and the mountains of Abarim (Num. 33:46-47), along the route followed by the Israelites on their way to the plains of Moab (Arvot Mo’av). Khirbet Deleilat esh-Sherqiyeh, a site containing Iron Age 1-11 pottery, located about 10^ mi. (17 km.) north-northeast of Dibon (Dhiban), has been suggested for its identification. It is probably identical with Beth-Diblathaim, a Moabite city which is mentioned in the Mesha inscription between Madaba and Beth-Baal-Meon and in the prophecy of Jeremiah after Dibon and Nebo and before Kiria-thaim (Jer. 48:22).
ALMORAVIDS
(Arab. Al-Murabitun; "Warrior-Monks"), confederation of Berber tribes of the Sanhajah group who lived in the Moroccan Sahara Desert. Their religious fervor and fighting capabilities enabled them to establish a formidable empire in the Maghreb and Muslim (Andalusian) Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries. Their theological Islamic zeal is attributed to Yahya ibn Ibrahim, their spiritual leader, as well as to the ‘alim (religious scholar) ‘Abd Allah ibn Yasin. Imbued with Islamic zeal, the Almoravids conquered Morocco and major sections of western Algeria between 1054 and 1092. In 1062 they turned *Marrakesh into their base of operations and religious capital. Thenceforth, their main leaders embraced the title of Amir al-Muslimin ("commander of the Muslims") but nevertheless continued to recognize the legitimacy of a still higher authority in Islam: the Abbasid caliph in Iraq upon whom the title Amir al-Mu’mintn ("commander of the faithful") had been bestowed. It was toward the end of the 11th century that the Castilian Christians who held on to parts of Spain began challenging the authority of the Almoravids and encroaching on their territories. The Al-moravid leadership succeeded in temporarily repulsing the Christians and foiling their plans to conquer such key cities as Cordoba and Toledo.
With the exception of Valencia, Muslim Spain remained under Almoravid control. Notwithstanding, perhaps the weakest aspect of Almoravid rule in Spain and the Maghreb is the fact that they were a Muslim Berber minority in charge of a Spanish-Arab empire. With the passage of time, they found it increasingly difficult to protect all their territorial possessions from the Christian reconquest, especially in the aftermath of the fall of Saragossa in 1118. Moreover, in 1125 the *Almohads (those who advocated the "Unity of Allah"), a confederation of rival Berber tribes, began to rebel against them in the Atlas Mountains. Following a protracted struggle and relentless fighting, the Almohads defeated the Almoravids in 1147; they transformed Marrakesh into their own capital and extended their authority into Muslim Spain.
In addition to the powerful military force that they created at their zenith, the Almoravid period is also interesting for its art and architecture. What characterized Almoravid art was its puritanism. As Saharan military monks, the Almoravids rejected the lavish decoration that had dominated the late Umayyad architectural style, and they built on a practical rather than a monumental scale. Piety and asceticism prevented them from erecting elegant palaces and magnificent monuments. The most famous architectural site that remained from the time of the Almoravids is the Great Mosque at Tlemcen, Algeria, built in 1082 and reconstructed in 1136.
The position of the Jews under Almoravid domination was apparently free of major abuses. Unlike the problems encountered by the Jews during the rule of the *Almohads (the Almoravids’ sucessor dynasty), there are no factual complaints of excesses, coercion, or malice on the part of the authorities toward the Jewish communities.
ALMOSNINO
Sephardi family, originating in Spain and prominent later in Morocco, Salonika, Gibraltar, and England. The family was established from the 13th century at Jaca in Aragon, where barzillai was baile in 1277 and Joseph and jacob (possibly his sons) were "adelantados" of the Jewish community in 1285 (Regne, Cat, nos. 1277, 1370). abraham, an outstanding member of the Jewish community of Huesca, helped in the readmission of the converso Juan de Ciudad to Judaism in 1465. A generation later he was condemned by the Inquisition for his complicity in this and burned alive on December 10, 1489. His family thereafter settled in Salonika and were among the founders of the Catalan community there and legal proprietors of its synagogue. His children included the physician, Joseph, author of an elegy on the destruction of Jerusalem (published in Sefunot, 8 (1964), 264-5); a son h ayyim, an active member of the Catalan community; and a daughter, who married R. Abraham Cocumbriel, son of Asach (Isaac: not Abraham, as the name was remembered in family tradition). Cocumbriel had perished together with Abraham Almosnino. The two families continued to intermarry, their descendants including baruch (d. 1563), head of the Catalan community in Salonika in the mid-16th century, father of *moses. Another abraham, a physician of Toledo (perhaps a cousin of the martyr), settled in Fez after the expulsion from Spain where he assisted in organizing the community of the megorashim ("exiles"). His son Joseph was a physician as well as a poet, and so was his grandson abraham. The latter’s nephew, isaac h asdai (b. c. 1580), after many adventures, was arrested at Goa (India) on suspicion of being a New Christian physician from Oporto named Manuel Lopes and was sent to Lisbon for trial by the Inquisition. On successfully demonstrating that he was a Jew by birth, he was released and deported (Torre do Tombo Archives, Lisbon, Inquisiao de Lis-boa, reg. 5393). In a later generation, hasdai (c.1640-1727) was among the most prominent rabbis of Tetuan. He was probably the father of isaac (d. 1785), rabbi of Gibraltar, who went from there with other Jews to London during the siege of 1781. His son Hasdai became a member of the bet din of the London Sephardi community. Of the latter’s sons, isaac (d. 1843), hazzan of the community, modernized the service, at the same time carrying on a protracted quarrel with the rabbi, Raphael *Meldola, over the pronunciation of Hebrew, and solomon (1792-1877), was secretary of the community and exercised influence over it for many years.
ALMOSNINO, JOSEPH BEN ISAAC
(1642-1689), rabbi, halakhic authority, and kabbalist. Almosnino was apparently born in Salonika, and studied under Hananiah Taitazak. He went to Jerusalem to study in Jacob Hagiz’s bet ha-midrash, Bet Ya’akov, where he probably made the acquaintance of *Na-than of Gaza. About 1666 Almosnino was appointed a rabbi in Belgrade where he married the daughter of the rabbi of that city, Simhah ha-Kohen, whom he succeeded c. 1668. He was won over to Shabbateanism and transcribed the writings of Nathan of Gaza which were sent to his community (Oxford Ms. no. 1777). The community suffered two serious blows during Almosnino’s tenure of office: a great fire in which his library and part of his writings were burnt and, in 1688, the fall of Belgrade to the Turks, as a result of which the community was destroyed. Most of the Jews escaped, but some were taken captive. Almosnino afterward traveled to the German communities where he succeeded in raising funds to ransom the captives and reconstruct the community. He died in Nikols-burg, while on this mission.
Many communities turned to Almosnino with their problems. Moses *Ibn H abib corresponded with him on hal-akhic matters and wrote an approbation to his responsa. Al-mosnino also corresponded with Z evi Hirsch *Ashkenazi. Many emissaries from Erez Israel visited him, including Moses *Galante. Those of Almosnino’s works which escaped the Belgrade conflagration were preserved by chance. They were sold to Arab dealers from whom they were acquired by a Jew. Two volumes of his responsa were published posthumously by his sons Simhah and Isaac under the title Edut bi-Yhosef (Constantinople, 1711, 1713). Several of Almosnino’s poems, though never published, are extant in the manuscripts of contemporary Turkish poets (Jewish Theological Seminary, Ms. no. 60, 353; Adler 358; Guenzburg 196). He wrote an autobiographical sketch that appears in the introduction to Edut bi-Yhosef.
ALMOSNINO, MOSES BEN BARUCH
(c. 1515-c. 1580), Salonika rabbi, scholar, and preacher. His numerous publications show his extensive knowledge of science, philosophy, history, and rhetoric. His rabbinic scholarship was widely respected. Although his responsa were never published in collected form, authorities such as Samuel de *Medina, H ayyim *Benveniste, Isaac *Adarbi, and Jacob di *Boton included some of them in their works. A gifted orator, he served in succession as preacher to the Salonika congregations Neveh Shalom and later the Livyat Lien, founded by Gracia *Nasi. A selection of his sermons, in Hebrew, is printed in his Me’ammez Koah (1582). In 1565 Almosnino was chosen as member of a delegation to Sultan Selim 11 to procure the confirmation of the privileges and exemptions granted by Suleiman the Magnificent to the Salonika community in 1537. The document had been destroyed in the great fire of 1545 and the local authorities again began to place crushing burdens on the community. The two other members of the delegation died en route. Almosnino, with the help of Joseph *Nasi, succeeded, after much heartbreaking effort, in obtaining a favorable decision (1568), and the Salonika community was given the status of a self-governing entity, which it enjoyed for many centuries. Almosnino’s works in Hebrew include commentaries on the Five Scrolls (Yedei Moshe, 1582), a supercommentary on Abraham Ibn Ezra; a commentary on Avot (Pirkei Moshe, 1562); and comments on the Pentateuch and prayer book (Tefillah le-Moshe, 1563). While in Constantinople, Almosnino compiled in La-dino a description of Constantinople, published, with some rearrangement and omissions, in Spanish by Jacob *Cansino of Oran under the title Extremos y Grandezas de Constantinopla. It is one of the rarest works of Spanish Jewish literature and an important historical source. He published, also in Ladino, an ethical work, Il Regimiento dela Vida (Salonika, 1564; reprinted in Latin characters, Amsterdam, 1729), which enjoyed considerable popularity in its time. Appended to it is a lengthy treatise on dreams, "composed at the request of the most illustrious senor, Don Joseph Nasi" and giving a graphic description of the latter’s luxurious way of life. He also published an exposition of Aristotle’s Ethics and notes to Al-Ghazali.
