Samuel Abbas (also known as Samuel ben Isaac Abbas) translated Baḥya Ibn Pakuda’s famous ethical treatise, Ḥovot ha-levavot (Duties of the Heart), into Portuguese as Hobat alebabot Obrigacam dos coracoens livro moral. He also translated from Dutch to Portuguese the work of a young proselyte, Jan Richen (from the city of Hoorn), called Keset Yonatan (Bow of Jonathan. During his life, Abbas amassed an impressive library that included 1,136 books in different languages. He was buried with his wife in the Jewish cemetery of Hamburg/Altona.
In 1930, Chaim Elazar Shapiro (Spira), the Hasidic rebbe of Munkacs, Czechoslovakia (today, Mukachevo, Ukraine), traveled by rail to Vienna and Trieste and by ship to Alexandria, where he and his…
Soldier slaying captive, Khorsabad, late eighth century BCE. The captive is probably a Samarian seized during Sargon’s conquest of the city. From a relief in the palace of Sargon at Dur-Sharrukin…
For twenty-two years I have been one of the parnasim [board members] and leaders of this magnificent congregation, the city of Lwów; my heart has moved me to do good work in memory of the generations…