Abstract This article examines select responsa literature and manuscripts to expand our knowledge concerning Meir ibn Gabbai (1480/1–after 1546) and his family. It begins by detailing a responsum by Joseph b. Moses of Tarani (1568–1639) concerning an unmentioned son, Ezekiel ibn Gabbai, which also records the names of Ibn Gabbai’s wife and daughter-in-law. This responsum is further contextualized through recourse to other contemporary responsa that mention other individuals named. In so doing, this article suggests that Ibn Gabbai had a family home in Manisa, Turkey. Next, this article identifies three manuscripts as containing Ibn Gabbai’s autograph through the employment of paleographical, codicological, and philological tools. One of these manuscripts offers us his latest known date and place, Edirne, Turkey in 1546.

Abstract The article presents a section of an 18th-century Hybrid Samaritan Hebrew poem from the Day of Atonement liturgy that contains a name riddle. The text is translated, explained, and then compared to Jewish Hebrew name riddle poems from medieval Andalusia. Since the genre of Hebrew name riddle poems is generally thought to be unique to Andalusian poetry, the discovery of the Samaritan specimen is surprising. It is argued that the Jewish and Samaritan Hebrew name riddle poems developed independently from the Arabic muʿammā genre. The discovery testifies to the importance of the corpus of Samaritan Hebrew texts for the study of Hebrew literature.

Abstract This article analyses an overlooked phenomenon in the history of Reformed Hebraism in the era of ‘high orthodoxy’ (c. 1640–1720), namely the increasing interest in Kabbalah as an ancient tradition of ‘mystical’ exegesis. It enquires into the reasons that propelled this interest, proposing that they are to be found in the attempt to elaborate an acceptable notion of an allegorical sense of Scripture that was current in antiquity, as well as in the insistence (which was of particular importance in anti-Remonstrant polemics) that the Trinity and the divinity of the Messiah were known to the ancient Jews through the Old Testament and its interpretation. Finally, the article shows how these ideas developed in the more specific context of Dutch Reformed theology, where Kabbalah was understood by some scholars (especially around the Groningen professor Jacob Alting) as evidence of the spiritual dimension inherent in the Mosaic covenant.

Abstract This article discusses a new finding – the first known Yiddish translation of a literary piece by the famous 16th-century Meistersinger Hans Sachs (1494–1576). The translation was copied, shortly after the original piece was printed in German, as part of a manuscript that includes various lists on various topics copied by a traveling Jew named Uri ben Simon. The examination of the translation and its context in Uri ben Simon’s codex are used as an example of inter-cultural exchange in the early modern German space.

Abstract This article introduces an unknown autobiography written by Aryeh Leib Feinstein who was a communal official in Brisk (Brześć Litewski). In this detailed memoir, written in 1896 and preserved in manuscript form only, Feinstein describes his life from his childhood in a small village near Brisk up to his adulthood, when he became a wealthy merchant in Brisk and a well-known historian of the local community. This unique egodocument is a subjective interpretation of the profound transformations of Eastern European Jewish culture during the second half of the 19th century. It enables us a better understanding of the complex relationship between the personal and the public spheres during this era and illustrates the need of broadening the setting of the self-fashioning of Jewish individuals.

Abstract Ninety years ago, the Federation of Polish Jews in America hosted their national convention and world congress in the New York City area. In this article, we will discuss some of what transpired at these events. Set at a tumultuous crossroads in world history, the Federation rallied Jewish groups throughout the United States and the world in humanitarian support for a war-torn Polish nation. The national convention and world congress were also set to have their own respective satellite sessions at the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and 1940. These satellite sessions are noteworthy in that they mark a Jewish presence at the Fair which extended beyond the Jewish Palestine Pavilion. They also mark a uniquely Polish presence, extending beyond Poland’s own Pavilion at the Fair.

Abstract The Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire developed a Judeo-Spanish koine by getting in touch with other languages – particularly Turkish – as a means of interaction between different cultures. This paper aims to focus on the linguistic multiculturalism – specifically loanwords – employed in the book Yildiz i sus sekretos: el reyno de Abdul Hamid (Yıldız [Palace] and Its Secrets: The Kingdom of Abdülhamit). The book was published in Istanbul in 1909 by Izak Gabay, one of the most important Sephardic intellectuals of the time.

Abstract Sefer Shivhei ha-Besht is considered the central collection of hagiographic tales regarding Israel Baʿal Shem Tov (c. 1700–1760). It was first printed in Hebrew in Kopys in the latter part of 1814, and includes hundreds of stories that circulated orally and were heard by the author. The work was soon translated into Yiddish with significant changes, and three such translations have survived, each one very different to the others. The first translation, published in Ostróg in 1815, was believed lost. This article offers a brief description of the recently discovered edition, discussing its uniqueness in the context of the work’s printing history and on the background of Jewish publishing in Eastern Europe.