Misplaced Pages

Bevis Marks Synagogue

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
#403596

156-553: Bevis Marks Synagogue , officially Qahal Kadosh Sha'ar ha-Shamayim ( Hebrew : קָהָל קָדוֹשׁ שַׁעַר הַשָׁמַיִם , lit.   'Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven'), is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue , located off Bevis Marks , Aldgate , in the City of London , England , in the United Kingdom. The congregation is affiliated to London's historic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community and worships in

312-602: A vernacolo . Il Vernacoliere , a satirical comic-style magazine printed chiefly in the Livornese dialect, was founded in 1982 and is now nationally distributed. The bagitto was a Judæo-Italian regional dialect once used by the Jewish community in Livorno . It was a language based on Italian, developed with words coming from Tuscan, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Yiddish ; the presence of Portuguese and Spanish words

468-612: A "great luminous room, compassionate light streaming in through big clear glass windows." Seven hanging brass candelabra symbolise the seven days of the week, the largest of which – hanging in the centre of the synagogue – represents the Sabbath. This central candelabrum was donated by the community of the Great Synagogue of Amsterdam. The candles are still lit today for weddings and the Jewish Festivals. The rest of

624-606: A 25% of the population. During the Italian Renaissance , when the settlement was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany of the House of Medici , Livorno was designed as an " Ideal town ". In 1577 the architect Bernardo Buontalenti drew up the first plan. The new fortified town had a pentagonal design, for which it is called Pentagono del Buontalenti , incorporating the original settlement. The Porto Mediceo

780-685: A Hebrew form. Medieval Hebrew added 6421 words to (Modern) Hebrew. The approximate number of new lexical items in Israeli is 17,000 (cf. 14,762 in Even-Shoshan 1970 [...]). With the inclusion of foreign and technical terms [...], the total number of Israeli words, including words of biblical, rabbinic and medieval descent, is more than 60,000. In Israel, Modern Hebrew is currently taught in institutions called Ulpanim (singular: Ulpan). There are government-owned, as well as private, Ulpanim offering online courses and face-to-face programs. Modern Hebrew

936-595: A century ago, was fluent enough in this idiom to be able to follow the Mishna Berurah without any trouble." Hebrew has been revived several times as a literary language, most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th-century Germany. In the early 19th century, a form of spoken Hebrew had emerged in the markets of Jerusalem between Jews of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate for commercial purposes. This Hebrew dialect

1092-630: A collection of liturgical objects coming from the old Synagogue destroyed in World War II. The commerce practised by the Jews community increased the property of the synagogue allowing a varied religious heritage of Dutch, Florentine, Venetian, Roman and Northern African origin. The display regard the Torah ark , the sefer Torah , paintings, religious objects as the Oriental-style wooden hekhal ;

1248-661: A corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Moshe Zvi Segal , Joseph Klausner and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946–1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to

1404-579: A distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic. ) Another important influence was Maimonides , who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah . Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and

1560-594: A gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904–1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with

1716-469: A heritage centre. It is a Grade 1 listed historic monument. In 2018, the synagogue rescinded its objections to a proposed development after the architects amended the plans and the developers made a donation to the synagogue. The Jewish Chronicle reported that some congregants were unhappy with decision and felt the leadership had lacked ethics. In September 2021, it emerged that developers planned to build 21-storey and 48-storey buildings right next to

SECTION 10

#1732772094404

1872-481: A hot-summer mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ). Summers have warm days with the heat lingering on throughout the night, hence going above the subtropical threshold in spite of its relatively high latitude. Winters are mild for the latitude due to the moderating influence from the Mediterranean Sea . Precipitation is in a wet winter/dry summer pattern as with all climates fitting

2028-468: A literary language down through the Byzantine period from the 4th century CE. The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with

2184-454: A mercantile district, close to Porto Mediceo , provided with houses and depots to store the merchandise and a system of canals to facilitate their transport. The new rione (district), called Venezia Nuova  [ it ] , was built in an area gained to the sea, intersected by canals and linked to the town with bridges, for this reason, Venetians skilled workers were recruited. The Chiesa di Sant'Anna , dedicated to Saint Anne ,

2340-742: A modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine , and subsequently the official language of the State of Israel . Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998, and over nine million people in 2013. After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans ). Modern Hebrew

2496-485: A move to sell the site was contemplated; a "Bevis Marks Anti-Demolition League" was founded, under the auspices of H. Guedalla and A. H. Newman, and the proposed move was abandoned. In 1896 a new synagogue was built at Lauderdale Road , Maida Vale , as successor to the Bryanston Street synagogue. A second satellite congregation was established at 46 Forty Avenue, Wembley during the 1960s. On 10 April 1992,

2652-541: A new fortress was built, together with the town walls and the system of navigable canals through neighbourhoods. After the port of Pisa had silted up in the 13th century, its distance from the sea increased and it lost its dominance in trade. Livorno took over as the main port in Tuscany . By 1745 Livorno's population had risen to 32,534 persons. The more successful of the European powers re-established trading houses in

2808-490: A plan by Studio Gregotti and works carried out by Opera Laboratori Fiorentini, was opened definitely on 31 July 2010. On the ground floor, the exhibition includes: Diacinto Cestoni Room which consists of 12 exhibition tanks, Mediterranean Area, Indus-Pacific tank, Caribbean Sea, Ligurian coast, Tropical waters, Greek-Roman archaeological coastal area. Livorno Aquarium has 33 exhibition tanks containing 2000 animals of 300 different species. Dedicated to painter Giovanni Fattori ,

2964-548: A set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba revolt around 135 CE. In

3120-439: A significant influx of crypto-Jews from Portugal fleeing the inquisition during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Marriage and circumcision records record couples as "Vindos de Portugal," or more rarely "Vindos de Espanha," for the purpose of reconsecrating their vows now they were free to practice Judaism openly or undertaking an adult circumcision. Alongside migration from Sephardi centres such as Amsterdam and Livorno there

3276-668: A spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt , they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms. After

SECTION 20

#1732772094404

3432-472: A truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology , was to take its place among the current languages of the nations. While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of

3588-558: A vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee , Pharisee , Scribe , Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from Hebrew texts. While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its chief successor in

3744-406: A well-regulated market and were in force until 1603. Also expanding Christian tolerance, the laws offered the right of public freedom of religion and amnesty to people having to gain penance from clergy in order to conduct civil business. The Grand Duke attracted numerous Turks, Persians, Moors, Greeks, and Armenians, along with Jewish immigrants. Sephardic Jews began to immigrate to Livorno in

3900-399: A year and, on 12 February 1699, signed a contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker , for the construction of a building to cost £2,650. According to legend, Avis declined to collect his full fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. Also unsubstantiated is the story that a timber was donated by the then Princess Anne for the roof of the synagogue. On 24 June 1699,

4056-518: Is 8198, of which some 2000 are hapax legomena (the number of Biblical Hebrew roots, on which many of these words are based, is 2099). The number of attested Rabbinic Hebrew words is less than 20,000, of which (i) 7879 are Rabbinic par excellence, i.e. they did not appear in the Old Testament (the number of new Rabbinic Hebrew roots is 805); (ii) around 6000 are a subset of Biblical Hebrew; and (iii) several thousand are Aramaic words which can have

4212-466: Is a botanical garden located on the grounds of the Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo . Ferdinando II de' Medici considered, in 1629, the opportunity to enlarge the town, on project by Giovanni Battista Santi, toward north in an area included among Fortezza Vecchia and Fortezza Nuova , in order to give an adequate space to the maritime and commercial activities. There was the need to build

4368-463: Is a reference to the type of ship, the liburna , adopted by Roman navy from the Liburnians . Other ancient toponyms include Salviano (Salvius) and Antignano (Ante ignem), which was the place situated before Ardenza (Ardentia), where beacons directed the ships to Porto Pisano . Cicero mentioned Liburna in a letter to his brother, in which he called it Labrone . Livorna is mentioned for

4524-482: Is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ‎), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of the term "Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants of the land of Israel and Judah , perhaps from the perspective of Mesopotamia , Phoenicia or Transjordan (with the river referred to being perhaps

4680-595: Is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from the Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος ( hebraîos ) and Aramaic 'ibrāy , all ultimately derived from Biblical Hebrew Ivri ( עברי ), one of several names for the Israelite ( Jewish and Samaritan ) people ( Hebrews ). It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham 's ancestor, Eber , mentioned in Genesis 10:21 . The name

4836-561: Is derived from the name of the alphabet used , in contrast to Ivrit , meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt , which was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea . Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into

Bevis Marks Synagogue - Misplaced Pages Continue

4992-624: Is due to the origin of the first Jews who came to Livorno, having been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century. The city and its port have continued as an important destination for travelers and tourists attracted to its historic buildings and setting. The port processes thousands of cruise-ship passengers of the following cruise line : many of whom take arranged buses to inland destinations as Florence , Pisa and Siena . Since 1866 Livorno has been noted for its Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando . Azimut - Benetti acquired

5148-567: Is fighting to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services. In 2012, a Knesset bill for the preservation of the Hebrew language was proposed, which includes the stipulation that all signage in Israel must first and foremost be in Hebrew, as with all speeches by Israeli officials abroad. The bill's author, MK Akram Hasson , stated that the bill was proposed as a response to Hebrew "losing its prestige" and children incorporating more English words into their vocabulary. Hebrew

5304-411: Is no text on this object. In July 2008, Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa that he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating from around 3,000 years ago. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said that the inscription was "proto-Canaanite" but cautioned that "[t]he differentiation between the scripts, and between

5460-592: Is one of several languages for which the constitution of South Africa calls to be respected in their use for religious purposes. Also, Hebrew is an official national minority language in Poland , since 6 January 2005. Hamas has made Hebrew a compulsory language taught in schools in the Gaza Strip. Livorno Livorno ( Italian: [liˈvorno] ) is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on

5616-548: Is played by the financial service, concentrated above all in via Cairoli, called the small city of Livorno, in which the headquarters of banks, financial institutions and insurance companies are concentrated, as well as the Post Office Building. Tuaca liqueur was produced in Livorno until 2010; the famous distillery was closed and operations were brought to the United States by the new owners. Galliano

5772-491: Is still made here and enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. Livorno Aquarium, dedicated to Diacinto Cestoni , is the main in Tuscany. It is situated by Terrazza Mascagni on the seafront promenade. It was built on a project by Enrico Salvais and Luigi Pastore as a heliotherapy centre and was opened to the public on 20 June 1937. Destroyed during World War II was rebuilt in 1950; in 1999 underwent extensive reconstruction, on

5928-748: Is the official language of the State of Israel, while pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around the world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non- first language , it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations , and by theologians in Christian seminaries . The modern English word "Hebrew"

6084-841: Is the famous Moabite Stone , written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam inscription , found near Jerusalem , is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include the ostraca found near Lachish , which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE. In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between c.  1000 BCE and c.  400 CE . It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them. Sometimes

6240-405: Is the primary official language of the State of Israel. As of 2013 , there are about 9 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, of whom 7 million speak it fluently. Currently, 90% of Israeli Jews are proficient in Hebrew, and 70% are highly proficient. Some 60% of Israeli Arabs are also proficient in Hebrew, and 30% report having a higher proficiency in Hebrew than in Arabic. In total, about 53% of

6396-547: Is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however, properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting

Bevis Marks Synagogue - Misplaced Pages Continue

6552-650: The Chayei Adam in Hebrew, as opposed to Yiddish , as a guide to Halacha for the " average 17-year-old" (Ibid. Introduction 1). Similarly, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan 's purpose in writing the Mishnah Berurah was to "produce a work that could be studied daily so that Jews might know the proper procedures to follow minute by minute". The work was nevertheless written in Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic, since, "the ordinary Jew [of Eastern Europe] of

6708-612: The Scuole elementari Benci all the last on project by Angiolo Badaloni. In the early 19th century, the American Elizabeth Ann Seton converted from Protestantism to Catholicism while visiting Italian friends in Livorno. She later was canonized as the first American-born saint. During the 1930s, numerous villas were built on the avenue along the sea in Liberty style based on designs by Cioni. These added to

6864-687: The Battle of Meloria in 1284. In 1399, Pisa sold Livorna to the Visconti of Milan ; in 1405 it was sold to the Republic of Genoa ; and on 28 August 1421 it was bought by the Republic of Florence . The name 'Leghorn' was derived from the Genoese name Ligorna. Livorno was used certainly in the eighteenth century by Florentines. Between 1427 and 1429, a census counted 118 families in Livorno, including 423 persons. Monks, Jews, military personnel, and

7020-651: The Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period ) and Samaritanism . The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival . It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with

7176-673: The Church of the Santissima Trinità, Livorno  [ it ] , the second non-Catholic church in Tuscany. The Armenians had earlier built their own Orthodox church. The community founded a Greek school, awarding scholarships for higher studies to young Greeks from the Peloponnese , Epirus, Chios or Smyrna . The community raised funds to support the Greek War of Independence of 1821, as well as various Greek communities in

7332-512: The Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare the word Habiru or cognate Assyrian ebru , of identical meaning. One of the earliest references to the language's name as " Ivrit " is found in the prologue to the Book of Sirach , from the 2nd century BCE. The Hebrew Bible does not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to

7488-572: The Gospel of Matthew . (See the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis or Language of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels.) The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which

7644-681: The Levant , until the late 19th century Livorno enjoyed a strong strategic position related to Greek mercantile interests in the Black Sea , the Mediterranean Sea , and the North Atlantic. The conflicts between Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, with associated port embargoes, piracy, and confiscation of cargoes, played out to the advantage of those Greek merchants willing to accept risk. By

7800-682: The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and the emergence of the Hasmonean kingdom , the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). The nationalist significance of Hebrew manifested in various ways throughout this period. Michael Owen Wise notes that "Beginning with the time of the Hasmonean revolt [...] Hebrew came to the fore in an expression akin to modern nationalism. A form of classical Hebrew

7956-643: The Neolithic Age. This is documented by the worked bones, and pieces of copper and ceramic found on the Livorno Hills in a cave between Ardenza and Montenero. The Etruscan settlement was called Labro. The construction of the Via Aurelia coincided with the occupation of the region by the Romans . They are also known for their toponyms and the ruins of towers. The natural cove called Liburna

SECTION 50

#1732772094404

8112-425: The Ottoman Empire . Chians controlled much of the trade. In 1839 Livorno had ten major commercial houses, led primarily by ethnic Greeks and Jewish Italians. The ethnic Greek community ( nazione ) had a distinctive cultural and social identity based on their common Greek Orthodox religion , language and history. In 1775 they established the Confraternity of Holy Trinity ( Confraternita della SS. Trinità ) and

8268-422: The Second Aliyah , it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects of local languages, including Judaeo-Spanish (also called "Judezmo" and "Ladino"), Yiddish , Judeo-Arabic and Bukhori (Tajiki), or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian , Persian and Arabic . The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along

8424-449: The Sephardic rite . Built in 1701, the Grade I listed building is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It is the only synagogue building in Europe that has continuously held regular services for more than 320 years. The origins of the community date from an influx to London of crypto-Jews , or so called Marranos , from Spain and Portugal, mostly via the growing Sephardi Jewish community in Amsterdam , in

8580-451: The Whitehead Moto Fides Stabilimenti Meccanici Riuniti on 31 July 1945 manufacturing 1000 A244 light torpedo sold to 15 Navies. The Whiteheads Moto Fides continued the production of torpedoes in a new plant which opened in 1977 and still operating, then entered in the Fiat Group in 1979 and in 1995 passed definitely to Finmeccanica . It is now owned by Leonardo S.p.A. , as the latter has been renamed since 2018. Another important role

8736-399: The literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language . However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Ahad Ha'am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into

8892-408: The medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy , rabbinic literature , intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature . The first dated book printed in Hebrew was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio ( Calabria , Italy) in 1475. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of

9048-432: The 1820s, Greek entrepreneurs gradually replaced the Protestant British, Dutch, French and other merchants who left the city. The Greeks concentrated on the grain market, banking and ship-brokering. Cargoes of wheat from the Black Sea were received at Livorno, before being re-shipped to England. Returning ships carried textiles and other industrial goods, which Greek merchants shipped to Alexandria and other destinations in

9204-454: The 1980s in the USSR , Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel ( refuseniks ). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, e.g. Yosef Begun , Ephraim Kholmyansky , Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of the USSR. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However,

9360-535: The 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Arabic (mainly by Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of

9516-439: The Anglo-Sephardic Community ( Hahamim ) who have served at Bevis Marks have been Daniel Nieto (1654–1728), Benjamin Artom (1835–1879), Abraham Haliva (Halua) (1791-1853) and Moses Gaster (1856–1939). Amongst other notable members of the synagogue's congregation have been the boxer Daniel Mendoza , and Isaac D'Israeli (father of Benjamin Disraeli ), who resigned from the congregation after an argument over synagogue fees. As

SECTION 60

#1732772094404

9672-579: The Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud. Hebrew persevered through the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses—not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba 's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. For example,

9828-426: The Ark on the central row of the left half of the benches) is also withheld as it belonged to Moses Montefiore. It is now only ever occupied by very senior dignitaries as a particular honour. In 2001 Prince Charles used the seat during the synagogue's tercentenary service. Prime Minister Tony Blair used it for the service celebrating the 350th anniversary of the re-settlement of the Jews in Great Britain in 2006, when

9984-503: The British Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. After the establishment of Israel, it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language . The results of Ben-Yehuda's lexicographical work were published in a dictionary ( The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew , Ben-Yehuda Dictionary ). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by

10140-403: The Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando, then of Fincantieri , in 2003. The Eni plant produces gasoline , diesel fuel , fuel oil and lubricants . Livorno refinery was established in 1936 by Azienda Nazionale Idrogenazione Combustibili (ANIC) but the plant was completely destroyed during World War II. The plant was rebuilt thanks to an agreement between the ANIC and the Standard Oil forming

10296-415: The Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue Sir Jonathan Sacks and the Lord Mayor of London were also present. The synagogue retains notable historical records, including community circumcision and marriage records dating back to 1679. On Friday 13 November 1998, Peter, Lord Levene of Portsoken , became the eighth Jewish Lord Mayor of London . An Ashkenazi Jew by birth, Lord Levene's first public act

10452-416: The Grand Duke. On 19 March 1606, Ferdinando I de' Medici elevated Livorno to the rank of city; the ceremony was held in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Francis of Assisi . The Counter-Reformation increased tensions among Christians; dissidents to the Papacy were targeted by various Catholic absolute rulers. Livorno's tolerance declined during the European wars of religion . But, in the preceding period,

10608-416: The Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return from captivity. In time, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew. By the beginning of the Common Era , Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian , Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek , but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as

10764-437: The Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac alphabet , precursor to the Arabic alphabet , also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex , a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely in Tiberias, and survives into

10920-432: The Illuminator . The project was by Giovanni Battista Foggini and the church was completed a few years later but did not open for worship until 1714. The church had a Latin cross plant and a dome at the intersection of the transept and nave. Destroyed during World War II, it was partly restored in 2008 but is not open to worship. The first Greeks who settled in Livorno early in the 16th century were former mercenaries in

11076-454: The Israeli population speaks Hebrew as a native language, while most of the rest speak it fluently. In 2013 Hebrew was the native language of 49% of Israelis over the age of 20, with Russian , Arabic , French , English , Yiddish and Ladino being the native tongues of most of the rest. Some 26% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 12% of Arabs reported speaking Hebrew poorly or not at all. Steps have been taken to keep Hebrew

11232-712: The Mediterranean definition. Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany issued in 1591 a decree encouraging Armenians to settle in Livorno to increase its trade with the Ottoman Empire and western Asia. By the beginning of the 17th century, Armenians operated 120 shops in town. In 1701 the Armenian community, who were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church , were authorized to build their own church, which they dedicated to Gregory

11388-477: The Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek , scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Abraham Geiger and Gustaf Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic period in the 4th century BCE, and that as

11544-514: The Ottoman Empire and in Italy. It also assisted non-Greeks. The Rodocanachi family financed the "School of Mutual Education" established in Livorno by the pedagogist Enrico Mayer  [ it ] . The community contributed to founding a school for poor Catholic children. The local governing authorities recognized the contributions of distinguished members of the Greek community (e.g. members of

11700-596: The Papoudoff, Maurogordatos , Rodocanachi, Tossizza  [ el ] and other families) and granted them titles of nobility. After unification and the founding of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Greek community in Livorno declined, as the privileges of the free port were rescinded. See the history of the Jews in Livorno . Livorno inhabitants speak a variant of the Italian Tuscan dialect , known as

11856-626: The STANIC. The production of the new plant raised from 700,000 to 2 million tons in 1955; nowadays the capacity of refining is 84,000 barrels per day. The refinery, now property of Eni , is linked to the Darsena petroli (Oil dock) and to Firenze depots by two pipelines. The former Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS) plant, based in Livorno produced heavy and light torpedoes , anti-torpedo countermeasure systems for submarines and ships and sonar systems for underwater surveillance. The factory

12012-861: The Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community grew and moved out of the City and East End of London to the West End and the suburbs, members demanded a new synagogue to be built in the West End. When the leadership refused this, some members formed a breakaway synagogue in Burton Street, which later became the West London Synagogue . In 1853 a branch synagogue was opened in Wigmore Street; in 1866 this moved to Bryanston Street, Bayswater . Attendance at Bevis Marks declined so much that in 1886

12168-674: The Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical aggadah midrashes . Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as

12324-520: The Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it

12480-488: The ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use. According to the Jerusalem Talmud , Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from Bet Guvrrin said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing." The later section of

12636-478: The above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as

12792-710: The actions of the leading synagogue member Moses Montefiore the synagogue was also involved in the 19th century in the Damascus Affair and the Mortara Affair , two events provoking much international discussion of Jewish rights and reputation. It was part of the inspiration for Jacob Sassoon 's Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai , the largest synagogue in the Far East . Amongst the Chief Rabbis of

12948-495: The architectural richness of the city. Livorno suffered extensive damage during World War II . Many historic sites and buildings were destroyed by bombs of the Allies preceding their invasion of Italy, including the cathedral and Synagogue of Livorno . Since the late 20th century, Livorno's residents have become well known for their left-wing politics . The Italian Communist Party was founded in Livorno in 1921. Livorno has

13104-561: The average Jew, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicate a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman period , or about 200 CE. It continued on as

13260-547: The beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar , refused to speak Hebrew and spoke only Yiddish. In the Soviet Union, the use of Hebrew, along with other Jewish cultural and religious activities,

13416-476: The building would have no impact on the amount of natural light the synagogue receives. Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית ‎, ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ‎ ʿÎbrit ) is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of

13572-738: The centuries, the city's trade fortunes fell and rose according to the success or failure of the Great Powers. The British and their Protestant allies were important to its trade. During the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars of the late eighteenth century, Napoleon's troops occupied Livorno along with the rest of Tuscany. Under the Continental System , the French prohibited trade with Britain, and

13728-576: The city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that, through the Greeks and Etruscans , later became the Latin alphabet of ancient Rome . The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels , and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places in which later Hebrew spelling requires them. Numerous older tablets have been found in

13884-554: The committee leased from Sir Thomas and Lady Pointz (also known as Littleton) a tract of land at Plough Yard, in Bevis Marks, for 61 years, with the option of renewal for a further 38 years, at £120 a year. The structure was completed and dedicated in September 1701. The interior decor and furnishing and layout of the synagogue reflect the influence of the great Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam of 1675. It has been claimed that

14040-602: The composition of 1 Maccabees in archaizing Hebrew, Hasmonean coinage under John Hyrcanus (134-104 BCE), and coins from both the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt featuring exclusively Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew script inscriptions. This deliberate use of Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew script in official contexts, despite limited literacy, served as a symbol of Jewish nationalism and political independence. The Christian New Testament contains some Semitic place names and quotes. The language of such Semitic glosses (and in general

14196-416: The damage to the synagogue. He, with the agreement of the insurance company, put in place a programme of repair which lasted fifteen weeks, but enabled the building to be restored before his daughter's wedding. The following year the synagogue was also affected by an attack on Bishopsgate . Nearly £200,000 was raised by donation to help with the renovations to return it to its former glory. In June 2019, it

14352-536: The design was also influenced by Christopher Wren , the architect of the nearby St Paul's Cathedral . The roof was destroyed by fire in 1738 and repaired in 1749. During the London Blitz the synagogue's silver, records and fittings were removed to a place of safety; the synagogue suffered only minor damage. The synagogue suffered some collateral damage from the IRA in 1992 and the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing , but this

14508-568: The dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;

14664-516: The diarist Samuel Pepys , who recorded his impressions of the service. In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto took spiritual charge of the congregation of "Spanish and Portuguese Jews" ( Sephardim ). A considerable influx of Jews made it necessary to obtain more commodious quarters. Accordingly, a committee was appointed, consisting of António Gomes Serra, Menasseh Mendes, Isaac Israel de Sequeira alias Alfonso Rodrigues, Manuel Nunez Miranda, Andrea Lopez, and Pontaleão Rodriguez. It investigated matters for nearly

14820-513: The earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language and often introduced calques from Yiddish and phono-semantic matchings of international words. Despite using Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation as its primary basis, modern Israeli Hebrew has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following: The vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew is much larger than that of earlier periods. According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann : The number of attested Biblical Hebrew words

14976-590: The early 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah , destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the east in Babylon . During the Babylonian captivity , many Israelites learned Aramaic, the closely related Semitic language of their captors. Thus, for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. After Cyrus

15132-655: The early seventeenth century. These Jews began practising their religion openly once it became possible to do so through Jewish resettlement in England under the rule of Oliver Cromwell . Services at a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane began in 1657, and the congregation also secured land for its own cemetery in Mile End (the Velho Cemetery ). In 1663, it was visited on the festival of Simchat Torah by

15288-578: The economy of Livorno suffered greatly. The French had altogether taken over Tuscany by 1808, incorporating it into the Napoleonic empire. After the Congress of Vienna , Austrian rule replaced the French. In 1861, Italy succeeded in its wars of unification . At that time the city counted 96,471 inhabitants. Livorno and Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy and, as part of the Kingdom,

15444-436: The finding of what he claims to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, a curse tablet found at Mount Ebal , dated from around 3200 years ago. The presence of the Hebrew name of god , Yahweh, as three letters, Yod-Heh-Vav (YHV), according to the author and his team meant that the tablet is Hebrew and not Canaanite. However, practically all professional archeologists and epigraphers apart from Stripling's team claim that there

15600-711: The first Middle East printing press, in Safed (modern Israel), produced a small number of books in Hebrew in 1577, which were then sold to the nearby Jewish world. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could converse in Latin. For example, Rabbi Avraham Danzig wrote

15756-508: The first time in 1017 as a small coastal village, the port and the remains of a Roman tower under the rule of Lucca . In 1077, a tower was built by Matilda of Tuscany . The Republic of Pisa owned Livorna from 1103 and built a quadrangular fort called Quadratura dei Pisani ("Quarter of the Pisans") to defend the port. Porto Pisano was destroyed after the crushing defeat of the Pisan fleet in

15912-494: The flagship synagogue of the British Sephardic Jewish community. Daily services are held and the synagogue is frequently a venue for weddings and other celebrations. Since August 2015, the rabbi of Bevis Marks is Shalom Morris, an American of Ashkenazi descent. He is a great-grandson of Rabbi Eliezer Silver . King Charles is a patron of the synagogue heading a 2019 conservation appeal for funds to turn it into

16068-459: The fleet of Cosimo de' Medici and their descendants. This community grew and became significant in the 18th and 19th centuries when Livorno became one of the principal hubs of the Mediterranean trade. Most of the new Greek immigrants came from western Greece, Chios , Epirus and Cappadocia . Based on its status since the late 16th century as a free port ( port franc ) and the warehouses constructed for long-term storage of goods and grains from

16224-490: The gallery which hosted a collection of paintings of authors by Livorno. The Yeshivà Marini Museum is housed in a neoclassical building already place of worship as Marini Oratory since 1867; once was home of the Confraternity Malbish Arumin which was provided to help the city's poor. In the post-war period was utilized as a synagogue in the waiting for the construction of the new one. The museum has

16380-406: The generic term for these passages is Baraitot . The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained

16536-491: The holy tongue ' or ' the tongue [of] holiness ' ) since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible , but as Yehudit ( transl.  ' Judean ' ) or Səpaṯ Kəna'an ( transl.  "the language of Canaan " ). Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to the language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which

16692-582: The homeless were not included in the census. The only remainder of medieval Livorno is a fragment of two towers and a wall, located inside the Fortezza Vecchia . After the arrival of the Medici , the ruling dynasty of Florence, some modifications were made in the city. Between 1518 and 1534 the Fortezza Vecchia was constructed, and the voluntary resettlement of the population to Livorno

16848-628: The internecine quarrel among Jews in Barbados (1753), and the aiding of seven-year-old Moses de Paz , who escaped from Gibraltar in 1777 to avoid a forced conversion to Christianity. The congregation came to the aid of the Jewish community in Ireland by donating funds to build a wall around the Ballybough Cemetery and providing an agent to oversee the works. The deeds for the cemetery were then lodged at Bevis Marks Synagogue. Through

17004-587: The language of the Hebrew people; its later historiography, in the Book of Kings , refers to it as יְהוּדִית Yehudit " Judahite (language)". Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages . Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages. Hebrew was the spoken language in the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. Epigraphic evidence from this period confirms

17160-465: The language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is often referred to as "Hebrew" in the text, although this term is often re-interpreted as referring to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, these glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well. It has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Koine Greek, lay behind the composition of

17316-471: The language. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora " shtetl " lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making

17472-499: The languages themselves in that period, remains unclear", and suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic period , the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon . Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew , the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after

17628-778: The late sixteenth century, following the Alhambra Decree and expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal. Livorno extended rights and privileges to them, and they contributed greatly to the mercantile wealth and scholarship in the city. Livorno became an enlightened European city and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin . Many European foreigners moved to Livorno. These included Christian Protestant reformers who supported such leaders as Martin Luther , John Calvin , and others. French , Dutch , and English arrived, along with Orthodox Greeks . Meanwhile, Jews continued to trade under their previous treaties with

17784-592: The merchants of Livorno had developed a series of trading networks with Protestant Europe, and the Dutch, British, and Germans worked to retain these. In 1653 a naval battle, the Battle of Leghorn , was fought near Livorno during the First Anglo-Dutch War . At the end of the 17th century, Livorno underwent a period of great urban planning and expansion. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress,

17940-572: The museum is a Planetarium and an Auditorium. The Museo Mascagnano houses memorabilia, documents and operas by the great composer Pietro Mascagni , who lived here. Every year some of his operas are traditionally played during the lyric music season, which is organized by the Goldoni Theatre. Also the Terrazza Mascagni is situated on the boulevard on the seafront, is named in his honour. The Orto Botanico del Mediterraneo

18096-464: The museum mainly featuring contemporary art from the 19th-century was inaugurated in 1994 and is placed inside Villa Mimbelli , an 18th-century construction surrounded by a vast park. The origin of the museum dates back to 1877 when the Comune of Livorno founded a Civic Gallery where to collect all the artistic objects kept in several places around the town; in the same period was written the guideline of

18252-727: The newly declared State of Israel . Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today. In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew , Modern Israeli Hebrew , Modern Hebrew , New Hebrew , Israeli Standard Hebrew , Standard Hebrew and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits some features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic. The literary and narrative use of Hebrew

18408-757: The oldest and most important pieces went lost. The origins of the museum date back to 1929 and part of the objects went destroyed by World War II. After the war, the museum was reopened inside the Livorno Aquarium and only in 1980 was transferred to Villa Henderson. The museum is divided in several halls regarding the Man, the Man in the Mediterranean context, the Invertebrates, the Sea, the Flight in Nature. Inside

18564-535: The other being Aramaic , still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew , with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity . For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh ( לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש , lit.   '

18720-643: The present day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain , important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic . Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj , Jonah ibn Janah , Abraham ibn Ezra and later (in Provence ), David Kimhi . A great deal of poetry

18876-635: The primary language of use, and to prevent large-scale incorporation of English words into the Hebrew vocabulary. The Academy of the Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem currently invents about 2,000 new Hebrew words each year for modern words by finding an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning, as an alternative to incorporating more English words into Hebrew vocabulary. The Haifa municipality has banned officials from using English words in official documents, and

19032-408: The rear of the synagogue, taken from the original synagogue at Creechurch Lane, date from 1657 and are still regularly used. A number of seats in the synagogue are roped off as they belong or have belonged to notable people within the community. Two seats were reserved for the most senior officials of the congregation's publishing arm, Heshaim . A third seat, fitted with a footstool, (the seat nearest

19188-451: The region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as a literary language, especially in Spain, as the language of commerce between Jews of different native languages, and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew , until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In May 2023, Scott Stripling published

19344-431: The region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example, Proto-Sinaitic . It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs , though the phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite , and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from that of Egyptian. One ancient document

19500-417: The region, especially the British with the Levant Company . In turn, the trading networks grew, and with those, Britain's cultural contact with Tuscany. An increasing number of British writers, artists, philosophers, and travellers visited the area and developed the unique historical ties between the two communities. The British referred to the city in English as "Leghorn", derived from the Genoese term. Through

19656-498: The rest of the Middle East; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. William Schniedewind argues that after waning in the Persian period, the religious importance of Hebrew grew in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and cites epigraphical evidence that Hebrew survived as a vernacular language – though both its grammar and its writing system had been substantially influenced by Aramaic. According to another summary, Greek

19812-418: The second half of the nineteenth century, when it was surpassed by other cities. Evidence of that prosperous time can be seen in the many churches, villas, and palaces of the city. Livorno is considered to be the most modern among all the Tuscan cities, and is the third most-populous of the region, after Florence and Prato . The origins of Livorno are controversial, although the place was inhabited since

19968-409: The sermon at Bevis Marks took place in Portuguese until as late as 1833 when they switched to English. For Sephardic Jews, the Bevis Marks Synagogue was a religious centre of the Anglo-Jewish world for more than a century, and served as a clearing-house for congregational and individual Jewish problems all over the world. These included the appeal of Jews in Jamaica for a reduction in taxation (1736),

20124-426: The southern villages of Judea." In other words, "in terms of dialect geography, at the time of the tannaim Palestine could be divided into the Aramaic-speaking regions of Galilee and Samaria and a smaller area, Judaea, in which Rabbinic Hebrew was used among the descendants of returning exiles." In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among

20280-413: The spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, a policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in

20436-422: The synagogue is the Renaissance -style ark (containing the Torah scrolls) located at the centre of the Eastern wall of the building. It resembles in design the reredos of the churches of the same period. Painted to look as though it is made of coloured Italian marble , it is in fact made entirely of oak . The architectural critic Ian Nairn in his book Nairn's London described the synagogue as defined by

20592-425: The synagogue was affected by an IRA terrorist attack on the Baltic Exchange . The bomb was contained in a large white truck and consisted of a fertiliser device wrapped with a detonation cord made from Semtex . The Chairman of Buildings for the Spanish & Portuguese Congregation, Mr Barry Musikant, donning a hard hat and escorted by police, was one of the first people to enter the cordoned area of streets to examine

20748-458: The synagogue, threatening its ongoing use for daily services. The community had said the historic synagogue faces a closure threat as the loss of light would render services "almost impossible.". Plans to build both tower blocks were ultimately denied by City of London councillors. In 2023, the Creechurch Conservation Area was approved, which should protect Bevis Marks and Grade II* St Botolph’s-without-Aldgate from development. A prominent feature of

20904-407: The synagogue. It is claimed this would block natural light from the building for all but one hour a day. The synagogue is currently only lit by up to 240 candles and some electric lighting which was installed in 1928. A campaign has been launched to block the development with the Corporation of London saying no decision has been made. It is reported to have received 1,500 letters of objection. The alarm

21060-537: The town lost its status as a free port. The city's commercial importance declined. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Livorno had numerous public parks housing important museums such as the Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori , Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo , and cultural institutions as the Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi and others in Neoclassical style as Cisternone , Teatro Goldoni and Liberty style as Palazzo Corallo , Mercato delle Vettovaglie , Stabilimento termale Acque della Salute ,

21216-580: The upper class of Jerusalem , while Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE, Judaeans were forced to disperse. Many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north. Many scholars have pointed out that Hebrew continued to be used alongside Aramaic during Second Temple times, not only for religious purposes but also for nationalistic reasons, especially during revolts such as

21372-403: The western coast of the Tuscany region, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno , having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronounced / l ɛ ˈ ɡ ɔːr n / leg- ORN , / ˈ l ɛ ɡ h ɔːr n / LEG -horn or / ˈ l ɛ ɡ ər n / LEG -ərn ). During the Renaissance , Livorno

21528-413: The widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore, the content of Hebrew inscriptions suggests that the written texts closely mirror the spoken language of that time. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile when the predominant international language in

21684-406: The year the Synagogue is lit by the electric lights added in 1928. The ner tamid (sanctuary lamp) is of silver and dates from 1876. Twelve pillars, symbolising the twelve tribes of Israel, support the women's gallery . The synagogue contains benches running parallel to the side walls and facing inward, leaving two aisles for the procession with the Torah scrolls. In addition, backless benches at

21840-421: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language . The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of

21996-399: Was a steady influx of refugees from Portugal up until around 1735, after which it diminished, with some of the last recorded arrivals from Portugal as late as 1790. Records show arrivals escaping principally from major cities such as Lisbon or Porto and the remote borderland region from Spain, such as from Celorico da Beira , Guarda , Braganza or Belmonte . As a result of this migration

22152-457: Was awarded £2.7m by the National Lottery for conservation work and to cover half the costs of building a new religious and cultural centre. In early 2021, it received £497,000 from the Government's Culture Recovery Fund "to protect its collection of significant objects and illuminate the history of the site." In 2020 and 2021 there was considerable opposition to planning applications for two nearby skyscrapers which would cut off natural light to

22308-438: Was designed as an " ideal town ". Developing considerably from the second half of the 16th century by the will of the House of Medici , Livorno was an important free port . Its intense commercial activity was largely dominated by foreign traders. Also the seat of consulates and shipping companies, it became the main port-city of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . The high status of a multiethnic and multicultural Livorno lasted until

22464-403: Was founded by Robert Whitehead in 1875 in Fiume , in that period Austria-Hungary , and produced for the first time torpedoes sold all around the world. In 1905 the factory changed its name to Torpedo Fabrik Whitehead & Co. Gesellschaft and before his death, Whitehead sold his shares package to Vickers Armstrong Whitworth . At the end of World War I the factory was in economic crisis and

22620-438: Was now a more significant written language than Aramaic within Judaea." This nationalist aspect was further emphasized during periods of conflict, as Hannah Cotton observing in her analysis of legal documents during the Jewish revolts against Rome that "Hebrew became the symbol of Jewish nationalism, of the independent Jewish State." The nationalist use of Hebrew is evidenced in several historical documents and artefacts, including

22776-537: Was overlooked and defended by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre . In the late 1580s, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany , declared Livorno a free port ( porto franco ), which meant that the goods traded here were duty-free within the area of the town's control. In 1593, the Duke's administration established the Leggi Livornine to regulate trade. These laws protected merchant activities from crime and racketeering , and instituted laws regarding international trade . The laws established

22932-444: Was purchased by Giuseppe Orlando, one of the owners of the Cantiere navale fratelli Orlando of Livorno, as Whitehead Torpedo, in 1924 when was signed the Treaty of Rome and Fiume passed to Italy. Whitehead Torpedo established in Livorno the Società Moto Fides that initially produced motorcycles but changed the production to that of torpedoes. With the end of World War II the Fiume factory closed and merged with Moto Fides forming

23088-418: Was raised by an article in The New York Times ahead of reporting by most of the British press. Members of the London Jewish community took to social media on the eve of Yom Kippur to draw attention to the threat to the synagogue including writer Simon Sebag-Montefiore and journalists Jonathan Freedland and Ben Judah . According to The New York Times , a report commissioned by the developers claims that

23244-431: Was restored. The essential original structure of the building thus remains today. In 1747 Benjamin Mendes da Costa bought the lease of the ground on which the building stood, and presented it to the congregation, vesting the deeds in the names of a committee consisting of Gabriel Lopez de Britto, David Aboab Ozorio, Moses Gomes Serra, David Franco, Joseph Jessurun Rodriguez, and Moses Mendes da Costa . The community saw

23400-470: Was revived beginning with the Haskalah movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Ha-Me'assef (The Gatherer), was published by maskilim in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad ) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. Hamagid , founded in Ełk in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Hayim Nahman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky ; there were also novels written in

23556-428: Was stimulated. Livorno still remained a rather insignificant coastal fortress. By 1551, the population had grown to 1562 residents. Seat of the crusading and corsairing Order of Saint Stephen after 1561, distinctive for its aggressive approach towards the Muslim world, Livorno became a major Mediterranean slave trade hub in the early modern period, rivalling Malta's. Its share of slave population may have been over

23712-479: Was suppressed. Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the People's Commissariat for Education as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself did not cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes ). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being

23868-437: Was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. There was also a geographic pattern: according to Bernard Spolsky , by the beginning of the Common Era, " Judeo-Aramaic was mainly used in Galilee in the north, Greek was concentrated in the former colonies and around governmental centers, and Hebrew monolingualism continued mainly in

24024-408: Was to a certain extent a pidgin . Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , owing to the ideology of the national revival ( שיבת ציון , Shivat Tziyon , later Zionism ), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of

24180-650: Was to walk, with a retinue, from his official residence ( Mansion House ) to Bevis Marks Synagogue, for the Sabbath Eve service. This was repeated on Friday 12 November 2010 by the then Lord Mayor Michael Bear . Today the Spanish and Portuguese descendant community in London operates three synagogues: Bevis Marks, Lauderdale Road (which is the community's administrative headquarters) and a smaller synagogue in Wembley . The community's sheltered housing scheme Harris Court and old-age home Edinburgh House are also located in Wembley. A number of other Sephardic synagogues in Britain have associated status. Bevis Marks Synagogue remains

24336-570: Was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Judah ha-Levi , Moses ibn Ezra and Abraham ibn Ezra , in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to

#403596