Glossary:
"E"

East Jerusalem

Predominantly Arab section of Jerusalem which includes the Old City of Jerusalem, it was held under Jordanian control from 1948-1967, and officially annexed to Israel in 1980.

Ebionites, Ebionism

A Judeo-Christian sect (or category) in the 2nd-4th centuries CE; accepted much of Mosaic Torah (circumcision, sabbath, etc.) but rejected sacrifices; accepted Jesus/Joshua as messiah but not his divinity; some Ebionites opposed the doctrines of Paul.

Edah Haredit

A central organization of the haredi community in Jerusalem.

Eden

The name of paradise in the Jewish biblical account in Genesis 1, where Adam and Eve were created.

Edot Hamizrah

Oriental Jewish communities.

Egel HaZahav

The Golden Calf created and worshiped by the Jewish People at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty

Signed by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel in the presence of President Jimmy Carter on March 26, 1979 at the conclusion of the Camp David Accords. The boarders were opened on May 27 with the inauguration of an air corridor and on February 26, 1980 the nations exchanged ambassadors.

Eichmann, Adolf

(1906-1962) SS Lieutenant-colonel and head of the “Jewish Section” of the Gestapo. Eichmann participated in the Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942). He was instrumental in implementing the “Final Solution” by organizing the transportation of Jews to death camps from all over Europe. He was arrested at the end of World War II in the American zone, but escaped, went underground, and disappeared. On May 11, 1960, members of the Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) uncovered his whereabouts and smuggled him from Argentina to Israel. Eichmann was tried in Jerusalem (April-December 1961), convicted, and sentenced to death. He was executed on May 31, 1962.

Eicke, Theodor

(1928-1943) Eicke joined the Nazi party and the SA in 1928. He transferred to the SS in 1930. Appointed commandant of Dachau in 1933, Eicke later became the inspector of concentration camps. He was known for his cruel treatment of prisoners and in 1939 he was given command of the Death's Head division of the Waffen-SS. He was killed on the eastern front on February 16, 1943.

Ein

(Heb.) Spring, water source.

Ein Gedi

(Heb. Spring of the kid (young goat)) A large spring located near the Dead Sea.

Ein Sof

(Heb. Without limit) A kabbalistic designation for the divine—“the unlimited one.” In early Judaism and Christianity, refers to those considered to be chosen by God for a specific purpose; in some Christian predestination schemes (e.g. Calvinistic), “the elect” are those whom God has chosen (in advance) to have eternal life.

Ein Vered Circle

Nonreligious members of kibbutzim and moshavim who organized in 1975 to support Gush Emunim; first meeting took place in Moshav Ein Vered.

Einsatzgruppen

The four (A, B, C, D) mobile units of the Security Police and SS Security Service that followed the German armies into the Soviet Union in June 1941. Their charge was to kill all Jews, as well as Soviet commissars and "mental defectives." They were supported by units of the uniformed German Order Police and used local Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian volunteers for the killings. The victims were shot and buried in mass graves. At least 1.3 million Jews were killed in this manner.

Einsatzkommando

Company-sized component of the Einsatzgruppen.

Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg fur die Besetzten Gebiete (ERR)

A bureau managed by Alfred Rosenberg, created July 1940, that was responsible for the appropriation of cultural and ideological materials from German occupied territories.  Rosenberg's official title in this connection was The Führer's Representative for the Supervision of the Intellectual and Ideological Instruction of the National Socialist Party. The materials in question included millions of books and manuscripts and hundreds of thousands of paintings, sculptures and other art objects.  Most of these were simply appropriated without recompense of any sort to their owners, a significant number of whom in Western European countries were, Jews or Jewish organizations.   Included as well, however were the writings and collections of Free Masons, Jehovah's Witnesses, communists and socialists. 

Einsatztrupp

A subdivision of an Einsatzkommando

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

(1890-1969) American general and 34th president of the United States between 1953-61. In 1942 he was named U.S. Commander of the European Theater of Operations. He commanded the American landings in North Africa and in February 1943 became chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa. After successfully directing the invasions of Sicily and Italy, he was called to England to become chief commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. He was largely responsible for the cooperation of the Allied armies in the battle for the liberation of the European continent and was present when Nazi concentration camps were first liberated.

Eisenhower Doctrine

Part of Cold War containment doctrine, it stated that the United States would help the economy of the Middle East as well as come to the aid of any country under attack from the Eastern Axis. It was invoked several times by Jordan which sought defense against a potential military coup d'etat led by Egypt. Lebanon and Jordan invoked the doctrine following the Iraqi military coup in July 1958 and received aid from the US and Great Britain.

El Ami

(Heb. To My People) Organization founded in May 1983, to address the religious/secular divide in Israel.

Election

A term used theologically in Judaism to indicate God's choice of Israel to receive the covenant—a choice not based on the superiority or previous accomplishments of the people, but on God's graciousness (see covenant). In Christianity, the concept of election was applied to the “new Israel” of Jesus' followers in the last times.

Eli, Eli

(Heb. My God, My God) Famous poem written by Hannah Senesh (Israeli paratrooper sent to Nazi occupied Hungary on a rescue mission during WWII who was captured and tortured to death).

Eliezer of Beaugency

Twelfth-century Bible commentator from northern France.

Eliyahu Hanavi

Elijah the Prophet.

Elohim, El

Hebrew general term for deity. (See also YHWH)

Elon Moreh

Gush Emunim's most famous illicit Garin which was allowed to settle near Nablus after seven previous evacuations by the army.

Emdah

Religious-Zionist publication.

Emek Ha-bacha

(Heb. The Valley of Tears) Located in the Golan Heights, it is the site of the longest ongoing tank battle in history, which occurred during the 1973 Yom Kippur War against Syrian forces. but also a phrase from a well-known Friday Evening hymn.

Emet

(Heb.) Truth.

Emet Ve-Emunah

(Heb. Truth and faith) Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism, published in 1988.

Emuna(h)

(Heb. faith or belief). See faith.

Enabling Law

Enacted on March 23, 1933, the law provided the basis of Hitler’s dictatorship by abolishing the Reichstag and allowing the Chancellor to prepare laws to be enacted by the cabinet.

Endlosung

(Ger. The final solution) Campaign of extermination against the Jews of Europe.

Enoch, Books of

Extra canonical apocalyptic books relating to Enoch, who “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24); the earliest of the three was composed in the 2nd century B.C. E.

Entartete

(Ger. Degenerate) German style of music.

Epstein, Baruch Halevi

(1860-1942) Rabbinic scholar and author of Torah T'mimah, a commentary applying statements of the rabbinic tradition to the biblical text; Russia.

Epstein-Szpeizer Gymnasium

One of a number of Jewish private schools in Vilna. This high school was distinguished by the fact that it was progressive, secular and that Polish was the language of instruction. Long after the war the records of the school were found by a former student, Yulian Rafes, who collected many of them into a book. It gives a glimpse into the lives of a privileged class of Vilna students before the war.

Eretz Yisrael

(Heb. The land of Israel) A maximalist term used by some right-wingers to refer to the borders of the ancient kingdom of Israel which includes all of the West Bank and parts of Jordan.

Erev

(Heb. Evening). Term often used to refer to a holiday eve.

Ermächtigungsgesetz

(Ger.. The Enabling Law) Passed March 24, 1933, it granted Hitler the power to pass laws without the approval of the Riechstag (German governing and legislative body) and marked one of the first steps of his rise to power.

Erntefest

(Ger. Harvest Festival) The Erntefest massacre was the single largest Jewish massacre of WWII. During the Erntefest 42,000 Jews were killed (surpassing the 33,000 who were killed in the Babi Yar massacre outside of Kiev).

Erusin

(Heb.) Betrothal; engagement .

Eschatology

(Gre. last or the end-time) Field of study that deals with predictions of the end of days. (See also chiliastic, millenarian, and apocalypse).

 

Eser Makot

(Heb. Ten Plagues). Refers to the Ten Plagues God administered to Pharaoh and the Egyptians.

Essenes

Jewish sect in the 1st century C.E. according to Josephus, Philo, and other sources. (See also Qumran).

Esther

Hero of the Purim story who saved the Jews from annihilation in ancient Persia.

Etiology (Aetiology)

(Gre. Cause or origin) A term used to describe or label stories that claim to explain the reason for something being (or being called) what it is. For example, in the old Jewish creation story (Genesis 2.23), woman (Heb. ishah) is given that name because she has been “taken out of the side or rib of man” (Heb. ish).

Etrog

A citron traditionally used for ritual purposes along with a lulav, haddassim, and aravot, during the harvest festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).The commandment to do so is based on a verse in Leviticus 23.40 which states “On the first day (of Sukkot) you shall take the fruit of the hadar (beautiful) tree." The sages later explain that the hadar (beautiful) tree refers to a citron tree.

Etz Chayim

(Heb. Tree of life) Wooden roller to which the handwritten Sefer Torah is attached.

Etzel

Acronym for Irgun Tzvai L'umi, National Military Organization; Revisionist Zionist para-military organization during the period of the British Mandate.

Eugenics

The social Darwinist principle of strengthening the qualities of a race by controlling inherited characteristics. Term coined by Francis Galton in 1883 and utilized in Nazi ideology.

Europa Plan

Scheme for the ransom of about 1,000,000 Jews remaining in Europe to save them from extermination initiated by the "Working Group'' of Bratislava in the autumn of 1942.

European Union Special Envoy to the Middle East

A person appointed to maintain close contact between all parties involved in the Middle East Peace Process and working with them to bring them closer together.

Euthanasia

The original meaning of this term was an easy and painless death for the terminally ill. However, the Nazi euthanasia program took on quite a different meaning: the taking of eugenic measures to improve the quality of the German “race.” This program culminated in enforced “mercy” deaths for the incurably insane, permanently disabled, deformed and “superfluous.” Three major classifications were developed: 1) euthanasia for incurables; 2) direct extermination by “special treatment”; and 3) experiments in mass sterilization.

Evacuation Compensation Bill

On February 16, 2005, the Knesset passed this bill as part of the Gaza Withdrawal Plan. It endorsed the withdrawal from the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip as well as the financial support to implement the plan.

Evian Conference

Conference held at Evian les-Bains in France on July 1938 seeking to find a solution to the increasing problem of Jewish refugees from German occupied lands. Though 31 countries were represented at the conference, none beside the Dominican Republic agreed to allow any substantial amount of Jewish immigration into their respective countries and little was accomplished.

Exilarch

(Aramaic, rosh galuta, head of the exile). A term used in early rabbinic Judaism for the head of the Jewish community in exile in Babylonia. The exilarch was depicted as an imperial dignitary, a member of the council of state, living in semi-royal fashion, who appointed communal officers and judges and was a descendant of the house of David.

Exile

See galut.

Existentialism

A modern philosophical position that has influenced Jewish and Christian thought significantly, with emphasis on the idea that meaningfulness must be created by people, to whom only existence is given.

Exodus

(Gre. to exit or go out). Refers to the event of the Israelites leaving Egypt (see also Passover) and to the biblical book (see Pentateuch) that tells of that event. Also name given to ship that left France July 11, 1947, carrying 4,500 immigrants. Challenged and boarded by the British Navy—three Jews were killed. Immigrants were forcibly transported back to Germany in British transport ships. Subject of film and novel of same name by Leon Uris.

Extermination Camps

Death camps established by the Nazi's during the Holocaust to annihilate Jews and other non-Aryan minorities. The six major extermination camps were established as part of the Final Solution, in Poland. They were Cheimno, Belzec, Sobibor, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka and Majdanek.

Extradition Law of 1978

Israel passed a law preventing the extradition of an Israeli citizen for crimes committed abroad before he or she became an Israeli citizen.

Eytsa

(Heb/Yid.) Advice.

Ezra

Prophet in the Hebrew Bible with whom the reestablishment of Judaism in Jerusalem in the 5th century B.C.E. is associated. The events are recorded in a biblical book known by his name, and he is also associated with apocryphal books and traditions.