Agudat Yisrael • Orthodox association founded in Europe in 1912. After World War II, its surviving members lived mainly in Israel and the United States. They actively helped survivors of the Holocaust leave Europe.

Aktion • German word for the roundup of Jews.

Aliyah • Hebrew word applying to immigration to Palestine which, after 1948, became Israel. Aliyah Bet was illegal immigration, especially during and after World War II. Youth Aliyah applied to the mass immigration of Jewish children for settlement in Palestine.

American Jewish Committee • Founded by German Jews in 1906 to protect Jewish rights. Believed, during the Holocaust period, that private, quiet negotiations would be more effective than public protest.

American Jewish Congress • Founded by Eastern European Jews in 1928 to protect Jewish rights. Approved of public protests against the Nazis. Anti-defamation League (of B'nai B'rith) • Founded in 1913 to promote understanding between religious groups and races and to protect Jewish rights.

Arrow Cross • The most extreme and anti-Semitic of the political movements in Hungary before and during World War II.

Aryan • Referring to a particular race which Adolf Hitler believed was superior and should, therefore rule the world.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah • A Jew who becomes obligated to fulfill the commandments. Also the ceremony for boys and girls at age thirteen which signifies that they are now considered adults by the Jewish religion.

Bench Gomel • Hebrew phrase meaning to say a prayer of thanksgiving.

Brichah • Organization active during and after World War II to help Jews leave Europe and enter Palestine, often in defiance of British restrictions against immigration.

Brownshirts • Private army of Hitler's Nationalsocialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party) who helped him gain power in 1933 and were then used to terrorize and eliminate any opponents.

Bundist • A member of a Jewish socialist organization.

Chalutz (Plural: Chalutzim) • Hebrew for a pioneer, especially one who settled in Palestine and helped turn the country from a rocky desert into a green and productive region.

Chasid (Plural: Chasidim; adjective: chasidic) • Very pious and observant Orthodox Jew who is a follower of Chasidism, a movement founded by the Baal Shem Tov (1699-1761). His religious leader is called a Rebbe.

Château de Chillon • Castle located near Montreux, Switzerland ; also the setting for a poem written by George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron, telling a prisoner in the Château dungeon and his desire for freedom.

Choni Hame'agge • Miracle worker who lived during the first century B.C.E. A story in the Talmud (Ta'anit 23a) tells that he planted a carob tree which would take seventy years to mature so that his grandson would have its fruit.

Codes • Books of Jewish law, compiled between approximately 900 and 1600.

Daven • The way Orthodox Jews chant prayers with a swaying motion.

Depression • The name given to the period of time between 1929 and 1939 when many people were poor; businesses failed; and, in Germany, angry feelings led to the election of Adolf Hitler who promised to improve the situation. He blamed Jews for all the troubles.

Diaspora • The scattering (dispersion) of Jews outside Palestine/Israel.

El Male Rachamim • A prayer for the eternal rest of someone who has died. Often paired with the Kaddish, a prayer of praise for God.

Elijah Gaon (1720-1797) • Also known as the Vilna Gaon. A great spiritual and intellectual leader of Lithuanian Jews.

Eretz Yisrael • Hebrew for Land of Israel.

Final Solution • Hitler's policy, adopted in 1941, of killing all the Jews in countries controlled by the Third Reich.

Gemara • The part of the Talmud compiled between 200 and 500 in Babylonia; a legal commentary on the Mishnah.

Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) • (Nazi) Secret State Police.

Haganah • Jewish self-defense forces in Palestine which became the Israeli army after Israel gained Independence in 1948.

Haman • In the biblical Book of Esther, the villain who tried to kill all the Jews of his time.

Handwriting on the Wall • Referring generally to the biblical book of Daniel 5:5ff.; means an omen or foreshadowing of an unpleasant future.

Hashem • Hebrew for the Name; another way to refer to God.

Haskalah • After 1800, some Jews of Eastern Europe studied modern European culture and preferred it to traditional Jewish ways. This movement was known as Haskalah (Enlightenment); one who joined it was known as a Haskalnik.

Hasmoneans • Also known as the Maccabees who fought for religious freedom (168-165 B.C.E.) and whose victory is now celebrated by the festival of Chanukah.

Havdalah • Service separating the end of Shabbat from the following week.

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) • Begun in 1909, HIAS became the largest organization helping Jews leaving Europe for America.

IRGUN (Irgun Tzevai Leumi/National Military Organization) • An underground military force in Palestine which openly defied the British Government by bringing in illegal immigrants and by performing acts of armed resistance. Became part of the Israeli army.

Jewish Agency for Palestine • International, non-governmental agency centered in Jerusalem which assists and encourages the development and settlement of Eretz Yisrael.

(American Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) • Founded in 1914 to relieve the sufferings of European Jews after World War I, it performed the same function during and after World War II.

Jewish Brigade • A military unit within the British army composed of Jews from Palestine.

Judenra • The Jewish governing council appointed by the Nazis to rule in areas occupied by the German army.

Kiddush Hashem • Hebrew for “sanctification of the divine name”; martyrdom, dying because of what you believe.

Ku Klux Klan • An organization of white Protestants determined to keep America free of the influence of blacks, Jews, Catholics, and foreigners. It flourished between 1920 and 1940, but it still exists.

Law of Return • Law passed by the Knesset (Israel's parliament) to guarantee entry, safety, and citizenship for any Jew into Israel.

Lechah Dodi • Hebrew for Come, my beloved, the title and first two words of a hymn sung to welcome the Shabbat.

Long, Breckinridge • American assistant secretary of state who was the chief policymaker in matters concerning European refugees.

Ma'ariv • Daily evening religious service.

Maccabees • See Hasmoneans.

Machzor • Traditional prayer book for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Mandate • After World War I, Palestine was governed by the British under an agreement called a mandate, granted by the League of Nations.

Maquis • French underground anti-Nazi fighters during World War II.

Minchah • Daily afternoon religious service.

Minyan • The minimum ten men required to conduct a traditional Jewish religious service.

Mitzvah (Plural Mitzvot) • Hebrew for commandment of God; a good deed.

Nationalists • The government of mainland China under Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, they were expelled by the Communists and today control only the island of Taiwan.

Niemoller, Pastor Martin • Protestant minister who was arrested by the Nazis. Before his death, he said that he had failed to protest the arrests of journalists, politicians, and Jews because he was not one of them and that, later, when the Nazis came for him, there was no one left to protest his arrest.

ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) • Founded in 1880 in Russia, ORT promotes vocational and agricultural education among Jews. Following World War II, it was very active helping survivors of the Holocaust make new lives for themselves.

Pale of Settlement • An area that today would include parts of western Russia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. By 1885, four million Jews had been forced to move into this area, and more were driven in later by anti-Semitic governments. Living conditions were terrible. The Pale of Settlement was legally abolished in 1917.

Pesach Seder • The religious service and meal celebrating Passover. Pesach is the Hebrew for Passover, the holiday commemorating the Exodus from Egypt.

Pirkei Avot • That section of the Talmud which describes proper conduct and stresses Torah study and observance of the commandments.

Rebbe • The religious leader of a chasidic group; he is also a rabbi.

Riegner, Gerhart • The representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, who relayed a report in August 1942 accurately describing what the Germans were doing to exterminate Jews in occupied lands.

SA (Sturmabteilungen) • Storm Troopers.

SS (Schutzstaffel) • An elite group within the German Army which is responsible for running the concentration camps and dealing with any enemies of the Third Reich. It was led by Heinrich Himmler.

Sephardim • Jews from Mediterranean countries or their descendants.

Shabbat • Hebrew for Sabbath. Erev Shabbat means the evening beginning the Sabbath (Friday night).

Shema Yisrael • Hebrew for Hear, O Israel, the first two words of Judaism's most important prayer (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Shul • Yiddish for synagogue.

Simchas • Yiddish for joys. (Hebrew: simchah, joy.)

Sonderkommandos • Squads of death camp inmates who were assigned to remove corpses of those murdered by the Nazis. They were generally killed themselves to eliminate witnesses.

Talit • The fringed prayer shawl worn by traditional Jews. (see Numbers 15:38–39.)

Talmud • The Babylonian Talmud (about 500 C.E.) contains the Jewish laws of that period, legends, stories, and disputes and is considered more authoritative than the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud (about 450 C.E.). The Talmud still forms the basis for traditional Jewish practice.

Taught You How to Swim • According to the Talmud (Kiddushin 29a), a father is required to teach his child to swim.

Third Reich • Hitler's empire which was supposed to last 1,000 years but actually endured only from 1933–1945.

Tishah Be'av (Ninth of Av) • A solemn day of remembrance for the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

Tzedakah • Hebrew word for righteousness; charity.

Tsedek, Tsedek Tirdof • Hebrew for Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue (Deuteronomy 16:20).

Umschlagplatz • German for a collection place. Usually a large area where Jews were brought together before being deported to the concentration camps.

Vaad Hatsalah • Hebrew term for Council of Rescue. An Orthodox Jewish group that sent agents into Eastern Europe to assist Holocaust survivors.

Wise, Stephen S. (1874–1949) • Reform Jewish rabbi and Zionist leader; founder of the Jewish Institute of Religion. Active in American opposition to Hitler.

Yad Vashem • Hebrew for a monument and a memorial (Isaiah 56.5). Memorial in Jerusalem to the victims of the Holocaust.

Yeshivah (Plural: Yeshivot) • Hebrew word for a school for advanced study; a rabbinical academy.

Yiddish • a language which mixes medieval German, Hebrew, and Slavic words and which became the daily language of most European Jews.

Yishuv • Hebrew word for a settlement. The Jewish community in Palestine before World War II.

Yom Hasho'ah • Hebrew for Holocaust Memorial Day.

Yom Kippur • The Day of Atonement, one of the two High Holy days, is the most solemn occasion of the Jewish calendar. It is a day of fasting and repentance.

You Saved the Entire World • The full quotation is Only one person was created to teach that . . . if one saves a single life, Scripture considers that he has saved an entire world (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5).

Zionist • Person who supports a Jewish homeland in Palestine, either by donations or by moving there.