Judah

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Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה, Standard Hebrew: Yəhuda; Tiberian vocalization: Yəhûḏāh, "Celebrated, praised") is the name of several Biblical and historical figures. The original Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, as recorded in Genesis 29:35. The original Greek text of the New Testament makes no difference between the names "Judah", "Judas" and "Jude", rendering them all as Ioudas; but in many English translations "Judah" is used for the figure in the Tanakh and the tribe named after him, "Judas" is used primarily for Judas Iscariot, and "Jude" for other New Testament persons of the same name.

In Matthew 1 and Luke 3 Judah, the son of Jacob and Leah, is the progenitor of Jesus.

The Old Testament of the Bible itself mentions no other people of the name, except the original one; however, it became a very common name among Jews in Hellenistic times and remains such up to the present.

The name Judah can refer to:

• Judah (Bible), one of the sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (Israel)

All later individuals, groups and places of this name are directly or indirectly derived from this Judah.

Ethnic, political and geographic names and terms

• The Tribe of Judah, the Hebrew tribe whose members regarded the above as their eponymous ancestor
• The Kingdom of Judah, the kingdom dominated by the Tribe of Judah and ruled by the House of David, from the breaking off of the Kingdom of Israel following the death of King Solomon until the Babylonian Exile
• Yehud Medinata - The Province of Judah under the Persian Achaemenid Empire
• Judea, the former territory of the Kingdom of Judah after its demise (c. 586 BC), being successively a Babylonian, a Persian, a Ptolemaic and a Seleucid province, an independent kingdom under the Hasmoneans regarding itself as successor of the Biblical one, a Roman dependent kingdom and a Roman province
• Iudaea Province, Roman province, with the Latin spelling
• Jew, derived from Hebrew "Yehudi" יהודי (literally, "Judean"); the derivation is more clear in German "Jude" and in Slavic "Zid"
• Judean Mountains, modern Israeli name for the mountains around Jerusalem, politically divided between Israel and the Occupied West Bank
• Judea and Samaria, official Israeli name for the West Bank

Other places

• Judah, Indiana, a small town in the United States

People

Given name

Persons that had only the name Judah

Those persons had neither middle name nor last name

• Judah Maccabee, leader of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid empire
• Judah haNasi, chief redactor of the Mishnah and second-century Jewish leader
• Judah II, third-century Jewish sage
• Judah III, third- and fourth-century Jewish sage
• Judas Iscariot
• Yehuda Halevi, prominent Medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet

Persons that had Judah as their first or middle name

• Judah P. Benjamin, a politician and lawyer in the United States and Confederate States of America
• Judah Nagler, singer, guitarist and songwriter for indie-pop band The Velvet Teen
• Yehuda Alharizi, prominent Medieval Spanish rabbi, translator, poet and traveller
• Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet
• Yehuda Amital, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion and a former member of the Israeli cabinet
• Judah Lew ben Bezalel, the Maharal, an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who served as a leading rabbi in Prague (now in the Czech Republic) for most of his life
• Judah Freed. American author and journalist
• Yehuda Gilad (musician), clarinetist
• Yehuda Gilad (politician), rabbi and politician
• Yehuda Krinsky, Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi
• Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, Rosh yeshiva of the Volozhin yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania
• Dr. Judah Folkman, American cellular biologist, founder of the field of antiangiogenesis
• Judah Friedlander, American actor. *30 Rock
• Judah VanSyckel, author of "The Moe's Manifesto" and an early work on the impact of the Bush doctrine in foreign relations.

Others

• Haile Selassie I, called the Lion of Judah (or the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah) in Rastafari

Surname

• Henry M. Judah, American soldier
• Theodore Judah, American engineer who dreamed of the first transcontinental railroad
• Zab Judah, former world champion welterweight boxer
• Tim Judah, historian and journalist

Organizations

• Bnei Yehuda, Israeli football team (literally, "Sons of Judah" or "Sons of Judea")
• Hapoel Mahane Yehuda F.C., Israeli football team
• Yehuda Matzos, an Israeli matza company
• Young Judaea, a peer-led Zionist youth movement of Hadassah
• Mateh Yehuda Regional Council
• Mahane Yehuda Market

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