Seraj Szapszal (1873-1961) A hakham and leader of the Lithuanian Karaite community. Hakham or Chacham (Hebrew חכם lit. ... Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture, and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ...

Szapszal was born in Chufut Kale and studied at St. Petersburg University, where he received a doctorate in philology and Oriental languages. He was invited to serve as the personal tutor of the Iranian crown prince, Mohammad Ali Shah, and became a minister in the Persian government in 1907. In 1911 he returned to the Crimea and became Chief Hakham of the Crimean Karaite communities. Çufut Qale or Chufut Kale is a historic fortress in the Crimea, near Bakhchisaray. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... There are a wide variety of languages spoken thoughout Asia, comprising a number of families and unrelated isolate languages. ... Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar (Persian: محمدعلی شاه قاجار)‎ (1872 - 1925) was the shah of Iran from January 8, 1907 to July 16, 1909. ... The Crimea (officially Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian transliteration: Avtonomna Respublika Krym, Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, pronounced cry-MEE-ah in English) is a peninsula and an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea. ... Hakham or Chacham (Hebrew חכם lit. ... Karaim or Qaraylar, a Karaite Jewish community of Eastern Europe. ...

From 1919 to 1927 he lived in Istanbul. In 1927 he moved to Vilna, and became the head of the Karaim in Poland. A philosophical disciple of Avraham Firkovitch, he took Firkovitch's ideas to extremes, denying any connection between Karaim and Rabbinic Jews. After the war he lived in Troki and later Vilna, teaching at the Soviet-dominated Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He co-authored of a Karaim-­Russian-­Polish dictionary (published in 1974) and wrote a number of articles on the Karaites of the Crimea. His "History of the Karaites" remains unpublished. Part of his collections and books are kept in a small museum in the old synagogue of Troki, where he died in 1961. This article is about the city. ... Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ... Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture, and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ... Abraham (Avraham) Firkovitch (1786-1874) was a Lithuanian Karaite of Crimean Karaite (Karaim) descent, born in Lutsk, Volhynia. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי... Trakai (Polish Troki) - a town and lake resort in Lithuania, a part of Trakai national park territory and an administrative centre of the region. ... Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ... Soviet redirects here. ... The Karaim language is a Turkic language with Hebrew influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish or Ladino. ... Manual of Specialised Lexicography, Henning Bergenholtz/Sven Tarp (eds. ...

Many Jews regard his actions as having condemned their co-religionists to extermination, and accuse him of making a "death list". Szapszal and his defenders maintain that had he not acted as he did, he and the other Karaim of Lithuania would have been put in danger. They maintain that his list was no different than that created by Oskar Schindler, for which the latter was roundly praised, and to view Szapszal in a negative light for his list is hypocritical. Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler (April 28, 1908 – October 9, 1974) was a German businessman famous for his efforts to save his Jewish workers from the Holocaust. ...