Eastern Europe. There is no generally accepted definition of the regions and countries that constitute Eastern Europe. For the purposes of Jewish history and culture as they are discussed in this volume, Eastern Europe refers to the pre-1917 Russian Empire, including the areas of *Poland and *Lithuania that became part of *Russia after the lateeighteenth- century partitions of Poland. In addition, this designation includes the Polish province of *Galicia and other parts of Poland that became part of the *Habsburg Empire after the first partition of Poland in 1772, as well as those parts of Poland that fell under Prussian control (see *Germany).

Ecclesiastes, a book in the *“Writings” section of the Hebrew *Bible is found in the collection of *Five Scrolls that follows the books of *Psalms, *Proverbs, and *Job. With Proverbs and Job, it comprises biblical “wisdom literature” (see BIBLE: WISDOM LITERATURE). Jewish tradition identified King *Solomon as the author, but the book attributes itself more ambiguously to “Kohelet son of *David, king in *Jerusalem” (1:1), and the book's language shows that it was written no earlier than the *Persian period. “Ecclesiastes” is simply Greek for kohelet, “one who convenes an assembly.” Uniquely in the Hebrew Bible, this book is framed as a first-person description of one man's search for wisdom. The kingly persona enables the author to portray his search as aided by limitless wealth and power.